Well, the weather outside is frightful! Unfortunately we don't have a fire to stay warm beside. I can't believe how quickly the weather turned cold. But, that's Manitoba for you! The thermometer said it was -30 out today - yuck! The last few weeks have been busy with Christmas shopping, sending out Christmas cards and Christmas baking. Since I have time this year, I managed to bake 5 batches of Christmas goodies! Now they're in my freezer, though, calling my name....! Only 2 more weeks and we head out to BC for Christmas with my family and skiing! I'm looking forward to this so much, though Thomas doesn't adjust well with sleeping, so I might be tired. I've been thinking about work lately - can't believe I'm almost at that time to go back. I have mixed feelings, but time will work it out. Must go and make myself some coffee to escape the cold:) I've added some pictures of Thomas I took recently. He's so cute! I love his picture with Santa. We were in the mall and it was a spur of the moment decision. He didn't cry at all, just stared at the strange man with the beard!]

Well, I haven't written in a long time...but life is good. I can't believe it's December 1 already. Snow is falling outside my window for the first time, so it really is beginning to feel like Christmas. I love Christmas and am looking forward to spending it with Thomas this year! Last year I thought, I'll have a 9 month old baby next year...and I do! We've been busy getting together with friends, shopping, going to doctor's appointments and more. We were able as a family to get up to the Whiteshell for a couple days at the beginning of December, and that was really nice. Life with Thomas just gets more and more fun. He's getting such a personality! He loves to play with anybody who pays interest in him and has such a cute giggle. He also has 2 more top teeth and is moving around furniture so well. I don't think he'll be walking by Christmas, but you never know... Lots of talking - "mama," "dada," and "tata" these days and of course yelling. He really is our little miracle!

Thomas is crawling on his hands and knees now and his fourth tooth finally came through. He learned how to crawl in 1 day! It's amazing how quickly babies learn new things. We just got back from a great trip to BC to visit my mom and dad. It was so nice to see them, and nice that they got to see Thomas before Christmas. We'll be heading back out west in 2 months again to do some skiing and visiting with family. Thomas was awesome on the plane. I was so worried, but he was such a trooper. On the way to BC there was this man sitting in our row who really liked Thomas and at one point held him and put him to sleep! Another new thing in our lives is that we just bought a new car - upgrading to a van. The car just is too small for us and our growing family We're picking it up today! Family is coming over on Sunday for Thomas' s dedication, so that will be nice. I've got a lot of cooking and cleaning to do today, though. Life with Chris and Thomas just gets better every day. We're loving our little baby so much!

Thomas has another tooth on the top! It came in a week and a half ago...the other should follow soon. Lately sleep for us has been horrible. Thomas is waking up at 4:45-5:00 every morning - yucky! I cut back his napping yesterday and he slept until 6:45!!!:) We'll try it again today and see if less napping is the key. The weather has also turned colder. Fall is finally here. I'm looking forward to cozy nights inside. I just wish there weren't so many of these nights, but that's what you get for living in Winnipeg. I'll be heading to BC on Wednesday for Thanksgiving, which I'm super excited about. I'm a little bit nervous about the plane flight with Thomas, but let's hope for the best. He was awesome the last time I went. That's pretty much it in our life here. Work is going well for Chris, and Thomas is eating more and more food every day. He finally seems to like it!

Well, Thomas is officially crawling. He made it all the way down our hallway to our bedroom last night! I can't believe it. We went into Linden today to meet Steph for lunch and pop in to see friends. It was nice to be there, but also nice to not have to worry about school. I love teaching, but having a break this year is really nice. School is so busy! Thomas gets his 6 month shots tomorrow and I hope they go well. The other ones have been fine and Thomas seems to just sleep it off. Hopefully tomorrow will be no different. Also on Friday I'm beginning an hour long exercise program at the Pan Am Pool with Thomas. It's every Friday for an hour and I hope it'll be fun. It'll be nice just to get moving. So, I'm keeping my life busy, but also enjoying relaxing and reading a book once in a while. I know these times will go by fast so I'm trying to enjoy every moment!

What a gorgeous Friday - 30 degrees outside! Chris is mowing the grass, Thomas is sleeping and I'm catching up on pictures. My goal is to get pictures from our past 5 years of marriage organized and into photo albums. I'm doing pretty good so far. It's neat to look back on everything Chris and I have done together! So, Thomas is basically crawling! He gets up on his hands and knees, throws himself forward on his tummy and then does this again. He can move all across our floor this way! Today he also sat up from being on his tummy!! I can't believe how much everything changes. A funny thing happened the other day too. I was reading Thomas a bedtime story called "From Head to Toe." I finished reading that book and proceeded to read another book called "I Love you Goodnight." Well, Thomas all of a sudden turned on my lap and reached for the first book! I thought "He can't already know what book he wants?" So I tried reading the second book again, but he continued to reach for the first book! I couldn't believe it. What a little turkey!

