Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: This past weekend, we had the pleasure of having my nephew and his family stop by while they were in town. We had a really nice visit and Joseph was ecstatic that there were kids to play with. The rest of the week went pretty much as planned and then just this morning I took both kids to the zoo so that Paul could have some quiet time to work on homework. I really do love having the zoo close enough to visit on a regular basis. I also love having passes. We were able to go for just an hour and not feel like we had to try and see everything. Today we spent a lot of time in the aquarium and even went in to see the lories (we didn’t feed them…just enjoyed their presence). Abigail was really intrigued by those brightly colored birds.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been rather gloomy as of late. Overcast days, smatterings of rain, etc.. Yesterday, the sky finally opened up and we had a good, soaking thunderstorm. Today’s weather is gorgeous! Warm, sunny, and breezy. I love it!

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been rather busy with school work and team meetings (for school) as well as work and home life. He’s in the home stretch now, though! Just a couple more months and he’ll be done with his Bachelor’s. I am so, so proud of him!

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve mainly been doing my typical mom thing. Not too much out of the ordinary for me.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: As I mentioned before, he loved getting to play with his cousins. He also had fun at school since they’ve started this countdown of sorts. Mid-week this past week, we hit the point of only having twenty-six school days left before the end of the school year (this is not counting weekends, obviously). The kindergarten classes decided they would assign a letter of the alphabet to each day, starting with “Z” and do fun things or dress up in coordination with that letter. It should make for a fun end of the year.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: Here’s a bit of a run down of what she’s been doing (and saying): her current “word” list: mama, dadee, bu-buh (Joseph), bah-bah-bah (bath), nigh-nigh (nap/night-night), uh-oooh (either love you or thank you) and gicky (Mickey Mouse). She also says, “Eeeeeeeee!” when I ask if she wants to watch her babies (Baby Einstein) and will make that same sound whenever she approves of what we’re doing (getting food for her when she’s hungry, playing with her, etc.). She can point to her nose (and sometimes her eyes), gives things “loves” by holding the object (usually a stuffed animal) close to her and patting it, loves to turn on and off light switches, tries to open doors, dances to music, claps, plays peek-a-boo, blows kisses, waves, and is on the cusp of walking without assistance.

This Week in Pictures:

Bonus Video: Welcome to the Crazy (a typical afternoon or evening in our house):

Weekly Happenings: Earlier this week, we got to go see a cool fossil exhibit set up at Joseph’s school. The kids got to visit it during the school day, but it was open to families in the evening, so we went and checked it out. It was pretty cool! Towards the end of the week, Joseph had his shoe box float parade to celebrate Fiesta, as well as a party afterwards. Abigail was a real trooper that day because I fed her breakfast while she was sitting in her stroller as we were waiting for the parade to start (she loved the parade since everything was pretty much at her eye level). Then she hung out with me (in the Tula) while I helped pass out snacks at Joseph’s party. I was allowed to check Joseph out early after the party, so we all went home, had lunch, and just relaxed. Friday, the spring on our garage door broke (with the door up, of course). Boo. Paul was able to get the broken spring and cable and everything off (and the door back down, thank goodness), but we found that the replacement spring would be really expensive. We ultimately decided to switch out the type of spring system to one that, while much more difficult to replace (in fact, it’s recommended that only a professional do it), is much cheaper and actually much sturdier (at least it seems so when comparing new parts to old ones). We had the repair company come out today and do the replacement. It was hard deciding to spend more money now, but we feel we made the right decision because it will be better in the long run.

The Weekly Weather: We had mostly beautiful weather. We did have quite the rainstorm come through one day, but it did its thing and the next day was as beautiful as the rest of the week.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He got to go see the new Avengers movie, which he enjoyed. He also spent a lot of time finding the right YouTube videos to watch in order to assist him with figuring out how to get the broken garage door spring off (which he did not enjoy as much). He’s also back into full gear for his last semester of school. Just 3 more months to go!

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Other than helping out with Joseph’s party, the rest of my week was pretty typical.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a ton of fun with all the activities that we had this week. I think he is starting to get a bit antsy, though. We’re just a bit over a month out from summer vacation starting and I think he’s ready for lazy summer days…I might be, too!

What Abigail’s Been Up To: We moved her little baby walking toy downstairs, so she’s been practicing a lot more with it and getting a little more confident walking with assistance. I don’t think it’s going to be much longer before she takes off on her own! She’s also adding more and more sounds that kind of sound like (and may actually represent) words. She understands a lot of what we say, too. She has officially hit 16 months as well. It’s so hard to believe!

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: Tuesday night was Joseph’s kindergarten performance. It was super cute. They did songs that were about Dr. Seuss books and a lot of the kids (including Joseph) had little speaking parts. He didn’t seem the least bit nervous and said his line clearly. I’m so grateful for his experience in church with Primary programs. I truly believe they make him more prepared for things like this. Other things that happened this past week included marking the continued growth of our garden along with some home/decorating/organization projects.

The Weekly Weather: We’ve continued to have nice spring weather. I can hardly believe it! Last year, it was so much warmer during this time of year. I’m really trying to soak it in before the real stuff begins.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He was able to put together a storage unit that we picked up from IKEA. Abigail’s reach is getting higher, so stuff we don’t want her to get has to go higher or into a cabinet that has a baby lock on it, haha. He also helped Joseph make his shoe box float for the parade they’re having this upcoming Thursday (related to Fiesta).

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Along with my normal mom stuff, I better organized the “cozy corner” (the area under the bookshelves downstairs). We ordered some foam squares that go together to make a rug of sorts (of which Abigail has only tried to take apart a few times so far, haha) and I picked up another bean bag chair, since Abigail was sort of commandeering Joseph’s. I could see that it bothered him, even though he wasn’t voicing his complaint. The new chair was a lot poofier than Joseph’s, so at Paul’s suggestion, I moved some of the pellets from the new to the old (which was quite floppy). If you ever need an exercise in patience, that just might be the task to try, haha. The result was two only-sort-of-poofy chairs, which is perfect.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: I already mentioned his performance. Other than that, he’s just been plugging along with school with the occasional play date thrown into the mix.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been her typical awesome baby-self. She is expressing the desire to get down more and walk along with one of us holding her hands (or using whatever she can push along to walk with). Sometimes I’ll walk into the dining room to find that she’s rearranged the chairs for me, haha.

This Week in Pictures: