Happy Birthday Anna!

Anna Paige celebrated her birthday this weekend... we can't believe she's already a year old! March 29th is a special day not only for Anna but also for my mother who was born on the same day, 60 years earlier. We spent the day at Sydney's Royal Easter Show which runs for 2 weeks time. It's basically a huge "County Fair" and had lots of livestock, carnival rides, and carnival food treats. Brady really liked the cows and we all had fun dodging their "leftovers" as we walked through the staging areas...

Don't mind my expression, I was trying to get him to look at the camera

There actually are pigs in this cage, but we appreciated their houses most of all!!

Anna really enjoyed her first birthday treat (part of an ice cream sundae) at the fair

After a full day of fun, we came home to have dinner and celebrate Anna's birthday together as a family. Anna decided that the legal drinking age of 18 here in Australia was a little steep... she thought 1 would be fine. She grabbed my glass of wine and dumped it on her pretty dress (she didn't have a sip, don't worry!) but the pictures show a half naked baby...so now you know why

Anna opening presents with Daddy

Yay Daddy!

Look at my baby doll (in my backpack) and my sweater!

Oooh, opening my big present (with Brady's help)

I love my dolly!!

Brady liked pushing the dolly around in the stroller too!

Not too sure what I'm supposed to do here...

Oh, OK, after you put the fire out I'm supposed to EAT it!

Obviously, Brady had no trouble figuring it out!

Thanks for looking at all our birthday pictures! We have so many more other pics to share and more updates. It's so hard getting on the computer these days! We've been busy meeting new friends, going to playgroup, and enjoying our time here.

We are sad to report that Mattie had deserted the premises without saying goodbye. Her web was nearly impossible to get down... I now know why she got so fat and probably exploded without leaving a note... There were an amazing amount of bugs and tree limbs in her web (no lie).

Finally, but not least, I want to give lots of love to one of my best friends Whitney, who is going through so much...I miss you. 22 hours doesn't feel like so far away at times like this and I wish so badly I were so much closer to home right now.

Lots of love to everyone, and please send updates our way as well!

Around town

We have finally taken some pictures from our 'hood! Blake and I were really craving a good cheeseburger and you'll be shocked to know that the best place we've found for a burger in Sydney is..... ahhhmmmm.... McDonalds (lovingly called Mackers by the locals). We took a walk from our house in North Sydney into Neutral Bay for our delicious treat, and on the way took some photos of where we live.

A view of North Sydney's central business district

Thought the Americans would enjoy seeing a view of a right-hand turn in Sydney

Same intersection, just a cool picture Blake took

Some views of the Harbour Bridge from our "neck of the woods"

I'm sure you've noticed the new sign at the top of our blog; this is a block away from our house... we live on the suburb line of North Sydney and Crows Nest and are just a couple blocks from Neutral Bay. I know this doesn't mean much to most of you, but we couldn't be happier with the area of town we chose and with Sydney's Lower North Shore area overall. We still haven't bought a car! Can you imagine? I went from driving EVERYWHERE to hardly needing one at all. We rent one when we need it for now, but do plan on buying one in the next month or so for big shopping trips and days when it rains a lot.

Now, onto my next overdue blog!

A few more pictures

I think we have finally settled into a bit of a routine around here, for the most part. Blake is getting settled into his new role and is hoping to find a new central office that will be conveniently nearby (not planned, but lucky for us!). The kids and I are meeting new people and enjoying the Aussie lifestyle more and more each day... all is well here in Sydney!

We had a great visit with Uncle Larry and Aunt Claudia although it was unfortunate that Larry was quite ill the entire time they were in Sydney. Fortunately we were still able to visit with them for a couple of days during their stay and unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the family! We really enjoyed spending time with them and can't say enough about how great it is to have a family visit so soon after moving to Australia.

Larry and Claudia also got to meet the latest addition to our family, our friendly Golden Orb Weaver spider we named Matilda (Mattie for short) who lives between our roof and tree in front of our house:

Don't worry, she's totally harmless.

And here are a couple of Annakin, being silly around the house

Finally, we spent last Saturday taking the ferry up to Manly beach again... this time just for some sights and a little family relaxation.

Here is one of Brady playing in the "spider web" in the centre of the play park there in the Corso:

And a funny one Blake took of Anna while I was looking after Brady.. she was NOT happy she couldn't play with the big kids...

And one of the 3 of us on the beachwalk:

We miss everyone so much and love getting news from home!!

She took steps today!!!

I promise more pictures soon, but I have to share in my excitement from today... Anna took her first steps on her own!!!

It started this morning when we went to our first developmental check-up at the Crows Nest Child Health Care Centre. A free service to all local residents, they do regular checkups for all babies and children and I'd been advised by several friends to take the kids in for registry. While speaking to the nurse about our relocation and how the children were adapting, Brady and Anna were playing with all the toys in the room. I glanced down and looked up at Yvonne (our nurse) and said, "Did she just take a step??" and Yvonne exclaimed, "Yes, she did, I saw it too!"

I was so happy and gave Anna a big kiss, but continued on with our conversation about the childrens' development. After a very thorough and impressive 2 hour conversation, weigh-in, measurements and immunisation check (they are on track with Australian shots, so we will continue on our same path, yay!) we finally came home. (On another note, I was very impressed with all of the nurses and the thick development books I was given for each child with their names on them... not to mention that I can drop in and weigh and measure them whenever I'd like.)

So now we're home and are expecting Uncle Larry and Aunt Claudia from Atlanta any minute. Out of nowhere Anna gets up from the middle of the floor and walks over to me! I couldn't believe it...

She hasn't performed for Daddy yet (was too excited to take an afternoon nap, so she was worn out when he got home) but I know that soon my excitement will wear off and I'll be wishing for the days when she stayed in one spot and I only had to chase Brady around... ahhh, times they are a changin'!!!