The Dean's

Maui

2011-01-15T22:40:00.000-08:00

Here are "some" of our photos from Maui. Thanks again Mom & Dad for the trip, we loved every minute of it :)

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

The kids enjoyed an extended Halloween this year. It started Friday morning with a costume parade and pizza party at school. Saturday night we took them to "trunk-or-treat" with Cody and his family. And of course on Sunday they hit up Grandma Jack's neighborhood (twice). I have no idea what we are going to do with all this candy!

Cpt. Hook and Tinkerbell!

You don't want to mess with him :)

She was the cutest "Tink" by far!

Fat lip :(

2010-09-30T21:22:00.001-07:00

Brookie had a dentist appointment this morning to have a cavity filled. When she woke up from a nap her little lip was so swollen. We took her back to the office fearing she had a bad reaction to the shot. The dentist confirmed that she didn't have a reaction, instead she actually chewed on her lip so much/hard while sleeping that she caused quite a bit of damage. Luckily she will be fine in a few days. Poor little thing!

Texas

2010-09-29T21:05:00.001-07:00

YEA Brookie!

2010-09-22T17:00:00.001-07:00

I came home from work to find Brookie riding Beau's bike without the training wheels! She was outside playing on the bike when Bryce noticed what she was doing and asked who helped her ... she said, "I did it MYSELF!"

We are so proud of you Brooklyn!

1st EVER soccer games!

2010-09-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn and Beau played their very first soccer games today. Brooklyn played the hour before Beau so I was able to watch both games! They each did great and listened to their coaches.

Our Little Fish!

2010-07-04T23:08:00.000-07:00

After three swim lessons, Beau is getting the hang of it! Watch him go .... then replay and watch Bryce and Brookie - she is doing just as good!

School Picture

2010-05-22T08:57:00.001-07:00

Photo of the twins preschool picture.

So proud of Little Man!

2010-05-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

We are so proud of Beau. He used a balance bike for less than two weeks before we took his training wheels of his little bike and he went for it!

Disneyland

2010-05-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

Early one morning we woke the kids up told them we were going to Disneyland! It was such a fun adventure for all of us and I'm looking forward to doing more things like this with them as they get older :)

Catching up (6 months worth)!

2010-04-25T15:50:00.001-07:00

It was been a little while since I posted on our blog - okay a LONG time! Please forgive me if you have been checking regularly and keep seeing my little princess and knight in shining armor.

Things that have been happening with us since October 2009 ....

The Cline family came to California for Thanksgiving, Michael and his boys (JP & Colin) joined us as well. It was fun to have everyone here for the holiday but we did miss Jennifer and her girls.

Bryce officially entered his 30’s … he turned 31 this year! He has always wanted to skydive so this year I was able to talk Mark into going since there is no way I will do it. It became a family affair, Polly and Cody joined and the four jumped out of the same plane – crazy people!!

Unfortunately we lost a wonderful member of our family just before Christmas. Bryce’s grandmother passed away on the 21st of December. Christmas was her favorite holiday and the family thought this was her way of bringing everyone together again. We spent two weeks in Utah visiting with family, some of whom I had never met before and Bryce hadn’t seen in over 10 years.

January is a special month for us, not only is it the beginning of a new year but also the month that our two precious children came to us. Diddy and Tpa flew in from Utah to help us celebrate their birthday. They are now four years old and we couldn’t imagine life without them!

Easter was so much fun this year. Misti and her family came to the desert and the kids didn’t want to see them go. Grandpa Jack kicked on the heater to the hot tub and they spent endless hours playing, swimming, and just laughing together.

Bryce and I spent a week in New York and Connecticut in mid April. Grandma Vera and Grandpa Jack were nice enough to have the twins spend a few days with them. Then to mix things up, Diddy and Tpa arrived and took over for the last part of the week. We had so much fun seeing the sites and exploring new places. Once we got back to California we headed down to La Jolla for some relaxing on the beach! I’m sure both sets of Grandparents were exhausted after a week with the twins but we sure did appreciate how willing they were to take on the task.

In between the big events we have just been hanging out, enjoying our nice weather and dreading the heat.

Trick or Treat!

2009-11-01T12:49:00.001-08:00

The kids celebrated Halloween over the course of two days this year. Brooklyn dressed up as a princess and Beau was her knight! On Friday they had a huge party with Veronica and all of their little friends. I was so happy to see that instead of giving them lots of candy as a treat after the games they were able to pick prizes instead. When they came home they told us all about their fun day and showed us their bucket full of toys! On Saturday we went with Cody's family to the 'Trunk or Treat' at their church and headed over to Grandmas afterward. They are still getting the hang of the whole trick or treating thing but I think that after next year they will be pros!

We love Sundays!

