Hart Happenings

 I want to reiterate the birthday wishes for Mom.  She is the greatest and I hope she is celebrating well in Snowflake.

  Lauren, Parumpf Nevada?  That is the best name of a place I have ever heard.  It made me laugh out loud when I read that.  

  We enjoyed many of the same activities that the rest of you did these past few weeks.  The Spartan was a fun one-time event for me.  I as glad I didn't die and grateful to Thomas yelling encouragement at me and making me keep going and super grateful that there was no mud.  I was pleasantly surprised to be able to do most of the obstacles and only have to do 60 burpees.  High fives all around to those of you who enjoy doing more than one of those in your lifetime.  Joe and Thomas blew my mind and have some mad skills and endurance.  I want them on my team if we ever have to cross the plans.  They could wrestle buffalo all day and could pull our wagons instead of needing oxen or mules.  

  It was so fun to hear about JJ's birth story.  Victoria being inspired by a evangelical preacher on TV during labor was my MOST FAVORITE part.  SOOO funny!  As well as trying to find Emma.  We were all at Olive Garden but couldn't find each other.  We finally figured out she was at a different one.  No worries, we were all reunited.

  I also enjoyed listening to Joe and Ruth go at it about a proposed refinishing of Joe's fireplace.  Joe yelling for Alex to come and be on his side and even the score after Lori and Ruth ganged up on him will make me laugh for a while still.  In Ruth's defense though, everything that she touches turns out better than it was before and if it weren't for her nothing would ever get done at the Hart house because we have such a hard time actually biting the bullet and starting things.  Ruth is the best bullet-biter ever!

  It was fun to have Cam around and I know the boys in the family enjoyed getting to know him better while the girls were out to lunch.  There was a little concern when Cam ghosted Emma's texts for a while and the only text I got from Alex was "um, we lost Cam."  But he didn't stay lost and by the end of the weekend he had fit in so well he was like one of the fam.

  Thomas did an excellent job blessing JJ and it was so nice to be there and enjoy good food in such a beautiful spot.  Mom and Dad have done such a great job with their house and it feels so nice and homey inside and out.  We really love gathering there.

  Life up here is going well.  It is good to be back in our school routine.  The kids are enjoying doing their studies and really like the anatomy and history units we are doing with the Nilssons.  We managed to save a lot of the garden during the freezing temperatures and are still harvesting potatoes, blackberries, strawberries, and tomatoes.

  Jack turned 12 on Friday.  Thanks for all the calls and well wishes.  We are so glad he is part of our family.  He celebrated by going to a trampoline park, a round of golf with Dad, a soccer game and then pizza and frozen yogurt.  It was quite the day!

  Thanks for being such a great family!  We are crazy about all of you!

Nilsson News

 Hi all!  First off, Happy Birthday to the best mom in the entire world!!!!! 

Our watermelons took a long time to get ripe this year, but now they are the tasty treat that we remember!

We picked 80 watermelon before the freeze hit!  In total for the year, we probably had close to 100 melons!

While we were at the Hart's, Addy discovered a baby vole and the kids absolutely fell in love with it!  Don't be deceived by the cuteness factor, these guys can cause some serious damage in your lawn and garden!

Mummification experiment for human anatomy

It has also been quite awhile for us since we last posted.  We have greatly enjoyed spending time with our wonderful family, YOU!  It was a treat to have Emma bring Cameron a couple weeks ago and we are so grateful he survived us!  He is a very nice fellow and we highly approve!  We had a wonderful time running the "Spartan" with you and it was pretty intense at times.  Can't wait to do another, hopefully next year.  Meeting baby JJ was the highlight for sure!  I loved hanging out with the girls to hear Victoria's birth story and all I have to say is she is a champ!  Thomas did a wonderful job blessing the cute little guy and we loved being there.  We sure missed the Flakes but are looking forward to their news within the next few weeks.  On Monday, after all these events, we decided to take our kids, along with mom, dad and Becca, up to Pickleville Playhouse.  The show was another TJ Davis original called the Fickle Family Fortune and it was hilarious!  It brought back good old memories from when Elise and Thomas performed there.  On our way home, we headed directly into a huge storm that was blowing in from Canada.  The winds reached 40 mph with 60 mph gusts.  Lightening and rain and cold hit.  It was crazy!  We had to harvest all our watermelons, cucumbers, peppers and what tomatoes we could.  We had already harvested and froze all our corn so we only had to cover our tomatoes and hoped for the best.  The temps were supposed to drop to 27 degrees!  We think most our tomatoes survived and we are hoping to get a larger harvest for canning.

