This is embarrassing...

Guys, I'm so embarrassed!  You know how when something is so embarrassing that you just avoid acknowledging that thing until it becomes so painfully obvious that you finally just HAVE to acknowledge it?  That is like this blog.  It has been so long since I've updated and so much has happened that instead of coming and updating, I just avoid it and pretend like everything is cool so as not to feel totally and completely overwhelmed trying to document all the awesome things we've done.  Well, the time has come that I have to bite the bullet (obviously).

So, here goes nothing!  First things first: Our Dougherty Family Reunion in Vegas, Baby!

We held the first ever Dougherty Family Reunion in Las Vegas over the week of Memorial Day.  We had so much fun being with all of the family.  Joseph has 6 siblings, and every single one of them, plus their spouses kids and Joseph's Gram were in attendance.

Festivities included lots of swimming in the pool:

In true Dougherty fashion, there were plenty of opportunities to play sports including baseball, basketball, and volleyball:

We went to lots of different parks where the kids played with cousins and did one of their favorite activities: feeding the ducks (or huge geese, in this case):

We also had a surprise baby shower for one of Joseph's sisters:

We went to the baptism of our niece:

 We went to the Bellagio and watched Cirque Du Soleil perform "O":

We also walked around the strip, ate at a buffet, did some awesome shopping, celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday and just played around in general:

We had such a wonderful time and can't wait until we can all get together again.

Next update: Joseph's Alumni football game! (Spoiler alert: Joseph ended up with lots of scrapes and bruises, his brother Christopher cracked a rib...it was eventful to say the least!  Stay tuned!)

Just keep swimming

I'm not sure how many people still read my blog, but I know that my sister does, and she loves when I update it.  In fact, if I haven't updated in a while, I can count on a nasty text from my sister who puts me back in line.  And guys, today is her birthday!  So as a little birthday gift to her, here is an update - Happy Birthday sis!

My boys love the water lately.  They can't get enough of it.  Every single chance they get they are begging to turn on the hose, play in our kiddie pool, or run through the sprinkler.  Finally, after many days of begging, the weather was finally warm enough to get out the little kiddie pool and make a splash.  

Jake wasn't excited or anything.  It's hard to get any sort of emotions from him... ;)

Joseph has also been doing a lot of continuing ed classes, and since his company pays for travel and the hotel, we've tagging along and taking a lot of mini-vacations.  Of course, all the kids care about is that we get to spend time at the hotel pool!  Before we are even out of the car, the goggles and floaties come on so they can jump in the pool first thing.

(Even as I type this, Eli is coming up to the computer looking at the pictures yelling, "WATAH, WATAH!!" (water, water))

Hey, at least they're pretty easy to please!  :)

Camping out!

About two weeks ago our friends in MO called us and said that their ward was having a father/son campout and wanted to know if we would like to join in the fun!  Of course, as is usually the case, we didn't need too much coercion to make the trip (we're pretty much always looking for an opportunity to get out of Ottumwa for a couple of days, hint hint you guys.)  The two dads took the older boys while Jess and I stayed home with the babies.  Jake and the twins were in absolute heaven!  Jake has been wanting to camp out for basically his whole life, but we haven't been adventurous enough to take the whole family yet, so this was his big chance.  It was all he could talk about for days.

Joseph said that Jake was even excited to go to sleep!  Around 9:00 they were all sitting around the campfire and Jake asked if they could go in their tent so he could get in his sleeping bag.  I don't think he's ever once asked if we would put him to bed at home.  Maybe this whole camping this isn't such a bad idea...  

Jake in front of the tent

 Can you tell he's excited to get in there and get in his sleeping bag?

The boys in camping heaven

Of course, Jess and I enjoyed a wonderful night of our own!  No pics since the boys had the camera, but it included shopping, manicures, ice cream, and girl talk until the wee hours of the morning.  :)  Love these guys!!

Let's go fly a kite!

We had one of our favorite people come visit us this past week, my sister Bethany!  One of the days she was here it was SUPER windy outside so we decided to go out into the backyard and fly a kite.  I’ve never had a kite fly up so easily.  We just let it go and it flew right up! 

That little speck up in the sky is our kite!

We were having a great time flying our kites until this happened:

 

 It got all tangled in this tree in our neighbor's yard:

By some miracle we were able to finagle the kite down from the tree without the use of a ladder.  After that we called it a day!!

Lesson learned: Don't let Eli hold onto the kite by himself!

Mother's Day Tea

Jake's preschool put on the sweetest Mother's Day program yesterday.  It was a special day just for moms.  As each mom walked into the room, their child was waiting with a corsage they had made ready to give to their mother, then escorted her to her chair.  The kids put on a program where they sang some adorable songs, then one by one, each child went and picked out a cookie for their mom, carefully poured "tea" (which was really punch) and gave her some gifts they had made.  It was the sweetest thing ever!

Here are the kids singing their songs:

Jake took his responsibility to pick out a cookie for me very seriously.  He stood looking at the cookies for a long time deciding which one he thought I would like the very best.

Then he very carefully poured me some punch.  He said that they had practiced this part many times in preschool using water.

Jake painted a tile with flowers on it for me.

I had so much fun watching Jake and I can't believe how fast he is growing.  It's the moments like this that makes being a mom all worth it.  :)

Our little star

The local high school recently put on the musical "Pinocchio" and they needed some extra little kids to be (and I quote) "the naughty children who turn into donkeys."  I thought to myself, I've got one of those! Haha, just kidding, but they actually did need kids to be extras in the play so I asked Jake if that was something that he would be interested in doing, and when I told him he would get to wear a costume he immediately jumped at the chance.  

Jake and the other children practiced with the high school cast every night for a week then had three nights of performances.  Jake had one word in the play - "heehaw," which was supposed to be said when he was asked what his name was.  The first time he practiced, he refused to put on his donkey tail and ears and when he was asked what his name was, he answered, "JAKE!"  I asked him later why he didn't put on the costume and say "heehaw" and he told me it's because he didn't want to be a donkey...he wanted to be a good child!  I explained to him that it was just pretend, and that he was really a good child even if he was pretending to be a naughty donkey.  After that he played his part without a hitch!  

I wish I could say that the play was a huge success but in all reality, the show was saved only by the adorable children who knew all their parts perfectly.  The high schoolers should have taken a hint from the little kids because, unlike the older lot, the children knew exactly what they were doing.  Lest you think I'm being too harsh, I'll post a link when the show goes up on youtube.  I think you'll find I'm actually being rather generous.

Even though the play wasn't as polished as one might expect from a high school, I was so proud of Jake!  He was thoroughly and sufficiently embarrassed each night by my raucous applause.   I wasn't allowed to take pictures or video because of copyright constraints, but as I mentioned before, the show will be going up on YouTube in a couple of...well...actually I don't know how long it's going to take, but it's going to go up.  I'll post the link when it does!  

So proud of our little naughty child!  :)

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.