Painting purple

Well, for those who check this blog regularly, I'm sorry for my little hiatus from posting. Needless to say, we've been busy. We've kicked into high gear with getting the house ready to move into so along with that and the rest of our daily work/life, we've had a lot to do. We have started painting the interior of the house and the siding is going up on the exterior. We've had some great help from family (thanks J&S!!) to get us started. On Monday, Mackenzie and I painted two walls in her room purple. She's very excited. She couldn't wait to help with her room. She did pretty well, but after awhile thought it got a little boring. We were pleased with the way they turned out. The other two walls will remain white with some colored dots/stripes or something on them. I'll be sure and post once it's complete. Just wanted to show you my cute kid working on her new room. She's very proud. 

Mackenzie was showing off her new shades. Emma was practicing her cheese face for the camera. I was able to get all of her hair in a pony tail too!

Dining al fresco

I love our deck. I'm going to miss it when we move. But until then we're going to enjoy it. On Friday, the temperature hit nearly 90 degrees. It was one hot day working on the yard. Ugh! Yet when the sun is on the west side of our house and the deck is shaded, it's beautiful out. The temperature was perfect with only a slight breeze every now and then. Oh, yeah! To celebrate the wonderful weather and calm night, I grilled chicken and even made rice on the side burner of my BBQ. It was the first time I'd tried it and it worked great. Mackenzie was thrilled to eat outside. She's been asking when the weather would be nice enough to do it for months now. It was a lovely night.

Playhouse

The girls are pretty excited to have the playhouse all cleaned out so they can play in it when we go up to the house. Mich and Matt spent many hours playing in here and Carla's niece and nephew have enjoyed it when they came to visit. Now, it will be fun to see our girls and their friends play in it. Carla's dad really built something special!

The other day we went up to the new house to work on some things. I fixed some hoses and sprinklers. The girls played with their gardening stuff and in the sand underneath the trampoline. 

More birthday surprises

Emma loved getting some more birthday surprises a few days after her big day. She loves ripping open packages and envelopes. I really have to watch her as she sometimes finds cards I'm trying to send to someone else! 

This week

Nothing too terribly exciting going on this week, but some little moments of wonder from my girls, which always warms my heart. Last night, Emma looked out of the dining room window and saw birds flying around. She pointed to them so I took her over there and held her up so she could see. I said, "Those are birds." And she said "Bird!" She kept pointing and saying "Bird." We stood there for what seemed like quite awhile looking at little birds and big ones come flying in and out of the yard. I loved seeing the look on her face as she observed them and pointed. She was taking it all in and so was I. I wasn't thinking about getting the dishes done or baths or bedtime or anything but standing there with my baby watching birds. Later I looked up and a cock and a hen pheasant had wandered into the yard so we watched them a little bit too. Emma has a few other words she's been saying more these days including Daddy, bubbles and moo. The babysitter said she played with a computer toy for quite awhile yesterday. She said things were really quiet in the house and she went to check on her and she was just playing by herself. I've noticed that Emma does play more with tactic toys that make noise. MJ didn't pay much attention to them. She seemed to do more with her dolls and kitchen. Emma will sit with a toy for a good while pushing all the buttons figuring out what things do. Not sure what that will mean for the future, but it's neat seeing how God made them unique. 

My time of wonderment with Mackenzie has been a little different the last few days. She is a very imaginative little girl and we always tell her it's great to pretend. So, I've been struggling when her pretending has gotten in the way of listening to Mom and Dad. After a rather emotional outburst that put her in her room where she continued to carry on for nearly half an hour, Josh and I were finally able to talk to her about what was going on. As she was explaining herself, I realized "Oh no, she's so emotional, just like me!" I can also see by the way she wants to be really helpful that she's growing up. But, again like myself and her Dad (must be an oldest child thing), I think she likes to do things on her own, for things to be her idea and not be told what to do. So, now I'm trying to figure out how to give her the freedom to make those choices and yet still be respectful of her parents and others in authority. I was proud of her the other day when she told me she'd answered a question about the 10 Commandments during Children's Liturgy. She said "Honor your father and mother and Don't bow down to any other Gods" were two of them. She said she learned them from listening to Adventures in Odyssey.

Well, we're off to the library... 

Mother's Day

The girls and Josh surprised with me with my Mother's Day presents on Saturday night. (I had dropped MJ off with Josh at the door of Walmart while we were in town on Saturday and they did some shopping. She thought that was pretty neat. She told Mich when she got back in the car what they got me, but she said told her not to tell me. She was being really secretive. It was really cute.) Mackenzie picked out a Sandra Lee Semi Homemade Grilling cookbook. Emma got me The Bee Movie via MJ and Josh got me Dan in Real Life. It was very sweet of them. Mackenzie then told me that I would tell them "Thank you" again in the morning because Daddy was going to let me stay in bed until he got back. I kind of guessed that meant he was doing something for breakfast. And he did. He brought back donuts and my favorite coffee drink. Josh has always been good about including the girls in gift giving. Thanks honey! You're the best!

