Manning Moments

 Not much to write today but I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! We were a little untraditional. Our turkey wasn't thawed yet so we went Christmas tree hunting on Thanksgiving. We went past Heber and it was beautiful and the snow was deep and the kids had a blast. We found a lovely little tree and spent the rest of the weekend decorating and cleaning up. We had a small feast on Friday and it was delicious! 

Other than that, we are having a great time at home reading books and trying to think of fun things to do. The boys are so good to play with each other and to come up with things to do. The new thing is tap dancing. I showed them the clip from Singing in the Rain where they sing "Moses Supposes his toes' are roses." They have watched it dozens of times and have memorized every little detail and they sing and dance all day. Nick put some pennies on their shoes so they could get the real experience of tap dancing and it has been a thrill for them! If you come by anytime you will likely get a performance!

Love you all and hope we get to see you soon. There seems to be lots of interruptions in that regard!

Flake Fiascos

 We had a typical Thanksgiving with too much food and lots of family.  Both of Scott's siblings and their families were able to come and it was fun to catch up with them. I had fun talking with Katie about the trials of "homeschooling" her stubborn kindergartner!  It was also fun to teach Katelyn about some nuances of infants; "why isn't he walking?", "I want him to open his fist", "when will he talk?"

Scott made a solo trek to the mountains to cut wood yesterday and had a successful day.  He finished up faster than we anticipated so he was able to unload when he got back.  Now the gigantic pile in the back just needs to be split and stacked! So if there are any nephews (or brothers/brothers-in-law) that want to experience a new upper body workout, come on down!!

The kids are growing and changing every day. James blew by 12 lbs and is well on his way to 13. At this rate we may have 3 toddlers by Christmas time!! Robin and Rand are starting to mimic words which is fun. Most of the time it is still a guessing game though. 

We went to Mesa last Saturday for a cousin's wedding reception and spent some time at a little train park.  The kids (and Scott) had a blast!!

We are counting down the days until we see you all again!!

Hart Happenings

 Eeek!  All the cute, round babies in this family!  I love it!

We've loved seeing most of you all at Emma's various bridal showers.  I especially enjoyed the chat section at the shower today.  So funny!

This week the rona came visiting the Hart house.  We went to see Ian's play on Monday night which was wonderful and entertaining.  Tuesday afternoon we got notice that the remaining shows he had left were cancelled and the play was over because cast members had gotten covid.  That same night I started feeling lousy and when I woke up Wednesday I had full-blown symptoms.  We went to get tested on Thursday morning and the test came back positive.  I'm feeling better today but still missing my sense of taste and smell, but Alex is now down with the same symptoms I started with.  So our California Thanksgiving trip got cancelled and we are in quarantine for the next week or so.  The boys were horribly disappointed but have been such good sports about everything and have planned an epic feast for our Thanksgiving at home.  

So the news from here is pretty minimal.  ITS FINE to quote Thomas.  It's been really great to watch social media explode with all the grateful posts inspired by Pres. Nelson's challenge/prescription.  A lovely change in focus for everyone, I think.

I'm grateful for all of you!

Pulling their hair out in frustration

Happy faces in quarantine

Plenty of time for snuggles now!

Nilsson News

 Wow! I haven't been on here for awhile.  The latest news we have is an adorable addition to our donkey herd.  The kids went to play with grandma and grandpa while Garrett and I traveled 8 1/2 hours across Wyoming to pick him up.  It was actually quite an ordeal with getting a flat tire right before leaving, having the tire people take two hours to fix it, getting back to discover the battery was dead on the car.  It was only a three hour delay and as Thomas put it, IT'S FINE!!!!  We drove through Teton Pass and Jackson which was white knuckle terrifying.  We passed a lot of deer and pronghorn and eventually made it to our hotel by 11:30 pm.  We left at 6:00 the next morning and made it to our destination of Guernsey Wyoming.  We picked up little Popcorn who is so fluffy, cute and tiny and we transported him in the back of our car in a wood crate box.  We did not anticipate him trying to jump out which made things exciting and we did not anticipate the amount of dust.  Somehow we made it back in one piece and were exhausted after a nine hour drive home.

He is so little!  His dad is 26" and his mom is 28".  We won't be able to breed with him for another year and a half and we do hope that he grows a little so he can do his job!  He is currently about 24."

We were planning on going down for an early Thanksgiving dinner with grandma and grandpa and Emma and Cam, but all those plans changed as soon as we heard that Emma could no longer taste anything.  Mom came up early for an unexpected birth in Rigby and then Dad brought the kiddos up and we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  We sure missed Em and Cam!  Hope everyone can stay healthy (good luck to the Harts!) and have a Happy Thanksgiving week!

Honey pecan pie and Em's famous banana cream made by Addy

Flake Fiascos

 Oh, what has happened in the last couple of weeks...

I had a blast "attending" Emma's bridal shower.  I know that she was bummed that it had to be held over Zoom but I was thankful to be a part of it.  

The kids all have colds but, for the most part they are pretty happy despite their drippy noses. 

Robin and Rand have discovered a new favorite activity; overseeing the green house! They love to water, weed and "dig about" the plants.  One cucumber has survived and most of the peas.  We think that the basil plant might make a comeback due to their loving care!!

