The start of 2012...

Ah... a brand new year!  Hard to believe that almost 2 months of it are already behind us...  For some reason, catching up on the blog seems to keep slipping my mind.  So I thought I would take some time tonight and get caught up a bit...  It's been a busy but very fun time around here!  The girls are growing and changing like crazy...  they keep me on my toes, to say the least.  It feels like Alexa has grown up overnight.  She isn't even my baby anymore, but instead a full fledged toddler!  Her hair is past her shoulders and she can definitely hold her own with big sister...  It's quite entertaining to watch the two of them together...  One of my favorite things to watch is my two girls with their Daddy.  They both just adore him and I feel so blessed to be married to a man who makes such good time for his girls! 

 One of Ellie's favorite parts of her week is her DANCE CLASS...  It's only 30 minutes on Wednesday mornings, but boy does she have fun!  She has a couple of really good friends in the class, so that makes her happy!  She often comes home and shows us all of her new moves.  But honestly, I think her favorite part is getting to wear her dance outfit from Nana and Papa Johnson or her dance skirt from Uncle Mark and Aunt Renee! 

 We've taken advantage of lots of great memory making moments...  The girls got this great princess dress up box from Uncle Joe and Aunt Bel for Christmas and we've had some very fun tea parties dressed up like princesses!  Thanks Uncle Andrew and Aunt Kristin for our fun table to have our tea parties on!

 The weather has been so incredibly mild, we have barely even had to pull out the coats this winter.  I think we've only had 2 very small snows...  Not even enough to make a snowman!  But I have to admit, it's been kind of nice to be out and about and not have to bundle up.  We've gotten to spend several afternoons outside playing and riding bikes and playing at the park.  Not very many years you can say you get to do that  in January and February!

 Alexa continues to grow like a weed and her vocabulary is finally taking off!  She hasn't been a big talker (probably because big sister does a lot of talking for her!)...  but over the last month she has started saying a lot!  She has some hilarious little phrases...  I think it's mostly the inflection that makes it so cute...  but she will often say things like "Oh My!" and "I Love You" in the cutest little voice...  "All gone and all done" are a couple of other favorites, as well as "NO ELLIE!" :)  A little sibling rivalry already rearing its head...  She is a definite lover and loves to give big kisses and hugs.  She just absolutely melts your heart...  When she smiles, her eyes disappear and she loves to dance!  She is still sleeping a TON these days...  She goes to bed around 9pm and will easily sleep until at least 9 or 10am the next morning...  up for a few hours and then usually down for a 3-4 hour nap.  Yesterday I had to wake her up when it got close to 5 hours!  I know...  doesn't sound real, but I promise it is.  My girls love their sleep!!!

 Ellie is all grown up these days, too!  I think one of the reasons that I forget to blog is because I recently got a twitter account (don't judge me :)  I swore I NEVER would, but I tell you what...  it's been a lot of fun to "tweet" all of the hilarious things that these girls say and do right when it happens, then I just go to my twitter account and copy and paste all of my tweets into a document on my computer so I remember all of their funny sayings..  It has worked pretty well and even the college students get a kick out of Ellie and Alexa's antics.  You can follow me!  @jenjohnson11 if you're on twitter! :) 

Anyway... Ellie is into everything these days.  She LOVES to be my helper.  I can't even step foot into the kitchen without her being right there wanting to "help" me.  But I have to admit, she is getting pretty good!  Tonight we made brownies and she even remembered every ingredient and the amount of each that went into the mix.  This girl has a mind of steel...  She is also learning to spell, write all of her letters (she is incredibly good at writing her name!), she knows all of her numbers to 100 and is learning to tell time.  I think it will be good to get her into preschool next fall because I'm not sure this Mama can keep ahead of her! 

 And last but not least...  we continue to spend a lot of our time each day with college students... which we LOVE!  We have had LOTS of meals and parties at our home this semester, so there is rarely a dull moment at our house...  Every day Ellie will ask me "who is coming over today?"...  We love that our home is filled with lots of life and activity... 