2009-10-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

Sundays have always been a great day for us. It gets even better when fall comes around because we are huge football fans. The days are spent lounging around watching all of the games on TV and eating yummy "football" food.

Today we started off a little different. Beau has been asking to go to church all week. I don't know what made him bring it up but he insisted that church was fun and he wanted to go. This morning when we woke up I told him it was Sunday. He asked if he had to go to Veronica's and I told him no. Then he asked if he could go to church so I said of course! Brookie not wanting to be left out joined us.

The twins did great through sacrament and decided to stay for primary. Cody and Jenie were so nice and offered to bring them home afterward. As soon as they arrived it was non stop talking about what happened and how they want to go back tomorrow!

After the kids got home from church, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Jacks for a quick visit. They made a huge platter of chicken nachos and we watched the second half of the Bronco game. I'm a huge Denver fan and Bryce will cheer for anyone who is playing against them, I'm happy to say that the Broncos won and are now 5-0.

Sundays are a GREAT day!

La Jolla - Again :)

2009-09-27T22:34:00.001-07:00

Brookie and Beau - they are best friends!

Beau, Bryce, JP, and Brookie playing in the ocean.

Beau and Colin

Grandma Vera and Grandpa Jack

Lisa, JP, and Beau

Bryce - he got soaked!

More Utah photos

2009-09-13T20:19:00.000-07:00

Utah Visit

2009-08-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

We had a great trip to Utah and we were able to see lots of family/friends. Our schedule was full, as always, but we did manage to sneek in a few relaxing afternoons. The kids enjoyed spending time with their cousins and all of their new little friends in Copperton. A few highlights of our trip included:

Celebrating 4 birthdays!! Madison (Bug) ~ Mark ~ Tim ~ Todd
Making a trip to the farm where the kids fed cows and rode a horse.
Having dinner with the Bailey family (and met their newest addition for the first time).
Bryce playing golf at six different courses.
Going to the beach at Daybreak Lake.
Going swimming and taking several trips to the park.

We have more photos - I just need to upload them so keep checking back :)

Colin's Visit

2009-08-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

Colin drove up from La Jolla to spend a few days with us. He and Bryce played golf the first night and went out for a second round early the next morning. Beau, Brookie and Cassius were so excited to have him here, they didn't let him out of their sight. It was a quick trip but we enjoyed having him at our house and can't wait for his next visit.

Our little fish

2009-08-24T08:26:00.000-07:00

Beau loves to swim. He will climb out of the pool just so he can jump back in. We had originally thought that Brookie would take to swimming more but he proved us wrong. Everytime we go to Grandma Vera's he goes out to inspect the pool, even if he knows that we are not there to swim.

Bye Bye Buddy!

2009-08-09T21:01:00.001-07:00

It's official ... Buddy is gone!

For those of you who were not fortunate enough to meet Buddy, he was a very very large stuffed dog. Beau had Buddy since he was about a year old and took him everywhere. Buddy even traveled with us when we would fly to Utah.

To our surprise, Beau told us that it was time for him to go. We explained that once he decided that he didn't want Buddy anymore he couldn't change his mind. He said, "Mom, it's a perfect time for him to go." That was all the convincing I needed. Beau was such a big boy and took Buddy outside to the trash himself.

We are so proud of you Beau!!!

Room with a view!

2009-08-06T22:31:00.000-07:00

Bryce and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on the 5th of August. We were able to get away by ourselves for the weekend. My dad set us up with a room in San Diego on Harbor Island while Jack and Vera watched the kids for us. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at a restaurant that sits on the very end of the harbor then we took a drive down to Seaport Village. Our hotel room looked directly at downtown San Diego and we were able to see the fireworks they set off to celebrate the 40th birthday of the Coronado Bridge. The following morning we went to La Jolla and enjoyed a Kayak tour of the 7 caves. It was fun to see new things and it gave us ideas of things to do the next time we go back.

Thanks Dad, Jack, and Vera!!

1st Camping Trip

2009-08-06T22:19:00.001-07:00

We took the kids camping (in a tent) for the very first time. We decided to go to Lake Parris. It's only an hour and a half drive from our house so if things went wrong we could just pack up and head home. We got to the campsite and set up our digs then headed down to the lake. It wasn't so great. The beach was crowded and the sand they brought in had broken seashells so it hurt to walk on. We didn't stay long, dogs were not allowed on the beach and we had Cassius with us. I was glad because it gave me an excuse to leave so quickly.

To our surprise the kids prefered hanging out in their camp chairs watching the fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. They loved the smores, Bryce cooked them just right! Brookie asked if she could help me clean up, I agreed. Not to long into the clean up I found her with the left over chocolate, it had melted all over her fingers. She said that she didn't want to put it into the fire so she was hanging on to it ... that's my girl ~ she LOVES chocolate.

For their first time they both did really good and we are excited to do it again, we just need to find a different place to go!

