Christmas Week

The week of Christmas was very fun and very busy for us. We attended our church's Christmas cantata, "Encounters," on Sunday night. Ella-Ann sang with the Children's Choir and she did a great job! This is the first year she was old enough to be a part of it so Spencer and I were the proud parents watching our big girl belt it out in front of the entire church congregation and then some!

On Monday I drove to Jana's house to (finally) spend some time with her and the girls. I told Ella-Ann we were going there that morning, had I told her earlier she wouldn't have slept the night before, and she started jumping up and down and squealing! She was SO happy to get to see her best friend! I went even further and told her that she was going to spend the night with her that night and boy was she even more pumped! We arrived that morning and Ella-Ann and Mara Kate went directly to Mara Kate's bedroom, shut the door and only came out if they needed something. Jana and I enjoyed catching up and Rane was a trooper since he was the only male and wasn't allowed in to play with the girls! Ella-Ann did great spending the night and I met Jana Tuesday morning to pick her up. Needless to say, Ella-Ann was not happy whatsoever to be going home.

Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with last minute errands, finishing up wrapping presents and cleaning my house. I started feeling bad on Tuesday afternoon and by Wednesday I had a full blown nasty, nasty cold thanks to Rane. This was not a good start to the Christmas holiday, to say the least. I couldn't stop coughing, my head was ready to explode and I couldn't taste anything.

My parents drove down Wednesday night but they didn't come over to our house (they stay in a hotel near us) until Thursday morning. The kids were so excited to see them and vice versa! We unloaded their car and our tree was complete! Lots of pretty presents for Rane to get into! We went out for lunch and laid low at the house all day. Spencer and I went to Atlantic Station and we were going to see "Tron" or grab dinner but both of us felt so bad that we just went to H&M and grabbed coffee. It was still nice to get out, just us two, before the baby arrives.

On Christmas Eve we let the kids open one gift. I made sure Rane opened his Dyson vacuum and Ella-Ann opened the game "Guess Who." We all took turns playing the game with her all day long...she loved it! Rane was all about his vacuum and I don't think he turned it off all day! I was feeling really bad still and hadn't slept at all since I came down with the cold so I was no fun that day, really I was no fun the entire Christmas holiday and just wanted to get a good night's sleep but sleep was elusive the entire week, as was my sense of taste. Mom and I made our usual Christmas Eve appetizer spread for an early dinner that day and according to everyone else, the food was great! I couldn't taste a single thing and was so so so mad that I couldn't even taste the amazing homemade red velvet cake that my parents had brought down (red velvet is my absolute favorite)! Ella-Ann and I also baked cookies for Santa that afternoon.

That evening after the kids went to bed the elves got busy in the living room assembling the kids gifts from Santa. Ella-Ann received a new bike since she had outgrown her old one and Cinderella's Castle complete with all the princesses and princes. Rane got Lucky the horse (a bouncing, soft horse that talks and sings) and a Toy Story ATV. Our stockings were overflowing with lots of fun stuff from Santa and since I had been sleeping on the couch I had even more trouble sleeping since I was sitting there staring at all the fun gifts for the kids and couldn't wait for Christmas morning!

My parents got up super early in order to be at our house by 7 a.m. when the kids woke up Christmas morning. We let them out of their cages, I mean rooms, as soon as my parents walked in the door and they went racing to the living room. They were so excited about their gifts from Santa and both of them went right to work on their stockings! Stockings are my favorite part of Christmas with my parents because they are filled with fun things, and stuff Spencer and I actually need, and Mom and Dad do a great job with them. After we ate breakfast casserole and a new kind of monkey bread that I had made we started tearing into the presents since Ella-Ann could wait no longer! We were finished with everything by 8:30 a.m. and Ella-Ann was on her new bike circling the house, Rane was all over the place and into his stuff and Ella-Ann's, Dad and Spencer were helping the kids and Mom and I were cleaning up. We decided to go to our church's Christmas Day service that morning, which was very special to Spencer and I. It was less than an hour and was very kid friendly, which was a good thing because Rane had developed another cold so he would've had to stay with us anyway in the sanctuary. Ella-Ann, for the first time, sat down front with all the kids and listened to Paul, our pastor, speak about Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas. It was great!

