Off with the Mullet!!

We have tossed around the idea of cutting Hayden's baby mullet, but it was cute and curly, so I fought the idea. Well, tonight while brushing her hair in the tub, we realized how long it actually was (below her shoulder blades!) And, because I always thought my little brother's mullet should have been cut, I wondered how many people were thinking the same behind our backs. So, OFF WITH THE MULLET!! I was nervous taking scissors to her hair, but she just kept playing with her rubber duckies like nothing was happening. We'll see in the morning after it's dried on how well we did with her first haircut, but the wet-hair pictures look pretty cute! :)

BEFORE:

The Big Cut:

After:

Our Christmas!

Hayden's first Christmas was quite eventful! We were very busy traveling around in the lovely snow! Luckily, Jeremy's parents made it over from spokane in their truck, so we were able to take that down to my Dad & Susie's for Christmas morning and then over to our family friends' John & Krista's for Christmas Dinner. We spent all Christmas eve day with my mom and her side of the family. Hayden was one spoiled little girl! She really enjoyed her new toys, although the paper and boxes were fun too! :) Hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday -- we sure did! ~The Wheeler's

* I took 100's of pictures! :) Here's a sampling! *

We're Home!!

Last Friday, Mom, Nic, Jake, Hayden & I all headed out on the snowy roads to Boise, ID to visit Grandpa Walt & Grandma Connie! The usual 8 hour drive turned into a 12 hour drive through super treacherous, scary mountain passes over I-85! Mom did awesome getting us there and back safe & sound! We saw too many wrecks, crashes & cars in the ditch than we can remember! While there, we had a great visit and made our way to Joe's Crab Shack just for Nic - our family crabaholic! Hayden did remarkably well on the road and all weekend! We came home yesterday (monday) and the way we came (I-84) was closed due to snow, ice & wind, so we had to detour through the tri-cities, yakima and then came over Highway 12/ White Pass. It took just about 12 hours again! It sure is nice to be home and sleep in my own bed! :) We came home to at least a foot of snow and we're supposed to get more Christmas eve and Christmas day! Crazy...we've never had a white Christmas that I can remember! Happy holidays everyone and be safe!

Playing in the Snow!

We went for a walk this evening to enjoy our unusual amount of snow! We wanted to see if Hayden would play in it. Needless to say, she wasn't too impressed. Mijo did all the playing, even if the snow was as deep as he is tall! :)

Snow Day!!

I got sent home from work today because of the snow!! For some reason, people in western washington see snow and freak out. I was at one time one of these said people...but having lived in Spokane for 5 years and NEVER ONCE getting a "snow day" has taught me a lesson or two.


First...Snow is just another form of rain...and seriously people...we should know how to drive in the rain in good ole rainy washington!

Second...fresh snow is actually easier to drive in than freezing rain, sleet, slush, etc.

Third...a big lifted, pimped out truck does not mean that you will be able to stop any faster, get going any easier, etc. SO slow down! All it means (besides that you probably have a tiny pee-pee) is that you may be able to get out of a ditch easier! :)

And Lastly... just slow down...anything is manageable at an appropriate speed.


I made it to work this morning at 6am DOWN Tumwater Hill just fine...I think you people can make it into your appointments too! :)


But, I am thankful for the rare all-day to myself! Jeremy is already at work, Hayden already at daycare, so I have all day to do whatever I please, without any interruptions! I think I may actually catch up (as if that's even possible) on my scrapbooks! Happy Snow Day everyone!

Our house this morning!

Santa!!

We took Hayden to the mall today so she could sit on Santa's lap for the first time and tell him all she wanted for Christmas! I was pleasantly surprised with how cute it turned out! She was crabby when she got home (always is after a day at daycare where she refuses to nap), so I figured we'd get one of those "baby-screaming-on-santa's-lap" pictures. We made some funny faces at her and voila! A smile! :)

Why not one more huh!!?? :)

So Hayden's front teeth have finally broken through the gums!! All mommy wants for christmas is Hayden's two front teeth to be all the way in!!! hahaha!! I love her jack-o-lantern smile, but it'll be nice to have some teeth in there finally! She's been okay this go-around...she's had a cold and nasty nose lately, so that may be little combination of the cold and teething. Who knows! Here's some fun new pics!

