Clark continues his schooling

The picture above is of Clark hanging out as Josh and I made dinner on Saturday night :)

Friday night went very well! Clark woke up at 12:30am, Josh soothed him back to sleep, then he woke up at 3:30am and I fed him.  He woke again at 6:15am but then fussed back to sleep and then woke up for the day around 9:30am!  I'm not complaining!!  I didn't nurse him right before bed, instead I gave him formula to see if the added calories would help him sleep.  Well I should have pumped before bed!!  Instead I woke up at 3:30am with a super sore clogged milk duct.  I put a heating pad on it after nursing him, but it still didn't go away.  I woke up with it still hurting at 9:30am.  I tried putting heat on it all day but I didn't nurse or pump as much as I should have (Carly told me later on in the day that when a milk duct is clogged you should pump or nurse every two hours!!  With Clark on solids I only nurse him every four hours.).  Anyway it stayed clogged alllll day and into the evening.  Finally when I was nursing him at 1:30am on Sunday, I could feel it go down!  Whew!  That was a long battle.  I'm going to be much more careful from now on!  A clogged duct can easily turn into mastitis!  Yuck!  The rest of his Saturday night went well--he woke up again at 6:45am and I nursed him because I didn't want the clog to come back..plus I didn't know how much I would be able to nurse him at church.  But back to Saturday...

Anyway our Saturday was nice and relaxing.  I played violin for Queen for a Day at church--which is always a wonderful, fulfilling time.  I really enjoy it.  Josh watched Clark and also watched the snow fall!  How crazy!  We got almost six inches.  I still need to get a picture of Clark out there in his first winter wonderland. :)  I was afraid the plows would wake Clark up on Saturday night but he slept right through it!

Sunday morning I was asked to lead the orchestra at church since Matt was away for the weekend.  It went really well except only four people showed up to play!  A lot of people had lost power and there were a lot of downed limbs blocking roads.  That's okay, it was a nice small group.  The worship service was planned special for Reformation Sunday.  It was a neat service.  Unfortunately I missed the sermon because little Clarkle was sad in the nursery.  He had a weird schedule this morning with church and he was just tired.

This afternoon has been relaxing...aaahhh weekends!  I spent some time researching paintings for our house (Caleb, feel free to paint one for us!!!! :).  I loooove Peter Sculthorpe at www.petersculthorpe.com.  He is similar to Richard Bollinger with sharp lines and contrast.  I would love to get a winter-themed picture for over our fireplace.  The one we have definitely looks nice for all seasons but it would be fun to have a winter one.  Maybe for Christmas?? (Josh: HINT!!! haha)

I spent some time playing on the floor with Clark this afternoon and decided to get some pictures.  He LOVES playing with his little blue truck.  He picks it up and gnaws on it, makes a funny face (it probably tastes nasty) then it rolls out of his reach, so I roll it back to him and we repeat.  For about twenty minutes.  It's exciting that he's starting to play. :)

trying to get a grip on the truck!

his classic expression: "mild surprise"

"Mama, I'll trade you this toy for that camera..."

staying balanced while playing can be tricky!

I noticed that the church nursery has a specific cubby just for Clark: 

And that's all for today!  I hope you're all doing well!  Tomorrow is Pop-pop Moffit's 85th birthday so Clark and I are joining Mom, Amy, Abby and their kiddos at Brittany Pointe to wish him well.  We're bringing a card and some pictures of Clark for their room. :)  Should be a happy Halloween!!

