The Damiani family

November 2009

2010-04-20T16:40:00.010-05:00

November 2009:

For Emma-Claire's 5th birthday 11/10 and Josiah's 3rd we had another backyard party complete with a giant blow up jumper and the cutest cakes ever! Gr andma B and I made a ladybug cake and a dirt mound crawling with insects, yummmm!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my paternal grandparent's house (Great Grandaddy and Great Grandmother) where Oma captured the 2009 Christmas card photo!

The adult's table minus Grandmother who is taking the photo!

My baby sister Annie

My sister Sara with her youngest niece Olivia

Josiah Michael with his namesake; my Dad

Great Grandaddy and Emma-Claire on turkey detox!

The kids trying their best to cooperate with Oma for a Christmas Card photo!

Halloween Fun

2009-12-07T14:02:00.005-06:00

The Dakessian, Damiani, and Rother Mommies and Kiddos!

Precious Olivia

Emma-Claire and Allie Mae Trick-or-Treating

Ladybug Princess

Ashley and Tonya

My Little Duckling

Super Siah!

"Jack"

Punkin Carving/ The Creation of Jack

Early October we carved a pumpkin and the kids named him Jack. Emma and Josiah grew very fond of Jack and he became like a part of our family! He sat on the counter until we moved and every day the kids would talk to him telling him good morning or whatever was on their mind at the time. It was very cute! Thankfully they were not too devastated when we had to throw him out!

This year for Halloween Emma wanted to be a Princess Lady bug and Josiah wanted to be Superman with big muscles. I thought Olivia would make a cute duckling since that's what she looks like when she walks/waddles! We celebrated with our two other families, the Rothers and the Dakessian's at the Dakessian's home. All the kids had a great time "begging for candy" as Sam says!

The Last Move (for a long time)!!!!

2009-11-20T16:15:00.007-06:00

Our New Home on a Rainy Day!

The Formal Dining room to the Left of the entry way

The Office to the right of the entry way

The entry way from the living room

Stairs/Entry way looking toward the living room

Our wonderful master bath! (my side)

His side

His glass shower and my jet tub :)

Our master bedroom

Living room

living room

Kitchen

Back of home with patio

back yard

We survived the last move for a LONG time! And I do not use the term "survive" loosely! By prayer and angel's covering the kids and I were alive and so very glad to see Daddy when he arrived Friday after our hardest move ever! So here's the condensed version: Last month the movers showed up on a Tuesday morning to pack the entire contents of our home in Kyle for the move to Houston. WOW! I thought this is going to be AWESOME, I dont have to pack at all! Five hours later I got a phone call that the packer were finished and they would be back the following day to load the truck... amazing they are so fast! Well... I got home to find out that they had left out about 30% of our stuff and to their credit I thought maybe they did it on purpose. When I phoned the company they assured me that the rest would be packed in the morning. They showed up Wednesday morning to finish packing and load the trucks. The kids and I again evacuated to stay out of the way and agreed to meet the movers in Houston later that afternoon to begin unloading. Fast forward all day to 11pm. I am at home with three kids asleep upstairs, five tried, grumpy moving men, a house full of half uploaded (not unpacked) boxes and the movers are ready to go. Wait a minute, our quote included unpacking! One hour later, many phone calls between myself, the moving manager and my husband the guys agreed to come back the next day to finish. They were never told that they had to unpack. And on top of that all of our thing had been thrown into boxes... resulting in a HUGE unorganized mess on the unpacking end. Things that belonged upstairs were in the garage, toys and an upstairs tv were in my bathroom and these guys wanted to go back to Austin! They did return the next day to move the items I could not move on my own into their correct rooms, but in the end I got stuck with the rest. And the 30% of unpacked stuff in the Kyle house, a good bit of it was left there. Thankfully Sam was able to go by and get it. Two sleepless days later I finally got the mess sorted through and most of the house together. I know Im insane but I could not quit until we could live here! So all that to say, PRAISE God for our beautiful new home and for all of His many blessings He has provided us! My camera died wile taking photos of the house, I will add more when I have good light to take them :)

