So far behind!

Hello Blog World! That's right...I've let myself get over a month behind in blogging. Ugh! When this happens, it is hard for me to get restarted again because I feel SO far behind!!! So...instead of just sitting here feeling overwhelmed about it, I'm going to do an abbreviated version of all that's happened over the last month and just post some cute pics of the girls and then try to stay more on top of things the rest of the summer. How does that sound? :)

So, to kick things off on a happy note. Above is a cute little picture of Ellie. It's become increasingly difficult to get Ellie dressed up cute and get her hair done, as she's become more and more opinionated about her wardrobe and the way her hair is done...or should I say...NOT done. Most days she just wants to wear leggings that she has outgrown and too small of a shirt and she says "leave my hair DOWN, Mom... and don't comb it!" So, the above picture HAD to happen since I got her dressed in an outfit that fit, that matched AND got her hair done! Kodak moment for sure. :) Doesn't she clean up nicely?Now for the not so happy note... our poor Alexa has had THREE ear infections during the 11th month of her short little life. Poor thing! She has been on several rounds of antibiotics and just couldn't seem to kick it. Well, when we went in a couple of weeks early for her 1 year appointment (we had to go early since we were going to be leaving for the summer a week before her big day!) our Pediatrician said that it was looking much better and we're hoping that it stays that way!!! Since her appointment was early, Alexa couldn't get her one-year shots cause I guess they won't count towards kindergarten required shots if they are taken even a day before she officially turns one. I was initially excited about this and thought since it wasn't a shots day, I could pull off taking both girls to this appt. with my by myself. Well, one thing that I forgot was that they send you to the lab to draw blood for that first birthday. I forget what they are testing for. I think they said led levels? Does that sound right? Anyway, it was a pretty traumatic experience for all of us as Ellie was VERY concerned about them "hurting Alexa!" and this Momma was so sad cause I had to hold her in my lap and wrap my leg around her legs and then with my arms I had to hold her one little arm down while a nurse tried to hold her other one still. Well, wouldn't you just know that they blew a vein in the first arm, so had to go to the second. All the while Alexa is screaming bloody murder, Ellie is distraught over what is happening and I'm just trying to keep them both calm. Thankfully, after the ordeal was over, Alexa took a nice long nap and I went to Sonic and got Ellie a slushy and she soon forgot about it all. :) I love that kids are so resilient!

Okay, whew! Got that out of the way! Back to the HAPPY things again. :) Above is a picture of the girls in their cute Easter dresses from Nana and Papa J. We had a wonderful Easter Sunday and while we were sad to not get to spend it with family, we were able to have some of the football players from K-State over for dinner on Friday night and then again for Easter Sunday lunch. Ellie had an Easter egg hunt, which was hilariously fun. Got that one on video! :) We had gotten to spend the weekend before Easter in Iowa with my family and so El got to do a lot of fun Easter things there as well! It's so neat to see her finally beginning to put some of the puzzle pieces together of what Easter is really all about - Jesus...

Alexa finally grew into a cute little outfit that Joel's cousin's wife Mandy made for her! She made matching outfits for the girls and they are SO CUTE! Thank you Mandy! It's actually one of the bows that she will actually keep in! :)

While we were in Iowa, Alexa turned 11 months old!!! She is growing and changing like crazy!!! Since I am posting this SO late, I think I'm just going to post all of the things that she's doing these days with her one year old birthday post! So stay tuned!

I seriously thought these were the cutest monthly pictures with our little "Alexa in a Box"... It's my Grandma Surber's storage footstool, but it made a great toy for kids!!! Kept my girls entertained for at least an hour... :) Above you will see one of Alexa's favorite skills. Waving! If you could hear her, she's probably also saying "Hi-i!" We joke that Alexa makes the HI two syllables. :) It's adorable!

And then these two pics are of Ellie at 33 months!!! She continues to grow up to be our BIG GIRL for sure. The craziest things come out of her mouth all the time! Everyday, I am just amazed at what she says and understands. She is definitely our almost 3 year old going on 16. That little mind (and tongue!) just go a million miles a minute! :)

Anyway, it was a fabulous month.... VERY busy, but a good busy. We're excited to now be safely settled in our room in Alabama! It's been great so far. I promise to post updates about the happenings in Gulf Shores. Love you all! Thanks for bearing with my long absence! I will "try" to do better the rest of the summer!!!

A Princess Party!

Ellie got invited to her very first "Princess Party" a couple of weeks ago! Her sweet friends Gracelyn and Delaney both turned 3 and invited Ellie to go along with them to celebrate! The little girls had so much fun! And I tell you what... it was a girl party to the MAX! The girls got to get their hair and nails done and Ellie has never sat so still! :) It was absolutely adorable!

