Out of the mouth of my babe...

For some reason, Jackson has started calling Todd and I "honey". For example, this was what he just said to me when he was giving something back to me:
"Nope, no need that, honey."

This kid cracks me up.

Vogel Christmas

We spent Christmas in Sibley at Todd's mom's house with the rest of the Vogels: Randy, Ally, Ella, and Max and the STL Vogels, Tim, Lizzie, and Lilly. Jackson LOVES playing with his cousins so he was in heaven especially now that Lilly was big enough to play too! He's quite affectionate, as you can see from a few of these pictures! He shared the sit&spin with Lilly...

...and thanked Max for his Christmas present with a nice kiss! This is one of those pictures that will follow these two cousins for the rest of their lives. Love it!

And here's all of our sweet Vogel blondies: Max, Jackson, Lilly, and Ella before opening presents on Christmas Eve. We had a great time visiting with everyone and eating lots of yummy food!

Catch up

This post is especially for Erin and Lindsay who warned me that this blog was going to come off of their "must read" lists if I didn't update soon. And this picture is especially for my mom who asked for a picture of our Christmas tree this year. And yes, sometimes we let Jackson eat his dinner in front of the tv- mainly Tuesday nights when it's pizza night. You may remember this post about how Jackson always used to have his hands down his pants...well, things haven't changed that much. He took a nap in our "Big Bed" the other day and when I went in to check on him, this is how he had fallen asleep. Nice. Not sure what happened to the picture while it was uploading, but you get the idea.

And last, we have had a few inches of snow over the last couple weeks and the first snow-fall was a good one because the next day was nice and mild so Jackson could go outside and experience his first real play in the snow day. He had a fabulous time digging in the snow, eating it, and being pulled around on his sled. Hopefully we'll have a couple more days like that when it's snowy but not too cold.

I will try to be better about posting, but I make no promises- it's that time of year, ya know?!

Out of the mouth of my Babe

Jackson to Scarlet (the dog): (patting his leg) come puppies, otay?
Scarlet looks at him like he's nuts and stays put.
Jackson: (with a stern look on his face): one, two...come puppies, otay? otay!

The counting doesn't work with him so I don't know why he thinks it would work with the dog.

Etsy Grand Opening!!

I officially opened my etsy shop on Friday- so exciting! I actually did it all late Thursday night and I think it was a mixture of the excitement and the tiredness, but I sent out an e-mail to all my friends and the first time I left out the link. Then the second time I spelled my own shop name wrong in the link so it wouldn't work. The third time proved to be the charm, though and I got the word out. I had to work on Friday all day at the flower shop and I was so anxious to get home to see if people had looked at my stuff. I was so excited when I found out that I already had two sales! Woo-Hoo! So check it out if you haven't already and browse around the etsy site while you are at. You won't be disappointed. I actually just bought Jackson the cutest winter beanie from a shop called Noggins the other day and he looks so stinking cute in it. There are so many things to look at, and so many temptations to buy! I'll try not to put all of my earnings right back into purchases, but I make no promises. So stop by and check out PaisleyHandmade on etsy and let me know what you think!

Fall leaves and a visit from YaYa and Papa John

While Todd was raking the other day, our next door neighbors came over to show Jackson how to play in the leaves. Let's just say he was a quick study and had a blast! We killed about and hour and a half outside while we were waiting for YaYa and Papa John to come.

We had a couple of fun-filled days while they were here. Jackson was so happy to have YaYa and Papa all to himself and he milked it for all it was worth. After they left, he continued to ask for YaYa and Papa first thing in the morning when he woke up for about three days. We miss you YaYa and Papa! Thanks for coming!

A Pirate says Arr!

Happy Halloween everyone! Jackson was a pirate this year, inspired by his favorite song from a Backyardigans episode...

Out of the mouth of my babe...

Riding in the car on the way home this evening:

Jackson whining: "Mommy, bottom owwweee!"
Me: "Sorry buddy, we'll be home in a minute."
Jackson: " Tiss it mommy...tiss my bottom mommy!"

Hopefully this will be the only time I hear my child tell me to kiss his butt. Or else. Cute when he's two, not so cute when he's twelve.

My First Show!