James is growing like a weed and weighs over 11 pounds now! He is a great baby and quite resilient considering the loving affection of his siblings!!

Hope that you all have a great week!!

 T&T Texans

WHAT EVEN IS LIFE?!?!?!

On that note, things are pretty good down here.  Everyone is wearing masks but mostly on their chins, so that's cool! Halloween was uneventful since we live on a busy road, it's gated, and JJ is the only child in our neighborhood.  We did however enjoy a little trunk-or-treat at the church with our ward and the deaf ward. 

Tori is doing great with her Relief Society sisters and they had a very successful crafts night, making fall decor, and discussing past conference talks.  She has been working really hard in developing a brand, making a website, being active on social media, and hopes to roll things out towards the beginning of the year!  

T is still just lifting heavy things up and putting them back down again. Then again. And yet.....again.  

Luckily, Barry's provides an extremely generous paternity leave, so we'll be able to come back to Utah for a few weeks for Christmas, New Years, and the wedding!  Looking forward to seeing everyone and enjoying some colder weather.  Not that 75 degrees isn't great!  It's just, perfect weather gets old ya know??  We need some skin shattering, bone cracking, ice in the nostrils breathing cold weather for Christmas.  Instead of golfing in a t-shirt for my birthday. IT'S FINE. 

And now....... The many costumes of JJ and the crew.  

Hart Happenings

 So fun to wake up to a skiff of snow on the ground and a 30 degree temperature drop!  That kind of bracing cold sure perks me up!  I've loved reading back over the past few weeks worth of posts.  Sounds like things are going well with everyone and the entertainment value inherent in your accounts is priceless.  Congrats to Emma and Cam.  I know a couple of teenagers up here that are particularly excited about the upcoming nuptials.  Nuptials?  Where did that word come from?  It's weird.  It doesn't even relate to any other word I know associated with weddings.  Hmmmm.  I will look into it.

  Speaking of words, we have been doing a lot of reading at the Hart house lately and have compiled a list of our favorite read-alouds of 2020.  Here it is:

The Cat Baby

This Bridge Will not be Gray

Little Britches

BOMB

Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs

Gather Up, Gather In

If I Built a House

If I Built a Car

When Dinosaurs came with Everything

The Blizzard (Betty Ren Wright)

A Kiss for Little Bear

  It was so fun to spend some time down in Arizona with Jenn and her family.  Ruth already related our pathetic attempts at navigating which is now pretty funny, but not so much at the time.  I think Dad was pretty exasperated with us and confused about how we could bungle things so horribly.  Me too!  Our ineptitude was astonishing!  But there is no one else on earth I would rather be lost with than Ruth.  She is a great traveling companion and we had a lot of fun listening to and laughing at an audio version of The Penderwicks.  We managed to squeeze the first two books of the series into our trip.  Also highly recommended reading.

  We've been spending a lot of time outside these days, enjoying our yard and some of the local walking paths.  Alex and I went out on a limb and invited the parents of a new homeschooling family who moved here recently out to lunch.  Alex's reminder that day showed up on his phone as a "12:00 lunch with strangers" appointment.  So funny!  Ian has been rehearsing for Elf and partying with absolutely everyone in Idaho Falls it seems like!  I told him the other day that he is going to need to start a savings account especially for gas so when he starts driving he can support his travels from one end of this town to the other!  Jack enjoyed going shooting with his Deacon's quorum recently and has been playing a lot of soccer.  He rarely goes anywhere without a ball of some kind in his hands or kicking around by his feet.  Peter keeps us entertained with is perceptive 8 year-old insights and has recently taken over the responsibility for the chickens.  He takes very good care of them and they follow him around devotedly.  

  We enjoyed having Dad here for an election party.  That was pretty much the only enjoyable part of the evening.  But visiting and playing catch the next morning while we tried to locate a blue jay that we have seen zooming through the garden reminded us of what is truly important and lasting.  We love any chance we get of seeing Dad and Mom and the rest of you.

  We've been learning a lot about our bodies in our anatomy unity we do with Ruth's family on Wednesdays and it truly is miraculous to consider all the systems God set up inside of us that carry on largely without our awareness of them.  One astonishing fact: So, the small intestine is about 20 feet long and the inside of it is covered with villi or tiny tendrils that aid in nutrient absorption.  If the lining were smooth instead of covered with these little villi the small intestine would have to be 2 miles long in order to achieve the same nutrient absorption!  Crazy!

  The cousin's upcoming performance of Cracked Wheat for Christmas is drawing close and it's all very exciting.  Thanks to everyone for their support and encouragement of this process.  It's fun to see the kids collaborate and work SUPER hard.  

  Love to you all!  Can't wait to rub shoulders with you all soon!

  It's the time for epic leaf piles!

Such cute kids!  I loved watching them try to sit on this little ledge.  They would back up and back up and back up without looking and inevitably over shoot and miss entirely

Poutine!  How the boys eat when mom is away.  

Ian's mummy door.

Green with Envy

Charlie Brown, Peter Pan's shadow, and a smartie pants.