My little snow angel.............

Riley was so excited all day, all he wanted to do was to get home from school and make a snow man and a snow angel. After making a snow angel (again with no mittens cramping his style and this time no beanie either) he decided it was too cold and retreated inside for some lunch.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow.........

This is the view of our neighbours across the street last night when the snow had been falling for about 2 or 3 hours. If you click on the photo and get a bigger view of it you will see little sparkly bits it is so pretty how the snow glistens - just like in all those Christmas carols I have listened to my whole life!


The same view of the house across the street but this morning after snowing through the night.

Yesterday afternoon it started to snow, and not just flurries but really snowing and staying on the ground too. The kids and I were all so excited, we sat at our back door and just watched in silence as it fell ever so gracefully from the sky. Snow is just so amazing when you have not seen it before. It is sooooo pretty and graceful and silent. It is not like rain that you can hear on your roof. After the kids went to bed and Brad and I were relaxing in front of the telly, we kept on getting up (in the ad breaks of course) to look outside and watch the snow. We have, of course, been told by the locals that the novelty will wear off pretty quick but for now we are just enjoying it as part of the experience that we came here for.

Riley making a snow ball at our back stairs last night. He ditched his mittens as he could not pick up the snow as easily, I think I am going to need to get him snow gloves instead of the mittens if I am to keep all his fingers this winter.

Riley showing off his snow ball and trying hard not to admit that it was so cold it was hurting his hands........he stayed out there playing snow ball fights with Daddy for about another 1/2hr after this.

This is Brad showing off his balls............the big one in the middle is his snow ball (which he later threw at me through the safety of our back door). Brad has not yet been snow gear shopping and so did not have a beanie here - for the purpose of playing outside in our dark back yard where noone would see him I let him use my beanie (pom poms and all.....) I am going to be in so much trouble for this one LOL.

Emily watching on and wishing she could join in the fun - even though she hates the cold and destests getting rugged up!

This is Riley beside one of our baby Christmas trees in the back yard with a little bit of snow on it. There is another pic a bit further down of that same tree (different angle) this morning with just a tad more snow on it.

This is the view (or one of them at least) out of our back door this morning. I wished it was a weekend morning so that we could all just sit with a warm drink and appreciate the view rather than rushing off to school and work etc.

Our back fence and one of the Christmas trees out the back of our place this morning.

The view from another angle out of our back door this morning.

I just love how the snow sits on the empty branches of trees, I couldn't help myself and thanks to a pretty good zoom on my camera I didn't have to leave the warmth of my kitchen to get this pic LOL.....

Our baby Christmas tree this morning (the same one from further up).

Pretty trees...........
Another tree........

Ummm trees again............sorry but they are just so pretty with snow on them.

This is the last of the trees I promise....

The view from our dining room window this morning.

View from the dining room again...............different angle. Riveting stuff I know.............LOL

View from the front porch this morning.

View outside one of the windows at the front door.

BOO!! Happy Halloween.....

This is of course our first year of trick or treating here in Canada and let me tell you it is serious business over here. All the shops are full of merchandise (of course can't miss the opp to make a quick buck), the houses are decorated in loads of goulish things, people (adults included) are dressed up in all sorts of costumes both fairytale and horror and trick or treating is all the buzz. The owners of the house that we will be renting suggested to us that we go to our new street and trick or treat our new neighbours as a way of introducing ourselves but we thought we would start small and just trick or treat the hotel this year.

During the week I hit Wal-Mart and stocked up on some halloween treats and then gave some to Betty and some to the kind folks at the reception desk.

Our first stop was our friends down the hall Betty and John. John is a Hatch employee from London and Betty obviously is his wife. Betty spends quite a bit of time with the kids and I as we are both holed up in the hotel a fair bit. Betty helps me by sitting with Emily when I need her to and in return I take Betty along with us on our outings to the shops etc. They are such a lovely couple and it has been so nice for the kids to have a psuedo grandmother figure in Betty over the last couple of months.


Now who could refuse this sweet little face??

Or this one for that matter??

Stocking up on treats from Betty and John.

Ohhh is this really for me??

BOO!! Riley looking like he was just spooked by his balloon.

We thought without the red-eye reduction on this one looks really scary!
The kids hitting reception. Riley hid down low and put his balloon up on the desk to spook the lady. Turns out the lovely people from the hotel gave the kids not only the stuff that I hooked them up with but they also did up a pack of their own for them which was really sweet. They really have been so good to us since we arrived.

Riley checking out his stash and showing us the craft project spider lantern that he got.

Emily 'helping' Riley sort all the goodies.............or was that Emily 'helping herself' TO the goodies??'Oooooh Mummy I don't feel so goooooood...................

Oh no too much candy.........

Just kidding of course she was just checking out her pumpkin bucket before the trick or treating began hahahahahaha.....

We're off to see the WIGGLES!!!

OK so not the best photography (I had a one year old on my lap trying to pull the camera out of my hands every time she saw me pick it up) but I swear it is the skivvy wearing aussies in person!! In December of 2006 I had tickets for Riley and I to go and see the Wiggles live in Brisbane. Sadly our plans changed and instead we were in a hotel room on the other side of the world making the decision to move to Johannesburg, South Africa. Last weekend, again on the other side of the world, we saw an advertisement on television about the Wiggles and, after some promopting from a certain family member (whose words I believe were "You can log on to Wiggles.com mummy......") I logged on and found that they had a concert booked for this weekend. I quickly booked some tickets and so today Riley, Emily and I headed off to Toronto city to go see them. The show was right in the middle of the city in Toronto and seeing as how it was during work hours it was up to me and my trusty GPS to find the way. Thankfully we are back in a first world country and the roads are well signed so getting there was no problem. We spent the first few minutes of our car trip singing "We're off to see the Wiggles, the wonderful Wiggles from OZ, because because because because because................because of the wonderful songs they sing......."

