first turtle

there are certain toys that i really loved when i was growing up.  some of the ones i have the fondest memories of were transformers and teenage mutant ninja turtles!  ledger is still a few years too young to enjoy the challenge of changing a transformer, but he can certainly have some fun with those turtles in a half shell, right?  well, the other day diana and i got some mcdonalds and i noticed that the kids meal toy was the good ol' ninja turtles!  i found out that you can get a happy meal toy without actually buying the meal, so i picked one up for ledger to play with!  he had a fun time checking it out.  i'm pretty sure he had no idea what it was, but he sure does like to bang it on his high chair!

more space

we finally did it!  for months diana has been asking me to find a way to get rid of the treadmill in the living room.  it was taking up too much space, and she had moved on to work-out dvds instead of using it any more.  it sat there unused for months, just taking up all kinds of space.  now that ledger is big enough to need a high chair, we desperately needed the room!  well, thanks to craigslist, i was able to send it on its way to a new home where it will be used once again!  and for our troubles?  it only costed us about 50 bucks to have it for a year and a half!  not too bad, huh?

out of power

ugh.  my car, the saturn, died on me at work.  i cant figure out why either.  maybe it was the fact that i needed to get it jumped just the week before, or maybe because i accidentally left the lights on for eight hours while i worked...  no, that cant be it.  i pestered todd, one of the guys i work with, to give me a jump.  he owed me anyway- i jumped his car the month before.  we had it hooked up for about twenty minutes, but still didnt have enough power to get the transmission to turn over.  i actually had to admit that it was time to change the battery.  todd took me home that night after work, thankfully, but then i had to go back and replace it the next day.  when i got there i tried jumping it with our other car, just in case, but that didnt work either.  i pulled out my tools and got to work getting the battery out.  turns out the bolts are metric and all i had were standard measurements!  dang!  well, the next day i borrowed a few tools from a guy at work and made a second attempt to change the battery.  it went much more smoothly that time and i was able to successfully swap out the old one for the new one.  it was a pain, but i felt pretty good about my gearhead abilities after that!

latched in

our little guy keeps getting bigger and bigger!  hes really filling up his baby seat- the toys that hang down from the handle keep hitting him in the head every time we try to get him in or out of it!  he doesnt seem to mind too much because when ever he goes in it it means he gets to go out and about- his favorite!

our little pterodactyl

diana has recently taken up a new hobby: jewelry making!  she wanted to make a bunch of necklaces and bracelets to give to friends and family for christmas, so we headed over to joann fabrics to get some more supplies for her.  while she picked out what she wanted to use for each person, ledger and i took a tour of the store.  along the way we found a cute little book that accurate sums up ledger's latest fascination: squawking like a pterodactyl!
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at church

we arrived at church with our entourage for the big event!  we were a little early though... i had mistakenly thought that the saturday service started at 5:00, but it actually starts at 5:30.  oops!  well, that meant that we had plenty of time to take pictures before hand...
the service itself was great, as always, after we sang a few songs pastor kris invited diana, ledger, and i up on stage to join him.
pastor kris talked about the big committment we were making, promising to raise our son in the way of God, following His will for our life as parents, and training ledger to learn the path of Christ.  a big responsability, but one we are excited for!  it was really a great blessing to have so many family members there as witnesses to the covenant that was placed on ledger!
thanks again to everyone who came down to support us- we are truly loved!
(more pics: 1, 2, 3)

baptism party

with all the family that was coming to share our special day, we knew our tiny closet of a house was not going to be big enough to fit everyone, so we needed to find a bigger place to have lunch together.  wanting to save everyone a little bit of money, we decided against going out to eat and instead gathered in my classroom for pizza!  diana's family followed us over to the school and my family, mom, papa, jill, tweets, and aves, all joined us at school.  we had a great spread: a bunch of pizzas, chips, cake, and mom even brought her world famous pasta broccoli salad!
(more pics: 1, 2, 3)

family arrives

something that is very important to us is raising ledger in a christian home.  one of the exciting celebrations that comes along with that is having him baptized at church.  we were finally able to set a date for him and invited both our families to join us in this special day.  our church usually does baptisms during the saturday evening service, which worked out great for us- that way both our families could join us for the day and wouldnt have to worry about traveling really early sunday morning in order to make it in time for a sunday service.  diana's family, mom, david, alanna, tavish, dad, barbara, and jeffry lee arrived at our place around 2:00 that afternoon.  we got a chance to hang out for a little while and enjoy our time together.  we had plans to provide lunch for everyone, so we packed up and headed out to lunch!

rub a dub dub

as ledger gets a bit older, he seems to enjoy bath time more and more! when he was just a few months old he would cry when we bathed him, not too happy to have water pored all over him!  well, now that he's a bit bigger, he loves getting to sit in the sink and play with the water.  he's just starting to learn to play in it, which makes bath time so much more fun- and so much cuter!

your word against mine

ledge goes to bed pretty early, so that leaves a bit of extra time for diana and i to hang out.  often times that means that the two of us go to bed early too- ledger gets up at 5:30am, and that comes awfully early if you stay up till 11 or 12!  one night we decided to pull out a game and have a bit of fun.  i've always loved scrabble but its not necessarily one of diana's favorites.  well, this night she was the one who suggested it, so i was all over that!  we had a great time rocking out to 90's music while we counted up our word scores!  i tell ya what, i do love that woman even if she did beat me...

