A Family of Four

As most of you know we had a new addition to our family last week! Rhett McDaneld Dean was born at 6:25 on June 25th at 8lbs and 10oz and 20in long. His entrance to the world was pretty different from his brothers. At 9:30 on the 24th I told Ryan that we should maybe start timing contractions. We had gone to the mall to walk around and had some Chipotle for dinner during which I'd feel a contraction every once in a while. So we timed and by midnight I thought it was time to head to the hospital. In hind sight the contractions really did not hurt that bad they were just getting really close together so I thought it was time.
We got to the hospital at one in the morning and my contractions were slowing down. I think if I had not already progressed to where I was and if I wasn't dehydrated they would have told me to go home but instead I got a saline drip and Ryan got an uncomfortable recliner. We slept on and off for six or so hours before they said we could change rooms. At this time I wasn't feeling contractions at any normal intervals and really just wanted to go home.
By about eleven in the morning Ryan was hungry and I was bored so I asked if Dax could come see me. He was asleep when we had left and I wanted to see my boy again before he wasn't the only child anymore. So my mom and Dax came and I was allowed to have lunch which was glorious because the previous on call doctor didn't let me eat breakfast.
After throwing the idea around all morning I decided to have my water broken by the midwife. It was how things got started with Dax and so I was pretty confident that I'd be able to deliver in the time frame I needed to before I had to get pitocin. Last time it felt like pitocin was inevitable because the on call doctor then kept bringing it up. This time the midwife asked me once "Do you want pitocin?" I told her not at all and she never said anything else about it.
After only four hours of intense labor and about thirty minutes of pushing Rhett came into the world. He actually didn't have a name until the next morning because I couldn't make up my mind but that a different and definitely more boring story.

Dax visiting before little brother came.

Our little family together for the first time.

Book Review: Divergent

You may recall I posted at the end of January about wanting to read ten books this year. After three months I finally finished one even if I cheated a little. My mom, Dax and I drove to Phoenix, AZ and back over the weekend and we listened to Divergent while we drove.Though I am a little apprehensive about reviewing this book, I said in January that I wanted to try it out so we'll see how it goes.

First, Here is the synopsis of Divergent for anyone who has not read it (though really it seems like everyone has) It is from the website Goodreads which is usually where I go to find out if I'll like a book that someone has recommended for me.

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, Tris also learns that her secret might help her save the ones she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Now that you have a small sense of what is going on, if you did not already, here are some thoughts I had about Divergent

I had heard all kinds of hype about Divergent before reading it. I knew I wanted to read it before seeing the movie because I like knowing the things that are left out and usually the book is significantly better than the movie. I haven't seen the movie but since the movie has come out there is a lot more hype about Divergent. This makes me curious, I don't like having expectations about books before I read them because if I have really high expectations its possible to be disappointed and if I have low ones I might not read a book at all.

All of that said Divergent to me was a medium book. I told Ryan near the end of listening to the book that I really enjoyed it, and I was not ever bored but if something did not happen in the las five chapters I probably would just wait until the next movie come out to read Insurgent, the squeal, instead of immediately putting the book on hold at the library.

 

Don't get me wrong it has a lot of elements I like in a story, good characters, complex plots, and my favorite fairly decent imagery but I feel if I had been actually reading it would not have been like some of my favorite books where it is hard for me to put it down.

Probably like a lot of others I really enjoyed getting to know Tris. She is a strong young woman who just wants to know her place in life and is confused by the cards life has dealt her. She's a little awkward and a little insecure but what else could a 16 year old girl be? I liked how Veronica Roth wrote her and made her such an interesting character pretty much from the get go.

Over all I do recommend  reading Divergent. Obviously a lot of people enjoyed it or else I don;t think it would have become a movie and after I finish the other two books I am actually reading I might even go put Insurgent on hold at the library instead of waiting until it's movie is released.

On a side note, I only have eight more weeks until we meet little brother!

Luck Would Have It

Happy St. Patrick's day! Did you wear green and eat corned beef and cabbage? We did not get to have corned beef this year because I didn't put it in the crock pot this morning but it will go to good use in a week when we have Ruebens for our anniversary dinner.

Well I'm writing this St. Patty's day post because of something that the Institute of Religion over by CSUN is doing to celebrate today. They have had on their bulletin board a sign that more or less asks why the students are lucky(blessed). They have shamrocks cut out and markers provided for people to write down what it is that they consider the blessings in their life so I thought I'd take a minute to think about and write down some of the things that I am lucky to have in my life.

