Flake Fun

Scott has had the last 2 weeks off which was great.  We started off the "vacation" visiting my father in law in the hospital after his heart attack.  He is doing really well now and will be glad to get back to work.

Although we were sad not to make it to Texas, St. George was a blast.  We had fun just rubbing shoulders with those who could make it.

We (read: Scott) put in 400 feet of fence for the legal access to the acreage and completed the culvert crossing to get across the creek onto said acreage.  

The lizard that we caught.   It was a pretty chill little fellow.

Hyde Happinesses

 Hello hello family :) this week was great. And filled with family time! Cams mom was in Utah this week to help her kids plan their weddings (May, June, and July - her oldest son and the two younger than cam are all getting married). They came up and visited on Tuesday which was fun. It was nice to be able to just sit on a park bench and let the aunts and uncles play around with Stetson. He was absolutely delighted. I also got a haircut on Tuesday and chopped off about 6 inches! I’m not sure I love it yet… I may even go back and have her do it shorter since I can’t magically grow it back out 😂 it will be nice for the summer though. 

Cam didn’t have work this week so we got to see more of him than usual which was a treat. He did have to take some big tests though so he spent lots of time studying which was a bummer. 

We got to see some of the animals at Baby Animal Days with Yanny and grandma and grandpa. Stetson was really captivated by all the many many people, but when I finally showed him the furry cows before we left, he kept signing for more, so I guess he enjoyed it after all. It was very fun to see Joe and family on their spontaneous trip to Bear Lake. Stetson isn’t sure about Joe yet but I’m sure they’ll become really good buddies one of these days. 

On Friday we went down to spend some more time with Cams family. They’re a riot. Stetson loves when they’re around to wrestle and give him anything he wants at the blink of an eye. We went to the mall and he got to ride in one of those little cars that you put quarters into and thought it was the best. They also got him a ball out of a claw machine and he almost passed out from happiness. He LOVES balls better than anything else in the world. It’s pretty adorable. 

We enjoyed conference quite a bit as usual. I really enjoyed Elder Hollands talk as well as Elder Bednars. They’re all amazing. It’s a little harder to focus and glean everything I’d like to, but what I do get to hear is wonderful and I enjoy it immensely. Fun fact about Elder Bowen (he spoke Saturday evening): he came to our mission and did apartment checks for one pair of elders and one pair of sisters. We were the sisters apartment he toured so we got to meet him and get some one-on-one time with him. We also attended an MLC meeting with him and it was phenomenal. 

It was also so much fun to see so many siblings this week! Joes family surprised us and it was so fun to see them. Then Yanny came and hung out for a few days, and Ruth topped it off. Super fun! I love you guys :)

Stetson quite enjoyed Grants company

He was all in favor… but with his left hand 

These two pictures were taken six months apart. Crazy how much they grow! 

Flake Fun

 So much can happen in two weeks! Three major things have happened in those 2 weeks:

Rand visited the dentist and had some fillings and caps taken care of.  That is not an experience for the faint of heart!  He was a trooper though and recovered quickly.

Rand and Robin learned how to ride without training wheels overnight! It was a fun wild ride.  On day 2 (he had been riding less than 24 hours), Rand decided to try out jumps at the local skate park.  Em, you have a couple of years to prepare yourself for that anxiety inducing experience.

We got the culvert in...for the most part. 

 

It was quite late when Scott stopped compacting for the night.

Measuring the depth and such

The temporary dam that broke so we had to pump a great deal of water out.

That's all for us! 

Hyde Happinesses

 Happy Easter to all! It was a great day. A bit gloomy with the weather outside, but not at all inside. We woke up early and Stetson was delighted with his Easter basket. He got lots of eggs filled with goldfish and some smarties, little Jesus books, bubbles, and chalk. We also got him a picture of Jesus and the children which he promptly broke… but it’s still a nice picture regardless. Cam got a study Book of Mormon and I got the journal edition come follow me. We had a very nice sacrament meeting with lots of nice music. One family in our ward did “Amazing Grace” with dad on the bass fiddle, two kids on the cello, two on the violin, mom on the violin, and the youngest singing. It was pretty awesome. I minister to the mom and she’s pretty incredible! One takeaway I had from this week was the quote by President Nelson “death without grief is life without love.” I’m glad we can feel grief and that the grief we feel is only temporary and will be replaced with joy. 

Not too much happened this week. I did some more baking/cooking and began posting videos to Instagram. It’s been a fun project for me. I posted a video about a parchment paper hack, and it got 14,500 views! So that was fun! I did another one about homemade marshmallows, and that one currently has 18,000. Just kinda fun that people see it. 

We went to Al’s for their Easter egg hunt on Saturday and it was NUTSO. There was a line clear around the building before we got there. Apparently there were 1000 eggs hidden around the store and if you found one you could pick from some nice products at the front of the store. We didn’t want to wait in line so we got there about 10 minutes late and it was total madness. Black Friday in March! We just kinda meandered around and watched people frantically look for eggs. We didn’t find any, but a nice older guy gave Stetson a couple eggs with some candy in it. Stetson was more interested in the hundreds of balls that Al’s has. He’s been constantly repeating “ba ba ba” and trying to hold alllllllll of his balls at the same time (he has quite a few and gets rather frustrated when they don’t all fit in his arms). 

Cam and I went on a fun date on Friday. We went to Le Nonne and ordered some dessert and listened to Mike Christiansen play the guitar. It was soooo fun. Dad stayed at our house and made sure Stetson didn’t wake up. It was quite delightful and pretty delicious too. 

Anyway, I sure love you all! Hope you have a great week! 

He gives the very best squeezes ever

Total CHAOS 

He likes to hang out on the steps with me 

Trying to convince Oakley that the bath is actually fun

This might not seem like a big deal, but I did my nails and they perfectly matched Stetsons Easter shirt. It’s a big deal. 

Nilsson News

Happy Easter to all of you!  It's drizzly and dismal outside but we are grateful for the focus of this holiday and the hope it gives all of us.  It is so fun to read the blog posts (Thanks Emma and Jenn for staying consistent!) and find out what you are up to.  I think that spring might possibly be thinking about arriving, if that even is a thing.  We had a week of lovely weather and then it decided to be winter again.  The bulbs are timidly poking their heads through the ground and some of the tree buds look ready to burst.  Nature is the best thing to follow for clues rather than the forecast.

I've been starting seeds, mostly various flower varieties.  I get so excited about the flowers I can put in my pots and hanging baskets and garden.  I'll be starting tomatoes and other veggies before too much longer!  Now for some random pictures.

We had some pretty huge icicles this year!

He loves the spotlight!

We went on a quick trip to Manti during spring break and for Garrett's 40th birthday.  The temple was stunning!  It was a neat experience to be with our kids and show them the sealing room where we were married.  That was almost 18 years ago!

We went to the new skate park in Ephraim and Garrett had fun visualizing skateboarding.  He'd forgotten to bring his board along.  Garrett likes to think he sparked the creation of this park since he built the only park previous to this with wood ramps.

Millie's first clogging competition!  She did amazing and is loved it!

Our "new" door!  It lets in so much light!  We love it and it only took about an hour to do.  Now I just need to paint the white trim to match the door.

The big 4-0!  We tried to make the day feel special.  We sure love our dad/hubby even if he's reached the top of the hill.

Nerf rival guns are all the rage around here.  Garrett got this one called the Hades for his birthday.  It can be loaded with 60 rounds.  This is one gun that Dane is unable to even pick up due to its size.

Addy's clogging competition.  Both she and Millie qualified for Nationals in May!