I see poop!!

Noah and I went to Bluebird Gap Farm yesterday. We had great fun checking out all the animals. And we learned that even COWS poop, haha!!

Transportation Museum

While mom and Dad were here, I took Daddy to see the Army Transportation Museum. It turned out to be a very special trip for Noah though. Gabriel was at school so it was just Mommy, Noah and Papaw. Noah had a great time checking out all the planes, trains, and trucks with his Papaw.

Family picture

Belly pics

Thank you Mamma!!! I have wanted to have pregnancy portraits done for so long. Mom and Daddy are visiting this week. Mom took the pics and Daddy corralled the kiddos. I am soooooo happy with the way they turned out.

Khaki Ball

Soccer Mom

I am officially a soccer mom, haha!! I got hooked up with a church that does a short little soccer season with a few other church teams. The kids don't do practices they just come on the weekends and play. Gabriel loves it, but hasn't quite gotten the concept of the game yet. He gets pretty upset, if he has to go too long without getting a chance to kick the ball. He thinks the other kids should share with him, haha! Noah is a bit overstimulated by the whole experience. He doesn't move a muscle when he is on the field, and he kind of stares into nothingness. Last week I actually got him motivated to run after the ball. And about 5 seconds after getting onto the field another child ran into him, and THAT was the end of THAT. But hey, he looks GREAT in the uniform. And apparently standing in the middle of the field REALLY takes it out of ya, LOL! He is usually asleep before we leave the parking lot.

Bus Stop Buddies

Virginia Living Museum

Our nieghbors, and Gabriel's new bus stop friend, were nice enough to take us to the Virginia Living Museum last weekend. They are members and had some guest passes for us. We had a great time, it was a nice to just relax and be a family after having so many weekends "Daddyless".



The best exhibit at the WHOLE MUSEUM. We had to drag the boys away from it. "Look Mommy, a real live person" hehe!!! Some one was cleaning the exhibit. The boys thought it was fascinating!

Chief Petty Officer Ehlenberger

Putting on Khakis

Yesterday was a GREAT DAY for us. After 6 weeks of enduring complete and utter stress, Jason was taken away from us for his last night of "conditioning" to become a CHIEF PETTY OFFICER. But it was so worth it. He left our house for the last time wearing his Dress White CrackerJacks and we met him at the USS Wisconsin and finally got to see him in that Khaki Uniform. But he wasn't a Chief yet. We were all escorted by his sponsor up to the USS Wisconsin and to our seats. After a little bit of a wait, Jason and the other Selectees marched in singing Anchors Aweigh. Then the Captain of the USS CARL VINSON came in and told us this great story of his first experience with a Chief as a midshipman at the Naval Academy at the age of 19. He said after observing the Chief for a few days he learned 3 things, "Everybody does what the Chief says, NOBODY tells the Chief what to do, and the CHIEF is NEVER wrong."

Then the Selectees were brought up 3 at a time to be pinned. Jason was in the second group. Peter and I were escorted up to the front and we pinned Jason's anchors on his collar, then his sponsor Senior Chief Gene Jackson covered him. I was so anxious, happy, and nervous I didn't even think about posing for a picture until afterwards. But I am hoping that the photographer was able to get a better picture of that. After I got back to my seat, I couldn't hold back the tears, or wipe off the smile. It was so wonderful to see Jason up there in that Uniform, he has worked so hard to get this far. The boys were pretty excited too. One by one the new Chiefs were piped into the Chief's Mess. "ARRIVING CHIEF PETTY OFFICER EHLENBERGER" and then the Bosn's pipe was blown.
They then formed back up and waited for the rest of the Selectees to be pinned. I looked over at one point and saw Jason smiling so big, so I had to snap a pic of that. This day starts a whole new Journey in Jason's Career and I am so proud that I got to be there to see it happen and to be a part of it.

The Chief's Wife,
Sabrina Ehlenberger