first walk

its finally here.  this is one of those days i had been looking forward to ever since diana and i first found out that she was pregnant: going for a walk with my son.  he has been getting better and better at waddling around the living room on his feet.  it started off with him having to hold both my hands while he tried to kick-walk with me holding up most of his weight.  little by little he gained more confidence in his step, still relying on me holding both hands.  well, recently he has taken that next step toward walking, holding only one of my hands, and even is able to take a few steps on his own!  the past few days i have been taking him out in this nice warm weather and, holding only one hand, walking with him down the sidewalk a few houses and back, going a little further each time out.  he's getting brave, and his dada is getting proud!
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sun's out...

with the warm weather coming in, its time for ledger to ditch the short sleeve shirts.  might as well ditch the sleeves all together!  'sun's out, guns out' i always say!
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happy birthday

along with spring comes a very special day: my beautiful bride's birthday!  now that we've got a little one with us, it makes celebrating a little bit different. instead of being able to have a nice romantical evening together, we get to go out to eat really early so that we are back in time for ledger to get to bed.  oh well, we made the most of it and diana got to go to one of her favorite restaurants: qdoba.  it was nice to get a little bit of time out of the house together and celebrate her 29th (ish) birthday.  sorry honey, its not as much as you deserve, but at least we marked the occasion somehow, right?
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reading on the go

one of ledger's favorite things to do these days is look at books.  granted, he cant quite read them yet, but he has so much fun just paging through them and checking out all the pictures.  whenever he's in the car we just hand him a book or two and he does a pretty good job of entertaining himself for a while.  he sure is a cute little reader, huh?
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new again

though ledger and diana had a great time with lissa, i was very happy to have them back!  and it turned out that ledger was pretty happy to be back too.  the morning after they came back (he went straight to bed the evening they actually returned) he came back to his pile of toys and had a blast!  it was like he didnt even remember he had ever played with them before!  he would pull out one toy and play with it, another toy would catch his eye and he would toss off the first one- like a kid in a candy store!  ...although, perhaps it would be more accurate to say a kid an a toy store, huh?  he and i were able to play together again for the first time in a while, and boy did we have fun!  i always love having the morning with him, a short little 45 minutes to hang out with him and play before i head off to work.  it makes the day go buy so much easier knowing that i got to spend some quality time with my son, and that i would be able to have another hour or two when i get back home!

clean rugs

one of the things we do from time to time for the rental property is clean the carpets.  a  couple years ago my brother in law tim replaced all the carpet over there, so i figured i should really try to make it last as long as possible, so i rented one of those carpet cleaners from the grocery store.  it worked pretty well over there, getting out most of the stains (except one- for some reason the last renters left a giant six inch blop of hot glue on the carpet in one of the bedrooms, completely ruining the brand new carpet tim put in there!  argh!  so much for their deposit!) and getting the place smelling a bit soapy.  since the wife has often asked if we could get a carpet cleaner for our living room, i thought i would surprise her while she was gone in detroit with a nice clean carpet when she returned!  it was a bit of a pain moving around all the furniture (on the other side the whole place is empty, so i didnt have to move anything!) but the fresh and clean carpet was well worth it!  i'm going to have a pleased wife, me!

vacancy

while diana was gone in detroit, i had the enviable task of getting the duplex ready to rent.  our renters had told us that they would be moving out- they were going to be buying a house!  we were excited for them, but disappointed that we were going to be loosing such great neighbors.  so, the much dreaded task of repainting and cleaning had come again.  because of this task i told diana that this would be the best time to visit lissa because i wasn't going to be able to spend any time over the week with her- it was going to be straight from work to painting for me!  never one to miss a fun opportunity to see lissa, she took me up on the offer!  i went to the hardware store, got all the supplies i needed, and got right to it.  i have always hated this task, cleaning up the duplex, but it went a lot better this time than it ever had in the past.  i think one of the reasons was because i just popped in my headphones and listened to podcasts the entire time!  that really made time just zip by.  i would pop the cap off the paint can and before i knew it i had finished the living room and a bedroom!  (my favorite podcast to listen to while i worked was this one!)  with time flying by, i was able to make some real progress on the place and got it whipped in to shape in just a few days, ready to be rented out again.

