2008 Christmas Review

Once upon a Christmas in the Donatini household there was much celebrating going on. The two little girls, Mya and Sara, were very excited about Christmas. They went to church Christmas Eve and learned about baby Jesus and His birth. They played with their cousins and then settled down for the evening in their nice warm beds. Once they were asleep for the night, their parents had a party. They put all the christmas presents under the tree, set up the nativity scene, lit a candle and spent time in prayer with God. Then they looked at each other with excitement and decided it would be really fun to open their presents without the kids. So they did! There was much celebrating over all the fun presents: a Garmin watch, a pearl ring, a trip to Kalahari in January, new boxers, a T-shirt, and a coat. In the morning, Sara woke up bright and early (6 AM) and Mya soon followed at 6:30. Mya giggled with glee when she saw all the presents under the tree. The first words out of her mouth were, "Good morning Mommy! How are you today?" The whole family gathered around the christmas tree, but first the Daddy held both girls on his lap in the rocking chair and read the christmas story to them. Then he took their hands in his and prayed with them. The girl's mommy watched in admiration and celebrated silently because her husband was so special. Next, the girls opened all of their presents and played with each toy that they opened. Mya enjoyed wearing her new underwear over her clothes. Sara practiced rolling across the floor to get to all the fun toys with tags on them. All in all it was a wonderful morning as the family settled down to eat some breakfast and then got in the car to go to another christmas celebration. The rest of the day was filled with lots and lots of presents, fun times with relatives, and grape chapstick that Mya put on her lips all day long.

The family lived happily ever after.

I do need to share a very funny story before I finish this entry. Dan had a white elephant gift exchange at his office on Wednesday. As we looked around the house for something to wrap up, I jokingly said that he should use tampons (because my friend mentioned using maxi pads as a white elephant gift) and make something creative out of them. Now those of you who know Danny's track record as a young child know that he once experimented with tampons and his GI Joe men. Well he took my joke seriously and took two tampons and tied them together. Oh yes.... my husband decided to make numchucks out of tampons. He even demonstrated how to use them for me. It was hysterical! We wrapped up the tampon numchucks and threw in a $5 Wal-Mart gift card for the poor soul who got the gift. Turns out the only other male that Dan works with got the tampon numchucks as a gift. And yes, oh yes, Dan showed his employees how to use the weapon too. He made them laugh pretty hard!

Sara's Dedication and More Christmases

Baby Sara was dedicated today at church. She was very well behaved and even allowed Pastor Dan to hold her when he prayed for her. Her little legs were swinging back and forth while Dan held her on the stage. She seemed excited to see all the people looking at her. We were so proud to see her get dedicated today.

We had two great Christmases this weekend. On Saturday we were with the extended family on the Spreng side and today we had Christmas with the extended family on the Donatini side. Both get togethers were so much fun for the kids. Mya loves to see her family. Before we go to the party I will say everyone's names and she will repeat them back to me. She wants to know everyone that will be there. She gets so excited to see her cousins. We have to wait until after her nap to tell her where we are going. At the Donatini Christmas we had a visit from Santa Clause. Both girls did very well with Santa. Mya has learned that if she sits on Santa's lap she will get a candy cane. Good thing this Santa had candy canes with him. After the kids opened up their gifts they decorated gingerbread houses. Given that Mya has SUCH a sweet tooth, she really enjoyed this activity. I think she ate more then she put on her house. The marshmallows were quite a hit!

First Christmas

We had our first christmas yesterday with my Dad and Kim. I have to admit that the best part was the lobster and filet mignon for dinner. Wow! That is the best meal we have every year. I would like to say that I am very proud of my ability to eat the lobster, filet mignon, salad, bread, potato, and peppermint ice cream. I skipped lunch on purpose and ran four miles so I could eat all of that. The next best part was watching the kids open their presents. They really enjoyed seeing all of the presents and helping all of us open our gifts. We all got some cute things! One of my favorite gifts was a popsicle mold so I can make special popsicles that my grandma used to make. I have been wanting to make these for Mya so I can't wait to do that. I must mention here that my step mom did a fantastic job surprising me with my gifts this year. Usually I know everything that I'm getting and nothing is a surprise, but she had some surprises for me. Way to go! I am a horrible person to surprise. Just ask my husband=) All in all it was a wonderful evening except for the meltdown that Mya had when we were getting ready to leave. Ugh! We love her dearly, though!

