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A Hint of Fall

Weekly Happenings: During the past week, we pretty much hung around the house (it seems to have become habit because of the hot weather). The weekend was a lot better because it was relatively cool. We ended up taking a spontaneous trip to the zoo and had a lot of fun seeing the animals.

The Weekly Weather: As mentioned before, the week was pretty warm, but yesterday was so great! I don’t think it got above 75 degrees. It was fun to slip on my sweater (even though I didn’t really need it, I just wanted to wear it) because I could get away with it. It’s a gentle reminder that fall will come eventually.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He did his last mutual activity with the 11YO Scouts (they made s’more pizza on a camp stove as part of it). He’ll have to stop doing Scouts because he has his Pathway meeting night the same night as mutual. He’s also gotten hard to work on his school work since his semester has started.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve had some piano students drop, so I’m down to seven, but they keep me plenty busy still. I’m getting them ready for our first recital, which will be in October (probably towards the end). I’ve also been asked to help out with the Messiah production in December, playing piano for the sectionals and for the children’s choir. Add all of that to my visiting teaching calling and leading the ward choir (not to mention my momma and wifely duties) and I’m keeping quite busy.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s discovering, since having turned three, that he has more of an opinion of things (and is able to express that opinion in more ways than he used to). We’ve butted heads quite a few times this week, but it has afforded many opportunities for us to both learn and grow during this time. One cute thing that he did this past week was to whisper/tell me what to say while I was blessing the food one afternoon. I loved it. 🙂 Oh, and he has been learning a lot from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. I was visibly frustrated with something he had done or said and he asked me if I was frustrated. When I answered in the affirmative, he started singing, “take a step back, and ask for help.” It made me laugh and I soon forgot my frustration.

This Week in Pictures:

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Making cookies.
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He loved dumping in the chocolate chips.
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He also liked being in charge of unlocking and locking the tilt-head part of the mixer.
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Spooning out the dough.
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Scooping out another cookie. After the cookies came out of the oven and I put them on the cooling rack, he insisted on using the spatula to put the cookies into the cookie jar.
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Milk mustache.
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I finally got around to making him another cowboy bib. He loves the one that one of my former Relief Society presidents made.
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Helping Daddy push the cart.
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A friend of mine gave me some clothes that her son no longer fit into. When I pulled out the brown-striped polo shirt, Joseph got excited and said it was just like Daddy’s. Pretty close!
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Here’s the little Halloween-obsessed boy playing with a plush bat (I was getting some Halloween cards for my visiting teaching sisters and found out that if I bought three, which is how many I needed anyway, I got this little bat free).
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He’s ready for his close-up! He loves it when I switch my camera on my phone around so that he can see himself.
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He wanted to “practice” and insisted that there be music in front of him.
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Playing with the bear that Paul brought home from boot camp for me. Yeesh, that was 15 years ago!
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He was making it kick the air…
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…complete with sound effects, “heyahh, heyahhh!”
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Playing with his bulldozer while watching Bob the Builder.
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The lion statue at the zoo.
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Checking out the zebras.
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He loved that it was cool enough to wear his “comfy sweater”.
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And here’s what it’s really like trying to get pictures. I love this little boy’s personality.
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I eventually got a picture with him upright.
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Posing on the bronze elephant.
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We were all excited to see the hippos out of the water. It’s usually so warm that they stay in the water.
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The bears were surprisingly active while we were there.
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Feeding the fish. Joseph had NO FEAR. He was practically sticking his hand into the fishes’ mouths as they were gaping wide.