Nathaniel & Stacey Dodds

More pics of Mary

2011-10-29T07:11:00.022-05:00

Stacey and Mary are finally coming home this morning, after 3 days of recovery in the hospital. Stacey needed every day, she's been hurting, but she's now regaining some of her mobility and she's much happier.

I'm sitting in the hallway outside the room writing this post and filtering out some of the parade of people that want to go through the room every 30 minutes to wake her up. She's exhausted.

Here are two of my favorite pictures:

Evelyn and Grace have visited each day. They love their little sister. No, I didn't do their hair that cute, our friend Michelle did. If I take one step toward Grace with a hairbrush she starts to spasm and yells "Owie, owie!".

Grace really wanted to read Mary a book. She's been practicing on her dolls for months but now she gets to do the real thing.

Evelyn and Grace took turns kissing Mary back and forth for a few minutes. We were all laughing, it was so cute.

Here are my 4 princesses. (Stacey doesn't like being called my queen, all the queens in the Disney movies were evil.) I'm feeling thoroughly outnumbered these days. Whenever I'm getting more attention than I can handle I say "Do you know what we need around here?" And Evelyn finishes for me by saying "More little girls!"

Since she was born we've called Evelyn our "stinkerbug" because she's very stubborn. Grace has always been our "squishybug" because she has a higher body fat percentage than a baby seal pup (which has finally come in handy since it's getting cold at nights and I'm too cheap to run the heater). Mary is quickly earning the nickname "sleepybug" because she's way more sleepy than our first 2 girls. Our main problem is keeping her awake long enough to eat. Even after I change her diaper with my cold hands she only cries for 30 seconds, then she's asleep again.

Mary Darlene Dodds

2011-10-26T20:10:00.009-05:00

Just a quick post, then when I'm not so tired I'll write a more thorough post. Mary Darlene Dodds was born at 8:40 AM today. She is 21 inches long and weighed 8 lbs 1 oz, but I think she's pooped away at least half a pound by now. (Update: I was trying to make a joke, but the pediatrician just told me that Mary really has lost 8 ounces, so I was right on! Apparently this is normal, but I don't remember this much poop from my first 2 girls. I probably blocked it from my memory.)

Stacey's labor was going along well but it slowed down so the doctor was going to break her water. When she went to do that she felt the umbilical cord between Mary's head and the birth canal, so she said she had to do a Cesarean section. It is extremely rare for the doctor to be able to notice the umbilical cord in the way, so we were very blessed. If the doctor hadn't noticed then we would have gone along with the delivery and pinched off the umbilical cord. Then the baby's heart rate would have dropped and they would have had to do an emergency C section, and we could have lost our precious little Mary.

Here are a few pictures. More later. In case you didn't know, you can click on these pictures to make them larger.

Evelyn's Birthday Party

2011-01-06T11:20:00.004-06:00

Here are some pictures from the party.
Evelyn recently turned 3 on Dec.30th. We were planning on doing a low key party except the past year Evelyn had discovered all that birthday parties could be and CONSTANTLY reminded us of what she wanted. It was always the same. "I want a PINK birthday." When people would ask her WHEN her birthday was, she would always respond PINK! So the bar had been raised for this past birthday. I knew I couldn't get away with just a simple little cake and ice cream. So, I sent out the birthday invites to her friends and told them it was going to be a PINK birthday. With lots of help we decorated the entire living room with pink everywhere! We covered the walls with pink fabric. Evelyn loved it! Nathaniel and Evelyn baked a cake together and Nathaniel decorated it. He did a wonderful job. I was really impressed. I had to laugh though. He treated this task of cake decorating as he would his research which involved a pen and a pad of paper and searching every cupboard and hidden nook in the kitchen. When he would get an idea of how to use a certain item, he would say "Ah Ha" with pure delight, grab the item from the cupboard, set it on the table and quickly write down his wonderful idea. By the time he was done I think there was more items on the table, than in our cupboards. :)
We played lots of wonderful games like: Pin the teira on the Princess, Find the Princess, Pink pinatas full of necklaces and rings and candy, the last thing Nathaniel and I did for them was a little skit. It was so cute!! The girls really loved it. It was about what really makes a princess beautiful. (Smiling) Nathaniel was the mirror on the wall and I was the princess trying to get ready for a ball and I kept asking Mirror Mirror on the Wall am I beautiful for the Ball? He would keep saying No until I realized that I needed to smile. Then at the very end we danced the Waltz to "I am like a Star." from the primary songbook. It turned out super super cute!

Grace's glasses

2010-12-14T21:13:00.010-06:00

Sorry it's been so long since our last post. We have lots of pics and videos that we should post, we're just deadbeats.

Grace is 15 months old. In the past 6 weeks her eyes have started to cross. Her left eye in particular looks inward toward her nose from time to time. At first we thought it was our imagination, but it got worse and worse until we finally took her to a children's eye doctor. She was tested and the doctor said Grace is very very farsighted, and that her eyes are straining to focus and crossing too much. So that explains why she still isn't walking! The poor girl hasn't been able to see anything but a blur. We're just glad we caught it so early, this kind of problem often goes undetected until age 2 or 3. It was impressive that they can determine the prescription of a baby. The doctor had lots of toys to distract her, and she shined special lights into her eyes and determined the proper prescription based on how the light diverged when reflecting back from her retina.

So we just got Grace's glasses today. They're adorable. The earpieces wrap 270 degrees around her ears to keep them on. They're thick though, and a little heavy, even though they used the lightest lenses they could. Her little eyes are magnified, and she looks beautiful with them on. This video below is a little dim, but we'll post more pics and videos later. We're getting a new camera that will take much better videos.

Evelyn is jealous, since Stacey got glasses last month, and now Grace has some too. She keeps wanting to wear Grace's glasses. She even squinted and said, "See, I need glasses!" Nice try stinkerbug.

We've had the glasses for half a day, and so far we've kept them on her nose for a total of 30 minutes. She left them on for a long time during dinner. Hopefully she gets used to them fast. Stacey and I are anxious to catch her up. She is generally disinterested in reading books and in coloring, go figure. She also never watches movies, so now she might give the "Your baby can read" videos another chance.

Ok, now it's been a day since we posted that video, and we just got our new camera. So we've gotten much better pictures and videos than our old camera could take, so I'm including those pictures below. Also, Grace has been keeping her glasses on all morning!!!

Grace is loving her new glasses. She's so happy in this picture because she's having much more success using her spoon now that she can see the individual Cheerios.

In this picture you can sort of see that her left eye still looks inward. We'll have to talk to the eye doctor about that.

I don't know why she started crying, but I think this picture is adorable. I was just giving her her favorite treat, frozen blueberries, and she turned on me.

I love how babies look right after they realize they're crying for no reason.

I love our new camera. The videos have fantastic quality but they take up 100 MB per minute, which is too much to upload to the blog, so I've reduced the resolution of this video. At least the videos aren't dark like on our old camera!

The best of Grace

2010-08-16T21:14:00.002-05:00

Grace is turning 1 year old on Aug 26th. My mother-in-law (Diane) asked for 12 of our favorite pictures of her to put on a quilt. Here are our favorite pictures from Grace's first year.

We're so blessed to have Grace in our home. She loves life, and loves using her new little body. She's always so happy, and if she isn't then something as simple as a tickle or a tire pressure gauge always does the trick. She admires her big sister, and they love to laugh together. I have discovered that the most beautiful sound is of my two little girls laughing together. The worst sound is of them screaming for my attention as I try to make dinner. Oh well, you take the ups with the downs.

