Growing up too fast...

Maggie started walking recenlty, I can't believe how old she already is, that she is actually old enough to walk!!  It is certainly bittersweet.  She is such a special girl.

Another reason I'm not too sad about leaving Oklahoma...

So, Spring is normally one of my favorite times of the year.  I love the rebirth of all the trees, flowers and plants.  However, spring in Oklahoma is another story.  Spring in Oklahoma is tornado season and the wind is blowing CONSTANTLY!!  Last night we were up for about 2 hours when the tornado sirens started going off at about 2:30am.  They went off and on about 3 times, and there was this unbelievable, house-shaking storm.  There was constant lightning and thunder.  Max was going completely bonkers.  We had to get the kids up and sit in the closet under the stairs with them until the sirens stopped.  It was interesting trying to get them to go back to sleep after that.  It was a seriously scary storm.   In the end, a tornado never even touched down.  I can't imagine what the storm would be like if it did.  The weather here is actually pretty fascinating,  I would just like to observe it from afar, which we will be doing soon if we could just get our house sold!!

The Cake

We had a little birthday party for Maggie last night.  She was definitely the most messy of all my children with her 1st birthday cake!!  It took me about an hour to get all the cake cleaned up, and get her high chair cleaned off (it actually needed a good cleaning!).  I don't know what I was thinking with the red frosting, I'll blame Grace, she helped me pick it out!!

You can all be witness to my mad cake baking/decorating skills :) (I like Grace's finger, she could hardly keep her hands off!  She even ate dinner because she knew she wouldn't get any cake if she didn't!)

Happy Birthday to you!

Getting a little messy...

Messier...

And messiest!!

Happy Birthday Maggie Rae!!

Happy Birthday to our sweet baby girl!  We love you so much!!

Learning to ride...

Well, Grace finally learned to ride her bike without training wheels!!  Ray took them off a few months ago and she was just too scared to do it.  She kept asking him to put her training wheels back on, but he told her that once they are off they can't go back on!  The last couple of days they have been practicing a lot and she finally go it!

Once she started riding it was like she had been doing it all her life.  She stayed out and practiced for a long time and now she can get started all by herself and stop without the bike falling over.  Great job, Grace!! (She didn't get hurt when she fell, by the way :)

Real Estate

I am so tired of selling houses.  This is the 4th house we have sold in the last 4 years.  We have always been really lucky and have sold our houses really fast.  I keep thinking that our luck has run out (even though it has only been about a week).  I always go through this.  Plus, the housing market has changed drastically in this country.  However, the housing market in Tulsa is actually much better than a lot of the country, at least that is what all the experts say.  Our home prices haven't plummeted.  The market here has always been really steady and stable.  And, they keep cutting interest rates, which is bad for the value of the dollar, but good for people wanting to buy houses. 

But, I hate always having to keep the house spotless, having to worry about every little mess the kids make.  They need to be able to make messes, they are kids!!  I feel like I am being a tyrant mom.  I hate all of the stress it creates, worrying about the future, what will we do if the house doesn't sell soon enough, etc.  We were going to rent when we first moved here, but couldn't find anything to suit our needs in the short amount of time we had to look.  So, we will rent when we get to Spokane, even though we plan on being there for much longer  (we planned on being here for much longer, after all).   The bright side is, we get to move back to the northwest!!!  I am thrilled about that .  But I am so over selling houses.  I just want it to be over with.  I know I need to have faith that we are making the right decision for our family, so it will all work out.  But accepting the unknown is a very uncomfortable  place for me to be.    Anyway, I 'm done with my rant, I need to go to bed (after I get the house cleaned up, of course :).

Spokane Bound (Another couple of Crazy Weeks)

So, it looks like we are going to be on the move again.  We have really been wanting to move back to the northwest.  We miss it so much.  We really like Oklahoma but it just isn't the west.  So, Ray has been looking around for jobs and being very picky about it.  He interviewed for a job in Spokane, WA a few months ago and it has been a long process, but they offered him the job a couple of weeks ago.  Ray and I went to Spokane for his final interview, (thanks Les  and Alex for watching the kids!!), and they basically asked him to tell them everything that he wants, holding nothing back, so he did.  They gave him everything he wanted!!  They were really impressed with him and obviously really wanted him.  They flew both of us out there and put us up in this really nice hotel in downtown Spokane.  He will be doing pretty much the same thing he does now, for a different company.  It is really good for Ray to feel like he is appreciated professionally, something he hasn't really felt in his current job.  We really feel like this will be a good move for us.  They will be paying him more, so I really won't have to work anymore, and we will be so much closer to my family.  

I love Spokane, it is so beautiful.  There are big huge pine trees everywhere throughout the city.  We are really excited!!  Now we just have to sell our house!  We have been working feverishly to get our house ready to sell, here's a hint-flat paint BAD with kids!!  You can't wash it, you have to paint over it.  We have had to paint pretty much everything from 3 ft. down.  Ray's new employer is being very flexible with his start date, they are giving us time to sell our house.   But, it is still very stressful.  Anyway, we are praying that all goes smoothly!  We can't wait to get back to the west!