Hart Happenings

The past couple of weeks went by in a blur of miles, spikeball games, lush green hills and trees, and dear faces of our favorite family members.

Due to a spikeball tournament in Richmond Virginia, Jack and Alex decided to drive across the country so Peter and I jumped in the van and joined the cross country trek.  We had to leave Ian behind, which was a massive bummer, but his work and rehearsal schedule just couldn't be worked around.

Rather than go to Richmond, Peter and I were dropped off in Kentucky to hang out with Emma, Cam, and STETSON for a few days.  Guys, that baby is the greatest little person I've met in a while!  He is so interested in people and carries on the most earnest conversations.  The Harts were entirely smitten from the get-go.  We basked in the Hyde's hospitality and got to see some of the beautiful places in and around Lexington.  Cam's birthday coincided with our time there and we even got to celebrate a little bit with him.  So glad he is part of our family!  It was so great to be in warm weather and green surroundings.  It buoyed us up immensely.

Peter was in puppy heaven hanging out with Oakley for a few days.  She would come into the room Peter was sleeping in and wake him up every morning and he told me it was the best way to wake up in the whole world.

After their tournament, Alex and Jack came to collect us and we drove down to see Alex's sister who lives in Tennessee.  It was fun to catch up with her and her family.  They have an epic rope swing that the boys had a blast playing on until Jack got injured.  Uncle Brandon got his porsche out of the garage and took the boys for a spin which they thought was fantastic.  Our van just doesn't compare.  They took us to Gatlin Tennessee (anyone remember the Gatlin Brothers?) and we had a great time looking around the town and stepping into various charming shops.  

Alex kindly booked me a flight home from Nashville which got me home about a day before them and saved me about 24 hours of car driving.  Super nice.  I got home just in time to jump in and help out at Ian's performances with his homeschool acting group.  They put on an excellent show which was written by a good friend of ours based on her experiences visiting her dad in the memory care unit he lived in for the last 10 months of his life.  There were some memorable characters that were featured in the play and it was really well done.  Peter was also a really good helper in the concessions stand.

While I was helping in the kitchen and with the concessions at the play, Alex was running Jack to his soccer games.  The won one, they lost one, and Jack is thrilled to be back on the field.  I love watching him play.

The weather seems determined to thwart any plans for putting plants in the ground.  As a result, I have SO MANY PLANTS in my house and in holding areas in other parts of the yard.  I don't think I can adequately convey to you, how many plants are not in their permanent homes right now.  And they just keep coming!  Ruth picked up another box of trees and grape plants that we had shipped to Dad's house this week.  Could I plant them out in the yard yet?  No, no I could not.  I have 19 trees/shrubs on the front porch waiting to be planted and then 3 grapes and 6 more trees out in a holding pile of mulch waiting for their permanent home.  That's on top of the 10 flats of plants I have on shelves under grow lights in my bedroom......We have a situation, people!!!! Blessedly, the forecast looks promising for the coming week.  We should be able to dig some holes and settle these plants into their homes.

We are pretty wiped out here today.  The boys and I are sprawled out on various couches and chairs around the house.  Peter is on the phone with Grant.  It's the first Sunday of a new semester at BYU-Idaho today so Alex will probably be up there for most of the day.  The boys helped me bake a cookie sheet sized sugar cookie to celebrate our 18th anniversary when he gets home.  That's a lot of wonderful years!

We'll put some highlight pictures of the last couple weeks in a separate post.

Here's to a relaxing Sabbath day to you all and Happy Spring to everyone!

Flake Fun

The last few days have been busy and fun.  Scott took his spring break and we spent 3 days in the Scottsdale area. We went to a trampoline park (kids loved it) and to the Phoenix Childrens Museum (kids super loved it). Then we went to lots of parks and just relaxed.  

We got home on Friday night and attended Grannie's 88th birthday party here in Snowflake.  All 4 of her siblings were there and it was fun to see the five of them together.

Scott is making progress on the chicken coop and run so hopefully we can get that done this week.

We had a fun Easter which started with the joyful exclamation, "I found a pink egg in my bed!" 

Love you all!!

Hart Happenings

Happy Easter everyone!

  Can I just say that I loved the special format of the Easter service at church today?  It was lovely to experience the same emphasis on Christ that we feel at Christmas time.  We heard lots of wonderful music interspersed with scriptures about Jesus.  We spent the afternoon at Ruth's house for our annual Easter egg hunt.  While the dads hid the eggs Ruth and the kids and I made resurrection rolls.  Ian was worried that the tomb wasn't going to be empty when we broke the rolls open but...... (see photos).  It was glorious weather so the adults wandered around outside while the kids searched for eggs.  We dashed home because Alex's family was all coming over for dinner and we also ended up outside visiting while the kids played in the grass that has yet to come alive.  It was very great.

  This week has been a typical one, full of rehearsals and work for Ian, soccer and spikeball for Jack, and playdates and parkour for Peter.  The mornings are taken up with study time and music practice and then we also enjoy our homeschool co-op once a week, and group study with Ruth and co. on Tuesdays

  Alex is working on taking out a pine tree for me that is shading the garden along with training a new cleaning gal for the Airbnbs and revamping our housekeeping system.  He had a great run at the spikeball tournament this weekend and placed first in his division! Woo-hoo!  Go 40 yr. old!

  I keep starting seeds inside in hopes that I will be able to get them out in the garden soon.  Meanwhile, I got the whole orchard pruned, the blackberries cut back to manageable size (thanks to Jack's help), and dealt with half of the rose bushes.  I just have tomatoes to start tomorrow and then we should be all caught up on the seeds.

Here are some highlights from the week:

                        

                      Ready to go find the eggs.

         The baby chicks arrived. Peter is in heaven. 

                     Pruning in the snow and sun. 

                      The Easter trading begins. 

                       Ian’s rehearsal for Joseph. 

Ian’s friend Mason came to visit from Washington for Spring Break. 

                            Resurrection rolls!

Alex and Jack got invited to a Jazz/Lakers game and they got to sit in one of the boxes with catered dinner and dessert service. They thought they had died and gone to heaven. The Lakers won, for those who care. 

 

                       More Easter egg trading.   

  

Hyde Happinesses

 Hello hello! We are loving having some spring weather around here! We got our peas planted (perhaps a little late), and plan to have tomatoes, peppers, and onions in by the end of the week! We’ve been going on lots of walks and trying to soak up some sun. 

Stetson has found his high pitched voice which really makes me laugh. He has full blown conversations with us and really likes to be included in playing games. This week he found a passion for his ball. He’ll grab it and bring it to his mouth, all while going cross eyed. It’s pretty awesome. He’ll be three months old on Thursday! Time is flying!

Cam is still loving his job. He’s the general manager at the Stretch Zone and loves having control of his own schedule and being able to help the employees. 

Happy Easter! I listened to the Follow Him podcast this week and it was really great. If you have time, I definitely recommend it :) 

Anyway, we love y’all! Come visit soon!

Flake Fun

Not much has happened since our last post. We had a good conference weekend.  It wasn't calm and quiet by any means but the twins sat and listened to the prophet for a few minutes so I'll call that a win.

Scott started the chicken coop yesterday so we'll see how long it takes to finish it.  He is off this week for spring break so if we can avoid the wind, we may be able to get it done. 

So, Rand is showing a lot of interest in animals lately.  He is content to sit and quietly hold the chickens. We may be looking at a future vet. 

So, what happens when Dad is in charge of the colored popcorn? (Butter with food coloring). 

Hope that you all have an incredible week! Happy Easter!

Hyde Happinesses

 The news of this week is that Stetson laughed for the first time!! Woohoo!!! It was so cute and we anticipate many more fun giggles. 

We really enjoyed a fairly quiet conference weekend. The talks were absolutely phenomenal and I had so many good takeaways. I loved the call to repentance from President Nielson - to bury our verbal arsenal of insults and criticisms. I also enjoyed Elder Braggs talk about Poise, and thought it was a very interesting choice of a conference talk topic. I wondered how many people stopped watching conference when it was announced that Elder Holland would not be speaking… And because it’s so pertinent right now, I loved Elder Uchtdorfs talk about loving our children. Such a great conference!! 

We love you all and can’t wait for our trip to Nauvoo! If anyone wants to come visit before or after that, you know where to find us!! ;)

Flake Fun

Although we don't have mounds of snow nor blooming flowers and fragrant tree blossoms,  spring has poked her head up and gone back to sleep.  We have semi dormant tulips and daffodils in the front.   

The kids started a 6 week Kinder Prep class at the library and are quite enjoying it.  They have learned about magnets, rhythm and measuring.  They come home each week with a new book and at home tools for what they learned about. (Rulers, mini maracas, magnets, etc.)

The chicks are still alive and growing. 

We went Mesa on Saturday to attend our niece Katelyn's baptism.  It was really nice and the kids enjoyed seeing their cousin.  James was quite distressed that the water part ended so soon!