settling in

upon leaving the beach, i took my mom home with me for the weekend! even though we couldnt find the sheets for her bed, she was happy to come along for the weekend to help us with the kids so we could unpack. on sunday night she headed home- via amtrak! we are all so excited that the train runs from fresno to fairfield making life a little sweeter for traveling for my mom- who wants to worry about getting lost and sitting in traffic, right? this was her first long distance (3.5 hrs) train ride and she was very excited!

here she is waiting for her train...

 my mom came back the following weekend via trian too! there was an airshow on base that brian and i needed to work at and we had a promotion party to attend- so luckily she was our babysitter! (no luck with that last week when i had to take macy to a change of command ceremony! thank goodness for a bag of stale gummy bears at the bottom of my purse!)

the first week in our house we nearly got evacuated... you may have heard about this on the national news. there was a huge fire at a plastic factory just 1.5 miles away. they evacuated everyone within 1 mile from the fire... i took this picture from just off our street

 this was the sky above our house! you can just barely see the sun. by nightfall all was back to normal.

 the morning of the fire (before it started!), i was headed to the park with the kids when i realized that macy had a flat tire on her bike, so we came home. as we were in the garage pumping up the tire- the doorbell rang. i couldnt imagine who it was.... boy was i shocked to see kristen's parents, lynn and bob on the otherside! what a surprise! they were driving home from tahoe and detoured to come say hi, see the house and kids for just a few minutes. it was so touching that they surprised us. poor brian was at work though... thank goodness for that flat, or else we would have been at the park and missed them!

i always say a few of the hardest things about moving are finding friends, babysitters and a hairdresser. i think im doing okay in all those departments actually... there is a 15 yr old next door who just loves to babysit! i have used her a few times already- it was so nice to just go to the grocery store by myself for an hour even!

brian went to navigator school- 15 years ago- with scott lew. over the years they have worked together a few times, but scott was not married yet. well, scott is now stationed here, arrived just a week after we did- with his wife and 2 kids! hailey is great and i can tell we are becoming fast friends. their son bryton is 3 and the sweetest little guy, while 6 month old cohen is of course a little doll.

and i found a local aveda salon with a stylist i like! here is the new do-

brian's boss, rick and his wife, jennie have 4 children and we are quickly getting to know them and think they are a great family. they invited us to their church our first week here and we LOVE it! it feels soooooo wonderful to have a church home finally after searching and being unsatisfied for 2 years in germany.

tate attended vacation bible school there for 5 nights- here he is performing one of the songs they learned. he is second from the right. the theme of this years VBS was jesus as a child living in nazerath- he loved it! they seem to have a very creative and loving youth ministry at this church and i am thrilled that he gets to be part of it all now!

 the following week, tate went to VBS at the chapel on base! again, it was a great week. i actually volunteered two days- which was great since macy got to go into the nursery and i got to meet some other military spouses.

*ps- macy has not gotten kicked out of any childcare since we got to cali! YIPPIE!

what a surprise we found on our doorstep when we came home one day... a box from the leadbetters full of all our german favorites!

 just for fun, i had to take this picture of the kids sitting in the third row seat for the first time the other day! we brought another spouse from our squadron and her 2 kids to a playgroup, so my kids got to sit in the way back- they loved it! and i am happy to report that tate is finally in a booster seat! not because he is 40 lbs though.... but because i broke down and went out and bought a new booster seat that is approved for use at 30lbs! the poor kid is almost 5 1/2 and only weighs 37lbs- if only he liked soda maybe...

 tate and bryton were playing dress up the other day and i was delighted when tate came down to show off his full pirate suit! this came next...

should i be worried?