Family Time

I decided to spice up our nightly family time by incorporating an activity once a week from a workbook I ordered (ummmm...last summer...better late than never, right?). Ella Ann really, really looks forward to our family time in which we usually just read from the Bible, talk about what we read, do a memory verse and pray. She likes the reading part, dislikes the memory verse. However, when I tell her during the day that tonight we will be doing an activity during family time she gets incredibly excited. The anticipation is very fun and I am thrilled she is learning so much from doing such simple things. Once we made Noah's Ark out of a packing box and used all her stuffed animals as the passengers, we put a baby doll in a plastic bowl and floated it in the bathtub and made her search the house for "Baby Moses" and a couple of nights ago we did a play with the story of Ruth and Naomi. Each time the story is told, verses are reiterated and we end with a discussion/Q & A. It can be a little much to prepare at times but it is worth it to see Ella Ann learn and want to do it over and over and over.

I used pipe cleaners as the characters for the story of Ruth and pieces of construction paper for the land of Judah, Moab and the fields of Judah. I did the entire "skit" for Ella Ann and she really got into it. She has played with it every single day and night since and we have had to repeat the entire activity the following night for our family time. She will spread it all out of the floor and spend some time acting out the story. Side note, though, sometimes Ruth, Naomi and Boaz magically turn into Dora, Boots, and Ally (friend of Dora's). Funny, funny kid.

The balloon was also part of the activity. Ruth is drawn on the balloon, I know I am such a fantastic artist, and to show how Ruth "clung" to Naomi we rubbed the balloon on Ella Ann's head, stuck it to her backside and made her run across the room. She loved it.

What They Are Doin'

I thought it would be nice to do a post of what the best kids in the world are doing with their lives these days! They are both SO funny....Ella Ann with what comes out of her mouth and Rane with what crazy thing he does on a daily basis. It is so fun to be in this house all day with them. Even though it can be rough at times they are the best kids and I cannot ever get enough of them. Rane is learning so rapidly now. He 15 months and full of personality. He is such a cute, affectionate, social and sweet boy. He said "Daddy" (not Dada) for the first time yesterday and that was very exciting for Spencer to hear! His vocabulary is really starting to get going now and we can understand a lot of what he says, even though most people wouldn't get it. He says "Hieeeeeeee!" to anyone that passes and waves, "Byeeeeeeee!" to anyone that passes as well. He can say a few animal noises and knows a few body parts. He can say "thank you" but it sounds like, "Taaa doo!" He can also say "cheese," "cracker" but it sounds like "cra cra," "nana" for banana, "caaaa" for car, "baaaa" for ball and "abeeee" for baby. He has started grabbing his diaper and saying, "inkeeeeeee" when he has pooped. Do you know how thrilling this is for me? This hopefully will mean he will be a breeze to potty train! He has also started learning the workings of our house hold, i.e., where shoes go, where dirty clothes go, putting his milk on the table at meals and in the fridge afterwards, how to unlock doors (great), when we say it's "nite nite" time he will grab his blanket, say "nite nite" over and over and walk to his room and he will also start heading to his room when we tell him "Go get a diaper Rane."

Ella Ann is loving to learn these days. Spencer is going to teach her how to tie her shoes in the next couple of days since I, the lefty, cannot even attempt to teach my right-handed girl. She loves watching Samantha Brown on the travel channel with me during the week while I eat my lunch and Rane naps. I've always watched "Passport to Europe" or "Passport to Great Weekends" and now Ella Ann has picked up watching it with me. She loves Samantha Brown...she loves her hair, what she wears, her bathing suits, her laugh....you name it. She wants to BE Samantha Brown! We have fun watching it together....all the neat cities and countries she goes to, hotels she stays in, amazing restaurants she goes to and what she does for fun while she is visiting. Samantha always stays in the nicest hotels and will often take advantage of the spas there. When she is getting a massage on the television Ella Ann will say, "Ooooooo Mom, that feels SO good! I want to do that!" Is she my clone, or what? She has actually learned quite a lot from watching the show each day and she has been bitten by the travel bug. She wants to see the world and do all kinds of fun things....just like Samantha, of course! Spencer's office was in the process of moving and they were going to toss a big map of the world so he brought it home and we will look at it after we watch the show and I will show her where Samantha Brown was today. Usually every evening Ella Ann and Spencer will lay out the big map in the living room and have a geography lesson. She knows all the continents, lots and lots of countries and places within the U.S. She LOVES it!

