It's fall now

I've been made well aware of our need to update the blog. And tonight seemed like a good opportunity, considering, that Im alone and trying to avoid the millions of other things i really should be doing. Grant has been in Dallas today at the Windows 7 launch party that he was invited to, and Nigel is in bed already. The poor baby made it nearly 7 whole months with out any sicknesses worthy of mentioning, but Tuesday (nov.3) he woke up with a cough that only got worse into Tuesday night during which neither of us got any sleep as we battled his fever, and stuffy nose together. Well the fever has come and gone all day, thanks to the help of baby motrin! But it still breaks my heart to see our little Nigel be so sick and so unlike his usual playful self.

We have all been enjoying the change in temperature these passed few weeks. The weather here has been just perfect.
Nigel as always continues to grow and grow. At his 6 month check up he weighed in at 19.5 lbs. which in case you don't know or recall, is roughly the weight of your average 1 year old. And our little 6 1/2 month old baby mostly wears 12 month clothes, but we are enjoying every pound of him. Except when it comes to lugging around the carseat with him in it. :) Nigel has about a tooth and a half, both on the bottom. And even though we were warned about teething nightmares by fellow parents, so far the whole teething experience has been a breeze. If unwatched Nigel can be found nearly all the way across a room now. He doesnt crawl yet, but he has really learned to get around by rolling and scooting. Despite the money that we his parents and i am sure many of you have spent on infant toys for him to play with, it seems Nigel would over any toy choose to satisfy his latest insatiable desire for plastic bags. His fixation with plastic bags is so sensitive that if he even hears the crinkling/rustling sound of a bag near him being handled he will become irate in an effort to get possession of the bag and play with it. Awwwh, our silly baby. This is him in his Halloween costume after he won first prize at th Lifestream costume contest.

Grant and I are doing so well. We are healthy, and happy and blessed beyond our wildest imaginations. We our so in love with our precious little boy, and our roles as parents. It has been amazing to watch and listen as God teaches us through our son. We already have our eyes set on Nigels first Christmas, it is going to be so much fun! We love Christmas!! Beyond that we are planning a mission trip to Uganda this summer. Grant and I have both been to several countries throughout the years, but it has always been our dream to go and serve together as a family, and we are really really excited for what God has planned for us this summer.

⁷ "Two things I ask of you, O LORD;
do not refuse me before I die:

⁸ Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.

⁹ Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

(Proverbs 30)

Summer is officially over, so sad.
Grant is one week into school, so good so far. He got the job that we were praying about, which is a total praise! He now works for the OU IT department. He works at the help desk, solving various student or teachers computer troubles. Very similar to what he had been doing all summer it seems, so no pun intended he feels right at home. A nice part of the job has been that during the times when he is not helping anyone, he is encouraged to do his homework, which is a real blessing giving him the study time which is so hard to find between work, school, church, family and sleep.
We are having so much fun watching nigel grow up together it is truly joyful and rewarding and going entirely too fast.
The Biggest headline this week is that Nigel rolled over!!! (only from back to front for now) A big milestone for us all, but sadly perhaps not quite as celebratory for the little boy. He seems to be unable to decide whether he likes this new mobility or not. Everytime he is laid down on his back he will almost immediately flip over to his belly, a position he has never enjoyed. After lasting a few moments on his belly, crying in frustration, a good Samaritan will come a long and assist him in rolling back over to his back, where he will almost imediately use his new trick to flip back over, and the whole process starts all over. Its been a bit exhausting for everyone, but we are hoping he will soon learn to be more comfortable on his stomach.
More Nigel facts:
-he weighs just under 17 lbs
-he loves watching the TV now, his favorites being Baby Einstien movies, golf and beach volleyball on tv, and anytime that the wii is on.
- he is very talkative and social, and we have had several church nursery workers and some complete strangers attest that he appears to be a particularly loud and boisterous baby. A trait fun to have around the house but not so great during church.
-there is no limit to the number of blankies he can cuddle with at once. the more the merrier
- we have all three just given up on pacifiers, as they have been completely rejected by nigel
- everyone on the planet seems to want to know "how he is sleeping at night" and the answer is still as has always been that every night is quite literally a different story. Sleeping through the night has been our most difficult feat, but they come more and more often all the time.

Here are some fun videos of our boy
Love you all

some summer pictures

nigel officially likes his swing!!!!
how daddy watches the baby while mommy runs upstairs for something

smiley

nigel

us at sam and megans wedding

endless summer.....heat that is!!!

We are so excited to be all back together as a family again. Grant returned safely from Uganda, Katie and Nigel safely from Colorado, to our house in Oklahoma where we have since been braving temperatures that keep us all wishing we could go back to where we came from. TOGETHER of course!! A week later we still comment every day on how good it feels to be back home and together again. Everyone had an awsome time on their respective trips, and came home with too many stories to tell on the blog, it would take hours. Above is our last picture together right before Katie and Nigel boarded their flight to CO. Our little boy has already changed so much just since then.
Grant is fully engaged in computer mode. building, repairing, installing, tearing apart, and keeping up on Facebook of course. Who knew you could do it all at the same time? but he's proved that you can. He has already returned to work a couple times, finding things much as he left them. The recovery from jetlag has taken quite a while, today was the first morning he found himself able to sleep past 8. But the timing is right since he doesnt have any classes to get to or papers to write. Mostly he is just savoring being home with his family and eating something besides rice and beans.
Katie too couldnt be happier to finally be home and with her family. She is still unpacking all the new things that her and Nigel came home with, as she tries to get the house back into order. All the while tending to Nigel's requests and sometimes demands. She is counting the days down to her birthday. If you know her well you know how much she loves her birthday =)
Nigel is pretty happy anywhere as long as he is fed, but we like to believe that he likes it best at home. He is really big, everywhere we go people cannot believe he is only 2 months old. He seems to have outgrown his infant sling along with his newborn size clothes and diapers. We are still working on sleeping good at night. It seems just when we feel we've had a breakthrough, then we have a night where we are all up every hour or two. It is difficult to be mad at him sometimes though when he wakes up at 2 or 3 simply wanting to talk and smile with someone. He continues to be more and more fun to talk to and sing songs with because of his love for smiling and his increased ability to make eyecontact with whatever object is holding his attention.
We look forward to the rest of our fun summer. We dont have a lot of plans but for now that is just how we like it. Coming off of such a busy spring, with a new baby, finals and the trips, we welcome this time of relaxing.

