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!

I Like to Move it Move it

No I really don't, but that seems to be what we've been doing for the last 3 months. So tired, so tired is all I have to say. Really, reeeeeeelly tired. We went to Kentucky to Spencer's Aunt Connie and Uncle Wayne's house for a family get together this past weekend. We had such a good time! Ella Ann played until she could play no more but she still got upset when it was time to leave. She got to play all day with Carter, Seth, Clisty, Thatcher and Hadley. Ethan and Rane just got entertained and held the entire time! We had great food, some of the kids and adults played corn hole, ate watermelon outside, played tennis and watched sports so a good time was had by all! Thanks again Wayne and Connie for having us!

I had to have everything pretty much done as far as moving goes before we left on Friday afternoon because the movers were coming Monday morning. The kids were staying in Kentucky with Spencer's parents on Saturday evening and Spencer and I headed back with the Evans' that evening. We got up early Sunday morning and headed home. We did all the last minute details of packing and cleaned the house really well. We sold our living room furniture and a bookshelf so we sat on the floor and watched television that evening. I was thrilled to not have to move three large pieces of furniture because with a moving company, time is money! I moved us with the movers most of the day on Monday. I felt so sorry for them because our house sits on a hill and the back end of the truck wouldn't allow them to drive up the driveway so they had to park in the street at the bottom of the hill and the four men had to haul all of our stuff, all of it, up the hill. Man they worked hard. Once they got everything in, or actually before that, I worked in a flurry to get everything unpacked and believe me when I say I did not stop until Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. (to post this). Our new couch that we absolutely love was delivered Tuesday morning so I now get to actually sit down on it and enjoy it's comfort! Spencer and I went to IKEA Tuesday afternoon to buy some shelving for the house because we didn't have any place to store books and decorations in any room and we still have to buy two more book cases soon. I had to go back to IKEA today to return one shelf and I was so exhausted and physically worn out that the IKEA associate helping me said something a little off to me and I literally broke down and cried. I certainly hit a wall! What he said normally wouldn't have bothered me but I couldn't handle it today! I was so ready to come home and veg on the couch but the pictures that needed to be hung on the wall kept beckoning to me so I hung them...all of them. Our house is completely and totally done. Ahhhhhh. It was worth the physical exhaustion on my behalf to have it all done and not have anything pressing hanging over my head because those of you who know me know I couldn't have slept a wink until it was finished!

Spencer and I enjoyed our four full days of alone time and went to dinner one night. It was great to eat dinner on TV trays at whatever time we wanted and not have to put anyone to bed! I will be meeting my parents in Tennessee tomorrow at noon to pick up the kiddos. Back to reality! Thanks again grandparents for your help (again) with our move! I certainly couldn't have done all that I did with Ella Ann and Rane around!

Here are some pictures from our weekend. I will post pictures of the house sometime soon.

Ella Ann playing tennis for the first time with Clisty.

Nanny and Rane.

Seth and Ella Ann were big buddies! You rarely saw one without the other all day! I know Ella Ann loves to boss him around and poor Seth lets her!

Seth and Ella Ann discussing life. I overheard her asking Seth, "Are you 1, 1 1/2, 2, 3 or 4? You're 1 Seth, you're 1."

The two of them sat under that tree and talked and talked. It was so cute!

Falling down onto the quilt laid out in the grass after chasing each other in the yard.

Running ON the cornhole game!

Wayne and Connie gave the kids goodie bags.

Daddy had to give Rane a little help with his present. They each got a cup with their names on it. You pushed a button on the bottom and they would light up. They were quite a hit! Rane was ready to handle a big boy cup!

Sitting outside enjoying the awesome weather.

All of the kids piled into Connie's closet to see their cups light up in the dark!

Ella Ann checking out Ethan and Hadley on Nanny's lap.

Nanny with Hadley and Ethan.

Rane entertaining himself with a jump rope!

New toys to play with! Wahoo!