We came home and ate our leftover appetizers for lunch and pretty much played all day with the kids. I felt the absolute worst on Christmas Day, which was quite a bummer, but I still had fun watching Ella-Ann and Rane play and have such a good time with their Mimi and Grandpa. Mom and I prepared our traditional Christmas Day dinner and we all ate very well that night. We ate by candlelight, which was so fun for the kids, and enjoyed our time together as a family around the table. Before dinner we opened our "Thankful" jars that we had been contributing to all year. This is a tradition I started last year at Thanksgiving and my parents loved it so much they wanted their own Thankful jar at their house this year. Since we were not together over Thanksgiving this year we opened our jars at Christmas. The Thankful jar sits in the kitchen all year with strips of paper and a pen in front of it. Whenever we are feeling thankful or think of something to write, we write it down on a strip of paper and deposit it in the jar. People who come to our houses also participate so it's fun to read what our friends are thankful for as well! We dumped all the paper out into a huge bowl and Mom and I read them. Some are sweet, some are super funny, some are very meaningful and others bring a tear to our eyes. Ella-Ann really gets into it and often contributes to the jar throughout the year and by the end of this year she was writing her own "blessings" with help from Spencer and I. It is fun to look back over the last year at things we are thankful for and how much our family is blessed beyond measure. Opening our jars was my favorite part of the entire Christmas holiday. On a side note, while we were reading from the jars one of us asked Rane what he was thankful for and what does he say? "Poop!" Ohhh I thought Ella-Ann was going to wet her pants she was laughing so hard....of course, 5-year-old humor is all about the potty. It was hilarious!

After dinner that night we all loaded up in the van and took a tour around the Virginia-Highlands to look at Christmas lights. Ella-Ann loved it and I thought Rane was going to blow a gasket with all of his excitement! It was so fun! Needless to say, the kids went down for bed without a fight that night and the adults retired early as well.

My parents left early Sunday morning but it was an easy goodbye since we know we will see them very soon! We had such a wonderful Christmas this year and I family is blessed beyond belief. We have so much to be thankful for and I am glad we really focused on that this year...not just on Christmas Day but this entire month. Thanks Mom and Dad for spending yet another Christmas down south since I couldn't travel and all that you did for our family. We love you!

I took a lot of pictures so click HERE to view them.

Anna-Kate and Ella Ann ready to sing at church Sunday night.

Playing dress up at Mara Kate's house, their favorite thing to do together.

Dad played with Ella-Ann's Tinkerbell doll and all her little dress up stuff every single day with Ella-Ann and he would make up these silly stories which made Ella-Ann's day! She would get the biggest kick out of his silliness and was obviously the only one who appreciated it!

I took this picture at like 5 a.m. Christmas Eve. Since I was sleeping on the couch, or I should say just laying there not sleeping all night, I really enjoyed being alone and looking at the tree and how pretty it was while sipping coffee in the early morning hours.

Mom was vacuuming with my Dyson and Rane was right on her tail with his!

Christmas morning.

"Look! Santa ate his cookies and the reindeer at their carrots!"

This was right before we left for church Christmas morning. She did not want to get off the bike!

Ready to read from the thankful jars!

Slightly Busy....

this week to say the least. I have no idea where the last few days went. I have been going full speed ahead each and everyday and I am looking forward to next week when I don't have to get everyone out the door by a certain time and run 20 errands a day. Of course I know I'll be sitting on the couch asking what we're going to do for the day by next Wednesday! I like being pretty busy but this week has worn me out, in a good way! After Rane woke up from his nap Sunday afternoon he was running a 102 fever. With the fever came a runny, stopped up nose and a cough. The fever broke on Monday night and very strangely the virus moved to his face, mainly his eyes. They weren't running, it just looked like he had a major allergic reaction to something. I took him to the pediatrician on Tuesday and he tested negative for anything major, thank goodness. It is Friday now and he still looks like he has been through the ringer. He feels fine, just looks awful. Poor thing, yesterday he fell down and I didn't even know it until I found him because he is so horse I couldn't hear him cry! So with his cold and weird face running errands was extra fun this week! Needless to say, he got a lot of attention from strangers staring at him!

