The Stults Family

Team Photos

2011-03-12T15:18:00.001-08:00

The regular photo:

AND the silly photo:

Play Ball!

2011-03-12T10:40:00.001-08:00

Today was the opening ceremony for Lompoc Little League. Micah got all dressed up in his Yankees uniform and we headed out to the baseball park.

Each team had a banner, and Micah’s team won best banner. Their prize is a pizza party at Mi Amore’s. He’s pretty excited about that.

But enough of pictures of other things! I know you really want to see a picture of the Yankees best player!

And a close up picture.

Of course, Caleb wanted his picture taken too. And when both boys get together, they inevitably want to take silly face pictures.

And one more picture. Micah recently lost both front teeth. They must have been ready to fall out because both of his new teeth are almost all the way in. But you can still see the cute gap in the following picture.

He has his team pictures later this afternoon. Now we just have to keep his uniform clean until then. Wish me luck!

A Little of This & A Little of That

2011-03-10T15:54:00.001-08:00

It’s been a while since I blogged last, so I thought I’d better catch up a little.

Micah started T-Ball this season. He is on the Yankees team and has been to a few practices already. This Saturday is Opening Day. He really enjoys going to practices and can’t wait to play in a real game. Here are some pictures from his first practice and a few pics in his uniform (he doesn’t have the hat yet because the coach is holding on to them as long as possible so they will be clean for Saturday’s pictures).

Isn’t he just too cute! Go #14!!!

A few weeks ago I won a family pack of tickets to go see the Imagination Movers in Santa Barbara. The boys were pretty excited because they enjoy watching the Imagination Movers on tv.

So we loaded the boys in the car and headed to Santa Barbara. I think John and I may have had more fun than even the boys. We of course know all of the songs and it was fun singing along and dancing. We also got to see Genevieve and DC from Choo Choo Soul. Forgive me if you have no clue who all of these people are, but to us it was a big deal!

Micah was star student last week in Kindergarten. That basically means that it was all about Micah last week. He was able to bring in a share every day. Monday, he brought in all of his Angels baseball stuff and some signed baseballs to show the class. Tuesday, he wore his T-Ball uniform to school and brought his t-ball gear to share. On Wednesday, he shared some candy bars that he was selling for t-ball (thanks Aunt Ti-Ti!!! They loved the candy bars!) On Thursday, Micah was really excited because he got to bring his Daddy and Caleb to share with the class.

Micah really enjoyed getting to share his dad and brother. And I know John enjoyed getting to go to the class. Caleb hammed it up. He walked into the class doing the robot.

So that’s about it for now. We just got done putting in new flooring, but we haven’t put on the baseboards yet. I will show before and after pictures, but that will be after all the finishing touches are done.

And They Lived Happily Ever After…

2011-02-08T15:37:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, John and I celebrated seven years of marriage. I love that man! Over the years, I have seen him grow as a man of God, learn to be a great and loving husband, and become a father his children can look up to and admire.

I don’t think John or I realized what we were getting into seven years ago, but I think that John would agree that he wouldn’t change a thing. At least, he’d better say that while I’m around if he knows what’s good for him!

I thank God every day for putting John into my life. Here’s to many more years of love and happiness…..

A Day at the Park

2011-02-05T16:33:00.001-08:00

Micah discovered that his teacher worked at the Solvang Bakery on weekends. She helped decorate gingerbread houses during the holidays for the owners (all of their kids have gone to Ballard School) and enjoyed it so much that she asked if she could stay on after the holidays were over. Since John was working today, I figured I would take the boys to Solvang to see Mrs. Carlson and we could have a treat. So that’s what we did! We ordered some cookies, apple juice, and chocolate milk and visited with Mrs. Carlson while we ate. Micah loved getting to see Mrs. Carlson outside of school, and both boys showered her with hugs.

After we were done, the boys and I went to a shop that carries fabric for $1/yard. Since my amazing cousin Kim explained to me how my sewing machine operates, I have had so many ideas of things I would like to make. I had gotten an new-to-me table from Goodwill and I plan on refinishing it, but I also wanted to make a tablecloth and recover the ugly fabric on the chairs. I found some really cute (and also a bit on the girly side) fabric and decided to get it. John will just have to deal with girly fabric. I’m outnumbered in this household, and need something that isn’t Hot Wheels or Star Wars related. Here’s the fabric, and you can also see the hideous blue chair cushions. I plan on either painting the wood or staining it to a chocolate color.

As a reward for not running hog wild while we were shopping for fabric, I took the boys to Sunny Fields Park. The boys had a blast. They ran here, there, and everywhere.

And I feel I must apologize to all of you not in California. It was a beautiful 70 degrees today. No, my boys may not see snow in real life anytime soon, but at least they get to enjoy nice days like this pretty often.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-26T18:29:00.001-08:00

Christmas 2010

2010-12-31T08:05:00.001-08:00

We had a good Christmas this year. My sister came to visit the week before Christmas, and had to leave on Christmas Eve eve. But the boys enjoyed visiting with her.

On Christmas Eve, the children of our church had a little program prepared for our Christmas Eve service. Both Micah and Caleb were in it. Their parts included carrying a couple of letters from the words Merry Christmas up to the stage while their cousins read some scripture. Then all of the kids sang Hark the Herald Angels Sing and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Of course, my kids had to ham it up. (They get that from their daddy.) But it was very cute.

When we got home, we sprinkled reindeer food on the front lawn so Santa’s reindeer knew which house was ours. The boys got into their pj’s and we left peanut butter cookies and milk for Santa (we have it on good authority that they are Santa’s favorite).

The boys went to bed, and we anticipated an early morning, so we went to bed pretty soon after them. I’m glad we did! They were up bright and early at 5:30. They climbed into bed with us. We thought that meant we would get a little more time to lay in bed, but then Caleb wanted to go play. They hadn’t realized yet that it was Christmas morning. We told Caleb he could go play, and he came back pretty quickly, saying, “Fanta ate the tooties!” Translation: Santa ate the cookies!

And with that, our morning began! We all got up and John got the computer fired up so we could Skype with my parents and Christina while the boys were opening their presents.

After we opened our presents at home, it was off to Nana and Popo’s house to have breakfast. Fred always cooks a big breakfast for everyone on Christmas morning.

I think the family may be starting up a new band. The kids got Paper Jams guitars for Christmas and Nana and Popo got the grandkids a keyboard that, thankfully, will stay at their house.

It was kind of ironic because later that day, Susan and Fred went up to visit his family. They gave Fred an electric guitar and Susan a 77 key keyboard and for the grandkids they got a karaoke machine. So the family really can take their show on the road and be like the Partridge family! I guess it was a very musical Christmas.

We spent the rest of the afternoon being pretty lazy, which was nice. Our friends the McGraths invited us over to enjoy Christmas dinner with them. We had a good time eating and visiting with Susan and Wes and Susan’s mom Alice (I just realized that Susan McGrath’s mom has the same name as our Susan). The boys enjoyed getting to play with Jeremiah and Jonathan.

It was a very nice Christmas.

Just a little something I whipped up…

2010-12-22T22:23:00.001-08:00

My sister Christina is in town visiting until tomorrow. Before she left, the boys wanted to give her her Christmas present, as well as open one of their presents from her (I suspect that they really only cared about opening their present).

She gave them some really cool interactive books, and they gave her a personalized calendar. John and I got her a cover for her new Bible. When Caleb saw that, he started asking about having a cover for his Bible. He has a board book Bible that he enjoys taking to Sunday school. He said, “Mommy can you make me one?” How could I say no?…even though I have never made a Bible cover before.

I didn’t have any fabric that he liked, but I did have an old denim shirt with Thomas the Train on it. He said he wanted that. So I cut the shirt apart, and saved the piece with the Thomas applique, the row where the buttons go, and the row with the button holes. So, the finished product has a pocket on the front, and handles that can even button up if you want your Bible to stay closed (I didn’t plan to be able to button it up, but it just worked out that way!). His little Bible just fits in there snug as a bug in a rug!

I’m pretty proud of myself, and once again have my cousin Kim to thank, since she was the one who long-distance talked me through my first sewing project at Halloween. So thanks, Kim!

Oh, wait…you probably want to see a picture, right? Well, here you go!

12 Days of Christmas

2010-12-19T18:16:00.001-08:00

Micah had his Christmas program at school the other day. Here is his class singing their interpretation of The 12 Days of Christmas. Enjoy!

12 Days of Christmas

Got Jokes?

2010-12-08T15:56:00.001-08:00

I got to have a sneak peek of Micah’s Holiday Program that his class will be putting on next Wednesday. I’ll be uploading the program piece by piece, but it is just taking so long to load every video into YouTube. So they will come a little at a time. But in the meanwhile, I have some jokes for you, courtesy of Micah and a few other kindergartners.

Got Jokes?

Where Are You, Christmas?

2010-12-08T15:49:00.001-08:00

John and the boys were watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas last night while I went out to eat with a girlfriend. When Cindy Lou Who started to sing Where are you Christmas, Micah told John that he knew that song too. So he sang along with Cindy Lou Who. John of course thought it was adorable, and talked Micah into singing it for me this morning. Here it is:

Micah singing Where are you Christmas

Not familiar with Cindy Lou Who? Well, here she is:

So Many Things to do with Shutterfly!

2010-12-06T19:38:00.001-08:00

Well it’s the time of year when everyone is getting ready to send out their holiday cards. Am I on your mailing list?…Hint…hint….

I was checking out Shutterfly and there are so many options to choose from. Ever since discovering the wonder that we call the photo card, it has been so much easier sending out Christmas cards. I was never really good at buying Christmas cards, then signing them all, and then getting them sent out. But now that you can customize the cards with pictures, greetings, and decorations, it has revolutionized Christmas card sending as we know it! It might, I repeat might, just be better than sliced bread!

Here are some of my favorite Christmas photo cards so far (and I’m still looking through all of them):

And you can now even forget the whole idea of buying invitations where you have to fill out all the information by hand. Shutterfly also has invitations! Here are a few that I like:

I like that cute little birdie and all of those circles.

You can’t go wrong with cookies…EVER!

And I love these snowflakes!

You can even make customized calendars on Shutterfly.

And when I say they can be customized, I mean that you can add my birthday (December 13th) or my anniversary (February 7th). These are just a couple of suggestions! But on to the calendars!

There are so many different things you can do. And if you are a blogger, you have a chance to get 50 free photo cards, if you hurry. Their Christmas card promotion ends soon (December 10th)!

Go here to learn more!

Thanksgiving Preparations & The Feast

2010-11-24T19:59:00.001-08:00

Micah’s class has been preparing many Thanksgiving decorations for their families. I’m so glad they were so thoughtful or we wouldn’t have had any decorations for our holiday table. And Micah was so helpful. He told me where to place all of the decorations.

We start off with the Pilgrims. John and I especially love the eyelashes. I really need to ask Mrs. Pilgrim what kind of mascara she uses, because her lashes are luscious!

