My kids can skate now. That's right, they rock!

Dusty and I had so much fun watching them practice yesterday, it was the fastest practice yet! I thought I'd show you some fun photos this time around. Take a look at how graceful my girl is!

Yes, I know, mean Mom taking photos of a spill, but it is a funny set of photos! The kids very much look forward to the last ten minutes of practice when they play foxes and squirrels. I mean, what kid wouldn't like to have one of the "foxes" send him flying around the ice?

Seriously? This is such a great experience. If I could, I'd invite you all out to watch, or enroll your kids, it's such a positive environment and those hockey boys are amazing with the kids! Did I mention it's completely free too? I love this community!

We did it, we finally got to make a snowman!

Max made the first one, he really did do most of the work only needing help lifting up the snow balls and pushing some of the rocks into place.

Shh, don't tell Daddy that we broke sticks off the lilac bushes...

Naturally I had to get a group photo!

After that Rory wanted to make one. Max made the bottom snow ball, Rory made the middle one and I made the top one. She worked really hard at getting those arms in!

Our lovely little snowman couple.

And of course, a kiss for good luck!

I'm so glad we were finally able to make them. The kids were having fun rolling balls all over the yard and having yet another snowball fight with Uncle Cecil. (He was on his way out to work, sorry about your wet pants Cecil!) Now we hunker down for the cold to come back in, at least this one should be short lived!

We love having Uncle Cecil here, who else will go outside and have a snowball fight while Mom's making dinner and Dad's snow blowing the driveway?

Of course, dinner would be done faster if Mom would stop taking pictures out the window!

We got some more snow! The kids and I spent Sunday afternoon hanging out with Lyla, Nora and their parents. It was snowing so hard that the few photos I did take didn't turn out. Except this one, which I find incredibly hilarious. Max and Lyla, walking the catwalk!

Today the kids went out to play while I cleaned the house. When I made it outside to join them I found them going down the slide on the sled!

I love their faces, they were having so much fun!

Max eventually got interested in trying to make a snowman. (The snow wasn't sticky enough but he put in a valiant effort.)

Rory attempted the slide alone. My brave little girl, even going head first!

It's nice to have some fluffy snow again. Hopefully we'll get a chance to build that elusive snowman. We've tried so many times this year but the snow has not cooperated with us yet!

The kids and I braved the cold today and did some ice skating at the local outdoor rink again. Max was doing awesome at walking on the ice with his skates!

Rory was AMAZING and started walking on the ice in her skates today too! It was so cute because her arms and hands would be moving right along with her. I wish I had thought to take a video of her crazy arm movements!

Uncle Randy and Auntie Ashley showed up and Ashley even laced up some skates to join the kids. It takes a couple minutes to remember how to skate when you haven't done it in years!

Max was having fun showing off. They have the trainer poles at the rink and he would run and run and run with the pole. He never got gliding down, although we did work on it, but he sure had fun running on the ice, both with the pole and without!

Auntie Ashley was having fun coaching Rory on her skating skills.

To be honest? Rory was actually showing Max up with balancing and skating. Of course, she wasn't running on the ice like he was but she was picking up the gliding motion a bit more than Max was. I think this week could be very interesting at hockey practice. Although, Rory does still need help getting up on her feet!

Last night's hockey experience was the best one we've had yet! I apologize in advance, I took a lot of photos and consequently there will be a bit more here today. This proud Mama has a lot of bragging to do!

First off, let's check out my baby girl, the one we considered pulling out and whom finally stood up on her skates with me over the weekend. Check her out! She stood up with only some help with holding her skates in place.

Not only did she stand up but she also put her skating moves to the test.

She did awesome you guys, she got up a few times and took some steps, she attempted to get up a few more times and eventually she tired out and the big kids skated her around the ice so she wasn't sitting around bored.

This nice guy, I believe his name was Logan, helped Max immensely. I love the varsity hockey team so much! He got Max to learn to balance while lifting his skates up.

