Weekly Happenings: The most fun event of this past week was getting to celebrate Christmas as a family. It was so fun to see the kids enjoying their presents and it was a great opportunity to take some time to reflect on the gift of our Savior and His birth. I also took the kids to the zoo for some extra fun things (a carousel ride and a ride on the zoo train which had been transformed into the “Holiday Express”).
The Weekly Weather: It’s actually been acting like winter! I think yesterday was the only day that we didn’t wear jackets, and even then, it was still only in the 60s. It’s been nice. 🙂
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been enjoying this break from school. He has been soaking up family time, too, which has been really fun.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not much, other than keeping the kids occupied (especially Joseph, during the break from school).
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been playing with some of his Christmas presents (a magic set and a new video game) and has also enjoyed getting some extra play time with Abigail.
What Abigail’s Been Up To: It’s more like what Abigail’s been IN to…she’s figured out that crawling on hands and knees is A LOT faster than the “low crawl” and she is FAST. I’ve resurrected the title “Commando Destructo” and have given it to her, haha. She had her one-year check up and is floating just under 20 lbs. and is almost 30 inches long.
This Week in Pictures:
The girls all dressed up for church on Christmas Eve.The boys in their matching ties.All ready for bed on Christmas Eve.Here it all is!Santa came and filled the stockings!I got new pots (stainless steel), some new cast iron skillets, and a new food processor…yay!Opening stockings (Joseph was pulling stuff out of Abigail’s for her).Unwrapping presents.More stocking fun.Trying to figure out how to get to her toy through the wrapping.Unwrapping his present from Uncle Jason, Aunt Saira, and Luna.He was so excited……because it was a magic kit!Playing with the empty boxes. As you can see, Paul got a circular saw. 🙂That’s just as fun as the toys, right?Checking out her new books.Playing with her new Cinderella carriage.I meant it when I said she was getting into everything…Playing his new video game.I love watching these two play together!I experimented with making bread dough, letting it rise once, forming it into rolls, and then freezing it. A couple of days later, I took them out to thaw……rise……and bake. Voila! Fresh rolls for Christmas dinner!Paul grilled the turkey…SO good!Our feast!A friend of mine (who has a daughter Joseph’s age) gave me this hat for Abigail. I love hand-me-downs!I went to a white elephant party for Relief Society just before Christmas. I ended up “stealing” this from someone else because I had a feeling the kids would love it, haha.I love this goofball!Riding the carousel at the zoo.Almost a normal family shot…almost, haha.Checking out the new hippo. A while back, one of the hippos unfortunately got sick and died. Right before Christmas, the zoo got a new hippo from another zoo in New Mexico.This new hippo happens to be the grandson of the hippo our zoo still has!“Roar!”Waiting for the train.They gave us jingle bells…sort of like a Polar Express thing.He wanted a close-up since I had gotten one of Abigail.There we got a normal shot!Ringing his jingle bell.Commando Destructo at it again!“Whatcha doin’, Brother?”“Seriously…that looks fascinating…can I see? Please?!”Trying to put on the hat by herself…
Weekly Happenings: This past week was a fun one (as it ought to be, being the week before Christmas). There were parties (a Relief Society one and a kindergarten one), Zoo Lights, and a birthday, of course!
The Weekly Weather: It’s been a mix. It’s been mostly cool (and sometimes cold), but we had some dry days and some rainy days. It’s been nice to have a break from the heat. 🙂
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been enjoying having his evenings (and the weekend) homework-free. He installed both the baby gates that he made and has, of course, had a lot of Dad-and-son time with Joseph.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I attended my Relief Society Christmas party. It was fun to have an evening of relaxed conversation and munching on treats (it was a white elephant gift exchange and cookie bar). I also made bread bears for Paul’s home teaching families. It felt good to be able to continue on a tradition that Mom started many, many years ago.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a Christmas party for his kindergarten class. I didn’t go (Abigail was fighting a tiny tummy bug and really needed her nap), but I know he had a good time. He came home with some fun treats and presents from his sweet teacher.
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She fought off what was luckily just a 24-hour bug just in time to enjoy her (insert drum roll here) first birthday! I am truly having a hard time believing that it’s been a year! We went out to eat (at IHOP so she could have one of her favorite foods: pancakes), went to the zoo to see the Christmas lights one last time, and then came home for presents and cake. It was a fun night. Her personality continues to develop. She has waving down (and will do it whenever she hears the words “hi” or “bye”), loves to dance (mainly bouncing) to music, and loves to scoot around to see what mischief she can get into. The other day, she caught sight of me as she came ’round the bookcase in our room (I was heading into our closet to hang some clothes up). I heard her shriek and turned around to see her peeking out from behind the bookcase. Every time I saw her face, I would say, “boo!” and she would laugh, pull her head out of sight and then put it back into sight. It was the funnest game of peek-a-boo, ever.