Goodbye Kyle

2009-10-21T12:13:00.008-05:00

Rainbow over Plum Creek
Our little White Picket Community

Small Town Charm

Kyle Family Log House

Downtown Train Depot

One of the hourly trains :)

Old City Hall

View of the water tower over Main Street

The greatest little church EVER!
First Baptist Kyle

New City Hall

Kyle, Texas Historical Marker

We are officially moving back to Houston next Thursday (11/28). As we prepare to move, yet again, I look back on the brief year and a half we've called Kyle home. It amazes me how deep our roots have grown in less than two years. God has blessed us with such amazing friendships here; there will always be a part of my heart in Kyle, Texas. God has taught me so much about being a godly wife, patient mother and wise friend through some amazing women and His perfect word! He used this season in my life as a bridge between the youthful, clueless, selfish first years of young adulthood and marriage to prepare me for a woman after His heart and perfect will for my life! I feel securely fastened to His pottery wheel as He sculpts and refines me. Praise be to Him for his mercies and abundant love! I will miss the beauty of the Texas foothills, our adopted family at First Baptist Church, my two AMAZING Godly mentors hugs and encouragement, our little white picket fence community, and all of the charm of this small town! I thank God for all He has taught us, brought us through, delivered us from, and blessed us with in this season of transition.

I look forward to some permanency, Lord willing, in our new beautiful home He has provided. I am very excited about not moving for many years since this will be our seventh move since we left college 5 1/2 years ago! I am excited to rekindle some old friendships and be near to my grandparents as they age.

When people ask how I feel about moving I will sum it up in one word: PEACE. God gives me perfect peace even as I am saddened as I look back. He gives me peace because I know this is His provision for us! Praise Him for Sam's job and the security it provides us! Thank you to all who have blessed our family beyond measure; through your prayers, encouragement, hugs, sweat, yummy cooking, solid preaching, laughter, tears, and love!

Summer FUN!

2009-10-14T16:36:00.005-05:00

Emma-Claire and Josiah at Zilker Park

Olivia on her Birthday

"Yaya" is 1!!!

It always amazes me how fast the seasons pass! We had a great summer full of fun stuff! We had visits from Sam's parents and two of his siblings. Hannah, his lil' sis is a Freshman at Texas State, about 15 minutes from our house, this fall. So, Rich, Reta and Tom all visited us while seeing Hannah off to school. We all love when they get to come see a bit of our world! August 1st was Olivia's first birthday and our first day with our foster kiddos. About that time we also found out that we would be moving back to Houston sometime this fall.

The latter part of the summer was consumed with preparing for the foster kids and trying to adjust to life with 6 kids. We had a 10yr old girl, Emma 4, 4 year old boy, Josiah 2, 18month old boy and Olivia 12months. It was nearly 24hour a day chaos. Unfortunately, we were greatly misled as to the severity of the needs of these foster children. For various reasons each one was moved from our home and now I can look back and see that those children were put into our family by God for a season. We learned a lot having them here and have a whole new perspective of CPS. We have a new compassion for families with mentally ill children and empathy for the children sitting in CPS custody. Someday we will serve orphans in one capacity or another but now is not the time for our family to take on several very abused and needy children.

Grandpa and Aunt Hannah's Visit

2009-07-02T16:39:00.003-05:00

Sam and Rich

Siah and Hannah

Olivia the Cowgirl!

Josiah and Grandpa

On Father's Day Sam's dad and sister from PA came in town for Hannah, Sam's sis, to go to her orientation at Texas State where she will be a fish this fall. We took them to our faviorate resturants, Italian Garden and Rudy's BBQ. One of Sam's love languages is food so when we have guests he like to take them out to eat! Im pretty sure thats why... not that I don't cook well enough to feed his guests! While they were here we visited the Texas State campus and went to the Children's musueum in New Braunfels. We really enjoyed the visit with them!

