Pictures

Just a little FYI in case you hadn't tried, if you click on the pictures they appear larger in a separate window. Hope you're enjoying them.

Baking

Yesterday the girls and I made pretzel dough. After their bath, I had promised they could help me bake them. They each got a piece of dough to do with what they wanted. (Notice Emma's is much smaller.) Mackenzie started out making a fish because they made cinnamon sugar pretzel fish at Sunday school, then she decided she'd make a snake. After about 15 minutes, three cookie cutters and little bit more dough, she came up with a flower for heself, a heart for me and a Princess for Dad (It looked more like a fat upside down triangle with two holes poked in it, but she was quite proud.) Emma's dough, I'm afraid to report didn't make it to the baking sheet. I did end up giving her another small piece. The first one mysteriously disappeared. I think MJ sneaked a little into her own batch or at least I'm hoping it was that and not that Emma ate it! Her little pieces were a little two wet, and a little too dirty from falling on the floor repeatedly. But, she had fun and she got to help Mom and Big Sis, which is what she loves to do. After they baked, we rolled them in butter. Some were tossed with cinnamon sugar and some with garlic. Those were Mackenzie's too choices. And, according to her the garlic ones were the winners. She's really into games now. She likes to know who the winner is and the loser, but she really likes it when there is a tie. It was a fun night in the kitchen for us girls, and Josh enjoyed the sampling at the end. Mackenzie told me several times, which just made my day, "Mom, I love baking and cooking with you!"

When all else fails...

...just drink the stuff. Emma had gotten about half her yogurt eaten, and decided to try and drink the rest. I dumped it in a bowl for her and that's when the real mess began! She's really into dumping out whatever is in the bowl and eating it from the tray. Oh well! These moments go by too fast, so I'll try to stop and enjoy them...even the messy ones!

Yum, Yum, Yogurt!

I just had to get photos of Emma eating her yogurt tonight. I've pretty much given up trying to feed her even messy stuff like this. She's really getting pretty good at using utensils. Although, I cringe when I hand it over, I know she's got to learn. And she did make it to her mouth quite often. Luckily, this was dinner time, so afterward she went straight to the bathtub. Besides, who doesn't need a little purple yogurt on their walls every now and then?!

Sisters

This is what I love most about having two little girls--seeing them interact and share things as sisters. As I was getting ready this morning, Mackenzie rushed in and said, "Mom, I'm reading to Emma, and she likes it!" She then brought Emma's new ABC books into our room, and the two climbed onto the bed. MJ would hold the book out like the librarian does during story hour and say the letters and words. She just loves to help take care of Emma. They usually do pretty well together. Of course, they have their little spats too, but I hope they always remember how special each one is to the other. I feel very blessed myself to have a sister and brother. Both of them are quite special to me, and the older we all get, the more they mean to me.

Funny times

The other day, Emma picked out the orange apron, so I helped her put it on. As she went to start playing with the kitchen, she got distracted and found this musical toy to play with instead. After that, she decided she wanted to wear the purple apron and came back with the orange hat. She was really fast at getting it back off, so I never quite got the picture, but her hair looked funny in this one. The other day, Josh and girls were playing around a little. Emma was laughing hysterically at Josh and Mackenzie. They were taking his hat and putting it on each other. 

Stormy weather

We had a few clear sky days and it rained, so most of the snow was melting. But, this morning we woke up to another blizzard. The wind is really bad, and probably make the storm worse. We haven't had a winter like this since I visited Josh while we were dating. I guess we were due for one. I've tried starting a fire, and we're just staying inside today. 

Snow time

Feeding the calf

Still cold, but the sun is shining

Well, it's still cold here, but I guess it is winter now, isn't it?! On Friday, Josh took Mackenzie out to bottle feed a calf (the one that he was taking care on Thursday). She thought it was great fun. Emma wasn't too sure about it. She really doesn't like animals. At least she doesn't like being close to them. If anything comes near her, a cat, dog, horse, cow, etc., she gets really freaked out. She does do okay if she's in control of the situation and chooses to be close to it. She does get really excited and jabbers when she sees one, but if it makes a move towards her, she usually scrambles up my leg. I'm sure it's a little intimidating when you're that little, but I hope I can figure out how to help her overcome it. 

