DELILAHandJAMES

first decent snowfall 1/29/12

2012-02-01T23:27:00.000-05:00

Grandparents Ockey

2012-01-31T23:08:00.001-05:00

Collin's Grandma and Grandpa Ockey had a two hour layover in Detroit, just long enough for a quick in airport visit. We always love seeing family. As we left Delilah said "That was fun! I love grandma ockey dokey."

For some reason I am in love with this photo!

2012 North American International Auto Show

2012-01-30T23:02:00.002-05:00

opening presents

2012-01-29T18:23:00.000-05:00

Thank you grandparents, Aunts and uncles for all the great presents!! James LOVES them all.

The cake

2012-01-24T18:42:00.000-05:00

Well the boy turned one

2012-01-20T23:00:00.000-05:00

No idea how she gets any sleep

2012-01-13T20:26:00.000-05:00

chocolate covered strawberries

2012-01-12T22:57:00.000-05:00

On Monday for our FHE treat we dipped strawberries into some chocolate. D was in heaven!

James liked them too.

New Kicks

2012-01-11T22:58:00.001-05:00

James got his first pair of hard bottom shoes this last weekend. He is getting a little better at walking in them but in the beginning it was an adorable march. Oh... and they are a size 6... yah

He's gonna be a football player

New years photobooth

2012-01-10T23:11:00.001-05:00

I thought it would be fun to take New Year photos at the part we went to. So I printed a bunch of these props off and painstakingly cut them out and laminated them only to not use them. The next day (January 1st) D kept asking when we were going to play the mustache game. So we took a bunch of fun new year pictures. It was one of those hours of set up for the crazy 10 minute activity, but looking at these pictures kind of makes it worth it.

{I told D to put her head close to mine and she put all her body weight into me causing me to keep falling over}

James wanted nothing to do with the activity

New Carpet

2012-01-05T23:48:00.000-05:00

We got new carpet in early December. James and Delilah sat in the kitchen completely mesmerized by the carpet guy.

Our friend the carpet guy couldn't speak much English but he was very nice and kept making the kids laugh.

Clifford Mask

2012-01-05T14:30:00.000-05:00

D came home with this awesome Clifford mask. I had to share it with you. I remember the day she came home with red paint all up her arm, I asked her what she did and she said we made Clifford masks, I had no idea what a Clifford mask could be, and here we have it, a Clifford mask.

tub in the sink

2012-01-04T14:43:00.000-05:00

James got messy while eating some of my birthday cake. We were at my friends house and decided to just give him a quick rinse off in the sink. We do this a lot at our house lately and since I had the camera and her sink is so much more attractive than mine .... here's James in the sink.

Don't take her paper....

2012-01-03T11:13:00.000-05:00

Jesus wants me for a

2012-01-02T09:56:00.000-05:00

First day and she had the scripture, which she did so bravely.

Videos I guess I have been hoarding...

2012-01-01T21:32:00.000-05:00

When we all had the flu

I was lucky enough to capture James actual first steps. We were about to leave to take D to preschool.

dollar store balloons

James with giraffe December1st

D-e-l-i-l-a-h November 23 (one of our many made up songs... maybe I'll get her singing the poop one)

November 26

d's christmas program

2011-12-31T12:00:00.002-05:00

D loves singing and is constantly singing and making me sing songs. She will hear a song on the radio and tell me I have to teach her the song. Since October Delilah has been singing different songs that she has learned at school, I have had to ask Ms. Karen several times what the words are so I can sing them correctly at home {Delilah is quick to tell you you are wrong. She may not know what the right words are but she knows when they are wrong}

She was so happy to be in front of all the parents singing. Look at her cute feet dangling.

James was well behaved for the most part.

As soon as the program started it was difficult to get a good shot because all the parents were trying at the same time...some were a little less concerned about other parents pictures.

D sang her little heart out and made me so proud.

I love how her face is framed in her teachers hands :)

I love her so much!!

Ok so a little way in she got a little bored and started flinging her hair back and forth while staring at the ceiling... she is three after all.

Here is a video of some of the songs, don't mind the shaky camera and that some captions are mis-spelled or mis-timed I need a new computer... one that I don't want to throw when I have more than one program opened.

did I mention she goes to a Lutheran preschool?

Christmas Day

2011-12-30T22:02:00.000-05:00

We woke up, we opened presents, then went to church. We were 4 minutes late and had to sit in the back on hard chairs.

We came home and just hung out, we played with our new toys had home made chicken noodle soup and webcamed. It was really nice and relaxed.

Christmas Eve 2011

2011-12-29T23:48:00.001-05:00

We kept with the Shaw tradition of going out to eat for Breakfast on Christmas Eve. The kids LOVED it. Starting Wednesday a 12 hour nasty and mean Flu went through each of us. This breakfast was the first real meal for us.

D still rocks the "Zen garden" while we are out to eat.

after breakfast we went to our friends house to exchange presents with the kids BFFs

We came home and had naps, cleaned the house for Santa then made cookies for him.

