She Finally Stopped!

Maryn is notorious for going full-throttle until she absolutely has to succumb to exhaustion. Tonight, up until seconds before she crashed on the couch she was was running, yelling, squealing, climbing, poking, interrupting, laughing and basically manically squeezing every possible emotion out of her little dynamo body before it just quit on her. I love watching her sleep, because as much as I just love that child and her wild-woman personality, this is one of the few times that she is quiet and still. We'll be up again with this little Energizer Bunny again soon enough, so for now, I'm going to sit on the couch with my husband and enjoy the sound of silence!

Justin's Color Is...

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Brown

You're brown, a credible, stable color that's reminiscent of fine wood, rich leather, and wistful melancholy. Most likely, you're a logical, practical person ruled more by your head than your heart. With your inquisitive mind and insatiable curiosity, you're probably a great problem solver. And you always gather all of the facts before coming to a timely, informed decision. Easily intrigued, you're constantly finding new ways to challenge your mind, whether it's by reading the newspaper, playing a trivia game, or composing a piece of music. Brown is an impartial, neutral color, which means you tend to see the difference between fact and opinion easily and are open to many points of view. Trustworthy and steady, you really are a brown at heart.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=colorogt&c=50652

I was reading a 'Brown' profile on a friend's blog and I thought "Hmm, that sounds like my husband!" So I had Justin take it and sure enough, my man is Brown! When we first got married some of those qualities, like everything being black and white or being able to seperate feelings and facts so easily, used to make me crazy. Now it's one of the things I absolutely love the most about him. He is my rock, my stability, and takes so much of the confusion out of this overthinkers life! Justin can size someone up almost immediately and I've discovered that after almost 9 years of marriage, the guy is right 99% of the time. He continues to wow and surprise me with his quiet, steady ways.

It Is My Favorite Color!

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Green

You're green, the color of growth and vigor. Good-hearted and giving, you have a knack for finding and bringing out the best in people. Green is the most down-to-earth color in the spectrum — reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on you to be around in times of need, since your concern for people is genuine and sincere. You take pride in being a good friend. For you, success is measured in terms of personal achievement and growth, not by status or position. Rare as emeralds, greens are wonderful, natural people. It truly is your color!

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=colorogt&c=50652

She Has A Name!

-Lauryn McLean Young-

Justin and I finally found a moment of quiet this morning to sit down and decide upon a name for our little baby girl. We had had some ideas and had been going back and forth since the day we found out she was a girl, but never settling on anything for sure. Last night Justin's mom took Maryn and Brynna for a slumber party at her house. (Bless her!) So this morning when we woke up, the house was peaceful and still. Justin rolled over and put his hand on my belly and the baby just started doing acrobatics and jumping around in my belly. With as crazy and distracting as life has been lately, it was so fun to share a moment with just Justin, me, and her. I knew it was time we gave our little 'Pepper' a real name. I had been playing around in my mind with other names, but Justin was adamant that he wanted Lauryn. Which I also think is just beautiful, so Lauryn it was. For her middle name we had been again, toying around with other ideas and suddenly it just seemed right that it should be McLean. Not only because it's my maiden name and very meaningful to me, but I have always thought it was a beautiful name on it's own. So I feel blessed that our little Lauryn will always have a piece of her Momma and her heritage with her always. We are so excited and feel so blessed to be welcoming Lauryn into our family and home. We love you little girl!

Fun Surprises!

We had the chance a couple of weeks ago to go hang out with my new sister-in-law, Megan's family to celebrate Chinese New Year together. We all hit it off and I realized quickly that it already felt like we'd known them forever. The next week Megan's mom, Tracy, asked if she and her daughter Ansley could drop something off at the house real quick. A few hours later Ansley was on the doorstep handing Justin a bounty of gift bags. What was this? Tracy decided that it was never too early to start getting excited about our new little girl on the way and decided to spoil us with the CUTEST little outfit! Isn't it adorable?! The little leggings that I can just picture slipping fat, baby legs into and the cute belted shirt! I can hardly stand it! Now this baby needs to hurry up and get here so I can dress her up! Ansley had also picked out some fun, Valentine surprises for the Maryn and Brynna at the Disney Store. Which they immediately went crazy over and started squealing with delight! Thank you SO much Tracy and Ansley! You guys really are too much! We love you!

Busy Little Bee

One might generally think that illness would slow a child down from wanting to participate in mischief. I however, have exceptional children when it comes to finding the energy to get in to trouble. Yesterday morning it was little Miss Brynna Grace's turn. We all woke up and I got the girls' breakfast ready. A couple minutes into eating Brynna announced she had to go potty. I told her to hop down from the table and go. About a minute later, Maryn decided she needed to go too and so she also hopped down and ran into the bathroom. Seconds later Maryn came running out of the bathroom with her p.j.'s around her ankles yelling "Mom and Dad, Brynna is cutting her hair!" You've never seen a sick woman move so fast! I hopped up and ran into the bathroom. Sure enough, there was Brynna, caught redhanded, scissors in hand. All I had to say was "Brynna! What are you doing?!" and she burst into tears because she knew she was being naughty. So I began collecting the fallen remains of her beautiful golden locks...

