Christmas at Home

I think it's safe to say this Christmas season was truly as magical and fun as Jeff and I hoped it would be. We watched most, if not all, of the Christmas movies and shows we own. We made piles of Christmas cookies and hosted friends and strangers. We admired Christmas lights around the neighborhood, seeing them through Nathan's wide eyes as he discovered that simple joy. We were blessed to have both families come to our house for celebrations. We enjoyed plenty of yummy treats and savory meats. We watched the pile of presents under our Christmas tree grow, disappear and grow again. We loved Nathan's enthusiasm for opening presents, laser focus on that gift, then do it all over again with the next package. We loved making Andrew smile and giggle during his first holiday. We felt love from near and far as Christmas cards appeared in our mail box. We felt grateful for all the ways our families spoiled us this season. Most of all, we simply took pleasure in our abundant family time over the last two weeks. We hope you too felt love, magic and Christmas spirit wherever you spent your holiday. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

My first ever batch of homemade cinnamon rolls were delicious!

German treats and goodies direct from Hamburg. Thanks Ellen!

Dinner is served.

Jeff treated us all to the King family recipe for prime rib.

Jeff's new holiday shirt arrived just in time.

Nate's new ride.

Andrew and Great-Uncle Dennis (who is truly great)

Andrew and Grandpa

Oregon Zoo Lights (Andrew is in carrier)

Second Christmas with Davolts

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Happy New Year!

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.

Parenting Cliches

As a fairly new parent you often look for bits of wisdom from those with more experience. Most of the time these fall into pretty standard parenting cliches. "They grow up so fast," "Blink and you'll miss it," "Just wait till he's older," "Your life will never be the same." One I often hear is some derivative of, "Every stage is precious, just enjoy the now." Or something to the fact that every stage of a child's development brings some sort of new equally wonderful parenting experience. And while I appreciate the advice and the sentiment, count me a skeptic. I just can't imagine how any stage could be better than the current stage that Nathan is in. So yes this is just a blog involving my bragging about how great Nathan is. He may really be the cutest kid alive. (If you don't want to take my word for it, just ask his Auntie Jenny) Nathan is 20 months old, he is walking just fine, but just learning to run....

Nathan, 18 months

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The Davolts

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