Christmas Morning Videos!

We started looking at what we were gonna post....but photos just didn't make the cut!



Hope these bing as many smiles as they do to us watching them!

Nana & Baba gave Megan a taboggan as one of her gifts this year - needless to say she loves it! We'll be sure to hit the hills and take some more photos!

Megan has a new-found interest in Thomas the Train - like most kids, right? Opening one of her gifts was captured in the video above. It exceeded all our expectations...do you think she liked it?

And what's better than opening the gift...playing with it of course!

Megan also got some Chef Boyd-ardee oven mitts and apron from Nana & Baba. Clearly she can't wait to get into the kitchen...

Uncle Paul and Auntie Amanda also gave a Thomas gift - you can't really hear the music from the toy...but you can tell she's dancing along...way too funny!

Christmas Eve Fun...

We are at home for Christmas this year and likely will be for the next few years as we develop our own Christmas traditions. We have family coming over tomorrow for all the Christmas fun, but today we set out to explore something new. We found ourselves at Heritage Park and a rather new exhibit - Gasoline Alley. Tons of old vehicles and gas pumps. Plus for the winter season, they have some fun kid games set-up -- table hockey tournaments, milk jug curling and more.

Megan liked the mini-town they had set-up where she could ride a tricycle, fuel up with gas and explore the sights with the other kids. She also enjoyed sitting in the old vehicles - each one came with its own rendition of "wheels on the bus..."

This part of the display was set-up like a drive-in movie theatre. She liked watching the big screen while bouncing on the seats and daddy's knees!

They had a beanbag snowman toss set-up in one of the rooms. Megan loved the game - even if she was a little closer than the rules stated....lol. We ended the day in their restaurant with some warm soup and snacks - Megan was on her best behaviour while we were out!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Concert & More . . .

Last night was Megan's first Christmas Concert! It was held at Mount Royal University where her baby music classes take place. We didn't really know what to expect - but it lived up to any possible expectations! The 300 seat theatre was filled with parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles . . . well, you get the idea - full house! Grandma and Grandpa Lee were in attendance and shared in the laughs as our little girl put on a show -- both on and off stage!

We took the opportunity to get a rare family photo! Megan loved her dress and more so her shoes! She is very much a girlie-girl as she loved to twirl in the dress and point out her fancy shoes to anyone that would listen.

Megan was thrilled when the other classes started going on stage - she loved to sing, clap, jump along with all the actions - wheels on the bus was a big favorite!

And then it was her class turn - they sang snow, ice, wind and hail go away! And played the xylophones (taking turns) to each of the verses. She did very well and wasn't stage-shy at all! It was a very fun night. Daddy and Megan will continue the classes in the New Year and hopefully Nana and Baba Boyd can come to the Spring Concert.

Megan and Daddy have been doing the "12 Day of Christmas" for mommy! On day 11, she received 11 red and green balloons...something that Megan liked even more than Mom! We found out that "balloon" is already a word she knew (although it is more like...baboon)

Katie had her dressed in a new outfit from last week's trip to Vegas and her hair in little pig-tails. Happy girl for sure!

Santa's Helper

Megan and I spent some time at the mall this afternoon. It's still cold and Katie is in Vegas with a girlfriend, her mom and her Aunt. Plus, exposure to Santa before 'picture day' may help avoid a pooh-explosion like last year. Megan mostly loved the presents - bows, ribbon and wrapping. But she would sneak-a-peak at the jolly man in red once and a while too!

Maybe next weekend we will go and try the photo shoot?

Morning Hair & Playtime

Megan's hair can be very wild - mostly first thing in the morning. But the other day when she woke up it was extra CRAZY! She thought it was funny to have the camera out so early in the morning, but was more than happy to give us a few big smiles!

And of course, she likes to walk the 'runway' and have photos taken then too. "Miss Megan is wearing Superstore Joe Fleece Pajamas with little deer accents. This winter's special accessory is a soft pink blankie we call Rags...notice that big hair is making a comeback..."

And these were taken after dinner the other night - she loves to be chased! And as soon as she notices the camera, she comes over to see the photos/video.

Grandma & Grandpa are scheduled to babysit this afternoon as Megan and Sierra play together and the parents spend a lunch getting caught-up. Both mommy and Megan have been sick to their tummies the last few nights, but we'll see if everyone is feeling better today.

Have a great weekend!

SNO-VEMBER

We've been lucky that the snow didn't hit Calgary until mid-November. But it came this week and hasn't decided to leave. Here's some of what we are dealing with. Temps are in the -20's. It's always the first blast of winter & the brutal drivers that make you wonder why you don't live somewhere warm year-round!

No pictures of Megan this post - but when it warms up and we venture to play in the snow, we'll be sure to provide an update.

