Definitely the Happiest Place on Earth!

A couple weeks ago, we got to spend 2 days at Disney and we had an amazing time! We went to celebrate Noah finishing his Master's Degree (we actually packed up and went there on the same afternoon that Noah completed his Master's presentation!) and it was definitely the perfect way to have fun together and re-connect as a family after 3 stress-filled months!

We stayed at the Candy Cane Inn, which is about a 5 minute walk into Disneyland. It was fun to stay here with my little family because as a child, this is the same hotel I stayed at when I went to Disneyland for the first time when I was 8-years-old.

Keira loved staying at the hotel too! We set out her sleeping bag on the floor and she had a great time sleeping there! On our first day at Disneyland, she kept saying throughout the day that she didn't want to go home and she wanted to stay at the hotel. It was fun to tell her, "Yes, we are going back to the hotel to stay one more night!"

Snuggling with Daddy before heading off to Disneyland!

Classic picture spot!

She loves loves loves the carousel!

And the Dumbo ride, of course!

Happiness!

Getting to meet Minnie was fun!

Some really cool flowers around the park

Chillin' out after lunch

Is Keira imitating Pooh or is Pooh imitating Keira?

Hmmmm....

Can't get enough carousel!

Daddy let us splurge and get Keira's face painted!

She was so excited!!

So pretty!

Disney parades are always pretty amazing and this one, centered around music, was no exception! Although Keira has never seen a Disney movie, she loved seeing all the characters!

On our 2nd day at Disney, we went to California Adventure, which was our first time going there. It was a lot of fun!

When you ask Keira what her favorite ride was, she will say "The Mermaid Ride" which is the brand new ride that tells the story of "The Little Mermaid." We went on the ride 4 times and it was really fun to see the amazing special effects they use nowadays.

Ariel and her underwater hair-do

This is Mickey's Fun Wheel. If you ask Keira about it, she will tell you she did not like it and she'll say, "I shaked" and then proceed to demonstrate her shaking (ie trembling with fear) motion.

If you look closely, you'll see some gondolas on the outside and some on the inside of the wheel. The ones on the outside are stationary and the ones on the inside of the wheel are on a track and swing back and forth as the wheel goes around. We thought we'd go all out and try the swinging gondola, but maybe that wasn't the best choice. It was a bit scary for me, and yes, Keira did shake and bury her head in my lap as the gondola rocked. Next time, we will stick with the stationary gondola!

Riding the rocket ships!

Wheeee!

Getting ready for the swinging gondola!

We had no idea when we were in store for!

(Fun?) on the swinging gondola!

The view from way up high on Mickey's Fun Wheel!

More carousel? Yes, please!

Keira LOVED meeting Pluto! She went back in line to get to meet him a second time! And she was brave enough to take a picture with him all by herself!

Bumper cars with Daddy!

Hot air balloon ride!

A painted facade

Exploring the wonders of California

Lights everywhere!

So pretty!

Bundled up and waiting for the water light show!

She fell asleep a few minutes after this picture, during the loud music & water light show!

Goodnight, Mickey!

We'll see you again soon!

Empty Nest

To Our Faithful Readers:

We are sad to report that we no longer have a hummingbird in our backyard. :( I went out to check the nest on Friday and the 2 eggs were gone. They had been there the day before and I saw the Mama Bird sitting on the nest on Friday morning, but something must have happened that afternoon. Since the eggs have been gone, we haven't seen the Mama Bird either.

So sad. :(

Visiting Daddy at Work!

As Keira has gotten older, she has developed a better understanding of our weekly schedule and how her Daddy goes to work and "works sooooooooo hard" (as she says). I feel it's important for her to see where he works and get a better understanding of what he does and how he provides for us & one way to do that is to visit!

Today, we got to do just that!

First, we sat outside in the gorgeous weather and ate lunch.

Then, we got to hangout in Noah's office.

Our happy little computer engineer in training!

Working out some equations on the white board

Wow, that's a lot of computer equipment!

She loves her Daddy!

Busy Bags!

We are a part of a playgroup full of awesome moms and kids. One of my friends in the group organized a Busy Bag Swap, which means that each participating mom prepared multiple copies of an age-appropriate activity and then swapped. So, I prepared 15 copies of the ABC clothespin wheels and in exchange, I got 15 different activities to comprise Keira's busy bag!

This week, we started exploring the contents of the bag! Although we've only tried out a few activities, Keira is having a lot of fun exploring all the materials (& I've had a few moments to myself to prepare dinner while she's been busy!). :)

Matching the foam letters to the ABC cards

Buttoning the colored pieces of felt to create a rainbow snake!

Practicing tracing letters and shapes!

Counting the correct number of frogs to match the number on each card!

There is still a lot more to discover in the busy bag!

