I finally got some things done around the house. My pantry is organized and a few pictures are hung on the wall. I had to invite Brandy over for some supervision. I'll blame it all on being pregnant that I cannot seem to form a complete thought these days. So making it through an entire task like decorating a room or organizing the pantry wasn't happening unless I had some there to make me do it. So yay for my helpful mother in law! Nate's room and our bedroom are now decorated. Nate loves his Alabama room. I won't have to worry about Nate ever pulling for another team, he's a Bama fan all the way. Nate is also getting more open to talking about the baby. Although last night he tried to convince me that it was a puppy, not a brother. We'll get there, soon. Very soon. Hopefully we'll have a baby before Christmas. It's supposed to be a little warmer this week, which means it'll stay in the 30's at least. So that'll be nice. Hope everyone can come visit! 

This is just Nate being weird. He watched football in the baby seat. 

Dinosaur.

Nate saw the giant blow up Christmas dinosaur and his reaction was hilarious. He wouldn't get near it. He thought it could get down and eat him. He went around every display he could to stay far away from it. And he asked me every 2 minutes if it was going to get us. He's too funny. 

New car.

New car for our new garage. :) It didn't take long for Murphy's law to kick in once we moved into the new house. The dishwasher and the Maxima went kaput. So we finally upgraded to a more family friendly car, a Hyundai Santa Fe. So far it's wonderful. And Nate loves his new car. Nate's blue car. 

I also got a totally awesome dishwasher. Since the home warranty was only going to pay for the most basic model, we took the money and upgraded. After so many crappy apartment dishwashers, I have a new happy, and oh so quiet dishwasher. Life is one crazy mess after another right now, but at least I have squeaky clean dishes. 

We cannot wait for the baby to get here. He is one strong boy and has literally knocked the wind out of me about 15 times. I haven't a clue when he'll decide to show up. The doctor said he's still right on track for Christmas. So we'll just have to see. Nate still won't talk to me about the baby. Whenever I ask him anything about it he says "no, mom, no" and walks away. It's ridiculous. But I'm hoping he'll be okay when the baby comes. 

Lots and lots going on. This is how things go in our little life. Mitch and I don't do a lot, and then bing bam boom. New house, new car, new baby. Ahh! Absolute craziness. I couldn't be more thankful for Mitch. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and can't wait to see y'all soon! 

Oh yeah, we're homeowners.

Well, we've bought a house! Yay! It's awesome. We've been in here for almost a month now. We're nowhere near being completely settled in, but it's a process. Nate loves his new house, especially his backyard. He could dig in the flower bed with a spoon all day. He helped me rake the leaves the other day and thought it was awesome. And by help I mean he ran amuck through all my piles. We haven't met many of the neighbors, but it's gotten cold so everyone stays in. But I have a feeling we'll see how many kids are in the neighborhood whenever the snow comes. Mitch loves being able to pull into his garage and the garbage can isn't across a parking lot. We want to say thank you to everyone for helping us move. I know you are all happy that you won't have to help us move again for awhile! Maybe never again because Mitch and I are probably going to throw in the towel and just pay someone next time around. Haha. But we'll be here for a bit, we have lots of fun plans for our little house. We'll get around to doing eventually because of course our blogs will soon be filled with pictures of our new little boy. Nate still refuses to talk to me about the baby. Mitch has gotten him to talk a little about it. But he just walks away when I ask him anything about his baby brother. He'll figure it out soon enough. 

Well, I'll try to post some more pictures of the house whenever I find that my house isn't littered with random crap and boxes, and dinosaurs. There are dinosaurs everywhere, all the time. 

Mud.

Nate went on an outing with Mitch. They came home with all of Nate's clothes in a plastic bag. Mitch said he was trying to get the minnows. I'm pretty sure he had a blast. 

Random fun.

This is Nate with his new Thomas the Tank sunglasses, and my waffle cone. He asked for a bite and I didn't get it back. He really likes his sunglasses too. He loves to be like Mitch. He also has picked up a bad habit of calling Mitch, MItch. Because I call Mitch to wake him up or from across the house to get his attention, Nate likes to holler it with me. It's bad though because Nate doesn't pronounce it correctly. Nate uses an R rated version. 

Nate found himself a little hidey hole while we were in Walmart. I was walking and I heard him say "bye, mom" and I turned around and saw his feet disappearing into the cereal boxes. It took awhile to get him to leave his little fort. 