Our 5th Wedding Anniversary!

2009-06-30T16:51:00.002-05:00

June 19th was our 5th wedding anniversary! Looking back some memories of 5 years ago are very faint while it still seems like yesterday at times. I will never forget our big day though! It was 105 degrees in Humid Houston and we were wed on a small balcony overlooking the downtown bayou at the Magnolia Ballroom with about 120 friends and family as witnesses. It was the perfect little wedding. I had my dream cake from Cake Affairs, I had always wanted a cake from this upscale cake shoppe since I was a little girl. I had a beautiful dress, flowers, venue, musicians, pastor, guests, and of course the perfect Fiancee! .

I could go on and on and on but on to the 5th anniversary celebration! Sam and I spent the weekend in a little rented condo on Lake Travis. Did I mention that we were ALONE?! And it was wonderful!!! We cooked for ourselves and ate it all ALONE! And it was wonderful! My sweet father lent us his SeaDoos and we spent the day tearing up Lake Travis. We rode from our condo to the dam, it took about 1 1/2 hours straight, Im not sure how far it was but it was far! Once we saw the dam I decided to jump in the lake to cool off, it was about 105 that day, and I lost my sun glasses when I dove into the water. Yes, I know I should have taken them off but I forgot! So I spent some time acting like I was going to find them. After about 10 minutes or so I looked up to the cliff side we were floating near to see MANY stark naked people, some sun bathing, some rock climbing, some on boats, some on floats.... it was so weird! I had heard of "Hippy Hollow" before but had NO idea that it was right there across from the huge dam and public boat ramp! Oh my was it weird!! Aside from that shock we had a wonderful weekend ALONE! After about 24 hours I began to wonder what 25 year old married couples do all weekend that dont have little ones! It was so quiet, there was no sharing our food, no diapers to change, no fights to break up, -3 bodies to sun lotion, very quick meal prep and clean up! But in the same breath, we did miss the little laughter, sweet baby kisses, funny little man antics, and the over all joy our childern bring us each day. The kids had a great time too, EC and Si were in Houston with my parents "Papa and Oma" -escorted by "Uncle Mason"- I've got to give him props- he drove a 4 year old and a potty training 2 year old BY HIMSELF for 1 1/2! Did I mention he is only 19 - no kids of his own! And little Livia spent the weekend being sopiled rotten by our adopted grandparents Judy and Bruce Barton. In short- we all had a wonderful and all too short weekend!

Aquarena Springs

2009-06-10T17:44:00.005-05:00

Today Nanna, my Mom, and I took the kiddos to Aquarena Springs in San Marcos. Aquarena Springs is now part of Texas State University and they have glass bottom boat tours and an aquarium on a beautiful part of the campus. We really enjoyed the grounds and the kids loved looking underwater throuhg the bottom of the boat! At the end of the tour the gide asked if there were any other questions and Emma asked "where are the octopuses?" It took a second but he realized she had thought that he said "aquafer" not "octopus"... I wonder if all along she was looking for an octopus?! When I was very young my grandparents took me and my brothers there when it was more of an amusment attraction. There was a submergable theater, it looked like a submarine with a huge window on one side, where we saw aquamaids and their swimming pig preform. Now the theater is mostly underwater due to a slow leak but it was neat to see it again!

Olivia's Baby Dedication

2009-06-10T17:33:00.003-05:00

On Mother's Day Olivia Faith was dedicated at our church First Baptist Kyle by our pastor Brother Jeff English. It was a wonderful ceremony where we promised as her parents to raise her in our faith. To teach her the love of Christ by being the love of Christ in her life. Our church made a promise to encourage her and nurture her as well. The whole ceremony was beautiful! She was give a little certificate and miniature pink bible to commemorate the day. It was a special Mother's Day!

Yet Another Attempt!

2009-06-09T14:40:00.005-05:00

Here it is six months into 2009 and I am just now sitting down again to update this blog! So sad! Now that I've learned that I can print and bind my blog into a book I am going to keep all of my family journaling here. Here is a quick up date on the past umm... 7 months or so! Since October of last year, my last post, we've gone through a failed attempt at adopting through the Texas foster care system, we celebrated EC's 4th and Josiah's 2nd b-days at Chuck E Cheese, Olivia had a tumor removed from the back of her head 2 Days before Christmas, we celebrated our first Christmas alone in our own home, I took my first vacation without any of my family memebers (Tonya took me to NYC for my 25th birthday in January), we've moved, for the 5th time in 5 years, to Plum Creek in Kyle, I have accepted the position as Coordinator of the new MOPS group for First Baptist Kyle, we have committed to homeschooling Emma-Claire this up comming school year, we've lost our beloved puppy Lucy, we've gotten a new puppy Bella and we are praying about how God wants us to grow our family! So many changes in the past seven months! And you know what? God has been so good through it all!! Enjoy these newer photos of the clan!

Ashley and Tonya in NYC! Our first girls trip :)

Josiah's Easter Pose!

The Spellings family came to Austin to celebrate my 25th birthday!

Olivia Faith at 10 months. Our littlest soccer player!

Cute kiddos riding in the grocery cart. This was our first trip with Olivia sitting in the cart and it was a success!

Our newest family member Bella. She is a 1 1/2 year old Cocker Spaniel. She was my Mother's Day gift!

It feels like FALL!

2008-10-23T12:10:00.003-05:00

Olivia's two month photo! Her cheeks are so big
I lift them to get her car seat straps positioned right!

Self photo taken while EC and Siah were getting lost
in the hay bale maze; with other moms watching them of course!

The kids and their Moms club friends at the pumpkin patch

Miss Priss!

I pray that they always are so in love with each other!

We are welcoming every hour we have that feels remotely like the much anticipated relief from the Texas scorching summer heat! We have had a handful of days in the past three weeks that remind us of fall; the temp hovers in the 70's (insert laughter from our Yankee friend and family) during the day and 50's at night. Though the falling temps are the only natural sign of autumn around here (since the foliage turns from green to dead brown, if it turns at all) we are enjoying the fall festivities of our small town life! The kids and I have decorated the house with small pumpkins and other "fallish"decor, we visited a Christmas tree farm that has a pumpkin patch and hay rides, and we went to the Kyle Fair as a family. We all enjoyed the fair food and rides!

Family Photos

2008-10-23T11:53:00.005-05:00

Early September we had family photos taken by our good friend Alison Joe. She did such a great job and we all had a good time! Its amazing to look back and see how much we all have changed since we last had professional photos taken.

Once we convinced Emma-Claire to smile for the camera she really got into it! She and Olivia were so precious together!

Sam and I like this one of us with Olivia

All 5 of us! Its hard to remember what it was like 5 years ago when it was just Sam and I living the college lifestyle in Eastern Europe!

What precious creations of an AWESOME God!

Blessing # 3!

Summer Fun #2

2008-10-17T14:27:00.007-05:00

This is our little rental house in Kyle. And "Ruby" our Toyota minivan!

Princess Emma-Claire enjoying the parade!

Josiah and Sam watching the fire truck :)

Emma taking pictures of the fireworks with Daddy's phone!

We had a great summer! For Independence Day we celebrated with Nanna and Pawpaw (Rance and Lynn) The kiddos loved the parade and the fireworks! The best part of our summer was the birth of sweet blessing number 3!

