Maggie

Have you ever met one of these perfect babies? This is little bright Maggie. She is one of my 3 nieces born the end of last year. Keaton and I love this little Maggie to death. Keaton often will say (in a whisper), "Mom let's go get Maggie and take her to ours house". I have often thought that was a good plan. Maggie is one of those babies that makes you ache for a baby of your own. She doesn't cry unless hungry and tired. She goes right to sleep when you tell her it is time, and she laughs at your jokes even if they are not funny. What more could you want?

San Diego!

As promised here are some of our pictures from San Diego:

Is there anything better for a boy then to have older boy cousins to look up to?

Keaton is pretty lucky he has 28 cousins. This sure helps in the example department.

I think this was his favorite part of vacation: Nate, Seth and Noah.

My sister is the queen of low-key.

Keaton has this fascination with Buzz Lightyear right now.
She encouraged him to practice his " to infinity and "BEYAR"" off her couch into her love sack.

He thought this was pretty cool. Now the trick is teaching him he

can't jump on everyones couch, just Aunt Meesha is special :)

We went to Wild animal park with Noah. I wore new sandals...what

was I thinking?!? By the end Keaton and Noah were so tired Lee was

trying to keep all three of us going.

The last time I went to the Wild Animal Park was about 15 years ago. At the time my favorite part was feeding the Lorikeets. It still is the big hit.

I was pretty proud of Noah, he stuck to it until he had a flock
fighting for his nectar.

Keaton with my sisters 3 boys at the zoo. Did you know it is IMPOSSIBLE for

4 boys to have their picture taken without one of them

goofing off?

Keaton really thinks his Dad is cool (so do I), he would follow Lee anywhere.

This is them at Seaworld trying to hurry for the Dolphin feeding.

I will forever be a fan of Dolphin feeding at Seaworld. For 5 bucks you get 3 fish.

They have the Dolphins trained so you can pet

them and then feed them. Seaworld is my favorite amusement park,

yes even more then Disneyland.

We went 2 days because one is never enough.

I love all this hands on things at Seaworld.

I think that is how kids learn best, being able to use multiple senses.

Keaton loved to touch the starfish,

not nearly as intimidating as a Dolphin or Bat Ray.

Fascinated by the Shamu show, I still can never figure out how that is possible. How can something so big do all those tricks....does anyone know?

Berry Bliss

So.... never being one to pass up a deal, I bought 2 flats of Strawberries this week for...4.99 each. Being one to never be second best....I made 6 types of jam, 35 jars out of the berries. I guess I was just curious what was the best recipe for Strawberry jam. I also froze 5 pounds and we are eating through 2. I guess I had no idea exactly how much a flat of Strawberries is. SO.... in case you were wondering, here is what I found. Keaton's favorite was a very easy freezer jam called Banana Split Jam click HERE to get the recipe. I liked the flavor of THIS Canadian cooked jam. Lee liked the twist in THIS Pineapple-Strawberry jam, and we were all pretty big fans of this low sugar one:

3 large bananas
3 cups crushed strawberries
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 pouch pectin
pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Put bananas on a baking sheet in the oven for 15 minutes. Cool, peel, crush. Measure 1 cup of banana (i just threw the rest in too). mix with berries and sugar in a medium bowl. Let stand 15 minutes. Mix in pectin for 3 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Put in jars, label and freeze.

I guess in the end Keaton and I came to one conclusion....Strawberries and sugar....YUM!

FHE Flop

Well, we have been really trying on the FHE thing. I was ready to throw in the bag though last night. I prepared a lesson on Queen Esther. We talked about her courage in doing what was right. We talked about what courage means and why it is important. We had played at the park that day with friends. To bring it home I asked Keaton, "So Keaton if Abigail asked you to hit Andrew or throw sand at him what would you say?". Keaton didn't even need to think about it.... he got a mischevious look on his face, threw up his hands and said, "LETS DO IT!!!!". I guess we need some more work on that lesson :)

Favorite finds- March!

This a little late but we have been out of town. I have had a great month of "finds".

First of all I have to tell you about Priceline (priceline.com). I have never used them since I was always worried I would get "Joes Back Alley Motel" and even at $30 that is NO deal. When we were planning our week away to San Diego we knew we wanted to stay in the city a couple of nights (the other nights we stayed with my sister in Murrieta....gotta love family :). I looked into rooms in the area we wanted to stay (Mission Valley) and couldn't find anything less then $120 that was a good hotel. I was frustrated to say the least. My sister talked me into Priceline. I didn't know you could pick the area of the city, the star level of the hotel, etc. They are all name brand hotels. We got a room for 2 nights at the La Quinta for....$40 a night. I started at $25 and went up to $40. It was SO clean, the staff was very friendly and accommodating, and free breakfast (great budget helper :).

Second, in an ongoing effort to cut back I think knowledge is the biggest problem. My friend told me about this website. It lists many restaurants and good choices you can make there. Check it out!
http://www.dwlz.com/restaurants.html
I need to get going on our vacation post that will have to be it for now :)