Playing Around

We have just been packing up this week, playing outside and taking car loads of stuff to our new house. I have started back at my Wednesday morning Bible study this week too so that has been fantastic. I have really missed it this summer. Ella Ann had to go with me today since school hasn't started and she complained the entire time about going, even though I told her all of her buddies would be there. Of course when I picked her up she complained about having to leave....this has become our usual routine for going anywhere, I mean anywhere...to the grocery, Target, the new house, current home, church, etc. It is like pulling teeth to get her out of whatever costume she has on and into "normal" clothes and out the door. Seriously....like lying-on-the-floor screaming fits, crying in the car, fine by the time we get to wherever we are going and then I get, "Mommyeeeeeee, I don't WANT TO GO HOME!" Really? I'm over it. I have mentioned Rane hates the car too so I listen to him scream and then I have Ella Ann's fits of rage in the car. At this point I just let em' scream while I take deep breaths. So with that said we just stay home more so than usual. My Mom brought down Ella Ann's old "house" that she had when she was little. Rane loves it but what is so funny is that Ella Ann loves it more than him! She will sit on one side of the door and he will sit on the other and they will play and play. It has to be turned around a certain way so she is "inside" and poor Rane, he has to sit in the area that is "outside." She also slams the door in his face all the time...poor kid! Rane loves to stand up and hold on to the top of it, just like Ella Ann did. He refuses to bend at the hips and sit down so I have to sit and brace him so he won't fall backwards. It is very entertaining for the both of them...yeay!

I bought some cat food for Lucy so she's been around often. Ella Ann, unfortunately, can only watch her from the window because her eczema is so bad...I mean bad. It is the worst we have ever seen it and I know she is miserable. I did let her sit outside with her for a few minutes on Monday and that was a mistake because as soon as we came in the eczema was out in full force.

We are headed to Kentucky on Friday for a Jensen family gathering and we are really looking forward to it. Spencer and I will head back home on Sunday and the kids are going to stay with Gary and Gayla while we move on Monday. Ella Ann will be at my parents while Rane stays with them. I will get them back when I meet my parents in Tennessee on Thursday so lots and lots to do until then. I most likely will not be posting for a little while so stay tuned!

When I first saw Ella Ann stand beside the house I teared up because she is so old now. I remember so clearly when she was a little shorter than Rane when she would stand up against it and now look at my big girl!

Okay so Rane loves to roll. He will roll to get anywhere and everywhere, although he did take his first crawling "steps" 2 days ago and is doing it more and more each day so I think he'll learn soon that crawling is much easier. If I leave the living room I always have to find Rane when I return and he is often under the couch! He loves it!

Ella Ann took this picture.

Funny boy!

She loves sweet little Lucy.

Time For Some Laughs

Yes Ella Ann is still keeping us rolling with laughter but I haven't had a chance to post her funny questions and comments on the blog lately. Here are a few as of late.....

Ella Ann was pretending to talk on the phone tonight with Mara Kate when she said, "Oh hold on Mara Kate, Prince Charming is on the other line I gotta let you go."

Driving in the car today she asked me this, "Mommy, when Daddy Bear gets home tonight can he play with me?"

Me: "Ella Ann, we need to start thinking of a costume for you to wear on Halloween. What do you want to be?"
EA: "A pink ant." (Anyone know where I can purchase a pink ant?)

Today I was talking to her about moving, yet again, and getting her excited to go. The following question just goes to show you how much we have moved lately..."So after we move where are we going to move next?" I feel like we are raising army rats at this point!

We were practicing writing her letters last week and I wrote a letter (don't remember which one) and after a very long pause she says, "Ummm, Mommy....this letter concerns me."

Spencer said that when they sat down in their seats at the Fox to watch Dora he asked her what she thought and if she was excited (you KNOW she was) and Ella Ann said, "I am very curious to see this."

