Post 3 - January Date

So this past week we did our January date to the Muttart Conservatory!  I hadn't been there since I was a kid and Andrew hadn't been there since his sisters wedding so we were excited!!  (well, I was excited, Andrew doesn't really get excited about things...)

So, as you can see on the little card, I wrote "Lets turn up the heat" because I thought it was going to be warm in there for all the plants to stay alive, and I thought it would be nice to escape the cold Edmonton weather - but I was wrong!  With the exception of the Tropical Pyramid the others were freezing!  

The theme Pyramid - Chinese New Year!

There were a lot of neat Orchids

Parrot plant

In the tropical pyramid

They grew pineapples there!  So cute

Theme pyramid

In the Arid Pyramid - the really tall flower/plant thing behind Andrew only blooms every 14 years!  And we got to see it!

Also this past week we got Amy's package together to send for her Birthday/Valentines Day!  She's one lucky girl!

These have lipgloss/candy in them for her and her companion
(you open a pop-top can on the wrong side and then fill it
then glue it back together so they can open it the pop top way!)

Sister missionaries can't wear long dangly earrings (which Amy loves!)
So I made her some cute bling ones that aren't too long!

The Box (which cost $37 to mail!  Good thing my mom paid for it...!

More accessories!  Lace headband and bib necklace!

#2 - New Recipes!

Well I didn't think blogging once a week would be this hard!  (Well, I thought it would be hard, but I thought I would be better at it!)  So this week the most exciting things to happen were 2 new recipes we tried!  The first one was a pesto cream sauce pasta I thought up while we were at Le Mis, I thought it up during the movie and I couldn't stop thinking about it, so we came home and made it!  We had found a litre of cream on sale for 44 cents, so that was the inspiration!  We added in chicken, red peppers and fresh spinach that wilted nicely!

Sorry I don't know how to flip pictures on here!

So good!

The second recipe we made just last night and its SO easy!  Its Coconut Lime Soup from the second Our Best Bites cookbooks and basically consists of chicken broth, coconut milk, lime juice, mushrooms, green onions, cilantro, shrimp (it calls for chicken but a variation is shrimp) and the noodles from Ichiban!  Simple and so good!

The start of something new!

We have decided to start a blog of one post per week - hence the Cahoons "52" (52 weeks in a year - get it?!)

I know, we're already behind and its the beginning of the year!  Hopefully we'll get better at it and become regulars!  We're just going to write about our day-to-day happenings, since we are no good at journal writing!  (We went on a trip to Peru and Chile last May and we're still trying to finish off those entires!) 

So this Christmas/New Years season was great!  Andrew finished exams early this year for the first time since we've been married, so we decided to go on a little trip!  We've both always wanted to go to an all-inclusive, because the majority of our trips are backpacking and go-go-go!  We needed a vacations to relax!  We spent a week on the Mayan Riviera in Mexico and it was great!  It was nice to not have to worry about where to eat/where to stay/what bus to take.  Just relaxing!  We did spend a day away from our resort to see some Mayan ruins (Tulum) and to go snorkelling (we saw a sting ray and a turtle!), but for the most part we just read and drank smoothies!

Christmas was fairly uneventful this year with my sister Amy on a mission and Sarah's family stayed in Philly.  Andrews parents are on a mission as well, and a lot of his family lives in the states.  We opened presents and had a yummy breakfast with my family, got to talk to our missionaries and went to Andrews sisters house for dinner, to which my parents and Mary also came to.  Later on in the week we (Andrew, Mary my mom and I) drove to southern Alberta to visit grandparents and see extended family.  We got to go cross country skiing in Waterton which is always nice!  Dec 29 was Andrew and I's 3rd anniversary!  The time has flown by!  We went to Crankpots on Whyte ave where you go and paint pottery and then it gets fired and all pretty, then went to Da-De-Os for dinner.  The mussels were amazing!  

New years eve was laid back!  We went to Andrews sister Janet's house to count down early with the kids before they had to go to bed, then went over to  my parents where we ate a ton of yummy food and watched the Avengers, before breaking open the Saskatoon sparkling drink and pulling crackers!  Mary convinced Andrew and I to stay up to watch The Hunger Games and so it was a very late night!

For the new year I gave Andrew a year of dates - an envelope for each month with money/giftcards/coupons in it that are for a date!  This way we'll be getting out of the house on a regular basis on a real date!