Rodeo

This was Skyler and I's 4th year to go to the Lion's Dixie Round-up (aka Rodeo). The Rodeo was one of our very first dates. Skyler probably doesnt remember this, but the first picture we ever took together was at the Rodeo. It has been a fun tradition for us to go every year! This year Skyler's Grandma bought us tickets to go and we thank her so much! We had a great time! Nate was so excited all day to go to the rodeo. He loves seeing horses and cows and when we told him that we were going to see them at the rodeo thats all he could talk about all day! Although he got antsy at times he really loved being there! Unfortunately Nate has outgrown his cowboy boots and he was sad he couldn't wear them! He loved his boots and we are going to have to get him some new ones so he can be a cowboy just like his daddy!

Nate loved waving to all the rodeo princesses as the rode by on their horses!




As we were leaving they had this race car sitting out on display and nate immediately ran over to it! He loves race cars! He was mad when we told him he could get in it!

Long time coming!

So its been just about a month since my last post and so much has happened! I wish I was updating my blog throughout this past month like I should have been! For now I am only going to post pictures of our new valances skyler and his mom made. We have been desparetly needing blinds for our living room window that is 94 1/2" long! We got a few quotes awhile back and the cheapest one we were given was $250 for just that window. We also needed one for our back sliding door because the sun comes right through our back windows in the afternoon/evening and it makes those rooms so hot! You will are also blinded by the sun if you sit in these rooms during those times! This makes dinner time miserable since the sun is beaming in on us. A few weeks ago we were at home depot getting stuff for our drip line (we got some bushes from a friend...i will post about that later!) and we happened to pass down the blind section and notice some long blinds! Well sure enough they were 96" long so they were a little longer then our window, but they were only $18!! So since they were a little longer we decided to make window valances to hang them under. We figured it couldnt be that hard and it would probably add a lot of character to the house. We went and looked at wood and crown molding and before we knew it we purchased it all and it was time to build it! I was hosting bunco at my house in less than a week and was dreading it because we were all going to be blinded by the sun and everyone would be miserable! This was the perfect solution and I was so excited! Skyler being the amazing husband he is promised me he would build the valances and have them and the blinds hanging by bunco! That was a huge relief! Well wednesday came and nothing had been built so I was getting a little nervous! How were we going to pull off building them and staining them and getting them all hung up in 24 hrs? Well a big thanks go to my mother in law for helping my husband fulfill his promise! They stayed up until midnight building them and then worked on them again in the morning finishing staining them! They dried all day thursday and skyler and i hung them up an hour before bunco started! Finishing about 5 minutes before everyone walked in the door :) I love them so much! They make such a huge difference in our house not only heat wise, but look and feel! I couldnt have asked for anything more perfect!! Thanks skyler and tammy!!!

My new find!

Are you earning swagbucks?

I found out about this site on one of the coupon blogs I follow. Swagbucks is one of my favorite sites to win free stuff! I just signed up a week ago and I already have a lot of Swagbucks! Whats Swagbucks you ask? Its a site where you earn points (aka swagbucks) and once you have so many swagbucks you redeem them for prizes (gift cards, electronics, etc)! Its so easy and I dont spend anymore time on the computer then I usually do! In the few days I have been a member I have already earned over 300 swagbucks! You should be able to easily earn 900 swagbucks per month and there are lots of people who earn thousands of swagbucks a month! 900 swagbucks can get you 2 $5 Amazon gift cards! So how do you earn swagbucks? Its simple! Here are some of the ways:

Search on Swagbucks (just like searching on google) throughout the day and earn swagbucks (I usually win swagbucks once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once at night). Amount of swagbucks earned per search varies (in my experience its anywhere from 8-11 swagbucks per time) but you can easily win 600 a month from searches. (honestly if i dont have anything to search, I just type in random things into the search box until it rewards me with swagbucks...things like im tired, swagbucks please...stuff like that and it usually rewards me after 2 or 3 searches :) So it really takes no effort!

Take the Daily Poll each day and earn 1 swagbuck = 30 swagbucks a month

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Click through the Swagvucks Special Offers each day (you don't need to do any of them) and earn 1 swagbuck = 30 swagbucks a month

Install the toolbar, each day you will wake up to 1 swagbuck for having the toolbar = 30 swagbucks a month

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If you are new to swagbucks, they are offering a bonus of 40 swagbucks when you sign up! You enter codeBackToSchool (bonus code exp 11:59 pm PDT on 8/15). Normally you get 30 swagbucks when you sign up, but now you will get 70 right off the bat just for signing up!!!

Check out Swagbucks here:

And that makes 3!

This past week we said our goodbyes and see ya laters to Skyler's brother Justin. He is serving his mission in Brazil and was suppose leave straight to Brazil July 13th and go to the Brazil MTC. His VISA did not come in time so they pushed his departure date back to July 28th and he went to the Provo MTC instead. I had already planned a trip with my mom and sisters to go to California July 27th so I was pretty bummed his date got moved back and I wasnt able to be there for his setting apart. Thank goodness they didnt move his farewell date back so we were able to go to his farewell and hear him speak. He did such a good job!! Nate and I went and said our goodbyes Monday night before we left out of town. It was so sad to watch nate say goodbye! Nate really doesnt understand that he wont see him for 2 years, so it is going to be hard to explain that to him when he asks "wheres jussin go?"They have become such good buds over the last few months and I know Nate is really going to miss his Uncle Justin! Sunday dinners are not going to be the same without him! Even though we are going to miss him like crazy, we are so proud of Justin and the decision he has made to serve a mission. He is going to be such a good missionary! He has such a good heart and is so willing to help and serve people! I know the people of Brazil are going to love him! This makes 3 siblings Skyler and I have out on a mission! Our family has already been so blessed! Reading the letters you get from them brings such a great spirit into our home! Nate sure does miss his Aunt and 2 Uncles, but they are setting such a great example for him! Thank you Amanda, Ty, and now Justin for your willingness to serve! We love you all and pray for you every night!! Never forget you have a family here that loves and supports you, but most importantly you have your Heavenly Father that loves and supports you! He will ALWAYS be there for you even, no ESPECIALLY, in your time of struggles, loneliness and hardships! Turn to him always and during this time while you are gone away from your family and friends is the time you can and will draw the closest to your Father in Heaven. Make him your new best friend! I promise you he wants to be it and he will make the best friend you ever have! Work hard and we will see yall before you know it!!

Nate and his cars saying goodbye to Justin:

Chicago!!

We just got back a few days ago from visiting some of our best friends in Chicago! We have missed them so much since they moved and it was so fun to see them again! Skyler and I have never been to Chicago before so that was just the icing on the cake to tour Chicago! We stayed with Judd and Liz at their parents house and it was so fun! His parents are so nice and fun to be around! We appreciate everything that Judd and Liz and their parents did for us! You guys are the best and we cant wait to come out and visit next summer ;)

We got to Chicago at like midnight on thursday and stayed up until like 3am talking. We slept in on friday which was wonderful! I cant remember the last time I slept in! When we woke up Judd and Liz took us on a tour of Crystal Lake which is the area they live in that is about an hour outside of downtown Chicago. Judd showed us the high school he went to and then we took us to Crystal Lake which is like 10 minutes away from his house.

Skyler and I at Crystal lake.
After going to the lake we went to eat lunch at Portillos. It was so delicious!!! Skyler and I both got the Italian beef sandwich with mozzarella cheese and sweet peppers. It was so delicious we made Liz take us there the day before we left to eat lunch there one last time before we left since they dont have anything like that in St. George.

Skyler and I at Portillos
One of the main reasons we went to Chicago is because Judd's family plays backyard baseball. I must say it is not your everyday backyard baseball. They are legit! They keep stats and have a batting average chart going up their rain gutter! Judd "recruited" Skyler to come play this summer and Skyler was so excited to go and experience backyard baseball at the Thompson Ellis Field. I wish I had a picture of the whole backyard, but I forgot to take one. It is the perfect backyard baseball field! The whole field is surround by trees. It is so beautiful!

Skyler up to bat for the first time

Skyler after hitting a home run his first time up to bat!
They taught be how to take stats!

Skyler and Judd (Love this picture!)
The batting average chart. By the end of our stay skyler made his way up to the top of the batting average chart! Leaving Chicago with the highest batting average! Woot woot!

After playing baseball we played hockey! They have a sports court in their backyard too, so we played hockey on roller blades. Liz and I played with them and it was a lot of fun! I had only roller bladed like 3 times in my life so I was a little nervous! I mainly just stood there and would go after the puck if it came near me. I must add I did score a goal :) After hockey we went inside and showered while Judd's parents went and picked us up some Chicago style pizza! It was so yummy!! Judd's family is huge into playing games and I love playing games so I was in heaven :) The first night we were there we played a game that Judd's brother made up called Who's the Homo? How you play is you get someone's yearbook and you take pictures of the pages that have the student pictures (or you could pass the yearbook around, but that takes longer). Once all the pictures were taken he plugged the camera into the tv and so the yearbook page was blown up big for everyone to see. There is a judge and everyone else writes down who they think the prettiest girl is. When everyone has written down who they think the prettiest, one person points out who we picked as the prettiest girls to the judge. The judge then decides who is the ugliest out of the girls we picked and whoever picked the girl the judge thought was the ugliest out of the pretty girls gets a homo point. The object of the game is to get the least amount of homo points! Ha ha it might sound crazy, but it is fun! I won that game :) After playing games we stayed up and the boys played the new fifa play station game while liz and i watched tv and talked and blog stocked! It was such a fun day!

