Chicks

We were home to Michael's 4 new chicks for about a week until he was able to move them into his new house a few days ago. They were very cute and grew a lot in the week. I am looking forward to them being fully grown because Michael is planning on sharing their eggs with us.

The Heat is On

For Girls Scouts a couple of weeks ago M got to dress up as a girl from another time period. We chose the 80s and she wore this dance costume of mine that I wore in 1988 when my primary school dance group performed to the song "The Heat is On." I found the hot pink socks after she got home from the activity but she rocked this outfit even without those!

Build-A-Bear and a Wide-Brimmed Hat

M got some money for her birthday which she used to buy this white hat. We had just finished reading about the American Girl Rebecca (New York, 1914), who gets a fabulous hat for her birthday. When M saw this hat in Target she put back the toy she was going to buy and got the hat instead. I think that is a sign that she's growing up! She also got a gift card to Build-A-Bear and had fun creating this bear, named Catherine (after Nanny).

The Party

For M's birthday celebration this year she invited Kate, Minnie and Morgan to go swimming.

The awesome slide

Kate

Minnie

Birthday Girl
Minnie jumped off the 10ft platform
M climbed to the top of the 10ft platform......but decided to take the steps back down and stick to the springboard instead.

Best Friends

The Birthday

M's birthday was on a Sunday this year. The morning began with opening presents on our bed. M must be a pretty unique child because she chose to open the smallest present first. I didn't think that through very well, because the smallest present was... ...a cap and choker belonging to the Felicity doll. M's expression translates as, "But, I don't have Felicity." "Oh, I think I know what might be in this big box!""I can't believe it'! It's Felicity!"I think it is very sweet that M did not think she would get an American Girl doll for her birthday. She knows they are expensive and figured that only Santa would be able to afford to give those to her.Grandma and Poppy got her Felicity's Christmas outfit.Josefina also got a new Fiesta outfit.

Every singer needs her own microphone.

Grandma and Poppy also got M this basketball. Minnie has been teaching M how to play basketball and she is looking forward to playing with her at the park by our house. As a 9-year-old, everyone gets bunny ears, including Felicity when she is modeling her Christmas outfit.Nanny and Grandpa got M The Sound of Music soundtrack. She listens to it every night as she falls asleep. Nanny was still in Australia, but it was nice to have Grandpa here. I love this photo of them together.We were very lucky that our New York family arrived on M's birthday for their skiing trip. They got here just in time for cake. Emily gave M a very sweet American Girl Valentine's dress for her dolls. I didn't get a photo of it but you can see it on M's lap in the next photo. I love that all of the girl cousins share that interest right now. I also agree with what it says on Emily's t-shirt!

Do we have cute kids in our family, or what? It was nice to have lots cousins celebrate M's birthday with us.

M's request was for an ice cream cake. I love ice cream cakes in Australia but haven't been able to find the same kind here. Instead we went with a cookies and cream ice cream cake, which is M's favourite flavour, so she was happy with it (despite her lack of smiling in this photo!).

Happy 9th Birthday!

Australia Day

Josh was very keen to celebrate Australia Day with some good Aussie food.
Sausage rolls...

Meat pies...

A very flat but still tasty pavlova...

Lamingtons...

Also on the menu was caramel slice, damper, fairy bread, vegemite sandwiches and Tim Tams. Yummy!

This is Josh with our friend Heather who served a mission in Australia.

Annie

M got the Annie DVD and soundtrack last Christmas. Most of her free time since Christmas has been spent singing (at fully capacity) and dancing to the songs from Annie. As a result, Josh and I have the Annie songs constantly running through our heads. Last week the Annie tour came to Logan, Utah so we took M as an early birthday present. It was a great show and M loved every minute of it (so did Josh and I). The next day she wanted me to take photos of her performing and then later asked Josh to film her acting/dancing/singing some of the songs. Below is her scrubbing the floor in the song "It's the Hard-knock Life."

As much as we love Annie, we were happy today when she started listening to the Wicked soundtrack - it will be good to have some different songs in the house!

Mobility!

We got a second car last weekend and I was on a high for about 3 days with the excitement of being able to get around! I was happy not to have a car in the warm weather when I could ride places, but it's too cold and snowy for that now.

Thanks to Mum and Sara who let me use their cars over the past year.

Energy Ideas

If you aren't already enrolled in your power company's green power programs I encourage you to look into the green options that are available. Rocky Mountain Power has the following programs:


Blue Sky - you can sign up for blocks of clean, renewable power. It's $2/block, which is 100kwh. We use about 500kwh in our house each month, so I signed up for 5 blocks but you can do any amount you like. Even if you only sign up for 1 block you are supporting the future of renewable, clean energy!


Cool Keeper- this is a program to help regulate power usage during peak demand times in the summer. It's free to participate and you get a $20 annual credit on your energy bill for joining up. You can learn more and sign up at www.rockymountainpower.net.

Plus, most companies offer rebates or incentives when you buy energy efficient appliances.


Let's each do our part to take care of our planet!

Vegetarians in Progress

I'm becoming a vegetarian! I've started a new blog with Tara that will have vegetarian recipes and share our experiences. You can see it here. Positive comments welcome!

Christmas

We had Christmas morning with just the 3 of us this year. M is usually a good sleeper and we were happy that Christmas was not an exception. We told her we wouldn't open presents before 6am but she didn't wake until 7:15.


We got a Wii as a family gift this year. Our favourite game is Beatles Rock Band. Josh and I definitely enjoy playing Rock Band more than M, but she is learning some Beatles songs and likes to do the singing part. I am partial to the drums, but guitar is fun too.




We love the Australian-shaped cookie cutters we got from Larissa. They will be great for Australia Day next month!


M got this necklace and some Barbie chocolates from Bailey. She is excited that it has real gold on it!

Over the past few months we've been reading the American Girls series, a collection of books about girls from different times and places in America. They are really nice stories and I often get teary when reading them! Maya's favourite was Josefina, a girl from New Mexico in 1824 (we've just finished reading Felicity, from Virginia 1774 and she has tied with Josefina for the favourite position). Maya asked Santa for Josefina and she asked Josh and I for Sombrita, Josefina's pet goat. She got an extra outfit and shoes for Josefina too. She loves playing with Josefina and has done and re-done her hair many times already.

We went to Mum and Dad's in the afternoon after Josh and I managed to pull ourselves away from Rock Band. Fortunately Sara's family also got Beatles Rock Band so we were able to play the night away at their house!

I also got a compost bin for our yard from Tania/Rick and Mum/Dad which I am very excited about. I am looking forward to planting my own garden this year.