Ellie would never let me do this to her hair. Trust me, I've tried. :) But she was an absolute angel in the chair and I think it turned out adorable!
Then it was off to get her nails done. Ellie is most definitely all girl. She LOVES to get her nails painted. And while she had originally picked a bright BLUE polish - Mommy gently redirected her to the pinks, which I'm sure she loved much more. Ha!

Isn't this hilarious. She looks like a diva to the max.

The girls all got the royal treatment and they enjoyed every second of it! Look out Daddy... I have a feeling Ellie could get used to this.

Here they are! As you can see...it was hard to get a focused picture where everyone was looking and Ellie wasn't trying to get in front.

The sweetest little girls around! I just love their Momma's and the three of us decided that we were going to make this an annual tradition. It will be so fun to watch them grow!
So Happy Birthday Gracey and Delaney! Thanks for letting us join in the fun!

Bye Bye Binky!

Boy is it ever tough to grow up... If you know our Ellie, you know that "binky" is a VERY special part of her life... Ever since she was a very small baby, she has LOVED her pacifier...aka "binky". Mommy loved it, too, cause we knew that as long as we had a binky along, all was well with Ellie's world. :) It could quiet her in her fussiest times as a baby and as she grew older, it was awesome on roadtrips and could always guarantee 2-3 hour naps and at least 12 hour nights of sleep!

Well... we knew that it was nearing time to give up beloved binky. Our dentist friend told us that by the time she was three, she should be done with it so it wouldn't mess up her teeth. We've been building up to it for quite some time now, wanting to make it special and wanting her to fully embrace it. So...we came up with a plan. Joel's sister Kristin and her husband Andrew are expecting their first baby in May and baby Logar is definitely going to need some binkies! So, "baby Logar" sent Ellie a letter requesting that since Ellie was a big girl now, could she please send her some binkies! Ellie wasn't too excited about it at first and wondered out loud, "why can't HER Mommy buy her some binkies?" We told her because her binkies were extra special and would mean a lot to the baby. Over time, she started to buy into it and would even tell people about it! So, we knew it was time.

I'll be honest. I was dreading the day as much as she was... Would we have many nights of crying and sobbing and would Ellie decide that she wasn't excited about sleeping now that she didn't have binky? Besides, it was kind of a part of her and another stark reminder that my baby is no longer a baby. :( But, alas, the time had come... So... on March 31st, Ellie went around the house with me after her last nap with binky (pictured above!) and gathered up all of her binkies to put in a box for Baby Logar... She was very excited as we were doing it! I don't think the reality that they were never coming back had hit her yet... not until bedtime!

Another special element to "bye bye binky" day was Joel had promised Ellie that he would put together her new kitchen! She had gotten this cute little set as a Christmas gift from Joel's Aunt and Uncle and Cousin, but we decided not to set it up right away but to use it as greater incentive to give up binky. Ellie was VERY excited about her new toy! As was Alexa!

As a grand finale to our big special day, we let Ellie stay up a little later to watch "Tangled" and eat popcorn! She was definitely on cloud 9 all day with all of her special treats! But...we had not yet gotten to bedtime... How would she do?

Well... night one was a SUCCESS! She cried for about 30 minutes, but then went to sleep and slept the whole night long. Nights have been good - though she does wake up about 30 minutes to an hour earlier than usual. Naps have been a bit of a different story. Some days she doesn't nap at all (very sad for Momma!) - and other days she sleeps for about an hour. So, life has changed around here - but binky has had her swan song and we are surviving without it! :) Now I just have to watch out and make sure Ellie doesn't steal Alexa's binkies. She does this whenever she gets the chance and will quickly tell me that Alexa is "sharing" with her. :) Yesterday, she actually stole one and hid it in her bed. I was amazed and excited that she was napping, only to have my bubble burst at the end of her nap when I realized that she had been sucking on Alexa's binky! Lol! But I'm trying to stand strong... My firstborn is growing up. And sometimes growing up is definitely hard to do... :)

Fun month of March!

Lots of fun times around the Johnson house these last few weeks...
Here is just a short snapshot!
In early March, Joe and Bel, Wyatt and Isaac got to come visit for a Sunday afternoon! The weather was beautiful and we got to spend some fun time outside playing in the backyard, the park and wrestling with Uncle Joe in the basement. We love having them in KC now and hope that it means lots of fun day trip play dates in the future!

A couple weekends later, we got to make the trip to Olathe to help Wyatt celebrate his 3rd birthday! So hard to believe that it's been 3 years since these little ones have entered our world. And so much has changed since then!

Ellie loved getting to play with Wy and Ikey's toys! And the girls loved every minute of the carnival themed birthday party. It was a really fun day!

Nana Becky and Papa Richard got to come home with us for a couple of nights right afterwards and we had a great time together! It was short, but very sweet! Nana got to jump in on our bedtime routine, BATHS!
We also had another beautiful weekend to enjoy the park, a walk across campus and some ice cream! It was a perfect day...
Thanks for coming to spend some time with us, Nana and Papa! We loved every minute of it!
In the midst of the warm spring days, we've also had bursts of winter mixed in. It's snowing as I type this actually! But a few days after Nana and Papa left, we had another 6 inch snow! So Daddy and Ellie made the most of it and built one more snowman for the season...

