Some cute pictures...

Well, here is a bunch of solid pictures from  the past few months...  Enjoy.

Here we all are at the circus.  We had a real good circus with animals (lion, elephant, monkeys, bison...) come to the MTS Centre.  We didn't go to the Shrine Circus this year as it was the weekend I was in Flin Flon and honestly this one was much better.

The girls have swimming lessons every Tuesday morning at Pan Am as Cara can put Teresa in as Frances is with her.  They come to school for lunch every Tuesday.  Good times :)

The girls love to pretend all sorts of stuff...  Here they are napping.  If only it were this easy when it actually was nap time.

Teresa is playing at preschool...  If you me to tell you what she is, your driver's license should be revoked.

Yup, this is an old picture.  Teresa & Frances came out to see the blooming crocus plants...  Note the mitts & bare feet, a classic good parenting combo.

Words cannot explain this picture.  I got nothing.

Teresa has been asking for a movie party for a long time.  We invited a few of her friends over, they watch VeggieTales ate popcorn and generally destroyed the house.

Hello, I am Frances Sockyhands!

Teresa enjoys coming down and checking things out.  Here she wears my earmuffs.  I have pretty much done nothing in a couple of weeks due to the craziness of their evening schedules.  And yes, that is how Teresa smiles when asked to smile.

Out shopping for Mother's Day flowers.  Frances wanted to touch everything.

I found this so ludicrous I needed to take a picture.  Once again, words cannot explain the visual.

May Long - Monday

I awoke to what in the Yost house is considered a glorious sight: Strong winds & large waves.  Alas, without a partner to join me and the knowledge of the East Beach currents & sandbars I wasn't feeling entirely comfortable with a swim (regardless of the fact that somehow the lake water is about -20C, but somehow liquid).  The temperatures had dropped off and we had to turn on the heat.  This was an indoors type of day...

More of Frances 'reading'.  So darned cute.

Chutes & Ladders seemed like a good way to pass the time.

Teresa cheated...  I mean, she won.  No, I am not a sore loser.

Next is Go Fish.  Teresa is getting better at not announcing her cards to everyone, but flashes them pretty ferociously and doesn't pay attention or remember what others have asked for.  Yes, I know she will get better.

During nap time, Rowdy and I finally went for a walk.  The waves were much too large to let him swim in the rocks out front.  Please note the devastation on the cliffs and the fallen trees.  Grand Marais Blvd really got bashed by the storm.  Apparently that first cottage had 80 feet of backyard not 5 years ago.  They continue to build on that side of the street though...

This is over that hill, and around the corner where the dyke / road must have almost been washed away.  They brought in a ton of fill to rebuild the road.  Looking up from here, the cottage on water's edge has their deck dangling with caution tape all over it.

This is about where the old fisherman's shack was.  There is no dirt left, save a foot wide strip.  You can also see all the new fill along the road way back there...  They also had to fill by the trestle.  In a related note to all this devastation, the government regulates lake levels.  They are at historic highs on both Winnipeg & Manitoba.  This is good for Hydro...  As for the lake?

This was the peninsula leading towards Pelican Island.  It essentially no longer exists, although without waves it would likely be a few feet wide.  People used to come here with their pets and enjoy a bit of sand and no COs...  Rowdy enjoyed chasing the ball regardless.

We had seen pelicans, ducks, geese, cormorants, loons....  As I finished my walk, I had to suddenly pull out the phone to take a couple pictures of the osprey.  Both were flying overhead.  This is a pretty clear picture of one of them, and with the tree & sun looks particularly artistic :)

May Long - Sunday

Sunday turned out to be a nice day.  The girls got up around 7:00, so we had a few hours to burn before church, and then we planned to drive to East Beach, as it is the only beach open to anyone.  With some spare energy to burn, the girls played on the hill which further soaked their shoes & clothes.

Frances running up and down the hill (P.S. Nice hat  :)

After church we drove off to East Beach where we had an opportunity to play on sand, eat a picnic lunch, go exploring in the hills where Teresa and I found deer prints, an orange frog and bugs. I even got to take a couple dives and as Teresa and Frances both pointed out, the water was somewhat less than warm.

Lunch Time!

I love the contrast in the colours here, and the clouds.  Into the water we go.

Things brightened up, and the girls dug holes, made & destroyed castles...  You know, the normal stuff.

For the first time ever, I got to bury Teresa.

If Teresa gets to be buried, than Frances must be too.

Warming up the shiverer.

Frances' position reading was just too much like mine (and too cute) for me to ignore it.

Teresa wandering on the rocks, all on her own, at her own behest.

