What's Up in our Hood

Enjoy a few pictures showing what we've been up to these days.

Car wash. Our place. Cheap!

Update on the garden behind Sawyer. Or should I say what's left of the garden. A couple weeks ago it got hammered BIG time by something. All in one night. Still not sure what that something was...some think it was an opossum. Whatever it was, I hope it got a belly ache! Thankfully he left my herb garden alone, as well as the tomatoes, red potatoes, and lettuce. Everything else was mowed down to the nubbins. I was so mad! Then sad. Then I just resigned to try and plant again. Gardening can be so exciting one day, and so depressing the next. I have Sawyer trained now to tell me if he ever sees an animal out in the garden (usually it's birds) and we run out wildly chasing them off. It's fun :)

 We took the boys to a rodeo at the Deseret Ranch. They LOVED it. Jack didn't want out of his stroller. He wanted to sit right there at the fence where he had the best view of all the action. The sheep  were herded right by him. He'll be out there doing some mutton bustin' before we know it. Sawyer said his favorite part were the horses. George was all smiles...he's a total cowboy at heart.

I finally gave in and gave Jack his first hair cut. Everyone always thinks he's a girl, which doesn't bother me, but it was starting to curl into his eyes. I really wanted to try and wait until after he had his 1-year-old pictures taken, but the poor guy had hair in his eyes, so I went for it. It's not too bad...you can see the 'after' shots in a couple of the pictures below.

Thank goodness his walking hasn't worn off all the leg chunk yet! Love those rolls :)

Sawyer is my big helper in the kitchen. Here we are making a yummy treat of dried bananas with Alaskan black currants (thanks Ab & mom!) squished on top.

We've had this slide thing in our backyard, but it doesn't get much use because there are so many other attractants in the back yard...namely dirt and sand, and when you combine those with water the possibilities are endless! So anyway, George pressure washed it clean and we brought it inside. It gets a lot more use now!

 It was my palindrome birthday - 31 on the 13th. And it's blog-worthy to point out that the year is 2013. 13 is lucky! The boys were great for my birthday. I made a fresh batch of play dough and Sawyer stayed in his chair after lunch and played with play dough long enough to stay in his chair and have dinner! I offered multiple times for him to get down to stretch his legs, but he was completely content playing with the new dough that whole time. I've mentioned this recipe before, but it is the BEST home-made play dough I've ever tried. I used olive oil because that is all I had on hand, not sure if that makes a difference. Jack baby took a good long nap for me too. It was a pleasant day and George made me a yummy angel food cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream! (I've never quite gotten over my addiction to that since eating it while pregnant with Jack.) Another year and life is good. I have two healthy little boys. George is employed and doing what he loves. We have comfortable living arrangements and reliable transportation. We are so blessed.

Woolzies Winner

According to Random.org the winner of the Woolzies Dryer Balls:

Entry #4 Steph

Congrats Steph! I will send you an email to get your info to forward on to Woolzies.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Woolzies Giveaway

**Giveaway now closed. Winner was Entry #4 - Steph!

I've been interested in finding an alternative to dryer sheets. I normally use Bounce (free & clear), but I've heard/read bad things about fabric softeners in general. Did you know dryer sheets and liquid fabric softener contain chemicals that are harmful to humans and the environment? Some liquid softeners even contain formaldehyde, yikes! Many of the chemicals found in dryer sheets have proven to be carcinogenic as well.

Enter: Woolzies - a simple ingenious idea. They are wool balls that you leave in your dryer and use instead of  dryer sheets. They are 100% wool. Would something so simple, clean, and 'green' really work? They were kind enough to send me a sample so I could test them out myself. Guess what, they passed! I've been using them for over three months now and am very pleased with their performance and will continue to use them. As a consumer I was mainly testing Woolzies to see if they would prevent static cling and also 'soften' my clothes.

Pros: No static in all my normal loads - no missing socks clinging to sweaters. The balls just hang out in your dryer so you don't have to worry about an extra step of adding anything. Reduced my drying time - normally around 80 minutes (I do HUGE loads) down to about 60 minutes (this is on a low-heat setting). The wool balls do not shed or shrink. They are not loud in the dryer either. And in my opinion -- the best part is that they are made out of 100% wool, so no worries about weird chemicals covering our clothes and touching our bodies.

Cons: Sometimes the balls will get tangled up in the clothes or roll out of the dryer when I'm unloading...really no biggie to just toss them back in. Also I noticed slightly more static cling, but only in my whites/permanent press loads that usually have silky items that tend to have more static even when using dryer sheets.

$35.95 - gives you 6 wool balls and lasts about 1,000 loads...that works out to a little more than 3 cents/load. They have a great FAQ section on their website, so check it out. Eg. Can I use them if my skin has sensitivites to wool? (Yes you can!)

Note: I like to do LARGE loads of laundry (much to my mother's dismay). The 6 wool balls did fine handling my large loads.

Woolzies is a great company based out of New York and is offering to give one of my readers a chance to win a box of Woolzies Dryer Balls.

Enter for your chance to win by visiting their site: {click here} and leave a comment below about something new you learned about Woolzies dryer balls. For an extra entry you can also click on over to 'like' them on facebook and let me know you did so with another comment for an additional entry.

Giveaway ends 18 March 2013 at midnight Eastern Standard Time. Winner will be announced 19 March 2013 and will be contacted via email. Open to U.S. residents only.

Have a ball and dry some clothes!

Where'd my baby go?

All of a sudden Jack grew up. He's walking. He's talking. (He says, "Maaaaa!" for me :) and 'tata' our version of no. I think he also says 'Ja' for Jack...not sure on that one.) He's clapping. He's giving high-fives. He climbs up and if he can't climb up quite yet he keeps trying and trying. He LOVES throwing. Which is great until it's time to eat. He'll throw the food just because it's fun, even if he's hungry. He gives great open mouth kisses. All these 'advances' make me a little sad (except the kisses of course). Where did my baby go? He'll be one in less than a month! I remember when Sawyer was going through all these stages and it wasn't that long ago. Both of my babies are growing up way too fast! Sigh. They are so cute it hides all the naughty.

Sheer JOY

Sawyer taking his big brother responsibilities very seriously - as shown here while pushing Jack in the swing.

Jack showing off his skills.

12"

I chopped a foot of my hair off and sent it to Locks of Love. I haven't had short hair in a long time and have forgotten what to do with it. At least it still fits in a pony tail! And Jack isn't pulling out quite so much, so that's nice :)