Clark gets schooled

Thursday marked the first full day of sleep training for Clark.  He aced it!!  We are using a method by Dr. Marc Weissbluth in his book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child."  He explains three different methods in that book and we are using the "extinction" method.  Basically you teach them to self-soothe by letting them cry themselves to sleep.  As long as it takes, not going back into the nursery at all (unless they are in danger obviously).  The reason I am so comfortable with this method is because we have a video monitor so I can see exactly what's going on as he's crying--is he stuck against the bumper pad, are his eyes open or closed, is his head laying directly on top of his paci and therefore he's crying because he's uncomfortable, etc.  So today was the first day.  And Clark really took to this training.  I made up my own little rule that until he gets the hang of it, I will go comfort him if he's taking over 30 minutes to fall asleep for his daytime naps.  So Thursday morning at 9:00 I put him down and he cried for about 15 minutes then "talked" and rubbed his face with his blanket for 10 minutes until he fell asleep---for a total of exactly 25 minutes!  And he slept 90 minutes!  I thought that was pretty successful.  Then we hopped in the car with Mimi and Aunt Kim to go furniture shopping.  He took his two afternoon naps while we were out.  We went to Applebee's for lunch and he fell asleep in his infant seat there for about 30 minutes.  Then on the ride home he fell asleep again in the car for about 30 minutes.  He did very well!  We stopped by the Martin's Country Market in Ephrata and he sat in the cart like a big boy!  I couldn't believe it!  Little Clark already sitting up in the grocery cart. :)  It's a relief actually because he's heavy in the bjorn, and with the cold weather coming it'll be nice to just scoop him up and take him inside the store instead of the five to ten minute ordeal of putting him in the bjorn by the car.  (I would put him in the bjorn INSIDE the car except...my car was built for an elf.)  

After dinner Clark went down for the night.  Again he fussed for about 15 minutes then "talked" and rubbed his face until he was asleep--in exactly 25 minutes again!  Now the tricky part was managing to keep him asleep.  He stayed asleep from 7:15pm to 10:30pm.  Not too bad but I was hoping he wouldn't wake up until midnight.  Josh went in right away (I didn't want to go in because I didn't want to distract him with the smell of breastmilk) and soothed him back to sleep with the paci.  About 15 minutes later Clark woke up again crying.  So we gave it 45 minutes.  Josh took the monitor upstairs and watched the World Series game during this time.  He came back down at 11:15, told me he was still crying, and at this point I thought maybe he was hungry.  So Josh went in again to see if he would root around.  Well instead he fell asleep almost as soon as Josh popped his paci and picked him up!  After going back to sleep he woke up again at 4am so I fed him (I had to pump around 3am because I woke up and was so engorged!!)  He didn't seem super hungry at 4am, but he did nurse.  I was still super full (my hand pump is soooo slow I don't usually have the patience to totally empty out) so I was hoping he would nurse like crazy!  The good part was he fell asleep nursing and didn't wake up when I put him down.  Then he slept until 7:15am!  Huge improvement from Wednesday night!!  All in all his first night with the training was awesome.  And I couldn't have done it without Josh!!  He is a wonderful Dad, and always willing to help me out.  I love it!!

Today he went down for his first morning nap and fussed (not really crying) for 3 minutes.  Then he slept for 2 1/2 hours!!  I was so thankful for that because I hosted a playdate in the afternoon.  I got the house ready and made an apple crisp during his nap!  How considerate of him. :)  After he woke up we went to get the mail.  I bundled him up and he looked so cute I got some pictures:  

Then we had lunch.  It was a disappointment for Clark because he didn't like the apples and blackberries Gerber combo I gave him.  It wouldn't be a big deal except I had bought about five of them because Martin's is going out of business and they were all 50% off!  Oh well, I will give them to Haley at Thanksgiving!! :)  He went down for his afternoon nap at 1:30pm and didn't even cry.  He rolled onto his side, said a couple words (I think his naptime prayer) then fell asleep.  He only slept for 45 minutes but I left him in his crib for a full hour because I want his body to get used to sleeping for at least an hour in the afternoon.  He didn't fall back to sleep, he just chatted away until I got him, but at least he was resting.  By that time his pals were over for the playdate!  We had Elisha and her son Hunter (14 months), AmyBeth and her daughter Gwen (15 months I think), Holly and her daughter Isabella (17 months) and Aunt Kim also stopped by.  It was fun!