Biking

2010-07-19T16:01:00.000-05:00

One beautiful clear morning, our family decided to go the the nearest Greenway to ride bikes. After 5 miles however, it started to downpour! Many people we saw were pulling over to protect themselves from the abrupt flow of rain but Nathaniel and I kept biking away. We soon exited the dense raincloud to find people happily enjoying their morning stroll in sunshine. Drenched from head to toe we, yelled "Go back! Go back! It's coming." I wish I could have taken a picture of their expressions as we passed by. It was priceless.

By the time we got to our car, the raincloud had switched directions leaving the sky once again beautiful and clear. Even though we had a few confused stares, we had fun nonetheless.

It's hard to tell but Nathaniel and I really are soaked. The girls were kept dry in their little trailer.

Internship in Alabama

2010-07-19T15:16:00.000-05:00

Nathaniel and I lived in Huntsville Alabama for 10 weeks back in the late Spring of 2010 while Nathaniel did an internship at NASA. It wasn't as relaxing as I thought it would be because Nathaniel also needed to do research which consisted of testing trips to Nashville. So in the period of 10 weeks we had moved from Huntsville to Nashville and Nashville to Huntsville 10 times. Now that wasn't packing up all of our belongings but it still required a lot of packing bags and miscellaneous items. A common phrase during this time was "Oh, we left that item in Nashville or Huntsville depending on where we were. I felt like a nomad during this time. But enough about me. Even though Nathaniel had so many deadlines and complications with his internship and research, he persevered through it so honorably and patiently. My respect and love for that man has grown immensely. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to tell him to just quit after he explained to me the complications he was having with his experiments and that he would be in the lab for another 12 hours or so.

He finally was able to finish his experiments and quickly wrote a paper for it so it on top of writing a code for his internship. His internship primarily was writing a code that would detect mechanical problems on a satellite that will be going up into space in the Fall. He also did research regarding the quality of the satellite that would be going up into space which was very useful to the people there at NASA.

This is a picture of Nathaniel and the satellite that soon will be up in space.

Ginormous

2010-05-23T14:54:00.000-05:00

We have discovered a great place in Huntsville it's called the Botanical Gardens. We go there almost daily. They have an amazing children's area.

Best Breakfast Ever!

2010-05-23T14:49:00.000-05:00

We ate a large fruit cookie for breakfast yesterday. It was lots of fun to make and very tasty. :)

Our narcoleptic

2010-05-23T14:47:00.000-05:00

Grace will play on the floor and 30 minutes later look like this.

Helping Grace Stand

2010-05-23T14:39:00.000-05:00

Smile big for the camera!

2010-05-23T14:36:00.000-05:00

Grace is still practicing...

Our sweet Evelyn Pearl

2010-05-23T14:26:00.000-05:00

Our precious little blessing. We love you Evelyn Pearl!

Bathtime!

2010-05-23T13:55:00.000-05:00

Evelyn the artist

2010-05-22T21:42:00.000-05:00

So it's 9:45 pm. Evelyn who was put to bed at 8:00 pm comes out of her room and asks Nathaniel
"Can you read me a book Daddy?"
Nathaniel rolls his eyes and smiles
"Okay Evelyn just one book, then you need to go to sleep."
They walk hand in hand to her bedroom. Silence.
Then from the room I hear,
"Stacey, will you come here for a moment?"
I get up from the sewing machine (new hobby) and find Nathaniel and Evelyn staring at little finger marks all over the wall above her bed.
Nathaniel wipes the creamy fingermarks off the wall and asks
"Do you know what this is, Stacey?"
I shake my head unable to think of anything in the room that's creamy like that.
Evelyn happy to help her mommy and daddy figure out this creamy mystery states,
"I know what it is. It's butt paste!"

Family Pictures

2010-04-05T08:21:00.001-05:00

We just had family pictures taken at Percy Warner Park. We haven't chosen and paid for our favorite pictures yet, but you can see all the pictures on the photographer's website by clicking here. Type in the password "grace" to see the pictures.

mmm....melted snow

2010-03-25T09:47:00.000-05:00

So Evelyn likes snow and loves eating it. So the other day Evelyn was requesting to eat snow even though we told her countless times that there was no more snow. Finally in an attempt to satisfy her craving, Nathaniel asked Evelyn if she would like some MELTED snow and she said "OOOOooooOOO" (high pitch in middle)
So Nathaniel got a cup and filled it with tap water gave it to Evelyn. Evelyn chugged that water down then gasped "Yummy!"

Football

2010-03-25T09:21:00.000-05:00

So this morning I hear Evelyn in the living room say:

"Mommy, Evelyn playing catch with Grace. Grace go bonk. Grace has owie. Grace needs Band-Aid."

I rush into the room to see a confused look on Grace's face looking around the room with a football next to her head.

Silly girl...

Evleyn's New Apron

2010-03-17T14:37:00.000-05:00

Evelyn's new thing is helping Mommy make food using her beautiful "princess" apron.(Yes, the most used adjective to describe a noun is "princess". For example the sombrero hat is a princess hat and in Evelyn eyes the towels, bed sheets, tablecloth are all princess dresses.)Her Grandma Dodds made it for her for Christmas. Thanks! It has been fun...for the most part. We are still practicing how to stir so all the contents stay IN the bowl.

Once there was a Snowman and his Snowdog?

2010-03-17T14:24:00.000-05:00

Not sure what inspired the snowdog but it was some awfully dry snow...

Oh well, we had fun anyways!

Lovely Gracie Girl

2010-03-17T13:33:00.000-05:00

Other Christmas Pictures

2010-02-21T20:29:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I am trying to catch up with all of my pictures. I have some really fun videos that will soon be posted and when I say soon I mean anywhere from tonight to 3 months. Here are the pictures.

2010-02-16T20:08:00.000-06:00

I know that this is late but here are some pictures of our past Thanksgiving. We had lots of fun visiting with Nathaniel's family and Stacey's family. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures with Stacey's family... but we enjoyed our visit with them. Stacey made a Gurr Family memory book for her parents with all of their 7 children memories and testimonies with pictures. We played lots of games like: egg toss, 3 legged race, treasure hunt, and of course the famous Gurr Rook games nights.

We also went to the Dodds family reunion and unfortunately Stacey, Evelyn and Grace became sick but we were still able to have fun.We introduced Grace to the family. We played games and had some fun talks. We ate Thanksgiving dinner there, it was amazing! Diane is a wonderful cook. Becca made her delicious pies- the Dodds' style which is to have more pies than there are people.

So happy together

2010-01-18T06:48:00.000-06:00

Evelyn loves laying on the floor with her sister, check out these pictures.

Evelyn playing piano

2010-01-17T22:25:00.000-06:00

Evelyn was improvising a song. I like the "Elbow!" crescendo.

Nathaniel's rebellion....

2010-01-17T19:51:00.000-06:00

it didn't last long actually. I would put my own hair across my lips when we would kiss so he knew (sort of) what it was like for me to kiss him. :)

Here's the pictures.

Spinning Grace

2010-01-17T19:50:00.000-06:00

Here's a cute video of Grace and Evelyn "playing" together.

Happy Halloween

2009-11-08T16:11:00.000-06:00

`
Evelyn was a monkey this year.

Grace was a pumpkin and later became a sumo wrestler. She was sweating bullets.

Oh goodness!

2009-10-31T21:07:00.000-05:00

So every night after we put Evelyn in her crib, Nathaniel and I get to listen to her little mind work as she talks,sings, yells, and screams. Tonight was quite funny...

Evelyn: "Mommmmyyyyy! Mommmmyyyy! Are you?" (repeated 6 times)
Translation: Mommy, where are you?

Evelyn: Mommmmyyyyy, Roarrrrrrrrr.
Translation: I am frustrated because Mom isn't coming to get me, so I am going to imitate Mom's sound when she's frustrated and cute my way out of this situation.

Evelyn in sing song voice: "...can't you sEEE( high pitched)....yes sirEEE.... happy familEEE"
Translation: They'll definitely take me out of bed for singing this song and tell me how cute I am.

