Trenton's Homecoming

My youngest brother Trenton just came home from serving a church mission in Pocatello, Idaho.  Our little family decided that we would take a trip up to Michigan and surprise him when he got off the airplane.  Trenton has been serving for two years, so it’s been a long time since anyone in the family has seen him.  It was such a wonderful trip!  We are so proud of him.

 

 Jake was so excited to see his Uncle Trenton.  He ran up and gave him the biggest bear hug.

Eli hadn't met Trenton yet, so the two of them had the chance to get acquainted.

We stayed for a couple of days in Michigan and enjoyed being with Trenton and hearing his stories, playing games, watching movies, and eating lots of yummy food (and it wasn’t even Thanksgiving yet!)  While we were there we took the kids to the Midland Santa Parade.  Before the parade started there was a 5k.  When we got there tons of people were running down the street, and Jake thought he should join in the fun.  He started saying, “There’s a race!  I’m gonna win!”  I think that must be his Dougherty genes kicking in.  My dad decided he would run along with him.

After Jake realized that he was NOT in fact going to win the race, they turned around and ran right back.

Eli happily watched from the sidelines.

When Jake returned he was so tuckered out that he had Eli push him around in the stroller.

This parade was handing out ridiculous amounts of candy!  I think I'll tell Santa not to put any candy in their stockings this year because they are set at least until Easter!

Jake thought this mini semi-truck was pretty cool.

Midland does a good job of putting on nice parades for such a small town.  The kids loved it!  

It's always a blast to be with the family and we can't wait to go back for Christmas!

October Craziness

Whew, what a month!  October has been jam packed with activities.  We have literally been gone every weekend this entire month.  Here's the recap:

First, Joseph had a dental community outreach clinic in Davenport, IA.  They provided almost a million dollars worth of dentistry for free to those in need.  Since his company paid for food, lodging, and gas for Joseph, we all decided to tag along!  I didn't take pictures, but we had a good time enjoying one of the bigger cities in Iowa...which I realize isn't saying much but we had fun nonetheless!  

The next weekend we had a big wedding to attend!  Two of Joseph's classmates that met in dental school were getting married so my mom came into town and watched the boys for the weekend while Joseph and I had a little getaway of our own for the wedding.  As usual, the boys had a grand 'ole time with Grandma, and we were all sad to see her leave.  She traveled to Ottumwa on the train, and when she was leaving we took these pictures at the train museum located at the station.  

Then the next weekend we went to St. Joseph, MO to visit some of our best friends from dental school.  Jake was beyond excited to see Ethan and Noah and those boys were in seventh heaven all weekend just playing together.  They took us to an apple orchard/pumpkin patch where we picked apples, played on a playground, ran through a corn maze, rode an apple barrel train, and ate apple slushes.  

This is literally the best picture we got of everyone on the hayride...I didn't even bother trying to get a better one.

We loved eating the apples, though!

Finally, this past weekend we had our church's Halloween party!  Our family dressed as dragons and dragon tamers.  

There was a lot of eating.  Every time I turned around my kids were chowing down on some new sugary concoction.  But I figured, hey, Halloween only comes once a year, right?  And Joseph made sure their teeth were brushed extra well when we got home!

Jake enjoyed running around with his friend Crew.  Those boys look like they could be brothers.
(Also, did you notice that Jake's "chains" around his neck have a broken link at the end?  That was my idea...he's a runaway dragon!  I thought I was being pretty clever there.  C'mon, guys, just humor me.)

Then we spent all day yesterday in Des Moines where we picked out some more furniture for our still pretty barren home.   

Of course, in between all the craziness, we've still managed to spend a little time at home.       

The boys "helped" me rake the leaves in our front yard.  We only have one small tree in our yard, so there aren't a ton of leaves, but there was enough to have a little fall fun:

And there you have it!  The crazy October recap.  I hope your October was as full and fun as ours!

Keeping me on my toes

Eli has a very self-sufficient attitude about him, and that self-sufficiency is keeping me on my toes!  He regularly tries to rummage through the garbage to find himself some sort of half-eaten morsel that he can quickly devour without me noticing.  Or, he'll open the semi-full dishwasher with dirty dishes, find himself a cup, and get water out of the fridge.  About a month ago he started kicking it up a notch:

He pulls that chair over from our kitchen table, then climbs up to find whatever snack he wants.  

Then yesterday, he decided that he needed a bath:

As grateful as I am for his willingness to do things himself, I've gotta keep my eye on this one at all times!  Love this kid!!

The newest addition

This past week our family had the pleasure of welcoming Matthew's bride Kaitlin into the ranks of Dunfords!  Matt and Kaitlin were married in Chicago last weekend in a beautiful ceremony.  We are so excited to include her as part of our family. 