Next up is the turkey and an Indian. As I was looking at the painting of the turkey, I noticed that the turkey may have feathers growing out of his head…not sure.

And finally, we have the centerpieces for the table. There is Micah’s fall book that he wrote, a stuffed turkey with feathers made from Micah’s handprints, a canoe, and a teepee.

Every Thanksgiving, Ballard School has a Thanksgiving feast on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The kindergartners dress up as the Indians, and the first graders dress up as the Pilgrims. All the families are invited to attend, and we just have a good time of eating with our students. This year Micah was an Indian. I didn’t get any pictures of him while we were at school, but I did get some once we got home.

This is Micah shooting his bow and arrow at me. On his back he is wearing a quiver filled with arrows. It was really cute because the girls were wearing papooses (or is the plural form called papeese?) and there were little baby Indians in them.

Now he’s showing us his bow and arrow.

And now he is showing us the rest of his headdress.

I love this little Indian! Happy Thanksgiving! We all have much to be thankful for!

2010-2011 School Pictures

2010-11-20T10:11:00.001-08:00

Micah took his school pictures a couple months ago and they just came back. If I do say so myself, he looks pretty darn cute! I also had to have my picture taken for the yearbook (ugh!) but at least I don’t look too horrible…no I’m not fishing for any compliments. The nice thing is the photographer gave the teachers and staff pictures of themselves and their class pictures free of charge. So without further ado, here they are:

How to Cook a Turkey

2010-11-20T08:17:00.001-08:00

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Micah’s kindergarten class was kind enough to give us their recipes for cooking the perfect turkey.

Here’s Micah’s recipe:

Go to the store and buy a skinny turkey. Take it home and then take out the eyes, pop out the feathers, cut off both feet and put it in the oven. Pour ketchup inside of the turkey before you cook it. Apples inside of the turkey will taste good too. Sour apples are the best to use. Cook the turkey for 10 minutes on hot degrees. Then, put it in the freezer to cool down for another 10 minutes. Sprinkle candy on top of the turkey before you put it on the table. Cut the turkey in half to share with lots of people. After the people are done with the turkey dinner, serve cake and candy. Drink soda with the meal.

I’m sure all of the recipes the kindergartners provided will end up being delectable. If you try Micah’s recipe, please let me know how it turns out.

The Day That Might Have Been

2010-11-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Today, November 12th, might have been different. Today was my due date, and we should have been meeting our beautiful baby boy. But we won’t be doing that today, since he is up in heaven.

I’m a little down today, for obvious reasons. But I’ve had a lot of time to think about this, and I’ve had such wonderful love and support from friends and family. This is what I’ve learned.

My baby boy is one of the luckiest boys around. He is in the presence of God right now! He never had to go through the trials and suffering that we call life. He never knew sadness or had to experience pain.

For my own selfish reasons, I would have loved to have him here with me and John and his two wonderful big brothers. But I am rejoicing in the fact that one day when I finally get to go to heaven, he will be waiting up there for me. I can just picture him with a huge smile on his face and running up to me to say, “Hey Mommy! I can’t wait to show you around this wonderful place!”

So, yes, I’m sad. But I also know that there are better things waiting for me one day. And until that day, I am going to be thankful and rejoice in what I do have: my relationship with God, a loving husband, and two sweet boys who make my heart happy!

The Craftiness Continues

2010-11-11T21:01:00.001-08:00

It’s holiday season, so the boutiques, bazaars, and craft shows are in full swing. I had a show last weekend at the Boys and Girls Club hosted by the Soroptimists.

I did pretty good. Tomorrow and Saturday I have another show at Trinity’s Holiday Bazaar. Since I had today off, I’ve been busy being crafty.

My wonderful and talented cousin Kim talked me through getting my sewing machine to work a few weeks ago. Thanks, Kim! Since then, I’ve been making therapy packs. They are rice-filled pouches that you can warm up in the microwave to soothe your aches and pains away. I made 23 of them today. I’ve been busy.

So that’s what I’ve been up to today. I think I am ready for tomorrow’s show.

All you ever wanted to know about Halloween 2010

2010-11-11T14:48:00.001-08:00

This year for Halloween Micah wanted to be War Machine from Iron Man 2. Caleb told us he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear. Micah was pretty excited, and Caleb was too…or so we thought. We had gotten invited to a Halloween party, and we were all getting ready. I was getting Caleb’s costume on him when he all of a sudden decided he didn’t want to dress up. “My just want to be Caleb,” is what he told us. OK, then. We went to the party dressed as a Jedi, Pippi Longstocking, War Machine, and Caleb.

Fast forward to the Friday before Halloween. Ballard has a big Fall Carnival every year. They let the kids out at noon so they can go home, eat lunch, and change into their costumes. Susan brought Caleb up to Ballard so that he could enjoy the fun as well. I got myself and Micah dressed in our costumes, but again Caleb decided he just wanted to be Caleb. That’s ok. The entire school lines up and walks in a parade around the neighborhood. It’s really a lot of fun. Micah of course was at the head of the pack with his teacher, Mrs. Carlson, who was dressed as the Tooth Fairy.

The boys had fun playing all of the games. Somehow, I didn’t get any pictures of Caleb.

The next day, John and I went to another Halloween party. We had a really good time.

On Halloween, our church had a Fall Festival. Caleb once again decided he didn’t want to wear his costume. But the clothes he was wearing looked western, so we used a cowboy hat and stick horse. Now he was a cowboy! The girls came with us, and afterward we went trick or treating.

Halloween was fun!

Just a little randomness…

2010-11-03T15:00:00.001-07:00

I really have good intentions of getting out of this once-a-month-blog-posting rut that I have been in. Then life ends up getting things all wonky and crazy and my good intentions go out the window. I have been justifying my laziness by telling myself that I am at least posting the pictures on Facebook, but it really is slacker-ish.

So here are some random pictures that I was finally able to download from my cell phone.

My silly son at the doctor’s office. I don’t know when the picture was taken.

Me and the boys. We were in Texas and I was waiting to get called to go get my massage…I need another one. HInt, hint…

You always have to have a silly face picture, right?

Can he get any cuter? This was just taken last week after his haircut. He and I had nursery duty at church on Wednesday night.

Micah Starts Kindergarten

2010-09-29T16:41:00.001-07:00

If you will conveniently overlook the date of this post, we can pretend that I am up-to-date on all my posting. Then we can pretend that my baby just started kindergarten. In all actuality, he’s been a kindergartener for a whole month now!

He started the last week of August. His teacher is Mrs. Carlson. She is great with her students and we have actually been talking about Micah coming to Ballard since I worked with her 3 years ago.

He was so excited about the first day of school. He picked out a brand new Star Wars backpack. I can’t believe how grown up he looks all dressed up for his first day of school.

Caleb wanted his picture taken as well. But he wasn’t dressed for the day yet. He was still in his mismatched pajamas.

We have a half hour drive to school. So we spent the drive talking about what he would get to do while he was at school. He was so excited that he was finally a kindergartener.

Here he is waiting in line with his class for the school bell to ring. The real bell rings, then everyone gets in line with their class. Then each day a different student gets to ring the old bell in the little red schoolhouse. That student then leads the class in the Pledge of Allegiance.

One last wave to the mommies and daddies. Mrs. Carlson is the blonde teacher in the white sweater, and Mrs. Birkholm is the teacher’s aide. She is in the pink dress.

And that’s how my boy started off his first day in Kindergarten. He had a great day!

Big Ole Visit With Family

2010-09-05T21:42:00.001-07:00

My cousin Josh is stationed at Aviano AFB in Italy. He and Julia and their daughter Veronika got to come to the States to visit in August. It was so good to see them. While they were here, Uncle Paul, Aunt Lori, and Alison came down from Fresno. My cousin Joy, her husband Sean, and Amber came to visit from Las Vegas. And Uncle Chip was in town from Ft. Worth. It was just one big ole good time for visiting.

The boys and I went up to Avila Beach to visit with Uncle Paul and his family on their way down from Fresno. Josh and his family met us there. Silly me didn’t have my camera, so no pics. But it was nice. We had dinner afterwards at McClintocks. I had never been there before, but the food was delicious. The waiters there do this thing where they stand up blindfolded on a chair and pour water into a glass that is sitting on someone’s head. Alison decided that she wanted to participate, so one of the waiters did it to her. A quick shower of ice water later and her glass was full. It was fun to watch, especially since I wasn’t on the receiving end of the shower of water.

The next afternoon we met Uncle Paul’s family at Surf Beach. It was very cold and windy, so we ended up going to Uncle Paul’s hotel to swim in the pool. We then all went to Texas Cattle Company for one big family dinner.

Saturday we had a big family picnic at River Park. From there, we headed out to Jalama Beach. I had never been to Jalama Beach and had been nagging John about taking me, so it was nice to finally get to go.

The boys had fun playing in the surf. Caleb kept going up to the waves and saying, “neener, neener” to them, and then running away when they got close. Uncle Paul taught him to say neener neener.

Apparently, Vroni really likes sucking on her salty toes. Julia said she does it all the time when they’re at the beaches in Italy. Aunt Lori was playing This Little Piggy with Vroni. And Uncle Paul played Patty Cake with her. She loved doing both.

We finished off the day with a Jalama Burger. I’ve lived in Lompoc for 9 years no the, and I must say that the burger was worth the wait!

It was a quick visit with all of the family, but we made the most of it. All of the family who travelled is now safely back at their respective homes, and we can’t wait to see them again.

Micah’s Big Decision!!!

2010-09-04T15:34:00.001-07:00

The evening of August 18th, we were putting the boys to bed. We always pray before bedtime. This particular evening, Caleb asked me to lay with him in his bed, and Micah asked John to lay with him in his.

We were talking and Micah said what I THOUGHT was, “I want Jesus to be my favorite.” (He can’t say his “S” sound. It comes out sounding like an “F.”) John says, “Did you hear that?” I said, “Sure, he said he wants Jesus to be his favorite.” John said, “No, he said he wants Jesus to be his Savior.” Wow! How exciting!

John asked him some questions about salvation and Micah knew all the correct answers. John told him he would have to pray to ask Jesus to forgive his sins, and to ask him to come live in his heart. Micah asked John to help. So John started out the prayer, with Micah repeating. It was so sweet and special to see my husband help lead my son to Christ!

Of course, that evening we called the family to tell them the good news, and it of course went on Facebook! Sunday morning, we went to all of Micah’s teachers at church (Miss Vickie, Miss Amy, Miss Angie, Mr. Randy, Miss Sandra, and Miss Susan) to thank them for all that they had done to help Micah on his road to salvation. While we teach Micah and Caleb at home, the teaching they get while at church also makes a huge impact, and we wanted them to know what a vital part they played in this wonderful event!

It does a mama’s heart good to know that we are doing some things right with God’s help!

SLACKER!!!

2010-09-04T15:15:00.001-07:00

I looked the other day and realized that I hadn’t posted anything new since August 1st. And that was a comic, so it wasn’t even a real post. What a slacker!

My problem is that I prefer things to be chronological. It just makes me feel all organized-like. But when we do something actually blog worthy and I don’t have time to blog about it, something else always comes up. And then the blog worthy events get backed up. So I’m just going to blog what I can, and sorry that it probably won’t be in order. At least I’m getting it done.

This is the story of my life…

2010-08-01T12:57:00.001-07:00

I think this explains it all…A day in the life of me and the boys. : )

Eat Mor Chikin! Mooooo!

2010-07-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

You all know I'm cheap (that is in the genes since I'm a Williams). And what's better than cheap? FREE!!! Today was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a. I saw online that if you dressed from head to toe as a cow that they would give you a free meal. I also read that if you only partially dress as a cow that they would give you a free entree.

I couldn't just go halfway on this. My mom and dad were working today, so I decided that Christina and the boys and I would go dressed as cows for our free meals. Last night, I got some of my dad's old white tshirts and commenced with OPERATION FREE FOOD. I made our cow costumes. I wrote "Eat Mor Chikin" on the backs of the boys' shirts and added cute little tails. I put signs on the front of Christina's and my shirts and of course added tails to the back. And since we are girls, and girl cows have udders, I added surgical glove udders to the front of our shirts as well.

We attempted our own photo op at home. They didn't come out too great.

Today, we headed out to Chick-fil-a to have lunch. The boys were excited to wear their costumes. Christina, on the other hand, was a little embarassed about it. She kept repeating, "I hope I don't see anyone I know." I kept reassuring her that this was for the great cause of free food.

We got there and the staff were kind enough to take a group picture of all of us.

We ordered our food and I took off for the bathroom to change. I came out of the bathroom and Christina said the staff wanted us to take a picture with the Chick-fil-a cow. So I headed back into the bathroom to change back into my costume. Micah was scared of the cow, so he didn't want to take the picture. Caleb, on the other hand was fascinated with the cow, so he didn't mind taking the picture. After that photo op, I headed back to the bathroom to change again.

After we came, we saw a few more families come in dressed in cow attire. But not nearly as many people as I thought would be dressed up. It was fun, and it was FREE! So I would consider Operation Free Food a wonderful success!

Happy Father’s Day to the Man I Love

2010-06-20T05:49:00.001-07:00

I thank God every day that you are in my life. I love you more today than I did yesterday. I loved you so much I married you! But I love you a little more each day when I see you being a dad to our children.

I love watching you get to do dad things with our boys. Like riding bikes and building things.

I enjoy watching you share the enjoyment of the things you love to do with them, like your love of the beach.

Yes, sometimes you fall asleep on the job…

But I love being a family with you!

Thank you for being such a great dad!

Solvang, The Mission, and Some Critters

2010-06-13T18:32:00.001-07:00

My parents and Christina came out to be with us this past week. My mom and dad had to leave on Tuesday, but Christina stayed until Friday to help out.

On Wednesday, Christina and I took the boys to get the time-honored, traditional picture of the Solvang Shoe. Caleb did not want to cooperate, but Micah was all for it.

Micah took the following picture. That’s why Christina and I look so statuesque.

On Friday, we took the boys to the mission to see and feed the animals.

I was shocked, but the boys actually wanted to take pictures with me. Micah picked out all of the spots where we took our pictures.

This is Micah, Caleb, and Christina in front of the longhorn, saying, “Gig ‘Em!” But you’ll notice that Caleb doesn’t have his thumb up. We tried the whole time Christina was here, but he kept putting up his pointer finger. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts.

This last picture from the mission might possibly be my favorite. And it’s all because I cracked a joke. This donkey came up to Christina and it looked like it was trying to kiss Christina. So I said that it looked like Christina was kissing her hubby. I think it’s funny, and that’s all that really matters!

Do you see the resemblance to Brad? Ha ha!

Saturday, Petco was having a Meet the Critters day. They had guinea pigs and bunnies for the kids to hold and pet. Micah held them all, but Caleb just wanted to pet them.

So much has changed in a week

2010-06-12T19:59:00.001-07:00

Warning…this may be too much information for some.

Saturday, June 5th started off normally enough. John, Micah, and I were planning on heading up to Fresno to see my cousins Jacob and Alison in Seussical. Caleb was going to stay with John’s mom for the day.

I got out of the shower and noticed I had some bleeding. We’ve been told that you don’t worry about brown blood, but bright red blood is a problem. Well, it was bright red. Since it was Saturday, our only option was to head to the ER. John dropped me off at the hospital to check in while he dropped off both boys at his mom’s house around the corner.

I told them that I was 17 weeks pregnant and was experiencing some bleeding. They got us in right away. The doctor said he would do a bedside ultrasound and a pelvic exam. He brings in the ultrasound. We could immediately see the baby, but it was not moving. I thought this was unusual because at my last ultrasound the baby was moving all over the place and I could see the flickering of the heartbeat.

The doctor told us that he was going to send us to the radiology department so we could get a better ultrasound. I tried to be encouraging for John because I thought he might not realize that this ultrasound was unusual. But what I didn’t realize was that John could see the doctor’s face while he was doing it, and I guess the bad news was written all over the doc’s face.

So we go to get the second ultrasound and the lady told us that there was no heartbeat. She was so sweet to us and I could tell this was part of her job that she did not enjoy.

As they were wheeling me back to the ER, we saw Dr. Huss in the OB department. He came into my room a few minutes later and walked us through what was to happen.

The next morning (Sunday), John and I arrived at the hospital, where I was admitted. Sue (the most wonderful nurse ever!) inserted some Cytotec pills so that I would start to have contractions. I actually thought the process wouldn’t take so long. But by 2 o’clock, I still wasn’t really feeling any contractions. So Dr. Huss ordered another round of Cytotec to be administered. Shortly afterwards, I began to start contracting.

My parents and sister arrived from Texas just as I asked for some Stadol. This was the medicine that caused me to see Muppets when I was in labor with Micah. I had forgotten that it acts very quickly. So I don’t remember much about them being there.

John had gone to take the boys home and was waiting for my parents to get there so he could come back to be with me at the hospital. At about 5:45 (before John got back), I told Sue the nurse that I felt the urge to push. So she was there with me when I delivered my baby.

Dr. Huss said that usually the placenta will be delivered soon after the baby. Not in my case. I was still having contractions, but they started Ptocin, which helps with them as well. Still no placenta being delivered. Dr. Huss said we would wait another hour until we would have to go to the delivery room where he would have to manually get the placenta to come out.

Sue’s 12 hour shift was over at 7. We had asked her earlier in the day if it would be possible to determine whether the baby was a boy or girl. She said they wouldn’t know until they saw the baby. She came in after a while and told us it was a boy. That’s when the waterworks began again. We don’t plan on naming him. Had I been 20 weeks or further along, we would have had to name him, because then he would have been considered stillborn.

After that hour, off we go to the delivery room. Of the whole ordeal, this was the most painful. They gave me another dose of Stadol, but I should have asked for more. I won’t go into anymore details than that.

I spent the night in the hospital. John had to go in to work the next morning because he was shorthanded. My mom and sister came to get me when I was released.

This whole week we have been showered with love, kindness, and prayers from family and friends from all over. John and I are so lucky to be blessed with all of you in our lives. We know that God is in control of all of this, but it helps to have the physical presence of those who live near us, and the words of comfort from those who live too far away to physically be with us right now. And of course, all of the prayers.

Back in April, our Associate Pastor Joey did a sermon titled, "How to Keep Your Head When Others Are Losing Theirs.” He said something profound and I wrote it down. I always put my bulletin in my purse. Saturday, for lack of anything better to do, and to keep myself occupied, I began to clean out my purse. And I found the quote from Joey that I had written down. Here it is: “Peace is not the absence of problems. Peace is the presence of God in the midst of your problems.” I know that God had me write that down, because I have been holding tight to that ever since I found that bulletin. I know that God is right with us, loving us and gently holding us as we grieve the loss of our baby boy.

I’m sorry for such a long post. I needed to get it written out. It’s been a week since we found out, and tomorrow will be one week since we actually lost him. It doesn’t hurt any less, but I am finding ways to cope with the hurt a little bit more every day. Your continued prayers are greatly appreciated.

An Afternoon at the Beach

2010-05-30T17:25:00.001-07:00

It has been such nice weather for this Memorial Day weekend. Today after church, we packed the kids in the car and headed out to Surf Beach. I was armed with sand toys and my trusty camera.

Caleb is afraid of the waves, so he mostly stayed with me and we made sand castles. He really had fun stomping on them after we had built them. I started calling him Caleb-zilla.

I got some video of him destroying the sand city we had built.

A little later, Micah wanted to get in on the Godzilla action.

John and Micah played in the waves and took a walk down the beach to look around. While on their walk, Micah found a couple of sticks for him and Caleb to play with. Amazingly enough, no eyes were poked out and no boys were harmed due to these sticks.

Caleb eventually got brave enough to get closer to the water to go find rocks. He would find a rock, run back to show it to me, and then go back to the tide to throw the rock into the water.

In that last picture you can see the rock in mid-air on its way into the waves. The funniest part though, is the last picture of the sequence. The waves started to come in and he thought for sure they were going to catch him. Look at the expression in this last picture!

He was running as fast as he could away from those waves. You should have seen how fast those little arms and legs were pumping! Hilarious!

Caleb was tired out by the time we got home. He wanted to snack on some goldfish, but fell asleep while he was eating them. He was actually still chewing when he fell asleep. But not Micah, he was wide awake!

We had a really great time. The boys love to be doing anything outside, and they really love going to the beach. I have already decided that we are going to try to spend as much time at the beach this summer as we can. It’s something different from just spending time at home, and best of all…it’s FREE!

My Little Graduate

2010-05-28T19:15:00.001-07:00

Micah graduated from preschool last night. I’m so proud of this son of mine who enjoys learning and has done so well this past year of preschool.

The kids sang 9 songs that they had been practicing. It was too cute! He was right on the end, so we had a great view of him and what he was doing.

As you may know, Micah has a tough time standing still. So between songs, he would kind of spin from side to side, so the collar thing he was wearing was never on straight. But it was too cute to see. And at one point John told me to look at my son. Micah had his hands on his face pulling down his bottom eyelids and he was spinning in circles. That tassel on his cap was almost horizontal he was spinning so fast! Too funny!

Next they called the students and they went over to get their graduation medals placed around their necks, and they got their diplomas.

After the ceremony, we walked over to the reception. They had put together a slide show of the preschool class over the year. It was made with the song, Let Them Be Little. It was really sweet, and all of the kids are going to get a copy. I will try to post it as soon as I get it.

I’m really proud of my little guy. He is so excited to get to start kindergarten in the fall. It’s hard to believe that he was just a little baby 5 years ago.

No catchy saying this week

2010-05-28T14:51:00.001-07:00

Today I am 16 weeks pregnant. Baby Stults is now the size of an avocado.

Tiny bones are forming in the baby’s ears, so he or she can now hear my voice. Eyebrows, lashes and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming. That’s what’s going on with baby right now.

