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!

Laughter is the Best Medicine

I was in the basement organizing some kid clothes and had Hannah and Mya down there with me. I heard them giggling and when I looked over, Mya was in the baby walker and Hannah was pushing her all over the basement. I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Earthy Fathers and our Heavenly Father

We had an interesting experience last night with Mya and it made me so aware of how important it is for Dan to resemble our heavenly father while he is raising our children. I have never been more proud of him and how he handled Mya's behaviors. We had a birthday party for Mya at my Dad and step-mom's house and she got some great presents. When it was time to leave she refused to say "thank you" and give them a hug goodbye. A lot of this had to do with the fact that we took her toy away from her so she could say goodbye and that made her mad. But regardless of that fact she wasn't being compliant with Dan. So when we got home Dan wanted to follow through with Mya and have her call my Dad to tell him "thank you." However, she refused. Finally after many attempts to discipline her she complied and through many tears told my Dad "thank you" and that she loved him. It was heart wrenching to watch all of this happen, yet I was proud of Dan for following through and for Mya for complying. After this event, Dan prayed with Mya while he was holding her to calm her down and then they played together with her new toys. Within a couple minutes they were giggling and having fun together. It was a tough, but sweet thing to witness. Our heavenly father only wants what is best for us and sometimes it hurts in the process of finding that out. And yet He loves us unconditionally.

Of course the conclusion that I came to is....why is it that we become experts on our kids after they grow up? Why can't we start out as experts so we know what to do right away?

Pumpkin Patch

We had a very fun Saturday. I love Saturdays because Dan is home and it is such a family day for us. We all woke up in the morning and snuggled in our bed (yes, all four of us fit in a queen bed). Impressive, huh? Of course we had to watch some Disney. As soon as Mya comes into our bed she says, "Show?" She learned that word at a young age when we wanted to buy some extra time to snooze while she watched television in our bed. Anyway, now we have added Sara and she likes to snuggle with us too. After our snuggle time we had a relaxing morning around the house. Dan had to work, but came home around 1:00. By that time the girls were down for their naps and for the first time in a very long time I took a nap too. Then we went to the local Pumpkin Patch with our friends Jon, Jaimi and Emma and had pumpkin ice cream. Yum! It was a great time. Here are some pictures of our adventures.

Mya and Sara

Challenging Days

The last couple days have been interesting for me. God has really pushed me out of my comfort zone and I'm afraid to say that I haven't dealt with it the best. Wednesday morning Mya woke up with pink eye. My mom took her to the doctor's office while I took Sara to get her vaccinations at the Health Department. Then I rushed home, fed Sara, met up with mom and Mya, and got to my tooth surgery appointment by 9:45. I spent two hours in the dentist chair getting my tooth pulled and having a bone graft done. The procedure went smoothly and I am healing just fine; however, I have had to lay low since Wednesday and not do much activity. My cheek has been pretty swollen and I haven't been able to eat everything that I want to eat. Long story short.....I don't handle being laid up very well. When I can't do my normal activities like walking, running errands, cleaning the house, or visiting people I really struggle. I feel sad and restless and irritable when I don't want to feel those things. However, I have learned that I take my health for granted. Each day is a gift from God and I need to embrace it and be so thankful. And if I have to rest and heal from something then I need to spend that time with God and have a much better attitude. It is like I feel depressed if I can't function like I normally do. I don't like to be uncomfortable in any way. But God has bigger plans and can really use these experiences to teach me how I need to live my life on a daily basis. He can also teach me how grateful I need to be even if I can't do my regular things. I need to be joyful always. Below is a picture of my family and boy am I grateful for them!