Time for an Update

So, I realized that it has been a long time since I last updated.  I should probably try and write more on the blog and more often, but more of the writing is in my personal journal.  So, this tends to be more of a snapshot of what we have been up to lately.  Hope you enjoy!

 

In March we finally pulled out the Gingerbread Train kit we got for Christmas and assembled it.  The kids lasted long enough to let me get a picture before they dug in.  I was shocked!

Gideon's first hair cut.  Hard for me to do, but he enjoyed it.

Our pup, Sylphrena or Syl as we like to call her.  In this shot she is 5 months old.

Look what the Easter Bunny got us!

Eliza showing off her Easter basket with one of her classic poses.

Finally burning the Christmas Tree...in April!  It was awesome!

Playing at the beach

We had a such a huge rain storm hit us that it ended up flooding our back yard a bit.
It took a few days for the water to recede. Crazy, crazy!

From late January to about late March or so, we had been collecting sap from our maple trees.  It took all day to boil down about 16 gallons of stored sap to make on mason jar of syrup and two small baby food jars.

Why roast marshmallows when you can just eat them?

Roasting the mallows

Gideon and Heber fell asleep on the way home from church.  Scott and I put them down on the couch and they stayed like that for a while.  Cutest thing I have ever seen.

Eliza's birthday cake.  I had fun decorating it.

Happy 6th Birthday!

Gideon had been making noise during nap time and then it stopped.  I didn't think much of it other than he finally fell asleep.  When I went to wake him up, I found him asleep in the rocking chair.  Oh, the places to sleep!

Scott has really gotten into fishing this year.  This was his largest bass that he has ever caught.  He was so proud of it that he brought it home to show off.  Needless to say, he continues to fish every chance he gets.

All the kids out for a ride with Daddy

Eliza had fun washing rocks at the beach

Heber playing in the sand

Gideon having fun running around on the beach

I have even caught the fishing bug.  This was my first bass and it was a decent size too.  Yup, I'm hooked too!

 

It has been a very fun filled few months.  I have enjoyed every minute of it.  And, if you can't tell from the picture of me, we have one more little one on the way due in October.  We are so excited!  No, we are not finding out.  Maybe that makes us a little old fashioned, but I love the suspense.  What's your guess!

Maple Syrup and More

For Christmas Scott got some maple taps from his sister, Riki.  He was so excited about them.  Here's proof of that excitement.  It makes me smile every time I see that picture.

So, for a few weeks now we have been collecting sap from our maple trees in our back yard.  Scott tapped three trees, each tree having two taps.  Then as the weather started warming up with above freezing during the day and just below at night, the sap was flowing and we started collecting.

In that two week period or so, we collected nine gallons of sap.  For those who have never made homemade syrup, this would seem like a ton of syrup.  Not so.  Once the sap has been collected, the water needs to be evaporated out.  That was our next step.  We started a fire outside in our fire pit and placed a grilling rack over the fire.  One the rack we placed two foil roasting pans and added the sap to the pans and began evaporating.  It took about 6 hours to evaporate the nine gallons of sap.

After evaporating nine gallons of sap, we got down to this pot of sap.  Then began the boiling process.  The idea to get the right consistency of syrup is to find the temperature of boiling water (in a separate pot) and then boil the sap at about 7 degrees above that.  It took another two hours or so for that process.

And here is our end result!  About a pint of sap with a little left over.  We tried our homemade maple syrup the next day and we fell in love with it.  It tasted so good!  Maybe it's because we worked so hard to make our syrup that it tasted so good, but either way, it was fun!  Thanks for the taps Riki!

Here are just some other fun pictures of our family.  Enjoy!

Burning our Christmas Tree in March.  Loved it!

Me and the kids

Daddy feeding Gideon?  Proof he does help :)  Love you, Scott!

Sleeping with the thumb

Somehow a bird got stuck in our fireplace.
The only thing we can figure is it came down the flue.

And the only way to get the bird out was to let him out of the fireplace
into the house and then out the door.  I think he was happy to get out.