January Heat

For many of you who read my blogs, you couldn't imagine a hot and dry January. You'd probably welcome a bit of our heat right about now. It has been the hottest week on record for the past 100 years, and the driest January as well. I feel sorry for the tennis players who have to play during the day at the Australian Open...some of them can't handle it and just drop out (like last year's champ, Djokovic). Love watching the tennis. I have it on constantly and it probably annoys the hell out of everyone else in the family, but after my 2-week fix I'm good for the rest of the year.

Let's see - what else have we been up to this month? Skye met her namesake, Skye the horn player at a barbeque on the Yarra River (pictured below in black). It was a gorgeous day, before it started to get too hot. We've also discovered that Skye loves bubbles and she really loves a ride on her baby scooter. We now have to give her several rides daily...does wonders for the back... Finally, the last set of photos are from our trip to the Collingwood Children's Farm. This was also a lovely day and the whole family had a great time petting all the animals. Next time we'll bring Jackie along for kicks.

Skye is still in the crawling phase, and she is very very quick. She tries to balance herself when standing, but it only lasts a second or two. (I think she's a bit top-heavy...) But I'm sure she will be walking before her 1st birthday. One of her new favorite things to eat is a homemade guacamole sandwich. That's my girl! And Chelsea starts back at school on Monday, hooray! She's very excited to get back, and she will be in Ms. Wall's Year 1-2 class. It's a combined class of grades 1 and 2.

I've been working on a new project over the past month (when the kids are in bed). I've been arranging opera arias and songs from musicals for 2 violins. I'm more than halfway finished with the arrangements, and I've got about an hour and a half's worth of music ready to play. Once I'm finished I'm hoping to get out and play for weddings, receptions, parties, what have you. So this is an exciting thing for me. I'll keep you posted on the progress. On to the best part - the photos. Happy Year of the Ox!

Happy 1st Christmas

I hope you all had a very happy holiday with your friends and family! Here are some photos from our first Christmas with Skye. The first few were taken while waiting in line to see the Myer Christmas windows display. The middle few are from Christmas morning. Skye was a good baby in 2008, so she got lots of toys. She still likes pot lids and remote controls more than anything else. The last few were taken at Granny Heather's house where we enjoyed a lovely Christmas lunch.