Stuff and Things

Arg, Winter. My least favorite time of the year. If there was a way that I could sleep straight through January and February, I totally would. As it is, I am going to sleep extra early at night and sleeping until it's time to get Evie up for school. In fact, there are only a few things that get me through this dark, cold time (as Garrison Keilor would say--I identify with this because it was winter about 7 months of the year up there and in a way, those are still my people. I am way out of practice at snowblowing and I am embarassed about that). So here's my list of things that get me through the winter:

1. sweat suits, velour or otherwise. If you are stuck in the house all day, you might as well be comfy and have an elastic waist band.

2. NCAA mens basketball, specifically, the Big Ten. Every night there are at least 6 games on the ESPN networks and I make sure that I watch at least part of two of them. Nothing like getting to know your commentators and making fun of the low point totals. I also like to see students dressed up as Mario and Luigi. And I also like to see which college kid can be the all time Ugliest player. Right now the reignning champ is Kyle Singler from Duke. When that kid gets sweaty and mouth breathing, he is UG-LY.

3. The Gym. Seriously, the only thing that gets me dressed in the morning is my trip to the gym. You may have heard that I have committed myself to running the Indy 500 Festival Mini Marathon. That's 13.1 miles. That's about 10 more miles than I have ever run at one time in my life. But in the interest of fitness and the fact that I'm not getting any younger, I am doing this. Plus, I do have to admit that I feel a little better when I leave the gym.

4. Wine. A glass of day is recommended for heart health. And it gives me a reason to look forward to dinner. And if I go to the gym regularly, I am working it off anyway.

5. The snowblower. I still maintain that this is the best gas powered thing we have ever bought. It may have even saved our marriage when we lived in MN.

Anyway, now that I have that off my chest, I will give you the update from the last week.

The SC Turners rolled in last Tuesday on the last stop of their Ohio Valley Christmas tour 2010. Henry was bribed to eat dinner with the promise of ice cream.
What's up with this kid??

June flat out refused to eat.

At some point, Evie decided that she had a scratch on her eye. Since Uncle Bran is a Doctor (in what emergency would you need a Dr. of Political Theory? ) he examined her eye and determined that she would , in fact, live to see another day.

Georgie sat in the middle of the table commanding attention, but not getting any ice cream. Probably because she slept for a grand total of 46 minutes while at our house. Her mom was not happy with her.

Uncle Jim tried to hypontize Georgie to sleep, but as we said, it didn't work. Probably because he isn't a doctor of anything.

The next morning, June didn't want to go home, but didn't want her picture taken either. We had lots of fun with all the Turners. We were sad to see them go, but they had enough travel and wanted to get home. Now because of a crippling blizzard that dropped 4 inches of snow, they have been stuck in their house since Sunday. Ha.

While in Cleveland, Grandma Taller took the girls to a pottery painting place and they painted new mugs which work great for Hot Chocolate. Thanks Grandma!

Now we are home. It's been snowing and I don't really want to go out unless I have to (like a class at the gym). So to fill my time, I have started spring cleaning from top to bottom. So far, the guest bedroom and each of the kids' bedrooms have been cleaned, polished, vacuumed, dusted, windexed, and all the furntiture moved. Next up, the upstairs hallway and the bathrooms. I hate to think about the family room because that's a lot of wood to clean.

I just haven't been sitting around while watching the basketball. I have been knitting. Evie requested a hat like "Waldo". This is what I made up. I think it looks cute.

Let's Bust some Myths

Dear Discovery Channel: Since we shameless advertise for your show, please feel free to send the checks to the Taller Girls. Evie received her last Christmas present today in the mail. A Mythbusters water experiment kit. We ate dinner quickly so we could get down to experimenting.
Everyone got in on the action. Is it bad that my kids know the guys on this show by name and I don't? I suppose it could be worse, they could be into something really nerdy like Lord of the Rings or Dungon and Dragons role playing....

