Davis Doings

2010-06-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

Courtney and I recently went to New York City with the Pulaski County High School Drama Department - organized by Jeff McCoy.

We left at 3 in the morning and drove until around 2pm. Bus trips are always “fun”, but this schedule seemed to work better than the last time I went and left at 10 at night and drove all night. We seemed to miss most of the New York traffic coming in, which was a good thing! We stayed on the corner of 7th Avenue and 51st Street – in the Manhattan at Times Square Hotel.

I had a great roommate -

Soon after we arrived, we headed to Madame Tussaud’s Was Museum. It was so interesting to see life-size statues of famous people. I was amazed how short and how tall some of them were. A lot of the women were really skinny. I am going to do a whole seperate posting of the Wax Museum because we got so many interesting pics. Here is one just for Glenn - me with the Obamas!!!

We had dinner in a diner around the corner that sold just about any type of food you could think of. There are so many diners in New York – and each with it’s own style.

I bought some Ubon soup with shrimp dumplings. Something I had never had before, but yummy.

That night, our bus took us to Randall Island where we got to see the Cirque du Soleil show – OVO. It is amazing what those performers can do. It was entertaining – and a good choice for the first night when we were worn out. I remember last time, the first night we saw Phantom of the Opera – and I actually dozed off for part of it - imagine that!

On Friday, our group caught the subway to Battery Park – where you can see the Statue of Liberty.

We were all going to walk around a bit and then go on the Ferry to Stanton Island so we could get a closer view of the Statue. Courtney and her friend Tinsley got persuaded to stop and have their caricature picture drawn. That turned out to be quite the experience. The picture was relatively inexpensive – and since I was waiting for them – I had mine done too. The problem comes when they finish, put it in a frame, and charge you 3 times as much – but convince you that the picture is a total waste without the frame. All with an accent that makes it hard to understand! My picture wasn’t bad, but I look a bit like Hilary Clinton. Courtney and Tinsley, who are very different – looked the same as each other! Then, to top it off, we missed the Ferry with the group and had to wait an hour for them to get back – still, it was fun to people watch!

These "Statue of Liberty" poses are always fun!

The day got better – we caught up with everyone and walked to Ground Zero where the Twin Towers came down. It is humbling to think that that was where it all happened.

Back on the Subway and off to China town. Lots of little shops, most offering a lot of the same things, and each willing to “give you a bargain”. Courtney and I did each end up getting a faux designer purse. A pretty crazy place!

We got back to the hotel in time to clean up and go to the most amazing place to eat – Carmine’s. We had to pay ahead of time, and it was a bit pricey – but oh my!!!!! All of the food is served family style. We started with breads, salad, and an antipasti tray. Next were the pastas – a Marinara spaghetti and a super yummy rigatoni. The next course was the meats – lemon chicken and veal parmesan. So, just when you thought you couldn’t eat another bite, out comes a beautiful dessert tray! I thought I had died and gone to Italian heaven!

That night, we went to see “West Side Story”. They did a great job – and the storyline is always intriguing. Saturday, we hit up another deli for breakfast – which was always the best deal of the day. Next on the agenda was the NBC studio tour. It was kind of fun to see where Saturday Night Life, the Dr. Oz Show, etc. really take place.

After browsing the souvenirs shop for awhile, we decided to catch the free open house at Radio City Music Hall. We were afraid it would be packed, but apparently, we picked the right time to go. We got balloons, free yummy food samples, drinks, a brief tour of the music hall, and even a cupcake as we were leaving. Courtney and I got to get our picture taken with a couple of the Rockettes. They’re pretty tall!

We scurried back to the hotel to change and Courtney and I went to see “Come Fly With Me” – it was a cute show – with Frank Sinatra singing, a live band, and some fabulous dancing.

After the show, we met up with the rest of our group and decided to check out some of the stores in Times Square. We went to the M&M Store, Toys R US, and stopped in a couple of other fun places.

We were going to eat dinner at Roxy”s (heard they had fantastic cheesecake) – but Times Sqaure was so crowded we decide to meet up with some others a few blocks away. We left Times Sqaure around 5:45 – and an attempted car bomb was found around 6:30pm. We never really knew much about it until the next day!

I had a light dinner at a French Bistro and Courtney ate at a Deli with some friends. After going back to the hotel to get dressed, we went to see Wicked. That show is fantastic. It seemed even better this time than last!

After the show, we had cheesecake on the mind – and of course, who wants to go to bed too early in New York? We found huge cheesecakes a couple of blocks from the hotel. Three people couldn’t finish two cheesecakes!

Sunday, we piled back on the bus and arrived home about 7pm. Who knew you could do so much is three days? Yeah New York!!!

