January 2011

Happy New Year!

Jack got a Johnny Jump up for Christmas. Here Ashley is playing with Jack in his jumper. I was looking in from the kitchen while making breakfast. As I was tending to breakfast I said "AJ, what are you and Jack doing?" To which she responded "I'm just spinning Jack mom." Poor guy! She had the ropes on the jump up all twisted up and when she let go, Jack just went around and around and around!

Little miss Ashley

Ashley loves to color! Here she is looking like a regular old artist. She's so grown up. Notice the crossed legs? Too cute!

Christmas with the Metz family!

Jack & Luke - these two are just two months apart. Luke was born in May and Jack was born in July.

Metz side grandkids!

(Dougie 11, Jake 2, Ashely 3, Jack 5 months, Dallas 5, Luke 7 months, Sam 16)

Ashley, Dallas (yes...that is his smile) and Jake with their new finger puppets.

Ashley wearing her new jammies from Gma Terry riding on her new princess scooter from Uncle Doug & family.

Here's a video of Ashley on her new scooter. As you can see, she needs to practice her stopping skills. :)

We took AJ to see her first movie in the theater on Sunday 1/2/11. We went to see Tangled, which is the story of Rapunzel. Ashley LOVED the movie and so did Jack! The kids did so well, we will be crazy enough to try this with an infant again! Jack fell asleep about 1/2 way through the movie.

Daddy, Jack & Ashley at Tangled.

Ashely, me & Jack at Tangled. Jack looks a little frightened. I was concerned that it may be too loud for the little guy but once he was in his car seat snuggled in for his nap, the sound was muffled by the head cushion.

On 1/3 Jack outgrew the bassinet we had in our room so we moved him into his crib. On 1/12 Jack got his second tooth (5 1/2 mo)!

Ashley's first drawing of a person. She said "look mom, I drew myself wearing my swimsuit!"

Sorry the picture is sideways. Ashley has perfected her skills at coloring. It seems like it happened overnight. She now uses lots of colors to color each section.

Pretty in pink! Notice how tall she is! I've taken many pictures of her standing in this same place. Her head is now at the same level as the light switches!

Jack's wildly long hair...before haircut #2. Keep in mind...he wasn't even 6 months yet and already on hair cut #2.

Another shot before the haircut.

Ta da! Jack's new haircut! He looked so different it took me several days to get over it! The girls at the salon couldn't believe how mellow he was. They though he looked like he was going to fall asleep! They even used the clippers to cut it and he didn't even flinch!

Ashley and daddy ice skating! This was AJ's first time ice skating! Matt has spent hours keeping the rink in shape for the debut. She had a blast!

Daddy & Ashley goofing around on the ice.

There she is - ice skating for the first time!

Here's a video of AJ ice skating!

Ashley, Daddy, Jack & Maddy Brooks at the Celebration of the Lakes 2011! Maddy was dresses as Jessie from Toy Story for the kiddie parade.

Me & Ashley

Maddy & Sheli

Maddy & Ashley having a blast getting pulled around in the sled! They used to fit in the sled together with ease...now that they are both so long, we had to keep adjusting their long legs to get them comfy!

Sheli & Jack in the warming tent at the Celebration of the Lakes.

Jackaroo all bundled up!

Me, Matt, Ashley, Maddy & Jack

Ashley & Maddy playing in the snow.

AJ goofin' around in the snow!

Down she goes!

After the Celebration of the Lakes events, I took the kids and we met up with Grandma Terry, Grandpa Randy and cousins Dougie & Dallas for dinner and bowling at Stars & Strikes. Cousins Dougie & Dallas look like this in most pictures...I guess they don't like having their pictures taken.

AJ had a blast bowling...the best part, her pink bowling ball!

Ashley & Jack

On 1/30 I tested Jack on the skills he had been developing at daycare. Sure enough the little dude can now roll over from back to tummy and vise versa! What else can he do? He's started to practice his sitting skills. He can sit fairly well but still tips over after a short time.

On 1/31 I took Jack to his six month doctors appointment. Here are his stats: height 2' 2.5" (48.6%) weight 18 lbs 2 oz (58.4%) head circumference 18.5" (99.1 %)

AND, that sums up January! :)

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.