So, I read about everyone else's garden work and I think, yes, that's right a garden, we have a garden, I should really get out there and finish harvesting and clean things up. I just haven't made it out there much this week! I know we have sweet meat squash for days. So, if any of you want to call dibs on a few, let me know.
We pulled off our Primary Program this week, which was so spectacular. I loved absolutely everything about it. We brought all the kids in afterward for a big celebration which was a blast. We have such a good, enormous group of kids. It has been really rewarding to work with them, the teachers, and my excellent counselors to get this pulled together.
Saturday we hosted the neighborhood party. It was so nice to meet our neighbors. Only one family on our lane has kids (and they only moved in last month), so we haven't had much reason/chance to interact with them. It was absolutely delightful!
We also spent Saturday doing Fall clean-up at the gardens. It was a lot of work and we didn't manage to get everything done, so we will have to go out there again and wrap it up.
Ian has started a book club and is looking forward to their first meeting next week. He has a great group of friends and they go together this week to play night games. They are adorable. And he would hate that I wrote.
Jack is loving having soccer almost every day of the week. His team is undefeated and it has been fun watching them develop some good team strategy.
Peter stays busy trying to keep up with his brothers. His favorite thing is to let the chickens out and collect their eggs. The chickens are so funny. They are the most social little duo and love to come and hang out with us. They follow the boys around everywhere and will come running whenever they hear us.
It is shaping up to be a great week and month. Always good to start things off with General Conference. Hope you enjoy it!
Sunday, September 30, 2018
North Logan Notes
Can it really be that I haven't posted in over a month? More like 7 weeks?! Sorry about that. No excuses other than being distracted and involved in lots of things - and busy Sundays. Anyway, all is well here.
We've enjoyed some very fun experiences in the past month. Dad was absolutely thrilled with the helicopter ride provided by Elise and Alex's friend - well worth retiring for! He'd retire all over again if he could ride that helicopter again! It is taking some getting used to, this whole retirement thing. Most of it is good, so far. Dad has some projects in mind, including reading the Journal of Discourses and working on improving his photography skills. We keep thinking of places we'd like to go and folks we'd like to visit, which may begin happening before too much longer.
We have enjoyed our trips to Idaho Falls and to American Fork to see family. We had a good time tending the Nilssons while Ruth and Garret and Millie went to Washington. They are a fun and busy crew! We were reminded why we have children when we are young ;) Dad took some family photos for the Mannings that are pretty cute. Little Chet has decided to catch up quickly with Wesley. He keeps growing like crazy! What a darling smile he has! A couple of days ago, we went to Thanksgiving Point to have dinner with Grandpa and Christi to celebrate their 4th anniversary. Grandpa is getting weaker, but he perked up at having the family together. If any of you have time to give him a call or get down to see him, I know he'd really appreciate it.
Dad and I both had birthdays this month. We did had some fun adventures on Dad's birthday - going to Porcupine to see the salmon run and driving over the hill into Huntsville and Liberty. It was bumpy, but very lovely.
The weather has been lovely as summer turns to fall. We had frost on our car one morning last week. It was strange to not have berries to pick this summer, but it is even more strange to not have apples to pick and eat and press this fall. We keep wondering if we should build a house, but then we'd have to wait a long time for apple and other fruit trees to mature....
Speaking of houses, we had a delightful time in Idaho Falls looking at lovely Parade of Homes entries with Elise and her boys and Ruth and Addy. We saw some gorgeous homes and some that were not as impressive to us. Most were much too big for us - 5,000 - 6,000 sq. ft. One or two we wouldn't mind living in. But we are still searching for the right home, the right place. We went to the Cache Valley Parade of Homes yesterday, but there were only 7 homes to look at and only 2 for sale. The best one was built by Braden Reeder, who started his contracting business about 10 years ago. he does really nice work and said he'd be glad to build us a home if we could find a lot. That's what they all say! :) So... we continue looking!
I got to teach Gospel Principles today and, although I was very nervous, it was a great experience. The lessons are about simple, basic doctrines that we all need to review now and then. Afterwards, I spoke with the sister missionaries and they invited Dad and me to go with them tomorrow night to teach a couple who are interested in being baptized just as soon as they know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that President Nelson is a prophet. So, we will go tomorrow and offer to watch their sons so they can go to conference with the sisters. I'm pretty excited about that!
We've decided there are things for us to do here in this townhouse in North Logan, and we are going to focus on doing what we can while we keep looking and waiting to know our next step to take. It's an adventure all right!