Not pictured... we went to a ward members house for dinner and re-enactment of the Nativity. D and James were the only kids and they LOVED it. When we came home we had the kids open PJ's from Collin and I then it was off to bed so Santa could come.

Santa 2011

2011-12-27T00:13:00.001-05:00

James in the mirror

2011-12-21T13:15:00.001-05:00

If these pictures are looking familiar to you, here is why....

James: 11 months

2011-12-20T17:59:00.001-05:00

8 teeth
walks
steals toys

pulls sisters hair
loves food
talks non stop

Rochester Lights

2011-12-19T14:00:00.000-05:00

We took uncle Conner to see the lights at downtown Rochester.

Uncle Conner came to visit

2011-12-19T13:57:00.000-05:00

They play together!

2011-12-08T21:59:00.000-05:00

black eye

2011-12-07T21:10:00.003-05:00

James has got two little black eyes already. I am pretty sure D didn't get one until she was older than a year old. The first one was from pulling the magna doodle down on top of him, and the second one was from pulling his face into D's dresser drawer. I've tried to get pictures of them but they don't photograph well, believe me they were there.

siblings

2011-12-06T20:58:00.000-05:00

"Mom, take a picture of us"

Can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man

2011-12-05T21:31:00.000-05:00

At Preschool last week D's class did made a gingerbread man. They read the story about how he's tricky and tries to run away. Then they make a big gingerbread man and they all helped put him in the oven. But when they went to go get him out of the oven he was gone. I remember doing this exact thing in kindergarten it is one of my earliest vivid memory. I remember being shocked he was gone and concerned about where he had gone.

When I picked her up from Preschool Ms. Karen told me what they had done and that when they opened the oven and the gingerbread man was gone Delilah started crying. (I love this girl) Ms. Karen said she stopped when she explained it was just a game and that they were going to go find that sneaky gingerbread man.

Sleeping babes

2011-12-05T07:45:00.000-05:00

(ps.. I have the fabric to make James bedding... I'll get to it.

Oh Christmas tree..

2011-12-04T21:18:00.000-05:00

We didn't know if we should put up the tree this year because of James but decided to go for it, but instead of our glass decorations we went to the dollar store and let Delilah pick out ten dollars worth of plastic decorations.

We let Delilah decorate the tree for the most part so there are a lot of limbs with multiple ornaments.

oh and these candy canes are plastic. BEST PURCHASE EVER!!

Oh and here is our group photo .... pants are optional at our house.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-27T00:33:00.001-05:00

This year we went to a restaurant for Thanksgiving. I am surprised at how well the kids did the restaurant was packed and it took us a few hours to eat.

Carve the Turkey

2011-11-23T22:58:00.000-05:00

We learned this super cute song last year from Lincoln's blog and this year Ruby posted a video of her singing the song so we thought we would join in. . . . well I thought we should join in, D didn't really want to so enjoy the outtakes.

You wouldn't believe what I can get her to do for a sucker.

my turn

2011-11-23T21:56:00.001-05:00

D has been struggling with sibling rivaly lately. We are trying to give her as much attention as we can but she still needs to be part of everything. Every month when I take James' picture D insists on getting hers taken in the chair with Ernie. This time she insisted on having a picture of a 3 too.

The other day she was bugged that the wallpaper on Collin's phone was James... it's now Delilah.

Preschool party

2011-11-22T21:35:00.000-05:00

D had a fun preschool party where they had a Thanksgiving feast and dressed up like American Indians.

Ten months old

2011-11-20T21:06:00.002-05:00

Ten months old!! This little guy is giving us a run for our money he doesn't want to sleep and most of the time he just wants to be held.. by mom. Luckily he is adorable and happy when his needs are met. He is so close to walking it's ridiculous, he's in that stage where he can but doesn't know it. He knows how to use all six of his teeth, and eats anything and everything you put in front of him. The bathroom and stairs are his favorite and if you leave them unguarded for even a moment he's there. I feel like a first time mom because he behaves so differently than Delilah did.

sister at 10 months...

applesauce

2011-11-18T22:54:00.000-05:00

James and Delilah love squeezable applesauce, this week James figured out how to eat it without help.

all boy

2011-11-17T10:17:00.000-05:00

To make up for the fact I tried to dress James in Delilah's hand me downs, this is how I dressed James the next day.. All boy.

Gender neutral

2011-11-16T22:27:00.000-05:00

When I was pregnant I went through all of D's old baby clothes looking for gender neutral clothes for James. I kept this sweater out thinking maybe it could be worn by a boy. I think it's one of the cutest sweaters D wore and one of my favorites. ... but after I put it on James it was apparent it was a girls sweater.

Bummer because I even have matching tights.

D the crafter...

2011-11-16T10:39:00.000-05:00

Delilah loves to craft. She loves to cut, glue, color, paint, draw, fold, sticker... she likes it all. One day when I was picking her up from preschool her teacher said "Delilah really loves art time, she's always the first to the table when we say it's art time."