errands with ledge

i dont get to spend as much time with ledger as i would like to.  unfortunately there's that whole 'work' thing that always gets in the way...  when i do get to see him before bed time i always try to make it count, which can be a bit more difficult when there are errands to run as well!  there were a few things i needed to pick up at meijer, so i brought our little guy along!  he loves to go out with us, especially to stores- there's so much to see.  what a happy little shopper!
please note that he is sporting an awesome batman hoodie that his aunty lissa got for him.  awesome.

nemo decor

one of the things that i always seem to get roped into at work is making decorations.  since i have some artistic ability, i dont really mind too much- its a great chance to be artistic, which i enjoy.  well, our student council planned a special movie night for all the families to come and enjoy a family movie on the big screen in the school's gym, and also raise a bit of money at the concession stand!  can you tell which movie they decided on?  they asked me to make a little something to decorate the walls.  when i get a challenge that i actually enjoy, i go a little further then i might otherwise, well i really loved making the different characters for this one!  each one was two or three feet wide and filled up the gym really well when they were put up!  the younger kids who went loved the decorations and were invited to take them home at the end of the night.  who knows, they might still be up on the walls of their bedrooms!
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eat up!

after seeing how much ledger loved the food toys at diana's mom's place, we figured we should probably get some for ourselves.  i happened to notice a huge pack of them at aldi (one of my favorite places on earth!), so i picked them up and let ledger go to town!  he was absolutely thrilled by them!  he mostly loves to take them out of the bin and shake them in the air wildly.  he also seems to enjoy sucking on them...  it makes me wonder though, are we teaching our son a bad lesson?  are we teaching him that all food tastes like plastic?  a thought to ponder...
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re lob

barbara came to visit us for a couple days, which we always love, and offered to treat diana and i to a very rare treat: a night out with just the two of us!  what?!?  i kind of forgot what that was even like!  taking full advantage of the situation, we decided to go all out and have ourselves a fancy date at red lobster!  it was so much fun to just have a peaceful dinner where diana and i could talk and enjoy each other without focusing on ledger and instead focus on each other- how novel!  it had been a while since we have gone out to eat at all, thus the excited response from diana...
thanks again to that wonderful sis of ours!

cribbin it

sometimes you just have to hang out in your crib, you know?  diana and i were busy cleaning up the place, trying to be productive.  we dont often let ledger watch tv, but we needed him to entertain himself while we were busy putting away laundry and tidying up a bit.  i didnt think it would work, considering how much he doesnt like to go to sleep, but i put him in his crib while i picked up his room.  turns out he was as happy as a clam!  the whole time he was just sitting up and playing with his toys allowing us a few minutes of worry free cleaning!  thank you, ledger!

thanks again!

we filled up on thanksgiving food at arnold and nancy's, but that didnt stop us from having another feast on friday at diana's mom and david's!  everyone gathered together for a great feast that david prepared, diana, ledge and i, alanna and tavish, mom and david, barbara, dad, and even aunt gayle were all there for a great time.  we had hoped that david's other daughter katie and her family would be able to join us, but they werent able to attend.  no matter, we filled our bellies anyway!
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grandpa's tea

one thing that is true of all allens is that they love iced tea- they even have their own special recipe.  i dont particularly understand this, to me it just tastes kinda gross and watered down, but boy do they love that stuff!  grandpa decided that he wanted to find out just how much of an allen our little ledger is, so he gave him a little sip!  turns out that taste is genetic because ledger loved that stuff!  one sip turned into two, which turned in to three...  we certainly paid for that little stunt when we tried to put him to bed that night- he was wide awake until way too late!
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allen thanksgiving

diana and i headed over to south bend for thanksgiving this year.  its always tough to decide where to go for holidays- do we visit my family or hers?  well, that decision was a lot easier this year considering my parents were not going to be home for that week!  they went down to visit my brother, so that made it really easy to pick diana's family for our turkey day festivities!  a couple days before we headed over we got a call from diana's aunt inviting us to the allen get together.  i was really excited because i love the allen family!  we met at uncle arnold and aunt nancy's place and got to show off little ledger to the whole family.  it was really great to see everyone again, pass around ledger, and eat some great food!
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shopping in the cart

when diana and i finally made it home at the end of a long weekend apart, we realized that the fridge and cupboards were rather empty!  so monday we went shopping and got a few things to get us by.  while we were there we realized that maybe we could take ledger out of the car seat and let him try being in the shopping cart.  well, it worked!  our little guy is getting big enough to sit in the shopping cart all by himself!  he totally loved it too- usually when we go to the store all he can see is the lights and maybe what's on the top shelves.  this must have been so strange to him- 'oh, this is whats going on every time you take me here!  now i understand...'  he was in awe of all the sights and sounds that he was now able to be a part of.  mom had gotten us one of those cart covers for babies, but i forgot to bring it home.  oops.

relax

even with taking care of ledger for the afternoon, mom still offered to take him for the evening too!  i figured i would take advantage of the opportunity and made plans to hang out with the guys for the night.  brains and i met up at jeffry lee's place and had a blast!  we went out to eat, chowing down over at grand villa (those two had never been there, but really loved it!).  afterward we all headed back to jeffry lee's and just chilled for the rest of the night talking about life, the universe, and everything.  at one point we went in the garage and found this treasure of a hat...  it has felt like forever since i was able to just chill with the guys for a night, it was fantastic.  we got a chance to catch up and really just talk like we used to.  thank you mom, i needed that!