Photos Phrom the Pharm

My niece Ruthie is on the left and Elsie on the right and they are so different, but we can still dress them alike! Elsie is working on having as much hair as Ruthie... right now all she has is a thin little mullet and stringy bangs... but at least we can get it into one little Pebbles ponytail.

We haven't posted photos in a long time, but we vow to be better. We haven't really gone anywhere recently that warranted fancy photos, so we've tried to take a lot of photos around the "farm" over the last few days so we at least have something to post. ..

Elsie has been weaned from the sippy cup so she is constantly ravenous. I can't believe how much this petite little girl can chow!!! Here she is having noodles (her bar none favorite) for breakfast and she actually finished this whole bowl.

Ana is diligently working on her home school work. It actually has been both more time consuming than I thought it would be... and actually more easy than I thought it would be. We've been at it for a little over a month now and we had our first hard day today--she didn't want to do her work and started talking back. But, Jonah stepped in and I think we'll be back on track tomorrow. Its nice to have two parents around to trade off, and its especially nice to have someone to talk over curriculum ideas with. We are going to get a Spanish tutor a.s.a.p. though because we are muy mal at teaching Spanish.

Buddy the retired race horse. Ana tried to ride him a bit after grooming him, but he bucked for awhile and so she isn't too keen to try that again. We have a great British neighbor named Ruth who has Ana come over every afternoon and help her feed her 12 horses, so Ana is getting lots of horse care in... just no riding yet.

Elsie is CRAZY about Bluey the Rooster. She talks about him constantly and picks him up all day long and every morning when he crows she quickly wakes up and says "Bluey! Bluey I'm coming!" She doesn't though, because she has to eat an enormous breakfast and watch her "shows" first.

My favorite photo with Elsie and her fashion accessory.

These are the "chicks" of the flock. They are only four months old and are silkies like Bluey. They aren't tame enough that we can just pick them like we do Bluey... they have to be chased and then cornered and then grabbed. Good excercise for us and them.


Don't let the green grass fool you; it has been very cold. We had a freak colder-than-winter week last week and the unfortunate thing about NZ homes is that they are usually colder inside than it is outside, and this house is extra extra good at being an example of that. We are a little bummed about having to endure two winters in a row, but at least we already have winter clothes in the kids' sizes. Oh, and that is a NZers best friend that Elsie is holding... a hot water bottle.

Elsie got to go to her first birthday party for her friend Abby (actually, it is Ruthie's friend Abby who met Elsie once but still invited her). It was at a Chucky Cheese like place called Chipmunks and Ana and Cam came along to regulate and a great time was had by all people under 8.

Spider swing, spider swing... doin' whatever a spider swing does.

We decided to have a handstand/headstand contest for Family Home Evening last night and Cam totally surprised us that he could do it! He's getting strong! He's doing super awesome in school... his teacher says that he is SO well behaved and that he is learning quickly. We can't believe that after only a month in school he is already reading! Most of all, we love how much he totally LOVES LOVES LOVES school and begs to go everyday and has decided he wants to be a teacher when he grows up. I would have NEVER guessed that he would love school so much. He's such a homebody and quite shy, but I guess he is in his [nerdy] element in the classroom. What a guy...



Here is another one of our 17 chickens... this one is a pekin, a miniature miniature chicken. She's a beauty! Oops... where did her head go?

Oh, here's a full photo of the chicken. We're selling her though. We're going to use the money to pay for food for the other chickens because Elsie sneaks out and feeds the chickens about 11 times more food than they need.


We actually bought some cows last week, and we are all pretty excited about it... especially because they are miniature cows! Miniature cows, unfortunately, are not teensy weensy like a chihuahua... but they are about half the size of a normal cow-- which makes them still big but totally manageable. We shopped around and found a good deal on two little Dexter (the miniature breed) girls and a gorgeous Dexter bull with curly hair. I never ever wanted to have a bull because I have serious objections to too much testosterone on the farm, but he is very well behaved, so we'll keep him around.
The girl cows are about two years old and have already had one calf each. They are both pregnant (hopefully) and due in August if they are pregnant.
This guy is so awesome. Look at his curly hair! We are going to maybe lease him out so he can make many cute babies. I think he made about 12 cute babies last year. We think we are going to call him Bullet. or Bullette.

This is Number 18. She doesn't have a name yet, but she too is awesome.

Here you can see how small these full grown cows are. They are super efficient on grass to meat ratio, so they are great to keep because you get a lot of beef without using up all your grass. Also, you can milk them (well, you can milk anything with nipples)... we're going to give it a go after the calves are born, but I'm not making any promises.

Seriously small cows. If you don't believe me, go jump into a field next to a normal cow.

If you have made it this far, you have some free time on your hands, so you can go check out my sister's band's myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/thebandtangled . I will ALERT THE MEDIA when Sony finally releases her album on iTunes. I guess her released single has been on the radio, but I haven't heard it yet... it probably doesn't help that I don't have a radio.... you can also "be a fan" of the band Tangled on facebook. Sonna is the lead singer and pianist and songwriter and her husband Sloan is the instrumentalist and songwriter. She's so awesome. I am her Mel.

Cheers mate! Good on ya!