Reecently at the Reece's

October/November :)

2010-12-30T19:48:00.000-08:00

So, way late on these updates.... but oh well. :) For Halloween Jared and I enjoy going all out on the costumes.... that is until October 30th.... and we are left putting on final touches late into the night :)

Us girls had the simple costumes this year. You can't see them in this picture, but we covered her shoes with the green fabric. She loved it!!!

Jared and James were both superheros... so I went with that category and did Wonder Woman

Here is a huge bunch of man hours.... It is what he asked to be... but in the end refused to wear it. Oh well- it turned out pretty stinkin' awesome anyway.

Pretty much Jared is AWESOME Looking I think! Everything is homemade here besides the mask. This also took a boat load of man hours... but turned out pretty awesome!

A couple weeks ago we went sledding.... Joey LOVED it! I forgot Jeanie's snow pants so she didn't last long.

I love this little guy! So happy and smiley!

2010-11-22T08:05:00.000-08:00

A few happenings of the past few week or so.

Everyone but me got a short flu this week. Luckily it was more of a 12-24 hour deal for each of them, and they were not miserable the whole time. It is times like this that I am reminded how blessed I am that I have a strong stomach. I rarely do get sick and so I was able to clean up all the lovely puke messes and puke buckets with out to much trouble. Jared can't even handle being anywhere near a sick mess with out getting sick himself. I am so glad that I am usually spared whatever hits the rest of my family- I don't take being sick very well. I get so mad and frustrated about being laid up that I get pretty mean.

This past week James turned 7 months has learned to pull himself up to standing on furniture! Which means I now have to lower his crib and make sure everything is stable and clear. I am so proud of the little boy. He is so eagar and ready to catch up to his big brother and sister! Joey was walking at 9 months, I am thinking James will be pretty similar. This little boy is so hungry! Baby food is a new concept to me. Joey and Jeanie were just so tiny and were not really interested in eating when they were infants. When I would try to feed them a jar of baby food they would have just a few spoonfuls and be done, James eats 3+ jars a day. James laughs with delight when he sees his jar and eats so greedily! I just giggle thinking how different he is physically then his brother. Joey was a little bean with his dark hair and wore 3 month old clothes forever, James fits most of the 12 month old cloths we have James is already filling in clothes that never fit Joey, or that Joey wore at 18 months! James stocky little body, blond hair and blue eyes is just so different. I love it. Except he is a handful to carry around, to huge for my weak little arms!

So, we are pretty proud of ourselves- we are pretty much done with the kids Christmas gifts last week and had them mostly wrapped. We had them in a bin with a towel over them in the corner of the family room and it has been there for a week with out being detected! We had a few more gifts that we needed to wrap and add before taking it over to storage. Unfortunatly I heard Joey a few minutes exclaim, "I have been VERY NICE!" opps! At least they were wrapped! Surprisingly he didn't put a fight when I ran them to my room. He just told me we need to put the tree up!

Anywho- here are a few more random pictures!

Always partners in crime! :)

This picture is actually a few months old. We went to the store around nap time.... defiantly made shopping a lot easier- although we looked pretty goofy!

Laundry Day!

2010-11-22T07:42:00.000-08:00

On top of the fact that I have 3 messy kids, I have homework, a constantly outfit changing 2 year old and a million other issues I fell so FAR behind on laundry that I finally decided I need to just go to a laundry mat and get it done and over with. Since, we daily produce a load or two a day and I usually only get a load or two done a day, I pretty much wasn't making any progress on it. We went to a nice laundry mat in West Jordan that is open 24 hours. The kids were being goofy for these pictures. They pretty much thought it was the coolest place ever. They thought it was pretty cool to be the one to put in all the coins and then watch their clothes go round and round. Please excuse the ragamuffin appearance, We plucked them straight from bed to get their early, we sent them outside to eat their morning muffins.

Very very rare touching loving moment with the kids! Love it!

The kids kept commenting on the "Big Laundry" which caused snickering from Jared and I. You have to watch Phineas and Ferb to understand the "Big Laundry" bit.

Babysitting Anyone?

2010-11-22T06:30:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been a little frustrated in finding a babysitter. Jared asks me if we can go on a date and I have a hard time thinking of someone to watch our kids. First, I know I need to think and plan on a date and find the babysitter in advance- I always start thinking Friday afternoon about it, and obviously have already lost my chance in securing a babysitter. My biggest hangups in finding a babysitter is I can rarely even get myself to dare even ask someone to watch my brood. My kids are a handful- busy busy busy, and now that James is old enough to be left behind, he doesn't much care for being separated from his Mom. I also have a very small pool of babysitters to choose from. Most all of our siblings have several kids and babies of their own and to add 3 to what they have seems just cruel and most of our siblings live just far enough that I am not sure it is worth all the trouble of getting to their places. I only feel right about asking the Grandmas occasionally because with how many Grand kids they have, they get called on a lot. :) We still don't know our ward very well and most of the members are older. I don't really know any teenage girls around here- but even if I did, we really can't afford the additional $15+ it would cost to pay them.

For awhile I really didn't mind so much, but lately I have gotten rather frustrated. We realized the other day when we went to my brother Sean's play that it was our first date in months, and first date with out the baby. When we do secure a babysitter I spend the whole time we are out on the date or errand noting the time, nervously checking for text messages and often cutting the date short and/or making Jared rush us back as soon as our activity is over. I only partly do this for the kids (besides James- James doesn't really know how to take a bottles much so I do fret over that IF we do leave him) but I more so do it for the babysitter-fearing that they are probably to the point of pulling their hair out with our kids shenanigans or fits.

So, I write all of this wondering if I can find someone else in the same boat? Wondering if I can find someone willing to do a babysitting exchange? Maybe someone else with a pack of kids? We really would enjoy watching a bunch of kids for another couple if they would be willing to do the same for us?

I am thinking if we found someone that we can have set dates that these dates/babysitting would happen- because like I said, I never ever plan ahead of time for a babysitter so if I had a set date that would be good.

So, is thier anyone brave enough to be willing to do this with me? Even it was on a bi-monthly basis? Anything beats our 1 date in six months. :)

My kids really aren't that crazy..... :)

Opps!

2010-10-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

What happens when you pay to much attention to ranting on your blog and not paying attention to your children.....

a few phone pics

2010-10-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

I have a few phone pics to add. Just those silly things throughout the day that I send to Jared.

mmmmm yummy!

It is actually raining right here...the kids got it in their minds that they needed to go outside, I thought that they would want to go inside once they got wet... but they ignored it, until we had to run inside when things started to hail!

Weird little boy, I wonder where he gets these ideas

Goofball

and then my chunky monkey! I love that little boy! He has the cutest happiest little personality!

Speech and Joey

2010-10-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I have another rant coming on.

I had mentioned before that I had called the district preschool office and had talked to a speech pathologist on the phone, and from talking with her- she said he seemed that he was fine for his speech, but afterward I did think to myself that she did not actually talk with Joey and that he probably could use a formal assessment, so I called the lady again and she went over the stuff with me again and said, he was fine and was really really annoyed with me for still insisting on an evaluation. She kept asking me "How do YOU think his speech is" and I would answer that personally I do think he is fine where he was, HOWEVER I could just be very biased and I mentioned that my mom and mother in law etc had expressed concern over it, after I mentioned that she would not come off it, saying how it was not my mother that we should be going off of etc.....(I was just trying to show that other invested family members that have heard him and have more expereince with kids thought as much sheesh) she acted very annoyed and upset that I still thought I should do an evaluation.

Yesterday I went to take Joey in for his speech evaluation. The whole ordeal left me more confused and upset then ever. As I prepared for the meeting I kept telling myself I needed to step back, take advise, be objective, and really hear the advise given to me about my son. However, the speech pathologist (same lady as on the phone) had a very very very (notice how many verys) intimidating voice in her approach. From the START she asked Joey to point at things ect with a very very very intimidating voice (again.... I really tried to just pull myself out of it and stop trying to protect him from everything.... but it really was intimidating, from the start) Joey got really nervous so they brought him in another room with out me. Again he was really scared and nervous and laid on the floor crying a bit, not wanting to do the tasks she was demanding.

Again, all the methods and tasks she was using I do think were appropriate... but the voice and the tone she used really was very scary and demanding (not firm, demanding) I listened for a few minutes outside blinking back tears- telling myself to stop trying to protect him, he is with professionals. After a minute of that (she really literally just took a minute with each approach) she marched me and Joey down to a room and said that because of his BEHAVIOR I needed to fill out a form. As I did and was left alone in the room I kept blinking back tears... thinking how this really felt beyond me wanting to be protective of him, I really don't understand how any child (especially one that has no school related experience) would want to comply with this lady, she scared me from the beginning.

After awhile after I had filled out the form, they had me and Joey just go play with the toys while they listened in to get a speech sample from him. It took me awhile to compose myself enough to play in a way to even get Joey to talk about the toys etc. Eventually I was able to get Joey talking a lot and they were able to get the sample they could use anyway.

Afterward they went over thier findings with me. Showed me that he was actually making all the sounds and 3 or 4 word sentences consistantly. Showed me on a graph that he was in the average range for his speech (although, leaning just slightly to the "at risk" portion) but all in all he was just fine speech wise and the speech pathologist again acted like I was an idiot for thinking he had a problem.

They went on to say how his behaviour was manipulative and gave me some papers and advise on that. They also really suggested that he gets into a preschool setting (which I definitly DO agree with)

I was so fruastrated by the whole ordeal though. Again, I am not trying to coddle Joey and defend everything... but really the lady was way to darn intimidating from the beginning, scarying Joey and making him nervous from the beginning and then getting upset with him and making me feel like a bad mother because he was to nervous to talk with her. And then in the end they showed me that he was OKAY for his speech, but acknowledging that he was slightly behind but giving me no advise, no instructions or anything on how to improve his speech, no plan, no disscussion on why he might be behind, no suggestions of speech thearpy but instead telling me that he was manipulative and should have been more willing to comply (again, granted he can be manipulative but I really don't think he was in this situation).

I do think that they were able to get a good sample from Joey as we played and they said that they understood 90% of what he was saying (the General education lady didn't watch us play so she wouldn't be influenced by what she saw but what she heard) so I do feel at ease that I have been right in thinking his speech was fine.

If it wasn't for the other lady, the general education lady acting and talking in a non intimidating and regular voice and way, I would not have lasted the whole time.

When I went out to the car where Jared was waiting to pick us up I had to finally cry for a few mintues before I could tell him the findings of the evaluation.

That really was the most horrible experience so far in my parental life. I am not naive and I know that I will have plenty more uncomfortable experiences related to my children, especially my Joey. I know they have certain methods ect to assess the children, but again the speech pathologist approach and voice was super scarey and intimidating that I think a grown man would have felt it to.

A good note to myself from the meeting, when I was going over some of the findings regarding behavior (based on the questionaire form they had me fill out) with the general education lady (the nice one) I saw the hyperactive section (the symbol showed it right in the normal range not even close to the at risk section even) and I mentioned to her my concern that he could be ADD or ADHD and she said, that although she is not a Dr. equiped to make that kind of diagnosis she does do a lot of evaluations (they evaulate a lot of things there, not just speech) and she saw no indication that he would be. She noted how behind us Joey cleaned up one toy, before starting another and that his play had structure and he was not jumping from toy to toy ect. Said, some boys are just busy and that was most likely it, and that is how i really feel- I always do get nervous because I have had a couple people express to me that he is the most busy boy they have ever seen. However he has never been aimless in his business, he always has a mission or an idea he is trying to play out and I think he just has a lot of imagination and engergy.

