In a land far far away....

wiggle dance

2012-01-13T21:51:00.001-06:00

evie having a blast

2011-12-08T20:57:00.002-06:00

Fall fun.

2011-12-06T21:12:00.004-06:00

We found a new state park right next to our house where we like to hike and play. Evie versus the dragon! She is fearless!

My beautiful girls!

Evie loves her new umbrella.

Everytime it rains she gets it out,

and even some time when it is not raining.

Hiking trip to Seneca Creek

2011-11-27T13:09:00.003-06:00

Lots of fun hiking today... we have yet (knock on wood) to get cold weather, so outdoors times have been wonderful!

Evie in Leaves

2011-11-19T13:56:00.000-06:00

Bloggy blog blog

2011-11-19T13:15:00.001-06:00

Just testing out my iPad blogger app with some fall photos

2011-10-17T18:59:00.003-05:00

This weekend, while Jack was in Missouri, Evie and I went to Gaver Farm with our friends Tommi, Frank, and their daughter, Eleanor. There's a whole acre or so of activities set up for the kids to just play on and with. It was a blast.

First thing we found was a hutch with a hen and chicks in it.....

Evie and Eleanor on the haybales

Evie's favorite thing for the day....the rubber ducky races:

Here she is - she pumped the water herself and made the ducks float on down the luge..she loved it.

Evie likes to "turn the wheel!"

I took this pic for Jack....gobble, gobble.

The calves were pretty awesome. I love calves, I think they're about the cutest baby animal ever.

Tricycle races...

Hot dogs for lunch and home again, with a huge nap in the car on the way.

First Field Trip with the Class

2011-10-11T11:37:00.011-05:00

Another milestone today - Evie's first class field trip! They went to Homestead Farms...a place Jack and I have taken her to a few times. So she was very excited to go. Mommy got to go along, so I was very excited to take pictures.

Another first; Evie got to ride the bus with her class..... She was pretty excited about that. But upset mommy couldn't go on with her. She got over it pretty quickly (her teachers reported).

Here she is getting on the bus...

Off the bus...all the kids got a tag hung around there neck. Basically the idea is..."if found, please return me to Bright Eyes Daycare"....address and phone number included.

OK, time for everyone to grab their buddy's hand and line up for the farm tour....

This lining up thing takes a while with 11 2-year-olds

OK, groups of 4 will work, let's get on with the tour!

First, the goats:

then the bull calf...sweet boy, Elmo

Evie's buddy for the day (most of the time) was Dawson.

OK, all ready for the hay ride? Hop on!!

We all got our pumpkins and back onto the hayride....

Evie and her pumpkin!

Evie and her friend, Sarah, talk about the fact that their really on a "straw" ride, not a "hay" ride. A fact pointed out to us by the tour guide.

Here we are trying to organize a group pictures. Yeah, it pretty much didn't happen. Evie was the only one who turned around and smiled for the camera at any point in the said picture taking.

Evie's not scared of the scarecrow!!

OK, all heads accounted for! 11 kids, 2 teachers, and 7 parents.....back to school for lunch....

Halloween!

2011-10-03T20:46:00.004-05:00

Vote on this poll -------->

an appetizing, stimulating tonic.

2011-09-29T19:57:00.001-05:00

Ahhh, so thats what Blatz is good for..

out and about

2011-09-18T20:00:00.001-05:00


Louie loves taking Evie for a walk.


hello!

2011-09-05T20:45:00.012-05:00

Last weekend we headed out to Front Royal, VA for an impromptu mini vacation to hike at the Shenandoah National Park.
It's a 106 mile National Park in the Appalachian Mountains. Here's a pic to give you a better idea of where it is.....in the northwest corner of Virginia.

On the way we saw a Dinosaur park by the side of the road. We had to stop. Evie actually really likes dinosaurs. She got a biting plastic TRex and a lollypop, so was pretty much in heaven the rest of the drive.

First thing when we arrived was a pizza stop for lunch.

Then it was off to the mountains for hiking....

During our picnic, we had to get a nice pic of our kids. Louie, of course, had a blast hiking and eating junk food all weekend.

foggy view from the overlook...

some flowers we saw on our paths

they were trying to get these dogs to hold still for a picture with the mountains behind them...it was pretty funny.

Icky Millipede

Ah, Virginia

Virginia is also for tired Lou dogs after a fun weekend of hiking.

OK, no more pics, Evie. You were a great girl this weekend. Now take a well-deserved nap :)

At the Zoo

2011-08-22T21:14:00.000-05:00

Sunscreen, check.. Zerebras, check. (Evie calls them zereberas by the way).

Evie and her mom enjoyed some lemon ice to stay cool.

We saw gorillas, real ones and statues.

We saw wild horses..

And Stingrays..

and prairie dogs

Evie, got to pet a donkey and a cow.

good times.

pics update

2011-08-21T20:13:00.003-05:00

We recently got a bunch of Ikea stuff, our new pad looks great! here is our new entertainment center set up! Okay, enough non Evie stuff.. here is the Evie stuff...

She loves finger paint!

and being cute.

She recently was potty trained and is doing sooo well.. here she is chillin.

Hi, I am large.

Hi, I am cute.
Here is Evie after her trip to the zoo. Wait, I should be posting zoo pictures and not random pics... stay tuned for zoo pics

Bunny

2011-08-14T17:57:00.001-05:00

Owl!

2011-08-08T22:00:00.000-05:00

Cicada vs. wasp

2011-08-07T21:12:00.003-05:00

Okay, "vs." doesnt really do it justice, its like shark vs. a swimming cow. What I was surprised with is that the wasp could sort of fly carrying the cicada. It got 1/2 way up the tree then dropped the cicada, then repeated this again. After it dropped the cicada the second time, it was pissed... at me... and I ran off like a girl.

