The Concert... Live!

Or something... Enjoy!

Teresa's Christmas Concert

Sadly for me there wasn't a way for me to find a way to Teresa's Christmas concert this year.  Fortunately, Cara has a digital camera & video camera.  The video is encoding as I type, but I will share some photos from it & our first Christmas gathering (Cara's maternal grandparents - Bill & Tina Kehler) from last Saturday.  I assure you the videos are cute, but sadly, Frances has a fever Today of 102 F (Teresa had one, and missed all her preschool classes last week :-(  )  I sure hope she gets well for Christmas.  I am now on break, but will be working on the basement now (which I have been for the last week).

Time to sing.

Teresa in her new dress, just for the occasion.

Look who came to say hi!

Apparently she still wants a Sleeping Beauty Barbie...

Frances got to play with puzzles

More puzzle time...

While Frances may look like she knows what she is doing, Cara assures me she enjoyed taking the piece OUT of the puzzles without trying to put them back in!

Tina, Bill & Frances...

The Kehler grandkids await the gifts...

Frances, as youngest, got hers first.  This year Eric (who Cara & I met in Kitchener in July) got to meet the girls. Yay!

Time for a little help from auntie...

Oh, is that a super cute princess dress?  Yes?  Thanks Audrey!

Hmmm...  What could this be?  A young man buying me gifts?  Can't be that good?

Oh wait...  Is this a PRINCESS TEA SET?  Holy h*%k, let me take that back!  This guy is awesome!

Um, wait, this has better not ACTUALLY have an Acer in it...

I brought Teresa & Frances out this year to buy a gift for Cara.  Please not how awesomely she wrapped it :)

When the Cats are Away...

Well OK, it's only Cara (and half the video she's there for), but I figured I would allow the world to see the mayhem that ensues when I am in placed in charge.  You also get to see the new opening to the videos, as I figured Teresa's opening comment was cute...

Beyond that I want to add some information about what's been going on lately.  First, we have been dealing with illness, as Teresa is hacking away as I type but she is now fever free and I think things will get better.  Beyond that, advent has been a wonderful time here at Casa Yost, as Teresa looks forward to lighting the wreath, getting her nightly chocolate and reading a story every night from our Advent calendar.  It is quite a nice little evening ritual we have going on now.

Also a joy to watch is how Teresa and Frances interact.  Teresa will hug and kiss Frances and make sure she says good night, and Frances will go around looking for love from her sister too.  This of course is nothing like the sister relationships I am used to experiencing...  Frances communicates now, but I struggle to figure out what she says (Cara knows well) while Teresa can talk at a hundred miles an hour.   Teresa is also an amazingly active child, and loves singing, dancing and running laps.  She does a great rendition of Rudolph, which hopefully Cara will get on film from her Christmas concert.

Lastly, Teresa has finished her skating lessons and enjoyed them, but struggled a bit.  Swimming though is another matter.  She became a veritable fish this lesson set and dives under water and tries to swim all on her own...  She makes me proud.

Without further ado, a bit of our recent lives.

Decorating Madness

Now that the girls are at an age when they are getting excited for Christmas, everything is more fun. We went as a family to pick out our tree (a $25 black spruce) and the girls were very into the whole process. Having learnt my lesson from last year I put all our kid friendly ornaments in one box so the girls could pick and decorate on their own. Teresa had the quote of the night. As she picked up each ornament she would declare "This is my favourite ornament!" After fifteen of her favourite ornaments I realized that she is either not very discriminating, or she has a lot of love in her heart. So far the tree has gone unmolested, but I have been too wary of Frances to put any wrapped gifts under the tree yet, that may be a Christmas Eve event this year.

 These stars were a favourite of Frances'

 She also loved the apples, except she thought they were tomatoes and kept referring to them as "Bob"

 Teresa got to put the angel on top of the tree this year, and although she doesn't look it, she was very excited.

Letter to Santa

Last week Teresa and I sat down to write a letter to santa. I offered to write part of it for her, but she insisted on writing the whole thing herself.  All she wants for Christmas is a sleeping beauty barbie, and thanks to the lovely folks at Toys R Us, santa will be able to fulfill her request. I can't wait to see her face on Christmas morning....this is going to be awesome!

Olderish Pictures From November

So Cara has promised she would post about Teresa's letter to Santa (she wrote it all herself and it is awesome to behold), but in the absence of her choosing to not blog about knitting and food, I present to you: PICTURES!

She may be blurry, but man is she cute...

What is this ice for mommy?

Dog park shenanigans...

Look at the muddy paws, and the girls complete lack of fear...

Now that's some good tree climbing!

Yes, the park is now covered in snow...

'Driving'

de more

Now this is just too damn cute not to post!

The headlock of love...

More cuteness & Frances Swimming...

So I spend the entire 30 minutes with Frances in the water, primarily trying to keep her from lunging to her impending doom.  Last week, they busted out the life jackets and she learned the terror of being n her own in the water.  This, of course, did not dissuade her from jumping off the wall nor did it keep her from leaping off the wall with a mere hope and a prayer that I will be there for her...

We have fun.  We sing.  We jump.  We blow bubbles.  Frances is better than Teresa was at her age, but she is also so terribly unpredictable...  Last week, she went and tried to give Teresa a pool noodle during Teresa's lesson.  We of course stopped her from jumping in the pool (by the skin of our teeth).

Here's a few pictures Cara took of our joy...

Here is Teresa with a beautiful tie.

This is the most amazing smile I have ever seen.

Frances in her normal state...  Attempting to get undressed.

Dangling by her swimsuit.  She loves that too.

I may look like a goober, but Frances loves playing on my shoulders.

Swimming...  Frances actually holding on...  The water looks cool too.

The key to letting Frances go down the slide is to release her at the steps and quickly lunge towards the slide, hoping that you get there first.

Frances after the slide.  All sorts of happy...  

Yup, more happy + thumb sucking.

Happy, happy, joy, joy.

Here is the one time I was home and Frances was indicating that she was trying too poop.  I put her on the toilet.  She liked it, but has bunged up, so alas, no success.  We will probably be training her over Christmas of after Anna is gone as Cara feels too overwhelmed with her about...

More Mayhem...

Old footage refound on Cara's camera...

Frances & Teresa Mayhem!

This video was taken a couple of nights ago, but it is appropriate for today too, as they awoke at 6:15 and I kept them awake until 8:00 (remember this used to be 9:00, an hour past their bedtime).  When the girls get tired, they get manic.  Amusingly so...

Here is Teresa & Frances' nighttime dance PAR-TEH!

Swimming Lessons - Teresa

Teresa is now in swimming lessons, well, has been for the last few weeks and she is doing really well. This is her second attempt at this level, and I'm glad she's taking it again. This time around she is more independent and confident in her abilities. It's so nice to see her come so far. She is now jumping in with no help from the teacher, going under without freaking out and her front floats are coming along nicely. Teresa loves swimming lessons, maybe she'll take after her mom and be a life guard one day (fingers crossed).

 Class time.

 Frances likes to watch her big sis while she waits.

Big jump

 She's trying to swim on her own!

She looks so proud of herself.