Building Snowmen Again...

Teresa and I got to reprise our awesome snowman building skills from last year much earlier due to a warm spell that hit zero couple with a decent slush-fall so we went out and built a snowman together.  And here is our first snowman:

Here Teresa makes her first snowman on her own as I shovel the snow

The snowman we built together.  Teresa dressed it and put all the face & buttons on with only help pushing them in.  She in holding its hand.

As it was about to get quite cold again I suggested making another one the next day after church, which "we" did.  Teresa initially wanted to make a snow Rowdy, but then quickly got distracted by our neighbors.  I made a dog (with awesome cereal box floppy ears, and courtesy of Teresa playing with it, a pinecone snout) and then got on to snowman #2.  Teresa helped dress it and put its eyes, etc on and is quite smitten with Rowdy.  She has decided that one snowman is a girl and the other one (I may recall) is daddy...  Which one is which I am not sure.  So we ended the day and went in for hot chocolate and lunch.  That afternoon the temperature dropped (as expected) and now we have two very solid snowmen that Teresa shows everyone (the Hydro guy, auntie, etc...) and loves to look at.

Rowdy and his snow doppelgänger flank the snowmen.

Teresa posing proudly with daddy's her creations!

As you may also be aware Teresa and I have been taking swimming and skating lessons during the week.  We should be able to get you pictures and video next week as Cara has promised to come.  To tide you over, I will give you pictures of how to celebrate a successful half hour on the rink on an evening that is -30 with wind, Manitoba style...  SLURPEES (actually Mac's Frosters)!!  You also get a bonus picture of Frances enjoying her first spoonful of sweet sugary slurpee goodness.

I LOVE SUGAR!!!!  It is a more powerful force than being cold.  Auntie Jackie understands, she turned blue in Florida based on this principle!

I think she might just like sugar too...

A kiss

Frances now gives me kisses. She will show me she loves me by opening her mouth as wide as she can and trying to eat my cheek, chin, or nose, whichever happens to be more convenient. They are kind of gross, and very sweet. These kisses, full of love and drool, are one of the many reasons it was so easy for me to fall in love with motherhood.

Frances Walks!

Just because grandpa Yost begged for it, I put together the video. You will get to see us beg Frances to walk again moments after her first steps, Cara try the next day and finally I look like a fool, but she walks! While reviewing the footage I found no way to cut out the parts where Teresa was being ignored, but heck she has to have some issues to talk to her future shrink about ;)

Christmas Moments - Ottawa

And now, some pictures from Ottawa.

 Frances loves Rachel's nuts!

 Teresa on the plane

 Auntie Pearl also enjoys strolling with Frances

 Frances and Grandma

Teresa's favourite game, and Ken's favourite upper body workout.

 Greg is so dedicated to cuteness he went outside in his house coat for pictures.

 Teresa found an icicle.

 Oh, I think this picture speaks for itself.

Ken got some balls.....

 Ken and Teddy, super heros!

 This is basically what Greg did for a week.

 Meet Louis, the Great Dane who thinks he's a lap dog...

Christmas Moments - Winnipeg

Here we go, my favourite moments from this Christmas, only one month late!

 Teresa and Frances in their Christmas best

 And their matching pajamas

 Surprisingly, all those toys are ones THEY ALREADY OWN!

 Christmas Eve dinner

Frances surveying her loot from Santa

 Was she happy about this....no, she was not.

 Frances taking a stroll with Grandpa

 Teresa is teaching Frances how to accessorize with found objects

 She really liked her helmet

Andrea in her super cute apron. I'm pretty sure she wears it all the time:)

 The happy couple

Finally, she partially opened something!

