One year ago

Clark met a sweet little sleeping beauty named, Claira Lee Mathews.






Claira's tiny preemie outfit is packed away, but we wanted to get a picture before I officially retired Clark's 3 month pin striped blue dress shirt. What good friends one year later! So SWEET!

ok...maybe not.

This is how it actually went...

Large crocodile tears ...






I don't want to hold a girl's hand.









Which of you said this was going to be fun?

The woman was finally fed up with the cranky old man...

....and everyone was much happier after nap time.

The END!

Calorie Update

With a drastic increase in calories, obesity still seems like an unlikely issue for my man.

The first day I counted Allyn's calories, he ate a little over 1,600. ouch! Day two came close to 2,200. Improving! Day three pushed us past 2,700. Then my computer went into the shop for a few days. We'll be back at it tmw!

Clark's seen a dramatic change in belly fat of late! The recent 1.5 pounds has not only added some belly fat but the start of an "almost" fat roll to his legs. He's loving solid food like chicken and beef.

The mommy of the house is excited to think about decreasing calories soon as she won't be nursing for much longer.

Cousins visit!

Clark (12 mo) Gracie (2 years) Wyatt (14 mo)

On Top of Spaghetti...

All covered with cheese.

I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed!



Moral of the story:

....so if you eat spaghetti all covered in cheese, hold on to your meatball and don't EVER sneeze!

The Grinch Makes a Fleece Blanket...

Allyn drew his sister Rebek's name for Christmas....

There were several things on her list. Only one that Allyn knew he could do...

The one specific gift request was a "pink and zebra print" fleece blanket. Clark just thought the whole process was pretty spectacular....and Rebek was pretty excited about the end product

.

Watching the Grinch and the 'lil Grinch work on Rebek's gift, was GOOD for my heart. My one year old child was clueless about what was going on. Yet, it excited me to think of Clark someday learning the simple beauty of giving and receiving. This year the Musgrave Family letter stood out to me on the topic of gifts. I loved what Yoli wrote about how they are desire to be intentional and train their children about gifts at Christmas... "It is our tradition to start opening gifts a few days before Christmas day. This for us symbolizes God's goodness. He gives us gifts everyday that we need to unfold them and appreciate them everyday." I love how Yoli goes on to describe daily gifts that we often forget. I love that they are being intentional about not making Christmas day a gift finale. I love how they are wanting to teach their children to appreciate what they are given. Their letter and example of parenting was also good for my heart.

Happy New Year!

A Buddy's Birthday

Clark's buddy, Gabe, turned 1 today...

Clark 4 mo. Gabe 3 mo.
wham.
HERE I AM! irresistible!

Happy Birthday Gabe!

A year ago we hardly knew the Novaks, yet had enough connections to be excited to hear the news of Gabe's arrival. A few months later we got to house them when they came to Lydia's bridal shower. We fell in love with their family.

This picture melted my heart the first time i saw it on the camera. Two dad's rocking their lil boys to sleep...


Gabe, we are so glad we got to meet you.

Today, we celebrate your BIRTH day! ....and cried a lot too.

- The Danbury Ct Weddles

www.firefightersfamily-dhjc.blogspot.com

Bitter-Sweet

With the recent sickness that's swept through our household, I've noticed the bathroom scale - it's bitter sweet.

For me the last few days have meant nothing more than a few more lbs shed pushing me farther below my pre-baby weight - SWEET!

For my husband, it's a very different story. Groan. It reminds me of how serious I need to be about pushing Dr. Florish's recommendation of Allyn eating a 3000 calorie diet. That's a freaking lot of calories!

I have my work cut out for me. That's the bitter part. It's also the tricky part. Cooking and eating in a way that one gains and the other doesn't. Hmmm. I was excited to discover that i google has a pretty sweet calorie counter - we'll give it a whirl.

Since I was feeling back to normal this morning, I worked on sanitizing the house and kitchen. During C-man's nap ....or should I say long "scream fest" before he fell asleep of exhaustion {poor guy - it's rough adjusting from being a sick baby to being a healthy baby who's treated normal again} ...I sat down with some recipe books and started meal planning. This is a LOVE IT! recipe I plan to use again soon.

Yummy Mandarin Crepes


Crepe recipe
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. wheat flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 c milk
1/3 c water
3 lg eggs
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Serves 4-5 people

Drizzle this over your crepes....

1-2 tbsp butter
1/8 c. confection sugar
2 tbsp flour (approx)
2 tbsp of orange juice concentrate
1 can of mandarin oranges

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add flour, sugar - stir. Add orange juice concentrate and drained juice from can. Stir over low heat till thickened. Add mandarin oranges.

Drizzle over crepes and YUM!