Evie's McDonald's Birthday Party

Evie invited her little buddies to McDonald's for a birthday party. It was great. All the kids got to eat junk and someone else got to clean up. The very best part was that Evie ran all her excitement out in the playland and came home to take a nap. Annalise was equally exhausted by the excitement and slept too, which meant mom got more than 7 minutes to herself yesterday.Here's a picture of the attendees. When you are dealing with a bunch of kids, three and under, no one is interested in looking at the camera. From the left and going around the table, Mary Kate, Michele, Laura, Nicole, Walker, Ella, Evie and Ethan. Not shown: Jenni, Annalise, and Amy. This is the only picture I got of the party because everyone was everywhere the rest of the time. I can tell you this, if you judge a party by how many children are injured by the end, we were very succesful. This is the DL for the party: Evie--bit the lip and bled out of the mouth on the twisty slide. Ethan--clunked his face and had a bloody nose in the same twisty slide. Laura--scratched cornea when her eye and Ethan's finger colided.

Annalise update--no pictures because she was up crying no less than 10 times (maybe more, we lost count) last night. We went to the dr today because we thought it may be a lingering ear infection from the cold she recently had. (She weighed in at 15-11 3/4, probably a good pound less than Oliver) Turns out that it is probably her reflux acting up again so she is back on the Zantac. Must be working because she is sleeping pretty well tonight.

Happy Birthday EVIE!!

Today is Evie's birthday and we celebrated in a very orange way. First, she got up and put on her orange pants, orange shirt, and orange pigtails. Next she drank from an orange glass. Take note, this is not a sippy cup nor is the milk heated. When you are three, you drink cold milk from a regular cup. We are happy to report that she made it through the day with no spills, but maybe a little dehydrated.
Our birthday tradition is a "car wash". Of course, Evie's was orange.
Evie blew out the pink candles (couldn't find orange ones). Her cake says "Evie is 3". She wanted it to say "Evie Taller is 3 years old today" but mom just doesn' t have the cake decorating skill.
Evie opened up lots of presents
Happy Birthday big girl! These 3 years have gone by so fast!

The Minnesota "Blizzard" of 2007

What the "lower midwesterns" call a Blizzard, we Minnesotans call a winterstorm. We woke this morning to about 9 inches of snow and then got a couple more on top of it during the day. In all, we got about 12 inches. It was paralyzing....for about 20 minutes.It blew and drifted off the roof of the house

and off the roof of the garage.

Jim blows us out.
This is what the steps looked like. In all, not bad enough of a storm to prevent us from going to the mall this afternoon, but bad enough that we didn't get our morning donuts.

Super Awesome Day at MOA!!

We took Grandma and Grandpa Taller to the Mall of America today to celebrate Evie's 3rd birthday. We had to go today because tomorrow we will be receiving the "Storm of the Century." What it looks like is that we will receive about 3 inches of snow. Compared to the mountains of snow they got in Ohio, it's not that big of a deal. Evie rode the Frog Hopper with some other kids. She wasn't too sure about it until the little girl beside her started to laugh, then it was fun!
Then she rode the airplanes. She even figure out how to make the plane go up and down by pulling on the stick in the cockpit.
Then Evie threw 3 pennies in the fountain for her birthday wishes.
But the best part of the day was going on the ferris wheel with mom and Dad. That's all she wanted to do.

Package from Grandpa and Grandma Seibert

Today, a package arrived for Evie's birthday. Grandma was on the phone when it arrived and she said to go ahead and open it. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for all the birthday presents. Thanks for the Legos! Annalise was even allowed to drool on one.
Yeah! Legos!
Annalise smiled as soon as she saw the camera. She was full of smailes and poses.
This is Evie's new skirt. Apparently Annalise is already trying to get some hand me downs.

Wednesday

The lighting was pretty good and we had 2 happy girls so mom took no less than 127 pictures. Here's the best one.

Happy Birthday Uncle Kevin

To celebrate Uncle Kevin's birthday, we had a parade. Here's Evie with her whistle. I never knew that this mug made a noise until I had the opportunity to hear it all day today.
Annalise was not a willing participant with the tamborene
Until she generated a good amount of drool. Eww.

Today is also the end of Mardi Gras. Don't know what Evie did to earn all these beads.

Annalise eats almost real food.

Today was a big day. Annalise took her first bites of human food. Mom mashed up a sweet potato for her. She really enjoyed it.Here's the first bite.
Happy, full baby. She took a 2 1/2 hour nap, but boy, did she have gas afterwards!

