Alexa at 8 months...

Alexa is almost 8 1/2 months old now and I'm finally getting her 8 month pictures posted! Just a little bit behind these days... Ha! It's been a big month for Alexa as well! I finally started her on solid food (yes, she tasted her FIRST solid after her 8 month birthday...) and she is doing GREAT! So far she has tried peas, squash, sweet potatoes and apples.

She is also becoming more mobile these days... Alexa has definitely been our laid back baby. Not in too much of a hurry to go anywhere at all. Until this month, I could sit her down somewhere and know she would be in the exact same spot when I came back. Those days are quickly fading and she is starting to learn how to move from point A to point B... She still isn't really a roller. She rarely chooses to roll, though I know that she can if she wants to. If I put her to sleep on her belly, I will find her the same way the next morning... But she IS a scooter. More of a "swimmer" I would say. She looks like she is doing the breast stroke when she is laying on her belly on the ground! She is getting very close to crawling, I think! She is starting to get up on all fours, so I think it's just a matter of days! Then life will REALLY change. Ha!

Alexa is still our sweet, sweet cuddly baby! She LOVES to always be with you, cuddling and sleeping on you. She was just thrilled when all of her Grandparents were here visiting and she would take turns napping on each one of them. She definitely went through withdrawal when everyone had to go back home and she didn't get to be held all of the time. She makes you feel so so loved and needed and special. She will look at you with the most precious smile and it breaks her little heart if you walk away from her. She'll turn her head 180 degrees if it means being able to see you and watch what you're doing... She is definitely my little buddy and I (and her Daddy) absolutely ADORE our Alexa Joy...

Alexa and Ellie are getting to be pretty good friends these days too! No one can make Alexa smile like Ellie can. I really do hope that they will be the best of friends. Here are some other fun facts about our 8 month old...

• She is still not a huge sleeper. She takes little cat naps throughout the day and still wakes up at least once at night. I'm still holding out hope that this will change. Though I really don't mind waking up in the night cause I know i get to see her sweet little face...
• Alexa can definitely make her presence known! She has a very high pitched little scream that will get everyones attention! She makes sure she has a voice over her very talkative older sister...
• She is very content and happy. So fun to be around.
  
• We think that Alexa will be more of our introvert. She loves people, but gets a bit overwhelmed in groups and she seems to really check people out a little more intensely than her sister did.
• Alexa is an observer. She is so alert and watches everything that goes on around her...
  
• She is saying "Da Da" and other little babbles. She is SURE that she is having a conversation with you!

It's definitely a FUN season... I don't want my baby to grow up. This is really one of my favorite ages. Just wish the days would slow down a bit. Loving our Alexa Joy!

2 1/2 years old!

It's TRUE! Ellie Hope Johnson is now a very busy, VERY talkative 2 1/2 year old! It's been a BIG month for Ellie... She's moved to her BIG girl bed in her BIG girl room, she's now wearing BIG girl panties and doing really well with potty training (thus the "no pants" pictures!) - and she's definitely talking like a BIG girl these days... As her Poppa Barry said after riding in the car with her for close to 14 hours from Kentucky to Kansas... "that girl is never quiet unless she is sleeping!" He meant it in the kindest way... :)

I am loving these days of having a toddler. It's really fun to be able to have intelligible conversations with Ellie. She asks great questions and it's always so fun to see her little mind at work. She makes me laugh a lot and our house is definitely never boring! She wants to be a part of everything and loves to do everything "just like Mommy!". One of her famous questions these days that I hear about a zillion times a day is "What doin' Mommy?" which is quickly followed by "Ellie will help!" or "Ellie do it!" Yes...she always refers to herself in the third person. It's pretty cute.

Here are some other fun facts about our 2 1/2 year old princess...

