...and the Government shall be upon his shoulders...

After reading this post on my friend Julia's blog, I discovered that the primary and senior nursery are planning to sing "For Unto Us A Child Is Born" from Handel's Messiah for our ward Christmas Program. It's an ambitious and lofty goal, if you ask me, but I decided to try and help Lexi learn the piece as best as a 3-year-old can. We played it for her the other night, and sure enough, when the choir sang "Wonderful! Counselor! The Mighty God! The Everlasting Father! The Prince of Peace!" she chimed right in! She made us repeat the song 3 or 4 times, which was fine with me because I just love it. Then we took a break for dinner. Soon after, Matt & Lexi headed to the living room and Lexi made this request:

"Daddy, I want to watch. Uhhhh... I want the government to be upon his shoulders. I want to listen!"

Matt gladly obliged.

Holiday Festivities

Parade of Lights, Corning NY 2006

On Saturday, we headed over to Corning, NY to participate in the Holiday festivities downtown. Lexi was adamant about NOT visiting with Kris Kringle, so we skipped that and headed straight for the reindeer. Took some time to mosey down the main street, and had some delicious pizza at Atlas Brick Oven Pizzeria. There weren't any tables avaialble, so we decided to sit at the bar, which turned out to be a front row seat to all the pizza-dough tossing a little girl can handle.

Then we headed outside to watch the Parade of Lights. Lexi was excited to see the street blocked off and took the opportunity to dance in the street.

Click on the picture above to see more photos of our evening in Corning.

Singing with Great-Grandma

 

Lexi is lucky to be able to spend time with Great-Grandpa & Great-Grandma Elliott. For the Thanksgiving break this year, we took a trip to visit them in Western New York. Since my grandmother plays the piano so well, and Lexi has memorized at least half of the primary songs (and that is NOT an exageration), they sat down together to play & sing primary songs. Great-Grandma did more of the playing and singing than Lexi, but Lexi seemed to love the time together! By the last day there, I think I overheard Lexi actually singing some of the lyrics herself. 

Shall We Dance?

A little clip of Lexi dancing to one of Bob Dylan's new tunes.

Red Shoes

 

While shopping at Marshalls the other day, Lexi found a pair of red shoes that she fell in love with. She was pretty upset when I said it was time to take them off! With a pose like this, maybe she could be America's Next Top Model!  

Apologies

Many apologies to our faithful blog readers... the past few weeks have found me feeling quite under the weather, and not up to posting. Plus, we just have not done anything blog-worthy in the past few weeks. Check back for updates...

Halloween- Part II

This evening, I decided to take Lexi out for another run of trick-or-treatin'. Mostly to try and visit the homes of our friends in our 'hood. We visited a couple of the businesses that we frequent (our bodega, the hardware store & the dry cleaners) and then headed to the beautiful street of townhomes where Lexi has made some friends. We ended up joining forces with the other kids and took them all down Amsterdam Avenue for some more treats. I discovered that Amsterdam shopowners had better candy than Broadway shopowners- things like M&Ms, snickers, Milky Ways & Nerds.
(Grayden the clown, Olivia as Belle, McKenna the gypsy, Quinn the cowboy & Alexis the Butterfly)




Here is a photo of Lexi with all her loot! A bit much for a not-quite-three-year-old, wouldn't you say? Mom & Dad will have to help her out!

Halloween- Part 1

In our neighborhood, it is customary to Trick-Or-Treat at the businesses in the area instead of door-to-door on the street or in an apartment building. This morning, Lexi and Aiden Smith headed out to Broadway to get some treats. They had a great time running from store to store and did well with the magic phrase "Trick Or Treat". Lexi even said "Thank you" to most! After each store, she came bounding out and looked up at me and asked, "We get more candy at another store?" The thing that most shocked me was the *generosity* of the store owners... we're talking not just one or two measly pieces of candy but a HANDFUL!! By the time we had gone 4 blocks, Lexi's candy bag was so heavy she couldn't even carry it anymore!

Halloween Party

A couple of shots of Lexi in full Butterfly uniform. Thanks to Nanny Susan for supplying the wings & colorful tutu & boa!

Halloween Celebrations

Today, Kristy Smith hosted a cupcake-making extravaganza at her home! Lexi & Aiden had fun decorating the cupcakes with oreo spiders, licorice legs & M&M eyes (although they probably ate more than they decorated!) I failed to get a photo of the finished product, but you can see the idea by clicking here.

