Having a Creek in the Back is Great

Having a creek right in our backyard is like the best thing ever...especially now that it is getting hot! It also add responsibility since I have to keep an even closer eye on Gideon who is of course drawn to the water. But look how much fun he had in it yesterday...next time I'm putting him in swimming trunks!

He fell down a couple times!

And of course had to taste it!

And Climb rocks!

A Perfect Family Outing to the Zoo

Saturday we had a wonderful family day where we got some errands done and had some fun! First we started off by going by Kroger to return something when we found out they were having some sort of event where they were giving out free food! That was great so we added it to our picnic basket. We also got to get in a fire engine which Gideon loved since he is very much into trucks right now. Then we went by Once Upon a Child where I found a bathing suit for Trizah and swimming trunks for Gideon and got them for $1 since I had a little bit of credit there! Yay, I was needing that. We were then off to the Star and the zoo...where we had a picnic and walked around and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

I finally got to see the star and the amazing view from it!

Eating Lunch

Our beautiful Picnic basket from my brother and sister-in-law

Pointing out the "o" in Zoo

The cutest creatures at the zoo

Worn out after a fun day!

Tirzah and her cousin Judah!

Last week we were able to go and visit Joshua's brother Benjamin, his wife Jamie and their new son Judah. He was born two months exactly after Tirzah. He is quite the cute little boy with lots of rolls of fat. We wanted to get some pictures of the cousins next to each other--Judah has a hard time keeping his head up but aren't they so adorable? I love being an Aunt and having such a cute nephew!

In these pictures Aunt Alaina (Daniel's wife) has Judah and Uncle Benjamin has Tirzah



Aunt Jamie and Tirzah

My Protective Husband!

These are some old pictures from back in the day when Joshua and I were a couple of months away from engagement but I was just thinking about how the one picture constantly reminds me of how protective and loving my husband is. He is always thinking of his family's safety and yet he isn't worried about us because he trusts the Lord! I am so in love with him! I just wanted to share that picture and a couple other ones--they are from when we were doing a star wars spoof.

Swagbucks=Free Gifts

I don't know about you but every so couple weeks around here we have a birthday coming up--usually family since I have so many siblings and now they are marrying. Now we have our first nephew so that is just the beginning of more birthdays. I'm always looking for good deals or any help towards getting good gifts for a cheaper price. So enter in swagbucks, an amazing site that allows me to earn points towards Amazon giftcards which I in turn make into wonderful gifts for family and friends! I've earned many, many amazon giftcards and I use them up pretty quickly towards gifts. So check it out and start earning free money. You can also buy other types of giftcards that are listed below...

What is Swagbucks?

This is a search engine that you register for (free) and then earn swagbucks as you search or even shop online. Most folks that use it for all their searching can earn probably 50-75 swagbucks per week, that’s $5 gift card you earn every 5 weeks! Swagbucks are “bucks” earned while doing normal internet searches. All of the Swagbucks I earn accumulate in my account. Once my account reaches a total of 450 Swagbucks, I can turn them in for a $5 Amazon Gift Card. I save my Amazon Gift Cards and use them for items we need, because I can find all kinds of great items through Amazon.

There are other ways to earn Swagbucks and you can read all about it once you set up a Swagbuck account. Once you sign up, be sure to tell everyone you know so that they can sign up under you and you can earn more Swagbucks! (However, you are not allowed to refer someone else in your own household…just people outside of your home!)

The beauty of Swagbucks is: There’s no catch and it’s all free. There’s nothing weird about Swagbucks or any need to feel nervous about joining me in the Swagbuck craze. It’s just a search engine, and you can earn free stuff or gift cards by using it. I’ve been using it for over a couple of years and have not had one bit of trouble or weirdness with it.

You can sign up for Swagbucks here. It will take you about two minutes. Or one minute if you’re a fast typist.

Swagbucks is a lovely thing indeed. It’s a wonderful way for everyone to earn some free money to use for things they need! (And P.S. There are other goodies and gift cards you can turn in your Swagbucks for. I just almost always turn them in for Amazon Gift Cards because that is the most helpful for our family.)

Swagbucks has added a ton of new gift cards that you can choose from to redeem your swagbucks! We used to only work towards Amazon cards, but now you can choose from a number of other places that are just as good.

Some of the new options:

$10 CVS gift card – 1,249 SB
$10 Home Depot gift card – 1,249 SB
$10 Macaroni Grill, On The Border and other Restaurants – 1,195 SB
$10 O’Charley’s gift card – 1,145 SB
$10 Fandango gift card – 1,175 SB

$5 Amazon gift card – 450 SB

These new options are fun to me, because you have a way to use your web searching to pay for things offline. Think free diapers, paper towels and more using CVS cards!

Gideon and Pops

A Visit to Richmond

One of the amazing privileges of Joshua traveling to speak at other assemblies of believers is the joy of fellowshipping with them and catching up with them. We traveled to Richmond where Joshua spoke and we enjoyed going out to eat with Rady and Rachel (they are not together, just friends) and being able to talk and share after meetings. Gideon and I also got to ride Uncle Robbie's motorcycle--that was fun!

Dance

We were on our way to Richmond when we stopped by to fellowship with friends at a dance. We weren't able to stay too long but it was nice to see people and watch all the fun!

Strawberry Picking

Our family was able to go strawberry picking and boy did we have fun! Joshua and I took turns watching either busy Gideon or little Tirzah. Gideon loved having his pick of any strawberries he wanted, he would sit in the row and eat green, pink or red berries! We eventually got him to just be picking red ones. He would sometimes take a bite out of the strawberry and then place it in the bucket--he was trying to help! We got quite a few strawberries and I'm looking forward to making some jam soon! Last night we had strawberry shortcake!