A Week of Christmas

We started out our traveling holiday expedition on Saturday afternoon (December 22nd) and Ella Ann and I ended it on Friday (December 28th)! We went just about everywhere and had a blast at each stop! We went to Mandy and Zach's house in Tennessee on the 22nd, on the 23rd we all traveled to Kentucky for Christmas with Spencer's extended family at Aunt Connie and Uncle Wayne's house, we had Christmas with Spencer's immediate family back at Mandy and Zach's house on Christmas Eve, then we traveled to my parent's house that evening and spent Christmas Day with them. Whew! We had so much fun with our entire family and can't believe how fast it passed! Ella Ann was showered with gifts and attention (way too much!) and we all enjoyed every minute we were together. We got to spend some time with Spencer's grandmother's while at Connie's house, so that was nice. We also stuffed ourselves silly with tons of good food! Ella Ann got some quality time in with Carter and Seth too! On Christmas Eve morning, Carter and Ella Ann got to make some cookies for Santa Clause under the supervision of Mandy and Zach! Boy was that fun to watch! Both kids were in their element in the kitchen!

At my parent's house on Christmas Day, we opened gifts, watched Ella Ann dance with my Dad, watch movies, and eat and eat and eat!! Unfortunately, Spencer had to drive back home on Wednesday morning so Ella Ann and I stayed in Kentucky and my Mom and Dad drove us back on Friday. Ella Ann got so many nice things, but I know her favorite was a over sized snow globe with Mickey and Minnie inside that played an array of Christmas music! All she did at my parent's house was push the button that played the tunes and off she went going nuts in the living room dancing and running in circles! I was so happy to leave that gift at my parent's!

Since we took so many pictures, I again posted to my Facebook page. Click HERE to view them!

A Relaxing Weekend....Finally!

This weekend was the first time in over two months that we were at home together as a family! We just sat around (sort of) and played, listened to Christmas music, Spencer watched ballgames, all three of us baked Christmas cookies and Ella Ann and I made Oreo cookie bark, got coffee at Starbucks after church on Sunday, and that's about it! Ella Ann and I delivered some Christmas goodies we made to our neighbors in our building and took some to church for a few of our friends. Ella Ann always wants to help me cook and gets excited when I tell her it's time to cook! She loves smelling all the herbs and spices I use and will name them but will refuse to try anything we make unless it's a vegetable! ha! Yesterday was the exception because Spencer handed her a candy cane (wrapped) and Ella Ann figured out how to tear it open and went right to town sucking on it! You would have thought we'd given her gold! I thought she would devour the entire thing but she only kept it in her mouth for a couple of minutes and then she was done. Believe me, though, 2 minutes of a candy cane with a toddler was enough because she had stained her clothes, face, and hands pink!

On Friday I kept Mara Kate and we had so much fun with her! She is such a good little girl and it was wonderful for Ella Ann to have a playmate all day.....and for me because I was able to get some things done around the house! The girls have always played well together and now they have started to converse with one another. It is so cute! Since Spencer was on call that day/evening, I went to our church's family Christmas party at a family's house near our church. Since it was an adults only party, they provided childcare for us at the church. I knew I was risking it by taking Ella Ann to our church's nursery (which she hates) to stay by herself past her bedtime but I did it anyway. The party was so nice and I was Kane and Jana's third wheel, but they didn't mind! I went to pick Ella Ann up at 8:30 (I was the first to leave) and the poor girl was asleep on a nursery worker's lap in a dark room by themselves!!! The last time Ella Ann slept in anyone's arms was when she was a newborn! I'm not kidding either! They said she didn't do well at all so I felt so bad! I guess I won't be doing anything like that anytime soon!

Our church is having their annual Christmas music service tonight so we are going to try and keep Ella Ann with us because it's the story of Christ's birth through music and we think she will enjoy it.

This week we will just be getting ready to leave for our usual tour of Kentucky and Tennessee visiting all of our family in a matter of 4 days because that's all Spencer has off of work. We are really looking forward to seeing everyone and sharing the holiday with them and eating lots of good food! In case I don't post again this week have a Merry Christmas!!!!

Ella Ann insisted that Mara Kate hold her hand for the picture! They are both saying "CHEEEEEESE!"

Taking a quick dance break!

They really do hug and kiss on each other every time they are together! Jana and I love that they have been best friends since they were born! We pray that they will always remain close!

"Ohhh Mommy, why have you been keeping such an amazing food away from my lips?????"

"No pictures please, I'm trying to concentrate!!!"

Stirring the cookie batter with Daddy.

Watching Mommy roll the dough. She kept saying "Brownies Mommy!!"