Enjoy Conference!!
We've enjoyed some very fun experiences in the past month. Dad was absolutely thrilled with the helicopter ride provided by Elise and Alex's friend - well worth retiring for! He'd retire all over again if he could ride that helicopter again! It is taking some getting used to, this whole retirement thing. Most of it is good, so far. Dad has some projects in mind, including reading the Journal of Discourses and working on improving his photography skills. We keep thinking of places we'd like to go and folks we'd like to visit, which may begin happening before too much longer.
We have enjoyed our trips to Idaho Falls and to American Fork to see family. We had a good time tending the Nilssons while Ruth and Garret and Millie went to Washington. They are a fun and busy crew! We were reminded why we have children when we are young ;) Dad took some family photos for the Mannings that are pretty cute. Little Chet has decided to catch up quickly with Wesley. He keeps growing like crazy! What a darling smile he has! A couple of days ago, we went to Thanksgiving Point to have dinner with Grandpa and Christi to celebrate their 4th anniversary. Grandpa is getting weaker, but he perked up at having the family together. If any of you have time to give him a call or get down to see him, I know he'd really appreciate it.
Dad and I both had birthdays this month. We did had some fun adventures on Dad's birthday - going to Porcupine to see the salmon run and driving over the hill into Huntsville and Liberty. It was bumpy, but very lovely.
The weather has been lovely as summer turns to fall. We had frost on our car one morning last week. It was strange to not have berries to pick this summer, but it is even more strange to not have apples to pick and eat and press this fall. We keep wondering if we should build a house, but then we'd have to wait a long time for apple and other fruit trees to mature....
Speaking of houses, we had a delightful time in Idaho Falls looking at lovely Parade of Homes entries with Elise and her boys and Ruth and Addy. We saw some gorgeous homes and some that were not as impressive to us. Most were much too big for us - 5,000 - 6,000 sq. ft. One or two we wouldn't mind living in. But we are still searching for the right home, the right place. We went to the Cache Valley Parade of Homes yesterday, but there were only 7 homes to look at and only 2 for sale. The best one was built by Braden Reeder, who started his contracting business about 10 years ago. he does really nice work and said he'd be glad to build us a home if we could find a lot. That's what they all say! :) So... we continue looking!
I got to teach Gospel Principles today and, although I was very nervous, it was a great experience. The lessons are about simple, basic doctrines that we all need to review now and then. Afterwards, I spoke with the sister missionaries and they invited Dad and me to go with them tomorrow night to teach a couple who are interested in being baptized just as soon as they know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that President Nelson is a prophet. So, we will go tomorrow and offer to watch their sons so they can go to conference with the sisters. I'm pretty excited about that!
We've decided there are things for us to do here in this townhouse in North Logan, and we are going to focus on doing what we can while we keep looking and waiting to know our next step to take. It's an adventure all right!
Enjoy Conference!!
Nilsson News
Happy fall and happy last day of September! That may sound like I'm rejoicing but I am actually sad to see September moving on. Did it not just get here? It is definitely feeling like fall. Like Jenn said, our nights our cold but the days are beautiful. The leaves are beginning to change and you can just smell harvest in the air.
Yesterday, we canned up a batch of salsa so all of us are now penetrated with that smell for the next few weeks I'm sure. We also began the cleaning out of our garden. It is almost a bigger job I think than planting and getting things going in the spring. The kids have had a fun time harvesting our huge sunflowers and also our dry black beans. We had an abundant crop of onions and decided to try our hand at braiding them. They turned out pretty good and our storage room looks all...harvest festive. Speaking of harvest festive, I love to decorate for fall. Thanks to Emerson's pumpkin patch, we ended up with 9 orange pumpkins and about 15 flat white pumpkins. We also grew some fun broom corn (sorghum) which ended up being a variety of colors. We took all these goodies and smothered our entry in fall-ish loveliness. So fun!
This past week we took our kids on a field trip with our homeschooling friends to what's called the Butterfly Haven. It is a small home run business where this family decided to take their big greenhouse and turn it into a butterfly farm. They breed, hatch and raise native butterflies and let other people come and enjoy it! It was so lovely! In addition to the butterflies, there were several little birds including a pair of button quail. Oh my goodness they were cute! Another miniature creature we may just need to add to our farm. It was so much fun!
Addy got a camera this week for one of her classes she is taking. She has been taking pictures of everything! So between her and Ian, we may have some future professional photographers on our hands.