Mimi & Dora

On Tuesday my Mom came down for a visit and stayed until Saturday. Since we are moving in a week it was wonderful to have her help me with the kids, run errands, pack, clean and watch the kids while Spencer and I went driving across creation looking for a new couch. Ella Ann would ask me every single day, multiple times, last week when "my" Mimi would get here. Oh she was so excited to see her! I got her up from rest time on Tuesday when my Mom arrived and Ella Ann started running in circles and was squealing with glee when she saw her. It was so cute! After Rane woke up he was pretty happy to see his Mimi as well! We just played around the house on Tuesday and I, note I said myself, grilled burgers for dinner. According to my guinea pigs I did a pretty good job! On Wednesday we drove up to our new home and unloaded a few boxes and I showed Mom the new place. After that we went to Fox Brother's barbecue for lunch, which was fannnnntastic! We made our usual trips to Trader Joes during week as well, made a couple more trips to the new house, went to the DeKalb World Market to pick up some unusual produce, breads and spices for dirt cheap and ate at Mellow Mushroom for dinner on Friday night. Just as the waiter sat our yummy pizza on our table and we were all about to dig in I felt something very wet and hot on my feet. I looked to Rane who was sitting in a high chair beside me and he was emptying his stomach all over himself, the floor, table, my feet and Ella Ann's dress. I mean he threw up his entire bottle and jar of (orange, mind you) baby food. Being the well-prepared mother that I am I did not have a change of clothes for him because I used that card last week when he pooped on his clothes while at church. After lots of tears on Rane's behalf and a flurry of waiters cleaning up our area, Spencer swallowed one piece of pizza whole and took both kids home while Mom and I quickly polished off some more food before we left. I had taken Rane to the doctor on Thursday because he had ran a fever over 101 for 3 consecutive days only to be told that nothing was wrong and it was probably a combination of a virus and his two top front teeth pushing down in the gums. He was fine on Friday until he vomited. He has been fine since so hopefully it was just because he was bouncing around like crazy in his high chair and shook up his food in his stomach. We had such high hopes for our dinner out as a family, but such is life with kids. Plans change and hopes are dashed in the blink of an eye!

While my Mom was packing up her car Saturday morning we had a little visitor mosey into our house. I hear Ella Ann screaming, "Mommy! Mommy! Come here, come here!" I go into the living room and a cute, very skinny, very malnourished kitty is walking around! She was so friendly and Ella Ann, of course, fell in love with her and had already named her Lucy and she WAS going to be HER cat, no ifs, ands, buts about it. My Mom has a heart for animals so she loaded up Lucy into her Mini Cooper to take home with her but she turned around after about 1 minute and dropped her back off at the house because she was climbing her neck and there was absolutely no way she could've made it all the way to Kentucky. So Lucy has become a regular at our house. She was waiting for us in the front window when we woke up this morning. Poor thing. She is so sweet and loving but there is no way we can take her for two big reasons, one being we cannot have pets in the house we are moving to next week and two is that as soon as Ella Ann was done petting Lucy her eczema was extremely bad and it hasn't let up much since. I feel so bad for this sweet little kitty so if YOU want this kitten please come and get her so I can sleep at night! I don't know what to do...she is "precious," as Ella Ann would say.

Last night, though, Ella Ann had the time of her life. Spencer took her downtown to the Fox Theater to see Dora the Explorer Live. Going to the Fox is something of an event in itself because of the grandeur of the place and the history behind it, but of course a three year old could care less about that stuff. She was beyond excited to see Dora that I thought she was going to wet her pants while I was trying to put her dress on. Spencer said it was obnoxious....that's just Dora, you know...but he did it for Ella Ann and she couldn't have been happier when she came bursting through the front door last night when they got home. She talked and talked and talked about it for a good hour before bed. I know she will remember her Daddy taking her on a date to see Dora when she is older. So sweet! Rane and I went for a jog while they were gone but it was strange to just have him all by myself. He actually got ALL of my attention for a change!

In Rane's room there is a square of chalkboard paint so we draw and write letters on that all the time. I write the letters and Ella Ann copies them.




Rane playing with Mimi.

They loved playing in Mimi's covers in the morning.

We did some Christmas shopping at Atlantic Station one morning. Ella Ann and Mimi were dressed alike!

Little brother kicked back in the stroller at West Elm. He loves the stroller, hates the car. Not good.

Mom had to squeeze in between the car seats on the way home to keep Rane from falling asleep before nap time.

Mom giving Rane sugar. Ella Ann kept asking her about every half hour, "Mimi, will you please give me some sugar?"

So cute!

This is a photo pre-vomit at Mellow Mushroom.

Rane was so excited to have an animal in the house too.

Little Lucy.

Headed out to see Dora.

A Review

I'm sorry to our faithful readers! The computer that I blog on and upload pictures had a virus and Spencer couldn't fix it until this weekend so here I am! Now that our house is 80% packed we don't have too much to do around here besides hang out, which has been a nice change of pace for us. Believe me when I say I am a complete packing pro at this point and after packing so many times I do not care about our stuff so it literally just gets thrown into a box and I cross my fingers as I walk away and hope it gets to the new place in one piece. I took Ella Ann earlier in the week to get her very first haircut at a salon. I received the card for "Baby's First Haircut".....ummm I'm a little late on that I suppose! I made a last minute appointment for the both of us so I didn't have time to prep her for the big cutting (it was only a trim). The girl put a big black cape on her and she immediately wasn't having that on her so it was traded for a small, animal print one for kids. She kept looking over at me while I was getting my hair trimmed (Rane was in between the both of us in his car seat...what a treat to take two kids to a salon) with the "I don't know about this" look but once the stylist started combing her hair she was all about it! Ella Ann will one day be my spa buddy for sure! She is always asking us to comb her hair, part it (it feels fantastic) and rub and scratch her back.

