Flake Fiascos

Life in Snowflake is pretty soggy right now but thankfully the kids are loving all of the rain! We bought them each an umbrella and they love to run around in the rain. 

A week and a half ago we (Scott) helped Randy move their storage container (we watched) from a lot across the highway to their yard.  In the process they disturbed a bee hive and were both stung multiple times.  6 days later, Scott's stings flared up with a vengeance.   No fun, but he is feeling better now. 

Our creek is really high because of all of the rain.

Nilsson News

 Life has basically revolved around baby Dane.  We have had family here every week since he was born which has been so helpful.  Garrett went on a work trip to California for several days and mom was able to come and stay during that time.  We enjoyed our first family outing altogether up to Swan Valley for Eliza's fiddle competition.  She played really well and even participated in the tiny fiddle contest where the contestants had to play a song on a fiddle that was almost the size of a tree ornament.  Everyone sounded equally horrible but it was pretty hilarious to watch!

We had Dane's blessing today which was delightful and he barely fit into his blessing outfit.  This boy is putting on the pounds!  We weighed him a week ago and he was 11.3 pounds, having gained 3 pounds since birth.  Today we weighed him and he was 12.15 pounds!  It's no wonder my back feels like it's breaking; it hasn't had a chance to catch up!  He also wore a 3-6 month size outfit yesterday.  He will not look like much of a newborn when you guys get to meet him in a couple of weeks.  We are so excited to see everyone and hang out with the best family ever!

Nilsson News

 As you all know, our big news was the arrival of Dane Biorn Nilsson.  We are so glad he is here!  After a lot of "false starts," things finally kicked in and labor went fast!  Active labor started around 6:30p.m. and he was born at 8:03 p.m.  The kids are totally enamored with their new brother and it has been nice for life to slow down a bit.  We always love having grandma here and it never ceases to amaze me how clean she can make a space.  No matter how hard I scrub, I never can get it quite as clean!  Garrett has been able to be home which has been a huge blessing.  I just hope my list of daily to-do's hasn't been insanely overwhelming for him and the other kids.

He weighed 8 pounds 11 oz. when he was born and at his one week checkup he was 8 pounds 15 oz.  Grandma says that typically they like to see babies back to their birth weight by two weeks old.  He has it figured out!  He is a very mellow baby that gets plenty of attention and snuggles!  We're not sure that he'll ever learn to walk since he is rarely put down.  Hope all is going well for everyone!

Flake Five

 It has been a couple of weeks but there isn't much to report.  The wind is still blowing which is making garden maintenance difficult. Hopefully I'll be able to weed sometime soon.

Robin seems to be recovering from what we think was a bad case of dehydration.  It has taken several days but she is eating and not throwing up which is a blessing.  The boys are benefitting because they are getting loaded with electrolytes and getting lots of water to drink.

He sleeps in some strange positions. 

She popped the sunglass lenses out and loves her new glasses! 

I wanted to thank everyone for the thoughts and prayers.  We are still waiting for the miscarriage to happen after many false alarms. It is nice to have such an amazing support system. 

Nilsson News

 We still are waiting to announce the "big news" but feel like it will be fairly soon.  The fun event we did have this week was the arrival of Nibbles the goat's babies.  On Monday morning we suspected that she was in labor.  After about an hour, the first baby goat arrived and it was a pretty big girl so we thought maybe there would be twins or triplets.  About 20 minutes later, a second was born, another big baby, a boy.  A short time later, a third popped out and she was itsy bitsy.  We were trying to get these babies dried off when Nibbles pushed out a fourth and it was another girl!  Quadruplets!  They are all nursing great and up and bouncing around.  We are grateful that everything went so well and that we were there to help out a little.  In keeping with our Shakespeare naming theme, Addy named them Claudia, Horatio, Titania, and Viola.

Aside from that, we have been working on projects in the yard.  Not yet planting everything in the garden since the weather continues to go up and down.  We are expecting another freeze tonight and then hopefully we will be out of the cold.

Addy had her National clogging competition at Lagoon and she did the best that she has ever done.  Practice surely pays off!  The other kids have enjoyed jumping on the tramoline and being outside more.  Garrett is ready to take a few weeks off of work when our baby gets here.  He was sure the baby would get here early so he lessened his work load and now he is trying to find more to do while he waits- and all of us wait.

Claudia

Horatio

Viola

Titania

Flake Fun

 Things in Snowflake are starting to warm up but gratefully they cool off in the evening.  We have nearly everything planted in our garden that we are going to plant. I'm hoping to find some cantaloupe, watermelon and peppers but haven't seen any yet. We have potatoes and onions coming up and our tomatoes are looking like they may survive. 

 The wind is starting to settle down which is nice. There is a week of wind in the forecast but there are a handful of nice days before and after. 

The kids get bigger and smarter every day. I am constantly amazed with the infrmation processing that Rand and Robin do all of the time.  It is fascinating.  

We went to a place called Bearizona on Friday.  It was a lot of fun.  It is a drive through wildlife park with a walk through portion.  The kids enjoyed hanging out the car windows to see bison, reindeer, big horn sheep and mountain goats.   The bears and wolves were viewed behind rolled up windows!  They also got to see a skunk, raccoon and porcupine up close in an animal encounter show as well as feeding fish to the otters.  It was a really fun day. 

Peter Quill the porcupine

When it is too windy to go outside, the kids make their own fun.  Yes, that is flour...

Manning Moments

 Well life has been pretty good and very loud and energetic as usual.

Gus is a mover. He may just stick with crawling forever because he is so blasted fast and will get into everything. It is impossible to work outside with him because he is right in the dirt eating it and digging like a dog. He also loves the attention he gets when he screams at the dinner table. We love this little crazy one.

Chet and Wesley both decided to have their own garden space which basically means they took over the whole garden. They both wanted to try pumpkin and wheat. When we went to the greenhouse, we couldn't decide on one pumpkin so we came home with three. So we will have a pumpkin garden and their wheat is coming up. Hopefully something will produce since I don't know how to do either.

We tried to finish off the school year with vigor but that didn't really happen since February or so! But they are still learning and Wesley has really gotten into piano which is very fun. Mom and Dad came down yesterday for a little school show and tell which is always an adventure but we had a good time.

Nick has been so busy lately. He helped the tennis team which was very busy in April and May. He teaches guitar, has high council stuff and he is going to front sight as much as possible because they may shut down. He is also being moved to Orem high next year. American Heritage has been a dream seminary teaching job and we will miss being there.

After Nick spent five weeks trying to get an appointment with the board of adjustments to figure out our house, we learned there isn't a board of adjustments. It just kind of dissolved and maybe he can talk with them if they come back together. There's good government for you! In the meantime we will be grateful for our little house and our mortgage payment!

We hope you are well and can't wait to see you!