Haircut!

It was time!!!  Ellie's 2nd ever haircut!!!  I had tried to stay on top of trimming her bangs, though if you look through several of my summer posts, you'll see I never did an excellent job of that.  Ha!



Ellie actually LOVES to get her hair cut!  She sits really still for our hairstylist, Miss Lindsay, who we LOVE!  She KNOWS that if she's a good girl, there is a treat in store for her at the end...  And she also really loves this penguin cape!

 

Ellie getting the royal treatment!

Something here is making her turn up her nose a bit.  If I remember right, I think that she might have gotten a little hair on her nose and it tickled!  lol...

Daddy had taken Alexa for the first part of the haircut, but then he had to drop her off and head to an appointment.  I was a bit nervous if she would sit still and behave, but again...  Lindsay to the rescue!  She gave her this blow pop and as you can see, Alexa LOVED the haircut as well. :)

All smiles!

Thought I would add a picture from Ellie's FIRST Haircut over a year ago!  Sweet Alexa was just teeny tiny...

Hard to believe how much my little firstborn has changed in a year!  Her face looks so much more grown up now!

Mommy with her girl after her first haircut... 
Fun to watch them grow and change...

September at a glance...

Catching up yet again...  Where has the last month gone???  Thought I would just do last month "at a glance" since I have managed to get myself so far behind, yet again!!!

No worries...  Ellie didn't get glasses!  This is just her new favorite past time...  finding Joel's glasses and wearing them around.  Yes, we are trying to put a stop to it cause we know it's bad for her eyes.  But have you ever seen a cuter kid with glasses? :)  Love it!

 Over Labor Day weekend we got to spend a few hours with some of our favorite cousins in Kansas City!!!  With 5 kiddos this small, it was tough to get too many good pictures!  But here is one we managed to capture!  We spent the morning at Deanna Rose Farmstead and then grabbed some lunch together and part of the afternoon!  It was so fun!  Just wish times like that could last longer...

This has also been a common occurance at the end of our days!  Wrestling with Dad!!!  It's funny cause both of our girls seem to really be "girly girls" but at the same time, they both LOVE to wrestle!  Mom doesn't seem to be able to do an adequate job, so when Dad comes home, Ellie and Alexa love to play hide and seek, chase, dance and wrestle with Daddy.  He is incredible with them!

Another highlight of our month was having our friends Matt and Jana come to visit for a night!  They have a little guy named Cade who is just 2 weeks older than Alexa...  It was fun to see them together, though at this age, they still don't seem to care if the other one is around or not...  But I think they are awfully cute and who knows...  maybe we'll match make them someday... :)

 Alexa turned 16 months old on September 17th!!!  She is now officially walking, running, chattering (though she still doesn't have a ton of words, she definitely knows how to get her point across!).  Her hair has gotten SO long and she broke through her top two teeth to bring her total to a whopping FOUR! :)  She is getting quite independent and always wants to do things herself like feed herself with her spoon and help Mommy sweep up messes.  She has great fine motor skills and always loves to play blocks and figure out how things fit together...  It's fun to see her little mind at work!

Ellie is now 38 months old and is quite the little spit fire!!!  I mean that in the best way possible. :)  She keeps me on my toes, that's for sure...  Her naps are getting shorter (sigh...) and she wants to stay up later at night...  She wants to be involved in EVERYTHING you are doing.  If I'm cooking, it's "Mommy, can I help you?"  If I'm cleaning, she wants you to give her a rag to clean with too! :)  She is still a thumb sucker, though Daddy is now giving her a quarter for each morning she wakes up and her thumb is dry.  She is super observant and doesn't miss a thing!  She is very verbal and definitely converses like a little adult about everything.  Her new funny phrase is, "Okay Mom...here's the deal.."  She is quite the little negotiator.  If you ask her to do something, she'll try to make a deal with you.  i.e. "how about I watch 10 more minutes of VeggieTales THEN I'll brush my teeth..." :)  She is a ton of fun and we can't imagine our world without her! :)  If you're on Twitter, follow me at JenJohnson11 to hear funny daily quotes from Ellie... :)

 And last, but not least, Sister Love...  These two are just inseparable...  They hug and wrestle and fight...  true sisters.  But one thing that's for sure.  They love being together!  And I just love life with my girls... 

  

 I already have a couple of October posts in the works, so hopefully they will be coming soon!!! :)

Beautiful day in the neighborhood...

While we had a WONDERFUL summer, it's also great to be HOME...  One of the things that the girls enjoy the most about being back home is getting to play outside in the neighborhood...  Ellie has just learned to ride a bike, so she LOVES to get out and do that as much as possible.  But she also loves to play with "the kids" as she affectionately calls them, though almost every kid in the neighborhood is older than she is!  Above is one of our cute neighbors named Kinsley...  Here is a pic of El catching a ride with her on one the neighbors electric cars.  She has to enjoy theirs cause we only have ones that she has to peddle herself!  Ha!

Below is Ellie's new pride and joy...  Her PRINCESS BICYCLE and matching helmet...  She is learning to master "bumps" or aka... cracks in the sidewalk.  Her Daddy and I are trying to help her gain a little confidence to peddle up hills and make sure and put on the brakes when she is going downhill. :)  She is getting better by the day!

Alexa has been a little bummed that SHE is not big enough to ride a bike.  She tries so hard to reach the peddles of Ellie's tricycle, and she looks pretty cute sitting on it, but unfortunately for her, her little legs are still just a few inches shy of reaching.  So, for this year, she will just have to be content with riding along in the stroller!

This pic doesn't necessarily fit the theme, but had to add it in there!  Alexa got her hands on Ellie's priness crown from her birthday and had to try it on for size.  Isn't she a little doll?

And last, but not least, this is usually how we end our days...  In the bathtub!  They play hard and have the dirt to show for it at the end of the day, that's for sure!  But the good thing is all that playing makes them champion sleepers at night as well! :)  Loving the summer days and being back home in the neighborhood!

St. Louis Zoo!

"On the road again!"  This was Ellie's theme song through the summer months as we would pack up and hit the road!  From Manhattan to Kentucky to Alabama to Florida and through many other states on our summer adventure down to our summer KALEO project!  She would often burst into song when we would pack up the suitcases an get buckled into the van...  Well on the final leg of our trip back to Kansas, we decided to make one more pit stop before we reached home...  or our "green house" as Ellie calls it. :)  We were about 6 hours from our final destination when we passed a sign for the St. Louis Zoo!  The girls are at a really fun age for field trips like this, so we made a last minute decision to stop!  We are so glad we did.  It ended up being a fun family memory!  Here are a few pictures from our 2 hour tour of the zoo!

 

Family Photo Op at the Zoo!



Mom and Alexa Joy

We had to get a few pics at this statue!  It actually brough back some fun memories.  My brother Joe and I took a spring break trip to this zoo together the year after I got out of college and he was a junior.  We have a couple cute pics right at this spot!  Unfortunately, Alexa wasn't quite so fond of it.  You might not be able to tell from the pictures, but she was stiff and trembling!  Scared her to pieces!!!  And can you find Ellie in the above pic?  She was hiding. :)

Ellie looking at a cool frog!

Ellie is turning out to be a lot more like her Daddy than her Mommy in the arena of loving animals!  I am okay with animals, but Joel and Ellie LOVE them...  So, she is always enthralled with every exhibit and wants to tell me ALL about each one.  Pretty cute, actually.  :)

Playing Vanna - showing off the huge snake!

Gotta take time to cool down at the mister!

It was a very warm day, and our girls are definitely hot blooded!  So they would take every opportunity to run through the misters that were strategically placed throughout the zoo!!! 

Daddy and his girls!

Though we didnt' have time to make it through the whole zoo, it was a great place to stop and stretch our legs and get out of the van for a while!!!  Lots of great memories at the St. Louis Zoo! :)

A few fun pics...

First, a 15 month Alexa update! Took her in for her 15 month appt today and here are her stats!