Olivia Faith's cheesy face just after delivery

Olivia Faith was born August 1st at 11:15am at home! We LOVED having a home birth and our midwife, Amber Clarkson, was a gift from God. She was incredibly patient and empowering! Sam helped deliver Olivia and was the best labor coach! The entire labor and delivery, all 17 hours of it, was incredible! Being at home, having the greatest partner, and outstanding midwife, made for the perfect delivery! It amazes me what the woman's body is designed to do. God's magnificence is defiantly glorified through the untainted labor and delivery process.

Olivia tanning! She spent 48 hours under the billy lights for jaundice treatment. The funny thing in her nose is nasal cpap. Positive air way pressure to ease breathing.

Mommy and Livi

Daddy feeding Olivia

Once Olivia made her debut she had a hard time clearing the mucous from her little lungs and Amber decided she needed to go into the hospital for some help. We spent 5 days in the Dell Children's NICU where Olivia was treated with surfactant, a drug used to expand her lungs. Very quickly after she received the meds her little body perked right up! She just needed some help getting a good, deep first breath she missed right after delivery. The rest of our stay was to monitor her. We had excellent care in the NICU and highly recommend Dell Children's hospital!

Olivia's first bath. She was so tiny and yellow but she LOVED the bath!

Olivia's first photo at home! 5 Days old :)

We've spent the past two and a half months getting adjusted to having three kiddos under 4! WOW what a crazy wonderful life we have! I (Ashley) am still not getting sufficient sleep and running on God's grace! Both Josiah and Emma-Claire are totally in love with "livi". Sweet Josiah tells her "wee-u Ya-ya"! Translated "I love you Olivia!" Emma-Claire is such a big girl and most of the time eager to help me; what a blessing! God's grace is sufficient!! I've made a goal of posting every week... So please keep me accountable if you enjoy reading about our family!

Enjoy this fall y'all!

Summer Fun

2008-08-16T15:25:00.005-05:00

This is an attempt to catch up our blog!

In late April we moved to Kyle, Texas. Sam was transfered to open an extension of Mason's Mill and Lumber to service the Texas hill country. We've been here three months now and love it! We are about 20 miles south of Austin and 60 miles north of San Antonio. We are enjoying the smaller town life and have recently joined First Baptist Kyle where we've made several new friends. Also, Ashley joined the MOMS club and MOPS group. Both are international organizations supporting motherhood. We have been blessed with many new friends through both groups! Since our move we've visited Houston a few times and here are a few cute pics of Emma-Claire and Josiah in Papa's pool!

We celebrated Independence Day with Nana, Papaw and Chase at their house on Lake Travis. The kids had a blast at the parade and loved the fireworks!

Christmas 2007

2008-04-02T11:56:00.005-05:00

Christmas 2007 was so much fun! The kids really got into the gifting and we enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to Jesus! Nana, Papaw and Chase celebrated with us and it was so nice to be in our own home! Emma-Claire and Josiah LOVE their guitars, drum, keyboard and microphone; it is too cute to watch them preform!

Even though he doesn't speak many English words he has a lot to sing about in baby babble!

The kids really enjoyed singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and LOVED the chocolate molten cakes!!

Other November Fun

2008-04-01T10:03:00.008-05:00

Our friend Pete, who we met in Lithuania, came for a visit from Portland. It was so good to reconnect with a college friend that we haven't seen in three years! We enjoyed reminiscing on our travels together and taking him to the Houston Zoo.

Mommy took the kids pictures in the backyard for Christmas Cards. Hannah and I had a great time getting the kids to cooperate!

Josiah spent four days in ICU at Texas Children's Hospital with pnemonia and RSV. Those were four very long days and night. We were in isolation because of his RSV. Praise God that he recovered so quickly!

The Kids Birthday Party!

2008-04-01T08:52:00.010-05:00

In early November we celebrated Josiah's 1st ( the 7th) and Emma-Claire's 3rd (the 10th) birthday with a big backyard bash! We rented a jumper, filled the backyard with toys, grilled and had cupcakes! The kids had so much fun and really enjoyed the 50 or so friend and family that came to celebrate!

Papa Spellings

Cup Cake Time

Papaw Elliff and Siah

The New Play House

G&G Spellings and Mamie Bruce

Ellie Graesser

Face Panting

Dom and EC Jumpin'

The Gifts

Daddy and Siah

Hannah G, Blake M, EC and Uncle Mason

Aunt Hannah and Siah

Uncle Chase

EC and Mommy

Josiah really enjoyed his cupcake!

Josiah loves his retro rocket that counts down "three two one blast off!" it shakes and the rocket on the back lights up! Such a fun boy toy!!

This was the first present opening Emma-Claire really got into! Its so much fun to watch her get so excited!

The kids all love the cup cake cakes and it made serving a breeze!

This is Emma-Claire with her Aunts Sara and Annie (Ashley's sisters)

Emma-Claire LOVES her birthday cup cake!

Katy Rice Harvest Festival

2007-11-14T20:27:00.000-06:00

This is the 3rd annual Damiani Graesser Mommies & Kids Katy Rice Harvest Festival photo! The first year was of Ashley, Ann, Emma-Claire and Hannah when the girls were right at a year old. The second year we held the girls with HUGE prego tummies! And this year look at the cute turkeys we were cookin'! Since this is an annual must do and we have such a great pattern going I guess we will be cookin' again next year!! Hahaha ;)

What are best friends for! These two have been friends since they were two months old and look at them now! So silly! Emma-Claire and Hannah love the festival. They always have yummy food to eat; like a sausage on a stick, a turkey leg, or a funnel cake! And some fresh squeezed lemonade to drink, yummmm!! They also enjoy the craft booths, where they got balloon sandals last year. And their favorite part~of course the kiddie carnival!

Halloween Party

2007-11-14T19:53:00.000-06:00

We had a Halloween party at our house with some friends and the kids all had a blast!

Here Princess Emma-Clarie and her best friend Princess Hannah hold hands as they trick-or-treat!

Emma-Claire dressed as princess Cinderella, Hannah dressed as a pink princess and Quin dressed as a giraffe! Once they understood the concept of Trick-or-Treating they LOVED getting candy!

This is...umm.. the teenage

mutant ninja girls, Hannah and Whitney :)

I tried to talk Emma-Claire into putting the candy into a plastic grocery bag when her tiny pumpkin was full. I don't think she believed me that I was saving it for her!!

This is Josiah's I can't believe Hannah and Whitney attacked me with face paint! I was so cute with the Tigger nose and whiskers Mommy painted on my face.... I look ridiculous now....

...Maybe not, I still have the moves for the little kitty ladies "Roar!" This is a photo of the Mommies and the kitty babies~ Ashley & Josiah 11months, Julie & Hannah Cole 7months, Ann & Ellie Graesser 12months! We celebrated Ellie's first birthday with yummy homemade cupcakes, shes one cute Halloween babe!

Help!

2007-11-05T14:54:00.000-06:00

If any of you have any photos you are willing to share with us I would be so grateful! We've lost our camera so I don't have many photos since august. And we all know I'm not the best at taking them any who! If you have photos of: Halloween, Ryan and Jenny's wedding, birthdays, or any of our family members and/or friends PLEASE send them to me at ashleydamiani@aol.com! Thanks for helping me preserve our memories!

Here are some older photos too cute to not post!

2007-11-05T14:40:00.000-06:00

Josiah and his first friend Ellie Graesser Emma-Claire "fixing the wheel like Daddy!"
Emma-Claire gave herself and Mommy a makeover!

Josiah and Emma-Claire in their favorite state.... naked! Emma-Claire's self portrait
Emma-Claire the "Mermaid Princess"
Momma's angel boy!
Siah and Daddy

Finally!

2007-11-04T22:46:00.000-06:00

I am so excited to finally have this blog running! Hopefully I will be better at sharing our family photos and stories!