After some googling I found out that this is a "cicada killer wasp" I guess I caught it doing what it normally does.

on a farm

2011-07-30T22:24:00.004-05:00

Evie used to be afraid of farm animals, now she loves them... She introduced us to the chickens... literally. "Hi chickens, I Evie, this is Daddy." It was so cute! She was petting the goats and feeding them grass, it was great.

Summer Vacation

2011-07-16T21:04:00.014-05:00

We went to MO last week, we had fun times. Here is Evie on the plane.. this was her first trip where we had to buy her a seat. It gave us a lot more room, which Evie enjoyed a lot.

She even received some complements on how good she was on the flight..

Once in MO, we drove to the lake and fun cousin time ensued.

Quinn and Evie renewed their friendship over splashing and tea parties...

Evie loved her Tea set.. she poured tea (water) for anyone and everyone..

Quinn was nice enough to be her guest most of the time.

It was also Rx and Peggy's Bday week! Happy birthday to both!

The strawberry cake was delish!

Evie thought so too.

We set up an old sprinkler in addition to the kiddie pool, Evie loved to splash with friends!

Here are grandma and Quinn reading some new books.

Grandma, made some playdough for the kids, they had a lot of fun with that.

One night, (Roxanne's b-day night) we went out to a couple local haunts for some drinks and pool, we had a great time. although Gator beat us at pool.

Later, we rolled up to the north Mo homestead and Evie got to play in the house her cousins and grandma made for her..

She enjoyed it immensely as did she enjoy her one on one grandma time.

Evie ate her first meal with chopsticks... we didnt intend for this to happen, but she insisted! after chop sticks, a fork seemed too easy, so she wanted a challenge.

Here is Evie at the cracker barrel in CoMO...

she beat me at checkers...

In St. Louis, she enjoyed some mall time with her Aunt on the carousel

More cousins time!!!

and some great grandpa time!

All I want to say about this is Aaron loves ring around the rosie!!!!

We had a great trip, it was way too short.

Vacation in MO

2011-07-16T21:00:00.000-05:00

Just got back from a big vacation in MO! more pics to come!

boom...

2011-07-08T21:51:00.000-05:00

cool Hula video!

2011-07-06T20:42:00.001-05:00

Evie pics

2011-07-01T22:00:00.003-05:00

Its been >2 blog posts since cute Evie pics! Too long! She likes hangin out on the stairs... being cute.

This one is my favorite...

Here she is playing hide and seek, it is sooooooooo ridiculously cute. She is "hiding"
Here she is hiding on the couch.
Here she is with her friend Bunny, manhandling her.
bunny doesnt seem to mind though, she loves Evie (and any attention) so much.

Wrens!

2011-06-28T19:56:00.002-05:00

Pearl I almost ate...

2011-06-26T12:40:00.001-05:00

It was tiny..

JB SF Trip

2011-06-23T20:46:00.007-05:00

I GOT BIT BY A SEAL!!! But I am okay.

I went to Cali by myself for some visiting and a protein engineering conf in San Fran. Here I am in Bodega Bay.. We had a great time camping there! The 40 mph winds were the only drawback, everything else was perfect. The next day we ate about a gazillion oysters from Tomales Bay (below).

They were shuck-your-own oysters... we had a hard time until Dipa finally told us the correct way to do it, then it was all down hill from there. I even got a tiny pearl in one!

The worst thing about the trip was the 7 hr delay by United... I have decided to make a conscious effort to NEVER FLY UNITED AGAIN!!!

But I digress... Here are my San Francisco pics...

Pier 39.. most of the Sea Lions are gone

Here is Lombard Street aka Crooked Street..

obligatory trolley...

Some bridge we crossed...

Here I am at Ghirardelli Square.. I bought some chocolates for my beautiful wife and took a pic of Alcatraz and you can see a boat down the Hyde Street pier (the air it stunk of fish and beer).

Grace Cathedral ... All wrapped in bones of setting sun, all dust and stone and moribund... I paid twenty five cents to light a little white candle...

After that, I got a little hungry, so I went to get a hot dog.

It was utterly beautiful inside... spectacular... I wanted to walk the maze, but had to get back to the conference...

Any Californians (past or present) know what flower this is? it is also beautiful..

SF was great, but after 6 days I was excited to get back to the fam. It seems like Evie changed noticeably in the 6 days I was gone, I really can tell she is putting sentences together now, and asking questions, and being just plain smart... No more Father's Days away from the family for me!

I would like the thank the California crew of friends for a wonderful weekend also, I feel very blessed indeed to have such great friends and a wonderful family to come home too.

2011-06-20T20:59:00.002-05:00

This weekend Jack was out of town. Tommi and Frank had us over for a splash party.
Evie basically just wanted to drink from the water spray....but she was having fun doing it.

Hi! I'm cute and love water ;)

HOA, I'm not laughing any more.

2011-06-18T12:00:00.008-05:00

OK, now I'm just getting annoyed.

BTW - Our landlord had the tree limb removed within 24 hours of it falling.

Now I get a letter in the mail - "renter's copy" - original sent to my landlord. They're complaining that we're putting white trash bags out on the curb on trash day. Not regulation!

Yeah, white trash bags, what a crime. A few months ago I was on the phone with them about something else and mentioned that any of the bags being left out were being picked apart by crows and, "is there anything that can be changed about that?" They said they would look into it. So do they think it's really ME putting them out there?

RETARDS!

This is losing funniness value because our security deposit is $2900.00 and I WANT IT BACK. The last thing we need is our landlord thinking we're a bunch of slobs who aren't taking care of his place.

If a tree fell in my yard....would I care?

2011-06-17T12:30:00.004-05:00

Oh, really?, you want that removed? Come on, it adds so much character. These HOA's and their crazy rules...."no trees on the sidewalks"...blah blah blah

So, this tree fell YESTERDAY and we arrived home around 5:30 to find it. We called our landlord and he's sending someone out this afternoon to remove it. But in the mean time, in case we were planning to dawdle, the HOA was sure to put a violation notice on our door to let us know that trees are NOT allowed on the sidewalk!

