A Big Girl Now

Weekly Happenings: After our fun rodeo day on Monday (see previous post), we had a rather low-key rest of the week. We did our routine things and just plugged away. Paul and I ended up both getting new phones. I dropped mine and damaged it and we decided it would be a better idea to replace it than pay for repairs since it was already getting on the older end. When Paul went to purchase my phone, he discovered a really good “buy one, get a certain amount off another” deal that was just too good to pass up, so we decided he would just upgrade now as opposed to a bit later (thus missing the deal at that point).

The Weekly Weather: Mild and sunny…just the way I like it!

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s getting settled into his new position at work. Other than that, it’s been a pretty average week for him.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much on my end, either. I did the typical mom stuff during the week. I did decide that I’m going to start back up with teaching piano. I have two confirmed students and several others who showed interest in getting more information, so we’ll see how many I end up with. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a good week at school, but was excited for the weekend so that he could relax a bit more (his words, not mine…I love when I hear him use phrases that don’t usually come out of a seven-year-old’s mouth).

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She had been giving us fits at night because she would wake in the middle of the night, want out of her crib to snuggle, and then not want back into her crib. That meant I either slept with her on the couch (often waking up with her feet in my face) or took her into the big bed with Paul and me (where she would promptly position herself horizontally, leaving the rest of us a sliver of bed space a piece). This was getting old, fast. Enter the unexpected solution: my friend gave us the toddler bed that her daughter no longer slept in. I hadn’t expected that we would set it up for at least another six months, but with yet another night of fractured sleep appearing eminent, 2 AM on Tuesday morning, Paul dragged the mattress from the toddler bed into Abigail’s room and put her on it (on the floor). She happily went to back to sleep. She also happily took a nap on it that afternoon, so that evening, Paul took apart her crib and put up the toddler bed. She was ecstatic. She’s been sleeping in it since without complaint. Well alrighty-then, miss! The other fun thing that she’s started doing this week is saying, “Ta-dah!” after she does something she thinks is amazing…which is usually something we’ve asked her to stop doing (standing on the coffee table comes immediately to mind).

This Week in Pictures:

Checking out her new set-up.
She discovered Joseph’s old monster hat and insisted on wearing it most of that evening…so that’s why she has it on in these pictures.
Joseph was just as excited for her as she was about the bed.
Sportin’ her shades.
I couldn’t help but get this shirt for her. It says, “All of my friends are wizards” and has six of the main Harry Potter characters on it.
Everything Joseph does, she wants to do…I’m not complaining!
I was testing out the portrait feature on my new phone’s camera. It gave the picture a neat, subtle effect. It doesn’t hurt that the subject matter is cute!


A couple days ago, I was taking pictures of Abigail and messing around with the settings on my phone’s camera and didn’t even realize I took this picture (I had deleted a bunch of blurry ones) until I was scrolling through one of my apps that backs up photos and saw it. I love how it’s blurry in the back but she’s in focus. I think I was in portrait mode when this one got clicked.
This is the crazy that happens before bedtime.

Bonus Video!
Joseph playing Hot Cross Buns

Bonus Blog Post: A Great Way to Chase Away the Winter “Blahs”.

Since Monday was a holiday, we kept with our annual tradition of attending the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. We saw a lot of animals and Joseph rode a lot of rides. Since it was a holiday, it was a “Dollar Day” which meant admission was only a dollar for each of us (Abigail was free). It also meant that each ride only cost one ticket to ride. Overall, it was a pretty fun day. Paul let Joseph take along our old digital camera, so some of these pictures were his. 🙂

