Hyde Happinesses

Hey all! It was so fun to see some of you this week! We enjoyed playing with Jenn and her kiddos and going up to Idaho to see Addys choir concert. So fun when we get to hang out with yall! I’m so glad we all get along… it is so strange to me that some people (many people) don’t speak to their own siblings or visit or check in. So so sad. So I’m grateful for you :) 

Not too much happened this week besides the lovely visits we enjoyed! The weather was nice for a couple days so we enjoyed going on walks. I made sourdough bread a few days this week which was very fun and delicious. Elise got me a sourdough recipe book that I cannot wait to try! 

Jenn brought some super delicious oranges and Stetson was in heaven!

He has recently discovered that airplanes make noise and he’s fascinated 

Blueberries for the win 

Parmesan, Asiago, hot honey sourdough. SO GOOD

The big boys with the little boy

Smithfield Scoop

 Hi All! We are here to report our goings on for January - which were quite delightful overall. We started out the new year with breakfast with the Hydes on New Year's Day at Angies - "Where the locals eat." It was yummy food and then we watched "What's up Doc?" later in the evening. Fun way to bring in the new year! The next day was Emma and Cam's anniversary and we enjoyed watching Stetson while they went on a short, little date.

We were grateful to see several of our families during the month. Elise, Jack and Peter came to welcome Cam and Emma back to Utah and see their new house. They brought games to play, visited, hung out with Stetson and played ping pong. It was a fun time!

Mannings were here for almost a week, which was very fun! Dad made a sledding hill in the backyard that the boys enjoyed. We took the boys to Hardware Ranch, which was very fun. We saw the Ashcrofts there with their daughter, Marci and her family.  Taking the boys was an attempt to allow Lauren to nap with Jane. That mission was only partially accomplished, but at least she got a few moments of quiet time. For most of their visit, the boys played and we bonded a bit more with Jane. Lauren played some amazing pieces on the piano and we chatted. Chet was the foreman and Lauren the unpaid laborer to dig out a snow cave in our front yard. So funny! What a great snow cave! Good job, Lauren! Nick cut his finger at work and had to go to InstaCare. They thought it might need stitches, but in the end, they just taped it up and sent him home, where there was no one to sympathize or take care of him. Sad indeed.

Lory Bradshaw passed away while Mannings were here, but we didn't know that until after they had gone home. Her funeral was a sweet meeting. We felt sad that there were no family members there. One of her sisters and a brother who live in Wisconsin, and her son in California, saw the funeral on Zoom, which was nice that they could participate in that way. Emma and I sang with Laurie Thomas, Celia Ashcroft and Zell Allred and Dad said the closing prayer. We were honored to participate. Mary Bennett was in charge of all of the arrangements, bless her heart! It was a lovely funeral and quite fitting for such a lovely lady.

We are looking forward to having the Flakes (minus Scott, who will be at a work conference) come tomorrow! Nilssons will travel down to play with cousins this week, as well, which will add to the delight! We love the company and hope to get all the Bellistons to come as soon as possible!

Thanks for supporting each other, celebrating with each other, and for the parenting advice and encouragement! It's very good to see. You are all the best!

Hyde Happinesses

 This week was such a good one! I was so happy to feel validated by all the wonderful mothers in the fam. Yall are so amazing. I finally had enough of no sleep. So I gave sleep training a try, the Sleep Shuffle approach. It has been awesome!! Long story short, this kid hasn’t gone to sleep by himself ever in his whole life. He wakes up several times at night and won’t let us put him down. On Tuesday I started putting him in his crib awake after giving him some food. He doesn’t like it but he puts himself to sleep in about 15-30 minutes. And GET THIS. Yesterday I put him down at 7:30pm and he only whined a little bit at 3am because he was cold. I covered him with a blanket and he calmed right down and went to sleep. I was back in bed within 3 minutes. And then I was so excited so I couldn’t get back to sleep 😂 but I was sooooooo grateful and happy. He woke up for the day at 5:45 but that was okay. I haven’t slept that much in months and that was greeeeeeaaaaattttt! Anyway that was the best ever. Thanks for all the encouragement and help.

