Savannah's three year old pics

She did a great job and I had to buy a lot cause they were ALL so cute!

Our Weekend

This is what I am going to miss the most when we move, family get togethers.
My Aunt Annette and Uncle Charlie stopped in Rexburg on their way to Montana to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. Annette is my cousin Heather's mother. Anette and Charlie stayed with Heather one night and Heather and Jesse had us all over for dinner along with my Aunt Marilyn and their family. It has been nice having an aunt and cousins so close. I will miss that in Virgina!

So Heather and I tried yet again to get a picture of Milo and Zachery together, still unsuccessful. This is the best one I got, maybe Heather got a better one. I like how Zach has his thumb in his mouth and Milo is staring at it as if to say, "Dude, that's your thumb. What's up with that? You really need to try some real food. That's where the good stuff is." Or maybe he is thinking "Hmmm, that looks like it might be kind of good." Anyway, Milo is almost exactly 6 months older then Zachery. It has always amazed me how much they grow in such a few short months.


We were in charge of dessert and Jared decided to bring his hand crank ice cream maker and put all the kids to work.

Milo was very intrigued with the ice.

Savannah disappeared for awhile and I finally found her under the porch building a rock tower.

What do uncles do best?? They Tickle!

My Aunt Marilyn with Zachery.

Jesse pinned RJ and Seth down and Savannah decided it would be fun to tickle them.

So that was our Friday, Saturday was the INL employee picnic. Lots of free food and fun. We look forward to these picnics and I hope Jared's new company might have some as well.

This princess castle was a HUGE hit! Savannah of course loved it because it was princess but RJ loved it because there were a bunch of obstacles inside and villains to fight.

It was HOT!!! And the fire department had their hose out for us which made a great cooling off spot.

The kids even got to go inside the fire truck.

All you can eat cotton candy, snow cones, and ice cream bars. We were all sugared out by the end of the night.

At the end of the day the kids gather around in a big mosh pit and the rest of the game prizes are thrown out for the taking. RJ got a Huge loot.

Need Pictures

We are planning on taking the job in VA and hope to be up there by the 24th of August, one month! I am trying to get everything organized and ready. I am trying to get two months ahead on my scrap girls assignments for the newsletter. One assignment is a back to school layout and since I haven't had a child start school yet, I really have no pictures of school. I never really took any of RJ on Preshool. Does anyone have any school related pictures they would lend me to scrap for them? Email me please jmw319@gmail.com

Beating the Heat

July 11th was a HOT muggy day. We went down to Rexburg while Jared spent the day getting ready for Scout Camp. My aunt set up her pool and we brought our new slip n' slide. The kids had a blast!

My cousin, Josh was a little to big for the slip n' slide. He kept getting thrown off into the grass. we ended up extending the slide with a tarp for him.

Seth sliding down

This is as far as Savannah got. She really didn't think falling on her tummy looked like fun, I don't blame her.

RJ giving it a try.

This is my cousin's little boy, he sure enjoyed the water.

Zach wasn't too happy outside. He didn't like his hat and he didn't like the heat either.

Even though Savannah didn't slide, she still enjoyed the Slip n' Slide.

New Job???? Big Move???? What does our future hold?

"I want to move, because I don't want Daddy to go on trips anymore." –RJ

(How heart breaking is that?)

So, we weren't looking for a new job. Jared has a very good job. The INL loves him and they have been so good to him. He has been blessed with high pay raises at the end of each year plus a few random ones during the year. They keep saying he deserves more but management won't let them. He has so much freedom with his job right now. He can come and go when he pleases with little or no questioning, just as long as he gets his job done, no one seems to mind. He gets to travel and experience culture and we get lots of free air miles which equals free plane trips to CA for Christmas and maybe a vacation for Mommy (like when I got to tag along on one of his business trips last year to Paris and Belgium). His benefits are awesome and retirement plan is great. We live in a wonderful area with so many family friendly things to offer. Or neighborhood is awesome and we have a lot of good friends. So why get a new job and move?
Like I said before, we weren't looking. Jared has taken many business trips to Virginia the last two years and the company back there that he has been working with love him. They have been asking him to come join them for the past year. The end of May they called and said they had a job posting up for him and wanted him to submit his resume. So why not? It doesn't hurt to submit a resume, right?
Jared went through all the application paper work last month and even did a phone interview. During this time we started thinking about the opportunity that moving to Virginia might offer our family. He won’t be traveling (as much), most likely a pay raise, a milder climate, more diversity (which we both miss from CA), a new house, fun historical places to visit, closer to the coast (warmer ocean water), the idea of something new.