I had my OB appointment on Wednesday, and finally got to see Dr. Huss since he’s been back to work from being sick. He looked good, although he says he does get winded pretty quickly. But he said that his PET scan showed that there is no sign of cancer anymore, so that’s great news. He still has 3 more rounds of chemo to do.

Since I didn’t see Dr. Huss at my first appointment, I never got to hear the baby’s heartbeat. I finally got to hear it Wednesday. It sounded good!

Since I’ve been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, I also met with the nutritionist on Wednesday. She went over what I should be eating, and actually said I was doing pretty well. They did say I should try to eat between 1600 and 2000 calories per day. That’s a lot of calories!

But I feel good, and baby is growing nicely. Can’t wait for my next appointment, which is when I should be able to have my ultrasound to see whether the baby is a girl or boy. On a side note, Micah and Caleb have both requested to have a baby sister. John and I are both hedging our bets, but we keep reminding the boys that we are going to get whatever baby God gives us.

You say he got his cheek slapped?

2010-05-21T19:32:00.001-07:00

Monday afternoon I was checking my voicemail after I got out of school. I had a message from the preschool saying that Micah had developed a rash on his cheek, his chest, and his upper arm. They called it slap cheek. I immediately called John so that he could Google what that was since I wasn’t near a computer.

John called me back to tell me that Slapped Cheek was also called Fifth Disease. It was named Fifth Disease because it was the fifth of six childhood illnesses associated with rashes. Later on, some of the other illnesses were renamed Measles, Scarlet Fever, and Rubella.

The rash comes on pretty quick, and it really looks like the child has just gotten slapped on the cheek. Micah had no sign of any rash when I had gotten him dressed that morning. Apparently, Fifth Disease is really contagious. The problem is that the period when the disease is contagious the child just feels a little malaise or a general sense of not feeling well. The rash doesn’t show up until after the contagious period is over. The school told me that a couple of weeks ago another child had gotten Fifth Disease as well.

The clinic is always really good at getting the boys an appointment quickly when they have been sick. Once I told them what the school said Micah had, they actually triple booked the doctor so we could get in.

We saw the doctor and he confirmed that it was Fifth Disease. Unfortunately, since it is viral, antibiotics don’t help. But he did say that we caught it early. All we can do is to give him fluids and Tylenol. He said the rash would last 4 or 5 days.

Since then, the rash has lightened on his face and chest and back, but this morning, I noticed it had spread to his thighs. The doctor had warned us that this would happen. He has also been fighting a fever and aches and pains. Everything we’ve read says that it will be over soon. The poor little guy has been a real trooper through all of this. A mama always hates to see her little ones sick.

Orange you glad to know this?

2010-05-21T18:13:00.001-07:00

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Banana.

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Orange.

Orange who? Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

What is Alisha up to, you ask?

Well, I just felt like telling you that the baby is now the size of a naval orange this week.

Today I’m 15 weeks along. According to TheBump.com I have 175 days left. Actually, Baby Stults will be here sooner than that since I will have to have another c-section.

I feel good. Micah slept with me last night since he was sick. (That’s another post). This morning I was lying awake in bed with him and I’m pretty sure I felt the baby move. I know it was sooner than you would usually feel the baby, but after your first baby you know what to expect.

I took my 3 hour glucose test on Tuesday since I failed the 1 hour test. I figure I will probably hear the results at my next appointment with Dr. Huss next Friday. But I’m pretty certain that I will end up with gestational diabetes again. I’m not looking forward to the diet, but it’s all for the good cause of a healthy little baby.

Just Peachy!

2010-05-12T07:49:00.001-07:00

Well, I’m feeling good and my baby is now the size of a peach!

Just a little update on baby’s progress: he or she is forming teeth and vocal cords. Baby is approaching normal proportions, with a head now only one third the size of the body. Intestines are in the process of moving from the umbilical cord to baby's tummy.

I had my one hour glucose test a week ago, and it turns out the results were too high, so now I get the exciting pleasure of going in for the three hour glucose test next Thursday. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll probably end up getting gestational diabetes again. But if I have to go on another no sugar, low carb diet to make sure to have a healthy little baby, I will do it.

Ultrasound and First Family Picture

2010-05-05T16:08:00.001-07:00

I went to Dr. Huss’ office yesterday to get another ultrasound. At my first appointment, the midwife (who is covering for Dr. Huss until he gets done with chemo) thought I was measuring bigger than 11 weeks. She did an ultrasound, but couldn’t get a correct measurement on the baby. So I had another ultrasound yesterday. Here is a pic of baby #3:

At preschool, Micah has been asked to draw a picture of his family. His teachers say that whenever he draws a family picture, he always wants to include the baby. So sweet! So here is our first picture as a family of five, plus Lima the dog:

I have got some stinkin’ cute kids!

2010-05-05T15:33:00.001-07:00

The boys had their pictures taken at school again a few weeks ago. Ever since, I have been anxiously awaiting the proofs. AND TODAY THEY CAME! I love my boys and I think they took some pretty cute pictures. Micah’s cap and gown pictures make me sigh because it just reminds me that my little preschooler is going to be a kindergartner in the fall. He’s not a little baby anymore.

Happy Birthday, Micah!

2010-04-28T07:04:00.001-07:00

Five years ago today, I was sitting in a hospital bed holding the most precious, beautiful, wonderful little baby boy I had ever seen. He was 6 pounds and 3 ounces of pure kissable softness. I thanked God then and there for giving John and me that precious little gift.

These past five years we have been blessed to see him grow into a little boy eager to learn about God and Jesus. He loves to dance around playing his air guitar. He says the funniest things sometimes. And he has a sweet little voice when he sings.

When I think about it, I don’t know what I did to deserve such a precious gift, but I’m thankful that I was given him. I can’t wait to see what the next year brings.

Micah’s Fifth Birthday Party

2010-04-24T22:18:00.001-07:00

Micah has been ~~patiently~~ anxiously awaiting the day of his birthday party. So much so that I had to make him a calendar where he could mark off the days until the time for the big event. It’s been on the refrigerator all month.

Micah asked for a pirate themed party. And he wanted to invite our family and some of his friends from church. So that’s what we did.

As an extra surprise for him, we were able to get a great deal on a bounce house. They didn’t have any pirate bounce houses, so we made do with Spiderman.

Micah had to stick his tongue out, and of course little brother Caleb had to do the same:

The kids played in the bounce house while John cooked the hamburgers and hot dogs.

Then it was time for presents.

Yes, there are a couple of Nerf Dart guns in these pictures. I might have a future headache on my hands once the boys get the hang of them. Either that, or Micah just might shoot Caleb’s eye out. Either way, pray for my sanity.

Micah’s friend Ezekiel came up to him after he opened up all the presents and told Micah that he loves him. Isn’t that the sweetest thing? And then to top it off, they hugged. Love it!

After the presents, it was time for cake. Yum-o! Micah wanted a chocolate cake, and I think that was a good choice because it was so delicious!

We all sang happy birthday and then Micah blew out the candles.

If you look closely at the little sailor at the front of the ship, you can tell he was getting a little seasick. He’s leaning over the rail. Really he just fell over when I moved the cake, but the seasick thing is a much better story! =)

I made goodie bags for all of the kids to take home. Every pirate needs a treasure map so I made one for the kids. It was fun, but my poor little thumb took a beating because I kept having to relight the lighter and the metal got really hot. But it was worth it.

All in all, I think Micah had a really great time at his party. I can’t believe that in just a few days my sweet little baby boy that I first held 5 years ago will be a five year old. My how time flies!

Easter

2010-04-08T07:27:00.001-07:00

The boys, John, and I had a fun filled Easter weekend. Saturday morning we took the boys to Trinity Church for their annual Easter egg hunt. We all met in the sanctuary to sing songs, and then they separated into age groups to listen to a story, make a craft, get refreshments, and then on to the Easter egg hunt. The boys made a jelly bean carrot that had a little story about the color of the jelly beans.

Then it was on to the Easter egg hunt. The boys were so excited. They hunted and hunted and found the amount of Easter eggs that they were told to find.

Once that was over we went home and it was time for lunch and a much needed nap, since the boys had woken up extra early that morning.

Later that day, the boys dyed Easter eggs. They really had fun, but we made the mistake of dying the eggs after their bath, so they both ended up going to church the next morning with dyed hands. Oh well.

The next morning both boys were excited to find their Easter basket filled with goodies.

That afternoon we had our friends, the Cook family, over for Easter dinner, as well as John’s family. It was a good time of food and fellowship. After lunch, I hid some eggs and then the kids hunted for them. They had a lot of fun.

You will notice that both of my boys had stripped down to their wife beaters to hunt for eggs. Don’t want to have anything hindering their ability to find the eggs.

This is what they looked like all gussied up:

We had a great Easter celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we hope everyone else had a good day too.

April Fools!

2010-04-01T16:41:00.001-07:00

OK, so my previous post about being pregnant with twins was an April Fool’s Day joke. I am really pregnant, but I haven’t been to the doctor yet.

I’m hoping the joke won’t be on me, though. I go to my general practitioner on Monday to get referred to my OB/GYN. I’m hoping that when I do get my exam that we only hear one little heartbeat. I don’t want to have jinxed myself with my little practical joke.

Thanks for playing along!

First Doctor’s Appointment

2010-04-01T07:10:00.001-07:00

Well I went to my first doctor’s appointment yesterday. I had originally scheduled it for Monday, but they called to say they had an opening yesterday, so I went in.

I was excited because the doctor decided to do an ultrasound. It was really small, but you could see my little peanuts in there!

Wait a second…

Did she say what I think she said?…

Peanuts???

That’s right, I’m having twins! Dr. Huss had told me after I had Caleb that I had a heart shaped uterus that would be perfect for carrying twins. But I didn’t expect to actually have any! But twins do run in my family on my mom’s side, so I guess anything is possible.

My scanner isn’t working right now, so I couldn’t scan the picture, but I will try at work today, and will post the picture later today.

How exciting!!!

What a slacker I’ve been!

2010-03-29T13:59:00.001-07:00

Well, I’m sorry it has taken so long for me to post anything. It started off innocently enough. I had wanted to post pictures from my sister’s visit around Christmas, and other things, but I didn’t want to do them out of order chronologically. So I just kept putting it off. Then my sister started hounding me. I even had a friend send me a note on Facebook asking me if I was still blogging. I will now have to borrow Christina’s motto: 1-2-3…Blog it!

Since I’ve been such a slacker in the blog business, I figured out I would restart my regular posting with a bang.

Wait for it….

Keep scrolling…

Just a little bit more…

I’M PREGNANT!!!

I hope that gets me off the hook for not blogging for so long. It’s not official yet. I’ve had two positive home pregnancy tests. I go to my regular physician on Monday and will do the whole pee-in-a-cup thing, and then I will get referred to Dr. Huss’ office. I don’t know who I will see until Dr. Huss gets back to business, but the ladies in his office told me that he is itching to get back to work.

By my calculations, I figure I will be due around the holidays, but I will know for sure once I see the doctor.

You may now return to your regular scheduled program.

A few cute stories

2009-12-14T04:28:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-08T18:07:00.001-08:00

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…

2009-11-29T14:08:00.001-08:00

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…

2009-11-20T19:01:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-10-31T22:44:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-16T20:37:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-10T14:38:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-09-18T06:20:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-26T17:01:00.001-07:00

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…

2009-08-19T17:19:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-17T11:10:00.001-07:00

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!

100th Post and a Giveaway

2009-08-14T23:46:00.001-07:00

I just happened to be looking at the list of the archives on the side of this blog the other day. I noticed that it adds up how many posts have been published each month and year. I added them up and noticed I was pretty close to 100 posts.

I posted my first post on May 28, 2007. One entire sentence. Big stuff. It took me a while, but I started to get the hang of posting the everyday happenings of our family. So, it’s only taken me over 2 years, but I’ve finally gotten to post #100.

In honor of getting to this milestone, I have decided to have a giveaway. As you know, I have started making necklaces. So I decided that the winner of this giveaway will win their choice of necklace handmade by yours truly. The winner will get to pick one of the following 6 pendants.

The winner will also get to pick either an adjustable black hemp cord, or a 24 inch ball chain to go along with the pendant. If you’re not in town, never fear. I will send it to you. Hopefully the winner doesn’t live in Siberia, because postage would probably be pretty expensive. Now that I think about it, it would be best if the winner lives in the USA or has an APO address (I’m thinking of you, Anitra and Julia, just in case one of you wins).

Make sure I have your email address, so I can notify you if you win. The giveaway will end on Wednesday, August 19th. I will then randomly pick a winner.

So how can you enter this giveaway, you ask. Simply leave me a comment. If you want to tell me a joke, tell me a joke. Or not. Be creative. I like reading my comments. Only one entry, please. And you don't have to have a blog to leave a comment. Simply click on the button for Anonymous, but make sure to leave your name and/or email in the comment so I know who you are.

So, good luck!!!

Happy 2nd birthday, Caleb!

2009-08-14T11:15:00.001-07:00

It’s hard to believe that my little boy is turning 2 today! It seems like just yesterday John and I were checking in to the hospital for my c-section and to meet the little baby that had been kicking me for so long.

I am so very thankful to God for giving us this wonderful little boy. He is changing every day, and I’m glad that I have this blog where I can document the funny things he and his brother do (see the baby powder incident of 2009) and all the milestones he’s achieving.

He’s changed so much over the past couple of years. From this:

To this:

Thank you, God, for giving Caleb to us. John and I promise to do our best to raise him up in a loving Christian family, and to teach him about his Heavenly Father who loves him even more than John and I ever could.

Happy birthday, Caleb! Mama and Daddy love you!

The Baby Powder Incident of 2009

2009-08-11T09:09:00.001-07:00

I don't know where they found it, but they did. I guess in the chaos of unpacking from our trip to Texas, the baby powder got left within the reach of little hands. I was in the bedroom unpacking when I smelled the very familiar scent of baby powder. That didn't bode well, so I went to check on my mischievous sons, and this is what I found.

I came into the living room and the boys were just laughing and giggling. They kept saying, “Mommy, we’re ghosts!” I really couldn’t be mad at them because I must have left the baby powder in their reach. Plus they just looked so darn cute!

So if you come to visit, at least our house will smell baby fresh! Maybe that nice smell will last until this Saturday, when we have Caleb’s 2nd birthday party.

Romans 3:23

2009-08-02T20:38:00.001-07:00

He did it again! Micah learned another memory verse in church! He didn’t tell us about it at first, though. He came home from church tonight and said he had won some prizes in an auction. But when we asked him about it, he couldn’t really explain. So I called Mrs. Angie to ask her about it.

Angie told me that they earn tokens for attendance and for memorizing Scripture. And tonight was the night that they got to use their tokens for the auction.

While I was talking to her, she mentioned that they have been working on Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” She said he almost had it.

Once I got off the phone, I told John that Micah was now working on Romans 3:23. We started him off, and Micah finished the verse! Of course, you know we have a camera permanently attached to us, so we had to get it on video. So here goes:

We both got so excited, and it’s rubbing off on Micah because he was talking really fast in this video. But we are just so happy and both John and I were both saying how it just made our hearts happy to see our son reciting Scripture. So far he’s learned the golden rule, the fruits of the Spirit, and now Romans 3:23. I’m having trouble wiping the silly grin off of my face!

Tumble Tots

2009-07-31T21:17:00.001-07:00

A friend told me about a tumble tots program that was going to be starting today at Gymnastics North. We will meet every other Friday for an hour and the kids will get to play and learn about gymnastics. So I thought it would be fun for Caleb to go to since Micah is in preschool on Friday mornings.

We went this morning, and Caleb had a blast! Since today was the first day, they had it set up so the kids could have free play. They got to go on the long trampoline. There was a little obstacle course set up, and the kids could also go in the Monkey Maze, which I’ve said before is kind of like the play area at McDonalds.

Caleb really enjoyed himself. So much, that he didn’t even care about going in the Super Swing. That’s the swing that is kind of like a swing on a bungee cord. I kept asking if he wanted to swing, and he would say yes, but on the way over, he would get distracted by some other cool thing.

There were about 10 kids ages 1-3 there. Since they were so little, the parents were allowed to come in and assist their kiddos. Normally, the parents stay in the front of the building and watch from there if they want. It was fun to watch Caleb interact with the other kids and it was also nice to meet the other moms.

The timing also worked out great since we will be meeting every other Friday. We are heading to Texas for my sister’s wedding next Saturday, so we won’t have to worry about missing one of the days.

Bike Ride to the Park

2009-07-28T20:33:00.001-07:00

When John got home from work he asked Micah if he wanted to ride his bike to the Briar Creek Park and then play baseball once we got there. Micah took all of one nanosecond to say yes. So John and Micah got their bikes and got Micah’s gear on and started off to the park. Caleb and I followed (or stalked, depending on your perspective) in my car. Hey, I had to take pictures, didn’t I?

Micah and John have ridden around the block before, but this is the longest bike ride Micah has ever been on before. It’s about 3/4 mile to 1 mile to get to the park at Briar Creek. Micah did really well.

Here’s some video I took of them riding past us.

I’m really amazed that Caleb wasn’t crying while I took the video since he REALLY didn’t like that he couldn’t go on the bikes too. But once he saw Micah and John ride past, he started crying again. Oh, the injustice of it all! We should get one of those bike trailers.

They made it all the way to the park, and we started batting practice. I didn’t get any pictures since Micah told me I had to be the catcher. I was taking my job seriously, so there was no time for lollygagging and photo ops. Micah is a really good hitter. He’s got great coordination and hit the ball almost every time.

After batting practice was over, we headed over to the little playground. The boys had fun climbing around and sliding on the slides. We didn’t really see what happened, but we hear a “clunk” and then Caleb started crying. He had hit his head on the wrought iron fence surrounding the playground. He came over and we kissed his forehead and made it better.

It was time to go home a few minutes later since it was getting cold. John happened to look at Caleb and we noticed that he had a GIANT goose egg on his forehead where he hit the fence.

We’re heading to Texas next week for my sister’s wedding, so I’m really hoping that the bruise he is sure to get clears up by then. I don’t think my sister will be happy if he’s got this big bruise on his forehead when we take family pictures.

Back to the story…

Caleb and I got into the car, and John and Micah took off on their bikes to head home. I’m just so proud of Micah, because he made it the entire way back home riding his bike. So he rode his bike almost 2 miles today. I’m hoping he sleeps really good and late tonight!

The Super Swing

2009-07-20T09:00:00.001-07:00

Here’s one more picture. A friend took this picture of Micah on the Super Swing at gymnastics. He really loved it.

Gymnastics Camp

2009-07-17T12:48:00.001-07:00

We sent Micah to a gymnastics day camp at Gymnastics North this week. He went every day from 9 until noon. He really enjoyed himself.

They had a fun Monkey Maze which is kind of like the play structure they have at McDonald’s but much cooler. They also have this really long trampoline that Micah really liked. There was also this swing that 3 people could fit on, and the instructor would spin them around really fast. The kids all loved that one. And of course there was all the regular gymnastics thing you would think about. There were the parallel bars, the rings, and the balance beam.

Every day Micah got to take a turn on the Super Swing, which is a bucket chair hooked up to giant bungee cords. The teacher would then pull the chair back and let go like a giant slingshot. The chair would shoot forward and then bounce all over the place. It was cute because every time he would let out this squeal when he would shoot forward.

The teachers said that Micah did really well in the camp. He followed directions well (which makes Mama happy), and I’m guessing he learned how to do some basic gymnastics skills.

It makes a mama proud!

2009-07-12T22:02:00.001-07:00

Micah has been going to regular church with us, and then the kids are dismissed to Children’s Church usually after the offering. He has really enjoyed being able to go.

Once he turned 4, he was able to start going to the evening Children’s Church as well instead of being in the nursery. A few weeks ago he was able to tell us his first scripture that he had memorized. It was the Golden Rule. He learned this after only 2 times attending the evening Children’s Church. (Thanks Miss Angie!!!) I just about started to cry when I heard him say it for the first time.

Well this morning, we get home from church and were getting ready to go meet our friends the Websters for a picnic. Micah started reciting the fruits of the Spirit, which is what he had learned in Children’s Church today. He needed a little prompting from John, but he was able to do it mostly by himself. And he didn’t stop there. He has been repeating the verse all day! The great thing was that after the first few times with prompting, he was able to name all the fruits, IN ORDER, without any prompting at all! My heart has been overflowing all day! I am just so proud of my boy!

What makes this even more special is that Micah used to not talk all that much just a year ago. Most of you know the trouble Micah had learning how to talk. He had started talking a little at a pretty early age, and then one day just stopped. It had worried me, even though most people just said he would talk when he was ready.

John and I really attribute the change in Micah to be an affirmation from God that we are now at the church where he wants us to be. Because, you see, we had been attending a church with very few kids, and other troubles on top of that. In fact, Micah was the only child in his Sunday school class. He wasn’t getting much of a lesson.

We had no sooner found our new church, when Micah started talking after just a couple of weeks. Now, some people might see this as a coincidence, but John and I don’t. We had been praying for months and months about whether or not to leave our former church, and really felt like God was leading us to North Avenue Baptist Church. About a month or so after we had been attending North Avenue, Micah told us about what he had been learning in Miss Vickie’s class. The lesson they had been going over week after week was “God with us.” He told us that exact phrase. When we figured out that was what he was saying the waterworks started for me. When I told Miss Vickie about him telling us about the lesson, she told me that Micah was the first child she had that had actually verbalized what they had been learning. Now to hear that about my son who had had trouble even talking was wonderful!