We later got to plant some tomatoes, basil and peppers in the patch, where the strawberries and oregano are already coming up gangbusters...

Mmmmm...  Weiner roast!

Enjoying the view from the balcony, Teresa deemed it 'perfect'. They have played Rappunzle from it. And what a fine feat of engineering it is :)

If you want to see my mainly naked body diving into the ice cold water, and didn't see it on twitter you can go to http://yfrog.com/nf254gz For the record, Cara almost missed my dives, and missed my light amble into the water.  My heel didn't need any icing later.  I will not be fathering any more children for 12-24 months :)

For less repulsive videos, here you go:

Teresa climbing on the rocks all on her own. For the record in a rare moment of responsible parenting, I told Frances that she was not allowed to go on the rocks on her own.

Here the girls are rolling on the hill. Teresa has taken it on herself to train Frances in many different aspects of life, and this is one of them. It is very cute to watch them interact with each other.

May Long - Saturday

Well, this was another fantastic weekend at the lake, enrapturing Cara and I with the joys of watching our kids grow and enjoy the lake. We did the normal stuff, opening the cottage, checking out what had changed (Hint: 2011 > [2010 + 2009 + ... + 1978] ), church, going for a swim, walks, staring out at the lake, hot dog roasts.

If you have been following Cara & my Twitter and Facebook feeds you may have seen some of this stuff, and heard how some things went. I am pretty confident that my father was appalled by this, yet in a corner of his heart he was happy to see some off the pictures and videos and got a chance to say hi to the girls.

I have enough stuff exported to fill a few posts, so I will go day by day.

Saturday was pretty darn bleah. Rain, drizzle, grey... Nevertheless we needed to go for a walk with the girls.

It may be raining, but it's a good time for a walk

The front beach.  You aren't allowed on West Beach.  Anywhere.  Apparently it will be completed on time for summer otherwise the company will be fined heavily.

We played for a good long time at the park, and then stayed indoors reading books.

Now for some videos...

Teresa giving Rowdy the gears constantly for not doing exactly as she says...

Teresa & Frances scratch their backs a la Rowdy

The girls enjoy the puddles. Responsible parents would have remembered to bring their galoshes. We did not :)

Mother's Day

Well with Mother's Day come and gone, I had figured that some people would be interested in what we did  for Cara on her day...

In our house Cara commits herself to cooking for her mother on Sunday so she insists I take the kids off her hands on Saturday and cook her dinner.  This year we did some shopping for her gift, dinner, and other stuff.  The kids & I went out for lunch and then I got them down for a nap while I smoked Cara some ribs for dinner (FoodFare had baby backs for $2.99/lb, YUM!).  Cara got to relax by shopping with her sister for jeans (for her sister), how this is relaxing I will never know...

Sunday began with the girls and I making Cara a card while she slept in.  After that I released the hounds and the girls got to show mommy what they got her & made...  Teresa decided on the wording of the card, which she wrote (after I wrote it on a piece of paper) all on her own.  Cara ended up getting flowers for the garden and an immersion blender for her shakes & soups that she makes.

Out shopping and picking flowers. There would be more pictures if the girls didn't require 24/7 supervision to avoid destruction of the flowers.

Prepping to make the card.  Frances really should do everything naked to save us the stained clothing...

The card is done!

Happy kids :)

The inside of the card...  The family is drawn at the bottom, I have the short hair.  I forget the exact wording, but the inside said something like "Hi mommy, you love us so much.  Love Teresa & Frances"

The outside of the card, pretty self-explanatory.

And here is the video of the morning after...

Catch-up Time

Well, over the past few months Cara and I certainly have been neglecting things over here. I think part of it is the ease in which our new phones work with Twitter and Facebook, but not blogger. Cara also has been fighting with Bill Gates to make her computer work better with blogger, and she thinks she has found a solution (stunningly, not involving a Microsoft product).

I just exported about 50 pictures and videos of random mayhem that I hope to post over the next few days to week or so...

Today though I think it is appropriate to begin with our ultrasounds. Cara has had two and during the second we got to see Hatty yawn at us. So cute. Here though are the pics of Hatty, and no we did not find out the gender.

See ya Diapers?

So Frances has been asking to be potty trained lately. We went out, bought her panties, discovered those were too big so went out and bought some more. She has been sitting on the potty to "pee", flushing, and pulling up her pants. There is no question she is ready, the only problem for me is finding the time. With Teresa we needed a full week to stick around the house and just let her learn at her own pace, but now we never have an uneventful week. I guess we just have to go for and let the chips and urine fall where it may. And always carry extra clothes around with us.