Donut run!

On Friday Isaac decided a nap was not necessary and I didn't feel like staying home aaaaallllll afternoon so I called my mom to see if she wanted to go up to Oak Glen with us and get some apple cider donuts. Donut run! Yum! Added bonus was that both boys took a short snooze on the way up there.

Donuits!! (that's what the boys call them)




I had to put a stop to the donut eating and make the boys go play. They would have gobbled all the donuts up had I let them. Even after I shooed them away, they still kept trying to sneak some out of the bag!




Working on our balance beam skills




Here the boys were working on road construction. At least, that is what Jacob told me.


Well, working on road construction gets you terribly dirty! The boys were super filthy so I washed them off in a drippy sprinkler. They do have a restroom, but I was being lazy and didn't feel like hauling them aaalllll that way. I saw the drippy sprinkler as an easy place to do a quick wipe down. I got Jacob all cleaned up and started on Isaac when all of the sudden the sprinkler turned on! I look over to the faucet and there stands Jacob, laughing! Stinker turned the hose on us!!

We had some leftover donuts that we enjoyed yesterday afternoon. If you pop them in the toaster oven for a couple minutes, they are almost as good as fresh.

Just some randoms

Isaac loves all things Cars (the movie). Now, he didn't actually like the movie much (they watched the first one), but he loves all the stuff.

Here he wanted me to take his picture with Lightning McQueen

And then with Matador


Later that day the boys begged me to take their picture while eating.


On the menu: Chicken fingers (super easy to make and the boys love them) and apples sprinkled with cinnamon


I recently made an order to Penzeys. Have you heard of Penzeys? My friend Megan introduced me to them a couple years ago and I am in love. They sell spices. I can hear you now, 'Spices? Really, Patty? That is just SO exciting.' But, hear me out. You go to the grocery store and pay like $5 for a bottle of basil or oregano or whatever. Most of that cost goes to the stinkin' glass bottle! You can get a 4oz bag of basil from Penzeys for $6.75. A container of basil from the store is about an ounce so I am getting about 4 times the amount for the almost the same price.
Look what I got for around $60 - sesame seeds, crushed red pepper, ancho chile powder, anise, cumin, paprika, bay leaves, cinnamon, vanilla, 2 bags of their hot chocolate which is the best I have ever tasted, and a freebie that they include with every order and a free bumper sticker. That's a lot of stuff! I would probably pay that same amount (or more) for the small bottles at the store. But I got way more and in my opinion better product.

See the giant bag of bay leaves? OOPS. I should have looked at the bottle I had in my cupboard to see that the bottle you buy in the store is like .12 oz so a 4 ounce bag is going to have a ton of leaves. SO, if you would like some bay leaves, please let me know and I will make you up a bag. I spent under $7.00 for that whole bag so they were super cheap. Soup weather is coming up and I know you need some bay leaves!!

To store all these bags of spices, I just put them all in an open box in my pantry so I can see what I've got and fill my little containers in my spice cabinet as needed.

Speaking of soup weather, is anyone else ready for cooler weather to hit? I say this every September, but really it is time for 90 degree weather to be gone. Right before school started, I did buy some new short sleeved shirts in fall colors just so I could get excited about still wearing summer stuff. I did hear that next week is supposed to be the 70s. I'm going to make some soup - using bay leaves, of course!

Four weeks from Sunday is my big race, the LA half marathon. I feel like I should be running more than I do, but I'm doing my best. Last Sunday I ran 10 miles which is the farthest I have done. Feeling a bit more confident now that I have reached double digits. Ha! Its hard to get in those long runs since they take 2+ hours (I'm slow) and its been hot and its getting dark earlier. Yesterday I decided to tie a run in with my Baby Boot Camp class. I ran to class (2.25 miles), did the BBC workout which included running close to 4 miles and then ran the 2.25 miles home. I was pooped when I got home!

Here's a picture I don't think I have posted. It was taken a while ago, but it's cute. We had a pizza party with some friends and Alan was hauling some walnut wood over to the grill. The boys thought it looked like he could use some assistance.

4 Year stats

Jacob had his 4 year check up today and just so I can remember in years to come, I am posting his stats.
33.4 pounds (25th percentile)
39 inches (20th percentile)

Jacob went to see his doctor a week or so ago because of some intestinal issues and is now on a dairy-free, high-fiber diet. I thought Jacob would really fight it because he LOVES cheese and LOVES his morning and evening cup of milk. He has accepted it amazingly, though. He likes the almond milk and tolerates the soy cheese. He knows (and announces) that he can't have cow's milk and cheese. The doctor suggested prunes and Fiber One cereal (the stuff that looks like sticks). Those were a tougher sell. Hmmmm.....that's no surprise! I made some muffins using the Fiber One and he likes those and one day in an attempt to get him to eat the prunes, Alan cut up them up and put them in his applesauce. Jacob right away said they were jelly beans and ate it all up. Now he and Isaac request applesauce or yogurt (which he can still have) with jelly beans. Cracks me up! All of this seems to be working, but I asked the doctor if we can slowly introduce dairy because the whole no cheese thing is a bit of a stretch. I mean, if we have to keep doing that to keep Jacob healthy, we will but if he can have a bit of cheese and milk once in a while, it would make things easier.