Weight: 21 lbs. 4 oz - 20th percentile

Height - 30.5 inches - 50th percentile

Head circumference - 46.5 cm - 70th percentile

Both of my girls seem to have small bodies and big heads! Ha! :)

Poor Alexa had to have her 1-year shots today cause we left for KALEO before she actually turned 1, so they wouldn't do them back in May. She was a trooper, but it always is so painful to watch them go from happy to this look of "Mom, what are you letting them do to me???" Always makes me a little sad. :(

Ellie and Alexa have both become pretty avid readers lately! I love looking over to find one of the girls has picked up a book! Ellie has many of them memorized, so it has the appearance that she is actually READING it cause she will have all the words down pat.

This picture was from was from our time in Kentucky! Both of the girls just LOVE to be outside, so when it's too hot or raining, etc... they look longingly at the outdoors! Especially now that Ellie is riding a bike. She'd be outside riding ALL the time if she could!!! (pics of that to come soon!)... But I thought this pic was too cute to pass up. Can't you just feel the sister love? :)

We seem to spend a LOT of time at the kitchen table these days. For two different reasons... Alexa LOVES to eat and so she wants to be eating all the time. Ellie does NOT love to eat, so it takes us forever to get her to focus and get some food down her! Ha! Ellie usually tries to sneak her food to Alexa so she doesn't have to eat it herself. I keep telling Ellie that if she doesn't eat, Alexa will soon be bigger than her!

Another one of Ellie's pasttimes is trying to do everything Mommy does. She will often say "Mommy, I'm copyin' you!" Wow, what a reminder that these little ones watch every move and listen to every word. I want to be a Momma who is worthy to have a little girl walk in my shoes... I know I am far from perfect, but I am thankful that God continues to give me these little reminders...

Alexa is 15 months... ALREADY!!!

Sweet Alexa Joy is 15 months!!! We had to start off her 15 month birthday saying goodbye to Papa Richard and Nana Becky after a fun 6 day stay together!

Joel and I had a staff conference, so Papa and Nana graciously offered to come and stay with the girls for a few days and they all had such a great time! It was my first time away from Alexa, so I was a little sad at first, but it was much easier than I had anticipated because she did so well while we were away!
Alexa is a girl of many expressions! And we just LOVE it! She can't say many words yet, but this little one DEFINITELY gets her point across. You very rarely have to wonder what she is thinking or feeling or try to figure out what it is that she wants. She has her ways of letting you know! :) One of my new favorite things that she does is if Ellie or some other circumstance frustrates her, she puffs out her nose kind of like a bull does right before he charges. Do you know what I mean? It's so funny! I need to catch it on video cause it's hard to get the full effect just explaining it. But I think she was doing it in the picture above. :)

Now this picture is of my FAVORITE Alexa face. She just has the CUTEST little thing she does with her lips. She gives you this smirk that absolutely melts your heart!!! Her eyes light up and it's like she looks right into your soul. She is a charmer, for sure!!!

And does this girl have some HAIR!!! It has gotten so thick and long over the last 3 months... It's incredible. It has this really pretty wave to it. I'm excited for it to get long enough to put into pigtails!!! Though, neither of my girls are huge fans of getting their hair fixed. If I wrestle some sort of bow or pony into their hair, it is usually out within 15 minutes. So, not usually worth the effort unless we are going to church or are going to be taking a picture or something. :)

Here are some other FUN FACTS about our 15 month old...

• 
  
  She still only has a few words that she says... "Momma, Daddy, hi, bye, uh-oh" are the most common things you will hear! Though she is really good at trying to imitate what you say to her. She babbles ALL the time, so it won't be long and we'll have TWO girls talking our ears off.. :) (which I love, by the way)


• 
  
  She is quite the go-getter!!! A mover and a shaker now that she has learned to walk and run! She took her first unassisted steps on July 1st and now that she is mobile, it seems like her whole personality is changing! She has become so much more outgoing and independent. Our cuddlebug no longer even likes to be held! She wants to be on the move.


