What’s not to love about the latest set of collectors bills from Swagbucks just in time for Valentines Day? The collectors bills are worth a variety of amounts of reward points and if you collect them all, you’ll earn an extra 14 bonus Swagbucks to use toward free stuff! The bills come out at midnight PT on Monday and will be available only through Search until 11:59pm PT on Valentine’s Day.

I love Swagbucks and can’t say enough about it! For instance you could be winning really big. Last month I put my reward points toward gifts cards and reaped the benefits big time. I just received my 20.00 order from the gifts cards I redeemed to Alice.com and I also earned 25.00′s worth of money toward Amazon.com which I used to purchase a few fun things for my kids and myself!

Don’t forget, today is Friday and that means it’s a Mega Swag Bucks Day!  That means an increased chance of getting bigger amount of Swagbucks!

Farmer Jason and Buddies Nature Jams  has 16 original songs on CD and includes a bonus DVD that features four fun music videos! The booklet that comes with the CD is very colorful and features really colorful eye catching illustrations for every song! Many guest artist sing along with Farmer Jason such as REM’s Mike Mills, Cheap Trick’s Tom Petersson, Iris Dement, Alison Brown, Suzy Bogguss, Brandi Carlile, Terrance Simien, Webb Wilder, Todd Snider, Tommy Ramone and Hank Williams III, and more!

Farmer Jason and Buddies Nature Jams has  been a huge hit with my children ages nearly 4 years old and a little over 1. My son loves the song Dison the Bison and whenever it plays he’ll go round and round in circles. And my daughter keeps asking when we’ll be able to go hiking at one of our local parks again. I admit I’m itching to get back out explore nature more myself too. The songs are fun and I really like that before each song plays that a background information discussion is added which is a great education aspect!

I encourage you to check out Nature Jams for yourself and pre-order your own copy today! And while you are at it, check out Farmer Jason’s newest record label  myKaZootv, which just launched [http://www.mykazootv.com], a new 24/7 interactive kids’ entertainment channel. myKaZootv features hundreds of kid-friendly  music videos, including several from Farmer Jason and his buddies. We invite you and your family to enjoy the fun, day or night, at: http://www.mykazootv.com.

**Fun fact: This CD has just won a Dove Foundation “Family Approved” seal and “five doves” -www.dove.org! **

-Win it!-

I’m excited that two of my readers are going to get the chance to win the following things;

A copy of Farmer Jason’s brand new CD  Nature Jams  (Value: $15)

One official MyKaZoo kazoo! This quality blue metal kazoo will provide kids with
hours of play-along fun, and it sports a myKaZoo logo (Value: $5)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This review is 100% my opinion and has not been edited or reviewed by anyone. I was not compensated in any other way for this product review.

Drivers, prepare to buckle up! The Adventures of Chuck & Friends: Friends To The Finish will arrive on DVD on February 14, 2012, from Shout! Factory in collaboration with Hasbro, Inc. Featuring 10 exhilarating episodes, The Adventures of Chuck & Friends also touts a color-your- own-cover activity.

Follow CHUCK THE DUMP TRUCK character and his incredible cast of friends in this delightfully fast-paced, song-filled, high-energy series for preschoolers. Every visitor to the truck stop where CHUCK lives fuels his exciting fantasies, and he enlists his pals Digger, Boomer, Rowdy, Soku, Biggs and Handy to turn those fantasies into reality.

The Adventures of Chuck & Friends series is currently airing on The Hub TV Network in the U.S. and on Treehouse in Canada.
Our Thoughts… 

It’s no surprise that The Adventures of Chuck & Friends: Friends to the Finish DVD has been a hit in my house. My 3 1/2 year old daughter isn’t really into princesses and girly girl shows and I have a one year old baby boy that loves anything that goes Vroom! I’m pretty happy that for the time being that they tend to like to watch the same things and there’s no fighting over “TV TIME”. I’m sure there will come a day when my daughter might be into chick flicks and my son ninja movies but oh boy that’s looking too far ahead and I’m sure there’s going to have to be some sort of ground rules and tv time splitting situations.  But until all that, I’m pleased that the kids are both happily enjoying Chuck and Friends together.