We’ve gone on lots of walks this week and it has been great. Oakley has certainly enjoyed it. Stetson has had fun walking down the sidewalk by Adam’s park, picking up crab apples and who knows what else 😂 he keeps me on my toes that’s for sure!! 

I got to visit one of my really good friends this weekend. She has a super cute little girl and they got to play and we chatted. She also made some killer Parmesan, Asiago, hot-honey sourdough bread. Oh my land guys. It was awesome. But more awesome to catch up with my girl Collie.

Cam surprised me and took me on a super sweet date this week. Mom and dad babysat Stetson and we went to Main Street. We walked down and I showed Cam the Bluebird factory and then he took me ice skating on Main! It was so fun and idealistic! Then we got Zupas 🥰 it was a blast. 

Well, I love yall. Hope you have a great week! 

Also this is dad, checking on a cute little robin that smashed into our window. He flew off a few minutes later :) 

Nilsson News

 Yes, yes, to all that has been said about motherhood.  Although, I don't know that it gets easier as time goes on and I think I just get to the point where I throw up my hands and say, "Wow!  I have no idea!"  I feel like, Emma, you have the greatest advantage of all of us, where you got to see all of us really mess up and you could watch us and know what you wanted to avoid.  However, you didn't seem to avoid the no sleep dilemma.  It must be a Belliston curse.

    I have no idea what to think about this spring like weather!!!  In the moment it feels really nice, 50 degrees in January?!  But I am curious like Jenn, will winter arrive in March?  I keep hoping that my trees don't all of the sudden burst into bloom and my flowers pop through the ground.  

    Lauren, you are very nice to think that if you hired me something productive might happen.  I'm definitely feeling a tad annoyed that my "small project" still is unfinished.  All the tiny finish work that actually makes everything look nice, takes FOREVER.  I'm in the process of painting the quarter round trim that is under my kitchen cabinets.  Nobody but me would ever notice, but it's one of those things.  I think the end is in sight?

    Eliza had a wonderful birthday.  After her sweet rabbit, Opie, was taken off by we think a dog, she has been begging for another rabbit, and this time an inside one.  No convincing her that we can make her hutch dog proof.  I swore I would never allow indoor pets and now we have two additional little bunnies.  Since I don't love the tiny rabbit cages out there, since they are so small and somewhat ugly, we decided to repurpose an entertainment center that we found for $25 at D.I. into a charming, spacious hutch.  It was pretty fun and it turned out really cute.

I think that's it for now.  I feel like I did a lot of rambling but my brain is doing a lot of that lately.  Love you all!

Before and after deluxe bunny hutch!  I saw something similar to this on Etsy for $600!  Thank you D.I. $25.

Choosing the bunnies!

Snowball and Jellybean aka Bean

Flake Fun

Amen to motherhood being hard, especially when you are doing it on little to no sleep! I would echo Lauren-there is never any judgement when you need a venting phone call! We all know that you love Stetson! And winter is a hard time to have a newly walking little one.  You are doing great.

I also have to echo Lauren's sentiments about the joy of being with mom and dad.  We are eagerly anticipating our trip up in a week or so!!

The start to the year has been pretty good. We decided to do some projects on the acreage in Snowflake while we wait (and in my case, hope) for a crash in the housing market. That way, if we stay in Snowflake those projects will be done and if we leave, we will leave things better than they were.

That being said, yesterday was spent hauling and spreading fill dirt on the road into the property.  We got one corner almost done... It was fun for the kids to take turns dumping and lowering the dump trailer bed.

That is Rand lowering the dump bed

Scott playing on the backhoe

The weather has been rainy but in the higher than normal range.  Are we going to have our winter in March?

Hope that everyone has a good week!!

Tulsi, my father-in-law's dog ran off but we got to pick her up a few days later at a neighbor's house. 

A fun day is when they dress themselves for church.   Note the pink Crocs on James, the double jumper on Robin as well as her jewelry.

He started a flour war!

Our latest art project, finger paint Mom's arms (the alternative was each other!)