May Voyages

Wow! its hard to believe its already june. The past few weeks have seen our family quite literally all over the place so i'll do my best to update you about each of us today.

Grant: Grant left for Uganda on May 18th. 2 weeks into the trip we've heard from him a few times via email. He is having an amazing time, and is really excited about the ministry opportunities that God is giving to them there. All the while it's clear he is missing Nigel and I, perhaps more than he thought he would. Grant was really hoping to get a chance to go to Northern Uganda (where most of the problems with the LRA and other groups is centered) and God opened doors for his team to get just such an opportunity. He will spend about a week there serving the people at a mostly neglected IDP camp. I am so excited for him and jealous, wish i could be there.

Katie: Since the 17th of May I have been "home" in Colorado. doing much the same things I find myself doing when i am really home. That is burping, feeding, changing, bathing, rocking and everything else that the mother of a 7 week old (tomorrow) baby boy ought to do. And I am loving every moment. I love being Nigels mommy more everyday, we are having so much fun together, and with everyone else too. This long visit has been better than i ever expected, it will be bittersweet to leave in one week. Around Saturday i came down with some sinus infection symptoms (YUCK!!) which are still hanging around today. so ive been pumping myself full of sudafed, vitamin C and lots of fluids. Luckily i havent passed it along to anyone here, so thats good.

Nigel: Nigel is doing great. To everyones visibility he continues to grow like a weed. He is better at holding his head up and smiles all the time. It is getting really fun to talk to him because he makes eye contact more and more and has found new sounds with which to offer his form of a response. He is definitely a celebrity in these parts. Everyone wants to meet Nigel. And he has met pretty much everyone by now. He had fun over labor day weekend hanging out with Uncle Kyle and Aunt Jen, and Dallin and Devin in Utah. Less fun being in the car for 18 hours round trip, but he still did pretty good. Oh! and he is really getting good at taking a pacifier now.

Well I know this update may be a bit unsatisfying. Especially because I have no pictures to offer you, but in my defense the camera is in Uganda. Nigel and i cannot wait to see grant again, just about another week yeahh!!. More later
love, Katie and Nigel

Nigel's first 2 weeks

He's here!!!  8 days early at 9:42 pm on April 15, and after 24 hours of active labor, Nigel Life Davis decided it was just the right time to grace us all with his presence. And grace us he did.  Mom and Dad are so happy with our little man, we find it hard to take our eyes off of him.  We cant believe he is already 2 weeks old!!  Here are some facts about Nigel:

-When he was born he weighed in at 7lbs 3 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long

- he looks mostly like his dad

- he eats every 3 or 4 hours for usually the whole hour

- he likes being in his swing, but for only 5 minutes intervals at a time

- he doesnt want anything to do with a pacifier

- he almost always can be found with his hands somewhere near his face, a delight we believe began many months ago; as we have the ultrasound photos to prove.  

-he is a very good car traveler

- he spends a little more time awake every day so we can see his big blue eyes

Nigel changes every day, he gets bigger and bigger, looses more hair and demonstrates more of his unique personality to us. We like having him here so much.  He is a really good boy and gives us little to complain about, except maybe we would ask for a little more sleep! God has blessed us so much with our healthy new boy, and since his birth we have only continued to experience his blessings and provisions as he looks out for our little family.  What a good God we serve!!

our subaru lamentation

This morning our family woke up early (8:30 am) to take our car to the subaru dealership, to get some insight into why our car has been perpetually smelling like syrup everytime we drive.  The results were not what we were hoping for; some faulty  head gaskets. A fix which will require more money than what we have coming in our tax return, which we were planning on using to fix the car anyways.  We were advised that driving the car will only cause fruther damage to the engine and a larger price tag.  Alas tonight we find ourselves without the luxury our lovely, dependable shiny green subaru :(. But we do not despair, at least not yet.  Before we walked into the subaru dealership we prayed over our car and thanked God for what a blessing it has been to us for all this time, and mostly we prayed for our hearts that they would be encouraged no matter what happened to the car, and that we would only rejoice in light of the many many many things that we do have right now.  And so far, after day one of geting around town without the help of our subaru, we find our hearts still light, and thankful, especially for the Norman public bus system!!!  Please pray for us as we figure out what to do about our car.  And pray for our hearts as we go on living without the vehichle luxury, that we would not be frustrated but give thanks in all circumstances. 

You found it you found our blog!!!

Hi all, welcome to our new blog.  we're so happy you found it.  sorry its not very exciting right now.  its still a baby.  speaking of baby. we decided we needed to get a blog to better serve our expanding family, we wanted a place to post pics and updates about them too.  We are super excited. check back soon we imagine it will get better when baby finally comes. love, grant and kate