Yesterday, we decided to set up our watermelon stand.  The kids were excited and Emerson even put out some of his mini pumpkins he grew.  The customers were slow at first but then they started to stop by.  They sold about 30 of the melons so far.

A few weeks ago, we had our jack gelded (I can't remember if I wrote about that already?).  We have had so many problems with with the birthing situation and everyone I talk to says it stems from our jack.  He is now retired and we have other great plans for him.  While we were down in Utah, we went and looked at a small herd that a fellow is selling.  His jack amazing!  Tiny with perfect conformation and tempermant.  The four jennies were pretty cute and one in particular looked like a grown version of Ginger.  If we end up purchasing them, they will join our farm in early spring.  We are also looking forward to having a spotted jr. jack join our farm in November.  We won't be able to breed with him for another year and a half but we are excited for these changes and hopefully they will bring positive results.

We started school this week and so far, so good!  On Wednesdays we meet with the Harts for a little homeschool co-op and this year we are excited to be studying human anatomy and physiology as well as U.S. history.  Good times!

Manning Moments

 Well this past week was sure delightful. Nick went to his happy place in Parumpf Nevada for advanced handgun training. He is basically a navy seal. Anyway, while he was gone we got to have a party with my favorite people! We went up to Grandma and Grandpa's on Thursday and Friday. Then we went back down for the baby shower which was so fun! Victoria is so funny and one of my favorites for sure. She is a stellar mom and I love seeing how smitten Thomas is with his little boy! Happy times! It was fun to hang out at Joe's house the rest of the day and then head up to Grandma's house the next day for the blessing. What a great day that was. One of the best baby blessings I have ever heard. Cameron was so fun to have around. What a good sport he is! 

It was wonderful to see Nick again and he had a wonderful time on his trip. The boys are learning constantly and keep us laughing and pulling our hair out at the same time. Chet's speech impediments are adorable. Today at church he said, "hing hong at turt." 

We sure love you and can't wait to see you all again. So excited to Jenn and can't wait to hear news from her!

Flake Foursome

 Sorry that it has been a couple of weeks since we last posted.  The days seem to fly by recently.  

We did have a bit of a cold snap these last few days but nothing like Idaho and Utah!  We got down to 40 or so.  It did a little bit of damage to the garden but nothing too bad. 

As for the kids, they are so fun!! Robin is still working on getting her bottom tooth in so she still has a lopsided grin.  They are both learning to communicate in their own way.  Robin has now started saying (with attitude) "Mom. Mom. Mom." Then she'll point at something or show me something. It is adorable.  Rand's favorite new word is "snack" which he uses for meals, snacks and anything food related.  

Rand has become quite the climber.  The other day we found him on the kitchen table.  The joke is that he will either give me a heart attack or put me into labor.  

We have finished eating our garden watermelon which we will miss greatly.  Now our cantaloupe are ripening which is a treat.  Things seem to be winding down in the garden but we are still holding out hope for some good garden tomatoes.  

That is all that we have to report for the last couple of weeks.  No baby yet but we'll keep you in the loop. Hope that you all have a great week!!!

Hart Happenings

 Greetings all!

  This afternoon I was writing down some things that I wanted to be more mindful of and contributing more regularly on this blog made it on my list.  It has been so fun to read back through the posts you guys made over the last month and see all the pictures.  We have the best family!  It has been the highlight of our summer to see so many of you so often this summer!  Thanks to those who made the long journey north to visit for a weekend of fun.  My kids are already planning our next get together.  It was delightful to visit with you all, go fishing, play games, eat homemade ice cream, and enjoy the Xanadudes show.  We are extra glad that Mom was able to sneak away.  Let's make sure these gatherings keep happening!  Can't wait for the next one with T and Victoria and baby JJ.  Now, if we can just figure out how to get our crew down to Snowflake......

  Speaking of family gathering, we have seen every. single. one. of Alex's 8 siblings over the course of this summer.  The exception is one sister that lives in NC and whose husband is a doctor and couldn't be spared at this time.  We have had non-stop visitors since the first week of June.  It has been crazy town.  Alex could see that I was nearing my breaking point and when his brother from Oregon called to say they were in Bear Lake and wanted to stop on their way home and stay a week, he shipped me off to mom's house so I didn't go over the edge.  Ruth came down too and we had a lovely visit with the parents.  Emma made an occasional appearance and I got to meet Cameron and helped clean her apartment since she was moving out.  It was restorative and lovely and just what I needed.

