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: