A few cute stories

I don’t have any pictures to share, but there are a few things that we’ve done over the past weekend that were too cute not to share.  Plus, I don’t want to ever forget them, so this is the best way to record them.

Last night, our church visited Mission Gardens.  It is a nursing home.  I used to work there when I first moved to Lompoc.  Our youth group had made about 80 little gifts and trinkets for the residents, and the entire church went over last night to deliver the gifts and go caroling through the halls.  We made for a pretty good crowd. 

Val, our youth pastor’s wife was in charge of making sure all of the gifts got handed out.  She would hand the kiddos a gift and little gingerbread man door hanger and they would walk into the resident’s room, say Merry Christmas, and then hand the resident their gift.  When Micah saw what was going on, he wanted to help.  I was so surprised at how well he did.  He is usually a little reticent to do these types of things, and he is usually shy around new people.  But my big boy just walked right into those rooms and handed out gifts.  He would say Merry Christmas, and then hand the ladies and gentlemen their gifts.  No shyness at all.  And once Caleb saw big brother doing it, he wanted to do it as well.  I was so proud of my boys!  Caleb would walk in and say Memy Mismis!  It is so cute the way he says it! 

The boys didn’t know all the carols we sang, but they joined in on the ones that they knew, like Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Jingle Bells, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. 

I loved watching them interact with the residents and sing the carols.  And I loved watching my boys care for these residents, since Mission Gardens still has a special place in my heart even though I no longer work there.

Later as we were driving around looking at lights, John asked Micah why we went over to Mission Gardens.  And he said that God wanted us to help take care of sick people.  Isn’t that just the sweetest thing to know that God is working on the heart of a little 4 year old?  It makes me tear up just thinking about it.  (I know, what a crybaby I am!)

So another story.  I have told you that the boys like to go around to the different Santa figures sitting outside peoples’ houses and tell him what they want for Christmas.  Well, John has been making a Santa voice when Micah would tell Santa what he wanted.  Like a deep voice, “OK, yeah, maybe” those sorts of responses.  And it was cute because when it was Caleb’s turn to talk to Santa, Micah started to make the Santa voice for Caleb.  It was too funny.  Micah wants to be like his daddy so much. I love that the boys love their daddy so much.  I am lucky to have such a good husband who is such a great father to my little boys.

Santa Claus is coming to…WalMart

Santa made a visit to WalMart on Sunday.  He was coming to take pictures with the kiddos and to listen to their wish lists.  And to entice the parents to come also, he offered a free picture of the aforementioned kiddo sitting on his lap. 

Knowing how I love a deal, you may have already figured out that the Stults family would be in attendance for this momentous occasion.  So after church, we headed to WalMart. 

We got to WalMart and Santa was taking a break.  So we walked around for a while and then went back to wait for Santa.  When Santa came, Caleb was fascinated.  He followed Santa all the way back to where the photo employees were.  He kept saying, “Danta Daws, Danta Daws.”  It was pretty cute.  I had to go get him and told him that since he didn’t work at Wally World that he couldn’t go back there. 

Once Santa got settled into his chair, he asked Caleb to come sit on his lap, but Caleb was having none of that.  He didn’t want to go anywhere near Santa then.  So we asked Micah if he wanted to go tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  That was all the encouragement Micah needed.  He went up just like that and started telling Santa about the different things he wanted for Christmas.  And he got his picture taken.  Isn’t my boy photogenic?  This is the free picture that we got.

We were getting ready to walk around some more and Santa came over and gave both boys candy canes.  They thought that was pretty cool.

Here’s a cute story for you.  We’ve been taking the boys driving at night to go look at the Christmas lights.  There’s this one house that I say threw up Christmas.  It is on a corner lot, and every inch of yard space is taken up by inflatables, nativity scenes, and other Christmas decorations.  They even have Christmas music playing in sync with the lights.

There’s this big inflatable Santa at this house, and the first night we were driving around, Micah had us stop the car and roll down the window so that he could tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  And when he was done, Caleb wanted to tell Santa what he wanted.  It was so cute because basically Caleb just repeated most of what Micah said. 