After feeding the calf, MJ wanted to play in the snow. She figured out she could write her name in it and was imagining all sorts of things to do in the snow. Emma, on the other hand, wasn't quite sure. She always brings me her boots and seems to want to go outside, but then once we're out there she realizes it might not be that fun. I guess she's her mother's daughter and more of a fair weather girl. 

Brrrrr, it's cold here

Okay, so it was 5 degrees when we got in the van today. Josh checked the weather online, and it said it was zero degrees in Ontario. That is way too cold for us. It's getting a little old, but there is always a brighter side. At least we haven't lost power and our heat works. I tell Josh every morning how grateful we are that he gets up and goes outside to take care of things for us girls. This morning we did venture out too though. I had a meeting in Boise at the ICA office, so the girls stayed with their old babysitter who lives there now. It worked out great. I got a reprieve from staring at the computer screen and the girls got to play with Blayse and Houston (Crystal's little boys). The magazine issue I'm working on goes to print tomorrow, so hopefully only one more late night and it will be done. When I left, Josh was headed out to help a baby calf that was just born. The cow couldn't get up; that happens sometimes after a hard birth. He called a couple times while we driving. The first time he asked which towels he could use to dry off the calf. The second time he called to tell me there was a baby calf in my laundry room. I'm not sure if he thought I'd be mad or something. Of course, I wasn't mad; I just hoped he could get it warm and dry. MJ thought it was so funny. I think she was hoping it would still be there when we came back home. She even said, "Okay, Mom, clear out all the stuff in the laundry room so we can bring in all the baby calves to get warm." Now, that I might have a problem with! 

After I left the office, I went to browse several stores mainly looking for home decor stuff. It was nice to just look around and not feel rushed. The girls would have been really bored too. Well, actually that's probably not totally true. MJ would have talked about how we could do this or that, or use this fabric or that fabric. With her hands flailing (because she talks with them a lot), she 'd say, "Okay, Mom, this is what we could do. We'll paint the walls this color. Then, we'll put some pillows here and some blankets there. Now won't that be perfect?!!" She'll be squealing with delight, and it makes me smile to see how excited she gets about everything in life. Now, Emma on the other hand, would have wanted to run around the store or jump out of the shopping cart. But, that's what 20-month-olds do, or at least mine does.

For those of you who don't know, we are moving up the road to Mark and Carla's house in a few months. They just finished building a new home. We haven't talked about it much mainly because we never quite knew when their house would be done. I looked at fabric and furniture, some bedding, etc. I just love decorating/designing, so I'm excited for the opportunity. I actually thought of majoring in Interior Design in college. Maybe I should have taken more classes. They might have come in handy these days. That's why Mackenzie talks about design stuff a lot. If I watch TV it's usually HGTV. My big challenge now is trying to get organized. I'm trying to figure out the best way to contain the clutter. We are moving into a bigger house, but I don't want to just fill it up. I'd appreciate any great ideas anyone has. :)

When I left the last store it was starting to snow a little. The girls had a fun day, and Mackenzie told me all about it as we started on the freeway home. What usually is an hour trip home took about two hours because the snow got so heavy and we hit rush hour. Plus, we stopped to pick up pizza for dinner. I talked to Stephanie while we were waiting in traffic, so that helped pass the time. Then, I called Katrina to catch up with her. Mackenzie wanted to visit so I handed her the phone. She told her Nana (Josh's mom) all about her day and what she did. I asked her if she was finished yet, and she said, and I quote, "Oh you know me, Mom. I love to talk." Then, she preceded to continue talking. I finally got her off the phone. Um, I wonder where she gets this from?! It was a short night once we got home. After we ate, it was baths, reading books, and our new bedtime ritual--listening to Adventures in Odyssey on the Christian radio station. It's really helped get a good bedtime schedule. The girls know after the program is over, it's time to brush teeth, give hugs/kisses, say prayers, then get tucked into bed. MJ did sneak out to come sit with me awhile. Josh and I were looking for pictures for the bull sale catalog, so she visited with us. After I tucked her in again, she thanked me for the snuggle time. Obviously, she did need some more Mom time since she was away ftoday. It made my heart fill good too. 

