Weekly Happenings: We’re getting ready (and very excited) to see family soon. It’s hard to believe that Christmas is just over a week away! Because of knowing that we are going to be extremely busy during the time between Christmas and New Years’, I’ve been trying to keep everything pretty low-key right now. Consequently, not much happened this past week. We did have the ward Christmas party last night which proved to be a good time. 🙂
The Weekly Weather: Cool, but warmer than before. Our tomato plants really like this weather. I don’t know if we’ll be able to eat all that we have…I may need to start sharing with friends and neighbors.
What Paul’s Been Up To: Besides school and work, he just finished the class he needs in order to get his concealed handgun license. It’s something he’s wanted since moving to Texas, so I’m glad we were able to work it out for him to get it!
What Sarah’s Been Up To: The main thing that I accomplished was doing the ward choir program today. We sang three different Christmas numbers which turned out beautifully! I got so many compliments in behalf of the choir today that it really boosted my confidence in this new calling.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: Showing his street smarts (we were at Kohl’s and he said that he wanted a stuffed animal. Paul said that he would need to use his own money, and asked if he had any. He replied that he had some in his pocket. When Paul asked him to get it out, he said, “No, Daddy, you have money in YOUR pocket.”), working on his bedside manner (a few days ago I was taking a rest on the couch. He came up and asked me if I was resting. I answered in the affirmative, so he promptly switched off the lights, covered me in his blanket that he had brought down earlier, patted my cheek, and told me to have sweet dreams. This evening, Paul was resting on the couch and Joseph came up, peeled Paul’s eyelids back and announced that he was awake. I suppose it’s a little hit and miss.), and building his imagination (Paul had gotten him a small set of farm animals to use with his train table and the next morning he told me that he needed his “farmer shirt”, aka one of his plaid shirts, so that he could play with his farm animals.).
This Week in Pictures:
Dancing along to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song.He gets a bit…exuberant.Pushing Ellie in the stroller.He told me that there was some soldier work that he needed to do. 🙂Reading a story before bedtime.See what I mean?! Way more tomatoes than I know what to do with.Playing with his farm animals (see the “farmer shirt”?).“Mom, this is the bull.”He wasn’t too sure about Santa at the ward Christmas party, so Daddy suggested they take the picture together. 🙂Frosting an ice cream cone to make it look like a tree.Decorating the tree.The finished product.Once we got home, he wanted to eat the decorations. After that was done, he asked to toss the tree, lol.
Weekly Happenings: I tweaked my back picking Joseph up last Sunday, so our week was pretty laid back. We more than made up for it yesterday, though. We went out to the BX so that Paul could get a new wallet (his first new one in about 10 years), then we went to the zoo, then to Bass Pro Shops to do some of the fun Christmas things they do there (and to get a ticket to come back and get a ticket to see Santa and get a free picture), then home to take pictures for our Christmas cards, then out to eat dinner at Bobby J’s, then to Wal Mart for a few things (windshield wiper blades and wiper fluid for the Honda), and then back out to Bass Pro Shops for the Santa experience. It was quite the day!
The Weekly Weather: It’s been up and down this week. We’ve had cooler days and warmer days, and some days that started out cold and ended up warm (not to mention the day that started out warm and then dropped more than ten degrees in less than an hour). Gotta love Texas weather!
What Paul’s Been Up To: Work and school as usual. Not too much out of the ordinary this week.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: Other than upping my time on the elliptical from 20 minutes a day to 30 minutes a day, not too much new stuff to report here, either.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: A couple of funny Joseph stories/facts: We were eating popcorn the other day and Joseph said, “Hey, just like on the tree!” There’s a song he sings in nursery that talks about apricot blossoms looking like popcorn popping…so we had a brief discussion about where popcorn really comes from. Also, he has displayed that he can use the voice search option to find what he wants to look at (mainly videos of Super Mario Brothers) on Google, either on our computers or on our phones.
