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.

August and Everything After

We've had a busy month. We said goodbye to some friends from Nashville who were here on an internship for the summer. Ryan & Natasha were very special to Nathan, so we had one last get-together at the Dallas Arboretum. It was so hot--we were dripping sweat by the end--but we enjoyed the beautiful gardens and fountains, and the display of storybook playhouses that is on exhibit right now. Nathan is convinced every car we see on the road is driving to see "Ry & Ta" (Ryan and Tasha), and the other day when I asked him where he thought the toilet paper goes when he flushed the toilet, he confidently replied, "TA!" Sorry if you get our sewage, Ryan & Tasha!






Our house is progressing. We went up last Sunday to discover we had a frame, then went up yesterday and found a roof, some siding, a fireplace, wiring, bathtubs, and plumbing! It's so cool to see it starting to take shape and know that in a couple of months we'll be living there. We'll be able to say "See ya, suckas!" to the obnoxious neighbors that live in our apartment complex, but we'll be sad to leave our ward--we're really growing to love it.

We're off to Utah next week for a friend's wedding, to see family, and meet our new cousin/niece, Brynlee. We're excited, and will post pics of that adventure soon!

Where has the summer gone?

I'm such a lazy blogger. Since I last wrote, Jake has taken the bar exam & started his interim job with one of the clients of his firm. I received a calling--2nd counselor in the primary presidency--and it's keeping me hopping. I'm learning lots from the women I serve with, and hope to be able to contribute even though I'll only be in the ward for a few more months.

Nathan is learning to count. He counts everything he sees, in his own way of course: 2, 2, 2. If I'm helping, it sounds more like "yun, two, tee, or, ive, si, se, eight, nine, ten."

To celebrate finishing the bar, we took Nathan to the circus. He loved seeing the elephants, which, according to him, say "boo-oooooo!" The show was a little long for his 19-month-old attention span, but he was corralled back in when we bought him some popcorn.




The other day I made soup, and asked Nathan to help. I put the crockpot on the floor so he could dump the vegetables in, and this is what he came up with:





I mentioned Nate's "smooshy face" last time. Here are the pictures. I'm lucky I got them, because he doesn't make this face anymore.






Here Nathan & I spent an afternoon inside playing with Playdoh. I started taking pics of him with the clay, then started focusing on his cute little body parts--toes, eyes, etc. I'm thinking when we develop these we'll make a body part book, featuring Nathan--I think he'll get a kick!






Last but not least, our house is finally started. Here is our lovely foundation:

Cute stories

Nathan has become quite a handful the past week or so. His favorite words have become "no-no" (even when he means yes), and "again," which makes for a repetitive day for his mom. He knows all his capital letters now, thanks to Leap Frog's Letter Factory DVD, so he is constantly calling out letters he sees as we drive (today was "Q" when we drove past Quizno's). He insists that I sing to him as we drive, so we've come up with some awesome songs. Here's our current playlist:)
*Wheels on the Bus (with family & friends added in)
*We Are a Happy Family (sung while holding hands, Papa is his favorite verse)
*Five Little Monkeys (I feel a little weird singing "five little Tashas" but Nate insists we sing it with people we know)
*Letter Factory ABCs (we sing it with "O" more than any other letter)

Nathan has learned to do a somersault on his own--we actually caught it on video the very first time he did it, so if I figure out how to post it, I'll put it up.

Nate is obsessed with babies right now, and likes to pretend to be a little baby. He likes to curl up in my arms and hear me sing "Rock-a-bye Baby" to him.

It's been rainy all this week, so we've been stuck inside. I did take him to the indoor playground at the Galleria, and Nate's getting to be a really good climber. He & I enjoyed a pretzel & watched the kids ice skate when we were done. He kept saying "Nate, Nate" while we watched--that's what he does when he wants something, or thinks he should be participating. Earlier this week it was "Cake, Nate" and when we rented a car for Jake to drive to the bar exam, it was "Nate, car-car."

We found out Nathan has something interesting in common with his cousin Kale, besides the red hair--our doctor confirmed that Nathan has a peanut allergy. I was suspicious when one day last week I ate popcorn with peanuts & shared with Nate, then he broke out in hives. I took him to a lab to have blood drawn & tested. The first time the nurse stuck him in the arm she lost his vein, so she had to do it again in the other arm. Nate barely cried, and when I asked him how many veins & how many bandaids he had, he bravely answered "two." Jake was so sad for our little buddy, lamenting the peanut-laden treats Nater will never enjoy: Snickers bars, peanut butter fingers & cookies, Reeses, etc. I figure that's more for us to eat! (Seriously though, it is kind of scary. We have to keep an epi-pen on hand in case he accidentally ingests peanuts. I hope we never have to use it.) I realized today it's kind of ironic--we dressed Nathan up as Mr. Peanut for his first Halloween, and now our little peanut is allergic to peanuts!

Learning & laughing

So no pics this post, just a few stories about Nate.
The other day Nathan made up a cute game all by himself. He stole a pair of Jake's socks out of the drawer and started saying "bone, bone." Then he went & found his stuffed dog, gave it to me, and started throwing the bone to the dog. Pretty creative for 18 months, I'd say.
Nathan is learning his letters. He know uppercase b, e, i, j, k, n, o, p, q, r, t, & w. That's almost half. What a smart cookie! We've been playing with letter magnets, tub letters, looking for them in books, basically immersing ourselves in letters! He also knows all his colors, thanks to Playdoh & crayons. We're working on animal sounds--his newest acquisitions are sheep, horses, & cows.
We love watching Nathan walk. He leads with his head, and recently has started walking backwards. He dances to any music he hears.
One of my favorite things he dos right now is his "smooshy face." He purses his lips like a fish when he's in a grumpy mood. It makes it hard for us to take him seriously when he's upset, since he looks so darn cute!
This is one of my favorite stages so far! I need to be better about writing down all the cute little things Nathan does. He is developing such a cute personality!

Our New House!!! (Kind of)

We haven't even broken ground yet on our new house, but the top & bottom house pictures are the exteriors we are trying to choose between. The other pictures are our kitchen & bathroom choices for granite counters, tile floors, and cabinets, and the other picture is us in front of our lot. More pics will follow as the house progresses. Let me know which exterior you think we should choose!