Good Time with Grandpa and Grandma Davis

2010-01-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

We love to go to Grandpa and Grandma Davis' house to visit and eat! This year we went up after Christmas with Glenn, myself, Kenny Cherish & Alaina, Seth, Tiffany Dan Kaili & Averi, and Courtney. It was so wonderful of grandpa and grandma to accomodate us. We had a wonderful time. The guys got to help grandpa with starting to clean out the garage. We arrived on Wednesday, January 30th (Glenn's and my anniversary) just ahead of a winter storm. On Thursday, we had grandpa's famous buttermilk pancakes, helped out some around the house, and went shopping at Tyson's Corner. I think at least 5 of our local New River Valley Malls could fit in there! Shopping is little more exciting when you have so many choices.

That night was New Year's Eve of course. We played some fun games, ate some yummy snacks, and welcomed in the New Year with a toast of sparkling cider and eating grapes as we remembered something special about each month during the year. What an eventful year it had been!

On Friday, we went to my brother Ian's house. We love visiting with Ian, Julie, Ariel, Jessie, and Mikey. Julie made some delicious shredded pork and sides for our whole crew. We then headed over to the Wahington DC temple to see the lights and the nativity. It always brings the Christmas spirit to go to the temple grounds.

Here are the lovely Courtney, Ariel, and Jessie!

Dan, Tiffany, Kaili, and Averi in front of the live nativity. It was really cold that night!

Kenny, Cherish, and Alaina

Kenny and Tiffany - with their little ones.

Seth, Tiffany, and Courtney

This was kind of a neat shot taken from inside the visitor's center

As we were looking at the decorated trees and nativities in the visitor's center, we found reprsentations from several of the men's missions.

Here is a nativity from Germany, Kenny's mission

Here is an ornament from Paraguay - where Seth went on his mission.

We even found an ornament from Guatamala - where Dan served his mission.

And of course, an ornament from Uruguay, where Brent is now.

On Saturday, Grandpa and Grandma invited family to come over for a big New Year's Feast. Debbie and Dave's daughter drove all the way from Williamsburg. We also were excited to see Michaele, Tobias, and Eiranne (Lehi was home after having had surgery on his ankle), Jennie, Richard and Sharyn Kearsley, and Ricky Davis. What a crowd!

Everyone wanted to hold the babies. Here is grandpa with Alaina.

And grandma with Averi

Tiffany got tricky and held both babies at the same time!!

Here's Seth's style of holding them!

Jennie and Averi

Aunt Debbie (Glenn's sister) and Alaina

Glenn, Kenny, and Seth couldn't pass up football while they were waiting to eat!

That night, we finally got to open presents. Grandpa and grandma especially liked the front door mat that Glenn got for them.

It was so good to spend time with family!

Our new baby

2009-10-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

In the midst of everything else that our family has been up to the last few months, we aquired a new little one at our house. If I had known what lay in store for us, we may have waited until another time to do this! Back in April, just before Averi was born, we saw an ad in the paper for chocolate lab puppies. We had talked about getting a chocolate lab and had been half heartedly looking at the pound and in the paper. This litter of puppies was closer and less expensive than others we had seen. I called the day I saw the ad, and because we were the first to call, we were told that we could have the pick of the litter. Well.......we made the mistake of going to look at the litter of puppies. They were so small and cute and irresitable. We were drawn to the smallest, darkest, female. We also were hooked on getting a puppy. Who could resist. Here is one of the puppies on April 30th. Little did we know at the time that Averi would come the next day!

After Averi was born and I stayed with Tiffany and her family for awhile, when I came back to Virginia, the owners were anxious for us to come over and pick out which puppy we wanted so they could let others come and pick out theirs. Glenn, Courtney, and I met up with Kenny and Cherish for the big event. We kept leaning towards a cute little, active female puppy. We made a final decision and they put a tiny little collar on her.

On June the 7th, we got to bring her home. Kaili was staying with us for the week, so she got to go too. We named our new puppy Mocha. We had a lot of names, but it was hard to find one that all of us liked!

From the day we got her, Mocha has slept in her crate... but she sure picks some crazy sleeping positions.

So being the lab that she is, she just keeps eating, pooping, and growing........

and growing.......

And growing!!!!!

I'm not so sure Oscar, our dashund is happy we have Mocha. She chases him and chews on him and pesters him anytime she can. So far, Oscar still lets her know whos boss, but I figure one day she will figure out that she weighs 4 times as much as he does. This is Mocha when she wasn't much bigger than Oscar. Now she is MUCH bigger.