I'm lucky because:
I have a home.
Ryan has a job that provides for us.
I have a healthy, silly, sweet little boy and will get to meet his little brother in 14 weeks.
My family is amazing.
I get to finish school before our second baby comes.
I thoroughly enjoy working with the young women at church.
Ryan and I are in good health.
Our ward family is awesome and helps us a ton.
I have so far had easy pregnancies.
My Heavenly Father Loves me!

I hope that whatever day it is you can think of at least one reason why you are lucky or blessed!

Things I Love About the City

As most of you know, I love in Northridge. Technically, Northridge is a district of Los Angeles meaning I live in Los Angeles. It is quite different than living in the actual city of Los Angeles but still city life all the same. Too often Ryan and I talk about how great things will be when we can move from the city. On multiple occasions we have expressed to each other how much we hate it here and cannot wait to leave. So this post is coming to you for many reasons. First, after a talk with a friend I realized that there are so many good things about the city I wasn't choosing to focus on. Also, hopefully by counting the great things about the city I can more fully enjoy my time here. Really we have no idea how long we could be here. Just because Ryan graduates next Spring does not mean we will leave then! So here, in no particular order, are the things I have grown to love about living in this city.

1. Culture- I really wish I took advantage of this a lot more. There are so many museums, exhibits, galleries, shows, and all manner of cultural venues and events in Los Angeles. A couple weeks ago Ryan and I were able to see the Great Wall of LA. Something right here in the Valley. Most things are in downtown LA but even those things are really not that far and should be taken advantage of!

2. Food- Before living here I'd never had food from a truck. It is probably the coolest thing to go to a food truck gathering and have so many different kinds of food within a small space. Like a mall food court but so much better! Also, in about a five block radius of our apartment there are so many kinds of food. Thai, Sushi, Mexican, Italian, BBQ, and all kinds more. we sadly haven't been able to enjoy a lot of these places but having the options is awesome! And, if I wanted to, I can drive for about twenty blocks and hit at least three McDonalds.

3. The Beach- I love the beach, Ryan loves the beach, so far Dax likes it well enough. The beach we like to go to is still about an hour away but there are ones that are closer. Taking a beach trip doesn't have to be a big affair that we plan a month or so in advance we can just go on a nice day and usually it isn't even that crowded.

4. Driving- Really this is something I hate too. But living in the city has made me a better driver. You'd think the opposite right? Well before moving to the city I had about zero driving experience. This was only made worse by the fact that the only car we had for the first year and a half of being married was a stick shift truck we couldn't drive. Before I would never turn right on red, I only changed lanes when there was no one even on the road with me and my first month or two of yeild lights I'd let a couple cycles go by before turning. Now I am a little more aggressive, in a good way and I can mostly navigate my way around the freeways in the city. That's another thing! When I first started driving to school, I'd take surface streets. It took me forever to get to school! Now I can get to school in about half the time and I know about six different ways to get there.

5. The Library- Where I grew up and lived my whole life before moving to Northridge was Apple Valley. In San Bernardino County there are 33 branches of the library. Not to shabby right? Los Angeles county has more then 70 branches. I'd gather this has something to do with the population in the two counties. You might wonder, why does that matter? Well first, there are about ten branches that would take ten minutes or less to get to, depending on what time you go of course. This means if I'm tired of the selection of kids board books at the branch just up the street I can head to another one that might have a bigger selection or if I really wanted to I could probably hit multiple toddler story times in one week. Also, if I put a book on hold usually there are a good number of copies in the system so even if I do have to wait it's significantly shorter than I had to wait for a hold back home.

6. The people- For one thing the is so much diversity here. For another the wonderful people I have made my friends have made the city a pleasant place to live. Ryan and I have been able to meet some amazing people with all different kinds of backgrounds who have all helped us in one way or another. I know you can find good people wherever you go but in this large city it could have been terribly hard to find them.

There are many other things I like about Northridge, the parks, the hiking trails, The Apple Store, the farmers market, just to name some but I feel like the things I forget about too often when I start to complain about the layout of the streets or getting ANOTHER parking ticket. I hope if you live somewhere you don't really want to be that you can find things that make it a great place!

Valentines Day!

I love Valentines day! I honestly can say I've never had a bad one. Even when I was single I didn't resent all the love birds around me. My family has done a Valentines dinner for some time now that I love doing. Usually we get each other something, have a special meal and my mom does some kind of awesome dessert. Which is what we did this year as well.