She was right.

Who da monkey?

2009-10-28T20:29:00.000-05:00

So Evelyn loves the song:

5 little monkeys swinging in the trees.
Teasing Mr.Alligator "Can't catch me! Can't catch me!"
Along comes Mr. Alligator and snaaaapppped (this part you snap at someone with your hand)
that monkey right out of that tree!

So we were singing this as a family and I was about snap at Evelyn but at the last moment I snapped at Nathaniel and Evelyn exclaimed "Daddy is a MONKEY!"

Our Little Diva

2009-10-28T11:41:00.000-05:00

Growing Girls

2009-10-18T22:10:00.000-05:00

SO both Evelyn and Grace went to see the doctor recently and here are their percentiles:

Evelyn Pearl
Height- 87% (34.25")
Weight- 83% (28lb 5 oz)
Head circumference- 97% (49.5 cm) now I understand why I struggle with getting her shirts on and off

Grace Michelle
Height- 72% (22")
Weight- 91% (11lb 8 oz) Gotta love the Buddha belly!
Head circumference- 74% ( 38.5 cm)

We're styling now

2009-10-09T15:14:00.000-05:00

I don't know if you all noticed but my blog was in the need of a new make-over big time. That dark blue was BAD!!!! Ruth (my sister-in-law) actually helped me find the website to make that happen in which I am deeply grateful as I am sure you all are too. Thanks Ruth! You're awesome. Oh and I also have to give credit to my sleeping girls who helped make this tremendous make-over possible as well. :)

Pictures

2009-10-07T11:50:00.000-05:00

Here's some more pictures. Will do a more descriptive report on our family later.... stay tuned

A few pictures of Grace

2009-09-28T08:22:00.000-05:00

We've taken a lot of good pictures of Grace and Evelyn lately, we just haven't taken the time to post them. Sorry!

Stacey's friend is a photographer and she took some pictures of us. Here's a link to her blog, which has some great pictures of our girls.

Amazing Grace

2009-09-03T13:54:00.001-05:00

So I have been reading this book called The Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister. (It's a great book. Highly recommend it.) Consequently, the day before Grace was born I finished the chapter "The Blessing of Grace". Nathaniel and I had been considering many different names and Grace was one of them (not my favorite at the time) but after reading about grace, I felt it was very appropriate for her.

I look forward to teaching Grace about the meaning of her name. She has brought into our home such a sweet spirit. There's no doubt in my mind that she came from Heavenly Father's presence. My greatest hope and desire is to see that she returns back to Him... after living a long and happy life. :)

I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. Nathaniel really is amazing and takes such good care of me and our little girls. I couldn't have asked for a better father nor husband. I am so grateful to know that God has a plan for me and my family. Even though it's difficult with Nathaniel's crazy schedule and not being able to get as much sleep as I would like, these really are the best of times.

Grace Michelle Dodds

2009-08-26T12:35:00.000-05:00

Grace Michelle Dodds was born at 9:57 AM central time today. She weighs 8 lbs 2 ounces and has brownish hair. Her hair is 1/2" long on top. We named her Grace because Stacey and I love the name, and because of the Grace of God. Her middle name Michelle is after her aunt Brionna Michelle.

Stacey has been having contractions for months. They have been worse for the last week. Tuesday night she was up a lot with contractions, and at 4 AM she started active labor. She was craving biscuits with tuna gravy so I made it. That was a mistake, since she threw it up later. We went to the hospital at 6 AM and Stacey was dilated to 7 cm. After 3 hours Stacey got an epidural, and she's very glad she did. Once she got it she took a 30 minute nap, and when she woke up the baby was ready to be born. Three pushes and she was done.

Stacey's friend Christy came to help with the labor and delivery. She also doubled as our photographer and got a lot more pictures than I could have. Thanks Christy!

Stacey taking a nap through transition. Her advice: "Get the epidural!"

One of the best parts of the epidural was that Stacey was able to enjoy the delivery. With Evelyn she was in so much pain she wasn't very happy with the stinkerbug, and it took a while to get attached. We loved Grace instantly.

Here's a video of Evelyn and Grace meeting for the first time.

Evelyn figuring out that a baby is a person. She's laying it on pretty thick in this video, probably because she heard me say that we're only keeping the cuter of the two kids. It's gonna be a tough decision.

This is one of my favorites because Evelyn is smiling at Grace, and Grace is making a face that I'll consider to be a smile back at Evelyn.

Dodds family reunion

2009-06-17T21:05:00.000-05:00

Last month we went to Utah for the Dodds family reunion. Here are a few pictures.

Love Song meets Viva la diva

2009-06-11T15:26:00.000-05:00

Best song ever. Here's the link

I just noticed that Stacey wrote "Viva la Diva" instead of "Viva la Vida". I like her title better, I'm keeping it. -ND

and life goes on...

2009-06-06T23:35:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since we have posted a blog! Wow. Things have been quite busy. Evelyn is getting so big! She loves listening to music at night. Recently, she has been listening to Primary songs. One night, she had been in bed for about 30 minutes and Nathaniel and I had supposed she was asleep but heard this high-pitched, abrupt noise coming from her room about every 10 seconds. We put our ear to the door to hear what was going on and heard "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam" playing in the background. Evelyn was singing to it! It was so cute! She loves to say "happy apple" (I don't know why but it's adorable how she says it) and loves to close doors. She also has been reading words like daddy, mommy, hi, clap, cat and dog on flashcards. (thanks to Dianne and Rich who bought Dr. Titzer's "Your Baby Can Read" series. It really does work!

So we recently went to visit the Dodds and had lots of fun. Evelyn and Hunter (15 months old) were so cute together! We would ask Evelyn to hug and kiss Hunter to which Hunter was very hesitant about however Evelyn was persistent enough to a point that she would grab his face with both hands and give him a big whopper.

I am 29 weeks along now with our next addition to our family. I have been feeling great. It's been fun feeling the fluttering movements in my abdomen become more prominent. Our little girl is growing fast. I gained 11 pounds from my previous visit which was 2 months ago! Woohoo!
I think a lot of that weight gain was from the Dodd's reunion. :) We went to some Brazilian buffet in Utah. Sooo good.

It's been so humid and hot though. My jeans stick to my legs, ughh! I am so a dry-heat kind of girl. I have been wearing skirts even though I feel like I am going against my Gurr upbringing but it is so much cooler!

We have pictures but they are on Nathaniel's laptop and he's in California right now for another testing trip. He's coming back tomorrow. Yeah!

Reading new material

2009-04-14T20:07:00.000-05:00

Side note: Recognizing Moroni was a fluke. I tried this later and she pointed to Alma. However, she does recognize pictures of Christ. Also, it took lots of tape and patience to teach her how to be "soft" to the scriptures so I wouldn't recommend just handing your favorite set of scriptures to a 1 year old... in case you were thinking about it.

Having fun outside

2009-04-10T21:20:00.000-05:00

So I have a confession to make, I do not like the rain in Nashville especially with Evelyn. She loves to be outside! For her, the day cannot be over if she hasn't gone outside yet to pick the flowers (weeds) or play in the mud.

Here's a cute video of what Evelyn does when it's raining outside

Playing with Daddy in the yard is sooo much fun.

Nathaniel's humor

2009-04-05T14:17:00.000-05:00

So after Evelyn disintegrated a banana all over herself, Nathaniel picked her up out of her high chair and said,

"I have an idea. Let's blend up all your food and have you roll in it so your skin can absorb all of its nutrients from now on. Then we can bypass these pesky mealtimes."

Only in Nathaniel's world

2009-04-04T22:43:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone here's more pics.

Testing trip

2009-04-04T09:31:00.001-05:00

So Nathaniel was able to get results from his testing trip in his last 30 minutes. Woo hoo! He had been working for 50+ hours in 3 1/2 days on getting his equipment to work properly and finally received good data for his Master's. He said in that last hour of testing, being so frustrated, put his head down not wanting to show emotions and thought "I am doing a nuclear physics experiment. What was I thinking?! I'm not a nuclear physicist!" When he told me this I told him that his testing privileges have been taken away for the next 2 years and that I am deciding on what his dissertation is going to be on. But Nathaniel had lots of help and there were many miracles that happened on the testing trip. Mike Clemens really helped out sooo much. His wife and I are really good friends and I am glad that Nathaniel and him are able to work together. Mike prepared many thing for this trip that Nathaniel didn't have time to do and went with him. It's actually really good for him too because he might pick up this same research project and do more with it for his doctorate.

Thanks for all of your prayers. I sure was praying hard.

You know, when Nathaniel and I were getting our temple recommend interview, my stake president at the time asked me,
"Why are you marrying Nathaniel?"
I was taken aback and answered
"Because I love him."
Waving his arm in the air as if I had said something silly he stated
"You don't know what love is."
Then he turned to the other 2 couples in the room and asked them why they were getting married. Then he talked to us about the importance of marriage and gave us little handbooks from the church and then took individuals one by one for their temple interviews.
To be honest, after that comment he made to me, I was appalled. I remember thinking,
"How dare he say that I don't know what love is. I know exactly what love is!"

But 2 1/2 years later with the 2nd baby on the way and unexpected turns and hardships as well as the best times ever, I realize I really did NOT know what love was as I am sure so many other couples have found as well.

And I am sure even now if that Stake President were to ask me why I am still married to Nathaniel. I would answer the same way and he would still respond with a wave of his hand, you are getting close... but you still don't know what love is.

But that's okay, it just makes me more excited for the years to come.

New family pictures

2009-03-29T22:08:00.000-05:00

Here are the best family pictures.

Busy busy

2009-03-16T16:08:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! I found out how to work Google's picasa. This is the link to see some of the pictures. (I'll post more later, the Evelyn just woke up)

Life has been busy busy. Nathaniel's in New York right now. He's been working 12-16 hours every day for the past month getting this test ready.It's really a crazy setup he has prepared for this test. It makes Star Trek's electrical equipment look dull and juvenile. It was supposed to happen in May but they moved it up so it's been hectic ever since but he's had lots of help from people everywhere. We really have been so blessed. His colleagues and professors have been so helpful and encouraging. We are hoping to get good results from these tests so we can write a master's thesis on this as well as many other papers. Plus, he's rubbing shoulders with people he would like to eventually like to work for, so if you would keep him in your prayers, until March 19th that would be great.

As for me and Evelyn, we have been having lots of fun hanging out at home and with our friends. Now that it's getting warmer, Evelyn's been wanting to go outside and play! It's so cute! i just leave all the doors open and she goes in and out, plays in the grass, reads her books, talks with her bears, and watches the birds fly by. It's great! I recently quit my job back in February and I am so grateful I did. It's really been a blessing for me and my family. I feel like I can have a normal routine. Yeah!

Christmas videos

2009-02-01T20:21:00.000-06:00

EVELYN'S CHRISTMAS RIDE IN "SANTA'S SLEIGH"

EVELYN'S FIRST CHRISTMAS GIFT.

EV'S SPACE SUIT

2 years of Nathaniel n' Stacey

2009-01-14T12:14:00.000-06:00

Why I love Nathaniel

1) He loves his mom. (that says a lot about a guy and how he will treat you, hint hint wink wink)

2) He's a spiritual giant as well as physical. Not a big fan of the physical giant though. I can't whisper in his ear or have our heads close when we hug. It drives me nuts! Hopefully, I will gain a foot in the resurrection. :)

3) He loves the Lord and loves to attend the temple frequently.

4) He knows so much about so many different topics. It's amazing. Especially about history, which I never paid attention to in school, so I am grateful that I have many opportunities to learn history over and over again.

5) He's very careful in what he says and never says something without "internalizing" it.

6) He has a funny sense of humor that only comes out when he's with people he knows well.

7) He's optimistic about life. He constantly sees the blessings God has given us instead of dwelling on what we don't have.

8) He loves children and plays so well with them. I'll never forget the primary freeze tag, Nathaniel was so excited to play but could not fit under the kid's legs to unfreeze them.

9) He loves Evelyn soooo much and plays so cute with her. My favorite is how he talks really tough with her for example "This is the last diaper I am changing so make it count!"

10) He's so good with initiating family scripture and prayer and FHE and keeping our family on the right track.

Of course there is his handsome looks... but we won't get into that.

10 random things about Nathaniel

1) He always carries around a pencil in his pocket. If he doesn't happen to have a pencil it's because I "borrowed" it from him. :)

2) He wears a size 16 in shoes. He never walks around barefoot and hardly ever walks around in socks. (His feet have issues, I think it's because the skin could not handle all of the s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g.)

3) He will eat everything. He is not a picky eater except he will not eat olives. He hates 'em for some strange reason. It's beyond me. He'll eat homemade dog food (no joke, we found it in the cannery's recipe book, it was supposed to be raisin bran but we found out later it was the dog food recipe as well) but he won't eat olives.

4)He has not adapted to the Mormon culture of time...yet. His motto is " if you are not 15 minutes early, you're late."He hates to be late.

5) He gets just as excited and spastic over little small things as I do. NO joke. It's hilarious.

6) He hates to spend money. He doesn't see the need to buy 2 pairs of jeans when he already has one pair of jeans. "You can only wear one at a time anyway."

7) He loves Thanksgiving at the Cherry's. Why? Because they make like 18 pies of all kinds for 14 people. His favorite pie is combining the 18 different slices of pies to make one large 'combo" pie and eating it all in one sitting.

8) He loves to read up on the news about the world and politics but he does not like to talk about it with anyone even with me because he says it's depressing. Go figure.

9) Mom don't read this next one: Nathaniel has all the episodes of the Simpsons on like 15 DVD's. It's ridiculous. However, he hasn't watched them since we have been married...or so he says. :)

10) He has memorized all of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" movie. I still haven't watched it all the way through (the movie drives me nuts) but we have watched "Sense and Sensibility" all the way through. :) He also likes 'Nacho Libre" and "Napoleon Dynamite".

Evelyn's first birthday

2009-01-11T20:49:00.001-06:00

Grandma and Grandpa Dodds with Ev.

Cuteness!

Training to get those clay pigeons at Dodds/Cherry reunion

Daddy's little girl!

We went to the Pro Bass Shop and had a blast. We put Evelyn in this hat and decided we just had to get it. Doesn't she look simply adorable!

Trip to Florida

2008-12-20T22:05:00.000-06:00

Here are the latest pictures.

Evelyn attacked the camera in this video. I like how she looks at the camera cross-eyed.

Here's a video of Evelyn playing at the airport.

When Evelyn would not go to sleep and I realized further measures would have to be taken.

This is what my kitchen looked like 2 hours before we were to feed the sister missionaries.
I had taken all of our food out of our refrigerator
so we could put in a new one. It was craziness but everything worked out great!

So when we were in the Orlando Airport we met up with this cute little family who were all deaf. It was fun because I was able to sign with them. This little girl and Evelyn were so cute together and played for a long time.

So in Florida, they have lots of Alligators and Crocodiles. This is something I didn't know so I thought I would share that information with everyone. It was so interesting and somewhat freaky learning about these creatures. We went to a petting zoo that had over 2,000 of them in this small swampy area.

Okay I am teasing about the petting zoo thing. They had fences everywhere!

My favorite was watching these guys put the roof on this little ramada at the Alligator place. It was so cool! We were talking to them about it and they said this roofing holds up better in a hurricane or tornado than the shingles that we use on our houses.