La Jolla

2009-08-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

My dad, brother, niece, and nephews drove down from Utah to spend the weekend with us. They could only handle one day in the heat so we decided to go to La Jolla. It was the first time Logan, Bronson, and Tag had been to the beach. We played in the water, both ocean and hotel pool, and had fun taking in the sites. Tag and Brookie were attached at the hip from the morning they got here until it was time for them to leave. They were so cute together, she made sure he always had everything he needed. She is such a great friend and sister!!

4th of July

2009-08-06T21:05:00.001-07:00

The 4th of July in the desert is a lot different than back home. Maybe it's because of the soaring temps or maybe because it's not a close community like Tooele was back in the day. I remember the fun block parties that we had in Overlake, closing down the street and having tables full of food the front yard. We use to sit on our front porch and watch the Desert Peak fireworks then Bryce would get called out on a fire, it never failed :)

This year we still had a lot of fun. Jack and Vera had us over for a BBQ and swimming. Polly and Sierra also spent the day with us. The Indian Wells Country Club is just around the corner and we were able to see all of their fireworks from the front yard. Brookie kept pointing out the purple and pink (actually red) ones. For the next week Beau would ask if we were going to watch fireworks at Grandmas again, it took him awhile to understand that it won't be like that for another year.

Summer Party

2009-08-06T20:42:00.000-07:00

Every year the local twins club puts on a summer party. This year we headed out to the La Quinta resort. There is a great kiddie pool that is about a foot and a half deep throughout and they also have a few little water features spraying about. Beau and Brookie love to swim in the little pool. Beau spent most of the day under the water looking for "sharks". He can actually hold his breath for a very long time, I was impressed. Brookie took some time out and relaxed under the shade of our cabana. It was a great day and we look forward to going back again.

Beau is a little lover boy!

We better keep an eye on him.

Brookie

2009-06-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning Brookie woke up looking like this. She called in sick to day-care and I took her to the office with me until we could get her in to see the ped. After a few hours of resting and putting ice on it was back to normal. We ruled out pink eye because of the swelling but have no idea what caused it.

This is Bryce, six days after Brookie woke up with her eye problems. We must have a crazy virus in the house. At least we all share well with each other!

San Diego

2009-06-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

We headed down to the beach again this weekend. Polly had a few free days and we talked her into coming along. Saturday was a cool rainy day. We spent a few minutes with Michael before he left for New York. In the afternoon we walked around the village and took in the sights. JP and Colin then met up with us, unfortunately Colin had to work but JP took us to a sushi restaurant for dinner. Both kids did pretty good with the chop sticks. Beau went to town on the sushi, he especially liked the salmon. They are going to cost us so much money! Sunday brought beautiful weather and the entire day was spent on the sand.

Surfs Up!

Boogie Boarding

Playing in the sand with Aunt Polly

HMMMM

Brookie, JP & Beau

GRRRR

Going to see the high tide

Having lunch

Brookie enjoying the road trip

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

For father's day Bryce asked for a gun and an iPod. One day when we were out looking at the different iPods, he asked me if it meant that he wasn't getting a gun. Then he proceeded to tell me that I get everything I ask for. Ooooh it's on!!! So being the loving wife that I am, I bought him a gun - a BB gun!! I wrapped it in a way that when he opened the box he would see the gun and think it was real. It worked - hehe, watch him look at the gun then look up with is "OMG you got me a gun" ... it only last a split second but it was so worth it!

I gave him his real present on Father's Day. Usually I can't wait to give presents (I gave him the gun late Friday night) but this time I waited until 5PM. I thought by waiting that it would convince him that he was only getting the gun. I was wrong. According to Bryce, I'm a much better wife than that and he expected a real present at some point in the day.

Oysters

2009-06-19T23:45:00.000-07:00

Brookie tried raw oysters for the first time while we were in San Francisco. She actually liked them and ate over half of Bryce's order. I don't know of another 3 year old that will even attempt to try something like this let alone go back for seconds and thirds. She is going to be an expensive date when she gets older, boys you better watch out!!!

San Francisco

2009-06-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

From San Francisco Landscape

We went up to San Francisco this weekend for a Dean Family Reunion. It was such a great trip and we were able to visit with family we haven't seen in years (and met some family members for the first time)! Scott and Ron were kind enough to host the party aboard The World were they have a second home. There is no other ship in the world like it, check it out at http://www.aboardtheworld.com/.

Our hotel was located a few blocks from Pier 39 and we spent a lot of time checking out the sites at the Wharf. We also went to China Town and Ghirardelli Square. We definatley made memories for life and look forward to visiting San Francisco again!

