Darr Family Blog – Page 149 – The place to follow the Darr Family

A Rather Interesting Week

Weekly Happenings: This past week was rather interesting, in that Paul took both Thursday and Friday off (more about that later). The first part of the week was normal as far as our normal schedule is. On Wednesday, I did go to a baby shower so Paul and Joseph had quality father-son time (including a trip to Orange Leaf for frozen yogurt). Thursday, Paul spent the majority of the day working in the yards (Joseph and I were out with him for some of the time, but I spent most of the time entertaining Joseph inside and teaching my piano students). Friday night Paul had a camp out, so the earlier part of Friday was spent with Paul doing homework and Joseph and I running errands. Joseph was pretty sad to see Paul go on Friday night, so I took him out for shaved ice. He perked up right away. 🙂 Yesterday, Paul got home from the camp out, showered, and then he, Joseph, and I went to a book signing for one of our favorite authors (Brandon Sanderson). We each had a new book of his to sign (and I also had a crustier copy of another of his). It was neat to get to meet him. Then we headed home (I was a bit tired since I decided yesterday morning to pull all the grass from the planter boxes under each of the trees in the back yard…I almost pushed myself too hard with my back but luckily didn’t injure myself by pushing myself too much) and got Paul’s old lap top since someone responded to his Craigslist add to buy it. With the money we got from that, we went to Best Buy and upgraded my lap top (and now Joseph gets to mess around on my old lap top). The trickle-down effect is great!

The Weekly Weather: It’s been warm and sunny. I think it’s official (even if the calendar disagrees): winter is done for and spring has arrived (in South Texas, at least).

What Paul’s Been Up To: More about his yard work day: Thursday morning, we headed to Lowe’s to get some plants, more wood chips and potting soil, and a couple kits to change sprinklers to drip lines (do you see where I’m going with this?). He then cleared out Joseph’s sand box (which Joseph hadn’t used for quite a while), added some soil, and planted a few things (which we’ll hand water). He also ripped out all the old, dead tomato plants and planted fresh ones. He changed the sprinkler heads out that are closest to the tomatoes (and originally pointed into the garden bed anyway) into drip lines, mowed both yards, and then put down weed & feed (a sure sign that spring is on its way). I’m grateful for all of the work he does to keep our yards looking nice! Friday’s camp out was an overnighter at Government Canyon (the state park that’s just a couple miles from our house), so Joseph and I dropped Paul off and then he hitched a ride home with someone on Saturday morning.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary, actually. I’ve been enjoying the weather. I think I like all of the seasons in San Antonio (yes, even summer with all of its humid ickiness has a few selling points), but fall and spring are my favorites, by far. The air is so fresh (and even smells good, if that makes any sense) and the temperature is just right. Right now, as I sit typing, I can glance up and look out my storm door to see the beautiful blue sky and puffy white clouds. Having grown up being surrounded by mountains, the lack of mountains and “big skys” in South Texas took some getting used to, but now I love it and even feel a bit closed-in whenever we go back to California to visit.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Nothing really out of the ordinary for the little dude this past week. We did take him to get his hair cut on Thursday morning (before our trip to Lowe’s) so that he’ll be cooler for the warm weather. Oh! He got to give his first talk in Primary today. He rocked it! When I wrote it out, I tried to use words that he understood (and could pronounce) and consequently, he read a good 95% of it on his own. It did my heart proud! Oh, and early last week, a friend of mine passed down her kids’ Mega Bloks (since they’ve sort of outgrown them) to Joseph and he’s been having a blast building new stuff.

This Week in Pictures:

IMG_20160221_185737 — He’s a building machine!

IMG_20160222_133021 — Digging through his new treasures.

IMG_20160225_135228 — I love this goofball!

I got a text with this picture while I was at the baby shower I attended. He sure loves his Daddy! He got rather brave with his frozen yogurt choice (up to this point he’s always had vanilla with fresh strawberries) but this trip he decided on coconut frozen yogurt with chocolate chip cookie dough bits, sprinkles, and Whoppers. I laughed really hard when Paul told me!

IMG_20160226_082139 — Joseph’s sand box-turned-garden. He’s expressed interest in helping with gardening, so we picked out a few plants and he’ll get to help water them. The two in the back are a yellow bell pepper plant and basil, and the two in the front are cilantro and a strawberry plant (Joseph was rather insistent that we get a strawberry plant).

IMG_20160226_082217 (1) — The new tomato plants with the drip line system that Paul set up. I’m so grateful to have a husband that knows how to do this sort of stuff! We’re also eventually going to plant pumpkin seeds (with their germination and maturation cycles being what they are, we need to wait a few more months before planting if we want pumpkins for the fall).

