Welcome Jonas!

I can't believe that Jonas is already 5 weeks old. The time flies by so much faster after they're out. He was born Febuary 14 at 12:17 in the morning. We were hoping for the 13th, but he wanted to be a Valentine Baby. I was induced for the first time. It went well, however next time I think I will start before 5pm. It was a really long night. He weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 19 and 3\4 inches long. We were lucky and only had to stay one night in the hospital. The only bad thing was that Laurie and Jack were throwing up when we came home, luckily Jonas didn't get sick. It was a long night the first night home--Jonas wanted to be held the whole night--and Jeff was cleaning up throw-up all night. My mom and dad came to visit when Jonas was 6 days old. My mom stayed 10 days and Jonas was a perfect little boy. Then she left and everything went south. Jonas ended up being really fussy started at about 3 weeks. He basically cried all day so finally after a couple days I took him to the doctor. He has acid reflux and was put on Zantax. He started feeling better when he came down with RSV. We had a few scary nights and he was put in the hospital because he had low oxygen levels, but he quickly turned around and we were able to go home after one night. My mom also flew back out to help us. I know I wouldn't have got through that tough time without her. She watched Jonas so me and Jeff could get some sleep. It was my fourth night without any sleep so I was sooooo grateful. Now, my mom has gone home and Jonas is fully recovered. I have even ventured outside with all four since the whether has been so nice. We also had Jeremy's birthday party on Saturday. Jer is such a fun three year old. I had so much help from friends and family. Thanks to all!!!
Love
DRea

Only 33 more Days!

We are so excited to be having another little boy on Feb 13 (or sooner!) We haven't picked out a name yet, but we will keep you posted. Laurie just started gymnastics a few weeks ago and she is having a lot of fun, they really work her hard though. We also got a piano and she should start lessons next week. She is doing great in school and enjoys it. She lost one of her front teeth just before Christmas and has a really fun smile. Jack just started Joy School a few weeks ago. He loves going and I love the ladies I do it with. We just have three little almost 5 year boys and they have a ball. Jack will be 5 in less than a month. He is a very sweet little boy and he is trying hard to finish all his reading lessons so we can shoot off a rocket! Jeremy is enjoying his last few weeks as the baby of the family. He is still very sweet and cuddly. He is finally potty trained however I hope it doesn't go backward when the baby comes. Jeff is enjoying his work and his time he gets to spend with the kids. He and I recently went to a Blues Hockey Game and we really had a good time. We also have had fun stealing Laurie's Christmas presents of Mario Brothers and Dance game and playing them with each other at night. I feeling really good and am excited that I won't have to be pregnant too much longer. It was so fun to visit family for Thanksgiving. We are so lucky to have so many great cousins on both sides of our family. (I will post pictures later because I left my camera in Utah and my mother hasn't mailed it yet!!!!) DRea

November 2011

It's actually Halloween. Jeff took the kids out trick-or-treating and I thought it would be fun to post a few updated pictures, but he took the camera--so I'm writing instead. It had been a little while since I last wrote. We moved into a rental house and we love it. It is across the street from the elementary school and has a back yard with a fence. It is nice to have some space and not be worried about being too loud. Laurie started kindergarten this fall and is doing really well. She loves going to school. I'm glad she only goes in the afternoon so we still have all morning to play. She's a big helper to her brothers. Jack is growing like a weed. He loves bugs, snakes, and riding his bike. He also loves to ask lots of questions about how things work. Jeremy is at the most fun stage ever. I love two year olds. They say the funniest things like "mom you're my favorite." We are in the process of potty training and when he has an accident he will say "mom it's just water." How did he learn how to deceive at such an young age? Jeff is working for a private practice office as well as a hospital. We love to have him home on a regular schedule!! We expecting a boy in Febuary--it will be four for us. I'm feeling really well but I had to give up running a long time ago. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving in Utah this year. My sister Jessie is getting married and it will be so fun to have all our family together.

April 2010

Well we have had a couple of birthday since our last post. Jack turned 4 in February, he had a train cake. He is working on reading lessons and riding his bike without training wheels. He also working on not throwing any fits. Jeremy turned 2 in March. He is talking non-stop, but we are still working on understanding what he says. He is also working on potty-training, it's a work in progress. He likes to do everything that Laurie and Jack do. Jeff turned 32 this month. We had a fun party--we went playing disc golf with a few friends and me and Jeff got to go to a professional Hockey Game it was really fun. Laurie is doing great. She is excited to play soccer. She is bigger and faster than everyone on her team including the boys. She scored four goals her first game. She is so excited for Kindergarten wherever that may be. Our last adventure we took Laurie and Jack biking on the trails and when we finished there was a huge pond. Jeff decided to let the kids be kids and jump in and catch frogs. They had so much fun and caught so many frogs. We got some great video. I'm running a 10K this weekend. We are looking forward to a vacation back to Utah at the end of May.

Christmas 2010

This year we are spending Christmas is St. Louis. Jeff just doesn't get a lot of time off so we decided to stick around here. We are eating with friends and neighbors on Christmas Eve and Christmas so not to worry. We will miss our families though. Laurie and Jack don't have any preschool for a few weeks--we will have to come up with some creative things to do! I went to a play to see Laurie this past week. She was the "Speaking Angel", she said "Don't be Afraid" It was really sweet. I also noticed she was the tallest in her class, including all the boys. Jack has grown a lot too. Jeff is giving him reading lessons and he is doing really well. The only trouble he gives me is eating dinner. He eats 3 or 4 bowls of cereal in the morning, then a little bit for lunch, and almost nothing for dinner. Jeremy is talking a lot now, it is so fun to hear him. He still mostly only says the first syllable, but he is learning new words every day. He has also been sick a lot still, poor guy. We are going on two weeks with a runny nose--with a couple of days of puking in between. He loves Laurie and she takes such good care of him. Most days Laurie's chore is to play with Jeremy so I can get work done. Both of them love it. The other night me and Jeff got a babysitter so we could go out to a Jazz club to listen to one of my friends play, and right before we went in Jeff got paged to the ER! Of all the nights--he does have to be on ER call one week a month so we knew it could happen, but of all the times. Anyway we went to the hospital and Jeff asked his patient if I could watch, they said yes so I got to watch him fix a broken tooth. He did a very good job, it was fun to see him in action. He was very patient and explains things very well. He stays calm and tries to make everyone laugh. I think he chose the right profession. It ended up being not too bad of a date night. The kids are excited for Christmas and there isn't much new happening around here. However Jeff's parents are leaving Dec 27 for New Zealand for a Church Mission. Shalee, my sister, had her 3rd baby a couple weeks ago his name is Emmitt. And my younger sister Katie, is having her first baby in May. We are very excited for all of them!!!

October

We enjoyed a whole month of perfect weather here in St. Louis. With the exception of one or two semi-rainy days it was 75 during the day and 55 at night. What fun weather. My parents and grandparents and aunt and uncle came to visit us. We were able to go up to Nauvoo and enjoy some of the church history sites. I got to go see Jessie (my sister) run in a collegiate race in Terre Haute, Indiana. We also got to visit the zoo, the last time my mom went to the zoo was over 15 years ago. We had so much fun and it was good to visit and the kids got plent of spoil-time. Jeremy is almost 20 months old, how time flies by. He is started to talk a lot, but I still don't understand what he is saying for the most part. He did get trick-or-treat down pretty good. He has been sick a lot lately. The lastest was strep-throat and boy was he sick. Luckily no one else got it! He is started to be independent and I can tell the terrible-twos are approaching, Jack is turned into such a big boy. He gets himself dressed and makes his bed and loves to do jobs for me. He likes preschool. He loves music, gym, and recess the most. He was become quite the artist. He loves to color and cut pictures. (I can get him to do just about anything if I tell him he can color a picture when he's done.) Since he was little he has never been afraid of bugs. He will pick up just about anything, and I love that he will kill all the spiders in my house for me. He just goes and gets a tissue and picks it up and throws it down the toilet. The other day there was a small spider and I asked him to kill it, but he said, "no, mom--my teacher said spiders are good and they kill other bugs so we can't kill it." I definately need to have a talk with his teacher--now who is going to kill the spiders. Laurie loves loves preschool. I can use it as leverage all the time. She loves the friends she has there and her teachers. She loves to dress up and put on plays. She loves to watch movies and play card games. She is a great big sister to Jack and Jeremy. For Halloween Laurie was a witch, Jack and Jeremy were dragons. (picture to come soon) Jeff and I dressed up for the ward party I borrowed scrubs and was a doctor with fake blood all over one of Jeff's lab coats and Jeff was the patient. He borrowed a hospital gone and wore shorts so from the front it looked pretty funny. Jeff entered the Chili contest and didn't win, but he did have the best chili. It was very very yummy. He started his anthesia rotation and has to get up at 5:00 every morning--(poor Jeff) I don't mind too much because then he gets to come home by 5:00, but he does fall asleep at 9:30 at night. I want to enter a Turkey Trot here in St. Louis, but they only have a 5K and I haven't trained for speed for a long time. I joined a gym near my house and I have really enjoyed going there. I go there 3-4 times a week, but as the weather gets worse I will probably go more. They have some fun classes and I have trained myself to run on the treadmill. I can only do 6 miles, but I hope to add a few more slowly. See yall later
DREA

Finally all settled in St. Louis

I can't believe we have been in St. Louis for over a month now. Jeff is enjoying his residency here. He is currently on ER rotation and has been sowing up all sorts of things, and diagnosing lots of stuff. He works long hours, but he is learning a lot. Laurie loves to swim--she is getting so good. She can dive to the bottom of the shallow and get torpedos and swim in the deep, except she hasn't quite figured out how to stop and breathe and then keep going. She rides her bike while I run about 2-3 miles. She has to slow down for me, except she doesn't like going up hills. She is really excited to be starting preschool in 2 weeks. She will be going three days a week for 2 and a half hours. Jack is such a good boy. He still loves to kill bugs for me. He has some pretty bad excema that we are trying to get control of--poor kid. He is also going to start preschool just two days a week. We just got Jack a new bike and he is getting pretty good at it. He is also working on making friends. Jeremy is a delight. He finally stopped hitting me!!! And he almost holds still when you change his bum!! I thought those two things would never happen. He went to nursery for the first time last sunday. I stayed for an hour the left and he didn't even know I was gone. He loves playing with Laurie and Jack, but they would rather not play with him since he wrecks a lot of their stuff, but they are good most of the time. He has a new fixation with his Daddy and as soon as Jeff gets home Jeremy is attached at the hip. He is really good at making animal sounds. And he started saying lots of nonsense words. You ask him a question and he will rattle off a sentence, but I can't make our any real words. He won't keep his shoes on in the car. Does everyone elses kids do that at a certain stage?? It drives me crazy. It seems like Jack just stopped. I have found lots of new places to run. I push my kids almost every day. My shoulder was injured flying home from Utah so I've been going to a chiropractor three times a week and doing physical therapy. I hope it get better soon. We have found so many fun things to do here and it's all free. We have been to the Children's Museum a couple of times, the zoo a couple of times, and childrens garden a few times, the dinosour park, the butterfly house, the train store, we go to a really awesome park with a water fountain. We've been to a carousel, and we have a pool within walking distance. I must say my taxes are well spent. We love it here, but miss our friends in Virginia and elsewhere. Pictures coming soon. Take Care
DRea

What's New

So it has been quite some time since I blogged, but we have been forever getting our computer fixes, and we having been selling our house. Jeff got into a GPR in St. Louis and he starts the end of June. So we sold our house (almost) closing date is June 4th. We found a place in St. Louis--it is just an apartment so we are really going to miss the privacy of our own home. But it does have an indoor and outdoor pool and a playground so it can't be that bad right! Let's see what has happened in the last 5 months. Well Jeff has Graduated Dental School--Congrats--he is now an official Doctor of Dental Surgery, Dentist! Dr. Jeff Davidson--sounds a little funny, but he has worked so hard he deserves it. He was just released as YM president!--That is a great celebration! I ran a half marathon in April with my sister Shalee, she beat me, but I still felt good about my race. My time was 142:15, I have to write it down before I forget. I hated keeping our house clean for showings, but I guess it paid off because someone bought our house. I am sure going to miss everyone here in Virginia, I have so many good friends. Laurie is now reading pretty well, though we haven't had any time lately to practise. She also just barely learned how to ride without training wheels. It only took her two days and she was awesome. It's nice because without her training wheels she can keep up with me while I run and then I don't have to push the triple jogger. Jack and Laurie are both graduating from Joy School this Thursday. It has been fun to have such great friends and teachers to work with our kids. I hope I can find some St. Louis friends to continue Joy school. Jeremy is a real stinker-bug. Especially when it comes to changing his diaper. It has been almost 6 months since he first started throwing fits and he stillllllll does it. I have to take off my shoes and put my feet on his arms to hold him down, what a pill. I do love this age though, 15 months, because they are learning so much and have such Joy in their expressions. I can't believe my baby is so old, where does the time go? Well, so long Virginia, the past 6 years have been the best! Here we come St. Louis. We leave a week from tomorrow. I am so excited for my family to come out.
Drea

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. We were sorry that we couldn't visit family, but we spent a lot of time playing with the kids. We made gingerbread houses, visited the zoo, took pictures with santa, went to the children museum, played frisbee, acted out the nativity, took treats to some neighbors, and made lots and lots of messes. From Santa Laurie got a doll and G-ma Davidson sent her clothes so she has been dressing her up a lot. Her other favorite presents were a sparkly dress from Grandma Molly, Jamies from Shalee, a watch from Aunt Cara, a Cabootal (like the ones from when I was little) from mom, and a dance Leotard from Dad. Jack's favorite was a motorized Thomas, he doesn't let that thing out of sight. Jeremy got a walker (we put the one that has been outside forever throught the dishwasher, it turned out pretty nice.) Jeff got a new disc golf disc and a Wii game. I got earrings, socks, and a new wallet. We are so blessed and spoiled. One of our favorited things to do here is go to the zoo and see a live nativity. It was especially fun this year because the wise man got kicked by the camel. (Just Kidding) Merry Christmas!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Well I haven't posted in forever! We had a wonderful thanksgiving. We had a couple of friends over and cooked a big chicken. All the food tasted wonderfuly and Jeff made a pretzel salad that was soo yummy. It's kinda a tradition to make it every year and this year I was busy so Jeff made it and it was a lot better than I have ever made so I started asking him what he did different, it turns out he added two cubes of butter to the crust on the bottom. No wonder it tasted so yummy. It's a good thing I did a turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning so I could eat so much. It was really fun, I did it with my friend Melissa. I ran 47 minutes and 20 seconds, I was a whole minute faster than two years ago, which makes me happy because atleast I'm not getting slower. I probably ran faster because I have to push an extra twenty lb boy in the jogging stroller. Laurie is doing well, she is learning to read and doing a great job. Jack is having fun being a little boy--he loves bugs! Jeremey started crawling about a month ago. I was so proud of him because he worked at it for so long. He can pull himself up on things and I'm sure that he will be walking in no time. I can't believe my baby is so big! He has been cutting teeth and fighting off ear infections so we haven't had a good night sleep in quite awhile. But it can't last forever can it? That is what I have to keep telling myself. my mom and Grandma just left and I'm so sad and bored. It was so much fun to have them here. they were a big help and we had tonz of fun. Jeff got an intereview in St. louis so cross your fingers. We are all doing well and are excited for whats to come.
DREA

Whatz NEW???

