In about a month the movers will come pack up our things and we will be without for hopefully only 4 weeks. The challenge now is to try and decide what we can live without for that long, make sure we have enough room to bring the stuff we can not live without, and figure out what we can get rid of.Eliza is eating graham crackers and cheerios. She is sitting up on her own for about one minute before falling over. Eliza is very observant. She is a happy girl that loves attention and gives the biggest toothless grins you can find anywhere. Seventy-five percent of the time Eliza smiles with her mouth wide open and her arms and legs flailing. She is now able to play with the toys on the exersaucer and jump high in the jumper. She is becoming very interactive. The other day I put her in the tub and she would twist, roll, and wiggle to get out of my grasp. She thoroughly enjoyed splashing about and only cried when I took the wash cloth away to get her out.
Maren is a fun toddler. Her new favorite phrase is “Yes sir.” She picked it up off “The Jungle Book” and also the idea that you scratch your back by rubbing up against a tree. She says “Yes Sir” to disagree. (Ex: Mom – “it’s time for sleep.” Maren- “I want to stay awake, Yes sir.” Or “Make me a picture, Yes sir.” means “help me put this puzzle together now please”) 
She also calls the living room / kitchen area her home. For some reason “home” does not include bedrooms or bathrooms. So when I am putting her down for a nap she sometimes will say “I want to go home” instead of “I want to stay awake.” She loves to look for bugs then follow them while saying “he’s kind of cute” and “hi little guy.” When she looses them she says “they had to go home to see their family.”Whenever Maren is awake and Eliza is just waking up. Maren will hear Eliza and shout “I get it!” And she takes off running for Eliza to get her up. Maren is starting to ask Eliza to stand up and proceeding to help her. She has never gotten her off the ground but it will only be a matter of time. Maren Loves to hold Eliza, but gets tired of it quickly. Right after the following picture was taken, with only a split second of warning, Maren dumped Eliza off onto the floor.
Luckily there were no tears.Two Sundays ago during Sacrament Meeting Maren was playing with Daddy’s shoe laces. She was going to tie them for him. After she had tried all she knew how to do,
she asked for help. When Jon had completed tying his shoe Maren clapped her hands and said “Good job tying your shoe. You did it!”Saturday, April 26th, Jon was taking Maren somewhere in his truck. She asked for a wipe. Jon gave one to her and she stuck it down her shirt to wipe. After a few seconds she turned to Jon so proud of herself and said “my tummy all clean!”
Wednesday, April 29th, Eliza had not been acting like her usually happy self, so I took her to the doctor to find out she has another ear infection. Why is it Maren has never had an ear infection but Eliza has had two in the same ear?
Thursday, May 1st was an exciting day. Jon attended his College of the Air Force Graduation. Besides getting his Mental Health of Applied Science Associates Degree he was one of four to receive the Pitsenbarger Award which is like a grant. It is $500 of free money. Now instead of paying $700 for our lap top computer it’s like we only paid $200. Congratulations, Jon! 
