Thursday, December 1, 2011

"Momma, where's my elf???"

This is what Trace asks me today as he's walking around the house nearly crying searching everywhere for "his" Elf. Yes, his Elf on the Shelf that didn't get the message that it was time to come to our house and start watching him to report back to Santa. Isn't there some parent or elf code that we all should know about so my child doesn't cry and think he's been forgotten?

If you don't know what I am talking about, you must not have an Elf on the Shelf...I recommend you go to any Target and find one...or better yet, if you do have one, go to any Target, and try to explain to your child why there are boxes and boxes of them at a STORE.

Hmmm...well, I sure hope that Trace's Elf makes it to our house tomorrow...code for...JP get up and go hide that darn thing...AND make it cute, because Trace's cousin's elf was in the fridge and made her milk turn green...oh my...'tis the freakin' season!

Monday, September 26, 2011

The story of my life

I have laughed so hard I've cried watching this video. It is truly the story of my life with these two. Supposedly, Peggy has video of JP doing this exact type of thing to his brother and sister. A chip off the old block I guess. You've got to love Elizabeth's piercing attempt at getting him to stop...hope you enjoy (and can feel my pain) as much as we did...AND yes, she gets him good after I stopped filming (just in case you were wondering).

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Not to be forgotten

Elizabeth Yvonne Jansen, my baby girl. She has been very patient as we (yes, mostly me) has focused all our attention on Trace and his big start. Well, today was her day and she started back at Mother's Morning Out. This year she is in the Turtles class and gets to eat lunch in the lunchroom which is fun. We went to her open house last week and breezed through drop off today. She was so ready to get back to school and was excited to tell me that she got to go to the playground, "Two times!"

So, here is to my other baby...and if you can't tell from the pictures, JP and I think we are going to have our hands full with this one!

...Enjoying open house in her new Turtles class...

 ...First day pose...

...In front of her cubbie with a little 3 1/2 year old attitude...

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

On today's menu...

Update on today's "big deal"...Trace loved buying his lunch at school. When I asked him what he got, here is the very enthusiastic response I got, "Momma, I picked homestyle chicken, corn kernels and two vegetables, celery and carrots, hmmm, oh, and chocolate milk!" I couldn't help but laugh, because who knew that you could make chicken nuggets and corn sound so fancy. I have been telling him what is on the lunch menu the next day and he is already looking forward to the cheese pizza tomorrow.

JP and I can remember our school lunch favorites, can you? JP liked pretty much all of it, but loved hamburger and chicken fried steak day. Mine on the other hand was the middle school burritos...mmm...sadly, I can actually still remember them just a bit.

The only other thing I don't want to forget years from now was Momsie (JP's mom) picked him up from school today. He really wanted to ride the bus, but we said we'd try the car line once. Well, the bus riders get to go first and Momsie was in line for almost 40 minutes. She said the first thing Trace said when he got in the car was, "I don't like riding, I want the bus. I had to wait forever!" He told me I made a bad choice with the car line, so I guess we're going to be full time bus riders.

Monday, August 22, 2011

"It was Awesome!"

Those were Trace's words when he got off the bus today. First day of kindergarten was an absolute success. I cried off and on for a while, but I don't think I was the only one. His favorite thing was riding the bus home. Tomorrow's "big deal" is buying his own lunch, so we'll see how that goes.

Here are pictures from his first day... I could just eat him up! I can't believe that God blessed me with this precious baby boy!

 Lookin' cool...
...a little sister support...
 ...that is one big school...Negley Elementary School...
...Mrs. Secrest's kinder"garden" classroom...

...he made home and was still smiling...momma's prayers were answered...

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Two days and counting

My baby starts school in two days. We are all counting down the days. Trace is very excited and I just keep tearing up when I think of him being so big. Of course, I know we'll all survive, but I am known for not transitioning well, so here's to all the other mothers who are not dealing well with their babies going off to kindergarten. Surely, I am not the only one.

Trace did ask me if I was going to miss him when he is at school. I said yes, and that I might even cry a little bit. He just told me to look at his seat in my car with the stickers to think of him. I mean, come on! He is my baby and I am just a mess. He is so thoughtful and has such a good heart that I think he might actually be a little worried about me.

Thank God for family and friends who are loving me and allowing me to ramble endlessly about this whole thing. I am sure they'll be glad once it starts too...

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Momma didn't die

Those were the words JP had my mom (Nanny) tell Trace on our way home from the eye doctor's office yesterday. I had LASIK and the day before the surgery I told Trace and Elizabeth that I was having eye surgery. Trace said, "Momma, just don't die." So, we said some prayers and the whole thing went great. I was a little apprehensive about it, but the valium they gave me helped, and I was a rockstar as far as I'm concerned.

On the way home, JP called Nanny and told her that everything went great. He told my mom to tell Trace that, "Momma didn't die." JP said he could hear mom tell Trace and then heard a loud, "Whhhewww!" from Trace. JP and I laughed so hard. I guess Trace was a little worried and so relieved that I dodged the bullet.

So, here's to the fact that I'm still alive and can see without glasses or contacts!

Friday, July 22, 2011

The American Crawl

Just a quick note that the kiddos started private swim lessons with PJ this week. They had class on Tuesday and Thursday and it was amazing how far they came in two 30 minute sessions. Trace was pretty apprehensive about it the Monday before the first class and asked, "Momma, why are you making me take swim lessons?" Want to know my response??? "Because I don't really know how to, so you are going to learn now while you are young." Now, don't get me wrong, I can stay afloat and get from one side of the pool to another, but it isn't proper technique (and sure isn't pretty).

So, I'm cheating a bit and trying to take notes in my head from their lessons to try for myself. Maybe we'll all end up little swimmers before the summer is over...both Trace and Elizabeth's favorite swim is the American Crawl with the flutter kick...and the favorite trick/game is diving for rings or sticks.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Dare devils

We had a great 4th of July. We are so lucky to join family friends at their amazing Lake Travis home complete with a pool, hot tub, and boat dock. The lake was down and dropping about a foot a week with the drought, but that didn't stop anyone from having fun. My two little ones actually took my breath (and almost my lunch) away.

The boat dock has a second story landing where you can jump about 15-18 feet down to the lake. I have even done this myself (once) since I am not really fond of heights or depths of water. So, sure enough we joked on the way down there about the kids doing that one day...some day...well, one day, some day was YESTERDAY. Elizabeth and Trace all decked out in their appropriately fitted life jackets, went up top to check it out with JP. Elizabeth is my crazy one and was so excited and said she wanted to do it. Trace was shaking his head and looking not so sure about it.

Well, after MUCH back and forth and debate, I watched from the house as my little girl jumped off all by herself. I wasn't in the water to see her reaction, but they all said she came up laughing. I can only pray for her safety and my sanity as we grow up with her.

Then there is Trace, my more reserved/shy child (if we can call it that), who is much slower to take risks, but is also highly competitive. I just knew he'd never take the plunge, but what do you think happened after he saw his younger sister jump??? He walked right up, shook his arms a couple times...and went flying. He didn't come up smiling, but he did do it a couple more times.

As I've told this story a couple times today, I've gotten some horrible looks, and I actually get nervous all over again. So, feel free to judge me and my mothering decision. I am still questioning myself now. Thank God they are both ok. I'll have to decide if I can watch it again next year.

Monday, June 20, 2011

I want to do that...

Pictures will follow, but I just thought I'd share about my baby Elizabeth (if you can call a 3 1/2 year old a baby). It has been such an interesting thing to see how different Elizabeth (also known as Frizzie Lizzie or just simply Frizz as JP calls her) is than big brother Trace. Trace was and can definitely still be a momma's boy, but Elizabeth takes it to another level which I am enjoying. She always wants to do what I am doing including all the following:
  • cooking or preparing anything in the kitchen 
  • loading the dishes
  • washing the dishes or veggies from JP's garden (this provides hours of fun and lots of water on the floor)
  • doing laundry, including lugging the laundry basket with me back and forth and loading the washer and dryer
  • running errands, including grocery shopping, Target runs, etc. - she calls these "girl dates" because we leave JP and Trace behind to have a "boy date"
  • washing my car (this is ONLY if we go to the "out car wash" as she calls it - which is like a Genie or something where you actually get out and they clean it while you wait inside because she is terrified of the other drive through car washes and screams and cries the whole time - which just makes Trace laugh the entire time)
  • and finally her latest chore was mopping, she wasn't very good at it, but it was the effort that counted.
 I loving having her around to help out and normally I end up loving all over her because she is just precious. I am human though and am having to work on limiting the times I get frustrated that she's slowing me down and just enjoy the moments because I bet this too shall pass and the time will come when I don't get quite so much help.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Trophy

Trace's coaches pulled through and he got his first trophy for their tball tourney championship. Trace was so proud of it - he wanted me to take a picture, but he said he had to have all his stuff with him. So, here is the picture we have of him in all his tball glory.