This is NOT a "friendly reminder" this time, boy-O...and if we catch you keeping trees on the sidewalk again you're in BIG trouble! You have 7 days to comply.

ha ha hah ah ah ahah aha! Love it

present preview...

2011-06-12T09:26:00.002-05:00

Someone will be getting this present soon!!! Just hope and pray its you!! 10 dollars in a bin at wal mart... hah, ripped them off, I would have paid a hundred!

New River Cabin Trip

2011-06-07T18:55:00.010-05:00

We headed down to ole Virginia this weekend to meet up with L and D at a nice little cottage near the half way point between our respective cities. It was a lot of Fun, we brought our dogs and babies... both had fun swimming in the cool clear water..
Here she is lil sycamore cottage...

We caught some fish.. here is Evie with her first Fish kiss.

There was lots of wildlife too! like geese, and an Eastern Dobsonfly (below)

Evie and Demian loved the hula hoop, although only Roxanne mastered the technique.

Here we are porch sittin.. a popular activity..

Noodle Fencing was another popular activity.

Evie and Miles rekindled their friendship.

We caught a few fish as I mentioned earlier, this was the biggest I caught.

The country side was very pretty.

Our poor party pool leaked, but we just swam in the river.

Check out the crawdad below our stairs

Indoor scenes...

We took a trip to "the falls of Dismal" or Dismal Falls.... Dismal indeed..

I jumped off and hurt my butt in the 6 feet deep water... ouch

It was a long drive, but a nice afternoon activity.

We bought an Amish pie. Not as good as you would expect... although we should have known the Amish might not be that good at making coconut pie.

Lots of eating fun was had.

Here we are!!

It was smooth sailing on the way home...

until we waited an hour in traffic for this to clear! we were soooo close to home too... darn

Chirpy II update...

2011-06-01T21:03:00.001-05:00

2 days after Chirpy's collosal meat feast, I found him near death in his cage. I released him from the back porch, and I'd like to think he is doing well out in the wild... I'd like to think that. yes I would...

Chirpy II

2011-05-30T19:03:00.003-05:00

Maryland Cave crickets are gross and huge.. and they live in our basement. Today Evie found one in the living room and said "Hi!!" Then she became scared, and I had to grab it and put it in her Critter Jar. So now we have a new pet... Chripy II* aka Mr. Cricket. I put him in Evie's critter jar with the intent to show him to her and then let him go. When Evie was eating her hamburger for dinner, I dropped a little chunk in there to see that he would do.. and he ate his own body weight in hamburger!!!!! Thats when I knew an animal this awesome cannot be released back into the wild. I will keep him and he will live the good life with me, eating hamburger and cookies for as long as he shall live. Long live Chirpy II!
* For those who did not know Chirpy I, I am sorry for you, he was a Triop that brought happiness to everyone he met. RIP Chirpy I

the new Life Cereal girl..

2011-05-24T22:06:00.001-05:00

p.s. First person to get the song in the background wins the good music taste/frequent blog checker award (with cash prize).

Lacrosse

2011-05-22T12:53:00.003-05:00

I assume 99.9% of the game Mark was not touching his junk. Fortunately, the camera was there for that other 0.1%

strawberry pickin...

2011-05-21T21:18:00.004-05:00

Our morning opened up as we weren't raptured as planned, so we decided to go strawberry pickin.

We had a lot of fun with our friends Tommi and Frank and their daughter Eleanor.

Evie (for no apparent reason) got sick just after we got out of the car, but quickly rallied and ate about 10 strawberries. She was a good picker!
Here we are with our loot.

We thought we might have picked too many, but we ate about half before we got to bake anything, so i think we got a good amount.

Something amiss on Birdwell Island/Clifford Conspiracy theories

2011-05-16T18:18:00.009-05:00

Okay.. I mentioned a while ago that a certain someone likes Clifford the big red dog.. in book form, tv form, Clifford poetry slam, any Clifford media will do. This means mom and dad end up absorbing a lot of Clifford from various media as well. Rx thinks I obsess about Clifford, this is true. I think Clifford is driving me crazy, I think about him all the time. Despite this I still think something is amiss on Birdwell Island, and I checked it out on the interwebs... turns out that other people have the same idea.

This blog (by a customs lawyer) speculates that the "story book" way Clifford grew up and went to Birdwell Island may not be so innocent. He points out that before Birdwell Island, Emily Elisabeth had other pets as well including two cats and a rabbit... maybe Clifford ate them, maybe they abandoned them.. all I know is they left "the city" (notice how they dont say which city) rather quickly to go to Birdwell Island, and no one ever mentions the other pets again.

This is perhaps the least nefarious Clifford conspiracy theory by the way... read on...

Probably the most common, and most well documented Clifford conspiracy theory is that Clifford is a communist. Some go as far as to say Clifford was created in a lab by Russian scientists, I think this is a little far fetched. There is no way Clifford was made to be a big red pinko propaganda machine, I just think he later became one.

These both are hard to confirm, but I did a little more digging myself and you'll be surprised what I learned...

Birdwell Island has an unusually high amount of "suicides" and "drownings" for a town of ~100 people. Yes, there are also unconfirmed reports of drifters disappearing on Birdwell Island. More than once a mauled body buried in shallow sand has been found by beach combers, only to have sheriff Lewis (who by the way owns T-bone, Clifford's best dog friend) say they got drunk and drowned... He quickly cremates the bodies to destroy any evidence. If they have no family on the island, and they were drunks or "trouble makers" the sheriff's attitude is basically, "they have no business here in the first place." Nice eh? Who's gonna say anything? People are scared shitless as it is. Clifford is a 4 ton eating machine "controlled" by a 2nd grader. Birdwell Island reminds me a lot of Peaksville Ohio in this regard. Adults are terrified of becoming like those "no good" drifters. The population has dropped 30% in the last 5 years. Property values took a nose dive.