16 - 1 (1) — Digging into his shaved ice at “Ahamba Bucks” (Bahama Bucks). He was also brave here…he normally gets vanilla shaved ice with vanilla ice cream on the bottom, but this time he got strawberry shaved ice with vanilla ice cream on the bottom.

16 - 2 — He thoroughly enjoyed our momma-son date…even though he kept giving himself brain freezes from the shaved ice and ice cream (I even noticed goosebumps on his little arms…when we got home, he asked to get into his long-sleeved, long-legged fleece pajamas, hahaha).

IMG_20160228_121515 — Getting ready to give his talk.

Bonus Video: Joseph’s talk! Oh, and for curious minds, the sleeping baby I’m holding is my friend’s, not mine, lol. My friend’s husband was home sick, so I agreed to watch the baby while my friend fulfilled her nursery calling. 🙂

I Think Winter is Over…and The Rodeo’s In Town

Weekly Happenings: Well, it’s still February, but it sure feels like April or May. Joseph is rather confused. He keeps asking me if it’s still winter. I really can’t blame him, though. With the weather behaving like it has, we’ve been wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts all week. Monday, we had a fun family day. Paul had the day off, so we headed downtown to go see the rodeo. We didn’t buy tickets to go see any of the bull riding or anything, we just walked around the fairgrounds. I think Joseph’s favorite part was the petting zoo. My favorite part was seeing how much he enjoyed everything. After we were done at the rodeo, we headed over to the zoo to see the new giraffe exhibit. Needless to say, it was a pretty crazy day. After that crazy day, we made the rest of the week rather low key. The only other thing that was really different than our regular routine was that on Friday night I had friends come over for a party I was hosting (more about that later). While I was partying it up, Paul and Joseph were hanging out upstairs and having quality boy time.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been sunny with highs in the upper-70s to low-80s. Craziness!!! We are supposed to get a few rainstorms coming through, but I don’t think the temperature is going to drop too much because of it.

What Paul’s Been Up To: Aside from school, work, and homelife, not too much has been happening out of the ordinary. He did attend a scout training this past weekend and then also has a campout coming up soon (over at Government Canyon State Park, so about a mile or two from our house).

What Sarah’s Been Up To: A bit more about the party I hosted: A friend of mine is a consultant for LuLaRoe (really cute and comfortable clothes that happen to be modest even!) so she came over and my friends and I tried on clothes, chatted, snacked on treats, and had a good time. One perk I didn’t realize at first was that if my friends bought a certain amount of clothing, I got free clothes. I was so lucky, because they bought enough clothing for me to get two free pieces (and then I bought a third because I couldn’t decide between two prints of a certain shirt…plus I wanted to support my friend a bit). It was so fun! I also had a book club meeting which was tons of fun as usual. Other than those things, my week was pretty average.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: The most notable thing that happened was that he got ahold of my phone while I was otherwise occupied, unlocked it, and took some pictures of himself…seventy-two, to be exact. I am so glad that they were just digital pictures that I could simply delete instead of it being an entire roll of “old-fashioned” film. Crazy kid. I had been experimenting with a setting on my phone that made it so that if I was at a “safe” place (i.e. a place that I unlocked my phone a lot of times), I would only have to do the pattern unlock once a day and then the rest of the day I would just need to do the swipe to unlock. Since home is a “safe” place, all Joseph had to do was wake up my phone and swipe to unlock (things that he’s used to doing with his tablet). Needless to say, that feature is disabled now, ha! He’s also into making his own jokes. One of his goes as follows:

Joseph: “Mom, how did the turtle cross the kitchen?”
Me: “I don’t know, how?”
Joseph: “He ran!”

This Week in Pictures:

IMG_20160215_092213 — Getting ready for the rodeo. I noticed when he put on his hat, it was a bit small (he’s had it for around a year or so). Paul had pointed this fact out before but I had never quite realized it, so we figured we’d look for a new one while at the rodeo.

IMG_20160215_105300 — Riding down a giant plastic cheese slide…because why not?

IMG_20160215_115637 — His new hat is a much better fit.

IMG_20160215_120317 — There were quite a few goats there.

IMG_20160215_120519 — This baby goat was so cute!

IMG_20160215_120523 — I started petting it and it laid its head down on my knee, as if telling me I needn’t ever stop. 🙂

IMG_20160215_120543 — Petting a really fluffy llama.

IMG_20160215_120736 — We thought this alpaca had an awesome face. 😉

IMG_20160215_120936 — The wallaby was SO soft!

IMG_20160215_120952 — Saying hello to a goat.

IMG_20160215_121049 — He also liked this donkey a lot.

IMG_20160215_121217 — He was a little put off by the size of this cow (it WAS pretty substantial), but finally consented to brushing its back.

IMG_20160215_143526 — Checking out the giraffes. There’s an adult and two adolescents, all male. I love my plaid shirt-clad, sunglasses-wearing boys!

IMG_20160215_144136 — We have to take a picture on the elephant almost every time we go.

IMG_20160217_134927 — This shot and the next few are what I decided to keep from the seventy-two shots he got (mostly of himself, but there were a few of the floor, walls, tables, and ceiling fan). I call this the kissy-face.

IMG_20160217_134809 — Then there’s this one…I still laugh each time I see it. I think he was attempting a mad face, but the expression is simply priceless.

IMG_20160218_133227 — Make-shift slide for the win!

IMG_20160219_154539 — Drawing a picture of him with a dog. Pair this with his completely random comment in the car where he said that if we got a dog he would clean up after it, and I think I can safely say we’ve entered THAT phase of childhood…luckily he later decided that his plush Pluto was an acceptable substitute (especially since we have no plans on getting a dog any time soon).

IMG_20160219_175633 — Playing with Daddy’s old harmonica.

IMG_20160219_175614 — According to Paul, Joseph said he was “playing a sad sad cowboy song on the harmonica.”

IMG_20160220_121447 — Please excuse the “bathroom selfie” for the few pictures. I had wanted to show my new clothes to friends, but lacked a photographer at the time (I suppose I could have asked Joseph…ha). This is one of my free items from my LuLaRoe party. I already have a dress that is the same cut as this (it’s called an Amelia), just a different pattern, that I love, so I knew I wanted another, if possible. It actually has pockets!

IMG_20160220_121849 — Here’s the other tunic I ended up buying. The prints are so fun. I love cute, modest clothes!

IMG_20160220_091958 — One of my friends dropped off a valentine for Joseph from her son (who is one of Joseph’s favorite buddies) who was sick on Valentine’s Day and unable to deliver it then. He was so excited!

16 - 1 (2) — The sticker activity page at In-N-Out required great concentration as he waited for his grilled cheese last night. 🙂

A Week Full of Love

Weekly Happenings: This past week was a fun one. Valentine’s Day has never been one that we celebrated in a huge way, but this year we did get to do a few fun things. It started this past Tuesday when Joseph had a Valentine party for Story Time at the library. We then had a Valentine picnic (and cookie decorating) at a park close by with friends on Thursday. On Friday, I took Joseph on a “date” out to the mall where he got to choose a new LEGO kit and then we got a Happy Meal on the way home. Friday night, Paul and I dropped Joseph off at a friend’s house and then went out for dinner (while I love our son, it is really nice for it to be just the two of us every once in awhile). Yesterday we had a low-key day at home and then went to the nearby outdoor mall to walk around in the evening. As far as today goes (Valentine’s Day, itself), we went to church as usual, but do have a somewhat special dinner planned (Paul’s going to grill some steaks and we’re going to have sauteed mushrooms, potatoes, and veggies).

The Weekly Weather: I’m beginning to think that winter is over. The weather this past week was amazing. Warm (but not too hot), sunny, and beautiful. If this is what is in store, I’ll take it!

What Paul’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary…he’s been keeping busy with school work, work, and whatnot. He did use a Best Buy gift certificate that he’s had for a while to purchase an inexpensive Kindle Fire (tablet) so that he has an updated eReader. He also was officially set apart as the Assistant Scoutmaster for our ward.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I had a book club meeting this past week (and have another this week…I love being in two different book clubs. Since I have two books to read each month, I find myself reading a lot more, which makes me feel like I’m spending my time more wisely than I would be if I were to spend it watching TV or endlessly checking Facebook). I’ve also been plugging away with my piano students. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Other than the events that have been mentioned already, not too much. I’ve had so much fun with him this past week. I love watching his reaction when we get to do special things. The pure joy that he expresses makes my heart sing. I love my little man!

This Week in Pictures:

IMG_20160209_111506 — Showing off his bag of treats as well as the craft we did (that’s his handprint made into an “I love you” sign language sign) for the Valentine party at the library. He had a pretty good time.

IMG_20160212_142431 — Joseph picked out a Star Wars LEGO kit. This was the first one I’ve ever attempted to put together (Joseph helped me organize the pieces, but assembly is still a bit over his head)…I usually leave that type of stuff up to Paul. I was pretty happy that I got it put together without even getting a smidge frustrated.

IMG_20160212_142406 — Joseph was pretty excited when I got it all done.

16 - 1 — Paul surprised me on Friday by bringing flowers home. He’s a keeper for sure! 😉

IMG_20160213_133331 — Joseph’s been saving his points from the Buddy Bucks machine (imagine Price is Right spinning wheel but with point values instead of dollar amounts) and finally saved up enough to get a water bottle he’s been eying for a while. He’s pretty excited, to say the least.