A Fond Farewell

We're sad to report that President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away tonight at 7pm MST due to causes incident to age. According to the Deseret News, he was with family in his last moments. He will undoubtedly be remembered and renowned for his charity and works and be numbered among the greatest prophets of all time. His family will be in our thoughts and our prayers.

Net Granny

Want a pair of hand- knit socks, or mittens, but lack skills to make them or don't have a grandma to ask? Have no fear, the Swiss have an answer to your problem! netgranny.ch This is no joke. You can go online, pick a grandma and ask them to make you what you want. You have to check this out, it kills me.

Darrell Comics! Issue #2

Here's Issue #2. Enjoy!

Darrell Comics! Issue #1

It's Darrell Johnston (no, not the Moose) starring in his own comic strip! Click for a larger view, and enjoy issue #1!

Proud Moments

This entry goes out to Tom Cruise for receiving the coveted "IAS Freedom Metal of Valor Award." We are proud of Tom and his ability to see a problem and take care of it. This video may be part of the problem. Another take on the video.

   

Andrew and I saw Jason Lee and Giovani Ribisi at a Beck concert a while back. This article explains why. If you decide to skim you must at least read #1 its the funniest thing I read last year. Enjoy.   

Being All Cute

Saturday we were out for a walk in downtown Burbank and a man stopped us to look at Ellie. I was guarded as usual, but let him. He then asked if he could take her picture- I didn't know about that. Andrew and I stood there in awkward silence not wanting to say yes. He then pulled his professional camera out of nowhere and introduced himself as Victor Iorillo. He gave us his buisness card and said he would email us the shots. Well here they are. He is going to put one up on his website as well. Ellie was flattered.

Some Things On My Mind..................

So today I thought I would share some of the wonderful things I've been thinking about and doing lately. 

1. I'm sooooo happy to be home with the L.O. and not lesson planning every day. Just the thought of having to dropping Ellie off at day care makes me tense.

2. Ellie is having pooping problems so on doctors orders I've been sticking a thermometer up her buns morning and night, thats been fun? According to the doctor Ellie has a "tight Anus."As she put it yesterday "she's anal retentive" and then she said "what does that say about her personality?" It made me laugh. Jokes aside Ellie is nothing like that she is a sweet one. 

3.  Andrew is a full time dental student and gets out this May (yea!!) I am really lucky to have him. I feel that he does way more than the average dad. Besides the changing of diapers and daddy play time he also helps me bath her every night. On top of that if he doesn't have school the next day he even makes attempts to get up at night with her if she wakes. He is a really good dad. 

4. To end my extensive list thoughts today I thought I would share an embarrassing story I've been thinking about lately.

   While I was getting my masters at LMU I took a technology class for teachers. During a film making class we were supposed to create a film using the professor's pictures of Yosemite, it was the easiest thing I had ever done. So to pass the time and as a commentary on the class as well as an inside joke between Bonnie and I the opening title of the video in huge "fly- in" letters was "Who Gives a Rat's Ass?" after which 2 mins worth of yosemite pictures and then a list of credits which included random weird people in the the ward and their moms (yea, I know, I'm bad.) The film was not really my masterpiece or was it? Later on I used my video skills to create such works as A TPA Video and Back to School Night 2006-07. 

    During back to school night I set up a projector and had my school video ready to go. I even made 4 different presentation times in hopes that I would really impress the parents. It was now time to show it off and the parents eagerly awaited my film. I pushed play and the first thing parents saw was "Who Gives a Rat's Ass?" in big "fly-in" letters. The parents that could read English gasp. Ok stop try again. Round 2 and again "Who Gives a Rat's Ass?" cue in nervous laugh right? Parents were bugged and I was mortified. About to give up because I thought I was doing everything right, I mean where did the bad video even come from, (it wasn't like I pulled it up to look at before B2School night)  I went ahead and deleted it after which the video I had intended to play finally had it's appearance. Afterward some of the parents laughed and yes, some were bugged, but throughout the year everything was fine. I guess I'm lucky that only 17% of the student's parents actually show up to parent conference and back to school nights (sad). 

Andrew Attempts Creativity!

Andrew owes the Daines big-time! He loves playing with the Illustrator software they gave him, and his latest creation is this silhouette he made of four-month-old Ellie. He wanted to show it off!

