Merry Christmas

Love,

Johnny, Ashley, and Elle

Thank You

Thank you for the fun package Yaya.

Sand Art

Yesterday, Elle and I did sand art. It is a really fun activity using colored sand. Elle had so much fun creating a rainbow fish; and surprisingly, she was well behaved and patient throughout the entire project.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Decorating the Christmas tree this year was quite an exciting event to Elle. Well, actually, the Christmas experience as a whole is quite thrilling to her. She loves every minute of celebrating this holiday. She cannot seem to get enough. The other day when we were at a store waiting in line to check out, Elle smiles, looks at me, and yells, “Mommy, it’s Jingle Bells!” She then proceeds to sing, at the top of her lungs, to the song playing in the store. It was cute and embarrassing at the same time. But it truly shows her enthusiasm for the Christmas season.

Elle's excitement for the Christmas season has also been shown through her endless decorating of our Christmas tree. She has decorated our Christmas tree nonstop. Everyday she takes the ornaments off and then re-hangs them—on the same branch of course. Why would she want to spread them out? Why decorate the whole tree when one tiny limb will do? Needless to say, our poor tree and ornaments are well loved.




Hanging the First Ornament

Little Mommy

Elle’s friend, Jack, came over today, and Elle couldn’t have been more excited. She just loves Jack. And, today, she was extra cute with him. When Jack’s mom left, Elle gave him a hug and said, “Don’t worry Jack; you’re mommy will be right back, and I will take care of you.” It was too cute. I just had to take a picture of the two of them together.

Nursery Woes

I wanted to give a little update on Elle and Nursery. As much as I was hoping that things would improve without Elle’s favorite leader Ashley there, it has not. Elle still does not want to go to Nursery. In fact, when I asked her if she wanted to go to Nursery on Sunday, she told me, “No.” I told her that she should want to go because Nursery is fun. Elle looked at me with a patronizing look and said, “Nursery is fun for all the other kids, but it is not fun for me.” To this, I had no comment.

Happy Birthday Johnny

Yesterday was Johnny’s Birthday, and Elle and I had way too much fun celebrating it with him. We started the festivities out on Saturday, by taking Johnny out to dinner at Johnny Carinos (quite fitting with the name and all). We had some very delicious food, and of course, wonderful company. On his official birthday, Sunday, we had cake, ice-cream, and presents. Elle was very excited about all three. She even opened all of Johnny’s presents. She soon found out that Daddy doesn’t get very exciting presents for his birthday—at least according to her. After finishing all of the good birthday merriment, we hopped in the car and took a drive into Oakland to visit the temple and see all of the lights. Elle was enraptured with the various Christmas lights, and was constantly in awe of it all. This was manifested to us from the many exclamations of: “Oh my goodness; look at the Christmas lights;” and, “This is unbelievable!” Basically, she loved the spectacular Christmas light display. All in all it was a wonderful day celebrating Johnny’s birthday. He is a wonderful father and husband; Elle and I both feel very blessed to have him in our lives. Happy 28th Johnny!