When I was a little kid I used to love riding along with my Grandpa Darrell, or Grampy, on his business trips to Chicago. He would pick me up at home and we’d drive north to several businesses in the suburbs and in the city. His business card claimed he worked for a printing company, but for a while I’d always imagined that he was a spy delivering secret documents to other undercover agents. Who would suspect a quiet-mannered Midwestern grandfather in a Ford Probe?

As I was driving to one of my assignments for work I realized I was slowly turning into Grampy. Not in a deeply profound way, just a “wow, this is a little weird” kind of thing. Some of my earliest memories come from riding shotgun with Grampy, so it only makes sense that I see some of his patterns in my own daily routines.

Despite the fact that neither of our job descriptions include the words taxi driver or chauffeur, most of our time for work is spent on the road. We both put more miles on our cars in a year than most people do in three or four. Almost all of that time is spent listening to talk radio or the occasional ball game. My cupholder is always stocked with a fresh Diet Coke. My chap stick, change, gum and toothpicks are all in their own particular spots in my car. I keep a detailed log when I fill up my tank and track my mileage religiously. I know the best places to eat along almost any stretch of road in Illinois.

Of course a few things are a little different… I can make a phone call without having to pull over and stick the giant magnetic antenna from my bag phone on the roof of my car. Grampy’s music was a little more Southern Gospel and mine leans more toward alternative rock. His atlas is my GPS…

Some family members are the kind of people that tell hundreds of stories and try to load your head with advice on any subject under the sun. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention (which is a huge possibility), but I don’t remember Grampy as that kind of person. He was more of a “lead-by-example” kind of guy.

Hopefully I’m following along in those footsteps too. Even if he wasn’t a spy.

Ian will turn six months later this week and he is growing up so fast on his way there… in the past couple of weeks he’s started sitting up on his own, drinking from a sippy-cup and now he’s started this big boy laughter. He giggled and smiled a lot, but never this kind of laughing. I honestly can’t stop watching it… even when the flu had me feeling miserable this clip would make me smile.

(I recommend clicking the little arrows and the HD symbol in the bottom right of the video above to watch it full screen.)

A few people have asked what made him laugh so hard… so here’s a little glimpse of his Daddy with a Diet Mt. Dew box on his head.

Apparently I’m pretty funny looking…

Mal and I went to my cousin Katie’s wedding Wednesday night. It was nice to see family that we hadn’t seen for a while.

We were curious to see what a wedding at First Assembly would look like. It’s not a very “churchy” building, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was impressed with how the lights and candles helped make the room feel smaller and more intimate.

I’m still not sure how I went 27 years without having to go to a wedding in the church my entire family has been raised in…Oh well.

Congrats to Katie and Micheal, we wish you guys the best.

See what I did there? Trip? Am I just talking about the drive with Mal’s family to visit family in Anderson, Ind., Saturday morning or about Kevin’s little mishap with his son’s Ripstick?

Probably both… I hope he didn’t hurt himself too bad because his aerial acrobatics were pretty funny to watch.

We had a good time with everyone up there. We had lots of good food, fun stories and a few games.

I’ll update with some more pictures later today… our power has gone out three times while trying to post this little blurb, so I’m going to sleep for a few hours and then try again in the morning.

Mallory, Max, Oscar and I (and our little bun-in-the-oven) wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely evening at my parents’ house in Rossville last night. I made a stupid mistake and grabbed the wrong bag of presents to take and didn’t realize it until we went to open gifts after dinner. Thankfully Mal’s parents saved my butt and met me halfway with the right bag for my family.

Mal and I had our Christmas Sunday afternoon because it was the only time we could both be home and awake at the same time. It is fun starting our own little traditions and thinking about what things will be like with our own kid to spoil next year.

We got presents for the pets… Oscar devoured his treats and loved his new toy. Max seemed more interested in cardboard boxes and tissue paper than his new toy. Oh well… he plays with the toy now that the boxes are gone.

Our tree turned out pretty well. Max didn’t mess with it too much, although Mallory swears he tries to eat it when I’m not home. Compared to stories of my sister, Kayla’s, cat climbing to the top of their tree I think I can live with a few chewed-on branches.

We are spending time with Mal’s family at her parents’ house in Fithian today. We’re going to have three dogs roaming around the house pretty soon, so it should be interesting.

I’ll have some photos to share soon, especially of my sister, Meagan’s, little adorable dog. It’s freaking cute…. like almost as cute as me.

I hope everyone gets what they asked for and gets plenty of family time in this week. Happy Holidays!

We got Oscar a Santa hat to wear… he didn’t seem to like having his picture taken with it. He spent most of the 36 seconds we had it on his head trying to eat the white ball off the end.

Normally I feel the same way about the holidays. I’m not sure what is different this year (baby, house, pain pills, etc.) but I am actually getting into the holiday spirit.

I’m hoping to update a bit more later tonight after we have Christmas Eve stuff at my parents’ house in Rossville. I just thought I’d take a few seconds to share one of my favorite photos of Oscar in the few seconds of internet availability at work.