Spoke too soon

SO I posted the post about Belgium too soon. There was some miscommunication somewhere. While the Lab here in Idaho has been planning on having Jared go to Belgium for awhile to design some hardware, the Belgium's had other plans. While in a meeting over in Belgium Jared was told that he wasn't needed. The hardware was already designed. He, as well as the others who went, were surprised to here this. Jared of course was crushed, he was looking forward to this excellent opportunity to work with a foreign nation. Can you imagine months of excitement and anticipation only to be told flat out you aren't needed. So anyway, we will not be going to Belgium in April anymore. I am of course disappointed as well. I was so looking forward to this chance to discover Europe.
There is some good news. I don't understand it exactly. As I talked to Jared by Web Cam, it was hard to understand exactly what he was saying. The web cam kept cutting out, plus all this engineer stuff goes over my head. It takes me at least 20 times of hearing what he is doing to get it enough to explain it to others. Anyway, the good news: Jared will get to go to Belgium two more times. The end of March and then the end of April. On top of that there is a possibility that we all can go through August and September. Not sure why exactly, or what he is doing now. I am sick of this roller coaster. First we were going, then we weren't, then we were again. Up and down. I am too the point that I will believe it when I have the plane tickets in my hands.
After a week in Belgium, Jared will finally be home late tomorrow night. Once I understand more of what is going on I'll let you know.

Belgium Update

It looks like we will all be going to Belgium the middle of April and will be there through June. We have filed for our passports, so that is finally taken care of. The company will pay for Jared's flight as well as two other family members which leaves us with one flight to pay for. They also won't pay for our passports, like we had hoped. But they will pay for rooming expenses as well as food. We will be given more than enough money for each since the kids don't eat that much. We are very much excited for this opportunity to go to Europe. Jared will be going on Monday for a week to work with the Belgium's and find out what all needs to happen in their reactor along with looking for a place to stay. We will hopefully know more after his trip. We will keep you all posted as we go along.

RJ is offically 4!

As of yesterday, RJ is officially 4 years old. He was so excited for his real birthday. He had hopes that he would be having another party. We did however try to make the best of the day. He received many birthday cards in the mail from grandparents. He was excited about each one. Each contained a little money, so we took him to Toy 'R Us and let him buy himself a toy. He bought the Five Little Monkeys game and a Doctor set. The rest of the money was put into his savings account. Thanks Grandparents.
At Toy 'R Us they gave him a balloon and a birthday crown, which he thought was pretty cool. We also went to the library for story time. I always forget about it and RJ loves it, so I made a point to remember and take him. He got to choose what he wanted for dinner which was grilled cheese sandwiches and then we made cupcakes together. A neighbor came over and brought him a gift. It is the coolest pirate play set I have ever seen. He of course loved it and hasn't stopped playing with it.

So here is a little info. about our special birthday boy.
Birthday : Feb. 20
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite number: 10
Favorite animal: elephant
Favorite food: scrambled eggs
What he wants to be when he grows up: a pilot that flies to the moon
Favorite movie: funny cartoons because they make me laugh
Favorite thing to do: play computer games and play the Wii
Favorite toy: Pirate Ship
If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go? The movie theater
Any pet in the world: Hamster
Who do you want to meet? Lighting McQueen

Our 4th room

Our little room upstairs that Jared has been working on is almost done. It is usable now, but not yet complete. He finished putting in all the insulation and we put a strip of carpet down. We moved the futon in there so Grandpa Wight could have a place to stay when he came up for RJ's B-day. The sheet rock is going to have to wait awhile, but at least the room is usable.

Our Pirate Bash

This post is long and there are pirates. You have been warned!We all dressed up for RJ's Pirate bash. I don't have a picture of the 4 of us, I wish I did. I should have had RJ take a picture of Jared and I . Oh, well. But don't they look cute? Savannah didn't keep her outfit on very long. Our Pirate flag welcoming the guests. Beware of Pirates!
Enter if you dare.

This is what I have been working on all week. RJ had to have a Treasure Chest Pinata. We found one online for $15, but because we needed it in less then a week, it was going to cost another $15 to ship, so I said no. We found a Pirate pinata at Target, but RJ had to have a Treasure Chest. A friend of mine had made a Piston Cup pinata for her son's B-day, so I thought "if she could make, a Piston Cup, I could make a Treasure Chest. " So I did. And it really wasn't that hard. And it cost me nothing since I already had tissue paper and boxes. (There are now a few bags of cereal without boxes, oh well) We bought little treasure boxes for the kids to decorate. I also made bandannas and sashes for the kids. After trying to make my own eye patches and failing several times, I found some really cute ones that came with an earring at Target. I got 8 of them for $4. They were perfect. I also made a drawing of (or rather, traced) a Pirate to play "Pin the eye patch on the pirate.

