Spring has arrived!

Happy Easter! We have been so thankful for a week off from work & school for Spring Break. And as we celebrate Easter today, it truly feels like Spring is here. Since Nathan's school follows the Portland Public School schedule, his Spring Break was the week before ours. Jeff's mom, Melody was kind enough to come stay the week with us, entertaining, feeding and caring for Nathan while we were at work. Our own Spring Break kicked off with a visit from Jesse, Jessica and JD. Along with Jennifer, the seven of us shopped in the sunshine, and relaxed at home. We were glad to have family visit, and Nathan really enjoyed trying to keep up with his almost-three-year-old cousin, JD.

Cousins!

As mentioned previously, Nathan is really on the go now! We can hardly get him to sit still for pictures anymore. He zips around the house and quietly finds his way into trouble. "No" is a word heard more frequently around here! When he is motivated to get somewhere, he will tuck his head down and you can watch him pick up speed. Nathan likes to put everything in his mouth now too. Yesterday, I caught him about to eat a paper clip and Aunt Jennifer saved him from eating some rocks. He also started waving bye-bye in the last few days, which is fun for us.

As Nathan reached ten months this week, we took him in to get some spring time pictures taken (we also took him in at six and eight months). We have ordered some prints, but you can get a sneak peak at this link: Nathan's Ten Month Pictures

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Christmas 2020

Have yourself a merry little Christmas Let your heart be light From now on Our troubles will be out of sight As a result of the pandemic, the model train festival we typically enjoy this time of year was canceled (thus no pictures with Santa). We missed family and friends this year. The fun energy of the last few school days before Winter Break was not quite the same over Zoom. I missed singing carols in church during month of December. As the season progressed, I couldn't help but reflect on other times in history where celebrations were small and often just a nuclear family. Times and places where travel was too difficult or too expensive to justify leaving home. For those generations of families, the traditions were as simple as reading the Christmas story together or baking a special bread. In so many ways that was our Christmas this year and by seeking the joy in each moment, we found our hearts lighter. We visited our favorite local tree farm to find THE TREE. We...

Tradition

At no other time of the year do I think about "tradition" more than during the holidays, from Thanksgiving through Christmas. I do like the sense of timelessness that traditions afford, reminding us of past Christmases and the people or places we cherish most. As much as I love the traditions of years past and years to come, I think it's healthy to miss or change traditions every now and then. My own childhood was filled with traditions for Thanksgiving and Christmas, as was Jeff's, but I also recall the experiences when traditions were put on hold or changed, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes for reasons beyond our control. I suppose it's the same for all of us as we grow, move, lose, and gain. Not that I go out of my way to disrupt any plans for my family now, but rather, to remind us that life doesn't always go the way it has before and we can enjoy the time together no matter what. Having our own family caused Jeff and I to decide on what would be...

Embracing Joy

I made a goal not too long ago to write something about once a month or so. As November winds to an end, I have been feeling pressure to put something down. Trying to steer clear of a simple Thanksgiving post, I've noticed something else that has stuck me as we head into the Christmas season. The joy, excitement and wonder that children bring to just about everything. Photo courtesy of Erin's Instagram page We hosted Thanksgiving this year and in order to make room for everyone, and have everyone at least in the same room for dinner we did some serious rearranging of furniture. We moved a couch basically into our kitchen and used our front room, our library, as we call it, to add a couple tables so everyone could eat more or less in the same room. While this chore was not at all remarkable, the reaction to it by Nathan and Andrew has stuck with me. We had moved all the furniture prior to the boys coming home from school....

The Davolts

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