More Easter - mostly food. =)

Our neighbor gave us this footstool. It opens on top and has two drawers. Clark LOVES it. He takes it apart and walks around the house with the drawers. I like it because its a good place to store little toys - like the maraca shown below.

Here John Paul demonstrates his superior strength to Clark.
Here is some delicious Macaroni and Cheese that Ashley made.
Here are delicious green beans and asparagus (underneath) cooked in yummy bacon. Lishu made these. She googled, "Easter foods" because she's Chinese and has never celebrated Easter before and didn't know what to bring. Now we all know that green beans and asparagus are traditional Easter foods!
Here is the amazingly delicious lamb that Tom made. yum yum yum yum yum yum. Even Clark liked it and he's super picky!

This is the lamb cake we made this year (covered in saran wrap). This year, we actually made a Rice Krispy Lamb, frosted it with white and did its face with cookie decorations.

Here's the lamb cake and some Egg cookies. Thanks to Andrea GG for passing on the cookie cutters. I decorated each cookie with the names of our Easter Feasters!

Ashely made a carrot cake from scratch and decorated it with a sign of capital punishment (and salvation).

It was a wonderful happy Easter time!!!

Happy Easter!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Easter everyone! Hosanna! Alleluia! He is risen indeed!

Clark and Tom in pretty clothes in front of our daffodil garden.

Practicing his mad walking skills.

We invited Ashley and John Paul

Josh, Scott and Lishu over for Easter Dinner.
We had lamb, mac and cheese, green beans, asparagus, and lots of desserts!
We sat on the back porch and had a beautiful day.
This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!

Latest fun stuff!

Here are pictures of our Spring so far.
I'm still babysitting Bernadette. Here she is sitting in the garden like a little flower.


We played in the yard for a few hours this afternoon. I got a play kitchen for them, but both found their favorite yard things. Bernadette's is a block that she can step up and down on. Clark's is a solar powered lamp that lights up the back yard at night.

Here we are!
Clark loves to walk around the house carrying a big noisy pot.
Yesterday, we went to a nearby park and Clark had a blast.
He climbed (and slid down) the slide.
He had fun playing with the center of the gears.
He got lots of fun toys for his birthday but (a lot like the fun toy kitchen! / lamp issue in the back yard) he really loves this box and plastic "beer cups" or "solo cups"
He also loves hanging out under the sink.
Last week Josh, Ashley and John Paul came over to play because it was spring break.
"I give you my blessing"
Bernadette was over that day, so we had a big fun play group.
What cuties!
We've been taking lots of video lately, and need to upload that next. We send love to everyone! xxoo.

Happy New Year!

I took a few weeks off from blogging. Of course, last month, I posted a picture every day or so and called THAT blogging. Here is an actual blog update about the family.

So January...

For New Year's Eve, we went across the street to our neighbor's house. We played Garage Band and celebrated the New Year by illegally lighting fireworks off on our street. (The ones we bought on Labor Day). It was much fun.

On January 1st we had planned on having one friend, Matt, over to play Monopoly. Our friend, Lauren, called and she invited us to hang out with her family. Instead we invited them over to our house. Then we texted all of our other friends and invited them over. We ended up with Matt, Lauren, Paul and Bernatte Z, and Katie N. and Will Clark. We hung out, played Monopoly and had happy times.

On January 2nd, I went to the gym and ran 5K. It was awesome. Tom and I are both doing Weightwatchers and are having great success so far. I'm back at my pre-pregnancy weight! Yay!

The next day we all started feeling bad. We all had a cold (caught from little Bernadette mentioned above..) It was annoying and I'm glad its over with. We fought back by eating Pho. Clark had his first taste of Pho and enjoyed it. We fed him noodles and warm broth from the fat asian spoon. He ate it really well, it was his first soup experience. The pictures below are from his first and second Pho times. It was very comPhoting to share it with him.



I started teaching The Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth on January 8th. I have two couples as students. Tom is watching Clark and teaching the segments on Coaching. I am really enjoying it and even more excited to be a part of these women's birth experiences. They seem to be getting a lot out of the classes as well.

