27 weeks and GROWING!

27 weeks 3 days along with #2
Thought it had been a while (over 7 weeks!) since I took my last belly pic. Time is quickly flying by in this pregnancy. I really can't believe it... It's going SOOOO much faster than my pregnancy with Ellie did... Some days I even forget that I'm pregnant unless I catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror and then am quickly reminded that I am INDEED pregnant! :) We are 27 1/2 weeks along - only a little over 11 weeks to go since we'll be having this little sweetie by c-section on Monday, May 17th. Or at least that's the plan right now!
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I have been feeling GREAT! I can't believe how gracious God has been. Besides the crazy cold/walking pnemonia I have right now - the pregnancy has been relatively smooth. I feel good, haven't been tired or too achy or anything. I am starting to get to the "BIG" pregnant stage, as I like to call it and now it's a little harder to bend over and haul Ellie around. I will just get large from here on out. I tend to carry all in my stomach, so my stomach will grow by tremendous proportions over these next few weeks! I start bumping into people and things with it. Ha! :) Watch out!
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We still haven't come close to picking a name - so we'd better get on that! If you have any suggestions send them our way cause it's been harder to agree on anything this time around!

Ellie is getting very excited about being a big sister. She's going to be a great one! I'm trying to soak up every minute of these next 78 days of her being my only little pookster... She's just so much fun right now!
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Love you all... Thanks for checking in...

Valentine's Dessert and Dance at StuMo!

Our little performer!
Not happy when Dad tries to take her off of the stage. :)

Singing like she owns the place. :)

Ellie and Mommy with some of our ChiO friends!

Our beautiful staff girls!

A little family picture...

More fun with some of the the staff girls. We have such a fun team!

Our annual StuMo Valentine's Dessert was a huge success again this year and Ellie had SO much fun with all of the students. She danced her way into the night and was up WAY past her bedtime. I think she finally hit the hay around midnight that night and was such a trooper. It was definitely a fun night had by all...

19 months on Valentine's Day!

Ellie and Mommy all dressed up on Valentine's Day!
Look at that face! Could you get more adorable that this? :) Not to this Mommy!
Sporting a new Valentine's outfit from Grandpa and Grandma Johnson!

And I couldn't resist including this one of little Ellie with her new bear from Uncle Josh and hairbow from Uncle Andrew and Aunt Kristin!

How can this be??? Our little chipmunk is quickly approaching 2 years old... Just three more months until sweet Ellie is not our only little girl, so we are trying to soak up every single moment with her. She is doing lots of new things these days and saying lots of new words. Here are some highlights from the last month...

• She's started trying to say lots of our staff's names! So far she's only got Bob and Tracy down well...but she's working on the rest! Today when she try to say "Betsy" it came out "Beppy", which I thought was pretty cute. :)
• Her new hobby is working on counting to five! It is SO cute! We're trying to teach her to hold up her fingers as she counts, but she struggles with anything more than holding up her first finger and then she goes straight to holding up 5! :) It's a challenge to keep those others fingers down.
• She constantly points to Mommy's belly and says "baby"! But often will point to her own belly, Daddy's belly and sometimes other bellys, too! We're trying to help her understand that there is NOT a baby in EVERY person's belly. :)
• She LOVES getting pulled around by Daddy on her little pink horsey on wheels. It's become her and Daddy's favorite pasttime together. He even put a rope on it so he can whisk her around the kitchen as she squeels with delight! Often as soon as Daddy walks in the door, she goes to get her horsey. :)
• Ellie loves having a "bite" of everything! If either of us are eating, she will quickly walk up to us and say "bite?" and if we don't respond quickly enough she'll add on a loud "peeeeease?" (please)... it's adorable.
• She is still our dancing queen, spinning in circles and bobbing her little head. I will soon post a short video from our Valentine's Dessert where she was cutting a rug with the students.
• She's still a mere 23 lbs - but getting taller by the day and her feet seem to be growing fast!
• Ellie is still not a fan of having bows or ponytails in her hair, so when you see pictures of her with her hair all crazy, I promise we didn't start the day that way. :)
• Ellie is VERY independent and wants to do everything herself! She is also as ornery as you can imagine! She can get into anything like drawers, cabinets, etc and is even starting to figure out how to get baby proof lids off! YIKES! Last week she took a baby proof cap off of baby oil, but thankfully I caught her before she did too much damage. She has crazy good fine motor skills!

