This week at our home...

This week feels like it has flown by! On Monday, Brett was off and we cleaned out and organized the garage. Now I breathe a sigh of happiness every time I walk out there. It looks so much better! Lexi sleeps in the garage, so there were piles of dog hair everywhere. Yuck!


 I have been trying very hard to stick to my (loose) schedule so that I actually get some office work done. I much prefer to clean the house, or bake some bread, or read some blogs, or go riding, or....etc... than to do office work. However, there is much to be done and it should be one of my top priorities! For the last two weeks I have made it my goal to strictly work on office work during Nate's morning nap. That has given me at least one hour a day and I find that if I start working in the morning then I usually pick it back up later in the day also. So now I am getting caught up and am able to revel in the knowledge that everything is current and all the accounts are balanced! 


On Wednesday I taught riding lessons and Nate stayed at Papa and Gramsie's (or Big Mama's=) house. He now gets excited when we walk in the door and he realizes where we are! There are so many fun people to play with and new things to explore! When I came back to get him, he was asleep so I did some office work and then Mom Hawkins and I went Targeting. I say "Targeting" rather than " to Target" because we always end up walking over the entire store and looking at every clearance section. It was fun and we did remember to get what we originally went for-- a pool float for Nate. 


Nate loves water, the more water the better! He tried to dive head first into the water in the pool when we were there last week. I finally let him, just to see what he would do. He came up sputtering of course, then got all excited and tried to do it again! When it comes to water he is totally fearless. I'm so glad we don't have a pool at our house. It's hard enough to keep him out of the bathtub! Even though it is empty, he loves to crawl into the bathroom, stand up on the side of the tub and try to dive headfirst into it. I'm worried that one of these times he will succeed so we try to keep the bathroom doors shut.


 On Thursday, we took dinner to Brett's Memaw. Brett works right around the corner from her, so we try to meet there for dinner every week. This time Allison and Melissa came along! Earlier in the day, Nate and I went with Jaime and her little girl Brielle to a consignment sale. We found some good deals! I bought a few new toys for Nate, some winter clothes, and a portable highchair seat. 


Here a a few pictures of Nate from this morning, demonstrating his latest accomplishments!

 Nate pulls up on everything he can and will even walk down the sofa while holding on! As you can see, he has discovered that it's fun to stick his tongue out! He's very proud of his ability to stand and frequently bounces up and down in excitement!

 Eating oatmeal and homemade applesauce for breakfast! Yum!

 Uh oh...he's discovered the bib!

 Just this week Nate learned how to drink out of a sippy cup! Before he would try to bite instead of suck, but now he has figured it out and would try to drink water all day if I let him. 

 Here is my wonderful morning coffee! Well...it's not so much that the coffee is wonderful but rather that it helps me have a wonderful morning. =) I did not have any coffee in the house for several days recently and realized that it takes me much longer to get going without it! 

 Nate's favorite recent accomplishment....climbing the stairs! I love that we have just four carpeted stairs between our kitchen and family room. They are perfect for learning! Actually, this was something I thought about when we bought this house. =) Nate has had several tumbles but just enough to (hopefully) give him a healthy respect for the stairs. 

"Why are you taking a picture of me Mom?"

Lol! He is crawling so fast towards me that he is just a blur!