Rane's teeth have finally come completely through the gums so he is sleeping a little better (although the last 2 mornings he's back up before 6 a.m.) and isn't as fussy. His naps are great most days (1.5 hours two times a day) and he goes down between 7 and 7:30 p.m. and is up around 6:30 a.m. (hopefully). He is still attempting to crawl but now that he has figured out he can roll to wherever he wants to be he will just fall over and get there that way. He is so strong too! He will do a push up, no joke, but not like bend his arms or anything. This is what he does when he gets frustrated when he cannot crawl. He will also grab my cheeks, back of my neck, hair, shirt, whatever is in sight and hold on for dear life. It hurts!

Ella Ann starts school the Wednesday after Labor Day and will take ballet for the first time that day as well. She will stay for Lunch Bunch in between. That should go over very well......can you sense my eye roll? The house we are moving to at the end of this month is about 1.5 miles from her school so I am really looking forward to being so close! Ella Ann has also decided that naps are for sissies and stays up for "rest time" now days. I'm okay with it (deep breaths, deeeeeeeep breaths Katie). She goes down for bed time early now so at least I have that going for me! She will stay down in her room for 1.5 hours for her quiet time and play by herself and most days she does just fine. She has also said and done some pretty funny things lately, as you can imagine, but the best one is when she came up to me in the kitchen the other day and said, "Mommy I licked the soap (liquid soap). It is in my mouth. I will NOT be doing that again." Okay, thank you very much. I love it when I do not have to intervene for a good lesson to be learned! As soon as Spencer hits the door Minnie Mouse (this is her costume of choice this week) greets him and says, "Hello Prince Charming! Do you want to dance with me?" She has her Minne ears on and wand in hand and she is ready for Spencer to take her to her ball! Now, if you had a bad day wouldn't this just make it 100% better if you were greeted that way when you got home? She is a sweetie! Spencer is taking her this coming Saturday to see Dora Live at the Fox Theater downtown. I am so excited for them to go on their father/daughter date to the Fox! Ella Ann is so excited to see Dora she can hardly contain herself. She told me today she was going to ask Dora how to say purple in Spanish. That is another kick Ella Ann is on right now is learning to say words in Spanish. My good friend, Andria, and her husband only speak Spanish in their household so their two children are bilingual. I would love that for Ella Ann but it is too expensive to have lessons at the moment so we think of words she wants to learn in Spanish and the next time we see Diego, Andria's little boy, we ask him. She's actually learned a lot so far!

This weekend Gary and Gayla also came down for a visit. They stayed with us this time so it was great to have them in the mornings! They got here Friday afternoon and we grilled steaks for dinner. On Saturday we went to lunch at Fox Brother's Barbecue and it was so good! It's now a new favorite of mine in the A-T-L. I went to the Aveda Institute Saturday morning for a $20 facial. Oh words cannot describe how amazing it was....and was so cheap! I also went and did some shopping that afternoon alone so it was a fabulous day for me! Spencer also got out by himself while the grandparents got to enjoy their grandchildren. We ordered in for dinner that evening and they left when we went to church this morning. My Mom will be arriving on Tuesday and will stay until Saturday so I am VERY thankful for a steady flow of house guests!

We give Rane his baths in the kitchen sink. I love these kinds of easy baths!

She's whining, "Noooooooo..."

Relaxing into the haircut! "Mommy, why is she putting toilet paper on my neck?" This is what she yelled over to me after I took this picture.

We have a big, ugly octogon window (don't ask...it's stained glass too) in the house we are in right now and there are always rainbows on the floor in the afternoon. Rane was sitting in one so I took a picture. He also enjoys chewing his bottom lip, which is what he is doing in the above pic.

We put Rane in Ella Ann's Bilibo this week.....

what a sport! He thought it was fun!

Practicing his push ups! Side note, I took this picture at 6 a.m. yesterday morning, that's why it's so dark! Ugggh!

Lunch at Fox Brother's.

I took a picture of Ella Ann with her earrings on....her other new favorite thing to wear everywhere.

Doing her workbook with Papa.

