Guest Blogger- Auntie Lindsay Blogs

Deacon is a grand example of the superior progeny that comes from such a fine line of people as the Davis/Vogel family. I cannot tell you how smart & good looking he is. He tells me that when you are a fine looking baby genius, as he is, getting whatever you want is like taking candy from a baby. I told him, "I know, that's pretty much my daily experience too, Deacon."

One indicator of Deacon's emotional intelligence is that he has already figured out that alone time with the people most important to him is not only important, but attainable. As he told me yesterday, "Auntie Lindsay, its child's play; I just sleep during the day when they're busy doing stuff, and then I wake up at night so I can have their full attention." So young, yet so wise.

And above, see an example of his excellent hand-eye coordination at just 3 days old. You have to be impressed with his resourcefulness and determination. And did I mention his good looks and soft skin? I'm so proud!

We're Home!

Here's a few more pictures from our few days in the hospital and our home-coming today. Jackson really loves his baby brother and wants to hold him all the time. He has been very patient and helpful so far, and I'm hoping that continues. Linday got here last night and is going to stay until Saturday so she has been wonderful- playing with Jackson, changing diapers, being the official family photographer, and grocery shopping among other things. I already don't want her to go home! Here's another picture of our new sweety-baby. I am thankful that he is really a cooperative nurser and has been generally really sweet and easy thus far.

Here we are at home for the first time as a family of 4! It was really nice to be home today and to take a shower. I did miss the room service a little though!

The hospital always takes a picture for their family board, so we took a few also before we left. Definitely still not used to seeing an extra person in the pictures yet, but I'm sure that will be short-lived. Thanks for all the comments and well-wishings. I hope all of you get to meet Deacon soon in person!

Introducing...

Deacon Jeremiah Vogel!!!! The Deuce made a surprise visit this morning, but he's doing great and so is Mom! He was born at 9:40 am, weighing in at 6lbs. 8oz. and 18.5 inches long. Jackson already got to meet his little brother and he loves him to pieces. I'll try to post more pictures as I'm feeling up to it. Praise the Lord!

Berry Picking!

Monday was Todd's day off, so we decided it was finally time to get to Getting's Gardens to pick some strawberries. We sort of missed "peak season" which only lasts about two weeks, but there were still plenty of strawberries for us, minus the crowds! On their website, the owners of Getting's Gardens encourage you to sample, so Jackson really took that to heart.Jackson got his own little basket to fill up and he was so proud of all of his strawberries. He really did fill the whole thing up himself and then he came and helped me too. I was really surprised at how focused he was on the task of picking berries.
Todd won the prize for picking the most strawberries, but that's only because he doesn't have a 6+ pound baby hindering his bending.

This was the "before" picture of Jackson's empty basket. Just thought it was a cute picture. Sorry if you get sick of looking at my stinking cute kid. Just wait, soon enough there will be two of them to look at!

And in true little kid form, this is how Jackson picked berries. He just plopped down in the aisle and picked until there were no more berries anywhere close and then moved to another spot. To get him excited about going berry picking, we read an old favorite children's book, "Blueberries for Sal". If you haven't read it, do. It's a really cute book!

The Deuce is still cooking, thankfully, and I have been having fewer contractions so that is good news. Just as I start getting used to the idea that we could have this little guy early, it seems like maybe he's settling down and going to wait this whole thing out. Figures.

Baby Update

We are down to the wire here waiting for the arrival of "the Deuce"- I am 35 weeks as of yesterday. Not only has this child not told us his name yet, but he decided that he would give me a bit of a heart attack last night by trying his hardest to come early. Thankfully, after 4 shots of terbutaline and a night in labor and delivery the contractions have slowed. Yes, just slowed. I have to take oral terbutaline for the next two weeks to give this bugger time to cook longer and then we'll see what happens. I am so thankful that they were able to finally stop contractions as we really aren't prepared for this babe yet. I was planning to use every last bit of these last 5 weeks to get ready, so hopefully we'll still have it, or at least most of it. After I hit the 37 week mark, he'll be considered full term, so I'll go off the meds and then we'll see what happens. I'll update as there is anything to update you on! Pray that this little guy will hold out for at least two more weeks and that he will tell us his name!

Firebearworks!!

This was the first year we took Jackson to see fireworks for the 4th of July and he LOVED it! He kept calling them "firebearworks" because one of his latest favorite books is called Firebears so that was kinda cute too. Just a few pictures from the evening to share. Sorry about the stinky quality of some of them. I'm still trying to get my camera figured out and I'm having issues with the night settings. Once the business of fireworks started, Jackson didn't budge from his chair. Not sure if it was because he was enthralled or scared or maybe a combination of the two.

But before the fireworks started, he had a ball running around and playing with Eli and Rae, some friends that we met there.

The New House

Better late than never- but here are a few pictures of our new house. This will be the mini-tour, and I'll try to give updates as we get projects and rooms finished. Obviously, this is the front of the house, and we are loving the huge lot that it sits on. Jackson has a ton of room to roam, and Todd has a ton of yard to mow!
I've never been a big fan of split-level houses, but I loved the open floor-plan of the main floor of this house. This is the living room, and it opens up into the dining room and kitchen area which is really nice. We haven't really painted any of the main rooms in the house yet. Most of them are tolerable for a while, but I sort of like to live in the house for a while before making big changes.

And this is the dining room/kitchen area. Jackson likes to go out on the deck and blow bubbles and sometimes we have lunch out there when it's nice out.

This is Jackson's room. We did paint his room before we moved in because it was like a cave it was so dark. It was a dark pumpkin orange, and the previous owners had painted the ceiling the same color, so it was really dark. Some wonderful friends and my sister-in-law, Ally, came and helped paint the night we took posession of the house so we got that knocked out before we moved in, thankfully. It still has a long way to go, but it's so much brighter now and Jackson really likes all the floor space, and I love having most of his toys in his room instead of in the living room.

Downstairs, there are two more bedrooms, another bathroom and the "rec room", which is also where my sewing area is. I like that the basement of this house is really bright since most of it is above ground and it's a walk-out basement.

That wraps up the mini-tour for now. As I said, I will try to update pictures as we get things finished. We still have lots of work to do, and a short five week window before the Deuce shows up to get as much done as we can. Wish us luck!