Oh yeah, Even if you are not aware of Birdwell Island's secret hobo maulings, you probably soon become aware of the elephant (poop) in the room... where does Clifford poop?, and what poor bastard has to clean it up? This is the subject of many internet theories and even the subject of at least one poem.

My guess is Clifford poops wherever the hell he wants too, and if its on your property, its your responsibility. Go ahead, complain to Sheriff Lewis... see what he says, probably something like.."Clifford is good for tourism; we all have to sacrifice a little for the good of the island... You notice there are a lot less beach bums now too.. you're not a beach bum are you?!?" Don't complain to Mark, Caroline, or Emily Elizabeth Howard however or you might just find your cat's (or child's) mangled bones in the next Clifford pile you have to clean up.

I didn't even mention what happens when he marks his territory... his fire hose stream of urine rips right through vinyl siding, and kills any vegetation it touches... Hell, it even burns through sidewalk concrete. Oh, and if the siding of your house or your fence or porch comes away structurally sound from a Clifford marking, you probably want to burn it down anyway because of the acrid piss stench you will have for about 3 months until it slowly subsides only to have Clifford come and remark it again... It really adds insult to injury too, as everyone knows Clifford owns the island, he doesn't have to piss on everyone's house to make the point. Emily Elizabeth just laughs and eggs him on when he marks, its just sad.

Hi, I'm cute.

2011-05-11T19:56:00.000-05:00

Rx took some pics of Evie in her new dress. Evie's old daycare teacher got it for her; she loves Evie very much and we were sad we had to leave her when Evie moved up to the big kids class.

She is now at a new daycare and loves it (there is a big sandbox).

Baying hound aleworks

2011-05-02T21:25:00.003-05:00

We went to a "nanobrewery" with our friends Mark and Candice this weekend. A nano brewery as you may have guessed is smaller than a microbrewery. The last brewery we have toured was Shiner Brewery in Shiner Texas back in May 2008.. ugh its been too long... Anyway, Shiner was quite a contrast to Baying Hound Aleworks. Shiner is a bustling mid sized brewery in a tiny town, Baying Hound is a tiny operation in the big city of Rockville MD.

At first, we were a little scared/confused.. was this the right place? It looked like a large inconspicuous storage unit. Was it a trap? Was the website a clever ruse designed to lure 30-something beer aficionados to a warehouse of horrors? Turns out no... We had a great time hanging out with the owner Paul, learning about his beers and tasting them. We were so glad we found the place and decided to go, it turned out to be a fun trip, and we will probably be going back at some point.

Here is Paul, manning the bar.

Rx took not of the brewery rules behind the bar..

We really enjoyed the Angel's Nectar Chamomile Wheat... I think that was our favorite. The MPA (Mild Pale Ale) was also pretty awesome. Another local brewery (Dogfish head) likes to really overload the hops on their 5 or 6 IPAs that they sell, so a nice mild hint o' hops was refreshing. The Taj MaHound Indian Brown Ale came in at 10% alcohol, was also pretty spectacular. We learned an important lesson at Baying Hound... never judge a brewery by its location, but rather by the taste of the beer, and the good company.

Pretty Petals....

2011-04-27T20:38:00.003-05:00

A cherry tree in our front yard is loosing its blossoms and they are covering everything! it looks like snow when a slight breeze goes by. Evie loves to play with the petals!

Evie is doing her Easter Bunny impression...

Easter Activities

2011-04-24T21:56:00.004-05:00

We had a good Easter going to parks and whatnot.

In the Morning we had an Easter Egg hunt. Later at Breakfast, Evie ate some hard boiled eggs that she and her mom colored.

Here is Evie at the park...

Josh and Tina visit

2011-04-21T18:48:00.005-05:00

Josh and Tina visited from Madison over the weekend... here he is schooling Evie on some bubbles. We went to Baltimore for an Orioles game. IT was a lot of fun, I have never been to Cmaden Yards.

The place was packed!

Later on we went to Harper's Ferry West Virginia... site of a famous confederate victory in 1862 and John Brown's raid in 1857. People say John Brown's failed raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry had a lot to do with starting the civil war. Lots of history where the Potomac meets the Shenandoah...

We saw some cannons, and a bug, and a snake and people nearly dying trying to manage the swollen Shenandoah in a raft. We had a great time and hope Josh and Tina will visit again soon...

Evie and the laser pointer

2011-04-19T20:49:00.000-05:00

We got the laser pointer out to play with the kitties. Turns out Evie likes it too.

Ummm.. Hmmmm... Red!

2011-04-18T14:11:00.000-05:00

in this video Evie is thinking very intently on what to paint...

Spring flowers/Spring visitors

2011-04-15T22:07:00.010-05:00

Spring time in MD is flower time... One thing that is kind of unique about this area is the abundance of flowering trees in the spring. Texas had beautiful and plentiful wildflowers, but here there seem to be a lot of tree flowers and not just cherry blossoms (although the cherry blossoms are pretty spectacular). Evie loves to look at and smell flowers...

These pink ones are from a tree in our back yard, can anyone identify?

these are also from the backyard area... one day after a great wind, it looked as if it was snowing outside there were so many petals on the ground, we got a video of Evie playing with them...

Casey and Emily came out to visit too, and Rx went on a flower tour of DC with them...

tree hugger!

Evidently the cherry blossoms in DC were pretty spectacular

Here are some pics from our trip to Arlington.

We got to see Sunny G too in Arlington! That was very fun and very overdue.

FYI: Clifford is Evie's new fav

2011-04-14T22:10:00.002-05:00

She still loves Elmo, but we have about a kagillion clifford books from the library and she loves the TV show too.

bubbles!

2011-04-03T20:51:00.001-05:00

Evie bubbles for the first time!