Emerson has been doing everything legos. He is taking a really neat lego machines class where he is challenged to make real life models of things that work using gears and pulleys and things. Quite amazing the things he comes up with.
Eliza is constantly leaping around. She discovered how to do a front flip and is always showing us how flexible she is. Ouch. She definitely did not get that from Garrett or me!
Henry is trying to keep up with all the other kids all at the same time. That takes a lot of energy but he has plenty of that and then some.
Millie is our farm girl and loves to be out with the animals and look at every book we have with animal pictures inside. If you ask her what any animal says, she will respond with an enthusiastic "Hee-haw." We have trained her well.
We are gearing up for general conference next week. Woo-hoo! Can't wait to see what big changes will take place. We are also holding our breath for our big ward boundary changes. It hasn't been done in twelve years and from what we heard, every ward in our stake will be "significantly affected." It will be interesting. Love you all!
My computer is not cooperating so I will hopefully have some pictures to post soon!
Yesterday, we canned up a batch of salsa so all of us are now penetrated with that smell for the next few weeks I'm sure. We also began the cleaning out of our garden. It is almost a bigger job I think than planting and getting things going in the spring. The kids have had a fun time harvesting our huge sunflowers and also our dry black beans. We had an abundant crop of onions and decided to try our hand at braiding them. They turned out pretty good and our storage room looks all...harvest festive. Speaking of harvest festive, I love to decorate for fall. Thanks to Emerson's pumpkin patch, we ended up with 9 orange pumpkins and about 15 flat white pumpkins. We also grew some fun broom corn (sorghum) which ended up being a variety of colors. We took all these goodies and smothered our entry in fall-ish loveliness. So fun!
This past week we took our kids on a field trip with our homeschooling friends to what's called the Butterfly Haven. It is a small home run business where this family decided to take their big greenhouse and turn it into a butterfly farm. They breed, hatch and raise native butterflies and let other people come and enjoy it! It was so lovely! In addition to the butterflies, there were several little birds including a pair of button quail. Oh my goodness they were cute! Another miniature creature we may just need to add to our farm. It was so much fun!
Addy got a camera this week for one of her classes she is taking. She has been taking pictures of everything! So between her and Ian, we may have some future professional photographers on our hands.
Emerson has been doing everything legos. He is taking a really neat lego machines class where he is challenged to make real life models of things that work using gears and pulleys and things. Quite amazing the things he comes up with.
Eliza is constantly leaping around. She discovered how to do a front flip and is always showing us how flexible she is. Ouch. She definitely did not get that from Garrett or me!
Henry is trying to keep up with all the other kids all at the same time. That takes a lot of energy but he has plenty of that and then some.
Millie is our farm girl and loves to be out with the animals and look at every book we have with animal pictures inside. If you ask her what any animal says, she will respond with an enthusiastic "Hee-haw." We have trained her well.
We are gearing up for general conference next week. Woo-hoo! Can't wait to see what big changes will take place. We are also holding our breath for our big ward boundary changes. It hasn't been done in twelve years and from what we heard, every ward in our stake will be "significantly affected." It will be interesting. Love you all!
My computer is not cooperating so I will hopefully have some pictures to post soon!
Flake Fun
Well the weather in Snowflake is starting to turn cold but the days are still beautiful. We planted a cover crop of winter rye and it is doing very well. We also have some lettuce that has decided to re-emerge which is fun. Our tomatoes are still producing which is fun. Our fish are getting pretty big and fat in preparation for winter. I think that they won't have any problem surviving the winter.
Yesterday we had a hawk land in our back willow tree and just stand there staring us down. Then, this morning we went on a walk and saw a great horned owl. It was great!
That is about all for the Flakes! Hope that you all have a great week!
Yesterday we had a hawk land in our back willow tree and just stand there staring us down. Then, this morning we went on a walk and saw a great horned owl. It was great!
That is about all for the Flakes! Hope that you all have a great week!
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Hart Happenings
Hey all!
Congrats to Jenn and Nick on their new callings! Your wards are so lucky!
We are really getting going on our studies these days which has been fun interspersed with LOTS of soccer. The weather has been quintessentially autumn up here which I love. Brisk mornings and evenings but gorgeous and warm during the day. But frosts and freezes are in the next couple days' forecasts so we are harvesting veggies, cutting herbs and flowers, and stockpiling pumpkins and squash. So fun!
Alex has been really busy with work and coaching soccer. Things are great with both. Peter loves having his dad for a coach and Alex has enjoyed it more than he thought he would, which is a relief to me who suggested he volunteer in the first place. Whew!
