Photo Update...

So I counted and my last 4 posts were not about Jake, so I figured I'm allowed to have a post that's strictly about him. (Plus he's much cuter and more interesting than we are.) And what better way to do that than with a photo update!

Now that he's on the move, I feel like he is changing even faster. It's so fun to watch him learning and developing. We often wonder what's going on in that little head of his. He still smiles and laughs all the time, which makes for lots of great photo opportunities. Only problem is now he can crawl to the camera. And he usually does the second he sees you holding it. Clearly it looks like a new toy he's supposed to play with (aka, put in his mouth.) Anyways, loving this phase and loving this little guy more than I knew I could...

Loving these new rhino pj's. But he makes everything look cute, in my opinion.

Crawling = Messing up mom's stacks of folded laundry
Solution = Getting put in the basket

Apparently that's okay though b/c he thinks it's fun. 

First official battle wound after he started crawling. Moved a little quicker on our bed than we were ready for and met the corner of our nightstand. Sure this is just the first of many. (Oh and this is what many of our photos look like these days b/c he crawls right up to the camera. Good thing he's not self-conscious about close-ups.) ;)

Mischievous little grin. He's pulling up and climbing on everything. Exhibit A. 

Exhibit B.

Wants inside that glass so bad. (And yes if you zoom in, I alphabetize our DVD's. I might be a little Type A. I get it honestly.) 

 This was at an event for our friends' cupcake shop (Bliss Cupcakes) that opened a 2nd location a few weeks ago. Jake got to taste the frosting...needless to say, he was a fan.

 Seriously cannot get enough of that little face. Melt. My. Heart.
 

Bodie and Mo...

I'm WAY behind on this post. (This seems to be the norm these days.) Two weeks ago, we had the privilege of celebrating the marriage of two of our good friends - Peter and Marissa. Or better known to us, Bodie and Mo. I have actually NEVER called him Peter and rarely call her Marissa. (This is pretty common in the K-World - to be known by a nickname. Lots of people at K7 only know Josh by JDough. I don't even think they know his name. Anyways, I digress.)

I posted about their engagement a couple months ago. Yep, that's right - they planned their wedding in 2 months! It can be done, folks. And it was beautiful. As I mentioned in that previous post, their story is such a beautiful picture of God's faithfulness and sovereignty, even when it means waiting longer than we hoped or planned. I have seriously never heard a chapel of people erupt like they did at their wedding when they were finally pronounced "husband and wife." It was awesome! And such a testimony of how they did it right. It was also extra fun for Josh and I because it was basically a big, giant K7/Kanakuk reunion so we got to reunite with so many of our favorite people. And I have lots of pictures to document it... (You'll notice Jake isn't in any pictures. We actually left him in NWA with my mom. Overnight! Yep, our first time away for more than a few hours. We all did great.)

Josh and I at the reception. He was one of the groomsmen. 

 

 Ashley and I. We basically spent the whole weekend together - such a blessing. Wish it happened more often.

Precious faces, precious kiddos. Miss being their neighbor during the summer.

The bride and groom, two-steppin' to "Calling Baton Rouge." (Mo's favorite song...so fun.)

Jenni Cribbs and myself. One of the most beautiful people I know, inside and out.

Zoey and Ellen practicing for the toast. Did I mention we had the most fun table? 

One of the reasons for the most fun table. LOVE this girl. We're job hunting for her in NWA. (j/k...sort of.) 

Some of my favorite K7 leadership girls. (Beth, Ellen, Allison, myself) It was sad leaving, not knowing when I'd see some of them again. They are the kind of friends you just always pick up right where you left off. Love them.

2nd favorite picture of the whole weekend. This picture DEFINES their relationship. 

Great friends. 

Lauren and I. Former Institute roommate and accountability partner. Miss her lots. She's going to be a mom in like a month. And I'm pretty sure I'll probably be asking her parenting advice before she asks for mine. 

 Us and the Barret's. (One t.) :) Lifelong vacation partners? Still discussing those details.

 Phoebs and myself. (Oh, and her name is actually Chandler. Another kamp nickname thing.) One of the girls I got to disciple at kamp - love that we have stayed in touch so well.

 Lee, Grimmer, and Josh. We all worked together at K-Life.

Me, Jennifer, and Ashley. More kamp friends I wish I could transport to NWA. 

 K7 group shot. Did I mention it was a big K7 reunion? (And I'm pretty sure some people didn't make it in the photo.) 

 

Us and the Ashby's. Amazing friends...thankful they'll be close for a few months at least.
 

 

My FAVORITE pics from the weekend. This little huddle happened right before the reception was over and Bodie and Mo left. I'm sure what they said wasn't as sweet and sentimental as how it looked, but glad I captured the moment. Such great friends.

Us and the Connolly's. Congrats on your new life together! (Wasn't Mo stunning?)

To Moms...

Mother's Day has a whole new meaning to me this year. For the obvious reason, of course. Let's just say I have a whole new level of respect and admiration for moms now that I am one. I have probably said in previous years that being a mom is the most important and most difficult job there is, but now I actually understand what I am saying. It is so hard, but SO worth it! So to keep it simple, Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my sister, and all my amazing mom friends out there who have been a huge source of advice and encouragement to me over the past 7 months. I am beyond blessed to have learned so much from all of you. There really are no words.

And because I'm not the best at being super emotional and cheesy, here's one of my favorite "mom" videos in honor of all of you, wait, us. Wear whatever you want today, ladies. Even the mom jeans. And remember, "I'm not a woman anymore. I'm a mom." ;)

Happy Mother's Day!

