Big News...

...We're moving to Virginia!!!

Here's the scoop...
Robert was offered an Accounts Executive/Outside Sales job with Dell and he officially accepted it last week. He'll have the whole state of Virginia as his territory, but 85% of his accounts are in Northern Virginia and Washington DC. So, we'll be living somewhere close to DC and Robert will work from home 1 or 2 days a week and then travel around and visit his accounts the other 3 or 4 days. He's really excited about the job and we are all excited about this adventure ahead of us! We've both lived in Texas almost all our lives (Rob was born in Ohio until age 2), so we think it'll be fun to live in a different region and get to explore another area of the US. We'll be 2 hours from Philadelphia, under 4 hours from NYC and we hear that Virginia is a beautiful state itself. We're going to try and take advantage of our time there and hope to return to Texas in a couple years. It should be great experience for Robert's future career. So yes, we're excited about it. But we're also sad, of course. Most of our family is in Texas, Robert and I met in Austin at our church, got married here, bought our first (& 2nd) house here, and both of our children were born here. And we have great friends here that we will greatly miss. But we've been praying for God's will to be done in our lives and we both feel that this is where God is leading our family. We are trusting in Him to provide a house for us there, friends & fellowship for us all, fruitful labor for Robert and a solid church home. We hope this time will strengthen us as a family and draw us closer to Him. We covet your prayers in the weeks ahead.
For:
-finding a home (the cost of living & housing there is MUCH higher and we're trying to decide if we should rent or buy and exactly what area we should settle in)
-the actual move to go smoothly (thankfuuly, Dell is doing all the moving for us)
-that the kids would handle this transition well and adjust as easily as possible

Well, I guess that's all for now. We're flying to VA next weekend to look for a place to live and then Robert starts on Monday, June 2! I think he'll be flying out each week for a few days until we can all get moved out there. I'll keep you posted as we iron out the details!

A week in review

Play time

Now that Will is getting a little bigger & older and can run, he's doing a better job keeping up with his sister. Everyday, they love to chase each other in circles around the house with lots of giggles and squeals. Here they are having a little tickle fight...

More tickling...

Parks are more fun for Will now, too -- He can navigate pretty well around a play scape these days. I thought my second child might be a little calmer/less active than my first, but I was wrong. Will is just as much of a climber as Aubrey and LOVES climbing on top of the couch, the coffee table, on dining chairs, on top of the computer desk, etc... I can't turn my back for 2 seconds or he'll be ascending the brick fireplace or some other piece of furniture.

He loves the trains he got for his birthday! Anytime he sees a train (and sometimes even any type of truck) he gets really excited and says, "choo choo". In this pic, he's right in the middle of saying "choo choo" to his Thomas.

Will is a huge fan of the cardboard box. Once he gets his hands on one, good luck ever getting it back!

This was our first trip to the neighborhood pool this year. Will did not like the big pool b/c the water was cold, but he was fine in the warm baby pool.

I think he had more fun with the box than in the water...

Happy 31st to my Hubby!

Aubrey singing "Happy Birthday" to her Daddy. Of course, she insisted on everyone wearing party hats.

Will had one little bite before getting down to run around and explore.

It's all about the icing for Aubrey!

We had a nice, relaxing day today and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Robert has been traveling the last 3 weeks, so a low-key day was great for us. We're looking forward to a date night tomorrow night to celebrate some more. Happy Birthday Robert/Daddy -- we love you!!!

Last week

Fun in the Sun. Thanks for the cute suit, sunglasses & sandals, Lauren!

Playing with the balloons from his b-day

I had a great (but quick) trip to Dallas for Amy's shower! This was my first time to drive to Dallas & back in one day.

Will is enjoying the view much more now that he is forward facing!

Tagged

My friend Crystal has tagged me! So here are my lists of 4...

4 jobs I've had:
-Waitress at On the Border in high school & summers during college
-Nanny all through college
-4s & 5s (Pre K) Teacher at Westlake Bible
-Stay at Home Mom -- by far my favorite job!

4 Movies I've seen more than once:
-Princess Bride
-Clueless (I watched this a zillion times in high school)
-Waiting for Guffman
-Pride & prejudice -- the BBC version with Colin Firth

4 Places I've lived:
-Dallas, TX
-Garland, TX
-Austin, TX
-Round Rock, TX

4 TV Shows I watch:
-American Idol--I heart David Archuleta the most, but I really like all of the top 4, even though Jason's performance was pretty bad tonight :(
-Friday Night Lights -- my favorite show! I didn't love it when I saw it for the first time, but after seeing a couple episodes, I was hooked. It's also filmed here in Austin...
-The Office!
-Ugly Betty -- silly, but entertaining

4 Places I've been:
-LA -- Robert & I got engaged on a very windy day in Malibu, overlooking the Pacific Ocean
-NYC-- I love to visit the Big Apple, but would not want to live there.
-Alberta, Canada -- We went to the Canadian Rockies for our honeymoon & it was the perfect escape from the Texas heat in August. Banff, Lake Louise & Jasper were all amazing!
-Maui, Hawaii-- Where we went on our "babymoon" before Aubrey was born. Loved it!

4 Favorite Foods:
-Pizza
-Chips & guacamole
-Watermelon in the summer
-Pumpkin muffins or pumpkin bread in the fall

4 Places I'd like to visit:
-New England in the fall to see all the leaves (since we don't have a "real" fall in Texas)
-Italy
-Greece
-Whistler, Canada -- I loved Canada in the summer & want to go back!

4 Things I look forward to in the next year:
-Watching Will learn to talk more & more
-Taking a weekend getaway with Robert sometime this summer
-Hopefully meeting at the beach with a couple close family friends again this summer
-Spending time with family for the holidays

4 Friends I'm tagging:
-JLP
-Lauren
-Lucy
-Stephanie

More birthday...

We had a small party for Will on his actual birthday with fajitas from Chuy's and birthday cake. Will had a great time and I think he realized the whole thing was about him when everyone sang happy birthday to him. He definitely enjoyed his cake, as you can tell by the pictures!