Nummy!

Delilah...oh Delilah. She is such a little character. Really though. I know you all think she is just a super cute little gal {which she is}, but really, she's a turd. Big time. Brock was such an easy toddler. Never threw a fit, told us no or any of that. Delilah...is pretty much exact opposite. She gets into all sorts of stuff. All the time. Climbs everything. Today- she found the sugar "bowl". I always know there is trouble when it gets too quiet. Here she is trying to look innocent. 

 No mom, I don't have anything on my face.

 Ahhhhh. I see. Lick 'em, Stick 'em annnnd repeat! She was licking her WHOLE palm and then sticking it in.

 I just had to take pictures. Unfortunately, we had some fun taking pictures and she is probably going to think this will be cute in the future...

I never know what this chick is going to do...Like going from sugar straight to the diaper rash cream. True story. It looked like she had white lipstick on. I was too grossed out to snap a pic.

Potty Mouthed

Despite the crazy hair and crusty face looks innocent enough right? Well you're WRONG! Miss Delilah AKA the Honeybadger {'cuz she just don't care} has a potty mouth. Oh Ya. Ok well not really. She is a little behind on her speech actually. But, just this week she has really started to say more. I have to tell you first, that Delilah LOVES buttons and switches. When she sees one she wants to push she would just point and get all excited about it. I would then pick her up and say "Button?" Well, the little miss has caught right on...sorta. The other day we are walking down the hall and D excitedly starts to exclaim, "Butt! Butt! Butt!" I didn't know what she was talking about, I mean did my butt really look that much bigger that day? Then she got frustrated and reverted to the the pointing. Ohhhhhh You want to push a BUTT-on. I get it. Ha. Now whenever she sees a button..."BUTT!?!" I have to admit, it's pretty cute to hear a sweet little voice say that word. 

Remember when the B man would count by saying, "A**, *SS, A*S!"? {can you figure that out?} Who knows where he picked that up. But he was about D's age when he started counting like that. So glad he grew out of that! 

And here is a classic Brock face.  All that's missing is his signature eye roll.

Shut the Front Door!

She's blogging again?!?! Well, I don't know about again....but yes, I am back at it...for the time being... As we are all the way over here in MN I really should be better at this. I know you all miss us to pieces. And we miss you too. 

We have been in MN over 6 months now. I can't believe that the time went by so fast. That's a good thing. Maybe the remaining 5 1/2 years will fly by too. {HA} All things considered, MN hasn't treated us too bad. We have the sweetest neighbors. Brock has made some fun new friends. Mom and Dad have even ventured out and made a few new friends. It's so much harder for adults to break out of their shells and meet new people.  I have been going to the same gym multiple times a week since we moved here and just a few days ago I finally met and actually talked to some of the other regulars. It was nice. Residency has been good to us too. I feel like we get to see Tim pretty often. He is home for dinner most nights. The hardest part is when he has to work weekends. Which happens a lot. Then I start to feel like my days just melt on into the other and there is no beginning or end to my week. And don't even get me going on church. Not easy going by yourself, but Delilah just started nursery and it's AMAZING!

In all of Rochester, MN and it's glory, nothing seemed to compared to the winter...uh...what? This year we have been so lucky with the weather. It didn't really SNOW till mid January. And I loved it. The long period with out snow, that is. Brock, however, got a "Sic" {to borrow the vernacular from the kids at the local sled hill} sled for Christmas and has been chomping at the bit to ride it. This last Monday, Tim had a rare day off and we all bundled up and headed to the hill. Brock was so excited. D was annoyed that she looked a little plump in her snow suit and couldn't walk very well.

 "No Mom, this is not a picture moment!"

 "Lemme go!" Alas, not cute pictures for the 2 of us.

 Here come D and T down the hill on her sled. She did like the actual sledding part.

"Does this sled make me look fat?" 

Escape!

Brock and his awesome sled. He is the envy of the hill. That is for dang sure!

We had so much fun. Brock would have stayed all day, but D was cold and tired. I need to try and find her some water proof gloves.

And just because she is cute-

Last time I blogged was basically a year ago. D was 6months and now she it 18 months! Crazy. she is a total little pill however. Don't let that picture fool ya. Her favorite word is "NO!" and I hear it alot! She also likes to sing. And because The Biebs AKA Justin Bieber is a favorite in this house, she can now sing the "baby, bay, baby OHHHHHH" part of the chorus. It's pretty cute. I need to get a video.

