Welfare family..

I received a thoughtful email from a neighbor while we were away for the holidays. She was doing some early spring cleaning and wondered if I wanted a few of the toys that her boys had grown out of., including a tricycle with a push pole in the back and a little tikes crazy coupe. Of course I accepted the kind offer...everyone knows hand-me-downs are the best... and even though Wheeler is not lacking in the toy department I figured we could just pass on what we didn't use.
So our neighbor came over with the car, the fancy trike and two HUGE garbage bags full of toys. Impressed but surprised by her generosity I probed as how she has thought of us as the recipients for the loot...
She admitted that earlier in the month she had seen us through her window  pulling Wheeler down the street on his little ride on car ( a 3 dollar garage sale find that definitely looks its age) using one of Murphy's old dog leashes as a makeshift rope tied around the handlebars.  Apparently our public display of "innovative engineering" came across a little closer to "welfare family".
How embarrassing.
Here is a picture of Wheeler enjoying his new welfare car!

Wheeler turned 1!

 Poor Wheeler has a birthday that is 5 days after Christmas. So like so many other December kids, his birthday tends to get lost in the shuffle of the holidays. We were up in Canada when he turned 1.. and travelling between cities... but tried to make it a fun day anyway  for our sweet  guy.

Our first party was a breakfast party at my parents in Lethbridge. We made pancakes ( Wheelers favorite), and since cake with cakes seemed a bit much, we had a "fruit" cake.

Here was his cake. Watermelon in December is hard to find in Canada.

We kept it simple...opened presents and played with balloons before packing up and heading out the door to Calgary.

When we got to Calgary we spent the day playing with cousins, then went out for  Bill's Chinese food for a yummy birthday dinner.

When it is your birthday you are aloud to eat straight from the rice pot... 

And of course there is nothing like ending your birthday with a run around the kitchen in your birthday suit!

Happy first Birthday Wheeler, we can't believe that you are 1 year old already.You are such a fun little turkey and we love you so much!

Baby's first Christmas!

I am finally getting around to posting a blog about Christmas. No apologies that it is the end of January... who seriously has time for loading blog pictures anyway!? This year I resolve to put down the camera and laptop and spend my play time playing and my personal time on my person - ergo- doing important things like reading trashy preteen novels, painting my toenails or improving my downward dog. The cyperworld can wait. If you feel cheated, get over it... or better yet, start your own blogs this year!

So Christmas 2010! We had such a great trip up north to Canada to see our family and friends. It was so good in fact that Wheeler and I decided to stay an extra week to play with cousins, and then convinced my mom to keep the ball rolling by following us back down to Texas for a week! It was truly a great month with so many fun 1st's for Wheeler. Here are some of our pictures from our busy December and January!

Wheeler loved the Christmas tree. We spent a lot of time teaching him not to take off all the ornaments, but that putting UP ornaments could be fun too. In true Wheeler-style he ran with the idea, and we would find random things such as pacifiers, toy cars and his dirty socks lovingly placed in the branches. 

We also found a few additions to the Nativity. Apparently the big bad wolf and three little pigs got to Bethlehem shortly after the wisemen. 

Here is a picture of a Christmas wrestle with the dog right before we left. (this is their new game. Wheeler brings Murphy a sock and then tries to wrestle it away from him. *for those who don't know Murphy, he LOVES socks, so the wrestle is no easy task and quite entertaining to watch.)

Goodbye Murphy we will miss you! Thanks to the Nuttalls and Grandma/ Papa for watching the big smelly beast while we were gone!

Very excited about the airplanes. 

Wheeler also loved the moving walkways at the airport. And eventhough he would go on the wrong way, we let him play on them to tire him out for the flight. We got some "how irresponsible" looks from our fellow travelers, but he slept like a tired baby most of flight. Here is a video of him taking a stroll the wrong way on them. 

 Finally at Nana and Papa's house! 

Matching PJ's for Christmas Eve! My mom makes a huge effort to find us all matching pj's on years we are at home. Thanks mom! 

Playing peek-a-boo barn on the ipod with daddy and Ella. 

Eating the gingerbread house with cousin Anna. 

Visiting Great Grandma Leavitt for Christmas dinner on boxing day!

First time out in the snow! He was really excited by the way it crunched under his boots, but not so excited to touch it and make his hands freezing cold!

First time sledding! Which he LOVED! 

Spending lots of time indoors can be motivating... persistent little stinker Wheeler figured out how to climb up and down and on everything this Christmtas! 

And of course there were plenty of toys and presents to play with! 

MERRY (late) CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!