We did take Mocha to Obedience School. I don't know who learned to obey - us or the dog - but she did graduate! She is pretty good at come, sit, lay down, roll over, fist pound, wait, leave it, and watch me. We still have some work to do though. One of her worst habits is jumping up and putting her paws on the cupboard. Here's the graduate. She looks so "intelligent" - :)

So - here she is now. I estimate that she weighs around 50 lbs or so, she was 7.5 lbs when we brought her home. She loves her dog chow!

Homecoming Dance

2009-10-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

I have been promising myself for several weeks that I would get some updates to my blog. I thought I would start with where we are now and possibly catch some past activities later! Courtney started High School this year and along with that - all the High School activities. She is still doing competition dance team and piano, but now she is also in the marching band, has a lot more homework, and goes to Seminary Book of Mormon class at 6am every school day! She keeps busy to say the least, and so do we.

She's not old enough to date, so she went to the Homecoming Dance with some girlfriends. I got to make her dress. It is always hard to find time to sew, but I do love working with my daughters on their special occasion dresses. We had actually picked out this fabric, etc in April to make a dress to wear the a church formal dance, but when Tiffany's little one, Averi came early and was in the NICU for 7 weeks, we didn't get around to making a dress. The skirt has several layers, plus netting, the top was a beaded top that had come with a skirt I used for Kenny's wedding, and we made the jacket. Here is the whole ensemble.

Here's the back.

And here is the Courtney we all know and love!!!

2009-06-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

Time for a new post about Averi. Thank you so much for those of you that keep her in your thoughts and prayers. I haven't had new pictures because I have been gone for two weeks now. I wish I could be there each and every day! I got Tiffany to send me some pictures from her phone!

The big news is that Averi had a G-tube put in today. A G-tube is a tube inserted in her abdomen that goes directly into her stomach for feedings. She has continued to have problems with swallowing and reflux which leads to her heart rate dropping and her oxygen levels dropping. This will be a better long term way to feed her and the hope is that she will not have as much trouble with reflux since she will not have a tube going down her throat keeping her stomach partly open.

They tried to put the tube in on Friday at her bedside, but had trouble with her breathing. They thought they couldn't schedule her for the OR until this Friday, but her GI doctor was able to work her in today. Everything went well. She is on a ventilator for a short term. they will start using the G-tube tomorrow. We will see how that goes. Here is a picture of her shortly after her return from the OR.

Averi had to be put back on C-pap after they tried to do the procedure on Friday. She has been off and on oxygen and c-pap since she was born. Tiffany says her breath smells like a wet dog when she is on it. Here is a picture of our little elephant.

These last few pictures are from last week. I hadn't seen Averi in awhile. She is starting to fill out a little! Such a cutie. The nurses put a bow in her hair with some surgical lubricant. It stayed in for several days. Tiffany asked where she could get some - it is not for sale to the public, but the nurses assured her that they would send her home with some :)

This picture was taken a couple of days after I left. I had taken some of her baby clothes to the hospital and the nurses had dressed her up!

I love this last picture. It was taken the day before she was transferred from St. Ann's to Children's. They made mother's day flowers for all the moms in the NICU. I have never seen her without tubes coming out of her mouth or nose. I guess they took all of her tubes out long enough to take a picture. I took a picture of the picture. Can't wait until I can see her for real with no tubes!!!

Averi was a month old on Friday - even past her due date now. I'll keep you up to date whenever I can.

For those of you that want - we are asking friends and family to please include her in their fasting and prayers this coming weekend.

2009-05-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

I thought I would send an updated post on Averi. Thank you so much for those of you that have called, sent notes, e-mails, or are just keeping us in your prayers.

I am back in Virginia now - it just about killed me to leave Ohio, but at least Tiffany is doing better and able to drive herself places now. Dan's parents arrived at their house last night and will be able to stay with them until the 29th of May, I believe. I am so glad they could come.

Averi seems to still be doing her dance of 1 or 2 steps forward and 1 or 2 steps back. She has times she is more alert now. This is one of my favorite pictures of her so far because her eyes are open (a rare occurance)! This picture was taken last Wednesday when she was waiting for her swallow study.

Her swallow study did not show a hole between her esophogus and trachea, but it did show that she has a very weak and uncordinated suck and swallow. They were able to get her to take about 4 sucks total and then she wore out. Occupation Therapy will be working with her on this, but they said she is weak enough right now, that they best thing to do is encourage her to breastfeed. Tiffany has very patiently been working with her several times a day - sometimes she will latch, but no real sucking. She still receives her feedings by tube. The feeding is delivered over 45 minutes because she has episodes of her heart rate dropping and her oxygen saturation dropping if she spits up at all. She was off of oxygen for a couple of days, but is back on again - mostly to help out with those episodes.

