Do you SWAG?

If not, you should be!

What's swagging, you ask? Ahhhh...I'm glad you asked!

Simply click the banner, sign up for an account and begin earning "search" points for every search you do.

What? Why would I search through swagbucks instead of google, etc?

From swags site: www.swagbucks.com features a best in trade search feed, which includes results from Google & Ask.com. If you're already searching the web, why not win prizes, while continuing to receive the same great results you are accustomed to?

So, frankly, you should use it simply because swagbucks pays you to search and it's just that easy!

I've been using it for about a month (very mild use as I have little to search nowadays) and have earned my first amazon gift card...and there are lots of prizes but gift cards are my fav.

How will you remember to swag search? Great question! They've thought of it though-just upload their toolbar and click it everytime you want to search. You'll be awarded approx 1-5 swag bucks every few searches- so, in my case, in one year of swagging, I should easily have $60 in amazon gift cards-simply for clicking a different search browser than I used to use.

Go ahead, try it! I dare ya!

My life-updated.

I don't even know where to begin...

I guess I should say, nothing profound will be shared herein-just normal boring life stuff-which is good-I don't want to have profound things to share;-)

Griffin had his 2 month check up. All is great with him. He's a terrific baby! Seriously awesome baby! He weighed 9 pounds 14 ounces and was 21 5/8 inches long. He plotted in the 10th percentile, which humored me, since I think he's such a chunk;-) In my defense, if you plot him his height v weight, he is 50%tile which is perfect!

He is wearing 0-3 months clothes. He eats 5 ounce bottles of whatever formula is on sale about every 3 hours. He does bless us with some 4 and 5 hour stretches and has slept from 11pm to 6am a handful of times;-) He smiles and coos-he seems to be catching on the being social. He has found his tongue and often sticks it in and out over and over *so cute*. He's wearing size 1 pampers cuddlers (the only way to go in my humble opinion;-). He's a quiet baby and usually pretty content in his swing or bouncy seat-but he LOVES to be held. Especially lying on his tummy on Tim or I's chest;-)

That's about it for the Griffster's boring (but beautiful)baby life.

As for the rest of us, it's been ridiculously hot here. Today is a cooler day finally but I have no desire to go outside at the moment. In fact, there are 2 neighbor girls (with Jake) and 3 neighbor boys (with TJ) inside right now playing(read destroying) my house.

Owen is back to normal from his surgery...next task-potty training (someday).

Jacob is mean right now-yes, you read that right-he's mean. We are working on it but it's a battle for sure. Yesterday was spent with him "grounded" all day from playing outside or electronics so that meant for punishment for the parents too;-)

TJ is enjoying his summer thus far with 3 boys from the neighborhood. They enjoy fishing in a nearby pond (don't ask, it makes me nervous) and playing the Wii, etc inside when it's too hot outdoors. He's been wanting to do the workreation program where he volunteers for an hour to earn a free pass to the pool, but 1) it's soo early to take him and 2) it's been so hot and Owen wasn't cleared for the pool -until now.

Tim is busily working at Wag. I have him sucked into my new couponing lifestyle. We hardly ever buy anything not on sale/with coupons. He's all about the deals. He's even instructing a portion of a local couponing class tonight in regards to Walgreens customer loyalty program called register rewards. He is also busy with his volunteer work of mentoring/counseling others in regards to finances including a new project with Habitat for Humanity...oh and I almost forgot-he's on a team for a book review for a book our Pastor is writing...busy fella.

Me-I'm just enjoying the boys and the summer break. I'm totally into couponing now as a way of life. It's been an amazing blessing for our family to not only save money but also get to try out things I never would've bought before. I don't think I'll ever pay for newspapers, shampoo, soaps, toilet paper, toilet bowl cleaner (and some other cleaning products), tooth brushes, tooth paste, and more AGAIN! It's amazing once you get the hang of it. And fun. And it really fulfills my shopping bug. And that's about it for me and for all of us I guess. Here are some pics from recent adventures:

All of the boys (except Griffin) have been sick recently-here's pics (Owen was already over his when I took the pic of him:-)






The 2 middle boys playing dress u:







Flowers from my garden:

Happy 2 months old Griffin!!!

A big post will be done later but this will have to do for now (2 month check-up Friday;-)

Happy Father's Day 2009

(they don't make cute Dad's day tees in baby sizes, I guess;-)



It was asking too much for 10 eyes to be looking at the camera and 5 mouths to be smiling at the same time;-) But I am grateful for all of "my boys" to be in one place at this time-as it all will fade way too fast.

7 weeks-Milestone alert!

wait for it...

...it's coming

not quite...

ah! there it is! The Griffinator Salivation has a new trick-

He can smile on demand!