I just smile and said "yah we color pretty much all day long".

The other day when I dropped off D I hung around for a second and peeked into the classroom. When the kids first get to preschool they get to do free play until all the kids get there, D wasn't playing. Her teacher and teacher aid were preparing the craft for the day just doing some last minute cutting is what it looked like. D walked up to them and asked if she could cut, neither of them even seemed phased and immediately gave her scissors and she started helping them cut (it was just cutting fringe so nothing fancy). She reminds me a lot of me when I was around her age. I remember getting in trouble for coloring on things i wasn't suppose to like an entire stack of paper plates once :)

Preschool trip to the fire station

2011-11-15T22:21:00.000-05:00

So apparently you if you work for Chrysler the first day of hunting season is a paid holiday, you won't find us complaining. On the same day Delilah's preschool was taking a field trip to a fire station and Collin got to go with her.

a small presentation about what firemen wear. Collin said they also watched a video but he doesn't know what it was about because he fell asleep during it, FELL ASLEEP!! I'm sure the other mom's got a kick out of that.

When I was talking to Delilah about these pictures I said "Wow D, were you driving that fire truck?" "yah mom, but it didn't have keys."

I'm not sure why she is so far away from the all the girls :)

I'm embarrassed to admit that she gets this smile from me.... maybe I'll show you guys my drivers licence sometime.

It's coming in..

2011-11-10T22:31:00.000-05:00

Well out of no where this boy is getting hair, and it may or may not be slightly red.

D says..

2011-11-10T10:34:00.000-05:00

runner

2011-11-09T21:48:00.001-05:00

Did you know James runs around without pants on most of the time. I don't remember Delilah fighting diaper changes as much as James does. It use to be that I couldn't get his pants back on, now I can't even get his onesies snapped up. Little punk.. little punk.. little punk.

These are a few of his favorite things

2011-11-08T21:46:00.001-05:00

You know how infants love to play with the most random things, I thought I would document the random things James currently loves.

"where's perry?" is actually a phrase we hear at our house A LOT! This toy was originally D's but come to find out the rubber is super soft and perfect for a teething little boy. When you squeeze him his eyes pop out. (I took out the eyeballs because they looked like he could bite them off, and I didn't want him to choke.)

Do you know how hard it is to carry in bags and James and then when you go to unlock the door James swan dives trying to get the keys.

You should see D and Collin's face when James changes the channel when they are really into a show. I LOVE IT.

OK... this is kind of gross but this is a toe separator that is designed to stretch out feet that are tired from wearing heels and other super cute but not comfortable shoes. One day I was wearing them and James couldn't get enough of them. So they have been cleaned and are temporarily kept in his toy bin.

This wand is still connected to the magna doodle and he will pull it off a shelf just to chew on the wand. A few times Delilah has been coloring and James will pull it out of her hands just to suck on it.

He loves to chew on these so much he has broken them. The green one broke today.

I hate this phone. I have never had so many problems with a phone as I have with this one but James LOVES it. (It just needs to last until December 23rd.)

alone time....

2011-11-08T15:25:00.000-05:00

One night I needed to finish a project I was working on. The kids wouldn't leave me alone so we blocked me into the kitchen using our big chair. This is how the kids leave me alone.

*Notice how James is standing on a toy in order to see me, oh... and D is rocking a super awesome outfit.

mom and me

2011-11-07T15:25:00.000-05:00

After one of Delilah's naps (you can tell this is when she was sick close to Halloween) she came out of her nap and showed me a drawing she did of her and me. I swear she hides pens in her room. Later in the day Collin discovered she had also colored all over her legs.

a sucker for a sucker

2011-11-06T22:09:00.001-05:00

So.... we got a gym membership that includes childcare. James did OK his first time and hasn't done well since. They have a 15 minute cry policy and after 15 minutes they come get you. One time he was crying so hard I couldn't calm him down, so we put him in the car crying. I was worried he was going to pass out he was screaming so bad. I had just given D a sucker and thought....

"I wonder if this will shut him up?"

It did.

Trick or Treating on Halloween

2011-11-05T15:37:00.000-04:00

We decided to do a little actual door to door trick or treating. (like the coats under the outfit?)

This was Delilah's 1st time going door to door.

She was excited.

But I'm sure she didn't really get what we were about to do.

1st house super super excited.

Later in the night she got less and less excited and kept asking if we could go home yet.

"Mom are we done? my bucket is heavy"

Towards the end I would just push them up to the door and they would either hop out or the kind candy givers would just put it directly into their buckets so they didn't have to move.

I guess the neighborhood we went to use to have a ton of trick or treaters an the last few years they only get a handful. So they were giving out the candy by the fistfuls. She got 5 full size candy bars. .... CRAZY.