A Very Fun Weekend

On Friday afternoon one of my best friends from Kentucky drove all the way down here to spend the weekend with us! Andrea and I hadn't seen one another since our other friend got married last October, so we were definitely over due for a visit! She also hadn't seen Ella Ann since she was 9 months old, so to have a walking and talking toddler now was quite a shock to her! Ella Ann can be very shy with new people she meets and even with family members that she knows and loves so I was expecting her to take a little while to warm up to Andrea but seriously as soon as we walked outside to meet her in our parking lot she was already saying "Austria" (Yes she sounded like she nicknamed her after a country all weekend!)! Poor Andrea didn't have a minute to even put down her purse before Ella Ann was bringing her books to read and making her sing songs with her! To say that she loved Andrea is an understatement...she was her new best friend!

We just hung out and had dinner at our house on Friday night and Andrea entertained Ella Ann until bedtime. We had lunch at our house and as soon as Ella Ann hit the hay, Andrea and I hopped in the car to do some Christmas (and personal) shopping! We took a little detour through some old neighborhoods along the way so that I could show her all the mansions. Andrea loves houses and is into decorating so she was really loving all the spectacular homes! She wore me out shopping, but I had a blast following her around as she accumulated more and more bags! :) We went to a yummy Mexican restaurant for dinner and stayed in for the rest of the evening.

The three of us really enjoyed having such good company all weekend. Ella Ann will surely miss her playmate and I will miss having a shopping buddy! Unfortunately I forgot to take a lot of pictures of our weekend, here are just a couple.

Ella Ann would climb into Andrea's lap or sit beside her every single time she took a seat!

When we got home from the mall Spencer and Ella Ann were on their way to the mailbox but Ella Ann took a detour right into Andrea's arms! It was SO cute!

It's Christmas Time!

Since Christmas is in full swing now the city is full of lights, decorations, and Santa, of course! Ella Ann has really gotten into the spirit and talks about Santa Clause every single day. We listen to Christmas music every time we are in the car...her favorites are "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" and "Jingle Bells." It is literally music to our ears to hear her sing along!

After dinner last night we took her to an outdoor shopping mall that is always festive with holidays and is really just fun to go to year around because they have concerts, open air markets, wine tastings, and they host The Taste of Atlanta. Ella Ann loved all the pretty lights and the giant Christmas tree in the courtyard. We also took her to see Santa Clause, but the pictures below are all that we will have because she was not too fond of Mr. Clause at all! She was very scared of him, but would let me go with her to shake his hand and say hi. After that meeting she talked about him nonstop! We hung around until 7:30 p.m. (grandparents aren't you so proud of me that I actually kept my child up past her bedtime for something fun??!!) because the fake snow fell at that hour around the tree. Ella Ann wasn't too sure of the snow either but had a good time playing in it if Daddy was holding her! She really had a great time, as did Spencer and I!

The pictures below aren't the best, but it's hard to take good ones in the dark!

The little blur is Ella Ann.

"Do you want to sit in Santa's lap?" I asked. "NO!" replied Ella Ann.

Santa did try to bribe her onto his lap with some little toys, but that wouldn't persuade her one tiny bit!

Ella Ann's favorite mode of transportation! She scratches Spencer's beard the entire time she's up on his shoulders! This also kept her from running around and breaking things in the stores!

"Snowfwakes Mommy!" is what she kept saying.

She did like the snow, but you can't tell in this picture!

The Music Class

I took Ella Ann this morning to our first day of a 10-week session at The Music Class. Spencer and I decided to give her this for Christmas instead of another toy. It is in a neighborhood close to our home and will be every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. and lasting 45 minutes. Well, Ella Ann was loving every minute of it, which we knew she would since she loves music and dance!!! She was kind of shy at first and wouldn't sing along to the songs she knows or even crack a smile, but once she picked up on what all was going on and how fun it was she started shaking her hips, jumping around, clapping, playing instruments, etc.!! We also got to take home a book and CD of all the songs and dances we do so we can play at home! Here are some pictures from the big event!!

See Graga (Grandpa) Mimi!!

This is what Ella Ann kept saying to me all day Friday as we patiently awaited my parents to get here! Unfortunately they didn't make it down in time to see Ella Ann before she was fast asleep, but we got up and out of the house early Saturday morning and met them for breakfast at their hotel. Even though Spencer and I just saw them a few days ago they still needed to make it down here for an Ella Ann fix to at least hold them over until Christmas! We hung out at our house while they played with Ella Ann after getting home from breakfast then we headed to my favorite restaurant, Nuevo Laredo Cantina, for lunch! My Dad hadn't been there before but my Mom had so she was also very anxious to get her favorite... lobster tacos!! Once Ella Ann went down for her nap, my parents and I hit the mall to finish up our Christmas shopping. We pretty much got everything all while getting some pretty good deals!

