Ellie

Ellie started out her first grade year in Utah, she loved it, and her love of reading started here!!

 I cannot begin to say how much I love and appreciate this girl, and the growth that she has done over this last year has been incredible...pictures are worth a thousand words...

During her Thanksgiving program that her class put on for their families...they all got to show off their reading skills! It was very cute!

Finally, around Halloween of 2011, she lost her first tooth...after months and months of asking when she was going to loose it, it finally came out! Her second tooth came out just a couple of weeks later, but as of right now...June of 2012, she is still waiting to loose the two front teeth! (She keeps telling me that the dentist said she should loose them in a couple of months...that was about two months ago...and well, they aren't loose at all, but she keeps holding out hope!)

Ellie wanted to be a witch for Halloween, and it was an awesome costume...made by ME!!! I think I did a pretty awesome job, if I say so myself! It was a lot of fun doing this for her!

Ellie just being crazy!!! We love her craziness, even though it drives the rest of us crazy as well sometimes!

I didn't take any pictures of our big move to Washington right before Christmas...and I was so sick for about 12 weeks because of this baby, but one morning I woke up to this note stuck to the fridge...This is so typical of Ellie, always leaving me notes and little reminders how much she loves me! She loves to write stories and whatever it is she is thinking at that moment. The other Saturday, I got to sneak away to the adult session of stake conference (the rest of the family was sick) I took a notebook with me and I was thumbing through the pages, and I came upon something that Ellie had written and drawn, I have no idea when it was written, but it melted my heart!

This picture, I assume is Ellie and God and apparently God has a cape?!?!

I will do my best to decipher this...
"I believe in God. And I believe, that he loves one another, even if they are bad or good and kid or men ....If they are a girl or a boy. Do you believe in God? I do."
Sorry, I can't make out some of the words in the middle there....but if you are like me and wonder if anything I say, or their teachers in primary teach, ever get through...well, this tells me that something is getting through...and this is her sweet testimony! (out of the mouth of babes!!)

This is Ellie, at the end of first grade, she has grown up so much, she is reading chapter books after chapter books, in fact, she goes through them so fast, I can't keep up with her! She is super excited to be a big second grader in the fall. And though she wont admit it, she is excited to have her little brother start school as well!  Ellie has a tendency to be a bit snippy and impatient with just about everyone, but especially her brothers, so we are working very hard on HOW we say things to each other, and speaking softly to each other. Ellie is excited to be a big sister again, and she has bonded quite nicely, already, to baby brother...she loves to sit and feel him kick and she talks and kisses the belly all the time! She is really hoping that he comes on her birthday this year.  We are learning about money management as a whole family, learning how to budget and save and stay out of debt (or get out of it, in mom and dad's case), She has really grasped the idea of earning money, and she likes to pitch in and do the jobs that she gets paid to do. She likes to do dishes, and sort laundry, she is excellent at setting the table, and even though its her least favorite chore, she is really good at cleaning her room and putting her clean clothes away! She is a big help around the house, and I do rely on her a lot! Her favorite thing to do when she is outside is ride her bike and play on the monkey bars, and she has the calouses(?) to prove it. She has discovered playing in the woods in front of the house...it kinda reminds me of when I was growing up, going and playing for hours in the woods!
We sure love this girl, we love the spirit she adds to the house and the family!