Swagbucks

So, I may be the last person on the planet to discover this site, but really, this is kind of cool.  Basically, you download their toolbar and use it for your internet searches and you get "swagbucks" for doing it.  It takes about 10, give or take, searches to earn points, so I just search for random things.  Once you win, you can't win for a few hours, so I do a search in the morning, at lunch time, and right before bed and I earn anywhere from 7 to 15 swagbucks each time.  You can then use those "bucks" to purchase stuff on their site.  The thing that interested me the most was for 450 swagbucks you can get an Amazon $5 gift card. I have been buying diapers on Amazon (you get 30% off for joining their mom's club and using their ship and save option) and by doing this, I won't have to pay so much out of pocket for diapers.  Anyway, I started doing this 2 days ago and I already have 146 swagbucks.  Those weren't all from just searching though.  You get 30 just for signing up, you can refer other people and earn the same bucks they are, up to 1000 (so I had John sign up), there are also movies to watch, polls to take,and games to play (not sure that those three things are really worth my time yet).  They also have special deals throughout their site that earns you more bucks if you purchase those deals.  Also, if you shop online, you can go to stores through their site and earn 2 swagbucks for every dollar that you spend.  I had to buy the kids some new shoes so I went to their "earn" tab, then clicked on shop, then went to Payless (they are having their BOGO sale and you can get an additional 20% off by using code 41030! then have it shipped to the store for free) bought the kids some shoes and I get cheap shoes and bucks toward diapers.  I was kind of excited about it all.  They also have stores like Walmart, Target, Children's Place, I tunes, and lots more, so if you do a lot of online shopping, it is totally worth the extra steps to go through their website.  Anyway, if you're thinking of signing up, it would completely awesome if you would sign up through my referral link:
http://swagbucks.com/refer/MandieK
 Let me know what you think after you tried it out.  There is someone in may ward who has a goal to pay for all of Christmas this way.  Not sure if I will be able to be as dedicated as she is, but I am willing to put in some time to get diapers for cheaper!

6 months

Wow, time is flying by!  My thought lately is that I sure wish this cute baby phase would last a little bit longer and the toddler years would be quite a bit shorter!

Jordan is a very happy kid.  Loves people.  If we have people over at night, she is so well behaved.  If it is just me and daddy watching TV, she loves to whine.  She loves watching Connor be a complete goof, but does not like it when he gets too close.  She feels much safer with Sydney and will even let her feed he a bottle every once in a while.  She sleeps pretty good from about 9pm to 6am but will usually go back to sleep for an hour or two.  On occasion she will wake up once in the night because she wants to be re-wrapped tightly.  She takes two 2-3 hour naps and one 1/2 hour one on the days she is allowed to have a schedule.  Unfortunately, some days only allow for short naps in the car through out the day.  She is almost sitting on her own but is still not to keen about being on her tummy unless everyone is laying down with her.  She started eating baby food.  She is not so keen on the rice cereal unless it is mixed with her favorite sweet potatoes.  She also loves squash and carrots.  We're still working on the peas.  We'll have to start fruits next week I guess so she doesn't turn orange.  Oh, and she has big "Shawanda lips" when she is concentrating.  At her 6 month checkup, she weighed 14 lbs, 11 oz (which is the 25%), is 27 inches tall (which is the 90%) and her head is 41 3/4 cm (which is 28%).  I am very curious to see how she compared to the other two kids, but that would require digging through boxes of books downstairs, so that will have to wait until John has a minute.

Goodbye 2010

Christmas is absolutely more fun with kids, but New Years, that is a little bit of challenge with kids.  We were invited over to a neighbor's house, which was a lot of fun to get to know a few more people in our neighborhood, but I felt a little bad because all of us had little kids who needed to get home before the magical midnight so most of us bailed on them around 9:00.  I think the only reason we made it that long was because Jordan thinks all parties are for her and she is very well behaved in large groups, but even she has her limits. 
This year, Sydney knew that New Years Eve was all about staying up late, so she wanted to do it this year.  Since we had a long weekend to recover, we thought we would give it a try.  We set up a tent in the front room and set up a movie on John's laptop, hoping that they would really just fall asleep, but we invited my cousin and his family over and they have little Ikaika.  Ikaika apparently does not go to bed.  I think he ran around our house for about 3 hours straight.  I bet he crashed hard when he got in the car!  Anyway, back to the tent.  When John was setting it up for them, Connor was jumping around in the hallway saying, "This is the best day ever!"  I guess we need to do that more often.

When the countdown started, we brought the kids in to watch the ball drop.  We yelled "Happy New Year" gave a few kisses.  We did NOT go outside to bang pots or watch the fireworks because it was frickin' freezing!  Then Sydney asked, "That's it?"  Yep.  That's it.  We packed them in their sleeping bags in the tent and brought Ikaika in the living room with us and my kids were asleep within 2 minutes.

So, goodbye 2010.  You were a crazy year.  You brought us a very happy, healthy baby and a starting to get pretty busy dental practice.  There were a few downs, but even more ups.  I hope the ups will continue in 2011. 

