Christmas & the snow

We had a great day Christmas Day with some of the Aussie's here in Virginia Beach and Jason and Julie an American couple that are great friends. So much food, and a few very nice bottles of wine!! Unfortunately for me, Katie and Julie we were limited on how much nice wine we could have due to the joys of pregnancy and breast feeding :) Christmas afternoon here it started snowing (apparently the entire east coast of America got snow). Our friends Katie, JT and their bub Jayden were staying over the night but all the others went home early enough to not get caught in heavy snow. Christmas evening and all day boxing day the snow continued......(we got about 10 inches)so Katie & JT made the decision to stay over again as the roads were not the safest, and who knows what crazy drivers were out there.
About 4pm the boys were outside playing with Charlotte when we first smelt some fire then heard a massive bang. A branch in between our front yard and the neighbours place had fallen under the weight of the snow, onto the power lines!!! So the entire street was now without power and the temperature was under 0C. Thankfully the fantastic owners of our house have a generator in the garage, so we could get some things going again, like the fridge and a few lights, we also have a gas fireplace in the lounge room......it kept us kinda warm, well compared to outside!! The wire that was down out the front was live so the electricity company came out pretty quickly to fix it (2am that night if u call that quickly) but better than not at all :) It all made for a very interesting Xmas.
So as you can imagine with 10 inches of snow we got some great pictures, and as the snow is melting (very slowly, the temp today got to about 2C) the icicles hanging off the house are amazing. Charlotte has made 2 snow men so far, one here in the backyard and another up at the park. We have also had a bit of fun in the yard with the toboggan, we built a ramp, but there are too many trees in the way :( Our outdoor table became the best beer holder too!!
I have also attached some pics of Victoria and her boyfriend, Jayden.....we can't wait until next Xmas when they will be 15 and 16 months old, it's going to be a blast!!

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Lights & Dancing :)

Check out our Santa!!! And a few videos of the girls dancing, and no Victoria didn't vomit after this :)

More with the Toboggan

After the big snow fall this week, (well big for Virginia Beach) we took the toboggan out again. This time everybody had to have a go!! We found a few small hills in the backyard and pushed Charlotte down them on the toboggan. It was pretty fun!! Then it was my turn to run around the front yard and pull her along!! Afterwards I had to run a few errands and came back to find everyone asleep after a big morning out on the snow!!! Look closely at Charlotte asleep.........I think she was just pretending :)

Saturday night we went to a place called Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. During the warmer months it's a theme park, but over winter they transform it into "Christmas Town". It was amazingly pretty, the entire park was done up with Christmas lights and there were huge Christmas trees and a Santa u could visit and so much more!!! The fact that we walked around in 32F for about 3 hours meant we were freezing, but all had a great time. It even snowed again while we were there. Someone silly (not Ted, Charlotte or Victoria) forgot to take the camera so I can't show u any pics.....Sorry :(

Snow again!!

Well it's been a week or so since our last blog and so much has happened..........

To start Victoria is now a dual citizen, that's right, we can call her an Aussie now, but she still holds onto the American bit!! We have been madly trying to get her passports organised for our trip home in Feb, I can't believe a child so small requires 2 passports to go to Australia :) This meant another trip to Washington DC for the Australian Passport interview, on our wedding anniversary. Funny story actually, I made a booking online at a hotel in a Suite, assuming that like all other suites there was a separate bedroom. We stayed somewhere different this time as the only place we needed to go was the Embassy. When we got there I was told I was guest of the day!!!! How exciting :) Anyway the room was not a real suite and there was no separate bedroom so we put the girls to bed and then I had a bath while Ted sat in the bathroom drinking red wine, trying to be quite and not wake the kids!!! Great way to spend your 5th anniversary :) To top it off the hotel gave us a prize for being guest of the day......no not a discount on the room or a free bottle of wine, we got 2 apples an orange and some grapes!!!! Yep that's it :) Oh did I mention we used the wine cooler to keep Charlotte's milk cold overnight?? How romantic :)

Anyway, Monday it snowed again, but this time it actually stayed on the ground for a while. I was so excited so I took heaps of photos thinking this may never happen again. Then today it snowed again, but lots!! So I took more photos. This afternoon though the temperature went up a bit causing it to rain, and now there is ice everywhere and the roads are a mess!! We were told it hardly ever snows here and it's true, nothing is set up to deal with snow. The top temp most days this week has been 32F or 0C, so very cold, when I took Charlotte to the Dr's the other morning it was -7C!!!

All of us have been a bit sick this week, but seem to be getting better today, hopefully we are good before Xmas as we are hosting most of the Aussies here. Victoria is doing well, she has managed to not get too sick!! She has discovered her hand this week, it's amazing how long it can keep her entertained!! Charlotte is looking forward to seeing Santa for a photo this week, she told me she has asked for a fairy castle and wand!! Fingers crossed for her!! She discovered that Santa has a naughty list this week watching Dora's Xmas episode and she is doing her best to be on it at the moment!! She is crying and screaming out "I'm crying!! I need a cuddle!!" in an attempt to get out of going to bed :) We shouldn't laugh, but it is so funny :)

Uncle Mike, check out the photo with the train, the girls (and Ted) love it!! And for everyone there are 2 videos of Charlotte Tobogganing, Pt1 and Pt2, watch them in order as they are one video, I just couldn't put them on as one, it was too big!! Listen out for Charlotte screaming :)

Ted's Birthday

After our big night out last night to farewell the Corkills (our Aussie friends), we spent Ted's birthday relaxing around the house, well as much as you can relax with 2 very tired children :) Ted worked on the Xmas decorations for the front yard standby for the photos, when it's finished it's going to look great!! I spent most of the day trying to keep Victoria happy while cooking a very yummy birthday cake!!

Attached are the photos, Charlotte was very happy to sing Happy Birthday and help blow out the candles :)

I have also attached a photo of Charlotte in the shower the other night, she told me she had a funny hat like mummy's and a beautiful dress!!

Snow!!

Guess what?? It snowed here last night......we were out at a party and I took this photo :) It didn't stick for long but still it snowed!!!