Teresa & Her Buddy

She loves him (especially saying No Rowdy! and running away)...  And yes, I am out of control on the videos lately.  It is a bit of feast or famine with me :)

Christmas Day Proper

Christmas Day began quietly with stockings, gifts from Santa, oranges and cinnamon buns. It was really nice to spend the morning as a family, and Teresa had time to play with her toys.

Her gift from Santa was a Disney Princess sports set. It came with a baseball and bat, a football and a glove. Whenever she plays with the baseball I say "batter up" and then Teresa drops it and says "batter down!" It makes me giggle every time:)

Now for the pictures.

Our living room, Christmas Eve.

Opening her stocking.

Our family is so cultured, Teresa already knows how to play the kazoo.

A snack of oranges to keep up her strength.

Ken REALLY likes presents.

Ken got me an espresso machine, which has a hilarious (an long) back story in the Friesen family.

Rowdy got a special treat as well.

Our new Christmas tradition.

Teresa REALLY enjoys tradition.

Teresa also enjoys a wide variety of hobbies.

Oh Lord....she is a Yost.

Teresa got a special suitcase for her trip to Ottawa.

Yes, she is wearing a princess dress and a bomber jersey.

Grandpa, enjoying the festivities. 

Images of Christmas

This Christmas so far has been an exhausting-ly good time. Since this is the first year we have no made it out to Ottawa to see the Yost clan, we promised plenty of pictures. Here is the first batch, taken at the Kehler gathering on the 21st.

Teresa eating her weight in caramel corn.

Giving Great-Grandma Kehler her Christmas hug

The cousins...Ty, Leia and Andrea

Ken playing nice with Kass

Finally some presents!

Teresa had Ty in the family gift exchange.

It turns out Teresa is very helpful, and will help anyone open their presents:)

Jackie, Randy and Porter....it's sad when parents play with the toys first:)

Our very own gift...

The Little people nativity scene....who knew the Jews as a people were chubby and white!

You will note Mary and some shepards have reached their untimely demise in a car garage elevator shaft.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Blogging will be light today.

Our Christmas card this year.  Merry Christmas everyone!

This is the Friesen family picture for the Christmas season.

I just finished watching Muppet Family Christas and am missing my family dearly...  Hopefully Sprocket & Jim Henson washed our dinner dishes.  Santa will be visiting our chimney soon I  do believe!

WHAT!? I Thought Ken had lost the video camera!

Well, I know it has been a while since I have made & posted a video.  I have begun now to use Final Cut to do the video work b/c the new iMovie stinks, and doesn't let you do any cool video effects.  I am using a wicked program and know how to do about 0.001% of what I could do so hopefully in the near future we will see some improvement!

Well, here is Teresa outside yesterday with me 'helping' to shovel and playing with Rowdy.

Living in a World I Cannot See

Teresa has developed quite the imagination...so in honour of that here are the top 5 activities I participate in on a regular basis.....although I have no idea why.

1) Spend the morning as a fruit or vegetable, the other day I was a pea and Teresa was a tomato.
2) Regularly answer the door to let "the prince" in the house
3) Look for imaginary animals or airplanes that get lost in the house.
4) Eat freshly baked/cooked pasta, cookies, corn, etc.
5) Rescue Rowdy from becoming a princess/fireman.

I may not be able to see, hear or understand the imaginary world Teresa has built, but I'm having a heck of a good time participating.

Teresa one day put crayons by her head and ran around saying "Look Mommy, I'm a circus!"

When you're two, it makes sense to put a codpiece on the Gingerbread Man.

Christmas is going to rock this year. Why is that you ask? One word....Teresa. Teresa is now old enough to understand the goings on and the history behind this special time, and is excited. We have an advent calendar that has little stories each day that follow the adventures of Mary and Joseph. So far Mary is a hands on favourite, but we haven't met the baby Jesus yet, so she may fall lower in the ranks.

We have done a few Christmas activities as a family, our church had a rockin birthday party for the baby Jesus. There was crafts, contests and games, hotdogs and cake. We all went home on a sugar high with a holy glow about us, as the priest blessed the birthday cake before it was consumed. We also went to a Christmas village hosted by the Aboriginal Student's Association at Red River College. Teresa ate cookies, made ornaments, coloured and got her picture taken with Santa, without crying. There was also an awkward T-shirt war between Ken and one of the native fathers. Let's just say Ken was wearing his "Vive La Reagan Revolution" shirt.....and the other gentleman was not.  

Teresa's first Gingerbread Man...note the codpiece and the lack of any order:)

Teresa posing with her "artwork"

Look at that teamwork.

The first ornament made by Teresa. Note the face is her foot and the antlers her hands.

This pipe cleaner tree was a family effort.

Teresa posing with her snowflake we left at the Christmas Village

Saturdays are cursed...

We have been meaning to see people over the weekends for the last couple of days, and last Saturday we were to have seen Wally & Candray who had to cancel due to a sudden health issue with Wally's dad.  This Saturday we were over at Phil & Lindsay's where we had just made pizzas and Teresa threw up all over Cara's food.  We both got the flu too, and I had to stay home today (and thankfully so, as I got worse through the day).

When I went in to Teresa's room this morning she was singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to herself, which was super cute and she has been hugging my leg saying "Make daddy feel better".  Christmas is almost ready to rumble over here, we have only a couple of things to buy and wrap.