Life's been pretty good lately. We've had beautiful sunny weather, which is nice; however, the mosquitoes make it pretty impossible to enjoy it!:( It feels weird to not be back at school with my teacher friends, but I know I'll enjoy being home with Thomas. He is sooooo near to crawling!!!!!! He pulls himself up on his hands and knees and then kind of throws himself forward on his tummy to reach a toy. He can get around very well like this! It's only a matter of days... The past few nights he's been waking up at 5:30 a.m. I'm not impressed with this and don't know why. Hopefully he'll go back to sleeping at least until 6:30 soon...I'm pretty tired! I've been taking 6 month pictures of him the past few days, but I cannot get him to smile. Whenever he sees the camera he gets his typical "Thomas" look - just staring at the camera! I'm going to try again tomorrow to get at least a glimpse of a smile. He has such a cute one! Well, we're staying home today. It's raining so maybe I'll make some cinnamon buns!

What a beautiful day today! Unfortunately there are so many mosquitoes that we can't go outside to play:( They are horrible now that it's sunny and warm. We had our first corn from Chris' parents two days ago - yummy! Thomas can eat it next year! Today I went to the spa while Chris looked after Thomas. It was my birthday present and it was so nice! I had a body scrub; then washed off under this amazing shower with 6 shower heads raining water on me while I lay down; then a body wrap; finally another shower! It was so relaxing except for 2 women I could hear nattering in the room next to me. Oh well. The shower actually also stopped working the second time under it so I got a free body wrap gift certificate - yeah!!! Chris and Thomas hung out at his sister's house. Then, they picked me up and we headed home for some BBQ salmon dinner. We're actually going to eat it when Thomas is in bed. It's nicer to eat when he's in bed because he's kind of fussy in the evening. He's doing so well. I'm feeding him a little cereal every morning now. He doesn't really eat it, but it's just getting used to sitting in the high chair and eating from a spoon. I can't wait until he actually starts showing interest in food. He's almost 6 months - wow! What a lot of growing he has done in 6 months. He is amazing!

We have had a beautiful few days in Landmark and Thomas and I have gone swimming! It was his first time in a swimming pool and he liked it a lot. He looked so cute in his swimming suit. It will be so much fun next summer when he can walk and we can play at the park! Chris has been working evenings this week which makes for some long days for me, but he's off on Monday! I booked a spa day for myself on Tuesday which should be very nice. Chris is looking after Thomas - Yeah!:) Today we're just hanging out at home and working on naps. Not going so good right now as Thomas is crying in the background, but he will fall asleep eventually!

Thomas has found his toes! I was wondering when it would happen and it did just the other day. Now he's putting them in his mouth all the time! Nap time is not going well, but I hope it's just a phase. Poor baby was so tired today: ) At least he's sleeping through the night! I'm keeping busy with seeing friends and visiting family. We visited Great-grandpa today and that was fun! He loves seeing Thomas (and me). We're also heading out to Bird's Hill for church on Sunday. Should be fun and it looks like there's going to be great weather. Thank goodness since the weather this summer has been horrible. It feels weird to not go back to work this fall, but I know I'll enjoy being with Thomas. I'm signing up for some fitness classes with him! Gotta lose the last few pounds.

What a night last night! The thunder was so loud, and it actually hailed. The storm woke me up, but not Thomas! This past week has been a great week of visiting friends and a trip to Grand Forks. Thomas made his first trip out of Canada yesterday and he did great. He only got fussy and annoyed the last couple hours of our car ride home. He spent most of the last hour in the car yelling and blowing bubbles - I think he had had enough of the car seat! He was so good all day, though, even in plus 34 weather! When we got home and I put him on the floor to stretch out, he was sooooooo happy:) He is moving so well on the floor - turning circles and pushing himself up so high. I'm pretty sure he'll be crawling in the next month or month and a half. I also tried today giving him some rice cereal today since he gagged up the sweet potatoes I tried last week. I made it nice and runny, but he still wouldn't eat it. So, I'm thinking he's not quite ready for food, even though he liked the bananas. We'll try again next week. Not much planned for this week-end, just hanging out at home.

Last night was the first night I didn't feed Thomas at night, and he did great! He only fussed for a few minutes at 11:30 and 3 and then for about 45 minutes at 4:30. We'll see how tonight goes. Thank goodness he wasn't up for an hour at night like he was a couple nights ago. I peeked my head in his room and he was playing in his crib at 1:30 in the morning! What a little stinker:) I am so glad it's sunny and hot - finally! I enjoyed sitting on my deck and reading a book this afternoon for a bit. I love summer!!

I don't think Thomas likes sweet potato! I put him in his high chair and gave him a few spoonfuls, but he made gagging sounds. Oh, well. I'll try again in a couple days. He also has managed to grab his toes in the last couple days. Pretty soon they'll be in his mouth! Napping today has been going so well, even though I have to get up early at 6 or 6:30 when he wakes up. I figured out I was letting him sleep too long at night, which was messing up his naps. So many things to figure out. Happy Anniversary to Chris and Me - 5 years today!!

So, I decided to start a blog to keep my friends and family updated with our life in Landmark! Life has been good lately, except for all the rainy weather - here's hoping next week will be sunny and warm. Life with Thomas has been a lot of fun lately. He is growing and learning every day. He just mastered jumping in his jolly jumper and is quite light on his feet! He likes to show off his jumping. I've also started giving him some solid food and he seems to like it a lot! It was interesting to find bananas and sweet potato in his diaper. I think he'll like eating. We're also working on napping. Today has been a great day for naps! I guess I just need to be home for his naps so he doesn't get so tired. Well, off to make supper.