Lil' Dean Fam

After two short days back at work, I came down with a sore throat and cold. I wasn't feeling very good but I was able to continue to work in spite my illness. By the second week, I'd brought home a bug and Ryan was sick with the stomach flu. I stayed home the following day so that Ry didn't have to go to the sitters while he was sick. I'm still swaddling Evan up for naps and bedtime and Ryan watches me perform this pre-bedtime routine with the little guy. When we were home sick with the stomach flu, Ryan was particularly attached to me. As you can see in these pictures, Evan was exhausted so I was wrapping him up and preparing him for bedtime. Ryan wanted to be wrapped up too. I always say that I'm wrapping Evan up like a burrito but Ryan let me know that he wanted to be wrapped up like a hot dog! Ha! That kid really does have a sense of humor. Anyway, I just had to take a picture of my little burrito and my little hot dog.

So you've probably noticed that things have gotten slightly busier around our house with me working full time, being mommy full time, Colin working full time, going to school full time, and being daddy full time. So, I apologize for this post being over a week late! Anyway, we did celebrate Ryan's Birthday last Saturday and here is some proof. We had a nice little family thing at our house. Ryan chose pizza for dinner and then we had cake and ice cream too. He got lots of presents and has really enjoyed playing with everything this week. Ryan with his spoils and a balloon. He was excited about the balloon and very good about waiting for Aunt Katie to open his presents. I did let him open this one before Katie arrived because let's face it, how do you wrap a 5 foot by 5 foot rug? Starting in on the gifts. Can you tell how excited he was to get some dinosaurs from Nana? And isn't that the cutest backpack ever? He loves it. Wanted to take it everywhere for abo...

Ryan turns three years old today! He stands 3 feet tall and weighs 32 pounds. He speaks in complete sentences and hardly ever stops talking. He is fully potty-trained! He has learned how to pedal his tricycle. He is a fast runner. His favorite foods are chicken nuggets, pancakes, and pizza. He loves juice! His favorite color is green. His favorite TV shows are Fireman Sam, Sesame Street, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He is very curious and has recently discovered the word "why?" His favorite books are Bernstein Bears and the Missing Dinosaur Bone, Thomas the Train, and, Goodnight Moon. He loves everything with wheels and tires. He loves to ask questions when riding in the car. His favorite songs are the Spiderman theme song, the OC theme song "California", and Five Little Ducks. He knows what an iPod is and he knows that if Mommy has the iPod in the car he can request the above mentioned songs. His best friends are Curen and Charlie. His favorite animals a...

I am 5 months old today! I have really changed this month and my parents are amazed at how quickly I'm developing. Before you know it, I'll be on the field at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Here are some of the fun things I've done in the past month: - rolled from my tummy to my back (I only did it twice in a row while Mommy and Daddy were looking, I haven't figured out how to repeat the same amazing stunt) - was introduced to the exersaucer (Mommy likes to put me in this thing that has all kinds of fun toys on it, I do get bored pretty quick though) - started eating solid foods (I love applesauce, yummy, yummy) - had my first portraits taken - put my feet in the sand for the first time - saw and felt the Pacific ocean for the first time -tagged along to many outtings at the Splash Park - watched my big brother run around like a crazy man - rode in the car for over 24 hours to go to California and back (please Mommy let's not do that again) - laughed a lot - gave lots of ...

Sometimes it can be challenging to find things for a three year old to do in 900 square feet of living space. We spend a lot of time outdoors, but what to do when you are just too hot to go outside anymore? Hide and seek. Ryan loves to play this game with his daddy but I do play with them sometimes. Ryan likes to hide inside the dryer. I actually got him to look at the camera once too!

I decided that after several nights of Evan waking at 1:00 to eat that we would try giving him some solid food during the day. I gave him the only thing I could feed a baby in the house, applesauce. He loved it. He couldn't get enough. And, it worked! He slept through the night that night and every night since then. He is so funny when he eats. If the food isn't perfectly pureed then he acts like he is gagging. He also pretty much screams in between bites. I can't get the food into him fast enough. He'll eat a whole serving three times a day if I'd let him. Such a funny baby boy. Evan has tried applesauce, bananas, prunes, and peaches. He also eats whatever grandma and grandpa will give him behind my back as well. He's been eating so much that he has been nursing less which will be nice for when I have to go back to work... this week!

Evan has been trying out the Exersaucer lately. He likes to hang out and play with his toys for a little while. I didn't think he was quite ready for it yet because he isn't sitting up all by himself, but he does seem to enjoy it. Ryan has also gotten in a few times. I guess he just wanted to try it out since it was something new in the room. I don't mind. I doubt he's too heavy for it.

Ryan has really been enjoying the outdoors and playing with our neighbor. They've ridden bikes and played at each others houses almost every day for the last several days. One day last week we went to the little playground and his friend was stung by an unknown insect. Two days later, Ryan was stung on his lip at the same playground. I went back to investigate and sure enough there were wasp nests inside the top of the slide. Poor guys. This is a picture of Ryan's swollen upper lip from the incident. Luckily he didn't really react poorly and a few Popsicles and a Tylenol later he'd forgotten all about it. Wednesday we were playing outside and we noticed some tiny little toads jumping around. Ryan's friend is three years older and has gained a little fear with his wisdom. Being nearly three years old, Ryan is pretty much fearless and was attempting to pick up the tiny critter. All of us, including Evan, had a great laugh at the wriggling little guy in his hands. The ...

Colin and I are excited to be a part of the 2008 tri -county Walk to Cure Diabetes. We walked last year and had a really great time. The walk will be held at Wheeler Farm on Saturday, August 23. Registration begins at 8:30am and the 5K walk will start at 9:30am. Our goal last year was $100 and we earned that amount in a little less than a week. On walk day, we had surpassed our goal by 20%. I've decided to double that goal this year and we are well on our way to accomplishing it. Thanks to those who have already donated and registered for the walk. It should be a lot of fun. I know that most of my readers are also on my extensive email list, so I apologize for the repetition , I just wanted to get the word out and I thought that this would be another great way to do that. Thanks! If you would like to join this year's walk please follow this link. http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=87032163 If you would like to donate money to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, please...

Breaking Dawn! (don't worry... no spoilers included) Friday morning, August 1st, Jess and I got in line for our wrist bands for the midnight release of Stephenie Meyer’s last installment of the Twilight Series, Breaking Dawn. I knew that people were going to line up early, but rumors spread that there had been people in line since the night before! When we got there an hour before the doors opened, the line was quite long! I towed the boys along with me and they did pretty well in the THREE HOUR line. Jess was great at entertaining Ryan and Evan was a great baby as usual. The wristbands handed out were done in increments of 25. I was just one number off from Jess so she and I were in different groups. This meant that I was number 276. Needless to say, Stephenie Meyer has a lot of fans in Salt Lake. The festivities started sometime around 8:00pm but we decided to leave around 10:30. When we arrived the lines from the morning were nothing compared to the mob of people (mostly young ...