But there was still more...

What had she done!?! I was just thinking the day before that I was going to grow her hair out a bit so we could do something cute with it for Aaron & Megan's and Dan & Steph's weddings. She wasn't even gone two minutes! How did this happen!? Upon inspecting the damage, I told Justin that it was all short and crazy on one side and long on the other, how the heck was I going to fix this?Justin made me laugh though when he said she looked like Christian off of Project Runway. Of all the people to look like, why him?! Yes, he is talented, but such a twit! He would probably tell Brynna she looked "Fierce!" but Momma Bear begs to differ.

So this morning I set to work cutting it, trying to salvage some sort of hairstyle. I cut the length up, so the space between the hacked layers wasn't so noticeable. Then I blow dried and sprayed and attempted to tame and smooth these wild and crazy punk rocker spots on the side of her head. But, in truth no matter what I did, she still had this weird mutton chop thing going on, on one side of her head. That's when you lay down the scissors and just say "It is what it is. Just let it grow back out." As you can see below, in a picture I caught of her and Maryn joking around with each other, there is some definite hair missing up front. Sigh, oh well, what are ya gonna do?

Despite all her mischief and punk rock layers, she still is too stinkin' cute for her own good.

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself!

This picture is from Valentine's morning. Maryn got up early and got showered and dressed with me. But Brynna still was in her jammies and had bedhead when they opened their presents from their Daddy. I just laugh though, because Brynna about looks how I feel!

I found this quote on a friend's blog and it could not express more perfectly how Justin and I have felt over the past couple days!

"I love to play hide and seek with my kid, but some days my goal is to find a hiding place where he can't find me until after high school."

-Author Unknown

Why you may ask, are Justin and I ready to hide from our children? Well, we have been sick, sick, sick with the flu for going on four days now. So while we can hardly do the essentials like, oh you know, breathing, moving and talking, our darling little daughters have decided to take full advantage of us. Lovely aren't they? It's been non-stop bickering, whining and getting into general mischief. Justin had left to the store on Saturday to get me some Robitussin since my chest was about to collapse in on itself with all the coughing. While he was gone, Brynna overflowed the toilet and water was pouring everywhere. I had to drag my half dead body off the couch to sop up poop water off the bathroom floor. All the while wheezing and gasping for every breath. I thought, you know what, any other job in the world comes with sick days. Where the heck are the parents sick days?!

Love Is In The Air!

Danimal, you are one lucky guy!

Well it seems that my family will be growing this year, on both sides! My family, the McLean's got some exciting news on Valentine's Day! My brother Daniel, proposed to his longtime girlfriend Stephanie! He said I almost blew his cover, because I texted him the day before it was all supposed to go down, wishing him good luck. He said Stephanie totally could have seen it! Whoops! I would have felt really lousy! I talked to my Mom today though, to get all the details of Dan's special night and she said that Stephanie was totally surprised! It sounded like all of Dan's planning went off beautifully! (Despite Stephanie not wanting the dessert that the ring was in! Dan just kept saying "Just LOOK at the dessert!) Welcome to the family, Stephanie! I could not be any happier for you guys!

Drumroll Please!

What could that bump be?

Well, Justin and I went to the doctor this morning for my ultrasound and the verdict is in! We are having a baby girl! We are so excited, including Maryn and Brynna! It's funny, because going into it, I was thinking in the back of my mind that it would be nice if it was a boy, for poor Justin's sake. But I can't even describe the feeling of seeing your baby there on the screen and all of the sudden, you don't want anything but exactly what it is! Our beautiful, healthy daughter, what more could I ask for?! Not to mention the fact that despite Justin being a big, burly, manly-man, he is such a good daddy of girls. Justin said he was convinced all along that this one was a girl anyways, so it came as no big surprise to him! All the names we had picked out were boy names though, so we're back to the drawing board. Right now she's just kind of adopted the nickname of "Pepper" since on one of my last Baby Center growth update e-mails it said she was as big as a Bell Pepper. So welcome to the family Pepper, you are so loved!

Patiently Waiting

I've had several people ask if we have found out what we are having. Not yet, but the wait won't be much longer! I have my ultrasound appointment at 9:30 am on Valentine's Day! It's kind of a fun day for us, because that's the day 9 years ago Justin and I announced our engagement. It's also the day 5 years ago that we found out that we were having our first little girl, who we now know as Maryn! So we're excited to have yet another fun, family memory associated with a day all about love! Don't forget to check back on Thursday to hear our big news!

Zoo Atlanta!

