Days with the Jensens: Friends & Fun

One of my best friends/sorority sister that I have been friends with since we were freshmen in college came down for a visit this weekend. She lives in Kentucky so she made a longer weekend out of it and arrived at our house late Thursday night and stayed until Sunday. Andrea loves, loves, loves to shop so we did that pretty much all day Friday and Saturday and well into both evenings. We had a blast! Fortunately Spencer got off of work fairly early both days so he could help me out with the kids, except for on Saturday since he was on call. The kids were troopers, though, and we made it quick for them at Nordstrom's that morning. While Andrea was at the Philosophy counter I let Rane crawl around the store and in the mall and he absolutely was in heaven! It was a wide open space and he had free range! Andrea and I stayed up really late (I mean like after 1 a.m. on Saturday night....I don't know that hour unless I am up with a newborn), got sushi and sashimi (alone!!!!) Friday night, went out for lunch on Saturday, cooked here on Saturday night, played with the kids and like I said, shopped, shopped, shopped. It was a fun-filled visit and Ella Ann and I were so sad to see her go this morning. The kids adored her and Andrea enjoyed spending time with them. Ella Ann wanted to be on her lap the entire time she was at the house and Rane was so curious about her he was constantly after he as well so she never got a break while she was here!

The first two pictures, though, are of Rane. Spencer went in to get him after his (brief) nap and this is how he found him.......

So that's what he was up to instead of sleeping!

Believe me when I say they were both all about Aunt Andrea!

So while Rane was crawling around in the mall a store had popcorn as part of their display. Rane was bound and determined to figure out a way to get through the glass and get the popcorn in his mouth. I was laughing so hard at him because he kept going back to the same spot and trying so hard to touch the popcorn but, obviously, every single time he'd hit the glass! People would stop and watch him and crack up!

Andrea and I before she left this morning.

I tried really, really hard before and after church to get a Christmas-card-worthy picture of the kids. Yeah, that didn't quite work out as you can see......

I mean we have like 30 pictures similar to these. We didn't use a single one and ended up using one from another day. My friend, Janelle, made the kids' shirts and I got Ella Ann's skirt off Etsy. They looked so cute this morning!

I bought a gingerbread house for Spencer and Ella Ann to make today. I've had the house for a while and we told Ella Ann that she could make it today and she bugged us for two days straight about it. We told her she could do it after rest time so before rest time she said, "I am going to think about that gingerbread house the entire time at rest time! I'm not going to sleep at all!" During our prayer before we ate dinner tonight she interrupted me and said, "And thank you, God, for making the gingerbread house today." Bless her sweet little heart! She was over the moon about it and it turned out great!!!