The one where Elise turns THREE!

With her birthday soon approaching, I asked Elise if she wanted to have a birthday party. She said no. I asked her if she wanted to have presents. Nope. Did she want anyone to come over? Yes! I was completely expecting her to say that she wanted our neighbors, the Gaytans, to come over. Her response: Jesus. She said she wanted to eat ice cream with Jesus. Since there were a few complications with that, we were relieved her birthday fell on conference Saturday. I figured it was the closest you could come to eating ice cream with Jesus.

Since her favorite place to be is the playground, we made a point of taking her there before the first session started.

This is Elise standing on what she calls the "lion". It's the painted line indicating a parking space. She always jumps out of the car and stands on the lion. She also asks me to open the blinds in the kitchen by saying, "can you open the blions?".  

Maisey drew her a picture of "rocket" from Little Einsteins, her most favorite of all favorites.

All she requested for her birthday was "cha-loc-o-late" 

I intended on having Amazon send something of the Little Einstein variety to my door via next day prime shipping. When I jumped online and realized that it's no longer made and therefore everything is a collectors item, I was disheartened. Knowing how happy these little characters would make Elise, prompted me to find a way. I discovered that her nursery teacher is a crochet master. She agreed to make a little June and a little Annie, with only two days notice. She saved the day and Elise was ecstatic. 

Bath Barbies from my parents. Now all she wants to do is take a bath. 14 times a day. It seems right that they should be responsible for a portion of our water bill. 

Everything she loves all in one place! Litle Einstens and books!

And now Nutella?

The Gaytans got her a stack of books. Which was a gift to me also because it gave me something new to read to her in compliance with her endless requests to be read to. I love that she loves books. 

Elise is so celebrateable. Her facial expressions are epic. Her singing and dancing is entertainment at its finest. I love the way she kisses your lips goodbye and then once you set her down she always kisses your leg. I adore our bedtime routine; kissing in between each rung of her crib, singing her three favorite songs (temple song, child of God, twinkle song). She is funny. Really, really funny. She has a fierce love of nursery, loves to dip fries in ketchup, loves to dip anything in "branch" dressing, and seems to love being a part of her sibling gang. She enjoys running through the "sprink-i-lers", jumping on the "jumpoline", and snuggling. She is loving and smart and hilarious. I have such a fun relationship with her. Selfishly I want her to stay this age forever. Seriously, I do. People think I'm kidding, but NO. I have to tell myself that Heaven will be filled with funny toddlers or I won't feel motivated to go on. Thank you Elise, for being an actual ray of pure fantastic sunshine in my life.