Next thing you know, Max is walking on the ice! And not just a little bit, but all over the place!

Like I said, it was awesome, there was so much improvement from both of them and they were both so proud of themselves! They were constantly searching for Dusty and I to make sure we saw how well they were doing, it was just adorable. I am so glad we decided to do this! (I'm also so glad for the next morning, where both kids sleep in a little bit.)

Last night we had an amazing dinner of mussels. (Thanks TaTa for lending me the cookbook.) I wasn't sure how the kids would take to eating mussels for dinner but we've always just played dinner cool, whatever we're eating is served without much of a discussion beforehand.

Rory tried the mussels and decided she didn't like them. Not a big deal, there were plenty of other things for her to eat.

Max? Well he got confused and thought he was eating muscles to give him big muscles. He kept eating them and then talking about how much stronger he was getting.

I know, adorable.

Today? He's been bragging about how strong he is, about how his brother eats lots of mussels too in order to get strong (the kids have imaginary siblings, I really should write more on them, maybe another day). And he's been asking for more mussels for dinner.

I love that boy!

This weekend, before the cold came in, Rory and I went to a nearby outdoor ice rink to see if I could help her get a bit more motivated to skate. My main objective was to teach her how to put her weight on her skates so she could stand on them, and we did it!

The rink we were on is small and it still took us about twenty minutes to make one lap. I didn't wear any skates and instead held on to one arm as she attempted to move around and walked with her. I wasn't able to get her to stand up on her own just yet but once she was up she could move a small amount on her own before tumbling down.

Yes, this sequence of photos makes me smile every time.

I don't think we'll be going out there again this week, not until it warms up, but hopefully we'll get a chance to  skate some more real soon!

Max has been asking a lot of questions about life, death, and God lately. A lot of HARD questions. Tell me how you'd answer some of these.

Mom, how does God put a baby in your belly?
Why wasn't I made before you and Daddy got married?
Are you going to die before me?
How did God know to put me in your belly?
When will I die?
Am I going to have clothes when I'm buried?
Why can't we see where Jesus and God are buried?
When are you going to have another baby?
Won't God put another baby in your belly?

And the questions go on and on and on. Just when I think I finally answered one well enough for him he changes it up to some impossible question I couldn't possibly answer, in fact it may not even make sense, but he doesn't understand that, he's just trying to figure this whole idea of life and faith out.

I know this is a phase but it's a tough one! If he were a bit older I think I would be better prepared to answer some of these questions with more facts, but he's 4, and he's having a hard time grasping even the littlest bits of information I'm giving him. I just keep reminding myself that it's good he's not afraid to ask me the hard questions, even if I'm afraid to answer some of them.

You probably should just get used to seeing hockey photos on here for a little while. At least from Max. Rory? We may decide to pull her out. This week she spent the majority of her time just hanging out on the ice and was not interested in participating and trying to skate.

Max was doing awesome. Once he remembered how to stand up he spent a lot of time working on that. He was starting to get discouraged, as he continued to fall, but he eventually had some help come to his rescue and they started working with him, teaching him how to lift up his skates so he could start moving.

Rory? She made a friend, and they sat on the ice and chatted a lot.

Max still isn't skating on his own but with help he's been moving a bit and he's really excited about all the progress he's made!

Rory finally got noticed by a group and they tried to motivate her to stand up on her own....She'd only put one foot up as if she was trying but even from the bleachers we could see she wasn't even putting weight on that one foot.

When they picked her up so she could skate? She'd just let her skates hit the ice very lightly so they'd slide right out from under her.

We'll give Rory another week and if she continues to not participate we may pull her. She is still one of the youngest kids out there so it isn't disheartening. And we really don't have to return the gear until the session is over so maybe we'll get her more excited if she's doing it with us instead of with strangers. We'll just have to wait and see what next week brings!