Frances at Eleven Months

Frances is now eleven months old, and man, has she been busy! Besides her normal activities of managing to put death traps in her mouth, causing my hair to become more gray by the minute and being a giggling, joyful delight, Frances has some new material. She has (as of yesterday), cut her second tooth, pulls all the books off the shelves then sits in the cupboard, can climb and stand on step stools in order to reach the counter, and loves to pull every toy out of the bin and admire the mayhem. Her most impressive trick to date, by far, has got to be the four steps she took today. On her own. Like a big kid. The house was filled with shrieks of delight (Ken) and many hugs and kisses. We are all so proud of this tough little peanut.

 I know it's out of focus, but I love this expression!

One of her favourite things....why do I let her get away with this?

 Oh yeah....

And here is an action shot, she wants the fudge on the counter.

Like Ottawa, but Sunny

Lately the weather has been beautiful here, mild, sunny, the perfect temperature to bundle the girls up and take them outside. So, today, that is what we did. We went to a dog park by the river so we could toboggan and Rowdy could chase without fear of complaint. Frances experienced her first ever ride, and Teresa went down all by herself for the first time. It ended with us piling into the van, all rosy-cheeked and happy. What a wonderful day.

Frances' first run.

Family self portrait, brought to you by Squinty Magoo. 

Teresa decided, for a change, to pull Ken up the hill.

Frances chillin' on the river.

That's one happy puppy!

Cutest kids ever.

Holy HECK!

Today Frances stood up from sitting on her own, without anything to help her lift up, save her legs. She remained upright for numerous seconds... Walking must be imminent.

Cara then informed me this was happening for about the past week and she figured I knew. We will get some pictures up soon, but we need to upgrade a computer before we upload the pictures from Cara's camera.

Just for Ed...

While in Ottawa, we brought out a book that Ed & Tarra bought Teresa via gift cardage...  It is a cute action book, and since Tarra was gallivanting across Europe I videotaped it.

Enjoy "Can You Make a Scary Face?".

Happy New Year, etc...

Well now that I have the pleasantries out of the way, I figured I would post today simply to tell everyone about Teresa's first skating lesson today. It seems that Teresa does not like doing new things with daddy, as her first swimming lesson ever was a disaster, she cried on the way to gymnastics and today she tried every trick in the book to get out of the skating lessons today.

Today was more of the same. I was first told that it was cold out to skate, to which I informed her that was irrelevant due to the indoor nature of the ice rink. At this point Teresa went to her more traditional method of whining and crying to avoid them. She got herself worked up about almost everything, the extra clothes, the helmet, whatever... I got Teresa into the van and she was howling, so I tried the line "This is special daddy and Teresa time, don't you like spending time with daddy?" Well, if you have children and a sensitive ego (like me), do not try this line - ever - as Teresa cried "I like MOMMY!!! Not DADDY!". I was laughing so hard I went back to the house to tell Cara and then I left anyhow. During the car ride I calmed her by doing what all good parents do - bribery!

"Teresa, you are not behaving."
More Crying
"Teresa if you want a treat after skating you need to behave, and that means no crying and whining."
Crying Slows
"Teresa the way you are acting right now you won't be getting treats for a long time."
Exeunt Crying


The lessons were neat. Teresa walked to the rink carrying her skates and she was quite wobbly walking to the gate to get on the ice. If you want to know what the next 30 minutes were like, watch the following (and Thumper she ain't):

Actually it involved the teacher having them practice over and over and over again falling on their bum and getting up. Nary a child could get up without significant help, and Teresa was highly mediocre. There was also a period where the dads (I think there was one mom, and her kid was the only one that could balance - cheater!) held the kids up and we practiced picking our feet up and taking short choppy steps. I know I will be sore tomorrow as I haven't been skating much lately and this time I had to do it crouched the entire time... Nevertheless it was fun and Teresa seemed to enjoy it (she said it hurt her bum, but she LOVED me skating as quick as I could while dragging her skates on the ice at the end) so we shall return.

Tomorrow we do swimming lessons...

Lastly, in honour of the 100th season of the world's greatest hockey team, and to harass one grandpa while making the other proud, here is a quick video of Teresa. Any stories Cara tells about the making of this video are lies.