So if me and my family are ever stranded on an island and need shelter, we are so building me one of these. Right Nathaniel? (wink, wink)

So as Nathaniel and I were walking to the ocean we happened to see this and thought we would take a picture of it. Pretty cool, huh?

Waving

2008-11-23T22:24:00.000-06:00

Here's a video of Evelyn eating Cheerios and waving. Her wave is more of a "come here" gesture, but it's so darn cute it works.

Her hair is getting so long we have to always keep it pulled back somehow. It goes down to her nose.

They just divided our ward, and we were released as CTR 8 primary teachers. We're going to miss our little boys. Stacey was just called 2nd counselor in the Relief Society, and I was called to be the Assistant Scoutmaster. I'm really excited about my calling. Stacey is jealous, she misses getting outdoors.

Stacey and I have started "reward cards" on our refrigerator. (You know, where you put up stickers when you complete certain tasks, and when you fill up a row you get a reward.) Stacey gets stickers each time someone asks her for a favor and she says "No". Her rewards are Sonic Runs. I get stickers when I do a big sink of dishes, and when I fill my card we're going on a steamboat tour/buffet (guess which part I'm most interested in). I would rather clean the whole house than do dishes, so this has been a good incentive.

Clapping

2008-11-09T19:00:00.000-06:00

Evelyn learned how to clap and to wave, it's so cute. Here's a video of her clapping. Her technique is a little different, but it's probably easier than how we do it. I'll have to post a video of her waving some time.

She's wearing a winter coat over her pajamas because she won't stay under her blankets at night. Stacey would like to heat up the house more at night but I'm too cheap. We've compromised at 65 degrees.

Trip to the zoo

2008-11-02T22:59:00.000-06:00

Here are the latest pictures.

We went to the zoo yesterday, it was awesome. Evelyn wasn't interested in the elephants or giraffes or tigers; she only liked animals that were within a couple feet and moved a lot. She loved the swimming snapping turtle, we could have left her there for hours.

Evelyn used to eat so well, but now she only wants to eat without our help. We're starting to eat outdoors when the weather allows it.

Here's a video of us introducing Evelyn to Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music. She loves watching the Windows Media Player visualizations while the music plays.

Videos, 10 months old

2008-10-26T23:13:00.000-05:00

Evelyn has been snorting like a pig lately, it's so cute. She does it when she gets really excited, or wants attention (like during sacrament meeting or prayers). Here's a prime example:

Evelyn looks like Cindy Lou from Whoville in this video:

10 months old

2008-10-24T07:23:00.001-05:00

Here are the latest pictures.

2008-10-16T14:57:00.000-05:00

Evelyn loves to play with books as you will see here. Isn't her hair so AWESOME??? :) She looks like a unicorn.

Celebrating Christmas

2008-10-14T22:50:00.000-05:00

So I was talking to some of my friends about Christmas and got really excited for some reason. I couldn't figure it out at first, I thought it was because it would be Evelyn's first Christmas or something when I realized that Nathaniel and I haven't really have had a Christmas for the past 2 years!

Why? One might ask??

Well, December of 2006 Nathaniel was finishing his BS in Electrical Engineering on top of having crazy projects like programming a robot to play soccer and giving a graduation speechs; I was studying like mad in Neuro and CV and having clinicals that lasted from 3pm to 1am. Oh yeah we were also getting married on the 28th. Christmas was far from our minds. Heck my first Christmas present to Nathaniel was a bag of Reeses Pieces Cereal that I stole from my brother. It was a last minute kind of thing. It was so pathetic. (Especially if you've ever tried Reeses Pieces Cereal. -ND)

Ha. Ha. Nathaniel.

So then December of 2007, Christmas was just another uncomfortable day before my due date (December 28th). I did manage to get a shirt for Nathaniel though so that was exciting. So we are enthusiastic about this Christmas. Plus Nathaniel's parents are coming!!!! It's going to be so much fun!!! Evelyn is growing up so fast. We are excited to share these times with some of the family.

Our Little Oinker

2008-10-14T22:19:00.000-05:00

So Evelyn has discovered how to snort like a pig. Which is sooo cute in fact we have video of it but I'll have to get Nathaniel to put it on for me. It's adorable!

Anyways so Evelyn has found that we laugh when she snorts so she'll do it over and over again it's not a problem except last night we had Natalie over with the missionaries for a discussion and found out that one of the elders (Elder Mayes) was going to transfer and this would be the last visit with him. It was one of those tender moments as we knelt in prayer for the last time. Elder Mayes offered the prayer and not a minute later, Evelyn throws her head back and starts snorting, looking at us with a huge grin on her face for approval. I just shook my head NO. But that little oinker just kept snorting all though the prayer. Of course we laughed afterwards.... it was one of those great M&Ms. (memory makers)

So Cute!

Teeth!

Busy little body

2008-10-02T14:10:00.000-05:00

Evelyn is into everything! It's been at times cute and at times so frustrating! It's cute to see her curious nature of everything especially with whatever Mommy is doing, eating or reading but she sure keeps me busy with all of her messes and she isn't even walking yet!!! I 'm sure mothers with multiple children are just chuckling to themselves right now cause I haven't seen messy yet! :)

She is sure dang cute though.She loves to follow me where ever I go. It's like she's my little shadow. She's been saying "mama" even though Nathaniel has been trying to get her to say "dada". :) A few days ago, I cut her hair! It was so hard but I think it looks much better. She's been eating so much and wants to eat whatever we are eating. As you can see here.

Fast food mystery

2008-10-02T13:41:00.000-05:00

So Nathaniel and I went to Wendy's last Monday night. It was 9:00 pm. I had just picked up Nathaniel from school. We were both tired and Nathaniel especially was very stressed out with his preparations for his upcoming testing trip in California which he is leaving for this weekend. We both wanted to get a little something from the value menu so we went through the DRIVE THRU and ordered what we wanted at the large TV/ microphone thing then drove up to the window to pay and pick up our order.

Well, when I handed my credit card to the cashier she refused to take it. She then said that the person in front of us had paid for our order. Thinking it was a mistake, I thought that we would either have to pay for theirs or try to catch them and resolve the issue. But then the cashier said that they paid for their order then asked if they could pay for the order of the people behind them, which was us the cashier said yes and they did. How cool is that?

We have no idea who it was but we are thinking it was someone from the ward or someone who noticed we were a little distressed. Either way it was really cool and made us feel so blessed. I was also grateful that we had decided to stick with the value menu!

Leaky pipes and bugs

2008-10-02T12:24:00.000-05:00

Woohoo! I just realized I could change the font and font size! That's exciting. Very observant I know.

Well, I just want to give a few pointers to whoever may move to the South... DO NOT LET YOUR LEAKY PIPES LEAK FOR LONG!!!

Nathaniel and I had a leaky kitchen faucet and leaky bathtub that of course we were going to fix after studying all the plumbing manuals and such...Well we waited a little too long and started to find large cockroaches around the house. We had those leaks fixed the next day... it was beyond disgusting. I won't even tell you where they were found. All I can say is that I have been scarred for life. I have seen some pretty gruesome things but seeing those critters in my house takes the taco!

However, ever since Nathaniel has prayed that I wouldn't see one again in our house, I haven't. Thank goodness! I just grateful that Heavenly Father answers prayers that may seem a little silly. Nathaniel hasn't seen any either and it's been two weeks!Yipee!

8 months old

2008-08-31T18:10:00.000-05:00

Here are the latest pictures.

Last Saturday Stacey and I were at church for a primary activity and we met a girl named Natalie. Natalie is 18 and she just moved to Nashville from Indiana to start college. She had read the whole Book of Mormon and she came to the church looking for someone to talk to about it; she has so much faith! She has friends in Indiana who introduced her to the church, and she seems to already have a testimony of the restored gospel. Her parents are very opposed to her coming to our church so she is afraid of alienating them, and she wants to make sure she is doing God's will before she commits to anything. The missionaries taught her in our home on Monday. We feel so lucky to be the ones who can share the good news of the gospel with her! She has quickly become a good friend.