Back to the whole preschool thing, I am getting a bit fruastrated with. I so badly badly want to put him in preschool but all of the district ones are full (they did mention one might have some openings, but it is really far away for me so I don't know how I would really swing it with one car) All other preschools are to expensive for us right now. I have thought about doing a neighborhood preschool but there are not many kids to involve in it, everyone around here have kids either quite a bit older or younger than him, and I don't think a preschool with Joey, Jeanie and thier friend Austin that I would be able to establish the structure that Joey is really needing. (He more so needs the structure from it, not terribly concerned about his knowledge- he is a smart boy and I know he will catch on to those things when he gets the opportunity). I will be putting him in preschool for this next year (his year before kindergarten) for sure though, but I probably should have considered the extra year of preschool several months ago before the district ones filled up.

I am fruatrated that the only class time he has is nursery-but I am his teacher in there. He will be going to sunbeams in a few months though- so I do hope that that helps him. I am thinking it probably wasn't so good for him that I was his nursery teacher- kids just act differently with mom around (as we all know :) ) I am trying to decide if it is still okay for me to be Jeanie's nursery leader. She actually is doing really well in there and most of the time doesn't cling to me or anything- she would rather go talk and play with the other teacher and she is very willing to act appropriatly and not trying to act up because mom is there.

Sorry for yet another rant... I am just still really upset from yesterday. Laid in bed all night wondering if I was a bad mom, wondering if I have ruined Joey for his entire school career because I have not provided enough structure for him...... feeling guilty that I had not tried to get him evaluated much sooner, wondering if I have done him a huge disservice by thinking he was fine. Kicking myself for not exploring his preschool options and also thinking that he really is a smart little kid, again I might be biased but I see his potential and abilities and think he will be brillant.

A little update

2010-10-04T06:42:00.000-07:00

In June the kids all caught croup... that was seriously the most miserable time ever! I meant to take a picture here, but it came out as video... you can definitely see how extremely awful it was! The poor kids, I still shudder to think about how horrible those 2 weeks were.

Joey apparently watched Jared with his chopstix pretty well, he was doing even better before we took the video. Please ignore the state of the apartment... I apparently didn't put away groceries yet.

So our biggest news of the past few months is that Joey is finally potty trained. It really isn't so much that it was so hard for him to get potty trained, he just didn't have much interest and I kept finding excuses to not concentrate on it. He probably would have been trained a long time ago if I had. All in all it only took a few weeks encouraging him with awesome pull-ups, sticker charts, and then buying some hecka cool underwear. I was trying to get him and Jeanie at once but that just got to much watching both of them like a hawk so I just focused all my energy on Joey and Jeanie was a bonus. For awhile though we thought Jeanie would be there before him! I need to be a bit more vigilant with her, but she definitely has the desire and prefers the potty, and she usually is about 50% trained. So maybe just maybe I will be back down to just one in diapers in the next few months! Yeah!

James is Growing up so stinking fast! I can't believe it! The last time I posted pictures was from his first few days of life in the hospital. He is now 6 months old! He is so much bigger than the other two ever was. Outgrowing clothes that I put on Joey clear up to a year old. He is starting to work on a crawl! It is so fun to see it, watching him working on that army crawl and inching toward a shiny object on the floor is just so fun. He is such a delight! He is always flirting and always smiling (as long as he has his mommy!) He has been very mom clingy latley. He used to take a bottle just fine when I would go to my class on thursday evenings, but then for 5 weeks I took a class online and didn't give him one during that time... ya that was a big mistake. Now he refuses it so it makes every thursday night when I go off to school very painfully difficult for Jared since James is so hungry but won't take the bottle.

Joey is talking so much more now. He might still be onry and shy at family things but he is just talking up a storm now. I have been off and on worried about it. I kept thinking, well he is only 2, well he is only 3... but now he is 3 1/2 and even though he is going crazy talking I decided to finally schedule an appointment for him to be evaluated. Even though on the phone with all the questions the lady asked me he seemed just fine. I have also talked to my friends sister who is a Speech pathologist and she said she thought he was okay to. But obviously none of them actually spoke to him so we will see with the formal evaluation. Personally, even though I have found it fruastrating trying to talk with him I do not think he has any serious speech problems... just his personality was just a walker not a talker. I think he just didn't care to talk. I could never get him to repeat things, ever. He never wanted to parrot us, but he understood everything we said.

I am getting so fruastrated with being in school. I like class and am excited about becoming a teacher but sheesh it is so difficult to take care of everything. I hate the days when I end up working on homework during the day time and ignore the kids. It is not cool, and some of the homework is so fraustratingly pointless so it is that much more annoying. I took my Praxis I exam and passed both reading and math portions, and am crossing my fingers when my writing score comes back it passes to. The days before the Praxis when I finally decided to study the house went to crap, which it goes to a lot latley, I am finding it hard to keep up on house work, tend to and ENJOY my 3 kids and be a full time student married to a full-time student/full-time job husband. I am glad that I am in school and know it was a good decision because it will only get harder to go back, but it is difficult and sometimes I wonder if I should have gone into a different field. It is fruastrating that I had more credits transfer to University of Phoenix then Jared, but he graduates a WHOLE year earlier than I do. I also have to find time to do 100 hours of observations! Seriously, how the heck are we soppossed to do that! I do not have anyone to babysit the kids! 3 tiny kids is a lot to ask someone to babysit, and I do not have any spare money to pay someone to watch them right now. So, I just keep watching the months go by and wonder how I am going to get it done in only 1 1/2 or less years. I also find my self worrying a lot about student teaching. 2 months full time, child care gets really complicated thier... especially since by Jaunuary 2012 I may have another baby (basing off of my normal age gap... not announcing anything here) and I do not want to leave a small baby for 2 months. Oh well that is not for a few years.... but I do start thinking that I should have gone for the same degree as Jared, when I help him study I realize that I actually like the HR aspect of Business and it is something that a lot of people do part time... but I am already 6+ classes into my program and that would be a lot of money down the crapper, and I do want to teach but again, I got to admit going thorugh each class starts to make me really anxious wondering if I am up to being an Elementary teacher, there is just so much expected of them I just don't know. I also don't know how it will work since, I am getting a degree so I have something to fall back on if I do need to go to work...I don't want to work just cause I have a degree if I don't have to you know... but how am I soppossed to stay in it? Just substitute or something I guess.... Sorry I am sure that little rant was a bit boring, but those are my thoughts right now.

2010-10-03T16:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I have not really posted anything all summer! Between classes and 3 kids it is just not happening latley. I have a few pictures to post from the summer, except we have multiple SD cards going on for some reason, so this is just one of them.

This is one of our outings to the park. Jeanie got this dress for her birthday from Gma Stoker and thinks she needs to wear it every time she heads out the door. She is such a little Princess and loves wearing it.

We were watching William one night and tried to get all the kids to sit in succession of age on the couch, didn't work well. Told the kids to get their shoes on and Joey put on slippers and Jeanie a pair of boots. We had some cans out to give the scouts and this is how I found them after my shower.

Trip to the Zoo. The kids had a great time! Joey kept talking about it for days, they were totally amazed by the huge giraffes and elephants and Jeanie could not stop watching the monkeys jumping around.

Ward campout. We hadn't opened the tent in a year and apparently we had broken one of the pieces, we ended up having to borrow some tape and Jared was able to rig it so it would stay up for us.

James

2010-04-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, here are our pictures that the photographer at the hospital came and did. We originally were not that interested in getting them, but they turned out so awesome that we had to! Sorry, it is a lot of pictures... but since we spent a lot of money on them might as well make sure each one is appriciated!

Sweet Baby James!

2010-04-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

Well we welcomed baby James into our family last saturday! We had started to get a bit impatient for him to come and had decided to schedule to be induced on saturday morning. So we took all day friday preparing the house and packing and getting the kids ready to go to grandma and grandpa Stoker's. I guess all the activity got things going. By the time we made it to the Grandparent's I was having steady contractions. So we got the kids settled and headed off to the hospital. We think one of the nurses thought we were just trying to sneak in early for our induction (which was to be the next morning) but, they soon found out I was well into labor. I was at a 4 at that time.

Comparing to the other kids,the whole hospital experience of this birth was wonderful. (not that the other ones were so terrible either) But I wanted to go unmedicated again and had wonderful nurses and doctors that helped me through it all, and of course Jared was the perfect birth partner! The nurse that was with me most of the night kept telling me how wonderful it was going. Saying that this was the best 'natural' birth experience that she had seen in months. The first couple hours Jared and I just walked around the hospital and Jared would let me hang on and hug him through contractions. Then the nurse suggested I tried the 'birthing ball' which is just a large exercise ball. I was so content there that I stayed on it the next couple of hours. It helped relief me so much that although the contractions were about every 3 minutes, I found myself dozing to sleep between, one time almost rolling off the ball! Eventually though as I got close it wasn't quite so blissful and the last couple hours were pretty hard, but again, the nurses, doctors and Jared helped me through it. Fanning me with a clipboard and shoveling ice chips into my mouth. I ended up giving birth on all fours on the hospital bed. I am sure that is all way more information then anyone wanted, but you can't help but share the birth story.

Now onto the more important stuff! James Lee Reece was born at 7:47 am on April 17th. I kept thinking he was a bit larger baby, (Joey and Jeanie were both in the low 6lbs) and weighed in at 7 lbs 7 oz. They then moved us into recovery room 207! The nurse that brought us to the room also pointed out that he will turn 7 in the year 2017. So, he is already set with his lucky number!!James is Jared's middle name, so he is named after his daddy! Lee was the middle name to my Grandpa Madsen that passed away a few weeks ago. Not sure why we didn't take any pictures of my parents holding James when they came to visit! Guess we were to busy taking pictures and noticing how Joey and Jeanie took in thier new little brother. Here is Jared giving James his first bath. I was taking pictures from the hospital bed so I couldn't really get any good angles of it! But Jared had a fun time bathing him.Joey and Jeanie love love thier little brother! When they came to the hospital to see him Joey just came marching into the room with confidence and took over like he knew what was happening. Jeanie looked a bit confused but was very entralled with the tiny baby. Joey has been adjusting pretty well, and Jeanie has for the most part. She does not act so much jealous of the baby, but is very concerned about our care of him. She was so upset with us for putting him in the crib in the dark. She kept screaming that it was scary.

Making Room for Baby!

2010-03-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

So Jared and I have been doing a lot of moving around of things to make room for number three to fit into our little 900 sq feet and I think everything is ready to go! We first decided to just have the two kids share a twin size bed rather then having two toddler beds. It works out really well, as they are both tiny and each just get an end! I had a hard time finding a toy hammock at the store when we finally realized how easy it would be to make one, so I finally got around to making one and getting the stuffed animals out of the way!
We took off the closet doors and moved thier toys and such into there.

Also got a couple under bed storage bins, which work out really well!

This next picture is just the new LOVE of my life. Doing dishes is my most hated chore, especially right now since I have to do the dishes sideways because of my belly. Jared finally talked me into letting him buy me a portal dishwasher...thank you Jared! Love it Love it Love it!

