A Friend & Feeding

Jana and Mara Kate drove down from Rome yesterday and spent the entire day with us! We had a fantastic time! The girls immediately embraced one another when they saw each other and never left each other's side for one minute all day! They just picked up where they left off, as did Jana and I! Jana and I still talk nearly every day via email, but we are never at a loss for a topic of conversation when we are together. I think the only time we stopped talking was when we were chewing our food at lunch! It was a very good thing Spencer had a meeting all afternoon and into the evening because he would have gone crazy with us chickens around! It was nice to be able to sit outside as well and let the girls run around in our backyard while Rane napped.

Rane enjoyed all the attention from Jana too! He was all smiles for her and tried very hard to play with the big girls but he was kicked out!

Photo courtsey of EA.

Growing up!

The girls blew bubbles outside. Ella Ann thought it was a good idea to pour an entire bottle into the back of her tricycle so it will be very clean for a very long time.

Ella Ann "reading" the Bible to Mara Kate!

Okay so Rane is just all boy. He tries to get out of anything and everything and does not like to be contained....even for a meal! He doesn't want to sit in a high chair or car seat. Fortunately he does enjoy riding in the stroller and I think that's only because I'm moving for him and he is entertained by all the sights and sounds! So I have never used the buckle for the high chair. Not even with Ella Ann. There is a little bit of a gap between the tray and Rane but not enough for him to get or anything..........

so I thought! Today I looked over at him and he was LEANING over the front of the tray while on his knees! That kid! What am I going to do with him? Use the buckle now, I guess!

And yes, I was so excited to bust out his new pair of BabyLegs this morning! It's too hot for them by the afternoon but he was nice and toasty at Bible study this morning!

Little Man

I received a bathrobe for Rane when he was born and he can now fit in it. Ella Ann had one too but she, like him, did not like to wear it at all. Once I got it on Rane, though, he was fine and dandy because he could still crawl around. It is a battle, now, just to get him to lay still for one second so I can put a sock on! I have to chase him to get him dressed!

Some more updates on our boy:

-He LOVES the bathtub! This is good for us because he is such a messy eater that he usually gets thrown in the tub after a meal to get washed off. I will let him sit in the tub forever just splashing around and crawling from one end to the other. He is so happy in water!

-He now has four teeth! He bites us often and it really hurts! He will sink his teeth into the back of my legs and it's like a vampire is taking a big bite! Ouch!

-He loves Ella Ann's tutu. If I don't hear anything out of Rane for a few minutes I know exactly where to find him....chewing on the tutu in EA's room.

-I gave up baby food...period. He hated it, I hated feeding it to him, so now he eats all finger foods. He's happy, I'm happy.

-He loves dairy products and goldfish. If I am eating one of those he will crawl over to me, plop himself down on top of my feet and look up at me with his mouth open. He will do the same thing if you are holding him and eating at the same time. He most certainly expects a bite!

-He still gets up at dawn...at least it's not before dawn!

-He chases the vacuum. He yells and squawks when I run it and will chase after me and try to climb on it as if it were a ride! No fear!

-We have a climber. Ella Ann never, ever climbed anything...I mean nothing. Spencer found Rane IN the fireplace the other day.

-He doesn't really play much with any of his baby toys. He prefers off-limit toys of Ella Ann's, such as her dollhouse and babies. He enjoys playing with any kitchen utensils or pans.

-He's working on waving, speaking and giving good, wet, open-mouthed kisses!

-He is loved beyond belief!

Hilton Head Part II

Well our week is done. So sad. We are headed home in the morning. We have spent the last few days by the pool or at the beach. Last night Spencer and I watched fish jump very near the shore and then saw huge fish jumping out of the water as they caught the smaller fish! It was so neat! We are going back down tonight to see if we can watch another show! The weather, again, has been just beautiful...and hot! The kids got to swim in our pool after dinner the past few nights which has been a treat. We turned the lights on for them in the pool and they thought it was the coolest thing. I'm so proud of Ella Ann because at the beginning of the week she would just sit in the water on the steps and by today she was swimming around the pool with her water wings on by herself! What an accomplishment for our little fish! I think she will come home as a prune, as will Carter and Seth! I would put Rane in a float each day and he would sit forever in the water. He loved it.

We will surely miss our family next week, especially Ella Ann. She has been stuck to Carter and Seth all week!

Again, lots of pictures so HERE you go.