This week Evelyn had 2 teeth come in. She is becoming very mobile even though she isn't really crawling yet (her belly still touches the ground). Now Evelyn can fall asleep on her own after screaming at bedtime, that's a blessing.

School started again. I'm only taking one class so I can (hopefully) finish my masters research in about 6 months. I'm also excited to go to a workshop in Miami this December but Stacey isn't too happy about that.

After thinking and praying about it for a long time we decided Stacey should get a part time job. She searched and interviewed for a few weeks, and we were very blessed with the job she got. It's only two 8 hour shifts per week, from 3pm-11pm, working with old people at a hospital. It's a lot like a nursing home except the people are only in for a couple days. She visited the floor and the nurses really liked working there, in part because they only have 3 patients each. The old people are in because they forgot who they are, or they stopped taking their meds and had problems, etc. The hourly pay is good, and she even gets health benefits. Stacey starts orientation this week.

Here's a video of Evelyn playing the piano. Someday we'll get a camera that doesn't take such dark videos.

Dodds Reunion

2008-08-29T11:25:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I finally finished the Host so I can finish blogging about our trip. Tip: Don't read that book "The Host" unless you have a lot of time and you don't have to wake up early in the mornings. It's pretty intense.

So back to the Dodds' reunion we had lots of fun. One of my favorite things we did were playing games. Okay, so playing games is my most favorite thing to do. Visiting is fun too, I guess. :) I would have to say playing Mafia was the best game. We even got Grandma Cherry and Rich playing. It was awesome. Other fun activities we did were, raspberry pickin' in which I decided that if I was a bear I would just stick with a fish diet. Also we went to the sand dunes in St. Anthony and played Ultimate Frisbee in the lake there, we also played in Grandpa's trees in which we cut them down and shredded them, I preferred working with the vinyl siding, there wasn't nearly as many bugs. I also got to see my cousin Elana graduate from BYU-Idaho and the temple there which is beautiful!

This is a picture of when I discovered that Nathaniel really was a murderer in Mafia! I suspected and killed off everyone else so Nathaniel and his brother, Jeremy won. Go figure.

I love the Rexburg Temple!

Surprise in Idaho!

2008-08-13T13:33:00.000-05:00

Even though I was with family and friends in Arizona and in Idaho, I missed Nathaniel so much. After the Gurr family reunion he had to go back to do research so we wouldn't see each other for 2 weeks. We would talk all throughout the day and many times we talked at night until 1:30 am which was 3:30 am his time! Also, Evelyn was not sleeping very well at nights too so both Nathaniel and I were not getting enough sleep. One night Evelyn was up from 1:30 -4:00 am and I was not a happy camper. I called Nathaniel at 3:30 am to tell him I was coming home! Since his family reunion was the following week, he offered many ideas two being to drive up to Idaho since his flight to Idaho wouldn't leave for another 5 days or to change his flight to a closer date. I told him no. My in-laws, Rich and Diane, were so patient with me as I rampaged about the previous night. They really helped me to calm down and we changed the sleeping arrangements so Evelyn and I would not be in the same room. So I called him back, told him I was fine and not to worry about me. So we talked throughout the day, he mentioned how he was going to our friend's house to eat dinner then take Shawn (our deaf friend) to the store to buy groceries and then later informed me of all the details that had happened.

Well, in the meantime, Jeremy (Nathaniel's brother), Laurel and Hunter were on their way up to Idaho for the reunion. So at 3:30 am I was in comforting Evelyn who was crying and Nathaniel walks into the room. That was the best, sweetest and most awesomest surprise ever! ( even though it sounds like nails on a chalkboard Nathaniel had been traveling all afternoon and night to be in Idaho with me!! Yeah... I felt pretty special...What's really awesome about this is that Nathaniel is not very spontaneous at all. Everything is not just planned out, they are carefully planned out so everything has a purpose and meaning. So this was a big thing! So now looking back on it, I am sooo grateful for a Heavenly Father with a crazy sense of humor and for my little Pearl who cried for 2 1/2 hours so I could be with my husband. :)

30 days around the West

2008-08-08T10:02:00.000-05:00

Here are the latest pictures.

So after Nathaniel and I went to Colorado for the Gurr family reunion, Nathaniel flew back to Tennessee on the 8th of July to continue to do his research while I went back home with my parents in Arizona. While I was there I visited with many family and friends. It was so good to see everyone again!! I also got Evelyn to start eating rice cereal after talking with my childhood buddy Lori (Dees) Farnsworth who recommended that I mix in applesauce with the rice cereal. Evelyn loves it!

KRISSA WALTERS!!!!!!!!
(my high school companion)

Then on the 15th of July my parents took me up to Blackfoot, ID where Nathaniel would meet up with me on the 23rd for the Dodds/Cherry family reunion. My parents wanted to go visit the sand dunes there anyways and the family of course, so Becca, Ev and I drove out there for a day and had a blast! I had forgotten how much I loved riding on the dunes.

Trip to Colorado

2008-07-09T21:47:00.000-05:00

Here are the latest pictures.

Stacey and I spent the last week with her family in Arizona and Colorado. Their tradition is to go to their cabin in Silverton CO for the 4th of July. The Gurr family reunions sure are different than the Dodds reunions. We rode quads all week, I was exhausted. I'm more used to visiting, reading books and taking naps on family vacations. Evelyn loves off-roading, I was surprised. She doesn't fuss at all and the loud engine doesn't scare her. She just looks around and has fun.

Now I'm back in Nashville alone for 2 weeks. Stacey and Evelyn will spend a week visiting in Arizona and another week helping my dad put up siding in Idaho, then I'll go to Idaho for the Dodds reunion.

6 months old

2008-06-29T19:18:00.000-05:00

Here are the latest pictures.

It's been a while. Nathaniel did get the NASA fellowship, which will bring in research funding and look nice on a resume.

Stacey's sister Malorie was here for a few days. We taught her how to play Settlers and stayed up late playing it every night. She also had us watch Enchanted...it was respectable for a chick flick.

We tackled the siding with Nathaniel's dad's help. Of course that week Nashville was hotter than it had been in 60 years (for that week of the year), but eventually we got the vinyl up and we still love each other. The week after it cooled down.

Stacey has spent the last week babysitting 3 kids for a lady in the ward. I stand corrected, Stacey says that "babysitter" doesn't fully capture the scope of her responsibilities, she's a nanny. Some days she comes home and asks when we are going to have our next baby and other days she says Evelyn will be an only child.

Stacey has really missed having a piano, so we shopped around for one and found an awesome "digital piano". It's the size of a keyboard but it feels and sounds like a piano, and we got a great deal.

Evelyn has been growing up fast. She sits up for a few minutes at a time, and she can even stand while holding your hands. I'm excited for her to start crawling, but Stacey doesn't mind if Evelyn takes her time since she'll be the one chasing her around all day. Here's a video of Evelyn laughing.

Family pictures

2008-05-20T23:13:00.000-05:00

Here are the latest pictures.

Stacey has been wanting us to get family pictures since we were married, and we finally got them on Saturday. They turned out really good, our friend did them and we tweaked them with Picasa2. If you want to alter photos (cropping, change lighting, make them black and white, etc) but don't want to buy PhotoShop and climb that learning curve then Picasa2 is awesome, and free.

Evelyn just learned to roll over. She only does it when Nathaniel isn't home though. Stacey managed to get it on video, here it is.

4 months old and done with finals!

2008-05-02T07:46:00.001-05:00

Here are the latest pictures.

