Halloween

We started out our Halloween celebrations with the story time trick-or-treating around the library. At first Nathan didn't want to leave the Kid's Space area with all the fun things to climb on, but he soon realized that it was fun to walk around and have people give him little trinkets that he got to keep. The rear view is adorable.
Nathan insisted on taking this soccer ball to trunk-or-treat. He had a blast kicking it around on the grass around the church. Nathan loved the "nana" that came with the costume. He held on to it most of the time and would shoe it to everyone that talked to him.
A few people had orange balloons decorating their trunks and Nathan kept going back to them. In fact we never made it to the other end of the parking lot because he went back and forth between his favorites ones, the ones with balloons. Eventually someone was kind enough to give him one and he was thrilled. At some point Nathan ripped the wrapper off a tootsie pop by himself and he would not let the thing go.
At the end of the evening he was one sweaty, happy kid.
I decided to make Nathan's treat bag. I wanted something cute and original and just his size.

We never did get Nathan so say "Trick-or-treat" but he fully embraced every other aspect of Halloween. He loved his costume, his bag full of candy, the other kids wearing costumes and of course the balloons.

Animals, Ice Cream and Pumpkins, Oh My!

Grandma and Grandpa Kleinman treated us to an afternoon at a pumpkin patch. There were a lot of fun activities for families to enjoy. Nathan was not in the best mood so the whole experience was a bit tainted by his tantrums but there were times when he was his usual happy self.

Being pacified on the hay ride with handfuls of Cheerios. He eventually relaxed and enjoyed the ride.When Nathan is being difficult I get tense and I usually get testy with Curtis. I am learning a lot about myself through motherhood. This time I quickly apologized to Curtis and thanked him for keeping his cool, kissed him and then we smiled and took this picture.

Nathan loved the little petting zoo. They had pygmy goats, sheep, bunnies, a horse and a mammoth donkey.

At the farm they had fun music playing. Nathan walked up to this speaker and started dancing.

Curtis was playing with Nathan trying to distract him and get him over another little tantrum. Gotta love toddlers.

We didn't make it to the train ride before it closed but Nathan still had fun "driving" his car.

Freshly made ice cream is hard to beat.Picking out his pumpkin.

Escrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We did it, we are in escrow! This is the stage of the home buying process that we have been longing for but until now have never been able to acheive. We are so happy with our first little house. It is a bit retro 70's because it had old people living in it, but they took extremely good care of it and left behind all of the appliances. Washer and dryer here I come! The house is 1400 sq ft, 2 bed 2 bath, so it has a ton of living space. We have plans for a 3rd bedroom soon and eventually we hope to add on a new master suite turning the old one into a family room. So we are excited.

One of the first things we plan on doing after we move in is to replace the old fiber glass garage door with a new modern white one. During the day the garage is always lit up because the sun shines through the door creating a warm glow. At night when the garage light is on the house looks like a jack-o-lantern with the light glowing through the garage door. We will work on painting the brown eaves and trim white to better compliment the pale yellow siding. As it is the house colors remind me of a very ripe banana.

The yard has a lot of mature trees and landscaping which is great. Mostly we just have to work on removing some not so kid friendly pear cactus in the front yard, trim back some of the overly mature bushes, and haul out rock to make room for some lovely grass. And prep and enlarge an existing garden spot. And probably install a drip and sprinkler system. We are going to be busy.This is the kitchen. It is a bit out dated as well, but we'll do our best to spruce up the cabinets for now. I love that it is open and roomy and the appliances are fairly new and really clean. The dining area is nice and big too, but it has carpet. Luckily we are not partial to the carpet and plan on replacing it some time too. In the mean time I will not be too worried about the food that Nathan might spill. He does really good about not being a messy eater, I have worked hard to teach him table manners and for a little guy he does great.
This is the living room and it is big. Here you can get a better look at the carpet. It is quite clean and not too worn out, but it is not attractive. However I can live with it and it will be a daily reminder that I need to work hard on our budget to save our money so that I can replace it sooner rather than later. You can't really see it in any pictures but the house has popcorn ceilings in the bedrooms and living areas. My little sister Aubrey likes the ceilings because the popcorn has gold flecks mixed in, quite retro feeling. At night the ceiling sparkles from the lights and Aubrey thinks it is awesome. That is one thing we are taking care of before we move in, sorry Aubrey. Curtis and I will remove it and then hire someone to retexture it. There is also an empty brick pad where a wood stove once resided. So that will be a fun project to tear that out, but for now Nathan uses it like a stage.
Not only will I have washer and dryer connections with a washer and dryer but I have a laundry room with lots of potential. There is even a space to add a utility sink! And room for cupboards/shelfs. It is going to be great.
These are pictures of the hall bathroom, also in need of updating although it is clean and in in good shape. When we move in we are replacing all the light fixtures, Curtis can't even stand them. But I have to admit that the lenoleum in this bathroom is growing on me. The little old lady that lived here loved pink and gold.
This is the 2nd bedroom. I told Aubrey she can use these curtains to make a fun pioneer dress to add to her dress up collection.