Jacob has done so well with all the doctor appointments and other things he has had to endure. I am so proud of him! He didn't even cry when he got three shots today. He just yelled with the last one, 'Hey, that hurts!' He is getting to be such a big boy!

We decided to start a chore chart and small allowance for Jacob and he seems to enjoy helping out and getting a sticker when he does one of his jobs.
In these pictures he is saying, 'Chore chart!'

Belated Birthday Party

On Sunday we celebrated Jen and Jacob's birthdays, a little late. Because of vacations and holidays we couldn't get together until now. Better late than never though, right?

Jacob requested a Mater cake (from the movie Cars) so I came up with an easy design since cake decorating is not one of my gifts. The boys were so excited to help me put on the chocolate rocks. I think Jacob ate more than he actually put on the cake.

Chocolate cake, peanut butter frosting, crushed chocolate wafer cookies to make the road and decorated with chocolate rocks.

Jacob was super excited about the gifts he got!

Isaac was super excited to see the talking Mater. So excited he practically jumped over the table.

Oh, that face! It was so hard for him to see Jacob playing with his new toy, that was out of his reach.

Jacob needs to learn his numbers! So, Boppa and Oma got him a fun number puzzle that he loves!

Jen is also super excited about her gifts!

Jacob loves to use our camera so we thought that would be a good gift for his birthday. Its pretty hilarious to watch him use the camera and then to see the pictures he took!

Jacob loved his Mater cake!

The birthday kids! What goofs!!

Rainbows and Frogs

Yesterday Jacob moved up to the Rainbow class in Sunday School. He was so excited!
Here he is holding a penny that he got in class. The lesson was on the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. He was one of the workers who worked a long time, but he didn't seem upset about it. Haha!


Isaac is now in the Frogs class (the one Jacob was in). He was super excited too and didn't look back at all when we left him. He also had a lesson on the laborers in the vineyard (the whole church is doing a series on parables). Here he is holding the pieces of the puzzle he got in class. I asked him what his lesson was about and he said, 'grapes'. YAY! He was listening!


No more nursery! My little boys are BIG boys!! That's what they tell me every day, anyway.

Endure the Bear

Yesterday morning Daniella and I headed to Big Bear to run a 5k trail race. We had such a fun time! We rarely get to talk uninterrupted so it was nice to chat all morning long without being interrupted by little munchkins.

The race was tough, but much easier than the trail run I did in Colorado. This time I didn't feel like my lungs were going to explode! The elevation in Big Bear isn't too much lower than CO so I think it was just the course.

Anyway, I think we did great! We checked the board for results right after we finished and saw that Daniella had won first in her division so we decided to stick around for awards. We grabbed some lunch and then did a little shopping.

Here is Daniella standing on her first place pedestal with her medal (she's the one in blue). Way to go, D!! You rocked it!


We were getting packed up to go when they started calling out the winners for my age group. 'Third place, Patty DeWeerd'. Daniella and I looked at each other like, 'WHAT?!?' When we looked at the board earlier, I was listed as coming in 4th for my division, but I guess they had put someone in the wrong group or something, so I ended up coming in third.

So, here I am with my medal on the pedestal.


Oh, what a dork! Guess blue was the winner color, huh?


Now I need to get down to business and get ready for my half marathon coming up at the end of October. Totally not ready for that yet!

First Week of School

Jacob had his first day of Jr.K on Wednesday. When I dropped him off, I asked if he would like me to stay a bit. 'No, go.'
He was so excited to play in the huge sandbox with all the cool trucks!

Isaac, on the other hand, was so sad. He said, 'I don't want to go home. I don't want to go away from Jacob.' The first couple minutes of our ride home he just kept repeating, 'Jacob. Jacob. Jacob.' And then when we got home, he just sat in my lap and cuddled. He's not used to being away from big brother. But then he decided he wanted to play Mr. Potato Head and he was fine after that. I got tons done while he played and played.

My mom will be bringing Jacob home every afternoon (well, the 3 days a week he goes to school) since she gets out of work 15 minutes before his class lets out. Yay for that! Jacob's teacher told her that his first day was a little rough. He had to go in 2 time-outs. Ooops!

All day Wednesday I kept getting little snippets about his day.
* He met a friend named Dominic
* Mrs. Kidd read them a book about salsa
* They said the pledge to TWO flags
* Mrs. Kidd painted his hand white and 'the other girl' (the aide) painted his other hand black
* They sang a song about trying to obey - I had to laugh when I heard that one. Ironic after his two time-outs, huh?

Jacob was much more anxious this morning when I dropped him off. He said, 'Today I am going to ask you to stay for a little bit.' He didn't want to get in line when the bell rang and told me to, 'Come with. Come with.' When I told him it was his turn to go into the classroom, he ran right in, but I think it was more like he was thinking he needed to just get it over with. He was trying so hard to be brave! Ah, growing up.

Much better report after school today, though. No time-outs! YAY!!

Highlights from today:
* They got to go to the library and he read a book about Cat in the Hat, animals and Berenstein Bears where Sister Bear cried
* They did a worksheet about circles
* They sang a song about obeying
* They didn't play play-do
* He got a red heart sticker
* He got a lizard toy for playing 'Criss-cross Applesauce'. I think it was for crossing his legs when they sit on the carpet.

Can't wait to hear the stories he comes home with next week!