Well, Shoot.

In my haste in creating a new blog, I missed the whole point. Instead of a new blog wiping my internet space clean, it only added to my problem and now I'm using 92% of my alotted blog space. Fortunately, Old Aunt Becky told me to create a new blog with a new email and password and I can start fresh. So get ready to update your bookmarks again. Sorry. Hopefully I have this under control now.

www.thetallergirls3.blogspot.com

See you there.

Aaron and Janis's Wedding in Cleveland

We journeyed to Cleveland this weekend to witness the wedding of Jim's cousin, Janis, to her handsome groom, Aaron. The rain couldn't dampen the beautiful day.

Congratulations to Janis and Aaron. Wishing you a lifetime of happiness.

3 years ago, we attending Janis's sister's, Christine's, wedding at the same church. At that wedding, Annalise was a tired wreck of a kid. Well, guess what? Same church, same grumpy kid. At least this time she fell asleep on the way to the church. She woke up just before the ceremony, but couldn't sit with us because the bridal party was entering the church. She flopped around on Jim until the sign of peace. Then they came over to sit with us and I had the wonderful opportunity of breaking up fights with the two girls and having them climb all over me. Talk about enjoying the wedding....Hrumpf.

After the ceremony, they did perk up enough to get along for us to snap this picture. They are looking pretty good all dressed up.

We sat with Grandma and Grandpa at the reception.

The girls watched as the cake was cut.

Grandma and her sister, Aunt Jane, were thinking about occupying kids and brought all kinds of stuff for the girls to work on. Thanks!

Finally the dancing began and all the families of the little girls got out there on the floor to cut it up.

We had a great time and even lasted until 9:45. It's been said that you can judge the success of a party based on the tantrum thrown when you return home. Well, Annalise threw a big one, so it must have been a great time!

We returned home on Sunday and were picking up apples that had fallen in the yard. Evie got her first bee sting. We treated it right away and it doesn't look too bad. She consoled herself by looking at Aunt Becky's blog and pictures of her new cousin.

Welcome Georgiana Mae!

Welcome to our newest niece, Georgiana Mae Turner, born on August 18th to Becky and Brandon way down in Dixie. After making her parents wait forever and turning her mother into an incredibly grumpy lady, she arrived easily. There are lots more pictures over on their website. Check out the Turner Family Congrats to Henro, Juner, Uncle Brain Eater, and AB. We can't wait to meet her.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

I celebrated my 3? birthday the best way I know how. At the State Fair (yes, again with the fair. I LOVE the Fair and it's only 2 weeks a year. Plus it was $2 Tuesday)

Of course, we brought lots of quarters to feed all the little animals in the FFA building. I love the FFA building. Nothing makes you feel more like an American than doing putt putt golf while a video of FFA members in their blue jackets sign the Star Spangled Banner.

Annalise fed Every Single Animal in the barn. I think she may have kissed a couple too.

Another reason we had to go to the fair is that my very good Friend, Erica was making a Midwestern tour so her daughter, Averelle, could meet all the people who love her in the heartland. This was Averelle's first trip to the fair. You can see that it wasn't all that exciting for her, but she did touch a cow and posed in front of a 4 wheel drive JD.

Later, after Evie got home from school, we opened my presents. Jim was out of town in MN that day and he gave me permission to open them before 7 pm (those Tallers have so much self control). This is my stash. Plus, I have on my Squeezebox t-shirt from the last appearance I attended. Who doesn't want a shirt with a half accordion/half orange on it??

Miss Elle woke up for the party and flashed some grins. She is adorable! and we loved on her as much as we could in 3 days.

For my birthday, among other pretty and nice things, I got a box of LEGO bricks. The good building kind, not the flat space kind. Of course, the girls and I opened them immediately and built all kinds of stuff. We have big plans to separate out all the building blocks from the flat space blocks so we can really start creating.

Jim made it in early from MN and brought home an ice cream cake from Culvers. YUM! I guess my age is no longer a secret. I'm on the slippery slope to 40. I'm not going down without a couple of maragaritas.

I get lots of help blowing out my candles. Thanks for the great party!

Our State Fair is a Great State Fair

Last Saturday we headed out for a day of State Fair fun

It is the year of the pig and this fancy sculpture greeted us as we went in.

No one loves more animals at the Fair more than Annalise.

We observed a 12 hour old baby calf. It was so sweet and small.

Then we headed over to the tractors to get our yearly pictures. Let this be a reminder to you, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Becky. There's a theme....get to work.

Some one is getting too big for a tire. She sure is growing.

