The Davolts

Welcome to my regular readers and to those of you checking out our family blog for the first time. Jeff and I use this blog to update our friends and family (near and far) on our lives, especially Nathan. Feel free to browse older posts on the right side and we love when our readers leave comments! We wish you a Happy Christmas spent with the ones you love! Twas the week before Christmas, And into the mail, Jeff dropped all the Christmas cards, To arrive by snail. The tree was decked in ornaments new and old, The white lights on the house Were never too bold. Nathan is snuggled by seven each night, Mom and Dad enjoy Christmas goodies To their hearts delight. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, Though the Davolts would be traveling And would not be there.  To Maple Valley for Christmas With the Murrays to visit;  Grandpa Dave, Auntie Ellen, Sherry and Dennis. Then away to the ocean, The Davolts we will find, A few days relaxation is what we have in mind. When

This is part two of a blog post about Jeff's job search and his new teaching job. See part one  here.    After subbing for the first three days of school, I had not received a sub job for a couple weeks.  I had settled into a routine, Erin would drop Nathan off at school in the morning, I'd sleep in and dink around until noon or shortly there after then I'd pick Nathan up and we'd hang out until Erin got home and I'd go work at Fred Meyer at night.      On just one of these days I happen to get a voicemail out of the blue in the middle of the morning.  The call was from Scott Parker the brand new principal of Fort Vancouver High School.  He had received my name from someone in HR at Vancouver Public Schools, the same district Erin works for and where I had my long-term sub position last year.  He had a possible job for me and wanted to know if I had time for an interview.  I happen to not work at Fred Meyer that night, and he wanted to meet me at the school at 5:

 When Nathan first arrived, I had visions of hiring a journalistic type photographer to capture his first weeks, etc. It didn't take long to discover that the photographers I found on the internet and liked were way out of our budget. Fortunately, our friend Sam has experience in photography and took the pictures we had when Nathan was three weeks. A week ago or so I inquired whether Sam would be available to take some more pictures now that Nathan was approaching six months. Due to another commitment, Sam was not available this weekend so we took Nathan to a portrait studio to get some pictures of him at six months. The photographer worked hard to make him smile and she did a great job. Jeff and I joined in for a few family pictures as well. We ordered some prints for family and ourselves and our purchase also came with a CD of all the pictures, including the ones she "enhanced" with text or framing, black and white, etc.

I I know I said I wouldn't update until the 7th of December, but I woke up this morning in a mood to write, I guess. I think I might have enjoyed the relaxed nature of this Thanksgiving more than any I can recall. After much deliberation, we decided to stay in Portland for the holiday weekend. We discovered friends, Todd and Jennifer, without local family and made arrangements for a dinner at their house. The day before Thanksgiving was dedicated to braving Costco for grocery shopping and menu planning with Todd as well as hunting down a high chair for Nathan. We went to our local Babies 'R' Us and found the model pictured on sale at a can't-pass-up price. This particular model is slim folding which is almost necessary as space becomes more and more limited around the house. Unfortunately, the store we were at was out of the chairs and would not sell the floor model. After a drive across town, we had our chair and headed home. Nathan has taken to his own chair enthu

It's true. Nathan is six months old. I can't get past that thought to write a proper update. I will leave just a picture for now and provide a thorough update in a few days (most likely after his check-up on the 7th). Please be patient. :)

My contributions to our blog have been quite scarce recently.  Thankfully it is because I have been busy with a new job.  As many of your know I had been searching for a full time teaching job, since graduating with my Master's in Teaching from Concordia University in the Spring of 2010.  Previously, I had worked as a Store Manager for Ross Dress for Less.   Working for Ross had its ups and downs,  it was a very good job and I learned a whole lot about managing people and running a business.  It certainly was challenging staffing a store of 60 employees, and all the issues that are involved with that.  However, despite working in retail for 11 years, I always knew that I did not want to work retail for my entire life.  As I often say about Ross, I didn't want to sell $10 t-shirts for the rest of my life.  Despite knowing Ross was not my long-term future, it was still a difficult decision to quit my job at Ross.  After all, the job paid pretty well,  (much better tha

As each day passes, I am thinking more about the fact that Nathan is nearly six months old. I can hardly believe how quickly the time has gone. Anyway, I'll restrain myself and bit and focus on the details I wanted to share today. Rubber soled feet designed for walkers First, three nights ago, Jeff and I gave up on trying to squish Nathan into his pajamas that were clearly pulling at the buttons. As I put Nate into 12 month sized pajamas, I couldn't help but notice that the 12 month pajamas are truly made for little kids and not my five and one half month old son. The pajamas have rubber soled feet, designed for those who are walking, which Nathan is not. They also came with the tag regarding fire hazard that is familiar from all my days at GapKids. Nevertheless, the pajamas fit Nathan much better even if the legs are a little long. Second, I've discovered that Nathan really likes to have something to squeeze as he is falling asleep. When putting him in his crib, he

 Since Nathan was born, we have definitely been on the move! We have flown to Arizona and Nebraska by way of Utah. We have driven to Crater Lake and to the ocean. We have made three trips to Maple Valley but we were not done yet! We spent the long Veteran's weekend in Boise visiting with "Grandma and Grandpa" Davolt, Uncle Jesse, Aunties Jessica and Jennifer and Cousin JD. This was Nate's first trip to Boise and we had not been there since last Christmas. Knowing how long the drive can be, we left after school on Thursday night, staying with Jeff's cousins Mark, Miriah and their two boys for night. The family generously gave up their beds so we could have a place to sleep and even prepared a delicious breakfast in the morning. Jeff's Aunt MaryLynn and Uncle Terry joined us for breakfast, and got to spend some time with Nathan. Friday morning, we hit the road again and arrived in the afternoon, just in time for Thanksgiving dinner! Melody prepared a feast tha

  I apologize for the delay in writing this latest blog; the first week since Nathan turned five months has been busy! In the interest of getting this posted, I will upload the pictures at a later time (so you'll have to come back again). *Pictures added!* Since about the middle of October, Nathan has reached milestones that remind us how quickly he is growing. First, we moved him from our bedroom to his own room we so lovingly decorated. We knew it was becoming time to move him, and the pediatrician confirmed that he (and we) may sleep better if we made this change. The first night, I sat on my side of the bed and looked at the empty Pack N Play stationed there, missing the fact that I could no longer just look over and see our sleeping angel. Jeff laughed with me and then confirmed it was, "time to reclaim our bedroom". We have the monitor plugged in so I feel assured I can listen to him anytime I like. In the time since moving, Nathan sleeps pretty regularly, wak