And of course, Nate found himself another pile of dirt and rocks. He has a particular tree on our walk that he thinks monkey George lives in. So whenever we pass it, he hollers up the tree for George to come down. I had to tell him that George was out for the day so he planted himself under the tree to play with the rocks and wait until he came back. He had a pretty good time, even though George never showed.

Nate's photography.

Nate is temporarily in our room because we have a friend staying with us. I'm loving it because Nate wakes me up every morning with a very loud, "morning!" It is too cute. But apparently he woke up and managed to get my phone off the side table, so he didn't bother waking me up. I woke up to a bunch of funny clicks so I sat up to investigate. Nate looked at me with such innocent eyes and said "pictures, mommy!" Now, it's one of his favorite things to do. Here is a sample of his beautiful work.

And a picture of him playing on the trains in downtown Lebanon. I'm super excited to be moving there!

Catapult.

So, I watch the History channel and whatnot a lot. Whenever a show comes on about all the awesome things people were able to come up with way back when, I'm always interested. I've always thought the catapult was a pretty nifty idea for a weapon. But I'm much less impressed now. I took Nate to his normal little rock quarry and gave him some spoons to dig with. It took Nate all of two minutes to figure out the concept of a catapult. His spoon got stuck and he looked at the end and just smashed his fist down on it. He said "boom!" And looked like he'd discovered the greatest thing in the world. That kept him entertained for almost an hour. Especially when he used his catapult to keep the dragons away because those sneaky guys are always hiding in the grass. 

The curious case of the skunk.

This is Nate on his way home, without his pants and jacket. He randomly projectile vomited at the Cracker Barrel. I guess he ate too much, because he was fine after that. Once we got in the car and he could smell it, he just plugged his nose and kept saying "phew, skunk." Apparently he thought a skunk tagged along for the ride home. It was pretty eventful. And he thought it was funny to wear shoes without pants. That is also a net full of dinosaurs he caught. 

The random pile of rocks.

I'm not sure why this is here, but Nate thinks this little oasis of rocks is amazing. He loves playing with his animals and the dinosaurs. Although he calls them dragons instead of dinosaurs. He's pretty funny, the tiger and giraffe are good friends, but nobody likes the triceratops. There are two of them and I guess it's a little dinosaur gang or something. Good fun.

We still haven't had much luck with the house hunt. I've come to the conclusion that a lot of people that design houses must not actually live in one. It's amazing how much someone can screw up the functionality of a house. But, one will eventually come along for us and I cannot wait! It's going to be great when we can get a backyard for Nate and his little brother too. Hopefully we'll be able to visit again before baby dos gets here, but if not maybe we'll have a guest bedroom for people to come visit! 

Orange.

Nate stole the Doritos that were supposed to be for Mitch's lunch. He loves Doritos. They make a huge mess of course. I asked him what happened to his hands and just shook his head and said, "oh, orange mess." Then he asked for a wipe. He actually likes cleaning up messes for now. He colored on the walls a few days ago so I gave him a towel to wipe it off. I'm pretty sure he had just as much fun cleaning it up as he did coloring it.

Pretty picture.

Nate colors all the time, but I guess he finally colored something he liked. He finished and came and showed everyone his "green picture." He woke Mitch up to show him and even made Mufasa look at it. It was too cute. And then he got overly excited and ripped it in two. I guess Mufasa is a pretty harsh critic. 

Memphis fun.

We had a blast in Memphis. Nate got to see the train in Collierville Square, hang out with all his grandparents, aunts, uncles, visit the farmers market and fight with swords. It was a perfect trip. Nate was wonderful on the ride there and back, I don't know why I was surprised..he's a pretty awesome kid. And he's looking much more like a little boy with his grown up hair cut. I seriously miss the curls, but they'll grow back. Hopefully, we'll be able to visit again soon. 

He found himself a Nate-sized tree to play under. And also a nice rock quarry to dig around in. He just sat there and threw rocks around, having himself a good time.

One man band.

We bought Nate a harmonica. He thinks it's great. And he's adorable when he plays it, just runs out of breath quickly. 

Water gun.

So, we bought Nate some little water guns. It didn't take two squirts before Mufasa knew he was not going to enjoy this. Nate loved shooting Mitch and me. And Mitch and I love making Nate shoot one another. 20 minutes later, Nate is having a ball, Mitch and I are quite damp and poor Mufasa is nowhere to be found. We called him and looked in all the closets. Then we found him, hiding under Nate's crib. He was not coming out until he knew for sure the water gun was gone. But that took awhile because Nate discovered how fun it was to squirt himself in the face and in his mouth. Best .99 cents I've spent in a while. :)

Adorable.

Nate is usually asleep when Mitch gets home. When Mitch went in to check on him tonight, Nate, for some reason was still awake. I went in to see what was taking so long and this is what I found. Too sweet.

Memphis

I asked Nate if he was ready to go to Memphis. He grabbed his bag and the keys and headed out the door. He was excited to go visit all his grand and great grandparents. We had a wonderful time, even though it was such a quick trip. And we can't wait to come back in August.
But I think Nate was also ready to finally head home. He got sick, like always when we go down to Memphis. The humidity just messes with his sinuses. And he missed his Mufasa immensely. He just loves his puppy.

Flour power.

Nate was being very quiet, apparently he got bored playing with the potatoes. This is what Mitch discovered when he looked in the kitchen. Nate covered in bread flour and he was just tossing it all over the place. Nate was having a blast.

Hammock

This is Nate's new reading spot. I used the Moby wrap and tied it around the table to make him a little hammock. He likes to dump himself out of it.

Hiding.

This is poor Mufasa. He's a really big dog hiding in a really small corner. He's hiding from Nate. And Nate found him.

Bells peppers.

Rain, rain, go away. It's not fun when it's raining. Nate has gotten quite used to spending most of the day outside. He's actually able to unlock the door now, which just stinks. So we're painting, with bell pepper tops. Because I couldn't find the paintbrush. I should probably invest in some stamps.

Jim's.

Oh Nate loves going to Jungle Jim's. He talks to all the weird statue things and cool displays. He loves to go see the fish and lobsters. It's almost impossible to get him to say goodbye to the giraffes, elephants, and giant fruit. Good fun at the grocery store. :)

Explorer.

I am so happy it is finally warm! It's so nice to be able to hang out in the sunshine instead of being cooped up indoors. We went exploring yesterday in the fields by our house. It was fun, reminded me of when Grandad Crawford would take us off tromping through corn fields and whatnot when we were little. And I do admit, I was a little frightened because we did NOT have the snake book handy while we explored. But luckily we made out okay. We took Nate's basket along and he picked a bunch of dandelions and collected sticks, rocks, and other fun stuff. Then we came home and painted with the cool things we collected. Nate thought that was awesome. It turned out pretty..pretty. And of course it was bath time so I let him paint the tub with the leftover paint. All in all, it was an adventurous day.

Being cool.

Nate loves to put the earphones in like Mommy and Daddy. The other day I actually turned the music on and he was completely surprised. He almost yanked them out, but then he realized how neat it was. He tried to stick the phone in his pocket so he could walk around with it. But alas, his ears are too small to be able to keep them in and walk. So he sat there still as a rock for a few minutes, until his horribly mean mommy took them away. He also likes to hang out like a little man in his sweater with his legs crossed. Happy happy boy.

Artsy fartsy.

A little someone had some serious creative juices going today. He's usually awesome at keeping things on paper, but not today. I couldn't bring myself to be mad, he was so excited to show me his artwork. I drive Mitch nuts because I was excited to show him Nate's artwork too. Hah! After Mitch left for work, Nate decided our walls needed some Easter stickers. I'm using the "he's working on his fine motor skills" excuse. At least he's confined to one area, because his new thing is to go through the house looking for ways to dismantle it. It's great fun.

Growing up too fast.

Nate cracks me up. Whenever he gets dressed and ready, he heads for the door because he knows we're going somewhere. But now, if he puts on anything whether it is a backpack or a lampshade on his head he goes to the door like "come on, it's time to go!" He will also grab my wallet, a book, or a paper plate, and if he sticks it up under his armpit to hold, that also means it is time to go somewhere and he'll start heading out the door. He loves Mitch's sunglasses and his Alabama jersey. He will put it on over whatever he's wearing, whether its a sweater or pajamas.
Hope everyone is well and come visit us soon!

Getting there.

"Nate, go put your coat on." :)

Green!

This week we are working on the color green! We did blue last week. Nate has started to understand colors so why not. And it's fun for me to make stuff for him. He loves his colored baths! Mitch gave him a bath one day and decided to teach him how to splash water quite efficiently, so now I pretty much get soaked every bath time. But he's so funny! Nate has also turned into quite the little boy. He likes to run and jump and kick and punch everything. He has to leap off everything, slam into everything, and throw everything just to see what happens. It's been umm, interesting. It's now a constant, "hit the golf ball, not Mufasa, or your cup, or yourself!" I can't wait for the cold weather to be gone so I can just let him loose outside!