Ward Trunk or Treat

2011-11-04T21:42:00.000-04:00

um.... just ignore the fact that James is wearing D's socks.

We brought the single stroller for James but Delilah wouldn't budge. You can tell she is still kind of sick in this picture.

Best parents EVER!!

D's good friend Noah, I'm not sure how he was getting around with his mask like that

sick

2011-11-04T12:48:00.001-04:00

The Friday before Halloween D was acting a little... calm, which isn't normal for her. I kept trying to feed her breakfast and all she wanted was to drink (red crystal light). James and I were trying to make her laugh when she tried to run to the bathroom to barf..... she kind of made it, but my carpet has seen better days (stupid bright red crystal light). She just hung out the rest of the day.

I went upstairs to put James down for a nap and this is what I found when I came back. Poor girl, she has NEVER fallen asleep on the floor before. I let her sleep for a bit then tried to put her in bed. When I was carrying her up the stairs she looked at me and said "Mom, what are you doing?" like I was an idiot for carrying a three year old up the stairs.

This was later in the day when she fell asleep on the couch, she woke up as I took a picture of her.

Preschool Halloween Party

2011-11-01T23:11:00.001-04:00

The next Halloween event we had was Delilah's Preschool party. We dropped off the kids then came back a hour later. They sang us some songs then we all went into a big room where the kids went trick or treating from the parents then had snacks. It was cute.

As we were walking out the door I was carrying James all of Delilah's stuff and our leftover cookies. As I was putting James in his car seat I realized he had snuck a cookie off the plate when I wasn't looking and ate it as fast as he could. It's a good thing that boy has teeth. He was so proud of him self.

Sorry the video is shaky I wasn't looking at the camera as I was filming.

spiderman

2011-11-01T22:55:00.000-04:00

Delilah wanted James to be spiderman for Halloween so bad. We looked for a costume his size and couldn't find one so we gave up and had him be D's hand me down skunk costume. Our good friend Ace was spiderman this Halloween so we thought we would try on his size 2T costume just for fun. um.... it fit.

Playgroup Halloween party

2011-11-01T14:37:00.001-04:00

We had our playgroup halloween party the Tuesday before Halloween. James got a great nap before the party so he was in an AMAZING mood.

D however... not so good.

James begging for scraps. Isn't he an adorable skunk... and you can see that his costume is a little floody on him.

Our friend London was also an adorable skunk.

Rochester Hills Main St. trick or treating

2011-10-31T22:03:00.001-04:00

We went to the annual downtown Rochester Hills Main street trick or treat again this year. This was nine days before Halloween and our first of many events. Collin had to go to a church meeting so we went with our friends.

The stores that were participating posted a sign in the window to let us know they had candy waiting for the kids.

It's always so crowded, I was in charge of the stroller and mainly walked in the street as our friend Nisha guided the kids through the crowd. ... she's braver than me.

James was not happy for the event.

So note that Delilah has two buckets :) She was determined that James needed treats too. I kept telling her leave James' bucket in stroller but she refused to put it down. I thought she was being so sweet ... that was until later in the night she kept asking where James' bucket was so she could eat his snacks. Such a smart stinker.

She's been "CHI"ed

2011-10-30T09:20:00.000-04:00

The other day I decided Delilah was finally old enough for me to attempt to flat iron her hair. My CHI heats up to over 400 degrees and I wanted to make sure she was old enough that she would hold still. I told her since she was going to be a mermaid for Halloween we should make her hair look like a mermaids. She thought it would be ok especially since she knew she would get a sucker. So 30 minutes and two dum dums later this is how her hair turned out.

She LOVED it and kept flipping it and playing with her hair, it was adorable!

annual popper toy

2011-10-29T21:37:00.000-04:00

Last year Grandma Blair sent us a Halloween package that included a popper toy in it. This year we got our Halloween package early when Grandpa came to visit. There were strict instructions not to open until Halloween.... but collin went to Chicago last weekend and James was teething and I didn't have any sleep then D got the trots.... it was a tough weekend. So with grandma's permission we broke out her package one toy at a time.

Side note... Delilah now thinks I constantly have grandma presents hidden and is always asking for a grandma prize :)

last year...

james playing

2011-10-26T22:48:00.000-04:00

I love watching James figure out a new toy. This one was d's favorite and I think it's going to be one of James' too.

tunnel

2011-10-25T22:16:00.000-04:00

We picked up a tunnel from IKEA for James when we realized James like to climb through things. He and Delilah LOVE it.

Preschool trip to the farm

2011-10-24T23:14:00.000-04:00

We went to an orchard/cider mill/ petting zoo with Delilah's preschool. It was a cold rainy day but we still had fun.

James turns 9months

2011-10-20T23:24:00.002-04:00

Oh James... you are nine months old now. You have a mouth full of teeth and constantly bite me. You can climb up stairs and kind of go down them. You love to eat EVERYTHING and want to eat everything. You worship your sister and she...kind of likes that depending on her mood. You are attempting to walk and pull yourself up on everything even if it is something that won't hold you up. You can say ma ma but when asked to say ma ma you quickly say Da Da over and over again. .. .. punk

you have TONS and TONS of personality and we wouldn't want you any other way.

