We are expecting our second child on the 19th of September. Everything is going well with the pregnancy, although poor Felicity caught a cold with a nasty cough and it hung on for a month before she was feeling better.

We have set up the cot in Sarah's room and Sarah seems very excited about becoming a big sister. We think we have everything organised for when the baby comes, and since we moved house back in May we are much closer to the hospital.

Sarah has discovered the joys of screwdrivers and hammers. Any time she can help Bez she is right there and on her best behaviour
She also loves to help in the garden but not many of the plants survive her version of "weeding".

For Sarah's birthday we were lucky enough to have all the grandparents (Dave, Sue, John and Naomi) around at one time. Lydia and Sid also came down from Sydney and our friends Ben and Rowena came over with their little girl.
Sarah loved all the attention, it was a noisy day full of presents and cake.

Christmas day was quiet with just the three of us, but Sarah still had lots of presents to unwrap and lots of chocolate to eat.

We finally had everything together to go camping for the first time with Sarah. We decided on a short trip to a campsite we had visited before since we did not know how Sarah would handle it.
Sarah was great she loved the tent, the wombats, and walking in the dark with a torch!

The following day we were all up early so we went for a nice hike. Sarah enjoys collecting sticks and rocks, but got a little tired towards the end. All up it was a wonderful weekend and I am sure there will be plenty more.
* I will add more photos once I download them from Bez's phone.

Last month, Felicity's father turned 60, so we drove down to the farm to celebrate with the family. Surprisingly Sarah handles the 14 hours of car travel pretty well. Of course there were a few instances of bribery and a few unplanned stops to let Sarah out for a run.

The party was held at a lovely venue in Warrnambool and we really enjoyed the evening, Sarah especially loved running through the blue fringe curtain used to separate our group from the main dining area. Felicity and Berwyck enjoyed when Felicity's brother Dominic offered to babysit a sleeping Sarah back in their hotel room so they could have a night off.

As the last family members to have a chance to meet Sarah, Sue and Dave were very happy to come and stay with us for a few days. Lydia and her boyfriend Sid collected them from the airport and then they all came down to Wollongong.

Sarah had lots of fun getting to know her Granddad and Grandma, she especially liked all the gifts she received and all the little games they played.
We did a number of tourist things, bushwalking, visiting lookout sites and local attractions.

After some hard work and a bit of stress we are finally settled in our new home.
We have a park across the road, and a courtyard for Sarah to play in. We have already introduced Sarah to the fun of gardening, although her favourite part was playing with the hose!
It is finally official... Felicity is now Mrs Poad. After 2 years she has finally had a chance to change her name on a photo ID, it seems to make her very happy.

Many of you are aware that as part of our move from living in America to living in Australia we spent 3 weeks travelling in England.
During this time Sarah and Felicity had a chance to meet many family members including Grandmothers, Aunts, Uncles, cousins etc. We had a wonderful time catching up with everyone and we hope to visit again as soon as we can.
For the most part we stayed with Grandma Poad, who Sarah called 'Nan Nan' in the lovely village of South Anston. We were welcomed with sunshine and warmth, followed by more traditional hail, rain and snow. We managed to explore quite a bit of the area and even caught up with friends Thomas and Melanie who were visiting from Austria.
We also spent time in Leeds with Sue Poad's side of the family, which was a great weekend. Sarah suddenly found she had all of this family that she had never known, and they all thought she was wonderful... Sarah was in her element.

For Berwyck's birthday weekend (Fri, Sat, Sun and Mon) we hired a car and drove across the desert to the ever famous Las Vegas. Considering how little time Sarah has spent in a car seat she held up very well, as long as Felicity sat in the back seat with her. The landscape is remarkable, with steep hills spilling you down (in a long line of cars and trucks) into large flat plains, dotted with casinos and the strange 'Joshua' trees.

Once into Vegas we checked into our (strategically chosen) non-casino hotel, and took a quiet break in our room before going to find dinner. During this quiet break something momentous happened. While Felicity lay on the floor, and Berwyck rested on the bed, Sarah busily explored the room, and while doing so took her first unaided steps! Needless to say both parents were incredibly proud.

For dinner we chose the “Hard Rock Cafe”, complete with enormous neon guitar out the front, (simply because it was closest!) where the food was lovely and the staff singing and dancing along to a loud rendition of “YMCA” certainly got Sarah's attention. We then had an early night ready for a big day.

We spent the whole day Saturday, and most of the evening wandering up, down and through the strip. The outside temperature was about 30^oC for most of the time, so where it was convienient we wandered through the casinos rather than along the street. Along the way we managed to see...

• The conservatory and the fountain display at the Bellagio;
• The Shark Reef aquarium at Mandaly Bay;
• The Pirate show at Treasure Island; and
• The general press of people on a Saturday night in Vegas.

Since none of us are into gambling, one day was enough for us, so on Sunday we headed out to visit Hoover Dam. We took the scenic route along the edge of the dam and took some great photos. We went on a short guided tour right down into the base of the dam, which Sarah loved because she discovered that her voice echoed in many of the rooms! Sarah also got to crawl around on the smooth floor of the observation deck in the turbine room, it was quite a large area and she really made the most of it.

It was a quiet drive home again on Monday, Sarah slept for the first 3 hours of the trip and was reasonably content for the rest of the drive.