Parents will delight in knowing that this show is very family friendly. The show focus on teaching life lessons in a fun kid friendly way. There are lots of great characters all being different types of vehicles. My daughter has been singing the theme song of the show all week and my son is totally captivated by it!  Be warned it’s catchy! I welcome this wholesome entertainment and highly recommend Chuck and Friends  for boys and girls up to the age of six.

Check out the Slideshow of Images from the Show below!

The Adventures Of Chuck And Friends: Friends To The Finish
is available for pre-order from Amazon for $11.99 right now!

I printed out this Chuck and Friends Coloring Sheet for my kids this week and you can too!
Click below to download and print the PDF!

 -Win it!-

One of my readers will win The Adventures of Chuck & Friends:  Friends to the Finish on DVD!
Please Enter Below! Open to USA/Canada. No PO Box Please.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned products in exchange for my opinion of them. This review is 100% my opinion and has not been edited or reviewed by anyone. I was not compensated in any other way for this product review.

After twenty-five years, they’re contemplating divorce . . . just as soon as their youngest son graduates from high school. But then an accident erases part of Noelle’s memory. Though her other injuries are minor, she doesn’t remember Eli, their children, or the tragedy that has ripped their family apart. What’s more, Noelle is shocked that her life has turned out nothing like she dreamed it would. As she tries to regain her memory and slowly steps into her role as a wife and mother, Eli helps her readjust to daily life with sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-heartwarming results. But can she fall in love again with a man she can’t remember?

Will their secrets destroy them . . . or has erasing the past given them a chance for a future? Read the story behind the story here.

My Thoughts…
Susan May Warren delivers yet another redeeming story and continues to keep me reading book after book. I’m always looking forward to future stories from her yet to be written.  I’ve had quite a year in 2011 and 2012 was starting out a bit bumpy too with overwhelming amounts of clutter, family issues, surgeries, and never ending strand of colds. The Shadow of Your Smile was the perfect read and exactly what I needed to inspire, inform, and remind me that my God is a God of second chances.

I felt and was drawn into the lives of these characters, each dealing with their own issues revolved around a single event that tragically changed their entire worlds.  Susan beautifully intertwined the lives of five characters in such a way. I loved how descriptive the surroundings were brought to life and felt as if I could see the beauty of Deep Haven as vast and rugged as it is.

This is story filled with tragedy, humor, love, separation, hidden secrets,  and forgiveness. There are scriptural references of which I always love to see in Christian fiction book. The story felt real and I am sure we can all relate in one way or another. There’s a good amount of Book Club discussion questions in the back too!  I like this book a lot and highly recommend it! Now to get my hands on the other Deep Haven Titles!

Read reviews by other readers in the Blog Tour at: http://litfusegroup.com/blogtours/text/13448479

More about Susan:

Susan May Warren is the RITA award-winning author of thirty novels with Tyndale, Barbour, Steeple Hill and Summerside Press. A four-time Christy award finalist, a two-time RITA Finalist, she’s also a multi-winner of the Inspirational Readers Choice award, and the ACFW Carol Award.

A seasoned women’s events speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!. She is also the founder of www.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice. You can find her online at: www.susanmaywarren.com.

Sometimes love requires a little forgetting … Come back to Deep Haven and find out what’s been happening in your favorite quaint hamlet. If you’re new to the Deep Haven series – this is the perfect book to start with – each book in the series is a stand alone story.

Susan is celebrating the release of The Shadow of Your Smile by giving away a prize pack worth over $200 from 1/9-1/28.

One grand prize winner will receive:

• A $200 Visa Gift Card (Use that to rekindle a little romance, treat yourself to a spa day, snap up those shoes you’ve been eyeing, or purchase a few great books!)
• The entire set of Deep Haven Books

The winner will be announced on 1/30/12 on Susan’s blog,Scribbles!
Just click one of the icons below to enter and tell your friends about Susan’s giveaway
on FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning.

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned book in exchange for my opinion of it. This review is 100% my opinion and has not been edited or reviewed by anyone. I was not compensated in any other way for this book review.

Last week, I finally dove into the world of Thrift and Consignment stores and boy what a discovery it has been! I mean, I’d been to our local Goodwill and Salvation Army stores on occasion but this time I checked out some local smaller thrift stores and a quite larger one a few miles away. Since I didn’t start my post with “I’ll never do that again or I was in shock!” you can guess that I had a fairly decent experience in thrift store shopping.

