Caleb the cute!

We think so anyway. Well I'm certainly not going to have to worry about blogging too much, at this rate I'll be lucky to get in one a month. We'll see if I can't improve my frequency. But I guess it's better to be busy with life, than busy writing about it. So as promised pictures of our little guy. This was hard, sooo many pictures to choose from.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I won't have much to add. Caleb is just a joy and totally has his siblings captivated, well maybe his parents too!

He is... busy and curious,

He has a really fun chuckle, that just doesn't seem like a fit for such a little guy

and he is ticklish, which is quite fun and he clearly has a sense of humor and knows when he is being silly

He loves to eat ANYTHING, this keeps me on my toes because he has no discrimination between food and non food so anything he can hold is fair game and unfortuanately he has quite a well developed pincer grasp and can pick up the tiniest things. He has taken having a clean floor to a whole new level!

He has a very unique combat crawl that is just well funny, he gets where he wants to go quickly, he is also pulling to standing, cruising the furniture and making his way up the stairs

Just love that cute little body!

He's got hair that frequently looks crazy and sticks straight up, he's determined, knows what he wants, talkative, snuggly, is crazy about his siblings and smiles easily. He's started clapping and thinks it's just great.

We've done some fun things recently that I'll have to write about and share some pictures. A fun wildflower nature walk and a trip to a local Frontier Museum.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter. Our first here in Virginia. It was made even more special as our dear friends from NC came and spent the long weekend with us. We are use to spending holidays with family and friends and it was nice for this tradition to continue in a new way here. Our kids have had the privilege of growing up with each other and so they get along fabulously and really enjoyed getting to share their new house with their friends and spend some time together, as they are used to seeing each other daily.

We did manage an egg hunt, even though it was chilly and didn't seem quite like a spring Easter.

Aaron wasn't at first sure why he was being asked to find these plastic eggs in the grass, until......he discovered they had candy in them. Then he couldn't find enough. Though he is not really a big candy eater, he loves M&M's. Ken had to keep re hiding his eggs, as he was such an enthusiastic finder.

Caleb took this opportunity to sleep!

We have a tradition of making Resurrection rolls each Easter. Taking a marshmallow (Jesus) coating it in cinnamon (burial spices) and then wrapping it in a crescent roll (burial cloths) and putting it in the oven (tomb). When it has been baked the marshmallow has disappeared ( Jesus is risen). What is left if the sweet taste of the marshmallow (the Holy Spirit). We've been doing this since Hannah was little and it has become a favorite and looked forward to tradition. Here Lauren is making one with some of our friends.

We also enjoyed decorating egg shaped cookies and our children and friends always enjoy producing some kind of performance when together. They are always very silly and fun to see them all working together to express their creativity.

Here is a picture in our Sunday attire. We have finally found a church we are liking. They apparently do a big Easter drama the week before Easter, so when we arrived on Sunday morning there was a live Camel, sheep, lambs, donkey and chickens outside the church in an elaborate set up looking like old Jerusalem. The props and animals had been used during the drama the night before. As you can imagine the kids were surprised and excited. I'll have to post some pictures later. Aaron was quite taken with the Camel.

A wonderful weekend celebrating Easter and the company of our friends.

I'm working on a post about Caleb, as I know many are wanting some pictures of him. It's hard to narrow them down. As Lauren frequently states when playing with him, " I can't take it, he's s000000 cute". Hopefully later this week.

Catherine

Maple Sugar'n

Well I might have finally succumbed, we're going to see how this works with me blogging.

We had some fun this past weekend with a visit from some NC friends who joined us for a Maple Syrup adventure. I stumbled upon the fact that the first two weekends in March are the annual Maple Festival in the neighboring county. I'd always thought of Vermont when I thought of maple syrup but come to find out it's also right here in my backyard. So we went to Highland Co. in search of Maple Sugar'n. On the way we traveled some steep and winding mountain roads with beautiful scenes of babbling streams, trickling brooks, wild turkeys and rocky mountain pastures dotted with sheep, dairy and Maple farms. We also found a mountain stream trout farm and a Civil War battle site.

The seat of the Festival was in the county's largest town, Monterey, population 200! Here is the general store we stopped in. It was an old fashioned store, with wood floors, and shelves full of crafts and maple syrup products and the aroma of homemade Maple doughnuts and Brunswick stew.

The Maple Sugar Farms were tucked up in the mountains. We got to see traditional tapping with the pails hanging from the trees and then collecting and cooking in old Sugar Houses over an open fire.

This was a 200 year old Maple Tree that was tapped for viewing purposes only, but was still making sap. It tastes and looks like water.

We also saw more modern ways of collecting sap, through tubing and giant collection sites, where the sap is heated in large tanks over open fire. The tubing is impressive dancing between the trees as it comes down the mountain.

Just some pictures of the scenery. We saw many signs of the beginnings of spring in the mountains. A really fun day spent with friends.