Party in the USA...

20 months already!

Okay, I know that I am biased... but look at that adorable face! We decided to do Ellie's 20 month pictures in her PJ's because bedtime is seriously one of our favorite times with Ellie. She has the cutest little attachment to this stuffed cow! She loves to rub her nose with it's tail. It's super comforting to her. Very cute. And when Daddy and I put her to bed each night, while we are praying for her she will rub her nose, then Mommy's nose, then Daddy's nose with the tail. It's just precious.Some other night time favorites are her bath, her blankie, her "baby" which is actually her pacifier that she only gets at night cause we tell her she is a big girl and pacifiers are for babies - therefore she calls the paci a "baby". :)
We also can't get enough of these SMILES! We love it when she smiles SO big that her eyes close. It's hilarious. And she's become such a ham lately...just cheesin' it up for the camera!

Other fun facts about our 20 month old.

• She has just broken through 4 new molars - and she didn't even cry a bit!
• Lots of new favorite words including I Love You (pronounced "I U"), bath, diaper, poopie and pee pee (I think we might be getting close to potty training time!), night night, plus she can now say almost every one of our staff's names (Beppy for Betsy, Mamie for Macie, Tracy, Kyle and Bob is definitely a favorite to say!)
• She is tall enough to reach doorknobs now and even let herself out the front door last week. Yikes! Everything is now locked from the inside to prevent this from happening again.
• Still a dancing machine! Her new favorite move is spinning in circles with her left arm extended straight out in front of her. It's hilarious. Kind of looks like her own version of the sprinkler. :)
• She has what we like to the call the "naughty corner". It's where she runs and hides under our coat rack whenever she has something that she knows she is not supposed to have. A few days ago I found her there with an entire pack of gum that she had opened, unwrapped every piece of gum and started eating them.
• When she is caught doing something she is not supposed to do, she looks at you all sweetly, reaches her arms out and says I U (or "I Love You") and then puckers up for a kiss. Where do they learn these things? Don't worry, she still gets disciplined, though it's very hard after that. :)
• The list goes on...but these are just a few of our favorite things about our Ellie at 20 months.
  
  
  
  
  

Oh the joys of a toddler...

Any other parents out there excited for spring weather? I know the Johnson's sure are! And it looks like we might get our wish here in Kansas this next week. Ellie is just getting so stir crazy in the house and she's ready to play outside! We got a little taste of it last week when the temperatures warmed up and now she is just itching to get back out there!

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So until then, we've been embracing what is called "make your own fun". Ellie has been running around like a wild woman, unloading every book shelf, every toy from her toybox, every drawer, every non-child proofed cabinet, etc. Now if we could only teach her to put it all back!!! I think I spend a third of my day just putting everything back in it's place, but it's all worth it. Today I walked into her room when she had been quiet for a little too long and saw that she had pulled every book out of her book baskets - but then was sitting and quietly "reading" one of them! It is a rare occasion that this girl sits still long enough to look through a book! Ha!

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We're having a really good time watching our little girl explore her world. Looking forward to exploring what's outside the house in hopefully not too many days!

Dancing the night away...by popular demand!

Here it is! The video that has been highly requested! (by family anyway... :) Ellie Hope tearing up the dance floor at our Valentine's Dessert. Please notice how about half way through this video, Ellie decides to run out and slap a girl on the behind. It's hilarious!

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!