Once we were done with that house, we had to stop at every other house with inflatable Santas and repeat the process.  It’s funny because Micah knows that’s not the real Santa, but he thinks he should tell them all just in case.

The next day, Micah didn’t behave too well at preschool.  So when we got home, John told Micah that if he didn’t start to behave better at school that we were going to have to drive around and tell all the Santas how he had been behaving and Micah would have to tell them that he couldn’t get any presents. 

Now, John and I don’t really emphasize Santa.  We like to focus on the real meaning of Christ’s birth, but it’s just too funny how Santa and presents can motivate good behavior.  But what to do the other eleven months of the year?

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

We put up our Christmas tree this morning.  The boys were super excited about all of the goings-on.  Once we got the tree put together and the garland and star on, it was time for some ornamenting. 

The boys kept looking in the ornament box and Caleb kept making this ooohh sound.  It was really funny.  He kept saying, “I do it.”  But he couldn’t quite get the hangers to stay on the limbs.  He really was just basically setting the ornaments on the limbs.  But he was doing a pretty good job. 

Micah wanted to wear his Duke from GI Joe costume while we were decorating.  As usual, the ornaments are all pretty close together since the boys seem to have favorite limbs to hang almost every ornament on.  But they did their best, and the tree looks pretty good even though most of the ornaments are situated in the same general area.

Here are some pics:

                                     

What happens when the clippers die midway through a buzz cut…

Micah was getting a little shaggy.  I had a craft fair on Saturday, and John and Micah had been talking about Micah getting a haircut all day while I was gone.   Micah agreed that John could cut his hair. 

When the time came for the hair cut to commence, Micah tried to back out.  But we got him to sit still for John to cut his hair.  But then the clippers died.  And this is the result:

Micah was not pleased.  And neither were we because he looked like he had some weird kind of comb-over.  We found another pair of clippers and got the deed done.  But I just thought this picture was too funny not to share.

Here is the after picture:

Now that is one handsome boy!

Happy Halloween!

I’m glad Halloween fell on a Saturday this year.  That’s because John just started his new job and he has been training in Torrance in the LA area all week long.  He’s only home for the weekend, and will be in Torrance training for two more weeks.  If Halloween had fallen any other day of the week, John would have missed out on the festivities.

Our church had a small fall festival, so we decided to take the boys to that.  Micah wanted to be Spiderman again this year, and we had a spider costume for Caleb that a friend had given us, so it worked out perfectly.  If you know me, you know that I love it when it works out that the boys are coordinating.  It doesn’t work out often, but I take advantage of it when it does.  So that’s how we got Spiderman and his spider.

We got to church just as my sister-in-law and our nieces arrived.  Madison was Sharpay from High School Musical and Taylor was a leopard.  Group picture time!

There was a bouncy house and quite a few games.  There was a cake walk and face painting.  The boys loved the bouncy house and all of the games.  The boys ended up leaving with a TON of candy. 

                         

Micah, John and I all got our faces painted.  I’m surprised that Micah sat still long enough to get his face painted.  And I was a guinea pig for one of our youth who hadn’t painted faces before.  But she did a great job, and she also painted John’s tiger face.

We also decided to take the boys trick or treating for the first time.  There is a really nice subdivision where a few of my bunco friends live, so I thought that would be a nice area to take them trick or treating.  Our nieces also went trick or treating with us.

The boys were super excited to go trick or treating.  All day long, they were practicing saying, “trick or treat.” 

This house was our last stop for the night.  It was getting cold, even though we had dressed the boys in warm clothes underneath their costumes.  Everyone had  a great time. 

Oh!  I just remembered a funny story about Micah’s costume.  We had gotten him another Spiderman costume because last year’s costume was a little snug.  His costume came with muscles sewn into the fabric.  When we tried it on, Micah asked me, “Are these boobies?”  He was pointing out the pectoral muscles.  It was too funny!  After we contained our laughter, (Micah doesn’t like to be laughed at) we told him that those were his Spiderman muscles.

Things that go bump in the night

The boys and I just returned from a very quick trip to Fresno.  My Uncle Paul was getting ready for bed on Monday night when he started having chest pains.  My Aunt Lori took him to the hospital where they immediately took him up to Thoracic to clear a 100% blockage, and they also put in a stint.  He came back home on Tuesday afternoon. 

