who's got a beard that's long and white...

We took Wheeler to meet Santa at the mall last weekend. And since it is his 1st Christmas we got suckered in and paid the 25 bucks for one photograph. (who are we trying to kid we probably would have paid it even if it wasn't his first Christmas... first kid = spoiled, or rather first time mom = spoiled) anyway... it was pretty cute, and since we bought the package, they let us snap as many of our own pictures as we wanted. Here is his first time meeting Santa!

Happy boy waiting in line

Checking things out

Not so sure about this guy...

Uh oh, take the picture quick!

Too late.

Bribe.

Forgot all about Santa playing at the park with Daddy.

First Haircut.

Why is it so sad and hard to cut your baby's hair for the first time? I don't know the answer, it just is. But we seriously could not delay this any longer than we already did. Poor Wheeler has been looking like Pig Pen for the past month. So after Thanksgiving we bit the bullet...

 Here are the pictures of the boy's first hair cut. 

BEFORE

(The sucker bribe worked great to keep him still but turned into a horrible sticky mess when the falling hair stuck to the blue goo all down his sticky chest and legs. And the bath before the hair cut was an ever worse idea... )

AFTER  

Such a handsome grown up boy! 

Crazy fun Thanksgiving week.

Oh man, I better get around to blogging about our Thanksgiving before Christmas hits and I forget completely!
We had a crazy and busy past week with so much going on that I decided to throw myself a turkey bone and put the camera on the shelf and enjoy the festivities. (The few pictures I have are stolen from other peoples blogs/cameras:)

We kicked things off the Sunday before thanksgiving with a pre-Thanksgiving potluck feast with my girl friends and their husbands. ( The 5 of us do a monthly girls night out and decided to mix things up and include our husbands and kids for a change) We had it at our place and it was awesome! We had the whole traditional Thankgiving feast plus some... and with everyone only in charge of a few dishes it was easy and stress free.

Here is Julia and I being anti-social and eating with the babies in the kitchen... ( note the paper plates and forks... when I host I do it in style! ;)

Wheeler was let loose on his first piece of pie at our potluck. If he could talk he would say it was delicious.

After our early potluck we stayed Thankful by starting the long weekend off early and getting a babysitter so we could go for Phillycheese steaks and to a matinée of Harry Potter with The Nuttalls. (*this was our first non-grandma, non-friend baby sitter we have EVER had. A very liberating and noteworthy occasion in my opinion) The movie was great but a word to the wise... don't go see Harry Potter with a group of people where you are the only nerd who has read the books. The entire move you will be battered with questions and wont be able to fully enjoy.

Thursday our friends the Raes arrived! Oh how we love the Rae's. They have now been in Texas almost as long as we have and it has been fun to share the woes and loves of being Canadian-Texans with them. We have started a tradition of doing American Thanksgiving with them, and this year we were grateful that they made the drive to our house. We made the feast. Watched A&M beat UT (again). Went to the Houston Children's Museum. And attempted Black Friday shopping. (this year we were smarter than other years and casually wandered out to the mall at the end of the day instead of at 4 in the morning with the other crazies.) It was a really fun visit. Here is one of the only pictures I broke my no camera vow to take. Wheeler and sweet Ali were just too cute in their pajama's and playing so well to pass up.

After the Raes left, we closed out our Thanksgiving festivities with a post feast feast of Turkey dumplings at Matt's parents house. Wheeler was excited to see his Grandma and Grandpa who had been on a motorcycle trip for the past week, and stared in his Papa's debut video camera movies for him. Of course Papa took some great Thanksgiving pictures to commemorate. (but pics to follow as papa is in London until the end of the week!) 

So that was our crazy fun Thanksgiving week. I think I need a really long nap followed by a really long run to get ready for Christmas!

Thankful

This year I am thankful...


That Target is open until 10 pm and gives me a place to wander aimlessly after Wheeler has gone to bed for some much needed alone time. 


That Target has a Starbucks near the entrance. 


That Conan O'brien's monologue is once again ending my day on a hilarious note. 


That Matt is not growing a mustache for Mo-vember. 