So Evelyn has discovered her toes and loves playing with them. Yeah, it's quite funny not only does she love to hold them and sometimes even gnaw at them, they somehow pacify her as well. So now if she starts crying you put the paci in her mouth, place her hand on her toes and you are good to go... okay not really she's been having stomach problems which have been bothersome to her. I am going to try cloth diapers for a while and she how that works.

So Nathaniel's last final was today!!! Yipeee!!! Now he can focus all on his research. He will be granted a fellowship through NASA that he worked really hard to get 2 months ago so we are really excited.Basically, it's a whole bunch of money going to his research group at Vanderbilt. This Fellowship is only rewarded to 180 graduate students in the US. So it's pretty cool...

I took this video of Evelyn without her noticing, so she's being really cute. Whenever she sees the camera she just stares.

13 weeks old

2008-04-06T21:58:00.000-05:00

Here are the latest pictures

Hello!! It’s me Stacey! Nathaniel and I and the Munchkin are doing great! We loved listening to General Conference. It was so nice to be spiritually edified by a living prophet of God and His Apostles. They are such inspired men. So much good counsel was given, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the long list of changes that need to be made… but I love the quote from Elder Maxwell “it’s not the velocity but the direction in which you are headed.”

Well, today I went over to Vanderbilt University to see Nathaniel. I also wanted to get out and get my much needed vitamin D along with a little tan… yeah and I am still as white as a ghost. J Anyways I met up with Nathaniel after walking around the campus for a bit and pulled Evelyn from her carseat to find that she had a blowout!!! It was quite crazy especially since they didn't have any changing stations... it was great to see Nathaniel anyways.

11 weeks old

2008-03-23T20:43:00.000-05:00

Here are the latest pictures.

It's been a month since we posted pictures of Evelyn. Lots has been going on in the Dodds family. Evelyn and Stacey went to Mesa at the end of February for a week and had a blast visiting the Gurr family. Stacey had fun showing off the eleventh grandchild. Evelyn got to meet great-grandma Gurr, who she's named after; Pearl Helen Gurr. Evelyn went on her first buggy ride and we got stuck in a river and had to be wenched out (that's a good thing in the Gurr family). She got to meet all of her cousins (from a distance, they were sick). We stayed at grandma and grandpa Gurr's house, and Stacey thought Evelyn would keep them up all night, but she slept really well. Also, Heather and Malorie watched Evelyn while Stacey went and did temple work with her parents, which was a sweet experience that she really needed.

Last weekend all three of us went to Salt Lake because Brionna (Nathaniel's sister) was getting married. The whole Dodds family got to meet Evelyn (the first grandchild). We were worried that Evelyn wouldn't do well with all the flying but she slept most of the time and was happy. She behaved better than when she's at home because she had mom and dad's undivided attention on the plane. Now she's a little spoiled, and she wants us to hold her more than before.

8 weeks old

2008-02-24T19:23:00.000-06:00

Here are a few recent pictures. Evelyn is making lots of cute sounds lately. Unfortunately babies aren't good about being cute on demand so this video has some dead time punctuated by cute faces and noises, so be patient.

Nathaniel has started taking a beginners sign language course, and he's going with Shawn (our deaf friend).

6 weeks old

2008-02-10T18:55:00.000-06:00

So I came home Thursday night from a church meeting and found Nathaniel had "bagged" Evelyn (see pictures). Too bad I didn't think of that before. It's no fair, she quiets down when he comes home. I think she likes his voice. Nathaniel is so cute with her, he's always making sarcastic remarks and narrates for her, especially when changing her diaper. It makes me laugh, you can imagine the kind of things he says then. He's good at making her and I comfortable, like when I'm nursing her I will have been in an awkward position for half and hour and he comes in and makes me comfortable (5 minutes later she starts crying, so it doesn't last long, but it's nice). I swear I could be sleeping on 16 penny nails and he could get me to fall sound asleep.

Studying with dad

2008-02-06T22:38:00.000-06:00

Here's a picture story. Evelyn is becoming much more expressive.

5 weeks old

2008-02-03T15:40:00.000-06:00

Here are the latest pictures. We also have a few pictures of Evelyn in the bath, and I think they're adorable but Stacey doesn't think people want to see her naked. If it doesn't bother you here are the bath pictures.

Life has been good. Stacey isn't hurting any more, and she can even pump milk so I can feed Evelyn from time to time. That's nice because Stacey has been able to visit with some friends and get away. Today she is the one who stayed after sacrament meeting, and I went home with the boss. I blessed her in church today, it was wonderful. One thing I wasn't expecting to say at all was that Evelyn has been blessed with a sweet spirit, and she will be very compassionate and have great charity.

This is an exercise video that Stacey calls "tummy time". Basically it's the baby's chance to struggle to pick up their head and eventually crawl. It's cute because Evelyn also has the hiccups, which happens a lot.

3 weeks old

2008-01-20T22:11:00.000-06:00

Here are a few more pictures.

I love all the nicknames Stacey gives Evelyn. The list keeps growing, so far we have: bug (because she stares at lights), stinkerbug, wiggly worm, bird (she looks like one when she's frustrated and trying to eat), and "the little boss".

Last week Evelyn had a doctor's appointment, and she weighed 8 lbs 12 ounces, meaning she has gained 1 lb 6 ounces in under 3 weeks, which is really fast. That's my girl!

We'll be blessing her in church on Sunday, February 3rd.

Some of you wanted to hear her, so here's a video of her crying.

2 weeks old

2008-01-16T06:34:00.000-06:00

Here are the latest pictures.

Mom (Diane) came and visited for a few days, that was great. Now Stacey and I are trying to get back into a routine, as I start a new semester.

Evelyn has still been sleeping great. Yesterday Stacey said "It's amazing that she's still alive, and she's just drinking milk from me!" I'm just happy that she's outlasted any goldfish I ever had.

Stacey had a bad fever for a while, but she got over that a few days ago with the help of some antibiotics. Now that she isn't pregnant she's really enjoying being able to do things like lay flat on her back. Unfortunately that also means she finally has to get her wisdom teeth pulled.

My research is moving along, but I've been held up by the laptop, which has developed so many problems that I'll probably have to replace it.

That's all I have time for now. Congrats to Brionna and Adam for their engagement!

Stacey's two cents

2008-01-06T21:11:00.000-06:00

I just wanted you all to know that the only way I made it through without the epidural is with the help of Nathaniel and my mom and Heavenly Father. Nathaniel gave me a beautiful blessing right before the contractions became really crazy. He blessed that my body would take over when the time was right for delivery and that both Evelyn and I would be safe and healthy afterwards. This did bring much peace and comfort to me but what really helped was the presence of my sweet mother and the companionship of my dear Nathaniel. I was amazed how calm Nathaniel was during the whole delivery, I really thought that my mom would have to keep us both from losing it.

It’s so weird to think that both Nathaniel and I are parents now. It’s starting to settle in more but yeah what a life changing experience! Evelyn is the sweetest, purest, little bundle of joy I have ever laid my eyes on. She brings such a sweet spirit into our home. It’s so awesome to think that not too long ago her little spirit was with Heavenly Father. I know that she is so precious to Him just as we all are to Him. I am so grateful that Nathaniel and I were able to sealed in the temple for time and all eternity and that Evelyn can be ours forever.

Last pics for a while

2008-01-04T09:44:00.000-06:00

I'm probably going a little crazy with pictures, but that's what proud fathers do. Here are some more.