Manning Moments

 Well, life is good. I took the kiddos up to Mom and Dad's last week and it was blissful. It was so lovely to visit with them and Emma. Stetson is so cute and my boys followed Oakley around. We loved playing in the massive amounts of snow, seeing the Elk, reading, playing the piano and having almost as many adults as kids. The moment we got home everything blew up. Chet was crazy about not letting Gus touch his toys, Gus kept getting hurt and all the bliss left. It's nice to be with mom and dad. We eventually got back into our routine and it was great to see Nick.

Everyone is growing and learning new things. Jane chews on everything. I suppose that means she is going to have some teeth pop out sometime soon. The big boys are learning lots of things in school and it is a blast to be with them. Gus is going to start potty training soon and I have been mentally preparing for the last month! He will do great! 

Chet gives us a lot of laughs as you can imagine. Recently I have been trying to help him learn to wipe and be independent on the potty. He usually tackles new things with gusto and he started out that way but it has quickly lost its thrill. One time he was calling for me and I went into the bathroom. He said, "I'm not really into wiping." I laughed and said I wasn't either but it needs to be done. I left and 5 minutes later he called again. I went in and he said very mournfully, "Can't you see how sad your kid is!" 

Ruth is putting us to shame with her renovations while we are still at a stand still. We should have just hired her and she couldn've learned what she needed to in the amount of time we have been able to dig a hole! Oh well, we are excited about it.

Emma, mothering is hard. It is not easy and I think you are in one of the hardest stages. When people ask how it is to have the third or fourth child I always say it's not as hard as the first. It really does get easier in some ways as you keep going. I kind of wish I could erase the first two years of Wesley's life. I was a basket case. Anyway, I think you are doing a great job and any of your sisters are a phone call away. Venting is a necessary thing!

Other than that, nothing new to relate. Hope everyone is getting some beautiful weather like we are enjoying today! Sure love you all!

Hyde Happinesses

 Helloooooooo. This week has been rather long. Stetson isn’t a great sleeper, and this week it just got under my skin. I know he’ll sleep someday. I don’t need sleep someday though… I kinda need it now. So anyway. That’s a thrill. But he’s still so happy and pleasant during the day so that is a huge blessing! He is so fun and is definitely learning how to push boundaries. He’s taken to throwing things in the garbage which I really don’t appreciate. If he would stick to trash, that would be great, but books, socks, oakleys balls, and other paraphernalia ends up in it 😂 he’s always keeping us on our toes. Recently I had a flash. I realized Stetson had never walked outside or in a store before, and whole new world opened up. Now I just let him go outside and toddle around. Cam and I took him to Locals the other day and he grinned ear to ear while he walked around like he owned the place. It was adorable. Needless to say, I’ve found something else we can do to occupy our time a little more this winter.

We had dinner with some old friends this week which was great. Cam roomed with Corey and Maddie and I were also roommates. They got married the same day as us and Cam and Corey have been good friends for awhile. They have an 18 month old, Emma, and are expecting another one in June. It was fun to catch up.

Cam told me a funny story about Stetson today. I was in the kitchen making dinner, and Stetson was reading one of his books pretty contentedly. All of a sudden he stood up, walked over to his toy bin, took out a necklace and put it around his neck, walked back to his book and began reading again😂 I would love to know what goes on inside his head some days.

We went to Hardware Ranch today! It was very fun. We’d never been before, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. We ended up waiting in a very long line for a long time, and Stetson did great, until we got on the wagon 😅 then he got pretty fussy and kept grabbing at my shirt 🙄 so Cam and I were able to see the elk pretty well, but Stetson insisted on lunch and a short nap while we did 🤷🏼‍♀️ 

This week was a particularly tough one as a mom, so I just have to say hats off to all you amazing ladies that make motherhood look so effortless. Maybe you should try to make it look a little harder so no one gets any fancy ideas in their head about the ease of motherhood 😉 I love you all and am so grateful for all your examples!

So fun having mom and dad over for dinner. Stetson is totally enamored with their glasses and always makes an attempt to steal them.

Teaching the ways of the snowballs

Walking all by his big self in the store. That face means absolute bliss