Shooter's sandwich

2011-03-28T19:07:00.003-05:00

So, I am checking out the interwebs and I see a link for the "best sandwich in the world"... this picqued my interest... So I click on the link and I find out they are claiming the Shooter's sandwich is the best in the world.. This is the picture of the final product. I had to make one of my own. This was a good project for me since Rx was outta town and I was running out of food.

What is a Shooter's Sandwich you might ask, and where does it come from? Well this might answer your questions... It is named for fox hunters I presume. Roaming around the English countryside, chasing hounds, saying things like "Cheerio!" and "Old Chap" really makes you hungry, so their servants made them a shooter's sandwich to take with them on the road.

Its a bit hard to describe...you know how you go to St. Louis (excuse me.. Panera) bread company and get some cream of lard soup in a bread bowl for like 8 bucks... well think of the shooter's sandwich as a soup in a bread bowl FOR MEN! instead of soup, there are 2 ribeye steaks and mushroom goo.

I baked a nice sourdough loaf and took out the bread in the middle, you need a good crusty bread for this... then chop mushrooms, and onions and sautee with butter, and worcestershire and whatever else you want to make a mushroom goo layer... then you take 2 steaks (rib eyes or NY strips) and sear them however you like them, put one in the bottom of the bread bowl... then the goo layer, then the other dripping steak, them some horseradish and chipotle mayo on the top and put the lid of the bread back on...

At this point you get to use your college text books you havent cracked open in 10 years, but for some reason move after move never seem to part with. Finally a use for my genetics book!

You wrap the sandwich in foil and press it with 5 or 6 heavy books for a good 5/6 hrs in a cool (not regrigerated) place. I chose my cooler with some ice packs sitting in there.

When you are done, it is pretty awesome, have never had a squashed sandwich taste so good.

By coincidence a friend of mine (EU) had seen the same article and made his shooter a day before I did! He improved the plan with much bigger (and rarer) steaks and blue cheese! MMmmmm

Shooter!

2011-03-25T22:04:00.003-05:00

"Hi, I'm 2!" this is Evie's 2nd year picture, somebody got her to smile real nicely!

my mom and Roxanne were here, now they are gone :(

Grandma B had a great time visiting with Rx, then Rx left for Arizona and Grandma stayed to chill with Evie for a few days.

We went to Occoquan VA, and had some fun and visited with Mom's cousin who lives near there..

Here is our lil ham Evie being cute and greco roman wrestling Bunny.

boo-boo!

2011-03-21T21:43:00.002-05:00

Bunny accidently scratched Evie. Here she is with her first band-aid ever. She got some peroxide too. She was very concerned the whole time, but never cried. I told her when we went to bed that Bunny said sorry, and she seemed okay with that. She is such a trooper!

2011-03-16T21:17:00.002-05:00

Evie's daycare is having a St. Patrick's Day party tomorrow and we decided we were going to bring cookies.

She has been having a lot of fun playing with Playdough and her play kitchen. We will often use her rolling pins to roll out playdough and my cookie cutters to cut out shapes, so tonight I thought it would be fun to do it for real with her.

I didn't have a shamrock shaped cookie cutter and did consider getting one, but in the end decided green hearts with green sprinkles would work just fine for 1-2 year olds.

Rolling the dough.....

Cutting out the cookies.....

doing something (??) with the dough....doesn't matter, cuteness prevails

brush it off, brush it off.....

dada helping with sprinkle decorations....

Eleanor's B-day party/ Grandma & Grandpa

2011-03-12T17:31:00.007-06:00

Hi!

I believe I can fly!!! Check out these mad Evie dunks. After this she did a 360 over 3 other toddlers. We had a great time at Evie's friend Eleanor's 1st b-day party. Even though Evie only sees Eleanor maybe once every 2 weeks or so, she is constantly saying her name, and loves it when they both get to hang out together. She is Evie's friend!

Here is Evie and her friends Eleanor and Ellie. Together they are the 3 E-migos!

Here is Eleanor getting her birthday cupcake!

Here they are practicing sharing!

Later on on Sunday, Evie's Grandpa and Grandma came! we had soo much fun visiting!

We all celebrated Evie's birthday for a second time, evie didnt complain ;)

She had yummy cake and opened presents!

She got an Elmo book and some awesome toys.

Lastly, here is Evie having fun doing Ring around the Rosy with Grandma

Hobby Farm pics

2011-03-05T12:55:00.005-06:00

Evie hates it when the sun is in her eyes, this is one solution that she seems okay with.

We went to Roxanne's Friend Rudi's Hobby farm last weekend.
Evie had a lot of fun seeing the animals!

here we are with a baby goat.

She actually petted the goats, we were surprised considering the last time we went to a petting zoo, she was very scared.

Hi Goat, eat my carrot.

now give me kisses!

Here are extra Tennessee pictures I thought I would include here because I am lazy: enjoy!

Miles's first pickle

Jean Diapers!

Birthday trip to Tennessee

2011-02-22T20:26:00.003-06:00

This past weekend we went to Tennessee to visit L&D, and M of course! We had a small celebration for Evie's 2nd birthday. Yummy cake was et and many presents opened.

Evie got some great presents this year, none less awesome than Jean Diapers!

MMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm cake!!

Somebody is tuckered out on her birthday!!

Big panoramic of stitch of the Smoky Mountains..

Who pooped on the North Carolina/Tenn Border? Park authorities would like to have a word with you.

L & D & M on top of the Matterhorn.. what is M looking at?

Babies!

Here is little Yoda on my back.. "Eat a banana I will."

A Sponge Bob bubble blower was one of her many presents, and she enjoyed it very much.

Evie Second Birthday Gifts

2011-02-16T06:40:00.002-06:00

JB's parents sent a slew of presents for Evie's second birthday and she had a great time opening them. This is a long video and certainly we don't expect everyone will want to view it, but I wanted to record her reactions for gma and gpa so that they could see how much she enjoys her gifts.

thanks for the presents!

