Peaches; Conquered...and One Really Cute Juicy Peach

I did it. I canned like crazy and whined and cried the whole way through it but it's done. We got a total of 19 bottles of peaches, 3 jars of peach freezer jam, and 5 jars of cooked peach jam.

Now that's it's done, it doesn't seem like such a task but here are the pictures to prove how messy it was.


The blanching and boiling and the pitting and peeling. The chickens gorged themselves on peach peelings afterwards. I think I hauled out 30 lbs of it to them - plus add on Lias's weight (see below) and I think I had about 50lbs I packed across the yard to the chicken coop.




Luckily (or maybe not) Ava was there to help me all along. No wait, for about 2 seconds till she decided it wasn't as fun as it looked. But that was right after she spilled all the "lite syrup" all over the counter while trying to get it into the jars. For being such a "lite syrup" it was super sticky to clean up. Which leads to this picture...


This was one side of the kitchen. The other side by the stove looked a little better.



Thank goodness I had Nathan there to quality control the canning rings to make sure they weren't in danger of breaking.

When John came home I told him he had to take me to dinner but instead I settled for pancakes with, what else? Peach jam all over. Yum, yum, yum. Adios to the peaches for this year.

And speaking of peaches. Here's a few shots of one juicy, ripe, ready for the kissing peach.





He's gotten quite nice and chunky, weighing it at 17lbs 12 oz at his 8 week checkup. We had a little scare the other day when he was really fussy during his nap. After he woke up for the 4 time I took his temp and realized he had a temp of 102 (under the arm). They get really concerned about babies under 3 months with temps, so into the doctor we went only to have them take his temp (rectally) and it show up at only 100. But we spent a traumatic evening getting blood work done (he cried and so did I) since they wanted to make sure he was fine. He is and I don't know where the temp I thought I found came from. Needless to say, I bought a new thermometer.

We're also getting quite a few sweet expressions and smiles during his happy times. Usually that's most of the day except for a few hours in the evenings. Poor John usually only gets to see him when he's fussy. John made the comment to me the other day that he feels like every minute he's home he's in charge of a kid. I told him I know exactly how he feels. I guess that's just life with 3 little ones. Life's a little crazy and chaotic, but we're all content too.

And a few of us are fat and content too.

In case anyone was wondering...

The peaches are still sitting outside but as I grabbed one this morning I noticed the fruit flies are making off with all my yummy winter treats. So, today is the day (as long as Lias doesn't have a 103 temp again- that was yesterday's afternoon gone) and by tonight maybe I'll have a picture of those same peaches all bottled up. That or the chickens will get whatever the flies don't.

This morning....

I walked out into the garage on this
lazy-nothing-to-do-but-laundry-
not-get-dressed-or-take-a-shower-morning
and what did I see but these staring me down.

Each summer, the local orchard that borders the farm gives us as many free peaches as we can use. We eat and eat and eat until we realize there is no way to eat them all and that leads to..... work. Lots of work. Chels will attest to this since last summer we spent an entire day with our arms covered with sugary, sappy, sticky peaches and 5 kids whining at us. We ended up with over 20 jars of peaches to eat all winter long and they were soooo good but the thought of doing all this work again now with 3 whining kids and no Chels totally overwhelms me.
Now I realized that many of you would be thrilled to have a ton of free peaches sitting in your garage and I'm not trying to complain (although John would say I am cause that's my nature) but does anyone want to come help me can peaches? Please? I'll give you all you can eat. Anyone?

If not peaches then how about nectarines?

Or more peaches? Oh well, maybe I'll get off the computer and start doing something. It's a good thing I didn't have anything planned this week anyway. And wanna know the best part? In the fall they give us just as many, if not more, apples. So it starts all over.....

But they sure are yummy in the winter.


Here's what I would like to be doing instead:

Wouldn't it be nice to be 4 again and not have anything to do in the summer but swim in a pool filled with dishsoap? Especially when you have all the juicy peaches you could ever want sitting in big boxes in the garage next to you. I think these guys ate 3 each but they kept spraying me whenever I tried to take a picture so I gave up.

I'd even take a naughty little brother who doesn't listen and sprays me with 40 degree well water when I tell him to stop.

But I think Elias is really the one who's got it made. Time for a nap again.

Lucky.