I can finally say I am finished with Christmas stuff! Yeay! I have a grocery trip to make and that is it! Finito! In between getting ready for the holiday I had Ella-Ann's class party on Thursday afternoon and her school "all-inclusive" holiday program this morning. Rane has to be at his PMO on Fridays at 9 a.m., which was what time the program started so fortunately another PMO family lives about a mile away from our house so they picked him up this morning and took him for me. Side note, it was so cute...he hoped right in that car with his friend, Stevie, and said, "Bye Mommy!" He's such a big boy! Meanwhile, Stevie was having a complete meltdown because Rane was in the car!

Ella-Ann's class party yesterday was fun and she was thrilled that I was there. They had lots of goodies and got little gift bags and cute pictures of her class from her teachers. I had to bring food for that party and to the Holiday Coffee this morning. Ella-Ann helped me make Skittle meringues yesterday afternoon for the dessert table. They turned out perfectly and were very good! If I let her Ella-Ann would have eaten 20 of them! Her favorite candy is Skittles and she is always begging me to buy her meringues when she sees them at Whole Foods so she was very happy to be making them and combining her two loves! I made it to her program 3 minutes before it started....long story as to why I was so late, just know I needed a nap by 9:30 a.m. because I had been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. So her class was so cute singing their snowflake song and Ella-Ann was belting out the words and motions like it was nobody's business!

After Rane's nap this afternoon the four of us headed to the mall to ride the famous Rich's Pink Pig and visit Santa. It wasn't nearly as busy as I had anticipated but we still waited for that silly Pig for at least 30 minutes. We didn't even wait that long in Disney for a ride! This was Rane's first ride on the Pig, or anything for that matter, and I don't think he even blinked. He sat beside Spencer and was in awe. Of course Ella-Ann loved it as well. The line for Santa was very short so we got to see him as well. I thought Rane would freak out but he did not. He just sat on his knee across from Ella-Ann and stared a hole through Santa. Meanwhile, Ella-Ann chatted it up with him and once she hopped off his lap she started jumping up and down saying, "I love Santa! I loved sitting on his lap!" We encouraged her to ask for a new baby and a bicycle, since that IS what she is receiving from Santa, which she did so at least we have our bases covered!

This Sunday evening Ella-Ann will be singing with the children's choir during the Christmas cantata service at our church. I had to take her to the big choir practice on Wednesday night. It was from 6:30-7:30 p.m. and she was the only child up on stage yawning! The girl needs her beauty sleep, what can I say? The roads were icy that evening so I had quite the backseat driver both to and from church. "Mommy, are you okay to drive in the dark?" "Be careful, be careful!" "Slow down while going down the hill! Not so fast! Watch out for that car!" Side note, I was going like 15 mph. Hopefully this means I will have a very cautious 16 year old in the future!

Thankfully it is the weekend now and Christmas break has started. I am looking forward to spending time with our family, relaxing and not going into labor!

Since Spencer had clinic Friday morning I had to video and take pictures at the same time so the pictures are not good at all, but I tried!

Ella-Ann with her sweet friend, Melissa.

Ready for the Pig to get a move on!

See his poor face? Believe me when I say it is so much better than it was earlier this week. I don't think his little hand moved off of Spencer's leg while riding the Pig!

Since Rane didn't even crack a smile and he looked so bad we didn't buy a picture this year but we may try again next week.

Rudolph

This weekend while Spencer was in Toccoa working I took the kids on Saturday afternoon to the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts to watch "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." I had never been to the Puppetry Arts Center so I was excited to go myself! The tickets included passes to the museum and the opportunity to make your own puppet. I was slightly nervous about having to do this without Spencer but I said a prayer on the way there that Rane would behave during the hour long show and that I would remain calm at all times! Well God answered my prayers because we had the best time and Rane did great! I had to put him down for his nap early because we had to leave at 2 p.m. for the 3 p.m. show since the seats were first come first serve. I wanted to be sure we had great seats because I knew Ella-Ann would not be happy if she couldn't see. We arrived in time to walk around the museum, which was my favorite part because they had several exhibits that brought back memories of my puppet-watching childhood...like puppets from "Fraggle Rock" and the Muppets. There was a life-size Big Bird on display and the kids really loved that.

Since we got there so early we were the first in line before they opened the doors to the theater. We had seats that were in the middle center of the theater so it was perfect! They show was absolutely fantastic and greatly exceeded my expectations! It was actually very high-tech and, along with the puppets, there was really cool animation involved. Ella-Ann never moved a muscle, except when the abominable snowman showed up on stage, and loved every minute of it. As soon as it was over she turned to me and said, "Mommy I loved it SO MUCH! It was so much fun! I loved Rudolph the best!" Rane really liked it as well and enjoyed all the music and funny puppets. He sat still some of the time and was off and on my lap throughout the show. He would clap and laugh and liked looking at all the other kids that surrounded us.

Afterward we headed upstairs to make our own Rudolph puppet. That was the hard part of the trip....trying to manage Rane, read directions on how to make the puppet and help Ella-Ann put it all together. Thankfully, one of the workers saw I was struggling and entertained Rane with a puppet while I helped Ella-Ann.

The kids were not happy about leaving so I think we will have to go to another show before we leave Atlanta!

With Rane it's always, "Wook Daddy, WOOOK!" Never, "Look Mommy, look!" That is what he was saying in this picture!

Creating puppets in the museum.

Going to look at the "Fraggle Rock" puppets.

I love this picture of Rane! He kept pushing the board down the hall so Ella-Ann couldn't get her head through. It was so funny!

O' Christmas Tree

There she is, our beautiful Christmas tree! In my opinion this is our best tree yet...very full, actually still alive (every year we seem to get a tree that doesn't drink water so it is dead in a week) and is full of ornaments. We have gotten quite an ornament collection over the past 7 years Spencer and I have been married and I love getting them all out to look at each year. Every trip we go on we always try to remember to buy an ornament so we will be able to remember all the places we have been as we decorate our tree each year. Ella-Ann and Rane love all of our Disney ornaments and this year Ella-Ann got to hang the one she picked out while we were in Disney World this year.

I love wrapping presents, it's like therapy to me! I tried to stick with a color scheme with the paper but there are some randoms stuck in there. I have a few presents left to wrap and I am done! My parents are coming down this year for Christmas so when their presents arrive it will look even better!

Our old school stockings, which I love. Hard to believe next year there will be five!

So I had to include this picture of Rane. He is the showman of the family, to say the least. What a ham! He always, always stands by the laundry room door that leads to our carport and watches Ella-Ann and Spencer put their coats, gloves and shoes on each morning before they leave for school. Yesterday he ran to the play kitchen and put on the oven mitts and Spencer's slippers....he was ready to go too! He also demands at least two kisses and lots of hugs from each of them before they walk outside and if he doesn't receive the right number then he gets extremely upset and Spencer can't even shut the door!

An Early Christmas

This past weekend we traveled to Tennessee to have an early Christmas with the Jensens. Because I am unable to travel around the end of December we decided to celebrate the first weekend of this month to make sure we were all together and I was not (hopefully) going to go into labor! It all worked out perfectly and we had the best weekend! Gary and Gayla have pulled up roots in Kentucky and moved about 15 minutes away from Zach and Mandy's house, which we are incredibly excited about! We had Christmas at their house Friday night and even though they are still not completely moved in and settled, Gayla had the entire house decorated and looking like they have been there for years. It was so wonderful! We had a great dinner together Friday night after we arrived and the kids were beyond ready to tear into their presents afterward! All the kids received so many nice gifts...lots and lots of very fun toys! Ella-Ann loves her Easy Bake Oven (we made fondue in it today), roller skates, bean bag, art and jewelry kits and everything else she opened, as did Rane! I asked for bean bags for the kids this year because I knew they would enjoy them throughout the years and they really need their own seats in this house. Rane loves his and will just curl up on it with his blanket and relax. He got a lot of cars and tools and a Mr. Potato Head with like 50 million pieces and he has played with it all nonstop. He carries around his drill and flashlight all waking hours....even to run errands today! It's fun to watch him gravitate toward "boy" toys now and I find it super cute that he carries around tools and cars at all times.