For the last 3 nights Evelyn has been sleeping wonderfully. At night she sleeps in 2-4 hour intervals, and we just change her diaper and feed her and she goes back to sleep. She has been spitting up a lot more lately, and I'm learning the art of keeping food in her stomach. She looks slightly yellow; we had a doctors appointment yesterday and she does have jaundice, which is common, but her bilirubin levels aren't too high and should go down soon. She has lost 4 ounces in the last 4 days, which the doctor said is really good since babies usually lose more weight than that at first. We gave Evelyn her first bath (since the hospital) yesterday, she didn't like that much. Stacey wants to dress her up in cute clothes all the time, but that just complicates the 8 diaper changings per day, so I just leave her wrapped up in a blanket like a burrito.

Stacey is healing but can't figure out why she's still so tired. I'm trying to get back to productive life but I'm having too much fun nesting.

Adjusting

2008-01-01T17:33:00.000-06:00

Here are a few more pictures.

Life will never be the same again. Evelyn kept us up until 3 am last night. Stacey is a lot more patient than I am. Stacey was hoping to not be a pacifier-using family; that goal lasted almost one whole night. Evelyn has slept all day today; apparently it's common to take a couple weeks to get onto a day-night schedule, and simply keeping her awake during the day will make her cranky but won't correct the sleeping schedule. We got out of the hospital last night at 7 pm, and it has been really nice to rest at home. Hospitals are no place to recover.

Deanna has helped us so much, I haven't eaten so good in a long time, I feel like I'm back in Blackfoot. Stacey is recovering well, her uterus is shrinking back very fast and she's sore, but she's moving around. She's learned to breastfeed really well, and from the diapers I've been changing I'd say Evelyn is getting plenty to eat.

Evelyn is so sweet. We still feel like we're just babysitting and that her parents owe us bigtime, but we love her.

Evelyn Pearl Dodds

2007-12-31T13:11:00.001-06:00

She's here! Evelyn was born at 6:01 pm yesterday (Sunday, Dec 30th, 2007. 2 days after the due date). She weighs 7 lbs 6.75 ounces and is 20.5 inches long. Here are a few pictures. Stacey and I were getting pretty impatient for her to be born, and Stacey had quite a few contractions and false alarms before yesterday. She started having good contractions yesterday morning at 6 am, and we went to the hospital at 9. She was 5 cm dilated, and after 2 more hours she was 7 cm dilated. Then a few hours passed without much progress and the doctor broke her water to move things along. Transition was very hard, but we found a position and routine that relaxed her enough that she would fall asleep between contractions (which gave her about 1 minute to rest). Pushing the baby out took less than an hour, which was also fast. So we were only at the hospital in labor for 9 hours, which is very fast for a (practically) natural first-baby delivery.

We wanted to go as long as possible without getting an epidural, but we planned to take it at some point. Stacey is awesome, she never got one. She did ask for a certain narcotic they can give during labor, but she only got 1/4 of the normal dose. The nurse didn't think it would make any difference, but Stacey says it did. But last night she said that was stupid to rough it out, and next time she wants the epidural! The biggest problem was that Stacey is so apologetic. She'd be in pain and then apologize for it. She kept trying to be the nurse instead of the patient. She'd call the nurse and when the nurse arrived Stacey would ask the nurse how she was doing, and if she was very busy, and apologize for taking up her time, and finally tell her what she needed. She's so sweet, that's just how she is.

Deanna (Stacey's mom) was there, which really helped. I thought I would feel sick seeing the blood and everything, but is really was beautiful (it wouldn't have been if it were anyone else's delivery). Stacey did tear, and the stitching up wasn't something I could watch.

Evelyn is the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen, and I’m not just saying that because she’s my daughter. All the nurses comment on her hair; it is very long and thick for a newborn. They also say she has a relatively dark, almost italian complexion. I thought all the babies in the nursery were just pink. Is dark pink a complexion? That comes from the Gurr side, apparently some of them are born with very dark complexions.

We named her Evelyn because we like the name, and Stacey had a patient a nursing home named Evelyn who she loved. Lyn is also a family name in both of our families. Pearl is Stacey's maternal grandmother's name.

Evelyn isn’t sure if she wants to be awake, cry, or breastfeed; she just drifts between those 3 states every few minutes. Her crying isn’t really loud though, she’s just fussy.

We're still in the hospital. Stacey is learning how to breastfeed and it's going pretty well. I didn't realize there was such a learning curve for something so natural. Stacey is walking around and isn't in too much pain. Of course we didn't get much sleep last night; people keep coming in the room. Some of them are certainly welcome, but even an anesthesiologist (sp?) and a photographer came in. Right now Stacey is trying to convince the nurses that she and Evelyn are ready to go home now. It looks like they might let us out after 6 tonight, but they'd like us to stay through tomorrow.

39 weeks and counting

2007-12-23T17:20:00.000-06:00

Lately Stacey has been saying how done she is being pregnant. Here are the latest pictures. We saw the doctor on Thursday and she said she expected Stacey to have the baby "in the next couple days". The due date is the 28th, but Stacey looks to be ahead of schedule. Evelyn will probably weigh 8 pounds.

Stacey has been having contractions for several weeks, but for the past couple weeks they have become more intense. A couple times they have happened every 10 or 15 minutes for a few hours, but then they stop. When she thought she was going to have the baby the night before 2 of my final exams I almost wet myself.

She likes to show off how hard her stomach gets when she's having a contraction. Her brothers all used to do sit-ups and show off their abs, and she says she feels like a body builder because her stomach is harder during a contraction than theirs ever were.

I'm happy to be done with classes, and during the holidays I'm working on some research (finally) until I get the phone call from Stacey to rush home. I'm trying to identify flaws in the nuclear reaction models of a particle physics simulator Vanderbilt has been developing; I know, I'm a nerd.

Shawn, our new convert, is doing great. He comes to church every week and his sign language is improving (he doesn't communicate very well). We got rid of the Ford Escort, and we wanted to sell the pickup but we haven't even been able to get $3000 out of it, so we're just holding on to it.

8 months and counting

2007-12-09T17:27:00.000-06:00

Ok, this is just a quick post to show how big Stacey has gotten in the last 2 weeks. Last week she put on 5 pounds, but she still doesn't seem to have put on any weight besides in her belly.

A few days ago she suddenly shrieked and really startled me. If you know Stacey you know that she shrieks a lot; but this was a good one. Apparently her cell phone started vibrating (it was in the front pocket of her sweatshirt) right up against our daughter's head, and the baby suddenly woke up jumping. Hmm, it was very funny at the time, but it just sounds disturbing now that I've typed it.

We just bought a used '97 Nissan Altima with 97k miles, because it has 4 doors (a lot easier to put a car seat into) and should be more reliable for us. We're still working on selling our other vehicles.

More pregnant pics

2007-11-28T21:08:00.000-06:00

Brionna tells me my blog is boring and she wants to see pictures of Stacey pregnant. Click here to see pics of Stacey. If you're technically challenged you should know when you go to this link you can click a button that says "Slideshow" and see the images much bigger, and see captions on the pictures too.

We're getting excited, one month until the due date! Stacey isn't working at the hospital anymore. She isn't bored being at home like she thought she would be; the other day she even baked bread, I thought I had walked into the wrong house.

Stacey talks to Evelyn a lot, it's cute. She has very vivid dreams and sometimes when I wake up I find out I'm in trouble for something.

Stacey: "I'm so mad at you and Mr. Miagi!"
Nathaniel: "Who's Mr. Miagi?"
Stacey: "you know, from Karate Kid!"

By the way, here's the link to the Cherry Family Website.

Pictures of our house

2007-10-27T20:14:00.001-05:00

Ok, here's the first post! I'll use this blog website to show you all pictures of Stacey and I, Evelyn (when she comes in 2 months), the house, etc.

Follow this link to see a slide show of our wedding, our house, and a picture of Stacey pregnant. I don't have many pictures of Stacey that show how pregnant she is, but I'll get those soon.

http://picasaweb.google.com/nathanieldodds/Oct1907

Or you can click below to see a Quicktime video tour of our house.