30 days around the West

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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.