The list could go on and on, but I will stop for now! Love you all... Thanks for checking in!

cute little Ellie video...

All Girl...

Is this cute or what? I walked into the bathroom the other day to find Ellie with my curling iron "curling" her hair... She is definitely a girl after Momma's heart. I guess she's seen me doing it every morning, so she wanted to try! Not a problem since everything was unplugged!!! But I'd better watch her a little more carefully now that she has this new trick... Thankfully, she also is quick to identify when something is "HOT"! Like I (or she :) ) said in our last post, whenever she sees a coffee cup or a pot on the stove, etc. she quickly says HOT! I need to take a video cause it's so cute when she says it...

Luckily, she also puts the curling iron away when she is through! :)

18 months old today!!!

Hey everyone!
Yep! You read it right! I am 18 months old today! Can you believe it? A baby no more and Mommy says that I am DEFINITELY a toddler! I am running and playing and getting into everything these days. You can't take your eye off of me for a second. My hair is getting really long, which I love cause Mommy puts it in pigtails and ponytails. If I'm good, I will keep them in. I'm getting a little better about that.

I'm doing lots of new things these days including eating lots of new foods. I feel like a pretty big kid. My other friend Ellie bought me this muffie from Panera and I ate the whole thing all by myself! As you can see from the pictures I was VERY serious about it!
This picture below also describes what I'm doing a lot more of these days... TALKING! My vocabulary is expanding like crazy and it won't be long before I'm able to talk in sentences! Honestly, I probably could now but I'm a little stubborn and want to make Mommy and Daddy think I don't know what they are saying... but usually I do! They are starting to spell things around me cause I understand everything now! Here are a few of my new favorite words.

Uh-oh!

(I like to say this when I do something I'm not supposed to or I notice that Mommy has left a door open to a room that I'm not supposed to go in or the dishwasher open)

Baby

(and then I point to Mommy's tummy or pick up one of my baby dolls)

Light

(this is one of my favorite activities - turning lights on and off!)

Cheese

(just like my Daddy, this is one of my favorite foods!)

Wa-Wa (or water)

HOT!

(not sure why, but I am obsessed with pointing at the oven or coffee cups and saying HOT!

Mommy thinks it's pretty cute!)

NaNa and PaPa

(I say these two words a lot...especially since my Grandparents

all watched me recently and spoiled me a lot! )
Okay, you get the point... I'm talking LOTS these days!

I still love dancing and music, too!
Pretty much, Daddy and Mommy say I'm at a REALLY cute stage and they are loving spending time with me! At the same time, I'm more work than I've ever been cause when I'm awake I just don't stop! I run fast and I am very curious! I have learned how to CLIMB on everything and also throw things in the toilet. The other day I even threw Mommy's cell phone in there. Thankfully, I didn't ruin it. I didn't know it wouldn't float!
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Thanks for checking in on me! OH! And I forgot to say how EXCITED I am to have a baby sister!!! Daddy is really going to be outnumbered now with THREE girls in the house. I think it's going to be so much fun. I will teach sissy the ropes and even share my clothes with her.
That's all for now! Love you all!

20 Weeks and it's a GIRL!

I can't believe that we're already half-way through this pregnancy and this is the very first belly picture that we've even taken!!! We decided we'd better get after it so that #2 doesn't feel left out when she looks back at pictures, so we snapped a quick couple of pics after church today! Ellie didn't want to be left out, so she got to get in the pic... though her patience didn't last too long, as you can see our second picture was without her!

As many of you have already heard, we found out last Wednesday that we are having another GIRL and we couldn't be more excited for Ellie to have a sister!!! I've said many times that I had two awesome brothers, but never had the chance to have the "sister" experience, so I'm very excited to have a couple of girls in the house. Joel will now officially be outnumbered 3:1, but he doesn't seem to care a bit! I'm looking forward to even more PINK and hairbows around the Johnson house for a while (even though right now, Ellie won't leave a bow or ponytail in for more than 5 minutes!) ! I am feeling so good and am thankful for another wonderful pregnancy... We have been so blessed! Our official due date is May 27th, but we'll likely have baby girl a week or so early since I have to deliver by C-section again this time.

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Ellie turns 18 months old this week, so the next note you read will be from her! She is looking forward to writing and telling you all about her adventures and all the new things she is doing now! But we'll leave that for the next post!

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Thanks for checking in! More to come soon!