Crazy Laundry Day

Mom, when can I wear pretty panties like Evie?
What? I have to wait until I'm at least 2?
Dad, you are so funny too.

House of illnesses

It's a sick, sick world we live in. And we are a sick, sick family. Mom got it first and passed it on to Annalise. Annalise spent Friday and Saturday down in the dumps. We went to the dr. and he said that she needed lots of extra cuddles and a little tylenol."Man, that Tylenol is some strong stuff"

Here's Evie practicing to be a ballerina with her Australian ballerina DVD. It's the weirdest thing to watch, but she really gets into it.

Evie is also afflicted with a rare, incurable illness. It's a severe case of the "Whys?" For example:

Mom: "Evie, your hands are dirty, go wash them."

Evie: "Why?"

Mom: Because your hands are dirty.

Evie: Why?

Mom: Because your hands are dirty.

Evie: Why?

Mom: ARGG!

In additon to a head cold, Annalise also has a gross case of cradle cap. We attempted to remove some of those yellow scales, but all it did was make her greasy and make more scales. Yuck.

Post cradle cap treatment in the bath. While she was at the dr, Annalise found out that her current weight is a slim 15 lbs. That is 9 ounces less that her meat ball cousin, Oliver, who is 3 months younger than her. Since Oliver is probably out crushing cinder blocks with his head and power lifting the mini van, Annalise attempts to bulk up by eating foam letters. She's starting at A and working her way through the alphabet

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all our readers. Or as Evie would say "Happy Balen's" Annalise started the day in the jumper while mom and Evie ate breakfast. She can really jump high.
Loves to jump and is always happy in the morning.
Evie worked on sorting Legos today.
Then we got a package from Grandpa and Grandma Seibert. The socks looks like they will fit just right.
Evie arranges the socks for the picture. Annalise is disappointed that there were no roses or candy in the package
Annalise eats a big dinner of oatmeal before she is banished to the basement to sleep for the night. She is waking up A LOT at night and we are giving her an opportunity to learn to cry it out without waking up her sister. Don't worry grandparents, we have a network of baby monitors, night lights, CO detectors, and smoke alarms to ensure her safety.

Annalise is 5 months old!

Annalise is 5 months old today. To celebrate, she had a private party that showcased her shapely thighs. For your eyes only.... Look closely to see her toenails painted! What a party girl. We are finding out that her legs only stick up in the air when she doesn't have anything to constrain them.
Annalise has been working hard all week on her new trick--sitting up!
You have to maintain complete concentration...otherwise, you can get a little off kilter...
...and you end up eating the sheet on the bed.
One last picture of the birthday girl.

Sweet Dreams

It must be a blue moon or somehting because both girls took a nap at the same time. And they were decent length naps too! So long, that Mom got to take a nap! Who wants to lay bets on when this will happen again? My guess is never. Since it is such a rare event, we documented it with picturesAnnalise asleep in the too small bassenette. She is all wrapped up tight and then she has her favorite blanket with her. Looks like mom will have to get crocheting to make a spare just in case!
Evie asleep also with her blankie. You have too look close to see it because she likes to lay her head on the soft side.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa

We got a package for Valentine's Day from Grandpa and Grandma Taller yesterday. It was new outfits! Here are the girls wearing the new clothes. Evie as a pylon. Man, if she still likes orange in high school, it will be really hard to find an orange prom dress.
Both kicking.

Dells-Day two

Annalise was too excited to sleep so she woke us up at 5:15 am. Unfortunately, the rest of the world doesn't get up as early as the Tallers so we had to do something to pass the time until the waterparks opened at 9 am. Annalise took a spin around our hotel room on Hank's bike. She seemed to like it. Better start building Annalise's bike now, Uncle Kevin.We Made it down to the waterpark and even Annalise took a dip. Here she is lounging by the pool. For all of you that worry that she isn't eating enough, her thighs are a testament of her nourishment.
Henry wasn't too sure about the wave pool. He liked to stay really close to his mom, who he calls Becky (pronounced perfectly, I might add).

Annalise and Mom hang out by the wave pool
Shield your eyes! There is a lot of Minnesota pale in this picture. We heard that pale is the new tan.
The Taller women want to know when we are getting a real boat. This one is kind of crowded.
We all floated around and washed our chill away in the wave pool. It was a super fun vacation that no one wanted to end. But the cookies that we brought ran out so we had to come home. The good news was that the temperature was 8 above when we came home. Practically tropical.