The Datin Very Late Christmas Newsletter

I cannot claim to be on top of things this year, as I have only recently mailed off my Christmas Newsletter to my parents and grandparents. Thank you to all of you who were kind enough to share a newsletter with us. We enjoyed each of them. We decided that we would just send hard copies with pictures to our direct ancestors (parents and grandparents) and put it on our blog for everyone else this year. I hope you enjoy the letter, though it is quite late.

The Datin

Very Late Christmas Newsletter

Did we miss Christmas already? Where does the time go? Can someone find me a vault so I can keep the time in it and release it a little more slowly this year?

My little Jessie is now almost 15 months old. She walks everywhere she can. Or should I say run? Her little waddle run is the cutest thing to watch. I wish you could all see it. She is also quite the climber. If she sees Joshua and Emily getting up on something, she can usually find a way to pull herself up as well. Right now, she has a set of 6 teeth. Her favorite thing to do is to look at books. Not those board books, though. They need to be paper. Yep, she already has opinions, and is expressing them like a pro. We love her emerging personality, and can’t wait to see how she blossoms over the next few years.

Emily will be 3 later this month. One more year of nursery for her. It’s great that she’ll be able to help Jessie in her transition in a few short months. She LOVES her nursery leaders, and looks forward to church every week. Emily is my little book worm. At times, she could spend all day looking at pictures in the books. She has become quite the animal lover. She always seems to be playing with some sort of toy animal, if there is one at her disposal. Emily has such a bright smile, and is always ready to share it.

Joshua is now 4 1/2. He will be 5 in just a couple months. He is looking forward to starting school next year, and is doing all he can to get ready. Joshua is extremely observant of everything. He has a memory almost longer than mine. He has been working on learning sight words over the past few months, and has recently started to learn to sound out some words on his own. Joshua loves helping out his Mommy and his Daddy. His favorite thing to help with is the cooking. If we head into the kitchen to cook, Joshua is inevitably at our side, waiting, not necessarily patiently, for instructions on things he can help out with. He is also tender and caring, always seeming to be on the lookout for a chance to help those around him feel loved when needed.

Angie loves being able to spend her time teaching and entertaining her little ones. She wouldn’t trade her job for the world. Angie currently serves as a counselor in the ward primary presidency, and has thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all the children.

Peter has been quite busy this year. He has been serving as the Young Men’s President in our ward. He loves the time he gets to spend with the boys each week on Tuesday evenings, at church on Sundays, and occasionally at a campout here and there. Most notably, he graduated with his PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Florida in December. He has been a busy boy this year.

Peter has accepted the opportunity to continue to work with his advisor as a Post-Doctoral Associate for the next six months, so we will be in Florida until this summer.

We are grateful for the many blessings our family had last year, and look forward to the adventures this year holds. We wish you all a wonderful 2011.

Emily's Three!

Yesterday was Emily's third birthday! I can't believe she's getting so big. She is my independent little girl who loves to read and play. She has recently started giving hugs like their going out of style. I absolutely love that. And, I think she has suddenly become a "Mama's Girl." I will be enjoying that while it lasts. Here are a few pictures of the presents that Emily got for her birthday.

This My Little Pony set has already been used nearly constantly. Pinkie Pie and Sweetie Bell. Emily loves horses, and our neighbor, Lucille, had given her a My Little Pony for Christmas, so I knew she'd love these toys.

Emily also got this movie. The Rescuers is one that I enjoyed as a kid. My parents got them the Great Mouse Detective for Christmas, which they love, so I thought this would be a good bet. In fact, they are watching it right now. Joshua is nearly rolling on the ground laughing at whatever is going on.


We also got Emily a couple books, since she LOVES to sit and "read" so much. She got this one, The Story of Babar, and she also got a collection of Little Critter books.

Here is Emily with the Princess Castle cake she requested. It was a lot of fun to make. The colorful dots and lines were some cake decorating glitter gels that I bought. We thought they might be fun, so I let the kids help me with those. Then, we got some on our hands and had to taste it. Not so tasty. So, we quit. Poor Joshua was afraid to even try the cake then. I don't think you could even taste it with everything else. Oh well. He sure missed out. This cake was a butter yellow cake filled with strawberries and decorated in buttercream icing. Yum, yum.

I tried to upload a video, and it had a hard time uploading it. So, I will explain it, instead. Emily had helped put the sparklies on the cake, so she had seen that, but she had not known anything about the princesses. The video is of her coming into the kitchen to get some cake, and then noticing the dolls. Her reaction was so much fun. She stood there and stared for a moment and made this funny noise she makes when she's excited. She even started shaking a little bit from the excitement, though you can't see that in the video. Then she walked around and started grabbing the princesses and "played" with them... otherwise known as pounding on the table. :) The video ends just as the kids begin to fight over the princesses. Fun, fun.

I think Emily had a great birthday. Thank you to those of you who called and sent emails to wish her a happy birthday. She sure enjoyed it.

Playdough

For Christmas, the kids got quite a bit of playdough. They have been very happy about this, and have used it on most days since then. Joshua has started to become very creative with his designs.



The past few days, Joshua has started to build churches.

Here is a close up so you can see the people in the pew better. They each have a head, a body, and legs. Once, he even had a mommy holding a baby. But I forgot to take pictures that time. Oops!

Emily didn't want to be left out, here. She is showing us the rose she made. Can't you see it? It really did look a bit like a rose, if you looked from the top. Good job both of you. :)

Primary Talk

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my church, which is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I want to give you a basic outline of our schedule, just for a bit of background to understand my story. Everyone meets together for Sacrament Meeting where we take the sacrament each week and sing songs and listen to members of the congregation give talks over the pulpit. Everyone gets a turn to be one of the members who gives the talks every now and again. We try to help people prepare for this opportunity from a very young age. (Which will be explained in just a moment.) After sacrament meeting, we split into different classes. The adults and youth go to Sunday School, which is a more interactive lesson generally taught by the same person each week. After Sunday School the men and women go to their respective meetings of Priesthood and Relief Society. Children stay with their parents until they are 18 months old. At that point, they join the nursery, where they play, have a snack, learn songs, and even have a short lesson of their own. When a child is 3 at the beginning of the year, they are moved into primary. Primary has several classes based on the child's age. Primary and nursery are held during the 2 hours after sacrament meeting while the adults are in their own meetings.

Anyhow, during primary, children are given the opportunity to give a talk at least once a year for the other kids in primary. Joshua gave his first primary talk on November 28. He did a marvelous job. He got up to the microphone, and spoke pretty boldly, no nerves whatsoever. In fact, he dictated he whole talk to me, with very little guidance from me. He did such a great job with it that I wanted it recorded so he can see it later on. So here it is.

"I have a work chart. I don't do it on Sundays because it's my service day. I can still help with the chores, but I can't put a sticker on my list. Instead, I do service for mommy. I feel happy and I love my mommy when I help her. When I'm helping mommy, I am helping Heavenly Father and Jesus, too. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Maybe it's because he talks about me in it, but I am still touched when I read it. Thank you, Joshua, for all of your service. You love to help anyone who needs help, and I hope you can keep this kind heart as you grow older. I love you Joshua. - Mommy