Hart Happenings

 Hello all!

So much has been happening in this family!  Congratulations of the highest order to the Flakes!  We are so excited for them and anxious to meet little James.  He is a cutie.  I especially like the picture of him where he looks like an old man.  As for Rosie's hair.  I guess we'll just have to accept that it is a force of nature.  Wish we were closer but you probably don't because we might not be able to restrain ourselves from smothering those cute Flake kids and their parents.

We have been deep into canning and school stuff.  It was a blast a couple of weeks ago to have Dad come up with jars and lids (do you know how hard it is to get canning lids these days?).  Ruth brought over some peaches, I added some pears, and we went and picked boxes of apples from our neighbor's orchard.  We canned every last piece of fruit.  It was INSANE!  All hands on deck -- all day!  The kids were troopers, Dad is a canning pro, Ruth managed to keep an eye on everything, even my in-laws pitched in and cut up bushels and bushels of apples.  We had my stove going, Ruth's and my camp chefs fired up, and they kids were blanching peaches, straining the apples into sauce, and hauling jars back and forth.  It was a day to remember and we all took bounty home; such a fun memory!

The boys have really enjoyed some of their recent activities.  Jack just wrapped up his first middle school soccer season playing for Taylorview middle school and had a great tryout for spring club soccer and made it onto the Premier team.  We are really excited to watch him keep honing his skills!  Ian and Peter have had a great experience participating in the local Opera performance of Hansel and Gretel.  It was spectacular!  They played the kids who had turned into gingerbread people by the witch.  It was very opera and so well done.  Ian is currently in rehearsals for Elf: the musical which they will performing in November.  

Our studies have been so fun.  We are reading Little Britches and the boys love it.  We tend to get sucked in reading and then we forget some of the other things we have to do.  But it is SO GOOD!

Anyway, my laptop is going to die.  Hope all is well.  Must post now.

Flake Fivesome

 Of course the big news from Snowflake was the arrival of baby James. He is an absolute sweetheart who adores his Grandma Belliston.  He eats like a champ and is almost back to his birthweight.  He still has quite a bit of hair and I am hoping that it sticks around.  

Robin and Rand are getting used to having another baby in the house.  It is really cute to see them stand on their top toes to check on him in the pack and play.

The weather is cooling off which is nice and we are enjoying the last of our garden produce. Hopefully we still get more tomatoes but we'll see.  

One of our favorite things to do is wait to see what crazy hairdo Robin will have next. Her hair has a mind of it's own for sure. 

Hope that you all have a great week!!

Nilsson News

 Huge congratulations to the Flake clan!  We are so excited to have little James Wilson a part of the family and we can't wait to meet him!  Jenn is such a trooper and I honestly don't know how she does it.  I will try never to complain about being a busy mom ever again.

The garden is finished.  We pulled out the remaining tomato plants yesterday along with canning a batch of spaghetti sauce in between conference sessions.  I'm hoping to have enough tomatoes left to do a batch or two of that yummy tomato soup!  We have greatly enjoyed conference but like always, it is over way too quickly.

We have actively been doing school and I have been learning a lot.  I hope that someday my children will appreciate my attempts to guide them in their learning.  Every day is an adventure!  The days are the perfect temps and the nights are cold.  It's hard to believe we are fast approaching winter.  This has been kind of a lame post but life is going well and I have nothing else to report.

Emerson has been obsessed with the idea of owning a milk cow and making all sorts of dairy products like cheese, yogurt, cream cheese, and butter.  Just for fun the other day, he took the cream from our raw milk and made butter.  Maybe instead of buying a cow, we just need to increase the amount of raw milk that we buy.  Emerson says, "But mom, raw milk is so expensive, I think we should get a cow instead."

We sold all of our chickens and rooster.  They went to a family who wants to try hatching their own eggs.  I'm glad they didn't go straight to the dinner table.

Having science and history fun with the Harts.  It's always a blast!
 

Smithfield Scoop from Snowflake

I really have no idea what the scoop is in Smithfield right now, so I'll have to focus more on the Snowflake goings on...

First of all, thanks for the birthday wishes for me and for Dad! You are all so kind and it was fun to visit with all of you. Thanks to Emma for taking good care of Dad while I'm on vacation in Arizona :) She's doing a great job of making sure he doesn't starve or get too lonely. From what I've heard, the food has been terrific and has kept him healthy and happy and active - he's been painting up a storm and has painted the entire upstairs now!!! It will all look fresh and new and lovely when I return home (IF I return home! - it's so fun here, that I may decide to take up permanent residence in the very wonderful guest room that Jenn and Scott have made in the basement!). 

Playing with the Rs here has been delightful. They are so fun and energetic and we have found some delightful things to do together - piggy back rides, going for walks, playing chase, reading stories, etc. Quite fun! It is still warm enough for them to play in the sprinklers and harvest cherry tomatoes outside, which they do with great enthusiasm! Rosie likes to chase the large beetles in the yard and even picks them up and lets them crawl on her! The adventures never end! 

On a walk to feed the ducks

Snack time!

Funny story from this morning.... Scott was playing with Rand and put a ball up his shirt and told him he looked like Mom. Of course, Rosie wanted a baby in her shirt, too. She patted her tummy and rubbed it - SO funny! There are certainly lots of babies coming to this family! 

You are all aware of what great cooks Jenn and Scott are - The food is always delicious and the companionship very comfortable and enriching. It has been fun to hang photos on the wall, go to the lake to feed the ducks, pull the little ones in their new wagon, as well as do the normal day to day stuff. I'm grateful to the Flakes for their kindness to let me hang out and help them wait for Baby E to arrive :) Gotta love this waiting game....!

  

Flake Foursome

 First off, a huge thank you to everyone for not pestering me about when Baby Flake will arrive. (Still hasn't happened) I didn't realize how taxing those types of questions can be!! 

It has been a fairly good week. We went to the park which was a lot of fun and we played outside and ran through the sprinklers...or at least dipped our toes in the sprinklers and splashed in the resulting mud puddles! 

The highlight of the week was finding a wagon in Show Low so now we can go on longer walks!! And there is room for growth!! It is actually a steel garden cart with pneumatic wheels and we love it.

Robin has kept Grandma laughing all week. She is perfecting certain facial expressions and is getting really good at "surprised", "concerned", and "resigned". 

Rand is really into running and piggy back rides. Daddy is his best friend and he spends every minute he can in Scott's arms or on his back or lap or shoulders. 

Hope that you all have a great week. 

Flake Foursome

  We have had a blast playing with Grandma this past week.  Robin has taken it upon herself to boss her around about everything.  Robin really makes sure that Grandma knows when there is a text message on her phone. Quite cute honestly. 

We fed the ducks on Saturday which was a lot of fun.  

The twins love eating the green cherry tomatoes growing out front so I don't know that we'll ever get any ripe ones!!

Our cantaloupe has been ripening so we have been eating melon at nearly every meal.  

Hope that you all have a good week!!!

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!