About the Gardner's!

My photo
This is us! Jared, Stefanie, Anna and Aiden! Anna is 4 and Aiden is 2, time flies so fast! We're doing our best to enjoy life and take every obstacle head on! :) I'm hoping to have this blog be about all the happy things in our life and keep it mostly positive! Obviously, we have things in our lives that aren't so great, but I'll do my best to keep this as uplifting as possible ;)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

A favorite!!

Hey y'all,
I just HAD to tell you about this website that I just LOVE!! I hope you'll check it out, I know you won't regret it!! ;) It's called Swagbucks and it's free and awesome! This is how it works: You download the Swagbucks toolbar and use their search engine in place of the one you already use. Every so often, you'll earn Swagbucks (digital dollars) when you search for stuff and when you earn enough bucks, you can trade them in for free prizes! I just started doing this a month or so ago and I've already claimed a $5 e-gift card for amazon.com! I'm going to keep doing that and saving the gift cards so I can use them for Christmas and hopefully I'll have enough saved up that I can pay for most or even all of my Christmas gifts!! It's seriously awesome! I know I sound like an advertisement or something, but really, it is SO awesome!! And who doesn't love getting free stuff?! Anyway, I really hope you'll at least check it out and if you could, PLEASE sign up through the link I posted so I can have you as a referral! Sign up and refer more people so you can get even more Swagbucks! I just love it!! Here's the link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/StefG
Hopefully that works, I can't tell since it just shows my account! You'll have to copy and paste it too since I can't even post a freakin' link on here!! Seriously, can't figure out this dang blog stuff. If it doesn't work, let me know and I'll post a new link! Thanks guys, I KNOW you won't regret it, especially since it's free!! :)

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Vegas Vegas Vegas!!!!

So, I again won't attempt to post pictures here because every time I've tried to in the past, it's been a HEADACHE. But I will say how WONDERFUL our trip to Vegas was!! It was just Jared and I, the kids stayed at his parent's house....HUGE thank you to them for watching them, I know it wasn't easy!!
This was a much needed break for Jared and I. Get away from "reality" for a few days, away from the kids, away from work/housework, etc. A time for us to really reconnect! We left Monday the 7th and came back Thursday the 10th, so we were there roughly four days and three nights. It truly was FANTASTIC. We stayed at the Stratosphere in one of their newly remodeled rooms, it was SOO nice! I would definitely stay in one of those rooms again. Before we checked into our hotel though, we went and visited my sister in law and her two kids, it was GREAT to see them!! My brother moved to Vegas in October and the rest of his fam joined him down there last month and they had lived just a couple miles from us here, so we've missed them and it was GREAT to see them again! I have such an ADORABLE niece and nephew from them ;) Besides that, we didn't do much our first night there. Jared went to the top of the Stratosphere and I stayed in our room because I wasn't feeling well.
Our second day there, we went to Madame Tussaud's wax museum and it was so much fun! I loved that we could interact and pose with all the replicas there, I had a fun time with it ;). After that, we went to the shops at the Venetian to look around, but once we stepped inside, a lady kinda cornered us and we were lurred with free tickets and spa vouchers to do a freakin' timeshare presentation. Seriously, WORST five hours of my life, total HELL. There was some stupid discrepency with how much Jared made at work for us to even qualify to hear the presentation. Really?! It was ridiculous. So it took us FOREVER and we will never EVER do that again, especially since we lost the spa vouchers!! :( But we did see the Criss Angel show that night which ended up being pretty good and very funny. Not worth the crap we went through at the presentation though!
On Wednesday, we took it kinda easy and just went shopping around a bit. Went to M&M's World and the Coke store and lazed about in a strip mall for about an hour and just relaxed. We also went to the Bellagio to check out a pattiserie we had heard about in the newspaper the Sunday before we left, it's called the Jean-Philippe Patisserie. BEST. PASTRY. SHOP. EVER. I crave their stuff every day now!! I got this Trio Chocolate Cheesecake there that I seriously had a love affair with. Had to have been THE BEST dessert I've ever had, it was amazing!! ;) I was bummed when we got home to find out they didn't ship any of their cakes.....dang it! That night we went to the Tournament of Kings at Excalibur....AWESOME dinner and show, I really loved it!! They get the crowd SO into it and you can yell and scream and get all rowdy and it was a FANTASTIC show!! You eat with your hands which is quite fun and they do all sorts of jousting and sword fighting and all that, it really was SO much fun!!
The next morning, sadly we left. I really REALLY enjoyed our time there and I know Jared did too. We were of course happy to see the kids again and they were ecstatic to see us, but it really was a wonderful vacation :).

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

I am READY!

So, I try to look on the bright side with many things, but there is at least one thing I just won't be optimistic about.......SNOW! I detest it, can't stand it and, sad to say, I really do find it disgusting. There just isn't anything I like about it! I think I tend to get a little depressed in the wintertime, which is probably why I'm such a hermit during this season, because of the cold and snow. That leads me to say that I am READY for spring!!
We were teased a lot the past few weeks with some really pretty, warm days that felt like spring was on its way, then BAM! We get hit with a couple more snowstorms. NOT cool. I am READY for the kids to be able to go play outside without having to bundle them up completely and have them come back inside with their wet snow clothes. I am READY for warm days where we don't always have to wear a coat when we go outside. I am READY for the kids to play at the park on equipment that won't freeze their hands and butts off! I am READY to take out the sprinklers and swimming pool for the kids to play in and enjoy! I am READY to lay out in the sun and enjoy the warmth while the kids play. I am READY for this cold and snow to be GONE!! C'mon spring, stop teasing us and make your appearance already!! Then I'll be one VERY HAPPY lady :).