• She is 35 inches tall and weighs about 28 lbs.
• She's FINALLY into her 2T pants... they just swallowed her until this month and her little legs finally took a growth spurt.
• She LOVES singing. Some of her favorites right now are "Deep and Wide", "Jesus Loves Me" "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Please and Thank You are the Magic Words" (from Barney, in case you were wondering), and I am teaching her one of my favorites from when I was little... "I am a Promise". It's cute to hear her try to say "potentiality"
  
• We end most nights with a family dance party.
• Her favorite game is "Chase You" ...usually, Daddy Chase You!
• She loves Barney and Veggie Tales and would watch them ALL day if you would let her.
• She knows all of her numbers, letters, colors, and her address.
• She still ADORES her baby sister and wants to see her first thing every morning. She can hardly stand it when Alexa is sleeping and I have to make sure she doesn't sneak into her room and wake her up from naps.
• She is still our HUGE extrovert and makes friends with people pretty much everywhere she goes.
• While she is doing great in her big girl bed, she still can't seem to part with her cow and binky... I know, I know... I'll work on taking that binky away in the next few months. I just don't have the heart to do it right now...
• And the list goes on, but I will stop for now...

Loving life with our Ellie Hope Johnson.

Big Girl Bed

It can sure be tough to grow up... Today was a BIG day at our house! For several reasons... First, Ellie got home! Yay! She's been travelling since December 17th and has spent the last 12 days with Nana and Papa Johnson in Kentucky. We are excited to have her home and she just chattered up a storm from the moment she walked through the door... We decided while she was away that we would transition her straight into her "Big Girl Bed" when she got back home. We have been letting Alexa sleep in the crib for the last couple of weeks and she is LOVING it, so we knew that this was the time...

As I'm sure is true for any kid, the first night in your new bed is EXCITING, but also traumatic. Especially for a girl who LOVES her crib. She said several times this evening that she wanted to see her crib. We'd explain to her that it was Alexa's crib now and that she was a BIG girl and that now she got to sleep in her BIG GIRL BED. She'd be excited one minute and then the next would say "No, ELLIE'S crib..."

We made a huge deal out of it, hoping that she would think this was really special. Which she did...until we turned the lights out and walked out the door. She got her cow and binky (which will have to be the next thing we take away... ugh... it's going to be a hard few months with all these transitions!) and then we methodically put her blankets on her one at a time. She has an order that they have to go in...and there are 4 blankets. Ha! So we tried to keep all of that the same... She seemed all good with it, but then we walked out the door and the tears just started flowing... We went in her room a couple more times just to reassure her and then we let her cry it out. The bad news was she cried for 20-30 minutes straight which is NOT like Ellie. She loves to go to bed usually. The good news is, she didn't try to get out of bed (at least not yet... we told her that she couldn't or we'd have to discipline her, and so far she has obeyed)! And now it's all quiet, so I think she fell asleep.
*
So goes the story of the first night in the big girl bed... I'll let you know how it goes! So far, so good...

Sweet Alexa...

Took these sweet pictures of Alexa Joy today and couldn't help but post them...
Look at that sweet face!

Mommy and Alexa have had some good bonding time over the last 10 days...
After Christmas, we left Ellie in Kentucky for a few days to play with Papa and Nana Johnson and Uncle Josh. She is having a great time, but we're missing her here in Kansas!

But we're making the most of our time, and I will say that I have thoroughly enjoyed these days with my baby... Alexa is already growing up SO quickly. I just want to savor every moment.

It was over 60 degrees today, so we bundled her up and went for a walk around the neighborhood!

Just last night we got home from a 5 day student conference in Oklahoma City. Alexa's first SMC!!! She was such a trooper and it was a blast having my little sidekick with me!

2011 is off to a great start! Now, just to get both of my chickies back in the nest... :)

Sister Love...

Took these pictures of the girls today and couldn't help but post them..
I'm so excited for the girls to grow up together...

So many fun memories yet to be had...

I love you so much Ellie Hope and Alexa Joy!

You are my sunshine!

