Ben and Lauren's Twins

Meet my two new (probably identical) nephews! Grant Edward, and Carter James. They were 'born' around two in the morning on July 14th. It was an emergency C section,  but as you can see, they are hunky dory! 

Grant Edward Kromminga 

Carter James Kromminga 

Fourth of July

Happy (late) fourth of July!! We had quite a splendid fourth this year, with all our typical traditions. We went to the parade as usual, and Ruth took a bunch of pictures of it, so thats where all the pictures came from. As you can see, we saw Uncle Sam! :)
     Usually when we get home we pile up all the candy on the floor, and sort it all out. Alas, I guess I'm not so cute anymore, so I only got a couple handfuls of candy. It was most amusing to see the candy fly on either side of me to my nieces and nephews, but (sniff) none really came to me. Guess I need to get some kids of my own! :)
     When we got home we ate our dinner, and then just hung out with each other for the afternoon, and of course, watched fireworks at the end of the day.
 

Uncle Sam, Abe Lincon, and a Pilgrim. 

Lydia and Esther were in the parade, but when they finished the route they came and found me! 

Kitty Birth Announcement!

On Thursday, April 30, three kittens were born to a first time mother, Miss Kitty, and Mr. Orange Tom Cat. They were born in a box inside the sugar house at the Kromminga's residence. 

awwww! Aint they cute! 

Boiling Maple Syrup 2015

The very first step of syrup making, tapping the trees! 

And I putting the tap in 

Emily drilling the hole... 

roasting hotdogs 

Quite a few people came while we did our syrup making, including Jo and Joel Carter! 

Josiah, Ruth and Jo collecting sap to be boiled down into syrup 

Daniel and his family also came that same Saturday  

Daniel, Emily and Ruth 

 The Funk kids came out on a Thursday afternoon to help gather sap, collect wood, etc. 

Lydia gathering 

Esther pours sap into the jug to make it even 

Chris 

We use the sap thats in the pan to make our tea with, it makes it nice and sweet! 

drinking tea.

                           And of course smores are a must! 

myself partaking of a smore! 

When Brant and Jessica came to see the process, Nathan and Landon found the  riding lawn mower, and had a blast playing on it! Caroline, Gabe and Jack also enjoyed 'driving' it when they had been there. 

Nathan taking Emily and Landon for a 'ride' 

Landon helping 

it was Brants first time seeing how we do it! 

taking the now almost syrup off the stove 

We had the entire family over, (minus Josh) plus, Josiah, Jo and Joel, the Funk kids, and even a small field trip for a young homeschooling family, the Hans.  All on different days of course. 
Most years we only get in about three, four, even five boils in,    but this year we boiled seven times! 

Flying with Daniel

A few Sundays ago Daniel took an airplane up to give it some exercise, and he wanted to know if I would like to ride along. He didn't even need to ask!! It was quite the experience! I had a ton of fun. When we flew over the house, it was weird to think that my family was in there, carrying on with their Sunday afternoon like normal, when I was waaaaaay up in the air!
     We flew to Wisconsin and landed on some runway thingy, took a potty break, and some pictures and flew back!

the house 

Daniel and I with our most becoming headphones on! 

landed in Wisconsin 

Aaron Lance Schmell

Meet my newest nephew, Aaron Lance Schmell! He was born on February 14th at 10:48pm. 

 Aaron was born in Brant's truck, after a romantic evening eating out together on Valentine's day!

Exited big brother!

Aaron Lance

Cross Country Skiing on Presidents Day with the Funks

Interesting bits of the day 

Talking the whole way to and from Decorah with Lydia and Esther

Watching the snow fall as we slid along the icy ground 

Finding a very dead deer

Getting slightly lost

Planting a clementine tree ;) 

Climbing down a very steep, icy hill with drop-offs on either side!

Climbing over fences with skis on (which may or may not have been private property)

Skiing for a total of four and a half hours

Eating Mexican afterwards, ordering shrimp soup, and nearly dying from how spicy it was!

Being able to spend the whole day with good friends!