January Snow Days

It snowed Wednesday and again Saturday. Wednesday night I was stuck at work because Curtis told me I would never make it up our road without 4 wheel drive. I had to work Thursday anyway so it wasn't that big of a deal except that it made Thursday seem forever long! It has been a pretty snow today, but very wet and quickly leaving. Here are some pictures and video from the two days.

Can you tell Lydia is enjoying her time in the snow?




Maggie does a taste test while it's still clean.




















Ruth... as the snow just starts falling on Saturday.







Daddy takes a quick shot to send to Mom while she's stuck at work.











Bennett (white helmet) and Maggie (red helmet) ride while the snow starts falling. It really wasn't comfortable having the snow pelt your face as you raced down the driveway. I didn't last very long...



Bennett sleds the hill.
Lydia, Bennett and Maggie ride together.Bennett takes Ruth down the hill.Bennett and Maggie ride again.

Lydia video

Lydia was being extremely silly yesterday while we were stuck at home in the house. Bennett called it PJ Day since I never made them get dressed! The girls are still really enjoying their new CD players and Lydia was joining in on the fun. She was listening to one of Maggie's Praise & Worship CD's... completely NOT what she's saying. But it's funny who all she thinks of to blame for her behavior.

THE Christmas Letter 2007

Merry Christmas… well, at this point it’s more like Happy New Year! Here I sit on December 19th and we’re just beginning the process of recapping the year. It’s so exhausting this time of year you would think we’d learn and start at Thanksgiving. Nope! Not us… but, our excuse this time is that we’re waiting on our family photo. We’re celebrating with the Wallace clan on the 22nd and will take a great group shot that will insert here. That’s our excuse. This year we’ve watched the children grow by leaps and bounds. Bennett is now 7, in 1st grade and astounds us with his knowledge.There is nothing secret anymore. No more spelling certain words. No more private emails. Jenny was telling a friend that he was doing really well with his reading and was working on a 4th grade book and he yells from his room (where he’s supposed to be sleeping) “5th Grade!”. Little rat! Math… now that’s a different story. It kills his mother that he can’t grasp basic subtraction. She shall relax and give him time. She will. She will. He was able to take a trip to PA to visit Aunt Lara’s family in February. They had tons of snow, played in a snow fort, went sledding, and did all kinds of fun things with the cousins. He also played our first extracurricular sport this spring… soccer! We’re planning on doing that again next spring and letting Maggie join in on the running of the crazy masses. Maggie started kindergarten in August and just turned 6. She has the same teacher Bennett had last year and is doing much better than we ever imagined. She is completely opposite of him and it’s pretty entertaining. She really isn’t concerned about actual learning… but she must look good and wear some sort of PINK each day. She has made a few friends, buys her lunch every day (which Bennett still won’t do), loves riding the bus in the afternoons so she can network, and occasionally gets into trouble. She moves her card and carries on with her day. No remorse, no fear. Ruth turned 4 this fall and thinks she’s the queen. She runs the show while the older two are at school. She reasons beyond her years and is doing well with her writing and recognition of letters. She is so ready for higher learning. We never wanted to send the other two off to school but she is ready this year. We can’t imagine what next year will be like. We’re going to have to be diligent with her workbooks to keep her mind turning. She is all about being a Princess. She and her friend Amelia dress up together every week and dance through the house. She also took a special trip to PA with Aunt Lara. She stayed 2 weeks and had a big time. Grandpa flew up to bring her home and the two of them are like peas in a pod. She has him wrapped! Lydia turned 2 this summer and I say it constantly to her “you are SO TWO!” She’s the most challenging 2 year old we’ve had. I know we’ve created most of it since she’s the baby and gets away with way more than the other 3 ever thought of. She yells at the other kids and they give in to her because it’s easier and quieter that way. They are learning to be thoughtful. She’s learning that screaming reaps rewards. Great! She is still very much like Maggie and will one day be potty trained and nice to her siblings! One of my yearly friends said “what?? No new Davidson this year?” Nope! We finally have a 2 year old and no infant in the cradle. I do believe we are completed. God may tell us otherwise one day but for now, we’re done.