Here is a picture of her over the weekend - sporting a trendy nasal canula and feeding tube! As you can see, she is still a bit jaundiced - it seems to be taking a long time to go away.

They also let us know this last week that she has a significant heart defect that will require open heart surgery at some point in time. They hope to be able to hold off until she is at least 4 months old. They will use medications to help - and when they are not effective enough anymore, they will do the surgery. She has an opening between the two lower chambers of her heart, so blood that is supposed to go to the body also gets pushed back into the lungs and this will cause fluid accumulation in her lungs.

Kenny and Cherish came to visit last weekend (Mother's Day weekend) and here are a couple of pictures of them with their youngest niece. It was sure nice of them to come in the pouring rain!

While I was there - the routine was pretty much -

Wake up at 7, Tiffany would pump, leave by 8 to be at Children's Hospital by 8:30 for Tiffany to try to feed Averi, at 9 they would start her tube feeding and Tiffany would continue to try to feed her. At 10, Tiffany would pump and I would get to hold Averi for awhile, then Tiff would come back and do Kangaroo care (skin to skin) until the next feeding and pumping. Kaili would come with us. She was allowed in the NICU and did a great job - especially if we brought Tinkerbell and the DVD player. When she got restless, there were many choices of places to play in the hospital. Around 1 or so, we would head home for lunch and naps for Kaili and hopefully Tiffany. Dan and Tiffany would head back around 5pm for the 6pm feeding. I got to hang out with Kaili, make dinner, etc. Tiffany would usually go to bed around 11 and get up around 3 to pump again. And then the day would start again! Poor Tiffany really doesn't have time for anything!!!

Here is Kaili holding her new baby Averi! What a great big sister she will be. If you look closely, you will see this was when she was off of oxygen.

This is such a beautiful picture of a mother and her daugther. Tiffany has been doing so well.

Keep them in your prayers. I think Averi is saying her prayers too!

Averi Michelle Fisher

2009-05-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

Averi Michelle Fisher was born May 1st at 8:05am at St. Ann's Hospital in Colombus, Ohio. She weighed 5lbs and 6oz and was 17 inches long. After an eventful pregnancy, Tiffany's water broke at 4am and they were off to the hospital. Averi was delivered by cesearean section and did well for awhile, but then had problems with her breathing. She was off to the NICU to help her out. So far she has been in the NICU for 1 week and 2 days. She has had several problems pop up, and we are still waiting to find out all her "ins and outs"!

Averi was diagnosed with Down's Syndrome, and that seems to be the root of a lot of her other problems. She is so cute!

She needed help with breathing only for a short while, but has had to be on oxygen off and on all week. She has also had jaundice and has been in and out of the bililights. Averi has had a lot of problems with swallowing, and on Friday she was transferred to the Children's Hospital in Colombus. They think there may be an opening between her esophogus and her trachea. Further tests this week should let us know what is going on. She also has a small hole between the ventricles of her heart, but for now, they are just going to watch how that does. It may heal on it's own. Her bloodwork has been off and they will watch that too.

For now, we are enjoying what time we can spend with her. Some days she is very sleepy and other days she is a bit more alert. We had a great visit with her this morning for Mother's Day.

We will keep you posted. I may post this without pictures for now. I have been trying all evening to download pics to facebook and to the blog and it is not working! I will add pics when I can.

This is Averi and Tiffany shortly after birth!

Here's Kaili visiting her sister when she was still in the isolette.

Dan's excited about his new little girl.

Tiffany and Kaili while still in the hospital. We sure were happy that they had such a great NICU at St. Ann's and that Averi and Tiffany were in the same place.

Grandpa Davis!!

Averi has been in and out of the bililights a couple of times. Here is her designer eyewear!

Averi was pretty alert for a few days. She is a bit sleeper again now - but growing every day!

She has had visits from her PaPa Davis, Aunt Courtney, Uncle Kenny, Aunt Cherish, and Nama Davis.

Her favorite visitor of all of course is her big sister - Kaili!! You can see the picture that Kaili colored for her.

New York

2009-04-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

For Easter weekend, we went to upstate New York to see Glenn's mother - she lives in a nursing home. It is by far the best nursing home we have ever seen. It was clean, no smell, and the staff were all friendly to the residents and to visitors. Kenny and Courtney came with us, as well as Glenn's sister, Debbie and her husband, Dave.

Glenn, Debbie, and his mother, Ella Jean

Debbie and Dave with mom

Our Family with mom

Glenn grew up in Waddington, New York. We found out while we were there that it is the carp capital of the world!!!!! Is Glenn a carp??