This past week has been spring break for KSU! We actually got to spend the first couple of days at home and not travelling this year. Ellie got to treat Daddy to a tea party one afternoon.

On Wednesday, we made the trek to the University of Oklahoma for Joel to speak at StuMo down there! He was gracious and took the three of us girls along and we had such a fun road trip together! Poor Alexa got her very first sunburn on the trip... She was such a trooper, but I felt like a very bad Mommy! Thankfully the next morning she looked much better!

One of our families favorite things to do is to tour different college campuses around the U.S., so we took advantage of the beautiful weather to take our double stroller out onto campus (yes, we felt really cool. Ha!) Here we are stopping for a quick family picture at OU's football stadium.

It's been a fun March so far and we're excited about all the adventures that lie ahead over the next few months. Hard to believe that in 6 short weeks we'll be headed to our "summer home" in Alabama with all of the college students. Trying to soak up the time we have left in Kansas before then!

Alexa at 10 months!

Here she is!!! Our little 10 month old!!! And stealing our hearts more by the day...

We just love her signature Alexa "smirk"... she's got the cutest little smile and her eyes light up our world! She's all over the place these days... crawling like a champ! It's amazing the difference one short month can make in a kid's mobility. Here are a few other new things in Alexa's world...

• she is beginning to pull herself up on things. No cruising yet, but I'm not in any rush!
• still NO BOTTLE for Alexa. She just refuses. It's going to make weaning her a little tricky here in the next month or two...
• She loves to sleep in her crib and is sleeping much better at night!
• She and Ellie are starting to play so well together! They are adorable to listen to on car trips. Ellie entertains and Alexa just laughs her little head off. I love it!
• She's getting more curious and likes to open and empty drawers, grab hold of cords, you get the picture.
• When we have to tell her "no, no Alexa", she is so sensitive and gets her little feelings hurt. It's hard for this Momma to discipline her!
• She is very determined and perseveres!
• She has a very serious look - our little studier!
• She is still relatively introverted and not so sure about big groups of people.
• She's still our little "Mommy's girl" and gets very uncertain if Mom is out of sight...
• She truly is our JOY! I can't imagine life without our Alexa!!!

Happy 10 months sweet girl!

Gettin' better...

You probably wouldn't know it by looking at these pictures, but my two little sweeties have been under the weather the last couple of days! Alexa was up most of the night Sunday night with a fever and just fussy. I think she is cutting teeth... Ellie slept til 1:30pm on Monday (that's right... that was the first time she woke up for the day!)... but I quickly realized she had slept that late because she was sick. :( So she was up for an hour and then back to bed from 2:30-6:30 and to bed at 9... Today they both seem to be doing better... and now it's poor Joel who has caught the bug! Praying that I stay healthy to take care of everyone! So far so good...

But anyway... tonight was one of those memorable nights... one you just want to tuck into your memory and pray that it will remain as vivid as it was tonight for the rest of life. Just sitting in Ellie's bed cuddling with my two precious girls, reading books... Tonight we read "I'll Love you Forever" for the millionth time. It's one of Ellie's new favorites and when we get to the end of each page she recites it...
"I'll love you forever
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living,
My baby you'll be"
It's the cutest thing ever... Her little voice is just so so sweet.
We also read a Bible Story or two each night and we're loving that. It's so fun to see things click in Ellie's little mind. She comprehends so much more than I could even imagine for a 2 year old. Kids are so much smarter than I ever gave them credit for!

Ellie just loves to love on her little sister... And she is still so smitten with her COW. Above you see Ellie giving Alexa some cow tail. This poor tail has been through the wringer. If you could see it close up, there is no fur left on it at all. It's not soft...but for some reason, Ellie is just obsessed with rubbing her nose with it. And if you're "in" with her, she will rub your nose, too!

Uh oh... this is trouble. Alexa going in for the binky steal.

I love you Alexa, but don't go messin' with my binky... :) We're in the process of trying to get Ellie to give up her binky. It's not going to be easy... We're trying to talk her into sending them to her new cousin in Ohio saying that the baby needs them! And since Ellie is a big girl, she could give them up. So far, she's not buying it... :)
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So thankful for my girls and that they are on the upswing and starting to feel better... I have been so grateful lately for health and don't take a day of it for granted... Now, if I could just get my girls to stay little...

Come Awake...

Ellie has become quite the little singer. I LOVE to hear her singing away to songs that she's heard at church or StuMo or learned at AWANA... Tonight after her bath she was belting out one of her new favorites... "Christ has Risen" by Matt Maher. Love it. Thought you'd enjoy her rendition. :) And please excuse the fact that she's not quite dressed yet!