This Week in Pictures:
I love this face!Space-man Joseph.“If I fits, I sits.”We got a Christmas package from Barbara Diamond. The bear slippers for Joseph were really cute, but a bit too small, so he put them on his bear.Firefighter Joseph putting out car fires.At the zoo.This is why it’s so hard to get non-blurry pictures of him. He really likes to dance!He loves seeing all the animals at the zoo.Riding the carousel at Bass Pros Shop.He loved this bear. We love that it was free!Target practice with Daddy.Making foam ornaments.Coloring a picture.He really likes orange. 🙂An updated family picture. Our next door neighbor used her super-nice camera to take the picture, so it turned out really great!Back at Bass Pros Shop. He liked the “zebra chair”.Joseph with Santa. He was really excited to get a candy cane from him. 🙂
Bonus Video for the Week: Joseph singing the ABCs:
Weekly Happenings: The beginning of this week was pretty kick-back. I cancelled my students since most of them were going to be travelling for the holiday. Thursday we got everything ready for Thanksgiving. A good friend of ours surprised us by ordering a smoked turkey which was delivered to our house (he let us know a bit ahead of time so that we didn’t buy a turkey). I made rolls, green bean casserole, and stuffing. We also had cranberry sauce and pecan pie. It was pretty yummy! Friday we spent most of the day decorating for Christmas. We didn’t brave the Black Friday crowds until later in the day, simply because Paul wanted to get a ladder that he’d had his eye on that would help him decorate the outside of our house. We went out again later to get an electric stove that Paul had been eyeing (we lucked out with that because at our regular Lowe’s they only had one left that had been damaged by the forklift when they unloaded the pallet, so we went to another Lowe’s and got the last one; the packaging on that one had also been messed up by the forklift, but the stove itself wasn’t damaged) and a few small decorative items at Wal Mart (spray snow and some gel clings for the storm door and some small ornaments for Joseph’s Christmas tree…more about that later). Saturday I took Joseph to the zoo so that Paul could get some things done around the house.
Weekly Weather: Our typical fall weather has returned: mostly in the low to mid-70s, breezy, and nice. While I like the cold weather, it’s nice to get a break from it!
What Paul’s Been Up To: Besides work and school, he worked a lot on our Christmas decorations and also braved the storage area in our garage to see about storing Christmas stuff up there. He says that the boxes are fine up there empty, but before he can put them up there full, he’ll need to lay some plywood or something across the 2X4s so that the plastic bins can sit up there more securely. He also took the lights off the little Christmas tree that we bought when we first were married (since it no longer lit up)…that was a tedious task! I helped him a bit with it toward the end. We then put it in Joseph’s room and got him some shatter-proof ornaments that he could decorate it with. Paul also cut out some paper snowflakes for it, which Joseph loves. Yesterday, Paul cut down, sanded, and stained a board to put under our little electric stove. It looks super nice! He also went to the shooting range so that he could get in a little practice before taking his class for his concealed handgun permit, which he’ll be doing in a couple of weeks.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much this week since I didn’t have any students. Just Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff. I had my own little tedious task which was to find the burned-out bulb on our pre-lit Christmas tree. There were 5 branches that were unlit, and I finally found the offending bulb after trying all the lights on about 4.5 of the branches. 🙂
What Joseph’s Been Up To: We finally found a way to wash his hair without making him pitch a complete fit during the entire process! I hold a dry washcloth over his eyes and then use another washcloth to get his hair wet (during the soaping up process he’s fine to have his eyes uncovered) and then I cover his eyes again and use the washcloth to rinse out the soap. While it takes longer than dumping water on his head, he doesn’t freak out, which makes it a lot easier on all of us. Joseph is also continually showing us what a defined imagination he has. He was playing with his cars and a couple of Lincoln Logs houses I built for him. One house was the house and the other was the garage, according to him. He dropped some pennies into the “garage” and then proceeded to drive one of his cars into it. Then he stopped, sighed, and said, “Oh no! Scorpions!” Ha! Can you tell that he’s heard us say that a lot? Must be a Texas thing. 😉 He also came up to me last night with a long Lincoln Log and a short one and told me that they were a stick and a marshmallow that I needed to roast. While his imagination is very active, he is also showing a firm sense of practicality and literalness. The other day he asked me for a cookie. I said that we didn’t have any. He then said that we needed to go to store to get some. Finally, today Paul was reading a book on his phone and Joseph wanted to play with the voice command search (if you say “Okay, Google” the phone will allow you to do a search for something vocally instead of typing it out). When Paul said that he was reading, Joseph said, “That’s not a book, it’s a phone!” When Paul said that it was a phone that could do many things (one of those things being acting as a book), Joseph countered with, “But, no…not a book. It’s JUST a phone.” Silly boy probably said that so that Paul would stop reading and let him play with it.
This Week in Pictures:
Playing with his cars and LEGOS.Still one of his favorites.Trying to put on my sweater, but the arms were giving his a bit of trouble. 😉Helping to make busicuits.My first attempt at rolls. They tuned out great!The spread (minus the cranberry sauce and pie).Joseph has made peace with the singing dog. Last year it terrified him. This year, it startled him at first, but then he worked his way though his apprehension and now the dog is one of his favorites (he even wanted to sleep with it, which we said no to…we didn’t want him rolling over on it and making it go off in the middle of the night) and is named “Santa Claus Dog”. 🙂Helping decorate the tree…I think he likes to color coordinate.Paul found an extra pair of safety goggles in some of his boxes and brought them in. Joseph decided that tree-decorating was just dangerous enough to need protective eye-ware. 😉Decorating his little tree. See? More color coordinating! 😉Our new stove. I love it! It makes it feel really homey.A close-up of the stove with the board under it (and the legs, which Paul found hiding as he went through the packaging a second time).Joseph at his favorite place in the zoo.
