Elsie

5 years and 12 days ago I woke up in the early morning, ready to have my first baby girl.  We rushed to the hospital in the middle of a snowstorm, and sweet Elsie was born 20 minutes later, delivered by half a dozen nurses.  It has been a whirlwind ever since.  My mom asked how Elsie was the other day and I said, "Elsie is great."  She is happy all the time because of her love of life.  She loves her siblings, she loves her friends, she loves to play and pretend, she loves to read, write and make up stories, color, and dance.  Currently, she is really enjoying Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and if that is playing, she even loves to clean (and dance at the same time). 

Elsie also loves small, cute things.  Which is why she decided to have a mouse birthday party.  Huh?  you may be wondering, but truly, you did not misread - a mouse party.  I had a blast taking her to the store to get party favors.  She was so excited, and spent a lot of time deciding what she wanted.  We made mouse pinatas and made mouse cupcakes.  We had a fun time preparing for her birthday, and she had a great special day.
Unfortunately, we've lost our camera, so I have no pictures as of now to show.  However, I have one of Elsie's stories that she started writing and then she had me finish.  I can't read her writing, so I'll have to start where I picked up:
The unicorn dance around and then the unicorn looked at Meluh, and Meluh was lost in the forest.  She couldn't find her mother, and her mother couldn't find her.  Then the monsters came and ate all of the food.  Then it ran away with her lunch box.  Then the monsters came back and picked all the pretty flowers and left with them.  Then the monsters snuck around and ate their food and smelled their flowers.  Meluh and her mom were lost.  They could never find each other.  Then they found each other and they were so happy!  They ran home as fast as a lark (I thought that was cute) and hugged and kissed each other.  They said, "We have a newborn baby!"
  They were so happy.  They went to see all their animals.  Their baby dog hatched!  All the baby animals hatched.  All the mothers and fathers came and said, "Ahhh, Ahhh, Ahhh."  Then a light came.  What was it?  It was so light, it was pitch light!  It was Jesus and Heavenly Father!  Meluh and the mom went to all the peoples houses and all their animals were hatching.  They were sooo cute!  Meluh said, "Should we let them go" Then the unicorn came (she didn't forget the unicorn).  It was a rainbow now.  It was beautiful!  Then the beautifullest baby unicorn hatched in the universe! 
At this point I ran out of paper, and my hand was cramping, so I told her that was the end of her story.  I know it's a bit verbose, but I wanted you to see into Elsie's mind.  It's always going.  I get a bang out of her, and am so glad she's apart of our family.

Aha!  I found our camera!  It was hiding in Kimball's special cubby.  He's a little stinker.  Good thing he's innocent and cute.   

dessert

Elsie taking a swing at the pinata!

I thought the mouse ears were great!

Mom and Dad gave her a pink scooter. 

That evening we invited another family over.  They are good friends of ours, and Elsie has a special affinity for their oldest daughter, Hannah, who is nine.  We did another pinata and opened family presents.  This other family was so thoughtful.  Knowing Elsie's favorite color was gold, and that she had asked for a small diamond for Christmas, they got her this gold flower hair clip with some bling in the middle.  It was perfect.  It was fun to celebrate Elsie and think about the spirit and spunk she adds into our home.