• 
  
  EATER!!! This word describes Alexa to a tee... She EATS a TON! You'd never know it by her petite little frame, but this girl can pack away the food. :) She will make growling noises or cry if she sees you eating something and you don't share it with her!


• 
  
  TEETH - Alexa still just has TWO bottom teeth!!! I know, 15 months old and just 2 little teeth, but her top front teeth are beginning to make an appearance and I think will break all the way through in the next week or so. :)


• 
  
  Alexa LOVES her sister! It's so fun to see them becoming better and better friends by the day. They have their moments, but overall, they just light up when they see each other. Alexa follows Ellie around everywhere and Ellie could't be a more proud big sister.


• 
  
  Alexa is a KISSER. SO CUTE! She is always quick to pucker up with her little fish face and lean over to give you a smooch!


• 
  
  She LOVES when you read to her!!! Multiple times a day she will bring you a book and then back her little self up to you and plop down on your lap...like she's saying "okay, read to me!" I love it!

Alexa Joy Johnson, we are totally smitten with you sweet girl! So thankful for your first 15 months!

Ellie is 3!

Here she is!!! Ellie Hope on her last night of being TWO! This girl couldn't be more excited for her third birthday!!!
We got to spend the day celebrating in Niceville, Florida where we were spending a couple of weeks between summer training programs! We had a fabulous day! We had a party where Ellie got to blow out her candles!

Ellie and Daddy even got to hunt for hermit crabs together!

Alexa wasn't going to miss out on the fun! She helped herself to a birthday cupcake!

And we even had a few of our Oklahoma friends come to help us celebrate the occasion!

When we asked Ellie what she wanted to eat for her birthday, she emphatically said "CUPCAKES!" So, cupcakes there were! And in abundance! Big cupcakes, small cupcakes, chocolate and white cupcakes... Whatever your heart desired!

Ellie definitely got to be the princess for a day and I think she would say it was a great birthday! We got to spend the evening as a family in Destin going to a fun Mexican place for dinner and she even got a free birthday Sundae there! She got to run through fountains, play outside, have a party, be with friends... who could ask for more? She is one blessed little girl and we sure are blessed to have her in our lives. It's been an incredible three years, sweet girl. You definitely bring light to our lives!

Here are a few fun facts about our THREE year old!

• 
  
  She is 36 1/2 inches tall - just over three feet and we started measuring on her closet door!


• 
  
  She finally reached 30 lbs!


• 
  
  She LOVES numbers and letters and colors. She can count to 60 and will gladly do that for you!


• 
  
  She can spell and write her name. (tho - like her Momma, she is a lefty and so sometimes will write in mirror images - we're working on that!)


• 
  
  She can spell her name in sign language (thanks to a kid we met on a sailboat this summer who taught her! ha!)


• 
  
  She can count to ten in spanish (cutest thing in the world to hear!)


• 
  
  She loves Barney, VeggieTales and Dora the Explorer. She has also recently become a fan of Sid the Science Kid. I think she's gonna love science like her Daddy!


• 
  
  She has a mind that just doesn't stop. She remembers details of things that happened months ago - remembers locations she's seen before, makes and models of cars, you name it, you're not slipping one past this girl. (i.e. "Look Mom, that car is just like Papa Barry's car! or "that van is exactly the same as our van!") She will also let you know if you miss your turn or which way you should turn. I experienced this several times this summer!


• 
  
  She LOVES to sing and can carry a tune really well! Often on road trips she will just sing and sing in the back seat. It always brings a smile to my face.


• 
  
  She has become quite the nurturer. She is SO good with her dolls and often tells me that I need to be quiet cause they are sleepin'! Or that if she leaves her baby, that the baby will probably cry... :) She loves her baby sister, too, and it's so fun to watch her teach Alexa things and help her out. They are quite good buddies!


• 
  
  She's a helper and oh so fun to have around.


• 
  
  She loves her tricycle.


• 
  
  She is incredibly expressive.


• 
  
  She is full of incredible one-liners.


• 
  
  And the list goes on...

So GRATEFUL for THREE wonderful years with our beautiful Ellie Hope!