Tumwater Tree Lighting

Tonight we decided to do a fun family outing...the City of Tumwater Tree lighting Festival! We listened to the high school chior sing beautiful Christmas carols, had some warm coffee and watched the tree get lit up! It was actually pretty fun, even though cold! We bundled Hayden up in her snow suit & hat and as soon as we got her out of the stroller, she was as happy as could be! It started to snow as we were there and Santa came on his fire truck!!

FINALLY!!

My Camera doesn't take the best night pics...but you can get the hint! We finally got the rest of the christmas lights up on the house! With it getting dark so early, Jeremy made me wait until the weekend when he was home before I went climbing up the ladder and on the roof! Already had a little accident just getting them down in the garage...learned my lesson and despite my impatience, I waited until he was home to help me! :) Looks pretty good I think!

Nic's Bachelorette Party!

Last weekend was Nicole's final fling...before her ring! ;) Sadly, it's taken this long for me to re-group and get back to normal after a night of drinking! I have definitely lost my tolerance, but had fun nonetheless! We started the night at Brewery City Pizza for dinner (& drinks!), then went to the hotel to settle in. We then hit Pints & Quarts, where nic decided we all needed to take shots! :( After that, we cabbed it back to O'Blarney's (bar within walking, or shall I say stumbling distance to the hotel). The most memorable part of the night had to be walking Nic back to the hotel. Mom (the sober one!!) and I attempted to walk her "home" but with shoes and drunkeness...we took a tumble (or three!) Just before the last fall, we convinced nic to take off her clunky shoes. With mom's hands full of purses/shoes/etc., when we all fell again, she caught herself with her face. She had a huge goose-egg on her cheekbone, some serious parking-lot rash and a cut on the bridge of her nose. Once we were safe and sound in the hotel, we determined she needed stitches, as it never stopped bleeding! SO, off to the ER for hours for Mom! :) Three stitches later, a bag of ice and she's as good as new! :) I'd post pics, but she'd kill me! Here's a few of the festivities!

Hayden's 9 months old today!

And I'm 28 years old today! :( I never had any issues with each coming birthday in the past, but for some reason, 28 has done a number on me. I'm just totally resigned to it and am sad...time sure flies. Anyways...the reason for this post was to be Hayden's 9 month updates!!

I swear that this month was my favorite now! ;) She is doing and learning so many cute things!! She makes me smile every day and I would do anything to make her happy! :)

For some reason, our pediatrician doesn't do 9 month well checks (just fine by me, since it's out of pocket and she doesn't need any immunizations). But, she went in a few weeks ago for an ear infection and weighed 20 pounds even and was 27 inches. She is still in a size 3 diaper and mostly 9 month clothes, depending on brand. She still has the same four teeth, but you can see her upper centrals (#e & f) just under the gums! No wonder she's been biting everything (& everyone!) in sight!

Milestones:

• Standing very well and cruising along and between furniture (she'll walk sooner than later I think!)


• She is standing unassisted for a few seconds before she realizes it and then falls over!
  
• She is so very careful when she gets down from a standing position!


• She finally figured out that the traditional crawl is much faster than the belly crawl!


• She would rather feed herself than get anything from a spoon, which is oh so fun for mommy! She's eating all sorts of table food and loved cranberry sauce during thanksgiving dinner!
  
• She is very vocal lately...all sorts of words!


• She is quite the mimic now...she snorted at me so I did it back and then all day she would look at me and snort. Once I did it back to her, she'd bust up laughing!


• Speaking of laughing, she thinks it's hilarious when we sneeze or cough...but especially funny when mijo coughs. Weirdo!
  
• Because coughing is now funny...she does a great fake cough all day long!


• She's started to do stuff on command, like wave bye-bye, high fives, etc. And lately has started doing the point (more like puts her arm out and points her hand (not finger) towards something or someone)
• She reaches up to us now to pick her up! :)
  
• She knows the word NO but still pretends to not understand! And really really wants to get into the plants and into stuff on top of tables
  
• She's outgrown the rubber ducky bath tub and is now taking big-girl tubs!

Thats all I can think of now...I'm sure she is doing a ton of other stuff that I forgot! :) She's super cute and I'm not biased at all! ;)

Here's a bunch of pics from the last month:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010606&l=06d24&id=1356115959

A few of my favs: