Update.. hopefully soon to be more frequent.

Well I stink at updating and I'm certain noone reads anymore BUT every once in awhile I get this feeling that i MUST MUST MUST remember how adorable and perfect and frankly sometimes infuriating my kids are at this age and I feel the need to update.

WE have had the funnest summer so far (with the exception of the last week) WE have been off on a new adventure every day. Taking the bus (apparently the coolest thing EVER for a 3 year old and a 1 year old) tot he library. Splash pad after splash pad. Hours at parks where Dean has perfected going up and down stairs himself without me having to worry and also perfected going down slides without me having to worry about him taking a header. Its very relaxing now.

Dean is getting OLD. 15 months now. He's not talking much but he understands most things we say. his least favourit would be "go to time out Dean" he collapses in half in tears when he gets that one. But sometimes (like when you climb up on the couch and drop a heavy book on your brothers head) a time out is necessary. Dean has 4 words total, not a big talker yet. we have Dada. Go, Cheers (his and Jack's favourite dinner time activity is cheersing. SOOOO cute! and random that he has that word) and he says Ja for Jack but only when he really, really, really misses him.

Jack is getting smarter by the second I swear. He sees commericials for the new kindergarten and is soooo excited to go and MAD he has to wait a whole year to do so. He just finished up his soccer season. It was short but good. Some games he was a serious superstar monopoloizing the ball and scoring goal after goal. but sometimes he stunk and would not stop wrestling other boys and jumping up and down holding hands with the girls long enough to play. he was the smallest kid most games so sometimes he just couldn't keep up. BUT he had ALOT of fun and I'm glad we signed him up. I'm a big believer in organized sports.

As for Branden and I things are great. i went back to work the beginning of March. Just part time and since we moved an hour away from my work I was going to quit and find another part time job BUT they offered me to work part time FROM HOME for them. So I work 20 hours a week from home. Its the best of both worlds. I gett o stay home with my babies all day every day. I don't have to pay for day care, but I still work 4 hours a day and get to bring in the extra money that helps us pay down our student loans faster. Most days its great. I work during the boys naps or sometimes I squeeze in an hour or two in the morning when Dean is napping or the boys are just chilling out before we go out. somedays its the hardest thing in the world.. like when they are being beastly. But mostly its great.

Branden got a job working for Amico in woodstock. He's doing stuff he loves, its only a 25 minute drive from our house so we can stay here a few more years like we planned and best of all they gave him a work truck so the boys and I have a car EVERY DAY, hence why we have been having SO MUCH fun this summer. He's happy, but he works long days. 10 hours a day every day and some weekends if they have big projects coming up. But we're adjusting to not having him around as much and its going really great.

This last week has been brutal. we went up to the Thomas S monson camp dedication (me, my aunt and the boys because Branden had to work) on Saturday and it was a BRUTAL day. We had to go because I"m in charge of girls camp and we had to take a ton of food up. But man my kids are NOT car sleepers and barely slept the 8 hours of driving and clearly didn't sleep at all there because it was raining and there was too much mud to explore. So this week they have been tired and grumpy just trying to recover. Especially Dean. he is a rage-a-saurus this week and driving his mom crazy. But he's still soo cute.. espeically when he eats rice from his chubby thighs.

2011 stinks

the last month has been rough we had the stomach flu, then the flu flu, then the stomach flu again. we have had many issues with our car being written off and getting a new one. we finally have a 2008 honda civic, but are still sorting through issues with the insurance. things have just been not simple and we are stressed. so I wanted to write and remember all the good things that are going on among the chaos.

my kids are adorable pretty much.

dean sucks HARD at sleeping, but we are starting sleep training tonight so pray for us that it works and pray for my sanity the first few hard nights.

other than that dean is sooo close to walking he takes a few steps here and there between me and branden, but keeps getting sick and so gets slowed down. I'm convinced he'd have been walking awhile ago had we not had so much sickness.

