Weekly Happenings: This week was pretty much the quintessential definition of “lazy summer days”. We didn’t really go anywhere (well, one morning we did scoot over to the zoo) or do anything (other than avoid the heat at all costs). It was rather nice.
The Weekly Weather: I’m not sure why I keep this as part of my posts during the summer…it doesn’t really change much: hot, humid, bug-filled…ha.
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s still pluggin’ away with school. The end really is in sight, though. He just has a few more weeks and he’s done! It keeps him busy along with work, of course.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve mainly been keeping the kiddos entertained. My calling (assignment) at church; secretary for the Relief Society (women’s organization) presidency keeps me busy, too.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been soaking up sleeping in, playing, and all the other lazy summer days things.
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She rocked her first day in nursery at church this past Sunday, even though she fell out of her chair and destroyed 3 paper water cups (consequently we’ve been practicing chair-sitting and she’ll just bring her sippy cup into nursery tomorrow).
This Week in Pictures:
All ready for nursery.Practicing chair sitting.Can you spot the Komodo dragon?Checking out the elephant (“Okay, Mom…it’s starting to get a little warm.”)An okapi and a boy who is DONE. After this, we headed back to our air conditioned car.Trying to figure out how to build things.She loves to give him hugs.She also loves to back into his lap, sit down, and shove her head into his face…I guess this is the flip-side of the cuddles, haha.Can you spot the baby? I’ll give you a hint: she and her stuffed unicorn are plotting their escape.
Weekly Happenings: Sunday was Father’s Day. I got up a bit early and made Paul breakfast. Joseph made him a card and also gave him the present he made while in school (way to think ahead, kinder teachers!). His big gift was one of those laptops that completely flips around to become a tablet. We sure love the daddy in our home! Monday, for a fun family night, we took the kids to La Cantera (the outdoor mall close to home) to have a treat and play at the playground. Much fun was had by all. On Wednesday, the missionaries from our ward came to visit us (and to practice teaching). It was a pretty fun visit. The rest of the week was a chill-at-home type of a week, which we really do love.
The Weekly Weather: Hot, humid…pretty much copy-and-paste from last week, haha.
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been pretty busy with school. He had a lot of programming projects as well as a couple of papers to complete. He’s just got a month left, so we’re cheering him on to the finish line!
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I hosted book club, which was a lot of fun. I love getting to have some grown-up time that contains intellectual conversation. Other than that, it was pretty much the regular weekly stuff.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: The big news for him this week is that he lost another tooth! This one, we encouraged him to pull out since it was literally hanging by a thread (he could even twist it 360 degrees) and I was rather concerned he would swallow it while sleeping. He was excited to find that the tooth fairy left him four shiny quarters (two extra for being brave enough to pull the tooth out himself).
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She had her 18 month check up. She is 23 pounds, 7 ounces and is 31 and 3/4 inches tall. She loves to dance, bounce, take baths, loves to play with her brother, enjoys stacking Mega Bloks (and any blocks, really), loves to give hugs and high fives, blows kisses, waves, and is interested in anything anyone else is doing without her. She can say: dadeee, mama, Bubba (brother), bah (bath), car, cra-cra (cracker), tayoo (thank you), “Gickey” (Mickey Mouse), wuz-at (“what’s that?” while pointing to something), and something that sounds a lot like “see you”. Oh, and did I mention she finally decided to leave the safety of the furniture and walk independently?! She’s practiced a lot walking very short distances, but never more than 2-3 steps on her own. The other night I looked up from what I was doing to see her just get up and walk across the room to get to something she wanted. She still crawls a lot (or “walks”on her knees), but she definitely is incorporating more walking into the equation.
