We have a tooth!!

Hi all, just a quick blog to let u know Victoria got her 1st tooth late last week, how exciting!!  It's on the bottom, middle right (her right), and very cute.  The best bit was she didn't seem to upset by it when it was on the way, and still slept all night, such a good princess.  And another 1st, when she woke after her morning nap today she was dry so I decided to put her on the potty and see what happens............she did a number 1 & 2, I couldn't believe it and started dancing around with Charlotte all excited, LOL, Victoria looked at us like we were on drugs :) 
Hope all is well in Oz, must be getting cool now :( Can't wait for our next visitor at the end of the week, HURRY UP BREE!!!! :)

Spring is here!!

Hi everyone, well spring is here in Virginia Beach, the flowers are popping out everywhere.  We have planted our veggies and herbs in the garden, now we just need to figure out how to keep the squirrels away, they used to be cute, now they are pests eating my veggies!!  Charlotte came out with the quote of the year when we were out planting......"Are we going to plant CHIPS too??"  See what happens when you move to America!!  Charlotte has also planted some flowers in pots to watch them grow, everyday I get "is there flowers yet mummy??" I'm starting to think it was a bad idea :)

Victoria is sitting up now and has been for a few weeks, and is so happy with the better view, it's so much easier to watch Charlotte run around when your sitting up!!  And she is eating lots of solids, I can't keep up with the cooking!!

 Ted spent a week in Hawaii last week (such a hard life) and I survived at home with the girls alone, with surprisingly only 1 beer!! I was however a little preoccupied designing my new blog, it's a scrapbooking thing so don't feel you have to look. I was very impressed with the name we came up with..... seymourscrap.blogspot.com, read it as you wish....... Seymour Scrap or Seymours Crap, I bet you can guess which one Ted calls it!!

We also attended Charlotte's first concert at Preschool, it was a spring theme, so they all dressed up as either frogs or ducks and sang songs, well everyone except Charlotte sang, she stood with her hands in her mouth smiling at Ted and I!!!  It was so cute,  hopefully next time she actually participates in the concert.

Thought I would also include these photos I took of Victoria showing me how she can put her foot in her mouth, Charlotte felt left out, so she had to have a go and get her photo taken too!!  I love the look on Victoria's face, it's like 'What??'

Charlotte's Birthday

I know it was a few weeks ago but thought I would show some pics.........she had a great day, and as you can see loved her new bike!! Most days it's still a bit cold to ride but she has had a few rides, and a fall already :( Took a bit of convincing to get her back on!!

Also some photos of Charlotte's 1st day at Preschool, and Victoria's 1st real food!! Victoria was very keen to help me get the spoon in her mouth and now after a few weeks we are doing really well, eating lots :)

Disneyland Photos (finally)

Ok, I know it's been a while, I'm busy doing things........hehe!! (I like going out for lunch every Tuesday and Thursday without Charlotte, it's quite and I can actually talk with whoever it is I'm at lunch with!!) Anyway, I finally decided to get some Disneyland shots on the blog, so here they are.
We had a great day, but could have spent so much more time at Disney. For all of the rides and to see all the characters you have to line up and sometimes the lines were pretty long!! It was a great day however and Charlotte had a ball, she got to see Snow White (her favourite), but we didn't get a photo cause Victoria was hungry and Ted had to stay with Charlotte. Can you believe Charlotte was shy??? You will notice in all the pics, either Ted or I are in the photo too as Charlotte was so shy she wouldn't talk to or stand with anybody!!

Since arriving back in Virginia Beach we have been busy getting Charlotte settled into Preschool, starting Victoria on solid food and planting our veggie garden ready for spring. At the moment all the trees are starting to flower and it looks great. We were unaware of a lot of plants around the area, as we have not yet seen spring here. Cherry blossoms seem to be very popular (and I love them) as do pansies and daffodils, also very pretty. The neighbours tell us there is a lot more to come!!

Anyway, hope it's starting to cool down in Oz, I went out without a jacket today....it was about 15C or 60F, very nice :)