Friday night all the kids, poor Gary and Gayla I don't think they realized what they were getting into, stayed at their house. Spencer and I went back to Zach and Mandy's house to spend the night and have a blissful, peaceful night sleep! It was awesome! Mandy called Gary Saturday morning and was told the kids were up at 5:45 a.m.! Whew, glad they weren't with us!

Saturday we hung around Mandy's house and the kids just played with all their new stuff. Carter received the game "Guess Who" and they played that over and over and over all day. We gave Ethan a mini Dyson vacuum and it is a very good thing I bought Rane one for Christmas because once he saw it he never let go of it the entire afternoon and I am not exaggerating at all. If anyone else tried to play with it he would pitch a fit like I have never, ever seen him do before! He was LIVID if anyone touched it. Rane would go running after whoever took his vacuum and would scream "VACUUM RANE!!!! VACUUM RANE!!!" It was the first time we have ever heard him say his own name, let alone use it in a possessive form! ha! He always likes to follow me around when I vacuum so I figured I would just get him one of his own because he often tries to steal mine!

I received a Dyson as well as a big birthday/Christmas present from Gary and Gayla. I am over the moon about it and I wanted it put together as soon as we walked in the door Sunday afternoon! I was vacuuming up pine needles after we put up our tree yesterday afternoon (we decorated it tonight...what a treat with Rane) and wanted to do a vacuuming dance I was so excited about that machine! I vacuumed the entire house today: furniture, under tables, cracks and crevices, etc. and I may just get it out tomorrow and do it again for fun!

Thanks again Gary, Gayla, Zach, Mandy, Craig and Kasey for everything and all you did for us! We had a blast!

I only posted a few pictures below so click HERE to view all of them.

I love this picture of the big kids!

Gary tried to eat a slice of red velvet cake but the little wolves descended upon him so quickly that he didn't even eat a single bite! Rane eventually ended up in his lap!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like....

Christmas! I have really started preparing for the holiday quite early this year because of the "just in case" factor with the baby. I want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row in case Baby J decides to make her grand appearance before I would like her to! Last weekend I made my Christmas card and by the end of the day today they were in the mailbox, which Spencer tells me is totally unacceptable because it's way too early but I will not have a stack of envelopes sitting on my counter just because! I have decorated the house and we are putting up our Christmas tree early next week. I only have a couple of presents left to buy and wrap so other than that I am done! I do want to do some holiday baking because I need an excuse to bake lots of yummy treats so we will do that soon as well. I bought a gingerbread house at Trader Joe's this week for Spencer and Ella-Ann to put together. They did it last year and had a great time, especially Ella-Ann, so hopefully this will be a family tradition for us. Rane just wanted to eat the candy so I fed him a snack in his chair so he could get out of the way and watch. The house is way too cute and I love it! They did a fantastic job!

Yesterday we started our Advent Calender that Jana made for us a couple of years ago. I always look forward to reading the stories and having the kids put the pieces on the tree. Ella-Ann was very excited to get it out this year and get started! Rane, of course, just wants to take the pieces off the tree!

Ella-Ann was thrilled that this was the day her and Daddy were putting together the house! She has been asking to do it about every other hour of the day since I bought it!

The completed house! Hopefully we can keep Rane off the table for the next 4 weeks!

Tonight we did two days for our tree since we are headed out of town.

Of course I tried my best to get a picture of both of them looking at me but Rane was so concerned with the apple he put on the tree that I could not get him to turn around!