Christmas presents

I bet you were hoping to see some pictures from our epic Christmas vacation trip. Well, sorry. When I left last Sunday, I forgot the camera. I asked Jim to bring it on Monday. He did, but left the memory card at home. And since this was the first trip to Bryan without a stop in the Walmart, we didn't get a new memory card. Go over to the Turner Family Blog. Becky has some pics of us posted--or will shortly as she should really get her blog updated. Today is the last day of winter break and in many ways, the last days of Christmas around here. Jim took down the outside lights on the unseasonably warm New Year's Eve when it was 60 degrees. We still have stuff up inside because I have been enjoying blobbing around in my sweat pants. Tonight was the last of the Christmas cookies. Who wants to bite the head off this gingerbread girl?
Annalise has a pretty good herd going. I'm not even sure this is all we have in the house. I think there are more hiding out in the Barbie Carriage.

Evie was giving us a magic show today. Let's just say her slight of hand isn't so slight.

Then we played some Lego Creationary. Annalise had the theme "place". None of us could guess this was a playground. She called it a "high couch". Ok.....

Evie rolls the dice for some more Lego fun. I have to say, this is a good game, but could benefit from the 10,000 Lego pieces in the basement.

Here's Evie's Magic in Action. Watch out if you come visit us soon. "It's Illusions", Aunt Becky.

Evie's First Rube Goldberg contraption

So Evie's Favorite Show is Mythbusters. We normally DVR them for her as we watch them ahead of time to make sure that there isn't any questionable or inappropriate content (like the sobering up episodes). Before Christmas, there was a special and the guys decided to build a Rube Goldberg Machine. We are big Rube Goldberg fans in this house and have spend several hours watching You Tube Videos. We are even planning a family trip up to Purdue when the state wide competition occurs this spring. Anyway, this first video is the the machine made on Mythbusters.

Evie decide that she wanted to build one in the basement. This kept her busy for almost an entire day. It was great because I was also sick with a cold that day and she was pretty much out of my hair. I did place three rules: 1. you have to use your toys 2. no pop explosions and 3. don't set the carpet on fire. Pretty simple. This is what she came up with all on her own. I think if she would have the patience, it would work without any outside assistance, but as you can see, she was well on her way.

We are wondering if we can submit this with her college application in 12 years????

We're Home

After approximately 1000 miles in two cars, a sick kid, 4 Christmas Parties, one baptism, a set of lost keys, and hundreds of cookies eaten, we are home. We enjoyed a quiet and quick dinner.
The kids among the Christmas presents that exploded from the car top carrier. We will all sleep well in our beds tonight.

Christmas Day!

Evie got up first this morning and came and woke us up. It was 6:55. Annalise was still asleep so we told Evie to go back to bed until 7:00. At 7 on the dot, she came and woke us up again (it's funny how fast you can fall back asleep) and then woke up Annalise. They were down sorting presents by the time we got out of bed and made it downstairs.

For some reason, Evie thought it would be hilarious to give Jim a box of lint for Christmas. So this is the yield from this week's laundry.

Check out that smile! Annalise is excited to get her Barbie horse and carriage.


Evie opens another present from Santa--scrabble Flash.

Here's the least surprising present of the day. Cows for our Future Farmer. The bull is anotomically correct. Try explaining that to a 4 year old.

Evie made some presents at school for us and she gave one to Jim to open.

Amongst this brewing fight, I get to open the other one that she made at school.

More Barbies. This is definately my kid. And they are cheerleaders!

Take a closer look at the wrapping paper Evie made in school for our present. Guess they aren't doing much in the way of separation of church and state.

We also received a book from our friends up north. The 12 days of Christmas in Minnesota! We love it.

Jim opens his big present. A beer brewing kit. JIm comes from a long line of men who make alcohol in the basement so it was only a matter of time before the brewing bug bit him. The kit comes with everything to make beer execpt the bottles. So save all your pry top bottles for us! We need 53!

This was our awesome breakfast. I made the cinnamon rolls according to an ancient Sherwood, Ohio Methodist Church Lady recipe. Jim made the eggs Benedict and holidase sauce from scratch. It was pretty filling and we didn't eat lunch until around 2 pm.

When all the stuff was removed from its packaging, we got down to playing. Annalise can really keep herself busy. I think if you look closely, there is a calf in that carriage.

Evie busts out her circut kit or "engineering kit" as she calls it. You can make 300 things with this and she is already through 20 of them.