baby in the water

recently diana and ledger went out to detroit to visit lissa, diana's old college roommate.  while there, the three of them went to the ymca to do a little working out and to take a dip in the pool.  well, diana picked up some swimming diapers for ol' ledger and gave him his first taste of swimming!  she said he totally loved it!  he always loves taking baths and playing in the water, so it makes perfect sense that he would love this giant tub all the more!  she sent me this picture to let me see how much fun he was having- what a great time!  i wish i could have been there, but its great to know that the two of them had a blast!

south bend weekend

diana's mom had been asking us to stop by again for a while, so diana and ledger headed out saturday morning to spend the day over in south bend.  i had to work, so i waved them off and then headed over to the m store to move around a bunch of boxes!  when i got done though, i drove out to spend saturday night and sunday with the family.  we had a great time playing around, watching ledger scoot around the house.  he's been getting better and better at taking a small step here and there.  i would bet that before we know it he will be walking all over the place!  its always a good time to see diana's mom and david- ledger always loves it!  the only bother with this set up is that diana arrived in her car and i in mine, which means that we have to drive home separately as well.  aw man, then we miss the best part of traveling: talking to each other as we go!  oh well, a small price to pay for a fun weekend!
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oh poop.

we've been having problems on and off at our place with the sewer line for the past half dozen years.  it would get backed up and then we would call some one to root it out, but then a year or two later they would be back again to do the same.  well, about two years a go the guy who came told us that we would be needing some major work on it soon.  he said that the pipe that was running out of the house was made of clay (apparently that's what they used to use back when this house was build) and the roots from the trees and shrubs had crushed it and the pipe had collapsed.  oh boy.  well, diana and i took note of this warning and tried our best to ignore it so it would go away...  unfortunately it didn't.  it finally happened, the pipe had completely collapsed and stopped any flow of sewage out of our place.  well, i guess we cant ignore it anymore.  so, we got the plumber guys to come out and dig a huge hole in the yard and replace the five feet of pipe coming from the house.  fortunately it wasn't as bad as we had initially feared, it turns out that the pipe in the front yard that went out to the road had been replaced at some point in the past fifty years, so the clay was only the first five or six feet.  we were quite thankful about that, we had feared that they would need to tear up the whole lawn, a couple sections of the sidewalk, and maybe even into the street!  well, its done now, so that constant worry in the back of our heads can finally be quieted.  they guarantee it for five years too, so we should be good for a while... we hope.
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play that tune

we decided it was finally time to get our own pack-n-play for ledger.  whenever we go to our parents house they have one, but we figured we should probably just have one of our own just in case we ever go visit other people too.  we had put our name on the waiting list at the local 'once upon a child' second hand store, if they ever got one in that was the basic model, they would give us a call.  well, we finally got the call.  so ledger and i went over and picked it up.  while there we also had to get him a new pair of hard bottomed shoes that would fit his enormous feet now that he's trying to walk around.  after looking at the shoes and picking out a pair, ledger and i wandered over to the toy area.  i noticed a cool little stand up piano type thing and i showed it to him.  it kept his interest- even without batteries in it!  so i added that to the shopping list.  we got it home and popped in some batteries that worked and he was positively enamored with it!  he continues to crawl over to it and tap away at those light up keys.  not bad for twelve bucks, huh?
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celery

whenever i get home from work its hard to decipher who is more excited: me because i get to see my wife and boy, diana because she gets a little relief and help, or ledger because he gets to see dada!  i'm always greeted with a huge smile and a whole bunch of 'dada! dada!'s.  after kissing all the family members (sometimes even poco...), i usually grab a little snack.  well, this time i grabbed some celery to enjoy.  ledger was absolutely enamored with the celery for some reason and grabbed into the tupperware to get a stick of his own!  i don't know if he necessarily cared for the taste (awe, who am i kidding? celery doesn't have any taste...), but he totally loved the crunchiness of it!  he spend about five minutes gumming that thing do death!  its so fun to watch him experience new things for the first time, one of the great joys of parenthood, that's for sure!