Dean and Jack still love eachothr and have daily wrestling/hug matches on the floor, that are ending in tears for one of them less and less every week that passes.

He is the happiest and smiliest baby ever and just oodles of fun. you can't help but love him when you see him.

Jack is just hilarious. we were playing witht he big box for our new stroller yesturday. Branden andI were putting it over him and then pretending to go to bed. He would knock on the box and say "i'm in here" until we came. HILARIOUS.

Jack is getting attitude and its so funny we almost pee our pants. if he doesn't like what you say or do. he says fine, crosses his arms and stomps off. then comes back 20 seconds later laughing and having a great time.

He loves running behind the couch then jumping out hugging me and saying I miss you mama. it melts my heart every time.

And everytime he gets sad he comes running to me. "I need a huggie mommy" so cute.

and when I want to kiss him and he doesn't want me to he says "no no smoochie Mommy"

I just love this stage. its so funny. He's finaally starting to become aware of his bodily functions, so perhaps we'll trying potting training in a few months. but whenever he farts (or hears Branden or I fart) he says "what sound?" and then aanswers "the sound of pooing" hahaha. LOVE IT>

so although life is a bit much right now i love that I get to be home with my kidlets full time right now and most of the time (when they aren't waking me up at 3am to be bed for the 5th time or covered in barf screaming) they are totally adorable.

Time for another update

I promise in the new year I'll be better at this. It makes me so sad I'm not because I feel like I will forget everything about how wonderful and hilarious my kids are right now.

Dean is basically out of control. For the past few weeks he's been taking a few steps here and there and practicing standing all on his own. He's definately not anywhere near full on walking yet, but we are at the first steps stage. Its pretty cute because he is way to tiny so it makes Branden and I barf and laugh at the same time when he takes steps. Also he is basically obsessed with stairs. And for some reason every morning when I bring him down (way too early when I'm stilll half dead tired and its pitch black out) I forget to put up the gate so I'll be getting breakfast or lying on the couch dying of tired and I'll hear giggling a little too far away and run and he's 3/4 of the way up the stairs laughing like a maniac because he knows he's not supposed to do it. He's pretty good at up the stairs, but hasn't figured out down and hasn't figured out that he doesn't know how to get down so we still have to keep them gated off. Also everytime Jack comes near him on the stair he gets distracted by his love for his brother and falls.

Speaking of the two of them they are basically too much in love with one another. They spend excessive amounts of time in the day taking turns tackling each other and then roll around hugging and laughing until someone inevitable gets squished or poked in they eye and they dissolve in tears and then 5 minutes later they are back at it. Its very cute. I love that they are buds. Jack is always so concerned when Dean is gone and does not enjoy that Dean naps once more a day then him and goes to bed before him. However when Dean destroys his train tracks he has a hard time not murdering him.

Jack is being so very, very 2.5 and most of the time I love it. He's talking like crazy and I'm pretty sure I got his and Deans halloween costumes mixed up because Jack is definately the riddler. He is nonstop asking questions. When we go out every person that we pass. "where she going? what they doing?" ugh.. I love it most of the time. but somedays I have to put a 2 minute ban on questions so I can regain my sanity. Jack is such a well behaved child. I mean he is crazy hyper and all over the place, but he loves to help. He helps me cook and clean and helps with Dean. He is sweet and caring and loving. He is lately getting very set in his opinions and mildly defiant. Which is a new stage that we are figuring out. its so funny to watch him try to refuse something we ask. he stands there saying no looking so unsure of himself I almost have to laugh. Somedays Jack gets soooo hyper he cannot control himself. Sometimes I'll see him next to Dean just shaking with desire to attack him (not a mean attack but a hyper,loving but always painful for Dean kind of attack) Its pretty hilarious.

Oh and they other day Jack told me that Daddy was "a green froggy that goes quack quack" ridiculous.

They boys are loving the snow. We got a sled for them for Christmas (and gave it to them early) and they are loving it. we have so much fun every day.

