Healthy Eats

This blog post is dedicated to my amazing, talented, healthy-eating Dad.  As some of you may know, about 5 years ago my dad had open-heart surgery for a triple bypass.  With that as a wake-up call, he realized the importance of putting healthy foods into our bodies so they can run at their best capacity.  He spent a lot of time researching just what kinds of food were the best for keeping your heart, body, and mind healthy.  He came up with a list of ingredients, and started looking for foods, especially breakfast foods, that contained all, or at least most, of those ingredients.  But (shocker) he couldn't find any that not only contained all those ingredients, but that actually tasted good!  So, with that, he went to work making his own.

To be honest, for a while there I thought he was crazy.  He would spend literally hours every night for months and months working on different formulas to get exactly the right combination.  One of his favorite things to do was to go to the local health food stores within 100 mile radius and check out what "super-ingredients" they had.  Finally, after a few years, he perfected his recipe, got a trademark, and named it "Nutrismart Cereals."  Although, most people who know him just refer to it as "John's Cereal."  Check out this list of ingredients:

Almonds
Amaranth
Barley
Brown Rice
Buckwheat
Cinnamon
Cornmeal
Cranberries
Flaxseeds
Garbanzos
Millet
Oats
Quinoa
Rye
Sea Salt
Sesame Seeds
Spelt
Cane Sugar
Wheat

Hello!  This cereal is like oatmeal on steroids!  And, beyond being an incredibly healthy fuel for your body, it actually tastes GOOD!  Even Joseph likes it, which is really saying something since he rarely will knowingly eat something that contains (among other things) brown rice, barley, and whole wheat.

After enjoying the cereal in our family for a few years now, he has finally decided to start selling it to others.  He took up the local farmer's market and was very successful, with tons of positive feedback.  His website is finally LIVE and you can check it out here: www.nutrismartcereal.com.  Way to go, Dad, I'm SO proud of you!!
  

Nativity Play

Hello bloggers!  First of all, I'd like to apologize to the two of you who read my blog faithfully.  It's been a long hiatus and things have been pretty insane around these parts lately, but we're back to real life (as we know it at least).  

Jake was recently in a Nativity play that his class put together for our church's Christmas party.  I don't know that I've ever seen a cuter group of 3-year-olds.  Really.  Jake is the shepherd who says, "Let's go to Bethlehem!"  We spent a long time practicing that line to perfection, as well as the song at the end.  Although, you wouldn't know it because he doesn't sing a word of it.  All I have to say about it is...well...enjoy!!

We're looking forward to the holiday season (we're going to Michigan this year!) and everything that it stands for.  Merry Christmas all!

Conferences

Joseph and I had our very first parent teacher conference on Friday.  Such a milestone for us as parents, and for some reason I was so nervous!  I didn't know what to expect or even how these things work.  I was especially terrified that there were going to say something along the lines of, "Really?  You think that you can put that terror child into preschool?  Get him out of here!" or even worse, "So THIS is where he gets it..."  All of my fears were put to rest, however, when we  walked in and saw Mrs. Heithoff's welcoming smile (I see why Jake loves her).

We were so pleasantly surprised to hear that Jake is apparently a model student at preschool (or do they just say that to everyone?)  Mrs. Heithoff told us that she absolutely adores having him in her classroom and that he is adjusting really well.  She actually went on and on about what a great kid he is, how he follows directions, is kind to other children, etc.  To be honest, I couldn't believe we were talking about the same child.  It makes me so happy to hear that Jake is well behaved for other adults, even if he has to let loose when he's at home and occasionally makes me want to pull my hair out.  I'd rather have it that way than the other.  Love this crazy kid!

Halloween Happenings

Jake ended up getting tons of use out of his dragon costume this year.  Of course, this is despite the fact that he wore it every day anyway.  I don't think I've ever seen a cuter dragon.  

The Halloween festivities began on Thursday with his preschool Halloween parade and singing program.  What an adorable group of preschoolers!  Jake knew almost all the words to the songs, including "I'm a little Pumpkin" (sung to the tune of "I'm a little Teapot") and "If you're a ____ and you know it" (fill in the blank with ghost, skeleton, goblin, etc.)  

Here is Jake and his friend Spencer at the Halloween program.  Whenever anyone asked what Jake was going to be for Halloween he would answer, "I'm a dragon, and Spencer is a Pirate."

 Jake and his teacher Mrs. Heithoff.  I'm pretty sure he has a secret crush on her.  He talks about her all the time.

On Friday we went to a Halloween party on campus at the Old Capital Building.  It wasn't anything too fancy, but Jake got to dress up in his costume again, which he of course was excited about!

Saturday came our church's Halloween party.  Sadly, I wasn't able to go, and Joseph didn't take pictures because he was doing this the whole time:

Even though no pictures were taken, Jake came home with a huge stash of candy from trunk-or-treating.  So, obviously, he had a good time.  Also, did you notice the snot on Joseph's shoulder?  Oh Eli...and what a great daddy for putting up with it...

That evening we carved pumpkins!  Well, Jake painted his pumpkin while Joseph carved the jack-o-lantern.

 Finally, Monday was the big day!  Some friends came to our neighborhood to go trick-or-treating and we took a group picture.  Talk about an excited bunch!  They were all prepped for trick-or-treating from our church's trunk-or-treat, so they knew exactly what to do.

