A Year in the Life…in Pictures

We are coming on our one year anniversary of moving to Texas.  We moved here just after Father’s Day last year.  For me, I’ve gotten back to my Texan roots.  John is fighting becoming a Texan every step of the way.  And the boys are learning the finer points of becoming a redneck thanks to my dad.

A lot has happened this past year.  Just 13 months ago, we didn’t even know we would be moving to Texas.  We had finally gotten our new Christmas-gift-flooring put down in our house thanks to wonderful friends who helped us out.  We had plans to fix the front and back yard, among other things, and I was looking forward to spending summer vacation with the boys while out of school.

This picture was taken on May 29th, 2011, just over a year ago.  I love Caleb’s curly, wild hair! In this Texas heat, we have to keep both boys’ hair cut much shorter.

When we found out John had lost his job, we began seriously thinking and praying about what we should do.  We had talked about moving for a few years, but never actually did anything about it.  We finally decided that moving is what God had in mind for us.  So I quit my job at Micah’s school and we began the process of moving to Texas.  My parents graciously offered to let us stay with them until we got on our feet.

And the road trip began… 

One last trip to Surf Beach

And of course, one last picture in the Solvang Shoe!  Be prepared, John…We will be taking pictures in the Solvang Shoe every time we visit!  Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

 

And we were off on our journey!

We headed towards Las Vegas, where my parents were planning on meeting us and then flying the boys back with them so they wouldn’t have to put up with the long car ride.  After we left them, we headed out.  We decided to visit the Hoover Dam.

And that was the beginning of the end of our potentially fun-filled road trip.  Once we started driving again, we noticed that the air conditioning in the car wasn’t working.  We stopped in Kingman and found that something technical sounding was messed up in the air conditioner and while the car would run, we would not be enjoying any more refrigerated air.  From then on, we decided we had to drive at night when the temperatures were much cooler. 

We drove through the night and finally, the next morning, we hit the Promised Land!

Now comes the redneck indoctrination program started by my dad.  It involves a treehouse, guns and artillery, peeing off the back porch aided by a blue rock, and various redneck shows on tv.  The boys love their treehouse in my parents’ backyard.

Grandpa has taught the boys that they can pee off the back porch when no one is around.  The story of the blue rock…The boys were peeing off the back porch, but they were hitting my mom’s storage box.  So there was a rock that had already been painted blue a long time ago, and my dad put it off the side of the porch and told the boys to aim for that instead. 

Grandpa also watches shows like American Hoggers, and other Swampy, redneck-y shows.  I can’t even think of all the names of the various shows they like to watch together.  I hear the dueling banjos in the background…

The boys started school after summer break.  Micah started 1st grade, and Caleb started Pre-K. 

Someone in that picture wasn’t too thrilled about it…  So we had a do over the next day…

We did a lot of stuff in the fall.  Micah played Coach Pitch Fall Baseball.  Go Green Gators!  We got to visit Aunt Ti-Ti in the booming metropolis of Snook, and got to go to our first A&M football game.  John loved it!

Halloween came and went…

                  

We took a little road trip to Kansas to meet a little miracle baby (who is almost 1 now!).

We celebrated Christmas in our new little rented house

We went camping over Spring Break

Played in the Guadalupe River

We have also finished out he school year.  I am now mother to a 2nd grader and a Kindergartner.  Where has the time gone?  I can’t believe the boys have changed so much in one short year.

So that’s our year in pictures.  It’s been quite a drastic change for us, but I believe God has blessed us, and has many more things in store for this little Stults family.

School Days

The school year is almost over (two weeks left), but right now Micah is in Mrs. Williams’ first grade class at Lamar Elementary School.  Caleb in is Mrs. Gutierrez’ Pre-K class at Lone Star Elementary.  The boys are at different schools right now because Pre-K wasn’t offered at Lamar this year.  Next year, Caleb will join Micah at Lamar.

Here are their school pictures.

Here is Micah in his fall picture, cheesy grin and all.   He chose the flag background.

Here’s Caleb’s fall picture.  He didn’t get to choose his background since I wanted them to match. I’m the mom…it’s my decision.

Here is Micah’s class picture (he looks so serious!):

And here is Caleb’s class picture:

And next up are their GQ pictures.  They took these in the spring, and I just love them because they look so handsome!

I can’t believe how much they have grown over this past school year!  Caleb is definitely ready for kindergarten, and Micah has just learned so much in first grade.  I’m so proud of them!

Braves Baseball 2012

Micah is playing CAPS (coach pitch) baseball this spring.  He is on the Braves.  He’s been doing so well.  He’s been assigned the catcher’s position, and he has been learning a lot.  It’s amazing how much he has progressed from playing t-ball last year with the Yankees, and even from Fall Ball with the Green Gators (that will have to be another post, see previous post that everything would be out of order).

He just had a game this morning where he batted two doubles and a single, and he scored 3 runs.  He is doing great!  We only have two more games left…next Thursday and next Saturday.  But enough talk, time for some pictures!

Here’s his trading card:

Micah has been really interested in sports trading cards, so I of course thought it was great that they offered trading cards.  I’m hoping to eventually have a collection of all of his trading cards from future teams.

The team picture:

And a buddy picture.  They let all the coaches take pictures with their kids.  I think it turned out great!

Here are some pictures from this season:

 

I don’t have all of the pictures on my computer.  You might have to look at Facebook to see the rest.  The rest of the pictures were taken by my mom and are on her computer and I can’t access that right now.

All in all, this season has been great.  Micah has learned a lot about baseball, and he has made some good friends.

Where has the time gone?

So I know it’s been a little while since I last posted anything….OK, I know, it’s been OVER A YEAR!  Sorry about that.  I’ve been a little busy, and got caught up in doing all sorts of things, like…moving to Texas and that sort of stuff.  So I am here to say that I’m going to get back into the swing of things.  At first nothing may be in any sort of order…that’s what got me off track in the beginning, since I wanted to keep everything in order and thought that I would eventually get around to doing all of the posts in chronological order.  But now that I’m just going to bite the bullet and get on with it, you’re just going to get the posts as they come, in no particular order.  Here goes!

Team Photos

The regular photo:

AND the silly photo:

Play Ball!

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

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.