Birthday Girl

Yesterday we had a simple day planned for Ashlyn. We are having her party next week when all her friends are back in town from the holidays, but we still wanted her to have a fun day on her actual birthday.


For breakfast she wanted Chocolate Chip muffins. Her baby sister thought it was the best breakfast ever. How come Aubs won't eat blueberry muffins because there are foreign objects in her muffins but she'll eat the chocolate chips?!?


At lunch we picked Daddy up from the office and he took us to lunch. She chose Firehouse Subs. Probably because she can get a pb&j on thick fluffy white bread, cherry lime aid (straight up), and oreo cookies. After we dropped Daddy off we went to Hobby Lobby to get some party supplies. On our way home we stopped in at a local Cupcake shoppe. I didn't want to make a batch of cupcakes for just us so I let her pick out a special cupcake just for her.


She chose Spaghetti for dinner. After cleaning her plate she blew out her four birthday candles and dug into her cupcake! She kept offering to share since Phillip and I didn't have a cupcake, such a sweetheart!






I'm not sure how to handle this four year old business. I love that she is independent and loves to be a helper, ok loves to boss her sister around so gladly agrees to keep an eye on Aubrey, but I can't stand how big she looks. She doesn't look like a baby anymore. She looks like a big girl!
It breaks my heart!

4 Years Old

Ashlyn,

My sweet precious girl you are four years old today. Four years ago at this very moment I was at the hospital waiting for you to arrive. You came as a surprise to Daddy and I since you weren't supposed to be here for another three weeks. I couldn't wait to hold you in my arms and see your sweet face. I knew you would be beautiful, because you were mine, you were God's most precious gift to me. After a hour and a half of physical exhaustion you arrived and were perfect in every way. I loved you from the moment I found out I was pregnant with you but after holding you for the first time, I loved you even more.


The first two months of your life were the hardest times for me. You were a very fussy baby and cried all the time. You woke up every two hours to eat and would take a hour to eat. I was only getting one hour naps in at night. You also would not nap. I was not able to lay down and nap nor eat a full lunch because you would be up crying fifteen minutes later. I was physically exhausted and didn't know how to make you sleep. After many, many days of lovingly letting you cry yourself to sleep you realized how wonderful sleep was and you napped and slept like a champ. Even during those hard hard days of both of us bawling out of sheer exhaustion, I never stopped loving you, I always loved you.


You have always been a quiet observer. It takes you a while to warm up to people and you want to take in your surroundings before you jump in. You are full of personality and spunk. You love to sing, dance, dress up, and be silly. You say and do the funniest things that make Daddy and I laugh all the time. You are so smart. You love to learn and take things in. We are so proud of you.


You are very tender hearted and so loving. It is a special gift God has given you. I know He is going to use your sweet spirit and tender heart for His glory.


Ashlyn, your are such a wonderful sister to Aubrey. She looks up to you and watches your every move. She loves to imitate you and do things just like you. You are so sweet to let her play in your room and play so gently with her. My prayer is that you will be the best of friends your whole life.


I can't believe you are already four years old. I often feel like just moments ago you were toddling around the house. You have grown so much and I couldn't be more proud of you. You are my best little buddy and I love that you want to do things with me. I know God has big plans for your life and will use you in wonderful ways. Ashlyn, I love you with all my heart and that will never change. You will always be my sweet precious girl.

Love,
Mommy

Christmas at home

We celebrated our family Christmas on Christmas eve. We were spending Christmas day with Phillip's side of the family and we wanted to have a little time just the four of us to open our gifts to each other.
Each year gets more fun as the girls get bigger and start to really grasp what is going on. Ashlyn remembered all the festivities from the year before so she was so excited the weeks leading up to Christmas day and was literally bouncing off the walls "Christmas eve". Aubrey feeds off of Ashlyn so she was just excited because Ashlyn was being silly.

The night before we made Chocolate Chip Cookies for Santa. Ashlyn and I were in our aprons and were in full baking mode. Aubrey was already in pajamas, she was pooped and wanted her bed!


Ashlyn wrote a letter to Santa letting him know what they both wanted for Christmas. Each week she wanted something different, this week it was a doll.


Ashlyn signed her name at the bottom. Then added some O's, H's, and L's just for fun. She loves to practice her letters. She is doing really well with her name, the S is still hard for her though.


Cutie pies all clean and ready for bed! I'm not sure when Ashlyn actually fell asleep, it was 10:30 when I went to bed and I could still hear her talking to herself.


The girls both woke up around 7:30 and Ashlyn was excited to see what Santa brought! Aubs had no clue, she just wanted out of her bed.


Santa's note specifically said "no Barbies". He must have skipped over that part...


But it only took Ashlyn a couple seconds to realize maybe she did want Barbies for Christmas.


Aubrey loves, loves, loves, her Little People barn. (We are a big fan of Fisher Price Little People at our house!)
She knows several animal noises but is picking up on more playing with the barn animals. She is doing a pig noise now, but it sounds more like shes hacking up something. It makes us laugh!


