"Bean" Busy

I know things were pretty quiet here on the blog before Christmas, and part of the reason was that a few of the things we were busy at were Christmas gifts. One of those projects was a big batch of homemade vanilla that we made, bottled, labeled and gave to lots of family and friends.

It was actually a pretty simple process, but it does require thinking ahead because it has to sit and brew for at least a month. Basically, you combine vanilla beans, chopped into approximately 1" pieces, and vodka, and shake daily for at least a month. Ours sat for closer to two months, and the longer it sits, the stronger the flavor becomes.

Then I just set up a little straining system, placing a coffee filter inside a strainer to get out as many little particles as possible.

After it was strained, I used a tiny funnel to fill two dozen 4 ounce bottles.

The fun part for me was making a punny little label.

There are lots of instructions for making vanilla available online, and the vendor I ordered the beans from through Amazon even sent some as well. If you are making your own, I would recommend ordering the beans from Amazon as the prices are a lot better than what you would pay at the grocery store. It was a fun project for us and we even have a little leftover for our own baking.

Handyman Hand-Me-Down

Keith's sister has three boys, and as kids will, they outgrow things. Lucky for Colter, and eventually Elliott, they outgrew a great workbench and a load of play tools. Colter has been one busy worker since they dropped this off on Tuesday evening.

By the way, I did not put him in his tool shirt just for these pictures. He picked it out himself but it worked out perfectly!

There's that tongue sticking out while he concentrates that he gets from his mama!

Definitely a leftie!

The workbench is doing a stint in the living room at the moment, but Keith would like to start building our boys a collection of real tools, so I think eventually it will move to the basement next to Keith's workbench for some serious building.

Thanks, Karen, for the great workbench and tools! They will get plenty of use.

Quick Christmas Rewind

I wasn't very good about taking pictures through all our holiday gatherings this year, but we enjoyed every moment and everybody we got to see!

After Santa's arrival...

Colter seeing the presents for the first time Christmas morning...

This train from Grammy and Pop-pop is a big hit!

And a train for Elliott too!

Showing Grammy a special bowl Santa brought...

Bowling looks a lot like throwing these days!

Coloring in a new book...

We spent the entire day in our pajamas, playing and relaxing.

Let's call this series "Divide and Conquer Family Portraits." Also known as, "I Need to Figure Out the Self-Timer But Now Is Not the Time."

We ended our Christmas week at the farm, visiting and relaxing.

It was a wonderful holiday, start to finish, and we really enjoyed getting to share it with so much family. So thank you all for making it so wonderful and have a very happy New Year!

Chugga Chugga

Finally, finally, we set up Colter's train from his great-grandpop. He was thrilled by it, and only derailed it twice.

Even Elliott enjoyed watching the set-up process.

Want to see it an action? We got a little bit of video to share with you.

Thanks for the train, Grandpop!

Choo Choo!

A couple weekends ago, Keith, Colter, and Keith's dad checked out a local model train display. Our neighbor helps with it each year, and shared a few pictures of them checking out all the trains.

We're looking forward to setting up Colter's train from his great-grandpop under the tree this year. We are planning on just having it out for a few days so that he can see and enjoy it, and hopefully he is old enough to understand he needs to take care of it.

Smiles

Now there's my happy baby!