2017, Our Adventure!

The Vogel Family

This year was a year about being bold and exploring our World.

Baby steps all the way. Riley is now a teenager and Basil has entered the double digits for her age, and now we have a brand new Baby Leander to add to the mix. So baby steps are needed to make sure we’re getting it all right. The beginning of the year started very cool and wet, the snow lasted well into April and I had to return to work 4 weeks after Leander was born.

Fortunately, I had taken the bold step to apply at Capital One during my time off with Leander and received an offer to work there. I started November 2016, and had been working there since. It was the most widely known company I had ever gotten to work for and navigating the working parent of a newborn life was interesting, to say the least. We did have good care though and knew our boy was in good hands while we went to work. Riley and Basil were loving being the older siblings getting to watch this new little person grow and all the gross things that come with having a baby in the house, like drool and irps everywhere. Eww.

We made the room we had in our homework, Eston, I, and Leander took the downstairs to be closer while Riley and Basil took the two bedrooms upstairs in our home. It was very convenient for all of us. Leander slept in a Pack-n-Play in our room for at least the first 6 months while we adjusted to being parents to a newborn. It was a lot of lost sleep that we don’t bother missing as it is still worth every minute of it.

Watching this little person grow and learn still amazes us every single day, they catch on to the smallest of things and are learning to see the big picture every day. Even watching Riley and Basil was this amazing even though I had not known them exactly from their births. The pure joy a little baby oozes is just amazing!

In the fall, after Birthdays and Thanksgiving, we decided that we would get our first live Christmas Tree and had an entire day of getting to pick out the perfect tree and enjoy being outdoors. It was such an amazing family experience that even I had never done before. I’m so grateful for all the time we get to spend together as a family as I know others are not quite so lucky. I wouldn’t trade any of this ever for anything.