Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Chocolate Crackles!!!
















We finally made chocolate crackles!!!!!! YUM!!!! For those of you that know how easy it is to make crackles you are probably wondering why I am so excited. Well to start with there is no such thing as copha in this country!!! After a little investigation (as you can imagine there have been lots of other Aussie's that got here and had crackle cravings), we decided the best bet was to use coconut oil in place of the copha. The other issue was the coconut, here you can not buy desiccated coconut, the coconut is shredded and wet, not dry like we use for crackles and lamingtons etc. We overcame this problem by running the shredded stuff through the blender for a minute and it seemed to work ok. Anyway the result was crackles that tasted just as good as we remembered :) Charlotte had 2 in her first sitting and got angry when I wouldn't give her more!!! Ted has been eating them too, so they must be ok as he isn't into real sweet things.
Other news from this week......we have a new addition to the Aussie's in Virginia Beach, our friends JT and Katie had a little baby boy on Friday, Jayden Phillip (lucky they didn't steal our boys name) :) Only 3 and a bit weeks until Baby Budd is due, I have a check up at the OB's tomorrow, hopefully all is going well. I would like more sleep at night but I think that's wishful thinking for at least the next 6 months :) Good news is Katie used the same hospital as I will and she said they were very good, and the food is nice, weird for a hospital.

Ted had a busy Saturday looking after Charlotte as I discovered there was a Scrapbooking Convention on here in Virginia Beach!! After visiting baby Jayden, I spent the rest of the day spending money and doing classes at the convention. I had a great time, but was absolutely exhausted when I got home. Hence Sunday we all stayed home and did not a lot.

I have added a few photos of Charlotte from the play area again, this was this afternoon, Ted finished up at work early so we went for a quick play before dinner. Hope everyone is well :)

P.S. the pic with the boots is just Charlotte being silly in Daddy's boots, thought you would like to see :)

Thursday, August 26, 2010

August 26th
















Nothing much has changed this week, just took some photos of our little fairy in the front garden that I thought some of u might like to see :) Also some of Charlotte at the play area just a short walk up the road. She had a ball with Daddy climbing on the equipment, apparently both Daddy and Charlotte went down the 'Big' slide for the 1st time!!!
I hear the Swans are going to make the finals.........Cheer Cheer the Red and the White :) I think I'm due Grand Final weekend........that could be a disaster!!!! Hopefully we will be able to have a Grand Final party here with the other Aussies.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

From Charlotte
















Hi everyone, it's Charlotte. It's my turn to write on the blog (with Mummy's help of course) :)

The last 2 weeks have been fun, Mummy says the house is almost organised, only a few things here and there we need to do like put some pictures up. We managed to buy an Australian Flag off the internet so we could hang it up out the front. I helped Daddy put it up after I played dress up's with it for a while. We all think it looks pretty good, I like the stars!! Mummy took some photos from the street so everyone can see what the house looks like from outside, in one photo you might be able to see Daddy and I hanging the flag.
We also had a visitor stay a few nights, Kagan Graham the puppy dog. He was lots of fun to have around, we all enjoyed having a puppy around for a few days. Mummy said she will put a photo of Kagan and I on here so you can see him.
Not long now until I'm a big sister, Mummy's belly is getting bigger everyday!! Only just over 5 weeks to go. I am very excited that we will have our 1st visitor from Australia soon too, Grandpa is due to arrive in 4 weeks, I can't wait :) Then only about a month after that Nanna Stroud is coming to visit. Mummy says she is looking forward to them visiting too so that they can help with the house work!!
Lots of Hugs and kisses from me in Virginia Beach, got to go watch Dora xxoo

p.s. Mummy said to tell everyone that the Australian Mobile phones have been switched off, so don't bother calling them :) If you didn't get the email with our new contact details email Mummy and she can let you know what they are :) BYE

Wednesday, August 4, 2010




Hi, just a few quick photos of Charlotte playing in the back yard with her new slide. The people that own the house gave it to us. It was meant to be for their grandkids but they had no where to put it, lucky for Charlotte. As you can see she likes it!!

Baby Budd update as well. We are fast approaching 33 weeks, yep only 7 to go!! Had an appointment with the OB yesterday, all is looking good, Budd is measuring normal and the heat beat is going like crazy (normal for a bub). Charlotte was very excited to hear the baby's heat beat, she still can not decide if it's a boy or girl!! We sorted through all Charlotte's neutral baby clothes (we have a lot, and they are so cheap here, can't wait to go blue or pink shopping!!), and both ted and I were amazed at how small things were. Ted suggested I need to eat more so the baby grows and isn't so small when it comes out..........as you can imagine I think the opposite!!! We both have fingers crossed that the "looking after a newborn" thing comes back quickly as we have forgotten!!!