Hyde Park Happenings

Thank you all for coming! I know it's tight, and thanks for putting up with the crunched quarters! It was great to see everyone taking care of everybody else's children! You guys are just so great!
          Thomas gave a wonderful talk in his YSA ward on Family History and Temple Work.  Then he and Emma sang in our ward.  Lauren wasn't feeling well so Sister Bennett saved the day and accompanied them at the last minute!
          We're getting excited for our Christmas gathering which we will be letting you know more about within this week.  We'll let you know the where, when, how, why, how long, who, etc etc etc.
          Thanks for doing the music.  It's always so good to here and Emma absolutely loves it when she gets to sing with her siblings.  Thanks again for putting up with the very small space:) we really love it when you come! Dad liked the food, visiting, football, and of course ping pong (I don't think he'd like it so much if he'd lost;) Mom's favorite parts were holding babies (no shortage there!), playing heads up seven up (?), pie night, oh and the cousins Christmas Concert! It was awesome!

Note from Em (cuz I didn't want to write one by myself): Thanks for coming everybody! Skits were super duper fun! Y'all did so good! The food was awesome and I loved having you guys here! Thanks for putting up with me sometimes! You guys are pretty much my favorite ever! Come again, okay? I kinda like that;) I liked pretty much basically all of it! Black Friday shopping was awesome, pie night, games, putting kids to sleep etc etc etc;)

Flake Fun

29 Nov 2015 - Well we made it home safe and sound.  Glad to hear that everyone else did as well. 
We had such a great time this week with everyone! Good food. Good company.  Just a good week overall. It was rejuvenating  Now it is back to the grindstone!

Hart Happenings

Jack thinks this week's post should say: "We're having crepes for dinner, bye!"

In reality, Thanksgiving was wonderful! So good to be with our favorite people on the planet! And the snowstorm just topped it all off. It really put us in the holiday mood and the kids and I have been decorating for Christmas all afternoon. Our little elf on the shelf re-appeared while we were gone and the boys love trying to track her down in the morning. 

Thanks to everyone for being so great and for treating our kids so nicely. They are your biggest fans. 

Hyde Park Happiness

Apples, tomatoes (spaghetti sauce), making a video for RS, calling people for a RS program, finishing my very involved research project, lots of prenatal/postpartum visits, and battling a silly headache for several days consumed the week.  All are finished, except the apples, and we are ready to get ready for the BIG day (weekend)!

Emma's date turned out well, despite her off-the-charts stress level (or maybe because of her stress level). I think they all had a great time! It's so satisfying to see the caliber of friends our children choose. I've very grateful for that. Not a worry at all to leave them here for a few minutes so Dad and I could go to Lauren's and Nick's for dinner. They very graciously invited us when I told them we were going out somewhere since our kitchen had been taken over and there was no food for us! We enjoyed a very yummy dinner with them and some inspiring conversation. Lauren is looking more robust all the time and seems to be feeling sick less often. How nice! She even played racquetball the other day and has been using the little trampoline.

On to a few days of trying to get the house ready and loose ends tied up before you all get here. Which I am looking forward to more than anyone else!!!  Happy Thanksgiving to us all!!

Em's Exciting Existence

Remind me I never want to plan a girls choice dance ever again in my life.  It was fun but golly moses, I was nervous nothing would work out! So, we went up to Idaho to get our tree for our day date! How cool is that? mom came up with that! She's awesome! You really should've seen their faces when I suggested we go hunt christmas trees.... That was a very new experience for all of them! Harley Cragun is one of my most favorite people ever! She took Nathan Hunzinger and I took Devin Potts (one of the redhead bunch;) It was a good thing Harley and I didn't go alone.  We had no clue of direction in the snow and mountains but the boys got us out all right! We got a really large tree, about twelve feet tall maybe but we cut it in half so that we could fit it in Harley's truck.  It's a very nice tree and we all smelled like evergreen for the rest of the day:) It was awesome! then we just had some hot chocolate (also mom's brilliantness coming into play) and chatted for a long time.  Then we loaded back up and drove back to our house.  We proceeded to make crepes (again, thanks be to wonderful mothers who relive their daughters extreme stress by setting the table, getting fresh fruit and fancy juice) and they were wonderful! We made a double batch and gobbled all of it! then we cleaned up and listened to music.  We chopped of the very top of our tree so there was a little tree left over from that, and we took it to Harley's house.  We decorated it with homemade decorations and took it to Mr. Geddes's house (he's the favorite teacher at SV and he teaches Psych) and doorbell ditched it.  It was legit cuz I was the getaway driver and we peeled out and went screeching down the subdevision (don't worry, we didn't really peel out and go screeching, but it sounds better that way).  Then we went to Harley's house again and decided to culture me with a bit of Star Wars which was AWESOME! Although my favorite character died super unexpectedly, it was great! I'm real upset about that actually but I'll get over it.... someday.  Anyway, remind me not to be home late ever again because getting the look from dad is absolutely the worst ever.  Yep, bad idea.  Y'all know what I'm talking about don't you? I hope I'm not the only child that's got that look before....
Well, love you all and can't wait to see you guys super soon! Tell Gracie that it's fine and she can totally sleep in my room again! ;)

Hart Happenings

Well, we didn't get that house. I guess the cemetery district wanted it too and it's hard to outbid an entity that has unlimited cash at its disposal. Alas. This house finding thing is quite the process. It was nice to talk to Joe about it and realize that they looked for about 8 months before coming across the place they're in now. I just get impatient. 

It snowed this week. For real! The boys had fun playing in the snow with the neighbor boys.

Ian sang at the Festival of Trees which is a fun local even organized to benefit adults with disabilities. Different businesses decorate Christmas trees and donate them and then people can buy them for their personal Christmas tree. They are all GORGEOUS!

We hosted our Super Saturday at the church this past weekend which was fun. I made rice bags for all the kids. So now there are enough to go around and I can have mine back!

We toured Albertson's with our homeschooling group on Friday morning which was really fun. But one our best friends texted while we were there that she had gotten into a crash on their way to the field trip! We went out to visit them afterward and everyone was okay but that first snow storm of the season always does a number on drivers as we try to remember the driving in icy conditions rules. 

We also had a great time doing Thanksgiving crafts with our neighbors on Wednesday. The projects turned out so cute! I never do that kind of stuff with the boys so it was extra fun. 

We're super excited for this week! Can't wait to see you all!

Hot chocolate season is here! It is Peter's preferred beverage these days. 

Jack lost a tooth too!

Although you can't tell it from his face, Peter was thrilled to see Santa ("Ho-ho") at the Festival of Trees. 

Peter trying to get his hair to lay down flat. 

And that is our silly, lovely life. 

Nilsson News

We had a most amazing Stake Conference!  I have given up trying to take notes when I have little people to look out for so I was doing my best trying to take mental notes.  My mental capacity was fried up during the first three talks!  So much was said of faith, missionary work and having the guidance of the Spirit in our lives.  Elder Warner of the Seventy and his wife, were attending our conference.  My favorite talk was by Sister Warner.  She was explaining how in London when you are getting on and off the subway, there is a message that comes over the speakers that says, "Mind the gap."  This is to warn people to pay attention to the gap between the subway and the platform.  She related this to the own gaps in our lives; ones that may be confusing and prohibit us from getting from where we are to where we want to be.  She kept emphasizing the importance to pay attention to them, learn to embrace them and not fear them.  They are there for a reason that we may not understand, but when we look at them from the grand view of heaven, they will appear only as a mere fissure.  Her experience with this was when she was wanting to be married and it just wasn't happening.  She began to think that perhaps it wouldn't happen in this life.  Finally, she met someone in her ward that just so happened to be the boy who grew up across the street from her.  She said, "You may be wondering why I hadn't paid attention to him until now.  Well let's talk of a literal gap.  When I was leaving for college, he was just starting first grade!"  Anyway, she was 37 and he was 25 when they got married.  Now she understands and embraces that gap.
Another thing I took away from our conference was to not make a "big deal" out of things.  Not many things in life are "big deal" so stop making the small things into a "big deal."  My life has been reformed and now I just need to make it apparent!

We enjoyed a visit from Emma and Grandma this week which was a welcome delight.  Emma needed to go shopping for some things, so I took her to the mall.  Let's just say that when you take one person that is not good at shopping and combine her with another person that claims to be unsuccessful, you pretty much get a disappointing result.  We at least had a fun time together!  Anyone up for Black Friday shopping?  If you don't want to find anything, come join me!
On Friday, we had a birthday party for Hyrum and Joseph.  Garrett had to preside at a funeral the whole morning, which was a little challenging for him, but we got to spend the evening together.  Balloons, pie and ice cream and singing all made it great.
We are looking forward to next week with all of you!  I have to apologize to Ian though.  We don't get around to watching very many Studio C episodes (okay, truth be told, we don't ever watch it. Please don't disown us!) so we hoped it would be okay if we made up a skit of our own?  It won't be as entertaining as a Studio C production I'm sure, but hopefully you can be kind enough to endure it with us.  See you all soon!
p.s. I think Garrett said he was wanting to bring yams and marshmallows for his in-law contribution to the meal.