Goodbye 2010!

Catching up.... October through December. Goodbye 2010!

Wow... life sure gets busy, doesn't it? I uploaded these pictures a few weeks back with all intentions to getting back to them to write a little underneath each picture and well, like I said, that was already a few weeks ago. Uploading them is usually the hardest part!

In my last post, I promised pictures of Ashley and Jack at the same age.

This was Ashley at 12 weeks. Ahhhh, such a cutie pie!

This was Jack at 12 weeks. Ahhh, such a cutie pie!

Ashley is adjusting well to her new role as big sister. She doesn't like to have her picture taken alone these days but if she can get her picture taken with Jack, she's all game!

Daddy & AJ carving pumpkins.

Daddy carved AJ's pumpkin into Cinderella! As you can imagine, AJ was thrilled. I carved my pumpkin into a witch and I carved Jack's name into his pumpkin. Matt never did get a chance to carve his pumpkin... life just gets busy. :)

On 10/24 Matt and I took Ashley to Disney Live to see Mickey's Magic Show. I took her to Disney Live last year too but this year she was much more into it. Of course, it's not just Mickey, there's Disney princesses involved as well and you'll always get her attention if it has a princess in it.

Mickey's Magic Show

Ashley & Jack on Halloween. Ashley was Cinderella and Jack was...well... it's still up for debate...either a horse,cow or giraffe. :) By the time Halloween finally came, our pumpkins had seen better days. We even made it out trick or treating. Ashley is terrified...TERRIFIED of masks, so we only made it to about 5 houses before she had had enough. She wanted us to carry her from house to house and well, that just wasn't happening!

Daddy, Jack & Ashley

Jack Lee ~ 15 Weeks old. He started talking up a storm at 15 weeks. Nothing understandable of course but so fun to listen to and see how animated he can be.

Grandpa & Grandma J with Alex (a little over a year old), AJ (3yr 8 mo) and Jack (16 weeks old)

Jack's first hair cut! Can you believe it? Not even 4 months old and he needed a hair cut. We took them to our favorite neighbor, Gina! Gina nannied for AJ when she was an infant.

Ashley's first hair cut! Such an exciting day! Her hair is so much more manageable now that those fine ends were trimmed off. Ashley now insists on combing and styling her own hair in the morning. She also likes to play hair salon and fix my hair with barrettes too. Her favorite part is spraying or should I say, soaking my hair with the water bottle!

Our family on Thanksgiving.

Jack & Ashley

I just love this picture and the contrast of them against my mom's black futon couch.

While Erik & Jessica were in town Thanksgiving weekend, the Johnson crew went to the Shoreview Community Center. If you haven't' been there, the Shoreview Community Center has a huge indoor pool with a slide and an awesome kiddie pool. They also have an indoor playground, ya know, the kind with all the plastic tunnels and slides etc. It was lots of fun. Then we ordered pizza from Green Mill and ate that in the cafeteria. It was a fun afternoon!

Jack Lee - 20 weeks and ready for Christmas! On 12/2 Jack started grabbing his toes and rolling onto his side.

This is a picture of just some of the baby's at Matt's work Christmas party. Yes, there were more, we just didn't think to take a picture when they were all still at the party.

Jack Lee - 5 months old on 12/24! Isn't he just adorable? On 12/20 Jack rolled over!

Happy boy!

Ashley & Jack on Christmas Eve at Grandma Schuette's house. Santa stopped at Grandma's house again this year with gifts for all of the kids. Ashley wouldn't sit on his lap. Santa still gave her a present...Swiper the Fox (this is the fox from Dora the Explorer for all of you who are saying what/who?) Jack had no problem sitting on Santa's lap and LOVED pulling on Santa's white beard. Santa had a Johnny Jump up for Jack.

Ashley in her pretty Christmas dress.

This is a picture of the Schuette side with a few people missing.

Izzy (5), Ashley (3) & Ayla (4)

These girls have so much fun playing together at Christmas!

Christmas morning! Oh what fun! Ashley was very into opening the presents this year. In fact, she wanted to open everyones presents.

Ashley got a new polka dot comforter that she was just thrilled about because it is very similar to her cousin Jessica and we all know how much she adores her cousin Jessica!

On Christmas morning, after all of our presents were open, we got dressed and headed out the door to Stacey & Reeds house for Christmas breakfast! How fun to do breakfast with friends before the busy afternoon with family.

Daddy & Jack

See what a happy boy he is! Would you believe that two days later, 12/27 Jack got his first tooth! Yep, just 5 months old and already getting teeth.

The Johnson Grandkids. So cute!!

Me & Jack

Jack chewing on anything he can and snuggling with his new teddy bear from G&G J.

Stay tuned! I hope to have my updates for January posted in a more timely fashion.

October 2010

I started uploading the pictures for this blog post 8 days ago. I finally got the pictures to load but just haven't had a moment to write under neath them.