This may seem like a lot of babbling, but my heart is just so full, that I wanted to get it all out and share my joy! My eyes are watering again just remembering it all. I must sound like a crybaby, but I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Above all, I know that God has His hand on my little family, and especially my two little boys. And that is the best place for us to be!

Olde Towne Market

2009-07-11T10:14:00.001-07:00

Well, I did it! I got my tables set up at the Olde Towne Market yesterday evening. I was nervous, but everyone was very friendly, and I had some friends and family come by to wish me luck.

If you don’t know, the Olde Towne Market runs for 8 weeks. The farmer’s market runs year round on I Street by the Chamber building. But when it’s time for Olde Towne, they move the farmer’s market and add the food booths, entertainment, and other booths and have it on H Street in the heart of Old Town Lompoc.

All in all, I think I did pretty well. I sold some of everything that I had. I won’t get rich, but I did make a profit! So woo hoo for me!!!

Here are some pictures of my tables:

I have reserved a spot for the rest of the time the Olde Towne Market is running with the exception of the Friday when we will be in Texas for my sister’s wedding. Luckily, I only have to pay for the spot on a weekly basis. I have also booked a table at a Christmas in July craft fair that will be held on base on July 25th. The nice thing about that craft fair is that it is free. I only have to donate a door prize.

I had fun last night. The ladies who had tables on either side of me were very friendly. And it was fun to people watch. So I’m excited about next week and the other opportunities that are coming my way.

An un-blurry Scrabble tile picture

2009-07-10T11:00:00.001-07:00

I finally got an un-blurry picture of the Scrabble tile pendants I have made. And don’t tell Disney about me using their pictures. I don’t want them to send people out to break my kneecaps!

Will they sell…Or won’t they sell???

2009-07-10T10:55:00.001-07:00

That is the question.

I’ve been making some crafts. And I got the crazy idea that I might be able to sell them. So I’m going to try to sell them. Every summer, the Chamber of Commerce puts on the Olde Towne Market fair on South H Street next to the Farmer’s Market.

The price to rent a space was pretty reasonable, so I bit the bullet and rented a table for tonight. I have been making Scrabble tile pendants…(I’m going to call them vintage, since I got the Scrabble tiles from my grandma who has had her particular Scrabble game since the dark ages!). I am having trouble getting a picture that isn’t blurry. I also made some glass tile pendants.

I am selling them with and without the cords, mainly because I wasn’t able to find enough of the black satin cord. So the rest of the pendants are going to be displayed on a board. The Scrabble tiles are on the top 4 rows, and the glass tiles are on the bottom 2 rows. I thought that had made a ton more, but I guess it just seemed like I had. =)

I also made a couple different types of hair clippie holders for girls. I started out making holders out of picture frames. I also made them with cute little wooden shapes that I got from the craft store.

And I have been making fleece tie blankets as baby shower gifts for a couple of years now. I thought I would make a few of them and see if they sell.

So we’ll see how I do. I used to sell PartyLite, and I have a ton of votive candles left over. So I’m going to see if I can sell those too. This is the first outing for Ragamuffin Express, so wish me luck!

First Annual Williams West Coast Family Reunion

2009-06-29T14:30:00.001-07:00

This weekend, we participated in the First Annual Williams West Coast Family Reunion, a.k.a. camping in Sequoia National Park. My Uncle Paul invited quite a few family members to make the trip to Sequoia National Park to go camping for the weekend. I think the first time the trip was mentioned was while everyone was in Ft. Worth, Texas for Rebekah and Justin’s wedding last August (special thanks go to Rebekah and Justin for getting married so the idea could be planted way back then).

Not everyone could make it on the trip this time. But since we all decided to do this annually, you can come next year. It ended up being Joy, Sean, and Amber Mack (and Amber’s friend Madison), Uncle Paul and Jacob, and the Stults family. Alison and Lori came up for the day on Saturday as well.

Uncle Paul and Jacob got there early on Friday to reserve our campsites. In my opinion, they were the best campsites out there. We camped right underneath two giant Sequoias. We had a huge campsite (since the two campsites adjoined each other) and we weren’t too far from the bathrooms (a big deal for a girl who prefers a real potty over squatting in the woods).

Here’s the view looking up from our campsite:

While dinner was cooking, John took the boys to explore. They ended up doing a little rock climbing, but couldn’t do as much as John would have liked since he had to also keep an eye on Caleb. But they had fun nonetheless.

For dinner, we had hamburgers and roasted marshmallows for S’mores. Joy and Sean also made a chocolate cake with cherries in their Dutch oven. DELICIOUS! I think there’s something about campfire cooking that just makes it taste better.

We enjoyed getting to sit around the campfire and tell stories and catch up on what everyone has been up to. We finally called it a night and headed to the tent. Sleeping in a tent with a 4 year old and almost 2 year old is not all it’s cracked up to be. Both ended up waking up in the middle of the night, so John and I each had to cuddle up with one of them. Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep.

The next morning we woke up bright and early thanks to two little boys. We had breakfast. Uncle Paul had mentioned that there was this lake that you could fish at near the YMCA camp. He said it was about a mile hike to the lake. John had been really excited about getting to take Micah fishing, so all of us loaded up into our car and Joy’s Suburban and headed out. Uncle Paul stayed at the campsite to wait for Lori and Alison.

We got to where we needed to park. We unloaded the boys and the gear we needed for fishing. Caleb was already cranky at this point thanks to his very early morning. We started walking down the trail. Both boys weren’t in the best of moods, but we decided to keep trekking. Joy’s family was ahead of us. We had maybe gone 3/4 of a mile when Joy came back to where we were to say that they had just seen a sign that said it was another mile and a half down to the lake. I decided that I was going to head back with Caleb since he was so cranky. The rest were going to continue on down.

Now, the walk down wasn’t so bad since it was downhill. But I wasn’t taking into account that if you go downhill, you must go UPHILL to get back to where you started. Add to that the kicking and screaming little boy I had to carry and 6500 feet elevation and it does not make for an entertaining trip back up the hill. Caleb finally cried himself to sleep on my shoulder by the time we made it back to the car. I got us back to the campsite and laid him in the tent to finish his nap.

A short while later, the rest of the group came back. They never made it to the bottom. They had changed their minds and came back up the hill. They ended up going to Hume Lake to do their fishing.

Micah really enjoyed getting to go fishing. John said that Sean would catch a fish and then call Micah over so he could reel it in. But Micah probably wasn’t doing it just right so the fish ended up getting away. There was one fish actually caught. Then Sean told Micah to throw the fish back in since it was so small. John said you’re supposed to put the fish back in the water gently and it will swim away, but Micah literally did what Sean told him to do. He heaved that fish back into the water. John said that you could see the fish flying end over end. Hopefully no fish were harmed in the making of this memory.

While the fishermen were gone, Joy, Amber, Madison, Uncle Paul, and I got to visit with each other. Lori and Alison arrived a short while later. We had lunch and then all the fishermen got back. John went off to take a nap, and the rest of us decided to go look for the Chicago Stump. We had to take some bumpy trails but we made it. Sean, Madison, Amber, Jacob and Alison all climbed up on top of the humongous stump.

This is the only group photo that we have. Sean took the picture, and Madison didn’t want to get in it. And John’s not in it because he was back at camp taking that nap. But at least we got almost everyone.

After the Chicago Stump we headed to go see the General Grant Tree. Caleb fell asleep in the car, so the rest went to go look at the tree.

We got back to camp. John, the teenagers, and Micah decided to go off exploring and rock climbing. I knew we wouldn’t be able to do as much as them, but I took Caleb so we could watch. John just kept saying afterwards that he was so proud of Micah for all the climbing he did. He was doing it all by himself, and didn’t need John for any help.

We had another delicious dinner that night. Sean made hobo dinners that you wrap in foil and cook over the fire. They were so yummy! And of course, what is camping without some more S’mores? We sat around the campfire, and only ended up telling one ghost story. John and I were really tired, so we tried to go to bed early. Again, it was not the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had, but it was better than the first night.

In the morning, we had breakfast and started breaking camp. The Mack family had to drive all the way back to Las Vegas so we wanted to make sure they were able to get an early start. Once we were all packed, we said our goodbyes and headed off to home.

We had a really good time. We all enjoyed our West Coast family reunion and thinking up ideas on how to make it better than the Texas family reunion. You might be asking yourself, is that a challenge? And I say, you betcha it is!

Faces

2009-06-18T12:52:00.001-07:00

One of the blogs that I read is called A Cowboy’s Wife. She has a photo contest going on right now called the Blue Ribbon Photo Contest. This month, the theme is faces. If you read my blog regularly, you will have already seen this photo. But I wanted to submit it because it is a picture of 2 of my 3 favorite boys.

John took this when he and Micah went to the Dodgers vs. Rockies baseball game back in April. I just love Micah’s expression in this picture. He’s just got such pretty blue eyes! And if you have been hiding under a rock for the past 4 years and didn’t ever notice it, you should notice by now that Micah is John’s mini-me.

The rules of the contest say the photo has to have a name, so I'm calling this picture "Me and Mini-Me." Of course, the "Me" I'm speaking of is John, not actually me...Micah doesn't look anything like me.

Anyhoo, I hope I win. The prize is a Flip Mino HD Video Camera. The contest ends on the 20th. So there’s time if you want to enter a picture in the contest as well. Good luck if you do.

Sleepover fun

2009-06-13T13:05:00.001-07:00

Last night we had our nieces, Taylor and Madison, over to spend the night. This was the first time Micah has ever had a sleepover. John and I wanted the kids to have fun, so we decided to let them camp out. We put up the tent in the living room, got their sleeping bags ready and then got the fire started in the fire pit in the backyard. The kids were so excited!

We roasted marshmallows and made s’mores. They were yummy. John and I got the best end of the deal because the kids didn’t want marshmallows that had burned spots (those are the best, by the way) so there was more for us to eat. Madison decided she didn’t like s’mores and just wanted the chocolate. So we let her eat just chocolate. We had already decided to let them stay up as late as they wanted, so we didn’t worry about the sugar high they were going to get.

When we were done roasting marshmallows, John put out the fire and we came back inside. We had faced the opening of the tent towards the TV, and we put in a movie we had rented. The kids had fun playing with the flashlights, drinking hot chocolate, and watching the movie. When that movie was over, we let them watch Wall-E. Our only rule by this time was that they had to stay inside the tent.

We checked on them about 10:30, and this is what we found:

All 3 kids were asleep. And Micah had fallen asleep with his head propped up. I’m glad I had my camera.

We thought for sure that this would mean that they would sleep late. No such luck. We forgot to factor in that Caleb was sleeping in his crib and didn’t stay up as late as the big kids. He woke up at 6:00 this morning, which ended up waking up the big kids.

For a special treat, I made the kids chocolate chip Mickey Mouse pancakes with whipped cream. They ate a ton of them!

We let them play around for a while, but then we got them dressed and took them to a nearby park that had just put in a new playground. The kids had fun exploring all the fun parts of the playground.

The kids were getting tired so we went back to the house and had a snack. Taylor and Madison both ended up falling asleep in their sleeping bags until their mom came to pick them up. I think the kids definitely enjoyed their sleepover!

