Disneyland

We just spent last week at Disneyland. We're not sure who enjoyed it more, Dean or Austin. Dean's favorite rides were the race cars, train, Buzz Lightyear and Jungle Cruise. I think Austin liked the Carousels and Jungle Cruise the most. Austin especially enjoyed all the characters and Kevin had to wait in line with him everytime he spotted one. Got some cute pictures of him with all of them. Dean enjoyed them from afar. They both also liked the parades. Hopefully it won't be too long before we visit Disney again...

Happy December!

Yes, I'm the worst blogger ever! I know I haven't posted anything for a while but we've been sick & busy traveling. We went to Chicago for a week for Thanksgiving and had Austin baptized there. It would have been a really nice ceremony but he was screaming the whole time. Should make for some nice pictures. I'm realizing that Austin is not a good traveler. Too bad since we're going away again next week to Disneyland. Hopefully it will go better since it's just a drive away instead of time changes and planes. Dean loves to travel so at least one of them is happy during the trip.

Just got the kids all dressed up for their Christmas Card picture. They were good sports considering they are sick.

Dean's Prayer

Here is a video of a prayer that Dean learned at school. We thought it was so cute, I ran to get the camera. In case you can't understand him, it goes like this "Tick Tock, here's the clock, now it's time to pray. God you are good, God you are great and this is what we say. Amen."

Some cute videos

It's been a while since I've uploaded some videos so I wanted to try to do that now. I realize I haven't been blogging too much. My friend Staci puts me to shame as she blogs frequently and is currently pregnant with her fourth child (she has 3 girls right now) so I don't know when she finds the time. I do appreciate reading her blog though! In fact, I am baking an apple cake right now that she put on her blog. Here is the recipe...hopefully she doesn't mind me sharing : )

Apple Cake

Mix together:2 C sugar3 C flour1 t baking soda1 t salt1 t cinnamon1 t vanilla1 C vegetable oilAdd 2 beaten eggs to mixture. Stir.

This will be thick!Stir in:3 C chopped, peeled apples1/2 C chopped pecans (opt)(by stir, in this step, it really means take off your rings and mix it with your hands - it's way too thick to actually handle with a spoon or spatula)Press into a 9x13, greased and floured pan.

Sprinkle the top liberally with brown sugar.Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.


Austin is big enough now to play with Dean so I've had to break up some fights between them over toys. Dean gets pretty upset when Austin messes up his train tracks. Lately he's been putting other toys in Austin's hands saying "here Austin you play with this" just so he doesn't touch Dean's trains. I can't leave them alone together for more than a few minutes these days as I know a fight will break out. Sometimes Austin just pulls Dean's hair for fun, but doesn't realize he's hurting him. This video is from Austin's birthday. Austin loves Dean so much and thinks he's so funny.

Happy Birthday Austin!

Austin turned 1 on August 31st. My mom was visiting so we celebrated the day of and then had a party with Kevin's parents the following weekend. Austin is now cruising all over the place and getting lots of bumps on his face and head on a daily basis. He's using his walkers to walk around the house and climbing the stairs at a very fast pace.

Dean started school last week. I love his school and his teachers and cannot wait until Dean is used to this new schedule and thrilled for me to leave him at school.

I'm finding myself spending much more time reading my friends' blogs than updating my own. Sorry about that.

Almost 1 year old...

Austin is turning 1 year old on Tuesday and just started walking around with his walker. I'll hopefully have a video to post soon.

Napa

We just took my mom and the kids to Napa last weekend. We went to a winery that was super kid friendly and Dean even got some grape juice and crayons to color pictures while we tasted wine. Dean was very excited about exploring the castle.

Strolling through the city

After going to NYC with Dean, it makes me feel bad that we moved from there when he thought it was so exciting. But how much would he miss his pool here in California?

Our Trip to NY

Dean loved NYC, I got a great picture of him so excited to see the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History. I have to say he loved all the little, less exciting things about NY as well. He loved the bus ride we took, all the taxis on the street and trucks. It was nice to see NYC from a 3 year old's perspective. Unfortunately Kevin had to work most of the time we were there, but luckily Dean had his grandparents and Aunt Kristen and Uncle Christian to keep him company. Not to mention a lot of our friends and their kids (Dean calls them "cousins"). Austin didn't take too well to the time change, the new people, new beds, new schedule and he was happy to come home. He is now standing in his crib like a big boy and just started crawling when we were in NY. It was such an exciting moment to watch him crawl for the first time. He just melts my heart with all the things he does. I love watching him crawl after his big brother and try to play with his toys.