We love you little man!!

a visit to the fire station

2011-10-19T23:02:00.001-04:00

We went with a group of mom's from our ward to visit our local fire station.

She was a little nervous but had moments of bravery.

James was there too.

Checking out the ambulance.

I was trying to take a picture and she just wanted to go home.

Then she got happy again when she realized they were handing out stickers and hats.

Christmas came early

2011-10-17T22:34:00.000-04:00

When Collin goes out of town he always tells Delilah if she is good while he is gone he will buy her a present. He went out of town this last week and ended up coming home a day early in the craziness of switching his flight and hurring home he wasn't able to buy her a present. Luckily last time we were at the Disney store I got a STEAL on these Phineus and Ferb dolls (all four of them for 8.50) and had put them away for Christmas. So we pulled them out Dad is now a superhero in her eyes because she is in love with her new toys and takes them everywhere with her. This is us on the way out the door and her demanding I take a picture of her with them :)

He's getting closer

2011-10-16T21:03:00.001-04:00

Look what James was doing tonight.

freestyle

2011-10-12T00:59:00.001-04:00

I did a little blog link party where I took pictures through out the day. It was fun to take pictures of my ordinary life. Delilah gets bugged when you take her picture and it isn't her idea, so I have to sneak it most of the time with her. These pictures were taken in the middle of our lunch when she got jealous of her grilled cheese being photographed more than her :) She's crazy :) But I love that crazy girl

such a punk

2011-10-10T10:03:00.000-04:00

This isn't even our house.

Already going white.

2011-10-09T09:59:00.000-04:00

I have seen this white hair more than once and this time I had the camera by me when I saw it. I have several white hairs, three of which I've known of since High School. I guess this is her 1st.

three and a half

2011-10-07T00:14:00.001-04:00

Well she's 3 1/2 I've been meaning to get these pictures taken and today when James was napping was our only chance... Delilah refused to open her eyes for most of the pictures because "My eyes burn" I'll have to remember to avoid noon photo shoots in the future.

{also I wrote the numbers and she traced them}

James vs. Cheeto

2011-10-06T22:08:00.002-04:00

He loved it and wouldn't let me take it out of his mouth :) After a small choke he was forced to give it up.

Round two a few days later with puffs

James vs. Spaghetti

2011-10-05T22:04:00.001-04:00

freckles

2011-10-04T21:26:00.000-04:00

James and Delilah vs. Pizza

2011-10-03T21:10:00.000-04:00

We recently discovered a pizza joint that has a 5 dollar pizza lunch buffet and kids eat for free. Here's the kicker the pizza is actually good, and James and Delilah both Love it.

The first time we went I just handed James a bread stick thinking he could suck on it while I got D and myself situated then I would feed him his prepared pureed food. When I got back to him he had eaten the entire thing!! Chewed and swallowed!!

Did you know D choked on food until she was two because she sucked at chewing... not James.

Grandpa Blair

2011-10-02T22:07:00.001-04:00

Grandpa decided to come visit us last week. In true visitor fashion we didn't take any pictures until he was about to leave for the airport. We didn't do much while he was here but it was a lot of fun just to hang out and let Grandpa love on the kids. Delilah was so sad when he left and keeps talking about him and that he is going to come back tomorrow :(

Grandpa taught James his how to "bonk".

8 months old

2011-09-20T17:41:00.002-04:00

well another month older. This boy is growing and changing before our eyes. He is eating like a CHAMP, and as of last night he is no longer a vegetarian. He loves to feed himself and wants to eat what everyone else is eating, and willing to risk life and limb just for a taste.

He is an amazing crawler and can keep up with D. He Loves chasing after her and following her around. If the dishwasher is opened you will soon find James trying to pull himself into it so he can play with the dishes, just today he was able to get a fork out. He can go from crawling to sitting to laying to pulling himself up on the furniture all in moments. He can sit in the shopping cart and restaurant highchairs all by him self now.

We are finally getting into a good routine and nap cycle. It only takes him about 5 minutes to cry himself to sleep now. He still wakes up once in the night (on a good night) but is quick to go back to sleep. He doesn't like sleeping in bed with us anymore and would much rather sleep in his own crib, which we have had to lower to it's lowest setting.

bloopers...

he fell immediately after both these pictures were taken, don't worry I caught him both times.

sister

Random videos I keep forgetting to post

2011-09-13T22:56:00.002-04:00

At the church in the clerks office while dad finishes his home teaching reports.

The following three were all taken on a boring rainy day.

First Day of Preschool

2011-09-12T17:20:00.002-04:00

sleeping children

2011-09-04T23:48:00.001-04:00

I love pictures of my sleeping babies. I noticed I hadn't taken pictures of them in a while so I kept the camera upstairs for a week or so and tried to take a picture of them each night before bed.