Almost On the Move

Rane's newest trick is to get up on all fours and rock back and fourth. He does this any time he can, especially in his crib when he is supposed to be sleeping! This little man is so active already that it will be absolutely crazy around here when he does begin to crawl! Even just watching Ella Ann run around the house and play causes him to ferociously kick his legs back and fourth, arch his back if you're holding him or jump like crazy if he is in the exersaucer or jump-a-roo! He is just dying to get the TV remote, my coffee, phones and Ella Ann's stuff! Oh goodness she is going to go bananas when he does eventually get ahold of her precious belongings!

Here are some pictures of Rane practicing.....

This is how he ends it all....face first on the floor! He's happy, though!

Check It Out

Look how many we have now!!!!!! There is a section in my Parents magazine that gives good ideas for fun/neat uses everyday things. I"m going to submit a photo of Ella Ann with all her yogurt cups and describe the use. If it gets published I'll let you know!

Hiding behind the tower.

Rane! He's so darn cute! This one is for my Dad....the Madras shorts, that is!

See the two bottom teeth??

Goodbyes, Playdates and Blueberries

I know, not a very creative title but after blogging for almost 4 years I'm out of ideas. Speaking of the blog, a friend of mine told me about a website that turns your blogs into books! You upload the program and work on it yourself but it costs $75 per year. I am going to do it but it may take a while with the time and cost....evidently you have to reput in your captions to all your pictures because they do not transfer so that will take me quite a while.

Okay so this was a fun week, but busy as usual! I swear, I feel like I am just rushing from one task to the next, one kid to the next, one meal to the next, laundry load to the next, etc.! I sit down to eat my lunch and dinner and that's about it these days. I don't know why I am on speed all the time but I am. So we said our "see ya laters" to the Barker family on Monday when I went over to Jana's place. Well Tuesday was their moving day and I had our entire crew of friends and kiddos at our house for a big ole' play date and lo and behold in walks Jana and Mara Kate! I knew she couldn't stand to not be here! ha! Kane gave her 1 hour to get gas and make a pit stop (a very-much-out-of-the-way pit stop) to come over and see the girls. We were all so happy to see them and the kids were excited to have yet another playmate for a short while.

We are in the process of looking for another place to live so that is why I have also been so busy. In between errands, naps, meals and play dates I am running from house to house trying to find a new pad. I know you cannot believe it but we can't either. We just moved July 1st! I unpacked everything, had pictures on the wall...the whole shebang and I started taking it all down pretty much 2 weeks after living here. We aren't too happy, to say the least. We will most likely break our lease and we are praying we can get our deposit back, a.k.a., our very nice landlord will have mercy on us! To make a very long story short, there is an apartment above us and 2 young girls just moved in with their 2 very large dogs. Yes, we knew someone would be living above us but the "absentee tenant" (the neighbors and the previous tenants referred to her as this) lived here for EIGHT years and was practically never here so it was quiet. Well of course the day we move in she moves out! Go figure. So we hear EVERYTHING above us because it's all hardwood floors. We are mainly bugged by the dogs claws on the floor, their living room is above our bedroom and they are up at weird times during the night so sleep is broken at times. So we are trying to find another house, which is why I have never posted a picture of where we live at the moment because hopefully it will just be "for the moment." So that's that.

I also kept Mara Kate on Friday so that Kane and Jana could deep clean their apartment in order to get their deposit back. Jana stayed for a couple of hours while Kane finished up at Tech so that was fun as well. So really the week Jana moved I saw her 4 times....I guess it really wasn't goodbye! ha!

So I'm still on my homemade baby food bandwagon (yes I am patting myself on the back) and I made blueberry puree for Baby Rane. Oh my what a bloody-looking mess it was!!! He loved, loved, loved it! Whenever he gets excited (and he has always done this) he stiffens up his arms and legs, they vibrate while he coos very loudly and his eyes bug out! It's hilarious. He took one bite of those blueberries and did his excited routine! Thankfully I was smart enough to remember this meal would cause stains so I stripped him down beforehand.

Rane is also cutting his two bottom teeth! Yeay! He is drooling like mad and is back to getting up before dawn so that's a bummer. He isn't bothered by his teeth at all so I'm hesitant to blame the teeth on the early wake up but I need to blame it on something to make me feel better!

Here are the pictures from our week....

The gang minus Anjuli's little sister, Keona.
L-R: Mara Kate, Anjuli, Ella Ann, Diego, Alexia, Luke
Rane, Henry

The four of us girls started out 4 years ago with zero kids and now look how many there are!

Rane sharing his toys with Henry.

Sharing snacks at Ella Ann's table.

They are all playing with babies and the doctor kit.


The blueberries!!!!

I know, it's strange looking!


I also had to include this picture of Rane after bath time earlier last week.