Dancing up a storm

Dean just loves to dance to the music on the Lightning Mcqueen (Cars) DVD menu page. He doesn't even want us to restart the movie, but just wants to dance around to the music.

Summer Fun

Austin is almost 10 months now and loves being outside. He likes to swim too and is already blowing bubbles in the water without anyone telling him to.

Dean swims on his own with his swim vest so that way I can swim with both of them by myself. I have a feeling he won't need the vest much longer. He loves the water!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday to Dean!

Our big boy turned 3! It's amazing how much changes in a year. Dean loves loves loves doing puzzles and he's really good at it. He doesn't even need mommy's help so Austin and I can just watch him. We had Dean's friends over for a little birthday party. Dean found the presents that were hidden in the Dining Room and started opening them without anyone around. He showed up in the kitchen with an unwrapped Concrete mixer that Grandma and Grandpa had bought him. I told him he had to wait to open gifts and moved them to places around the house where he couldn't get to them. At least I thought he couldn't...about 15 minutes later Dean showed me the train set that Kevin and I bought him. I had put it on the pool table in the middle and I'm still not sure how he got that one.

It's nice outside...

so I haven't had much time on the computer. Sorry about that. But I'm going to try to upload some pics and videos before we leave for our trip to NY on Monday. I have lots to upload and blog about so I will make an effort in between swimming with the kids, doing laundry, packing and the usual.

Dean playing with his animals

About 2 minutes before this video I was playing with Dean and his frogs. I was using a funny voice and then I just had to take this video of him using the same voice.

Dean singing along with his Thomas book

I read this sing a long Thomas book to Dean and then he decided to sing along by himself even though he didn't quite remember the words and made some up.

Blowing air into Austin's face

I had to get a video of Austin when I blow air into his face. You can tell when I'm doing it b/c he squints his eyes. Too cute...

Some recent pictures

Austin just turned 8 months old. He's so big! He has his bottom two teeth and he's rolling all over the house! He'll need to be contained soon.

I know I'm not blogging enough, sorry about that. I've been busy with the kids and have also been trying to catch up on my scrapbooking. Now that I have 3 albums to maintain (Family/Dean/Austin) it's been a challenge. We had Kevin's brother Raymond here visiting a couple of weekends ago. He had to travel to San Francisco for work and came out to our house over the weekend to spend some time with us. They went golfing and to an Oakland A's game. They had great weather for both. It was fun to have family around as it doesn't happen very often around here. Here are some pictures from that visit.

Happy 8 month Birthday Austin!

Dancing

There is nothing cuter than watching Dean imitate the dances he sees on his favorite show Backyardigans. He has them all memorized. I know he feels proud when he catches me watching him with a smile on my face.

Today I had Austin on my lap on the couch in the family room and Dean was next to us. Austin was screaming with excitement that his big brother was so close talking to me. Dean mistook Austin's screaming for something being wrong with him. So Dean asked him "Baby Austin, what's wrong? Are you ok?" Then Dean ran to the kitchen saying to us "It's ok, I got it" and opened the refrigerator (I have to get a lock for that) and came back with a bottle for Austin and said "I got it!" and pushed the bottle into Austin's mouth. Austin had just eaten so he definitely wasn't hungry, but it was so cute and nice of Dean to do that for his brother. He takes such good care of him.

Back from Vacation

Well I recharged my batteries while in Cabo with a friend for a couple of days. Since I've been back, I'm taking on big projects around the house everyday. I try to get a lot done during naptime. Today, I cleaned out the pantry and our car. I also went for a run in the morning, so now I'm beat and haven't even started dinner yet. Since I've been back Kevin had events to attend after work, so I guess I had perfect timing with my trip. His brother is in town this weekend and they have a full fun weekend planned of golfing and going to a baseball game. We thought about them taking Dean to his first game, but we weren't sure how long Dean would actually sit in the seat. So it's me and the little ones this weekend. I'll try to take them somewhere fun so that the weekend doesn't pass us by without them getting to do anything.