Much to my dismay, yesterday was my Mom and Dad's last day in town. So we decided we needed to get out and take advantage of the beautiful weather and do something fun as a family. I knew my little animal lover daughters would love a trip to the zoo. So we piled into the ol' minivan and set off for an adventure! Here are some pictures of our fun day!
Justin and Brynna setting off to find some animals to discover. Those two are a couple of peas in a pod!
We were able to sit and watch the elephants eating their hay. It was kind of funny the way they roll and wad it up as best they can with their trunk before they shove it in their mouths! My Mom said the next time we're out in Oregon we can go to Wildlife Safari and have the girls ride an elephant! I can picture Brynna being Tarzana Jane on the back of an elephant without a care, but Maryn... we'll have to wait and see!
Maryn and Papa were our adventure guides. Peanut had that map in her hand and didn't want to miss a thing! We saw a lot of the back of the girls' heads during the course of the day, because they were right up on the fences checking it all out. I love doing new things with Maryn. She has such an inquisitive mind and wants to know all about the things she sees. She led Justin up to the lion exhibit and said "Dad, tell me all about this." Wanting to know about the size of lion's teeth and how their claws retract. It was just funny, she's always soaking new stuff in. I guess that's a good thing, since she has told us again and again that she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. All this new animal knowledge should come in handy!Brynna was just too cute running around in polka dots with her monkey backpack on. I just wanted to squeeze her. This is us sneaking a moment to check out the zebra and giraffe enclosure together.
My favorite part of the day was watching the gorillas. I could have sat there for hours, they were just amazing! It made me wish I could pull a Dian Fossey, being up close with them in their habitat and just watching them. Their mannerisms were so human like, it was fascinating. Luckily we caught them at feeding time and it was a hoot seeing them catch the fruit that was being tossed down to them. Below is a picture of the big, dad gorilla, 'Taz' and one of his babies. The babies were so stinkin' cute. It was funny because the baby gorilla knew to get out of the way if Taz was showing interest in a particular piece of fruit. He was definitely the boss!
Maryn giving the gorilla statue a little love!Brynna saw the momma gorilla statue giving her baby some love and thought Coco might also like a little affection!Maryn said one of her favorite parts of the day was seeing the panda bears! They were fun to watch bumble around their enclosure eating bamboo and chilling!
We ended our day at the zoo with a trip around on the zoo train! We all had a blast and were so grateful to have a special day of fun with Nana and Papa. Living far apart is the pits, but being able to make fun memories like this is what makes it a little more bearable! We love you Nana and Papa, thank you so much for such a great time!

Lots of Love!
Justin, Sarah, Maryn and Brynna

My Totally Awesome Parents

Anyone who knows my parents, knows they're totally awesome. But this week they are really outdoing themselves! My Dad had business in South Carolina, so he and my Mom decided they couldn't have the opportunity to be in the Southeast and not come see us! So, they flew into town last night. My Mom is here playing with us while Dad has to work and then Dad will meet up with us at the end of the week.
My February challenge to all of you is to leave a comment telling us a simple thing you love. I'm going to tell you two of mine that have happened in the last two days! The first thing that just made my heart sing was that my Dad smuggled Justin's and my absolute Northwest favorite to us in his luggage... Henry Weinhard's Root Beer! Holy cow, it is pure deliciousness in a bottle. There are many things Justin and I miss about living in the Northwest, but the top two being 1. My Family and 2. Henry's Root Beer (sorry Columbia River Gorge, you just got beat by a beverage! Just kidding, you know we love you!). So Dad, you totally scored some major brownie points! Thanks for risking the safety and cleanliness of all your luggage for our guilty pleasure!

My second favorite love of the week is that I convinced my Mom to start blogging! HOORAY! I love reading other people's blogs, so the fact that I could get my technologically timid Mom to start blogging is a victory for dorks like me everywhere! If you want to see pictures of our fun dinner of Japanese Hibachi last night (where Brynna ate like an absolute lumberjack), check out my Mom's new blog! Just click on 'Mark and Barb McLean' on my Family link list! Phil and Jody watch out, you know I'm coming after you next!

Now it's on you guys, share some love and leave a comment with your simple favorite! We love you all!

The Family is Growing!

Congratulations Aaron and Megan! We love you two!We received a call around midnight last night. When Justin answered the phone, it was the excited and happy voice of his brother Aaron on the other end of the line! He was calling to let us know that he had proposed to his sweetheart Megan and she had accepted!! I literally could not be happier for the two of them. Megan is such a cool, amazing girl and we are so happy that she is going to be in the family!

It has been just Kristen, Jody, and I holding down the girl's team in a family full of boys for awhile now. We girls all just love each other and genuinely enjoy being around one another. So I told all of Justin's brothers that when they found a girl to marry, if I could have one little sister-in-law request, it be that she was cool and real and fun! I have to say that Aaron found exactly that in Megan! So welcome to the family Megan, we could not feel more blessed to have you!