We had our 4th anniversary on January 7th and had a date night on January 9th. Clark was babysat by Lauren, Bernadette's mom. Tom and I went to Red Lobster and saw the movie Avatar in 3D. It was nice to have some time to ourselves. We walked in the town square and checked out the dessert shops, finally settling on Ben and Jerry's for a scoop of icecream before heading back to our little boy.

Things returned to normalish in our lives. Tom went to work, I managed the house and prepped for classes, and Clark played with his toys.

He really loves brushes, pens, spoons and paper. To harness some of that energy. I gave him some markers and he colored his first piece of paper.

What am I doing?? Is this fun? Wee heee!!! I LOVE Coloring!!!!

Here is the masterpiece itself. I cut it into 3 pieces. I sent one laminted strip to both grandparents and Tom has one in his office.
On January 15th, John Paul B. had his first birthday! I can't believe the first baby in Clark's Cohort is 1 already! He will be one in a month and a half! If he was born on his due date, it would be a month from now! It's crazy how fast time flies. Here are some photos from the birthday and other hanging out with JPB.

Clark and JP both LOVE walking with the walker. JP has already taken some unassisted first steps, as has Bernadette. Clark usually learns from the older babies, so he might take some any day now (or months... whatev..) Here I am with JP and Clark on JP's Birthday.

Having a cold kind of derailed our early month, nature was also having a cold and was keeping outside temps below freezing. It finally warmed up to 40!!! YAY!!! and maybe hotter at lunchtime. The whole family went for a hike around Lake Needwood a few miles north of our house. We put Clark in the hiking backpack for the first time. It was wonderful to get outside and move around, see nature again, and breathe fresh air. It was the first exercise I got since running that 5K and I was glad to be back.

We've been eating much healthier since Clark started eating solids and we started weight watchers. Here is a delicious meal I made. It was a whole roast chicken that was cooked with Terriaki sauce. The "fries" are baked carrots, cut into strips. The green stuff is lots of different vegetables (onion, turnip, garlic, bell peppers, and kale). It was a delicious dinner and looked beautiful (hence the photo and blog blurb).

Last week at my weightwatchers weigh-in, I had lost a total of 18 lbs since November. It was 10% of my starting weight so I got this keychain that is a 10. When I hit goal weight I get another charm for it, and same for when I become a lifetime member. I've started WW so many times before and this is the first time I got the damn keychain. I'm so proud!


Tom is doing great on it too! He lost about 5% of his starting weight, even with having c-diff. We are really glad we are doing it together and are going to sign up for another 3 months when our program ends next Thursday!

Thats it for January. Maybe I'll post again soon.
Peace out,
V

Grrrr, I'm strong!

Amazing things have been happening around here in the past couple of weeks. Clark has grown so much. When Nana and Grampa were here, Clark was just taking his first crawling steps. Today, I left Clark in the middle of the floor and went into his closet to get some clothes for him. He crawled after me! A few weeks ago, Clark would pull up using our help. Today he can crawl over to a toy and pull up on it most of the time. Two days ago, Tom was saying "Say da da, Say da da" and Clark said "da" very clearly. Tom did it again, and we had another "da" from Clark. These are amazing days.

He got his fourth tooth last week. He can crawl, he can pull up, he said, "da".

We had Josh and Ashley and John Paul over for dinner last weekend and Clark watched John Paul (now 10 mos) crawl around, pull up and be walked around the room. Clark was inspired and can now do those things too (not as well, but he was inspired!)
Now Clark loves being walked around the room! We got a very dangerous walker for him to push around. He is wary of it, but can get it going and practice walking. Tom and I hover to catch him when he is doing it and as a result both of us have achy backs!

The other results of all of these advances are:
Dirt and grass stains!


And bumps and bruises like his first shiner here.


He falls alot and we aren't always there to catch him. He is a trooper though, and cries for a minute then tries again. It is nice to see him so determined. He is really inspiring to me. He has goals and sets out to do them. He doesn't give up.

Other things he can do now are: thumb-finger pincher grasp things, bang things together, he pants when excited (like Sophia used to do!)

Things he likes: blueberries mixed with rice cereal, being thrown into the air, being walked around the room, being surprised (extreme peak-a-boo).

Things he doesn't like: When the water turns on in the bathtub, this is terrifying. And vacuuming and the blow dryer terrify him sometimes, but not all of the time. If I watch him while doing these things then I think it makes him feel less afraid of them.