Other than that, life has mostly revolved trying to get over colds. Katie and Megan had it last week and Scott has fought it this week. Hopefully we're done now! We will try and get out and about this weekend - something blog-worthy : )

Halloween...maybe next year

I'm sure all of you are wondering where our Halloween pictures are...well, Little Miss Megan got a pretty bad cold on the weekend and was WAY too tired to head out trick or treating. We tried to get her into her costume for some photos, but this picture says it all...

We did get our pumpkin carved and handed out some candy, but it was a pretty low key Halloween...maybe we'll have more to post next year????

On a happier note...here's a cute picture of Megan sporting her new slippers!

Music Class

I was able to snap a quick photo of our little girl during her time on the Xylophone with the teacher. Megan is loving the music class and we see her development in each class. So far we have played the bongo drums, bells, triangle and egg shakers. She is learning new rhythms and learning stop and go as the music stops.

She is very tired at the end of the class - that's for sure!

Megan's Off to School

Apparently Megan has a thing for backpacks! I was getting her things together to leave for daycare this morning and she decided she wanted to wear her backpack...her real backpack! So what could I do..I put it on her and grabbed the camera!

She spent about 1/2 an hour wandering around the house happy as could be. Fortunately all I had to do was remind her about Rags and she gave up the backpack so I could get her coat on and put her in her car seat :)

Speaking of daycare...we received our first piece of authentic "Megan" artwork the other day. The kids were doing some arts and crafts for Halloween and I found this wonderful piece of modern art in her cubby when I went to pick her up. She also decorated a paper pumpkin with eyes, noes and mouth....but that one was up on the wall so we don't have any photos of that one.

Happy Halloween! We can't wait to hear all your scary stories!

Sunday Thoughts from Megan...

On Sunday, daddy and I try to watch some football in the afternoon. We love to cheer good plays and see all the highlights from the games. Mommy thinks we're cute and wants us to pose for photos, but I don't want to miss any of the action!

I got a new toque from grandma and I actually like to wear it! It keeps me really warm.

One of my favorite things to do is chase mommy & daddy - especially when one of them carries me and we can go extra fast!

Picking a Pumpkin

Tis' the season! We went the Farmer's Market this weekend and explored the pumpkins to bring home. We now have one and will have to think about our carving design this year. Little Miss Megan loved wondering the aisles, talking to strangers and snacking on a yummy cheese bun for her morning snack.

It was a cool weekend in Calgary - still no snow, so we have nothing really to complain about. We also went swimming, had some nice walks and play time at the lake and parks. We were fortunate to have Grandma and Grandpa babysit for us this weekend too -- we met some friends in Bragg Creek at our favorite German food Restaurant - mmm...Schnitzel!

We are back on schedule at work this week too. Daddy will have Megan on Monday and do their music class together - then day care for 3 days and home with mommy on Friday! Another busy week ahead, but it's sure to be fun with our little one!

Hard to believe that Halloween is next weekend - boo!

Megan's New "Backpack"

Now that Megan is a walking machine and sometimes even does a short stretch of running - usually away from us - it is time to invest in a child harness...or as we tell Megan, her new "backpack"! We know this is a bit of a controversial topic amongst parents, but Megan is all over the place and isn't afraid of ANYTHING...including passing traffic, big dogs, and strangers (we have a lot of work with "stranger danger" ahead of us!).

Fortunately she loves her new "backpack". She even brings it to us in the house and wants us to help her get into it!

Geocaching

When Katie went back to work earlier this month, her boss told her to go and get a new cell phone. So she bought an iphone4. She loves it and each day shows me something different it can do. And today, while the Turkey was cooking, we tried something new on it -- Geocaching!

It has GPS and all the gizmos you'd ever want. We downloaded a Geocaching Application (App) and voila! We were off to discover some new adventures. We live really close to some great areas and made the most of our chilly day in Calgary.

Megan was eager to help us find the geo goodies, but was easily distracted with puppy dogs! She LOVES animals and has no fear - so we make up what she lacks : ) We told her we weren't trying to find the dog and we continued on our adventure.

The iphone4 GPS got us within 3 feet of the geocache each time. This one was in a camo box and had twigs/leaves covering it up.

And while this one was in a clear Tupperware container, you had to be on the right side of the tree. We filled out each of the log books and took some time to read some of the other comments. We plan on placing a couple in our neighbourhood and track who is comes and where they are from!

Do you do any geocaching?

Happy Anniversary

We celebrated an Anniversary this weekend. Hard to believe it was only a few years ago that we were in Tahiti! And who can forget a couple years before then when we met on a May Long Weekend biking the Golden Triangle. ~ Love ya!

We put Megan in daycare and went for a morning spa massage, followed by lunch - very relaxing! And last weekend we went to Zooza - the latest Cirque du Soleil show to tour Calgary. We've been to a few of the Cirque shows, but this one was most impressive. The 2.5hrs just flew by and it was very entertaining! If it's touring near you - we'd strongly recommend you check it out! Our favorite act was the Wheel of Death - be sure to check out the video clip!