My Madison

Madison makes me laugh sometimes. The other day, she had a spelling assignment that she needed to write a letter using 10 of her 18 spelling words. She was giggling while she was writing and then told me she was done. Here is her final product: (bold words are the spelling words)

Dear Mrs. Stuebing,

It's Thursday! Saturday is horrible. I have a carton of milk. Are you thirsty? I did all my chores. How's your life going? Mine is quite a scare. Do you have a turtle? I don't. Vinny and Skylar are perfect though. Bye for now.

From, Madison

Well, I guess she did the assignment. She did it in the fewest sentences you could do it in:) She makes me laugh. She is so much fun.

We had parent/teacher conferences and the only thing the teacher said that Madison needs to work on is that she puts too much pressure on herself. Very cute!

Red Pepper Jam

I had this recipe at a baby shower and have been on the hunt for it ever since. I LOVE this. You spread this jam on top of a block of cream cheese and dig in with crackers. So good and worth the effort!!!

2 cups chopped up red peppers (take the seeds out first)
1 cup vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp chili powder
3/4 tsp lemon juice
5 1/2 cups sugar
1 pouch certo (pectin) - 1/2 cup

Chop peppers fine. You can use a chopper or food processor. Measure 2 cups peppers and juice in a large pot. Add vinegar and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered 10 minutes until tender. Stir in the sugar, return to a rolling boil and boil, uncovered for 1 minute. Make sure you do not let it foam up. Just get the sugar to dissolve. Otherwise, the sugar will caramelize. Remove from heat and immediately stir in Certo. Stir for 5 minutes to blend. Pour jelly into sterilized jars and seal. I used the Ziploc containers. Serve over cream cheese with crackers. Yum!

School Harvest Festival

Tonight was the school's "Harvest Festival". The kids got to wear their costumes and they were so excited. So here is Halloween Post #1. I am sure there will be much more to come!!!

Apple Hill Fieldtrip

Logan and I went on a little "Joy School" fieldtrip up to Apple Hill. It was a lot of fun. We went to the petting zoo, hay maz, and ate donuts and fudge. What more can you ask for?

There is another boy, but he did not want his picture taken.

My Buddy!

This past Friday, Logan and I had such a fun day. We went on a little field trip to the firehouse with 8 other friends that are all his age. He had so much fun!

The gang-minus a couple:)


How cute is he?

They even got to sit in the truck!

He was so excited!

Afterwards we went to Costco. He was so cute! He loved "hiding" under all the groceries and then would start to giggle as we passed people. Too cute! It was a very good day:)

Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta was our last stop and by far the best one. It was gorgeous and we had so much fun! We did an "Outdoor Adventure" Excursion that included mule rides, zip lines, a zip line into a river, repelling, and more. We had so much fun and it was worth every penny!

The view from the beach at Peurto Vallarta.

The beach at Peurto Vallarta

The ride from the beach to the Adventure Station.

Ben and I enjoying salsa and drinks after our adventure.

Ben and I going to our adventure.

Michelle and I racing on the partner zip line.

Matt and Ben racing on the partner zip line.

The gang after we were soaking wet!

I love the helmet look:)

I am enjoying my mule ride.

A site from the cruise ship. Random!

Beautiful Puerto Vallarta

Here is our Outdoor Adventure Map.

Mazatlan

Our second stop was Mazatlan. We took a water taxi over to Stone Island and enjoyed being away from all the shopping and tourism. We had our own private beach for a while and then did some fun 4-wheeling and enjoyed an amazing meal at Lety's. It was a perfect day.

Ben and Matt on our "private beach".

Michelle, Matt, and Ben on our ATV's we rented.

Michelle and Matt

Ben and I

Michelle took this cute shot of Ben and I.

Ben enjoying Coconut Milk at Lety's. I did not care for it at all!

Ben on his ATV. He enjoyed this part a lot! He did say on numerous occasions that "if it was not Mexico, we could have explored so much more!"