My First 5K

Like I promised, here is how I did on my very first official 5k.  On Saturday, June 2nd, I participated in the St. Matthew Eagle's Nest 5k which took place in the Lakewood Forest Preserve in Wauconda, IL.  I was so excited to run that I woke up around 6:00am and couldn't go back to sleep.  I got up, got ready, dropped the kids off with some friends of ours, and then headed out to my race.

This was the very first race put on by St. Matthew Lutheran School so there wasn't a lot of people.  The course was really nice and reminded me a lot of my cross-country races in high school.  It was nice to run up and down the many hills on the course and to make it through without stopping.  Loved it!

Of a total of 46 people, I came in 13th place and was the 4th fastest girl.  My time was 27:40!  I'm just glad I was under 30 minutes!  I would love to get back into my competative running shape, but that would require running more than just once a week.  So, after not running for so long and the only getting to run once a week for about a month in preparation for the race, I think I did pretty well.  Let's just say that this won't be my last race I run.

I was also honored to win a $50 gift certificate to Running Unlimited in a raffle drawing at the end of the event.  I am super excited to replace the running shoes I have had for about 6 years now.  That's a long time to have shoes and for running...way to many miles.  So yes, I am in need of a new pair and I can't wait!  Now I just have to figure out how to go without taking the kids with me.

Firsts

This is what happens when your son finds a smashed Junior Mint on the floor...

Yes, he devoured it and loved it!

(I tried to post a video of it, but it wouldn't work.  Any ideas?)

Some other firsts of Gideon's are...

Two bottom front teeth

Eating first cookie

Eating food from the dinner table (not so much into the baby food)

First drink of apple juice - loved it!

French Fries - his face lit up with those

Yup, our little boy has some sticky fingers, and a dad who is willing to give him just about anything.  I try to wait until my kids are a year old before giving them the junky stuff, but I seem to fail each time.  Oh well.

Poor Heber has had a rough few days.  We went camping over the Memorial Day weekend and he fell into the fire pit.  It was mostly ash, but under the ash there were still some hot coals. So, he burned his left hand and we have had to bandage it up to protect his blisters while they heal.  It was rough right when he burned his hand, but after that, he acts like nothing has happened.  His prayers are too cute though.  He says, "Heavenly Father, bless my hand, got in Daddy's fire, Jesus Christ, Amen."  That's my boy!

Eliza got her first make-up case.  It was all lip gloss and lipstick, but she took it as make-up to go all over your face.  She picked it out.  I wanted to persuade her to pick out something else, but I knew I wasn't going to win this one.  Especially since she got to pick a present with the birthday money she got.  So, she has been giving herself a makeover, one to Heber, and has tried me, but I'm not too keen about lip gloss all over my face.  At least at the rate she is going, it will be gone soon and then no more make-up.  Yes!

I had fun making this cake.
Maybe one day they will turn out the way I envision it.

Tomorrow I go on my first 5K run.  I am super excited and I can't wait.  I'll post how I do.  Here are some pics from our camping trip to Devil's Lake, WI.

We had to build a lean-to because of thunderstorm.

Family hike at Devil's Lake, WI

Western Bluffs summit

It is possible to play together!

Warmer Weather

I know it's been a while, so I thought I would put up some more recent pictures.

Gideon can sit all by himself!  Love the smile!

The crazy trio

Heber standing tall

Adorable Eliza

Yup!  I can hold my own bottle!

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.

Where's Winter?

It's been pretty crazy this winter.  First of all we haven't had much snow at all and nothing at all for Christmas.  Normarlly that would be a really sad thing, but when snow means Scott has to plow, no snow meant Scott got to stay home.  It was lovely!  Not only that, but we have seen him a lot more this winter than in the past and I certainly can't comlain about that.

Everyone has been having fun riding the 4-wheeler with Daddy in the back yard.  Because of the lack of snow, it's left more of a muddy back yeard, but who can complain too much about that.

A good time we had too was dressing up in our BYU gear to watch the Armed Forces Bowl.  It was fun to cheer on BYU and to see them win.  Sweet!

The kids and Scott have been dying all winter to go ice fishing.  With the warm weather and lack of snow, it's been iffy.  But, we finally got to go.  No, we didn't catch anything, but poor Heber did step in the hole once.  Yup, that pretty much ended the outing, which was okay.  We were on our way home anyway.

 

 

This is just a picture of Gideon.  Too cute to not put in.  Love his smiles!

Raccoon Toons

A family friend of mine, Matt Taylor, has a comic strip called "Raccoon Toons".  Each week he posts a new comic, except this month he will have one up every weekday.  Pretty sweet!  I remember reading his comics that he would post in the school paper.  Anyway, Matt is holding a contest to have yourself drawn into one of his comics.  All you have to do is like or follow his comic strip, post or share one of your favorite strips, let him know, and then eat a cookie.  Yes, eat a cookie.  Love it!  So, here is my favorite strip because it was something similar to what happened to me once.  It was Halloween of 2006 and Scott decided to play a little trick on me.  He placed a phantom decoration in the bathroom of our apartment.  I was pregnant at the time and so I had to get up at night to use the bathroom.  I walked in, turned the light on, and freaked out!  I screamed and ran back to the bed.  Scott laughed his head off because he thought it was funny to watch a prego lady fly across the room and land on the bed as she fled from the bathroom.  I wasn't too happy.  Scott took down the phantom and I made him swear he wouldn't do that again.  Sadly, I don't think I ever used the bathroom that night.  So, here is the comic strip.  Enjoy and check out Matt's website for Raccoon Toons!

Loving Life

This picture was just too cute! I sometimes find it hard to capture a good smile from the little ones. It takes patience and timing and it seemed to pay off for me. I thought I would share this smile with you. It makes me smile just looking at it.

We also had the chance to go to Utah for my Grandma Flack's funeral.  It was sad to hear she passed away, but it was a happy occasion too.  I know that she is with our Father in Heaven and is so happy to be reunited with Grandpa and her son.  It was lovely to have the family all together for the funeral and to also visit family from the other side of my family as well.  I love you Grandma and miss you, but I know you are happy!

Eliza and Heber with Great-grandma Hall

Gideon and Great-grandma Hall

Eliza did a really good job.  She even got a strike!

Heber had a blast and wanted to carry the bowling ball on his own.
We had to keep and eye on his toes for him :)