Easter 2016

Happy Easter from Vogel Party of 5!

Reed joined right in on the egg hunt this year, and eggs full of goldfish were quickly rejected for ones filled with jellybeans or m&m's instead.  The third child learns everything way too quick ;)

 

our beautiful girl and handsome young man....they sure are growing up! They are both at such fun ages, and with little Reed to chase around,  I can use all the help I can get from them!  They still have nothing but love for their little bro a year and a half later.

Reed Update

THIS FACE brightens our lives every day, and I swear his eyes keep getting bluer and bluer.  Reed is now 17months and on the move, his kid can run fast!  His vocabulary is quickly expanding, a few favorites: "da bawl, trow it", "aw dun", "mama mama mama", "up"(which means either up or down) and last but not least "wassat?" (what's that?)

Reed's favorite books are "Goodnight Gorilla", "My World" and "Counting Ladybugs"  He likes Goodnight Gorilla so much he decided to take a bite out of it the other day.  Reed loves balls and books, and has no interest in toys.  If you're not sure where Reed went, the mudroom trying on everyone's shoes is a pretty safe bet.

Reed points to things he wants and says "Dat!"  He also shakes his head no very emphatically to let you know he disagrees with you.  He likes to help me, his favorite ways to help are by throwing things in the garbage, putting clothes in the washer and "helping" me fold laundry by rolling around in it and terrorizing my folded piles.  He loves to clap, play high five and give kisses.

Reed wants to be treated just like the big kids, no baby cups for this kid, he wants a regular cup just like everyone else, he insists on a fork at dinner, and lines up to wash his hands with his big brother and sister.

We are so lucky to have this little ray of sunshine in our lives to keep us on our toes.  Dennis and I always joke life would be boring with our little Reed.

Reed's Nursery

I have been meaning to share pictures of Reed's nursery for quite some time now, so finally here it is!  But first a disclaimer:  If you're here to see our kiddos, this post may not be for you.  I'm going to try and branch out a little on the blog and share some home design projects too.  I promise that there will still be mostly kiddo updates though, so stay tuned!

I had a different approach for Reed's room than I did for the other kids.  I now realize how quickly babies grow to toddlers, and toddlers to kiddos, so creating a space that Reed could grow into easily was important to me.  I really took my time with this room and pieced everything together until it was just right, and it paid off!  The room has turned out to be a beautiful place that makes us happy to be in and is very functional as well!   

For some toy storage we found these awesome wooden crates and then Dennis added casters and wheels to the bottom to make them more functional and they look much cuter this way too, double bonus!

For a changing table, we just painted an old dresser we had in storage gray, to compliment the wall color, replaced the handles with some awesome Anthropologie ones, plopped a changing pad and basket for diapers on top, and viola!  A perfect changing station and dresser with plenty of storage that can be used down the road.  Also shown in the above picture is the awesome aqua poof I used for a foot rest on those long nights early on, and now as a comfy, cozy spot to cuddle up and read books.  

We were able to reuse Stella's old crib and just found some fun new sheets, decorative pillow and blankets.  The cloud pillow my mom helped me make and the kids even got in on the action and helped stuff the pillow.  

I found this cute little cart that just so happened to match the nursery decor in the kitchen section at Ikea, major score! It has been a very handy place to store extra diapers, wipes and blankets.........and bonus, it looks great in the room and adds a nice pop of color.  And who knows, maybe I'll actually use it as a kitchen cart one day, or a book or magazine cart, the possibilities are endless.

I don't like to say there is much of a theme for the nursery, because I prefer a more eclectic blend when decorating, however I was drawn to clouds, raindrops and "R" monograms, and liked the gray and aqua colors together.   My mom helped me with another DIY project in making this mobile.  It turned out better than I imagined and is probably my favorite thing in the room.  I then found this picture on Etsy to tie in the clouds and raindrops a little more.  

.....and because no blog post would be complete without at least a picture of one of the kids, here is a throwback of Reed in his nursery at 6 weeks old......sigh, what a tiny little peanut he was here.  He is getting so big so fast. Please stay little Mr. Reed , mommy is begging you!

Throwback Thursday!

Here are some pictures of the kiddos when they were about Reed's age, I've been going down memory lane a bit to find these pictures and it seems like a crazy long time ago that these two were so little!  Thank goodness I have my little Reed bug or I would probably be crying looking at these little cuties, thinking about how big they have gotten!

Jack 16months

Stella 16months......already sporting a purse

Stella 16months (and Jack age 3)

Stella was nicknamed Serious Stella as a baby, this picture reminded me of that.  

she definitely grew out of that!

Stella 13months & Jack age 3

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Jack 13months

and finally little Reed at 15months 

(and in case you were wondering, why yes that is a shot glass that baby is playing with,  but I promise his shirt is wet from drool and nothing else!)

Happy almost weekend everyone!

