First Haircut!

After much putting off, I finally caved and got Jackson his first hair cut. He was actually perfect throughout the whole thing and just kinda sat there wondering what was going on and admiring his pretty blue cape. This picture made me laugh because Jackson looks so sad in it-"oh my poor hair-all gone!"
And here's my little baby with his new big boy haircut. Sweet boy.
Tomorrow morning Jackson and I head off to go visit Allison, Ava, and Jorrie for a couple days and then Todd will meet us in Omaha and all of us will head to AZ to go see YaYa and Papa John and hopefully remember what it feels like to not be freezing our hineys off. Yay!

He likes to Boogie

Sorry it's sideways...can't figure out how to fix it.

Bathroom Pics

So here's the new and improved bathroom. I guess it's not really new, since all we did was repaint and get a new shower curtain and a few other cosmetic fixes, but it's definitely improved. I guess if you've never been to our house, you won't be able to tell how much better it looks. Sorry I didn't take any "Before" pictures. This is just a little up-close detail because the flash on the picture above kinda washed everything out, but the shower curtain is all different greens and brown paisley and the walls are a chocolate-y brown color, actually called Maple Sugar.
And this obviously doesn't have anything to do with the bathroom, but it was so super-cute I had to share. After lunch yesterday, I was cleaning up in the kitchen and Jackson was playing in the living room. When I came out when I was done, this is what I saw. Jackson has learned how to turn the TV on, so he must have turned it on and then gotten up on the couch and covered himself up. And surprisingly he wasn't tormenting Scarlet so they had a little bonding time. Sweet babies.

Neglect

Sorry I've been so neglectful in my blogging lately. We've had projects that have been keeping me busy elsewhere. One of which is almost finished, hurray! We have one bathroom in our tiny little house (aside from the "throne", for those of you who have been to our house) that is pretty functional, but not so much pretty. I painted it when we first moved in and it helped, but I never really liked the color that I painted it. So, finally, two years later, we got around to repainting it. There were a bunch of other things that had to get fixed first before we could start though: had to put a new window in because the other one was rotted because the fan didn't vent properly, had to vent the fan, had to re-texture the ceiling and walls in a few places where paint peeled down to the dry wall, install a new shower head that broke during painting...You know how it goes. A project that you think is going to take one day and about $50 turns into 3 weeks and lots more money. But it looks like we are really almost done. It's all painted, so now I just have to put the fixtures back on and then clean it up and put the new shower curtain on and we'll be sitting pretty. Once it's all done, I'll try to post a picture for you to see the finished product. I'll leave you with this parting shot of Jackson. This is the wagon we got him for Christmas and he likes to stand on the seat and flash me while I work at the computer. Nice.

It NEVER ends!

During my early, formative years my brother came up with some clever/humiliating nicknames for me based on my real name. For example: Jenheifer was one of his favorites and it actually got around while I was in high school and my whole volleyball team started calling me "heif" for short- coach included! Well, for my birthday Jeremy got me a magazine subscription that I had asked for and as I was reading it the other day, a little something caught my eye:

Oh yes, that really does say Jennifart.

Fun times with the Goodman's

While in STL, I got to see my good friend, Sarah, for what was way too short of a time, but better than nothing! The last time I saw Sarah, Jackson was probably about 3 months old and Abby was still a bump in her mommy's tummy, but a cute bump! It was very fun to finally meet the newest addition to the Goodman family and to visit with old friends. As I look at this picture, it reminds me of all of the good times and memories I have of Sarah and I during our college days, minus the children, of course. It also reminds me of the days when my mom used to try to use us to "hide" her during picture taking. She doesn't do that anymore because she's a little cute skinny minnie now, but I seem to have adopted that usage of my child. I think I remember Sarah and I both saying maybe if we hold them in front of us, it might hide a little of the bumpiness. Good old Jimmy and his self-named "lazy beard". Such a pensive fellow. Maybe he's thinking, "Mmmm...Beer."
And this is little Abigail Jane, with her sweet blue eyes and rosy cheeks. I hope we get to play again soon!

Davis/Perkins/Tock/Vogel Christmas

After our time with the Vogel side, we left for STL for Christmas with my family. Always lots of fun to play with more cousins! This was how meal time at the Perkins house shook down. We had the line-up of kids against the wall so that there was actually room for adults at the table. It actually worked out quite nicely- might have to remember that for down the road when we have six more kids. Just kidding. Eva got a play kitchen for Christmas from YaYa, Papa John and Uncle Jeremy so I made her an apron to go with it. I was quite pleased with how it turned out for my first try.
Shepherd's birthday also happens to be the 26th of December, so we celebrated that along with Papa John's birthday (also the 26th!). Shepherd got a rocking horse just like his sister's from his Nana for his birthday and liked it a lot.
Play time with Eva and Jackson. Sweet kiddos.
Papa John blowing bubbles with Jackson and Eva. This was J's first bubble experience and he was quite excited.

Vogel Christmas

Here's a few random pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with all of the Vogel's. These are all of Jackson's cousins, Max, Lilly, and Ella before opening presents on Christmas Eve. Todd got a new golf club for Christmas from his brother, Tim, which was very exciting for him.
Jackson and Lilly in their matching Christmas jammies.
And all the cousins again in their cute Christmas outfits. Lots of blond hair on that couch!

The best gift ever!

Jackson got a wagon for Christmas and has thoroughly enjoyed the box that it came in. It finally made it's way to the trash, sadly, but now he is actually enjoying the wagon. Right now it's just sitting in the rec room so whenever we come down here he goes right to his wagon and gets in and sits in his seat and tries to put the seat belt on. Even though we haven't actually taken the wagon outside (it will probably be a while!), it's nice that he can enjoy it in the mean time. This is the wagon we got, except ours is red. I really like having the door on it so that he can get in and out on his own.