After everyone left Clark and I played for awhile then I tried putting him down for a third nap.  He cried for 30 minutes so I went in and soothed him to sleep and he slept for 40 minutes.  I was reading that by 6 months they usually drop their third nap.  I'm going to keep putting him down for the next week and if he still fights it I will stop.  I will probably do what my sister-in-law Abby does, which is leave the light on dimly, and give him soft toys to play with so he is resting up, but not actually sleeping.  As Abby says, "It helps get some of the grumpies out!"  Haha!

Anyway, he had dinner when Josh got home and he ate a whole jar of pees!  I was happy with that.  He played in his high chair while we ate, then he got his bath.  Josh read his devotions, we prayed, then I fed him a formula bottle (I'm thinking my breastmilk is too thin so I'm trying to boost his calories with formula at night).  He seemed unhappy with the bottle--he kept pushing it out of his mouth then rooting on me.  He had only drunk two ounces so I tried breastfeeding.  He ate for about three minutes, then kept unlatching and complaining.  I tried burping him and he burped pretty big, but when he went back to breastfeeding he kept unlatching and complaining!  It was the strangest behavior!!  I ended up just trying the paci and he relaxed right away.  I sang him his lullaby (thank you Brahms!) and put him down.  Aaaand he didn't cry for about five minutes!  Then he "complained" and talked to himself for an additional 20 minutes before falling asleep--putting us at exactly 25 minutes again!

I'm hoping for a good night tonight, but sometimes the second night can be tough.  Hopefully Josh will be willing to help me out again!  Wish us luck!  

The Wednesday Night of Doom

Yesterday was a laid-back day at home for Clark and I!  He took pretty good naps (except for his last nap). I continued my cleaning from the Tuesday and finished everything, yay!  I organized the desk in our bedroom, cleaned out and winterized my closet, and stored all my maternity clothes.  Let's just say it feels great to be able to actually walk in my walk-in closet!!

In between Clark's second and third nap, we decided to take a walk in the 65-degree, gorgeous weather.  As we were out walking I saw the Board of Directors walking around inspecting each house for rule violations.  It was actually pretty humorous.  I felt like asking, "did my house pass???"  I'm sure it did.  As we continued on our walk there was a big yellow lab running around without a collar on.  There was a kid walking from the bus stop sort of in stride with the dog so I thought he belonged to him, but then they went in opposite directions.  As I kept walking I came upon a lady with a leash and asked if she was looking for a yellow lab.  She said it wasn't hers, but she had encountered it while walking her dog and wanted to catch it to see if it had a chip in it.  She was afraid someone had dropped him off.  I hope she found him!

When we got home around 4:00pm Josh was just pulling in the driveway!  He had a special team-building event at work so they got off early.  It was great having him home, and Clark got noticeably excited when he saw him!!  It was super cute!  He was pumping his legs and smiling super big!  We had dinner then got Clark ready for bed.  I nursed him then left for Bible study and Josh had the unfortunate task of putting him to sleep.  He didn't fall asleep until 8pm, and even then he was still in and out of it.  I got home around 9:15 and by 9:30 he was crying really hard.  So I went in and fed him.  And thus began my night of doom....He woke up again at 11:15 then 1:30 then 3:45, at which point he stayed awake, only dozing off slightly, until 5:45am.  At this point I was in tears so Josh took over.  Josh said he rocked him for 45 minutes then put him in the crib and Clark started crying.  Can you imagine?!  Around this time Josh brought him back to me and told me what happened.  Then he got ready for work while I nursed him and tried to get him back to sleep.  Didn't work.  So we just started our day at 7:00am.

Needless to say I was completely exasperated.  And so was Josh for that matter.  And so was Clark!!  So Josh and I decided now was the time to officially start sleep training Clark.  No matter what it takes, he definitely needs to learn how to fall asleep on his own.  Apparently falling asleep is a learned behavior and babies are capable of self-soothing themselves to sleep by four months old.  We haven't trained him so far because up until about a month ago, maybe three weeks ago, Clark only woke up two or three times each night anyway--and he went down easily for naps with nursing.  Now he is fighting me for naps and waking up three to five times each night!  So we are ready for a change!  Let's just say I don't want to end up on the evening news.  "Morgantown mother goes postal; husband says he saw this coming five months ago."