I did remember another funny thing she said the other day. She asked me for a piece of gum. Now that she's four, she can chew half a piece. I just kind of looked at her thinking, and I think maybe I asked, "Do you really need gum right now?" She looked at me and said, "Just say, 'I suppose so.' That's what you always say, Mom." Oh my! That girl is getting a little too smart. Okay, I must go now. It's time to finish that magazine...

Easy Potato Soup

I tried a new recipe last night from a great little cookbook my aunt gave me for Christmas. Thanks, Jean! It's called Cream Cheese Potato Soup. I had to adapt it a little from the original, but it turned out delicious. It's so easy too, so I thought I'd share. Who isn't looking for quick and easy new recipes? The girls really liked it too.

I put three cups of water in a big pot with three tsp. chicken bouillon. (This made enough for us with leftovers, but it could be easily doubled for bigger groups.) Then I added one package fat free cream cheese and let it dissolve. Next I added one 28 oz. bag of OreIda O'Brien potatoes. These are the cubed ones with chopped onions and peppers. I seasoned it with garlic, salt and pepper. I also added a little cornstarch to milk and thickened it a bit, but it wasn't too runny without that. The recipe also calls for cubed ham. I would have added it, but didn't have any. Hope you enjoy!

Lunch break

This is one of the things I love about living and working where we do. I feel very blessed. Josh came in for lunch this day, and before he knew it, found himself at the bottom of a mountain pillows, blankets and two little girls. I was working on the magazine and heard a cry for help. I walked in and couldn't even find him. Mackenzie and Emma were excited about the mess they'd made and were truly enjoying this time with their dad. 

Snow Ice Cream

I had never even heard of snow ice cream, so I can't say it was some fun tradition that we did as kids, but I read a little blurb about when we were in Kansas. With the big snows we had there, I thought we'd try it. It was delicious. When it started to snow back in Idaho, it gave us another chance to make it again, and MJ was excited. So, maybe we have a new tradition. The recipe calls for lots of fresh snow (I just put a big bowl outside to collect it as it fell), 1-2 cups milk (depending on amount of snow), 1 TB vanilla and 1/2 cup sugar. Mix it all together until desired consistency. It was a fun, albeit cold, treat on a winter day. Mackenzie also insisted we have hot cocoa and warm up with snuggly blankets afterwards. 

Playing in the snow

We received a big snowstorm on Jan. 9. Mackenzie was thrilled to go outside and play in it. It wasn't easy to pack, so we just pushed it together and tried to make some sort of snow castle fort. She also made her first snow angel. When we had snow in Kansas, her Uncle Ryan kept telling her he'd take her out on Saturday when she had her flower girl dress on and teach her how to make them (the day of our sister's wedding). Luckily, that didn't happen. But, since she was all bundled up, I told her it was a great time to make one. Oh, the innocence of a child. I asked her if she wanted to make a snow angel, and she squealed with delight, "Oh, sure!" She was pretty impressed when she got back up and saw what moving your arms and legs in the snow could do. Although it has melted some, we still have that original snow, plus a little more. We haven't had many winters with a lot of snow, so she's been out there a lot trying to make up for it. 

Busy cooks

I did get this video of the girls playing kitchen the other day. MJ was starting to play, and Emma saw her. She wants to do everything big sis does. Emma found that apron and brought it over to me to put on her. She also got interested in the Little People toys, and decided she had to play with those too. Soon the living room was a disaster, but they both had fun.

