haircut

one of the hardest things to do in the whole world, i'm pretty sure, is give an infant a haircut!  yikes!  diana, who is a professional hair dresser, even struggles with it!  about the only way to do it is by putting ledger on my lap, holding down his arms, and trying to hold his head still long enough for diana to make at least one cut at a time...  we've got the tv on to distract him, and even let him have his binky (which is only allowed at bed time), so you know its a bit deal!  diana did a great job, staying patient with his while he struggles, but we had to still break it up into two sittings!  she did what she could, but once he was too wiggly, we set him down for a while and tried again later.  after much frustration, he finally had a complete haircut- and he looked so cute that we completely forgave all the hassle that went in to it!
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playing at the table

our boy has become more and more interested in coloring.  he has a little container full of crayons and everyday he wants to sit at the table and color!  'crans! crans!' is the cry we hear dozens of times a day.  so we pull out some paper for him and pour out his crayons (i think sometimes that's all he really wants, is just to pour them all out and make a mess of the table!), and he goes to work!  every time he grabs a new crayon we ask him what color it is.  for some reason his default answer is 'blue!' no matter what color he has in his hand...  we have been paying close attention to which hand he colors with.  will he be right or left handed?  so far he seems to favor his right hand, but he's just as comfortable with his left hand.  hmm, i guess we will have to wait and see about that one... so far all he can do is make scribbles, but he sure does love it!
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sara and vince stop by

every once in a while we get a chance to meet up with diana's old friend sara and her family.  they have a son, shawn, who is only about a year older than ledger.  as he grows out of his clothes and toys, sara and vince love to pass them on to us- and we love to take them!  well, they had a bit more stuff for us as well as a christmas gift for ledger, so they came on over for lunch and playtime!  diana and i provided some delicious pizza, and after everyone had their fill, the boys headed over to the play room so ledger could show shawn all the fun stuff to play with.  ledger got to open his first gift of the season: an awesome loopy car track!  the two boys (and abby too!) had a blast breaking it in, sending the cars and whatever else they could find down the track.  shawn is a bit quiet, but by the end of the afternoon, he was having a blast and chatting it up!  he especially loved the toy cash register of tavish's and did not want to leave the toy coins by the time they had to go.  it was a lot of fun to see the four of them again!

tavish's birthday!

tavish just loves being a pirate!  alanna planned out a whole fun time for tavish for his birthday, making an awesome pirate cake and having tons of pirate fun for his special day!  all morning we worked together to get the house ready for the high seas fun- decorated the cake, put up the decorations, and welcomed a few of alanna and tavish's friends.  we gathered around the table, sang a hearty birthday song, and enjoyed a fun afternoon of birthday celebrations!  tavish got some great gifts and the kids had a blast wearing their pirate hats and patches, running around screaming 'argh!'  happy 4th birthday, matey!
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thor's day night out

diana and i had been trying to go out to see a movie for about a month.  we thought we might have the chance over thanksgiving, but with getting the chance to spend time with family and everything, we just didnt have a chance.  well, diana's mom and david swooped in and told us that they could take care of ledger because they knew we needed an evening away together!  we got ourselves all dressed up (you know, out of our 'house clothes', which just means 'sloppy comfy clothes') and headed out to the movies!  we had so much fun- just a chance to remember how much we love each other and how much we love spending time together!  it helped that the movie was a ton of fun too!  diana was looking her best (but then again, when doesnt she?) and was so pleased to have movie theater popcorn, that it didnt really matter what we saw, i knew we would have a great time!

stop that

one of the big benefits of having friends who know a lot about cars is that they are sometimes willing to work on my car!  the breaks have been getting a big squeaky on the saturn, so diana talked to rob about it and he offered to take a look at it.  he had gotten the thing running earlier in the summer and did a great job, so one saturday i brought it over to replace the brakes on it.  turns out they were pretty bad...  levi came over to help out as well, and by 'help out', i mean 'sit around and watch' just like me!  diana stopped by to check it out too, and she even brought some food for us and rob's kids.  after a quick stop at the car parts store, rob went after it with a vengeance and had all four of the brakes replaced within a few hours!  what an amazing help- thank you so much, rob!