We made two pirate ships and Jared stayed up till 1 am making cannon balls out of rolled up pieces of paper wrapped in electrical tape. We used them to play a game called "Sink the Ship."Behind one of those ships was this Shark, that Jared made. It looks great, doesn't it. We played "Feed the Shark" and threw beanbag fish into it's mouth.

As we waited for all his shipmates to arrive, Captain RJ and some of his crew decorated their treasure chests with glitter glue and gems.

The crew is playing pin the eye patch on the pirate. This is the only picture where you can see my costume.

Here is brave Savannah walking (I mean jumping) off the plank.

And the Shark got her!!!

After saving Savannah, the Pirate lined up to take their turns at feeding the Shark in hopes that they wouldn't get eaten as well.

Looks like the Shark got the Capitan.

The Pirates split up into two teams. There were 6 kids totally, three of them didn't want to dress up. They decided to be American Sailors. So we played Pirates against the Americans. And they threw cannon balls at each other in hopes of sinking the other's ship. They had 40 seconds to throw cannon balls at each other. After the 40 sec. we counted how many cannon balls were behind each ship. If you had the least amount of balls in your ship, you won. The boys of course loved this and we played three or four rounds of it.

After each game, I handed out chocolate gold coins. The winner or winners got two and the others got one for playing. They put these coins in their treasure chests.

Lunch Time.

We had PB&J sandwiches, grapes, & chips. The drank Pirate's Root Beer and Shark Blood (Cherry 7up)

After Lunch the pirates discovered that their Treasure had been stolen. They were a little concerned. But luckily the thief left a map that led to the stolen treasure.

Jared led the boys through the house as he read the map to them. "10 steps to the north, 15 to the east"

And up the mountain.

"Your Treasure lies where someone else lies"

They not only found their stolen treasure chest, but they also found another Treasure Chest (the pinata)

Trying there luck at the pinata.

Savannah watched, but didn't want to join the fun. She seemed very unsure about the actions of these wild pirates.

Here is a pirate trying to decided the best way to hit the chest to break it open.

Here is the Capitan taking a swing at it.

I don't remember who finally busted it open, but it did take them three tries each.

After the Pinata we had cake and ice cream. Every year I have made RJ a special themed cake. When he turned two he had a train cake and last year we had a Car's race track cake. This was the hardest one I did. It kept falling apart. I learned that freezing it was the trick to make it stay together. But it turned out very cute.

Here we have a picture of the Capitan and his crew

Don't those cannons look cool lit up. There are two on the other side as well.

Present Time

Here RJ is thanking Grandpa for his gifts. He got him an ant farm. Aren't we going to have fun.

This Pirate ship was from Grandma Sammie. He loved it!

RJ told me this was his best day ever. He wanted to do his party all over again the next day. We all had a blast with this pirate theme. We are glad RJ is in our family and can't believe that he is four already.

Playing in the snow

Monday was a gorgeous day! The sky was blue which we hadn't seen in a long time. The sun was shining, the wind wasn't blowing, the roads were melted and clear of snow & ice, everyone was out and about without there heavy coats, it felt much warmer and the excitement of spring was in the air. It was however only 35 degrees, but it was so nice. I don't ever remember being as excited for spring as I have been since I moved to Idaho. Anyway, that day during Savannah's nap time RJ and I went out to enjoy the nice weather. I wanted to build a snowman but RJ was only interested in a snowball fight. So we threw snowballs at each other until we got too cold.



































Wednesday brought another storm with more gray skies :( but Thursday, Valentine's Day, was another nice day. Daddy surprised us by coming home early and we all went out and played. RJ had fun riding around in his Jeep and Savannah just loved being out in the snow.






























This is RJ pushing and pulling his Jeep because it got stuck, not quite and 4-wheel drive Jeep.



















The snow is fun, but I can not wait till the warm weather comes. We got a lot of snow this year and I am afraid that is will be awhile before it all melts. But at least the weather is a little more warmer to enjoy it.