Tiffany and Eggs!

2009-04-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

So - we got to go to Ohio for Tiffany's birthday on the 3rd of April. She's 24!

We got a super yummy ice cream cake from Stone Cold Creamery. Lot's of chocolate!

The pregnant lady even had enough air to blow out the candles.
We dyed Easter Eggs while we were there - between sessions of Conference. Kaili had a great time - except when she spilled orange dye all over the floor!!
Here's Tiffany's belly. She is 32.5 weeks in this picture. What a cute pregnant woman! She actually had some premature labor this week and had to go to the hospital. They were finally able to stop the labor by giving her some terbutaline - and she is back home on partial bed rest. Let's hope that baby can get a little bigger before she makes her appearance!

And here's Tiffany, Dan, and Kaili.

Andrew's Wedding

2009-04-15T12:04:00.001-07:00

It was so fun to go to my nephew's wedding. He married a wonderful girl named Katie. 3 of my 6 brother's and some of their families were there. I love family!!!!

Here are a few pics from the rehearsal dinner at the Lion House

Seth and my niece, Rachel.

The parents of the groom - my brother Nathan and sister-in-law, Luanne. It was a yummy meal!

Andrew and Katie

Katie is very talented on the flute and played a number for her mother and another for Andrew.

Here's some pics from the temple. It was a cold, but beautiful day.

My brother Gayvin and his wife Susan

Katie

My brother, Jared and his daughter, Amy

Seth and my niece Heather

Some of the cousins! Amy, Heather, Seth, Colin, Jordan

My niece, Rachel

My nephew, Devin (He just got his mission call to the Arizona, Tucson Mission)

Amy

My nephew Jacob

BYU March 2009

2009-04-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

I got to go out to Utah the beginning of March for my nephew, Andrew's, wedding. It was a wonderful wedding and I got to see lots of friends and family.

On Friday - we were able to get a bunch of "Virginians living in Utah" together at BYU. We had a lot of fun at the Smart Cookie place. They have ice cream sandwiches made with homemade ice cream between all kinds of flavors of homemade cookies!!! Yummm!

Here's a bunch of great people!

One of my "other daughters" - April Hendricks

Courtney

2009-04-15T11:17:00.001-07:00

Courtney keeps growing up. Here are a couple of pictures of her before she got her braces off in April and after. This is her orthodontist - Dr. Wheelock. He gave Kenny, Seth, Tiffany, and Courtney their beautiful smiles. Brent keeps trying to tell us that we owe him money since he didnt' need braces!

What a big beautiful smile.

She especially has a big smile when she is with her favorite niece - Kaili

The Mexican Riviera

2009-02-24T11:58:00.000-08:00

Here is my first post - finally!! I started this almost a month ago when Tiffany was here. Today - she said - get it posted - or else - and when a pregnant woman says that - you better get it done! It's a long one - but it was a great trip.

Hope you enjoy - and hope there are many more to come.

We recently spent 6 days in Playa del Carmem - about 1 hour south of Cancun, Mexico. We had a splendid time in the sun and warmth. Courtney went with us and had her first experience with snorkeling. I think she was nervous about trying, but it didn't take her long to become a "fish"! Our first full day there we went to and Ecopark called Xcaret. We had a great time snorkeling in an underground river, visiting a butterfly habitat, going in a bat cave, walking through a replica Mayan village, and watching a fantastic entertainment production about the Mayan people and the Mexican history.

The next day, we went to two different Mayan Ruins - Tulum (0n the ocean), and Chichen Itza (about 2.5 hrs inland). We had our own personal LDS tour guide. What a facinating day. It is incredible to think about how long ago these buildings were made and how advanced this culture was.

First we went to Tulum. There were a lot of lizards hanging around. This was a major port and trading city, with walls built all around.

After driving a couple of hours, we stopped to eat at a Mayan buffet. They had a bit of live entertainment and we especially enjoyed the homemake tortillas!!

These dancers danced with bottles on their heads - several of them!!!

Then on to Chichen Itza. What an amazing place this is. It is incredible what the Myan people did and created. Their civilization was so advanced. This is the main pyramid.

Many of the walls had elaborate carvings.

This is the "temple of 1000 columns - can you gues why?

They even had a planetarium!

We loved our resort -Allegro Playacar in Playa del Carmen. One of the fun things were the oragami towel decorations left on our bed every day.

Here are a few pictures of the resort. There were some huge sand bags on the beaches because of a hurricaine a couple of years ago. We did go snorkeling at some pictures that were picture perfect - but no pictures!!

I told you it was a long posting! Hope you enjoyed it. At least I finally got it!