It's been coming for weeks now-but I wanted to be sure and catch it on good ole dig media!;-)

Also, Owen has had an up and down night. He woke up from his 2 hour nap on me at 7pm and was very outta sorts. He was not due for pain meds yet, so we sat outside (it's a nice night here). He had a Popsicle and his pain meds and then a gentle wagon ride around the neighborhood (thanks L&D gals for the red wagon-it's a smooth ride;-). Now it's more Scooby for all of us;-)

Home from surgery...

Owen finally got his wagon ride from the recovery area to our van for the ride home (there were not any wagons out for his ride into surgery this very early AM).

We are now home and he is one swollen, sore, and cranky little boy. Tim just got back with his "yucky" tasting pain medicine. Owen walked for the first time and he walked much like a "cowboy" and held his "crotch" saying it hurt-poor baby.

Watching your child in pain is tough-but it could be sooo much worse.

Thank you everyone for their prayers!;-) I'll keep the updates coming as we recover;-)

Recovery

Owen is out of surgery and is doing well. He is very groggy and has a sad green face. We should be able to go home soon. This is my first (and probably last) blog post:). Renay is holding Owen so I am blogging for her. There are so many children here in recovery and it is heart breaking. Our family is so blessed. Renay will keep you posted. Love Heather

Waiting...

My sister and I are sitting in the atrium at Riley just waiting now...

Owen did pretty good during our near 2 hour wait/check-in process (Scooby Doo helped). The doctor was running behind so after they took Owen to the surgery suite, we waited for 40 minutes to speak with her (a bit frustrating;-).

So, we've had our gazillion calorie McD's breakfast and are now going to mess with our coupons while we wait. Oh and Facebook is blocked here so I can't even facebook.

That's all for now.

Surgery...

Just a super quick post to remind you that Owen's surgery is bright and early tomorrow (Thursday). My sister and I are heading to Riley with Owen at 5am!!! His surgery is slated for 8am and we are hoping to get outta there just after noon to get him back home.

I'm not so excited about the recovery period and keeping that crazy kid 'mellow' for 2+ weeks...that'll be fun.

I'll update as soon as I can once he's out of surgery;-)

Grand intentions...

That's what I've had in regards to post after post lately...but it just hasn't happened.

I'll start with today:

Today, Wednesday June 3rd has felt like I'm finally in the groove of life with 4 boys---who are all at home with me for the summer. We did normal stuff at home- like clean up the kitchen, clean rooms, and put away WEEKS worth of laundry (which isn't totally finished but mostly done;-). We sat and watched the hermit crabs-the smaller of the 2 shed his exoskeleton last night so the left over shell was very cool to assess and it was neat to watch him try to make his way in his new soft skin. Just normal boring stuff-no errands...no frills...just hangin' out at home-and of course trying to train my very spoiled newborn that his 6 weeks of constant attention are a thing of the past. With the older boys now home for the summer, Griffin will undoubtedly see less mommy attention.

Next week is a big week for us...I have my 6 week post partum check up, in which, I have used every fiber of my being to not cancel as I so don't look forward to such events. Owen has his surgery next Thursday-and I finally got some details which make me feel a little more at ease about the procedure and after care. The poor guy will be on T#3's (Tylenol with codiene) for a couple days and will be restricted from any ride on toys etc for 2 weeks...that will be sad as he loves his ride on's. We will start hosting a Bible study in our home on Thursday nights as well.

I don't know where the past 6 weeks have gone but I'm guessing it is a blur of sleep deprivation, holding, cuddling, feeding, changing, car pooling, park trips, a trip to the zoo, and way too much eating out.

Hey, do you know why the bride was crying? Because she didn't get to marry the best man (ta-da-bum!)...that is the joke TJ just told me;-)

So, I guess I won't get the cute pics of our recent outings on this post but maybe soon. Oh, and I didn't post my end of school pics because they were cruddy and blogger is not user friendly. I tried to use windows live writer but it wouldn't work (sadly). So, I gave up.

I still can't believe it's June 3rd already.

Also, I've had many inquiries about my future with "work" as a nurse and the final answer as of today is (drum roll please):

I'm returning in August for one shift per week. Currently our plan is for me to work Monday night and Tim will go in for his late shift (he works one late shift per week) on Tuesdays so I can sleep a bit after getting off at 6am;-) But, that is months away so I will enjoy my time at home now with my many small children and even then, it's only one day per week.

This wordy post has taken eons as I've been on the phone and parenting as I've tried to make coherent thoughts so I'll end it now and get ready for yet another feeding;-)

Oh, but before I go, do you love my new "Valiant Updates" pic? I soooo love it! I took it myself too-at the park. I wanted to write on the tree trunk with etched type markings but couldn't figure out how or what to say other than "I heart my 4 boys;-)".