 Then, in true Elizabeth style...she got all upset and wanted her picture taken too. So...see what she picked as her prop. Some day she'll laugh at herself and her awesome mop bucket.


Sunday, April 17, 2011

Champions

The Hays Blue select tball team won the championship game! We won our first game at 10AM and then had a tough game at 3PM. It was really eventful (I was totally nervous the whole time) - with hard little hitters, parents yelling at the umpire, and coaches yelling at each other when there was an intentional tripping of one of our boys by the other team's first baseman as our little guy rounded first...yup...I told you this was serious stuff.

The biggest news was that there was NO TROPHY for the champs! Trace was not the only one to ask where it was. They got t-shirts with Champions on it...but their coaches have promised to find them some trophies.

The jury is still out if JP and I will commit to have Trace in tball All-stars this summer. It was a little unnecessarily intense and of course we didn't completely agree with how they were telling Trace to hit (yes, we are those parents...Trace even said, "Daddy, they made me go so far back...") Either way, it was probably a little TOO eventful for a tball game, but Trace said he had fun and that is all that matters.

At least now we have an entire week with no tball...happy Easter to us all!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Long time...long day...long post

Someday, I'll look back and wish I had made more posts because there isn't a day that goes by that something happens that I wish I'd remember. But time flies and I get sleepy at night and laziness wins over the desire to post on my blog.

But I thought I'd post about another one of our Jansen firsts today..."Select" Tball. Yup, Trace was asked to be on a select tball team in a tournament this weekend. So, we had our first (and only) 1 and a 1/2 hour practice last night where I thought I had driven to the wrong place because it was downright serious. The coach was doing drills, teaching the boys signs on where to hit the ball (OMG, I mean really) and was hard core with these boys (or babies, as I still see them).

Trace is the ONLY one not even in school, these boys are either in kinder or 1st grade. Trace is still scared of the ball a bit...but the boy can hit and run better than others his age and I guess got some notice. When Trace was introducing himself to the team - or shall I say whispering his name (somehow I have a shy one...I think that is from his Daddy) - one of the boys was like, "Yeah - he's [Trace] younger than me but he's way better than me..." We got a laugh out of it of course, and the kid's dad just shook his head.

Then comes today - our regular season Texas Rangers game was at 12:45 - we beat the undefeated Astros 20 to 19! AND - Trace got his first homerun finally. He's been hitting to outfield but never made it all the way in for the score. So that was really fun...

Then two hours later (after a 30 minute power nap for everyone except me) - we start our FIRST of TWO games in this tourney. We smoked the first team and Trace did well hanging in there with the boys. If we could just get him to stop chewing on his fingers from being nervous. Then after the first game, Trace comes out of the dugout with all his stuff, and I'm like, "No honey you have another game"...and then came the tears...he was like, "I don't want to play again, I'm tired." And I'm like..."JP, deal with this" - only because if I had "dealt" with it - I would have picked my baby boy up and taken him home. BUT, JP calmed him down and reminded him of how they won the first game and he got his wind back (he is also ultracompetitve...I think I'll take credit for gifting him that trait).

Second game - a little tougher team, but our group ends up winning. JP ended up having to hang with Trace in the dugout to keep him cool, but I was all for that. I just want to make sure he is really having fun in all of this and don't ever want to turn him against it since he seems to love it.

So, here we are...9:36PM...twelve hours from now we'll be back at the tourney. Games at 10AM and 3PM ...this is serious stuff. I just pray for a little trophy and a good nights sleep tomorrow. Then we might just go back to regular season and try all-stars next year.

That was quite a bit of rambling, but I'll want to remember it someday...and on that note...it melts my heart literally to tears almost every game when I see Trace in his uniform all down (or "baseball ready" as they call it) and ready waiting for that ball to come...precious little man.

...ps...just so we don't forget memories of Elizabeth...the other day we were at Trace's practice and in front of all other parents she's says, "Momma, my panties are up my butt." Well, what can we say to that...and like I said to all the parents laughing and looking at us, "Well, at least she knows when she has a problem and wants to solve it." What a mess pot...but a beautiful one!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

I LOVE YOU BLUE...

Just another day at work for me... I attended a luncheon honoring some very talented folks in Austin presented by First Tee of Austin (a really cool organization) and got the treat of hearing Luke Wilson as the speaker. It was really more of a Q&A with the MC, but it was still fun. I was that person who went and took a picture with him (there were a few others too thank goodness). He was very nice though and didn't look at me like a goof. So - the only lesson learned for me today was to not have a man take the picture with my Iphone - shaky hands leads to fuzzy picture.


Enjoy!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Time flies

I knew it had been a while since I posted something. Now that I check, it has been almost an entire MONTH! I obviously have no concept of how time flies. Another story to back this up...JP and I visited an attorney a while back to work up our wills. I have been meaning to look it over and get it back to him. I finally thought about it the other day and looked back at the email. Want to take a guess on when the attorney emailed me the drafts? I thought it was just a while back...oh no...it was in 2009! I mean come on, Dena. JP and I got a little laugh out of it. At least we're still alive and haven't needed to use the wills. But now I get to go back to the attorney and look like a goof...I wonder will he charge us the same as he quoted us then, have laws changed so he'll have to start from scratch??? Silly me...

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Your lookin' at a winna...

On of JP's pigs won Grand Champion Swine at the Hays County Livestock Show! This is very exciting news for our bunch. JP, Jimmy (or Pops...JP's dad), and Blake (JP's brother) work really hard and every year the piggies coming out of Jansen Farm Show Pigs have gotten better and better. It is fun to see hard work pay off.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Bad for planet...good for me

As promised, here is one picture of this weekend's purging. This was a couple of bags of trash and a couple for donation. This was from JP's closet (it took him over two hours to go through his closet) and some odds and ends I collected as I moved around the house. More to come...

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Binge and Purge

definitions:

BINGE - excessive indulgence in anything
PURGE - (1) to rid of whatever is impure or undesirable; cleanse; purify. (2) to rid, clear, or free (usually fol. by of or from )

Get your attention? I am tired. Tired of junk in every single room of my house, junk drawers, toys the kids don't play with, clutter, old things that I can't decide if I should keep or toss. I hear myself say, "You never know when I might need [insert thing here]"...sound familiar? It seems that we (not only me and JP, but maybe you and just Americans in general) BINGE on THINGS and then I have nowhere to put them or can't make a decision on what to do with them and I get overwhelmed, so what do I do, you ask? I do NOTHING and it makes me feel like things are never done.

My new answer and my new plan is to PURGE. JP and I are going to go room by room in our house and rid ourselves of stuff. We will get a new box (or maybe 2) of trash bags and do some damage. We'll donate what we can or pass along to others or fill up our trash can, but no matter what, it will leave our house. I have done it a few times and it does wonders for my soul. It just makes you feel lighter.

I'll keep you posted...maybe room by room and how many bags. Just as a teaser, I already started this past Sunday in the two bathrooms and I had one full trash bag to dump and one other to pass along to others. Good start I'd say...

Philippians 4:4, 6-7

Started a Bible verse exchange with a friend today...it happens to be one of my favorites and of course it fit the feelings with my new start this week...

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Change can be good

I made it through my first day at my new job. I was pretty nervous, hadn't had a "first day" in almost 8 years. I was talking to the kids about it last night and told them I was nervous. I asked Elizabeth, "What do I do if they don't like me?" Her response, "Ummm, if dey don't yike you...(long pause)...just come home." Perfect response, but luckily, it was a great day and I felt pretty at peace with the change. I even have my own cube to call home. I put up my serenity prayer and desk calendar with pictures of the kiddos. So, here's to day two and many more to come...

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Happy New Year

A few days late, but best wishes to us all as we dive into 2011. Here are the highlights of our holiday break:

--I resigned from my employer from the last 8 years and accepted a new job starting January (tomorrow, eek)

--I took off a couple weeks to enjoy Christmas with the family...I think we had seven or eight Christmases total and the kids had a ball at each one (I'll try to figure out collages and upload some pictures later)

--Christmas came and went and then we spent New Years Eve at the deer lease...OH and I had a really bad ear infection, yes a 31 year old woman with an ear infection. It was quite a pain and the doctor told me to not make our trip to Las Vegas (which I'd surprised JP with for Christmas)...well, we are gamblers and we made the trip there and back and my ear drum is still in tact

--JP and I weren't winners in Vegas, but we still loved it. We counted and that made it the 7th time we've been...we might need a little break from Sin City

--Got home Wednesday and flew back out on Thursday with Trace and Tyler Bree to visit Aunt Lindsey in Houston...three days of Chucky Cheese, Children's Museum, Zoo, Lego store...the kids slept well and are asking when we are going back.

So - that was the run down. I am trying to prepare myself for my new adventure tomorrow. I am not a huge fan of change, but here's to hoping that I made a great choice and my new job will be a great way to start the new year.