Patience Sara...one more photo story, first---
I worked for a lawyer last year that is REALLY into digital photography. The Court Reporter ask him during a break when he was showing his Ft. Churchill Polar bear pictures if he considered himself a 'professional photographer'. He said, "No, a professional photographer can't afford my equipment."
Sara--
I feel for you cranking a twin in cold weather. The problem is that you're not sure its 'right' to begin with and the cold adds a lot of uncertainty to it. Cold affects parts, fuel, viscosities, and patience in about equal amounts.
You say you get white puffs but no ignition? How many puffs before the cardio alarms ring? If you say more than two you either have low compression or you're Paul Bunyon's lost child.
If you have change-over valves, make sure they're on high compression and TIGHT there.
There's two ways of making it light.....warm it up by glow plug or hot intake temperatures, or reduce the temperature needed to light the fuel by an 'augmented fuel' in the the form of ether or WD-40 or LPS or CRP.
Ether was my preferred choice, but I never had to deal with much below 30 degrees because I had natural heat in the engine shed.
To use ether in a SINGLE (I've never seen a twin), I sprayed as little as I could from about 18 inches away at the air intake cleaner. I did NOT use it straight down the throat. I always cranked until I got three creaks of the injector and then pulled the valve lifter.
I figured it this way: By prewetting the cylinder and going through three intakes of 'ether-air' before having compression to fire assured the best mixture of the fuel and ether and precluded a 'slug' of ether in a dry cylinder.
It took having a head gasket blow out pretty much directly in my left ear on the first firing stroke that convinced me 'too much' is not a good thing.