This Week in Pictures:
A present from our Relief Society presidency. The beads spell out the word “peace” in Morse code. The holidays can be a bit chaotic. It’s nice to have a tangible reminder of the peace that is possible if only we seek it out.The cookies I brought to the Relief Society Christmas party. They’re a citrus shortbread cookie with candied cherries on top.Abigail trying to figure out this set of wheels. 🙂Paul said she was up on her knees at one point, trying to figure out how to get on.Downstairs baby gate……upstairs baby gate!Joseph’s kindergarten ornament: a plastic (thank you!) bulb with his hand print. The fingers were made into snowmen. The back has the year and his name.The poem that came with his ornament.His teacher gave each student a book with……a picture of their class the day after we got snow (so there was still snow on the playground) and a sweet message. I seriously almost started to cry.The decoy boxes (usually she loves to play with boxes) are ALMOST as entertaining as trying to get to the ornaments.She really loves blueberry pancakes (and puffs, which are pictured here…since she had already practically inhaled her pancake).Bread bears and some strawberry preserves for Paul’s home teaching families.525,600 minutes of awesome!“Surfing” the Komodo dragon.“Rawr!”Abigail’s first carousel ride!We sat on a stationary bench. She loved the lights and animals…and taking pictures with Momma, of course.Paul stayed with Joseph, who picked his favorite spot.“Ta-da!”A while back, one of the hippos at our zoo unfortunately got sick and passed away. When we went to see the remaining hippo on Friday night, we found out that they had just gotten a new hippo (from a zoo in New Mexico), who happened to be the grandson of the hippo they still had. There was also a cute sign on the glass that said they got a hippopotamus for Christmas.Opening her present from Uncle Jason, Aunt Saira, and Luna……a really cute book (she LOVES books).Momma and Daddy got her a Minnie Mouse.Joseph also picked out a different Minnie Mouse for her when we were at the mall earlier this past week.There’s a sweet sister in our ward who is kind of like a surrogate grandma for the kids. She got Abigail this puppy that is interactive (and has different levels of difficulty depending on age).Abigail’s cake. I found a mix for a mini cake (which was perfect for our family) and decided at the last minute to draw a butterfly on there.With the candle lit.She LOVED being sung to!“What is this?”“I can eat it?”“Are you sure?”“Well, alright! Mmmmm, yummy!”“This plate can double as a toy, right?”Playing with birthday presents is the best!
Weekly Happenings: We didn’t do too much out of the ordinary this week. We just sort of puttered along, doing our routine stuff. We’re gearing up for the end-of-year festivities (Abigail’s birthday and then Christmas). It’s hard to believe that in a couple weeks it will be 2018!
The Weekly Weather: It’s actually remained on the cooler side (I think we wore sweatshirts/jackets every day).
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s finished up school for the semester and has a short break. He took Joseph to see the new Star Wars movie on Friday night. They both enjoyed the father-son outing immensely.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been chasing around a little baby girl who is able to scoot around rather proficiently. She’s never where I leave her for long. Other than that, it’s been pretty much the same routine.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been enjoying school. His teacher has been doing a “Holidays Around the World” where they learn about all the different holidays that are celebrated around the world during this time. As mentioned before, he really enjoyed going to see Star Wars.
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s decided that baby food in general (and being spoon-fed) is for the birds. This caused some minor scrambling to be done on my part to put together some foods that would be okay for her to feed herself. She seems to really enjoy the new independence. Another thing she’s started to do is to pull herself up on more things. Also, just as I was beginning to type this blog entry, I looked up in time to see her crawl on hands and knees for a little bit before transferring back to the “low-crawl” that she seems to favor. She’s getting so big! Oh, one cute story: I told her that I loved her and she (very seriously) answered with “Ah-rawr”. I guess she was channeling her inner-dinosaur,
This Week in Pictures:
All dolled up for church…baby boots are pretty cute!“How does this thing work?”“Oh, hi, Mom!”“I’m not too sure about this hat…”Playing with the Mega Bloks.She really loves to sneak into the cabinet and get at the video game controllers. She’ll never go for it if I’m watching her.Paul has this fun feature on his phone that inserts graphics into pictures as you’re taking them.Joseph really liked this BB-8 graphic…I’ve lost count on how many years we’ve had this snowman. One of Paul’s former foster moms gave it to us. Abigail really likes it because it lights up and plays music.The inaugural “I feed myself” meal: rotisserie chicken, rice, cooked apples, and cooked carrots (both which thankfully come pre-cooked…thank you, Gerber).Exploring Joseph’s tent.Discovering she can reach the train tracks.Discovering that the train tracks come apart…it was so funny. She’d pull a piece off and look at it with a surprised look (almost like she was saying, “Wow, how did that happen?”) and then almost immediately give me a “This is okay, right, Mom?” look. 🙂He still likes to hang out with me even if he’s playing on his tablet.
