...And Loving It!

Hope you all know that when you guys come, it's actually the best thing ever! I love it when everybody is home.  Thanks for the good times!

You all basically know what I did this week and it was freaking awesome! I love you guys.  Mostly I just wanted to post some of my favorite pictures from the week.  Hope you have a great week!

Hyde Park Highlights

What a great family we have! I can't think of anything more delightful than the noise, mess and constant motion we experience when we have everyone here! Well, almost everyone... We were very sorry that T&T were too far away and that 2/3 of the Mannings were too sick to come for Thanksgiving. Other than that, the holiday celebration was perfectly wonderful.

Ruth and Garrett truly saved our lives - well, at least our sanity - by coming last Sunday and spending all day Monday installing our baseboards. Ruth worked her head off on Tuesday and Wednesday touching up paint, caulking every place a spider would even consider coming in, getting our mound in the front winter-ready, and every other thing she could do to help. We are very, very grateful!

Jenn and Scott pulled in Tuesday evening and also helped us get things put together on Wednesday - getting food purchased and prepared, changing the kitchen light fixture and helping me simplify and not stress about things.

Harts arrived on Wednesday and, as usual, brought the party! We are still scolding them for waiting until they were in Smithfield to eat dinner, at the exact time we were eating at our house. They brought the finishing touches for our Thanksgiving dinner, which made it extra-special.

Emma spent several days making delicious pies and came on Thursday to help put things all together.  We enjoyed visiting in the morning, playing football at the park to build up an appetite for a lovely meal in the early afternoon. It was fun to FaceTime with Joe and Thomas on Thanksgiving day and see Thomas' new hair color (hope it helps make him millions!).

The ladies bravely ventured out early on Friday morning to see what deals they could help each other find. They had great success and were glad they went. Elise went with Emma to offer support and encouragement when she had her hair cut short (which is very cute). We were overjoyed when Joe and Lori's family arrived on Friday morning.

Playing games, visiting, eating, holding Millie, shopping for Christmas books, holding Hope, watching the epoch 4th Annual  Cousins Christmas Concert, the darling Nativity program and Christmas games, watching Mr. Kruger's Christmas... I just can't choose what my favorite part of our time together was! It was all so wonderful and joyous. Too good to be true!  Dad continues making notes and putting together the thoughts generated by lively conversations with Alex and Garrett about ways to help struggling members of his stake. That was a bonus for him.

Then... everyone went home. Nilssons left Saturday morning when more of their children woke up sick. Emma, Bellistons and Harts left Saturday night. It was eerily quiet and still. Jenn and Scott left this afternoon. It was so lonesome after they took off that I went up to our church to sign up for tithing settlement and see if anyone was there that I could talk to! I visited with a few ward members, then drove around looking at building lots before finally going home to keep Chester company. I know I will eventually get used to this stage of life, but it may take me more time than most folks.

Thanks for making the effort to come and to connect with each other. There isn't much that is more important in this world than family and building those sweet relationships. Thanks for the pains you take in order for that to happen! You are the best family around and I love you all!

Special thanks to:
Emma for getting off work early to be with us!
Menfolk for visiting with Dad and giving him some great ideas to implement!
Womenfolk for helping prepare, serve and clean up meal after meal after meal after.....!
Addy for cleaning up the basement and organizing the toy closet - over and over again!
Grant for the wonderful hugs you always give me!
Joy for letting me hold you at the book store!
Hope for smiling at me whenever I talk to you!
Eliza for doing your best to not touch the babies so they wouldn't get sick!
Jack for willingly participating in whatever is planned without complaining at all!
Henry for figuring out how to open the gate by yourself!
Ian for producing the Cousins Christmas Concert and including all of the cousins!
Jake for making me laugh and always liking the food!
Millie for sleeping so well at our house!
Peter for reminding me to make second food so no one would be hungry!
Emerson for hanging in there when you felt so sick!
Grace for inviting Grandpa to speak at your baptism - he's very excited!

Birthdays and Ferrari's

Today during the sacrament Jake shouted "that bread was good!!"  I think he was feeling the spirit.  Tonight we had tithing settlement which went really well except for the kids jumping off the chairs in the bishops office.  We have clearly taught them so well.

Grace had a great birthday that's lasted about the whole month.  I took her to see Aida at the new Hale Center Theater in Sandy yesterday for her birthday present, so I think that wrapped up her birthday celebrations.  By the way, the show was absolutely stunning.  If anybody has an interest in going, I wouldn't mind seeing it again...

Grace also got some great birthday notes from her classmates at school.  Here are a couple samples:
"Dear Gras, I hop you have a good birthday if you don't i'm sorry."
"Grace you are speshl.  I like you."
"Dear Grace you are a good friend to me you are my 2't Bff I know that Abby is your 1st Bff.  Happy Birthday."

Grant comes to work with me every morning and then I take him over to the BYU Kindergarten at 8:30.  It has been a great time and we have fun conversations every morning.  Last week I told Grant that the next time we buy a car I think it will be a truck.  He said he would rather buy a Ferrari because they're faster.  He's probably right.

Hope rolled over for the first time and is endlessly patient with all the love and affection she receives from her siblings.

We can't wait to see everybody over Thanksgiving!  Love you all!

Hart Happenings

Can I just put it out there how entertaining and bossy 5 year-olds are?  Peter has kept us in stitches and doing his bidding all week.  We sure are glad he is part of our family!
Life is beyond good up here in Idaho.  We are sitting here in front of the fireplace, laughing at everyone else's blog posts, and feeling cozy beyond belief.
We spent the week recovering from last week's illness but it is believed that we are all in the clear now.  Hooray!  We also got to do science with Ruth's kids, learned some crazy stuff about this planet that we live on, did some fall yard tidying, went to a housewarming party for some friends of ours in their new house, made some fun decorations for our Thanksgiving weekend, and enjoyed a family outing to the local Festival of Trees.  The festival is where different local companies donate beautifully decorated, themed trees and the community turns out and can look at and/or buy them and all the proceeds go to The Development Workshop, a company in town that works with disabled adults.  Ian's choir performed there on Thursday night and it was so fun to listen to him and wander around looking at the trees.  They are all so different and absolutely spectacular!
Another embarrassing story from the annals of Elise Hart's personal history:
  The Mia Maids and I decided to buy Thanksgiving for a family in the ward for our activity on Tuesday.  We chose the family, went and bought the food, decided who would ring the doorbell and run.  We were set.  When we arrived though, we had so many bags that each of us had to carry one or two to the door.  No sooner had I set the first one down than the porch light goes on and the door starts to open.  Well, I promptly dropped my bags and bolted!  Leaving my girls stranded on the front porch in this super shady trailer park!  Not my finest moment.  The girls were actually hot on my heels, but I had no idea of that when I lit out initially!  Que verguenza!
The boys are all doing well.  Excellent actually.  They are great kids.  It's such a treat to watch them do their things.
Alex has been busy making the magic happen.  He takes good care of this family.  We finished the painting project in Jack and Peter's room and now we just have to resolve the conflict between Jack and Peter when it comes to decor.  Jack wants to put up the art that was on the walls before but Peter apparently likes the minimalist approach to decor and doesn't want anything on the walls.

See y'all next week!

T&T Times

So things are pretty good here.  The ward is awesome!  We had dinner the other night with the Harris', a couple who reminded us a lot of Elise and Alex, so it was fun to hang out with them and their 3 little ones.  We unfortunately can't make the cub scout calling work, so we are waiting to see what the bishop wants us to do!  

I heard that there was a study done that dark haired males tend to make more money/live more successful lives, so I did something I haven't done in 17 years and dyed my hair.  Yes it's red again.  Just kidding its dark brown.  At least it was supposed to be dark brown, but since my hair was so light and I hadn't died it for so long, it went REALLY dark.  So it looks like I have black hair.  So yea, that happened......  Looks like I'm going to be REALLY successful; I better be...

Victoria is enjoying her job, she actually is up in North Dakota right now climbing and testing wind turbines to make sure they are up to safety codes.  She's getting to do lots of exciting things and learning a lot!  Its taxing work, and a lot of time spent doing paper work, but it's a good job for now.  I however am still trying to get someone to pay me money.

We decided we are going to start a lifestyle and healthy living blog called Tom & Tori, so I'll keep you posted on how that goes, and when it's going to drop!  Hopefully it takes off and we are able to make some extra money with it!  I'm also going to be starting a few websites along the same lines, so we'll see how those endeavors turn out!  

Well things are great here, I laid out by the pool today and listened to some of my favorite podcasts.  They were discussing sports science and how and why different athletes succeed while others struggle, and it was so fascinating!  They talked about how abilities and talents vary, but the mindset is and mental stability is what separates the legends from the masses.  We often underestimate the power of the mind and what it can help us accomplish.  We sometimes get caught up in comparing what we can't do which makes us feel inadequate, but what are we comparing it to?  Turns out, the reason we can't do them is because we are comparing ourselves to people who do those things really well.  Here's the bottom line of this rant folks; if you compare yourself to yourself, there is literally nothing you can't accomplish.  Things you "can't do" become things that you just haven't done YET, not things you can't do.  So, go out and do anything and everything you want, because you literally have the ability to allow your mind to train your body to do them.  

'mic drop.' 

Manning Moments

Hi Familia!
We are alive and I've been wanting to post on the blog for a long time but I was having difficulty doing it technologically. No, actually I just forgot how to do it because it's been so long and then I remembered this morning! I live in the dark ages when it comes to technology.
Lots and lots of things have happened in Utah County but to put it in a nutshell; life is good.
Wesley gets cuter every day. How, you ask? I have no idea but he does. Every time mom has seen him she can't stop laughing. He is a very funny boy. His vocabulary has exploded and he enjoys bossing the rest of us around. He tells us to put things back and when to give him a hug. His favorite words are No and Owie. Yesterday I was trying to play the piano a little and he was playing with his train. He repeatedly was saying Owie Owie Owie and so I finally looked at him and asked, "Is there an owie?" With his still distraught face he said, "No." We like to go to story time at the library and he is now very comfortable with the library and walks around like he owns the place. He has a very manly little strut. The best thing of all is that little Wesley is now sleeping like a baby! He gets 10-12 hours a night and he takes a longer nap too. It is a miracle and we are so grateful. He sleeps in the family bed and gets the most sleep out of all of us since he somehow manages to sleep amid all the antics he does during the night.
Nick is enjoying work. He laughs and laughs at his coworkers. They are all very funny people and just down to earth folks. I am so glad he gets to work with them. He is amazed sometimes at the teenage species but he is learning ways to connect and get them into the scriptures. Some of them have really tough things they're going through. A funny story though was a sophmore girl that came to his office in tears. "Brother Manning, my parents and I got in an argument this morning because I had to walk to school because my mom is having a baby and my sister is going to college and so I will be responsible for everything now..." Nick was very kind and sympathetic as she expressed all of her troubles. Then she said, "Well, I better get to class now since I'm late for it." "Ok. What class do you have?" (sniff,sniff) "Drama." Nick is pretty sure she getting an A in the class! Nick was just called to be the Sunday School president in the ward and he is enjoying that so far.
I have been enjoying the homemaking life. We got our garden hibernating for the winter. So excited to try some new things next year. We have also learned how to make some killer protein bars, bread (thanks to mom's expertise) and soap. It has been fun.
My testimony of service has been strengthened this past week. We had many opportunities to serve in our ward and it was such a great thing. I am so grateful for your examples of service. Can't wait to see you all over Thanksgiving weekend!

Hart Happenings

So this is the land of the sick right now.  Jack has had the Wog for the past couple of days and completely lost his voice yesterday.  As of this post it has still not returned.  Ian is curled up in a blanket after only being able to eat one crepe (you know things are dire), and Peter's cough can be heard around the world, I'm certain.  Alex and I are hanging in there, unaffected so far.

This week was one of those lovely, ordinary weeks.  Did some homeschool, had play dates, did science with Ruth's kids, went to the temple, played outside (courtesy of the sunshine), collected eggs, worked on some house projects, cleaned out the cars, etc....I love ordinary days and weeks!

Alex, Jack, Peter, and I all enjoyed going to mutual this week.  Ian was at his 11-year-old scouts.  I just got put in the Young Women's presidency so now Alex and I get to hang out on Tuesday nights sometimes.  Party!

We enjoyed a visit from Alex's siblings and their family who came into town for his nephew's baptism.  It was a fun day.  The kids always enjoy playing with their cousins.

I had to teach the Gospel Doctrine class today and really enjoyed exploring my Gospel Library app a little more in preparation.  Their temple and family history section is superb!  They have an activity section with some really great ideas that could easily be adapted for FHE, and their inspirational resources section has some super thought provoking videos.  The ones I particularly enjoyed and used in my lesson were Redeeming the Dead Redeemed Me and The River Will Grow.  Check them out!

Counting down the days until Thanksgiving!  Can't wait to see you guys!