Merry Christmas!!

Christmas finally came! It was an early one at our house. Actually, 5 minutes after we put Evie to bed on Christmas Eve, she was up asking why the presents weren't under the tree. Santa only comes when you go to sleep, Evie. Annalise was up first this morning, but since she isn't mobile, we left her in bed until Evie got up, about 20 minutes later. After a diaper change and a quick feed, we got down to the business of opening presents.The sun rises really late in Minnesota (8:02 am today) so you can see by the darkened windows we were up before the sun today. Here's Jim and Evie getting the first present out from under the tree.

Evie gave Annalise a toy cel phone. Evie demonstrated the function of each button about 10 thousand times.

Annalise gets the idea of Christmas and gets pretty excited.

Well, Evie was good and kept her hands out of her mouth to warrant the Marble Toy that she really wanted. Here it is in action. She played with it all day and we managed to keep track of all 6 marbles all day. I'm sure in a week or two, we will be missing a couple marbles--mentally and physically.

The best present we got this year!

We have our car packed up and are heading back to Grandma and Grandpa Seibert's house very early in the morning. We may update while we are there if we get time. Have a great Christmas week!

Bouncing Baby girls

Here's pictures of both girls on their first time in the doorway jumper. Who is who? Here's a hint, Evie wore a bib every day of her life for about 9 months. Another hint is that Annalise has a body guard in her picture to protect her from her sister. If you are interested in seeing Evie pick on Annalise in the bouncer, we have a great video we can send you.

Is it Christmas Yet?????

Only a couple more days of being good before Christmas. The gene for large heads must be dominant and apparently passed down from the father's side of the family. I will make note of this in my breeding handbook for the next time I go to grad school.
Evie's attitude better shape up before Christmas--look at that sass. She is cruising for coal in the stocking.
We wrapped a lot of presents the last few days, which results in boundless entertainment with wrapping paper tubes. We were also pretending to be elephants, and learning about gravity by sending pom poms and pennies down the tube.
Annalise's attitude also better improve before Christmas or she will get coal in her stocking too! Of course, she could be a little upset about the cowboy boots jammed on her feet. It has been my dream to have my little girls wear pink cowboy boots. I managed to get Evie to try them on in the store, but she refuses to wear them at home. She won't wear them because there are no blinking lights on them. Yeesh. Good thing I still have the receipt. Anyway, maybe Annalise will grow up to despise blinking light shoes and love cowboy boots.

Oliver,

I heard you saying stuff about my foot size. Remember, I'm bigger than you. And I'm taking lessons on pounding from my sister.

Your cousin, Annalise.

Is your Shopping done?

Evie does some last minute surfing on Amazon to pick out the perfect gift. It appears that "Pirates of the Caribbean II" is sold out. Sorry Grandma. Annalise and Mommy cuddle and supervise the computer hacking skills of Dad and Evie
Bored with all the computer stuff, Annalise takes flight and Mom gets some exercise.
Dad is home on vacation until next year! This makes us all so happy!

Monday, Monday

WE are unwinding after our big visit from Grandpa and Grandma. Today, we just hung around home. Evie and Annalise play together for the first time. Evie rolled her beads down the ramp and Annalise watched. This went on for a good five minutes. Long enough for mom to blow dry her hair.
This is a picture to show you how much Annalise has grown. She had her first taste of solid food tonight completely by accident. We had to take a car in for service and drove through Arby's on the way home. Evie had a french fry. She was trying to help Annalise feel better so she stuck her fingers in Annalise's mouth and Annalise ate the salty crumbs.
One lean mean baby.

Evie Climbs

Evie's buddy, Ella, turned 3 today. They celebrated by going rock wall climbing in town. Here's a picture of the future Everest explorers. I guess it was fun to climb up, but more fun to repell down.

Picture of Jamie and Jody

Here's a picture of a our new cousin, Jamie. She is being held ever so carefully by her big sister Jody. Click on the link for Jody and Jamie Taller's Page at the right to see more pictures!

We have another new Cousin!

This baby is so new that she hasn't even made it on the web yet!

Today, December 15, Jamie Nicole Taller was born to Mike and Denise in Houston. She weighed 6lbs 14 oz. When we get some pictures, we'll post them.

Congratulations Mike, Denise, and Big Sister Jody!!

Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma Taller

We celebrated Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma Taller today. Grandma made Annalise a special bib for her first Christmas
Evie got some new clothes...looks like they will fit.
Evie and Grandpa dress up a little doll
Grandpa shows off his sake set from Evie and Annalise
Santa dropped off a present for Annalise a little early. It's a Bumbo chair that allows her to sit upright all by herself. If you have a baby in your house, we highly recommend it.