Last year I made my mom, mother-in-law and all four of Dax's great grandmothers Valentines. This year I wanted Dax to help me so to Pintrest I went searching for a perfect little craft. I found an idea where you use a toilet paper roll shaped into a heart as a stamp. It seemed easy enough for Dax to help me with so we tried. After making the six I originally planned on Dax seemed to be enjoying himself so we made almost thirty more! And really I only finished off about five of them for him. Here is one finished product though because my mom hasn't gotten her valentine yet I'm only posting a picture of one of the extras we made.

For Ryan this year I decided to do fourteen days of Valentines. I was actually gone on the first so I had to hide his first one and tell him where it was. All the days except actual valentines day were corny sayings that went with a treat. Some them were a little bit of a stretch but I thing Ryan enjoyed getting a treat every day. Heres a list of the sayings and the pictures(minus two) to go with them.

1. I'm NUTS about you and love you BUNCHES.(Honey Bunches of Oats w/ Almonds)
2. We make a great PEAR. (canned pears, or any pears Ryan just likes the cans better)
3. You're COOLER than the rest.(Capri Sun Pacific Cooler)
4. You're my BIG HUNK. (Big Hunk candy bar)
5. You make my heart FLIP.(Flipz chocolate covered pretzels)
6. Of the guys I could CHEWS my choice is PRIME.(Gatorade Prime Energy Chews)
7. You're EXTRAodrinary.(Extra gum)
8. I don't care if your RIPPED or have ROLLS I love you.(Rip Rolls candy)
9. You're outta this world(Milky Way)
10. HONEY, I love you beary much(honey in a bear container)
11.You make me BANANAS.(Banana)
12.(You're the APPLE of my eye.(Apple Juice, or any Apple but ryan likes juice more then regular apples.)
13. You aMAZE me.(A maze)

Number thirteen was what I was most excited about. Even more then what he actually got on Valentines day. If you didn't know, Ryan likes to make mazes for fun. It has been a while since he did one other then my moms Christmas present but he has a three ring binder full of mazes that he has drawn. He told me once that he draws the path first and then fills the rest in so I used a piece of his fancy engineering graph paper and made a maze. Ryan's mazes take me a minute or two to get through but Ryan got through mine in about ten seconds but he still liked it!

Originally, it was my plan to finish a photo wall collage as the big last present for Valentines day but it didn't get done. However by random luck the first thing that I got to go up on the wall that wasn't a picture or something we already had came last Thursday so I put it up while Ryan was at class on Friday. Here it is! I'll keep you updated on the pictures that start to go up around it!

Like every year Valentines Day for me was full of love and fun. As a kind of closing I'd like to share a quote from my good friend Phil who I think hit what I feel the true meaning of Valentines day is.

"Valentine's Day might indeed be a "marketer's holiday", but if even one person that you know or love gets a little joy out of it, isn't it worth it? I'd like to think so." -Philip Clevinger

Biscuits and Gravy!

This is just a short post of triumph! I got some grands biscuits at a decent price and was thinking of all the cool Pintrest recipes for pull apart bread or doughnuts but then I thought "I want to make biscuits an gravy!" Now I've never made gravy, an usually with something that other people consider easy I really mess it up. (I'll tell you about pancakes later.)

So I was kind of aprenensive about trying. But then the stars alighed and sausage was on sale for a really good price so I knew I had to try. So tonight that's what I did. About a half hour later we had biscuits and gravy, and Ryan had eggs, and aside from the gravy being a little thick from sitting it was really good! I kept telling Ryan that I was so happy I didn't mess it up! Now I just needed to find a biscuit recipe that I like and can actually make:)

 

What Went Down In January

I've heard there are a lot of people that dislike the outcome of Groundhogs day this year, or a lot the don't even know the outcome because the Superbowl was the same day. Anyways I'm actually quite happy for six more weeks of winter because it is starting to actually feel like winter here! Mostly though I'm excited for it to be baseball season.

Aside from the weather I feel like there is a lot to update on. Since Dax's first birthday, he has started sleeping through the night most of the time, started drinking only whole milk, and is completely using a sippy cup instead of a bottle. He already walked everywhere pretty well but now he goes up and down stairs, with a little help, and climbs on top of things he isn't supposed to. Also, the cutest thing is he knows how to pull his little wagon behind him. Its pretty adorable. And lastly in this past weekend he learned how to knock on the door when its closed and has nearly perfected signing the word more when he's getting fed.