Branden just finished his 2nd last semester of school. He was so busy and hardly home the last few weeks so its nice to have him home for 3 weeks straight now. The boys and I are loving it. He did well and we are both soooo excited that he's almost done.

In bad news last friday Branden got into a BAD car accident and we are so lucky he walked away with only a minor bump to the head. It was really bad weather.. snow/rain/sleet stuff and he was going to kitchener. On the backroads there is this one really bad blind turn in the road and he was approaching it slowly when another guy came out coming towards him going way to fast and all the way over in Brandens lane. Branden swerved to avoid being hit head on by him and hit some icey leaves which sent him out of control and he ran over a street sign and was sent through quite a few trees about 30 feet down a hill at the side of a road. He ended up wedged between 2 huge trees and could barely open the doors. They had to remove several trees to get the car out. But he was okay thankfully and thats realkly all the matters. The worst part is the car is totalled and because the other guy took off (which infuriates me because if Branden had actually been hurt he would have been stuck because you could not see the car from the road) anyways because he took off the insurance company rules it as Brandens fault. which STINKS. but oh well such is life (I do hate care insurance companies though)

I'm doing well too. So excited for Christmas this year. We have everything ready (which is good since we have no car until they decide to send us the money to buy a new one) and I"m just trying to enjoy this time with my boys and husband.

I love bath time now that both boys can competently sit in the tub without one disappearing under the water every 10 seconds. They have so much fun playing with eachother and yes one sometimes accidently crawls over the other and tears ensue. but its so fun for them and for me

Update Update

Well apparently I stink at blogging lately, but I strongly desire to get back into it because guess what? I also stink at journaling and my boys are pretty much the cutest thing that have ever existed right now so I just want to remember everything about them.

So here is the post blogging vacation synopsis.

Dean 7 Months

Dean is the best baby of all time. The kid is always smiley and happy. He is a HUGE baby compared to what Jack was. 75th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight. Compared to the solid 15th to 20th percentile Jack rocked for the first while of his life he's enormous to us. His physical development is crazy. The kid crawled super early and in the past few weeks he's been cruising like a champ and even mastered the stairs a few days ago. He loves cruising more than anything and is so proud of himself whenever he can follow us around. Yesturday he grabbed one of our kid chairs in the kitchen and was pushing it around to walk. He's out of control. He is the sweetest and most fun child ever. I have seriously only heard him really balls out cry once since he was 6 weeks old and that was last sunday. Our new house is heated by a gas fireplace and it got cold before we got a gate for in front of it and he slipped away from us last week and put his hands on the glass and burned the crap out of 3 of his fingers. He screamed and cried for hours until tylenol kicked in. he had 3 HUGE blisters and it took awhile to treat and bandage them, we thought we were in for a terrible week with the poor kid and his injury but since it happened he's been surpisingly good about it. Poor, poor child.

Jack 2.5 years

Jack is most days the cutest toddler in town. He definately has his moments lately though. He is really into asserting his independance which is fun, but challenging. We've been a bit worried about Jack's speech for the last few months, he has a TON of words, but his annuciation is lacking and he tends to smush words together. We went to a speech therapist and pretty much Branden and I speak to fast hence the smush. So we've been working hard and he's really coming along with his communication, which is helping with some of the frustration he's had. Jack though, is the funnest child around. He is never shy and just runs around playing with anyone he can find. He has the cutest flirtiest smile and just wins my heart over a million times a day. He's really getting into pretend play lately and loves to pretend to make me food, pretend to be a dog, pretend to be a frog, its pretty hilarious.

Branden 26 years

Branden is back for his final year of school (thank goodness) and its going well. He works HARD and is gone for 10 hours Monday through Thursday. Luckily he has no classes Fridays so we always get a 3 day weekend together. He's doing really well and working hard at school and his part time job at the school. He commutes to Kitchener everyday with is friend Jordan who is living in our basement. Its nice in some ways because Jordan drives him so I get the car everyday which certainly makes entertaining the boys easier.