3 Weeks in Oz!!

Well I guess I start at the begining.......On Saturday the 5th of Feb we left at about midday and flew from Norfolk to LA, via Atlanta. Apart from the fact that Ted forgot to give JT the car park ticket to get the car out of the parking station at the airport, it all went without any dramas :) The girls did well on the flights and thankfully on the second sector (it was longer) they had inflight entertainment (this seems to be rare in the US), so Charlotte was happy to watch TV, while Victoria slept. When we arrived in LA, the flight to BNE had 6 seats available and after 3-4hrs waiting we got boarding passes, we were so glad we were going to get on!! Again the girls were very good, however we were split up when seated so I stayed with Victoria and Charlotte got to sit with Daddy.
The first week we stayed with Ted's parents in BNE. We got to spend some quality time with all the family, including Jer who was back on leave from a deployment. We found a nice little cafe just down the road called Our Haus and I think we went there almost every morning, the coffee was good, as was the food and Charlotte made friends with Raymond the waiter :) He even gave her a gift the last day before we left, it was very sweet!! Charlotte got to celebrate her birthday for the first time in BNE, I made her some tiny pink cupcakes and we all (Ted, Jim, Julieanne, Mike, Jer, Laura, Kirrily and I) sang Happy Birthday. We also took the girls out to meet Ivy, Ted's Nana, I think she was happy to see the girls :)
Next we were off to Albury, but on the way we stopped in Sydney for a quick Hi. We were very excited to have one of our favourite flight attendants meet us at the gate :) Thanks Ann!! We had a quick stop in at my work and said hi and then met another few of our favourite FA's at the gate (thx Rach and Bridget), then flew to Albury. Mum and John were there to meet us and we headed straight to their place. Tuesday we got to catch up with Shell and Harry, and Victoria went for her first swim. Can u believe that Harry's only about an inch shorter than Charlotte......he has a bigger foot and is heavier!! And did I mention half the age??
After a few quite days Ted and I managed to get out to the movies, the first time in a very long time!! Thursday and Friday evenings we spent at Mel and Ja's place, Thai for dinner on Thursday, YUM!! And cake making all day Friday!! Saturday we had a party for both Brayden and Charlotte's Birthday. Dad flew down to Mel's and Aunty Liz and Uncle Malcolm drove up from Melbourne. Mel and I had made some pretty cool cakes, and once again we sang Happy Birthday!! We had a great day and then topped it off embarrasing Dad at a belated dinner for his birthday :) We told the waiters it was Dad's birthday and they made the entire restaruant sing Happy Birthday to him!! Hehe!!
Next up we flew back to Sydney (another favourite FA was on the flight.....nice work Bree!!!) and after checking in to our apartment we headed out to see the Woods Family and Nanna McBride. Unfortunatley Nanna was not well so we didn't get much time with her, but it was so good to see her again and introduce her to miss Victoria. Charlotte as usual ran around Nanna's house like a crazy person. We had dinner with Dad and the Woods family, again Thai (Thai here in Virginia Beach is pretty average, so we thought we should eat plenty while in Australia). Once again there was a cake and more singing for Charlotte's Birthday!! I think I forgot to mention all the gifts people kept giving her (thank you!!), by this stage I was starting to get worried about how they were all going to fit in our suit cases :)
Tuesday we meet with Dad again and drove up the coast to see Nanna Holmes. Once again it was so good to see her, we also got to catch up with Aunty Pat, that was very nice also. Wednesday and Thursday we stayed at the apartment and had heaps of visitors, thank you to all who made the effort to see us, it was great to catch up and let Charlotte have a play with a few of her friends. Friday we flew out to LA, this time the flight was not so full, so we got 4 seats and the basnette, alot more room!!
We arrived in LA about 5 hours before we left, so when we got to the hotel we all wanted a sleep!!

We are Home!!

Hi everyone,
Sorry I have not done a blog in a few weeks, but I figured most people reading this we would have seen while in Australia. I will however do a blog (it's going to be huge) once we get sorted at home. Ted is already back at work, Charlotte starts School tomorrow and we are all still a bit out of it with all the time changes :) But check back in a few days for lots of photos and a big long story!!!

Getting ready to visit Australia

Well no real news from here for the past few weeks, we have all had the flu and are now trying to get better before we head to Australia for a quick visit to show off Miss Victoria :)
We are leaving here on Saturday and hopefully connecting with a flight to Brisbane in LA that evening, flights on staff travel are looking a bit interesting at the moment, so we will have to wait and see. The plan at this stage is to be in Brisbane from the 7th-14th Feb, Albury/Chiltern/Wagga from the 14th-21st Feb and Sydney from the 21st-25th Feb, then maybe a few days in LA on the way home?? Who knows what staff travel has in store for us:)
Pleased to report that Victoria is still growing, she is now 14lb 3oz. We had her 4 month needles at the doctor today :( She is now sleeping poor little bub, she was not happy at all with the nurse that gave her the needles!!
Charlotte is very excited about going on a plane.......lets see how long that lasts.......I bet after the first 20 mins she will be like "are we there yet"!! Hopefully she has taken her Nanna Stroud's advice and will have a big sleep, I can only hope!!
Hopefully we will get to see lots of you in Australia sometime in the next month :)