Happy New Year!

My how a month has flown by since our last post. We must apologize to any followers of this blog for our period of inactivity. Hopefully with all the holiday commotion, you'll cut us some slack.

2008 brought many exciting changes for us Jansens, and we are hopeful that 2009 will be filled with a little bit more stability. We are loving Ankeny and being back close to home. What a blessing that has been. The new house is treating us well. Definitely a little more driveway to scoop, but I suppose that just makes it a better workout.

Harrison continues to grow and amaze us everyday. He continues to be such a blessing in our lives, though he has provided plenty of challenging moments this year. Ear infections and the croup have made winter something to be despised. As of this post, Harrison is feeling better. We'll cross our fingers that nothing else from daycare finds its way back to our household.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and enjoyed bringing in 2009 with a Hawkeye victory. As always, we've provided some new pictures of the little fella for your viewing pleasure. Take care everyone.

Happy Friday!

Just a few new pictures to wish everyone a happy Friday. Harrison is now almost sitting up, rolling over both ways, eating real food (when he feels like it), and in the middle of his second ear infection. That last one is not so much fun and the medicine is terrible but we are getting by.

We’ve been in the new house now for 3 weeks and loving it. Harrison is adjusting nicely to his new daycare and making lots of new friends. He still loves his exersaucer and is infatuated with tags (like the ones with care instructions, etc. Yes, it’s the little things). His silky puppy blankie is a lifesaver and a must-have at bedtime or naptime.

Take care and stay warm!

6 months and going strong

Hard to believe November is already here. We had a perfect evening for Halloween on Friday night. We had ourselves a pretty scary dragon on our hands. Harrison was a kind enough to allow us to parade him around to the grandparents in his costume. Pretty ferocious.
Harrison hit the big 6 month milestone this past week. It's pretty surreal to think that nearly 6 months ago our lives changed forever. Pretty cool stuff. The little guy is doing great despite the fact that he's been born into the worst Michigan season of all time. We're all over here just asking for a win over Ohio State to close out the year to make it all good. Pretty simple request.
Harrison has been getting into the solid foods now. Applesauce and sweet potatoes, along with oatmeal have been the favorites thus far. Okay, they're pretty much the only things thus far. He had his 6 month appointment this past week and had another round of shots. Poor guy. But, everything else checked out good.

We closed on the house on Tuesday and painted this weekend. We'll be moving to the new place for good on the 14th. It'll be pretty exciting to get all of our stuff out of storage. Almost like Christmas.

That's all for now. Hope everyone reading this is doing well. Take care.

DM Half Marathon

Corey and Harrison came out to watch me run the Des Moines half marathon last Sunday, Oct. 19th. It actually went better than I'd expected (I think I ran faster to see those two handsome boys at the finish line :).

This one's not at the marathon but I just thought it was so cute I had to add it in!

Our first blog video

I know it's a bit belated, but I'm finally posting a video of our little guy. While Teryl and I were in Ann Arbor watching Michigan get pummeled by Illinois, Erin and Grandma Carol were able to capture some video on camera of Harrison eating some rice cereal. I'll let you all decide if he likes it or not.

Teryl and I had a great time up north and enjoyed getting to spend time with Jim and Jennifer Ver Ploeg and their kids, Rachel and Jacob. For those of you who don't know, Jim is Teryl's first cousin. We went to the Big House on Saturday, which was great. Always great to go to Michigan Stadium. One of these days, though, hopefully I'll see a win. Oh well.

Hope you are all enjoying the fall weather. Hopefully it lasts awhile before winter sets in. Take care everyone.

Back to work...

Hey everyone. Hope the beginning of fall is treating you all well. It'd be a little better for us if the good ol' Wolverines could pull off the upset tomorrow against Wisconsin. Otherwise, a win for the Hawks over Northwestern would work. Enough college football for one posting, I suppose. We're getting settled down pretty good here in Iowa. I now have a job working as a Marketing Manager at ITS, inc. Most of you might know it better as Shazam. I'll be working with fraud and risk management products. So far, so good after two weeks.

In another milestone, we bought a house in Ankeny. We close at the end of October and will be moving in November. Crazy stuff. We've been so blessed to be in Sully as long as we have. It's been great seeing family more often. It will be nice to finally get settled into our own place again. I'm just looking forward to settling down for a while.

Harrison is doing great. We're in the midst of our first cold. The little guy is handling it pretty well. He's not a fan of getting the snot sucked out, but I guess I can't blame him. He continues to grow and likes to hear himself jabber. Rolling over from back to stomach is a breeze, but he's still not sure about going the other way. Tomorrow is the best big 5 month birthday. All Harrison wants is a Michigan win. Any maybe a new pair of socks.

I've posted some more pictures of the little guy to check out. I've also tried to get a picture of the new place included. To our friends in Lincoln, we miss you and look forward to seeing you in the near future.

Back home in Iowa

Well, it's official. The Jansen family has moved back to Iowa for good. We are kind of in a state of transition right now with housing and jobs, but feel blessed to be back home. Harrison has enjoyed getting to see his grandparents and the rest of the family more often. We definitely are missing our friends back in Lincoln, but are very happy to be back home surrounded by friends and family.

Harrison continues to grow like a weed and turned 4 months last week. Pretty crazy. Our little man is nearly all grown up. Harrison has been doing great with the move and is a constant joy in our lives.

My job search in Iowa continues. I'm hoping to hear back this week from a company that I've had a couple of interviews with. Keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer for me if you get a chance.

Hope this post finds everyone doing well and enjoying the beginning of the college football season (except of course for that heartbreaker to Utah last week for the ol' maize and blue!)
Enjoy the pictures!

Dad wasn't around for this one. Go Hawkeyes!