For the close by Houston Zoo & Children's Museum, and for a good friend that is a graphic designer and knows how to work the system...


For email, g-chat, unlimited long distance minutes, and frequent flier miles that shrink the many miles between me and my mom.


For online shopping. I love love love you and your naughty convenience. You make spending money so easy, its almost like play money ( almost...). 


To be a mommy. Best job I have had yet!


The age of DVR's (I don't have to miss my shows for whatever game Matt is watching... and the game lasts half as long when you can fast forward the commercials and time outs!)


That the thought of cooking my own Thanksgiving feast no longer makes me break out in an anxious sweat and I am able to relax and enjoy this awesome holiday with good friends, good food and my wonderful little family. 

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Nope not Christmas... I'm talking about Fall in Texas, and I LOVE IT! Here in Houston we have more or less 2 seasons. Hot as hell and fall.  And while the +100 degree weather for 5 months straight might sound nice to some of my dear Canadians, trust me it gets old. There isn't too much fun about being cooped up inside with the air conditioning from June until October. So now that our beautiful,wonderful, fabulous Fall is here, we have spent every possible minute outside in the backyard, at the zoo, at the beach, and at the park.  Here are some of our favorite Fall pictures so far and a glimpse into one of our favorite parts of living in Texas!

At Galveston the beginning of October.

 Wheeler's favorite game is to steal all of Murphy's toys and chew them or run away with them. Murphy has been very patient with him. 

Sophie came to visit Murphy... and us too. 

Golfing with daddy. 

Playing outside with his best buddy Olivia!

Grandma and Papa came to visit last weekend and took some great pictures of Wheeler. We are going to miss them so much when they move...

Halloweak...

I'm not the biggest Halloween fanatic. Maybe it is my lack of creativity, but every year this holiday just seems to be a little over done and over rated to me. And between my poorly carved pumpkin and lazy last minute costume, I find myself wishing it would just get out of the way so we can move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year I tried to do a little better for Wheeler's sake. We decorated the door like a spider web, carved a few pumpkins and went to both the ward trunk or treat and our neighborhood parade/ trick or treat party. Here are a few pictures... 

Come on... hats are a totally acceptable Halloween costume for adults! 

Trick or treating with Livy... who was the cutest Harry Potter ever! 

Getting down to business. 

The next morning he carried around his Mickey ears every where he went. Pretty darn cute even if Halloween is lame. 

First steps.

This past week Wheeler decided he could walk. He has been testing out baby steps for a few weeks now and moving along the couch at lightning speed... but last week out of the blue he decided that he was done holding on to things and just started walking across the room. Here is one of the first videos we took of our busy 9 month old boy!

Swan Family Reunion in Orlando

We just returned home from our Swan Family Reunion in Orlando! We had such a great time visiting with everyone and going to all the Disney theme parks. We can't wait to go back! Here are some pictures of our trip...

Our first day at Magic Kingdom. Wheeler's first ever "ride" (the Aladdin carpets). 

Checking out Mickey Mouse's house...

Getting a little bit tired.

Balloons make things better. 

A very long but fun day!

And there he goes...

The next day the whole family went to Magic Kingdom. Meg made us SFR t-shirts and we were easy to pick out in the crowd. Good work Meg!

We got into the Disney spirit! 

Ah we sure love that cute little Mickey Mouse!

More rides with daddy... but lots of crowds and waiting in line.  (avoid Disney world on Saturdays if you can help it. The difference between going Friday and Saturday was huge!) 

Sunday we rested up and stayed around the resort with the family.

Happy rested baby and mommy.

It was a toss up between the parks and the pools for lots of the kids. The pool had a pirate ship waterslide and no lines to wait in! 

Family Home Evening on Sunday night. 

Monday we went to Disney Hollywood Studios. We brought Emma and Danny with us. Poor Dan had a busted leg during the trip, but got a fast pass to the front of all of the rides! 

Wheeler was so excited to see Lightning McQueen. He loves his toy cars and that is his favorite! 

Tuesday we went to Epcot. It was MY favorite of the trip. We ate fish and chips in England, crepes in France, waffles in Belgium, fried shrimp in China and gelato in Italy! What a fun holiday!