I went out this weekend without my husband or the kids to shop. And wow, I really need to do that more often. It was nice not to have to keep up with wandering children, feeling rushed as my husband stands around bored out of his mind, or my son trying to pull down my shirt to nurse in front of a crowd of people. My friend Lindsey and I had been wanting to start shopping for the kids next sizes and also for the spring and summer seasons way ahead of time. I think we are really just eager for the Spring to arrive. Living in Oregon where it rains for almost the entire Fall and Winter can be pretty taxing at times and is known to cause some real cabin fever!

The first consignment store that my friend I checked out is called The Red, White, and Blue.  And I really think I need to leave a review about it on Yelp because the ones on there are enough to make you not even check it out! We went on Saturday so we’d prepared ourselves for a crowd. I was only hopping I wouldn’t have to fight for items, get accused of eyeing somebodies merchandise in their carts, get jostled, and all the other scary things you can think up in crowded place to shop! It honestly wasn’t too bad and it was nice to be able to look around without constantly correcting my preschooler (stay at my side, don’t touch that, get off the floor, …the list goes on)  and making sure my baby didn’t grab or rip anything down while in his Ergo carrier since he’s at the perfect height for that while attached to me.

As we entered the store, I was pretty confident that I was going to find exactly what I was looking to get for my son and daughter but I was shockingly wrong! I could find almost nothing in my daughter or my sons size and I wasn’t being picky either, it just wasn’t there! One thing I really disliked was how the items in the store were organized, the clothes mainly. Instead of sorting them by size, they instead choose to group them in sections by color. And that was a pain to dig through. I was in shock to see a boys button down shirt for 3.95 with all the buttons missing! I mean I guess you could replace them yourself but it’s not worth the price of almost 4.00. I could easily get a brand new shirt off a clearance rack at Target for that much.

On a more positive note, I loved their toy/craft/book section! They had some awesome deals on toys and books that  I’ve actually seen on e-bay for much more in price! I have recently been looking to collect the Leap Frog fridge magnet sets and there was one there BUT my friend Lindsey got to it first! She was also looking to get these sets too. I let that one pass because I did have a Word Whammer coming in the mail and she saw/touched it first. No fighting among friends for toys or clothes. It’s funny though because we are both looking for similar things and the same sizes for our kids! I did happen to score a nice lot of five Preschool books for $1.95! One of the books is wipe-able so my daughter can practice writing her letters and numbers. I’m so happy with that find!

Honestly, I still can’t believe there was nothing there for my children clothing wise! I’ll have to check back when they restock and make sure the next time I go, it’s not on a weekend. It was pretty busy but at least the lines moved quickly to check out. I’ll have to always remember to keep cash on hand for spontaneous trips to that store because they don’t accept credit/debit cards. I did find their prices on used clothes to be a bit high at 8.00 for a ladies top and 10.00 and up for a pair of pants. After scoring an entire box of Ann Taylor clothes for 25.00 through Thred Up, I’ve become a bit picky at prices of used clothes!  So, after an almost unfruitful trip to the first thrift store, we headed to a much smaller thrift store in our area that is owned and run by a Christian family that I’ve visited by myself a few times now.

I think getting vaccinated is very important. Both my three year old daughter and my 1 year old son are up to date on all recommend vaccinations. I believe vaccinations are very important in helping  prevent in spreading and also coming down with horrbile diseases that could lead to life long impairments and sometimes even death.

I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone these days that parents not vaccinating their children has been on the rise. I think is a very dangerous and can cause potentially harmful results not just in the child not becoming vaccinated but to others they come in contact with.  This is one reason why I jumped on board when I was given the opportunity to inform my blog readers about Infant Meningitis  and  the non-profit organization Meningitis Angels behalf of Mom Central

About the Meningitis Angels…

Meningitis Angels is a national non-profit organization founded in memory of Ryan Wayne Milley, the only child of Bob and Frankie Milley. Ryan’s life was taken at age 18, as a result of meningococcal meningitis/meningococcemia.

Hundreds of families from across America and around the world make Angels one of the largest meningitis organizations globally.

Meningitis Angels educates the public, health professionals, child care facilities, schools and universities on not only meningitis but other vaccine preventable diseases and the preventions including vaccines, though personal stories, our educational brochures, posters and videos.