My dad called to let me know that he was planning on flying up to check on my uncle.  Today was a staff development day at school, so I had the day off.  So the boys and I ended up driving up yesterday afternoon.  We got to Fresno in time to have dinner with Uncle Paul, Lori, Jacob, Alison, and my dad. 

Uncle Paul looked good.  He is taking it slow and supposed to be resting a lot.  I’m glad that God was watching over him and that he hadn’t just thought about going to sleep thinking he would feel better in the morning.  He said he was pretty sure that if he had gone to sleep that he wouldn’t have woken up.

We stayed with my dad in his hotel room last night.  Micah slept with Grandpa in his bed, and Caleb and I slept on the sofa bed.  About 12:30 this morning, I hear a thump and a muffled cry.  Caleb had fallen in the space where the mattress and the sofa meet at the head of the bed.  I tried to get him to stand up so that I could pull him out, but he couldn’t understand what I was trying to do.  There is more space in the corners, so I ended up having to pull Caleb up by his feet.  He and I both went quickly back to sleep.

About 3:15 this morning, I get woken by a HUGE thud.  Micah had fallen off the side of the big king bed.  I think he landed on his head because sometimes when I check on him at home, he is hanging off the side.  He started crying, so I went to go lay with him and comfort him until he fell asleep.  I planned on just laying there until he fell asleep, but I ended up dozing off.  At least….I dozed until there was ANOTHER thud!  It’s an EPIDEMIC!!!

That thud was Caleb falling off the foot of the sofa bed!  By now, I’m thinking that the hotel’s floors are obviously not level, thus making my children roll off the beds.  So I go to get Caleb and climb back into the sofa bed.  But by this time, my dad had gotten up to get a drink of water.  And Caleb decided that he wanted to be in bed with Grandpa. 

I tried to get Micah to move over closer to Grandpa so that I could lay Caleb down next to me, but Micah was having none of that.  So I ended up putting Caleb next to my dad, and in order to prevent another thud from occurring to one of my sons, I laid down on the teeny-tiny portion of the bed that was left.  King sized beds look pretty big until you have 4 people in one.  And two of those people don’t sleep in normal positions.  I spent the rest of the night trying to keep the boys from pushing each other around.  Micah didn’t like being touched by Caleb and vice versa.  I’m pretty sure my dad had feet in his face and shoulders the rest of the night.

I know that many enquiring minds have wanted to know what kinds of things go bump in the night, and now you have your answer!

The best part of all of this is that since the boys didn’t get the greatest night’s sleep, they took GREAT naps on the way home today! 

2009 Pinewood Derby

We took Micah to his first Pinewood derby today.  About a month ago, we purchased a pinewood derby car kit and John and Micah started working on their car.  Our friend had a table saw and cut out the shape that John drew for the car.  Micah helped do a lot of the work on the car.  He helped to sand it down.  He wanted it to look like the Transformer Bumblebee, so he painted it yellow.  John drew the racing stripes and colored one and then Micah colored the other.  You be the judge on who colored which one.

The car has been finished for a few weeks, and Micah had been so patient waiting for race day.  So today we went.  The cars all had to be 5 ounces, so we had to add some weight to the car.  They had washers and glue guns there. 

Micah was in the 6 and under division.  He lost his first two races.  But he had about 4 or 5 more races, and he won all of those.  So he ended up in first place.  It was fun watching his car even though it lost the first two races.  But in the other races, his car would come from behind to win.  And THAT was fun to watch!  Here’s some video. 

Micah had a blast.  They raced other divisions, and since Micah won first place in his division, he got to stay behind and race the winners of the other divisions.  In that race he came in third place out of three.  But he didn’t care one bit.  John told me that after I left to take Caleb home for his nap, that Micah kissed his plaque.  We all had a lot of fun cheering on Micah and Daniel and the other cars.  We will be doing this again next year, and next year Caleb will get to enter a car as well.  Here are some more pictures.

                           

Wait a minute!