Robin 27 years old

I am doing well. I love being at home with my boys, I love being nearer to my parents, I love having my own home to care for and improve. I do miss my friends from kitchener but we are really loving life. I am DREADING the end of my maternity leave. Branden will be almost done school by the time I finish my mat. leave so I won't have to go back to work full time hopefully. I think I will find a part time job though so we can get rid of school debt as soon as possible! I have been getting back into crafting lately and I'm really loving it. I'll have to post some of my projects as I finish them. I have about a million started and few actually finished.

What have we been up to lately?

We have been baking, baking, baking. Jack is OBSESSED with helping me bake. Everyday "mama I stir" "make cook cook". Mainly he dumps crap in the bowl, stirs for a minute, gets bored and then sneaks chocolate chips. Its pretty hilarious and adorable. We bestow our bakings on others often because we would be major fatties if we didn't.

Pumpkin carving with our cousin. The boys loved watching but NEITHEr would touch the guts. I had to gut the thing. I was schocked because I just assumed two 2 year old boys would love pumpkin guts. ESPECIALLY these 2, they are insane and gross and so totally boyish. But they did not have pumpkin gut love. We did all have fun though.

Playing in leaves. We live in a condo townhouse and in the complex there is a sweet old man Charlie that does alot of the maintenance. He is super nice and rakes all the leaves into piles around the condo for little ones to jump in and my little ones have LOVED playing in them. Leaves are definately the funnest part of fall for these two. Jack loves jumping in them and throwing them and Dean loves eating them.

We have been halloweening. We had great fun this year because Jack atleast semi understood it. I made the costumes. Jack was batman (I made the cape and batman hat and we used a t-shirt he already had) and Dean was the riddler I dyed and question marked the sleeper and hat. Jack was OBSESSED (and still is) with his cape. I made it double sided so it has batman one side and super jack other side. He loves wearing it and flapping his arms and screaming that he can fly. AT the last minute he really wanted his daddy to fly too so I made Branden his own cape. I think I'll work on one for Dean to so he can also fly. We went to our wards trunk or treat and brought my friend Julie her husband and two girls. We had a great time although it was freezing and got enough candy to last us quite awhile.

And if you've made it this far in my massive update (which I doubt many have) you get to hear all about my favourite thing.

These two boys are becoming best friends. They adore eachother. Dean thinks Jack is the funniest thing on the planet and follows him around laughing at him. And Jack loves being adored and loves his brother. He hugs/slash/tackles/slash/drags him a thousand times a day and they both laugh and laugh. If either is grumpy you bring them to the other and they are very likely to cheer right up. I LOVE my boys and I LOVE watching them become friends.

Jacks Words

Right now Jack's language is developing like crazy, but he has a few things he says not quite right that just make me laugh like crazy and I want to record them so I never forget how perfectly adorable he is right this moment.

Jack is a blanket guy, LOVES his blanket. Only he doesn't say blanket quite right.. or right at all. He calls his blanket his Beyes. Like eyes with a b on it. its sooo cute. He also doesn't quite say mine right yet he says Meyes. so he walks around all the time looking for his blanket saying over and over "meyes beyes, meyes beyes". We love it.

He also apparently has not comprehension of how to actually pronounce thankyou. so whenever prompted to say thankyou he says "guy guys" or if you prompt thanks he says just "guys" soo weird. and apparently he's obsessed with the eyes sound. Its so cute though.

Also all done is "gall go" LOVE IT! I almost dread the day he starts pronouncing all of his words correctly.

And lest you think my child is mildly stupid, he says most words correctly just these ones are off and its hilarious for us.

guess who crawls... sorta

Apparently Dean thinks he's older than he is. He's bigger than a 4.5 month old should be, rolls around like he owns the place and now crawls. WHAT!!?? I mean he's not crawling pro yet, but he can do two crawls before he gets tired and confused and gives up. Its insane. We can't believe it. I think its because Jack spends alot of time crawling around in front of him trying to get him to play. I;m sure he's still some time before he can properly crawl away from me with speed, but he's only 4.5 months old and its ridiculous! I love my little Deany guy and Jack is getting super excited that Dean is almost ready to help him destroy the world!

Kiddie Pool

By far the thing that has brought us the most joy and entertainment this summer is our kiddie pool. Jack loves it, Branden loves it, my cousin Zach loves it (yes the big boys jump in there with Jack) and even Dean loves it.

We spend many hot days Jack swimming around the little pool while Branden and I lounge and chat with our feet slung in. It is the PERFECT way to spend a summer day.

Beach

My brothers girls have been in town staying with my parents this past week so we've been doing lots of fun stuff. On Thursday we headed to the Beach at Pinehurst in Paris. First I have to say it is the PERFECT beach for little guys. Its small, not busy and you can walk out quite a ways before the water gets above their head. Its perfect for keeping an eye on them and still letting them have plenty of freedom, because we all know how little boys love their freedom.

Jack had an absolutley amazing time playing with his cousins. they are so great with him. They made sand castles for him to destroy, helped him bury my legs, had water fights with him and just made his day enjoyable. It was a great day, but it was HOT and I was glad Dean was able to stay home with Branden. He would have just about died in the heat.

Great Wolf Lodgin' It

This week we went to Great Wolf Lodge as a big extended family. Me, Branden, Dean and Jack. My sister Sarah and her husband Grant and their boy Thomas, my parents and my brothers daughters Jenna, Katie and Devin. It was so much fun. So much fun, in fact, that I didn't manage to squeeze in any picture taking. We all shared 2 rooms between us and I was luckily able to get us a discount through my work. The place was expensive, but it was AMAZING. We loved the whole atmosphere. Although most of the waterpark was aimed older than our kids, there was still so much stuff for the 2 year old crowd to do. There was even one of the HUGE water slides that you go down on a raft that we could take Jack on. He loved it through his terror. There were smaller slides that were so much fun for the little guys, a lazy river they loved, a wave pool, lots of splash area. A huge playground/slash/climbing thing/slash/ splash area they couldn't get enough of. It was a blast. At night we left the kids with my parents and went down and had a blast on all the big slides. It was great. there's mini golf, story time, babysitting for the kids thats reasonably priced when they are 4 and over and way to expensive for the 2 year and new born crowd. Dean loved the hot tub, it was great!

We had an amazing time and want to go back again when both boys are old enough to play. I highly recommend it to everyone!

Pay/Pray-Clearly Interchangable

So yesturday Jack and I were at the grocery store picking up some gingerale and other assorted items for Branden who was home with Dean and a sick tummy. One of the assorted items happened to be chocolate in nature and this was the item Jack was assigned to carry. Once we got to the checkout and were stuck in a rather long line Jack decided he had had enough of carrying said chocolate goodies and wished to eat them. I quickly advised him that we first had to pay for them. Jack mistook the need to pay for them for the need to PRAY for them so right there in the middle of the line (much to the entertainment of our fellow line waiters) he plomped his bum down, folded his arms and prepared to pray. It was hilarious and of course I couldn't resist his extreme righteousity so i opened it up and let him have one in line. If your willing to sit and pray in the middle of the grocery store you definately deserve chocolate.

Jiggity Jack

Jack lately is literally both the light of my life and the bain of my existance. He is pretty much the cutest thing ever. His language is progressing like crazy although its hard to pick out if you're not his mom. The problem in our house with language development is that both Branden and I are major fast talkers so its hard for Jack to pick out sometims what we're saying. We've been trying to slow down a bit with him in mind but we've also noticed he's talking alot more than we give him credit for. he just smooshes words together and says them SUPER fast. He's got sentences like a crazy man but you have to listen real carefully. Instead of saying "we've got to go" he says incredibly quicly "weguddago" and where did it go? is "wheredigo?" and so on a so forth. tis great, but we better slow down or his teachers will never understand him.

Jack is amazing with Dean. He plays with him an d kisses and hugs him like mad. he is an amazikng big brother. Jack is also the biggest flirt in flirt town. He is always playing with all the lady babies in our new ward and smiles and jsut gives him his best behaviour. He is SOOO much like Branden its ridiculous, but I love it!

On the other hand Jack has hit the terrible two's full force. Most days hes still sweet and cute and the best kid ever, but ask for a diaper change or dare to not get him a snack the second he requests it and hulk jack appears. I beg I plead for him to return to bruce banner as I laugh at his baby rage, but it doesn't work.. UGH. Good thing its short lived and not often or I might run away.

Army Crawl

My little Dean is pretty much the craziest, best baby of all time. The kid already only wakes up once a night (and sometimes even manages to sleep right through) he smiles all day unless he's tired or hungry. He laughs at the drop of a hat and thinks me, Branden and Jack are hilarious. He stares at his brother with awe all the time and is soo impressed with Jack. He rolls like a crazy man which si taking some adjusting on Jacks part. If we place Dean down one place he can now be across the room in a matter of seconds and Jack is not used to avoiding stomping on a moving target so we've had a few accidental stomping incidents. Dean is already army crawling. its crazy, he's not even 4 months old yet. The kid is simply out of control.

We adore him though and he is turning out to be soo much fun for all three of us.

Gym

Well its been almost 4 months since Dean was born and my excuses are running out so this week I finally joined a gym.

I lost all the weight I gained with Dean right away, but I was packing a few extra before I got pregnant with him and i really want to lose the weight. I really can't blame my "mommy tummy" on my kids much though (except the stretched out skin) because I didn't put on much in either of my pregnancies and both times I had lost the weight before my 6 week check up. But I have weight to lose because I got lazy after having Jack and put some of the weight on and then got knocked up again before I could lose it so ya... I need to lose the chunk.

I've been to the gym 3 times since I joined on Friday and I feel good... and awful. SEriously my muscles are dead but it feels sooo good to be dead like this. Today I went to a class. A bosu Ball class and holy work out. I almost passed out and died but i made it through. I thought it was the beginner level class but the instructor advised me halfway through (as she noticed the PUDDLE of sweat forming beneath me as I grunted and moaned) that it was advanced. So I'm pretty proud i didn't actually die.

I need to keep motivated because I really want to get back to my when I got married weight and that is further away than I care to ever admit.

Wish me luck!

Well its been awhile hasn't it. Last time i wrote was before I had Dean and now the little lad is 3 months. To say the last 3 months has been crazy and busy would be an understatement.

In the past three months I had the wonderful and beautiful Dean Patrick Owen MacLean. He weighed in at 7lbs 1 ounce and was 22.5 inches long. Branden finished his exams. I went into a short lived postpartum crazy area. We bought a house and moved. We've now been here 6 weeks we have painted almost the whole thing, ripped out half the garden (and are still working on the other half) We've replaced windows and had about a billion family BBQ's (We now live in the same condo/townhouse complex as my parents, aunt uncle and cousins. its great!) I've been in a car accident and ganked up my back bad. Dean learned to roll from front to back (at 8 weeks crazy boy) and is working hard on back to front. Jack is getting cuter and more talkative by the moment. He makes noises/slash/talks all the day long. it goes something like this.. giberish, gibberish,gibberish. lets go mom. gibberish gibberish gibberish. you have never seen a kid talk more with saying less. he is probaly THE MOST friendly kid you will ever meet. I seriously have to watch him so closely because he has no stranger hesitation and makes friends with kids and adults alike everywhere we go.

Jack LOVES Dean. He has his jealous moments, but I"m proud to say he has not yet hurt or lashed out on dean on purpose Many accidental hurtings. he frequently tries to pick up dean and fails and drops him, or gets excited running around and trips on deans head or stomps on his hand. But such is the life of a second child. Dean also loves Jack he puts up with toys being shoved in his face, Jack gettign all up in his grill "tickling" him and being tripped on constantly and does nothing but smile and laugh at his ridiculous older brother.