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