Hilton Head

We are having so much fun in Hilton Head this week! We hit the beach to check it out as soon as we arrived Saturday afternoon. It has been pretty windy each day at the beach but today the winds have been calm so we've all been to play in the sand and in the water. Our house is fantastic and we are enjoying the space! Ella Ann is giddy each day because she has her cousins here to play with! We have Carter, Seth and Ella Ann all in the third floor bedroom together at night and they have done very well, probably because they are absolutely worn out by the time their heads hit the pillow! We have gone out to some great restaurants thus far and will be eating out at the Crazy Crab tonight for dinner. Rane has slept well here at night but his afternoon nap has been a little off shall we say.

We took pictures at the beach before dinner last night. I have to say that after attempting this feat each year we are on vacation this was the least painful time! The kids cooperated and I think we may have actually gotten one picture out of the many we took!

The weather has been beautiful each day, even with a chance of scattered thunderstorms in the forecast daily. I'm so happy to NOT be in Wetlanta this week. It hasn't stopped raining at home in two full weeks and it is the absolute blinding rain that you cannot even drive in. Most of the schools are cancelled in the area as well, so I'm glad Ella Ann isn't actually missing school too!

I have already taken a ton of pictures so click HERE to view them. I will try and post again before we leave.

Dear 30,

even though I'm smiling, I hate you. You are just around the corner I know, but did you really need to starting wearing me down at the end of my 20s? Did you have to go there? You should have just let me finish out my glorious 20s without an attack on one of my senses. Shame on you.

After complaining about my blurry vision at times, I finally made an appointment to get my eyes checked last week only to find out I have an astigmatism in both eyes and now must wear glasses all the time. Just fabulous news. When I was trying on glasses the crazy optician was trying to convince me that I needed nose pads since I had such a narrow nose (I did not get them and they fit just dandy) because I would be wearing them all the time. Yeah, I wasn't aware of that. I looked at him like he had 4 heads and asked, "Are you serious? I am supposed to wear glasses ALL THE TIME? Nooooooo!" He didn't find the humor in it, probably because HE was wearing glasses. So here I am with my new look. I'm sure I will eventually get contacts but right now I'm going to kick 30 in the pants by at least having some stylish frames!

Happenings

Well not much is happening this week. We are leaving for Hilton Head on Saturday and will be gone for a week. I am taking my cord that I plug into our computer to download pictures so I'll be able to post while at the beach. I'm sure all of you are waiting in anticipation now! I am just packing things up, which is a hard task to do since I have to be picky about what we bring since we do not have much space to work with in the car. I am throwing all of Spencer and I's clothes into a space bag and vacuuming out the air so that will really help out with making room! Ella Ann is so excited to go, as are the rest of us, that she can hardly sit still when we talk about it.

The kids and I got a flu shot this week, Spencer got 4 new tires put on the Maxima (that was a super fun thing to spend money on), we went for a couple of runs with the double stroller (I run to take Ella Ann to school), played outside and are running a few other random errands. Exciting, I know. We will be home for one week after this trip and then Spencer and I will head to Disney with my parents. I know, we are mean for not taking Ella Ann but we will take her next fall. We all want to wait until she is 5 so that she will 1) remember it, 2) be tall enough to ride lots of rids, 3) out of the tantrum phase for the most part, 4) can stay up late, 5) walk everywhere, and 6) not need a nap at all. Until then, we will enjoy the adult version of Disney for the last time...sniff, sniff.

Here are some pictures from this week. On a side note, Rane licked the ice maker repairman's hairy leg the day before yesterday. The man jumped when he felt it and said to me, "Oh, I thought it was a dog until I looked down!" Rane is a crawling machine which means he is into anything and everything. I can usually find him behind our end table next to our couch gnawing on the cords to the lamp and the computer. Either that or he is pulling off all the fake flowers in a vase of mine.

Poor little man. Ella Ann's room is the 2nd door on the left and she will shut it when she goes in so that Rane will not come in and mess up her dollhouse. He now follows her wherever she goes. Rane will sit outside her door until she comes out. Bless his heart!

He has recently started pulling up on things as well. Today Ella Ann was inside her "cave," i.e., the fireplace (it's clean and no longer works) and he wanted in too.