Riley was a little star-struck and, after the initial excitement of seeing them run onto the stage, sat quietly for most of the show and even had somewhat of a worried look on his face (which he later explained to me was because he didn't know why he was feeling a little bit scared of them). Anthony and Sam (Greg's replacement) came right up to our row and Riley ran over to them and then got scared and so didn't get to say hi to them (which he is kinda upset at himself for now poor kid).

Emily on the other hand.....had the time of her life! She hopped and bopped and grooved her way through the entire hour and a half show. She tried her best to do the movements and sing along. She was really very cute and got many comments from the people around us.

Considering I braved the whole thing alone with the kids (and with the help of one red bull before we left - next time I will make it two.....LOL) I think it all went really well. We found our way in without getting lost once, we found parking right across the street from the venue and got to our seats with 1/2hr to spare. I even braved peak hour (on a Friday afternoon no less) traffic in the city to get home which meant that a 25min trip was somewhere around 1 1/2hrs.

I think that if we see the Wiggles (or any live act for that matter) again that Riley will fare much better as he will be more prepared for the overwhelming feeling of seeing people that he loves to watch on tv up on a stage in front of him in the flesh. Perhaps we need to make a trip to Wiggle world at Dreamworld when we are home for Christmas........

I think that this is when they were dancing to "You make me feel like Dancing" (which I think is a Bee Gees song)

We got our souveniers and we are just waiting to head in to see the WIGGLES!! (Emily has her eye keenly focused on Riley's wiggles light in this pic)

A bit of a close up but this is my boy enjoying the show.

Emmy just chillaxin.......(and not taking her eyes off the show even for a pic)

Fall Colours - Take One

In keeping with our pledge to get out and see our new suuroundings we jumped in the car on Sunday and headed a couple of hours North to a little place called Barrie to see the fall colours. We were unfortunate enough to have chosen an overcast day and so the colours were not as prominent as they would have been in the full sun light (a theroy that was proven on the rare occassions that the sun did show itself that day). We got our cameras out and took a few pics anyway and then in a few more weeks we may do the trip again and see if we can get a better look at these fall colours that everyone keeps on telling us about.

This is my favourite pic of the day. We were up in a little village called the Blue Mountains (not where I always thought the Blue Mountains were but anyway) and this is looking across over the lake (pretty darn huge lake!). On the other side of this fence was a bloody huge drop, so given the state of the fence I think it is there more as a deterrant rather than a safety feature.

Daddy & Riley (with his belly button showing!) It was a really cold day (about 7 Degrees) and the wind was freezing, I think we may need to do some winter clothes shopping soon......
A rare pic, me actually posing.
The Girls, the only way we could get Emily to keep her beanie on was to put her hoodie over the top of it. We will be buggared when she figures out how to get it out from under there.
Me with my boy, who insisted on wearing shorts even though we told him it would be cold. Who am I to come between a boy and his fashion sense? I also really love this pic of Brad and Emily, you can see a little bit of the colour and the lake in the background. I think that this old fence really helps in the colour contrast of these pics.
In the winter time this mountain is actually a skiing field, coming in from the bottom you can see the different slopes marked out and separated by trees.This is Riley pointing out the different runs that the slopes have during the winter time. I think we may have to do a weekend trip back to try our hands at skiing too. Let's just hope that the kids ski school will let a big kid in.......could get messy otherwise.

Looking out over the lake. That little island in the middle actually has a light house on it.

I thought that the township below looked really cute and very organised so I took a pic of it.

Our Little Emmy Bear is One Year Old Today!!!

OUR LITTLE PRINCESS!!

Can you believe that a whole year has passed? On this day last year we found ourselves in the delivery room of the Sandton Medi-Clinic in Johannesburg South Africa with a new addition to our family. A beautiful baby girl, EMILY MAY CROSBY. Today we are celebrating her very first birthday. She is such a little princess and a fearless adventurer at the same time. She is sweet and cuddly and smiles at everyone. We are often pulled over by people who are drawn in by her smile and her big bright blue eyes (in just the same way that we were with Riley). Riley is still the ever-loving brother and Emily just adores him. When he goes into class at school each day the whole class lines up and blows a kiss to their mum or dad and Emily will usually blow a kiss back at Riley too and wave bye to him. They will play together in the car as we are driving along I will hear loads of giggles and when it is quiet I can often look back and see them holding hands across their seats. Emily is also into climbing at the moment and it seems that no mountain is too high, just the other day I came into my room to see her standing at my bedside table (which is just slightly taller than she is) she had her hands on top of the table and was trying to bring her knee up to pull herself up on the table! She has also worked out that if she climbs onto something else first she can then get herself up to another level. The other day I came in to find her standing on Riley's little step investigating the top of my bathroom counter, a surface previously unavailable to her due to height. She is walking confidently along furniture and whilst holding onto to our hands and has taken a couple of steps alone this week so I imagine she will be walking properly sooner rather than later.

PEEKABOO DADDY!!

Em is wearing the princess tutu and tiara that Riley bought for her - he calls her his little princess and was totally his idea to buy her this gift.

GETTING SET TO BLOW OUT HER CANDLE.

FLASHING A WINNING SMILE AT HER BIG BROTHER.

HHHHMMMM TASTES GOOD.

GOTTA LOVE BIRTHDAY CAKE TIME!!

RILEY SHOWING EMILY WHAT NANA BOUGHT HER.

RILEY 'HELPING' EMILY TO OPEN GRANDPA & NANA YVONNE'S PRESSIE.

EMILY SHOWING US ANOTHER USE FOR HER NEW BIRTHDAY PRESSIE FROM MUMMY, DADDY & RILEY.......