6 months old!

Deacon is 6 months old now and it's crazy how much older he seems to me lately. I sort of feel like we are getting past the infant stage a bit, even though it technically probably continues for a while still. He has started eating real food and is getting sooooo close to crawling. And wonder of wonders, the kid is finally starting to sleep for a 6-7 hour stretch at night! Can I get a "Praise the Lord!"?

His personality seems to be pretty laid back and he is a seriously smiley kid. I think the best part of my days though are watching him and Jackson interact. It just makes me happy to see how much they already love each other. Jackson is so affectionate with Deacon and he can make Deacon laugh easier than anyone. Siblings are the best!

January so far...

We spent New Years Day with the rest of the Vogel clan to celebrate the New Year, but also to celebrate Christmas since we didn't get to do that earlier. Ella is getting to be so grown up and she loves her new baby cousin. Deacon has learned how to sit on his own now...and is really trying his hardest to start crawling. I'm scared.

We also finally have had a few days that were warm enough to take advantage of all of the snow we've been getting, so we took Jackson out to the big hill at the golf course. He's still not quite old enough to really enjoy it yet. I think he thinks it's too much work for not enough pay-off since he has to walk back up the hill and that takes about 3 times as long as the trip down. Plus he doesn't like getting snow in his face. He does like just playing in the snow though.

I'm sorry for the lameness of the posting lately. I make no promises about how much I'll get posted in the future either. These days it seems I'm happy to just get kids fed and brush my teeth. But I'll try! Happy New Year!

2009 Wrap-up

We spent Christmas in St. Louis with both sides of the fam. Christmas Eve we celebrated with Tim, Lizzie, and Lilly in their new house and then Christmas Day was spent at John and Lindsay's house with my bro and Mom and John. This is the mini version, but basically it was kid-chaos, opening presents, spending time with family, and wii bowling tournaments. Oh, and cheesy smiles (see following pictures). And Lindsay and John officially announced the impending arrival of baby Perkins #3- due in July! Shep and Jackson became BFF's and loved chasing each other and wrestling.

And here comes the cheesy smiles- compliments of Lilly and Jackson...