Quiet weekend

It was a relatively quiet weekend around the Malson house. I didn't get pictures, but Emma and Mackenzie gave us plenty of reason to laugh every day. Last night, Josh was reclining in the rocker with his feet up. Emma had a hair scrunchie Mackenzie likes to where as a bracelet. She was standing in front of him putting it up on his feet. She made "wooooooaahhhhhhhh" and "aaaaahhhhhhh" sounds as she was doing it. She was very proud of herself when she would get it to stay balanced on his toes. Then she'd clap for herself. It was hilarious just watching her. I wanted to video it, but I also didn't want to get up and miss the moment we were in. Sometimes you just have to take it in and be happy you were in the moment. Sometimes, I probably try to document too much, and somehow miss "the moment." It's probably only funny to us because she's our kid, but I thought I'd share. While Emma makes us laugh because of what she does, Mackenzie is so funny because of what she says. I wish I was better at remembering it. Lately, she's been watching too much TV, I confess, (at least it's just PBS kids and Food Network). I can tell it's been too much because periodically during the day she'll come in and ask me things like, "Did you know that if you have too many clothes or your closet is too full, you can buy these hangers and you hang all your clothes and then they fold down, and then your closet is more organized! Is that so cool, Mom? We should get some! Isn't that so exciting?" She's been watching the commercials a little too closely. If it's not closet organization, it's toilet cleaner or laundry detergent. Today, MJ enjoyed playing in the snow for awhile. She asked for a bucket and a toy shovel, and was happy digging around for awhile. She loves to be outside. She and Emma went and fed with Josh the other night. I watched them out the window. The girls were all bundled up. They looked so small walking out there along side him. We are really blessed they can do that with him. I think that's it for now. 

More Emma

Another little video to enjoy! Mackenzie is in the background with her own craziness. If I remember right, she had just come zooming into the living room with her shopping cart. Fun times!!

Emma's antics

Just wanted to share a little blurb from Emma. She's just a riot. I don't know how she's survived this far the way she scales everything. I took some video of her climbing the couch, then onto the coffee table. You know for posterity sake and so I can show her when she has children of her own who do crazy things. Then, after I let her do it a little while, I said, "Now, don't ever do that again." Doesn't make much sense, does it? It's hard to get mad at her about all the little stuff she does because she's so cute. She's just a VERY busy 20-month old. Yesterday, I thought I was really smart by having her take two naps (she's really down to one a day now--ugh! But I had deadlines.) She showed me by promptly waking up at 6:30 a.m. this morning! I thought maybe a little snuggle time with us and bed and she'd go back to sleep. No, she had other plans. So, MJ, Emma and I were up early making coffee cake. I do enjoy having MJ help in the kitchen. Emma is getting to the age where she wants to help to, so I have to find things she can handle. As long as they each have their own bench, we do pretty well. After breakfast, Mackenzie decided she wanted to do my hair and make-up. And of course, Emma had to help too. So, I spent an hour (or what seemed like forever) in the chair, letting them use their hair stuff (a princess shoe, play kitchen stuff, a squeeze bottle, whatever they could find) to do my hair and make-up. Wow, these are the good times. What memories we're making. At least that is my hope. That we will look back and remember the Saturday mornings spent doing silly things together.

Starting our blog

Okay, so I think I'm going to give this blogging thing a try. I spent way too much time this morning working on a blog on my mac web site, and decided it wasn't as easy as I wanted it to be. So...for now I'll give you the web address and you can get up to date on our holiday happenings. From here on out I hope to try posting as often as possible to this blog. If you are interested in keeping up with the Malsons, I suggest you bookmark the site. I am in the process of setting this thing up, uploading all of the holiday/wedding photos to shutterfly and trying to meet a few work deadlines. Oh, and keep track of girls. You can type in the following address to go to my mac website. There are a couple posts on my blog plus a few pages of photos. Again, my goal is to keep this blog updated with posts and photos. That way you're not constantly being overwhelmed by pictures in e-mails, but if you want, you can stay informed about our fun happenings out in the Gem State. Sorry to have you checking out a few different spots, but hopefully you can check back to this one spot and get all the news you need in the future.

http://web.mac.com/maggiejomalson/iWeb/Family%20Site/Welcome.html

Hope you're all doing well! Love, Maggie