Ashlyn the Photographer

Ashlyn has enjoyed getting to use anyone's camera that she can get her hands on to take pictures for a while now.  During some of our Christmas family get-togethers she decided to be the photographer and take many pictures.  She's pretty good at taking pictures of people, when she wants to.  She also thinks it is fun to take pictures of things; she was particularly interested in taking pictures of her Christmas gifts before she opened them.  I'm not entirely sure why, but she thought that getting pictures of the wrapping paper and the bows on the gifts was an important thing to do.  She is quite the little photographer.

Merry Christmas

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."  Isaiah 9:6


"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.  Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.'"  Luke 2:8-11

Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and marvel at the peace and joy that He brings to all people through his promise of salvation.  Enjoy the gifts He has given.

Christmas Questions

Last year Ashlyn's important question about Christmas was, "What should we get Jesus for his birthday?"  This year, her Christmas conundrum is that she knows that it is Jesus' birthday, but she doesn't know how old he's going to be.  I love the questions she comes up with.

Ashlyn Reads

Last week when we went on our little outing downtown to Macy's, we also stopped at Barnes & Noble and Ashlyn got a few new books, including the beginning set of Bob Books.  Well, it turns out that these are perfect for her and she can read them all by herself.  There are 12 books in the set, and she has successfully read the first nine.  At bedtime now she likes to read to me, which is lots of fun. 

Baking Christmas Cookies

This past weekend, Ashlyn and I started our Christmas baking.  We made gingerbread cookies, and sugar cookies.  Ashlyn is an excellent helper.  She enjoyed mixing the dough, rolling the dough, using the cookie cutters to cut the dough, and decorating the cookies.  She also enjoyed sampling the cookies afterward to make sure that they tasted good.  The plan is for us to get the rest of our baking done sometime this week.

Macy's Santaland

Today my Aunt Valerie took Ashlyn and me to the Macy's Santaland display.  Ashlyn enjoyed looking at the display, and then enjoyed going to the puppet show that they also had there.  I think her favorite part of the day though, was riding on the escalators.  She had never been on an escalator before, so this was special for her.  She was also impressed by all of the mirrors in the bathroom.  She was a good girl all day and we both had fun spending some time downtown.

5 Months

Today it has been five months since Lynnea went to heaven.  As we prepare for Christmas -- a time filled with traditions and memories -- it has been difficult to continue on without her here.  We all miss her a lot, and going into this season without her smile is hard.  But, even though it is hard, we continue to focus on the the fact that we are celebrating the miracle of Jesus' birth -- an event that is the reason we have confidence that Lynnea is no longer suffering as she lives in the glory of heaven.

Decorating for Christmas

Today we decorated for Christmas.  Ashlyn enjoyed helping decorate the Christmas tree (she decided to dress up as a fairy princess for the occasion).  She was very excited to see all of the lights and decorations as we took them out of boxes and put them around the house.  It was a little hard for me as I took the four stockings out of the box, and as I hung Lynnea's ornaments on the Christmas tree.  Last year Lynnea thought that the Christmas tree was really funny and she enjoyed having it in her house.