visiting gramma great

since we were in town, my mom suggested that we should go and visit my grandma- she hasn't seen ledger in quite a while!  so while we were out friday afternoon, we dropped by her place and stopped in for a visit.  it was great to see grandma again, and ledger had a blast!  with 35+ great-grandkids, she was ready for him- she had a box of toys ready and waiting!  ledger was his usual jovial self, and gave grandma-great a big hug- then went exploring around her place, quickly coming across her toys.  he loved her little toy barn and animals, they were just like the ones from home!  the toy he really got a kick out of though, was the squishy ball.  he was bouncing that one around the whole time!  grandma had a great time with him too, getting such a kick out of his little laughs and goofiness.  i'm so glad we got to see her and show her the joy of our little guy!

brinksgiving

wednesday night we drove up to grand rapids to spend thanksgiving with my family.  its always great to see everyone, and its so good for ledger to spend some time with his loving cousins!  my mom was, as always, thrilled to have us up for a few days.  thursday morning we got up nice and early and went to church.  afterwards, everyone came over to mom and papa's for the feast!  the rest of the day was spent recovering from the gorging...  the kids all played around and had a grand old time, i even got in on the fun!
friday we went around town and did a little bit of shopping- none of that 'black friday' shopping, we waited until late afternoon, when all the crazy shoppers had already gone home and were taking their naps.  the whole weekend was a flurry of activity and went by too quick!  we had to be back home saturday afternoon, so we had to cram everything in while we had the time.  don't worry mema, we will see you again soon for christmas!
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giving thanks for the keenans

knowing that we were going to be visiting grand rapids over thanksgiving, diana's mom made plans to have everyone over the weekend before to celebrate thanksgiving.  jared, katie, and liam came saturday morning and planned to spend the whole weekend with us- extra time for the three cousins to play around and have fun!  saturday afternoon diana's aunt gayle and uncle denny came over as well, and barbara and james rounded out the festivities.  the day was filled with making food (i got to carve up the turkey- my fav!), catching up, and watching the three boys get into as much trouble as they could!  after we were all about as stuffed as could be, we wandered over to the living room and the boys played a fun game that alanna had where they get to run around and get all their energy out- thankfully!  after the boys were in bed, the rest of us gathered around the table once again, this time to play some fun games.  its always a pleasure to see the whole family, it was especially nice to get a chance to hang out and get to know jared a bit better.  he and his family live in detroit, so we dont get to see them as often as the rest, so it was a welcome chance to talk- i finally found someone who listens to podcasts almost as much as i do!
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cousins!

as alanna brought more and more of her stuff over, the boys had more and more toys to play with!  one of the toys that they had the most fun with was tavish's grocery store.  ledger loved to pick around those bins and grab different fruits and vegetables to play with.  tavish often dutifully stood behind the stand with his trusty cash register, ready for the sale!  these two boys are certainly loving their time together, ledger has grown leaps and bounds since tavish's arrival.  ledger is able to say more words, understand more concepts, and be more confident and surefooted in his walking.  tavish is a couple years older, so he is running around and doing everything while ledger has been trying his best to just keep up!  the two of them can spend hours just running around the house in circles, tavish racing ahead and ledger limbering along trying to be a part of the excitement!

his first fort

ledger and tavish love to play together- they are so creative!  tavish always loved to crawl under the table, but the big problem was that all the chairs were in the way so it was too small for both of them to get under there.  well, i figured i could help them with that- i pulled out all the chairs and grabbed another table cloth.  i draped both of them over the edges and- voila, ledger's first fort!  the two of them totally loved it, their own special place to play.  the hid under that table for the rest of the day, crawling in and out of it.  they invited me in for a look see, and it was pretty great down there!
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lil' musician

our little rock star!  for some reason diana's mom and david had a little ukulele.  i'm not entirely sure they even knew they had it, it was tucked away above the pantry, so far back you could hardly see it.  well, one day i pulled it down to check it out and ledger went nuts!  he wanted to mess around with it himself- and its the perfect size too.  he kept wanting to set it on the floor and poke at the strings, but i got him to hold it correctly just long enough to get a great shot of him looking like a rock star!  i figure that when he makes it big as a musician, he will have this photo to look back on.  it was woefully out of tune, but he sure loved plucking away at it!  after playing with it for about ten minutes his attention was drawn elsewhere, but the next day he pointed up to the pantry and said 'tar! tar!'.  uh oh, he's starting to remember stuff...  that whole distract him and he forgets about it wont work anymore.  there goes that parenting strategy right out the door!