Mirror, Mirror

My blog is published! My friend, Andria, told me about a website that converts your blog into book form. The day she told me I went home and uploaded years 2006 and 2007 (it will only hold so many pictures) and immediately got started. I had so much fun doing this....it was my crack for 2 weeks straight! I worked on it at nap time and after the kids were in bed at night. I completely ignored Spencer while I worked on it because I was totally engrossed! You can add, delete, arrange, change, etc. each and every entry to your liking so I played around with everything and tried to get it exactly how I wanted it. I didn't realize how small the book was going to be until I had it in hand and it made the pictures super small inside so the next years I do (I will do all of them) I will make the book much larger. Often the program would hesitate on me or lock up a few times, which was frustrating and I made a few typos (yes I spellchecked) but they were not caught before I published it but all in all, I think I did a good job for my first time around! I am very proud of it and will gladly show it off to all who want to see it! ha! Ella Ann loves it because the years 2006-2007 are all about HER! We read it at night before bed and she thoroughly enjoys it. It was fun to look back and read about our lives a couple of years ago and seeing older pictures of Ella Ann. I can't wait to do 2008 and eventually '09!

Here is a peek inside.....

My favorite picture is on the back.

Of course, Jensen family, I'm bringing it to Hilton Head next week so you can take turns reading every single page! Just kiddin'!

On a side note, Ella Ann took the first picture since Spencer wasn't home!

What A Morning

Yes indeed it had quite a start. Ella Ann had her first day of preschool this morning. She was very excited, especially since she got to stay for Lunch Bunch and go to ballet afterwards. I didn't pick her up until close to 2 p.m.....I felt like she was gone forever! I packed her little lunch box last night and got her ballet bag ready as well (she is using my dance bag from my years of taking dance when I was her age...awwwww!). She was thrilled to see all her buddies from her 2-year-old class, mainly her two best friends that are twins, Ella and Lucy Kate. I walked her inside and I thought she was going to lose it but she pulled it together, didn't shed a tear and hugged me goodbye! Wow! I couldn't believe it! It took until MAY, yes May, until she stopped crying at drop off! I have to say the year is off to a good start! Okay so now my morning is heading downhill. I go straight to my Bible study after I drop her off and my goal is to get there quickly because Rane has to take a nap while we are there and I cannot let him fall asleep in the car or else he will not nap, which means a bad day for me. So I reach back to hand him a toy to make him stay awake only to feel a warm stickiness on my fingers. Poop. Lots of poop. Chunky, banana-laden poo. It was too late. He was covered in it. He had it all over his hands, legs, feet, toes, hair, mouth, etc. Then he ate it. No joke. This is why I mentioned the fact that it was banana-laden....it looked like a delicious meal to him! Yuck. I pressed on to Bible study as fast as I could. Why did I not turn around and go home, you ask? I don't know, I just kept going! So I get to church and when I lay him on the changing table he starts kicking his legs and reaching down for more poop so now it is REALLY, really smeared everywhere. It was in my rings...that's how much of it there was. It took me half a pack of wipes to get him somewhat clean. I ended up having to put him in the bathroom sink and bathe him with the hand soap. Of course I did not have a change of clothes so he remained in his birthday suit for 2 hours while I was at Bible study. He didn't care, but every person that saw him asked why he didn't have on any clothes so I had to explain myself and mention the fact that I forgot to put a change of clothes in the diaper bag. Since this is the second time this has happened (at church, might I add), you would think that I would remember to put in a onesie in the bag but I did not. After finally getting him a little cleaner I put him in the pack-n-play to sleep. I was sweating bullets when I sat down in my study. Whew.

When the study was over I am standing there with my naked baby talking to friends and he spits up mush all over the both of us and I do not have a burp cloth handy because it was by my car and I was trying to make my way back into the church because I had lost my keys in the poopy process.

So after a good washing when we get home and we both had lunch I headed to school (ONE mile away!!!!) to pick up Ella Ann. She was dressed in her ballet attire and Miss Heidi, the ballet teacher, called the girls out of the class one by one (they were lined up) and here came Ella Ann telling me how much she loved ballet and wanted to stay. They all looked so cute and her friend, Caroline, is in her class so that is a big plus! She had a ball at school today, loved staying for lunch and loved ballet the most.

So far the craziness of the day has subsided. I don't think I'll be venturing out anywhere this afternoon...I'm pooped! Love the pun, don't you?

Headed to school!

"Mommy, he's eating the grass!"

See Ella Ann peeking around the 2 girls in front of her?

With her friend, Caroline.

