Things are really rollin'

Nathan is absolutely obsessed with cars right now. When he wakes up, the first thing he says is "Car, car!!!" He spends hours going "zoom," "beep," and "jive" (drive), making ramps out of Rubbermaid lids and roads out of DVD cases for his cars to drive on, and lining the cars up along the entertainment center. He loves the Disney movie Cars too--he learned the word "watch" just to get his point across when I pretend he just wants to look at the case. I finally bought him a toy garage yesterday to hopefully save the furniture from the dings his little cars inflict.
Every time I ask Nate a question lately, he says "Hmmmmmm." He's learned to say "O-pen" (very much as two words, not two syllables of the same word). One of my favorite things he says now is "gone" when I ask him where something went.
A friend at church has started a little music class, and Nathan really enjoys it and has started singing some at home. The other night we heard him singing the ABC song in his sleep, and he leads us in "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." He loves the version of "Twinkle, Twinkle" we learned at music class, "Twinkle, twinkle traffic light, on the corner shining bright. Red means stop, green means go, yellow means go very slow . . ." and also likes me to mix it up with shapes, "Twinkle, twinkle little square, how did you get so high up there?" I'm excited to see the talents Nate develops as he grows up.






The house is coming together! We went up this morning, and found the brick and stone completed. I think it looks great. We got a few pictures of the inside, but the workers were there, so we tried to be quick and stay out of their way. They've installed the cabinets, baseboards, railing, and mantle. The walls are all sheet rocked and textured, but not painted yet. I'm amazed at how quickly this process happens, and excited to move in!

Look Who's Talking

Nathan is starting to say some really funny things. His answer to pretty much any question is a "Yeah," which is an improvement from the "No-no" to everything we asked him a couple of months ago. He loves the word "girl," and gets upset every time we tell him he's a boy. Hopefully he'll outgrow that one! We've been working really hard on two-syllable words, like "open" and "amen." The other day he said "yellow" perfectly. He's even starting to use simple sentences, like "Nate type," and "Mama, come."
Speaking of "amen," Nate has been developing strengths and exhibiting weaknesses lately in the realm of religion, as much a 20-month old boy can. He has been the one to fold his arms to remind us to pray over dinner the past couple nights--what a cute little example he sets for us. However, he also seems to have a panic attack whenever the Sacrament is passed at church--he fusses while he waits for it to come, then wants two pieces of bread and two cups of water ("Nate, twoooooo!" the whole congregation hears him shout). I really do love my little boy and the darling personality he is developing each day. He is our greatest blessing!

Utah Trip

We spent the last week in Utah visiting with our fabulous families. Here are the pictures of us with our beautiful new niece/cousin, Brynlee! She looks just like Kale when he was born, just with dark hair instead of being bald. She can already roll onto her side at just two weeks old. Brynlee is gorgeous, and we are officially in awe of her!






One highlight of our trip was the amazing underdog Cougar victory! We watched (well, Jake did, I mostly chased Nathan and his cousins) the BYU game at the Barney house. Delicious Pizza Factory pizza, a win, seeing cousins, it couldn't have been more fun!






The Howard half of the family went to Hogle Zoo. It was so fun for me to take Nathan's picture taking a drink from the same lion water fountain I took a drink from and have pictures of as a little girl. We also took him on his first carousel ride. He loved it, especially since he got to ride a tiger like Sher Khan (yes, Nate's obsession with The Jungle Book continues).






Part of the reason for our trip was to go to my old high school friend's wedding. Braden & Starr are a darling couple, and even though I didn't get to chat with them much, it was great to talk with all my other friends who were at the luncheon and reception, especially since I didn't make it to my 10-year high school reunion this summer.