As I mentioned in the last couple of posts, over the last couple of weeks I've been feverishly sewing trying to get ready to do my first craft show. I sort of cringe when I say that because I really don't like the word "craft" and when I mix it with the word "show" I sort of cringe a little more because it conjurs up images of all sorts of campy, homely items that I wouldn't be caught dead buying...such as embroidered toilet paper. Really. There was someone at this craft show selling toilet paper and paper towel roles that had sayings and pictures embroidered on them. I don't get it. But I digress...So, I thought I would try my hand at actually making some money with the sewing abilities that my lovely mom passed on to me and it sort of worked! I was really happy with my sales for the day...it was definitely more than I thought it would be. And the best part was hearing people's positive comments about my fabric choices and how cute everything was, so that really made me feel good. I mostly made baby items like burp cloth sets, appliqued onesies, taggie blankets, and tote bags, but there were a few other things too, but I won't bore you with too many details. This is a picture Lindsay took of my little booth. I totally have to give a shout out to my sister-in-law Ally for all of her help with this. She came to help me set up the night before and brought me the three big doors that you see in the back and various other display help. She also is an awesome graphic designer and she designed a logo for me for my business cards and tags. Thanks, Ally! You're the best!

Sorry the pictures aren't the best and you really can't see a lot of detail, but I'll just keep you in suspense until...the Grand Opening of my Etsy shop! I decided that things went well enough that I will go ahead and open a shop on the Etsy website and see how that goes. It's a lot of work getting that all set up, but I'll let you know when it opens! In the meantime, if you don't know what Etsy is, check it out. It's AWESOME!

Fun visit from the Perkins (minus one!)

It was a whirlwind week at our house this past week. Lindsay and the kids arrived Tuesday evening and the house was alive with the sound of screaming, crying, and laughing for the next couple of days. We didn't get quite as much accomplished as we had dreamed of, but we got what was needed done to get ready for the show on Saturday. More to come about that in the next post! Despite the cold weather, we still took the kiddos to the park a couple of times to release some of the tension and make our house seem a little less small. These two cousins (Eva and Jackson) fight like they are brother and sister, but there is so much sweetness between them too. There was a lot of saying "sorry" going on, but the making up part was always so precious, with hugs and kisses and forgiveness. Gotta love a child's heart.

This was one of the only pictures we got of the Eva, Shepherd, and Jackson where you could actually see all three of their faces. These kids are busy!

I had to put this picture in here to help keep me humble. I was looking at it and laughing a bit about how crazy messy the kitchen looked, but we had more important things to do that night...Lindsay was helping me assemble some taggie blankets that I had to get done, so tidying up was not on the agenda.

We missed you, John, but thanks for letting Linds and the kids come!

It seems all I do lately on this blog is apologize for the lack of posts...sad, really. So I decided this time, I'm not apologizing. I'll just make excuses:
1. Still don't have a camera yet (but Lindsay is coming to visit tomorrow and she's helping me pick one out)
2. I've been sewing like CRAZY lately (I'm doing my first craft show on Saturday...Yikes!)
3. I've had other things that I've had to focus on lately (you know, besides my husband, child,
dog, house, etc...)
These are just a few of the reasons for the lack of blogging. I really should add one more just to be honest:
4. I've been spending too much time reading other blogs to take the time to do my own.

So as mentioned, Lindsay, Eva, and Shepherd are making the drive to Iowa tomorrow. Pray for travelling safety and sanity for Lindsay! She is coming to help me finish getting ready for the craft show and I'm so super excited I think I might not be able to sleep tonight. I will hopefully have some pictures of everything to show you after her visit!

Jackson is 2!!!!...almost

Officially, Jackson turns two on Saturday, but unofficially, we had a dual birthday celebration with all the Vogels for Jackson and Max who turned 3 last Saturday. Can't believe he's getting so big!
















After dinner and before cake and ice cream we went for the yearly trip to PumpkinLand. The kids loved running around in the pumpkin patches, running through the corn maze, and playing with the animals. We got some cute pictures of all the Vogel cousins, minus cousin Lilly in STL. (We miss you Lilly!)

Ella, Jackson, and Max

















A little of the beauty of NW Iowa for you...Corn fields and pumpkin patches and the cutest kid in town at sunset.

Let's go back a bit...

Before we were in Florida, we stayed in STL for a few days. I really wanted to take Jackson to the zoo while we were there so Lindsay and I packed up the kiddos for a morning out. Lindsay sent me a CD of all our vacation pictures since I didn't have any because of the broken camera issue, so I thought I'd go back a bit and share these with you.
The penguin and puffin area was a big hit with Jackson, Eva, and Shepherd. Jackson was trying to lift Shepherd up so he could see.










Our saving grace for the day was the zoo train. The kids all really liked riding it and Linds and I really liked that they liked it! Jackson loves choo-choo's so much that when we rode the train for the last time and were leaving the zoo, he screamed and cried the whole 10-15 minute walk back to the car. And was promptly asleep before I pulled out of the parking lot.

Everyone needs a picture with an elephant's butt in it, right?

Another fun area was the big fish tanks. It was nice and cool in the cave and the kids could get right up there and see the big fish. And it also made for some really neat pictures.

No news is good news.