Sibling Spacing

I can't rave enough about the age gap between the older kids and Reed.  It's so nice to have Jack and Stella as my little helpers, and they genuinely enjoy playing with Reed and helping me take care of him.  It's adorable watching them care for their little brother.   I can honestly not remember one time when they were jealous or angry about Reed getting a lot of the attention, they just think he's cute along with everyone else.  Now with each other, that is an entirely different story!  I have been "having a moment"  lately knowing what will be my last baby is barely a baby anymore, it's so bittersweet.  Reed is such a happy little dude and everyone else seems to enjoy him more and more older he gets, but I love my babies.  Speaking of my sweet little baby,  I hear him up from nap, so time to go.

please excuse my poor quality pictures, but you know....it's Monday

Here's a little added bonus for your Monday, another one of Reed's stop-drop-and-headstands!

It's a whopping -1 degrees out here right now, so more inside playtime this afternoon is up for us, and tomorrow it's back to school after this nice long weekend.  Happy Monday friends, stay warm!

Reed Update

 Reed is 15 months old now and my last baby is quickly turning into more of a toddler every day.  Along with walking, he's also learned to be quite vocal about what he wants, letting out a big screech to make sure everyone can hear him.  Grocery shopping has become a challenge because he sees the Goldfish, or yogurt, or bananas or anything else he thinks he wants that day and screams because he can't have them.  He's also the first of the three to wrangle himself out of the shopping cart seat buckle.  He turns himself backward and shimmies on up and out of there.  I've decided that the Baby Bjorn is the only way to take him shopping, which is a total pain in the butt.  Reed just got his 7th tooth (discovered last night at 1am when he woke up inconsolable.)  He's saying quite a few words, a few favorites are: "aww dun" (all done), "dare it izz" (there it is), "ware a go?" (where did it go),"Dad" and "up."  He's obsessed with the Little Blue Truck books, balls, chairs his size, and playing in the kitchen (both the play one and the real one.)  He's defied the strength of child proof cabinet locks and can empty a drawer is mere seconds.  He's a climber and loves to stand on tables and chairs, he's very creative on what he'll use for a step stool.  Reed has mastered waving bye-bye and loves to clap for big brother Jack at his basketball games.  The highlight of his week is his baby music class and the highlight of his day is when Daddy comes home from work, he can't get over to the door fast enough when Dennis comes home.  Reed is our playful little smiley bug who loves to have pillow fights and tackle, is super ticklish, has an awesome belly laugh, and melts my heart every single day with those baby blues.  We love you Reed!

15 Months old as told by Reed Vogel:

"The happily reading a book.....for 20 seconds"

"The enough of this chair, I'm chiming on down"

"The walking with blankie in mouth"

"The stop drop and headstand" 

this one is my personal favorite

"The look I got your phone mom"

"The sure I'll smile for you, but only while I grab this camera"

And there you have it, being 15 month old by Reed Vogel.  There's never a dull moment!

These Shoes are Made for Walking

Happy New Year all!  The big excitement at the Vogel household today was Reed took what we're calling his first "real" steps.  He's been taking a few here and there for the last few weeks, but today he's been making a genuine effort to revert from crawling to walking.  It's such a fun milestone, and even more adorable when the kids are just as excited about it as we are.  They run to me and report EVERY time he takes a step.  Now that we have a walker, we need to actually make sure he leaves the house with shoes on.  I immediately went and dug out Jack's old Chuck Taylors and they fit perfectly, score!  Normally Reed hates shoes (hence why I don't always bother with them), but as I put these on him I kept telling him "big boy shoes for walking" and miracle of all miracles he actually likes wearing these......at least for today.  Meanwhile I've already been perusing Zappos for cute baby boots.

And we've finally needed our real boots here this week, hooray for the kids and thank god for me. What could have been a long week home for all of us turned into a lot of outside playtime in the snow to occupy these two!  Jack's declared wants to cancel our snow removal service and shovel himself he loves it so much!

I rang in the new year with the lovely case of the stomach flu.  We planned to stay in for once and I still woke up feeling like crap on the 1st, can't win sometimes, oh well, at least we were all healthy for Christmas.

Now that New Year's is over and I am feeling up to eating solids again, tomorrow we shall begin the sad dismantling of the Christmas decorations and I swear we will stop listening to Christmas music .....so depressing, but at least I held out on listening to Adele 25, so that will soften the blow a bit.  

By the way, if you had previously followed our blog, you MAY have noticed the 4 month hiatus, ha!  If you hadn't already guessed, my new year's resolution is to resurrect this space.  While I have had a hard time justifying the time it takes when there are always so many other "things", it's such a great keepsake for our family, I know our out of town family appreciates it, and it's a great outlet for me.  So if you are here and you like something you see or just want to say hi, please comment!  those help keep me motivated to pump out more posts!

We wish you all a healthy and happy 2016, CHEERS!!!