Nilsson News

 I really can't believe that it is already August!  This summer has flown by!  The past couple of days we finally got rain!  When the younger kids woke up and saw they rain, they promptly went and put on their swimming suits.  However, they quickly discovered that rain in Idaho is cold and so they all put on their coats over their swim suits.  It was a funny sight to see! 

Emerson has enjoyed doing the junior golf club this summer and he is having fun golfing with his dad.  They found out very last minute that there was a junior golf competition so on his way out the door, Garrett asked me to call the golf course to see if there were any more tee-times available for the competition.  I called, made a reservation and asked what Emerson needed to bring.  They responded, "His clubs and a scorekeeper."  A scorekeeper?  Garrett was at work so the lot fell on me.  I know nothing about golf and have never even set foot on a course before.  Emerson was trying to explain various things about par but he wasn't totally clear on all the rules.  I got a few pointers from Garrett when we drove up to Rexburg to retrieve Emerson's clubs.  Well, we went to the competition and thankfully, we tee'd off with another kid and his experienced grandpa who helped me out in the rules and score keeping.  Emerson had a good time and I was kind of a sweaty mess.

Emerson and Garrett had a fun time at Young Men's camp and hiking the Palisades (running into the Hart's along the way).  Addy just returned from girls camp and had a very memorable time.  Garrett went up to help out with the river run down Big Springs.  It started off well but then the heavens opened with vengeance.  Thunder and lightening and sheets of rain.  They all pulled ashore because the lightening was so close.  Garrett was shocked through his paddle and one of the girls was dangling her legs in the water was shocked and her leg ended up being numb on one side.  The wind was blowing, the girls were wet and freezing (remember how the rain in Idaho is cold?), some were having panic attacks and crying.  It was a mess.  The only option was to keep going once the thunder and lightening stopped even thought it was still raining.  When they reached the end, our bishop was there to greet them with a smile.  He asked Garrett, "So ow was it?"  Garrett responded quite honestly, "Terrible actually."  They all survived with a lot of memories, even the leader who broke her arm in several places.

We have been spending a lot of time with the animals and out in the garden.  Our raspberries have exploded and we are picking buckets every day.  Beans, cucumbers, broccoli and tomatoes and even our very first watermelon of the season we have enjoyed!  We are looking forward to picking our jumbo melon and estimate that it is between 50-75 pounds and still growing strong!

This coming week is fair!  We finally made the plunge, a shallow plunge, but still a plunge.  Addy is showing a couple of her goats just to test the waters and we are hoping that next year we will have a full on donkey show.  Summer is great!

Grit league racing!

Our shaggy ragmuffin Ginger finally got a haircut!

All the babies

Addy and her friend Lilli, competed in the cupcake wars for 4-H and they got reserve champion!  Looking at the scores, the girls tied for first with another team.  The theme was Under the Sea and they had a blast.

Garden explosion!

Golfing pro

Henry loves to catch bugs and put them in jars.  He caught a caterpillar (cabbage moth) and put it in his jar.  It spun a chrysalis and hatched much to Henry's delight and Ruth's chagrin.

Flake Fun

 

We have had several rain storms this week and even a hail storm. Rand thought that it was pretty cool to see ice falling from the sky! That has helped to cool things down a little. The twins, especially Rand, have enjoyed splashing through mud puddles. 

I was schooled by Robin this week. She was sitting on her little stool and Rand sat down next to her but missed his stool and fell off. I responded "oh, you fell off your chair Rand!". 

"Mommy". I looked at Robin. She pointed "Stool."

"You're right. That's a stool." But she wasn't done. Looking me in the eye she pointed, "chair" (the rocking chair). "Chair" (the computer chair). "Chair" (the dining room chair). She was quite patient as she pointed out the difference. 

The twins' birthday we as nice and quiet. We started off the morning making their giant cookie from grandma which was so fun.  Then we went to the grocery store and, after naps, went to Grandma Flakes for a little bit. Once we got home, we made a birthday cake and then went to dinner. They really enjoyed the busy board that Scott made for them.  

The next day we had lunch at the park and all of Scott's siblings and Grannie came. 

We sold our Mazda and the little Miata so we are finally a 3 vehicle family again and I don't feel like I live at a car lot! Now Scott is contemplating a new, big truck so we'll see if that pans out. 

Love you all! Have a great week!

Hart Happenings

 What a summer!  It is blowing by at an alarming rate but has already left us with some lovely memories.  Among them:

A wonderful Lego collaboration

BYU Young Ambassador camp

At Yellowstone waiting for Steamboat Geyser to erupt

Alex’s creation at the painting activity at the Cousin’s Reunion

A weird sun phenomenon. Dad, what is it called?

Rafting Big Spring

Chet and Wes listening to Bunny Foo Foo

Hope and Ian waiting for their turn rock climbing

Spikeball!

Back at the temple. Hooray!

The cousins reunion - capture the flag, pool time, the painting activity, and all the fishing - actually catching fish! It was so great to connect/reconnect with everyone.  We have such a great family!

Going to the zoo with Dad, the Flakes, and the Nilssons.

The Hart Family Conference - dance parties, water balloon battleship, float trips, dollar store runs, and lots of good cousin time.

Watching Jack's soccer tournament and melting in the midday heat with mom and dad.

Listening to Ian regale us with tales of "the best week of my life"!  He totally loved attending the BYU Young Ambassadors camp.

Watching the garden grow.....It really is amazingly lovely.  We've harvested lots of radishes, broccoli, cucumbers, and strawberries.  Delicious!