Ian is loving his band class at the middle school although he still hasn't played his instrument yet. He is also enjoying the photography class he is taking at our homeschool co-op.
Jack would play soccer every day if he could! He has a wonderful team and some amazing coaches who are really great mentors to all those boys. He is also really interested in Rube Goldberg chain reactions. I think he and Scott should team up and create one. I'll bet their fine minds could come up with something very cool!
Peter wants to play with friends as often as possible. He loves being with people and is a very sweet friend to everyone. He is also working really hard on reading and his numbers.
I'm just trying to keep everyone fed, in clean clothes, and at their various commitments and activities on time. We are also preparing for the Primary Program this upcoming Sunday and that has been taking a lot of time. It is going to be soooo good! Best Sunday of the year.
Hope all is well with you. It was fun to have Mom and Dad up here to go to the Parade of Homes. We saw some super lovely homes and I came back to my home with a bunch of ideas for improvements. Lucky Alex.
We're planning on being at Chet's blessing and hope to see some of you there!
Happy Fall, y'all!
Congrats to Jenn and Nick on their new callings! Your wards are so lucky!
We are really getting going on our studies these days which has been fun interspersed with LOTS of soccer. The weather has been quintessentially autumn up here which I love. Brisk mornings and evenings but gorgeous and warm during the day. But frosts and freezes are in the next couple days' forecasts so we are harvesting veggies, cutting herbs and flowers, and stockpiling pumpkins and squash. So fun!
Alex has been really busy with work and coaching soccer. Things are great with both. Peter loves having his dad for a coach and Alex has enjoyed it more than he thought he would, which is a relief to me who suggested he volunteer in the first place. Whew!
Ian is loving his band class at the middle school although he still hasn't played his instrument yet. He is also enjoying the photography class he is taking at our homeschool co-op.
Jack would play soccer every day if he could! He has a wonderful team and some amazing coaches who are really great mentors to all those boys. He is also really interested in Rube Goldberg chain reactions. I think he and Scott should team up and create one. I'll bet their fine minds could come up with something very cool!
Peter wants to play with friends as often as possible. He loves being with people and is a very sweet friend to everyone. He is also working really hard on reading and his numbers.
I'm just trying to keep everyone fed, in clean clothes, and at their various commitments and activities on time. We are also preparing for the Primary Program this upcoming Sunday and that has been taking a lot of time. It is going to be soooo good! Best Sunday of the year.
Hope all is well with you. It was fun to have Mom and Dad up here to go to the Parade of Homes. We saw some super lovely homes and I came back to my home with a bunch of ideas for improvements. Lucky Alex.
We're planning on being at Chet's blessing and hope to see some of you there!
Happy Fall, y'all!
Nilsson News
I think Jenn deserves the blogger award for this month! I have been a huge slacker and I have a lot of things to blame it on, but I'll spare you that list. I guess the biggest thing to report was our trip to Seattle for Garrett's Spartan and some extra vacation time.
Mom and Dad arrived at our home on a Thursday night and before the sun was up, Garrett, Millie and myself were on the road. We drove and drove and drove some more. For about twelve hours to be exact. Millie was a trooper and was content to sit on my lap in the backseat. I loved the trees we saw through the mountains and then the rolling expanse of farm fields as we got into Washington. Then we hit the city and I was driving. Seattle is not Idaho Falls big and it isn't even Salt Lake City big. It is Seattle 2 million people big and every last one of them was on the same road that I was driving on! Yikes! I wanted to hide but knew that would be a bad idea since I was the one behind the wheel. The traffic was insane and it's that crazy all the time. Somehow we made it to our hotel room and I only lost a few years off my life during the process.
The next morning was Spartan! Garrett forgot to pack all of his life saving necessities into our car that sustains him through the race, so we packed his pockets full of Millie's little applesauce pouches and hoped that would be sufficient. After the pep talk from the announcer where they do a lot of hooting and hollering and "arooing," the racers were off. It was a 13 mile race with 31 obstacles throughout but the weather was perfect and overcast. It was Garrett's best race and he completed every obstacle but one. That is a major success!
After the race, we went and visited a miniature donkey farm. We were in donkey heaven surrounded by 100+ donkeys and Millie had a blast roaming the pastures with the micro minis that were no bigger than she was. It was very educational and we hope to implement some of the things we learned on our own farm. This lady makes more money in nine months selling her high quality donkeys than Garrett makes in his job in a year. I may need to change some things up a bit...