Here is the master bedroom with its wonderful curtains and the master bath. The walk-in closet is huge, literally a small room, so it will double as the food storage room.

This is the arizona room off the dining room.

This is the back patio with a built on storage room.

It was dark outside when I took these pictures of the backyard so you can't really see it but it is flat and good sized. Our lot is a quarter acre and we have good sized side yards too.

We have had our inspection and every thing looked good. We do have a small leak under the kitchen sink but we know a good plumber. We get more excited every time we look at our little house. It is in a great neighborhood. We were out in the yard one afternoon around 4pm and there were a lot of kids out playing in their yards and riding their bikes and it just felt like a great place to raise our family. We our one block from a nice big park and the best part is we are right across the street from the chapel. We can see it from our front yard. We feel super blessed to have this home. We are glad we waited.

The Many Discoveries of Nathan Rey!

Nathan loves to razor skooter. His Grandpa Kleinman found this one for him at a garage sale! He loves to go fast and he even puts his foot down to help push himself along.

When we go to play grounds Nathan loves to try and climb up the ladders and things just like the big kids do. I guess he decided his crib looks a lot like a jungle gym because he climbs up the side like a little monkey. He has not figured out or even tried to climb out of the crib when he is in it. He only climbs on the outside so far.

Nathan finally let me show him how much fun he can have on his tummy in the bath tub. He pushes himself back and forth in the water and makes little waves that crash in his face. Sometimes he tries to blow bubbles in the water but most of the time he sucks water up his nose.

Caught in the act! Nathan discovered that one of the big closets downstairs has all the board games. He loves to pull them out, open them up and spread the game pieces far and wide. Luckly he is a good sport about helping me clean up.

One afternoon I was organizing our storage closet and had several things pulled out. When I realized that I had not heard anything from Nathan for a few minutes I decided to see what he was up to and this is what I found. He had taken his pool toy into the other room and had managed to sit in it. He was extremely pleased with himself.

We like to move it, move it!

Here are some of Nathan's awesome moves. If you turn up your volume you can hear the music in the background. Nathan loves to dance and when he has the dancing bug he goes over to the stereo, points, grunts and rocks back and forth while snapping his fingers (he doesn't really snap his fingers but he tries).

Nathan-18 month old

This is from Nathan's Journal that I keep.

August 9th – This morning we all went to the church to help clean it. I took a bag with some toys and snacks for Nathan and Aunt Aubrey played with him while Curtis and I cleaned the bathrooms. Nathan played well but he also enjoyed helping everyone with their cleaning duties. He helped one person shine the glass doors and he helped Grandma King vacuum. Grandma and Grandpa had to leave a bit early so Curtis and I finished vacuuming the chapel. We had brought one of our own vacuums-a canister vacuum with different attachments-and it was just the right size for Nathan without the extra extender attachments. I had finished using it to vacuum off the benches so Nathan helped Curtis-who had a regular standup vacuum-finish up the floor. It was so cute! Nathan wanted it plugged in and turned on, and then he pulled around the canister and vacuumed the floor just like a big kid.
August 10th – Nathan’s first official day of Nursery! Nathan did pretty good going into the Nursery. He was always concerned about where I was so I had a difficult time slipping out. I ended up staying for the first 40 minutes and when I did slip out he turned and looked at the door just as I was shutting it. He started crying so I hung out by the door just in case he did not calm down. He did calm down after a minute or so and I headed to Relief Society. I’m not sure how he did the last hour, but when I went to pick him up after church one of the Nursery leaders was holding him because he was crying and saying “Mama?” while pointing at the door. I think he started crying when other parents came to get their children because he wanted to leave to find his Mom but they wouldn’t let him. It was nice not to have him with me during Relief Society but I was happy to scoop him up and hold him after church, I had missed him.

