An Easter visit

On Thursday at noon I texted my dad and said, "Hey, I know you have tomorrow off of work, how about you take the afternoon off today so you and mom can come visit us for the Easter weekend?"  To my utter surprise, about an hour later my mom called me and said they were on their way!!  In a matter of minutes they had dropped everything and made the ten hour drive to visit us in Iowa.  I love those guys...

Anyway, we packed our weekend with fun activities for everyone.  We started with an egg hunt with a bunch of friends from church. 

 Eli enjoyed having Grandma help him find a few eggs.

The kids and all their loot. 

Loving us some Grandma and Grandpa time.

Next we went to the American Gothic house in Eldon, IA, which is about 15 minutes from us.  It's shameful that we haven't been there yet.  They were having an egg roll and a bunch of other Easter activities, so we decided to check it out.  Due to weather, they had to move the activities inside the library.  By the time we got there, Eli had fallen asleep in the car so he obviously didn't come inside.  Jake only wanted to do the egg roll.  He whacked his egg as fast as he could across the line, won, got his loot, and wanted to leave immediately.  Alright.

 Even though the weather was bad, we at least wanted to check out the American Gothic museum.  By the time we had been through, the weather had cleared up a bit and I convinced everyone to dress up and take pictures!  (It wasn't hard to convince my parents.  Joseph, on the other hand...well, he was a good sport.)

Did you know that the original was meant to depict a father/daughter?  How do we compare?

My dad missed the memo that this was a smiley picture. 

 We also went to a few other parties, had Easter dinner, bought and built a bunk bed for Jake and went to church.  Whew!  We loved having the too fast visit, and can't wait for another.  

Turning 30 - dun dun dun....

It's birthday month at the Dougherty household.  Joseph hit the big 3-0 milestone this weekend!  For weeks I've been thinking about what to do for his birthday and I wasn't having much luck.  Finally, a friend reminded me that Kansas City was hosting a bunch of the the NCAA March Madness games over his birthday weekend.  I called my sister-in-law Eliza and we hatched up a plan to surprise our husbands with a trip up to Kansas City to watch the games.  We dropped off the kids at our besties house in St. Joseph (thanks again, guys!!!) so it was just the four adults.  It was a BLAST!  The guys were so surprised.  We had so much fun together, and what better way to spend your birthday than with the one you've shared it with from the beginning?  

At breakfast the next morning:

Of course, we didn't get any pictures with all of us together, but isn't that how it usually is?  The more fun you have, the less pictures you take.  Anyway, Happy 30th birthday, boys!!

How is my baby 5 already?

Guys, how did this happen?  I feel like someone is playing some sort of cruel joke on me... As I’m sure you can tell by the title, Jake just celebrated his 5^th birthday!  I am still coming to grips with the fact that I now have a five-year-old.  I feel like I need to start gearing myself up mentally for him being a teenager right now because at this rate, I'm going to wake up one day next week and he'll be 15.

Jake really wanted to have a pirate themed birthday party.  It worked out really well because there's a show on TV right now called "Jake and the Neverland Pirates." (I think that's what it's called.  I'm not positive because Jake has never actually seen the show.  We only get 6 channels and 3 of them are PBS.)  Between that and pinterest, it wasn't too difficult to come up with cute decorations and ideas for Jake's pirate party.

BTW, that is not a cake in the middle of the table, it's just one of Jake's pretend pirate ships.  One of my friends walked in the door while dropping off her daughter and said, "Oh my gosh, Angela, did you make that cake?" Haha!  Umm...no... but I'll go ahead and take it as a compliment that she assumed I did.  :)

No, I totally cheated and just made cupcakes instead.

I told Jake that he could invite 5 friends since he was 5 years old.  It's a good thing we put a limit because it was starting to get a little crazy with just the 5!  

First, I read the kids, "How I Became a Pirate." Then we made pirate hats and went on a treasure hunt to find the treasure chest full of goodies and treats.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the mayhem caused by digging through the chest.  It was pretty epic.