Thanksgiving....Just the 4 of Us

Since we just got home from Disney on Sunday and I met Gayla halfway between Atlanta and Nashville on Monday morning to pick up Rane there was absolutely no way the four of us were getting back in that van to go anywhere for Thanksgiving! My Dad also had to work the day after Thanksgiving so my parents couldn't come down either. Spencer and I talked a couple of weeks earlier and said how weird it was going to be to be without family for the first time on a major holiday and we thought we might get a little lonely. However, with the fast paced week we had last week, all the car rides and fatigue from traveling we were actually very thankful to just have this week to spend with each other and rest! We all slept in (until 7 a.m.) each morning, except for Ella-Ann, who went to bed at 6:30 p.m. most nights and would sleep until 7:30 a.m.! Poor girl, she still hasn't recovered from Disney! On Thanksgiving day I made all the sides and the pumpkin pie for dessert but I didn't feel like dealing with a turkey so we bought a huge pre-cooked breast from the grocery store. Yes, we did go vegetarian but we couldn't skip out on turkey for Thanksgiving! We played Christmas music, the kids danced around the house all day, we baked and cooked together, had a super fancy table (according to Ella-Ann), and really enjoyed our time together. I was so excited because all of the food turned out great and all of us ate a ton! What warmed my heart the most was when Ella-Ann said, "Mommy, this food is SO good! You did such a good job! I love it!" Ahhhh....words that rarely come out of the mouth of my picky eater! Rane, on the other hand, demonstrated his love of the food I cooked by devouring a massive plate full and eating a large piece of pumpkin pie...his first! It was wonderful!

On Black Friday I ventured out with both kids (Spencer worked that morning) to Nordstrom Rack, Toys R Us and TJ Maxx in hopes of snagging some good bargains, which I did not but bought a few items anyway. I was pleasantly surprised by how there were no crowds, no lines for me to wait in and no crazy people! The kids did well too and we had a good time. Ella-Ann and I watched "Beauty and the Beast" that afternoon while Rane slept and Spencer visited with his cousin, Chad, who was in town for the holiday. It was the first time she watched it and she cried and cried when the Beast was near death after the town tried to kill him. It was so hard to contain my laughter....it was too cute! We also watched a Christmas episode, which we've seen before, of Disney World getting decorated. It was fun to watch that with her because since we just got back she recognized all the decorations, trees and sights around the parks. She loved it!

We mainly just hung out around the house the entire time. On Saturday I worked on getting a good Christmas card picture of the kids and Ella-Ann helped me decorate the house, which was fun. However, I am super close to turning around and putting it all back up in the boxes because Rane is already driving us nuts with continuously touching everything in sight! I only have a few "up high" places to put decorations so Spencer and I have said, "NO RANE!" at least 50 times this afternoon! The tree and presents should be quite fun with him. We also played outside in the backyard that afternoon. It was cool and sunny, a perfect fall day. Spencer raked leaves for the kids to play in. It was Rane's first time and he kept saying, "Uh-oh," to Ella-Ann throwing the leaves up in the air and having them go everywhere! He is such a neat freak!

My little helpers on Thanksgiving morning!

For many months now Rane takes some of my kitchen gadgets out of a cabinet and gets inside. Every so often he will pop his head out and yell "BOO!"

Spencer carving the turkey.

Every time we eat by candlelight Ella-Ann goes crazy. She thinks it is so much fun! I used all of our good serving trays, bowls and utensils, along with cloth napkins with napkin rings even if it was just us 4!

Ella-Ann did a fantastic job helping me bake the pumpkin pie. The best part was she actually ate it!

On Friday afternoon I took the kids to Baskin Robins for some free ice cream. I signed the four of us up to be members of their birthday club so we got a free scoop of ice cream on our birthday. I even got a coupon for Spencer's half birthday so Rane got a scoop too! Ella-Ann didn't speak a single word until her chocolate fudge ice cream was gone!

Rane looked so handsome and so old in his outfit I put on him for our Christmas card this morning!

Playing outside Saturday afternoon.