September- The rest of us

Well, I went on and on (and on) about Morgan in my other post, so here's a quick catch up on the rest of us.

 Our current little house.

 The view across the street

The view all around our house

I've stayed busy working on projects to make this little house feel more like home.  It's pretty dark inside, so we added a bright blue pegboard above the stove where we can hang some utensils and pots.  I really like the splash of color.  I've also been busy adding labels to Morgan's toy baskets so everything has a home, and labels for her clothing drawers so other people in the house can help put things away too!  Now I'm starting one of those "home management binders".  Anyone else have one of those?  I also jumped on the diy toy bandwagon.  We had fun coloring pasta and learning how to sort by colors into a muffin tin.  That's my favorite one so far.  And I'm not one of those great bloggers who has pictures of all these projects, don't worry.  I'm also doing some tutoring one or two afternoons a week.

Nate is busy with school, school, school.  It's kind of weird being married to a college student.  College seems so long ago (it has been almost a decade since I graduated!).  But I am really proud of him.  He is working hard to keep really good grades.  He's also working as an usher at the college football games.  We're still trying to adjust to a small house with a yard that we can't work in, and being a one-car-family.

And best for last, I'm busy being pregnant!  Sometimes that is not so fun (gag, gag, gag) but sometimes it is great.  This little man is on the move a lot, way more than Morgan ever was.  So I get lots of kicks and punches.  We started a name list, but nothing is jumping out to us yet.  My thyroid got all out of whack, so I gained 7 pounds in one month, but other than that have only gained a few pounds.  My goal was 10 pounds this time, obviously not going to make that, but I'm trying to keep the weight gain under control and exercise as much as possible!  I mostly crave peanut butter with bananas and honey, or ice cream (as Nate said in the grocery store:  You ate all of the ice cream already!), and milk, or Fiji water.  All other water seems to have a weird taste.  Oh, well.  We're getting excited to meet this little man in about 16 more weeks!

September - Morgan

I can't believe it is the end of another month!  Time is just zooming by, whether I'm ready for it to or not.  We've stayed pretty busy over here in Boone. 

Morgan is 23 months old now!  How is this possible?  How is my baby about to turn 2 years old?  I seriously fall more in love with her everyday.  She is the sweetest little girl!  She has reached the age of being very attached to a few toys.  Most importantly, baby.  "Ba" (with a long a sound) for short.  Ba is a doll that is only about 4 inches tall that I found for $1 (woo hoo) at Wal-Mart.  Morgan loves Ba.  Ba goes everywhere we go.  One day we left the house without Ba and 30 seconds later Morgan was screaming for her.  I would have talked to her, tried to calm her down, and gone on.  But luckily for Morgan, Nate was in the car.  And her Daddy just couldn't have that, so he turned around and went home just to get Ba.

Morgan loves this little baby so much, that recently, when she's had a couple of rough falls on concrete, she hasn't worried about her own owies, she's only worried about baby.  She actually tore skin off of her little fingers, but didn't care, as long as baby was okay.  How sweet is that!  A little mama in the making.

(Insert a mental picture of Morgan with Baby here.  I have pictures of course, but they're all on my new phone, and I don't know how to e-mail them yet.  We're not smartphone people here.  Oops)

Morgan really loves spending time outside, and we're trying to do that a lot and enjoy the beautiful fall weather (typically in the 60s everyday).  Outside at our house is quite an adventure since we live in "the woods".  It means there's always something interesting to find.  Like a cute little caterpillar crawling across the yard and Morgan's slide.

 It wasn't really cold enough for a hat, but it's another of Morgan's current fascinations.  She even wants it with her when she goes to sleep at night.

Morgan with her babies.  Poor little wet bum.  Thanks to the morning dew and humidity and shade from "the woods" out little yard is always wet.  I try to just get over it.  I TRY!

Morgan likes to play with the hat Melanie made her last year.  I hope it lasts, Mel, it's so cute!  She also likes to play with scarves, mittens, socks, shoes.  Sometimes the mittens go on her feet, don't know why I bought slippers.  And she's fascinated with taking her socks on and off, or putting them on her hands to make sock puppets.  Love it!

Morgan's other stats at 23 months old:  24 lbs 10 oz (yea for weight gain!) and 34.5 inches tall.  She knows about 15 or so words and will start speech therapy soon.  The children's developmental services here are great!  She still loves to read, and she'll go get the Children's Book of Mormon with pictures for me to read to her.  Her favorite book is probably The Best Mouse Cookie Ever, although she also loves any books with pictures of babies (shocking!) or balls.  She loves being a big helper.  She's learning where her toys go, she'll put dirty dishes in the sink (and sometimes not dirty dishes), throw away trash and diapers, and tries to help vacuum, sweep, dust.  Which means it takes me that much longer to do any of those things.  One day she did get a little confused and put a dirty plate in the bathtub!  Oops!

We can really see her personality shining through.  She is friendly to almost everyone, says hi and bye and enjoys the smiles it brings her from complete strangers.  Kids are more popular with the public here.  She loves to make her mom and dad laugh, so she's silly a lot.  She really is just a joy to have in our home, and we feel so blessed to be her parents.