Next, we played Pin the "X" on the Treasure Map.  It's a good thing I had Kennedy there to help me out!

Then we had pizza, cake, and ice cream, sang happy birthday, then opened presents.

The kids had a great time, and best of all, we got to celebrate Jake and the wonderful boy he's turning into.

So, in honor of Jake's birthday, here are 5 things we love about him:

1.  Jake is very thoughtful.  Today when we were leaving church, everyone ran to hop in the car.  When Jake saw me walking by myself he stopped, turned around, and came back to hold my hand so we could walk to the car together.  So thoughtful.

2.  Jake is extremely smart.  He has a knack for picking up on things and memorizing facts quickly.  He has picked up on reading very easily and often recites interesting facts he's learned about space, bodies, animals, or any other subject that interests him.  (For example, the other day Jake came up to me and said, "Mommy, did you know that the rings around Saturn stay there because of gravity?")

3.  Jake is an excellent big brother.  Eli is his best buddy and he is always trying to make him laugh or smile.  They play together every day.

4.  Jake is very kind.  Eli has been known to hit me while he's in the midst of one of his epic temper tantrums.  When this happens, Jake is quick to run to me and give me a hug, lest I think all my children hate me.  Of course, he may do this simply because he wants to be the favorite child and he knows his chances are best when Eli is a terror and he can be incredibly sweet.

5.  Jake tries hard to be obedient.  He is not always completely successful, but he really wants to do what's right and has a very good heart.

Happy Birthday, Jake!!  We love you so much.  Thank you for being such a wonderful boy!

Terrible twos for REAL

I swear, the moment Eli turned two, he transformed from a sweet, innocent, cherubic baby into a whining, crying, tantrum-throwing monster child.  Ok, it wasn't the moment he turned two, but it was about a week afterwards.  I'm telling you, this kid has it in for me!  Let me illustrate for you.

Eli wants to do EVERYTHING that Jake does.  And he doesn't just want to do what Jake is doing, he wants to do it BEFORE Jake can do it.  i.e. saying the prayer at dinner time, reading a story on my lap, having a snack, etc.  The other day, Jake and Eli were playing and Jake chucked a ball really hard at Eli's head.  Eli started screaming (don't even get me started on the screaming...) and I told Jake he needed to go sit in time out.  However, as soon as Eli heard that Jake was going to be in time out, he immediately decided that HE wanted to sit in time out, not Jake.  So he started running for the time out chair to get on it before Jake could.  Then he sat his little derriere on that chair and folded his arms indignantly and gave a little "hmmph" sound.  You know the one.  The sound that makes it very obvious to everyone around that you will NOT be moved, so just try.

When I calmly went up to him and explained that he didn't need to sit in time out, that Jake was the one who had made a wrong choice, Eli immediately threw himself into the biggest temper tantrum I've ever seen.  Head back, arms flailing, tears streaming, all out tantrum.  He started yelling, "'MOUT!! 'MOUT!!!" ("timeout, timeout" for those of you that don't speak two-year-old toddler tantrumese.)  I just sat there baffled for about two seconds before, sure enough, he got his wish.  Yikes.

Eli doesn't talk a whole lot, but he sure knows how to get his point across abundantly clear.  Don't let this sweet face fool you.  

Ok, you can go ahead and let it fool you.  I mean, who wouldn't, right?

P.S. Have you noticed Eli's squinty-eyed picture taking pose yet?  As soon as I say "Smile" this is what I get from him.  Cracks me up every time.

Visitors!!

We had such a great weekend!  We had some of our best friends from dental school  (the Rasmussens and the Whiteheads) over to our place for a few days, and we had a blast!  I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to get together with people that you feel so COMFORTABLE with, and who also happen to be my kids very best friends as well.  And what’s more, we actually have room to accommodate everyone now!  When I look back at pictures like this one:

I am truly amazed that we fit so many people in such a tiny apartment.  But I seriously miss those crazy days with everyone and those awesome people.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with our friends in town.  I got basically zero pictures of the weekend because we were having too much fun letting the boys go crazy in the basement while the adults stayed upstairs and played games, watched movies, and just enjoyed being together.  However, I did take pictures of the kids playing in the snow.  We had just had a bit of a snowstorm and the boys (+ Mackenzie) were all enjoying it together.