In March we lost two friends the same week, Ruth’s 3 year old friend Emily and Jenny’s Aunt Verna. It was a rough week for all of us. We miss them both. We took a family trip to PA for spring break in April with the Rose’s and had a wee bit of snow to send us back home. We visited the Hartman’s in VA on our way home. We also went to Amazement Square in Lynchburg… highly recommended for kids if you’re driving that direction. In May, we went camping with our Sunday school and had a great time. School was out and Bennett went off to camp the next week. It took some serious Daddy convincing to let him go but with all our camp connections we finally got the OK. He had the BEST week ever. Waya for life! Feel free to sign up at www.strongrockcamp.com and drop our name as a reference! We are good friends with the owner/operators and office staff and have the highest confidence in their abilities. Highly recommended for kids finished with kindergarten! We’re trying to again convince Daddy to let him return and take Maggie too. Jenny started a new part-time charge nurse position in the NICU in June. It’s one week of charge and then one week of staff at the bedside. It’s a good mix since 100% Charge Nurse is bad for the brain! The summer brought about weekly library story hours, VBS, weddings, birthday parties, and the Peachtree Road Race. Jenny did the Peachtree!! Woo Hoo! For those of you non-Georgians, the Peachtree is THE road race on July 4th. A group of girlfriends were motivated to get out and run so we did. Jenny would like to make it an annual event if work will allow it. We also had a celebration weekend with Jenny’s family and cousins from TN, IN, TX, PA, & GA (enough initials?). We had such a good time all packed in together that we’re going to do it again next summer in TN. Once school started back up we started running again. Field trips, class activities, weekly playgroup, weekly caregroup dinners, doctors, dentists, concerts and shows, Blue Man Group with work friends, White Christmas at the Fox, Annie on stage with the kids, camping trips to Tellico, dance party in the basement, trips to Griffin, church musical, walks in Gainesville for work. Whew. Maybe we should slow down a bit!
Aunt Leslie had surgery and started treatment for cancer in July. She’s 3 months from being finished and is doing remarkably well in our eyes. Read about her at www.muchles.com or www.bovinetheology.com
Curtis is working hard finishing up a couple of houses and has begun a small cabin development with his friend Chad. He still works diligently on his Jeep and takes trips to Tellico to make sure it still functions properly on the trail. Jenny still works 3 days at the hospital and the days off are filled with big kid school and little girl play. She’s involved in the PTO and tries to help in both classrooms each month as time allows. By the time Lydia is done there (May 2013) they will be ready to see the Davidson’s go! We just finished a great Christmas with all the families. All of Jenny’s came to Cleveland for the weekend. (see photoà)
We also spent time with Curtis’ family and enjoyed visiting with his sister’s family and Grandparents.
Alright, this must end. It’s January 4th, we already put the Christmas décor away and I still haven’t finished this letter. You can read all you want and see many more pictures at www.davidsonupdate.blogspot.com Email us at cnjd@alltel.net and call us at 706-865-7021. We’re IN with Verizon (C) 7069690607 (J) 7708536693
Have a happy, healthy blessed 2008.
Curtis, Jenny, Bennett, Maggie, Ruth, Lydia… Bucky and Kit-Kat

December in a nutshell

No, you have not been removed from our Christmas card list. I have not mailed a single one this year... but I will, eventually!

After my last post of our night at Blue Man we've had Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and Maggie's birthday. I feel like I run non-stop and the kids aren't even doing any extra curricular activities yet. If I'm not at work I'm doing errands and household tasks with the kids. There is no downtime except after 9pm... which turns into 10pm and then I'm too tired to think about making complete sentences. And I never remember to finish the last load of laundry!
Really nothing with me is a nutshell! I just haven't had a chance to sit and write in a while. I was reading Leslie's blog and she "broke the silence" after a long quiet month too. I don't feel so bad about not writing the news except that there are a couple of people out there who actually check to see if I put up new pictures of the kids. Our lives are not that exciting... but the kids are cute!

Maggie lost her two front teeth recently and has been singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" for several weeks now. Even though Christmas is officially done, she continues to sing and "wisth you a merry krithmuth" because she thinks it's funny. And she usually is.

Bennett has complained for a while about his heart hurting and feeling funny sometimes when he goes to bed so the doctor said we could get an EKG just to make sure it looks good on paper. With a genetic history like his Dad's and Papa's we thought it would be good to get a baseline. He was extrememly anxious over the whole deal, but the tech was good and once she started with the stickers he was fine. It was over in less than a minute and we were on our way again. Since we were next to the hospital I took all 4 over to the nursery to see all my co-workers. The kids were in a great mood (for not having naps) and decided a little Christmas caroling would be in order. Bennett put on a show for all the women and the girls chimed in every now and again. We stopped by 4 different nurses stations and each time he had to sing his favorite just for laughs and claps... "Oh Christmas tree O Christmas tree... why did you have to fall on me? You broke my leg, you killed my dog... you electricuted Santa Claus". Yes, he was successful in getting laughs from everyone and it only provoked him to sing it more!

Thanksgiving was spent with me at work and Curtis and the kids with his folks up at Vogel State Park. It was a cold and rainy day so they didn't get to play like they wanted, but the visiting time was good.

Maggie's class finally took their field trip to the Christmas tree farm... the October trip was rained out... in the year of the worst drought! We enjoyed our time even though it was frigid that day. The trees in the pictures are inside the barn and are painted white... it's not snow. The kids got to roast marshmallows over a faux fire and made lighting for a cute shot of the girls.

Christmas was a whirlwind. My entire family congregated here the weekend before Christmas. It's always so much fun to have all the cousins together. We played lots of games and thankfully the eldest girls are finally allowed to stay up and play cards (since their mother poops out so much earlier)!!!!!

These are the 3 eldest cousins with lovely shots with Aunt Jenny. We are so photogenic!

We spent part of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day over at Curt's parent's since that was the only way to get to see his sister and his grandparents. We got a couple of meals out of the deal and some good visit times too. I think cousin Eddie finally enjoys a little time with his younger cousins.

Christmas morning for us was very mild compared to my childhood memories. I remember going into my living room and seeing 4 huge piles of wrapped boxes in the 4 corners of the room and 4 stockings stuffed beyond what the crocheted socks should hold. Mom would always go so overboard (and still does!) that it makes these years seem anti-climatic to me. It wasn't big stuff... but just so much of it. And as a kid you really don't care so much about the cost of the goods, as long as there were goods. I enjoyed getting all those cheap little plastic things that lasted a week and then disappeared. I don't remember ever throwing those things away either. Now that the kids are mine I don't want to buy the cheap plastic things because I don't want to have to throw them away and disappoint the kids. Why would they remember if I don't remember? Who knows?!?! So anyway... we stuck to a few board games and the like for the kids this year. It seems to have been the thing to give since they were all on sale after Thanksgiving this year. There were a few clothes items for Maggie and Bennett since they are the biggest. I didn't even put the usual toothbrush/toothpaste combo in the stockings this year. But Curtis did go get Pez despensers for each of them. Great substitutes for teeth care, eh?!

This is at INK later in the week. Lara, Leslie and I took the kids to run off some energy. We painted some pottery too that turned out really cute. I can't show it until after Aunt Lara's birthday this month when she turns 39!!

Bennett finally got a bigger bike so he doesn't have to do the clown ride on Maggie's anymore. He even got to ride it in the snow today. Such a boy!

Maggie turned 6 on Monday and had a day full of celebration with two of her favorite friends, her sister and mother. We started the day at INK, took a break to see Enchanted and eat popcorn, went back to INK, then met Curtis et al for dinner. She wanted a steak! After that we deposited the friends with their families for the new year's celebration and we went to bed.

Now we've started 2008 in style. I've worked both days. Stayed up too late each night watching football. (Go Dawgs!) Finished a couple loads of clothes and now I'm trying to make a dent in the Christmas (new year's) letter. Hey, at least by being late I was able to get a great sale on photo prints and ordered enough for everyone to have 3! Isn't that exciting?!?!

Here's a little video clip that I'm using as a trial. I haven't put an video on here yet so I'm just checking out how it works. It's from this summer down at Grandpa and Grandma's farm. Lydia was still cute at that point and wasn't so TWO!