Fudge Recipe

We're coming off of two weeks of partying and just enjoying family, and a result of that has been a TON of food consumed. Mom made my favorite peanut butter chocolate cream pie, and then to appease the non-peanut butter OR chocolate eaters in the family (Steve) she made an apple pie. Which was so good she made another the next day. And there was none left for breakfast. Steve made the rookie mistake of giving Henri a huge piece, reasoning that she'd eat only a little and then he'd get to finish it off, thus getting two pieces. While she normally eats very few sweets and is pretty good at limiting herself, on this occasion her head went down and there was no prying the pie from her grip. She inhaled it faster than we ate ours and was very very happy. I guess I should have seen it coming as she asks a few times a week for an apple pie (she'd had one once in her life before and it clearly made an impact).
Anyway, we are home and safe and someone nicely plowed part of our driveway while we were away (have I mentioned our fantastic neighbors?) and back to healthy(ish) eating. But I had a request for the Nutella Fudge recipe I mentioned a while back. Rather than try to make it sound original, I'll just give you the link HERE. Very simple to make, very easy to eat the whole pan yourself. Be warned.
I doubt I'll stay up till midnight tonight as I am now very old and have a busy week to go, but I plan to spend some time re-capping the year (complete with pictures!) for you all for later this week. Hope you're having wonderful celebrations!

Holidays continue

Two weeks of nothing in a row, my apologies. It's a bit more hectic than usual around here and the camera still retains all its photos. Truthfully, you might not get a proper post for a few more weeks as my schedule is ridiculous and it's pretty packed through January. I'm promising myself a treat come May when this is all behind us. Anyway, Henri is on the mend, we've gotten nothing but rain with this nor'easter, and we finally have Christmas lights up on our house!
And speaking of Henri, here she is on Christmas morning with her favorite gift; an Ergo doll carrier. Bobby now truly goes everywhere with her.

 

See you in the New Year!

Oops

Just a quick post to say I'd typed one up and then this and that happened and it didn't get posted, and now it's old news, so it will stay that way. But I'm so close to finishing the year and blogging every week, I'm going to count it even though it didn't make it to publish :)
Anyway, we are safely back in our little hovel after a quick trip to NY. H's toddler hack morphed into scary high (for me...103) fever tonight with 40 respiration rate, but the on-call nurse said I was doing everything right and there was no reason to bring her in. So she's snuggled in bed with her beloved Bobby and Ellie, full of Tylenol and getting steamed by her eucalyptus oil-filled humidifier, and hopefully she's able to sleep comfortably tonight. I'd forgotten what a noisy, restless sleeper she is and we've shared a room and bed the last few nights, so we can all use some shut eye.
We had a marvelous Christmas with Steve's family and I'll share all the photos once I've uploaded them. H was pretty disoriented when we got home, what with the fever and having just fallen asleep, and was heartbroken that "Gamma Shepler" was not there. Hopefully we'll see them sooner than later. Many wishes for a Happy Holiday Season to you all, and I'll write a proper post soon :)

"Vacation Week"

I had big plans for this week, and most of it actually got done, but it was not the peaceful, rested and happy time I had been envisioning. Henri's cold got worse so I was home with her for four days. And she was a tearful mess. Fortunately she'd improved to just a toddler hack by Wednesday so I sent her to school (where she had a wonderful time) and then I came down with the cold on Thursday morning. Needless to say, the house remains a wreck, gifts are still not wrapped, and crafting did not occur. But everyone was fed, laundry was done, and I have just one paper left to write for this semester! I've been baking today to get ready for our church's cookie and coffee night on Sunday when we have a special song service. The nutella sea salt fudge was splendid. My attempts at peppermint meringues appear to be a complete flop. I have two more kinds to go (red velvet whoopie pies and a Yugoslavian Christmas bar) so there's hope yet.

Most of these pictures where taken on the same day when H was looking cute and the sun was out, and as you can see the model was NOT cooperative. At least I'm giving an accurate representation of life in these parts :)

This is a few weeks ago when we went to get our tree; H loved how they smelled and kept hugging them :)

First snow!

