Hyde Happinesses

 Hello hello! It’s been awhile!! Shoutout to Jenn for keeping up with the blog. I really do think about it often but just never seem to get around to it. 

Life has been cold. And very very good. I love sledding actually and I have to beg Stetson to go out with me 😅 we got lots of snow but mostly ice, so we go flying over our big hill and we have to try not to hit our fence in the back. It’s a blast. You should definitely come try it out. It’s been so fun. 

So Stetson is really leaning into his three year oldness. I’m actually taking advice from the moms of teenagers so if you have any, please send it my way. He’s still mostly delightful… but definitely believes he is the adult here. 

Beckham has learned to fake cry which makes me laugh and makes him mad. He also loves to scrunch his nose and smile and it’s the most adorable thing ever. He loves to jabber and is loving walking with his walker. He makes me run after him all day long and I’m rather tired. Would love to have any babysitters at any time ;) 

Well I hope you have a great week and hope you get lots of snow!! 

Stetson and his firey friend Nyla and her sister Allie 

Made a pretty birthday cake for someone in our ward 

Beck is big into giving kisses lately. It kills me 😂

We watched Peter Pan and these were the results 

Flake Fun

 The weather is cold...period.  We poured the garage footers on the holiday.  We had picked that day because the temps seemed high enough.  The temp steadily dropped until the day we poured, the low was 18.  So we had to cover the whole thing with blankets.  It looks good though.  We are hoping to pour the stem walls next week if we can get everything ready. 

Other than that,  we have hunkered down and tried to stay warm. 

I did get antsy and we started a few seeds in the greenhouse.  Mostly pumpkins since the kids saved all of the seeds from their jack-o-lanterns so we have 100+!   They are delighted to see their little sprouts.

The other day James came up to me and said, "Can I take something apart?"  So we went to the thrift store and he has been unscrewing things all day.  He loves to tinker. 

We also did a beef over the weekend so we are stocked in the beef department.  The kids were troopers and packaged 90% of the hamburger meat. 

Hope that everyone is having a great week!  Love you all. 

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!!