August 11th – Nathan has had a runny nose today and he is a little bit grumpy. I looked in his mouth and sure enough he is cutting two more teeth on the bottom. Poor kid, his teeth always come in two’s.
August 15th – Nathan had his 18 month check up with Dr. Bosch. We made it into a little family trip since we live in Prescott now and Dr. Bosch is in Flagstaff. It was our last appointment with her because we will soon have new insurance through Curtis’s job. We packed a lunch and had a picnic at our favorite park in Flagstaff, Thorpe Park. Nathan loved the swings like usual and he likes to swing hop. He’ll swing in one swing for a while and then he motions and points at the one next to him because he wants to try it out too. Nathan is definitely not a fan of doctors visits. The minute we were escorted into the exam room he started clinging to me. He did ok until the nurse tried to measure his head circumference. He did not want her to put the measure band around his head let alone touch him. It was all I could do to hold him still. I’m not sure if the measurement was accurate but oh well. When the nurse weighed him (25.4 lbs was our best guess) and measured his height (32 1/4 in) he screamed bloody murder and kept trying to pull himself off the table. I was a bit embarrassed but at the same time I felt terrible that my child was scared and worried because he remembered that he does not like what is going to happen to him. I hugged him tight all way back to our exam room. Dr. Bosch was very understanding and I did my best to help her do her exam on him. He was fine as long as she did not touch or come near him which was impossible so he did cry and tried to climb away. But in the end she declared him a healthy, beautiful, perfect little boy. What more could a mother ask for.
Nathan has discovered how to play the harmonica and he loves it. Grandma and Grandpa King have 3 harmonics and Nathan knows exactly where his favorite one is kept, in Grandpa King’s sock drawer. Nathan likes the big, double sided harmonica that belonged to Great-Grandpa Paul King. He goes in, opens the drawer, takes it out and starts playing a little tune. What is amazing is how long he will play it. Nathan will sit down somewhere or walk around the house playing the harmonica for 15-20 minutes and it sounds like he is playing real songs. He is good at it; he blows in and out and makes all kinds of pretty chords. His lips are so relaxed when he is playing, that while he is running the harmonica back and forth blowing, his lips are being pulled back and forth with it. What a kid! Something cute Nathan has been doing the last couple of days is telling me “Bye” when I put him down for a nap or for bed. I lay him down, tuck him in, tell him good night and he says “Bye”. It makes me smile every time. His new words are “wa-wa” for water/agua, and “out” which he says when he is done eating and he wants out of the high chair. One evening before dinner Grandpa King asked Nathan to go get Aubrey. So Nathan headed off in the direction of Aubrey’s room calling “Bee-bee, Bee-bee” it was pretty cute. Nathan definitely understands just about everything we say. Before we go somewhere or just move on to the next thing I’ll tell him to put whatever object or joy he was playing with back where it goes. And he does it. He walks off, I follow him out of curiosity, and he puts the object/toy back in the bin/basket/drawer/nook that it belongs in. What a good kid! Nathan is not a huge fan of family prayers and scriptures but he is getting more patient with it as time goes by. When Grandpa King calls everyone for prayers, Nathan usually starts fussing immediately, but a couple of times he has not fussed at all. He happily trots into the living room, kneels down and folds his arms. He does not stay that way the whole time, he eventually gets up and starts playing with a toy or tries to make Kendal and Aubrey laugh. He is better behaved for scriptures mostly because he does not have to sit still and he thoroughly enjoys handing out (actually, he stops a few feet away from us and throws the book) the Books of Mormon from the scripture basket to everyone in the room. We try to help him sit in his little rocking chair and distract him with a book, but he does not last long. He patiently plays with our book marks and his other toys. When we are done he enjoys taking our Books of Mormon back to the basket one at a time, again he mostly throws them back into the basket. When he has deposited the last book he turns around with a huge smile on his face and applauds himself and we join in.