I think she was watching Steve trim the base of the tree

My attempt at the Christmas light shot that makes kids look so angelic. Clearly a fail on many levels

Morning attire



We had differing visions of how this photo shoot would go....

Minimally cooperative....

And then full-out rebellion. How dare I ask her to sit for two seconds on the bench she normally loves to climb on?!?!?!?!?!

And once that gasping fit had slowed, another began because her hair was irking her....

But all was better once she spotted my water bottle and could "cheers!" hers against it...

Last weeks art project. I'd wanted painted letters in H's room, but getting enough to spell out Henrietta is a expensive, and I had a large wall to fill (I know, this photo doesn't show scale well), so I painted canvases and stenciled/painted animals to represent her name: Hedgehog, Elk, Newt, Rabbit, Ibex, Elephant, Turtle, Toucan, Ant. She likes to name them off before she goes to bed, though she thinks the hedgehog is a sheep and the elk is a cow. Pretty close, I think.

The hedgehog. I thought he was so cute, and as it's Papa's trademark animal, and as H inquires about her Papa at least a few times a day, I thought it was a nice tie in.

Back to a normal-for-us schedule this week with two on-call shifts at the hospital and one in clinic. I'm hoping to get out of my Sunday shift so we can spend some time with Steve's family for Christmas; either way it's going to be a super short trip :( I think we're going to Skype a "Happy Birthday" to Papa, and then plunk the young 'un in bed, and then bake some more. Have a lovely (warm) weekend!

More phone pictures

It continues to be the usual pace around here; a bit hectic, but still plenty of time for snuggling on the couch and reading with our Boo. This coming week I have no clinicals (yay!) but a huge "to do" list that will more than fill my time. Henri has had a cold for the past few days and was a total miserable whine pot today. She just felt crummy and was acting it out. It sounds pretty deep and I hope it's not anything serious, but I'm assuming she takes after me who spent every winter as a kid with a cough that sounded like I was on death's door. So I'm keeping her steamed and she's loving tissues, and we're keeping it low key.
We splurged a bit this afternoon and went to our favorite restaurant, Mr. Sushi. While H likes to play with a roll if I give it to her, she's yet to really eat one, but there's plenty of other stuff there she likes. I'd texted my mom the below photo and she was worried I'd only given H water. So in case you're concerned as well, the following was Henri's lunch: A Happy Baby (to keep her amused till the food came), her very own cup of water with a straw (this was a very. big. deal to her), an asparagus sushi roll, rice, miso broth, tofu (some day I'll get to eat the tofu in my soup; right now Steve and I have to give H all of ours as the greedy monster looooves it), cucumbers, tomatoes, tempura fried sweet potatoes and squash, and oranges. Some days it amazes me that she's still only 21 pounds.
Anyway, I have on my list for the week to "take pictures with the real camera" so I hope to do so :)

We helped decorate the church last weekend. After 5 years, it all comes together pretty seamlessly under the very capable direction and vision of Jessica

And then back home to decorate our own tree. Henri was enthralled with it and kept hugging it and sniffing it before we put it up. She's pretty much ignored it since :)

Steve washes the dishes every night (awww). He's found a way to make it more enjoyable: stream McGyver on his pad and tune out the family noise :)

At Mr. Sushi's today. Note the bags under H's eyes. Poor kid's not doing so hot

But the cup of water made it all better for a time. (Note: it's not like she's deprived of water at home. She has three cups in constant use and at any given time there's a full sippy within 2 feet of her. It's just that this had a removable straw which meant she could spray us/drip water everywhere and play in it)


Hopefully this drizzle ends soon as I'm itching for a long walk. I'd finally started to lose (a very tiny amount of) weight when the icky weather moved in and that, combined with the amazing carrot cake I just made, seem to be conspiring to undo said progress. And yes, I know cake is not a great diet staple, but Steve made carrot juice and I couldn't let the leftover pulp go to waste. So if anyone wants a slice, just head on over :)