The kids took turns having Joseph pull them on the sled.  As you can see, our backyard is as flat as they come, so this was the closest thing to sledding that the boys got.

 Joseph is such a good sport!

 When the kids were done outside, they came in for some hot chocolate made by yours truly (and Swiss Miss).

It was a whirlwind and we loved every minute of it!  Apparently, in the heat of having all our guests, we forgot that Eli needed to go down for a nap, so he went ahead and put himself down:

Yep, he fell asleep while getting on the computer chair.  I try to remember to keep the computer mouse and keyboard out of his reach because Eli is known to get on the computer without my knowledge and look up Mickey Mouse videos on YouTube or play on his favorite starfall.com website (both of which he can navigate to himself).  I must have forgotten to put them up and he seized his opportunity.  He must have been so exhausted that when he was trying to get on the computer chair he just zonked right out.  And that right there pretty much tells you exactly what a great weekend we had.

Remember Who You Are

About 7 years ago some members of my dad’s family put together an incredible book entitled, “Remember Who You Are: The life stories of L. Clayton and Elizabeth Bitner Dunford and their forebears.”  This hardbound book is the story of my Dunford ancestors.  It includes journal entries and letters of my Grandma and Grandpa, both of whom I never met because they passed away before I was born.  I read it when I first received my copy, then put it back on the shelf where it has sat these many years.  Recently, I had a question about how one of my great-grandparents died so I went back and looked in the book.  Then once I started reading I couldn’t put it down.  I had forgotten so many of the stories, and reading the letters and journal entries that they wrote in their own words made me feel like I really knew them.

One of my very favorite stories was about my great grandmother Irma.  Apparently, one Sunday just before church started, the bishop asked if she could play some prelude music since the organist was late.  She only knew how to play a few songs, none of which were appropriate for church.  Instead of simply telling the bishop to find someone else, she tried desperately to think of something that she could play, but the only song she could think of was, "There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight." She immediately thought to herself that she couldn't play THAT, but since she couldn't think of anything else, she decided that maybe if she played it very slowly and softly and paused here and there that there was a chance no one would recognize it.  So, up she went to the organ and did just that.  When she was done, one person who had caught on to what she was doing quietly whispered in her ear, "Well, Irma, I think you got away with it."  What a sense of humor she must have had!  I wish I had known her.  

As I sat and poured over the pages of this book, I felt ashamed that I have not been more diligent in keeping up with my blog lately.  Because you see, this blog serves as a glimpse into our lives, and as much as I hope it is enjoyable for you to read, I hope even more that my posterity can one day appreciate it and have a glimpse of what our family was like and who we are.  I want them to get a glimpse into my life the way I have gotten to have a glimpse into the lives of my ancestors these past few days.  Even though some of the things that I blog about may seem mundane and extremely ordinary, I hope that when all the posts are put together, one might get a feeling for who we are, and, as cliche at it may be, Remember who they are.

And so, in keeping with that, I hereby vow to do a better job.  Hold me to it, guys.  It may will not be every day (I'm just being realistic here) but I want to do it more than just once a month.  So here we go!

Hide-and-seek

The boys love playing hide-and-seek with Joseph.  It's even better now that we live in a house instead of an apartment where there were only three places to hide.  Today church was cancelled because an ice storm that came through, so we played a marathon round of "seek" as Eli calls it.  The boys count to ten while Joseph hides, then they look all over the house for him. 

 Then when they find him, Joseph jumps out, the kids scream, then it's their turn to hide.  I tried to get a picture of them in their hiding place (under the bed in the spare room) but since it was completely dark, it came out a little fuzzy.  These boys love playing with their daddy!