Family Newsletter 2009

I just completed this years Christmas Letter. Like last year, I will just be mailing it to a few people who aren't bloggers or facebookers. Call me cheap, but I like to be frugal. However if you really want a hard copy for whatever reason, I'll mail you one. Here is what is says:

What a whirlwind of a year 2009 turned out to be. At the beginning of the year we were in Idaho, thinking we would be moving temporarily out of the country. Jared had a job offer in Belgium and the whole episode was a roller coaster. By the end of winter, we had most of our stuff in boxes or sold before we realized that a move to Belgium just wasn’t going to happen. We were all disappointed but also glad it didn’t pan out. But we struggled with the fact that we knew we were supposed to move some where and we didn’t know where.

That some where revealed itself in the summer when Jared was offered a job across the country in Virginia. We were a little hesitant at first because of the whole Belgium fiasco. But after much pray we knew this was where the Lord was trying to lead us. After accepting the job we had three weeks to pack and move so we could get RJ started in Kindergarten on time as well as a quick trip to California. It was stressful and we lived off of pure adrenaline for the entire month of August.

Our fears and concerns about the move were dissolved when our home in Idaho sold in three days and the people of Lynchburg welcomed us with nothing but warm kindness. We know this is where we are supposed to be at this time in our lives even though it is tough being so far from extended family and old friends, especially around the holidays. But we are trying to make the most of it.

RJ started Kindergarten this year. Even though he struggled a little with school, he was one of the top students and received the Good Citizenship award the first time it was presented. After buying a house shortly before Thanksgiving, RJ switched schools. He is now in a smaller class size and is enjoying Kindergarten whole heartily and we are so happy.

Savannah took a dance class this summer and loved every minute of it. We think she will be a natural, if we can only find an affordable dance class here in Lynchburg. She has become Mommy’s little helper and loves grocery shopping and folding the laundry. Jennifer hopes she will continue to enjoy folding the laundry when she is older. (Keep dreaming.) Another great accomplishment Savannah achieved this year was potty training. We can’t be any happier then to finally have her out of diapers.

In April we brought a third little blessing into our lives as we welcomed Zachery into our family. He has been such a fun happy baby and we can’t even begin to imagine life without him. Zachery has been growing up fast. Jennifer wishes he would slow down a little. He started crawling at just 6 months of age and hasn’t stopped exploring. He loves his older siblings and they can’t wait till he gets big enough to run around and play.

This year Jennifer became a lay out designer for a digital scrapbooking company. She has enjoyed making scrapbook pages for the family albums and having her hobby paid for through the assignments she has been given from Scrap Girls. She has also been busy settling us all into our new home that we all very much love and can’t believe is ours.

Jared has been surprised to find that he very much enjoys his new job. He can see himself moving far in this company. He has become the Scout Master, again, in our new ward. It is a calling you defiantly can’t move away from, but he is thrilled to still be involved with the scouting program.

We have all truly been blessed and we can’t thank the Lord enough. We hope this letter finds you well. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010.

This year we took pictures ourselves with the timer on our camera. It was right after Church and the kids really wanted lunch. But they did pretty good to humor us. The lighting in our front room is not so great and the only backdrop we had handy was our lovely gold 60 style curtains. But hey, gold does go with the theme of Christmas, so it's all good. Here are a few shots as we try to get the best pose we could get. Enjoy.

I liked this one, except we were off balance and Zachery wasn't looking.)

(But we ended up going with this pose because it was a little more balanced and everyone was pretty much looking at the camera)

Isn't he just the cutest!!