And Evie's yearly tractor picture....and that's when the camera battery died. Fortunately, we had the camera on the phone, but you have heard that story before. We still haven't figured out to get them off the phone. Sigh. I promise we will stop taking pictures until we get it figured out. The rest of the day was super fun. We saw lots of goats, cows, a cheese sculpture, giant pumpkins and bee hives. Evie rode some midway rides and did the ropes course that the boy scouts set up. Annalise took a nap in the Hort building and then started down the rough road of heat exhaustion. By the time we loaded up the car, she was in a pretty bad way and 5 miles from home she threw up. The good news is that she was in an old car seat and it was Jim's car with the leather seats so clean up was a snap. After a bottle of gatorade and a cool bath, she was back to normal.

The First Day of First Grade

Hooray! The day finally came! The first day of school! Evie was up right when her alarm clock went off and was dressed in record time. She was actually completely ready to go in 20 minutes. She wanted to go out and collect the neighbor girls so they would know where to get the bus stop, but we held her back to take some pictures.

Our little girl is growing up fast! She picked out her outfit for the first day of school all herself. She has gotten so thin this summer that Annalise should be able to wear those shorts next year.

One last sisterly squeeze. Annalise did great today. First, we had a playdate with other kids that were still home, then we picked tomatoes, made a quick trip to Meijer, made spaghetti sauce, peach jam and canned peaches. So she was largely ignored. At 12:30 she asked when Evie was coming home. When Evie did get home, the fighting resumed. Oh well. So much for distance making the heart grow fonder.

Here's the crew at our bus stop. Annalise tried to sneak on, but we held on to her. Two more years until she gets on the bus.

Evie was the first in line for the bus, as usual.

Dad even stayed home for the memorable occasion.

The Pencil Sharpener

In the two houses I remember growing up in, there was a pencil sharpener mounted for the task as needed. In our last house, we really didn't need one because we were adults who could use pens and the children were only allowed crayons. Here, we have been limping along with a hand held pencil sharpener that really didn't do the trick unless mom did the sharpening. So, in the name of independence, putting down roots, and having to have 48 sharpened pencils for the first day of school, a pencil sharpener came to live in our basement.

School starts on Tuesday, so this was the last minute kind of thing. Jim had to install it first thing when he got home.

Evie assists. At this point, I went upstairs to do something. When I returned the pencil sharpener was installed. Completely upside down and backwards.

Annalise demonstrates how awkward it was to use the pencil sharpener installed incorrectly. Last time I checked, Jim was a QUALITY engineer. Well, he corrected his mistake and sharpened the rest of the 48 pencils. Let the homework begin!

Happy Music for Happy People

On Saturday, we went up to NWO to pick up some peaches from our friends' orchard (they are amazing, Holly and Jake!). While we were in for the brief pick up, we stopped over to Uncle Kevin's to wish Tessa a happy early birthday. Turns out that the little town near Uncle Kevin's house was having a summer festival and the featured band was our very favorite polka band, Squeezebox! And even better in the minds of the children was that there were inflatables to jump on and everything was the low low price of FREE!

Evie flies through the air.

Shlee takes it down slow and steady.

Natalie better watch out what she is doing.

Oliver tried everything

Annalise and Tessa attemped to come down this slide, but it was so sticky that they just had to scoot on their bottoms.

Tessa won the dirt ball supreme award for the evening. Somehow, every inch of her was covered so she looked like she had a deep dark tan. And her shirt had a little bit of everything on it.

And the feature for the evening--Squeezebox! Here's the only picture we have of the band and the sweet face of the polka princess, Mollie B. That's her back there in the cowboy hat. This number, she was singing Cowboy Sweetheart and yodeling. Stole my heart right away. Grandma even gave a note to the accordion player, Ted, who announced our anniversary.

Then we took a spin around the floor with the big girls. Annalise didn't dance a single polka. She and Uncle Bran must share musical tastes.

Grandma got out there too and taught Oliver and Tessa, the dirt ball, a few moves.

Happy Anniversary to us! 12 years ago and it was just as hot. Oh well, everyone will remember our wedding as the one that they all had dry cleaning bills.

I'm not sure why these movies are so small, I hope they come out.

The new nightly ritual.

About a month ago, we welcomed new neighbors. During the moving process, the dad promised the kids (2 girls, ages 6 and 8--man, did we ever luck out) a trampoline. So now, every night after dinner, most of the neighbor girls gather on the trampoline for some bouncing.

All except one. This one has not regained her courage from her last stint on a trampoline. We have even offered to clear off all other kids so she could jump, but she isn't into it. That's fine by me, because being a statistic once a summer is enough. Instead she spends time playing with a ball or the neighbor's dog.

Here's tonight's action. Seeing Evie up that high makes me cringe.

One day this week, they all spent 2 hours jumping. It's great for wearing them out before bedtime.

Speaking of bedtime, we have reinstated "school" bedtimes. Yeah!!!! this means Annalise is in bed at 7:30 and Evie gets a half hour of alone time with mom and dad. We've been working on origami and playing LEGO. These are her creations.

I am very proud of what I made using nothing but my LEGO skill.