Well, we are sad to see that summer is gone and Jeff is back in school. It is nice to know that he is in his last year of Dental School, however, he had to go on rotation a lot, bummer! He is having fun being Young Men's President for our ward. I am really glad to be released from Enrichment couselor!!! Jeff is working on applying for a General Practise Residency and he wants to get in here in Richmond at the VA hospital ( that would be a 2 year program) or somewhere else. I am getting ready to run a half marathon, my first. It's on Sept. 26 so wish me luck. The furthest I ran is 10 miles, but I might get in another long run this week. Laurie and Jack are getting ready to start Joy School at the beginning of September. Laurie is learning how to read. Jack is finally potty trained. We started working on it when I got back from my visit from Utah. All it took was me trying and not being a chicken and a big bag of Skittles! He has five days of no accidents. Jeremy is now 5 months, he is a champion eater. He can easily down a whole jar of baby food. He can sit up on his own. He is almost bigger than Jack, he seriously weighs 20 lbs! I love his chunkiness. He is not a great sleeper right now, he wakes up about every three hours and he is still in his car seat. I can't wait until I get to sleep through the night. We are doing well!
Love
DREa

SUMMER IS HERE!

We are so excited that summer is finally here. We have enjoyed our free time by going fishing, playing disc golf, and going to parks and fountains. Jeff is enjoying the easiness of the fourth year of dental school. Laurie and Jack are having fun going to their art class, they have made lots of creative things. Jeremy is now 3 months old. He is a good sleeper for now, most night I get eight or nine hours. Well, he sleeps that much, I just need to go to bed before twelve, then I would get more. I am trying to train for a half marathon, it is difficult with kids. I am grateful for my triple jogger, but I haven't made it more than two and a half miles in it yet. It is harder than it looks just ask Cherice, I made her push it when she was out here. It was so fun to have her here, I wish she would stay all summer. I wanted to wish Jeff a happy fathers day, he is the best dad ever!
DREA

VACATION

Its always so much fun when Jeff doesn't have school! Today we went Roller Skating. It was so so much fun. I have some pictures I will post later. Laurie was so funny, by the end she had fallen so many times she had bruises on her back side, but she was still having fun. And Jack he got the hang of it pretty quick. They skated for a hour and 15 minutes straight. Laurie and Jack had a great time, but the best was to watch Jeff on his roller blades. He didn't fall though yea!!! I wanted to tell all my family good luck Cherice in running the 2 mile and 800 medley at state and Jessie running the 1500 and 5000 at conference and Shalee and Katie running the marathon. All this Saturday, what a big day. Jeff convinced me to runa 5k, even though I'm really out of shape, it will be good to have fun and have a starting point.

DREa

FINALS WEEKS

I remember back in college how I dreaded finals week, it was crazy to know that your whole grade and future GPA could be deteremined by a single test. It was always so stressful. Well Jeff is starting his finals week, it is actually the next three weeks! His entire 3rd year of dental school depends on the next couple weeks. He is super stressed and we have hardly seen him at all this week. I am super grateful that Jeff's parents are here because they give me so much help, and babysitting, and company. I feel bad they don't get to see much of Jeff, but I am lucky they are here to help. I am going to have a rude awakening next weds when they leave. I will finally have to deal with three children all by myself. It will be difficult. Simple things like exercising and going to the store are going to be much harder. We will make do though, I actually am kinda excited to try things on my own. It will be a challenge, but I think I can do it. Jeremy is so much fun and spoiled!! He is smiling now, and trying to talk. He is an okay sleeper, better than some, not as good as I want, but were working on it. Laurie is enjoying joyschool, I think she has a flare for the dramatic. Today they put on a play of Goldilocks and the three bears, and Laurie (Goldilocks) really did a great job acting it out. She didn't forget a word and three times later we had to stop. Jack is a little stinker-bug. He is cute and sweet and naughty. We love them so much. Well hope everyone had a happy easter.
DREA

He's Finally HERE!!

