I'm 9 months old!

Mommy is letting me write this post! I wanted to tell you how EXCITED I am to be 9 months old! And what a great 9 months it has been... People tell me I'm growing so fast and I'm getting a lot more hair! We're not sure what color it is going to be yet. Sometimes it looks blonde and other times it looks red!

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I'm learning to do lots of new things these days, too! I started crawling up a storm a few weeks ago and now I am pulling myself up on things and cruising along furniture. I am VERY curious and love to explore new things. I've gotten really good at opening cabinets and taking everything out of them, pulling books off of the bookshelf, trying to take buttons and knobs off of things, and playing with electrical cords and outlets. I still haven't figured out why Mommy and Daddy will quickly dash towards me and say no and make me go a different direction. The cords are so much fun!!!

Here are a few things that Mommy says are true about me right now...

• I love to play with paper and pens.
• I have this strange ability to know what I'm NOT supposed to play with and those are the most interesting things to me!
• I am almost always happy, I love to smile and I love all people.
• I'm a major extrovert, so I have a lot of trouble going to sleep if there are people around cause I don't want to miss a thing!
• I don't know a stranger!
• I'm a night owl and love to sleep late in the morning.
• I LOVE bathtime and splashing and getting Mommy all wet.
• Much to Daddy's dismay, I am not a snuggler at all. I have quite the personal bubble and need my space... Daddy says this will come in handy with the boys someday.
• I don't fall asleep when being held or rocked. I like to be laid in my bed and left alone. Mommy says that I am a very good sleeper, just pretty independent! :)
• When I wake up in the morning, I love to just play in my bed and make happy sounds. When I'm ready to get up, I stand up in my crib and have learned how to start jumping in my bed. Mommy and Daddy think it's pretty cute and I'm pretty proud of myself!

Those are just a few things that I can think of. I might add more later! Thanks for checking in on me!

Growing...

Hi all... just a short post right now. More to come! Today is Ellie's 9 month birthday, so we took a few more pictures! ha! Mommy and Ellie got a pic taken together by the same tree we took one in front of right after her first Sunday at church... I can't believe how much my little munchkin has grown over the last 9 months!!! She won't be my baby for long... I'm cherishing every day...

Ellie's 1st Easter!

What a wonderful Easter!!! We had a double gift today... the gift of Resurrection Sunday AND our first Easter with our little Ellie... Two years ago today, we were experiencing the heartbreak of our first miscarriage on Easter. Last year, we were anticipating Ellie's arrival... and this year, we got to celebrate Jesus with Ellie HERE! It's been such a good day! Thought we'd share some of our pics with you...

catching up...

Hello everyone! So sorry for the blogging slump. Now that little Miss Ellie is on the move, I seem to have less and less time to be on the computer! It's amazing how much less productive I seem to be. I just get started, look over, and Ellie is into something! :) Ha! But it's so worth every minute. She's always cracking us up!

One of Ellie's favorite new pastimes is pulling herself up on things and starting to "cruise" around them! The biggies are the chair and a half, the bookshelf, and our bench in the living room. She thinks she's pretty big stuff now that she can get around so well! Every morning, she's standing up in her crib looking like such a big girl!

Last weekend, Joel took us to Kansas City for a weekend away and we had SUCH a good time. It was so nice to get a couple of days to relax and spend as a family. Ellie got to go swimming for the first time. Notice her cute little suit! She had such a good time swimming with Daddy and Mommy got lots of pictures and video for sure!

We also got to shop, hang out at Barnes and Noble, have coffee, go to a movie (yes, Ellie sat in the theater through an entire movie! She did amazing!!!), eat at some fun places and just enjoy time together as a family. It was a wonderful weekend!

We're loving this stage of life with little Ellie! Not long now and she'll be walking and really "on the go"! Thanks for checking in. I will try to be better about updating!!! Have a wonderful Easter!

A new world! The MOBILE stage...

We have entered a new season here at the Johnson household - Ellie is MOBILE! When I posted a couple of weeks ago, she was just moving forward cautiously and now she is all over the place! You never know where you will find her, so you have to keep your eye on her at all times... Here are just a few of the places she's made her way to today... :)

Looking inside Mommy's china cabinet

Under the end table getting into Mommy's purse

A fun new seat on Daddy's shoe!

Ellie's FIRST Spring "Break"

Whew! Ellie survived her first Spring Break adventure as a Johnson! And was she ever a TROOPER! The week started off last Friday, March 13th in Kansas City... Our friends Bob and Alissa got married on Saturday the 14th and Daddy was the Best Man in the wedding... So we all got dressed up and enjoyed a BEAUTIFUL day celebrating with our friends, some alumni and current students. It was a blast!

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It also happened to be cousin Wyatt's FIRST birthday and they were in Kansas City celebrating! So Uncle Joe and Wyatt came over to our hotel to play for a couple of hours. Boy, did we have fun! It took a few minutes for Ellie and Wy to get reacquainted, but they did MUCH better together this time than they did at Christmas. Poor Wy wasn't feeling so well, and Ellie also had a little cold... but they still had fun together and it was great to get to see my brother Joe! Just wish we could have actually gone to the party. :( But we're thankful for the time we did have together, even if it was brief. Here are a few pics of the kiddos together.

After Kansas City, we headed to the University of Missouri for a campus tour, then to St. Louis to the zoo! Monday we all jumped in our 2 vehicles (10 students and the three of us!) and headed to Murray where we stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Johnson for a couple of days. Boy did we have fun! Barry and Mary Gail were gracious enough to house our whole crew... boys in the living room, girls upstairs and in the sunroom and our little fam had the bedroom! We had a wonderful time. It just went by too quickly! But we did manage to snap a few great pics of our time together!

After Murray, we headed to Ole Miss for a fun campus tour, then to Memphis and we ended our trip in Fayetteville, Arkansas! Whew! Over 1600 miles in 6 days in a different bed almost every night! And Ellie did GREAT! She is such a trooper, for sure. We had such a memorable time together... Thanks for praying for our trip!

A BIG Day in Ellie's World!

That's right... Ellie is CRAWLING!!! She has been getting SO CLOSE the last couple of weeks, but for the first time today, I saw some significant forward progress... :) Daddy has been coaching her and helping give her a little balance, but today she did it all on her own. I got some video so we won't forget this day. :) I'm sure in the next little while she'll be all over the place! Let the childproofing begin!

It's been so long since I last posted and lots has happened! We enjoyed a fun visit from Grandpa and Grandma McCulley the last weekend in February. It was so fun to have them here! The time just went too quickly... I didn't get many pics on my camera for some reason. I think Grandpa got all the fun ones, but here is one that I snapped right before Grandpa and Grandma headed back to Iowa...

The weather has been so nice here (at least until yesterday!) so Ellie got to break out some of her spring clothes! Doesn't she look adorable in her little outfit with matching headband and sandals? It's going to be so fun to dress this little one at the beach this summer.

And last but certainly not least, I can't help but post a couple of pics of Ellie and her Daddy. They are such good buddies and I LOVE seeing them together... They are so cute and have their own little language and fun things they do... Ellie gets SO excited when Daddy comes home. He can make her smile like no one else! I keep telling her she has one of the most amazing Daddy's in the world! I have a feeling she will always be a Daddy's girl. :)