Evie on V-day playing with Play-doh

2011-02-14T20:46:00.001-06:00

Tent and other stuff

2011-02-13T12:39:00.002-06:00

Inspired by our sister blog (Chris and Gabby), we decided to put up a tent for Evie. It was a lot of fun! We got all the cats and dogs in too, and everyone had a good time except Bunny, who was a little freaked out.

Roxanne made Philly Cheese steaks which were as good as any I have had in Philly... (wit wiz)

Here is our media mogul daughter Evie talking on 2 phones at once, all while being soooo cool!
Big trip next week.. stay tuned.

Evie playing at indoor soccer dome

2011-02-08T22:02:00.000-06:00

Packers...

2011-02-08T19:58:00.000-06:00

'nuff said.

bucket

2011-01-30T09:08:00.001-06:00

Evie and Priscilla in a bucket.

curly girls

2011-01-22T12:17:00.004-06:00

Hello all!

First, I'd like to extend a big "thank you!" to our best blog commenter, Kate. She also happens to be jack's sister and has referred me to one of the best books of my life...."The Curly Girl's Handbook".

It just came in the mail and I read a few chapters this morning. I've started my transition back to curly girl and plan to hide my straightener from myself! I have been straightening it for so long I forgot what I looked like curly. But now I've noticed lots of dried and split ends....it's time to go natural and (hopefully) healthier.

There is a whole chapter on childrens' curly hair too! Yay for Evie since I've been washing her hair w/harsh shampoos every time we bathe her, which is a big no no for curly hair. Therefore, this morning we went with the "Curly Girl" way and this is the result:

Before:

After:

Look at those curls! I'm so excited.

Visitors from the north..

2011-01-17T20:05:00.005-06:00

This weekend we had a couple friends come down from Pennsylvania, John and Ericka. We did lots of fun stuff and Evie enjoyed her new friends.
And now, in no particular order, pictures from the weekend:

National Mall in winter

some sort of shrieking rodent

John and Evie by the Washington Monument

some old bones

A quick trip up to Frederick MD

Evie learned how to "double fist" this weekend

badger!!!

Evie loves DC

John and Ericka in Frederick

I love this deer, I dont know why, I would love to see it walk on 2 legs like in the far side, that would be cool.

This deer is also mega cool as it has fangs..

the end...

snuggles with 2 cats!!!

2011-01-13T21:53:00.000-06:00

2 cats!!!

first haircut

2011-01-10T17:41:00.003-06:00

This has been a long time coming. She can't even see past her bangs at this point.

Before:

After:

I think I should have waited for jack to get home and help me, but I had the day off and it needed to be done. oh well, hair grows back. When you sort of shush it around, it looks even.

animal pics

2011-01-08T21:31:00.004-06:00

We haven't taken our pumpkin down from Halloween - I haven't had the energy for that. although i have put up and taken down the christmas tree and decorations and made an entire thanksgiving dinner, but I digress. Anyway, our friendly neighborhood squirrel appreciates my laziness I think....

In other news, our sister blog posted a video of a cat that allowed a tangerine to be put on its head while sleeping. well, i guess it wasn't aware it was there in the first place. anyway, I thought this might work for our cat, Bunny, if I put it on her stomach while she sleeps.... but she isn't sleeping on her back tonight. This is all I got. I decided to post it just to show off her cuteness.

Instead, I got Priscilla in a lazy moment - that isn't hard at all by the way. Not on her head but it does emphasize the disparity between the size of her head and the size of her body. Priscilla, isn't your mom a vet? what the....?

Can anyone tell this post is out of shear boredom? sorry about that

Andy Warhol, eat your heart out!

2011-01-06T19:37:00.002-06:00

Can you guys guess which one is Evie's and which one is Andy Warhol's

Hint: look at the signatures if you can't guess!

Here is Evie sporting all of her hair barrettes!

Holla!

Pittsfield

2011-01-03T19:47:00.000-06:00

you stay classy Pittsfield

Holiday Explosions!

2010-12-25T14:24:00.003-06:00

Before:
During:

After:

Exploding target, almost empty bottle of ether, bag of flour, and a turkey sandwich...

Off to Champaign--updated with video

2010-12-22T21:00:00.004-06:00

our good girl spent about 11 hrs in this position today! She did SOOOO good as we knew she would... DVD player and youtube helped too We are chilling with the characters in our sister blog Chris, Gabby and Maggie!

Evie loved playing with Maggie and tried not to be too possessive of her awesome toys..

Here she is in repose, doing one of Maggie's puzzles...see last video in this post...

cute videos of the kids running around in pajamas can be seen here! Enjoy!

More X-mas Evie pics

2010-12-22T04:35:00.000-06:00

No one likes boxes more than cats and kids... Here are a few of Evie's new fav things... Spongebob (she mostly likes the theme song) and dressing up in coat, hat, and gloves, for no particular reason..

She would only wear the hat for like 2 seconds... luckily I snapped these pics during that time.

"Hmmm... What Christmas mischief can I make?

Lastly, here is Evie sitting in her princess chair... I love this pic sooo much, she is so beautiful.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Second Christmas - First Impressions

2010-12-19T08:52:00.008-06:00

we celebrated our Christmas morning today. Last night we excitedly put together her rocking motorcycle/tricycle...it converts into a push along tricycle, then a tricycle when she's old enough. Anyway, she was really excited about it in the store, so we thought she'd see it and be overjoyed.....

Well, I think instead of being overjoyed, she was a little overwhelmed. here's the first impression video:

So, instead we had breakfast and took a little break from the whole thing. Afterward, jack and I exchanged gifts in order to see if she'd get curious and join us. Not really surprisingly enough. Eventually we coaxed her over to open some of her gifts....

here she is opening her books. She really liked the Dear Zoo book and Baby Danced the Polka. She also really enjoyed her ZuZu pet while it was just squeaking and making noise...but as soon as we put it on the table to roll around she got scared of it.