This posting is dedicated to Ashley and Jack's Auntie Angie who died unexpectedly yesterday, October 24th. We are in a state of disbelief and shock. We will miss her very much.

Angie was a faithful blog follower. She would email me to tell me if too much time had elapsed since the last post of the kids or to tell me that she had read a post over and over again because she enjoyed seeing all the new pictures of the kids and reading about the events. I sure wish I had finished this post 8 days ago when I started it so that she could have seen it and left another comment or sent me another email.

Little Jack A Roo on 9/24, two months old . Although, not so little any more! I took him in for his two month check up on this same day. His stats: weight 13lbs 7oz (87%) and height 2' 0.25" (90 %).

Ashley and Daddy at the Wyoming Stagecoach Days.

On 9/26 we headed to the park at Big Marine. You have to pay to get into this park but it's a wonderful place. We were so lucky to have such nice weather this September and October and I was even luckier to be off on maternity leave.

Smiley boy!

Our view out of our kitchen window on a beautiful fall morning.

The same day, we also had a spectacular sunset.

Here Ashley paints with water colors with her Great Grandma.

Jack - 10 weeks and 2 days. This picture cracks me up. His eyes and his face go well with his monster shirt.

We took another trip out to Pinehaven farms. Ashley and I have a season pass. The first time we went with all of my girlfriends and their kids but AJ wasn't feeling well at all and a few days later came down with strep throat. Poor baby...we hope she never has to go through that again! Anyhow, we met Sheli and her girls Maddy and Allie at the farm. Ashley and Maddy found a few kitties to hold. Ashley carried this little kitty around for at least 20 minutes.

Jack enjoying the fun at Pinehaven.

Awwwe, so cute!

Ashley Jane - 2 days shy of 3 years 7 months

Jack Lee- 11 weeks old

Ashley holds Jack next to a huge pumpkin out at Lendt's Pumpkin patch.

Ashley posing next to a princess at Lendt's pumpkin patch.

She picked this pumpkin out for Jack.

Jack watching his big sis as she colors. Coloring is Ashley's favorite thing to do.

On 10/10/10 we took a ride on the Osceola train with Grandpa and Grandma J and Brent, Lydia and Alex. It was a beautiful fall weekend and an 80 degree day. Perfect weather...unless you are stuck on a train car with windows that don't open and absolutely no air movement. It was... HOT! By the end of the ride, Jack was down to his diaper.

After the train ride we stopped at the Apple Orchard on the way home. Ashely and her cousin, Alex posed for a few photos next to some giant pumpkins. Ashley loves Alex. Alex turned 1 in July and is almost walking. Actually, as I type this, I bet he is walking by now. These two are going to have so much fun chasing each other around.

After the train and Apple Orchard we went to Grandma and Grandpa J's for dinner and some more fun fall activities. Jumping in the leaves!

Uncle Brent, Ashley, cousin Alex and Daddy playing in the leaves.

Here's Ashley in her dance class! Dance is offered at Ashley's daycare by the local dance studio in Lindstrom. I was so excited to enroll her as it is very hard to get her to evening activities since I work an hour away from home and we don't get home in time. This was only Ashley's 2nd dance class but as I was home on my last week of maternity leave, I went up to watch her. Oh, it was so cute. Pictured is Abby, Ashley, Bene, Ava and Annika. A tongue twister of "A" names for the dance teacher!

Here is a video of the girls dancing. Again, this is only their second class... Aren't they adorable?

Have I said what a good baby Jack is? Here the little guy slept on the table as we ate our dinner. He was simply exhausted from a long day at daycare. Yep, on Monday 10/11 Jack started daycare. I worked 1/2 days from home that week as to be close to him just in case he had a hard time at daycare etc. He had a hard time adjusting to the bottles and didn't sleep well the first week but he had a much better second week and seems to be adjusting. He did get his first cold, a runny nose and congestion within a few days of starting daycare but it's hard to tell if he got it from daycare or us as we've all had it too. Poor little guy.

On 10/16 as the guys were on their annual hunting trip, the girls got together for our annual Halloween cookie decorating party. Here the girls play Simon Says in the living room.

Pictured left to right is: Maddy, Elsa, Allie, Lila, Ashley, Gracie and Violet.
The kids had so much fun playing together. Allie kept the little girls entertained with a game of hide and seek which allowed us adult girls to visit. It was very fun.

Everyone had their own plate, knife, cookie and frosting. It was a real hit.

On Sunday while Daddy was still away hunting, Ashley, Jack and I went to Tom's Pumpkin patch to meet Grandma Terry, Grandpa Randy, Uncle Doug and cousins Dougie and Dallas. Tom's pumpkin patch has a corn maze that we decided to go through. It's hard enough that they actually provide you with a map of the maze so you can find your way out! Ashley enjoyed picking up corn along the way.

Jack - 12 weeks old. I have a similar picture of Ashley at 12 weeks old. Perhaps in the next post I will post some side by side pictures of the kids at the same age, it's fun to see the similarities.