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Otto is 2

I had a few ideas for a birthday party for Otto but I just couldn't settle on any of them. I was trying to decide what he would like best and all I could think of was ho's (at the house of jansen donut holes are just called ho's). So I decided to have a Donut Party...unofficially the Ho's & Milk party. We cleared out all the living furniture and replaced it with slides and other outdoor toys. Kid parties are chaos so we just orchestrated the chaos.
I think the kiddos had fun, everyone likes donuts, right? We had mimosas and bloody mary's for the adults to ease the stress of birthday party chaos...everyone likes to drink on Saturday mornings, right?













Otto is 2! We are so proud of our middle child, he brings so much joy and life to our family. Each kid has their own personality and he definitely has his own thing going on. I love spending my day with this kid and watching him grow and learn. His favorite movie is Cars and he loves to play with thomas the train, geotrax and cars (from the Cars movie). He is also full of surprises, not too long ago he was refusing to take a nap, so to distract Gigi he said I count and proceeded to count to 13...I've never heard him count past 3. At 2 years old he can count to 13, say his ABC's, sing Twinkle Twinkle, play hard with his brothers and attempt to do and say everything Ollie's does. I'm looking forward to all the wonderful surprises Otto has ahead.

new pics

JJ 1: Half Marathon 0

2:58...remarkably slow...many thanks to ty harris who came back after finishing and finished my last couple miles with me...it was hard...i puked...but i finished...

A Prayer for August

May you be filled with Peace, Patience, Power, & Purpose; a Pleasure to all.

for Jesus said:
"Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God" Matthew 5:9

This is the prayer my MIL has for August. She has a special prayer and scripture for each of the boys. Each prayer is unique and I anticipated her prayer the moment I knew I was pregnant. If you know my MIL you know she is a sweet, Godly woman...I often joke she is God's favorite.

I'm thankful Ollie, Otto & August have Godly grandparents and great-grandparents who pray for them daily.

The Season of Lent

I'll be following the daily readings for lent here. I'm looking forward to the time of the preparation to celebrate God’s redemption at Easter.

we're home!

everyone is great...otto is a little confused about who this new baby is, but he did give him a little kiss on the head...more pictures later

-jj

Helloooo Babay

The House of Jansen is pleased to annouce it's newest member, August Pete Jansen, born 2/17/09 at 10:46am. Ollie and Otto's brother weighed in at a massive 6 lbs 11 oz and was 19 inches long. We praise God for giving us this bundle of happy! Mom and baby are doing well and are both getting plenty of sleep. Here are a few highlights from the day (fyi...i have some really good c-section shots if anybody wants them):

candi about to pop

the boys were excited

give me boobies!

big brother already breaking the rules

qt

findings

this is from the "lego a day" blog...great macro photos of lego guys engaged in various activities...click here


this extremely harsh and overly generalized theory is pure gold genius...shaun groves penned this greatness...i might have tried to work in the correlation between high school hotness and current affinty for nickelback...but the simplicity of the graph is pretty hard to argue with


this is my old friend kevin rankin on his last day of filming "friday night lights" after a 22 episode stint as herc, wheelchair rugby bada$$...it happens to be my sweet wife's favorite show...kevin will be appearing on a episode of "lost" in march

thanks internets

-jj

Donate

never asked for donations over a blog before...but i would like to now...

brian seay and his family are in africa with their large family and are unable to get home because of some paperwork...they have been there for 3 weeks already...you can read about it here and here...candi and i are going to donate some money to help them cover the costs of having to stay in ethiopia another week and would like you to consider doing the same...

CLICK HERE TO DONATE via paypal

Update, Funny Stuff and a Beautiful Act

first off...sorry for the long delay since our last post...we have been gearing up for baby boy #3 (and no, we will not be telling his name until he gets here)...ollie and otto are both excited about the new arrival...we are anxious about the transition to 3 kids, but candi is ready to have her body back from our little parasite so here we go...we are planning on having the baby on feb. 17th and are hoping to have plenty of gigi and mimi love, but if you have time and have a knack for entertaining toddlers, you are more than welcome to come stay with us for a while...

ollie has said a bunch of funny things the last couple of weeks, here are some highlights:

1. he and anna, the little girl who lives next door, play together pretty much every afternoon...they play very well together as they are both very expressive and vivid imaginations...sometime over christmas, anna and her family watched "the grinch"...shortly after that, anna apparently described the grinch to ollie, and he got scared...i mean "too scared to go to bathroom during the day by himself" kind of scared...he didn't want to encounter the yellow-eyed, pointy teethed fellow that his playmate had innocently planted a vision of in his little mind...anyway, the other night, about an hour after he gone to bed...ollie comes walking into the living room where candi and i were enjoying the best the networks can offer, and quietly says "somefing in my head tells me that the grinch is not pretend."...love it

2. the night of the inauguration i was watching "the neighborhood ball"...let me just say, i have tons of respect for our new president, politics aside, but the one glimpse that the public got to see of the party introducing the nation to the leader of the free world kind of left me with a bad taste in my mouth...it just wasn't very "presidential"...it looked really fun though!...anyway...the great hip-hop artist "jay-z" was on stage (i really like him btw) when ollie came in and looked at the screen...he studied the performance for a minute and then started to giggle...he said "that guy is so crazy...he's just talking."...i guess our 4 year old is not a hip-hop fan

