Bubbles

Nate's list of words is growing every week. Today's new word is bubble. Here's what Nate can say so far: dada/daddy, mommy (finally!), uhoh, ow/owey, baby, puppy, papa (Grandpa), hi, no and eye. He still uses his sign language a lot, but he's starting to talk a lot too. Most of it is his cute little boy language that we don't understand.

My Updates

I completely forgot to post that I got a job at the Gap clothing store. Since I can't sub over the summer I needed something else so I applied several different places. I have orientation tomorrow for 4 hours. It's only part time hours, but it's something. Plus I'll get a discount on clothes I like already.

I have started into couponing. A friend from church is one of those extreme couponers so I had her teach me a little about it last week. I did my first shopping trip as a couponer yesterday to Walgreens. Here's the breakdown.

Everything I bought was on sale so I don't know what the regular prices would have been. But based on sale prices with no coupons taken off yet I would have spent 101.54. I saved $24.00 just with coupons clipped out of papers and printed online. I had 2 or 3 coupons for some of my items. So i spent $77.54 yesterday. What makes that even better is that I got $29 back in Register Rewards that I can use on future purchases at Walgreens. So everything I got ended up costing me $48.54. I saved about 50%. Now I normally would have spent the $100. Maybe not all at once, but over a period of time and that's a lot of money. There are some items that I could have gotten better deals on if I had been saving coupons for longer than a week, but for my first time I'm happy. Eddie even approves, and was shocked at what we can save on bathroom items. I have tackled food yet, but I'll see if I can save there too. I think Walgreens is going to be one of my favorite shopping places.

So that's what I've been up to lately.

To Phoenix and Back

We took a very quick trip to Phoenix so Eddie could test for the Colorado Springs Police Department. The testing is done through a company and Phoenix was closer than Colorado Springs. We were on the road 6 hours each way. We drove up Friday evening and back this afternoon, getting in around 8pm. Nate and I just killed some time driving around and playing in the play area at a nearby mall. Nate had fun running around our hotel room, locking the safe, and repeatedly trying to open the door, of course. Nate did great in the car. Here are a few pictures from our quick trip.

Of course the first thing he found was the remote.

Hanging out at the play place in the mall.

Fun Being One

Robyn loves hiding out under the desk, but nowhere is safe from Nate. She didn't seem to mind enough to leave though.

Nate likes to try to walk around in my shoes. I'm sure he'd love Daddy's shoes too if they were lying around like mine are.

Saying "moo" and holding his cow.

I kept him up too long, and he's showing me he's ready for a nap.

The new water table, as opposed to buying a bird bath.

Our Crazy Boy

It seems like ages since I posted last, but it's only been a week. Another very busy week. I don't see an end to the super busy weeks. A little break would be nice.

Here's what Nate the Great has been up to lately (Sorry for any repeats. I can't keep anything straight in my brain these days.)

Age: 17 months
Favorite obnoxious sound: High pitched screaming
Favorite obnoxious activity: Spitting any liquid from a sippy cup all over his shirt until it's soaked
New skill: Opening all the inside doors in our house. I think he must have grown in the last week for this to happen. He's been practicing for a while.
New skill to practice: Eating with a fork. He can feed himself, but doesn't know how to spear food on his own just yet.
New Food: Corn on the cob
New fun activity: His new slide
Favorite animal sound: Moo, which according to Nate every animal says Moo
Favorite place to go: Outside
Favorite way to drive mommy nuts: Run away from mommy when it's time to go
Favorite person: Daddy
New Sign Language: baby, please
New Words: buppy (puppy), dog
Favorite item of clothing: sandals
Best news of the day: Nate went to nursery at church for the first time. Yay!

Needless to say, Nate is one busy little boy. Even his obnoxious stuff is super cute. Here are some pictures and videos so you can visualize what our days are like.

The three of us will be making a quick trip to Phoenix this weekend. I'll blog next week about how Nate's first long car ride went with some pictures hopefully.

Our Special Day

Eddie and I went through the Las Vegas Temple for the first time and got sealed yesterday. For those of you not familiar with the LDS Church, a sealing is basically getting married or in our case renewing your vows on a more eternal level. It was such an amazing experience that words cannot even describe it. The most amazing part of the whole day was when Nathan walked into the sealing room all dressed in white. I started bawling and so did a lot of other people in the room. We were blessed to have most of the Atwood side of the family there, our good friends the McArthurs and the Fitzgibbons, and many very special people from our ward. We are so lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives that support us in all that we do. Eddie and I will definitely make going to the temple a priority in our lives.

Mom was so gracious to open up her house and prepare some amazing food for everyone when we were done at the temple. We had a great time visiting with everyone. Nate wrapped up the day with some fun in Grandpa's birdbath.