Brock is still the sweetest boy ever. Like seriously. He is just so good. We made banana bread the other day and he said " Oh Momma, I love this banana bread! Thanks SO much for making it!" I don't think he could be any sweeter. I hope it never changes!

6 Months

How is it that Delilah is already 6 months old? Wasn't it just last week that I was over due? Wasn't it just a few days ago that I was complaining of C-Section pain? And wasn't it just yesterday that I was cuddling my sweet newborn and smelling her hair? It's scary how fast time can pass sometimes. Well, her she is on her big half birthday. She wouldn't smile. This is as good as it gets.

Delilah is such a stoic little person. She is not at all like Brock, who would smile his face off for anybody. Stranger or not, that kid never stopped smiling. Delilah is just more reserved I guess. She does smile though, if you do this-

Chuck her high in the sky! A few things about Missy D are- she has a lovie. She sleeps with it snuggled up by her face every night. She is somewhat mobile. She rolls all over the place to get to her toys. She loves tummy time. Delilah isn't great at sitting though. We try to practice sitting up and she just arches her back and wants to stand. We are still working on that. Still no teeth, but we have tried some solids. She like cereal and sweet potatoes ok. She really love those Gerber puff things. That is all we have tried, although she is always grabbing at our food. She still refuses a bottle. We are really trying to get her to take one, Tim and I would like to have a little vacation, but can't unless she caves and takes the bottle! Delilah loves to sleep at night, but not durning the day. I have given up on trying to get her on a schedule. Brock had a solid nap schedule, but nothing doing with her. I put her down when she is sleepy and... well she usually just cries. Thank goodness for 6:30 bedtime!

And because no post would be complete with out the B man, here he is with his favorite train!

I'm Popular

I'm having one of those days. Ya know, the one that starts much too early? The one where it's noon and I'm still in my jammies? The one where Brock wants to be my best friend forever and never leave my side? Ya, that day. Today. Don't get me wrong, I love my little BFF, to the moon and BACK, but sometimes a mother just needs a little space.

Brock entertaining Delilah. He is good at that and she LOVES him!

Lately Tim and I have been talking about Brock's TV time. Does he watch too much? Is he going to warp his brain? Will he become obese?!? It's true. TV is the #1 cause of childhood obesity! Before we sat down and talked about it I thought he didn't watch too much. B's TV time went like this- and hour of cartoons in the am while eating breakfast, a movie in the afternoon during "naps" and then Tim comes home and Brock usually watches whatever Dad watches {football, barf}. So that adds up... fast. More that I thought anyway. So we decided to cut morning TV. We listen to Disney Radio on Pandora instead. It's working great. 'Cept one little thing... Brock wants to hang out with Mom a lot more!

"Helping" Mom figure out the new lightbox for photography. No this isn't how you use it.

I love spending time with the little man. But somethings are just easier alone. Like making cinnamon rolls. Brock loves to help me bake. I usually don't mind, but today he turned the mixer on a little too early and a little to fast and well, flour went all over my kitchen. Then I was cleaning it up, he is again trying to help and I ended up getting kicked in the face. Twice. Sigh.

trying to get a picture of Delilah rolling over...so Brock is also trying to get a picture of Delilah

And here is where the internal debate begins. Oh it would just be so much easier to turn on the tube and let him veg out. AKA so I can veg out {or clean, fold laundry, go to the bathroom in peace}. But, if I let him watch a cartoon will his brain turn to slush? I mean what really goes on up there anyway? {please see below}

So after a little thought and after tripping over him twice while trying to put towels away, I myself threw in the towel and decided to turn something on. Word World. At least it's educational right? He knows all his letters and their sounds, maybe he'll learn to read too. I think it may be ok to indulge his television habit every once in a while. But only with good stuff, educational stuff. Which is hard because Spongebob is just so captivating. But sometimes, just sometimes, mom needs a breather.

I do love my little buddy to pieces though. When he snuggles up to me and says "I love you, Mom" -all by himself- He could ask for anything. TV and candy all day and I'd gladly oblige {he loves me!}. Good thing he is only 3 and hasn't learned the master power of manipulation yet. But when he does... I'll be in trouble!

Happy Birthday to ME

Well, I am now 26. I am now closer to 30 then to 20. Boo-Hoo. I am growing up so fast! And I don't like it one bit! However, Tim and I did have a fantastic evening out. They are few and far between and most treasured. For my birthday, we decided to go to the melting pot. You can't go to the Melting Pot and not go all out, so that is what we did. The whole 4 course meal!

The ever handsome Timothy-
Me {please ignore the grey hairs...} and my.... pokers.... not sure what these are called.
Cooking our dinner. Tim and I both tried Duck for the first time. It was seriously delish. The shrimp and pepper crusted flank steak weren't too bad either.
They brought this plate out with dessert. They also made me a "cheesey" birthday card, signed by the staff. How thoughtful!
Eating a banana dipped in the banana's Foster chocolate fondu. This was to die for. I'd had 2 other dessert fondu's at the Melting Pot and this was by far the BEST!
All in all I had a great birthday! But any day spent with my lovelies is a great day in my book!

First Cereal

How is my baby girl old enough for rice cereal? I wish I could put her in the freezer so she would stop growing. Do you think that would work? Any who, we decided to try a little rice cereal because Miss D is constantly grabbing at our food and trying to sneek bites. She has even tasted a variety of sauces. Here is what Delilah thought about cereal-

"Really Dad? You're going to share? I've hit the jackpot now!"

"C'mon, gimmie, gimmie gimmie!"

"Well... that's different..."

"What Mom? What! What am supposed to do with this stuff anyway?"

And after a few bites and handfuls she was done and ready for a bath. I think she liked it ok. I'm sure it doesn't taste that great, and of course, nothing beats Mommy's milk!

I Dub Thee.... FAILED!

Welp. Huh.

I got a sewing machine for Christmas and have been itching to use it. There are so many tutorials online that make cute stuff. And they make it look "sew" simple. Now, I haven't sewn a thing since like Jr High, and all I did was sew some pj's together. Didn't cut the pattern or prep the machine. SO when it comes to sewing, to say I am coming apart at the seams is an understatement!

I enlisted the help of my friend Jo, a seasoned sewer. Under her watchful eye and gentle guiding, I made this-

A circle skirt. I think it's pretty cute. And it WAS easy. I thought I was ready to tackle a small project by myself. Boy, was I wrong. I found this tut and thought it looked easy enough. Repurpose and old sweater into a bag. I had 2 old sweaters sitting in my DI pile, so I figured these would work just fine. I decided to try this cream colored sweater first, since I had a feeling the end product wouldn't be stellar. I was getting rid of it because of a small stain. See arrow-

Well, well, well. The first step is to cut. Easy enough, right?!? Nope. Apparently I need to revisit first grade so I can learn to cut straight. - True Story- I did break my right elbow in first grade and had a cast for a very long time. There is a great chance I missed out on cutting straight lines lesson- Not much better even with a ruler and a marker {at this point I kinda figured this bag was never going to see the light of day, but kept plowing on anyway, ya'know just for practice}

Ugh. Ugly horrible cutting. And a got a blue mark on my otherwise white computer. Dang you sharpie!

Well, this is the best part of the whole ordeal, sewing the straps together. That one spot looks ok.

And this is as far as I got. There is no hope for this project. Delilah had woken up and was crying, and Brock wouldn't shut up about oatmeal. I was supposed to sew the brown fabric to the sweater and then flip it inside out {or rightside in??} but, got soooo off while trying to sew it together. As you can see by the bag part under it, well just look-

Yuck what was I thinking?!? I can't sew! Not even close! In my incredibly small defense the sweater I chose was kind of stretchy, so that may have caused the puckering{I'm sure stitch length and tension and that crap could have made a difference, but I really know nothing about all that}, and the ribs are close together and deep, which may have made for difficult cutting.... Maybe I'm trying to down play my failure a little bit...SO I know there are some great sewers who read my little blog. Can you point me in the direction of some easy things to start off with?

Perhaps the other sweater's fate wont be so disastrous!

RIP Stevie

Looks innocent enough right? Just a bunch of change. $1.13 to be exact. There is nothing terribly remarkable about this handful of coins except one thing... It came from our TV. That's right.

Yesterday afternoon our TV decided it didn't want to turn on. Well, it is 6 years old, I thought and it has done this sort of thing before. I called Tim and he said he would fiddle with it when he got home. Fiddle with it meaning take the back off, blow some air around in there and put it back on. Seriously, this has worked before. So when Tim gets the back off, much to our surprise we find a whole pocket full of change- jammed down the the front of the screen. As surprised as we were, Brock was positively giddy to have his spare change back. Little punk. After shaking and rolling "Stevie" around we managed to get it all loose. Although, whether this was the source of the problem we'll never know because Tim snapped the circuit board trying to put her back together{ On purpose perhaps? We have been eyeing new TVs for a while now}. So RIP Stevie. You were 6 years old -bought right after Tim and I wed, for under $200- and weighed about 800LBs. You survived 7 moves and 4 cities. You will not be missed.

SO last night Tim went to Costco and bought a shiny new model- heaven forbid he miss a single football game- and we love it. It's hard to get used to a big clear picture though! Christmas came a little early at the Ulrich house I guess.

On a happier note, miss Delilah turned 4 months old! How fast the time goes! Here are are few things about her. She weighs 13 LBs and is 24 Inches long. That is the 50%. She is much smaller then Brock was. She loves to eat though. She sleeps from about 6:30pm to 5 or 6 am and then eats and goes back to sleep for a bit. That's nice, but she doesn't sleep in the afternoon, no matter how hard I have tried. I gave up. At least she takes a good morning nap. She is starting to play with toys and can be entertained by he brother Brock for a LONG time. Delilah LOVES Brock. She saves some of her biggest smiles for him and he eats it up. Brock is such a good big brother. We are lucky to have such great kids!

I'll be Better...

But probably not...

Anywho, as I sit carousing through my friends blogs, I decided it's about time I do something about my own. You would think I'd have tons to say, what with a 3 year old and a 3 month old on my hands. Not to mention Tim, that would be a blog all it's own, if I had the energy. Also, there is nothing to do right now since the kids are in bed and Tim is engrossed in the Hunger Games {I love when I'm right}. But, besides all that, I just need to be better at writing stuff down. Brock is such a silly turd {oh, and I have called him this so many times, he now calls me Silly Turd too} that I need to document the things he says and does. So I don't forget. He certainly keeps me on my tippy toes. Just last week Tim was in MN for and interview. On the first day of Tim's trip, Brock locks the door to his bathroom. Which posts a problem for us all since Delilah cant {or won't} nap in her crib- which means she has taken up camp 2-3 times a day in my bathroom. Strange I know she likes the fan or something. So for the first few days I try having her nap in her room. Not working and by the 3rd day {the day of Tim's arrival} I give up and put her in my bathroom. Brock can pee outside, right. Only Tim's not coming home Sat, he got snowed in and wont be home until Sunday night - late. Ya thanks Brock, you made that week a little more interesting.

It's not all bad though! Just look how cute Delilah is in tights, skirt, and boots. Just ignore the massive wet spot from her constant drooling. And no she is not teething. Just has lots of spit I guess {Silly Turd}

While Tim was off on yet another interview {this time in Phoenix this time for a week}, We visited family. Brock and Papa Jay Bird had a great ole time in the leaves!
And Brock got to go trick or treating with Papa Pearson. Here he is dipping his hand in Mee-Maw's candy stash early. It didn't matter though. She only had like 6 trick or treaters. I gave all the chocolate a great home though!
Tim and I at a BSU game. We got to watch from the top box. It was a little Richie Rich, but we had fun.
*Brock Story- This boy -Silly Turd- Likes to climb in bed with me and Tim first thing in the morning. Not a big deal usually. But sometimes he gets up early. Too early. And on this day is was too early. So he left to go find cartoons, or so we thought. It was very quiet and we got to sleep in for an extra half hour. Well the reason it was so quiet was because Brock was concentrating as hard as he could to paint his nails. He didn't do such a bad job either, but you should have seen the couch! I cleaned it before I could take a picture. That is my lesson for leaving my things out at night!
Brock Story #2- well more like a little clipping- we must go to Costco too much because as Brock was eating some grapes he found some toothpicks and made samples. He was having a grand time until Tim or I actually tried to sample them. That concept is a little fuzzy still.
And Brock. He is still a crazy sleeper.
And Brock. Silly Turd. I just love this smiling face.
And a little old, but here was a family picture on Delilah's blessing day.
Whew, ok I solemnly swear that I will be better at blogging. It's hard because I do the face book thing all the time, but this is better way to remember life's little stories!