dad and sis visit

obviously needing to see that cute pudgy face, barbara and diana's dad stopped in to visit!  they came down for the day and we got to spend some time hanging out with them for a while.  ledger was in a great mood when they arrived- he always loves guests!  we stopped over at our favorite thai restaurant for some tasty grub.  ledger did his usual cute thing and kept the waitresses entertained the whole time we were there.  i'm sure his smiling happy face had nothing to do with the fact that we had excellent service and many check-ins from the staff...  after lunch we stopped over at the local park that diana often takes him to.  there's a baby swing there and a few other fun things to keep ledger entertained.  we put him on the swing and he was as giddy as could be!  his joyful laughter always brings out the laughter in us too- so everyone had a good time!  when we came back to the house we got to hang out for a bit with them, even watched a movie!  ledger always loves to spend time with his extended family- and so do we!
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his own bank account!

with ledger's first birthday, we received many different toys and clothes, but he also received a little bit of money.  when we got back home and took stock of all of his stuff, it dawned on me: what does a one year old do with birthday money?  why, open a bank account, of course!  one day after school i stopped home and picked up ledger (after giving my beautiful wife, of course!).  it was time for our first visit to the bank!  we sat down with someone at the bank and opened up a savings account for our little ledge.  i knew we needed a commemorative photo of him holding his bank account balance book, so decided a solemn face would be more fitting this important event, apparently...

a new way to stop

at the end of my spring break, good ol' jeffry lee dropped by for a stay!  i was thrilled!  diana, ledger, and i were over at her mom's for a short visit, but since i had to work on saturday, i left them there and planned to go back and pick them up the next day.   which means that jeffry lee and i had the place to ourselves!  we had a great old time, just a couple of bachelors living it up! we figured out how to get jeffry lee's netflix on my blu-ray player and were able to enjoy a few strange movies together.  granted, we would watch the movies for about 15 minutes and then put it on pause so we could talk each other's ears off!  i think over the course of about five hours, we only watched 45 minutes of any actual movies...  it was really awesome to have him visit, but the real reason he offered to come down was to help out with one of the problems our car has been having:  the brakes.  they have been pretty soft and squeaky, so he offered to take a look at them and get them back in order.  we spend the next day taking off the wheels, getting rid of the shoddy rusty brakes, and replacing them with shiny new brakes that would actually do their job!  it was a really fun time and a great opportunity to catch up with my dearest friend.  thanks again, jeffry lee- we owe you big time!

hutt and home

after a wonderful time with my family during the start of my spring break, it eventually was time to pack up and head back to our place down in indiana.  we gathered everything up and made one last trip to pizza hut for lunch to see mom for a bit.  ledger wasnt quite as up for it this time, which lead to us cutting the meal a little short, but it was still good to see mom and say our final goodbyes!  after that, we quickly swooped over to pick up poco, then we were on our way!  ledge shaped up a bit in the car and we had a pleasant enough trip home, chatting remembering the fun of our stay.  we knew that ledger was going to be so pleased to have all the great new toys at the house- its going to keep our curious tike busy for hours!  thanks again to everyone for such a fun visit and for all the birthday gifts for our little one!

smash cake! take 2

monday noon we thought we would give the smash cake another try.  we got him down to his diaper, pulled the high chair over to the kitchen (for easy clean-up), sat him down and brought out the sunny cake again.  he seemed a little more interested in it, but was not at all interested in actually touching it!  its too bad, had he known this was the one day where his mama and dada would have let him eat sugar he probably would have been a little more eager to chow down!  oh well, i guess he'll have to wait another year for that sugar rush...

new toys

when we got home we got all of ledger's new birthday toys out of their boxes and let him go to town on them!  one of his favorites was the turtle shaped sound book game that mema and papa got him- he just loved pressing all the buttons and flipping those pages!  he played and played and played all afternoon with all his new toys.  as one would expect, he went to bed without a problem that night- it was an exhausting day!  we didnt really mind that he was ready for bed a bit early, that just gave diana and i some extra time to play cards with mom!