The downside: much, much farther away from family, the hard process of starting over and making friends again, the possible loss of job freedom, maybe he won’t be as well liked in this new job, a lot of what if’s.

So on July 1^st Jared flew out to VA for a face to face interview and I joined him to see for myself what I thought about the area. (Zachery came with us and Rj and Savannah stayed with my Aunt) This was actually Jared’s first interview ever! And in the end it really wasn’t much of an interview; it was just a get to know you meeting for the new manger and really more of a formality. While Jared was in his “interview” a relater took me around the area and I loved it! It was so lush and beautiful!

Lynchburg, VA is about the size of Idaho Falls, still small but not too small, which I liked. It is clean, well up to date; all my regular stores and restaurants are there. Very low crime rate, very conservative, sounds like they have some great schools and educational programs. Lynchburg it located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains so camping and hiking trails aren’t far away. Also the James River runs through the city. Very low traffic. Comparable cost of living to Idaho Falls, so adorable. And the list of good things goes on and on. So after our short trip we were leaning towards taking the job once an offer came.

The new job itself will be a little different. Where Jared is now working more on research and development, over there he will be working on manufacturing, which he has always been interested in. He will also be working on one of the same projects as he does here, so he would still be able to work with some of his coworker here even though this is an entirely different company. It is still a government contracted job with the DOE so job security is still good. Benefits and retirement plans are also still good. We have heard nothing but good things about this company.

As of right now, no finally decision has been made. But as you may tell, we are leaning towards taking the job in VA. The company gets a week off for the fourth of July so we weren’t excepting a job offer till the third week of July (next week).

Jared has been at scout camp all this week, he returns home tomorrow. He just called and said that BWXT (this new company) called with their offer this morning. However, his phone was in the car charging and he didn’t get the message till later this evening. And with the weekend we won’t be able to get all the info till Monday!

Once the numbers are laid out, Jared will go and talk with his mangers (who don’t want to see him go). They plan on trying to get him to stay, so we might be looking at a counter offer. After and even during all this process, we will be making a decision and going to your knees in pray to determine if our decision is the correct decision for our family. I ask you all to pray for us as well. This is a big decision and we can use all the guidance and direction we can get.

3 months

I went and picked up Zachery's 3 month pictures today. I also got Savannah's 3 year pictures taken today as well. I will be able to pick those up next Friday.

Oh, and Zachery did roll over from back to tummy for the first time on wednesday. He is getting so big!

Shots and Fillings

I am not looking forward to the end of summer, I feel like it has just started and am in no hurry for the cold Idaho winter weather. However, RJ can't wait till the end of the season. He is so anxious to start kindergarten.
Last week RJ had his kindergarten shots. He was so brave. I'm not sure what is worse, watching your two month old get shots or your five year old. They laid RJ on the table and one nurse held down his legs as she poked him with the needles and another nurse held onto his arms and hands so he wouldn't get in the way of the shots. He winced through the first three but the fourth one was awful and he cried in pain. I cried with him.
Once we left the doctors he asked, "Is summer over now? Can I start kindergarten?"I know the excitement of starting school was what really helped him get through the shots, and I felt a little guilty telling him that he still had to wait two more months.

My brave little guy also had to endure his first filling. That's right, he got a cavity. I got a sitter for Savannah the day of the appointment and expected to be back there holding RJ's hand through the whole drilling experience. RJ surprised me once again and told me I could stay in the waiting room. I could hear him in the back talking with the dentist and assistants without a care in the world. He came back a half hour later with a smile on his face proclaiming that was easy. He didn't like the numbing effect that lasted two more hours but I definitely had the hardest time watching my baby all grown up not needing his mommy anymore.

Around the House

We may have a thumb sucker on our hands. Zachery won't take a pacifer but he does enjoy chewing or sucking on his fingers.

Feeding "our" ducks. Who needs a pond when you can feed the ducks in the comfort of your own backyard?

These ducks are actually our nieghbors, but they like our ditch and are always around the yard. RJ has named them Gold & Silver.

Our neighbors also have three new friendly calfs. They are so cute! Savannah got to bottle feed the one in the middle but I wasn't around to get pictures.

I love our neighborhood!