Anderson turns One - a year in review, video montage

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On the 13th of January, our little (big) boy turned one! Above is a video montage of his first year, i could have put in all of the pictures but choose just a few to show you how he has changed from month to month.  We take him next week for his one year shots (we are a little late as he had had his H1N1 shot in November) so we had decided to delay them by a few weeks.  We are unsure of his weight but we both think he weighs more than his big sister (will let you know next week). Anderson is a really happy boy who loves his cars and trucks, food and his big sister! And of course he loves his mom (which he can and will repeat over and over) and his DA which he yells really loud the minute Aaron gets home from work. It is very cute to see!

Hard to believe Lily will be turning 3 next month! Yikes!!

Green Family Christmas in Kelowna

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This year we drove to Kelowna (with Nana & Pop) to celebrate Christmas with Uncle Julian, Auntie Heidi and Haleigh. The drive over the mountains was absolutely stunning the sun was shining, the roads were clear and the scenery was amazing. The snow on the mountains, frozen waterfalls hanging over the roads - stunning! I wanted to get out and take a photo but we didn't think that would be very safe, lol. The days were busy we visited the H20 Centre again (a definate favorite!) we went to Christmas Mass at a local church (the girls danced and danced to the music). Christmas eve Lily and Haleigh put out thier cookies (they made and decorated) and milk for Santa. Christmas morning was great, Lily was very happy that the cookies were gone and that Santa had brought more presents! On Boxing day we drove to Silver Star Mountain to do some slediding, tubing and enjoy the snow as we were quite surprised that Kelowna didn't have any. Lily, Aaron, Julian, Heidi and Haleigh all went down the hill in thier own tubes, so much fun! Very cute, she loved playing with her cousin they always have so much fun together, Lily was very sad to say goodbye. Thank you so much Uncle Julian, Auntie Heidi & Haleigh we all had a great time thank you for hosting us! It had been way to long since we were together on Christmas.
Next time we all get together for Christmas it'll be at our place ; - ) Hopefully it won't be another 7 years from now! Merry Christmas!

Green-Caskey-Mitchell Christmas

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December 13th Christmas arrived in Surrey at the Green house! We had a great early Christmas (yes Santa came early ; - ) with Gramma, Auntie Joey and Morgan. It was an awesome holiday weekend instead of having a traditional turkey dinner Aaron and i picked up Lobster (with all the fixings) for everyone. Auntie Joey and Aaron looked up a recipe online as none of us had every cooked lobster before. They found a great recipe and baked the lobsters in the oven and i have to tell you they were delicious! Probably the best lobster i've ever had. Christmas morning was really fun - this year Lily really 'GOT IT' Anderson enjoyed it too he especially loved watching his big sister tear into all of her presents once she got to them. Every present she wanted to stop, open and play, very cute. She got her Babay Belle (Beauty and the Beast) from Santa (thanks Gramma! Lily loves her). Baby Belle was the only thing she asked for from Santa anfter she had seen a commercial for it on tv while we were out east. (**That is a whole other story though as we didn't realize the power of marketing to kids until then!) As our family Christmas weekend was ending we ent for a walk up to the local starbucks in our 'first snowfall' of the season (& Anderson's first ever!)

The thing i realized is that Christmas is about being with family and no matter what the weekend was; it was a great Christmas! Merry Christmas!

John & Kathy VanDyk, Ottawa and Halloween, October 2009

We were so excited to be going to see our great friends John and Kathy VanDyk in Stittsville (just outside Ottawa)! What should have been a 4-4 1/2 hour drive took us just over 6! There were lots of tears and pee breaks along the way and of course we stopped in a teeny town (don't remember the name) to have dinner at the local Swiss Chalet (seriously nothing else in the town except maybe a gas station and grocery store) at 5:30 and it was PACKED! We finally made it to John and Kathy's place just before 10PM, boy were we happy to see them! We got the kids settled and ready for bed before we sat down to start our visit.

** Before we arrived John and Kathy had asked if there was anything particular we needed/would want - we asked if they could pick up some cranberry juice, yogurt drinks and banana's - and joking Aaron said if they could find a copy of Beauty and the Beast on DVD (Lily's FAVORITE) we had been searching forever to find it but of course once it is back in the vault it is IN the vault....**

Ok so back to the original post, Aaron went into the kitchen to get a drink of water when we hear 'you've got to be kidding' in he came to the living room with the biggest smile on his face holding the Beauty and the beast DVD. John and Kathy had it, unopened and were giving it to Lily. So amazing - Lily was so happy when she woke up the next day to see it & of course we had to watch it right away!

We went into the city to see the Paliament buildings (this was for me!) they were beautiful we went on the guided tour inside to see the house of commons and the senate. The architecture of this building was amazing what a privilage to go and walk through it. We had a nice 'REAL Deli' sandwhich before heading back to John & Kathy's to get ready for Halloween. Lily was a fairy (we brought her wings from home in our suitcase) and Anderson was a Lion. Lily was really excited and couldn't wait to get outside and go trick or treating. At the first house people asked Lily if Anderson  was her brother (& gave an extra chocolate for him) so by the second Lily said (unprompted) and one for my brother...it was really cute and boy did she work this one at every house we went too! Back to John and Kathy's place to check out the candy and have ONE candy before bed. We woke up the next morning and had a nice breakfast with John and Kahty before we headed back to our apartment in Mississauga. We had a great visit with John and Kathy and missed them the minute we drove out the drive way. Hope to see you guys again this summer if you make it out this way again.

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Niagara Falls, October 2009

We escaped for a lovely fall weekend to Niagara Falls with our great friends Michael & Elaine Wong stopping at a few wineries and Niagara on the Lake for lunch. Seeing the falls in photos never quite prepared me for what i was going to see in person...they were amazing. We stayed overnight at the Sheraton and had a lovely dinner with Michael and Elaine we had a fantastic window table overlooking the falls so we could watch the coloured lights as the sunset. There was a fabulous lady playing the piano that Lily LOVED going to watch! She played most of the popular princess songs  for Lily which was a definate highlight. Michael and Elaine were heading back into Toronto so we said our good byes before we retreated back to our room. The next day we were up early again and went for a walk down to the end of the falls - the weather was stunning, warm and sunny the perfect weather to view the falls again before we left to do some cross border shopping in Buffalo....

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Toronto Zoo and new way to post photos

Hey all, well ok new year and i promise to get back into this....I was having problems posting numerous photos of our coming and going so i've decided to do a digital scrapbook page everytime i have more than 3 photos...hopefully it'll work!

First up the rest of our photos from the Toronto Zoo when we were there in October...

Aghh so much to catch up on - happy reading!

Toront zoo - more pictures Finally!

Ok...let's see if this works!

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