Playing Spikeball late into the night thanks to the new lights that Alex got installed.  They are pretty fancy and keep things all lit up!

Meeting little Gus Manning!  He is the cutest little blob of a baby I've ever seen!  It is so fun to have another family enter into the 3 boy club!

We plan on spending some time at the pool this week and hiking Palisades for my birthday this weekend if anyone cares to join us!

We love you guys and are so grateful for any chance to spend time with you! 

Nilsson News

 Jenn!  I want to see your hair - or the lack thereof!  It will be perfect for this weather.  We have bouncing babies!  Last Sunday, along with the Mannings, Addy's goat Bumble delivered twins, a boy and a girl.  Because of the holiday, they were named George and Betsy.  The best part with these two is there blue eyes and they are both polled, meaning the will never grow horns!  Last night, Nibbles delivered her very large twin boys.  They are adorable and chunky and both of them have waddles like their mom.  Everything went smooth and good and we are so happy they are here.  Addy can now settle down a bit.

We had cousins from Arizona here all week.  Garrett's sister flew to Hawaii with her oldest daughter, so the rest of the kids came to play.  It was fun to have them and we enjoyed fireworks, floated the river, ran through the sprinkler and played with baby goats (they are seriously so entertaining).

We have been doing a lot of haying lately.  Because of the drought, everyone is worried that there is going to be short supply of hay so we are trying to buy as much as we can early in the season.  We are doing our best to keep the garden, grass, and trees alive during this crazy hot season.  The watermelons are thriving and we may have some ready to pick by the end of the month.  Hope you all have a delightful Sabbath!

The kids had fun at their primary bike parade.

Happy Independence Day!

George & Betsy

Lewis...

...and Clark

Flake Fun

 This week has been hot...over 100 for more than half the week. So we have had lots of popsicles, juice, cold water and any other cold food we can find. 

The big news is that James has started army crawling! I don't know if I am ready for him to be mobile! I think that he may be teething again because he has been a little cranky but it could just be the heat too. 

Robin has 4 new teeth which is good. They are taking their sweet time coming in fully but they are all through the gums so she isn't as emotional as she has been. 

Rand is my watering buddy and loves to be in the garden. 

The twins love to check the mail and when we don't have any, we have to check Aunt Karen's! It has been a real treat for them to be responsible for Grandma Flakes mail this week since Dona and Randy are out of town. 

It was a treat for us, especially for Rand, to see "aunt Lise" on Grandmas phone. 

That is about all that is going on down here. The forecast says we should only be in the upper 90s this week and I'll welcome the cool down! Oh, and I cut my hair.

Love you all! Make it a great week. 

Flake Fun

 First off, a huge congrats to the Mannings. We are all so happy for you and can't wait to meet the new little Mann.

It has been a month since I last posted and it has been a busy month.  The highlights were definitely the cousin reunion and the following week spent visiting with most of you. A huge thanks to everyone for letting us barge in and disrupt normal life.  It makes me happy that the twins can recognize and remember their cousins.  We hope to be up again soon.

James still has no interest in crawling but he has mastered spinning himself around on his bottom and he takes great delight in that trick. 

Rand never stops talking and he is becoming quite the conversationalist.  The other day he met Scott at the front door and exclaimed "Come in!"

Robin is learning the frustration of being nearly 2 and the misunderstanding that comes with the territory.  

Our garden is struggling along but I planted 2 lavender bushes this weekend so we now have a bit of color in our yard. 

We are back to a very early bedtime to see if it will help everyone sleep better.  The jury is still out!

Love you all!! 

Nilsson News

 Summer has arrived in full swing!  The weather decided to make this known by shifting from 60 degrees to 90+ degrees overnight.  It was a rather rude awakening.  Our garden is finally in and each of the kids have been very devoted to their individual garden plots.  The 38 watermelon plants are the one thing that seem to be thriving in this instant heat - they love it!  We also completed our grow box in the greenhouse for our tomato plants.  It is a total experiment but we hope the plants will thrive and produce well protected from the wind and early frost that always comes.

We have almost completed our hay shed lean-to.  With the insane prices of building materials, we were so grateful when we found a farmer who was needing an old shed taken apart and removed.  We were able to salvage most the material and the pieces ended up fitting our space exactly, to where we didn't even need to cut anything because the fit was so precise.  It was a blessing!

Emerson, Henry, and Eliza have been participating in their Grit League obstacle course races these past few weeks.  They are like Spartan races on a small scale and the kids have a blast.  Addy competed at her final clogging competition at Lagoon and did extremely well.  She decided to tryout for the champ team and made it!  It will be challenging but she is very excited about it.

Millie and Henry have been our chicken care takers and are out in the pen holding the chickens every day and lock them in their coop each night.

Garrett is looking forward to BYUI opening up for real in the fall.  Students will be in the classrooms again and he will be able to meet with the students more one on one.

Yesterday, we enjoyed an outing to City of Rocks and mom and dad were able to join us.  It is really an interesting place to visit and we had a great time exploring and scrambling on the rocks.  We got to drive through the hopping towns of Edna and Almo and were greeted with a cattle drive going right down the middle of the road.  It really was a fun day!

We're excited to see so many of you at the cousins reunion in a few weeks!

Millie keeps us laughing!

The cattle drive in Almo

P.S. Emerson did get glasses this last month and he is excited to be able to see things on the other side of the room!

This was a beautiful oasis in the midst of this more arid desert climate.  I need one of these in my backyard.