ENJOY

and my favorite........

Bowling

2011-09-03T01:30:00.000-04:00

We went bowling with two other families, it was a ton of fun. I can't remember the last time I went bowling.

Here's D classing up the bowling alley.

James was passed around a zillion times this night.

I know this picture is fuzzy but I love it.

Towards the end.. well middle of the game the girls got sick of bowling and would rather write on the lotto ticket forms.

It was a fun night and going with friends made it even more fun.

Money

2011-09-01T10:05:00.000-04:00

We never have cash. We have coins laying around the house and Delilah knows that they are money. More specifically she knows that you put those coins in machines at the mall and grocery store and get a prize. The other day when we went to the dream cruise we had to get cash out to pay for parking. When we told her we were stopping at the bank really quick to get some money she wanted to see it. When I handed her the twenty dollar bill she asked "what is this". Um... This is the first time she can remember ever seeing paper money. We thought it was a special enough event that we should document the moment with a picture.

Dream cruise

2011-08-28T01:45:00.000-04:00

We went to the dream cruise again this year. It was fun to think that last year we only had one kid, hadn't figured out Michigan yet, and still had our crappy camera, wow what a difference a year makes. This year it didn't rain so the crowds were a lot bigger than last year. We were those annoying people pushing a double stroller in a crowd :) so these are the only pictures. We had fun and Collin was able to look at all the cool cars and I as always enjoyed my people watching. I've decided Car shows are excellent for people watching, they are only second to state fairs.

This picture was actually taken in our "parking lot" before we left for the day. It was the moment we realized we had only taken one other picture. Isn't James adorable?

D got another airbrush tattoo, are those popular all over the nation right now or just a Michigan thing? She seems to get a free one at every event we go to. This one is pink and says Fiat on it. She LOVES tattoos.

D says

2011-08-25T23:36:00.001-04:00

D insisting on taking pictures like brother :)

Me: I like you Delilah
Delilah: I like skittles

waiting in line at the drive thru today.
"Mom GO!!"
"Hon, if I go I'll smash the other cars."
"Mom, just smash them"

Through out the week...

Delilah: Brother is my best friend

Dad is my best friend

Whitney is my best friend

Noah is my best friend

Collin:(after listing everyone she knows, and saying they are her best friend) Hey Delilah is Mom your best friend?

Delilah:(laughing like collin just said something stupid) No, Mom is my mom

D: Dad do you want some popcorn?

C: sure.

D: Dad will you make some popcorn?

While changing brothers diaper at 7 months

D: Mom what's brother's belly button?

M:(showing her his belly button) It's right here hon, just like you.

D: No his other belly button pointing to his "other belly button"

M: a short conversation on gender that I am honestly surprised didn't happen seven months ago :)

We have a picture of D's preschool teacher that was sent to us with her registration form on our fridge.

D: mom who is this my sister?

M: No hon, remember this is Ms. Karen. She's going to be your teacher.

D: Mom will you help me draw a picture of my sister (pointing to her teacher)

so happy she listens

James was crying in the back seat

D: Boy do you want me to read you my Spider man book?.

on the potty muttering under her breath with clenched fists

"come on.. come on .... come on"

D has been encouraging this, I have not

2011-08-25T01:11:00.001-04:00

Oh and I have a bunch of video of him crawling I just need to get around to posting it... one day :)

James: 7 months

2011-08-20T22:33:00.003-04:00

Well that stinker did it again, he's another month older and growing every second. He crawls and loves to play with toys and follow his sister around the house. He LOVES food. If you are holding him and he sees you or others start to eat he will bounce up and down in your arms until you surrender a bite. The other day I put some popcorn in my mouth and he did a swan dive and started making out with me trying to get some popcorn out of my mouth. Silly boy, I think he needs a few more teeth before he gets popcorn. James is still a little angel which we all adore.

Pulling a Jackie Chan on Ernie.

Sister at 7months

Have you got your tickets yet?

2011-08-16T23:17:00.001-04:00

You know.... to the GUN SHOW!!

This is D with all her best friends, three of which on this couch have moved or are moving next week. We got a picture of them all looking adorable on the couch. We told them "put your hands down like a princess" and this is the princess pose D gave us.

Sibling Love

2011-08-15T22:07:00.001-04:00

You fill in the blank

2011-08-13T23:44:00.001-04:00

Sunday afternoon

2011-08-10T22:47:00.000-04:00

picking up rocks on the bridge to throw them into the river.

Our local park has a river through it that is perfect for throwing more rocks.

and scaring little girls that she would be the next rock thrown in the river.

James even got to get in the river.