So, we tried to introduce her to the rocking motocycle again. This time she seemed to like it......

as you can see, if we show her the ZuZu pet again she gets scared. woops.

At the end of the video she is requesting her broom. She must have her broom most of the time. Reminds me of a picture my mom took of me when I was 3 or so, watching Mickey Mouse Club with my hat on and broom in my hand. Like mother like daughter. Funny.

In other news - Jack got me a nice 14-piece Rachel Ray ORANGE pots and pans set. I've been wanting one of these for a long time now so very excited to get it.

So, "how we feeling about this 14-piece set?" Pretty good, Uncle Rico, pretty good.

Winter clothes

2010-12-06T20:10:00.001-06:00

check out these new duds!

baby its cold outside!

2010-12-03T19:37:00.001-06:00

Dont worry about Ev freezing though!

Thanksgiving!

2010-11-28T21:22:00.002-06:00

We had a fun thanksgiving this year!!! Great food, great friends

Occoquan

2010-11-21T22:09:00.001-06:00

had a fun sunday in Occoquon VA on the Occoquon river. It is a nice little tourist town with great pies! Evie had fun seeing seagulls on the dock

Fun at the playground!!

2010-11-20T21:15:00.003-06:00

evie's hand turkeys

2010-11-20T06:55:00.001-06:00

ever since we taught her this she wants more more more

meow!

2010-11-19T20:58:00.001-06:00

bunny!!

Early Christmas Gift from Gma and Gpa

2010-11-12T12:55:00.006-06:00

these are the petits fours I got for Louie's birthday. There's a cute little doggy bakery on 8th street SE where I walk to go to work, so I stopped on my way home. He enjoyed them thoroughly.

We got a surprise package from Amazon - Evie's Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa Pollari...... So, this post is for them to see how she reacted when she got it and started playing with it.

It's a music, learning, and video interactive station. She was very excited to begin playing on it.
She had very little patience for waiting while the batteries were installed....

But once they were, she got to playing and dancing right away....

She also likes to imitate the dog on the game..it's funny

thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

Oh, also, Priscilla enjoyed the box it came in....

birthday boy

2010-11-09T18:26:00.001-06:00

happy 10th old boy . we love u mucho

slide!

2010-11-08T14:42:00.001-06:00

evie is a fully fubnctional slider now. 60 degrees and sunny today. mom got to play hookie from work, do some shopping, and hit the playground w/E. it doesn't get much better :-)

Empathy is not a dirty word.

2010-11-05T19:37:00.004-05:00

We in this household think empathy is a very important trait to have. If everyone in the world had a healthy dose of empathy, the world would be a much better place. We are very proud to say that Evelyn is learning to be empathetic already!

It is unfortunate than an ignorant demagogue (who will remain nameless) claims empathy is somehow synonymous with hitler ... and leads to very bad decisions... like the holocaust...

As usual, this demagogue is wrong... Empathy is great to learn and great to learn early:
"Children who are empathic tend to do better in school, in social situations, and in their adult careers. Children and teenagers who have the greatest amount of skill at empathy are viewed as leaders by their peers."

Below is a video of Evie looking at a burn Roxanne got on the stove. I was so surprised the first time she saw it... I have never seen the look on her face before.. it looked like she was going to cry and she said.. "Owww-a" in the sadest voice I have ever heard. She was sad that her mommy had an owie. For a kid under 2, we think that is pretty special.

Countdown to Louie's 10th Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nov. 9th!!

2010-11-02T19:35:00.003-05:00

Louie got his first birthday card ever!!! Thanks Nick Jessamyn and Elena for the card!

someone is an excellent artist!!

A better louie representation I have not seen!!
I am guessing on Louie's 10th Birthday he is gonna party so much he will puke!! (those of you who know Louie well also know this wont be much of a deviation from his normal daily activity).

pics from Missouri Halloween weekend

2010-10-31T22:46:00.005-05:00

went to Missoura for a long weekend. We got to do lots of visiting and halloween fun having. Evie loved seeing all of her Missouri relatives especially her Grandma and Grandpa!

Rx and I got to go to a halloween party while Gpa and gma babysat...

we really dont have a short description as to what either of us were.. I was sort of a pumpkin /racoon in a trash bag and Rx was dangermouse/powerpuff girl/ zorro...

Evie had sooooooooooooo much fun this visit. She had her first trick or treating and it was great!

quack quack!

lots of candy too! she had so much fun with her missouri cousins who were a scary sucker eating lion, and a very enthusiastic Mario

Roar!!

missoura

2010-10-29T21:53:00.001-05:00

we just arrived in MO. evie did great on the flight but is intermittenly vomiting for some reason we have yet to discern. hopefully that clears soon other than that she seems great...anyway back to visiting.

Evie Pixie Stick

2010-10-27T21:00:00.002-05:00

hiking at Little Bennet Park

2010-10-27T20:23:00.002-05:00

We thought it was near peak autumnal fire last weekend so we went out to see some leaves..

Evie had to be carried most of the way, she is in a transition age where she will neither stay in the stroller nor walk on her own, we hope this ends soon

Roxanne took most of these beautiful pics although I caught a rare "double lou" sighting.. it only happens when red light reflecting from autumn leaves near dusk creates a "false" lou in the foreground.. It took me a few minutes to get the right angle.. its the same phenomenon as a "sun dog" look it up.

Mr. Lou goes to Washington

2010-10-24T22:31:00.004-05:00

There has been a noticable lack of Lou posts sense Evelyn came along... Lou used to be the center of our universe, and our lou-centric blog posts reflected that. A Louie post is long overdue... We took the boy (and Evie) to the national mall for some pics and exploration. No F-ing rallies were going on so we could actually go to the Lincoln memorial for the first time. We visited the WWII memorial again, and hung out at the reflecting pool. Louie loved the whole trip... he was howling on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, rolling in extasy on the national mall, and somberly contemplating human nature at the WWII memorial.