Although we have 2 kids, we actually did not own a crib! We decided to get a nice sturdy one since we do plan on having more kids and might as well have one that can last through all of them! I also have to tell about our deal shopping. We looked everywhere we could think of for cribs. I thought it was strange that places like RC Willey actually didn't have much of a selection of cribs. We ended up at Babies R Us... and lucked out because at the time they were having a trade in event. So we traded in our old carseat (that had been hammered thru 2 kids) and got 25% off the crib! We later brought in our high chair and got the 25% off a new car seat! All together we were able to get 150$ off of those things by trading in items that together would have brought in maybe 15$ at a yard sale. So, we were pretty happy. Although we find out about it at the end of the event so we had to keep dragging the kids out shopping while we made our decisions. They did not care for that much at all!

If you know me and my family at all, you know that Monkeys are a must!

We have a pretty large bedroom so we are able to fit the crib next to our bed. We then set our old dresser into my closet to put baby stuff in.

This is our new dresser that matches the crib perfect! I love this new dresser, our old ones drawers were a bit to small for everything I wanted to put into it. This one is really nice! Of course we got a deal on it to! Got to love the scratch and dent area of RC Willey! This had a few blemishes and was missing a drawer pull, but the deal we got was SO worth it!

This picture was just to funny. I was mean and attacked the kids to clip thier nails since I have not done it for awhile. I was apparently a bit to vicious when doing Joey's as he was fighting me so much with it. I felt so bad afterward he went crying to dad and told him how I hurt him, revealing a couple fingers and toes that were indeed cut too far and cut the skin. Joey shoved his legs and arms into one of our pillows to protect himself from me. I had this picture as my screen saver on my phone for awhile... everytime Joey saw it he would tell me how I hurt him and that was rude. Breaks my heart everytime!

We are getting closer and closer to the baby! Weird to think that within a month maybe even just a couple weeks he will be here!! We are ready for him though! All of his clothes are in his drawers and everything set up for him. It has taken a lot of restraint to not pack my bags yet. Don't want to be to crazy about it. I have no idea with this one when he will come. I went into labor on my due date with Joey and they had be come in to be induced a week early with Jeanie because they thought she might be growth restricted. So I don't really know if I am one that might go early or not. I am getting ready to stop being pregnant now though. I have still been lucky as far as sickness goes I am just fine, but this baby I am carrying different than the other two. Which is good and bad. The other two where up in my ribs and made it hard to breath. This one is far lower and I feel like I have to carry my belly with my arms. Also everything you do with a 3 year old and 20 month old is on the floor, bending over ect. I am excited to get my movement back!

I think the kids do kind of understand the baby thing, somewhat. Joey keeps coming to my belly and scooping at it and then walking away with the imaginary baby, taking it to the crib or couch (and yelling at you for sitting on it!) They both are always talking about the babies in thier tummies though to. I am so excited for them to meet thier little brother. They love babies, and I think that is going to be my biggest worry with the kids trying to take care of the baby. A couple times we have had cousin William who is 10 months old over- the kids are both crazy about seeing to his every need, giving him his paci, bottle, blanket and constantly bringing in a new toy for him. Any time he crys the kids make sure I know about it. So I can only imagine how they will be react to a tiny newborn.

Old Fashioned Portraits

2010-03-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago we were at the mall and got sucked in by a photography place that was offering a little deal. Since we have never gotten professional photos before we thought we probably ought to and knew we wouldn't come back later. I do wish now that we had taken the coupon and come back since I did not do Jeanie's hair that day, so it is pretty messing looking in most of the pictures. I think the pictures turned out cute, but not as well as I think they could have. The photographer did not seem to know how to work with little kids, especially trying to get Jeanie to smile- she is just staring at him nervously in most of her pictures. Oh well, we did not pay a whole lot for them so I guess it is okay! Joey's vest he wore was also a really small size, but it was all we could find on thier rack that worked for him. I do love the hat on him though! He so fits into the 'newsie' look!

Long Rambler!

2010-02-05T07:16:00.001-08:00

Well it took me awhile after posting those videos to try to finish what I wanted to. I apologize about all the videos, I doubt many people will really want to watch all of them, but we didn't get to many good pictures of the events but the videos were so good!

For Joey's big 3rd birthday, we got out of the house rather early and went down the street to the nearby bowling alley. (maybe we should have drove around the block so Joey didn't know where we are, he gets excited now everytime we pass it!)

We got there at a really good time, just a few people at the other end of the alley so in the video it is not to noisey. Joey just LOVED it! They gave him a 6 lb ball that you can see he could carry himself. (although it was still scary to see a little boy carrying a bowling ball!) When he first saw how the ball return worked he was amazed, I actually wonder if that was his favorite part of it all, in a couple of the videos before even seeing if he knocked down any pins you see him run back over to the return.

Jeanie enjoyed it as well but got bored halfway thru and we had to keep chasing her. After bowling we stepped over to the little arcade and played some skee ball and other things. Joey had fun choosing out things with his tickets. Then the lucky little boy got to go to McDonalds for lunch! By the time we got home around 2 the kids were completly tuckered out! So they took a very nice nap while Jared and I finished cleaning the house to get ready for the Grandparents.

Grandma and Grandpa Reece and uncle Nathan came to celebrate with cake, ice cream and presents! They gave Joey an awesome basketball hoop! Joey has been loving it... except he always insists that I put it at a higher setting but gets fruastrated that he can't slam dunk it.

Also this past week Jared and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary! On Monday we decided to have some family fun and went down to trax station and rode the train up to Salt Lake. The kids, Especially Joey loved it! Joey loves trains and was just super excited that he got to ride on one. He loved pointing out all the things he could see from his window. (like piles of busted cars)

Afterwards we went home and chilled and had Cafe Rio for dinner! We do hope to go on a date to celebrate, but probably after Valentines when we can find a babysitter! The next day Jared took us to the nicklecade and we had a blast again!

It was so much fun taking so much time just enjoying our time as a family this week and realizing there are a few things that are rather inexpensive we can do for fun while it is still cold!

I was going to say I can not believe that my little boy is 3 years old... but I think I can believe it. Seems like he has always been a part of my life. Joey is my special buddy! As most of you have met and witnessed my son, he is definitly a ball of energy and full of life. Sometimes I worry that many people mistake his enthusiasm as being naughty (which of course he is sometimes). I sometimes joke that it would be nice to have a boy that was a bit more mellow as sometimes I feel like I have given birth to the engergizer bunny! But really, I wouldn't trade my Joey anything. I love his enthusiasm for life and how he is always discovering figuring out his world around him. He loves learning. He is finally showing an interest in learning his 123's, ABC's and colors and loves asking about things. He is talking so much now! Although he as a lot to go to catch up to his peers in talking. When I was pregnant with him someone told me the main difference between boys and girls is that boys are born with sound effects! I had no idea what they meant by that... but holy cow Joey has some awesome sound effects! I was a little nervous when I was first pregnant with him about having a boy, cause even though I had a little brother and lots of older ones, I still didn't understand boys. I am sure glad that I had my little boy first as I now apprieciate everything that is boy!

Joey has become such a good big brother to Jeanie lately too! At home it is generally a lot of fighting and battling but when we are out on errands he is very concerned about her. The other day she kept wandering away from us and not coming back so Jared and I started to walk away telling her that we were leaving.... Joey wiggled out of Jared's arms and ran, "Jeanie Jeanie!!" and went and grabbed her around the neck and waist and started to drag her back to us. He was pretty scared that we would indeed leave her. Also the other day while I was locking our front door Jeanie was getting to close to the street..., Joey ran over and grabbed her again around the neck and waist and said, "stop Jeanie!! " then pointing to the road he explained, "you get hurt, cars!"

Jared and I used to joke that this new baby boy will be our mellow boy. I am starting to doubt that that will be the case. I do not remember either of the other kids moving around like this. This little boy is constantly moving! Seriously... when I was pregnant with Joey I would have to do kick counts constantly to make sure he was moving... with this one I never have a second that I think, "gee I have not felt something for a while..." With the other two Jared would have to hold his and to my tummy for a long time to feel the slightest kick. Now we can just be sitting side by side and Jared can feel hard kicks on his arm or side all the time. I haven't been able to get the kids to feel a kick yet. Wonder if they did if they would understand the concept any more. I show them the belly all the time and am always talking about how there is a baby in there. When they see me touching my belly they will say 'baby' but who knows how much they understand! I will be 30 weeks on sunday... so we are getting pretty down to it! Crazy to think in probably more or less then 2 months he will be here! I am starting to want to "nest" I think... going through the baby stuff gathering up all the burp rags ect. We do need to go buy a crib and although our car seat is still with in its expiration dates... it is pretty thrashed after going through two already and missing the umbrella hood so we will probably need to get a new one. It is nice that is pretty much all we need to get besides some baby socks and onsies maybe.

A lot of my friends have just had thier babies or are due any day now. I keep thinking I am just about there to and have to remind myself that I am not due for 10 more weeks. I have had had a couple friends that had/scheduled for a C-section. Starts making me worried that since my last two deliveries were so perfect that my luck will run out and I will have complications of some sort. Although I have no issues as of right now and I really don't anticipate any. But they are starting to work thier way into my already bizzare pregnancy dreams. Anyway this post ended up being a big huge rambling! Sorry about that!

Happy 3rd Birthday Joey!!

2010-02-05T07:08:00.000-08:00

2010-01-29T09:46:00.000-08:00

Very late Christmas Post!

2010-01-29T08:47:00.000-08:00

Wow. I tried a couple times to post Christmas but it just never happened. Christmas was amazing at our house! We got some awesome gifts! In the picture below is Joey asleep on the kitchen floor at my parents. He just totally zonked out halfway through the day from all the excitment! Jeanie loves her baby!

Dad got Golf Clubs and Mom got a Serger!

Christmas Eve Joey really loved watching the Christmas train go around Grandma Reece's tree!

A few days later Joey tried on the Stockings!

A week or so before Christmas we went out and enjoyed the Snow!
Well, Jeanie not so much.

November update

2009-12-03T09:57:00.000-08:00

This video is in our hotel room in Las Vegas. Joey loves to sing along with several of his movies now. I love it and am amazed at how well he gets some of the words. Joey is funny about when he decides to talk. He has his jumpstart preschool computer game and he just talks and talks while he plays, full sentences and everything. Then you try to get him to tell you why he is mad... says nothing.

For those that have not heard yet, our next little bundle is a BOY! We are so excited! Love the Boy, girl, boy! I have been so lucky with the pregnancy. The first trimester I was a bit tired and had no appetite but that was about it. I am almost completly over that to, still really tired though. I wish I had a bit more engergy. With the kids being cooped up inside we usually have to do pretty involved physical activity to get the engery out. Which requires dancing and jumping and and sorts of rough housing. Even ring around the Rosies is a bit to much involved effort, lol I feel bad that I am starting to lose the ability/desire to do that with them. They really need it!

I have been called full time to the nursery. I do enjoy it! But the class is almost 98% boy, most of which are close to 4 years old, by the end of church myself and the other lady (who is due in Feb.) are pretty much exhausted! It is a blast though, I really do love that age! I take Jeanie in there also even though she is not really soppossed to be there until January... but how can you drag a girl away from all the fun and toys, just so she can disrupt Dad's class that he teaches?

School has been going okay for the both of us. I just finished up my math course and Jared finished up a course in Information Technology. I just started Creative writing and am actually excited about this course.

Potty Training. Well that is kinda going. It has been hard to have the full attention needed to really do it probably. I am always working on a paper or trying to catch up on the house work that has been missed by working on the homework. This past week or so we have been a bit more vigilant about it. We have actually gotten Jeanie to go #2 a couple of times. The one that Joey witnessed he got all proud of her and helped her take the bowl to the toilet. He has stuck to #1's so far. Joey has been kind of resistant latley, even with just regular diaper changes... but having Jeanie use the potty definitly is influencing and encouraging him also. I am trying to get the time together to try to make some more training pants. We have a little pile that we have inherited. I really don't like the amount of $$$ signs that pop in my brain when I think of buying disposable training pants.

We rearranged the kids room a bit. We took apart the toddler bed and brought in a twin size bed from the Reece's. We just put a child at each end of the bed, and of course there is stilll plenty of room! Although Joey seems to need all that space, he moves so much in his sleep. It has been working out very nicely! It is nice to have a bit of room in there now! It will be even better when we finished going through and getting rid of some of the unneeded toys. I also plan on making a stuffed animal hammock to go in the room as well. (I have looked for one at Walmart, but I can't find them!)

Thanksgiving was fun of course! We went to the Reece's for dinner and Jared's sister Rebekah and her family came. It was fun to have the little group together but I do get sad that more of Reece's are not able to join. We miss all of you that are living out of state! Afterward we went over to the Stoker house. Unfortunatly we made it there quite late so most of my siblings had come and gone, but it was a great visit still!

Yesterday we got out all the Christmas decorations. We had fun setting up our village and setting lights all throughout. We had to be a bit clever about how to decorate the tree since glass balls and the like do not do well with two toddlers with grabby hands. I actually like its simple look though. We used white lights and gold painted pine cones. A couple of gold covered snowflakes and ribbons.

November and AZ Trip

2009-12-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

Well I am sure you have all seen plenty of pictures of this costume. WHen I made the costume originally for Halloween, Joey was refusing to watch Monsters Inc. Now he is crazy about the movie and likes to wear his costume all the time. Here he had his lunch and then passed out in his comfy costume. After he feel asleep Jeanie starting tugging at the costume, wanting to put it on. I have the silliest little munchkins. Our Trip to Arizona

At the beginning of Novemeber we headed down to Arizona to visit Jared's sister Debbie and her family. Grandpa and Grandma Reece rode in the van with us. We borrowed there DVD system for the car and that made the whole trip run so very smooth. Joey loved watching movies and it definitly helped them from freaking out trying to get out to much. We traveled down to Las Vegas the first night. Spent the night there and then finished the rest of the trip down to Debbie's near Phoenix.

We took a quick stop at Hoover Dam and the kids were not to interested but happy to have a break from the car!
I tried several times to take a picture of the back of the Van... but Grandma Reece would always put her pillow in front of her face.

This is our hotel room. We were able to book an extended stay place for the same as normal place. It was nice having the kitchen and family room seperate from the bedrooms. There was two full beds in the room, apparently Joey and Jeanie both thought they got a bed. I had to take a picture of Jeanie's hair in the morning. Pretty much the most awesome morning hair I ever saw. Down at Debbie's house one night we had a Thanksgiving dinner down there with her and her inlaws. After dinner they had a little celebration for Derek's birthday. So part of the main reason for the timing of the visit was to see cute little Deron be blessed. We all ran late that morning but we probably would have still made it if the road we were taking there did not end up being closed down for a fair. So by the time we navigating our way around it we were to late. I felt so bad. Sorry again Deb's!While we were down for down for our visit Debbie took us out to take some family photo's. Unfortnuatly Jared and I hadn't been able to get our hair cuts before the trip, but I think the pictures turned out faboulous! I wish we had Debbie around more often to take our pictures! She is very talented!

Halloween!

2009-11-02T11:14:00.000-08:00

Wow! So, I had thought about what to do for the kids costumes for a long time. I ended up with having them go as Mike and Boo from Monster's Inc. Funny thing is I probably should have gone with a different theme. We borrowed Monsters Inc and Toy Story 1 &2 from my parents. Joey refuses to watch Monsters again... guess it is a bit to intense for him, he will yell, "No! No MIKE!" when we would try to get him to watch it. He loves watching Toy Story though, so I probably should have gone with my Woody and Jesse idea, oh well. We got to be a whole lot more creative this way. Jared gets most of the credit for Joeys costume. He is the one that figured out how to make it... (We sewed a hood onto a long sleeve green shirt, then modified a pumpkin pattern around it.) His face was sopposed to look like the eye ball... but the face painting didn't go over so well. Lol.

Here is my Awesome Mom! Apparently she won a contest at work for it!

This is Joey and Jeanie's best friend Austin. He is our neighbor and his parents are our good friends. They have watched the kids for us when we have been to school, they were seriously a LIFE saver to us!

Here is my little comparison pages to see how well I matched the costumes to the characters!

Jared and I went as Mario and Toad from nintendo, unfortunatly we never took a picture of us. So I did take a picture of my hat... cause I thought it was pretty cool.

We had fun making the costumes! We got pretty creative I think! We didn't get to do much trick or treating, Joey was feeling a bit icky and was not very cooperative!

Why blog?

2009-10-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder why I even have a blog. I enjoy posting pictures to it if for nothing else I am at least getting that put together as an online scrapbook and chronicles of our little family, just need to look into how to print it. But for the most part I wonder what the point is as I have hardly any readership, I guess there is usually not much to read as I just post pictures and explainations of the pictures.

I read some of the blogs on my list and am amazed at what some people are comfortable sharing with the rest of the blogging world. I am quit jealous of it actually. For some reason I just don't feel comfortable writing a whole lot of my thoughts, trials, ect. I am not sure if it is because I am scared of judgement, unsure of my writing abilities, or just that fact that I can never think of any thing clever to say.

I think the main thing is that I worry what I will say will be misconstrued or something. Although I have a very mellow appearance I sure as heck have a lot of opinions and views, wonder if I post some of them if people will be offended with me or something. Other days when I would love to vent on my blog I worry that people will think I am just an onry person or that I am more upset about an issue then I really am, I tend to have that happen a lot. I guess my facial expressions tell more then I mean or feel.

Jared reminds me often that I worry way to much what other people think, so maybe this will help me get over it!

Anyway, what I am getting at is I might just start blogging on my blog instead of just posting pictures of my kids (even though that will still be the main thing I do... I love to brag and share!) Please don't take offense or look more into what I am saying. My next class will be creative writing, so hopefully that will help me post more enjoyable interesting bits.

Just a little update

2009-10-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

The other day I had the kids help me make a quick halloween craft since again we could not go outside to play. It was pretty difficult cutting out the pieces since Joey insisted on helping with it. Anyway, we cut it out and Joey helped glue it together. It was so fun! The kids are obessessed with it now! Jeanie keeps pointing on the eyes, (her favorite word) "eyyees! eyyess! EYE!" so cute!!

So, I caught Joey drawing on himself with a dry erase marker. For some reason I didn't feel like making a big deal about it and started to help doodle all over him! He had a blast and giggled as I drew on his belly! It was fun and with it being dry erase it came off really easy in the tub. Except he found the same marker later and wanted to do it again. Opps.

We inherited another George and Joey thinks it is pretty cool! When I brought in his Georges to cuddle with he was pretty excited.

It was so funny, the other day Jeanie just laid down at my feet and fell asleep. It wasn't anywhere near her nap time, I guess she just didn't have enough sleep. Silly girl!

Weird little boy

Sick Days!

2009-10-13T08:07:00.000-07:00

So these past 2 and a half weeks were a killer! It started out with Jeanie having horrible teething, keeping her up all night crying in pain. After she was over that she had a fever for several days. As soon as Jeanie was feeling all better, Joey went on a crazy cycle of sickness, going from vomiting, to fever, back to vomiting, then to coughing and and sneezing. I actually never made it to the Dr. since each day he began by seeming that he was doing a lot better. I was hesitant to go into the Dr. and have him tell me to just let the fever run its course and just give him Tylenol if he needs it. Since we would have to pay for the full visit because of our deductible. Yesterday he was FINALLY back to his old self. He is not a nice person when he is sick! I guess he gets that from me... I HATE to be sick and express it to everyone! Lol...

This picture is just the cutest! I left for an hour or so to take care of school stuff. This was when Jeanie was feeling sick and nasty, Jared said the only thing that calmed her down while I was gone was to sit with her big brother, who was all to happy to care for her. So cute!

Poor sad sicky... he just hid his face in the couch
The only thing I could get Joey to eat was Jell-O, at least he got some fluid from it.

Such a sad face

See the sad frown!

Well, in other news, the pregnancy is going really well so far! I am so lucky! Another pregnancy with hardly any sickness. This is actually the easiest so far! I actually keep forgetting that I am pregnant. Until I look in the mirror and see how much worse then normal my acne is and my pants are tight! I am SO grateful that I take it so easy... I am not sure how I could care for the little crazy kids and the house and school if I was nauseated and lying on the couch!

I got the first of the big tasks I need to do to prepare the kids for the baby. I weaned Jeanie and it went a lot better then I anticipated. I thought it would be a long drawn out battle with lots of tears and sleepless nights. Luckily I was actually able to do it almost cold turkey. I went the first two days with it totally scaled back to just morning and night. She took that really well that I just cut it all off. She was mad and would ask for it... but she wouldn't fight too hard and would give in to the alternative.

So the next big thing... really really really tackling this potty training thing. We have had it around as an idea for like 7 months now... but have not pushed the issue to much since he keeps resisting, but then he will just surprise us, say he needs to go potty, rip his diaper off himself and go. I have also been waiting for a bit more language and communication from him so we could discuss it more. I know he will talk more when he is ready. He definitely understands everything, just doesn't care to speak a lot. He is picking up a ton though now. He is constantly adding new words and sentences.

We are expecting again!

2009-10-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

For those that have not been notified yet, We are expecting another baby! Due April 18th!

Some cute videos!

2009-10-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

I had issues posting these videos so for some reason the only way I could get it to work was posting them each individually!

This first video is of Joey at the park a month or so ago... This kid has no fear! He scares me sometimes what he thinks he can do! This is rather high up for a 2 year old to drop! He did this over and over again! A 7 year old came over to try it and chickend out!

The next video is of Joey dancing to this cute youtube video posted below it. Joey kept trying to mimic thier dances. Before I took the video Jeanie was more into it and Joey was trying to do the floor dances to... it was pretty darn cute!

Fearless Joe

2009-10-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

Billy Jean!

2009-10-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

Some Cute videos!

2009-10-01T08:32:00.000-07:00

Finally an update!

2009-08-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

It has been months since I have updated the blog! The main reason it took me so long was we had camera issues, first our memory card got currupted and we lost all the pictures on it that I was just so fruastrated that I lost them I ignored the camera. We then lost our good newer camera twice! Our older camera is a pretty good camera and was top of the line when Jared bought it on his mission, but it has some some weird quirks and occasionally takes pictures funny.

We finally have side walk and pavment and a parking lot!! After 3+ months living in a mudhole it makes such a difference! Love it!

We have had a fun filled summer! We went camping with Joel and Linda beginning of June, Had the Arnold's visit, went to Lagoon, got visited from the Robison's, went camping for the Marley family reunion and celebrated Jeanie 1st birthday!

I went ahead and put the pictures onto collages so that I can still post all the zillion pictures I wanted to share.

Wow! Can you tell they are siblings! They are at about the same ages here... Jeanie is quite a bit thicker then Joey ever was! This is the picture of Joey we put on his shirt that we announced Jeanie's expected arrival on.

Jeanie turns 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

I can not believe that our sweet little baby girl is already a year old!! I am so glad that we have her a part of our lives! She has the biggest heart and is just so sweet! Happy birthday cutie!

On my birthday (the big 25!) We went boating with the Stoker family. It was so much fun! Joey loved riding the boat! I never brought the camera down to the beach unfortuntly. While there we celebrated all the July birthdays and Jeanie got to destroy her cake! And boy did she have a good time doing it! She is wearing one of her birthday gifts from me. I made her a cute little apron as most of her bibs really don't do much but protect a small little area!

The day at the lake proved to be pretty exhausting! In these pictures there are 5 babies sleeping, and a sleepy Aunt Amanda watching over them! The only baby we were missing was Lucas... who was probably sleeping soundly wherever he was with his daddy.

On her birthday we invited the Grandma and Grandpa Reece and uncle Nathan to come enjoy cake and presents with us.

We also did a fun little Korean tradition. You set out a couple items and you have the baby crawl and see what item they choose will tell you about there future.

A Ball- They will be athletic

Money- They will be wealthy

Spool of Thread- Long life

Book- They will be a Scholar

and...

Jeanie Choose long life!

(that was Joey's choice as well!)

Unfortunatly we had to do a rather low budget birthday. We have so many toys already that we still have in boxes we have plenty of toys. The other day when I went to DI looking for something else I cam across a cute little cabbage patch doll that reminded me so much of Jeanie... I ended up not getting it, but went back and found another one that was also pretty cute. I bought it and brought it home. I gave it a good cleaning and made some cute little clothes for it.

At first I had thought I had found a very vintage doll- apparently the color of the ink of the signiture on the tush tells you the year. I thought it was 1984 which was the year I was born. Upon further google research however I found that my signiture was on the right cheek rather then the left... therefore making it a 1998 anniversary doll. Oh well still a fun find!

2009-08-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

The Reece family got together on the 24th of July and on the 26th of July for Grandpa Reece's birthday. They were bitter sweet visits. Debbie and fam had come up from Arizona to visit and Joey had a fun time getting to know his cousin Derrick! We hope to make a visit down to AZ this fall and give them some more time to get to know each other!

He also had a fun time with his best bud and partner in crime Dallin. It was the last time playing with him for probably at least a year! Good luck on your journey Joel and Linda! We will miss you guys!

Potty and Play time!

2009-08-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

We have not really officially started potty training yet. We have started to introduce the idea, let him sit on the potty very often and get the feel of training pants ect. Joey likes the free feeling of walking around naked apparently... and will try to stay undressed, everytime we suggest getting his diaper back on he screams potty and sits on it. With all that he had actually used it until the other day. He started to grab at his diaper and we took it off and he sat down, then a while later he gave up and we put his diaper back on. A few minutes later he ripped his diaper off himself and sat down on the potty and went #1! Jared and I made a huge deal about it and praised him to no end... and treated him with a Reese's butter cup!

This is a fun little indoor playground that they have over at the mall. Its a nice way to let the kids play a bit but we are able to get out of the heat for a bit! Poor Jeanie, at first she really liked the bubble but got a bit freaked out when she couldn't figure out how to ge thru it.

Lagoon Day!

2009-08-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

We were able to go to Lagoon on Harmon's Lagoon day with Melissa and her girls! It was such a blast! The little kids had such a fun time! Cousin Graci and Joey wanted to ride one ride after another! We will be definitly going back next year and invite anyone to come with and partake of the discount to!

It was fun eating all the free/inexpensive food Harmon's provided. We also hung around and waited as Bob and Randy Harmon called names for all the drawings they had... unfortunatly we didn't win anything. Jared made the box that his store's names were drawn from. I don't have a picture of it... but it was so cute! He made it into a little VW Hippie Van to go with the Groovy theme! Good job honey!

The Big Campout!

2009-08-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

We went camping with Joel and Linda at the beginning of June! The kidlets had a Blast! Joey and Dallin had a good time playying together. After the campout we went and played freesbie golf in Taylorsville. Jared and I decided that we had such a good time and had NO desire to go home to our mudhole home we just kept on driving and went out to Wendover! We had a blast! We took some awesome pictures! Probably our favorite set of pictures of all time! Unfortunatly some how our memory card got curruped and we lost all the pictures! This is all that remains, what I had already inported into our scrapbooking program.

2 Peas in a Pod

2009-05-30T05:34:00.000-07:00

Joey and Jeanie are such two little peas in a pod! They enjoy playing and causing trouble together!

In this video here there is red sheet that Joey has pretty much adopted into his play things... he has us sit on the rocking chair and tighten up the sheet with our feet on his chair... he then climbs up our legs and when he reaches our face he lets himself slide back scream as he goes acting as if he lost his grip and was falling down a cliff. It is really quite hilarious! He is getting so funny with his pretend play. You also hear the Wii in the background with Super Mario Cart playing. Joey is obsessed with 'making' us play it! He chases us around with the Wii wheels crying, "wace wace!" (race). I guess he just likes watching the different vehicles move!

Poor Jeanie kept getting the sheet stuck on her head! She loves pulling stuff over her head! Any article of clothing or dish towel she finds in her reach she tries to put it on and keeps pulling it onto her head! She is such a cutie! She tries so hard to keep up and put up with her crazy older brother. She adores him and laughs at so much of what he does! I love the age gap between these two. Sometimes it has been VERY difficult, but it has been worth it!

Park time!

2009-05-30T04:50:00.000-07:00

I am very often taking and posting pictures of our happenings at the park... so I apologize if you get bored with those! Joey is always just to cute and funny that I can't really resist trying to keep those fun moments forever and sharing them!

Our walk to the park proved to long! Both tykes were totally out by the time we got there!

Enjoying our snack break!

I tried and tried to get video of Joey preparing to go down the slide with his, "un, two, twee... GO!" When I had the camera out he would only say parts or had to be reminded. I tried several times and also got some more really fun videos of him playing... but I had to refrain from posting them all since that would take tons of your time to watch my little tyke play at the park! This is my favorite segment though- I would have to call it the quintessential Joey at the park. Busy busy busy having fun fun fun!!!! (Not that anyone needed a reminder that Joey is busy :) )

2009-05-30T04:35:00.000-07:00

I realized the other day I don't let Joey have much 'artistic' outlet anymore. After our permenant marker and crayon on the couch and walls incidents all of our pens, markers and crayons are so well hidden that I don't even remember where they are. I am not sure if we will do this particular project again but we had a lot of fun. We took some shaving cream and dropped in a few drops of food dye and Voila! We had a 'paint'. It still did dye his skin for a few days but it was fun to play with. We originally started painting using q-tips... but Joey got really creative and started dipping rocks in.

Wonderful dirt

2009-05-30T03:55:00.000-07:00

This group of pictures are all taken on the apartments property. As mentioned before they are very much in the middle of some big overhaul of the property and what is going around the property now is lots of piles of cement, dirt, and Joey high weeds. With all that... Joey actually seems to be in heaven with the property in its present state!

I think this mirror and shed are actually just over the property line and belong to the neighbors behind. Jared took these photos with his cell phone... I think they turned out rather neat!

I mentioned before that Joey was in heaven with the piles of dirt... well, it seems like his two new buddies in the complex are pretty much in heaven with it to!

makeup artist

2009-05-30T03:43:00.000-07:00

Well here is an embarrassing moment for our normally masculine little boy. I guess while I was in the shower Joey found and used some of my makeup. When I discovered my eyeliner and blush missing I found Joey skillfully applying some to his own face. Instead of hooting and hollering like I normally would I went ahead and grabbed the camera... which to Joey it seemed like even greater punishment.... He DID NOT want his picture taken and the moment instilled forever. "I'm so ashamed..."
-Joey

Picture stay!

2009-05-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

A few days ago we were hanging up pictures. Joey observed us holding pictures against the wall and discussing their placement. We went and had dinner and afterward Joey got started on places pictures again! Silly boy!

Just some fun pictures of the kids!

2009-05-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

Poor Joey, He was so exhausted and hungry with all of he moving and such! He fell asleep eating a pop tart! And as for how he is sitting... for months he had refused to sit in a high chair anymore... but since this was the only chair available he was all to happy to be in it and just lounged back. I wonder if having the dining area be away from the main area has helped him eat more... before he was always distracted and would rarely eat even if it was something he asked for. Now he seems to be a bottomless pit!

In the last post I talked about all the big trucks outside our apartment. Yesterday I went ahead and found the box that had Joey's trucks.... he was so excited and played with them with new gusto and understanding! In this picture he is yet again asleep! If you knew our son... he does not just lay down and nap or rarely sit still for much of anything. He is like a toy top, just goes and goes and goes and then, falls over!

We are almost moved in. I wanted to take a picture but Jared plans on coming home and putting up shelves and hanging a few more pictures... So I will wait to post pictures until that is done!

Room with a view!

2009-05-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous post they are working on the road and pavement in our apartment complex. Right now they are excavating a trench... I am assuming to run stuff over to the new town homes. Most of the work is RIGHT in front of our apartment. Caution tape only about 7 feet from our door. They have all this large machinery and trucks. The kids have been LOVING watching them work. (Good thing as it prevents us from venturing outside to much!)

Not so Teanie Jeanie!

2009-05-13T12:23:00.000-07:00

Little Jeanie is growing so fast! She is always trying to keep up with her busy big brother! She chases Joey all over the apartment, stealing toys away or back from him!

Although Jeanie is actually about average weight she is becoming quite the little tank! One time as she lay in her car seat and her second chin was pushed up by the belt Grandma and Grandpa Stoker observed that she looked like Hiemlich from A Bug's Life. The more I look at her the more I see it! It a cute and adorable way of course!

My heavens does this girl like food! She laughs with delight anytime a meal is put before her!

What a sweetie!

I could be wrong but I swear I have heard her say Joey's name and Hi! She is always jabbering in a way that Joey never did! Already picking up the phone and yacking into it. I think she will catch up to Joey speaking wise really fast! She is already almost as heavy!

Murphy's law

2009-05-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well the move did not go smoothly at all and not at all how we and planned and imagined. We most of choose pretty close to the worst day to move. May 2- We choose the date since our lease ended on April 30th and this apartment available on May 1st. Due to being right smack in the middle of finals and other things we had only a few people to help us move. Jared and I went ahead and loaded the truck the night before with a little bit of help.

Having a few helpers was difficult... but it probably would have been okay had it not been for the weather! It practically never rains here and the day we move there was down pour after down pour. Which again would not have been to bad on its own, but as part of the remodeling here they had taken out all of the asphalt to prepare to repave the lot. It wasn't just mud... but a cakey clay like mud! We had brand new carpet in our apartment so we had to lay down towels all over and forbid the 'outside' helpers from coming in. It took a lot of work to finangle the furniture down the steps and around the stairs but we got it in! But due to hurrying because of the rain and only having a few people as 'inside' helpers pretty much EVERYTHING ended up in the family room! So we had a hard time digging it out, some how things that belonged in that room ended up at both ends of the room, so we had to move them to another wrong room to get to the other stuff.

Thank you to everyone again that helped with the move! Thank you Mom Stoker, Sean, Nate, Dad Reece, Mom Reece and Emily Ekker and family! Your all amazing!!! You helped us so much!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

Now... of course a move is never smooth but we have more Murphy's law at work.

Our new apartment had to be practically gutted after its previous tenants. I am pretty sure the owners worked their tail ends off trying to get it ready for us in time! It is practically a new apartment! (new carpet, new NICE tile, new toilet, bathroom vanity, new paint, new blinds... ect) They also had to bring in a different stove and fridge. (Love the fridge! Its huge!) Unfortunately they were not able to bring them in until after we had moved in, so they had to work around all of our boxes and stuff everywhere.

I also made the mistake of not understanding what I was told when we switched the utilities. So we did not get to have gas until Monday afternoon due to my dumb scheduling. (that meant NO hot water! ewww!)

Once we got everything set up we went to hook up the dryer, and the plug and the outlet did not match. No biggie but it put a hold on the already large and ever growing mound of laundry and muddy towels!) We went to Lowe's and got a new outlet the next day and Jared installed it. Now I could start on the laundry! I throw almost all of our icky towels into the load.... and then when it started to send the water out water went everywhere! Apparently the pipe that it goes down is severally clogged... and I was almost out of towels to clean it up with! LOL. Luckily Jared got creative and grabbed our extra vacuum hose and attached it to the end of the washers hose. Then set the end of the hose into the sink. So it is a good little temporary fix until it is taken care of. They have tried snaking it several times but will need to hire a professional plumber.

Although this is quite the little rant (I can have those once in awhile right?) we are actually quite happy about our move. The layout of the new apartment just works a lot better for us. Our bedroom is so much more roomie! I think square footage wise both the old and new apartments are similar, but the other one had a lot of wasted footage going to a walk in closet, laundry room and bathroom. Also a few more closets to use! We still haven't found a home for everything just yet... but we plan to have a yard sale in a couple weeks to get rid of some of our extra stuff! One thing I don't understand about our apartment it keeps having a nasty smoke smell. I understand that we smell it when we run the furnace since that is still the same, but everything else is new! I wonder if it is brought in through the windows, or somehow from our neighbors, we are constantly spraying air freshener. I hope it is not affecting us and that it will work itself out somehow!

Simple and Sensible

2009-04-30T03:55:00.000-07:00

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/

2009-04-22T07:52:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-18T06:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-18T05:58:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-02T15:22:00.003-07:00

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!

2009-04-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

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!

Sweet Teenie Jeanie

2009-03-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

Jeanie is getting so darn cute! She is loving to be outside with her brother! The swing is one of her favorite activities!

Jeanie discovering sand!

The Life a BOY!!

2009-03-21T17:32:00.000-07:00

Oh, the life of a little boy! Joey is ALL BOY! Dirt, Bugs, Climbing, Food, running! Notice the change in wardrobe throughout the pictures with the changing weather. I thought it was quite amusing.
Joey is such a good climber! I usually stay by him to spot him... but he has no fear and always finds away to get up to where he is headed!
Joey observing the snow storm outside

Now, don't freak out about this picture. Yes, that is a pile of ants... but I do think it is okay to be able to get down and discover some things... even with the dirty kid hands handling ants. Joey like every other boy... is very intrigued by bugs! We sprinkled a few crumbs from his crackers and he enjoyed watching the ants drag the pieces away!

Apparently some of the kids are planning on improving the playground with a pool...(they came later with a tarp ready!) here is Joey enjoying the large pit they dug.

A Boy and a Stick.

This is Joey's favorite hat. I think its because he can pull it onto his head on his own, whereas with a regular ball cap he can never get it on quite right and needs to ask for help.

The Mad Scientist!

The Adventures of Curious George and Joey!

2009-03-21T17:04:00.000-07:00

and Joey!
As you have seen in previous posts, Joey loves his little stuffed George. He is not so attached that if he doesn't have him he freaks out, but if he sees George on his way to an activity he invites him to come along.

Naptime!!!!

Joey decided that this was the way to ride in the cart. Weirdo

Joey let George go down the slide first.

Why did the chicken cross the playground?

To get to the other slide!

2009-03-20T12:06:00.001-07:00

I have not posted in awhile since we have misplaced our camera! We have searched everywhere! We do not go that many places so I don't understand how we lost it. We searched both of our parents houses and around and under and behind the areas that we thought that we might of put it. I just hope that we will be able to find it when we move!

Other big news items-

We have decided to make another move. We have loved our apartment and our ward! Really sad to leave but it will work out better for us. The apartment that we have found has a highly recommended landlord/owner from my friend Jason Anderson who used to live in the area. It is in West Valley and just a literal hop skip and jump from the Harmon's that Jared works at. That way I will be able to have the Van most days.

The last piece of news I believe most of the family and such has already heard. Jared was able to get a new position at Harmon's. It was quite a miracle actually. He had been working in the bakery at the SJ store and although he 'baked' several shifts a week he was not receiving the bakers pay as technically he was a 'packager' and also he was only promised 32 hours a week. He heard about an opening at the West Valley Harmon's for the 'People Support Manager' (aka HR) he applied and we really had a strong feeling that he would get it despite the lack of some possible qualifications. They took a long time making their decision and in the end he was told the position was given to someone else.

We were very disappointed and started to look a bit more fervently for another job. Jared was contacted from a place that had found his resume online... he went and they hired him to work in the mail room... it would have been slightly better pay and possibility of overtime. The next day Jared was set to go work out a new schedule with his manager to work both jobs when he was called up to the store directors office and told that he was now actually hired for the People Support position, and that he would start on Monday! (this was Saturday!) Wow! He received almost a 6$ raise and a promised 40 hours!!

Jared had 2 weeks of training and enjoyed that time a lot! This week has been his first at being on his own and I think he is adapting well. He is loving his new job. Was pretty fun going from working in the Bakery at one of the lesser positions and then going to the manager meetings and getting his OWN OFFICE! His duties include interviewing and hiring for the store, teaching classes, and lots and lots of paperwork! Another great thing about this job is that Jared gets to make his own schedule... within reason of course, he still needs to work at least one evening a week and a couple of Saturdays a month so more employees are able to get a hold of him. Right now they are of course... due to the recession, not hiring many people right now so it does take alot of Jared's duties away... so since he runs out of work right now he works in the Bakery still a couple shifts a week.

A Give away!

2009-02-25T11:14:00.000-08:00

Hey I got this off of my friends blog! This lady has some really cute pictures and is giving away some free sittings and a cd with the pictures for you to take!
http://sweetshotsphoto.blogspot.com/

Valentine's Day!

2009-02-17T15:46:00.001-08:00

Here are a few Pictures from Valentines Day! We don't have any pictures of ourselves. I need to get on that. Just never think about taking pictures of our selves, or don't feel 'Picture worthy!" I will work on that.

Jared made me this giant cookie at work! He tried to decorate it but then asked the cake decorater to do it. It looked Awesome! Very sweet Honey! I Love You so much!

It was nice to finally have a chance to get out our fancy stuff! We used the plates from our wedding china! Jared wanted to use our real crystal goblets and pitcher but I was a bit to nervous about that!

We let Joey eat in style also. He got to drink from a silver plated mini goblet! (I will have to post a picture of the set it belongs to, very fun!

Cute Pics from last few Weeks!

2009-02-17T14:41:00.000-08:00

It is amazing how fast Jeanie is growing. She is growing out of her clothes so fast I hardly get a chance to have her wear some of them! Amazing to me... Joey was able to wear his cloths until way past the age marked on the size, but Jeanie is spot on with the sizing usually. She is also starting to do a really good army crawl type scoot. We set her on the floor in one spot and she is clear over on another spot so fast! Not sure how having the two so mobile will be... but I am sure it will be some sort of an adventure!!!!!

Joey is just going crazy with words! Usually when we are away from home he clams up, but at home it is non-stop yaking! Even has a few two-worder sentences. One being, "Come on!" It is so fun to actually hear his little voice saying real words and sentences! Instead of just his Tim Allen style grunts that he used for communication. Joey also is starting to have some odd food choices. He is always picky about what he eats but he has gone crazy with the pickles. Asking for some all the time. Grabs your pinky and drags you to the fridge exclaiming, "Pick! Pick!" Very interesting that the pickle is what he wants all the time. That is all I ever craved when I was pregnant with him. I even went so far that I bought a jar after work... and accidently ate it all before Jared got off work. I hid the jar at the bottom of the garbage and several days later when Jared took out the garbage he wondered what the jar was from and I had to confess!

So, on my last post I never got a comment! That was kinda depressing realizing that I really don't have hardly anyone reading my blog. Even though most of the blogs I read haven't posted for weeks either. Oh well I guess it gets me out of making gifts for people. I still get my gift from my Steph's blog that I got it from. Lol!

Anyway here are a few cute pictures from that last few weeks!

Nothing better then coming home from church and taking a nap in your own Easy Chair!

Joey climbed into one of his toy buckets and then pulled my latest craft on top of him and started to nestle himself down to sleep. I think he might of fell asleep to if we didn't make a fuss about taking a picture!

Jeanie enjoying some goodies out of her little feeder.

Joey giving his little sis' a ride! They had a blast!

Joey was so cute with his Curious George the other day. He just decided that he was his little buddy or something. He put him down for naps. He set him into the tub and then carried him out wrapped in a towel. (which is how we usually do baths) Then later he went and sat him on to the potty! (luckily Jared had fast reflexes to save him from falling in!) He even wanted to have George dressed and then sat him in the Bumbo seat. It was fun to watch him!

Joey was so cute in the bath this morning. Earlier he was playing with cars in the bath with Dad and just wanted to cuddle with him and almost feel asleep. I so wanted to take a picture then but I don't know if Jared would care to have his manly chest exposed put on the blog for all to see, but it really was precious.

Joey also has decided he really LOVES showers. He likes to back up and let the water fall onto his back! At the time I took these pictures he laid down and let Dad take the shower head down and let it just beat onto his back. Oh and don't worry that is not a real razor by him. That is his toy razor from a cute little kid grooming kit that we got at DI for 1.00.

You Can Win!

2009-02-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year. {might be a little while}
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or maybe even some creation I haven't even invented yet (but Heaven knows it will most likely be super shiny or look like it got attacked by a bedazzler). I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!

*Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!*

Joey's Birthday!

2009-02-09T13:40:00.000-08:00

Even though it was a week or so ago we still need to share the pictures of Joey turning 2 years old! He had a great day! Here are some pictures and lots of videos of his day. Once you watch the videos it will almost be like you exprienced his day with him! Enjoy!

Joey got to help make his birthday cake. Poured in the eggs and everything he just loved it! You hear Jared comment about the cake being runny, apparently we doubled up on the water. The cake turned out okay to feed us and Joey anyway. Just really dense!

We took Joey to McDonald's for his birthday. We had had all these great plans to go to the Children's Museum or the Aquarium... but ended up settling on McD's. I don't think he could have any more fun then he did here!

Joey taking a rootbeer break!

Most of this video is dark... but you can hear Joey yaking as he walks down the slide.

Jared decorated the cake! I was quite impressed with what he was able to do with a ziplock bag! Good Job Jared!

Please excuse my loud singing right into the microphone here! I am not the best singer at all, but Joey needed someone to sing with daddy

This is Joey's gifts from us. More match box cars and then some motorized cars that drive around on a track.

This is one of Joey's Gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Reece. It is a crazy fun track that he sets his cars into and then pushes the button and then go racing down the track! He LOVES IT! Thanks!

Our little Fridge Rat

2009-01-22T08:46:00.000-08:00

Last night Jared had opened the fridge for something and then stepped away for a moment. Joey Seized the moment and apparently found himself a nice cool fort! What a Goof!

2009-01-22T08:26:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday we had a Birthday dinner for Joey and Aunt Melissa at the Stoker house.

We had this fun cupcake cake with what else but Lightening McQueen!

Joey liked having everyone sing to him and Melissa. I think He also enjoyed the flames!

Here Joey is unwrapping his gift from cousins Morgan and Porter. It is two really cool trucks! He has loved them! There are a couple buttons you push and lights turn on and thier equipment move! Thanks Michelle and Cameron!

I know my mom and those in the picture will kill me for posting this photo. But I kinda wanted to show the set up. My Mom had set two tables right next to each other and made a large square one so we could all still talk to each other instead of always having to be in a more Thanksgiving table set up. On the centerpiece in the middle originally had the cake. The kids got to sit in the kitchen at thier own little table and Joey got to join them. I think he liked being able to be on his own with his cousins. They laughed at him with every bite he took since apparently his messy two year old eating habits are just hilarious. Lol, he loved being the center of thier attention.

Grandma and Grandpa Stoker found a large Lightening McQueen Car! Joey loved it. He now has three different size McQueen's and with this kids love for CARS he could never have enough!

Good Bye Mop Top!

2009-01-22T08:02:00.000-08:00

Well, as most everyone has noticed. Joey's hair was way past the unruly stage. We have taken our time getting it cut since hair cuts are usually a very painful experience for all of us. Lots of holding down and scary clippers and hair everywhere. Grandma and Grandpa Stoker however could not look at the mop top any longer and decided that they needed to help Joey look more presentable. So Grandma Stoker took us out to lunch and then to Cookie Cutters! Joey had a wonderful time! Seeing the fun little atmosphere with a slide and all the colors put him right at ease. Then Grandma showed him a few other kids getting thier hair cut while watching a movie and having bubbles blown on them. I got to say I was just amazed at how well Joey did. He had a blast! Smiled through the whole thing! He even got a discount because it is his birthday month! Thanks Grandma!

Later that night Aunt Debbie did Joey's hair into a faux hawk. He looked like a cute little punk!

DI find!

2009-01-05T11:52:00.000-08:00

Wow! Sorry to post so many all at once, but it has been a very busy couple weeks and a lot that I wanted to add up on here! It is mostly just pictures that I wanted to share! Enjoy!

We Found this old beat up child recliner at DI for $5. We decided to fix it up for Joey's birthday. Jared pulled the whole thing apart and ripped off all the old upholstery. He replaced the cushions on he both the arm rests. fixed the seat and springs and also replaced the cushion on the seat. He then restuffed the back and covered the whole chair in some CARS fabric that we have been buying out of the remnants bin at Walmart. I was glad that Jared was willing to do all the work for it, except I think he was just happy for an excuse to use his staple gun. Since we just used the material that we had the Chair ended up a little bit busy but, a busy chair for a happy busy boy!

Fun with a Box!

2009-01-05T11:26:00.000-08:00

We spent a couple days at Grandma and Grandpa Reece's ove the New Year's week. It was a lot of fun. Especially for Joey who got a lot of time to play with his cousin and best bud Dallin. To keep the boys from doing some naughtier things Grandma pulled out this big old box from the garage. The boys had a blast with it! Poor little Dallin was forced to stay in the box while Joey had a great time closing him up in it! It was so much fun to see him have fun with his cousin! This is a kinda random picture from home, Joey stole my cantalope when I was cutting up into cubes.

Winter is Snow fun!

2009-01-05T09:45:00.000-08:00

We went sledding with Joey's cousin Dallin and Joel and Linda. We had a blast! We only went for a little bit, but Joey had the greatest time! Notice the perma-grin in all th pictures. It was a lot of fun... he kept yelling, "Again! Again!" I hope we have another opportunity to go sledding again! Joey was so nice and bundled up with new snow pants, coat, hat and gloves.

I LOVE these with Dallin and Joey!

Poor little Joey... we ended up going later then we thought and Joey hadn't had his nap yet when we drove over there. He woke wide awake though when he saw what we were about to do!

Christmas!!

2009-01-04T16:17:00.000-08:00

This is part of our little Christmas Victorian village, one of our few decorations
Joey wasn't sure what he thought of his uncle's singing Christmas carol's on Christmas morning. Part of the Stoker family tradition!

Our Happy little stockings!

Joey playing with Uncle Nathan and Daddy!

Jeanie checking out her new Glow worm

One of Joey's favorite gifts!

2008-12-16T09:45:00.000-08:00

Jared brought home a gingerbread house kit to decorate and take back to work to put on display. We enjoyed putting it together! Jared did most of it but Joey and I put on a few of the decorations!

Trying to keep Joey from eating the candies!

Looks good enough to eat!

To much work for this litte elf!

In case you needed proof...

2008-12-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

I don't have much to say about the next few photos other then it just is proof in pictures of what a goofball my little boy is. He always keeps me on my toes and laughing!

And some wonder why I call my children monkeys.

Playing Together?

2008-12-16T09:22:00.000-08:00

Joey is struggling with his sister enjoying his old toys. He kept ripping off Jeanie's ball and taking off with it. We had an extra from the Reece's set that we must have brought with us in the move. I kind of felt like I had some cats rather then kids!

SNOW?!

2008-12-16T09:04:00.000-08:00

We were heading out to run some errands after it had snowed. We had forgotten that Joey probably had forgotten all about Snow. When we opened the door and he went outside he was SO amazed by the Snow!

Got Milk?

2008-12-06T16:33:00.001-08:00

Most of you know that Jeanie is a big time 'spitter-upper' always seeming to lose most of everything she just drank down. This last weekend I finally realized that I needed to give up dairy or at least cut down dramatically. I should have realized that it was the milk I was taking in sooner. Now, a few years ago giving up milk would not have been a big deal, but since I have married into the Reece family I have grown to have a deep love and appreciation for it. They taught me the wonderful world and wonder of dunking and glasses of milk to compliment many tasty treats. Today as I sat across the table and watched Joey, gladly dipping and sloshing his milk as he ate his cereal straw and Jared in the kitchen making a yummy morning shake I looked down at my bowel of cereal drenched in my soy 'milk'. It was almost depressing. Almost wish I had never been intruduced to the wonderful world of milk since now I have to leave it for awhile! Sigh. Oh well- it is worth it. Jeanie still spits up a lot more then I would care for but it is not nearly as much except for the few times that I 'fell of the wagon' and had more cheese or milk that I ought. Anyhow... kind of a weird post I know!

CARS!!!!!!

2008-11-24T08:25:00.000-08:00

Joey loves CARS! He loves to play with his cars all over the place! His favorite movie and only movie he will really watch anyway is, CARS! It sometimes tends to be an almost daily viewing. The funniest thing about it is I think he is starting to act out some of the scenes that he sees on the show. The other day Joey was 'helping' me with dishes at the sink and he decided he needed to wash his cars also. He would climb down and grab a car give it a good washing using the sprayer and everything and then set the dripping car down onto the chair he was standing on and go over to his stash and wash another one.. one by one. I then just followed him around with the camera and snapped pictures of him as he played with his cars and trucks.

As we were in the middle of doing the dishes please excuse the dirty sink with the lovely corn flakes stuck to the side of the facet. I hadn't scrubbed the sink yet!!

A couple of the scenes I think he is acting out. Washing the cars- there is a couple scenes where the big fire truck sprays down Lightening McQueen.. I think that he is acting that out, or that he has just observed daddy wash the car.

There is a scene were Lightening bounces off the tires of an over turned car, he does that a lot now... over turns one of vehicles and drives a car on the over turned ones wheels.

Joey likes to set the CAT under the rug to produce a hill to drve the cars on. Another scene I think he is doing here is the scene at the end where Lightening pushes the vetern race car to the finish line!

Joey loves this little nook between the couches. Guess he has decided that it is his little fort! Goof ball. Please excuse the youngsters lack of pants... Most of his pants are to big for him so he ends of losing his britches pretty often!

My Wrap!

2008-11-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

Today I thought I would write a post about my wrap. This wrap has incited many comments about its looks and practicality. My sister asked me if I felt like a jedi knight (I guess because of all the criss-crossing of fabric or something) and others think it looks like something that someone from a 3rd world country would wear, but I love this thing! I absolutly hate carrying around a car seat, it is to big for my short stature and I end up hitting it agaisnt my legs and jostling the poor baby all over the place. Although at times it is not the most flattering to me shape wise, I think in these pics it makes me look pregnant again, but It is so comfortable to wear and easy too. We had a baby carrier before that we used occasionally with Joey but it had so many different straps and and buckles that is was to complicated. It is surprising when I go out how many people ask me about my wrap. Amazed that it is just 16 feet of cloth! We added the cute front panel to dress it up a bit. There is a bunch of different ways to wrap it and set baby in it according to thier age and size. This wrap has been my life saver at parks and in grocery stores. Jeanie is happy and content being next to mommy and having a nice little perch to look around and it leaves my arms free to shop and/or fool around with Joey! These aren't the most flattering pics of me nor does it give the wrap its justice... but I had a hard time setting the timer and placing myself correctly for the camera!

Jeanie's Meter!

2008-11-20T21:05:00.001-08:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Roots - Geneology

Joey's Look a like meter!

2008-11-20T20:56:00.001-08:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family reunion - Genealogy search

Jareds Look A likes!

2008-11-20T20:41:00.000-08:00

Emily's Look a likes!

2008-11-20T20:32:00.001-08:00

2008-11-11T17:39:00.000-08:00

Husband Tag!

I have been tagged for this by several friends in the past several months so I decided to finally do it!

How long have you been married?
2 years 10 months!

How long did you date?
Before getting engaged we dated for 4 months. We knew each other since High School where we both worked at Macey’s. We didn’t date at the time. Just were flirty work buddies. But when Jared got back from his mission I was still working there. He came through my express checkout lane several times before asking me out on a date.

How old is he?
He is 24, exactly 3 months older then me. (His birthday is April 25th and mine is July 25)

Who eats more?
I am sad to admit. But I believe I am the one that eats more, but in my defense—I have been pregnant for more than half of our marriage

Who said "I love you" first?
Jared said it first, by almost a month actually. Poor man having to hang on the line for that long.

Who is taller?
I barely go to his adam’s apple, and he is on the shorter end of average.

Who sings better?
I think that would be a long debate between us. Each claiming the other is. Jared likes to compliment me and tell me I have a great voice- if only I could learn more. I think I sing goofy but have a sweet husband. Jared was in choir in high school and I love hearing his wonderful voice as he sings hymns at church.

Who is smarter?

The debate goes the opposite on this one. I think we both think we are slightly smarter than the other. Jared has a very keen and decerning mind. While I do research and retain a lot of facts in my head.