  Ian has had a fun summer participating in productions of Moana (have you watched the movie yet, Mom?) and High School Musical.  He did great in both and it was fun to see what those kids could put together with the short rehearsal schedule they had, just 10 days for each production!  

  Jack tried out for the middle school soccer teams and made it onto the blue team.  The coach knows Jack from coaching a rival team in the last league they were in and he told me he was really excited to have Jack on his team instead of playing against him.  It made Jack feel really good.

  Peter has reveled in all the company we've entertained these past few months.  There has always been someone around to play with!  But it has taken a toll as well and the other night he had a complete meltdown when I asked him to sweep the floor.  It wasn't noisy but with huge, copious tears streaming down his face he said to me: "Mom, I know it's not true and I don't sweep the floor every day but it just really feels like I do."  It was quite tragic.  We are all glad for a little respite.

  We have enjoyed some fun activities like huckleberry picking with the Nilssons, making raspberry freezer jam, and going to the local water park.  According to Alex there is a cold front sweeping in this week at some point so we appreciate the nice summer heat that we have experienced.

  I brought Dad's book Then Some Other Stuff Happened home and the boys and I have been laughing our heads off as I read the essays of eighth-graders that their history teacher compiled.  Here is a favorite excerpt:

  We are currently in the middle of finalizing the plans and getting bids for the add-on we are creating for Alex's parents.  His mom is having a really hard time getting up and down the stairs and after going through a bevy of options from installing a hydraulic lift (similar to an elevator), to a ramp that wraps around the side of our house into the basement, to a garage remodel, we decided that the simplest thing would be to just attach an apartment behind the garage so Sally can access her home from ground level. Now, if we can just afford it.  

  Love to all and hopefully I can figure out how to attach pictures one of these days.

Flake Foursome

 The past week has been fairly normal with a few abnormalities thrown in.  Robin got her first goosegg by face planting in the laundry room. After the first few minutes it was more traumatic for me than for her I think! Now it is just a barely visible bruise. 

We are not having the gardening success that the Mannings are enjoying but we are grateful for what we have harvested so far. The watermelons have been especially delicious. 

We did some wood cutting yesterday which was quite the adventure. Randy and Dona came and help and I am afraid that we may have incapacitated them for the next several days! It is very hard work and gauging on how sore Scott is... but we drove away with about 2.5 cords of wood. (That is enough to fill 2 pickups and a trailer.) We are very glad that the Sabbath is a day of rest. The twins have been napping for 2 hours and Scott is napping too. I also took a nap. 

We are working on helping Robin and Rand sleep through the night in hopes that it will catch on before the baby is born.  If anyone has tips, I'd love to hear them!

We are sad that we won't be able to attend the baby blessing on the 6th but hope that we can do a video call or something when everyone is around!! Give JJ some extra snuggles for us!

Manning Moments

 Well, this last week was the beginning of school for me and the boys and for Nick also. I started doing a morning routine devotional thing with the boys and it has been a blast. They really look forward to it. I hope it lasts. We have also started having more consistent play time with other friends and homeschool families which has been fun! I have set my heart on finding a monarch caterpillar but it has been a little harder than I remember it being when I was little.

Nick started teaching at American Heritage and it has been pretty good. At the beginning of the lockdown it looked like they would be more relaxed about things but then I guess the governor has shut that down and maybe parents have changed their minds about how serious things are. I don't know. Either way, it is pretty ridiculous. Masks are required, first hour the teacher have to take temperatures of all the students. Seats are spaced far apart, the teachers have to wipe down desks and seats after every hour! and they have these huge disinfectant machines that go off and certain intervals. Not only is it way overboard but the cost of it is exorbitant! Anyway, Nick is a good sport about everything but he has been discouraged because he cannot hear his students. With his condition he really does depend on lip reading and seeing people's mouths to know who is talking because he has no directional hearing. So that has been frustrating and I hope that we can figure out some solutions.

We have had a good harvest so far. We froze our corn. We have had tomatoes and potatoes and cucumbers and squash and onions and lots of tasty things! We had a recital for Nick's and my students in our front yard and it was a blast. Mom and dad came down for it and were life savers because I was a little over my head. But it was very fun and Wesley played in his first recital!

Little Chet turned two and he is letting everyone know it! Oh my. He is perfecting the scowl and hitting and kicking and talking as unpleasant as possible! The problem is that it is so cute! Arghh. He dislikes everything. Whenever I say what we are doing, he says, "Don't like pasta anymore!" "Don't like sleep anymore!" "Don't like dada anymore!" He is a cute little guy that we love so much!

Well, my family woke up and the world is falling apart apparently so I had better get breakfast going! Happy Sabbath!