Christmas Magic

I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way, but children definitely bring back the magic of Christmas.  As a kid, Christmas so exciting, I could hardly contain myself.  As a teenager it was still pretty fun, but my favorite part was watching my little brother's reactions.  Well, then my brother grew up and out of the "magical Christmas phase" and I got married and Christmas changed.  It was still fun and I loved getting together with family, but it just didn't feel the same.  Well, now we have kids who can hardly contain themselves at Christmas time and the magic is back!  This Christmas was at the top of my list of great Christmases.  I wasn't pregnant and sick like last year, I didn't feel rushed and busy like others, I felt like our plans with my brother's and their in-laws worked out well (hopefully they agree), and of course the food is always fabulous!

On Christmas Eve, we wanted to take the kids sledding, but the beautiful sun melted most of what we had, so we took the kids to see "Tangled" instead.  Super cute movie by the way.  I wasn't sure how Jordan would handle it, but she seemed to love it and then when she got tired, she just slept. Too bad the other babies around us didn't do the same for their tired parents.  Then we came home and got ready for my dad's family to come over for dinner.  We kept is simple with croissant sandwiches and a few sides.  I certainly didn't want to be cooking all day and John didn't want to be doing dishes all night, so it turned out really well.  Although, Sydney did help me make a wonderful Peppermint Cheesecake.

   Then, we continued with a tradition we started last year where everyone brings a wrapped game and we draw numbers to see who gets what present.  Then, we play games until everyone has to go home and get ready for Santa.

 

 

 

Then, the kids opened their Christmas jammies and they were all excited to have footie jammies (there is probably a better name for them, but that is what we call them).  After the traditional "Claymation Christmas" and a quick reading of  "T'was the Night Before Christmas" our kids were more than ready to go to bed and so were we.

Loved the look on Jordan's face!

Christmas morning was very relaxed.  We let the kids open their stockings first things, so of course they did that before I woke up, so there isn't any pictures of that.  Then we have a nice breakfast, which is a tradition passed down from John's side of the family that I quite like because it makes Christmas morning last a little bit longer.  When I was a kid, we would wake up and burst through all of our presents and then it was over.  As a kid I didn't mind because we didn't have to wait to open our presents, but as a parent, I want it to last as long as possible.  I thought the kids would be whining, asking when they can start, but they were actually really good about it.  It probably had a lot to do with dad making their new favorite breakfast, egg sunny side up!

Then, we got to the presents!  Our kids are still at the age where they enjoy every present they open.  It isn't a mad dash to open one, throw it to the side and hurry and open the other.  Not sure how long that will last, but it is nice right now.  Anyway, here is a "few" of our favorites.

 They kept saying, "what is this?" Hence the fake excitement on their faces.

Don't worry, they got excited later.

 I'm going to regret putting this picture up, but just had to say THANKS!

Sometimes it can be fun having a friend in Germany.

We all thought this was the coolest!  They spent all morning building it.

 

After a long morning of playing with our toys, we headed over to my mom's house for more presents and our wonderful tradition of a crab and shrimp dinner.  This year we also added a roast for my sisters-in-law because they don't like sea food all that much.  What a shame :)

 Pretty sure she has used this every day since!

 Rock on Marshall!

 What is cooler than a walking, shooting, Iron Man robot?

 Quite the coveted toy! Should have got Matt and Mitch one

 Marshall on the other hand did not want one

 

 She was just happy to be at the party.

Our little social bug.

 But really, who needs toys?

 John got Halo Wars Risk and I guess it is quite the intense game.

Vegas

This year, instead of giving each other gifts, my brother and sisters-in-law and John and I decided to take a much needed vacation without kids.  Well, our kids anyway, he he.  My brother and his wife aren't 21 yet, so we joked with them quite a bit about still being kids.  The funniest was we bought the "Buffet of Buffets" pass (really cool, we got to eat at 10 different buffets for a 24 hour period) and they made Mitch and Linsey were a wrist band because they weren't old enough to buy their own and get a card like the rest of us.  Sorry guys, soon though.  Anyway, we had a lot of fun seeing a car-eating-dragon, walking the casinos and seeing the Christmas displays (not very many, but the Bellagio didn't disappoint) and all the crazy people.  We spent a lot of time waiting in food lines, we definitely did not time that right. I would highly suggest the buffets at the Paris hotel and Caesars Palace.  Excellent!  Did a little gambling- way to go Matt and Jodi for coming out on top, did a lot of shopping, and spent some time in the hotel hot tub.  Thanks guys for a great get away.  Next time, lets hope we can drive home faster than 35 miles per hour and hopefully avoid the rain and snow! Also, special thanks to my mom for watching all 3 kids for the weekend!

 This was the first thing we saw and I will have to admit, it was pretty cool!

 Mitch and Linsey at M&M World

 Me and John at the Bellagio

 Matt and Jodi at the Bellagio

 Thank you lady for not running off with my camera

Gotta love the souvenirs!

Christmas Recital

Sydney did great again at her dance recital.  She danced to the Sugar Plum Fairies from the Nutcracker and looked so beautiful.  Unfortunately, the video camera ran out of batteries half way through and the camera ran out of memory space.  Luckily grandpa had his video camera!  So, this is all I got.

Santa came to Grandma's House!

Things were just getting a little too crazy at Christmas time with everyone trying to see all their family and all their in-law's families, so we decided to do a family Christmas party at the beginning of December with my mom's sisters and their families.  And ya, Santa came.  Although Connor wouldn't show it at the time, he has told all of his friends since.

 

 

 

 Chase saying "mmm" about his soup

 Connor's face really didn't change much

(This was the same face he had while riding rides at Disney World too!)

 Jordan enjoying her present from Santa

Carter got to be Rudolf as we all sang the song