I didn't take any pictures on Wednesday so here are two that I took when Clark turned four months old:

 
I chose those two because those are two of his most common expressions :)

Tuesday at Grandma's

Tuesday was Josh's first day back at work.  It was a sad day for our little family. :(  But Clark and I decided to distract ourselves as best we could!  He woke up around 8am and I got showered and dressed while he chatted away in his crib.  Then we had breakfast.  He hung out in his exersaucer while I got everything ready to go then we drove over to Grandma's house!  When I dropped him off he was fussing because he was tired and ready for his nap.  I left a bottle with Grandma and hurried off to do my grocery shopping.  I went to Martin's (Farmer Brown's) first.  It was so sad!  The place is almost completely empty.  I cleared out the baby food section (all food is 50% off!!) and then stopped by Country Porch Primitives one last time.  It was almost completely cleared out too!  Very sad.  Then I dropped by Walmart on the way back to Grandma's.  I got to Grandma's around 11am and she said Clark had just drifted off to sleep.  He woke up shortly after I got there (I accidentally slammed the screen door and woke him up. Duh Kelly!!!).  Grandma offered me lunch, which was great!!  She made me an amazing sandwhich!!  Plus we had chips, applesauce and pumpkin bread.  Very good!!!  I love Grandma's food. :)

We left after about an hour and came home for Clark's afternoon nap.  He slept almost two hours!!  Go Clark!!  After his nap we went on a walk and got the mail (always exciting) then he played for about an hour and a half before going down for his second nap.  While he was sleeping I chatted with Aunt Katelyn on the phone and did some cleaning.  It was so relaxing!  It's fun to have kids close in age.  

After his second nap I fed him dinner then he hung out in the kitchen while I made dinner for Josh and I.  We had leftovers...nothing exciting!  Then we gave him a bath and I straightened up the house while Josh read him a story.  Then Mimi arrived to babysit while Josh and I went to small group.  THANK YOU MIMI!!  It was soooo nice to go to small group without Clark.  I am always stressed when we bring him along, and I can't concentrate!  Clark cried for awhile with Mimi but she fed him a bottle, held him for awhile to get him sleepy again, then patted him to sleep in his crib.  Yay!  Josh and I got home around 9:30pm.

Here are some cell phone pictures, sorry they're fuzzy!

this is from breakfast on Tuesday:

And this is him playing on Wednesday: I must have caught him off guard haha!

 

Recent pictures!

I wanted to update again today because I got some adorable pictures off my camera :)

Today we visited Mom-mom and Pop-pop Moffit and introduced Clark Thomas to his namesake!!  Clark behaved very well except he started fussing towards the end and also filled his diaper right when we got there.  Mom-mom just loooved holding him!!  And Pop-pop was just soaking it all in :)  Mom-mom asked to hold him and when I put him on her lap she commented, "wow he's heavy!"  She was just so excited about him.  Then she said he was too heavy and gave him back.  At this point I noticed he needed a diaper change so I took him in the other room and changed him.  When I brought him back, Mom-mom was like, "Oh a baby!!  How cute!  Can I hold him??"  It was so funny!  So she held him again and never commented on his weight, just kissed his forehead over and over and kept saying how much he loved his mommy. :)  I don't know if she thought she was the mommy??  I wasn't sure but it was super cute!  Anyway here are the pictures I took:

4 generations!  From left to right: Pop-pop (Thomas Moffit), Josh, Clark, Mom (Nancy Moffit Fenton), Mom-mom (Alice Moffit)

We are planning on coming to see them again soon.  Josh has some days off around Thanksgiving so hopefully we can stop in then.