Saturday we again slept in! The boys has a backyard baseball game they played in at 11. Liz and I went to the Mall!! It was so nice to go to big mall with tons of stores!! Liz and I went to the Mac store where we tried on their new blush that we loved. One of the girls working their had really pretty eye makeup and we wanted to ask her how to do ours like hers. She was busy working on another client, but this guy that worked there offered to show us how to do it. It was the smokey eye look. I have never worn so much eye makeup in my life (I feel like I look goth!) It was fun getting our make-up done though even if i will never do my make up like that!

Before picture
During
After
Liz and I after our goth make overs :)

We stayed at the mall until like 4 and then went back to Judd's house to get ready to go to one of Judd's friends weddings. That was eventful :) We only stayed for like 20 minutes and then headed back to Judd's house. His mom made a yummy enchilada dinner! We played a card game called Nello which was a lot of fun! It is kinda like the game spades and rook. Skyler and I won that!

Playing Nello

Sunday we got up and went to church. Judd teaches the 13 year old sunday school class so we went and sat in on that. It was fun to see him teach! After church we just hung out and Judd's Dad did a fish boil! I am not a huge fan of fish, but it was really good! We played Jeopardy that night. What we did was everyone came up with their own category and 4 questions that went along with that category. One person would go up and read their question and the rest of us all had buzzers and if you knew the answer you would buzz in. If you got that question right you got the number of points the question was worth. If you got it wrong you had to minus half the points the question was worth off your score. The top 3 people with the highest score went to final Jeopardy and the forth place person came up with a question for the 3 finalist to answer in final jeopardy. Judd's dad won that game. We also had casino night that night. We all got chips and we played different rounds of a ton of different games we bet the chips on. The person who wins the most chips at the end of the night got to sign the felt casino table they had and got their picture taken. All winners pictures are hung in a frame on the Thompson's wall. Judd's Dad also won casino night!

Judd's Dad after winning Casino Night
Monday we got up and went on a tour of downtown Chicago! Judd's Dad was our tour guide :) We piled into a big van. He had a microphone and everything! It was so funny!
Judd's parents paid for us to go on a boat tour of downtown which was so amazing! Thanks again for doing that! We loved it!!! While we were waiting for our boat to come to the dock we saw this! It was two guys jumping off the trump tower!! Why you ask? Because it was the stunt men in the new movie being filmed of Transformers 3!!! We got to watch some of it being filmed! It was so cool! (you will see more pictures of the filming below)

This sign was posted on the boat dock

Me waiting to get on the boat
Skyler and I after boarding the boat
Pictures of downtown Chicago while on the boat ride


Our boat was stopped by the police boat because they were filming a scene right above us!

We heard a bunch of gun shots and then saw this!! Liz took the picture at the perfect time!!
Cameras :)
This is what was being filmed above us!


After that exciting boat tour Judd's Dad picked us up and took us to Wrigley Field!


After walking around Wrigley field for awhile Judd, Liz, Skyler and I went to the John Hancock building and ate lunch on the 95th floor!

This it the picture of Skyler and I waiting to go up to the 95th floor Signature Room Restaurant
These are the views from the Restaurant





The John Hancock Building that we ate lunch in
Skyler and I walking the streets the Chicago
This was a cool fountain at Millennium Park
The famous Chicago Bean!



White Sox Stadium
Liz and I in front of our favorite store...Forever 21!

The subway

We went to the Chicago Cubs game that night! They were playing the Houston Astros which was really fun to watch since I am from Houston! I have been to many Astros game, but never to a game at Wrigley Field! I do have to say the cubs fans are great fans! It was fun being there! It was even better since the Astros won hehehe!

Skyler and I about an hour before the game
Sky, Judd, me and Liz
The stadium filled right up!

Our last day there we slept in one last time! Our flight didnt leave until 7 (or so we thought) so we took our sweet time. We went to the mall again and the went and ate at Portillos one last time! After leaving Portillos we headed to the airport that was about an hour and a half away. Almost half way there we realized our flight didnt leave until 8:50! We far enough away we didnt want to turn back, so we go to the airport at like 6. When we got to the airport we found out our flight was delayed until 9:30! Skyler and I ate dinner at one of the restaurants in the airport and then we sat and watched Friday Night Lights Tv episodes that skyler recorded to his laptop so the time actually flew by pretty fast! By the time we flew into Vegas and drove the 1 and a half home we pulled into our drive way at 3am! We were so tired and definitely fell asleep right away!

We had such a fun trip!! I want to say a BIG thank you to my mom and sister Alena for staying at our house to watch Nate and our dog! We appreciate yall so much!! Yall are the best!! Sorry for the long post, but I guess thats what happens when you go on a really fun trip!! It should be longer to considering I have posted in over a month! I leave for California on tuesday for a girls trip with my mom and sisters and our kids! I cant wait!!