Ho Ho and the Train

We had a very fun afternoon with the three girls. We took the girls to Panera Bread for an early dinner and then to the mall to see Santa Clause or "Ho Ho" as Mya calls him and to ride the train. Then the girls played in the play area with Dan while I did a little shopping. Now the girls are settling down with their popcorn and watching their new Christmas Barbie movie. Mya couldn't wait to get home to watch her movie. Boy does she love Barbie movies. Tomorrow and Friday we have preschool and then this weekend we start with Christmas festivities. Every weekend from now until Christmas we have family get togethers. Did I mention that I love christmas???? Well...I do! I love giving all the presents that I shopped for. It is so much fun! One of Dan's presents is a surprise so I can't wait for Christmas morning.

Race Day

Well.....Dan and I ran our 5K today. Our time was 26 minutes, which is about 8 1/2 minute miles. That isn't bad considering the weather that we faced today. Boy was it cold. After running the 5K I met up with a friend who was running the half marathon and I finished the race with her. So I ran a total of 9 miles today. Luckily when the race was finished the snow started sticking to the ground so we avoided that during the race. We just had snow flurries with a wet ground. There is another 5K in January so I am hoping to run in that race. My goal is to do a half marathon in the spring, assuming that we aren't pregnant by then. We shall see what God's plans are for that. The group picture is of my running group "The Movin Mamas." This is an awesome group of mommies in the area who run together. I am so thankful for their companionship and support.

The Princesses

Updates

We have had some great accomplishments here in the Donatini household. Sara is learning how to sit up on her own, Mya can sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" all by herself, and Dan and Mya are learning how to eat more vegetables. This week we focused on green beans and broccoli and they did so well. Mya fought the vegetables at the beginning of the week but by dinner this evening she was eating her food without much coaxing. Of course she does get rewarded with a Barbie video if she eats well, but who doesn't like getting rewarded for doing something good? I am hoping that over time we won't need Barbie as a reward and she begins seeing that vegetables are just part of her regular meals. I have to mention that I am SO proud of Dan. He definately is not a vegetable fan, but at home he works very hard to eat everything that Mya eats without complaining. He is so good! I feel better knowing that I can provide him with healthy meals. Tonight he sat in front of the broccoli and mentally prepared himself to eat it. It was tough going down, but he did it. Yeah! I love my husband=)

I am reading Exodus during my quiet times and have learned so much about Moses and Pharoah and the Israelites. It is so intriguing to read about Pharoah and the many things that God did to get his attention and show that He is Lord. And yet Pharoah's heart remained hard time after time after time. I imagine myself being bombarded with frogs and hail and blood and would hope that I would believe in God after seeing Him make things like that happen. And Yet Pharoah still doesn't believe. These readings just make me think about how often I try to do things my own way in life until God gets my attention and says, "Hi Julie, I am still here. I need you to listen to ME." And thankfully my heart isn't hardened and I can focus on the Holy Spirit, repent of my sins, and follow Christ. Thank you God for a soft heart!

We had an interesting Thanksgiving. Mya and Dan had the flu on Wednesday and I got the flu Wednesday night. Thankfully the baby stayed healthy. We were able to go to Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night with Dan's family. We were grateful to get out of the house and enjoy a wonderful meal, even though we didn't eat a lot. Mya played with her cousins and had a blast while Sara enjoyed being loved on by family members. I did a little bit of shopping today (Friday) and I can officially say that I am done Christmas shopping! Yipee! Everything is wrapped and ready to go and now I have to be patient and wait for Christmas to come. I have so many fond memories of christmas from when I was little that I really look forward to sharing christmas with my kids and Dan every year. We just heard a really fun idea for our family christmas presents. Why not have three presents for each family member to resemble gold, frankincense and myrrh? That way we only have to buy three presents each and we can focus on the christmas story on christmas morning. We love this idea so we are trying it out this year. It is relief to me to buy fewer presents and this way everyone will have the same amount of presents in the family.