Posting has been sparse lately...the camera is broken so we can't take any pictures and nothing too exciting to report. But, crazily enough, it feels like Fall here already. I really like it, but it makes me scared that it will get cold sooner too. We've had 60 degree weather here for almost two weeks now and to tell you how unprepared for cooler weather we are, my poor child has been the laughing stock of the park because all of his pants are too short and I don't have any sneakers that fit him so he has to wear sandals with socks. Poor kid. It's probably a good thing the camera is broken!

Vacation- Part 2

Part of the fun of vacation was a couple of backwater fishing trips. Jeremy and Todd went one day, and then Lindsay and Jeremy went another. They had great weather and caught lots of fish. Needless to say, we didn't starve the whole week! I'm not a huge fish fan, but I even liked it the night that John P. cooked it up. Here's a few of Todd and Jer's catches of the day.

Lindsay and Jeremy's catches.

Florida Pictures-Part 1

I've gotten a few pictures over e-mail from family so I figured I'd at least get a start on posting them. My whole family (Mom and John Tock, Jeremy, Lindsay, John, Eva, Shepherd, and us) stayed in a big house on Fort Myers Beach. We thought it would be fun to go back to our old stomping grounds as this is where we grew up! It was really nice to be back to see some old friends. My best friend Jessica and her family came down to the beach for a day to play. They came to visit us in May for the Tulip Festival so it was fun for the boys to be able to play again. Jess's husband, Jonathan, brought his surfboards since the water was a bit choppy- not great for surfing, but fun for pictures!
My two Iowa boys all covered up at the beach! Todd really is not a fan of the sun, unless he's golfing in it. And Jackson is so fair that we really tried hard to keep him from getting too much sun, hence the rash guard and funny hat.

More pictures to come when I get them!

Just a teaser...

We've been on vacation for the last week and a half in sunny Florida with my family so that is part of the reason for the lack of posts. We had a great time and are getting back into the grind at home now. I would love to post some pictures, but, alas, our camera broke before we left so I have no pictures of my own. You'll have to wait until my peeps send me some of their pictures.

Fun with fingerpaints

Or, at least, sorta fun. Jackson's face in this picture doesn't really look like he was having much fun, but it was a good time. This kid is kinda like his mother in that he doesn't like his hands to be dirty or sticky, so I think it took him a little while to get used to putting his hands in goo. Oh, the fun you can have with outy belly buttons!

Before and After

Before vacation, you may remember that I alluded to our house changing colors. I've finally gotten around to taking some pictures of the mostly finished project and it looks a TON better, don't you think? Remember, these first two pictures were taken after we pressure washed the house so that's why it looks so torn up.
And now our charming cottage is a fun blue color called "ironstone"! We have some trim still to finish up and we need to touch up the blue in a bunch of places, but it just feels so much cozier and prettier to me! Lots of work, but we had some help from in-laws and friends so that made it go a little faster. Thanks guys! We also still need to get a new light fixture and new mailbox and house numbers, but I have to find just the right ones first.

Okoboji- Round 2

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures from our vacation at Lake Okoboji...Gramama and Jackson snuggling on a boat ride Date night on the boat!! It was a beautiful night and the sunset was AWESOME!
Cousin Lilly doing a bit of sunbathing-she obviously didn't want any tan lines on her shoulders.
Captain Jackson...thankfully he actually thought his boat coat was kinda fun so he never threw a fit about putting it on.
And Jackson got his first very own ice cream cone...Yum!

Okoboji Fun

I have more pictures to post, but I wanted to get something up to let everyone know we're back from vacation and we had a great time! A few pictures of what we did with our days:
Tubing in the lake Riding on the boot-ay as Jackson called it.
Playing with cousins, Max and Ella-a.k.a. "Ma" and "Lala". Here they are pretending they are driving in the car.
The boys spent the mornings playing golf
And we'd spend the afternoons in the pool.
More pictures to come!

Hi and Goodbye!

So, blogging has taken a big backseat to playing outside and enjoying the long-awaited warm weather. I figured I'd give you all a quick taste of summer here before we head out on vacation. Most mornings, the first thing Jackson wants to do is go outside and he would stay out until evening if I would let him. This morning after I got him out of his crib he disappeared back into his room for a few minutes and came back out with his shoes on. The jammies and sneakers look was very cute. We've enjoyed a few days at the pool or in the back yard pool and Jackson gets very excited when he can play with our next-door neighbor "Nonner" -A.K.A. Conner. And here's a little teaser- this is the last picture you will see of our house this color! Please don't think we really let the place go- we power washed the house before I took this picture so a bunch of paint was washed off and that's why it looks like a bear was trying to sharpen his claws on the siding. We got most of it painted yesterday, but we still have lots of trim and stuff to do. We'll wittle away at it after vacation.
We leave for Okoboji on Saturday for a week, so expect some pictures upon our return!