Snow much fun

What do you do when there's a fresh snow outside just calling your name?  Why, get some neighborhood kids together and go sledding, of course!  

 

Some of us played a little too hard...

A good time was had by all, and all it took was a little hot chocolate to thaw our frozen appendages. Not a bad way to spend a snowy afternoon!

Writer's block

I wouldn't label myself a "writer" but I seem to have a case of writer's block lately.  I have had about ten million thoughts jumbled up in my head, but have found no coherent way of putting them together to form any sort of blog post that is anything but terribly boring...or confusing.  But since I've been reminded (reprimanded) by multiple people to update my blog, what you will get instead of a beautifully written, poignant, and insightful post (alright, let's be honest, I don't know if any of my posts have been any of those things) what you will get instead is a snapshot of a few of my thoughts.  You can fill in the rest with something witty, clever, or at least somewhat interesting from your own mind.

1.  We had a pretty good snowstorm a little while ago.  I had to shovel the driveway in order to get out of the house, and did so while it was still snowing.  After all that work, I turned around when I was done and it all needed to be shoveled again.  It reminded me of a quote that hangs in my parent's laundry room that says, "Cleaning a house while children are growing is like shoveling a sidewalk while it's still snowing." To be honest, I never quite understood it when I was growing up.  I get it now.  And I hate it.

2.  Jake needed to be reprimanded the other day (ok, like every day, but this one stood out).  I said, "Jacob Dougherty!  Knock it off!" and he replied with, "Mom, I'm not 'ob I'm just Jake!  I'm Jake Dennis Dougherty!"  We have a little name confusion at our house.

3.  We're moving soon.  It makes me sad to think about.  In fact, I can't write any more about this because my thoughts are still a mess and things are still developing.  But, we may have a destination as to where we'll be spending at least the next few years pretty soon (insert excited/frantic scream).  

4.  Other than the occasional snowstorm, this winter has been fabulous!  I had always said I wanted to get out of Iowa when Joseph graduated, but after this winter I am starting to think maybe I could stay here after all.

There you have at least a few of my thoughts.  Non-coherent, jumbled, messy thoughts.  But, hey, you (or at least some of you) asked for it!

And for those of you who only check out my blog for pictures, I just found these pictures of  Jake having fun with Photo Booth on the computer.  I didn't know he had taken any of these:

I don't know what's going on with the open mouth...cracks me up though!

Home again

I'm back!  And what a vacation!  I hope that you all had as wonderful a Christmas break as I had.  We went to Michigan this year and had Christmas with my side of the family.  It has been about 4 years since we've been in Michigan for Christmas so you can imagine how excited I was (answer: very!) In fact, I really have too much to blog about, so I'm just going to give a quick snapshot of what our Christmas looked like.

There was lots of trains being played with cousins:

Lots of chillin' with aunts, uncles, and grandparents:

In fact, there was lots of just chillin' in general:

We ate LOTS of food:

We read stories:

We opened gifts:

Had LOTS to clean up from opening gifts:

 We went to the Midland Santa House:

We tried unsuccessfully to take one decent family picture:

 Grandma and Jake built a snowman:

We built a gingerbread train:

Eli enjoyed watching the action, as well as getting the occasional taste of frosting:

We celebrated Eli's Birthday (can you tell he was fascinated with that candle?):

Finally, we rang in the New Year with each other (minus Joseph who had to spend his break pulling teeth at the dental school.)

It was great being able to spend time with my family.  We miss them already!  No wonder we all love Christmas.  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

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!