Sunday Ellie

On Sunday. We were surprised that we finally were able to get her into shoes and not have them fall off (those are "newborn" size shoes, and they are still too big).

Finally!--Christmas Posts

Sorry about the long post drought, but here are our Christmas pics and tales. Let's begin.

CAYUCOS

This holiday season, we were lucky in that Andrew had a substantial break from school, because we had a lot planned and a lot of places to be. To start off with, however, was a Christmas surprise from Andrew: one of his gifts was a trip to Cayucos, CA, and to our favorite B&B. You see, for our honeymoon, we spent time vacationing all along the central coast, from Monterey on down, but our favorite place was undoubtedly the Sunset Inn in Cayucos, a small town near Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo. We loved it so much that we decided to spend our anniversaries there. But, since Shawna was on bedrest during our anniversary this year, we couldn't go. So we went in December. 

Here is a look at Morro Rock, which lies south of Cayucos, but is visible from the pier.

A view of Cayucos from out on the pier.

The view from our window.

Mommy and Ellie out on the beach.

Us up on a hill overlooking Morro Bay with Morro Rock in the background.

But the best part of our trip was our room. We would always stay in the room named "The Lanai" when staying at the Sunset Inn, but since we were there for our third time, they upgraded us to a master suite, the Bali! It was awesome! 

LODI, CA

From there, we traveled north to Shawna's hometown of Lodi. We stayed with Shawna's mother, Grandma Lynette (as Ellie knows her), and we were able to spend time with all of Shawna's side of the family! Ellie was able to meet her Great-Grandma Miller, Shawna's maternal grandmother, for the first time. In addition, we saw Great-Granda and -Grandpa Adamson, and spent time with Shawna's father, Bill, and her siblings, Rick, John, and Michelle. In addition, we also spent an evening with Tim and Caprice Shuler, eating at Rick's Pizza (we love your house, guys!). 

Unfortunately, we weren't quite the shutterbugs we were in Cayucos.
Here is a fuzzy pic of Shawna, her sister Michelle, and Grandma Miller in the lobby of a restaurant in Murphys, CA (Grandpa Bill Russell treated us to a wonderful steak dinner there).

This pic isn't as fuzzy, and you can see Grandma Miller a bit better here.

So it was fun, and we have to give a big shoutout to Shawna's brother, John, for jumping our dead car right before we left Lodi in a torrential downpour. 

BAKERSFIELD

From there, it was down the 99 to Bakersfield, where we decided to spend Christmas before we headed home for the New Year.  It was fun as Andrew's whole side of the family was together--Papa Bill, Grammy Liz, and siblings Tim, Challa, and Amy (and, as an aside, Tim will be home indefinitely as he just graduated from BYU and is studying for his actuarial exams). Also, Great Grandparents Papa, Pepa, Bill, and Lois all spent time with Ellie this Christmas.

Ellie kickin' it, hoody-style, in her Bumbo with friends

Ellie and Grammy Liz

Amy, Challa, and Ellie at Grandma Lois and Grandpa Bill's for Christmas Eve (we love our present, Grandma (we'll post pics later))

Grandma Lois, Tim, and Max

Grandpa Bill

Papa Bill, Ellie, and Mommy on Christmas Day

OK, there's a story here. Do you see the shirt on Papa Bill? Well, last summer, before Ellie was born, we all went to Morro Bay with Challa, Papa Bill, and Grammy Liz. In Wavelengths Surf Shop, Challa found this Dakine shirt on sale of $5. Despite being hounded by Andrew and Challa to buy it, Papa Bill declined to do so since it "has a skater on it." Well, over the months, Challa and Andrew continued to bug Papa Bill about it. 

Well, during our Cayucos trip in early December, we went to Wavelengths and, to our surprise, there was the shirt for $4! So we bought it for Papa Bill, wrapped it, and presented to him on Christmas Day "From Ellie." So now he has to wear it!

Ellie

Well, we had a ton of fun on our trip, and this little post doesn't do our adventures justice. But we want to thank all friends and family for their love and gifts and food and more love and even more food. We love you!

Weston Moncur is here!

We're really excited for our good friends, Aaron and Kayla Moncur, and want to congratulate them on the birth of their son, Weston Moncur yesterday. We're so happy for you and want you to know that our prayers and thoughts are with you.