I have also started to ween her off of her music in the car. A girl can listen to Veggie Tales only so many times before wanting to run the van off into a ditch! Since I now have a working CD player I have been "making" Ella Ann listen to my GOOD music and she has really enjoyed all of it. Her favorite, hands down, is "The Jersey Boys" soundtrack. She sings "Sherry Baby" and "Big Girls Don't Cry" all day. She also enjoys Motown music and Sugarland. Ella Ann always asks me, "Mommy, what are they singing about?" Well how do I explain love, heartbreak, cheating, etc. to a 4 year old? Today we were listening to a Motown CD and the song on was "Lets Get It On." Ella Ann asks, "What are they singing about?" Ummmm....skip to next song immediately!

The following story will sum up Ella Ann in a nutshell (how girly she truly is in case you had any doubts). She uses a Disney princess place mat on the table that has all the "important" princesses on it. She will cover up Jasmine every single day with her napkin because she doesn't want to look at her at all. Why you ask? Because Jasmine wears pants. "Mommy, I do not like Jasmine. She wears pants. When we go to Disney World I do NOT want to see Jasmine. I will not talk to her. Princesses DON'T wear pants. She is NOT a princess." So Ella Ann is prejudice against girls that wear pants, fyi.

Rane loves my Tupperware drawer but today he decided to actually get in it! He threw every piece out of it after getting in. He thought it was SO fun!

Weekend Time

As I mentioned in my previous post, Papa and Nana paid us a visit this past weekend. It was great to have them here and I really appreciated them, along with Spencer, taking Rane out for the morning while I hosted the shower for Jana. We got to spend some quality time with them on Saturday and they went to church with us Sunday morning before they headed home. Since I was so busy prepping for the shower on Friday and pooped from the festivities on Saturday we just HAD to order dinner in. Such a bummer. ha! We tried a Thai restaurant near our home on Saturday night and really enjoyed the food. I love exploring Atlanta with my taste buds!

Ella Ann and Rane both enjoyed having their grandparents around. Rane got to show off his walking skills and Ella Ann paraded around the house in all of her costumes, surprise, surprise. She was not too happy with their departure Sunday morning. It will be so nice once we move to Nashville so we can be closer to our loved ones. There will no longer be any tearful goodbyes once we are there! Thanks again, Gary and Gayla, for the visit!

Ella Ann told Spencer, "My head itches," which lately calls for an immediate stop-whatever-you-are-doing-and-inspect-the-head type of thing.

I took the below pictures last week. Rane loves his blanket almost as much as Ella Ann loves hers. He has always wrapped himself up in it when he sleeps but since he has been walking he will wrap it around himself and walk around the house! It is so funny!

He looks like one of the wise men!

Showering Jana

Today Christy (one of our friends), Heidi (Jana's sister) and I threw Jana a baby shower to celebrate baby Evelyn that will arrive in June. We had a great time this morning with friends! Ella Ann was so excited to get to spend some time with her sister, a.k.a. best friend Mara Kate! She woke up at 7 a.m. and asked when Mara Kate would be getting here! Heidi, Christy and I got everything nice and pretty before the guests arrived and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. We had lots of food, played two games and watched Jana open a bunch of gifts. Ruth brought her daughters, Anjuli and Keona, so the four girls had a grand time together. They never interrupted the shower or caused any commotion...they were little angels! Jana received some really nice gifts and we had a good time just chatting. Gary and Gayla came down this weekend for a visit (another post to come) so both of them and Spencer vacated the premises with Rane while the shower took place. How nice! I was able to relax and enjoy my company!

I sent the beautiful hydrangeas home with Jana as a reminder of this day and how special Evelyn is to all of us. (Side note: yes, you see bean burritos from Taco Bell on a silver platter. I put them out as a joke because that is what Jana has craved throughout her pregnancy. They were the first food to be eaten! ha!)

Like my vegetable tree?

Christy made the awesome pink cupcakes! I made the chocolate covered "strawberries," which are actually a strawberry marshmallow and a Hershey kiss dipped in chocolate made to look like a strawberry.

It was truly a girly day! The little girls enjoyed their lunch together at their own table!

Mommy and soon-to-be big sister, Mara Kate!

Mara Kate received a few gifts too!

Ella Ann's room post shower!

Sweet friends!

Charleston

We're back! Mom drove down on Wednesday for our annual girls trip but this year it included a little boy! We decided to go to Charleston, our second visit to the city, because we both loved it so much the first time and really wanted to go back.