Ragamuffin Express

2009-06-12T11:31:00.001-07:00

Guess what! I just got done making myself a logo. Why do I need a logo, you might ask. Well, I’ll tell you. I’ve decided to try to be crafty and sell stuff that I’ve made.

I’ve kind of put the cart before the horse, though. I created an Etsy account, which is a site where you can sell handmade goods. Then I thought I would need a name for the stuff I sell, so I decided on Ragamuffin Express. I came upon that because I plan on selling a variety of things. Also, my Uncle Leslie used to call me Ragamuffin. So it also has sentimental reasons. And lastly, a lot of Christians call themselves ragamuffins. I’m kind of good at procrastinating, so there may not be any “express” about it, but I thought it sounded good.

I also decided to create a button where people could just click and be directed to my Etsy site. The only problem right now is that I don’t have anything listed to sell yet. So it doesn’t really work yet.

I’m pretty proud of myself because I came up with my logo all by myself. The only problem is that I made it too big and I didn’t know how to size it down so that I could make the button for my blog. Luckily, my friend Stephanie from middle school offered to fix it for me. Yay for old friends!

I know that this blog is kind of rambling, but I’m just so excited that I don’t want to take the time to make it make more sense.

Wanna see my logo? Here you go!

When I finally have something to sell, the button on the left sidebar of this blog should begin to work. At least, that’s why I think it isn’t working yet. We’ll see.

Oh, I guess I should tell you what I’m planning on selling.

I’ve been making the children’s fleece blankets that you tie together for a while now as gifts at baby showers, so I thought I would sell those.
Also, I just started making Scrabble tile pendants and glass tile pendants for necklaces. I don’t have a finished product yet, or I would show you a picture.
I also started making 8x10 clippie holders for girls’ hair clips. Those are basically picture frames with fabric and ribbon so you can attach all your little girl’s hair clips and keep them in one place. I have some made, but I don’t have pictures yet.
And I will try to sell whatever else I come up with. That’s why it’s kind of a mish-mash of different things. A little of this and a little of that.

In addition to selling on Etsy, I’ve also been thinking of renting booths at local craft fairs. The Lompoc Flower Festival is too expensive for me, but the Lompoc Old Town Fair will be starting up next month and I think I might try it out. I will definitely let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!

Micah goes to school

2009-06-03T14:00:00.001-07:00

Micah started preschool on Monday. He’s going to a cute little school called A Child’s Village. Their summer program started on Monday, so we enrolled Micah. For right now, he will be going on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until noon.

We had been talking to Micah for a while about him starting school. He wasn’t too sure at first, but he was pretty excited about it the night before he started. Poor kid was so amped up that he just couldn’t go to sleep. He kept getting up and coming out into the living room with any excuse he could think of.

Monday morning we had his backpack ready and his lunchbox packed. He was so happy! John will usually take him to preschool, but I just couldn’t miss his first day! So all four of us went to wish him well on his first day. John left for work, and I almost started crying when I went to hug and kiss him goodbye. But my big boy just went and played with a new friend like he had been doing this all along. Caleb was actually the one crying because he wanted to stay too.

I went to pick him up after lunch. The owner was there, and she said Micah did really well, except for one thing. She said that they were showing the kids all around the school and Micah pulled the fire alarm. I guess the alarm scared him, and he wet his pants. They were able to call off the fire truck, so they didn’t get into any trouble with the fire department. She said that it ended up being a good teaching experience, because they showed the kids where all the pulls were located and explained that you only pull those if there is a fire.

Today was his second day of preschool. He was so excited to go, and John took him. He had told me though, that he wanted me to meet his friends when I picked him up.

Caleb and I went to pick him up this afternoon and I talked to his teacher. She said that he wet his pants again. She thought he was afraid to go while he was there. So I said that I would take him while I was there. I went and got him and he absolutely refused to go. He started to cry. I didn’t want to make too big a deal for fear that it would turn him off of going there all together. So we are going to have to encourage him to try while he is there. The owner said that he might have accidents for a while when he first starts, since that is what most kids do. We’ll have to keep working on it.

All in all, he is having a great time at preschool. This week they are learning about safety. I don’t know if it was on the schedule, but they now know about fire safety, thanks to Micah. They have a lot of fun things planned for the summer.

John and I were told by Micah the other night that he can’t go to school on Friday because that is when we vacuum the house. So I guess we will have to figure out how to get him to go on Friday.

Texas, Part 3

2009-06-03T13:38:00.001-07:00

OK, I think I can finish it all up in one post. The boys are napping, so here I go.

Saturday evening I had plans with two of my oldest (as in time known, not age) friends, Deanna and Shauna. I got to see Shauna on my last trip to Texas, but I didn’t see Deanna, and I got in big trouble for it. So we planned a girls night out for while I was back in Texas. We ate and played games at Dave and Busters and then went to Cowboys dance hall afterwards.

Shauna was already having fun. Can you tell? It was good to see them and get to catch up on everything we’ve been doing.

Sunday was the day of Christina’s bridal shower. So I was up early and my mom and I were trying to get things done at her house, since she had offered to let us have the shower there. Corrie, Emily, Mr. & Mrs. Blakeney, and cute little Killian all showed up with everything else we needed for the shower. And the rest of the bridesmaids showed up soon after. We were ready just in the nick of time.

While the girls were all busy with the shower, Grandpa took Micah and Caleb to Jumping Jym, a bouncy house place. The boys had a blast and came home sweaty.

All the pictures from the shower were taken on my mom’s camera, so I don’t have any to post. But the food was delicious and Christina got a lot of nice presents.

The biggest thing that happened at Chris’ shower was that she started crying. If you know my sister, you know that she is not one to cry. But she started when she was trying to thank everyone and trying to explain how hard it will be for her to move away from home. She has lived in New Braunfels for the past 16 years. But the best is yet to come for her, and as it was pointed out a few times by others, at least she is in the same state and can visit easily.

My cousin Tre’, his wife Christina, and their kids Chloe and Noah drove down from Ft. Worth so that Christina could attend the shower. After the shower, we all got to visit with each other. Micah really liked playing Chloe and Noah, and Caleb enjoyed following all of them around. It was really cute watching Tre’ play with Caleb. Usually Caleb is shy around new people, but he really took a shine to Tre’. I was really tired, or I would have taken more pictures of everyone together. But this is the best I could do.

When Tre’, Christina, and the kids left it was time to get packing, since we were going to fly home on Monday, Memorial Day. We might have stayed a couple more days, but the boys started getting really homesick for their daddy a few days into our trip. Luckily, we were able to catch a very full flight to LAX, and John picked us up. You have never seen two boys more happy to see their daddy!

We had a great time while we were in Texas, but their is really nothing better than your own bed to sleep in. The boys did really well, but I think this might be the last of our long visits.

Texas, Part 2

2009-06-01T20:52:00.001-07:00

Friday night, I got to go out with my friend Kathy and have a good time visiting. We went to see Night at the Museum 2 and then went out for a little Mexican food. Yum! Mexican food is just not the same out here as it is back home.

Saturday Christina and I took the boys to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. It’s pretty cool. I had never been to anything like this before, but you get some animal food and drive around the ranch. The animals come right up to you to eat.

Beware…Lots of pictures to come. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Continue at your own risk. OK, you’ve been sufficiently warned.

And by the way, I don’t know all of these animals, so don’t ask me what they were. I can only name the obvious ones. We were too cheap to buy the book that told us what they were. I’m a Williams, what do you expect? The name might have changed, but this girl is still a Williams.

It was really neat. We let the boys out of their carseats, and Micah had the whole backseat to himself while Caleb stayed up front with us. The animals would come right up to us. I was really impressed with my boys. They weren’t scared one bit.

The ranch has all sorts of animals. We saw a lot of deer, and some other deer type animals, and other deer type animals. Christina warned me of taking too many pictures of the same animals, but I just can’t help myself. So you, my friends, get to suffer through all these pictures. It’s kind of like a newer version of those vacation picture slideshows our parents’ friends used to make us sit through. Welcome to the 21st century version!

Then we got to the zebras. These were what I had been waiting for! They were pretty cool. The people in front of us kept spooking them and they would run off, but then they came right up to the car and ate from our hands. What a neat experience!

Next, we came upon the ostriches. Christina warned us that we would need to roll up our windows when we got to the ostriches because they will come right up to the car and peck at you. Plus they have those long necks and they would come all the way inside our car. But she said the trick is to throw some of the food onto your windshield. Then the ostriches will peck the food off of your car. And that’s exactly what they did. One ostrich even came to my side and thought my finger was some food. He pecked at my window for what seemed like forever, thinking he might finally get my finger if he tried hard enough. Caleb and Micah weren’t too sure about that.

We got through with the drive-around tour right before it started to rain. There was a petting zoo that was covered, so we parked and went over to check out the goats.

We had a great time. This is my favorite picture.

Whew! I’m exhausted just typing this entry. The rest of our trip will have to wait until another time.

Road Trip to Texas…actually we went on a plane

2009-06-01T19:32:00.001-07:00

It’s just more fun to say road trip! The boys and I went to Texas a couple of weeks ago to visit my family and so I could go to my sister’s bridal shower.

John drove us to LAX on Saturday morning. We waited a couple of hours for our flight. The boys were absolute ANGELS on the plane. I really couldn’t have asked for a better flight.

My parents were on vacation in Orlando until the next day, so my sister picked us up at the San Antonio Airport.

They all had big plans for us while we were there. We took the boys to the children’s museum in town. The last time we were there, Micah had fun while Caleb was stuck to me…literally. I had him in the Snugli. So this time he was free to run around as he pleased. He especially liked the grocery store. He shopped and shopped and thank goodness we didn’t have to pay for all the groceries he “bought.”

He also helped Grandpa do some repair work on a house.

He also got to drive an ambulance, ride in a kayak (I wonder if this kayak could actually be used in the water. I didn’t know they made them this small), and have a nice “dinner” with a very lovely little girl.

Big brother also had a great time playing with the train sets. And there was even a little time for the boys to play a little Dance Dance Revolution.

The next day Grammy, the boys, and I went to visit Grandpa while he worked. Mmmmm….Cracker Barrel. My mouth is watering just typing the words. After we had lunch, the boys played a little checkers while sitting in the rockers.

This post seems to be getting a little long, so I will continue the tales of our trip in another post.

Dodgers vs. Rockies

2009-06-01T19:13:00.001-07:00

Back in April, John took Micah to his very first professional baseball game. John has been wanting to do this for a long time, and he finally got some tickets online. All four of us were originally supposed to go, but Caleb and I instead stayed home. John and Micah invited Aaron and Joseph Cook to go in our places.

Everyone was excited to go, and the date of the game was actually On the Field Photo Day. So the guys got to go onto the diamond and take pictures with the players.

John had taken two baseballs to get autographed. They got Hiroki Koruda and Matt Luke to sign balls. Micah also got to take a picture with Matt Luke.