 

 

 

 

 

I just thought this was funny.  And I wanted to jump on the bandwagon of Kanye-bashing.  The picture is actually supposed to cover my entire blog, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that.  I saw this on the funniest blog, called Cake Wrecks, and wanted to try it out.

If you have been hiding under a rock, Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift while she was accepting an award at the Video Music Awards, and said that Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. 

Caleb’s first day of preschool

Today I started my new job at the Ballard School, so it was also Caleb’s first day of preschool.  At A Child’s Village, they take kids starting at two years old, so the timing worked out perfectly, since Caleb just had his second birthday.

I was a little worried how he would react to being left at school, since he is a little attached to me, but I really shouldn’t have worried.  Usually when I drop Micah off, he doesn’t want to leave, so I should have taken that as a clue. 

John and I both told Micah that since he was the big brother, it was his job to take care of Caleb while we were gone and to show him the ropes. 

We got Caleb a new Cars lunchbox that he was super excited about.  I took the boys to school, and when I left, he was following Micah and the other kids around playing.  Not a tear was shed because of my departure.  That’s a good thing, or I probably would have worried all day.

 

                     

When I got back into town after work, I called the school and they said both boys were asleep.  It was nice to have a little alone time, and I went grocery shopping.  John finished his day out in Lompoc, so he ended up picking up the boys.  He got rave reviews from the staff about how well Caleb did.  I’m really proud of Caleb, and I’m proud that Micah helped to make sure that Caleb would have a good first day of school.

And the winner is…

AUBREY!!!  Well, actually, I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to draw two names.  So the next winner is TAMI! 

To make it nice and fair, I let Micah draw the names out of the hat since he can’t read.  He drew Aubrey’s name first, and then he drew Tami’s name.  So you girls just have to let me know which necklace you want, and I can get it to you.  Tami, since you’re out of town, give me your mailing address as well so I can mail it out.

Wow!  It’s fun giving stuff away!

Mr. & Mrs. Brad Moring

So my sister is now officially a married woman.  John, the boys, and I travelled back to Texas last weekend to be there for the main event.  We really enjoyed getting to spend time with all of our extended family who came from near and far to celebrate with Brad and Christina.

If you want to see the professional photos, you can go to the photographer’s website and check them out.  He took over 1,100 pictures!  There are two folders.  “Brad & Christina” is where you can see all the photos, and “Brad & Christina album” is a small album of some of the photos.

Here are some pics we took while there. 

The boys have discovered the fun of making silly faces.

Pool time with the cousins.  Micah, Seth, Madison, and Caleb.

                 

The day of the wedding, Brad took John to see Kyle Field, home of the Aggies.  They weren’t able to get on the field, so these are the only pictures John took.

                         

Here are just a couple pictures of the wedding party and my family.

And Micah made some friends at the reception.  Here they are shooting someone.

                         

                         

Yep, that’s a pig cake.  Red velvet pig cake.  There’s a pig story.  You’ll have to ask Brad about it sometime.  And Christina loves chocolate cake, so she wanted her wedding cake to have chocolate frosting.  I did an unofficial taste test of both cakes, and I think the wedding cake tasted better than the groom’s cake.

                         

 

Here’s my friend Kathy and me.

                     

And here’s my boy making another silly face.

                      

The first dance.  Her bustle came undone, so Brad ended up just hiking up her dress.  He had it so far pulled up that you could see her petticoat, but it made for easier dancing.

                               

As the night wore on, I noticed that every time I looked, the boys had less and less clothing on.  They started out the day in vests and ties and dress shirts.  But they just kept stripping.  And they are both dancing machines.  They really enjoyed dancing with Mama and Daddy and each other.

 

                                      

We had a good time.  We headed back to my parent’s house on Sunday, with a stop at the Austin airport just to see if we could make an earlier flight.  We weren’t able to get on, so we headed home to try again on Monday.

We made our flights on Monday, but by the time we drove home, it was almost 10:00 pm, which was midnight in our minds since we had adjusted to Texas time.  It was SOOOOO good to get into bed and go to sleep. 

So, long story short, congratulations go out to the newlyweds.  They are in Ireland right now enjoying their honeymoon.  I can’t wait to see them again!