We are so so excited to welcome Jeremy Lane Davidson to our home! He was born on Friday March 13 at 12:14a.m. He weighed 6 lbs 12 oz. and 19 and 1\2 inches long. I was really hoping he would come and he kept waiting and waiting, I was 39 weeks and 2 days. I had a midwife too and she wouldn't induce me, but she did give me some herbs to get things going and they made things happen fast. One minute we were feeding the ducks, eating dinner, and icecream--the next I was hoping to make it to the hospital before I died of pain. The epidural guy took so so long I was an 8 before I got pain relief! It was painful, just ask Jeff, I think he is more for epidurals than even me. He is such a good baby. He only wakes up one time in the middle of the night and he eats really well. He is so much fun and Laurie and Jack really love him. We are really enjoying my mom out here to help us and looking forward to my dad next week.
DREA

Spring Break

Well since we haven't had the baby yet we decided to take advantage of Jeff's week off. We have thoroughly enjoyed the time we've had. We got to go to the zoo and feed the giraffe's. We are going to go to a jumping place tomorrow. (Maybe I can bounce this baby out Just Kidding.) We might even go camping. We also got a lot of things done like our garden planted and house picked up and dr. appts, so it's been a great week. We all definately like Jeff being home, things just go easier and the kids really love being around their dad. Laurie has been learning the sounds the letters make and she is doing a really good job. She loves drawing pictures and can spend 30 minutes on one picture. Jack had really grown up the past couple of weeks. He repeats everything Laurie does. He is also very mischievious getting into the plants and coloring on the walls, but he does hate to get in trouble. I think he starts crying even before I say anything. Hopefully the next post well have a baby.
DREA

Still HERE!

So I guess I shouldn't be getting impatient yet since I still have more than two weeks, but it is hard to not, I am really uncomfortable and I haven't slept well in a long time. But I did have an AWESOME SURPRIZE today, Last night we got five inches of snow and so today Jeff got to stay home and hang out. It was so much fun we scrapbooked, played in the snow, made bread and soup and chocolate chip cookies. Jeff went and helped out our neighbors, what a nice guy! We are still holding out that he won't have to go in tomorrow, but so far school is on for the day. He only has four more days until spring break wahoo!! And hopefully thats when we have the baby. I haven't felt any contractions or false labor yet and I definately had that a couple of days before I had Jack so I feel like I still have a lot of time, but hopefully not too long.
DREA

Count Down

Well since we are all familiar with running you could say that I'm coming down the home stretch. Hurray! We are excited to have a new little baby. Any ideas on names so far we are still thinking Jeremy, Quincy, or Lincoln. But in actuality it probably won't be any of those names. I finally got some new pictures for my blog.

JACK is TWO!!

Today we had Jack's birthday party. He is such a big boy. He turned 2 yesterday. We had a beach ball birthday cake and had over some friends. It was a fun party and Jack really liked everything and everyone. He especially liked the new Thomas the Train book he got from my friend Mel. We haven't given him the presents from use because it just seemed like too much for one day. Jeff got to take the kids to the zoo this morning. I didn't get to go because I was doing a visiting teaching workshop, but it sounded like they had a ton of fun. This year we got zoo passes so hopefully well get out there a bunch. Laurie is getting so big she is my biggest helper. We are all starting to get anxious for our new baby, but we still have 4-5 weeks so we are trying to be patient. I am doing really good except for my clogged up nose. Its been stuffy for a couple days now and whenever I lay down its hard to breath and last night I got me a big bowl of cookies and cream ice cream and sat down to eat it and I couldn't taste anything. WOW!, how I learned to appreciate my since of taste. I ended up putting all the ice cream back because why would I eat something I couldn't taste. Jeff's still busy with school, but he did get to do some projects around the house and that made him super happy. AND me happy too! He put in a new microwave, a new dish disposal, and he put a outlet in our hallway so the kids can see to go to the bathroom at night. Thats about it for Virginia, the weather here has been a wonderfully warm 65 wahoo!
DREa