We were still operating under one car at the time (notice the past tense?!  more on that later!) so the boys and I took the train up to Michigan for the festivities prior to the wedding.  Joseph had to work, but he later joined us in Chicago for the wedding itself.  The great thing about the train is that it picks us up right in Ottumwa.  The terrible thing about a train is that the novelty wears off in about ten minutes then you're stuck trying to entertain two rambunctious boys for 12 hours.  Every time I take the train I vow never to do it again.  But then I forget and do it anyway.  It's kind of like giving birth in that sense...

But aren't they cute waiting for the train?    

Once in Michigan we enjoyed a beautiful open house for Matt and Kaitlin with lots of family, friends, and, most importantly, cousins!

 There was a lot of eating, wrestling and running (all outside, of course...boy were those white shirts dirty!)

Joseph's twin brother, Christopher, was there in Michigan for the festivities as well, but since Joseph wasn't there Eli was extremely confused and thought Christopher was his dad!  He kept calling him Daddy and wouldn't leave his side. 

Next we drove to Chicago for the beautiful wedding.

The babies were pretty tuckered out.

What handsome boys!

 Jake was a little hard to appease when it came to taking pictures...

One nice thing about Chicago is that it not only is a good halfway point between Kaitlin's family in Wisconsin and our family in Michigan, but it also provides a lot of entertainment for after the wedding party!  We weren't able to make it to the reception in Wisconsin, so we stayed behind in Chicago and did a few fun things.  

We went to The Rainforest Cafe:

 We told Jake that we were going to go to the zoo, but we never got a chance.  But it's ok, because when we asked Jake about what his favorite part of Chicago was, he told us it was the zoo.  Apparently he thought The Rainforest Cafe was a zoo!  That's fine by me, at least it didn't smell!

 We watched an amazing air show put on by the Air Force:

And enjoyed one of the water fountain parks:

Then it was back home and back to the grind.  We had a wonderful time celebrating the occasion, and again, Congratulations Matt and Kaitlin!

Life in the O-T-T

 I'm not gonna lie, moving to the OTT - as the locals call it - has been an adjustment.  Leaving our dental school family was rough.  And moving to a place where the best shopping is located at a dilapidated Target and most of Joseph's patients would rather have their teeth pulled than fixed (yes, even their front teeth...are you getting the picture?) has not helped the situation.  However, what has helped the situation is this beauty:

We love our new home!  Just the fact that we live in our own place has been like a little piece of heaven.  Our neighborhood is a little oasis.  Across the street lives two retired teachers, a pediatrician, an internist, and next door is another pediatrician.  Our neighbor joked that only in Ottumwa will you find doctors and teachers living on the same street, and we absolutely love it.

Because we are still a one-car family (I know...) I have been spending a lot of time at home getting this place feeling like...well...home.

We bought new living room furniture:

Before  

After

Set up our unfinished basement to be a playroom:

 Got the boys bathroom set up:

 complete with dentures for bath toys (that's how we do it dental style here):

We got Jake's bedrooms done:

and we're still working on Eli's room (no, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you, Eli's room is pink.  C'mon, guys, one thing at a time):

The kitchen is now done:

The landscaping in our backyard is still a work in progress, but we've done lots already, including ripping out a dead tree that was in the middle of the yard.  Why it was there in the first place is still a mystery to me.

There is still a lot that needs to be done.  Next thing on our list (well, besides a car) is to get our entertainment room set up.  We're still living in the dark ages of a big box TV, and Joseph is more than ready to upgrade.

 We also have a fourth bedroom that is sitting completely empty.  Literally.  So, that means plenty of room for visitors, hint hint!  As long as you're willing to sleep on the floor, that is...  Just kidding, we'll get an air mattress.  :)

So as you can see, life has been busy.  It hasn't been all work though.  We've started to make new friends in our church and our neighborhood.  Some of our new friends even took us out on their boat recently.  Yeah, we choose our friends wisely.  :)

Jake getting out of the boat...love the face!

Tubing with friends

What handsome boys!

Life in Ottumwa has been dichotomous.  On the one hand, it's been hard living here.  I've had my fair share of breakdowns, as Joseph can attest to.  It's a completely run down city that the people have kind of left for ruins.  Sometimes I drive around the town and I look around and think to myself, "Wait, I live here?" But on the other hand, life in Ottumwa has been wonderful!  Joseph loves his job, and I love our home.  We have met some wonderful people and are anxious to get to know them better.  All in all, it's taking some time to adjust,  but we feel blessed every day.