Dean is saying "I love you" a lot and I love every time he says it. It's so cute to hear. The boys were happy to see me after my trip, but I think they had fun with kevin while I was gone. It's a good change for them to be around other people nonstop and not just me.

Some more Easter pictures

Just wanted to share some Easter pictures that we took...

Easter

We had a good Easter despite the rain. Dean liked coloring eggs and had fun with his new goodies from the Easter bunny. Kevin and I left him unattended with his basket while we made breakfast and he ate his entire chocolate bunny in 5 minutes. He didn't touch his breakfast after that.

When we were coloring eggs, I took out the metal octogon shaped spoon that the coloring kit came with and Dean pointed to it and called it a stop sign.

Easter Egg Hunt

Easter is coming...

I had good intentions today to try to make it to the store with the 2 kids and get some Easter shopping done. I wanted to pick some things up for the party we're having tomorrow here at the house. Ialso need to get things for the Easter baskets Sunday. Note to self: NEVER shop for Easter candy/stuffers with the kids again. I happened to be the only mom there with the kids. Not sure where all the other moms had their kids, but I guess they're in school. There were plenty of mom's out at Target today in the Easter section!

So we did make it to the store, but we weren't there very long. Unfortunately my list was too long and the store was too crowded. Not to mention both kids in my cart were whining/crying a lot of the time. So I had to leave in the middle of my list which can be very frustrating as now I'll have to try to go back later tonight when Kevin gets home from work. For most people that isn't a big deal, but Kevin gets home about 7:45 and that means I won't be able to get to the store before 8pm and I'm already ready to crash and it's only 4:30 at the moment. Ugh.

Hopefully the weather is ok tomorrow as it is forecasted to rain and we're planning to have an egg hunt in the backyard.

Austin's getting his first tooth! It's so cute and exciting!

Potty time...

The interaction that I had with Dean yesterday when I put him on the potty...

Me: "Dean can you go pee pee on the potty?"

Dean: "You go, get out, I want prisassy (privacy)" as he's pointing to the door for me to leave.

Dean and Austin

Dean keeps saying to Austin "Oh Baby Austin, you really really get a present of the moon don't you?"

UPDATE: Just wanted to say I figured out where Dean got this from. He watches a Little Einstein episode where they get a present for the moon.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Lucky and Charming...

Freezing

Well our heater broke on Saturday morning and we've been without heat since then and will continue to be until at least Wednesday. This is because they have to order a part and wait for it to come in. It was quite an adventure on Saturday and Saturday night to try to keep warm in our house. It was only a high of 56 degrees on Saturday so the house was freezing! We bought 1 space heater and it wasn't enough. By 3am Dean was shivering in bed (even though he was under 5 big blankets) so he climbed into bed with us and we moved the space heater from Austin's room into our room. Even on Sunday it was freezing so off to the store to stock up on space heaters for the rest of the house. Luckily the weather has gotten warmer and the space heaters have helped everyone sleep more comfortably. It's also a good thing that we live in California and not somewhere colder.

Dean counted 18 stickers today. That is the highest I've heard him count yet.

We went on a long walk the other day and I picked some flowers for Dean on the path we were on to keep him busy in the stroller. He was so excited to smell them and tell me what colors they all were. It was nap time as soon as we got home and he wanted to sleep with his new flowers. When he awoke they had all died and he cried for a very, very long time about it. He didn't realize that flowers die, it was sad.

Some of my favorite things....

Here are some pictures of our recent visit to the Bay Area Discover Museum in Sausalito.

I feel like I should be posting some of my favorite things that Dean is doing these days before I forget them and he stops doing them. I also want a way to remember them for Dean's scrapbook. So here it goes...

Dean sings the ABC song and when he's done, we both clap for him and then he runs to me to get a hug and hear me say how great/smart he is.

Dean is always comforting his baby brother by touching him softly and stroking him, saying things like "Oh baby Austin, it's ok" and "Baby Austin, I know I know" or "Baby Austin, I'm coming" when he's crying. He also kisses his brother without being asked to.

Which brings me to...I love that Dean is giving me kisses (finally!) lots of kisses everyday. Of course I have to ask for them, but he seems happy to give them. He used to just say "How about a hug?" when I asked him for a kiss.

I love how he runs to the window every morning to wave good-bye to his Daddy as he drives away to go to work.