From Collages

More Swimming Pics

2009-06-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

Beau, Bryce & Brookie

From Swimming (2)

Beau after going under the water

From Swimming (2)

Bryce and Brookie

From Swimming (2)

Beau and Bryce

When we find a little bit of free time where both Bryce and I are not working we love to take the kids over to Grandma Vera's house to go swimming. Beau is getting good at holding his breath and going under the water. Hopefully by the end of the summer they will be able to swim without their floaties.

UP 3D

2009-06-04T23:12:00.000-07:00

When looking for something cheap to do on a Saturday afternoon we came across a gift certificate for the movies that Bryce had gotten for his birthday. "Hey, let's take the kids to the new Disney movie!" The temps outside limit the time we can spend at the park and we are watching our budget so it seemed like a good idea. Long story short ....

Tickets for four = $43 (less $25 gift certificate)
1 popcorn / 1 soda = $12
Taking the kids to the movies for the 1st time = priceless!

From ...

Memorial Day

2009-06-04T22:42:00.000-07:00

From ...

On Memorial Day we had a family BBQ at Grandpa and Grandma Jack's house. Jack smoked a pork roast and also made some great hamburgers. As always, Vera had lots of amazing side dishes and a huge bowl of fruit that the kids devoured. Everyone had fun swimming, we even talked Aunt Polly into getting in the pool! It was such a great day and the kids always enjoy spending time with their cousins.

La Jolla (Memorial Weekend)

2009-05-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend in La Jolla! Uncle Todd drove down from Salt Lake on Friday and we all headed to the beach. Michael was in Paris/London for the holiday and let us stay at his place. He lives in a great location, across the street from the ocean and only a few blocks from the center of La Jolla Village where there are great shops and restaurants. We were able to spend time with JP, Emma, and Colin while we soaked up some sun ... more sun that Uncle Todd thought we were going to see (he looked like a lobster by the time we left)!!

The kids are growing more and more comfortable with the water and enjoy themselves. Bryce and Todd spent quite a bit of time "body whomping". The waves crash right onto the beach as you can see in some of the pictures. Both of their swim trunks were full of sand!

The funniest thing happened but we didn't get it on film :( The boys were in the water and the kids were playing in the sand. We heard laughing and turned to see that a large seagull had taken a liking to Brockie's Cheetos that were in a sealed Ziploc. Brookie saw what was going on and freaked out, started screaming, and chased the bird. Well birds can fly and this one did, about fifteen feet down the beach. At this time an older man got involved and started to chase the bird as well. He was too slow, a third then forth man joined in. Two hundred yards later we recovered the Cheetos!! Bryce said it was like having front row seats to a comedy show. Glad he got a kick out of it and glad Brookie got her chips back.

Swimming at Grandma's (5/16/09)

2009-05-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

We went swimming at Grandma's house again this weekend. Grandpa Jack started a little water fight and he ended up getting into the pool with his clothes/hat on, the kids loved it! Below are a few pictures that we got during our fun day. I've been experimenting with the camera to see what it can do :). We also went to the park with some other twin families and Beau has been making some funny faces lately so I threw those in as well.

Brittany thought that she could jump on the giant beach ball and actually stay on it for a few seconds. We she did, if you can count in nano seconds! We love you Brit!!

Bailey had a few tricks in her bag as well. She jumped through the twins swimming ring and did a few bellly flops which would have made for good pictures but I missed them.

*Click on the collage to make them bigger*

Message to our Grandma's!

2009-05-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

The kids wanted to send all of their Grandma's a special message. They are both talking at the same time and it might be hard to understand. They are letting you know who they are and that they love you (over and over again!).

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

Bryce, Brooklyn, and Beau got me a new camera for Mother's Day this year. We have an awesome video camera and it takes pictures so we have just used that as our regular camera for the past three years. I've noticed that the colors from our picutres aren't as brilliant as most so I put a camera on my "want" list this year. I added it pretty late into the week and didn't think Bryce would actually go out and buy one. But lucky me, he did!!

We had a fun family party yesterday at our house to celebrate the holiday. Then this morning, the kids suprised me with my presents and made me breakfast. We then loaded up and went swimming at Grandma's house. The kids love the water and it made us realize that a pool is a must on our list for the next house.

Brooklyn, Lisa & Beau

Bryce and the kids

Beau getting ready to jump in

Brookie jumping to Bryce

Soaking up the sun

La Jolla

2009-04-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

Lisa's parents were in town visiting and we decided to head to the coast on Sunday. JP and Emma met up with us at the beach. The water was still pretty cold but the kids had a blast. Beau keeps talking about how he went surfing and saw sharks (he really didn't see sharks)! After playing in the sand, we went out to dinner with Michael and then stopped by to see Colin on our way out of town. It was a great day and we all agreed that we need to do it more often!

Playing in the water with Bryce

Brookie running from the waves.

JP took Beau out on his surfboard.

Brookie pretending she was on a surf board.

Beau and Emma