Home Sweet Home

Well as "sweet" as a rental home can be for the next 2 years! We are enjoying the new place and will hopefully continue to enjoy it for our time left in Atlanta because I am NOT, repeat N-O-T, moving AGAIN! You heard it here folks, no way, no how. I don't care if this places catches on fire...we will sleep on the ashes. I think our favorite thing about the house is the backyard. It is flat, big, enclosed, has sun, shade and soft grass! We have yet to live in a place that has a yard we can enjoy so this is the best! We are outside every day in it until the mosquito's have gnawed on our skin enough and we head indoors. We got in the car to go to Target Greatland (wahoo I live near a Greatland!) and after I parked Ella Ann asked, "Are we here?!?!" It took about 2 1/2 minutes to get to the parking lot and both of us were grinning from ear to ear because of the proximity to our house! I can also walk to Kroger, Publix, the gym (does anyone walk to the gym even if they could?), Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, Caribou Coffee, Einstein's Bagels (my parents will be thrilled about that one) and a few chain restaurants. Spencer and I both loathe living in the suburbs and we feel like we are because of how close we are to strip mall-type places but I will be the first to admit how nice it is to run out the door in between naps, go to a couple of places and not have to rush home for the next nap! I've always had to watch the clock and factor in the amout of time it will take me to get to and from the destination. A big downside, though, to this house is how close our bedrooms are together. I can jump from our bedroom into Rane's room and it would take me two jumps to get to Ella Ann's room. Rane wakes up in the middle of the night sometimes and cries for a bit for no reason and Ella Ann screams and yells all night every night (in her sleep) so I'm going to invest in a fan to drown them out. When Rane wakes up at 5:30 a.m. (he hasn't done that here yet), Spencer and I are up. Thankfully Ella Ann doesn't hear him because of her fan on high speed. I have also bought some space bags to put all the clothes in that are out of season so I can store them to take up less space, otherwise my clothes would be distributed in every closet in this house, i.e., not much closet space either. We do have covered parking (yeay!!!!), a nice kitchen and a playroom! So with all of that said, we are pretty happy here so far!

At the bottom of this post are some random photos. It was just easier to attach them to this post rather than create a new one. There is also a video of Rane crawling. He gets SO excited when he spots something (usually it is something he is not supposed to have, i.e., a shoe, remote, coffee cup, Ella the unicorn, etc.). He will get a huge grin on his face, pant like crazy and take off!

No the outside is not much to look at but for the most part all the houses in this neighborhood are 50s-style ranch. Beautiful.

As soon as you walk in the door from the carport you are standing in the laundry room and looking into the kitchen.

To the left of the kitchen is a room that we have set up as a playroom. It is so great to have that right off the kitchen because the kids can play while I cook AND I can see them!

If you keep walking through the kitchen you come into a large room that is our dining area and we have our desk in the corner. As you can see, the desk is Spencer's territory so of course it is not set up yet.

This is standing by the desk looking the other way. I was excited to put up all my pictures of our family and friends...although most of them are dedicated to Ella Ann.....Rane will get framed eventually! Poor second kid!

To the left of the kitchen table is our entry way. Left is our living room.

Living room. On the other side of the fireplace is the playroom.

Walk out of the living room through the entry way and down the hall are our bedrooms and a second bath at the end. Rane's room is the first door on the left, Ella Ann's is the second and we are across the hall on the right.

This is on the other side of the room from the window and crib.

The right side as you walk in the door.

I threw Ella Ann in the crib with Rane so she could entertain him while Spencer hung his curtains. Yes I am aware they are both filthy but we've been outside!

I had to buy a bookshelf for Ella Ann's room and put it in her closet. This has worked out well because it created more space for me to put toys too!

Her dollhouse is set up across from her bed. I hadn't hung her wall letters yet(I painted them pink!) so I didn't take a picture of her dresser, which is on the wall across from the foot of her bed.

Second bath.

Our room.

Yeah I didn't take a picture of the master bath because you are pretty much seeing ALL of it right now! It's teeny tiny, which is why I bought shelves to put on the side of our chest because there is no storage in there at all. I know, it's attractive.

The door to the back yard is in the dining area across from the desk.

Random pics begin.................

Spencer took this picture tonight because he thought it pretty much summed Rane up....knife-wielding! Spencer's so mean, he calls him a terrorist! Joking, of course, but he really is a menace....into everything, trying to pull all of our plugs, break the computer, shred anything, snatch anything...you get the idea. I really need a third eye to always watch the kid!

Spencer took the following pictures of Ella Ann tonight jumping off her playground. That's what she loves to do at the moment...jump off of everything. No injuries yet, but they're coming.

Pretty cool!

Lastly my video of Rane. He is after my camera case. Turn up your volume so you can hear him pant! Whew, this was a long post!