Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had as nice a Christmas as we did. It was very sad missing Dad so much, but Ryan's excitement over EVERYthing helped keep my spirit up.

I'm not sure why Blogger always puts my pics in reverse order from how I upload them, but I'm tired of fixing them, so what you see is what you get. :-)

Can you believe that, although I took my camera over to Scott & Stacie's house for Keen Christmas on Christmas Eve and took lots of pictures, I left my memory card sitting on the desk at home so I ended up with NO PICTURES?! Jacqueline - you'll have to send me some of yours, please!

catching up again

You'd think I would learn my lesson and post regularly so I don't have to keep playing catch-up, but that just doesn't seem to happen. So here is a photo-heavy post for you to catch up on the past month or so.

Ryan's second time bowling - was contemplating having his b-day party at the bowling alley because he had so much fun, but I think we're nixing the party this year and getting Ry a "big park" for the backyard - that is all he is asking for for Christmas, so how can we resist? ;-)


Thanksgiving found us at Nana and Papaw's for lunch, where Ryan loved working his first "big boy puzzle" (ie, not wooden with holes to put the pieces in).


A funny hat he made at daycare.


After lunch, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Keen's house on the far southeast side of town. We all had fun playing a basketball version of skee ball down in the basement!


The Sunday after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree! We switched all of our ornament hooks over to ribbon so I wouldn't have to be paranoid about hooks this year! It was much easier for Ryan to help us out that way, too.


We headed over to Brownsburg's Winter Wonderland party at the Rec Center - it was okay. Ryan enjoyed petting the reindeer and played a couple of games, but mostly liked people-watching at the top of the bleachers. :-)


Ryan's Christmas party at daycare was on the 17th, so we spent the evening before making yummy pretzel hugs!



On the 20th, we headed over to the Moose Lodge for the children's Christmas party. They give pretty nice gifts and Ryan got a stocking full of candy, an apple, and an orange, and ... a helicopter! I don't think they could have picked out a more perfect gift, and he hasn't stopped playing with it since!


Yesterday, my Mom and I took Ryan to the Indiana State Museum for their "free day" for the 12 Days of Christmas (thanks for the info, Jen!). Ryan got to ride on a real choo-choo (it was a replica of the one they used to have at L.S. Ayres, for those of you who may remember). Mom took some video of us riding the train, but it is too long to post.




Now Ryan and I are (hopefully) enjoying two weeks at home together - I'm on vacation until the 5th, yippee! Today is dentist day, and tomorrow our holiday celebrations begin with the Keen side of the family in the afternoon. Christmas morning will be at home, and then we'll head over to my Mom's for lunch. After that - full-time potty-training! Santa may need to bring Ryan some more undies, just in case 12 pairs aren't enough. :-) Next week we're planning to enjoy Peewinkle's Christmas Puppet Show, and hopefully veg at home a bit. Merry Christmas everyone!

tired of the lack of posts?

I know, I know. It is so annoying to go to a blog only to find that the newest post is the same one you saw the last time you visited. Especially a blog like mine where I am bad about updating. The solution? Scroll ALL THE WAY DOWN to the bottom of this page and subscribe to my blog via email. Then you don't actually have to visit this page ever again - you will receive my posts in your inbox just like an email newsletter. Enjoy!

swishing (or why best friends make the best Godmothers)

As someone who has known me since 7th grade, Jenni knew me before braces, during braces, and after braces. She became accustomed to my flashing an oddly huge grin at her after meals, and knew to give me a nod or a head shake. You see, I was paranoid about having food trapped in my teeth/braces. And people just don't tell you when there is something there! Wouldn't they much rather know than have people stare? I know I would! So I relied on my family and my best friend to help me out when a mirror wasn't available.

This has now trickled down to my son. One Saturday when we met Jenni, Leah, and Kaden for bagels, Ryan decided he would rather have a chocolate muffin. Needless to say, there was lots of chocolate stuck in his teeth! We both laughed when he smiled at us, and Jenni suggested he swish his milk around a little bit to help clear things out. This suggestion has since led to swishing each sip of any drink he has, much to my amusement. Some day I suppose I'll need to make him stop, but for now, I'm just enjoying it. And that is why best friends make the best Godmothers. :-) Enjoy!

a few shares

Just a few shares from the wonderful photoshoot we had with Lindsay Hand at IMA on November 2. I haven't decided which ones are going to be incorporated into Christmas gifts, so you just get to see a few for now. :-)

are you ready

for some new photos? Check back later this morning!

photos, photos, photos

Ryan and I got together with 5/6 of the Russell clan to make some spooky treats for Halloween - cookie baking and pretzel-hug making fun!




Leah and Kaden's Papaw stopped by, and he and Leah busted a few moves to some NKOTB!


Then on to trick-or-treating the next day! Here's my little pirate before we headed over to our first neighbor's house - where the crying ensued until it was time to move on to the next house. :-) At our third neighbor's house, they came out with a bowl of candy for Ryan to choose his own piece...he grabbed the whole bowl and yelled, "Thank you!" ;-)


And then on Sunday we met up with the Russels again, along with Lindsay, for a fun photoshoot at IMA! I think Ryan and I will be heading back there again very soon! Here's one shot I got before my camera battery died...I'll post more when I get my proofs from Linds!

There was a really fun new sculpture from Robert Indiana that was a bunch of brightly-colored numbers - I think we'll be heading back when its time for Ryan's b-day to get his picture next to the 3! :-) I'm really hoping the one of Ry giving me a kiss in front of the LOVE sculpture turns out - if so, it's going to be a Christmas gift for Tony! Shh....

happy halloween

How did I start out this fun day? With a $150 speeding ticket. Just what we need right now! Sigh. Anyway, Happy Halloween from my little pirate. These are the little stickers I made to seal up his goody bags at daycare.





I'll try to post some more pictures from the Halloween party later today - just got a bunch from my mom that I need to check out. And we're having an official photoshoot on Sunday with the fabulous Miss Lindsay, so hopefully next week I'll have more shares!

Do you love quilts? You've got to check out this post at JC handmade. I wish I had the patience and skill for quilting - I had great plans to make a quilt for Ryan's bed last year at Christmas time, and have since cut up all of the fabric I purchased to make camera straps instead. :-) But if I win the contest, I would love to have a fun quilt in orange, blue, and green. Ah. So go enter, and maybe if you win you will give the quilt to me to cheer me up about my speeding ticket?? :-)

just for rhonda

Okay, not JUST for Rhonda, but she is the most recent person to complain about the lack of photos on the blog. :-) And it IS her birthday after all, so who am I to deny a request like that?

Ryan's Halloween party yesterday seems to have been a success! I hope everyone had a great time. I haven't actually downloaded my own photos yet, but here are some I snagged from Erika this morning. :-)

Ryan is dressing up as a pirate this year. The hat didn't stay on long, but he is really digging the eye patch, which I was sure he would hate. Here he is playing with one of his girlfriends (all three were at his party, can you believe it?). :-)


Pin the nose on the pumpkin. Yea to Isaac for winning (and actually agreeing to be blind-folded and play correctly!). ;-)


A group shot - not sure what everyone was looking at!


The standard open-mouthed-why-are-you-taking-my-picture look.


Decorating felt jack-o-lantern magnets.

We ended up with some wonderful weather, so the kids were able to burn off some of the sugar out in the back yard. Ryan skipped his nap that day and I'm not sure about all of the other kiddos, but he was crashed hard by 8pm. :-) Looking forward to trick-or-treating on Friday!

cute

So, last Saturday after meeting Jenni and the youngest kiddos at Big Apple Bagels for some breakfast goodness, Ryan and I headed to Target to try to find him some new shoes. (We ended up with these, after Ryan declared them "cool.")

I also decided we may as well get him a new outfit since he's supposed to get his pictures taken by Lindsay tomorrow (although now it looks like it's going to rain...), and we ended up with this shirt and some new dark jeans:

We picked up a few goodies for his Halloween party this Sunday, and then I decided maybe I needed some new duds of my own. I found this sweater and paired it with a long-sleeve brown t:

The next morning Ryan came into the kitchen, saw me wearing my new tops, and said, "Mama, you're CUTE!"

Love that kid.

damn "bee movie"

for making my kiddo think bees are friendly and fun!

Ryan and I were over at one of the local elementary schools playing on the playground, when we noticed a baseball game going on at the diamonds next door. We walked over to watch a few innings, and Ryan got stung by a bee - inside his ear! Ouch! Never seen my boy quite so freaked out as he was then. He cried for most of the rest of the afternoon, took a brief nap on Dada's lap, and was whiny for the rest of the night. I did get him to eat an apple and a banana, and he went to the grocery store with Tony to get dog food. We played blocks, and that kept his mind of the pain. He woke up several times last night scratching at his ear, but some Motrin and more calamine helped. This morning he woke up and said, "Mama, my ear no hurt anymore." Thank goodness! We took some supplies to Mary's house just in case....

i'm a genius

No, I'm not so conceited as to think that (oh, who am I kidding?). That was Ryan's response to Tony the other day. Ryan is in his, "Why? Why? Why?" stage, and Tony answered one of his questions by stating, "Because I'm a genius." Ryan retorted, "No Dada not genius. MAMA IS!"

Such a smart kid I'm raising.

last night it was alligators

But they were good alligators sleeping in the water, of course.

ryan knows karate - and there are pirates and dinosaurs in our house?!?

Ryan knows karate!

Well, according to the other kids at his baby-sitter's he does. If you've ever seen Ry kick a ball, you know he has a very tight, fast, stiff kick. I guess he was doing that in Mary's back yard the other day, and all of the kids started yelling, "Look! Ryan knows karate!" They were so impressed. ;-)

There's a pirate knocking on the door.

Last Friday I was trying to get Ryan to go to sleep and we had about a 30-minute conversation about whether or not there was a pirate knocking on the door, if he was a good pirate, or if he was a bad pirate who was there to take BeBe (Ry's blanket). I'm not sure where this crazy imagination came from all of a sudden, but it is quite amusing.

Well, if there aren't any pirates, there must be dinosaurs!

Last night was all about dinosaurs. "Mama, there's a dinosaur out in the hall." "No Ryan, there's nothing there." "I think its a bad dinosaur. He wants my BeBe!" "No Ryan, if there was a bad dinosaur out there, Daddy would have stopped him from getting to us. There's no need to worry." "Well, there's a good dinosaur out there then." "Well, if there is a good dinosaur out there, then he's BEING good and sleeping like you should be doing." "Otay Mama."

Love this kid.

just a quickie

How cute are my boys?! Poor Ry - its hard to find a hat that will fit his big head correctly. :-) Need to find an adjustable toddler-sized Colts hat!

oldies, but goodies

so, my mom has been not-so-patiently waiting for a blog update. i'm just not feeling the blog lately, you know? but in order to keep nana happy, here are some of my favorite pics of ryan from when he was around 11 months old. these were during his always-sucking-in-his-bottom-lip phase. :-) "my best friend's little sister" (ha ha - inside joke i hadn't thought about in a long time!) took them for me, and i recently dug them out to use in one of my free artscow photobooks. i converted the pics to B&W, then made the pages using a free template from the shabby princess. in order to fill the 30 pages of the photobook, i alternated these pages with full-size color photos. i can't wait to see it in person! lindsay - not sure if you read my blog, but we need to get together for a shoot this fall! email me!