When we are putting his train tracks together, building something with blocks, or cleaning up his toys he always sings "What's gonna work? Teamwork!" from the Wonder pets.

He's a little actor everyday. Sometimes he crawls onto the floor and pretends he fell there and is stuck to ask for my help. He also uses hand gestures in the cutest way like putting his hand up to his ear when he is saying "I hear frogs".

I love listening to him sing songs all the time when he thinks no one is listening.

When he's playing with his toys he says "I'm so happy, I'm so happy, I'm so happy" like right now as I'm typing this.

I love watching him playing with all of his animals and telling what kind they are and what sound they make. The best is hearing him say all the big dinosaur names.

When I can smell his dirty diaper, I ask him "Dean did you go poopy?" and he always replies "no" because he doesn't want me to change his diaper.

He has conversations all by himself. Like when he gets hurt he says "Are you Ok? I'm ok" while he's crying.

There are a million other things that I love witnessing everyday, but I can't list them all here tonight. I have 2 loads of laundry to fold and have to get Dean to bed. Before I end this post I have to mention that my favorite thing that Austin is doing right now is the way he looks at Dean and gets so excited watching him and lights up when Dean comes over to him. Too cute.

Peppa Pig

My favorite thing that Dean does is when he reads his books aloud as he knows them by heart. The best is when he reads Peppa Pig out loud as it is a really long book and he knows every word and even speaks with a British Accent as Kevin and I have both read the book with an accent as Peppa Pig was developed in England.

Some recent pictures

Here are the boys laying together...

Here is Austin in his Summer Seat that he loves. He gets to watch me washing dishes, making bottles, cooking from his seat.

Austin on tummy time.

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Get the Camera

Dean keeps climbing onto the changing table when I'm changing Austin on it. The other day I moved Austin out of the way so that Dean could lay on it and then I put Austin next to him. But before that I made sure to get my camera since I knew where this was headed. I was able to get a couple of pictures of them together on it, but I haven't uploaded them yet. Today I was changing Austin and Dean climbed up on the table and I picked up Austin to get him out of the way. Dean proceeded to tell me to "lay baby austin down" onto the table with him and once I did and they were cuddling together Dean then ordered me to "Go and get the camera!"

Dean hiding and Austin crashing

Here are some pictures of us with our Little Valentine...

Rain Rain Go Away

We've been cooped up in the house the past couple of days due to rain. Dean has been acting his Terrible Two's with a capital "T". I just spent 30 minutes replacing 22 keys on my keyboard that he ripped off while I was putting Austing to bed upstairs. I still can't get the last one on. He's also been playing in Austin's exersaucer, summer seat & swing. I can't even count how many times I've had to reassemble his train tracks after he's pulled them apart and off of the table. I take them away for a day at a time, but then he always begs and doesn't stop asking for them again. I don't get why he keeps messing them up. Last night he ripped off his diaper while in the kitchen and came over to me as I was feeding Austin in the other room and said "slippery" and you can guess what he had done on the kitchen floor. We practiced sitting on the potty but all he did was cry. I'm not sure why, maybe I was putting too much pressure on him to sit on it, but he certainly doesn't show any interest in sitting on it on his own.

I took a cute video of Austin after he finished eating his cereal. He was cracking up for me when I was saying "boom" but he didn't laugh so much once the camera was turned on. I still think he's cute : )

Austin's first real giggle...

Dean is helping me blog right now. He loves the blog, especially looking at the videos. He always asks "Watch Dean?" He's been such a good big brother, I'm so proud of him. I thought there would be jealousy but there is not at all. I guess it's b/c Austin doesn't want to play with Dean's toys yet...

It was nice to put away the christmas decorations and tree to have less clutter in the house, but now I've got to add clutter with all the baby stuff. Dean's new train table takes up a lot of room and I'll be adding the Exersaucer and Jumperoo to the mix shortly. Not to mention I was so happy to put away the high chair about 6 months ago and now I'll have to bring that out again. I keep thinking of what I can put away, but I think Austin will still want the gymini and swing a little while longer.

More Pictures

Just wanted to post some more pics from my new camera that I

got for Christmas.

Blog more often...

One of my New Years Resolutions is to try to blog more often. Hopefully I'll be able to stick to it. There doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to devote to all my resolutions...but I can only do my best. Another resolution is to play with the kids more so I better and go as Dean is calling...