Hyde Happinesses

Guys. Get this. Once upon a time Cam and I have almost been married for 3 years. Cool right? Guess what’s even cooler?? In all our lengthy years of marriage, we’ve never bought shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotions and moisturizers, makeup, or toothpaste 🤯 I mean how cool is that??!?! The time has come. In the very near future I will have to purchase some shampoo. Then some toothpaste. Then makeup 😭 It’s a tragedy. But anyway. That’s the big news of the week.

Stetson and I survived the first half of the week without Cam. He was in Florida attending a business meeting for the Stretch Zone. He said it was very enlightening and he enjoyed it a lot. 

Stetson is growing up so so fast. He is a riot guys. He’s hilarious and he knows it, which makes it 100x funnier. He now waves at everyone we see, though if you ask him to do it, he won’t until the time has well passed. He also enjoys clapping and giving high fives. He’s not super interested in walking yet, and I am a-ok with that. He’s a cruiser and has loved getting into the garbage lately. He also loves throwing oakleys ball and trying to climb out of the doggie door. 

As for me, I have loved this season of baking and cooking. We’ve had the missionaries over several times, and I’ve tried to make them something special each time. Sister Jensen missed Zupas, so we made paninis and Wisconsin Cauliflower soup last week which was very fun. Now I have to find something else to make for them soon. It is so so fun. On Saturday, we had some friends over to watch a football game. Loren is my new bestie. She’s a sweetie and is so fun to be around. I gave her some of my sourdough starter a few weeks ago, so she brought some sourdough pretzels over and I made sourdough brownies. It was so fun and now we want to start “sourdough Saturday.” I also made an actual sourdough bread for our paninis. It was pretty yummy! I definitely need to hone my skills but it was a fun experiment. 

We took fall pictures this week and I can’t wait to see them!! We also went to the races and had some delicious food and watched the horses run. When you guys come visit, we’ll take you to the track. It is such a fun vibe (as long as you’re not down in the crowd… that’s mostly just drinking and smoking). 

Anyway. Love you so much! Have a great week. 

Stetson has enjoyed helping Oakley find her ball and throwing it for her. She’s still not a big fan of him, but he feeds her enough to keep them on good terms.

He loves to wave 

The cutest teethies!! They are RAZORS 

The answer is no. He’s never not smiling

I keep telling Ruth we need to put Dane and Stetson in a padded cell for the next couple years. That’s the only way they’ll be safe. 

Big helper

Flake Fun

The last little while has been quite interesting and, at times difficult for me.  At the end of September, Scott flew to San Diego for his annual business conference.  Then he stayed a few more days with his dad and brother to celebrate Randy's 65th birthday with some off shore fishing.   They caught 2 Mahi Mahi.  

James turned 3 and had turned into a talking machine! He chats all day and loves it when his conversations are taken seriously.  He was delighted to get a basketball and shovel for his birthday! 

We had a lot of fun getting pumpkins at our local pumpkin patch.  The kids are very excited about carving them which we plan to do sometime this week.  

We went through a couple of weeks of sick kids but we all seem to be on the mend now.

We have had a lot of birds fly into our greenhouse lately which is fun, except when they knock themselves out. 

Scott and I were asked to speak in church today on Elder Bednar and Elder Anderson's conference talks.  It went well.

We miss you guys like crazy and can't wait to get together for Thanksgiving.  

Nilsson News

 Emma, you are so faithful at posting on the blog and your photos are so adorable!  We also ripped out our entire garden yesterday.  I was so ready to be done with it, even though our tomatoes had just decided it was time to ripen (a little late in my book).  They are one of those plants that is tricky to grow here because they like the heat and by the time the heat arrives (does the heat ever arrive?...), most of the canning has been finished and it is time to get ready for the winter.  I think next year I'm going to experiment with planting peanuts.  They thrive in the heat so you are probably wondering why I would try to grow those?  Our greenhouse during the summer is definitely hot and I haven't had great success with planting other things in it, so why not?

We had a fantastic time pressing cider with the Harts and grandpa.  It brought back so many memories of our pressing adventures with the Ashcrofts and Bennetts.  We have only a one tub press but it's just right for our smaller orchard.  Everyone took turns manning the grinder and the press and Dane was excellent at taste testing every apple and throwing those he didn't approve of.  We had an impressive knife and apple show by Jack and Alex.  One would toss an apple into the air and the other would catch it with his paring knife.  A new sport in the making!  Grandpa was great at overseeing that not a single worm hole escaped into the wash basin.  The overall outcome and flavor was incredible!  We made about 16 gallons worth.  A few days ago we had some students from Garrett's BYUI class come and we served them some cider.  They kept asking what we put in the cider, cinnamon, sugar, what made it taste so good?  They could hardly believe that the only ingredient was apples!  Side note: one of those students that came was from South Africa (awesome accent!) and I mentioned that my sister's best friend recently married someone from there.  Come to find out, he knew Jared Caine and said that their dads were mission companions.  Small world!

Last week, Garrett took Emerson, Eliza, Henry and Millie down to St. George for their cousin's baptism.  They were able to enjoy beautiful summer like weather and also had a wonderful time walking through the St. George temple open house.  Addy, Dane and I stayed at home and it was so quiet!  I went on a cleaning frenzy and our house stayed clean for the three days that the others were gone.  It was so refreshing!  Addy and I invited Elise to join us in a Pride and Prejudice marathon.  Addy had just finished reading the book so we rewarded her with watching the 6 episode version and it definitely took us back to our younger, swooning days.  Such a good book/movie!