Thanks Auntie Sarah

My sister Sarah came last week bearing gifts for all. Ava got a cool bug catcher (and Sarah even helped her catch the bugs - major event for Sarah who is not a fan of bugs), Nathan got a bell to summon me from his bedside (and he's giving one of his famous looks), and Lias got a cool blanket to keep him cozy (which was loads of work on Sarah's part). They are all well loved and Sarah just may be winning the Coolest-Aunt-In-the-Eyes-Of-Ava-and-Nathan Award. That, or the one they've seen the most recently.

And now we're off to repay the favor. We're headed to my sister Laurel's for 2 days in West Virginia, then to Sarah's for 2 days in Pennsylvania. We're ditching John so he can finally get a night sleep and maybe some work done. Hopefully we all make it back alive. Wish me luck!

Westward Ho!!

Who: 175 youth and 50 adults descending on the farm

What: Fredericksburg Stake Youth Conference - Recreating the Mormon Pioneer's handcart trek out west

When: This Thursday-Saturday

Where: Eldon Farms (the far end of the farm)

How: Your guess is as good as mine.....

Look for more pictures next week. That is, if I get any while holding Elias and the infamous Carlos (for a demonstration of draft animals). Wahoo!!

Swingin' and Swimmin'

Last week were we treated to a little time with one of our best friends from when we were in Ithaca. Becky and I were office mates when I was pregnant with Ava and amazingly, she's still thinks we're cool enough to visit. She's listened to me whine and complain through each of my pregnancies. She's even dealt with the morning sickness and cravings for hot dogs and dough nuts I went through with Ava. And although she's a high powered PhD-DVM professional career oriented woman, she's cool enough to come play with my kids. And they can't get enough of her, as evidenced through the pictures.

She was in town (DC) for 2 weeks for a seminar to get ready to head to Botswana for a year. She's been picked to do research on the epidemiology of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. How cool is that? She'll be blogging her adventures so make sure to check it out occasionally.



She came down to our farm for a half a day and we spent a muggy Sunday morning swinging and rolling in the grass. John showed off his garden, Ava and Nathan ate up the attention and Baby Lias enjoyed the extra arms to hold him. For a career woman, Becky is amazingly patient and sweet with babies and kids, which is probably why we are still such great friends.

Since we had such a great time with her on Sunday, we decided to crash her hotel on Tuesday night too. We spent a awesome night at her penthouse pool, while she and John played with the kids in the water and I nursed Lias. Then we headed home with 3 worn out kids. It was great.

Hurry back from Africa Becky- Ava and Nathan and Elias are counting down the days!!!

The Faces of a Four Year Old

Anyone remember my sweet little chubby baby that looked like this?

Ava - 2 months

Or this??

Ava - 4 months

Or this chunky, drooly, curly, girly toddling thing??

Ava - 13 months

Well, as of July 1st, 2008, I have a big 4 year old that looks like this:

And can dance like this:

And be impish like this:

Wow, how do they grow up so fast? I don't know exactly, but they do and now she's way into dinosaurs, dirt and drama.

Ava's Cake - Take 1 (family party)







Preschool Present (Upside down)

For months she's been obsessed with anything dinosaur - books, songs, drawings, toys - and, although I'm not sure I won't burn out from too much dinosaur things with 2 more boys coming, I've tried to support her in her habit. We now know the difference between tyrannosaurus, stegosaurus and brontosaurus, can quote many lines from "The Land Before Time" and even Nathan knows that there are such things as duckbilled dinosaurs that had funny diets of pine needles. Who knew a 4 yr old could impart such wisdom?

Needless to say, we had a dinosaur party for her birthday complete with digging dinosaurs from the creek:

Off to the digging site

Finding dinosaurs stuck in the mud

Future Paleontologists

dinosaur races to see who was the fastest and:

Which dinosaurs float and which sink?

dinosaur cake made out of marshmallow and sugar fondant (a concoction only 4 yr olds would eat).

She loved it all. Maybe a little too much since for the whole week before and after all we heard was "Is it my birthday today? Are we having a party for me today? Who's coming today?" etc. She obviously felt like she was the most important person in the world for a few weeks, but isn't that what we all want?

Of course, being a 4 yr old's party, there was a little drama but what else would you expect? Short little legs don't mix well with trying to run very fast....

It's my party and I'll cry if I want too.....or because I skinned my knees


Luckily, Dada's can still make everything all right.

Happy Birthday until next year Ava Mava.