Unfortunately, we also got a sick kid for Christmas. Evie seems to have her yearly case of croup. I even called the dr. today because I was wondering if we should get her an antibiotic. The dr said no to the Rx and to keep her away from all elderly and babies. So she is stuck at home with Jim for a few days while she heals. Annalise and I are heading to Ohio for the beginning of the trianglar family Christmases. You never know what happens around the holidays. We could be back home with Jim and Evie on Monday. Cross your fingers that Annalise isn't a carrier.

For now Annalise seems fine as she tries to interrupt my lounging time on the couch this afternoon. I am happy to say that we played with all the toys and stayed in our jammies all day. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours, across the hills and dales, lakes and rivers, mountains and valleys, oceans and streams.....MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

(Nothing like taking the family picture when all of us are clean and dressed for church )

In some homes, families make birthday cakes for the Baby Jesus. We start the day with this particularly uplifting song from the 80's. Enjoy.

Return to Sender

So today we returned sweet Baby Georgie (by the way, I hope she doesn't marry anyone with the last name of Brown because then she would be Sweet Georgie Brown and that would just remind me of the Harlem Globetrotters) to her Ohio kin for the start of her worldwide tour of first Christmas. We did have lots of fun with her despite the fact that she slept like a normal 4 month old who was away from her nursing mom. One thing is for certain, we will all sleep well tonight. Her Grandma Cooper probably won't. Here are some pics I captured on the phone. That's why they are the greatest quality but you can clearly see how happy a baby she is and how much fun we had being around her. Evie loved on her a lot and even got good at feeding her bottles. We never did get a chance to teach Evie to change diapers.
Aunt Becky sent all her most embarassing holiday clothes and we took the opportunity to dress her up like a little elf.

On Monday, I was feeling brave so I loaded all three kids in the back of the grocery getter and we went down to the Indiana State Museum. There, they have an old train that used to run in the L.S.Ayres store in downtown. You could also visit Santa. Since we already have talked to Santa this season, the big kids took a spin on the train and then we explored the rest of the musuem.

Georgie rode in the sling and I got lots of looks from parents and nice comments from grandma types about how cute she was.

We started walking around the displays and realized that this isn't really a super fun museum for kids, but it did really go over Indiana history in detail including this varsity jacket from Bobby Plump of the Milan Miracle team of 1954. You probably know the story better as the Gene Hackman version of Hoosiers (cue the music!) We also learned that one of our favorite authors, Norman Bridwell of Clifford fame has ties to Indiana.

Overwhelmed by Indiana history and geology, Georgie fell asleep.

We only started to get her in funny poses before we returned her back to Ohio.

But before she left, we gave her a taste of solid food.

Evie's Teeth

We went to the dentist today. All of us checked out with no cavities. Evie had her first whole head scan to make sure that there are adult teeth growing in behind those baby teeth. They are all there and developing, but some look like they will be pretty crunched in there. We are taking orthodontist recommendations as well as donations.

Our weekend

Friday started Evie's winter break from school. Annalise had her holiday party at school and Evie and I attended. Evie participated in the rousing circle of Reindeer Hokey Pokey. They were shaking their antler's all about.

Then we had a quiet afternoon at home and that night, we curled up as a family with the Legos.
We had a bug making night. I am particularly proud of my blue mosquito.

On Saturday, I met Aunt Becky at the Warm Glow Candle outlet to pick up Georgiana. We will have her until at least Thursday while Aunt Becky and Uncle Bran run back down to SC to take care of some business.

After a long, long night of waking up every hour (GEORGIE), we awoke to a beautiful morning fog that left crystals on all the trees.

It was pretty, but not pretty enough for us to skip Georgie's morning nap and get a few more winks. The kids were left with the TV and they did ok.

This is a rare sight at our house. Georgie doesn't like to sleep very much. Thank goodness Annalise's poor sleep habits have broken us in for this kid's visit.

We did find a place that made her happy--under the Christmas tree with some company.

Evie is being a good helper and even tried to give Georgie a bottle. Since Georgie isn't all that good at taking bottles, this didn't last long. We managed to fill her up with lots of milk before shipping her off to bed tonight. We hope she sleeps better.

Evie entertains Georgie.

And we get a smile. For a kid that never sleeps, she sure is happy. Wish I could say the same about me and Uncle Jim. We are going to bed early tonight!