Let me back up for a sec and just say that Ella Ann decided to house some lice on her head last week, specifically the day before my mom arrived. Figures. Spencer was sitting beside her and saw something crawling in her hair and pulled out a bug....then another.....then another...then another, etc. We looked up pictures of lice on the Internet and, bingo, she had 'em. I have always had a fear of getting lice as a kid and now a fear of one of my kids getting them. Well even though the fear is conquered I will never be the same. I cannot get the picture of bugs (big and small) and nits (nests) in my daughter's hair out of my head. So gross. I immediately went to CVS and bought Rid, the lice shampoo. The pediatrician said the most important thing I could do was COMB and when I thought I had combed enough I should comb some more. So comb I did. For two solid hours. Ella Ann ate her dinner while I combed her hair one inch at a time with the fine-tooth comb that came in the shampoo box. I was so exhausted. Many suggested I should have just chopped her hair but I would have never, ever done that no matter how long it took! I swore, though, when I was done that there wouldn't be a single nit or bug on that head of hers. After that I had to clean, clean, clean her room, bedding and the house. I must have done a great job because I have yet to see another bug! I had to make sure she was bug-free because Rane, Mom and I were sharing a hotel room with her for the next 3 days! So that was that.

So we arrived in Charleston mid-afternoon on Thursday and hit the ground running. King Street, where all the restaurants and stores were located, was where we wanted to spend our time. The kids did great and I cannot complain. We had a heated pool at our hotel so Ella Ann spend Rane's nap time with Mimi at the pool. She loved every minute spent in the water. Rane slept okay while we were there. Sunday morning he was up at 4:30 a.m. screaming so I gave him pain reliever for his teeth and he went back to sleep, after screaming for an hour. He hated being in the stroller most of the time so that wasn't very fun. We let him out to walk often but he wouldn't hold our hands and would go the opposite direction we wanted to walk. He loved being at the park on King so he could run like crazy, as could Ella Ann. Ella Ann was quite the trooper with walking most of the time and did well while Mom and I browsed the stores. She ate her weight in cupcakes and ice cream, as did I! We love a cupcake bakery they have on King Street called "Cupcakes" and I ate the most delicious red velvet cupcake I've ever had in my life. It was bliss!

Mom and I enjoyed seafood at each meal except for breakfast. Our hotel had a wonderful breakfast buffet so Rane had a ball eating his way through the buffet. He loves grits....a true southern man! I have to applaud Ella Ann for eating whatever we ordered off the menu at every single restaurant, a first for her.

So all in all we had a wonderful trip and I miss the city already, however, I do not miss sharing a hotel room with a 4 year old and a 15 month old! Thanks again, Mom, for everything! I took over 60 pictures so click HERE to view them all.

Watching the people go by at dinner one evening.

Yummmmm! Need I say more?

"It's SO good Mommy!"

This was what it was like to walk down the street with Rane....stop and go, stop and go.

"Jimmy!" (Inside joke: My dad's best friend, Jimmy, hates it when we throw coins in fountains because he says we are wasting money so each time we see a fountain we always throw a coin and say, "Jimmy!")

Christ Is Risen!

Easter Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year because of what we are celebrating. "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" Christ Is Risen! What a celebration today should be for all of us! We started our day by worshiping the Risen Lord. I worked in the nursery, luckily with Rane's nursery class, during the first service and attended the second service with Spencer (who rushed there from work). It was an amazing morning filled with wonderful music from our orchestra and choir.

The Easter bunny visited the kids this afternoon. Ella Ann was thrilled with her slinky, which Rane already broke, dot candy (remember the candy on paper rolls??), chocolate bunny, coloring book, Cinderella socks (her fav) and Fancy Nancy book. We have just been introduced to the world of Fancy Nancy. Ella Ann loves the books about a little girl who dresses up, acts like royalty and uses big words, like glamorous, because "fancier" is better. Very cute and very Ella Ann. Rane received "My First Bible," a boy puzzle....finally, and a few other books....boring Easter basket for him.

I also prepared a feast for dinner tonight that included ham, hashbrown casserole, roasted asparagus and strawberry mousse. I really cannot believe that everyone at the table ate the exact same thing...ALL of it! Usually I am making other foods for Ella Ann, and sometimes Rane, because what Spencer and I eat is too spicy, she's allergic or just plain won't eat what we are eating. I have tried and tried to enforce the "we all eat the same thing" rule but it is hard to send your baby to bed hungry so I usually end up serving them what Spencer and I eat along with some foods that I know they will eat, like peas and cheese. However, tonight was magical! ha! Ella Ann told me numerous times, "I LOVE the ham, Mommy!" Wow! I am on cloud nine! She begrudgingly ate the potatoes but she enjoyed the asparagus. Rane ate every single bite on his tray....he loved it all. I even gave Ella Ann a "real" plate to eat on tonight and she got to eat out of my pretty dessert cups as well. I think we will start serving her food on "real" plates from now on, it's time. Rane got to eat his very own strawberry mousse for dessert too! I even put his in a special dessert cup (of course I held it and fed him, but still!)! This was his very first dessert besides the birthday cake he did not eat when he turned 1. I swear he would've have licked the bowl had I let him....he was silenced into food bliss for a solid 8 minutes!