He he is last night right before heading out to get Frozen Yogurt. Fro Yo is definitely his favorite treat.

Today marks the half way point in my current pregnancy. I'm so excited to have two little boys come June! Ryan and I had hoped for a girl but in the back of my mind I was pretty certain we would have another boy. I've been the only girl in my family before and I'll keep being the only girl for a while longer. I'm really excited to see how Dax reacts to a baby. 

Ryan has started school again this semester which is so nice. Durning vacations from school he has almost no regular schedule for work and it kind of drives me mad. Now, for at least four months, I'll know his schedule. I start back to school in about two weeks and that will make things that much more predictable scheduling wise.

This past month I've done a few projects that I'll be posting. I made a birthday wreath and some skirts that actually turned out exactly how I thought they should. Also, this months projects are turning out well even though its only the fourth.

I hope you have great February!

Books to read in 2014

Last year, with all the hubbub of becoming a new mom my reading severely suffered. I started the year by not even getting close to finishing A Casual Vacancy, which previous to Dax being born would have taken me five days at most, and ended with me having only read one or two books I hadn't read before. I reread The Hunger Games, and Sisterhood Everlasting. I know I read more than three books last year but I can't for the life of me remember what I read. I don't like that. This year I decided to make a list of books to try and read all of them and when I get to the end read more.

 I have 11 books, I've already started the Walt Disney Biography and it feels great. I'd forgotten how nice it is to read a new book! If anyone has any suggestions based on what I have listed please tell me!

Walt Disney: An American Original

Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

How to be a Hepburn in a Hilton World

The Spectacular Now

The Aviators Wife

Where'd You Go Bernadette

Z: a Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

The Darcy's of Pemberly (I have possibly read this but I love Pride and Prejudice based fiction so much I don't mind if I read it again.)

The Chaperone

The Art Forger

Divergent

Also, as I finish books I might write a blog post to review the book. A friend of mine, Jaimie, did this and I thought it was pretty cool so I'm going to try it out.

Tater Tot Casserole

Whenever I find a new recipe on Pintrest I'm pretty excited when I have all of the ingredients. When I found the tater tot casserole last night I decided to look because I had literally just bought some tater tots. After looking at the recipe I found I had all the ingredients and it looked really easy so i decided to try and make it tonight.

Like I said its a really easy recipe. Nothing too fancy but the end result as pretty good!

The original recipe is here. But I'll type it out for you as well.

Ingredients:

1 lb Ground Beef

1 Diced Onion(I learned I can't dice an onion so next time I'll use dried onions.)

1 can cream of mushroom or celery soup

1/4 cup sour cream or milk

1 Cup grated cheddar cheese

1 bag frozen tater tots

Pre-heat oven to 375. Brown ground beef in a skillet. Add onion when the meat is almost done. When browned remove beef from heat and add soup and sour cream/milk. Try it and season to taste. Pour mix into a 8 or 9 inch square glass pan. Top with cheese and put as many tater tots as you can fit in one layer on top. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

Some things that I noticed were:

~I could have cooked it longer. I like really crispy tots and 30 minutes was just barely crispy.

~I had to use mozzarella cheese because I forgot our cheese grater broke. It tasted fine with the different cheese but I think cheddar would have been better. 

~Obviously this recipe is pretty basic so next time I have a few ideas to spice it up a little!

It was an easy, fast recipe and I think it's going to become a regular for our house!

You've had a birthday, Shout Hooray!

Its about a week and a half late but Dax turned one on the third and got to celebrate a lot! On his actual birthday I made him pancakes with fruit for breakfast. Also he got a drum with different shaking instruments from Ryan and I.

Then after Ryan got home from work his family came over. We didn't do much more on his actual birthday because the party was planned for Saturday.
The big party was supposed to have both sides of our family but a lot of my family was sick so the party was done in two parts. On the day after Dax birthday his Gram and Grump Dean and Aunt Lea had pizza with us, played games, and had cake and ice cream. It was pretty fun having them for the week-end even though the original plan was altered. We also got to open presents from Ryan's Aunt Margaret which I had wanted to open since we got the package before Christmas.

This past Saturday, My family came down and we had Dax's birthday part two. We did pretty much the same thing as the other party but we had more people! Dax probably didn't really care what was going on but he seemed to enjoy his visitors both times.

Here are some pictures of mainly the second weekend because Ryan took the pictures on his phone the first weekend.