That’s Micah showing off his signed picture of Matt Luke, who I guess used to play until fairly recently when he was injured.

There’s Micah and Joseph cheering on the team. And in case you are wondering, John is not a Dodgers fan by any stretch of the imagination.

All the guys had a great time. I am sure there are many more baseball games in our future.

Micah’s Birthday Bash

2009-04-29T14:50:00.001-07:00

We had Micah’s birthday party this past Saturday. We just invited family over. We had asked Micah what kind of birthday party he wanted, and the answer was always an Optimus Prime birthday party. So a Transformers party he would have.

Here’s a picture of the cake. It’s kind of hard on the eyes to look at, but it tasted good. It was also the only Transformers cake I could get. All of the stores with bakeries had this same cake.

John grilled burgers and hot dogs for lunch. We asked Micah what he wanted to do next, open presents or eat cake. He chose presents, go figure.

Micah even got a birthday card from Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots! He was pretty excited about that.

Then it was time for the cake. When we were buying the 4 candle, John asked if we could get the magic candles that re-light once you blow them out. I thought that would be lots of fun to watch the kids trying to blow them out over and over again. But I guess we must have gotten duds because once he blew out the candles, they never re-lit.

Needless to say, our house has been overrun by Transformers. They are everywhere! Micah loves it. He has played with every Transformer and the GI Joes that he got, and he has done so well sharing with Caleb. I guess that just means he’s growing up…

Growing up too fast!

2009-04-29T14:33:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated Micah’s 4th birthday. It is hard for me to believe that he has grown up so quickly. I still remember…well, mostly remember since I was in a drug-induced haze…holding him for the first time.

Here’s a picture of my precious little gift on the day he was born.

And here’s a picture of my still precious, rambunctious 4 year old.

Yes, that’s blue frosting around his mouth.

I don’t know what I did to deserve this wonderful, sweet big boy. He just makes me smile. OK, sometimes he makes me want to pull out my hair, but I am thankful for him all the time.

Happy birthday, Micah!

The Rest of Easter Weekend

2009-04-29T14:22:00.001-07:00

The Saturday before Easter we had Taylor and Madison over and they helped Micah and Caleb dye Easter eggs. The kids got pretty creative with the white crayon and making secret messages and pictures on the eggs before they dyed them. It was fun to dye the eggs with them.

This is a picture of Caleb throwing a fit because I was putting the eggs and dye away when we were done. Not a happy camper!

The next morning the boys got to see what was in their Easter baskets. Caleb really enjoyed his little Easter bunny. He kept giving it hugs.

After church, we had John’s family over for lunch. I had invited my grandma and aunt, but they didn’t take us up on our offer. While the final touches were being put on lunch, John had the kids hunt for the eggs he had hidden in the back yard.

Picnic at La Purisima Mission

2009-04-12T21:05:00.001-07:00

After we finished our Easter egg hunt, we got in the car and began to get ready to meet our friends at the mission. Rob, Tawni, and Sammy Webster are very good friends who live too far away in Riverside. They were in town for the holiday, and they asked if we could all hang out together.

We decided to grab sandwiches and then head out to the mission for a picnic lunch. We ate our lunches and then headed out to feed the horses, donkeys, sheep and goats.

We had a lot of fun even though it was so windy outside. I can’t believe that I didn’t get a picture of Sammy. He’s 7 months old now and cute as a button. If you want to see this photogenic little baby, you can visit their blog here.

I’ll be posting more on our busy day a little later.

A fun Easter weekend

2009-04-12T20:33:00.001-07:00

The Stults family had a very busy weekend. A local church was hosting an Easter Eggstravaganza. We took the boys there instead of the hunt hosted by the city because we wanted the boys to get the true story behind Easter, and we knew that the church would have many opportunities to tell the boys the story of Easter and Christ’s resurrection.

The program started out with singing a few songs. Then we were told a story about Easter and the colors of Easter eggs. We then went to make a craft.

After making our craft, we went on to have cupcakes. They then separated us up and told us where to go to hunt for eggs. The boys were so excited to hunt for the eggs.

Can you see the excitement on Micah’s face?

On to the hunt. I kept up with Caleb and John kept up with Micah, although he already knew the ropes.

Caleb found a whole bunch of eggs that were “hidden” against a wall. He wouldn’t hold the basket at the same time he had the eggs. So I just put the basket on the ground and he would drop the eggs in. And of course, Micah knew what to do, since he’s now a pro at egg hunting.

When we had found all the eggs, we went back into the sanctuary. They handed the boys tickets when we entered, and they started handing out prizes. When Micah’s number was called, we sent him up to claim his prize. We were at the back of the sanctuary, and Micah ran back to us holding the prize way up in the air. He was so proud that he had won.

We left then, because Caleb was tired. We had plans to meet some friends and have a picnic at the mission. I don’t want this post to be too long, so I will post that later.

Winner Winner! TV Dinner!

2009-04-07T08:57:00.001-07:00

John is officially walking on air. Last night he found out he was the big winner in a bracket pool sponsored by a local TV station. What did he win, you may ask?

He won this Sony 46” HD LCD TV. And that’s not all. He also won this:

He also won a tilted wall mount for the TV, the HD wires that are needed, plus custom installation. It is all valued at $4000. Can you believe it? Besides our cars, I don’t think we’ve ever owned anything worth $4000.

How did he win this? Well, you know what a sports fanatic John is. So he entered that competition, and he has been neck and neck with the guy in second place for a few days now. He was so anxious the past few days because he wasn’t quite sure that he had it in the bag.

After the championship game last night, John got a phone call from the TV station. He was going to be announced on the morning show, and this afternoon he is meeting them at Audio Video City to be interviewed for the news. He’s pretty excited.

He has been begging to get a big flat screen TV for years. I kept telling him we needed to do things like pay bills (what a crazy idea!) or buy diapers…or maybe feed our family. So now he doesn’t have to worry about anything. I don’t know when we’re getting the TV installed, but you can bet I’ll be posting some pictures when it’s done!

A-hunting we will go

2009-04-04T17:12:00.001-07:00

Today we took the boys and our nieces to the Easter egg hunt sponsored by the City of Santa Maria. We loaded the kids in the car and off we went.

There was a ton of people at the park when we got there. We let the kids run up a little grassy hill and it was so cute because when they got to the top they all said, OOH! They saw the giant bounce houses and the octopus slide and of course wanted to go over right away. I’m not really sure why Micah has his basket over his head.

When we got down to where the egg hunt was going to be, we ran into the Easter Bunny. It was great because all of the kids including Caleb wanted to go up and meet him.

We took them to the line to wait their turns to go hunting. Here they are saying “Easter Egg!”

The parents weren’t allowed to go inside the enclosure with the kids, so Caleb ended up not wanting to hunt for Easter eggs. But the big kids had a blast.

There were carnival games like a ring toss and the bean bag toss. The kids had fun throwing things at the targets and getting prizes for their efforts.

And of course they couldn’t wait to go up and down the big octopus slide. Caleb was too little to go, so he just ran around while they played on the octopus.

On our way back to the car, we came across a playground, so we let the kids play a bit.

We enjoyed ourselves today. John commented on the way home that he didn’t want to jinx anything, but he thought we might be getting the hang of having 4 kids. We’ll see…we only have them on Saturdays. Who knows how it would be if we had 4 kids seven days a week!

Poor little sick boy

2009-04-03T09:38:00.001-07:00

Micah wasn’t feeling well Wednesday morning, but by the afternoon he had perked up. By that evening, Caleb was running a fever. He had a fever off and on yesterday as well, but seemed to be on the upswing. I think he is feeling better this morning, but he woke up early and fell asleep on the couch. Sleep is usually the best medicine, and he has been doing that. I couldn’t resist taking pictures of him the various times he fell asleep. He’s just too cute when he’s asleep, even when he’s not feeling well. So here are some pictures.

This picture is from just now. He was playing with the tracks from the train set, and I guess he just fell asleep from having too much fun.

Spring is in the air…

2009-04-02T12:41:00.001-07:00

Flowers are blooming, baby animals are being born, and it’s almost Easter. You know what that means…spring is here! And springtime means that the boys want to play outside all the time. We have a swing set in our backyard, but this is our dream playground:

When my sister and I were kids, we had one of those metal swing sets with the A frame construction. It was fun because if you swung high enough, you could get the frame to rock back and forth. Looking back, I guess we’re lucky we never actually knocked the swing set over or we could have been injured.

Just look at the picture above…the boys could have hours of fun on that. It’s called the Three Ring Adventure from Kid’s Creations. It’s a sturdy playground that even my two little roughnecks can’t destroy. There’s a climbing wall, swings, a tire swing, and slides. The nice thing about it is that there is room for a ton of other kids too! We watch our nieces, Taylor and Madison, on Saturdays and there is something for everyone. No more fighting over who gets to do what.

Well, I am entering a contest to win this playground for Micah and Caleb. And you can enter too if you want! There is a site called Dad Blogs and they explain all the rules to enter the contest. The first rule is to blog about the contest and why you want to win. Just click here and enter! Also, if you join the site, please let me know your screen name, so that I can comment about it on their website. It’s another way for me to get an entry into the contest. Thanks. I hope I…um, I mean the boys…win their dream playground. OK, I’ll admit, I would be playing on this thing right along with them. Wish me luck!

Congratulations, Miss Williams!

2009-04-01T11:27:00.001-07:00

As most of you know, my sister is getting married in August. The only problem is that right now, she lives in New Braunfels and Brad lives in Snook (funny name for a town but about 2 or 3 hours away). Brad is a fireman and paramedic for the Bryan Fire Department, and Christina teaches 3rd grade at Klein Road Elementary School.

Christina has been busy looking for jobs in the area. She was on her Spring Break last week and went down to go see if she could get herself a job. If she wasn’t able to get a job, Brad would have to move into her house in New Braunfels and have to commute to work every 3 days so that she could keep her current position. That wouldn’t be fun.

So through a series of events kind of like 6 degrees of separation, there is a new school being built in the Bryan/College Station area. The wife of one of the other firemen is going to be working at this new school, and the principal says that they are going to need another 3rd grade teacher. This lady tells the principal that she knows just the teacher for the job. She didn’t know Christina’s last name, but she did know that she worked in New Braunfels and that Christina had already submitted her application online. So the principal did the detective work to figure out how to contact Christina. That day she called Chris and asked her to come in for an interview. Since Christina was already in town, it worked out perfectly.

Christina aced the interview and just yesterday got a call asking if she was interested in the position. I knew all along she would get the job. Now Chris is just waiting to sign her contract and then she will be ready to give up her current job.

I’m so proud of my sister! She has overcome a learning disability to become such a great teacher. This new school will be lucky to have her. But now that I think of it, her name won’t be Miss Williams at her new school. By the time she meets her new students, she will be Mrs. Moring! That might take me a little while to get used to. I still remember her as the little girl whose nose I cracked open while swinging her in circles in my bedroom. But she’s all grown up now.