Fight for Independence!

One thing Becky thought she was getting away from when we moved off the east coast was the almost unlimited supply of battlefields to visit.  Oh, but little did she know about the Texas Revolution and the Mexican War.  For quite some time, Texas was a continuous fighting ground between invading settlers from the United States and a recently independent nation of Mexico.  Lucky for Becky, I didn't know much about either of these conflicts either... but I'm learning now!  It's not quite as historically important (for people outside of Texas) as the Civil War or Revolutionary War was, but down here they take all things "Texas" very seriously.  So our first stop in this new journey was the little town of Goliad, Texas.  It wasn't nearly as big or impressive as some of the past battlefields we'd been to, but it was interesting.  After the Texans were all killed at the Alamo (hopefully next on our list to see), the Mexicans marched across and caught up to more rebels outside of Goliad where they pinned them down and had a shoot out.  When the Texans ran out of water, they surrendered, expecting to be held as prisoners and eventually released.  Turns out, Santa Anna wasn't a nice guy, and ordered them all to be executed.  They have this monument up there where basically three hundred Texans were shot and piled up.  Pretty nice story.  But the Texans got their revenge eventually, slaughtering the Mexican army up near Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto.  Up there they built the world's tallest memorial column (it's Texas, they do everything big here) to commemorate Texas independence.  I'm sure photos of that will appear on this blog in the future... 

Not their first battlefield experience.  Adam, strike a pose.  Nolan, look aghast.  Paul, look unamused.  Good, take the photo.

Get 'em, Nolan!

 And there's the newest addition, Farrah the Dog.

Nolan enjoys trying to "pet" the dog.  I don't think she enjoys it as much.

But they get along just fine, here going for a stroll.

Almost time for a hair cut.  Almost.

Adam Michael, enjoying the beautiful winter day in Texas.

Nice smile, Paul. 

 Taking a break.

Such a beautiful day in the park.

Yeah, we've done that before.  

Just a hug for the little brother.

Gotta love that smile.

It's still warm enough to splash!

Either way, it had been a while since we'd been to a nice park, and I'm always up for a history lesson.  One of these days the boys are probably going to be into that sort of stuff too... and then Becky's really going to have a good time.  Oh, she knows she loves it.

Another Holiday Season!

It's that time of year again, you know, the most wonderful time of year!  The sleigh bells are ringing, the snow flakes are falling (somewhere, maybe), and Santa Claus will soon be here... actually I saw him at the mall just the other day.  The boys got dressed in their best Christmas sweaters and we attempted to get some good photos... though Nolan was not about it on this day.  Anyway, here are the best of what we got...

There's the new house, for those who haven't seen it.

There's got to be a Christmas card in there somewhere...

Just a little bit cold down by the water...

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and as always, a Happy New Year from South Texas!

Thankful for Millers

We made the 15 hour drive north to the land of Missouri for Thanksgiving this year, to visit the Miller Family, the Elder Sellers, and Grandma Steele for the holiday.  We feasted on turkey, played a lot of football, board games, and video games, and otherwise had a relaxing, enjoyable holiday.  The weather couldn't have been better, no snow or ice and only a little brisk.  The drive wasn't all that bad, so hopefully we'll get to make it back many more times over the years!  Here are some pics of how it went down:

The Eldest Sellers and Mother Miller.

The broken Josie... 

Making the meal.

The Great-Grandmother and the Lumpy one.

The oldest of many Miller boys... outside the new (old) house.

Rowan and Adam as goat food

The Miller Family... uh, pig?

Good times.

To be fair, it took two of us to get this done.

Mo in a tree.

The newest, youngest Miller.

Nolan and Mo helping out in the kitchen.

The younger Miller boys.

And sick Paul enjoying the cookout and smores... sort of.

Thanks again to the Millers for letting us spend our holiday with them!  Hope they get to come down south sometime soon.

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!