smash cake!

as is the tradition for a bithday party for a one year old, my mom got ledge a smash cake.  this is a special cake just for the birthday boy, for him to dig his hands in and make a real good mess with!  we got him down to his diaper and set him in his high chair (with a bunch of towels on the ground in anticipation for the mess that would ensue) and put the fun cake in front of him.  we werent entirely sure what to expect, how crazy would he get with this thing?  well, it turns out that he wouldnt get crazy at all.  we set the cake in front of him and he didn't want anything to do with it!  i even took his hand and touched it to get some of the frosting on it, but he just pulled his hands back and refused!  i tried putting some frosting in his mouth so he could taste how yummy it was, but even that wasnt enough to get him to try it!
it was a little anticlimactic, but oh well, i guess we will have to give it another try later.

ledger's prizes

after a rousing song of happy birthday, it was time for prizes!  even though we had given him a crash course in gift unwrapping over christmas, ledger still didnt seem to know what to do with them.  fortunately, he has a couple nieces who were more than willing to help him tear off that paper!  he received a bunch of really great prizes- some really cute clothes to grow in to, and a bunch of fun toys to play with.  we are so thankful for all the gifts!  most of the toys we had for him were starting to get boring to him- he needed something a bit more challenging.  those infant toys had lost his interest, but now he's got some great toddler toys to mess around with.  thank you so much to everyone who gave him a birthday gift!
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aves, professional photographer

after the delicious meal jill had prepared, we sat around in the living room talking and playing.  well, it seems that aves got a hold of my phone and decided to go wild with taking pictures...  with a little bit of training, there might be a future in photography for this little one!  check out her amazing portfolio here: 1, 2

ledger's first birthday party

since we didn't get to have any sort of special party for ledger on his actual birthday, we made plans to get together on sunday after church.  jill offered to host all of us at her place and prepare the meal- what a wonderful auntie, huh?  my uncle don and ruth were able to join us for the fun as well!  ledger had a great time getting so much attention, he would just be passed from one pair of loving arms to the other.  he was a bundle of energy too- scootin' all over the place!  i think his favorite thing was tim and jill's slider- a big giant window to stand up and lean against, looking out into the backyard.  he especially loved it when the dog was out there to watch!

easter morn

though it was hard to get up after such a late night at dusty's, we pulled ourselves together to celebrate easter at my parent's church.  ledger was pretty excited to see us again after the day away at the wedding!  we dressed up real nice and met up with tim, jill, and the kids for the service.  just look at little ledger, dressed up so handsome and with such a big ol' smile!  now thats my happy little guy!

after (wedding) party

after the reception, dusty and carrie invited us all over to their place for a little after party!  we had so much fun, we ordered a bunch of pizzas and had a blast.  aaron and nichole arrived soon after we did, jeffry lee, keith, adam and his date, and more joined in the fun as well.  and of course, as always happens when we are together, we had to pop in our old florida music video!  apparently nichole and adam's date had never seen it, so we owed it to them to let them view the majesty that is the sidestreet guys!  in honor of the video's 13th anniversary, we allowed all of our fans to take photos of this historic musical reunion...  the night was so much fun, with the only down side being that diana dropped her phone in the toilet.  argh.

rex's wedding

the wedding itself was a lovely ceremony that went off without a hitch.  granted, jeffry lee fumbled on a random branch on the side of the stage, but thats par for course.  we sat by brains and his wife, keith, and chase.  it was great to see my little rexy up there lookin so handsome, being a big boy!  after the nuptials  we got a chance to talk with everyone in the back.  i caught up with a few people i hadn't seen in forever!  joel weaver, who i hadnt seen since college, adam's dad, which is someone i always love to have chat with, and even nathan kuiperus' parents who i havent seen in ages!
after the ceremony we headed over to the reception.  i had never been to the place before and was quite amazed at how beautiful it all was!  the whole thing was fantastic, rex even sang a song that he had written for his new bride- and it was incredible, making the rest of us husbands look bad...  it was a ton of fun hanging out with everyone, being a part of the festivities, enjoying a little bit of dancing.  a great time was had by all!
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