I took a bunch of (not good) pictures of the kids very quickly before I left for church this morning.....no time for posing. Rane looked so handsome in his seersucker shorts with a belt, white polo and brown sandals! What a little man he is!

He really just wanted Ella Ann's chocolate bunny! He knows what's good!

With her new Fancy Nancy book.

Lovin' his mousse!

Ella Ann just ate the Cool Whip off the top...wouldn't touch the mousse. What is wrong with her???

The Hunt is On

We attended our church's annual Easter party and egg hunt at a member's home this afternoon. This day is the highlight of our spring each year because Spencer and I have so much fun and the kids do too. It amazes me each time that this family opens their home to an obscene amount of children on a complete sugar high and lots and lots of foods and candy are involved. One year I watched a child rub a strawberry on their WHITE couch. I asked Stephanie today how she maintains self-control when she hosts the party each year and her response was that the first year they did it God taught her a lesson on belongings and how unimportant they are when she had lasagna stains on her new couches delivered an hour before the party started. She said she realized that it was a waste to worry about "stuff" because it doesn't matter and doing this for the church family is so much fun and making all the children so happy and seeing their smiling faces was more important. Wow. My hat goes off to her.

First off, Ella Ann sprang out of bed this morning and came running in the living room because she was so excited about the hunt! We have been looking forward to this for weeks so being that the day was here she could hardly contain herself! Spencer had to work this morning so I was all alone for a while at the party. It was our first year taking Rane and all I have to say is that my arm is extremely sore from trying to hold him while he fought me to get down for nearly two hours. He was ALL over the place...wandering down hallways, up stairs, down stairs (he doesn't know how to do that so you can imagine how that ended), pulling coasters off tables, bringing me random stuff from their house and off the floor, sitting on other people's laps and eating their food (not kidding), and trying to pull bowls of food off the buffet table. Yes, it was exhasting. I really wanted to chat with all of my friends but it was impossible. Oh and there was still Ella Ann who I had to feed as well. Thankfully she can do everything on her own so she was fine and comfortable enough for me to leave her and search high and low for Rane. At one point I couldn't find her and I looked up on their hill and she was already hunting eggs...yeah, missed that one. Spencer arrived as I was shoveling food down my throat and feeding Rane in order to contain him in one spot. He was able to eat a plate of food and see Rane sort of hunt eggs before he was called in....and I was left alone....again. Keep in mind it was wall-to-wall adults and kids inside and outside, which was why it was so hard to "control" Rane and keep up with Ella Ann!

Rane attempting to hunt eggs was so funny. Ella Ann and I did a practice run with him this morning in the kitchen and he figured it out quickly. Well when it was time to step up he forgot what he was taught and just sat down. He found one little egg and that was all he needed. He put it in his basket and just sat in the grass. As you will see from the pictures below he was so very interested in this one egg in his basket. All he wanted to do was open his basket and nearly put his head in it trying to see the egg. I tried to force, ummm... I mean encourage, him to walk and find more but it was useless. It was over. I wanted to video him on his very first Easter egg hunt but trying to manage him, the camera, the video camera and keep up with Ella Ann was just too much.

Ella Ann, however, had her game face on and she filled her basket to the brim! It seems like yesterday she was Rane's age and Spencer and I were trying to prod her along to find the not-so-hidden eggs and now she did it without us even around. I did get some pictures of her mid-hunt, which is why she has such a determined look on her face. She took over an hour going through her loot from the hunt when we got home. What an exciting day it was for her. I brought Rane inside and put him down 40 minutes late for his nap and he was out. I never heard a single peep for over 3 hours and I still had to wake him up!

Waiting for his food.

Ella Ann and Anjuli ate lunch together. It was cute to watch them!

There it is...the lone egg that he loved.

Trying to get the egg for the umpteenth time.

Nope, he wouldn't budge.

Silly boy!

She's on a mission!

I tried my hardest to get a good picture of them but without Spencer it was virtually impossible. See...he still wants in that basket! Ella Ann was actually mad in this picture because I made her stop and take a picture with Rane. I don't think she could've fit another egg in that basket of hers!