Anyone out there?

Hey I thought just for fun I'd ask to see who is out there reading our blog. So, if you wouldn't mind just make a comment and let us know what you think. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks!

Gardening girls

On Monday, MJ wanted to go outside to garden. It was another beautiful day. And of course where she goes--Emma goes. So, they donned their bucket hats, sweatshirts and work sandals and off they went. They each had a little hand shovel, but had to share the purple bucket. They had fun digging all over the place. They also played with the egg-shaped sidewalk chalk they received at Easter from Grandpa Mark and Grandma Carla. Emma had fun trying on MJ's Dora gardening gloves too. Guess we know what she needs for this summer--her own pair!

Playing house

This morning Mackenzie came to tell me Emma had climbed in the baby stroller again. So, I helped take her out and told MJ to show her sister what the stroller is used for. This was a dream assignment for her. She said, "Come on Emma, let's go play!" I could hear her talking to Emma saying this is where we put the baby dolls and you're not a baby Emma. You're a toddler. She got them both babies to play with and they both had blankets and purses. She drove the stroller around and Emma toddled after her with her baby. They went to the market and picked up groceries. After quite awhile of playing together, Emma finally had a chance to push the stroller herself with her own baby. It was quite fun watching and listening to them play together. Later they came into the office where I was working. Periodically MJ likes to use my handheld tape recorder to record her voice. Today she said, "I'm just playing babies with my sister. It's a lot of fun. I love my babies. I'm trying to be a mom. Having babies. Being a mom is a lot of responsibility. You have to feed the baby. You have to change diapers. You have to do lots of important things and take care of them and have fun." And it's all there on the tape! I may have to remind her of that some day. :)

Uncle Zeke

The girls had a great time with Uncle Zeke (Mackenzie calls him Zekey) this weekend. He is so good with them. I think MJ thinks he's her personal playmate because he usually does anything she wants to do. She was thrilled he watched a little of Beauty and the Beast with her. They played outside and he helped her eat her veggies at dinner. Zeke is a senior in high school this year. He's grown up so much since I first met him. It's neat to see the nice young man he's growing into. He was a great help to Josh this weekend too. Thanks Zeke! (In the last picture I said say "cheese." Can you tell?)

Silly girls

Here are our silly girls. MJ was thrilled on Sunday when she got to put on summer play clothes after church. It's supposed to be 70 degrees today!

 We'd picked up some bagels on the way home so the girls sat and shared one together. 

Tea and cake

Mackenzie wanted to have a tea party on Friday morning so she put on her fancy dress. Emma wanted to have a fancy dress too. We made coffee cake and vanilla spice tea, as MJ calls it (Green tea with vanilla extract). She made placecards with stickers Grandma Jo sent her.

Reflecting

Tonight after posting I went back and look through some old posts. I can't believe I've been blogging for almost four months. The time as gone by so fast! Because I love to scrapbook and preserve memories, I enjoyed going back and reading my journals. It seems like those memories were just yesterday and yet the calendar says they were awhile ago. As a writer, I cringe at the typos I see, but I've decided it's too late to go back and fix them. To me this blog has done what I wanted: given me a place to journal about the girls and what they are doing. I have a place to come to and reflect until I get the scrapbooks out and updated. I also hope those of you reading it are enjoying keeping up with our family. 

It's spring or is it?

It's definitely spring in Idaho and by that I mean it's cold in the morning then gets to near 70 in the afternoon then cools back off at night. We'd had some really nice warm days, then back to 40-50's. I wish it would make up its mind, but then once it becomes warm, it moves to hot and then we're sweating all the time. Everything is finally green around here, but that also means my weeds and lawn are already out of control. Hopefully we'll get to all that this weekend. It's hard being in between houses as I want to work on the new yard, yet not let this one completely go either. Ohhh! 

I hope that didn't sound too negative because really things are quite lovely here. It's been a nice week; seems to have gone fast.  Monday night was music class. Only a couple more weeks left. I'm not sure if we'll take a class this summer or not. The girls really enjoy it though. Tuesday and Thursday, the girls were at daycare. Since I am in between deadlines, I worked at the house both days. I patched a fist-sized hole in the drywall downstairs and am pretty proud of how it turned out. I actually cut new drywall and put it in the hole. Gotta love spray texture in a can; it was my saving grace. Wednesday was our day out. We went to the library then to Walmart for groceries. After putting groceries away, we headed back into town to visit the ladies at the nursing home. I think this was our best visit yet. Mackenzie talked the entire time just telling them what she'd been up to. She's never at a loss for words. Emma gave out hugs to everyone. The activity director brought some large wooden beads and gave to the residents. Then Emma would go up and get them or trade or whatever. One gal put one on her finger so Emma did that too. It was nice to see the girls interacting with them. I think everyone enjoyed the day. The girls were happy to hand out more hugs too when we left.

Tonight I gave the horses their shots and wormer so the girls enjoyed being outside while I did that and we fed them. We grilled hamburgers and I made oven fries for dinner. 

I have a few work things to do tomorrow, but we'll probably just hang out at home. If it's nice I hope to get to the yards. Zeke's coming out for the weekend to stay and help Josh around the ranch. The girls will be excited to see him. They always have a good time when they are together. 