This last week we got to have our annual Valentine's Dessert and Dance for StuMo.  It's one of our favorite events of the year!  Everyone gets all dressed up (over 480 students this year!) and comes out to hear a couple share the story of how they came to know Christ and how God has worked in their dating and marriage...  We enjoy a fancy dessert together and end the night with a dance.  Our girls LOVE this night!  They always dance up a storm and stay up WAY past their bedtime.  But it's always worth it...  Here is a pic with a few girls and also one of our family!  I know Alexa is not dressed up...  she was just not having it that night!  So we just kept her in her cute outfit from the day.  Ha!

So there you have it!  An update from the Johnson's little corner of the world... :)  I would love to say I'll update again soon, but I feel like I jinx myself whenever I say that.   Thanks for taking the time to read this long post...  Until next time!

these days...

Hello Blogger World!  I have missed you!  My blog posts seem to be getting much fewer and farther between...  sorry Mom and Dad (my most faithful blog followers!).  So...  I decided to take some good time this afternoon and try to catch up in one fell swoop.  We'll see how I do.  Above is a sweet collage of my two little loves, as I affectionately call them.  They keep me on my toes each day and if I take my eyes off of them for one moment, sometimes chaos ensues as pictured below.  But I wouldn't trade these days for anything because they are so quickly passing me by...

We have lots of fun, these two girls and I.  We spend most of our days together and we sure love it when Daddy gets to be home to join us!  We play and we color, read books, dance, eat meals, clean up and repeat.  There are baths and naps and fun with students in our home.  We cook (I have TWO little helpers now!) and bake cookies... we mess things up and we clean...  lots of laundry is dirtied by these two little beauties, but there are no clothes more fun to fold as I reflect on the lives of these two little miracles and what a privilege it is to be able to love them and raise them and spend my days with them.   Here are just a few highlights from our last month and more specifically what the girls are doing these days!

 In early November we got to head to Kansas City to celebrate the wedding of two of our good friends, Jordan and Macie Ayers!  It was SO fun to see so many friends...  former and current students.  Joel and I both got the privilege of being IN the wedding, so Ellie and Alexa got some extra good time with students and staff who took care of them through the day!

Over Thanksgiving week, Ellie and Alexa got to stay with Nana and Papa J for a week as Joel and I went on a 10th anniversary trip!  They had lots of fun and made lots of memories together, as did we!  I think it was the first time that the two of us had gotten extended time together as a couple since these little ones entered our lives!  It was a fun getaway, but also so fun to get back to our girls!

Right when we got back, we got to celebrate Daddy's 35th birthday with friends!  It was a really busy but fun day!  Ellie and Alexa made Daddy a really fun card and sign and made him a cake.  Then we got to have dinner with our staff team and a few students at the Little Apple.  So fun!

Early December has been characterized by lots of people in and out of our home.  We LOVE to have our home full of life and laughter!  The girls ADORE the students and love having them here for Bible Studies or parties, etc...  We had about 120 students over for a finals study break and our girls were eating it up!  I could hardly get them settled down to go to bed!

This is also the week that the girls have their monthly "birthdays"!  Today Ellie is 41 months old - almost 3 1/2!  Crazy...  And Alexa will be 19 months on the 17th!  My babies are definitely no longer babies...

More soon on what each of the girls are up to these days...  but the girls just woke up from naps, so out of time for now!  To be continued...

Dancing Queen...



It's the day Ellie has been waiting for...  She's finally old enough to start dance classes!!!



 



As you can see... on her first day, she starts out ALL smiles!

 

But the nerves kick in right before she heads into the studio...

  


But she is a trooper and goes in all by herself!





After 8 weeks of dancing, Daddy and Mommy and Alexa get to come and see Ellie perform!  She did a great job!

Way to go, Ellie!!!

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!!! :)