I am not sure what else to report, all I know is that Cara has a billion pics she wants to post so I will post a few and let her do the rest.

Teresa has taken to posing for pictures, although normally not long enough for the picture to actually be taken.  We are in the midst of decorating the tree.

Putting on an ornament.  She loved the Candy Canes and the first one she tried to put on fell and landed flat on a brach, so she balanced about 4 on the branch.

The candy cane.  Look on the lower branch in the enlarged picture for her decorating...

Putting on the angel - she didn't succeed, and as I look at the picture I have to question the safety of what I was doing.

Teresa playing with Rowdy at Ray & Myrna's.  She sprinted around the table, while I helped with making Rowdy a horse as she suggested.

I know.  Call the SPCA.

Slowly Squirming Towards the Light

I am now almost 30 weeks along, and I still feel pretty good. The only big changes I've noticed are that I get tired very quickly and have a very hard time picking leggo off the floor. The 2nd problem I have solved...I do in fact have a very nimble 2 year old, and she she can pick up her own damn toys.

My latest doctor appointment also revealed that the baby is fine, the heartbeat is strong and I am still in the clear health wise. Mystery baby is about 2 1/2 pounds and the length of a butternut squash. This kid moves A TONNE! Squirming, stretching, kicking, and funnily enough, tickling. This kid, like Teresa also does not appreciate any invasions of it's space. Ken and I were cuddling one morning and mystery baby kicked him in the tush....I like this kid already.

For those of you that are a little slow, Teresa is showing you where the baby is.

Teresa is also doing well. She is fun and loving and a huge bossy pants. She cannot boss mommy and daddy (but she tries), so she has taken to bossing Rowdy. She feeds him every day, and then promptly tells him to go eat. Her favourite sentence is "Do it myself!!" and she had taken to throwing a tantrum or two when things don't go her way. On the whole though, she is a great, funny imaginative kid and we have a wonderful time together.

Teresa and her Auntie Andrea. Andrea will occasionally bring treats, and her purse has been dubbed the trick or treat bag.

In her super cute Nike tracksuit, one of the many joys of parenting a girl.

Mission Accomplished!!

The Yost decision desk has made a call.  After many countless hours of stories read to Teresa.  After an untold number of questions and quick runs to the toilet.  After many months of hard work (mostly by Cara) our supercomputers have finally made the call.  We can, after almost two and a quarter years of life make this historic pronouncement that will heal divisions across our country.  Teresa Anne Yost is the next toilet trained Yost.  This monumental event marks the end of Ken asking "Do you have to pee/poop?" 400,000 times between dinner and bedtime.  After taking into account that Teresa now naps without a diaper.  After considering that most of her nighttime diapers are dry.  After analyzing her rare accidents, and most importantly with the results from the Heather Curling Club finally coming in where Teresa pooped in public, we have made the call.

Mission Accomplished!  Teresa has accidents, but always looks for an adult first!
I hope that this missions being accomplished doesn't have many more years of stress, like others I cite.

Beyond that I have a few things to share.  First is the most disturbing thing I found out about Halloween.  Remember popcorn balls?  Remember how tooth chippingly good they were?  Well, it appears that you can't give them out anymore because people are scared of homemade stuff.  Seriously, when is the last time you read about anyone actually getting a dangerous item in candy?  I think this is the progression of the sissification of our society.  Anyhow, it appears that you can still give popcorn balls out, they're just mass produced garbage!

That's right ActII is now making popcorn balls for kids.  They are eerie! They are pure white, tasting slightly of a sugar syrup that was poured on the balls before they were compressed together.  Take a look at the ball closely, it is perfectly round, I could play baseball with it.  Before I opened it I figured they chopped them down, and they would look like balls of old, just rounder...  Weird, and to make matter worse, it didn't taste very good.


Lastly a cute set of pics.  Cara took these one morning when she stripped down and put her fairy wings on.  We have many more pics that Cara wants to blog (and she may explain these pics in greater detail).  I am in the midst of getting cute Teresa moments on video, so we will see how that goes.  Here are the pics:

You better not pout....

Please note Teddy to the left, and that fact that the candy cane is already being consumed.

Santa has come to town, and, as we did last year I bundled up Teresa and headed off to the mall to see the jolly old coot for a very cynical photo op. Teresa does not realize yet that her Christmas happiness hinges on this one man (whatever) or that she will receive gifts in his name. Basically, I didn't want to tell her about Santa, and Ken was on the fence, but we caved to societal pressure, knowing that her contact with other kids would bring her knowledge. We don't make a big deal out of it, and focus more on the religious aspect of the holiday. Right now Teresa likes Jesus more than Santa, and I aim to keep it that way.

The morning was spent with Jackie and her boys Porter and Hudson, and a new addition to our tradition, Colleen and Addie. Addie is only four months old, and the only one of our group who actually smiled. All week Teresa knew she would see Santa. We talked about it, read some stories, life was good. We got to the mall early so that Teresa could see him in action, and she claimed she was excited. It was finally our turn, and Teresa burst into tears and refused to leave my side. No longer the amateur, I got Teddy out of my purse, calmed her down, and asked what she wanted. Teresa claimed Teddy wanted to sit on Santa's lap, but she would not. Accepting this compromise, We took the photo you see before you. I still have to feel a little proud.....my daughter will still not sit on strangers laps for candy.