Flower Girl for a day...

It was a day we had been anxiously anticipating! Our good friends Josh and Betsy got married! We were so excited for their special day and it was Ellie's first time as a flower girl! That's where the anxiousness came in. Ha! :) At two years old, we just weren't quite sure how our little princess would handle the big day. Would she walk down the aisle like she was supposed to? Or would she cause a scene to be forever remembered on the wedding video? Again, it could have gone either way and we were hoping for the former and not the latter! I was a bit hesitent because the wedding was at 2pm...exactly the time that Ellie usually goes down for a nap. It was bound to be interesting.So, what's a parent to do? Well, on the night of the rehearsal you better believe that Ellie did SEVERAL trial runs down the aisle. Above is a picture of Ellie with Daddy...holding her fake flowers to practice with. The church had these cool flower pens that doubled perfectly for a little bouquet. After about 10 times, Joel was coaching her that she needed to do it TWO more times!
Ellie was all tuckered out after all that practicing! So we let her have her cow and binky and she crashed out on our way to the rehearsal dinner!But don't you worry! She was wide awake and all ready for the big day! She even got to get her hair done by our sweet friends Meg and Sarah and she was a GEM during the hair and make-up session. ;) She sat completely still and loved every minute of it!

I thought she looked just adorable!

And then, we had to get a couple more practice runs in before the guests started arriving... The dry runs on the wedding day were a little less successful. She would run like a crazy woman down the aisle and straight up onto the platform.

Thankfully, the bride wasn't worried at all...

And Ellie ended up doing a wonderful job! Straight down the aisle just like she was supposed to! I was proud as could be. First time as a flower girl: success!

Got a quick semi-family pic before the ceremony.

Unfortunately, Alexa was sound asleep and already in the nursery!

Most of the bridesmaids were composed of our staff girls, whom our Ellie LOVES! Here she is with one of them... our other Ellie, who is just like a part of our family! Ellie adores "Miss Ellie"!

So El got to spend a lot of the day with all the girls and she just ate that up! After the wedding, Ellie still had plenty of energy left so she proceeded to tear it up on the dance floor!

As you can see...she couldn't get enough. I should try to post a couple of her dancing videos! The still shots don't do it justice. :)

Congratulations Josh and Betsy! Your wedding was a FABULOUS day and incredibly memorable for us all!

Alexa is 6 months!!!

Here I am world! Half way to my one year birthday!!! And as you can see, I'm pretty happy about that! I am loving life and growing like a weed!!!

One of the things that I have started doing more in the last month is sucking my thumb. It helps put me to sleep! I'm not too crazy about my pacifier. I usually just pull it out of my mouth. Mommy thinks I look pretty cute when I do this. At least right now... It probably won't be too cute if I'm still doing it when I'm 5. :) Grandpa McCulley also noticed that I always suck my right thumb, so he's guessing that I might be a lefty like Ellie and Mommy! We will see!

I'm also getting pretty big! At my 6 month check up I was:

26.5 inches - 77th percentile

15 lbs. 15 oz - 50th percentile

and my head was 43.5 centimeters - 75th percentile

Mommy and Daddy say that I'm a happy baby! I am still not too crazy about sleep. Why sleep when there is so much going on in the world? I think it's a waste of my time.

I'm talking a lot more these days too! I love to say "da da" and "ga ga" and things like that.

I also love to SCREAM at the top of my lungs for no apparent reason. It scares Mommy and then Ellie and I will get into screaming matches which we both think is pretty funny.

I can also sit up by myself for a minute or two at a time! I'm not quite sure how long I could actually do it, cause when I'm sitting up Ellie is usually quick to come and tackle me.

She and I have gotten to be really good friends. She's always hugging me and kissing me and sometimes sitting on me, but we're always having fun. I can't wait until I get just a little bit bigger and we can start running around together and getting into all kinds of things together!

I love being 6 months old!