Merry Christmas From All of Us

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Ella turned 3!!!

This weekend celebrated Ella's 3rd birthday. On Saturday we had a party at Whit's End at Focus on the Family for her and her little friends. They had a lot of fun decorating their own ice cream cone cupcakes and running around Whit's End. It was a great place to have a party. It's free and the kids all had a great time.

The next day Grandma and Papa came down and we went out for lunch. We had a great time at Mimi's and she got a mug of ice cream in honor of her birthday, they even put a candle in it for her. She got a bunch of great movies and moon dough from her grandparents. We got her a toy dog that walks and barks. She loves taking her puppy for "walks." We learned that morning that my cousin gave birth to a healthy girl and now Ella shares her birthday with one of her cousins, this is very special to us, because I share my birthday with said cousin, so this is really neat. The odds of that are so high, it's amazing the timing God puts together.

Today we took her to her 3 year check up. She did great and the doctor says everything looks prefect. She's gained some weight which is great news. She is now in the 15%  for her weight instead of the 1/3 of 1% that she has been in for the last 2 years. It is good to see those results, it's nice to know that going gluten free for her has done her a lot of good. Other news is the doctor says her motor skills and development is right on track. Over all Ella has had a really good 3rd birthday. It's hard to believe that she is my big 3 year old now. It's true what they say: they do grow up so fast.

Halloween

Ella got to go to two Halloween parties this year. The first one was hosted by our apartment. She dressed up as a hula girl and had lots of fun. They did a hay ride, face painting, balloon animals and a pinata.

The next party we went to was our church's Weird, Wild and Wacky Show. It was a lot of fun. They had a bounce house and a magic show. Ella got to have her picture taken with some Disney princesses too.  She got lots of candy at both parties.

Snow Day

Yesterday we got our second snow storm of the season. The first snow of the season melted by noon, but yesterdays storm kept going all day and night. Good thing Grandma got Ella some new winter boots the other day and thank goodness for hand-me-down winter coats too. So we went outside to have some fun. Ella loved exploring how different the world looked all covered in snow. She loves snow, she doesn't mind the cold at all. One of her favorite movies is Charlie Brown Christmas, we watch it all the time. She had to stick out her tongue and catch snow flakes just like the kinds in the movie do, she even stated they need sugar like Lucy. Here are some pictures of our fun.

Pumpkin

Who doesn't love pumpkin season? Well we sure do! Even Ella remembered what this large fruit is called, I didn't have to reminder her form last year. We didn't go to the patch this year, instead we got ours at the store that was having an incredible sale. So, we got some for cooking and for coloring. I let Ella color her big pumpkin this year all by herself. She is very proud of her art work. Her latest art phase is lines, she loves to draw lines.

I did this pumpkin for her.

Circus

As always I'm really behind on updating Ella's blog. We were able to take Ella to her first circus a few weeks ago. A friend of mine had tickets that she couldn't use so she gave them to us. It was a nice treat for our whole family. It was nice that we were able to enjoy this evening together as a family with out any cost to us. Ok we did by ice cream. So here are some pictures of us enjoying Ella's first time of the circus. She seems to like it ok.

Motorcycle guys

We all thought this was sad.

Acrobat

Ella liked the elephants the best

August Update

So another month has past and so it is time again to do an update on our family.

At the very end of July I was asked to be the Lighting Director for our main campus of our church, which added to my business at church. We just got some new recruits so there is a lot of training going on and some new changes to make to our services, especially now that video of our services are online.  Hopefully things will slow down a bit before preparations for Christmas start.

At the beginning of August we had the Worship Department picnic. It was alot of fun, but not in the traditional way. Luckily we were in a very big pavilion because we had monsoon like weather sweep in and we all got drenched sheltering food and children with our bodies. The men grilling were holding umbrellas to keep the charcoal from going out from the rain and wind. The craziness of it all made it very exciting. The kids loved it because there were giant puddles to jump in as the storm died down. Just as we were all about to call off the rest of the picnic because of the weather, the rain stopped and the most beautiful rainbow came out. Then we spent the rest of the time playing baseball and other games.

Ella is in the yellow

Later in the month we went the Dragon Boat Festival in Denver. We didn't get to see much because of an accident that we past on the way up to Denver slowed us down. So we were only there for a few hours. One of the best parts about our outing was getting Ella's name done. It's a new tradition in our family that all started when my dad was in South Korea and brought back mine and my sister's names painted in a very a beautiful way, using animals and objects for the letters. Since then all of the kids, between me and my sister, have had their names done too. While at the festival we were hoping to run into my sisters family, but we only saw them when we returned to the car. The cousins got to see each other for a bit and play while us adults talked. It was good to see my sister's husband that day too. We hardly get to see him because of his job. Here are some pictures of our time at the Dragon Boat Festival. Hopefully next year we can see and do more.

They don't call it Dragon Boat Fest for nothing

Ella's name

Snow cone in a Chinese take-out box

Dragon