 When Jake would knock on the door he always said, "Trick-or-treat, I'm a dragon!!"

We had such a great time!  I see why they always say that holidays are more fun with kids.

Whew, did you keep track of that?  The Halloween festivities stretched over four days - Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday!  Needless to say, we've got a whole lot of candy up in here these days. Good thing we've got an endless supply of toothbrushes in our home!

Dr.?

This came in the mail yesterday.  I realize it's a little premature and he won't really be a Dr. for another 7 months, but it gave me chills nonetheless!!  DR. Joseph Dougherty already coming to our mailbox.  That's how close we are!!  Yikes.

Big Boy

Today I took Eli to his 9-month well child appointment.  The 9-monther is always a nice appointment because there are no shots this time around.  We did get some good stats though:

Height - 30 inches - 90%ile
Weight - 19 1/2 lb. - 25%ile

Head - 18 1/8 inches - 65%ile

(Looks like he got the Witt tall, skinny genes from my mom's side of the family.)

Crawling: check
Push to stand: check
Babbling: check
Eating solids: check
Drinking from sippy: yeah right
Sleeping through the night: Ehh...sometimes...
Into anything and everything: check, check, check!!

Well, Eli, you've got a clean bill of health.  Way to go!

Jake the Dragon

I found this dragon costume for Jake at Old Navy for $15 the other day.  And it even comes with the legs, too!  I know, I was really impressed with myself as well.  Ever since I brought it home, Jake has been obsessed with it.  He literally wears it around the house 24/7.  Actually, make that 22/7 because we do make him take it off for meals and baths.  But yeah, you get the picture.  And I thought he would only get to use it on Halloween!  Who am I kidding, I loved playing dress-up as a kid, too.  Ok, I still love it...

In other news, poor Eli has been sick lately.  It makes for a very boogery, fussy, whiny baby, but even then he is just about the cutest thing ever with his two-toothed grin.  Can you tell I'm a mom??

Family Photos

We finally got family pictures taken this past week by my good friend Kate.  I think she did a fantastic job!  I was so excited when I got them home that the first thing I did was scope out the house for places to put up pictures.

My one request was that we took pictures somewhere in a cornfield.  I wanted something that screamed "Iowa" since this is our last year here, and nothing says it quite like giant corn!    

So now for all of you who have been begging for family pictures (you know who you are) they will be coming your way soon!  Thanks again, kate elisabeth, the pictures turned out great!  

They built it, and we came!

With this being our last year in Iowa, we want to make sure that we do everything that we have said in years past that we should do but haven't yet gotten around to. This weekend we checked another item off our Iowa "to do" list (it isn't very long) when we went to the actual Field of Dreams. We hit up Dyersville to check out the iconic movie set, and it did not disappoint!

Just like you would expect, the baseball diamond and farmhouse were surrounded by cornfields in the Middle of Nowhere, IA.

We got out our baseballs, bats, and mitts and did what we do best: play!

Eli spent the majority of his time chewing on his baseball bat. He was as content as could be just chilling in the middle of the baseball diamond.

Hmmm... what's this?

I better taste it to make sure it's ok.

Yeah, this is some good stuff.

Of course, it wouldn't be a true trip to the Field of Dreams unless we took some time to disappear into the corn.

The Field of Dreams was a surprisingly peaceful place. The weather was perfect, the grass was the greenest I've ever seen, and I just let my boys run wild and be in their element. It was the perfect way to spend a beautiful autumn day in Iowa.

As they say in the movie,

"Is this heaven?"

"No, it's Iowa."

We miss them already

This past week we had the most wonderful visit from my sister Bethany, my sister-in-law Abby, and her two kids Isaac and Kate. They drove all the way from Ohio just to see us for a few days, and we had such a great time with them. I'm not sure who had more fun, the adults or the kids! Abby's two kids are almost the exact same age as my two kids, so they always have a blast when they're together, especially Jake and Isaac.

While they were here, we tried to make the most of our time together. We went to Joseph's softball game in which he claims to have hit a home-run on the very first pitch, which we obviously missed because we're always late with all these kids we have to get ready. The jury is still out on whether or not he actually did.

Softball games are always fun for us to go to because the kids always have a ball (get it?) just running around. It's even more fun when you have your cousin to throw dirt around with.

Did I mention Eli is a crawling maniac these days? He is getting so fast I can barely keep up with him! For the most part he was content just crawling around the tables. I shudder to think what he may have gotten a hold of on the ground underneath those tables, but he sure was happy!

Bath time became a necessity after some serious dirt throwing:

We also went apple picking while they were all in town! I love apple picking. We used to go often when I was a kid and it always bring back fun memories.

A tractor pulled us out to the orchards:

There was a plethora of apples to choose from:

The kids were so excited about the apples that they ran as fast as they could toward the trees:

They were fun to pick:

And even more fun to eat:

As usual, Eli enjoyed it all from his stroller. He's such a content little baby:

Then afterwards, Aunt Abby treated everyone to apple cider and warm donuts. YUM!!

There were also lots of games that were played, books that were read, parks that were run around in, and toys that were used. And now they're gone. *Sigh* We loved having them around and can't wait until Christmas when we'll all be together again. Have I mentioned that I love family visits??