James tastes pancakes

2011-08-08T20:48:00.000-04:00

and because we were doing a video of James D requested a "picktar"

Swimming

2011-08-06T23:38:00.001-04:00

We have spent a lot of our summer at the pool. Unfortunately Collin usually doesn't get to join us so we never take pictures because I have enough to worry about just keeping the kids alive. Today was Saturday though so we were able to have fun at the pool as a family. So here are enough pictures for the entire summer

Poker Face

2011-08-01T18:47:00.003-04:00

Family drawing

2011-07-27T22:03:00.001-04:00

D was super excited to show me the drawing she did of our family (James appeared later). She wasn't to excited to show the camera though.

Beating the heat

2011-07-22T14:27:00.001-04:00

It's been hot... super hot...112 heat index hot. So I've been trying to come up with ways to keep D entertained while still staying cool. The other day I froze a bunch of blocks of ice that had toys hidden in them. We invited our friends W and Z to come help us find our frozen treasures. They tried picking at them and eventually just threw them on the ground until they broke. Then after that got old we put them in swim suits and let them play with pitchers of water and D's tea set. It's still hot. I'm not planning on leaving the house today, wish us luck.

James: six months

2011-07-20T19:42:00.003-04:00

Look who is half a year old today!! He is still a little angel even though this month was a little tough because he's working on cutting more teeth. Even with cutting teeth though he is a sweet and happy boy.

Oh and the ernie violence continues...

sister at six months

ward picnic

2011-07-18T14:20:00.001-04:00

We had fun at our super laid back ward picnic. Collin was in Mexico so it was just the kids and me ... Oh and my friend and I were kind of in charge of it, hence the laid back picnic.

Delilah is like her dad she LOVES chips. I gave her a bag of chips when we got there and she was getting restless, about a half hour later I noticed she was eating another bag of chips (Delilah can't open chips).
Me:"Hey Delilah who gave you those chips?"
Delilah: "Callie"
When she said that I knew I couldn't get upset because if Callie's kids come up to me and ask me for something I always give it to them.
I made a quick announcement that if a red headed girl asks you to open a bag of chips please don't.
About a half hour later I saw her with another bag of chips. I asked her who had given them to her and she pointed to a lady in the ward, Bonnie.
Me: "Bonnie I said no more chips."
Bonnie: "Well it had been at least a half hour since I had given her a cupcake and oreo. She was looking like her blood sugar was low :)"
Need less to say D really enjoyed herself and threw up in the car later that afternoon :)

you can't tell really from this picture but her shirt was filthy!! It was mainly covered in orange from her wiping her cheetos/doritos/BBQ chip hands on it.

At least she ran around a lot.

We have a nice woman in our ward who was baptized a little over a year ago. She and her husband never miss an activity. She had sprained her ankle and broken a toe over the weekend so she knew she wouldn't be able to walk around and help much so she decided to bring a face painting kit and paint the kids faces. I think she painted most of the kids faces too. They were awesome too, she did spider man, butterflies, giraffe faces, tiger faces you name it she was doing it. Delilah asked for a Detroit D (I hope you are happy Collin)

This sweet woman and her husband tried to find what the D looked like and then D kept moving her face.

This is what we got and Delilah was SOOO proud of it!!

Rochester Hills wet N wild day

2011-07-14T23:32:00.000-04:00

In Rochester Hills every Wednesday of July the Rochester Museum has a Wet n' Wild day where they set up a big slip and slide and in an empty parking lot have a fire engine drop water from the top of an extended latter.

Delilah had a hard time waiting in line. I kept seeing the worker at the top of the slip n' slide holding her back to wait her turn. One time she put her hand in front of her holding her back and I saw D hold it like they were BFFs :) It was pretty adorable

*Thanks Callie and Caroline for the pics.

Mini Vacation

2011-07-12T23:20:00.000-04:00

We went to the beach for a little vacation western Michigan. I was shocked how nice the beaches are. We went to Grand Haven beach. We left early Saturday morning and got to the beach around 10:30. The beach wasn't very busy and it was overcast perfect for our red headed family.

Delilah LOVED the beach. She just kept running around playing in the sand.

I'm going to be honest it isn't the easiest thing to take a 5 month old to the beach all day. He just wanted to get down and roll around but I didn't want him to eat sand so we took turns holding him.

Our friends joined us around noon which made it even more fun. They brought a little wadding pool for the kids to play in, such a great idea. Delilah LOVED playing with her friends at the beach and has been talking about it all week.

On Saturday we spent six hours at the beach. Delilah was spent, she fell asleep moments after we got out of the parking lot.

Once we got to the hotel we washed all the sand off of us and then went out to dinner. On the way back to the hotel after dinner James had an epic melt down. James never has melt downs and I started to worry that maybe he had had to much sun. We hurried back to the hotel and put him on the bed while we set everything down and before I could get back to him to try to figure out what was wrong he was happy again. All that boy wanted to do was kick it out. We had been holding him all day and when we weren't holding him he was in his car seat. He's like his mom and just needs some personal space.

While James loved the bed D loved the business station.