We went to a restaurant that none of us had been to before for dinner Saturday night called Pie Bar. It is a really, really neat pizza joint that is in an old bank building from the 1960s, which means it's very retro and sits "in the sky" right along I75. We each got our own customized pizza that was wonderfully delicious! Ella Ann had a grand time too watching them make pizzas and watching all the cars zoom by on the Interstate!

Ella Ann had such a good time, as did Spencer and I, with my parents and she was so upset to see them leave before we went to church this morning. Good thing it will only be a few more weeks before we see them again! Thanks again for the fun time!

Ella Ann showing Mimi the Christmas tree at their hotel Saturday morning.

Reading one of Ella Ann's favorite books, an ABC scrapbook full of pictures of family, friends, and stickers that her Aunt Mandy made her for her birthday.

She loves to be glamorous in Mimi's sunglasses......

and wear my high heels around the house!

Grandpa trying to persuade Ella Ann to give him a big kiss, which she did twice but I couldn't capture it!

Awwwwww!

She loves to drink out of her own cup and straw now. This will keep her entertained at a restaurant for quite some time! It was a genius idea!

We put up our Christmas tree on Wednesday night so here are some pictures from the festivities! All Ella Ann kept saying to Spencer was, "No, I do it!" or "Here, here, I heppp you Daddy!!!!", while he was trying so very hard to get our tree fixed just perfectly. She loves to help us do anything! I wish I could have gotten a picture of her sitting on his back while he was laying down on the floor getting the tree trunk properly in the stand, but I was holding the tree.

We decorated our tree after we put her to bed so when Ella Ann woke up the next morning she got to see it all lit up and decorated. She LOVES it and looks at all the ornaments and tells us what they are about 10 times a day!

I put her in her Christmas dress on Friday to hopefully get a good enough picture to use on our Christmas card. This isn't it, but it was so cute I had to post it!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!!

Spencer and I spent our Thanksgiving holiday with my parents in Disney World this year. We started going on trips over Thanksgiving several years ago but since we had Ella Ann we haven't been able to go these last 2 years. I met my father-in-law in Tennessee on Sunday so I could give him Ella Ann for the week. Spencer and I had a really fun day on Monday just hanging out and enjoying each other's company for a change! We went to bed super early on Monday night and got up at 1:15 a.m. to drive to Orlando so that we would be at the gates as soon as MGM Studios opened at 9:00 a.m.!! It was not a bad drive at all and we made it to the gate at 8:30 in the morning! We hit the parks hard on Tuesday and wore ourselves out! It was soooo fun! My Mom and Dad flew down early Wednesday morning so we were back at the parks again that day with them. It's way more fun to be at Disney with my parents because we are all always on the same page about what we want to ride, where we want to eat, what we definitely don't want to do, etc. I know we wore my poor parents out because they were dragging by 10 a.m. on Saturday after getting to the Magic Kingdom early so we could hurry up and ride all the rides we wanted to before the masses came! We had them up and at em' every single morning! Poor kids, they were quite the troopers though! :)

We did eat a traditional Thanksgiving dinner (at least Spencer and my Dad did) on Thursday night at The Flying Fish on Disney's Boardwalk. They LOVED their turkey meal and Mom and I loved our salmon and scallops! Mom and I figured we could eat turkey any day so why not eat something better?!?!

Spencer and I got our Disney fix in a really big way and were really ready to come home and see Ella Ann! It was an awesome time with my parents in my favorite place in the world and I will probably be ready to go back in a couple of days but we sure were glad to get back home and see Ella Ann on Sunday!! She had such a good time with her Nana and Papa for a week and I know she will miss them like crazy and ask for them for at least a week! Thanks again to both Gary and Gayla for being so kind to keep Ella Ann and taking such good care of her and to my parents for a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving!

I took quite a fiew pictures so click HERE to view them all.

Put Me In the Zoo

Spencer and I took Ella Ann to the zoo yesterday afternoon as a birthday treat! We have never been to the Atlanta Zoo, even though it is about 1.5 miles from our house! The temperature was only 55 degrees, so a few animals were not on display, but we had such a good time and the place was empty so we got to see so many animals without having to deal with swarms of crazy kids!!! Here are a few pictures from our day:

She loved the petting zoo!

Ella Ann enjoyed watching the real elephants.....and petting the elephant statues! She would hug and kiss all over it!

Since Spencer and I are leaving Monday night to go to Disney for the rest of the week with my parents, I am taking Ella Ann to meet my father-in-law tomorrow in Tennessee so that she can stay with her Nana and Papa. Spencer is working in Toccoa all weekend and left at 5:30 this morning so last night was the last time he'd see Ella Ann until we get back next Sunday. He definitily got in some quality time with her before bedtime, so I snapped some pictures of their sweet moments!