He was pulling me on the leash the whole time (usually he only does that when he is heading home). He really loves being out about town... As dogs go, Lou is quite the traveler. He has peed on (and therefore now owns) 10 states and the District of Columbia.

Louie turns 10 years young in early November... Dont forget to send him a card, or give him a call and we will put the cell phone up to his ear as he cowers.

All hail Louie!

new blog app with pics!

2010-10-21T22:04:00.001-05:00

testing out new phone ap that allows me to upload photos tooqn

2010-10-11T11:24:00.002-05:00

Went hiking this past weekend .... just some fun pics I thought I'd post.

testing out blogging from my fancy phone!

2010-10-10T22:02:00.001-05:00

test!

bowl head!

2010-10-08T22:45:00.000-05:00

wine and petting zoo and friends and pumpkins!

2010-10-03T21:43:00.005-05:00

Pictures from the weekend... captions to be added later...
maybe..

grandma packages

2010-09-29T15:27:00.007-05:00

Hello! Today we received two packages from the grandparents....

Grandma and Grandpa Pollari sent Evie some stickers...yay! She loves them and they keep her quietly working

- even if Bunny IS trying to get her attention ;)

The other was an old book from when Jack was a little boy -it's hand made and I love it!!

It's got little activities inside, like flipping up window flaps to see who is inside - it's Mom and Dad! And Dave and Kate, and Jack! How cute.

The caption on the train says Novinger and Kirksville.

She also included a picture of Jack when he was two years old. Now who does Evie look so much like? Cheeks!

By the way, it must be growth spurt time! She has been eating nonstop lately. This morning she finished off her scrambled egg - I make her one and she usually eats half - this morning she asked for more and polished off another whole egg! This evening she has asked for refills twice on her chili and spaghetti combo. (Whole wheat spaghetti - don't worry, mom ;)

I've already purchased her Halloween costume and it fits perfectly. I hope I don't have to get a new one before then!

Did you hear?, the new Evie video is out!

2010-09-17T21:13:00.002-05:00

Here is a little vignette of Evie the last couple weeks... Evie says thank you Grandma and Grandpa P. for the wonderful puzzles, hopefully more videos on them will be uploaded soon.

Evie and her dad are a little sick right now with a cold, hopefully we will recover soon, we hve a big trip planned for Sunday..

Congratulations Casey and Emily!!!

2010-09-07T14:47:00.005-05:00

We had such a great time in California, but our previous post omitted pictures of the reason for our visit. We got some pictures of the happy couple we'd like to share:

Emily helping Casey get his cuff links on before heading to the ceremony.

Success!!

Casey played guitar and sang before the wedding. It was so touching!
Jack was invited to be a groomsman. It convinced us that we should take the plunge and fly out there. Just kidding, Casey! That's not the only reason.... We wanted to be there and we were so happy we came!
Beautiful bride!!

Casey and Emily had karaoke at their wedding. It was soooo fun! The setting was gorgeous and the location amazing, the food so good, the California wine flowed generously. Thank you so much guys and CONGRATULATIONS!! We're sooo happy for you!!

California Dreamin...

2010-09-06T19:54:00.007-05:00

We took a lil trip to California to see some "gentle people there"... Including some people at our sister blogs... Like these guys, and these guys, and these guys (who got married) and also these guys...

Roxanne has put a "flower in her hair" as the song goes...

We had a great time at the wedding... and just palling around in Palo Alto...

Evie did awesome on the plane!!! We were very worried about the 5+ hr flight.. on our laps, but she did awesome... no yelling, screaming, or even fussing for that matter, she was a perfect little angel!

Evie got to meet a few other perfect little angles too... like Ramona (see above), Wes, and Levi. She was however a little jealous when we would pick up other babies or they played with "her" toys. I guess that happens to 18 month olds...

The San Francisco pennisula is beautiful as all ways... and the weather is always great... who would want to live in such a boring perfect place with beauty everywhere!?!?

From the wedding site, you could see the whole bay pretty much, and majestic redwoods galore..

Jack had Wes on his lap and Evie had to get over there quick!

baby's first creme brulee

good times...

Evelyn fun time

2010-08-29T21:22:00.003-05:00

David visits DC

2010-08-29T14:39:00.005-05:00

Jack's brother, David, was in town this weekend for a conference. On Saturday we picked him up and headed down to DC on the Metro.

Me and Evie in front of the National Mall.... There was some controversy as Glenn Beck was holding a rally at the Lincoln Memorial (see background) on the anniversary of both MLK's I have a Dream speech, and Forrest Gump's Vietnam Protest speech (where he met up w/ Jenny). Thousands of Gump fans thought that Beck had no right to speak on such hallowed ground on such an anniversary and held a counter potest.

Eating bomb pops, my newly established tradition when in DC on a hot day.... Its the patriotic thing to do.

David in front of the Washington Momument....

Jack and Evie in front of the Coelacanth at the Natural History museum.

I bought a ticket for the live butterfly display. It was awesome.

View from the middle of Pennsyvania Ave.

We put David to work as much as possible this weekend.... ha ha

Hope diamond.....45 carat.. we included a hairy old lady arm for scale..

happenings from around the house...

2010-08-27T22:55:00.002-05:00

Evie is blogging on her laptop on the porch... Here she is with Bunny on her Princess chair

Priscilla is apologizing to Sushi for knocking him over last week...

And here is Evie eating some ice cream... oh wait... that's not ice cream... thats her new fav food hummus... she eats it by the spoonful.

Does anyone know if they sell non-garlic hummus?... because afterwards her breath smells like a Cairo Bazaar. Just kidding, she is too cute to have bad breathe