The Davolts

I cannot imagine a better way to end the year 2011 than two weeks off with Jeff and Nathan. We visited with family and spent many hours ignoring the piles of student work that I brought home to grade. Since the start of 2012, we have enjoyed more time together as a family as Jeff is working fewer hours at Fred Meyer. We have also fallen into a strong routine in the afternoons/evening which encourages the calmness around the house. Jeff and I are both busy with work during the week, but try to enjoy every minute of the weekends. The cold weather outside inspires us to spend more time inside, reading, playing happily, napping and just being a family. With MLK Day this past week and a snow day, I feel really lucky to have so much extra time with Nathan and Jeff. Speaking of Nathan, he is learning so many new skills lately! Around the holidays, he mastered the art of sitting up on his own, which is often his preferred position now. Unfortunately, he cannot get up without our help still. ...

The year 2012 has arrived! I can hardly believe that I can now say my son was born "last year"! Tomorrow will mark seven months since Nathan's arrival. At the start of each month I've tried to take pictures of Nathan in our brown leather chair. I've used the series to capture his growth. Thus far I am not too crazy about the quality of these photos. In my opinion, the photos I took today are better. Nathan is sitting up pretty well now which is a great improvement over the previously propped up pictures from months before.  We used the natural light to show off his beautiful blue eyes. You might notice that he spit up on himself as we got started. But he smiled and played with his toes and the even licked the chair as I took a few photos. My sister, Ellen, gave me a book for Christmas titled, Mamarazzi . While I haven't read but a few pages, I look forward to picking up tips to great picture taking.