So being a family of Irish decent one can imagine that 6 hours at the beach will have it's toll on you. We made sure the kids were COVERED in sunscreen. Collin and I put our sunblock on as well but maybe not so well. Because it was overcast we forgot and waited to long to reapply and D got a little burned, especially the spot on her back where her shirt separates from her bottoms when she would bend over. :( she still has a pink line.

Here's what happened to Collin, it was difficult for him to walk the next two days.

Day two: We had plans to go to a different beach, so we loaded up the car again and went off to the beach. After waiting in a car line for a half hour and we could finally see the front gate to get into the beach when the parking lot closed because it was full and there was no where else to park. It was fourth of July weekend after all. So we shook it off and went to find another beach. After waiting about a half hour and we could see the gate to the second beach, we got skunked again! So we turned around found a burger king and let delilah and james have some out of the car time because we had been in the car for 2 hours at this point. We assumed all the beaches were going to be crowded so we got back in the car and drove home. It ended up being for the best because of our burns another day at the beach was probably not the smartest idea.
Here's a little peek into our car on day two....

D's entered the "why" phase and we hear it a gazillion times a day. Now imagine her in the car. She was driving me INSANE. So when I saw this giant jawbreaker sucker at a gas station I got it for her hoping it might quiet her for a bit. Here she is pretending to be asleep when I told her I wanted to take a picture of her and her sucker.

The sucker didn't work she then just talked about her sucker non stop. James got fussy on the ride (who blames him) so I gave him some water. That boy sucked it down :)

Even though we got burned, sat in the car for what seemed like forever and got skunked on day two it was a very relaxing and enjoyable vacation. I think we might go again next month but just for the day.

Chompers

2011-07-09T23:15:00.001-04:00

The week before he turned 5 months James cut his first tooth and then a few days later cut his second tooth. They are starting to look more and more like teeth and unfortunately he has used them while nursing, but only twice.

The fourth

2011-07-08T23:27:00.001-04:00

We were spoiled in Utah. In Utah the 4th of July is HUGE well the entire month of July is a pretty big deal. Here in Michigan (and in SC) the 4th isn't quite as big of a deal. In fact here they shoot off fireworks the Wednesday before the 4th. We went to our friends house to watch them from their front yard. I didn't really take any pictures, but I made sure to capture James having watermelon for the first time. He LOVED it.

Isn't he handsome?

Here we are watching the fireworks, I'm not sure why I look shocked. James and D both did well with the fireworks. We were only about a street over from where they shot them off so it was still pretty loud (especially for D).

Actual 4th of July:

Here's James napping on the fourth. That's an average size pillow, isn't he getting big? Also he's wearing his Ute's jersey with blue pants going for the patriotic look, I promise I will not let him wear that shade of blue with his jersey again ;)

This is a pretty boring video but it's kind of funny how unimpressed D was with snakes. I thought 3 year olds liked snakes... I guessed wrong.
After playing with our pops and snakes we went to our friends house for some nummy treats and fireworks. Michigan's firework laws are even more strict than Utah's, they don't even sale ground flowers. So I got a few fountains and a ton a bunch of sparklers.

Collin impressing everyone with his ability to make a harmless fountain a little more exciting.

Although we didn't have any super dangerous fireworks I was able to get this fancy chicken for $.50 it shot sparks out of it's mouth then inflated a balloon out it's caboose. (I don't think Collin is going to let me buy the fireworks next year )

D begging for more sparklers

Watching fireworks.. PS D's hair was in a pony tail when we left the house.

bugs and people

2011-06-30T22:27:00.001-04:00

It happened!! Ever since Delilah started scribbling I have been anxiously waiting for her to draw actual things and it happended last week and she has been drawing up a storm. I LOVE IT!! Here are the first few drawings I'll scan some of the others soon.

A bug (with hair and TONS of legs)

James

Dad
(The circles on the sides are ears, the circle on top is hair, the circle on the bottom is a belly button)

Auburn Hills Festival

2011-06-28T15:33:00.000-04:00

Friday night we woke up to Delilah barfing. She threw up every 20 minutes from 3am until 7am it was pretty sad. Around 9am she seemed perfect. We were going to stay home all day and skip our plans but she seemed fine so we decided to walk over to the Auburn Hills Festival that was up the street from us. Since it was free and so close we felt we could leave when ever we needed to with out feeling jipped.

James was his normal adorable self.

D had a chance to get another airbrush tattoo. When I talked to her about it she was going to get the Hello Kitty or the Dora. Then her and Dad had a little chat and somehow she came out with a Detroit Tigers D.

She was still proud of it and showed everyone at church, this tattoo however washed off in a day.

They had bouncy houses and the big inflatable slides both of which D chickened out of. Then she saw this baseball game and screamed because she had to wait in line.

After this she had a huge meltdown and we went home for naps, poor girl.

Sunday Best

2011-06-27T15:28:00.001-04:00

When getting dressed for church on Sunday D noticed James' new shirt and said "Hey he's dressed like daddy". Their pretty cute kids.