The rest of the day was spent catching up on sleep (Josh and Clark) and cleaning/laundry (me :).  Clark was very out of sorts by the end of the day.  He was nursing so much this afternoon that I pretty much "ran dry" by his bedtime so I couldn't nurse him to sleep and he was MAD.  After thirty minutes Josh came in and rocked him to sleep.  Clark knows that Josh can't feed him (well, feed him THAT way haha) and he calmed down after about ten minutes.  As he was wailing in my arms I was thinking maybe I need to come up with a sleep training game-plan.  I'm going to look on Amazon for that Baby Whisperer Answers Your Questions book and see how much it costs.

Before Clark's stinky bedtime problem, he had a nice Bible story with Daddy.  I took some pictures because it was very cute:

 This one was taken when he was hanging out in the johnny jump-up:

 This was before bathtime :)

And that's all for now!!  I hope you all had a happy Monday. :)

Daddy's Stay-cation

This past week Josh was home alll week on a stay-cation!  He gets a lot of vacation days at J&J and for the past two years he had big events to use them up (2009: our wedding and honeymoon; 2010: Africa trip).  So this year he decided to use them up by sticking around the house.  Let me tell you, it was probably more relaxing than an actual vacation!!  Here's a summary of what we did each day:

SUNDAY: We went to church, although I basically just babysat Clark at church.  He was still feeling sick so I didn't want to put him in the nursery.  Josh was observing a Sunday school class (he's teaching it in a couple weeks) so I stayed in there for a while and Clark fell asleep.  He woke up about thirty minutes later and the class was nearly finished so I just packed him up and took him home because he was being really loud.  In the afternoon Josh got a text form one of his groomsmen in his wedding, Joe.  Joe recently got engaged to his long-time (like eight years!!!) girlfriend, Shannon and we hadn't seen them since.  As it turned out they wanted to meet Clark and we wanted to see her ring so we invited them to come over!  Three hours later (and lots of cleaning...) they arrived.  Unfortunately the hardwood was still wet!!  I hope they didn't notice....And they requested to watch the rest of the Eagles' game..up in the loft..which is where I was stock-piling a bunch of Clark's toys and clothes during the cleaning haha  So it was a humbling experience! hahah Anyway we had a great time with them.  Her ring is beautiful!!  I showed her my wedding planner book and wedding album so she could get an idea of how the wedding was planned.  I should have had my Mom over--we talked wedding for their whole visit!!! :)  They stayed for dinner (meatball sandwiches...sound familiar anyone?! :).  Then they left around 7pm.

MONDAY:  We polished up my car and posted it for sale on Craig's List.  We're asking $7,775 if anyone is interested!! :)  Then we had Mom-mom and Pop-pop over for dinner.  They arrived a little earlier and hung out with Clark before dinner.  Then Josh grilled rosemary chicken, and I baked potatoes and green beans.  We finished up with an apple pie I made for dessert!  It was great to see them, I'm so glad that they came!!

TUESDAY: Tuesday morning was a "Mom's Together" event through our church.  I overslept (HOW?!?!?) and arrived twenty-five minutes late.  I was super bummed because I was looking forward to it for MONTHS then to miss almost a full half hour!!  They were still eating breakfast when I arrived. The topic was leading your children to Christ.  The speaker was my Aunt Verna who has EIGHT children, so I'd say she was highly qualified to speak!  And they are all Christian children, so another qualification I think haha  It was a great time and I was sad to leave when it was over.  Tuesday afternoon I straightened up the house because we were hosting small group in the evening.  We also got to go out to lunch while Grandma and Grandpa watched Clark!!  A little date :)  Very fun!!  After lunch we stopped by Farmer Brown's, which is closing next week.  I spent about $50 at Country Porch Primitives, which is an adjoining gift store, which is also shutting down and everything was 50% off.  Lots of beautiful Christmas decorations!!!  Small group went well at night!  Clark had a little trouble staying asleep but Josh and I tag-teamed so we each got to see some of the video.  (We are watching a DVD series on Shepherding a Child's Heart.)