Santa's 4 escaped reindeer

Watch out! Four of Santa's Reindeer escaped from the North Pole. If sighted, please call 1-800-LST-DEER. Here are some pictures for identification:

Oh, there's Chatter

(I have no idea how to get rid of the following code without messing everything else in the Html up so disregard this)

href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KTiNiAKbbzQ/RYNNt1aryNI/AAAAAAAAAH4/RuWLdpzTStU/s1600-h/IMG_9656.JPG">

and Sleepy

and Poopy

and the Big Buck.

Our Visit to Santa

We went to the big Macy's (formally Marshall Fields, formally Daytons) to see the Christmas display. While we were there, we got to talk to Santa. It was awesome! Santa, if you are reading this, Evie still wants a marble toy and Annalise wants her own room. Us with Santa--although, he was a little on the thin side. We'll leave him 2 cookies on Christmas Eve. By the way, Hank and Oliver, this picture shows that you don't outgrow getting dressed up funny as you get older. Evie is sporting her snowman holiday sweater and matching "long socks".
The Christmas display was the story of Mary Poppins. This is Evie and Grandma checking out one of the scenes.
Here's Evie checking out Burt's sidewalk art--maybe she will get inspired.
When Grandma was a little girl, her Grandma used to take her shopping and bought her candy at the department store. So Evie got to partake in the tradition and walked away from the candy counter with a bag of gummy bears.
When we got home, there was a package for Evie and Annalise. Actually, it was a present for Annalise, but Evie got the exciting box and air pillows.

Grandpa and Grandma come to visit

On Tuesday, our Grandpa and Grandma Taller came to visit us. We are having a super fun time with them.Uncle Brandon, this picture is for you. This is me thinking really hard, just like you do.
Evie and Grandma played the bug game....
...while Annalise and her thumb hung out under the Christmas tree.
Annalise gets some cuddles from Grandma too!

Annalise is 3 months old!

Today is Annalise's 3 month birthday. We celebrated by making foam fish. These fish are outfitted with paper clips so we can "catch" them with our magnetic fishing rods. This is Evie's fish. No fish is complete without some foam decorations. In the background is our boat (clothes basket) and our lake (blanket).
Annalise celebrated her birthday with a poop explosion and a nap.

Not the baby anymore

Annalise is having a hard time adjusting to the fact that she's not the baby of the Seibert family anymore. Today, we told her about all the fun things you get to do when you can hold your own head up. For instance, sit in the exersaucer.It was fun for her for about 3 minutes. I guess her neck just got tired of holding up those giant cheeks.

Also, a quick note. Uncle Kevin caved in to the pressure of starting a blog for his kids. You can check out his first post at http://theseibertkids.blogspot.com

Hopefully he will update frequently.

Our Christmas Party

We had a Christmas Party today and some of our friends came. Once everyone got there, the first order of business was to decorate "gingerbread" houses. (By the way, this was way more work for the moms than for the kids. It looks nice and easy on the back of the box, and when Rachel Ray and Martha do it, they come out so nice. But let me tell you, graham crackers aren't as square as you think they are. This results in a very drafty gingerbread house. And I'm also pretty sure that Rachel Ray or Martha didn't do this activity with 3 almost 3 year olds who put on the gumdrops as fast as you could get the frosting on.) Evie is very proud of her decorating skills on the gingerbread house.
Laura, Ethan, and Evie show off their handiwork.
Post craft time, the kids ran around in circles working up an appetite for lunch.
They rounded out the party with some time in the toy box. After they emptied out all the toys, of course.

Confidential to Hank

To: Cousin Hank
From: Annalise
RE: Santa Hank

I feel your pain in regards to being dressed funny by our parents. It seems like each holiday that come is an excuse to dress us in something silly. I mean, look at me. Does a zebra have this many stripes? Hortizonal stripes do nothing for my figure.You can't see my socks, but they are an extension of the theme. They actually say "99% nice, 1% naughty". They should say "96% nice, 1% naughty, 3% spit up".
As you can see, I'm clearly shocked (but at the same time, simply adorable) by the outfit I'm wearing.

(if you want to view Hank's holiday get up, check out his site. There's a link on the right side of the screen.)

We have a new Cousin!

Welcome Oliver Myles Seibert! He was born this morning at 2:25am. 7 lb 13 oz, 20 in long. Mom and Baby are doing great!