I figured I’d put it off till after I had my baby but once again, I didn’t get to it! I was consumed with my new baby, potty training, and kept telling myself I’d save it all for my next baby. Then I thought I again, people could be using all of this, I could be swapping it out so as to by new needed clothes for my family…. Did I really want it to be dragged around place after place in a box for the next five years? No, I didn’t! So as hard as it was to say good bye to the adorable little out fits my son and daughter once worn I’m glad I’m doing it. Getting rid of so many things is very freeing. I feel as if a huge burden has been lifted. And it makes me so happy to meet other mother’s that will be enjoy and getting as much use of the items as I once did. In fact most of the things I have is because another family passed them along to me as well.

So where exaclty is it going? Well, I’ve been using one of my favorite swapping site called Thred Up! Thred Up is a company that you can buy and sell your kids outgrown clothes. I LOVE Thred Up and have swapped and recieved many great items for my family!  I think it’s a great way to save money! I often have found it more affordable than shopping at Goodwill and my local consignment stores.

Right now my living room looks like it should be featured in an episode of Hoarders. I’m working on getting all of this moved within two weeks time. I’m happy to say I’ve already shipped about 8 boxes out and working on more.  And whatever doesn’t get picked on Thred Up is either going to my local goodwill or I’ll send it in through Thred Up’s concierge service to see what I possibly can get for it.

Swapping is helping me be able to get my children new clothes for 2012. We are in need of petite or slim sized 4t clothes. I’m mainly looking for dresses, leggings, socks, and size 9-10 shoes for her.  And for my son, he’s starting to grow out of his 12 month and we are on the search for 18 months shorts, tops, socks, and light spring/summer jackets.  I’m a bit picky when it comes to their clothes. We aren’t sports fans of over here so for Owen I’m looking for anything but sports…! And for my daughter, she likes robots, unicorns, Sanrio, Fairy… not really into princess stuff. So getting rid of things is helping me also take inventory of what we need. My next project is going to be the kitchen!

Are you tackling anything this year?  

Review below written by guest reviewer: Justin Lowmaster a.k.a My Husband

Castles of Burgundy is a German game by Ravensburger. It has the feel of other similar games, and like most German games while competitive, there is not any attacking other players. This game is fact is free of any war elements of all kinds.

The theme of the game is 15th century Burgundy, where you play as a prince devoting your effort to building your estate via trading and building. While thematic, no knowledge of actual history is needed to play, and I don’t think playing the game will teach you any history, but it will develop planning and decision making skills.

The game board is small, but organized sensibly and isn’t cluttered. The setup is quick if you keep the pieces organized in the box as mostly it just involves just shuffling some tiles. It can be played by all 4 players on a small IKEA 4 place table (A table that barely fit even the main board, never mind the cards, of Arkham Horror.) There is a player board for each player that is also small and well organized. All play happens on the main board and on the player boards, with a supply of tiles to the side. The standard player boards are all the same, but there are 8 other ones that are different, for advanced play. They are sturdy, but you could laminate them if you felt the need, so long as they would still fit in the box when you got done.

To learn the game, I highly recommend just setting up the game and going through a couple turns. Some of the rules make more sense when you can see the board and the different tiles. The game is divided into 5 phases, and each phase contains 5 rounds. Every one of them plays the same. While each round is the same, the choices available are constantly fluctuating, keeping you on your toes. The main point is to move tiles from the game board to the player board, then from the player board convert the tiles to victory points. Some things give you points right away, but a large portion of your points come from the Knowledge tiles you take which give you points at the end game.

The board is also set up to scale from 2 to 4 players without any additional setup, just fill in the spots with a number lass than or equal to the number of players, and leave the other spots empty.

As the game ends at the end of the last phase, thus always at the same time, and the fact that the rounds go very fast, it’s a fast paced game, and can actually easily stopped at the end of a round and is easy to pick up again. Your long term strategies should be fairly obvious at any point of the game, so your not likely to forget what you were doing. This is good when you have two kids under the age of 4 who might at any time wake up or start assaulting their sibling.

Castles of Burgundy is a fantastic game, and will get as much play as possible. It’s fast setup, and fast game play, means there is more of a chance to work it into our frequently interrupted life.

Of course, when the kids are old enough, we’ll be playing it with them.