WEDNESDAY: Wednesday morning we called up Mimi to see if she could watch Clark while Josh and I test-drove cars.  She was up for it!  So after lunch she came over and we headed up to Piazza Honda in Limerick.  It was a rainy day so we figured it wouldn't be busy.  And it wasn't!  We test-drove a Honda CR-V.  We were hoping to get a 2011 model for a steal since the 2012 models would be out and they would want to get rid of their 2011 inventory.  WELL as it turns out, Honda is a Japanese company and there was a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan this year (don't know if you heard about that...) so their 2012 production is about three months behind.  The 2012 models won't be coming out until January!  So that pretty much foiled our plan.  We really like CR-Vs though so we'll see what happens.  Wednesday night was rainy and cold so we stayed indoors (like Clark would want to go out anyway haha) and had a relaxing evening.

THURSDAY: In the morning I had a dentist appointment (GAAAAHHHHH).  Actually it wasn't too bad.  Last time I was there I was nine months pregnant and my dental hygienist was eight months pregnant!!  So we had a lot to talk about.  She had a little girl named Whitney (super cute) and I brought pictures along to show her Clark.  hahaha we are best friends every six months for about an hour. hahaha  Thursday night was the Elverson Halloween Parade!  We bundled Clark up underneath his Jack-O-Lantern costume and headed out into the cold!  It was a fun parade.  Clark didn't enjoy it very much (he was overtired and crying a lot).  But thanks to Pops holding him inside the SEL office, I got to enjoy much of the parade!  We walked down to the Mountz's house to say hi to Aunt Kim and Uncle Jon.  The parade ended while we were there so we walked back over to Mimi and Pops' house and headed home.  The traffic wasn't bad at all.

FRIDAY: Friday we thought we may be visiting Mom-mom and Pop-pop Moffit at Brittany but instead we're going on Monday.  I don't really remember what we did on Friday....

SATURDAY: Saturday was a big day!  We went to Mackenzie and Annie's birthday party in the morning!  It was very very fun!  Clark did great, he even took a little nap on Aunt Amy and Uncle Ryan's bed! :)  It was so great catching up with Amy and Abby.  Our kids are so close in age, we just have tons to talk about!!  And Clark loves watching all the other kids play.  He was in the exersaucer for a long time too.  After the birthday party Josh took Clark home and I drove over to a baby shower for my friend Ashley.  She is having a girl around Thanksgiving.  Be praying for a safe delivery!!  It was a beautiful shower and it was great to catch-up with Ashley.

SUNDAY:  Yesterday we were heavily involved at church and I was just praying that Clark would be okay in the nursery.  Before he got sick, I had spent most Sundays in the nursery because he would just wail and wail.  Well the Lord worked everything out!  He woke up early that day (usual) so we were able to get to church in time to practice.  He sat nicely in his carseat while we practiced then Aunt Kim whisked him off to nursery where he sat nicely while Josh and I helped lead worship!  I went in after to nurse him, then came back in for the sermon.  He fell asleep during second service but woke up right when we picked him up to go home!  Thank you Lord!!  Sunday night was a special communion service so we took him along and hoped for the best.  Again he did great!!  He was very tired and wailing on the way home, but then he went down for the night very well.

And that's it!!  We had a great stay-cation together.  I will miss having him home during the day!!

Clark is 5 months old!!

Okay so his five months pictures aren't his best...hahaha but his expression is pretty funny :)

So far, five months is treating Clark very well!  Except that he's been sick...he was sick for the past twelve days or so.  He is finally starting to feel better.  Although his nose is running again...but it may be from teething.  He DEFINITELY has two little bumps on his bottom rack!  And he's drooling like crazy.  I've resorted to putting bibs on him over his outfits.  Yes he looks like a dweeb.  BUT it saves me a lot of laundry.  Who wants to have a wet shirt all day??

Clark is now eating three solid food meals a day.  He wakes up around 9am (or earlier) and I take him straight down to his high chair where he has pears or some other fruit for breakfast.  Then before his nap I nurse him and I'm working on getting him to sleep one or more hours in the morning.  If he doesn't, I will nurse him again before "lunch."  His lunch is usually sweet potatoes.  Then I'll nurse him before his afternoon nap, which again, I am trying to stretch into two hours.  Then I nurse him at least one more time before his dinner, which I feed him around 5:30 or 6.  He usually eats a vegetable for dinner.  His favorite so far is green beans.  He is a great eater!!  Never has he refused to eat something.  The funniest thing is he usually boos during every meal.  It is so funny!!  I'll be feeding him and then all the sudden he'll start pushing and his face will get so red.  It is hilarious!!  At that point I usually eat my meal while he is "finishing" then I feed him more after he's done.

As far as his sleep training goes...I am so back and forth about it.  There was one evening when Josh put him to bed and he "let him cry."  But it was minimal--he wasn't hysterical, and Josh would check on him every ten minutes and pop his paci.  It took over an hour but he did eventually fall asleep.  The more stories I hear about how fast babies grow up, the more I want to hold him to sleep.  The only thing is I know in my head that eventually I'll have to sleep train him.  It may be easier for me to do it when he's older and understands the sentence "it's time to go to bed now."  But it may be harder at that point because he could put up more of a fuss, and he could be reaching out of his crib for me.  It's a hard call.  I don't have a strong gut feeling either way.  I definitely don't want to EVER feel guilty for what I am doing.  I don't want to feel guilty as he's wailing away.  But I don't want to develop bad habits and feel guilty about that.  It's weird.  I wish I had a strong conviction either way!!

Clark is much more smiley at five months.  He will smile at strangers (!!) and especially for family members.  I think Haley rubbed off on him during her visit!! :)  Speaking of Haley, here are some pictures from when she and the Brusts were here:

Hahaha I love those pictures!  I especially like the one of all three of them having tummy time!!

And lastly, here is a video from today with Clark enjoying his new Johnny Jump-up (thank you Mom-mom!!!!):

Happy Birthday to Mackenzie!!

We'd like to say Happy Birthday to Mackenzie!!!  She turned seven on October 8th!  We hope you had a wonderful birthday Max!!!  Here are some pics of her:

This is from summer 2008 when Josh and I were still dating!  This is at the Ocean City boardwalk:

 fast-forward to THIS summer: Mackenzie is on the far left:

 and this is at Clark's baptism: Mackenzie is at the far left again! 

this is from the day Clark met Mackenzie for the first time :)

this is from our trip to Nazareth when Clark was one month old:  Mackenzie is on the far right holding Josiah:

This is at Josh's 2nd birthday party.  Mackenzie is on the far left again!

Anyway we hope Mackenzie had an awesome day!!  We will be celebrating her birthday at a party this Saturday (along with Annie's birthday, which is on November 6th).

Clark's baptism

Hi everyone!  Clark was baptized this Sunday and EVERYONE (almost :) was there to celebrate with us!!  Here are some awesome pictures of the event, compliments of Uncle Caleb!

Josh and I hosted a lunch reception afterwards at my parents' house.  It went very well--Josh did all the food!  Thank you Josh!  I would have been super stressed if he hadn't taken care of that.  Here are some snaps from the luncheon: 

I asked Caleb to do a short photoshoot with Clark during the reception.  I think these are great!!  

Molly hopped in for some pics at the end!  Don't they look alike??  Molly's expressions are absolutely adorable!!!

Then we had some group pictures with alllll Clark's cousins!!

Stoltzfus side:

Calla, Kelsey, Haley, Clark, Jonathan 

Fenton side: 

Mackenzie, Molly, Annie, Alexandria, Clark, Josiah, Josh and Andrew:

Everyone together now!!

Mackenzie holding Jonathan, Annie holding Molly, Alexandria and Calla holding Clark, Josiah, Josh, Andrew, and Kelsey holding Haley:

And now my grandparents with the Stoltzfus cousins: 

So that was our weekend!!  Thank you to everyone who came out for Clark's big day. :)  We were honored to have you all there sharing in that special moment with us.  We are truly grateful to all of you!!