I know the following picture is random, but I had to post it to tell you all how in love with my coffee I am now!!!! Isn't my cup of joe fabulous!!!!??? My friend, Megan, gave me a frother (I have no idea what it's actually called because it came from IKEA and everything is in Swedish) a few months ago and now I have my very own cappuccino every morning!!! The best part is the frother was only $1.50!!! I had to take a picture because it's so pretty and it's what I dream about at night because I can't wait to get up the next morning and drink it! It's the little things in life that make me happy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLA ANN!!!!!

Two years ago today.......

we were blessed with our sweet little girl, Ella Ann Emilie Jensen!!!

We are so thankful to God for giving Ella Ann to us. She is such a wonderful, fun, loving, sweet, funny, smart, pretty, easygoing (lately less and less, though!), amazing child and we are loving every single minute of every day that we get to spend with her.

Here is the birthday girl last year......

and this year!! The cakes got bigger, along with Ella Ann!!!

She has her 2-year check up this morning and this afternoon we are taking her to the zoo for the first time! I will post all the pictures later!

Our Weekend Getaway

This weekend we headed to Cashiers, North Carolina for Emory's internal medicine department's annual retreat. Last year was the first time we went because the first year was too close to my due date so we didn't attend. We had SO much fun last year and were extremely excited about going this year. Emory pays for every single thing so we all pretty much live it up to the fullest while we are there! We stayed in the main lodge that is very nice, cozy, and rustic and several people stay in the surrounding cabins. Those that have kids bring them because it is a very neat place for them to explore. We stuffed ourselves silly with wonderful food and fun!

To say that Ella Ann had a good time is an understatement! She was bubbling over with energy as soon as we walked in the door! The combination of being outside, playing with friends, and dancing was just too much for her to handle!! Ella Ann greeted people in the lobby, which is not like her these days because she has turned a little shy on us, and saw Spencer shaking friends' hands so Ella Ann would stick out her hand to whomever walked by and say "HIIII!!" Very funny! Ella Ann also had a blast playing with her friend, Luke. One of my good friend's husband is in the same department as Spencer so they were also there for the weekend. It was fun to watch the kids interact and play Saturday afternoon. However, I have to tell you that the most exciting thing Ella Ann did was dance her tail off with the DJ on Saturday night!!! They had happy hour before dinner so the DJ was playing music, checking his lights, smoke, sound, etc. before the big party after dinner. Well, Ella Ann thought that it was her responsibility to make sure the dance floor was in good condition by seriously breaking it down in front of everyone!!! Not many people get to see this side of our child, so it was hilarious to see people's faces as they watched Ella Ann dance like crazy!! There are no words to describe how much she loved dancing last night! She would stand in front of the smoke machine and wait for it to all come rushing out so she could dance in it! She also loved the bright lights that flashed on the floor, along with the spotlight that she would dance in! What I couldn't stop thinking while I watched her dance was how much she would have loved the 80s!! She made lots of friends while getting busy on the dance floor, as you will see below! We hated to tear her away from all the fun, but Spencer and I also wanted to enjoy the rest of the evening so we put her to bed, and after the fun-filled day that she had, Ella Ann happily complied!

Cashiers is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, so the drive this time of year is beyond spectacular. I took a few pictures of the foliage, but they really don't give the scenery the justice it deserves.

We had the neatest room this year! It was like we were walking in Alice In Wonderland because when we finally found our cubby-hole-like room, we opened the crooked door and walked down a narrow hallway to another door that opened up to our fabulous suite!!! What a treat! In the above picture Ella Ann is at the entrance but you can barely see her.

Checking out the property before lunch.

Isn't it beautiful??!! There was a waterfall to the right of the picture.

While Ella Ann napped Spencer and I took a short hike through the woods. It was so nice to spend a little time together without anyone else around for a change!

Once she woke up, Ella Ann was raring to go so we headed out for a hike, which didn't last very long because Spencer and I realized it was nearly impossible to trudge through leaves, visable tree roots, stones, etc. with a toddler that doesn't like to get dirty!

Swinging with a friend, Sean, and his Daddy.

Ella Ann loves her little boyfriend, Luke! ha!

She even dragged him out on the dance floor and taught him how to shake it Saturday night! Awwwww!

Ella Ann, our tiny dancer with Luke and his Daddy, Dave. Dave was trying to persuade Luke to go dance!

As you can see from these two pictures, Ella Ann was not lacking any dance partners!

Yes, she is really busting a move in this picture!!!!!!

Dancing with Wissam, one of Spencer's good friends!

All in all, we had a blast, if you can't tell!!!