This and that

Jake is cracking me up lately. He's learning all sorts of new words, and trying to put phrases together, but not quite succeeding. Yesterday, we were coming home from church and he saw one of his books that I had in my hand. He pointed at it and said, "This?" I took it to mean that he wanted "this" book that I had in my hand, so I said to him, "Jake, do you want this?" pointing to the book. He told me that yes, he did, so I gave it to him, whereupon he exclaimed, "Hi, This!!"

Same thing happened later, except this time he was pointing at an orange that was in the fruit bowl. "This?" he asked, pointing to the orange. I answered saying, "Would you like that?" and pointed to the orange. He nodded yes, so I gave it to him, and then again he exclaimed, "Hi, That!!"

Haha, it makes me laugh, but at the same time I am astonished at how much kids pick up and learn. I love watching Jake learn new things and I just get so excited every time he says a new word or understands a new concept. One of the greatest things about being a mom is watching your child grow. I love it.

Stir-cRaZy!

We are going stir-crazy up in here! The weather has been craptacular here in Iowa for the past month, and Jake and I are desperately trying to think of ways to stay sane while staying inside. We've been playing with his new (to us) Thomas the Train set as of late, but even that is starting to lose its appeal after spending hours and hours (literally) every day playing with it. I might blow a fuse if I hear the Elmo theme song one more time. His books are getting a lot of use out of them, but we really just need some new ideas. Does anyone out there have any good suggestions for fun, creative, and cheap things to do with a toddler while stuck indoors?? Any ideas will help, I just haven't had these creative juices flowing as of late.

Just for your entertainment, here are a few pictures of Jake playing with his Thomas the Train set. You may not be able to tell from the pictures, but he's absolutely in love with it. I ordered a huge box of used trains and tracks from eBay and got a great deal on it. Hopefully it will be something he will enjoy for years to come!

Brrrrr....

I usually love Iowa. However, we have had unbelievably cold weather here lately and it's kicking my butt! Let me give you the rundown:

Jan 8: High 7, low -4

Jan 9: High 6, low -11

Jan 10: High 21, low -15

And this is BEFORE the windchill. Finally, yesterday on Jan 11, we stayed in the positive digits with a high of 22 and low of 14. Joseph and I both noted how nice it felt it past two days, and then I realized that something was seriously wrong if temperatures in the low 20's felt wonderful. And this is only the last four days. This frigid, negative degree weather has been going on since Christmas! On Jan 2 we had a high of 1! What the heck???

The snow has been beautiful, I will give that to Iowa. One of the things that I love about winter is playing in the snow. Before the temperatures got so frigid (before Christmas that is) we all went out and played in the snow together. I think I lasted two minutes, then I decided it was my motherly duty to go inside and make hot chocolate for the troops. Joseph and Jake lasted about 10 minutes out there, but it was so fun to watch these two play together.

This was taken while I was still outside with the boys:

And these are through the window:

Wish us luck in thawing out here in this crazy midwest weather!!

Over too soon

Christmas break has come to a close here in the Dougherty household. Joseph goes back to school tomorrow, which means Jake and I are going to brave this bitter cold (we're talking highs of -5) by keeping ourselves nice and warm inside and breaking in all the new Christmas toys!

We had a wonderful Christmas break, filled with everything that Christmas should be filled with: family, good friends, fun memories, and lots and lots of holiday treats!

This year we decided to stay in Iowa and spend Christmas with Joseph's parents, his sister Elizabeth and her girls, and sister Becca, all who came into town for the holidays. Joseph had to study for his boards that he took over the break, so we weren't able to spend as much time with them as we would have liked, but the time that we had together was perfect. Jake had so much fun with his cousins, especially Bridget (who is affectionately called Birdie). When we left he kept asking for "Rie-rie."

Christmas day was full of excitement. This year Jake started to get the idea of unwrapping gifts, and once he realized that we weren't going to scold him for ripping paper, he really went to town. At first I think he was a little confused at why we would wrap paper around pajamas. He really wasn't too thrilled about this one...The next gift he opened was a different story. Cars...now that's better. You can tell that he loves them because he won't even look up for a picture. His cousin Birdie is blocking most of the cars, but he got a whole case of them! He's been playing with cars nonstop all week.

Joseph spent most of his free time over break studying for his boards. He took some time off for Christmas festivities, but we were pretty anxious for him to be done. A few days after Christmas he took the boards, and Jake and I stayed home and made him a giant cookie to surprise him with when he got back. Well...mostly I made the cookie and Jake helped clean up the utensils.

Sorry, no pic of the cookie. Although, I must say, it was a masterpiece. Complete with frosting scrubs and teeth. Not bad for a novice, eh?

The day after Joseph's boards, we went to Moline, IL with some friends to the John Deere pavillion! Moline is the corporate headquaters for John Deere, and this place was tractor heaven for Jake. The pavillion was filled with all kinds of different tractors that the kids can play on and "drive" and see everything up close. It's a sort of interactive John Deere museum. The best part was that it's totally free!

Here are Joseph and Jake in a giant tractor. They had price tags on each of the tractors, so if any of you are in the market for a new John Deere, you can purchase this one for a mere 1/2 million!!

Jake was pretty much too enthralled to stop and look for any pictures. Driving the tractor.Checking out the monstrous wheels.We had a great time! A new era of tractor obsession has officially begun.We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday break. Or, for those of you who are lucky enough to still be off of school or work, live it up a little bit more for us who are back to the grindstone. :)