Annalise's first pigtails

Annalise is sick. She's been nursing a cough, runny nose and fever for the last 2 days. As a result, she's not moving very fast and spending a lot of time sitting in mom's lap. While she was resting, some pigtails found their way into her seven strands of hair. The pigtails aren't necessary, but a way to amuse us on a winter day.Mom (with a new hair cut), Stink's pigtails, and Evie. Evie is holding a balloon. Today, we went to Trader Joe's and she got to take a balloon home. That's all she played with all day long. Balloons make her really nervous outside where they could blow away, but inside they are hours of fun.
Here's our saucy little girl. How embarassing.
Amazingly, she kept these in until almost bedtime. You'll notice her blanket which traveled with her all day today. the rules go out the window when you are sick. All she ate for supper was yogart and Tang.

Saturday night is bath night

To expidite bath time, we are doubling up in the tub. For the most part, it works pretty good, but it generally takes mom and dad to both be there. Much better than making bathtime last for a hour.Most of the water actually stays in the tub.

Annalise has perfected the "no" head shake. Here she is displaying her skills.

Kisses

We're sending everyone warm kisses on this cold January day.

Tribute to Aunt Becky's Belly

If you haven't heard, we are getting a new baby in Wisconsin in the next six weeks or so. If you don't blog surf off our list of links, here's a picture of Aunt Becky "ripe" with child. All in all, we think she looks pretty good for 34 weeks. Looks like she needs a couple more trips to Arby's.
In honor of Aunt Becky's BIG BELLY, Evie and Annalise tried to have a belly as big as Aunt Becky.
We think Evie wins.
Annalise investigates Evie's "Baby" soccer ball while concealing her own beach ball.

A must watch

Jim and I attended a viewing of a documentary that is making the rounds. We heard about it on NPR. It's called King Corn and will be on PBS on the program Independent Lens on April 15. We suggest you check it out. The premise of this movie is the filmakers follow the acre of corn through the growing season and ultimately into our food. It's pretty interesting to really be shown that almost everything you eat comes from corn. Anyway, check out their website and make your own conclusions. www.kingcorn.net Don't forget to watch Indpendent Lens on April 15. I will try to remember to post a reminder closer to the date.

Thanks Grandma

Thanks for the new doggie blanket Grandma! Annalise carried all around and kissed each dog on the blanket. Then she spent some time with it on her head walking around klunking into things. The best was chasing Evie. Thanks for bringing Evie home, Grandpa. Annalise really missed her the most.

Quick, send new toys.

Yes, Christmas was less than a month ago, but our new toys have started to get boring. Instead, the girls had to find something more dangerous to play with.

Just the Stinker

On Thursday, Evie went back to Ohio with Grandma Seibert. We had almost three whole days with just one kid. It was kind of refreshing, but quiet, and we missed Evie. While she was gone, Annalise got all the attention and junk food for herself. Here she is finishing up the last of Great Grandma's pudding pie. She didn't mind that the whipped cream was flat.
We went to church this morning and Annalise went to the church nursery. Previously, she had done just fine in there. This morning, after Mass, we found her crying. She was all splotchy so we knew she was crying for a while. We felt bad, so we got her a donut on the way home.

We also had some bonding as she dressed us all in headbands. Even dad. Jim is feeling like he needs some man time with all this headband wearing. So if you are digging up a septic tank, shooting something, or cutting down a tree, give him a call.

Grandma Seibert and Great Grandma Wagner come to visit.

Grandma Seibert and Great Grandma Wagner came to visit us on Wednesday. Evie couldn't CONTAIN her excitement--get it? Just so you don't call us in to Child Services, this box has a huge hole in it and the lid doesn't actually lock on.
While Grandma was here, she constructed this new valance for Evie's room. She also helped to make an upholstered headboard for her bed. I have enough material left to make a quilt. I just have to get the time and ambition to do it.
Great Grandma spent time with both girls while she was here. Annalise was excited to have someone new to read to her.
Evie also listened to several stories about when Great Grandma was growing up. She even learned about Great Grandpa who is in Heaven now. She was a very good listener.

