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?

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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!