Here are a few updated pictures of the kids.

4 Years and Counting

I recently joined the world of Facebook and my friend Amber, from California, posted a picture that she took at our wedding. It was fun to see an older picture and remember our wedding day. What an amazing day that was!

Home Schooling Update

We have now been having preschool at our house for two months and the kids are loving it. I teach two two year olds, an almost three year old, and a four year old. It is so interesting to see the difference in ages and what they are able to do developmentally according to their age. It has been eye opening for me to see how on fire they are to learn their monthly bible verse and hear the daily bible story. They get so excited when I bring out the kids bible. What has impressed me the most is hearing Mya sing a whole song from preschool that I never knew she picked up on. Just the other day in the car she was singing the "clean up" song and I was blown away by her vocabulary. I have learned that she may act like she isn't paying attention to me, but she really is comprehending things. We have established a predictable routine that the kids know by heart. It is funny to watch them during play time because every once in a while they will play teacher and go through my routine. I am just so happy that God has given me the desire and drive to home school these precious children. They have made my life richer.

Fall Fun

The girls were able to play in the leaves today while Dan raked the leaves. I enjoyed watching them from the window. They had so much fun!

I also wanted to share the fact that both of my girls are exceptionally gifted. They can read just in case you didn't know that.

Home is Where the Heart Is

Isn't she just the cutest thing ever? Sara recently found out that she has a tongue so she likes to stick it out a lot. This picture just made me think about how much I love my home, including the family that lives in it. Our home is so homey and I am grateful for that. Today I put up our christmas tree so I could surprise Dan when he got home from work. The best part was when the girls work up from their naps and came out to see the tree. They were in awe. And then when Dan got home he had a really big smile on his face when he saw what I did. It is fun to start reflecting on why we celebrate christmas. It is also exciting to know that we get to teach our kids all about Jesus and his birth. How fun!

On a different note, please pray for an upcoming presentation that I will be doing. I have an opportunity to present to elementary teachers about autism. At first I was really nervous about this because I have been out of the education field for a couple years. I also left the field feeling burnt out and a failure because I had tough cases and not as much success during my last year of teaching. I put a lot of pressure on myself and had high expectations that I wasn't able to meet. However, working on putting this presentation together has given me the confidence to know that I have a lot of knowledge about autism. I am excited to share this information and I am having a blast putting the presentation together. Praise God for this opportunity!

The Fashion Experts

As I am getting older, I find that I need to look to the young ones for new fashion trends. Aparently I was very unaware of the fact that socks can now be worn on your hands. I might try this out tomorrow. I am worried about my hands getting hot and my feet getting cold, but I guess if it is trendy then I will do it. I want to be in style like these two girls.

Trick or Treat

We had a fun evening trick or treating. Hannah and Mya walked the street together and it was fun to watch them walk up to the houses and get candy. You could see the wheels turning in their heads as they were trying to comprehend the fact that they were getting lots of candy in a bag that they were allowed to hold on to the whole time. We don't keep candy in our house very often so it was quite a treat for Mya. Below is a picture of Hannah (Snow White) and Mya (kitty cat).
This picture is of Mya and her cousin Reid (monkey). Aren't they adorable?

Here is a picture of the whole group from left to right: Mya, Reid, cousin Brad, Luke, and baby Sara in the back.

And once the evening was done and the kids were in bed, guess what Dan and I did? We emptied Mya's candy bag on the floor and rooted through it like we were little kids. We decided on the Tootsie Roll suckers. Yum!

Milestone

Sara rolled over for the first time yesterday! Unfortunately, we all missed it. The kids and I were in the other room and when we returned, Sara was on her belly. Luckily today I saw her roll a couple times so that makes up for missing it yesterday.

The Love Dare

Dan and I have this new devotional book for married couples based on the movie Fireproof. We are only on Day 2 of the book, but I can already tell that it is going to be excellent. In the back of the book there are a series of questions to ask each other in our "spare time." One example of a question is "What do you enjoy the most about your life right now?" Or "What is the next major decision that you think God would want us to make as a couple?" We spent about a half hour on Sunday night asking each other these questions and it was so much fun. I learned a lot about Dan's hopes and dreams. That is something we don't take the time to talk about because we are busy with the kids. I think sometimes we get used to being married and focused on life as it is and forget to dream and share with each other.