Joseph shot: Waiting to leave for the rodeo.
Joseph shot: Excited to be at the rodeo!
Paul shot: By the welcome sign.
Joseph shot: He wanted another picture by the sign so that Paul was in a picture by it.
Paul shot: She’s all about hats.
Joseph shot: She’s always willing to ham it up for her brother.
Joseph shot: He really liked this display wagon.
Joseph shot: He also really liked this tractor. It’s his favorite color, after all.
Paul shot: Our chick checking out the other chicks.
Paul shot: Abigail was ridiculously excited to see real cows.
Joseph shot: He thought the calf was pretty cute. I have to agree with him.
Paul shot: Joseph was a bit disappointed he only got “gallon of milk” (you yanked on the rope and it told you what weight you could lift). I reassured him it was pretty good for a seven year old to be able to lift a gallon of milk.
Paul shot: “Moo”ing in front of the longhorns.
Joseph shot: The sand art that was dispersed about different places was rather impressive.
Paul shot: They both loved the petting zoo.
Paul shot: Abigail loved that she was allowed to pet the goats.
Paul shot: She wanted to make sure each one got petted.
Paul shot: Joseph thought the wallabies were pretty cool.
Paul shot: There were a couple of mazes that Joseph went through. This one was all clear, so he said it was pretty tricky.
Paul shot: Joseph loves this slide.
Paul shot: He has to ride it every year.
Paul shot: He had so much fun that…
Paul shot:…he had to go again.
Paul shot: Giving Dad a “thumbs-up”.
Paul shot: I’m glad he went on this one by himself. It looks like one that would have made me ill, haha.
Paul shot: Joseph also really liked the swings.
Paul shot: They do look rather fun.
Paul shot: Joseph said he kept tripping trying to do this.
Joseph shot: A cool cowboy statue that he and Paul stumbled across while I was off changing Abigail.

Who Would’ve Thunk It?

Weekly Happenings: This past week contained a fun night for Joseph. He had his grade-level performance which was followed by a “glow dance” where the kids got to dance in the gym. They had the regular lights off and had a bunch of glow-in-the-dark and black light stuff. We didn’t stay long since it was REALLY loud, but the kids had fun while we were there. We kicked off our weekend with a trip to the zoo this morning. That was super fun, too.

The Weekly Weather: We really had the myriad this past week. We had rather cold days, mild days, and then yesterday, it was in the 80s. I kid you not. Crazy Texas!

What Paul’s Been Up To: He got the confirmation that he got the new position that he applied for at work, so he starts on Monday. If I remember correctly, it’s a system’s admin position in the IT department. He also was able to take a bit of time yesterday to drive out with one of the other Young Men leaders to check out potential camp sites for the Young Men to use in the future.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been up to my usual stuff. Not too much worth mentioning this time around.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He was happy to get to do his grade level performance and the glow dance. He also had another eventful…event thanks to the assistance of his sister’s…head. You’ll see what I mean in a minute.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: Okay, so anyone who read last week’s post might remember me talking about how Abigail and Joseph collided in the pay tunnel and she knocked his loose tooth out. Well. On Monday night (so three days after the first incident), she was giving him a hug goodnight, lost her footing, and essentially head-butted him…in the mouth. And knocked out his OTHER loose tooth. We could hardly believe it! The Darr household is a bit crazy at times, apparently.

This Week in Pictures:

I like to call this one: “Adventure Awaits…”
Joseph’s in the lower-right-hand corner of this picture.
They were singing Disney songs, so that’s why some of the kids were dressed up in Disney gear.
Here’s a close-up of him.
He had a great time!
I sure love this little boy!
His school got a new bronze statue (they are the Colts) from the woman who the school is named after.
Pushing Minnie in a dump truck. This is the greatest example so far of melding Joseph’s old toys with her new ones.
Stylin’!
She’s ready for her close-up! And yes, these came home with us, haha.
My sweetheart knows me better than I know myself. Seven years ago, when he was in Afghanistan, he bought me a necklace that had lapis as the center stone. For Valentines’ Day, he surprised me with lapis bracelets and earrings. He also surprised me with dark chocolate and a potted miniature rose plant. 😍
Checking out the bears.
Not many of the small cats were out, but we spotted this spotted guy. Do you see him? Look just next to the side of Joseph’s head. 🙂
Joseph enjoyed seeing this guy rooting around.
Giraffes!
Abigail loves walking through the bird enclosure. The birds are loose and rather calm.
They’re doing some renovations to the rhino enclosure (getting ready for new rhinos because they’ll be starting a rhino breeding program). Part of the new renovations was this HUGE statue.
Family selfie on the zoo train!