No such thing as too much grandparent love.

Hudson is a lucky lucky boy! He got to spend the last two weekends with his Grandparents.  They more than made up for his not-so-hot birthday week.

He has read more books, sang more songs, played more peek-a-boo, in the last two weeks than in his previous 12 previous months.

G-man and Hudson celebrating.

More celebrating.
I was not a huge fan of the blizzard indulgences after all my slaving in the kitchen to make healthy Birthday desserts, but what can you do?  I will, however, be making a healthy pumpkin pie blizzard, I'll keep you posted.


More books with Grandpa Betzler.


Cindy made Hudson a Birthday apple pie and tried to teach him to blow out the candles.  He wasn't so good at blowing the candles but he found another use for it...

We love grandparents!!!

The BIG H turns ONE!!!!

Wow, where does the time go? Hudson turned one last week. What an amazing year, who would have thought one little guy could change and change you so much in such a short amount of time!

Unfortunately, he was sick with his first ear infection so he wasn't in a very celebratory mood. We had fun none-the-less.

He liked the cowboy hat way more than the Birthday hat.

The Hs

Hudson and his two best lady friends.

We have really been re-vamping our eating habits at the Betzler household and I looked everywhere for a healthly, low-sugar Birthday dessert. I had a heard time finding a "white-sugar" free dessert...so I made one up. I thought I would share because it was delicious and so easy!

Healthy Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup maple syrup

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup coconut oil

1 tsp cider vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup water

Mix everything together and beat for about one minute. Pour into greased pans.

Top with 3 oz. of chopped dark chocolate (70% cacao).

I used two circle pans. Bake at 350 for 18 ms. for circle pans or until tooth pick comes out clean (about 30 ms. if you use square pans). Once cool top the bottom layer with sliced pears, this gives the cake a moist icing like quality. Top pears with raspberries, strawberries or whatever fruit you want. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Warning : Obviously, the cake is not super sweet but it tasted great and is so nice to let the little ones chow down on something semi-nutrious.

Ohhh and it would be amazing with homemade vanilla ice cream.