Through her eyes

It's not really a mystery that James gets most of the attention in our house. I mean, for starters, he's the first born. He's got a couple of years on her, which obviously means he's got a little more life under his belt and a lot more things to say. If you've spent any time with him, you know he likes to talk. Alot. Also, about 87% of the toys in our house are "James' toys," or things that aren't really good for an 18 month old to play with. That being said, a lot of time what Clara wants to do, or what Clara wants to watch, or what Clara thinks comes after what James wants to do, see, or think. (We are currently watching "Batman" right now, which surprising, Clara is laughing at. I don't gets what is funny, but she sure does). Realizing this, we've been trying to get Clara more toys that she likes to play with, or let Clara "pick" what we do, or take her on dates with just Dada or Momma. It's done a lot of good, I think. We've recently found that she loves babies, so we got her a baby and stroller. She's gotten into Elmo, which is really sweet and dear. (Though "Elmo" and "Momma" sound a lot alike in Clara-ese). She also loves any sort of animal, particularly ducks, fishes, horses, and dogs. So in honor of Clara, I am doing a day-in-the-life post about my sweet little Delby.

I realize James is in this picture, but it was sort of sweet seeing them play together with one of Clara's things. Here they are using Q-tips to clean up the baby. James might have "painted" her nails pink.

She really loves this baby. It's so darlin' to see.

"See Momma? Baby."

She takes good care of her baby too. She wipes her nose, cleans out her ears, changes her diaper,

then leaves her face down on the floor admist a sea of diapers.

She likes James' books. More accurately, she likes throwing James' books on the floor.

The Delbster likes to blow her nose. Alot. I buy tissue boxes all the time, since we got through them like water.

She's also very devious. It was very quite in my house, for a long time. As a mom, you know too much quite normally isn't a good thing.  I think she liked the candy, though.

It's hard to be mad at this face.

Poor candy bar didn't see what was coming. Also, for not having a complete set of teeth, my daughter can do alot of damage.

That's it. I love you little Clara Dell!

P.S. Since I named this post "Through her eyes," that song "In your eyes," was going through my head on repeat. I was lame and actually had to look up who sang this song, because apparently I am not hip on cool 80's trivia. It was Peter Gabriel, if your wondering. Which, I bet your not, since you are cool and hip and know things like this.

Another year

Happy Birthday honey!

Since he might be a little modest about his age, I won't go advertising it on here. Let's just say he's 100-80+30/2+2. Got that?

I am so happy and grateful that he's my husband. Not only does he do wonderful cool things like provide for our family, coach football and track, work on getting his Master's degree, and be involved at the middle school, but he always makes me smile, makes me feel valued and appreciated, and works hard as the leader of this family. I don't know how he does it all, but I am so so thankful for him doing it. (He also spell checks and grammar checks all my blog posts, so that's pretty great too).

Michigan State Games 2011

Fourth of July 2011

Tackling Dada

Blueberry picking



Happy Birthday Dave! We love you so!

Blueberries for Sal

A couple of weeks ago, we went blueberry picking. Berry picking is one of my all time favorite summer activites by far. When James was just a wee boy, we took him raspberry picking.  That day ranks as one of my most memorable days in my life, full of sweet memories being outside, time together as a family, and good fruit to eat. We didn't do any berry picking last year, mostly because having a teeny tiny Clara, it was hard to do anything that involved an extended period of time out in the hot sun. This year our family is significantly more mobile, so we continued the tradition again. Instead of picking raspberries though, we headed for a blueberry patch. If I was a good mom, I would have read Blueberries for Sal before going out.

I did at least think about the book when we were out, so that counts for something, right?

Moving on...here's some pictures from the day. We went to Kendalls Blueberry Farm in Hastings, MI. The farm was simple, just a stand with buckets for you to put your blueberries in and a basket to put your money in once you were done.

Ready to go!

Can I just say that I love my little man so?

We might have done more eating than picking of blueberries.

See what I mean?

It's serious work, you know. It was slow, but near the end of our time Clara sorta grasped the concept that we wanted blue blueberries, not green ones.

We ended up filling up one whole bucket, and for only six bucks!

The boys

My sweet girl

Mouthful of berry

So there you have it. We had blueberries for a long, long time. Dave made som excellent blueberry crepes wtih it. If only I had his mad cooking skillz.  If you haven't gone berry picking yet, I suggest you do! 

My husband doesn't care...

but it's Harry Potter's birthday!

Happy Birthday, Harry. You brought me many late nights of reading full of merriment and awe. I thank you.
Also, will you be my friend and take me to Hogwarts? Thank you.

In honor of his birthday, here's a little quiz for all of you. Let me know how you do!

The O.W.L.s

Book Quiz

One more, for kicks and giggles




And to all those nay-sayers or people like my husband who think I and other HP fans are some of the biggest nerds ever, to you I say- have you ever defeated a dementor with your Patronus? I think not.

Go Green!

We are Michigan State Fans in this house, to be sure. Yesterday, we made a trip out to our lovely state's capitol. Remember a while back Dave had to spend two weeks at State completing nine units of credit for his Masters? Well, yesterday the class had to come back and share all their work that they had been working on since then. We'd figured we'd make a family trip out of it and had an excellent time. I'd never been to Lansing or MSU and wanted to see both. While Dave was at class, the kids and I explored the capitol building. This was probably my favorite part of the day. I could have spent all day there, but of couse, it is not the must "kid-friendly" place to expore. I think James liked it too, or at least as much as a three year old can.  Later in the morning Dave's class had an "open house" of sorts where all the grad students displayed their work for people to see. The kids and I went to MSU to see Dave and his group's work. I was glad to meet his professor and see the places where he spent two weeks of his life. He had more class to do after the open house, so the kids and I scurried off to "Impressions 5," a super cool kids museum by the capitol. So cool, in fact, the kids and I spent the rest of the afternoon there until Dave was done. All in all, a great trip. I loved Lansing, loved MSU, and loved seeing my hubby at work.

For your photo pleasure:

Playing on the steps. This lasted for a long time.

Thank you Random Guy for taking our picture. You're so nice.

Super Sweet Atrium.

The kids really liked looking at the Super Sweet Atrium.

They had paintings on the walls of all the previous governors of Michigan. James said this one was Mister Rogers.

Rick Synder's office. Unfortunately, we didn't see him.

Kids and the Capitol

Impressions Museum.

It was such a neat, hands-on museum. Here, James is showing his  "superhero" strength by lifting 50 pounds with a pulley.

My little Delby

I loved that the water area provided Crocs and raincoats for the kids. This might be why I enjoyed this museum so much.

Bubbles. We could have stayed in this area all day!

Classic tuckered out kids picture.

I am so glad we went. Thanks honey for working and studying hard for our family. We all are really proud of you, and are so appreciative of you sacrificing your time and relaxation to provide for us. We love you!