Tooting her horn and queen of her throne

Emma has seen MJ put something up to her mouth and pretend it's a horn enough times that now she does it. The other day she wrapped a pen in paper and started making noises with it. 

She wanted to wear this new crown she got from a friend of mine, and yes, she happened to need to go potty too. 

Pigtails and Blackie

Yesterday when I picked the girls up from daycare, Emma had pigtails. They looked so cute! She's finally keeping something in her hair for longer periods of time. I just had to take some pics. I didn't realize her hair was long enough to do that! 

Mackenzie wanted to play outside with her cat, Blackie. She loves this cat. I have to admit, he really is a nice cat. Now up until just about a week ago, Emma has been afraid of most animals. She likes to look at them from a distance, and talks to them and about them, but she didn't want them to come near her. The other day, she started helping get Blackie's food ready. She started sitting next to him. She even tried picking him up to take him outside! This is a huge step! Yesterday, she tried to take him out of MJ's arms. For those of you who have seen her around animals, you can attest to what a milestone this is for her! 

A few more things

Here is MJ's quilt in the beginning layout stages. We got the top all stitched together and Mom took it home to finish quilting. I had Mackenzie help me a little with the stitching, but I realized 4 is probably a little young to start sewing. :) She did help me pull out pins though. It's a start.

Time with Grandma Jo and Granddad Brock

The girls really enjoyed their time with my folks. I love watching them all interact. I especially loved these photos of my dad and Emma, as I have ones of MJ and my dad in the same spot when she was this age. It was from the last time they visited when Emma was born. It's neat to see how Emma is growing and changing and starting to interact with everyone more. She's got her own little personality. Both girls enjoyed being outside. They fed the horses with my Dad and ran around in the yard. Emma would bring everyone their shoes when we talked about going outside. Sometimes she'd bring her jacket and shoes to us even when we weren't planning to go out because she just wanted to. 

Mom and I enjoyed an afternoon of shopping in Ontario. There are several little shops that I hadn't visited yet, so we took a tour and had some coffee too. I think my dad enjoyed his babysitting duty with the girls. 

Mom and I worked on MJ's quilt and Dad helped me with the dining room chairs and some other projects. My mom jokes she's just like my Grandma Rosina and can't sit still, so we always find lots to do when they are here. I can't say enough thanks to both of them for all their love, support and help through the years. Fun, fun times! Thanks for the visit!

Hugs for sister

I took these photos of the girls before we picked up my parents last weekend. It's so fun to see them give each other love. (Sorry for the bad background. Oops!) I took a few of just Emma. She's started doing this "cheese face" for the camera. She has the funniest expressions. 

Big girl, big fork

Just some pics of Emma using her utensils. She seems to be getting to be more of a big girl every day. 

Good times

We had a great week with my parents. Even though we needed to get back to life and so did they, it was sad watching them leave. No matter how much time we have, it never seems like enough, but we were happy that they came to visit. I realized we took many more pics with my Mom's camera, but I do have some photos from the trip. Not much else happening right now. I'm still working on getting the carpet out and cleaning the other house so we can get moved in. Emma's 2nd birthday is sneaking up fast on me. I can't believe it! We're still working on potty training, but not stressing over it. I try to ask her more and more to go and she seems to do something a good percentage of the time. 

We had two beautiful days this weekend and spent quite a bit of time outside. It's nice that Emma's older now, and we can all be outside working together. Today, is windy and cooler, so it's nice I have work to do inside. Yesterday evening, the girls and I helped Josh get some cows out to pasture, then checked cows and the fences. It was so nice being out there as a family. Made me stop and count our blessings. 

April 9

This week has been great so far. The girls and I picked up my parents at the airport on Saturday afternoon. It's been so nice having them here. Mom and I are working on Mackenzie's quilt for her new room. We are also recovering our dining room chairs. They can't come to visit without us having some sort of project! Dad has enjoyed being outside and helping Josh around the ranch. I have gotten a few pics, but admittedly not as many as usual. I better get on that! I'll post them later. The time is going by so fast!

This week

It seems this week has gone by fast. It's hard for me to believe it's April already. I've caught myself at least three times writing March on my checks! Monday and Tuesday were spent doing odds and ends around here and catching up on a few things. Today, the girls and I went to the library then visited some ladies at the nursing home in Ontario. Mackenzie likes to draw them pictures. When we got home, we headed out to feed and brush the horses. With the warm weather, it's my goal to have us doing something with them daily or at least a few times a week. MJ's ready to start riding this spring, and Emma is bigger so it should be easier having her out there with us too. If we can at least be out there with them more, it will be a start. 

We found out this evening my parents are coming for a visit. We're soooo excited! They will be here Saturday for a week. Can't wait for that. They haven't been to Idaho since Emma was born, so they are due for a visit here. I'm sure we'll come up with lots of fun things to do. I'm praying for more nice weather while they will be here.

Little Chef

Tonight after dinner Emma came into the kitchen wearing her chef's hat. It was too big and slid over her face. She kept making "Ooohh!" sounds and walking around like a ghost. It was so funny. Then, I tightened the hat for her, so it would stay on her head and directed her to the play kitchen. It's so fun to see her doing all this pretend play now.