For Dad

Jim has been home for almost 3 whole weeks. And we were starting to get used to having him around. But not anymore. He's back in MN tonight where the high temperature today was 7. Back here in Indiana, we are experiencing a cold snap in what we like to call "early spring". Temperatures got down to a blustery 27. I think there may have even been a wind chill. Still not cold enough for a real winter coat, hat, or gloves. Despite everything that Indiana winters are throwing at us, we are determined to remain upper midwestern hardy.When dad is gone, lots of things change around here. We eat dinner pretty early and have our jammies on by 6:00. This facilitates an early bedtime for everyone. I just tell Evie that it is a treat to bum around in her jammies for a while before bedtime. Somehow, she thinks this means she is staying up late even though she is in bed by 7:45.
Stinkers in her doggie jammies--again. I managed to wrestle them away from her today long enough to wash them. She pulled them out of the clean clothes basket as soon as they were out of the dryer. She is having a tough night already and it's only 8:30. Wish you were here dad.

To my nephew, Henry: Thanks for your concern Hank. It's been a rough week in the sporting world for your old Aunt Jenni. We even attended my first Big Ten basketball game at Purdue and the Buckeyes lost there too. Then, with this devistating loss to the Chargers, it's all I can do to muster the strength to write this entry. Fortunately, the true king and greatest quarterback, Brett Farve, really stepped up to the plate and won the game. I would say that I'm endorsing the Pack to go for the Superbowl, but I think that would just Jinx them. Instead, I am endorsing the Patriots, the mortal and sworn enemy of the Colts. Hopefully my trend continues.

Mom turned her back for 30 seconds...

just that kind of day

We started out our day pretty rough. It was the fling yourself on the floor, scream, cry and kick kind of day. Needless to say, we didn't go anywhere. Don't feel too sorry for these sad sacks. They perked up by the end of the day good enough to go to the grocery store.
Annalise shows off her fancy hair do that keeps her four hairs out of her eyes. Actually, the hairs probably bother mom more than they bother the Stinker.

What can we say??

I had planned to write something witty about the Buckeyes and the BCS championship game, but I just don't have it in me. I guess all I can say is now I know how Notre Dame fans felt all season long. The girls did get all dressed up in their colors to support the Buckeyes. It was probably Annalise's pink pants that doomed the team. Next year, we are painting our faces if that's what it takes.
It's been raining a lot here so we had lots of time to stay inside and play with Christmas presents. The girls received new playdoh (SOFT, not crumby, playdoh) from Santa. They enjoyed squishing it for about an hour.
Evie was so happy to do "something fun" (her words). This morning, she got up and came into our bedroom. I guess we weren't moving fast enough to entertain her properly because she told JIm that she was bored. Mom wasn't even out of bed. This prompted a stern "go find something to play with and let me wake up" from mom.
Lastly, Cinderella lost her slipper. We're waiting for the Duke to come with the match.

Saturday at home

We started out our weekend pretty slow. We decided to tackle a small painting job today. This is Evie's reaction to what the plan was. We are sure she would have done something else today. She did manage to use her time to creat light brite pictures and work in her workbooks.
Here's the job in progress. If you didn't see this hallway prior to our painting, it was the color of the nacho cheese that they squirt on your chips at the ball park. A little too Velvetta for us. We painted it the same unremarkable cream color that is in the kitchen.
After dinner, Annalise had to be stripped down because of the food explosion in her high chair. We haven't seen her little body much, so we decided to quiz her on body parts. This is when she pointed out her belly. We think she was excited to see her skin too.
Here's a shot of her shapely legs. Aunt Becky, I think my belly is almost as big as yours. Maybe it's time to stop eating those Christmas cookies.

Happy New Year, preschool style

This is how you ring the new year in when you are with the under 4 crowd. Our countdown occured at about 7:25.

Happy New Year!

We rung the new year in style at about 7:30 last night. If it wasn't for the neighbors shooting fireworks at midnight, we would've slept right through it! Annalise got the best jammies in the world yesterday from Daddy. She carried them around until we put them on her. She can't wait for bedtime when it's with doggies.
We played around in our jammies most of the day.
Despite looking like an old man when wearing them, her new doggie jammies don't hinder her downward facing dog yoga move.