This Week in Pictures:
Paul’s Father’s Day breakfast: fried eggs, bacon, grits, and iced peppermint tea.Joseph’s fun present for Paul.The front of the card Joseph made Paul.The inside of the card. 🙂She wanted to wear the oven mitts.She liked clapping with them on.All matchy-matchy for church (Joseph was super excited when he realized Paul had bought a matching tie).No nap because of church means that you fall asleep in your car seat the split second the car starts, don’t even wake up when Momma takes you out, and also don’t wake up when Momma hands you over to Daddy.You won’t even wake up to take a picture with Daddy and Bubba. 😉Sunday evening, right after dinner. She reached up, grabbed a pillow off the couch and then proceeded to do this.Paul took this picture. Can you spot the dragonfly?!He also took this one. We hear the cicadas all the time. We don’t often see them, though!Playing tic-tac-toe with herself at the playground in La Cantera.She really liked spinning the tubes.There’s a bar with black things on it that lift up. When you drop one, it hits a piece of metal behind it and makes a sound (kind of like a xylophone). She spent a long time here.Oh, Texas sunsets…I love how the air even seemed to be tinged with pink, orange, blue, and purple.A proud boy holding his tooth.Where has the time gone?!
Weekly Happenings: This was the first full week of summer vacation. I don’t think I realized just how much of our day was filled with getting ready for school, being at school (well, Joseph, at least), doing the whole pick up, drop off thing, etc. until we weren’t doing it. I haven’t launched the workbooks at Joseph quite yet (I felt he deserved a break from school for at least a tiny bit), but that should start soon here. We filled our week with running errands, going to the zoo, a fun trip to the mall (hey, anywhere with AC!), and just relaxing around the house. Oh, one funny story that I keep forgetting to put in here: it was a couple of Sundays ago that this happened, but it’s still seared in my mind, haha. We were enjoying a typical Sunday service when one of the speakers pointed out that there was a scorpion just hanging out in one of the light fixtures (a large dome-type one that is open to the ceiling and hanging down by a thick wire). Well, it’s safe to say that most of the congregation (especially the kids) spent the rest of the meeting a bit distracted, watching that thing slowly walk around in the light fixture. None of us were too worried because scorpions have a hard time getting traction on glass (or it might even be impossible, once it gets to a certain angle), so it was pretty much stuck there, seriously reconsidering its life-choices and probably praying that bugs would fall in there as well, haha.
The Weekly Weather: It’s been hot and dry (and by that I mean no rain…it’s been plenty humid, ha) but we’re supposed to get some much-needed rain coming up this next week.
What Paul’s Been Up To: Pretty much a rinse-and-repeat of last week: school, work, and the like. It will most likely be like this for the next month or so as he digs his heels in for this last session of school.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve added “chief entertainer” to my job description, ha. In all reality, it isn’t that bad (check back with me mid-August, though). There are plenty of things to do around here that are fun. We usually still wake up relatively early (thanks to the alarm clock that is named Abigail), so we even get most of the things done before it gets too warm.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: Playing video games, playing with his sister, working on becoming a LEGO master builder, reading…typical summer stuff.
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She has become a firm believer that the people or characters in the television are talking to her specifically (especially Mickey Mouse or Daniel Tiger), so when one of her shows is ending, she’ll babble (I’m pretty sure she’s trying to say, “see you later” or “see you soon”) and wave. She also LOVES to dance to any music (moves that have bounces and knee-bends at varying speeds and depths). Oh, and she has decided that if she gets hurt, she needs to “get loves” (hugs) from everyone present. She especially loves to get hugs from Joseph. When he hugs her, she’ll put her head down on his shoulder and pat his back. It just might be one of the cutest things she does…though, when I’m holding her and she grabs the end of my braid to rub in her face to tickle herself…that’s pretty cute, too.
This Week in Pictures:
Giving “Bubba” (that’s what she refers to him as) “loves”.One of her favorite past times: taking all the books out of her book bin and looking at {some of} them.Checking out the dinos.She loves being strolled around so that she can see all the animals.Learning all about owls and checking out the taxidermied one.Chillin’ while watching “gickey” (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). Why does she look so huge in this picture?!Showing off his latest LEGO set: a Minecraft mini-scene.Sweet baby girl.It’s hard to believe she’s going to be 18 months old this next week. Where has the time gone?
