Mother's Day

Mother's Day has been nice. We went to church, which the boys are really enjoying. It makes going to church faithfully so much easier knowing we do not have to battle tears when dropping them off at their individual classrooms. In fact, Noah has been asking throughout the week if tomorrow is church. I got a little emotional during the worship songs because we literally found out minutes before walking in that Tim's Poppa had been put back in the hospital with pneumonia and suffered a heart attack during the night. I guess it brought back memories of not even seven months ago when my Grandma was dying in the hospital and knowing my mom was spending her first Mother's Day without my Gram. Its times like that when I wish we lived closer to ALL our family. Tim gave me a quiet, calm hug like he does and helped me feel better in a hurry. I love him so much!

My beautiful Mom and I.

My wonderful Grandma.  We love and miss her!

Both boys made Mother's Day projects at school. I love getting their hand-made crafts because I know how much thought, love and concentration they put into them. It was Noah's first project for me since he only recently started prek.  I help in Micah’s classroom now and got a sneak peek at their project.  Combined, it all turned out very nice!

Micah's school project for me.

And Noah's.

T-Ball has begun

Micah's T-Ball season officially started today.  Tim is coaching the team and it is the first team sport Micah has ever played.  He really is enjoying it.  Noah wants to play so badly but he has to be five to play.  Noah will be awesome once he gets that chance to play, he does better than some of the kids on the team already. 

They had opening ceremonies this morning and then Micah's team played shortly after.  At the opening ceremony Micah's team held the flag.  All the kids did pretty well, only a few picked flowers in the outfield and kicked a crazy amount of dirt to entertain themselves towards the end, hehe.

Micah's team being introduced.

Holding the flag for the National Anthem.

Micah got to be pitcher.

Action shot, running to 1st base.

Noah cheering on Micah man.

The boys with the neighbor girls, Ziva and Catalina.  Catalina is the only girl on the team.

Spring Break trip to Yosemite

First off, I want to warn you this is going to be a huge post so please forgive me.  I snapped so many pictures and am having a hard time narrowing them down.  Secondly, I have to let you know no matter how many pictures I post, the beauty and wonder of Yosemite really cannot be captured in a picture.  It literally is one of those places you should see in person.  When it comes to photos of the giant sequoia trees, I am a total fail at taking wonderful pictures of them.  They are amazingly HUGE! 

We stayed in a town called Oakhurst about 12 miles outside of the south end of the park and drove into Yosemite.  We all loved seeing everything we could.  Both boys were sound asleep in the backseat for over an hour on the way back out of the park to our camper.  Micah generally can hold out but even Yosemite wore him out.  We even pulled off to get pictures here and there and they both did not budge. 

The campground gave us pamphlet on "Yosemite in a day" and that is basically what we went off of.  We started first at the Sequoia trees, the ground was covered in snow and it was way colder then we are used to after nearly six years in California.

One of the main trees on exhibit if you will.

The trees are protected behind fences so we could not go up close for pictures.

Noah absolutely loved the snow.  When we were not in it he was asking to be in snow and when we were in snow he was stomping around in it and then having Tim make him snowballs to throw at everyone and everything.  I think it is safe to say he will enjoy the next place we get stationed that has snow.

Next we made our way to the Pioneer Village and hiked down to a creek where the boys threw rocks into it.
 

A covered bridge into the little village.

Micah had to look out from behind the little brother was thrilled to throw rocks!

Making our way back up!

This is a picture of Yosemite Falls.

Tim and I with Half Dome behind us.

This mule deer was literally right outside my window in the truck.

On our way out of the park.

We made our way to Bridalveil Fall after the creek, it was awesome!

This picture captures three of the main sights, El Capitan (far left), Half Dome (center) and Bridalveil Fall (far right).





Steam Train Ride - Yosemite

While we were visiting Yosemite and the surrounding area we decided to take the boys on a steam train ride through the forest. It was about an hour long and COLD! We all really enjoyed it and Noah has been mimicking the sound the train makes over and over.

The 15 means that is the top speed the train can go.

They punched the tickets just like the movie Polar Express, Micah loved that part.

Exploring.

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Noah turns 4!

It seems so incredibly crazy writing a blog post about Noah turning 4.  It seems like yesterday I was miserably HUGE pregnant with Noah and now Tim and I's "baby" is 4!  Noah is such a sweetheart, he has a kind heart, is independent and just started preschool (which he loves).

We had an impromptu birthday party for him on his birthday with several families and their kids from Tim's shop.  We had a bounce castle on order but the weather was not good so the bounce guy could not set up.  The sun literally came out as the party came to an end. 

Noah's party was fireman themed.

Opening presents

Cannot go wrong with an Angry Birds game.

I think this cake had 8 lbs of frosting on it.

He has done this the last two birthday's, I guess we are bad singers.

I love seeing Tim with babies, he is such a natural.
Baby Charlotte, she is 6 weeks and Tim's co-workers baby.

Enjoying some nice weather

The last couple of days have been really nice here so we spent some time outside hanging out.  Unfortunately, with gas prices creeping higher and higher and two camping trips around the corner we are not getting out too much till we actually go camping.  Gas was at $4.33/gallon today, so not fair!  My mom told me it is only $3.03/gallon in Cheyenne, again, not fair! 

Just a few random pictures of this and that.....

Micah with his worms of some sort he dug up.

All Noah needs to be entertained, cars and dirt/mud.

Working on "making" mud.

After play cuddling.  Tim isn't a big fan of pictures, can you tell?

We leave on St. Patty's day to go to Lake Casitas for our first camping trip of the year.  So I will be updating the blog with all that fun stuff once we are back.  Today Tim asked each boy individually if they would rather go to Disneyland or camping over Spring Break and they picked camping.  Today Tim booked us a spot for four nights outside Yosemite, definitely excited for that trip.

Texas Trip

Tim left for NCOA, (non commissioned officer academy) on January 3rd and graduated February 14th.  The boys and I were able to fly out and see him graduate and spend a few days sightseeing, we went to the Alamo and river walk.  I ended up forgetting to put the battery camera back in so we have no pictures of those two places.  It was only 38 degrees out so I am not convinced the pictures would have even been worth looking at, we were all freezing!

Tim's NCOA class.

Graduation day.

Final retreat.



Us with Chief Gaylord.  He was Chief Master Sergent of the AF.

Getting some energy out of the boys at a rest stop.



Poppa Dillen worked on the engineering team for this plane.