Dane is getting in to absolutely everything!  He is very resourceful and independent and knows how to drag the kitchen chairs to everywhere he wants to go.  The words that he is starting to say make me laugh because they aren't the typical first words of a toddler.  "Iyuce (ice), dong (the doorbell), peash (please), uh-oh, shoos (shoes).  You can tell what is truly the most important to this little fellow.  Sleep is not.

Claustrophobia anyone?!

Addy's date to Homecoming!

Cider time!

Hyde Happinesses

 It was a good week :) we’ve enjoyed having the missionaries over once or twice a week and this week was no different. It was excellent to have the elders here this time around. We have the sisters on Thursday which will be good. I’ve been trying to pry and ask them about their favorite foods and desserts from home. Last week I got a killer peanut butter bar recipe from Elder Taylor’s mom. This week I’m going to do cauliflower soup from Zupas for one of the new sisters. It’s been fun to feel like I can make a little difference for them. Cam and I often talk about how nice it was to go to members houses and have something familiar to eat and talk about life in general. It’s been so nice to reminisce and remember. 

We officially ripped out our garden. I have mixed feelings about it. It was a very plentiful garden and it was so great for us. We got some bottled tomatoes and salsa which is perfect for the winter! It was fun to try my hand at it and see some results :) 

We celebrated Stetson’s 9 months this week! Crazy! Time is going by way too fast! We celebrated by going to Harrogate to tour Lincoln Memorial University. Cam is thinking he’d like to go back to school to be some kind of doctor - animal or human :) tbd. They have a very nice vet program he wanted to check out. The town was very quaint and very very small. But the campus was stunning. Absolutely gorgeous. So that was very fun :) 

Massive caterpillar on our walk. Stetson so wanted to eat it

Cheddar jalepeno bread. 10/10

He’s a little bit of a flirt! He loves talking with Amilia during sacrament meeting. She’s about 3 months older than him, and about half his size 😂

Hyde Happinesses

 Stetson is having a hard time sleeping again, so I’m sitting in the rocker, writing on the blog. It’s good therapy. 

Not too much to say this week. We’re just living out here. Nothing too exciting. Probably the most exciting thing that happened this week was I got to go to a paint your own pumpkin night. One of the girls in the ward arranged it and I was delighted she invited me. I’m not very good at making friends so it was an honor 😂 I minister to her and she’s a sweetie. She invited several other people, but it ended up just being four of us which was perfect. We sat and chatted about anything. Really so enjoyable. I haven’t spent any time away from Stetson since I got my hair done in May, so that was a little exciting! Unfortunately Stetson was not a fan and I had to come home early to help put him down. But it was fun while it lasted. 

Other than that, we babysat the Hyde’s dog this week while they were in Florida. I don’t like her, but she behaved and really is sweet. I’m glad she’s back home now though. On the bright side, she’s really good with Stetson and gladly let him pull her hair and poke her eyes. She was so gentle and patient. 

Cam and I have enjoyed being able to put Stetson down a little earlier for bed and with small interruptions, we have been watching the Andy Griffith Show. Oh man. It’s so good. I didn’t watch the Andy Griffith Show as often as I watched I Love Lucy or Hogans Heroes, but I have come to really appreciate it! We watched one yesterday, Opie and the Hobo. If you’ve seen it, you’ll recall that the hobo teaches Opie to tell half truths and sneak gum balls from the gum ball machine and put off for tomorrow what could’ve been done today. Andy confronts the hobo about it and the hobo says something like “well, maybe I do think a little differently than most folks. But who’s to say your way is better than mine? Why not let the boy decide?” And Andy says “Nah, I'm afraid it don't work that way. You can't let a young 'un decide for himself. He'll grab at the first flashy thing with shiny ribbons on it, then when he finds out there's a hook in it, it's too late. The wrong ideas come packaged with so much glitter, it's hard to convince him that other things might be better in the long run, and all a parent can do is say, "Wait. Trust me," and try to keep temptation away.” Ahhh my mommy heart just near exploded. It hurts my soul to see all these attacks on families and children. There is such a thing as truth. And there is such a thing as parents being parents and teaching their children the right way to behave and live.  Needless to say, I was reminded of all the many reasons why I quite enjoy the old shows and movies. 

                     

Hyde Happinesses

 Always fun to see all of you on Family Matters :) and special shoutouts to both James and Yanny as they celebrate birthdays this week. We love a good birthday around here!

Stetson has been sleeping somehow better and worse since last week… what a roller coaster! Hats off to anyone who is still a nice human being after not sleeping for several months. I applaud you. 

There’s not too much going on around here. We enjoyed watching conference. It was a lot of chasing Stetson around and making sure he didn’t get into anything he shouldn’t, but it was very nice to hear inspired words. Always a highlight for sure. 

Just wanted to say I love y’all and hope you have a great week! 

Cam got me some lovely Dutch ovens so I can make all the soups and sourdough breads to my hearts content ❤️ I love him (and not just because he buys me things).

Always helping his daddy

Caramel apple charcuterie board. Not featured: the caramel