Flake Fun

 We survived the holidays and had quite a bit of fun.  This year we ventured out to the live nativity and it was great.  There were some goats and a donkey and bonfires to sit by while you watched the performance.  It might become a tradition.  

We spent Christmas in Scottsdale swimming and having fun.  Both brothers-in-law had to work the day before and the day after Christmas so we were accommodating them. 

The "homemade" tree with popcorn and paper chain decorations.

We went to the Mesa temple lights.  Yes, the kids are wearing shorts.

The week before Christmas we took the kids to Out of Africa, an outdoor wildlife park.  I thought it would be like a zoo but I was wrong.  We went on a safari and fed a giraffe when he poked his head through the bus windows.  We watched a tiger play with his trainers. We spent 5 minutes petting a 17 foot python. We listened to the lions talking back and forth.  It was incredible. 

Scott had most of last week off so we rented a huge backhoe and tackled the culvert and garage footers.  Scott worked from sun up to sun down and got some amazing things done.  

What we started with

After 4 hours of hauling boulders

Pushing the boulders deep into the mud

Where we are now

The garage footers

This corner had to be filled in to be level so we can attach the garage to the house

Even though it was only about 40 degrees, steam was coming off of Scott's back!  It looked like he was on fire. 

All done and almost ready to pour

Hope that you all have a good week and a great start to the new year. 

Hyde Happinesses

 Merry Christmas and a happy new year!! I hope your guy’s Christmas was magical and so fun. We had an absolute blast. Stetson was completely overwhelmed by the magic and it was awesome. 

I think the days and weeks leading up to Christmas might be more magical than the day itself. Now to recovering from the holidays. I got to make a Christmas cake for my neighbor which was absolutely delightful. Then we just hung out with Cams family for the days. It was very fun. Both the boys did so good with the changing schedules and lots and lots of driving to and from my in-laws. 

I don’t know why my in-laws have these mascot hat things, but Stetson has discovered them and loves them. 

Flake Fun

 I have to agree with Emma that Christmas is magical with kids.  They even make snow and cold weather magical!! 

Yesterday was a brutal day but, with the help of some wonderful neighbors and family who own a backhoe, we got the new culvert placed.  It is covered and compacted but we still need to reinforce it so we never have to do this again!  

In order to dig out for the culvert we had to drain most of the water out of the creek.  To the delight and dismay of the kids we discovered that there are fish in the creek.  And not just minnows!  Full on 6-12 inch carp.  Where were Henry and Stetson?  We needed some fearless fishermen!  They were floundering around in small puddles so we saved the ones that we could catch in a 5 gallon bucket and we took them to deeper water. 

That is about all that we have to report. A little kid logic and wisdom to get your week started right:

Robin:  Mom!  There's a spider in the tub!

Rand: it's a daddy-long-leg!

Robin:   No, it's a kid-long-leg. It's not very big. 

Hyde Happinesses

 GUYS. Christmas is so fun with kids!! It’s the most magical thing I’ve ever experienced. Stetson can comprehend Santa and presents and, for better or worse, the Naughty List. I think I mentioned it once (simply that Santa has a naughty list and if you’re naughty you get rocks for Christmas), and he brings it up daily. I forget he has a brilliant memory. How ironic. Anyway, it’s absolutely magical. We’ve got snow and have gone sledding and made snowmen and hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. We have a couple advent calendars to keep track of the days (Stetson is genuinely confused why we don’t just move Santa to the 25th and call it good and honestly it’s a great question).  We taught Stetson about the Star over Bethlehem and he talks about it all the time. It’s awesome. He has a nativity puzzle he does daily and it’s the best. I wish more of you lived closer because the holidays are so fun and I want to bake and sing and laugh with all of you!! 

Anyway. Life has been good. Still has its ups and downs and the days seem a bit long and not quite as magical as I make them out to be, but I mostly love it ;) 

Becoming good friends 

We still like going outside and Stetsons outfits have me dying 

Maple snow! 

I promise he liked sledding 😂😂

One of these days he’s going to pull the tree over 

We went and got sushi with some friends. It was absolutely delightful 

Flake Fun

 What a month it has been.  We enjoyed a fun Thanksgiving trip up to Utah and we're so happy to see all of you that we're able to stop by.  Everyone is growing up way too fast by the way.  It was cool but weird to talk about grownup stuff with several nephews and a niece!  

The biggest adventure of the month of November was my first foray into the world of stitches. But a little back detail: 

1. Our commuter car has been in the shop since June so if I don't have anything specific going on, Scott takes the van to work.  

2. My phone decided to stop working completely 4 days before the day of "the crash".

Knowing those details - James lost his balance jumping over a stool, hit his head on the corner of his bed and split his forehead (I'm pretty sure) to the bone.  Rand was the hero of the day and ran to Aunt Karen's house and brought her (with her phone) and Uncle Bruce (with his car).  We spent a couple of hours at the urgent care, and 4 stitches later, he was good to go. Mom removed the stitches before we left her house and the wound looks better every day.  

Things at the house are still stalled out but we should get our culvert installed this weekend which will be a step in the right direction.  

Hope that all of you are enjoying a wonderful Christmas season.  Love you all!! 

Hyde Happinesses

 Hello hello family. November was quite possibly the worst month of the year 😂 not to worry, we still had loads of fun and good times, but we were sick for the entire month. It was a blast. I also had an allergic reaction to who knows what, and am still trying to recover from that. 

We enjoyed a fun Halloween with our little pumpkin patch and also did family pictures. The bakery has been doing really well and I’ve quite enjoyed it. Cam is still working 10 hour days but he still seems to like it a bunch. Stetson is ever my parent but he’s adorable so it’s okay. Beckham is crawling all over the place and is now discovering he can get into things. His favorite right now is the bookshelf.  We enjoyed a good Thanksgiving with Cams family and are now gearing up for the Christmas season. I’ve been crafting lately which has been so fun, and have made a few advent calendars for Stetson to do this season. 

We had some absolutely massive leaves fall from our trees this year 

we decorated for Christmas early because we were all home bound and miserable. It’s been awesome 

A big buck in our backyard makes Cam awfully jealous 

Christmas tree sourdough! 

Flake Fun

 The weather is starting to turn cold but the days, for the most part have been in the 70s. The forecast says that those days are over though.

The house progress ground to a halt due to some flooding that made our culvert crossing...un-crossable.  So we are working through those details.

In the absence of house projects, we have moved on to property projects and got the fence done around the last pasture.  We hauled away nearly a ton of scrap metal, got a truck load of wood chips and a couple of van loads of leaves. 

We have had some nasty coughing and congestion the last couple of weeks but everyone seems on the mend now which is nice. 

Most of you know that we had a little skunk take up residence in our chicken coop for a couple of days.  It has since relocated... to our wood pile.  More adventures on that front will be coming I'm sure!

Hope that you all have a great week and beginning to your holiday season!!