After the girls opened their stockings we ate homemade cinnamon rolls that I made the night before and put in the fridge. My mom always made Monkey Bread on Christmas morning so cinnamon and sugar just tastes like Christmas morning to me.

After loading up on sugar, and some bananas too, we opened the gifts under the tree. Both girls got a couple toys, a book, clothes, and Ashlyn got Beauty and the Beast.
We want our girls to have a nice Christmas but we also don't go overboard with gifts. We want them to know the real meaning of Christmas and also realize it's not all about them.


They also opened their cushions I made them. They loved them! They were so silly playing on them. Aubrey is so cute trying to sit on her's. She sticks her bottom up in the air and tries to sit on it but her little legs are too short and she always misses the seat completely.


After we opened our gifts the girls played with all their new toys while Phillip and I cleaned up and packed the van to head out to his parents. They were entertained for several hours going back and forth between each others toys. I just love watching them play and use their imagination!


On our way out of town we stopped by the hospital to deliver some special packages. Our Body Life Group at church made goody bags of books, crayons, stickers, and note pads for the children who were having to spend Christmas eve and day at the hospital. We also took our Chocolate Chip Cookies we made for Santa for the nurses. Both girls were born at this hospital and we loved the nurses there, they are such hard workers and were so kind. Ashlyn went in with me to deliver the bags and it was neat for her to see that Christmas is not all about ourselves.

Christmas in Texas

The weekend before Christmas we loaded up our van and headed 12 hours south to Nana and Pawpaw's house. We don't get to see my family as much as we would like so we were excited to be able to spend several days at their house.

We were also excited for a little break from the cold!



The girls love being at Nana and Pawpaw's! One of the highlights is riding in the tractor and feeding the cows.


And of course being spoiled by Pawpaw and Nana!



Friday we visited Phillip's grandparents. I was so upset that I forgot my camera! I hate that I missed getting some sweet pictures of the girls with their Great Grandparents. Phillip's Aunt and some of her children and their family were there also. It was fun to see cousins we haven't seen in years and Ashlyn had a blast playing with her second cousins.
I did get a sweet picture of my Grandma with Aubrey. She had a stroke exactly two years ago and is doing very well now. She lost her ability to process speech so it is very hard for her to communicate. I know it is so frustrating for her. I can tell she wants to tell me how special and beautiful my girls are, I can see it in her face and the expressions she makes.


We had our Christmas on Saturday and enjoyed opening gifts and then ate a delicious lunch of roast and all the fixings!


All of the festivities wore poor Aubrey girl out!


On Sunday we all went to church together and then went out to eat at the best steak house around. Texas steak houses aren't like anything in our area. They are unfinished wood floored restaurants with cow heads and snake skins decorating the walls. And everyone around you has on cowboy hats and boots, a true steakhouse if you ask us.


After our Sunday naps my dad got my old Barbies out of the storage shed for Ashlyn to play with. She was entertained for hours! Actually I was entertained for quite a while too. It was fun going through all my old Barbie clothes, it brought back so many fun memories.



Then after dinner my mom did a craft with Ashlyn. They painted Christmas ornaments for about a hour solid. That girl loves to do crafts!


I love being able to go home and see my family for Christmas and I know my girls love it just as much!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Johnson family!

Ashlyn's Christmas Wish List

15 Months

Aubrey, you are 15 months old. You have grown so much the past couple months. We enjoy watching you grow and change literally in front of our eyes! You are starting to want your independence and you know exactly what you want. You have become quite the little toot the past month. I knew it was coming sooner or later though! ;)

*You love to watch Ashlyn play and imitate her. You want to be big too.
*You love to play kitchen, little people, doll house, and babies. You would rather play in Ashlyn's room than your own.


*You are quite the "selective" eater. It varies each day what you will eat for dinner. You will eat anything I serve for breakfast but lunch and dinner are a different story. You won't eat any vegetable except avocado. You love cheese, yogurt, banana, applesauce, peaches, and any bread product. The only pasta you will eat is mac-n-cheese. You were a huge meat eater until a couple weeks ago and now you won't touch the stuff. You make quite a fuss at the table trying to get what you want. I haven't figured out how to deal with your "selectiveness" yet. I don't "do" picky eaters at my house. :)


*You love the word no. You will swing your arm and holler "no".
*You are a pretty easy baby, even when you try to "put up a fight".

*You smile and laugh all the time.
*You love to wear shoes and bows. But when your done with them, your done, end of story.


*You say dada, mama, eat, all done, hi, no, thank you, night night, uh oh.
*You are still taking two naps a day but can manage with only one if I need you to. You sleep 12 hours at night, 7pm to 7am.
*You don't like Ashlyn all up in your business and will swing your arm and scream no at her.


*You wear size 12 month clothes, size three diapers, and size three shoes.
*You love it when Daddy comes home. You take off when you hear the garage door open.


*You love to "help" unload the dishwasher and put wet clothes in the dryer.
*You love to go bye-bye and are always a perfect baby when we are out and about.

Aubrey, Mommy and Daddy love you to pieces. You are such a sweet heart and can't imagine life without you!