Many thanks to our friend Sheryl for organizing an awesome activity!!

Noah is Now a Master!

After an almost 5-year journey, Noah has officially earned his Master's Degree in Computer Science!!!!

Noah worked so hard every quarter, taking one class at a time, while also working full-time and juggling his responsibilities as a husband and father. It was definitely overwhelming at times and he/we could not have made it through this process without the wonderful support and prayers from our family and friends, especially during the last few weeks as Noah completed his final project.

I am mostly ignorant when it comes to anything related to computer engineering, but I will do my best to (correctly) explain Noah's final project. :)

For his project, he worked with UCSD National Geographic Society Engineers for Exploration and he developed an object tracking feature to a quad-copter (like a 4-propeller helicopter) , that flies around by remote control to take pictures of wildlife/landscapes for National Geographic.

None of this made any sense to me until I actually got to see Noah test the copter in our garage. Although the testing conditions in our garage were rather limited, it was fun to see! I got to turn on the throttle of the copter while Noah kept it from crashing (!) and we got to see it pull towards the red target item at different locations around the garage (this was the goal--to track the red object!). And the really cool thing I got to see firsthand is just how amazingly smart and talented my husband is!! Because of his amazing brain (thank you, Lord!), he was able to basically use math (complicated algorithms, trigonometry, etc) and create a formula that told the flight computer on the copter to fly to the object it detected. WOW! This blows my mind since I am not even able to do multiplication in my head. :)

Noah worked on this project for 10 weeks and there were many ups and downs during the process. The most difficult time was the last 3 weeks when problem after problem kept coming up with the copter itself, which made testing very difficult. As the deadline approached, Noah's anxiety continued to rise and he doubted whether he would finish in time and doubted whether the panel of Professors would accept his project as demonstrating Master's level competency. Thankfully, on the day of his presentation, he was filled with peace and the presentation flowed smoothly, with a final result of acceptance from the Professors! Thank you, Lord!

We are so relieved and excited for Noah to be completely done with school! And I am so proud of how hard Noah has worked to achieve this great accomplishment!

Don't let the smirk fool you!

This was Noah's cave of drudgery for many weeks as he plugged away on all that math!

The multi-copter in flight

View of the underside

Test flight

Noah is holding the red object while the pilot flies the copter

Yes, this is really used by National Geographic!

Congratulations, Noah!

Keira and I are so proud of you!

We Have a Hummingbird!

We have been in the midst of intense craziness with Noah finishing his Master's, then much rejoicing & celebrating after he finished with a 2-day trip to Disneyland. So, there is much to blog about all the events of the last few weeks, but I'll save that for another time. Right now, we are all excited about our hummingbird!!

Sometime last weekend, we were standing in the living room and Noah spotted the tiny nest right outside the window in the hibiscus branches. After we kept our eye on the nest, we saw the mama hummingbird come and go to & from her nest. Then, upon further investigation of the nest close-up, we saw 2 tiny eggs in the nest! WOW! We are so excited!

Yesterday, Keira and I went to the library and found some books about hummingbirds and learned all about the basics of their behavior. According to our research, the eggs should hatch pretty soon (14-day gestation period) and then we'll have baby hummingbird chicks!

We have been keeping a close eye on the mama bird and her nest throughout each day! We will keep you posted on all the excitement!

Here are some pictures...

Mama Bird

Keeping her babies warm

The nest is very intricate and tightly woven

Two babies to be!

Keira's Favorites

I haven't blogged in a while, but I've had several ideas running through my head of things I want to post about. One idea I've had is to make a record of Keira's "favorites" at this point in time. It will be fun to look back on these things when she is older!

Keira's Favorites as of March 2012:

Color: Blue (hands-down)

Foods: Cheese, bread, bagels & cream cheese, fruit leather

Places to go: Library, Sonshine preschool, Friend School, Trader Joe's (b/c of the little shopping carts!), park, friends' houses

Things to do/play: Swings at the playground, read books, tracing/cutting in activity books, play-doh, Board games (The Ladybug Game and Diggity Dog)

Books to read: Knuffle Bunny

Shows to watch: Elmo's World, My Favorite Pets DVD

Songs to sing: ABC song, Twinkle, Twinkle, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-B-L-E, Jesus Loves Me

CDs to listen to in the car/home: Hullabaloo, kids' worship music, & Aunt Laura's CD

Shoes: Flip-flops and light-up shoes

Things to do with Mommy: "Help" with chores (folding laundry, cooking, cleaning), reading books, crafts

Things to do with Daddy: Yard work, going to Home Depot, looking at pictures on the computer

Together: Family walks with Jack, playing board games, eating dinner at a restaurant

That's all I can think of for now! Keira is at such a fun age where she is interested in everything around her and is learning and growing so much everyday!