Spring is REALLY Here

Weekly Happenings: This past week we officially welcomed spring…with almost the entire week being rainy, hahaha. We didn’t really do too much outside of the house, consequently. We celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day by having shepherd’s pie. Paul took this past Thursday off in order to get some stuff done in the yard (he was going to do homework, but decided that since Thursday was actually clear, he’d save the homework for a rainy day…make hay while the sun shines). Friday morning dawned with the discovery of a couple fun nature things: 1) we saw a sprout come out of the cup that Joseph planted some seeds in last week with his Primary class and 2) some birds decided to build a nest on our patio (one of our friends who bird watches called them Phoebies…they look a bit like a sparrow). Later on Friday, Joseph and I braved the elements and went to the zoo (the weather was actually clear while we were there, it only just started to rain as we were walking to the car to go home). I also took him to the mall yesterday so that Paul could get some homework done in peace. 🙂

The Weekly Weather: As mentioned before, the weather was rather dreary this past week. This week is supposed to be much better, with more sun and warmer temperatures. I bet that pretty soon I will be complaining about the heat and humidity, but right now, it feels pretty good.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He did quite a bit of work in the yard (mowing, fertilizing, weeding, etc.) and it shows! The grass is greening up and looks really nice. He also built some raised garden beds and planted some blackberries. You can read more about the process on his blog, here. Oh, and he planted the pumpkin seedling which had quickly exceeded its original home in a plastic cup. When he’s not doing yard work or working, he’s spending quite a bit of time working on his classes with the Pathway program. For one of his classes (a religion one), he has to keep a running journal about his reading. His journals are usually formatted like this.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much, actually…still teaching piano (I had one student decide not to take lessons anymore, but another who is showing interest in starting, so it will work out), still leading the ward choir (we performed our Easter music today and received many compliments), still doing the visiting teaching coordination (almost all my slips are passed out…I may just mail the last two), and still maintaining the household (everything’s relatively clean, hahaha).

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Last Sunday (while I was typing up my blog, actually), he and his little buddy next door (a little boy about 6 months older than he is) were communicating to each other through the windows in our respective living rooms (since they line up perfectly). They told each other jokes, showed each other toys, and did a myriad of other things. It was pretty cute. We also spent some time this week making sock puppets (his friend had some extra supplies left over, so his parents decided to share with us), which Joseph loves. He loved the zoo, and was happy to go to the mall (since it meant he could play in the Lego Store). I did end up purchasing a mini kit for him to get to put together with Paul…who am I kidding? Paul put it together with Joseph’s help (since the instructions are still a bit over Joseph’s head). The past few nights, he’s been complaining about the dark at night, saying that there are monsters. I know this is a natural part of childhood, but man, it’s frustrating. I just keep reassuring him that everything is okay and that there is no such thing as monsters. The other night, he asked specifically to have his plush armadillo, spider, and Angry Bird in bed so that they could protect him. I found his choice kind of amusing.

This Week in Pictures:

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Making faces at his friend.
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Not much beats a pile of cars.
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Announcing Paul’s arrival home by “playing” the trumpet.
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Sometimes I get creative with breakfast: a toast flower with strawberry center.
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The blackberries!
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Anteater!
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Pointing out the dart frogs. He loved their bright colors.
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He always wants to sit on the “Daddy lion”.
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Feeding the fish…definitely a favorite.
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Sock puppets!
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“Roar!!”
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Building a Lego car with Daddy.

 

It’s Spring!

Weekly Happenings: Well, I know it won’t officially be spring until later this month, but the weather we’re having sure makes it feel like it is. I was able to take Joseph to the park three times this past week (he was beside himself because of it). Tuesday, I was able to take Joseph downtown to meet up with friends to go see a kids’ play. It was about two characters of a popular kids’ book series called Elephant and Piggie. It was hilarious! After the play, which was only an hour long (perfect for preschoolers), I splurged and bought Joseph one of the books they were selling that also had a picture of the cast (along with their signatures). The book is also really funny. Joseph has had me read it to him so many times that he practically has it memorized. Wednesday-Friday we practically lived at the park, yesterday we had our turn with cleaning the church (Joseph helped me wash windows and also “helped” Paul vacuum, though I’m not too sure how much help he actually was) and then headed home to get some stuff done around the house, and today has been the typical Sunday (get up, go to church, come home for lunch, go to choir, come back, etc.).

The Weekly Weather: The very beginning of this past week was kind of cold and dreary, but by the time Thursday came around, it was beautifully sunny and warm (but not hot). This really is one of my favorite times of the year in South Texas. There was even one evening where I spread a blanket out in the shade (of the fence, our trees are still babies) and relaxed while Joseph played around me (he also joined me on the blanket for an impromptu game of “I Spy” which is one of his current favorites). When Joseph joined me on the blanket, he made sure that we were laying in identical positions (with arms under heads) and then sighed, saying, “What a beautiful blue sky!” I couldn’t agree more, kiddo!

What Paul’s Been Up To: Work and school as usual…he also did a bit of work in the yards, getting them ready for spring.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much, actually. We are having our Easter program next week (what with fast Sunday being moved up and General Conference being on Easter itself), so my choir is getting ready for that. We’re also getting ready for the Easter fireside our stake is putting on in two weeks. Each ward choir from the stake is going to perform a piece, there will be a combined choir piece that all the choirs will be singing together, and there’s even a Primary combined piece that Joseph will take a part in. It’s going to be great!

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s had a really good week with hardly any challenging behavior moments. I think it’s partially because I’m trying really hard to redirect him when he starts doing something instead of just snapping at him. He also got to do something really fun with his Primary class today. They cut apart an apple and each of them got to plant an apple seed in a cup. They then got to eat the pieces of apple. According to his teachers, one little boy decided to throw his apple piece instead of eat it, and Joseph grabbed him by the shoulders (not too roughly, they assured me), and said, “We don’t have flying apples!” His teachers said that they were so surprised that all they could do was laugh, especially since the little boy wasn’t in the least bit upset (and he didn’t throw any more apples, hahaha). Oh, and something cool that we discovered is that somewhere, at some point, Joseph has figured out which hand is his left and which is his right (he gets mixed up on occasion, but for the most part, he’s got it). Pretty awesome for being three. 😀

This Week in Pictures:

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Tooting a horn.
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He couldn’t choose between his Superman hat and his cowboy hat, so he was wearing both.
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Right before the play started. He really liked the “bouncy” seats and loved it when the actors got the audience involved, but he thought some of the songs were too loud (since the actors were mic’d).
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With his new book.
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Riding around the block. Kind of blurry since I was almost running to stay close to him.
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Munching on lunch. He really likes peanut butter sandwiches, apples (cubed and sans the skin), and celery (on occasion).
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He’s gotten really good at going across the balancing bridge.
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One thing I love, love, love about our park is all of the trees.
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I had him pose for the previous picture and this one because it was just too perfect of a picture spot not to.
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He has discovered going down head-first. Luckily, since the slide is plastic and not metal, there seems to be enough friction to keep him from flying off at the bottom.
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This boy and rocks. Oh, my goodness…he loves them so much!
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He also loves sticks…and digging in dirt.
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He is currently semi-obsessed with Mario Brothers (he even told me that he wants a Mario party for his birthday…almost six months away). Here he is, pretending to be Luigi from Luigi’s Mansion (a game where Luigi has a backpack vacuum and flashlight to spotlight ghosts and then suck them up).
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He is using one of our flashlights and then has his puppy backpack on to be the vacuum.
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Running around in the backyard.
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Relaxing with me on the blanket.
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He asked me if I could teach him to play (since it was Linus and Lucy from Charlie Brown, another favorite). Maybe in a couple of years, sweets.
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Our local grocery store gives the kids “Buddy Bucks” to put in a machine which spins and gives out points (kind of like The Price is Right). The kids can save up points to get prizes, or there is one “Instant Winner” slot. Joseph managed to get “Instant Winner”. His prize was a bracelet with an eraser on it. He was quite excited. He was kind of upset the next time he played that he didn’t get “Instant Winner” again, but I reminded him that he could still save up his points. I think this will be a good lesson, actually.

 

Springing Forward…and other things

Weekly Happenings: We didn’t do too much this past week because the weather outside was rather frightful (and it isn’t even Christmas!). I made some decorations for St. Patrick’s Day for our door and we went to the library to exchange books for Joseph. He loves books…often I will hear him via the baby monitor, “reading” (basically recapping) some of his favorites to himself. We also did some running around for my visiting teaching calling and music calling. There was one day when it wasn’t absolutely freezing/raining, so when some friends invited us to the park, we jumped at the chance and Joseph had a great time (even though he and one of his friends crashed head-on into each other and both ended up with goose-eggs on their heads). Last night we set all the clocks forward an hour to transition to DST. Consequently, Joseph slept in and so did we (since we’ve grown accustomed to him being our alarm clock), making it so we barely made it to church on time. 🙂

The Weekly Weather: As I mentioned before, it was rather atrocious this week. It was cold (and I really mean COLD) and wet. Either Mother Nature forgot it was March in South Texas or she was reminding us that it’s still technically winter. This week looks much more promising. 🙂

What Paul’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary. He finished up interviewing with our bishop and stake president as part of the admissions process to get into BYU-Idaho. No, we’re not moving. He’s working on completing his Bachelor’s Degree in IT online. He also put up some hooks for me so that we have a place to hang hats and whatnot. The hat rack was nice, but was a little more cluttered-looking than I liked looking at all of the time.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Pretty much the same old-same old. I really can’t think of anything too out of the ordinary happening that I haven’t already mentioned elsewhere or will be bringing up at a later point in this post (other than the fact that I did a bit of spring cleaning in addition to my regular cleaning, so the house is looking pretty good). 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: A lot of pretend-play. Earlier this week he was pretending that I was Princess Peach and he was Mario, so he had to protect me from Bowser (all from Mario Brothers). He’s also loving the fact that I’m allowing him to be a bit more independent. The other day, he hopped down from his place at the table (oh yeah, Paul pointed out that he was almost outgrowing his booster seat, so we took it down and now he sits at the table with us in just a chair…another thing that he loves) and put his plate in the sink and his cup back in the fridge, all without being asked. It was such a great parenting moment! Finally, he’s showing even more of his sweet side. He’ll ask/tell me and Paul if/that we’re his best friends and ask/tell us if/that we love him. Oh, and he’s decided that his current favorite church song is “I Love to See the Temple”. When I go in to sing him a bedtime song and ask what song he wants me to sing, he’ll almost always pick that one. I love it!

This Week in Pictures: (rather light this week…a byproduct of our lazy week, I suppose)

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Joseph loves it when we make decorations for the door. This time it is shamrocks, a rainbow (with a pot of gold), and some leprechaun footprints.
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I love that Paul was able to hang some at kid height so that Joseph can get his own jacket and hat (and also put them away).
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This kid…I have no idea where he get’s his style from.
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Mini traffic cones double as claws wonderfully.