The rest of the trip we enjoyed botanical gardens, the zoo, driving through the Skagit valley farmlands and walking down by the wharf. It was a wonderful getaway and we are so grateful to mom and dad for watching the other kiddos while we were gone. I'm pretty sure the other kids had so much fun they didn't even know we were gone!
Fall is upon us here as well and we have been cleaning out the garden and working in the yard. We did enjoy some time drooling as we walked through the parade of homes with the Harts and parents. I think mom and dad found the perfect home! Well, several perfect homes. It was a good time!
Mom and Dad arrived at our home on a Thursday night and before the sun was up, Garrett, Millie and myself were on the road. We drove and drove and drove some more. For about twelve hours to be exact. Millie was a trooper and was content to sit on my lap in the backseat. I loved the trees we saw through the mountains and then the rolling expanse of farm fields as we got into Washington. Then we hit the city and I was driving. Seattle is not Idaho Falls big and it isn't even Salt Lake City big. It is Seattle 2 million people big and every last one of them was on the same road that I was driving on! Yikes! I wanted to hide but knew that would be a bad idea since I was the one behind the wheel. The traffic was insane and it's that crazy all the time. Somehow we made it to our hotel room and I only lost a few years off my life during the process.
The next morning was Spartan! Garrett forgot to pack all of his life saving necessities into our car that sustains him through the race, so we packed his pockets full of Millie's little applesauce pouches and hoped that would be sufficient. After the pep talk from the announcer where they do a lot of hooting and hollering and "arooing," the racers were off. It was a 13 mile race with 31 obstacles throughout but the weather was perfect and overcast. It was Garrett's best race and he completed every obstacle but one. That is a major success!
Mannng Madness
Well, we are trying to figure out what the new normal is around here but we are loving the process. This morning for example was Wesley throwing up so we put him in the bath, Chet spitting up everywhere so giving him a bath. Everyone was clean for approximately 1.5 hours and then right before church Chet soaked his diaper through and got his clothes and the couch soaking wet. Then when we came home from church Wesley threw up again. Exciting!
It is starting to feel like fall these days and I am not ready for it. Mostly I am not ready to figure out what to do with a toddler when we can't go outside! But we are slowly get the garden and yard ready for hibernation.
Wesley is just growing up faster and faster. His vocabulary is remarkable and some of the cute things he is saying are: "I love, love, love _____ "(whatever he is thinking at the moment), "I have an idea," "Ta da!" and "Maybe" at the end of every answer to questions I ask. From the moment he wakes up to the end of the day, Wesley is talking constantly! He quotes books and the Mouse Cookie cartoon he likes to watch. It is very adorable.
Chet is just as cute as can be. He does everything forte. Eating, sleeping, talking, smiling, and crying when anything is not as it should be. He is very strong and rolled from his side to his tummy yesterday. He is a very loved baby and getting chubbier by the day. His blessing will be the week after general conference at 1:00 in case any of you didn't get the text.
Nick has been very busy especially since he got called as Elders Quorum President a few weeks ago. He is trying to balance work, calling and family time just like all the men in our family!
It was so great to see mom on Tuesday this week and the Dad on Thursday who brought back Wesley's carseat that was forgotten in mom's car! We'll take them any way we can!
It is starting to feel like fall these days and I am not ready for it. Mostly I am not ready to figure out what to do with a toddler when we can't go outside! But we are slowly get the garden and yard ready for hibernation.
Wesley is just growing up faster and faster. His vocabulary is remarkable and some of the cute things he is saying are: "I love, love, love _____ "(whatever he is thinking at the moment), "I have an idea," "Ta da!" and "Maybe" at the end of every answer to questions I ask. From the moment he wakes up to the end of the day, Wesley is talking constantly! He quotes books and the Mouse Cookie cartoon he likes to watch. It is very adorable.
Chet is just as cute as can be. He does everything forte. Eating, sleeping, talking, smiling, and crying when anything is not as it should be. He is very strong and rolled from his side to his tummy yesterday. He is a very loved baby and getting chubbier by the day. His blessing will be the week after general conference at 1:00 in case any of you didn't get the text.
Nick has been very busy especially since he got called as Elders Quorum President a few weeks ago. He is trying to balance work, calling and family time just like all the men in our family!
It was so great to see mom on Tuesday this week and the Dad on Thursday who brought back Wesley's carseat that was forgotten in mom's car! We'll take them any way we can!
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