3. every week at ollie's preschool the kids study a different letter...i'm sure this practice is isolated to the fine academic community here in texarkana...this week the letter "o" takes center stage...they study the letter on monday and tuesday, and then on wednesday comes the highlight of our preschooler's life...show and tell...he gets pumped about finding something around the house that he can show off to his buddies...candi picked him up a few minutes ago and started the weekly quiz...candi: "buddy, what letter are you learning this week?" olllie: "o" candi: "what words start with o?" ollie: "octopus, octagon, and you know what else??? me!...oh...i can bring myself to show and tell...won't that be crazy?!"

also...if you have time, head over to my old friend brian seay's blog and twitter updates to read about his family's international adoption...brian and amy adopted 2 older siblings from ethiopia...they packed up their 4 other kids and went to africa to bring home their newest family members...i'm not sure how much longer they are going to be there, but i love reading the twitter updates and blog posts...i have always been fascinated by adoption...just a beautiful picture of redemption...

one more thing...kap and wendy mcwhorter had their little baby about six weeks early and he has been in icu...he is doing better, but is still in the hospital...say a little prayer for baby max when you get a chance!

thanks for reading this insanely long post...and putting up with my crazy punctuation...

-jj

Full of Love: Like his prayer

Today while shopping at a children's store Otto met this lady. She was a stranger and in less than five minutes he made a friend. She had a little girl his age and he was loving them.

When I sent my MIL the picture of her darling she reminded me he is full of love like his prayer.
"Full of Light, Love and Laughter, and Lead by the Lord".

Polar Express

My parents took Ollie to the Polar Express before Thanksgiving. He had the BEST time and was so excited when we told him where he was going. Seriously, I've never seen the kid more happy...maybe even happier than when Otto came home from the hospital. They had a great time and Paw did an excellent job documenting the entire trip for mom.






santa giving the mister a bell


he was pumped to talk to the conductor

he punched an "O"

thanks gigi

I Do

 

Today we celebrate five years of marriage. We've had fun reflecting on how we met, our first conversations, our first dates and our first year of marriage. I hope to get around to posting our story mainly because I like our story ;)
We also managed to squeeze in a date our friends ,Cory & Kelly, babysat for us after we left their son's birthday party. What great friends, thanks guys.

Entertain Me

My mother-in-law has some crazy nice and crazy rich friends in Houston that throw an amazing Christmas party. She has been to every party with video camera in tow to document the event. It continues to get bigger and bigger every year and this year I think Mark & Becky have out done themselves. This year the entertainer is wait for it Miley Cyrus. Seriously people Miley Cyrus! **I would like to note that every time I type Miley Cyrus I'm saying Hannah Botana in my head cuz that is what Ollie calls her** She is coming to their house for their Christmas party...she is performing in their backyard. How crazy is that and by the way I'm super excited.
When I heard her song See You Again I thought to self I wonder who this is and I think I like it. When I found out it was Hannah Botana I was surprised. I'd never watched her show and only knew of her dad. Sister is a secret fan and has confessed her love for Miley which was a good thing and I felt more comfortable and relaxed to know another adult liked her.
I just read/watched Twilight and now I'm admitting to liking Hannah Botana...I think I will have to post my more serious thoughts that I've only emailed to best friend Melissa.

Here is an article about the party. Did I mention I'm so so excited. I'm not a true fan but I do like her and anticipate an entertaining show. I've been listening to her songs because I'm afraid some tween is going to take me down at the concert for not singing every word along with them. Y'all know I'll try to get as close to the front as possible dragging my child with me. I watched the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both World Concert Tour this summer I know how serious these girls are and I am scared.

If you aren't familiar here she is folks.

trotted

i ran/walked my first 10K on thanksgiving morning and i'm officially hooked. texarkana half-marathon here i come on 3/1/2009.

trotted across the finish line in 1:32:55...14:58 pace...for those of you who don't know, that's fast...for a grandmother...i am not a grandmother

-JJ

Turkey Trot

Jeremy and Amber will be running the Turkey Trot in the morning. Prego here will not be running a 10K this year.

Tonight my cousin and I are putting our boys to bed & then we'll be trotting off to watch Twilight. I'm just hoping its as good as the book.

We are so excited to be home and we'll be packing in as much fun with family and friends as possible.

Come on!

Have you heard they may be getting closer to a movie.

If you aren't a fan give it a try. Please be patient its an acquired taste and the characters will grow on you. The show gets funnier as you get all the jokes and know the people. I guess that is why it was canceled...it was too funny.

All Aboard

Hey East Texas bloggers what do you know about the the The Polar Express Ride? Let me know your thoughts. Ollie LOVES this movie and my mom & I plan on taking him this year.

Entertainment

While my sister was reading the Twilight series she told me I had to read it. She said she couldn't put it down & she loved them...blah, blah, blah. She's always reading something and I didn't think much about it. But everywhere I turn I hear about this book. After a visit to our local library I found out there was a waiting list for the book and I'd be the 11th person on the list. More curious than ever we went straight to Target to purchase the book and I'm pleased to say I'm on the bandwagon. Have you read it? What are you reading?



Jeremy is reading The New Kings of Nonfiction. He loves This American Life and I mean loves it...maybe even obsessed.