What lead me to write about this book on the blog was the amazing content in the devotions. We are reading about what love looks like in a marriage. The first day was about patience and last night was about kindness. We were challenged to think about kindness as gentleness, helpfulness, willingness, and initiative. Ephesians 4:32 states "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." What an amazing verse to focus on in a marriage. We are living in a world where morality is compromised so it is important for us to battle Satan and his influence in our lives with scripture and truth.

I remember just the other day that I woke up to Dan just looking at me, watching me breathe. He was smiling from ear to ear. He said that he loves to just watch me sleep peacefully. Talk about kindness! Picture me with bed head and bad breath and he still likes to look at me in the morning. Wow! I am challenged on a daily basis to show him kindness in ways that I don't always want to. We were both challenged, by the author of the book, to do something unexpected today for each other. Hmmm....I wonder what I will do for Dan today. I love that the author helps us focus on putting each other first. Maybe I will give him the night off and tell him to play video games for hours and hours. Boy would he love that! And boy would that be unexpected!

See Julie Run

I joined this new running group called seemommyrun.com. There is a great group of moms in the area who are committed to running and training for a race in December. Last Saturday I ran 7 miles and yesterday I ran 9 miles. That is the most that I have ever run, ever! I was absolutely exhausted, but felt SO great for running as far as I did. I am also excited because Dan and I are going to run a 5K together in December. We used to run together when we dated and haven't been able to run together since I got pregnant for Mya. The race will be a great bonding time for us. Yeah!

Happy 2nd Birthday Mya!

Yesterday was Mya's birthday. I completely believe that she woke up that morning knowing that she was two years old. It was an interesting day full of tantrums and other fun things like dumping her milk on the carpet on purpose. You gotta love toddlers! We did have a fun party with Dan's family in the evening. We had a campfire and s'mores and other fun food. It was cold, but very enjoyable. Mya is enjoying her new toys from her birthday parties. Below are pictures of Mya jumping on her new trampoline, which she has been jumping on since she woke up at 7:00 this morning.

Goal Setting

I realized today how important it is to set goals in your life and make them happen no matter what stage of life you are in. I started running again about 3 weeks ago and today I ran the furthest that I have ever run. I ran 7 miles and did not have to stop. The pace was pretty good too. I hope to continue to increase my mileage and possibly run a marathon in the near future. The sense of accomplishment that comes from goal setting and having success with the goals is awesome. I felt so good about myself today and had more energy for my family. The fact of the matter is that my kids will not be around forever and I need to have my own interests to pursue while they are little and when they leave home someday. Running has always been an enjoyable hobby for me so I am so glad to be doing it again. I am very thankful that my veins in my leg aren't hurting when I exercise anymore. Praise God!

Please keep little Hannah in your prayers (the girl that I babysit for). Last Wednesday she appeared to just have a cold, but by the afternoon she laid on my couch most of the time and didn't eat much. She looked miserable. That evening her mom took her to the ER because she was coughing so much and throwing up. They were pretty certain that she had pneumonia. On Thursday she was taken to Akron Children's Hospital because her pneumonia had gotten worse. As of today (Saturday) she is still hospitalized, but we are hopeful that she will go home tomorrow.

Tonight we went to a Halloween party so of course I had to include a couple pictures of the kids in their costumes. Boy were they cute!

Mya's Birthday Party

We had an early birthday party for Mya last weekend with my Dad and Kim. It was so much fun! We carved pumpkins, ate soup, and ate a whole Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Ugh! I think that my Dad and Dan polished off the last couple pieces of the cake that were left over. Mya got some great presents and loved having "Happy Birthday" sung to her. She is definately my child because she loves celebrating her birthday. Her actual birthday is next Wednesday and I am very excited for that day. I want to make it extra special for her. Her birthday present from us is downstairs and she is just dying to open it. It is wrapped in Barbie paper and it is very enticing to her. I can't wait for her to open it, but I will wait until her actual birthday. I promise!