We survived...

...our first weekend apart! Last weekend was my first time EVER away from Ellie for more than 4 hours! I had a retreat down in Arkansas, so Ellie stayed with Daddy for the weekend. I cried when I had to leave! It was SO HARD! But Daddy and Ellie had a wonderful weekend together and he did such a good job with her... They definitely bonded. I had a great time at my retreat, too...

Ellie is ALMOST crawling! She is so close. She gets up on all four and rocks back and forth. She may have had some forward progress, but for the most part, she still scoots herself backwards. We're going to have to move her mattress down a notch or two tonight cause she's getting awfully close to be able to pull herself up to a standing position and we don't want her to fall out of her crib!


The night before I left, we had our annual Valentine's Dessert with all of our students. It was a blast, as always! Everyone gets all dressed up, comes out for a fancy dessert, listen to a couple share their love story of how God has worked in their relationship and marriage and then we dance the rest of the night away. So fun! Here are a few pics from that! Ellie even got a new dress for the occasion!

Mommy and Ellie all dressed up!

a little family pic...

with the girls in my Discipleship Group!

With our staff guys...And finally, below is a picture of Ellie with several of the girls in my Monday night freshmen Chi Omega study! She LOVES them and they love her as well. It's such a fun group of girls...

7 months old on Valentine's Day!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Our first VALENTINE'S DAY with our little sweetheart! Oh what a FUN day! Ellie got to wear her new pink and red outfit for the day... We started off having breakfast with some friends of ours, Jacob and Michelle and their little girl Adiella. Then this afternoon, Daddy took the two of us girls to Topeka for a yummy Valentine's meal and some SHOPPING! Ellie was a trooper as we dragged her around stores. She just smiled and met new friends. She's quite the little charmer and she's never met a stranger. I keep thinking that maybe she'll get stranger anxiety, but not up to this point! She'll smile and go to anyone, which is a lot of fun...

We pulled out the scale tonight to see how big our little squirt is getting... well, not very big at all! She weighed in at a whopping 15 lbs. 13 oz. , which is only 2 1/2 oz bigger than at her 6 month check-up where she was in the 25th percentile. I think we need to start fattening this girl up, so we'll work on that for next month. :)
Finally, here are some of Ellie's new accomplishments as of the last few days. She is now VERY mobile...scooting around like crazy! She continues to scoot herself BACKWARDS under things. It's so cute. We're always finding her stuck under some piece of furniture. If you put a toy out in front of her, she will try to go for it, but ends up moving herself backward. :) She also started clapping her hands this week and chatting a ton. She just says "ba ba ba", but she will say it so many times in a row and with such voice variation that she's sure she's having a big conversation with you and telling you some very important things! It's been so fun to see her little personality continue to develop. This is my FAVORITE stage yet! (until next month, anyway! :)

she just keeps smiling!

The Johnson house is always full of smiles when our little Ellie is around... Okay, she doesn't smile ALL of the time... (as my Bible Study girls can attest to from tonight! Ha!), but she sure is full of joy and I am so incredibly thankful for her... Here she is all dressed up for church, eating some new foods after church and playing on her playmat waiting for Mom to get done getting ready for church! :) Oh...and then you can't leave out the bonus pic of bathtime. It's one of her favorite times!!!

A big week...

Whew! Another week has come and gone... Can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted. Doesn't seem possible. Somehow I got through the week without taking hardly any pictures! Crazy, I know! But it was a big week in Ellie-land... Not only did she eat cereal for the first time (subsequent times have been just as funny as the first! She's not too crazy about this solid food gig. :)... but she also got her FIRST TOOTH!!! My little girl is growing up on me! It wasn't too traumatic. She got really fussy last Tuesday night right as I was getting ready to pack her up and head to a Bible Study. I thought I might have to cancel she was so upset, which is very out of character for her... But it was nothing a little baby tylenol couldn't help. And sure enough, after all that crying, POP! A little tooth! :) Her other first this week - having long enough hair that I can put a BIGGER bow in it! Ha! I sure hope she ends up being a girly girl, or she's gonna hate all this pink and all these bows!

Saturday ended up being a BEAUTIFUL day here in Manhattan. 73 degrees and sunny! Crazy for January 31st, but we took full advantage of the day and got out to do some yard work. After a couple of hours of going at the yard with the help of my hubby, I called a few of my girls to come over to help out as well! Ellie got to sit outside in her stroller and take in the fresh air and laugh at us as we raked and cleaned out the landscaping. This is one of the pics that I took. Please disregard how grubby I look. This is at the end of all the raking! :) But Ellie still looks as cute as can be, as do the other girls! From left to right: Betsy, Jena (who just dropped in at the end...don't worry, she didn't do yard work in that pretty outfit!), me, baby Ellie and my other Ellie!

So it was a fun and full week all in all! We're looking forward to all this week has in store! :)