The first big step

This is suppose to be it.  The end of this semester is suppose to be it for us here at NAU.  Nate will be done with all of his classes and we will move on to doing his student teaching.  There are still a few minor things to work out which I hope happens, but we feel like everything is going to be fine and we went to Show Low last weekend and signed a lease on a rental.  Yay!  It is a little bigger than twice the size of our current place.  3 bedroom, 2 bath doublewide and it will have all the appliances in it (including a washer and dryer!!!!!!).  The rent is $600/mth and we pay for electric and gas.  It is withing walking distance to where Nate will be student teaching so we won't have to worry about buying a second car yet and it's such a great deal.  We were able to see it already and now I am just in decorating mode in my head all the time and trying to think of things I may need to buy.  I am so excited but nervous at the same time.  This is a big change for us.  I can't wait.  Here is a picture from the outside.

Merrick's blessing

We did things differently this time.  On October 9th, we blessed Merrick in Show Low, AZ.  This time we did it in a house rather than in church.  It just worked out better that way so that certain family and friends could be there.  We went to Show Low for the weekend and we stayed and blessed Merrick at the Pratt's house.  They are so amazing, I don't know what we would do without them.  My dad was able to drive down from Colorado for the day and that alone was amazing to hang out with him for a few hours.  We had Dad, Nate's mom, the Pratt's, Mike Pettingill, Nate's Aunt Kim and family there for it.  It was very nice to just have it be people that we are close to.  Nate did great with the blessing, and I know he was nervous.  It was beautiful and very sweet.  Afterwards, we had lunch for everyone and it was just perfect. We are so glad that he is in our lives now. 

Something smart, but also stupid

At the beginning of September, we made the decision to up and move ourselves to the other family complex at NAU.  While we loved Campus Heights apartments and we have lived there for 3 years, they were slowly moving out the families and bringing in regular students.  We didn't feel safe there and Kayton was running out of friends to play with.  It took us about a week of back and forth trips in our car and a big help from a few friends one day to bring all of the big stuff over, but we got it done and we are now all unpacked and stuff.  Kayton has a lot of fun playing over here and the other part that made us move now, is that we are planning on moving again in December so Nate can student teach, well if we packed up everything now and only kept out the bare necessities then it would be easier for us to pack when it was winter and stuff.  So we got a bigger storage unit and half of our stuff is in there, but it will be much easier to unload a storage unit in winter than it will be to pack up a house, walking stuff up and down the stairs and a very long way to the parking lot in the winter.  It was hard, but it was the smart thing to do.  So that's the big change/update for us now.

Cutest thing

The other night I was making dinner and Kayton was running around playing and Merrick was laying on the floor in the living room.  Randomly, Kayton went over and tried to pick up Merrick so I went over and helped him pick him up and carry him to his room where he proceeded to put him into his little swing.  After he was in the swing, Kayton sat down in front of it, and just started to push him back and forth.  This continued on for a few minutes and it was just so cute to see how much he loved to play with his brother.  He is so sweet. 

Shoes

Our little boy still has a shoe fettish.  He loves to get my shoes and put them on and walk around the house with them.  Last night he walked around with our friends little girl's shoes on.  I think it's cute.

2 months

Oh man, this kid is growing so much.  At his 2 month appointment he was 12 lbs, 12 oz and was 23 inches long.  He smiles so much and is really good at holding his head up.  The doctor said that he is really strong for his age and that we need to keep an eye on him because he could roll over sooner than we think.  He will sleep for about 6 or 7 hours at a time during the night so I usually will go to bed about 10 and wake up at 4 and 6:30.  I feel like it's a good amount of sleep and I'm excited he is getting closer to sleeping through the night.  He is also smiling a lot.  Nate is the best at getting him to smile and sometimes, he will even laugh back at you.  It's so fun.  We are so glad he is here.  We love him to death.