Darr Family Blog

We had a pretty down-to-earth week, just plugging away at every-day life. To make today (Veterans’ Day) special, we decided to have an all-fun day. First we went to Bass Pro Shops. Paul needed some more ammunition, so Joseph and I went along so that he could see all the “stuffed” (taxidermy) animals, the big fish, and (as a surprise, since we didn’t know) apparently the Christmas decorations (they always decorate the entire store).

After that, we had plans to go to Sea World, but we found out that they were closed (the Sea World here is only open on weekends during the fall/winter/early spring…late spring and summer are when they’re open all the time, but they are usually open on holidays, so we were a bit surprised that they weren’t open today), so we decided at the last moment to drive out to the zoo. I’m glad we did, because they were letting military people in for $5/ea. today (and Joseph is still free since he’s not 3 yet), so it only cost us $10 (parking is free). Joseph had so much fun! He loves looking at all the different animals. We grabbed a quick bite to eat on the way home for Joseph’s nap time.

After Joseph’s nap, we decided to head out for dinner. There are several restaurants that offer free entrees to veterans on Veterans’ Day, so we decided to go to Chili’s. After dinner, we headed over to La Cantera (an outdoor mall) because we found out that Build a Bear was also doing a special military discount. I’ve been considering getting Joseph a bear for a while, but they tend to be a little on the expensive side, so we decided to wait until Joseph was old enough to appreciate the whole process…and I’m glad we waited, because he had quite a bit of fun tonight. We picked the bear for him (he loved watching them put the stuffing in it), but then he helped put the heart in it (the process of warming it up, giving it a heartbeat, the whole 9 yards), and gave it a “bath” (at their bathing station). We didn’t pick any clothes for it, since he seemed to like the bear just like it was. Because of that, the bear was actually on the less expensive side. He and the bear were inseparable from that point on (I had to sneak a couple of his other stuffed animals out of his crib so that there would be room for the bear).

Cute stories from the week:

1) Paul has an app on his phone that makes it so that he can say, “Okay, Google” and it will open up a search window. After that happens, you can say something and it will search for it. Or, if there is music playing, it can identify the song. Joseph thinks this is super cool. Every once in a while, I would see him holding his play phone up and say, “Okay, Google”…except it came out more like, “Okay, Goigle”. 🙂

2) Joseph has been singing a lot more this week. I catch him singing his ABCs (he misses a few here and there, but it’s still awesome, I think) and different church songs. Yesterday, Paul and I were talking while on the way home from church and there was a lull in the conversation. During that lull, we could hear Joseph singing along to “We’ll Bring the World His Truth”, which was playing in the CD player. Even though I couldn’t understand all his words, I could still feel the Spirit very strongly.

3) Joseph was playing with his toy knight and then started singing the song “I Feel Better” from a show he likes called Doc McStuffins (a show about a little girl who can bring toys to life and then if they get hurt she fixes them. After they get fixed, they always sing that song). At first I was confused, but then I remembered that a few days earlier, the episode had been one where a toy knight had been hurt. Joseph put that together with his toy knight. He amazes me more and more each day.

4) I have yet to step on Legos, since we don’t have any…but the other day Joseph had (unbeknownst to me) spread out his little green army men. Yikes! I almost felt like he sabotaged me! 😉

This week in pictures: a bit of an overload since there are zoo pictures in here. 🙂

Well, not much has happened yet, since November has just begun, but I’m sure it will start gearing up soon. The holidays are all of a sudden just around the corner. This last week was pretty laid-back for us. Most of the week was devoted to getting ready for Halloween (stocking up on candy for trick-or-treaters, getting costumes, etc.). Joseph watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” about 20 times and laughed all the way through Snoopy’s WWI flying ace bit; every, single time. He LOVES Snoopy now.

We made a stop by the ward trunk-or-treat but didn’t stay long (it was hot, muggy, and looked like it was about to pour…in fact it started to rain pretty hard when we were getting into the car to go home). Joseph didn’t miss much, since he’s not into trick-or-treating yet (in fact, we can’t really even get him to eat candy. He tends to like salty over sweet. I know, what a problem, huh?).

Then this past weekend, he and Paul got quite a bit of Daddy-Joseph time since my cousin Kelli came into town Friday night for a quick business trip/visit (I was helping her at a vendor show. She is a consultant for a jewelry company. We also had a jewelry show at our house on Saturday morning before she left to go back to Houston).

Saturday evening, Joseph had his first sleep-over…well, sort of. Some friends of ours had to go help out with the Gladys Knight concert that was being held at our Stake center, so we watched one of their children, a little boy who’s just younger than Joseph, for the evening. I call it a “sleep-over” since we watched him late enough that we needed to put him to bed for a bit before his mom and dad could come get him (we just put a pack’n’play in the guest bedroom and he was fine). Those two boys had SO much fun! In fact, Joseph’s last words before he went to sleep on Saturday night were his little friend’s name, over and over again. 🙂

Sunday morning, as I was getting dinner ready to go into the crock-pot, I was lamenting the fact that we had no thick, crusty bread to go with the soup. Then I thought to myself, “Why fuss about it? Just make some bread!” I looked at the clock, figured out I had enough time to do it before having to leave for church, swallowed back the trepidation of failing (I don’t think I’ve ever made bread, from scratch, without my mom’s help…with the exception of pizza dough, that is), and went at it. I don’t know why I was nervous. I helped Mom bake bread for years, so I knew what the dough was supposed to look like when made properly. Besides, my mixer did all the work! I ignored the recipe book’s suggested way to shape a loaf and just did it how Mom’s always done it, and the bread turned out great! I feel a small sense of accomplishment, lol.

This Week in Pictures:

This past week was pretty much a run-of-the-mill type week. Our days were filled with going to work (Paul) and hanging out at home (me and Joseph). We (Joseph and I) kind of have a routine going: On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we go for a walk around the neighborhood in the morning, and then I come home and clean different parts of the house while Joseph plays. On Tuesdays, we go grocery shopping (it’s always a bit of a trip to the commissary), and on Thursdays we go to music playtime. Joseph loves music playtime because not only does he get to sing and dance, but he gets to see other kids around his age and he gets to play with toys after the music part is over. Occasionally this past week, I’ve heard him singing music playtime songs to himself when he’s playing. I love to hear him singing songs. 🙂 Saturdays and Sundays are obviously family days that we spend together with Paul.

As Halloween is approaching, Paul and I have been trying to get Joseph ready for it. Last year, he was too young to really know what was going on. This year is a bit different. He’s still not into trick-or-treating, but he is starting to pick up on “spooky” stuff. We’re trying to reiterate with him that it’s all pretend, and that it’s okay. We’ve tried showing him fun Halloween stuff (he REALLY loves “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”) to show him that it’s not all scary stuff. We also paid a visit to a local pumpkin patch so that he could pick out a pumpkin and see some of the other things. He was mostly interested in playing with the different pumpkins, which was fine, because most of the stuff there was for older kids. After that, we went out for dinner. We went to one of our favorite restaurants and Paul made sure to order the chicken-fried steak (Saturday happened to be “Chicken-fried Steak Day”).

This Week in Pictures: