Simple and Sensible

I don't know about the rest of you... but I have a pretty crazy life some days. My wonderful friend Stephanie has started a very nice blog called Simple and Sensible. Just about every week day she adds a new tip on simplifying your life. Always in a variety to, such as recipes, simple crafts, money saving idea etc. I love it! I am excited and always have a little bit of anticipation about her next tip! I would recommend all of you to add it to your reading list!

http://simpleandsensible.blogspot.com/

Happy Earth Day! I have actually been thinking about Earth Day and about living 'Greener' for a little while now. I have felt little bits of guilt each time I add yet another recyclable to the garbage can. We do not have a recycle program here at the apartments and I assume we won't at the other apartments either. Does anyone know a place in West Valley to take recycling? I am resolving to maybe trying to gather up recycling and find a place to drop it at... even if it is just into one of our parents recycle bins.

Another green thing I have been wanting to do is to make my own shopping bags. I have TONS of fabric to make it from, unfortunately it was the first thing I packed and any free time ought to be spent on packing and probably unpacking. But I do plan on making some bags in a few weeks. Hopefully by posting it on here I will feel a bit more obligated to do it!

Here is one link on instructions on how to make them. I had found a lot better sites when I first had the idea... but this is the only website I saved apparently. http://www.allfreecrafts.com/sewing/shopping-bag.shtml

Fun times!

Chasing bubbles!!!

Grandma Reece gave us this box from their new chair. Joey and I had a great time adding some fun doors and windows!

We bought this bike at a yard sale last year for a few bucks. We decided to try it out. I really think Joey would have gotten it if his legs were a inch or so longer. He was getting so frustrated that his legs didn't reach once the pedal went all the way down. He loved it!

Silly Daddy!

Egg Hunt!

We had our egg hunt at the Reece's home with cousins Dallin and Braxton. We had a blast like always! Joey was so funny, there was also some boxes of candy hidden around with the eggs... but Joey refused to pick them up since he was only on a hunt for eggs! He passed up about 5 boxes!

We were kinda mean here! Joey had just gotten the egg from this ledge in such a expert fashion we tried to get him to recreate it for the camera. He had shoved his fingers in between the slates and then kinda swung himself up. He was pretty upset at me for taking it and putting it right back where he just got it from! Lol.. mean parents!

Easter Critters!

Grandpa Stoker had the fun idea to take his grandkids to IFA to take a look at the baby bunnies and chicks. I think Joey enjoyed it the most! He was just amazed to look at them! Kept giving us this cute little smile that seemed to say, "These little critters are amazing!" Thanks Grandpa!

Grandpa showing Joey the bunny!

I want that one!!!!

Pinewood Derby!

As some of you might not know Jared and I are the Wolf Den leaders for our wards Cub Scout Troop. We have LOVED this calling and we will miss our boys when we move! Jared and I had a little bit to much fun making our pinewood derby cars! Jared worked on his over a few weeks. I think his turned out awesome! The Theme was something like Jurassic Era or something. So, this is a dinosaur... not a gecko!


The lovely paint job is credited to Jared's sister Bekah! and to Mom Reece also who added the scaley lines! Thanks again ladies!
Once Jared was done carving it, it ended up rather light weight... so we had the fun idea to add a little jet pack to the back!

This is my car. I wanted to do something fun to! But of course I waited until the night before... but this is what I busted out... its a fossil in a huge hunk of something!

Unfortunately during one of the Dinosaurs first races it had an unfortunate accident and lost its cute little jet pack... So all that hard work and it lost its weights so my car won in the end!

Jeanie's New Trick!

So Jeanie's new thing is to come up behind me, pull herself up to stand and then ram her little head between my knees. Today she started to use me as a human walker! She is getting so good at pulling herself up to stand everywhere and starting to think about walking along furniture. The only problem is once she is up she gets nervous about how to get back down and takes a tumble pretty often.

A couple cute shots of Joey!

Joey fell asleep playing with his cars...I thought it was pretty cute!

Notice he also has some blush on his cheek!

Joey has a new favorite movie, Everyone's Hero, a cute little baseball themed show. It is very cute! He now likes to wear his baseball cap like the little boy in the movie. Here he is smiling a favorite scene.

Oh the Joy of a two year old!

So, this morning I was happily reading my blog lists when I noticed a familiar smell. I stand up walk around the couch to see Joey DRAWING ON THE COUCH WITH

PERMANENT MARKERS!!

First, how he got a hold of the markers... While packing I have a box set aside to gather up all of our Cub Scout related items... I had tossed the markers in there and didn't even think about moving the box!

So there he is, with a handful of markers, his face, arms and hands covered, artistically drawing a circle around and around on the couch. (We were teaching him to draw circles the other day on the chalkboard at church.)

We had a similar incident last week, where he used crayon all over BOTH couches. That was a relatively easy clean, just scrubbed the cushions with detergent water and some spray n' wash.

I quickly googled what household items to use since I have a rather meager variety and supply of cleaners. There was the usual suggestions, aerosol hairspray, (which I used practically a whole can of) oxiclean, spray n' wash etc.. The two oddest solutions that came back was toothpaste (Actually kinda worked! after I had blotted and cleaned out what I could with hairspray and other cleaners I rubbed in a blob and then scratched at it with my thumb nail and some more color actually came up!) and the unexpected finisher Windex! (Thumbs up to the Dad in Big Fat Greek Wedding!)

So, how mad was I at Joey? You probably could imagine! But- really I am the one at fault... You are kinda asking for it when you leave a lovely colorful package of markers in the reach two year that is discovering the joy of coloring!

Most of it did come out thankfully... if you know where to look you can see some lines. I didn't think to take a Before picture and don't really feel like taking an after... but you can only imagine what it looked like!