Hi, My Name's Chubby

I thought I would give you all an idea of what Maggie has been up to, which is eating, eating and more eating!!  I just love how chubby she is, I think it is so adorable.  Maggie is less than 2 months away from being 1 year old.  I can't believe how fast that has gone by.  She is no longer eating baby food, she refuses to eat anything off of a spoon.  Luckily she eats just about anything I put in front of her.  It is so refreshing to have one of my children eat what I feed them!  Maggie is cruising along the couches and walls and will be walking soon, I am sure.  She is such a happy baby and lately has been constantly flashing this really cheesy grin to everyone.  She recently learned how to crawl up the stairs so I can't leave her alone for a second!  I have taught her how to go down, but as you can see in the pictures, she likes to stand up and look through the rails.  I think that Maggie is our happiest baby.  

Last Friday Grace got to dress up as her favorite nursery rhyme for school.  She  chose Mary, from Mary had a little lamb.  I think that picture in the middle is so funny.  It is so Grace.  She makes the funniest faces when you ask her to smile for pictures.  Grace is just plugging along in school.  She loves it.  She always reminds me that she has homework on days they send worksheets home.  Hopefully that will continue!  Grace loves her new CTR 5 class.  I was a little worried about how it would go, not having so many activities like they had in Sunbeams, but she loves it!  She gave a talk in primary last week, it was on the Creation.  She is very good at public speaking!  Every time she does the scripture she memorizes it and does it all by herself.  Grace keeps talking about her 5 year old birthday and has informed me that she will stop sucking her thumb when she is 5.

This is my most recent picture of Elliot, it is kindof a funny picture but I think everyone has seen all my other pics of him.  Today we went on a fieldtrip to the post office with his little preschool group from church.  He got to buy a stamp, mail a letter (be waiting for that grandma), and we got to go in the back and see where they sort the mail and stuff.  It was fun.  Elliot recently stopped having his binki altogether.  He used to get it at bedtime and now he is a big boy and doesn't need it at all.  Now we just need to get him potty trained!  Elliot has turned into quite the music lover.  He always dances when there is music on and every time we start singing at church he stops and listens.  Remember when he started singing in Relief Society mom?  He was like 10 months old, when we were living with mom and dad, and he started singing the song with us in Relief Society.  It was so sweet.  He was watching this guy playing piano on the news today and was captivated.  He is such a sweet boy!

Everything is good here in Oklahoma.  Luckily we didn't get hit by any of the recent tornados in the south.  The kids are doing good, I recently quit giving them snacks all together.  They refuse to eat dinner most of the time, and sometimes they won't eat lunch.  So they no longer get snacks.  It's been a few weeks and it hasn't seemed to help much yet, but we shall see!  Ray and I are going to Spokane in about 3 weeks to find out more about a job there.  They are flying us out there.  We are really hoping it works out because we really want to move back to the west.  I know that they really want Ray, it is just a matter of if they will pay him what he is asking.  Leslie and Alex are coming up here to stay with Grace and Elliot (we will take Maggie).  They are really excited about seeing Aunt Leslie and Uncle Alex.  We are so lucky to have such a wonderful sister and brother so willing to help!!  Ray and I are going to Logan in May to Ray's brother Jez's college graduation.  Mom is coming out here to stay with the kids.  It will just be Ray and I, we are so excited!!  We are so grateful to grandma!!  We will go to Pocatello for a day and get to see baby Lilia.  I can't wait to meet her!  We are so proud of Jez, this is such a huge accomplishment for him.  Ray has been such a great example to all of his brothers by graduating from college.  I have started working out again, on a regular basis.  It has only been about 3 weeks, but I feel so much better.  It is hard sacrificing the time to do it, harder than I ever would have imagined, but it is worth it.  Hopefully I will lose my baby weight soon!  Everything is good her in Oklahoma.  Remember, Oklahoma, it's OK!