Lexi Riding Her Trike

This is an old video from back in August, but I never posted it for your viewing pleasure. And I especially wanted Grandma & Grandpa Elliott to see that Lexi loves her tricycle!

The Little Red Lighthouse (Again!)

Today, the Little Red Lighthouse was open for the general public to explore, so we took a trip down with Grandma & Aunt Allie (the budding photographer). It was a cool and windy day, so much so that once Lexi got out on top of the lighthouse, she wanted to climb right back inside! It's a bit of a climb up the circular staircase to the landing where the bulb sits. Then, you have to climb through this little door- more like a cubby hole!- practically on your hands and knees to get out onto the surrounding balcony. It was a gorgeous fall day and we had a fun time exploring the LITTLE red lighthouse.

One of the park rangers said it is still *lightable*, although she was unsure if they actually do still light it and what the schedule would be.

 

Thanks, Nanny & Pop-pop!

Great-Grandpa & Great-Grandma Elliott took a trip to Nauvoo, Illinois to visit the historic Mormon town and temple. They picked up a little bonnet for Lexi- and she really likes it!


I have many fond memories of reading "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge" with my grandmother. She sent a copy of the book to Lexi. Lexi was so happy to read about the little lighthouse and the big bridge that she has visited several times!

Piano Players

A couple of weeks ago, Lexi's friend Jonathan moved with his family to New Jersey. Sad! This week, we had the use of my mother's car while she was on a business trip, so we took a trip out to NJ to visit. Here are the little maestros pounding away! It's hard to hear, but Lexi is singing "I Am A Child of God" and Jonny is singing "BINGO".

152 Avenue C New York, NY

I recently started attending the Family History class during Sunday School at church. Both of my grandmothers have done substantial work on family history, leaving me unsure where I could spend my effort. After looking at the family tree I was given, I realized that my maternal grandfather's line has some work to do. I have begun trying to find my great-great-great grandparents (parents of Catharine Dodd Elliott). While researching Catharine & her husband, Brett Elliott, I found them on the 1880 census in New York City. I know that I have a lot of family history here as my mother's ancestors all settled here after immigrating from Ireland & Germany. Anyway, I got their address from the census and we took at trip down to the Lower East Side to see if the building was still there. Unfortunately, it was not. It has since been replaced by a community garden, but I took a picture of buildings across the street as I imagine they are similar in style. The Elliotts were part of the large Irish population that lived in the tenement buildings. I hope to take a walking tour of Irish New York on the Lower East Side, too, to learn more about what life was like for them. 

 

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge

Today we attended the Little Red Lighthouse Festival at the foot of the George Washington Bridge.

The Little Red Lighthouse stands proudly beneath the George Washington Bridge on the New York shore. She reminds us that all things big or small have a significant place in our world. The children's book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde Swift taught this lesson well. The Little Red Lighthouse served as a navigational aid before and after the bridge was built.

When the lighthouse was commissioned in 1921 she served the Hudson River mariners, always keeping a good light until the USCG deactivated it in 1947. Swift's book played a major role in saving the lighthouse, for it was the millions of children who loved The Little Red Lighthouse story who spoke out when the USCG wanted to sell and dismantle the light. The children won-and today all of us can enjoy its beauty.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to actually go in the lighthouse. We arrived too late to get tickets, but the park ranger told us to come back on October 21st... so watch for us there on that day.

Lexi also had her face painted for the first time.  

 

Cookie Monster!

One of our favorite places for treats is a chocolate shop owned by french chocolatier Jaques Torres (aka. Mr. Chocolate). Lexi and I stopped in for a cookie today. 

5 Years

Today we visited a flag memorial in Inwood Hill Park (on the northern tip of Manhattan) dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. 3000 flags were set up in a large field- one for each life lost. It was a breezy and beautiful day, probably much like the day in 2001. A touching memorial.

Part of me wishes we had been here in 2001, because I think that no one can really understand what the city went through in the days and weeks following without having actually lived here at that time. I want to know how people felt, how they coped, and how they continued to live their lives. At the same time, I am so grateful that I wasn't here, and that no one I love was directly impacted.

Some video footage of the memorial can be seen here.