After church, we picked up a few groceries than headed to Jared and Stephanie's for a BBQ. I guess it's become our Mother's Day tradition as we did the same thing last year. Another tradition is a Mother's Day cake and a photo with Katrina's boys and the grandkids. As you can see, Jared is doing something silly. Again, his tradition. Last year he made a thumbs up sign to the camera. He's the joker in the family and we love him for it. It was a great evening. We girls played a few games and the boys made dinner. Hope all you Mom's out there enjoyed your day too!

Oh, by the way, MJ didn't get glasses. She was wearing her Nana's! 

Spring Fair

These are some pics of the girls before we headed to the Fruitland Spring Fair on Saturday. The fair is held at the schools in Fruitland. FFA and 4-H kids can bring their animals to show plus the grade schools perform a concert and there is a parade. Josh judged the beef part of the show. Michelle was helping because she didn't bring her steer. The girls enjoyed seeing the pigs, sheep, goats and rabbits. We saw a lot of folks we haven't seen for awhile plus got to hang out with all of our friends. After the show was over, Mich ran some errands with us. Then we ate the fabulous bbq chicken they have every year and played at the park until the parade started. We sat with our friends Christi, Hannah and Cathy. The girls were excited to grab all the candy that came from the floats. They came home with two big bags. It was a fun day for all of us. 

Friday

Nothing too exciting from today, but the girls had a chance to play with friends while I ran some errands this afternoon. They played at Lisa's today. She also had three other extras, all kids who are friends of ours so it was an especially fun time for the girls. This morning I finished trimming hedges so they install siding at the new house next week. MJ and I also cleaned out the playhouse built by Carla's dad for Mich and Matt. It has these really cool metal appliances that were Carla's when she was a child. Mackenzie is thrilled. It will be a great place for the girls and their friends to play in this summer. 

Another reflection

I've said I wasn't quite as prepared for Emma's second birthday and it's true. I really can't believe my baby is two years old! It seems like the memories of her birth are so clear in my mind as if it just happened yesterday. And I hope they stay there clearly for years to come. It's so cliché to say that time passes so quickly and our children grow up too fast, but it is true. I have tried to remember that and really enjoy each minute. Some days I do better than others. Some days I find myself at the end of the day thinking what did I do and did any of it matter? Other days I can smile when I think back to seeing Mackenzie and Emma put a puzzle together with each other. I think about MJ and how much growing up she's doing right now. She says she wants to be helpful now (not that she hasn't always been), but now she tries to find different ways to help. Emma, too, is growing so much. Tonight when the girls were playing outside she saw Josh had parked the Kubota (similar to a John Deere Gator) next to the house, so she walked out to it, climbed in and pretended she was driving. Too cute, but she'll be able to do that all too soon. These are precious times. Things have been slow with work stuff right now and I've been really thankful. I also have the challenge of trying to spend this extra time the best I can. I have a few more weeks until deadlines start hitting again. Everyone always talks about how busy they are. Me included. Yet, I don't want that. I want to end my day in peace whether it's been a crazy or lazy day. Wishful thinking? I hope not. I guess that peace has to come from above. From knowing that God is with me through my day. I just have to let him in to my life whether I feel it's something special or just cleaning up kid messes. 

Lately, I've been checking out some other blogs. I usually find them linked off friends' blogs. It's amazing how God uses people to touch each other's lives. It's neat to see the positive things the Internet can do and how it can bring Christ's love to people across the world. I've been thinking more about that--sharing God's love with people. That is our purpose on this Earth. We each have a different way of carrying it out. I don't normally get so personal or philosophical in my posts, but I just wanted to share with those reading this (mainly family and friends) how much God's love helps me through my days. I have so much to be thankful for. While we've gone through little trials, my life has been quite blessed. And I hope that whatever comes our way, I can look to God and trust he is control. My prayer for you is the same. So, if you are having trials right now, he's with you. If things are going great, he is with you. If you're not quite sure what's going on, he's still with you.

Can you tell I didn't have any pictures of the girls today? Hopefully I'll get more soon and you won't have to read my ramblings. But truly, my heart and my words are sincere. God bless you all!

Fun times with friends

Emma and Austin

On Monday, our friends Madison, Lisa and Austin came over to celebrate the kids' birthdays and to play. Austin was born one week after Emma. They had fun opening their presents and enjoyed the singing and brownie for dessert. Austin was so cute and said "Happy Birthday to Austin."

First picnic

On Monday, the girls enjoyed their first picnic of the season. It was a beautiful day out so I made some sandwiches for them to eat outside. Mackenzie found the blanket and set the chairs up. They enjoyed waiting for their friends to arrive that afternoon. Emma loves her new sunglasses. She wore them practically all day.