Just Nolan in this one...

Since he's getting older by the day, we figured we'd better stop and take a few pictures to remember one day just how little, and blonde haired and blue eyed he was at one year old.  He's still our littlest, the baby, the happiest kid... and he hopefully always will be.  Here he is, just Nolan:

Don't worry, Nolan, there will be plenty more "say cheese" to come... it's a good thing he's a photogenic kid!

Fall into Autumn

As camera phones have become more and more sophisticated, it seems like it won't be much longer that you'd actually need a real camera.  Occasionally we still have to get out the big camera, but Becky tends to take hundreds of photos on her iPhone (uh ok, more like two thousand over the past six months... seriously).  So here are the latest from Fall in South Texas, as the leaves turn to... well, the leaves don't change colors and there really isn't a "Fall" here, but it is that time of year regardless.  So here are some pictures, and here's what the boys have been up to:

Played in the sandbox.

Baked some cookies.

Had "fun" at the playground.

Had a birthday.  A first birthday to be exact.

Played in the driveway and mean mugged the older brother.

Went for a cruise.

Got a TV stand/new place to sleep apparently.

Slid the slide.

 Dressed as a favorite book character - Arnold.

Showed some smarts.

Pigged out.

Cooked out.

And otherwise spent a warm Autumn with three crazy boys.  Now bring on the winter!

Tricked and Treated

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... everybody wanted to be Star Wars characters for Halloween! Well, the two older boys did, while it was sort of "forced" on Nolan.  But they all looked ready to save (or destroy) the galactic empire the other day for Halloween, or at least ready to go door to door to get free candy.  We walked around our immediate neighborhood until the bags were too heavy to carry, and got more than enough treats to send us all into sugar induced comas.  Here they were:

Darth Adam and General Paul Grievous

And a very unhappy Jedi Master Nolan

We even slaughtered some innocent pumpkins.

Good work Adam... unfortunately the Jack-O-Lanterns only lasted a few days before the bugs outside ate them alive.

Use the broom, Luke!

Ready to crush the Rebel Alliance! And get some Kit Kats, Snickers, and Sweet Tarts along the way.

They came back for more...

Grandpa Bill made his first visit to Texas last month, his first in many, many years anyway.  Being a native born Texan, I imagine it was an emotional return for him.  And not wanting to miss out on a trip to see the three grandsons, Granny G came along as well.  It's always a great time having them visit, and it came only a couple of weeks after we moved into the new house, so they put poor Grandpa to work almost the entire time he was here.  There was landscaping, shed destroying, garden planting, and all sorts of house work done.  A few moments here and there they did get out and see some of the Corpus Christi sites. 

Downtown at the Museum of Science and History, we got to see the three replica Christopher Columbus ships.  Apparently they were built for the 500th anniversary trip back in 1992.  When they were done sailing across the sea, Corpus won the bid to keep them here permanently.  Unfortunately, a barge ran into them in the bay and pretty much ended the sailing days for two of them, so now they sit rotting at the museum in pretty poor shape.  But we did get to walk on one of them to check it out.

Even Nolan came along.

And there's always Adam.

 And they went out to eat pancakes.

Nolan sat... uh, comfortably.

Paul harassed Grandpa Bill.

And we all went to the aquarium, of course.

Glad they made it, and we're sure they'll make it back again soon!