Whose temper is worse?
I think we are a pretty darn even on this one. Luckily it works out that we rarely have our moments in sync.

Who does the laundry?
You know I don’t think that I can even recall the last time Jared touched a laundry basket. But that is because he is the one keeping Joey back and busy while I fold, as Joey thinks it is just hilarious to come and knock over my neatly stacked and organized piles of laundry.

Who does the dishes?
Mostly me, but Jared always rinses his plate

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
I do. It is the side with the cradle and easier access to the bedroom door to perform mommy duties. This arrangement however puts Jared next to the wall with only a foot or so of a walk way for him to get around.

Who pays the bills?
Jared pays the majority of the bills, basically all the ones that can be taken care of online. When it needs a check then it is me.

Who mows the lawn?
The contracted worker for the apartments. Joey loves seeing him pass our windows with the fun riding lawn mower.

Who cooks dinner?
I usually cook dinner, but occasionally Jared will think of something creative and make some stinkin’ yummy meals.

Who drives when you are together?
Always Jared. I never have enjoyed driving, and I am so out of practice I think it makes Jared nervous.

Who is more stubborn?
A very enthusiastic vote for me. Think I should be the one with red hair.

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong?

I think that is me usually but he definitely takes his share.

Whose parents do you see the most?
That is just about even! They only live about 4 miles apart.

Who proposed?
He did, at the park where we had both our first date that summer and also where we went on our date we went on in highschool.

Who has more friends?
That is a toughy. He had a lot of friends from high school and mission but being the typical man he is he doesn’t keep in touch with them like I did so I think it is me. But according to his facebook account he has 182 and I only have 90.

Who has more siblings?
Me. He has 5 and I have 8.

Who wears the pants in the family?
Joey

Old Roomies!

2008-11-11T16:57:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I was able to get together with a few of my old roommates from Snow. It got me all nastalgic and I rummaged through my box of college stuff. Decided I would post a few of the pics. All the Girls! Taking a few fun pics!
The 'other roommate' Twanda!

Now this is one of our crazy things we would do almost nightly! We would pour out some powdered coffee creamer above someone holding a match (Brilliant, I know!) and then have a nice long flame!

It was fun remembering all of the crazy things that we did together.

The parent in me now is just amazed at some of the things we would do, but it was a blast and I wouldn't change a thing about those two years!

Words!!!!

2008-11-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

My Goodness! As many of you know Joey has been putting off talking as long as he could. For just about every other milestone he was way ahead, but for some reason didn't feel a need to talk! Well this week that started to change. For months he would only say 'Mama' and 'Dada' mixed in with a lot of "Tim Allen" style grunts and motions. Several weeks ago mastered the word, "Light" pronounced with an almost German accent. Taught to him by Gma and Gpa Stoker pointing out all the lights in thier yard. This past week and half he started to all of a sudden explode with words. We now have "Bye" "See Ya" "Bird" "Car" "Hot" "Hello" "Love you"
"Poop" "Grampa" "treat" and tonight he gave the big one, "NOOOO!"

Sweet little Jeanie is also starting to make lots of noices and coos and even starting to make little laughs! It is so amazing how fast our little princess is growing!

Super Mario Family!

2008-11-03T11:27:00.001-08:00

For Halloween we were Mario and Luigi and mini Mario and mini Luigi. It was great fun! Joey and Jared made great Mario's! After the pictures I had added some big bushy eyebrows onto Joey and he looked even more like Mario! We bought overalls for Jared and I at Ream's after going to several DI's and other thrift stores looking for them.

Jared and Joey!
Joey really enjoyed his costume. Loved pointing at his mustache and Mom's and Dad's mustaches and loved wearing the gloves even though they were to big for his fingers to stay in.

Please excuse my look here... we took pictures before I put on my regular makeup.

Trick or treating was an interesting experience with Joey. Jared had to work so I took Joey out with Jeanie in my wrap. Joey had a hard time understanding the concept, was nervous and fought going up to houses a bit but loved when they dropped the candy into his bucket.

Failed Costumes!!!

2008-10-30T18:32:00.000-07:00

So for some odd reason I got crazy and decided to make and sew costumes for the kids. My idea was for us all to dress as pirates and make Jeanie our parrot. Unfortunetly I ran into many problems these past few days with them. I made the pirate hat for Joey way to small and he won't wear it anyway. For Jeanie's costume I didn't realize that the fuzzy fabric I sewed to the red onsie would make it to tight to put it on her with out a lot of pain! Sigh, anyway I got to fruastrated and We decided to go in a whole different direction. My sewing abilities was not a total crap out though. I had offered to make a turtle costume for my niece, it turned out pretty awesome!

Jeanie not so happily posing in turtle costume!

This is the parrot costume, was going to glue little eyeballs on the hood. Have her wear yellow pants underneath the onsie and of course sew on some fabric as feathers on arms.

And the Pirate hate made out of a suede skirt from DI

Little Sweet Girl!

2008-10-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

I kept trying to take a picture of Jeanie smiling, she was just beaming smiles, but every time the camera flashed she got a surprised face, but here are a few cute pics of her. The other evening Joey grabbed dad's phone and called mom's phone. We let him answer it and he was so surprised to hear his voice travel through the phones. For some reason I held the camera side ways and it was really dark so sorry!

Little Executive

2008-10-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

So little Joey the other day found dads glasses on bathroom counter. He put them on and went and sat at the computer. I really like the look of glasses on him. he looks like his dad and really smart!

Daddy!

2008-10-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

Jared sure loves being daddy! With new baby Jeanie and moms attention focused on her Jared and Joey have had even more time to bond and play together. When Jared is home Joey often does not want much to do with Mommy, but insists on being held by and hugging and kissing his daddy. He also enjoys playing so many games with him.
The other day Jared was looking at some pictures of himself as a toddler. It is amazing how much Joey looks like his daddy, minus the red hair. We showed him this picture of Jared and said "Daddy" we pointed at him. Think we confused him a bit because he has walked around pointing at himself saying...'da dattie'

MONKEY BABIES

2008-10-24T17:23:00.001-07:00

Oh our Monkey Children. Many of you remember that Joey's ultrasound produced an image that looked like a monkey scratching its head. and now here is our sweet little girl with her fluffy hair and we compare her to a cartoon gorilla! Oh well I guess our children had no hope for not having some sort of 'monkeiness' about them. I have always had a bizarre love for any sort of primate and Jared has his long red haired orangutan arms. Grandma Reece made a cute blanket that has sweet little ballerina monkeys. Inspired Grandma Stoker dressed up a monkey as a ballerina. Cue "Cheer Up Sleep Jean" Sang by the... MONKEES!!!

Double the Trouble!... But Double the Fun!

2008-10-24T17:04:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago Jared started work at Harmon's. He is in the Bakery and I am sure loving that. He often comes home with muffins, bagels and those fancy artisan breads. Jared also enjoys the work that he does... a welcome break from the Life Insurance and Car Sales when the work days were 10+ hours and there was so much boring down time. He keeps himself so busy now at work that he rarly will take a break in a 9 or 10 hour shift as he just forgets!

It has been interesting getting used to having the two kids. I was lucky the first few weeks I did have Jared home alot with the job transitions. Sometimes I begin to think that "all the stars need to be in alignment" to be able to get many things done or get out of the house. The stars being having both babies happy and timing of naps and meals. But I sure do love having the two kids. Joey loves his baby sister so much! He always insists on holding her. It has been tricky trying to keep Joey from 'loving' Jeanie to death or moving her.
It is tricky at times having the 2 babies but I have never regretted the decision to have them so close. Even if it means I end up never getting my makeup on having a perma spit-up stain on my right shoulder.

Baby Jeanie!!!

2008-10-24T16:23:00.001-07:00

Wow! It has been months and months since I have done anything to update or blog. This was due partl to shifting of work schedules and partly to having lost my creative side for awhile. For those that don't know what we have been up to for the past few months, Jeanie was born on July 30th. I had gone in to hospital earlier to have an ultrasound because the doctor believed that she might be growth restricted and the decided that it would be best to have her induced that day. I had planned and prepared to have a unmedicated birth. But with having to be induced and know that that the pitocin would cause harder and stronger contractions and more monitoring and being tied to the bed I decided I should just go ahead and get an epideral. I waited until I was to about a four (The suggested time for a epideral). The nurse told me it might be awhile as the ana... anisthea...ologist....drug guy was backed up. When he finally showed up, they started to prep me. cleared my bed and rubbed the iodine on my back when I all of a sudden had a urge to push and lied down and with out any effort in pushing Jeanie was born! It was such a surprise I lied there for several seconds while the nurse called the doctor and started to untangle and start nasal aspirating her nose across the room when I remembered to yell the question to Jared if it was a boy or girl? (If you remember we never did get a real look at the gender with several ultrasounds.) I was lucky that I was able to go ahead and still have the unmedicated birth that I had hoped for. After the birth was so much more enjoyable this time around. I felt so incredibly good that even I wasn't sure if I had just given birth. I loved being wide awake and not groggy and funky feeling from the epiderals and such. We had Joey there with us while at the hospital, and although We had a few difficult moments with him there We really enjoyed his presence. Watching his cute little antics made me excited for the next addition. At one point the volume was up real loud on the heartbeat monitor for Jeanie and Joey danced and bounced to the beat. He also sat on my lap and fed me ice chips. Luckily though Grandma Stoker had recieved a 'pocket' call from Jared's phone and heard a sleepy onry Joey at some point right before or after birth and came on her way and was there to see Jeanie and take Joey home with her. Jeanie is such a beautiful Baby! She was born with a full head of light brown hair. "I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair...." (its an old song.) She also has such long pretty fingers and perfect fingernails. She also was lucky and didn't inherit my feet. She has long narrow feet and toes. What a beauty! These two videos are not the most flattering ones of me... but cute of the babies so I will post anyhow.

2008-03-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

So we went to have the ultrasound today, and our little peanut in there decided to stay very modest and kept thier legs tightly together the whole time! So we were unable to find out for sure what the gender is. They said that they are leaning more towards a girl- but could not really say. So most likely it is a little girl! Well the day before I prepared both pages for whatever the gender would be. Since it is not quite sure I will just post them both. It was fun seeing our baby move and yawn and all. We got some video and will be updating that on her soon as well. Notice the cute shape of a leg on the picture on the blue page. Very sweet. Anyway... We are open to peoples 'intuition' and old wives tales to help us find out our babies gender!

2008-03-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

Wow! It has been a almost two months since we posted anything new on our blog! Mostly due to our computer having a lot of problems. It has been a fun few months as the days have gotten warmer we have been able to take Joey out to enjoy the outdoors.
Here are some pictures of the things that we have been up to the last few months! (Mostly what Joey has been up to.)

The first video was taken with my cell phone camera while we waited for Daddy in the car. I had set the car keys in the cup holder. When Joey picked it up and with no trouble at all slide the key into the ignition. He did that several times before I decided to take some video. Sorry it is bad quality.

The second video is of part of our Easter Egg hunt. Joey just loved it. We had to keep him in our arms to keep him from gathering the eggs before it was time. It is kinda long but it is really cute!

Anyway. Hope you enjoy the video and pictures. Also, tommorow is the day we find out what the gender of our baby will be! Yeah! So we will be sure to post some more onto the blog with that footage.

2008-03-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

2008-03-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

2008-03-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

2008-03-25T21:02:00.000-07:00