More on life with the Dough's coming soon. Just having a hard time keeping up. But I promise to return to the blogging world soon. :)

Our Pallet Table...

I meant to include this in yesterday's post. Josh actually built this pallet table for me back in January. I found something similar on Pinterest (surprise, surprise right?), and he basically duplicated it for me. I'm glad he's so handy. He's way more creative and "right-brained" than I am (that is the more creative side of the brain, right?) Anyways, I love the table and we're already getting lots of use out of it! So here's showing off his handy work. Check it out!

The original picture I found on Pinterest...

Our table...I need to add some color/decor to ours, but you get the idea. :)

Well done babe!

Pinterest inspired...

As promised, here are some of the DIY projects Josh and I have tackled lately. And yes, most of these ideas came from Pinterest. What did we do before this glorious site?

Oh, one more thing...we aren't professional DIY-er's. If we were, we'd give you the step by step "how-to's" and cool before and after photo's. Well, you just get the "after's." And if we were really good, we'd actually be saving money. Don't get me wrong, on some of these projects we spent next to nothing, but I have a bone to pick with DIY sites. When they total up costs for projects, they always say things like "I already had this fabric or this container or this tool, etc. needed to accomplish the project." Well, what if you don't already have those things? Sometimes you spend just as much buying the supplies or tools as you would buying the actual item. Oh well, sometimes the joy is just the "doing it yourself," right? Not just saving money. Anyways, getting off my soap box.

Here's our attempt at being crafty...

 Our mason jar soap dispenser. Love it. We use it for our dish soap.

Okay, so I guess I wasn't entirely truthful. We do have a couple pictures of the process. I made the shape for the canister labels on Photoshop, then traced and used box cutters to cut them out before I painted with chalkboard paint.

 Here's the finished product. I love how they turned out.

 Josh repainting the mirror that goes on our mantel. If you look at the bottom, you'll notice it was black. It was actually black and gold. Too formal.

Finished product. This actually shows the mirror and the "D" we made. We cut it out of cardboard and just covered it with moss from Hobby Lobby. Again, love it.

If I had a super power...

Have you ever been asked the question, maybe as a cheesy icebreaker, "If you could have one super power, what would it be?" I finally figured out my answer. I would have the ability to freeze and fast forward time. I realize the Lord is in control of time, and I'm not trying to be blasphemous here, I promise. But you can relate - there are times in life you wish you could just fast forward and pretend they never happened. Then there are others, you wish you could freeze and live in the moment a little longer. I feel like I'm in the latter with Jake right now. He's in such a fun phase, smiles constantly, and he's just so sweet. I know there are just more fun steps and phases to come, but this one's pretty special.

So, in honor of the 7 month mark, here are a few recent pictures...

After church this past Sunday. We are having some major allergy issues, hence the red and puffy eyes. Gotta love the sprig sticking up in the back.

Big eyes.

 Reading with Daddy.

Loved these so much I had to put up two. :)

Oh, and here is Jake standing up in his crib. This was 2 weeks ago. We had to lower it. And did I mention he was crawling? Officially got it a few days ago. Going too fast!

Birthdays and Anniversaries...

This past Sunday (yes, Income Tax Day) was my Mom's 60th birthday and our 6th wedding anniversary. We spent the weekend celebrating my Mom. We didn't have any extravagant party or fancy gifts for her, but when I started thinking about what my mom would want more than anything else for her birthday, I knew it would simply be to have her whole family together. So a few weeks ago, we all started scheming how we could surprise her with this "gift", and it couldn't have turned out more perfectly. Mom was already planning for her and Dad to come in to NWA to visit us and Ryan and Libby for her birthday, but she had NO idea that Paige, David, and Luke were making the trip up from Dallas as well. They are coming up twice in May for graduations and weddings so she assumed this was out of the question.

Long story short, Paige, David and Luke got in Friday night and stayed with us. Mom and Dad were staying at Ryan and Libby's. I told Mom we wanted to make her a big birthday breakfast Saturday morning, that way they could also spend time with Jake before he went down for his morning nap. When they all got to the house (Paige's car was hiding in our garage), this note was waiting on the door for her...

Then when she walked in, Luke ran out from the hallway to greet her. It was perfect. She just screamed, "OH MY GOSH!" and picked him up and started crying. Then just kept hugging everyone and smiling and crying. It was such a great moment. We had the video camera set up and ready to record the whole thing, but unfortunately had some technical difficulties and didn't capture it. Oh well. We'll all still have the memory.

We spent the rest of the weekend just relaxing and enjoying time together. I don't think it could have gone any better. Here are a few pics from the weekend. I only snapped a few when we were playing outside.

Libby and Mom

Josh, David, and Paige

Uncle Ryan helping Luke find some rolly pollies


Luke and Pops getting ready to race. Notice Luke is a little cheater. ;)

Clearly the head start is why he won.

This is what happens when Pops goes inside. Luke LOVES his Pops.

Jake chillin' out with Uncle David

SO STINKIN' CUTE

As for our anniversary, we are hoping to get in a nice date night this weekend. We figured my mom sacrificed her birthday for our big day 6 years ago, so it was the least we could do to do the same this year. Plus, we actually got to cuddle up and take a nap together Sunday afternoon after everyone left. Call me crazy, but that's about as good of a gift as I could ask for these days. Those don't happen very often anymore. So here's to another great weekend!