Poor Maggie

Taylor dressed Maggie up in a leotard...

Our three princesses...

When we're helping we're happy...

...and we sing as we go, for we like to help Daddy,

cuz' we all love him so!

We're not sure what was cleaner, Lauren or the car. :)

I'm not sure if you can tell, but she was SOAKED!!!

New summer do!

I got a hair cut...it feels great in the heat but shorter than I've ever had before! I got about 7-8 inches cut off! Here's a picture before and a couple after...

We all Scream for Ice Cream...

Summer's almost here! Temperature wise it has arrived, yesterday it was 100 degrees outside. Way too hot in my opinion...thank goodness for air conditioning!

Field Trips!

Today I went on Carter's Field trip to Inner Space Cavers. It was very cool. Here are some pictures from that adventure...
Ms. Shrader & Carter

Two weeks ago, I went on Taylor's Field trip to Sea World in San Antonio...my favorite thing was the Shamu show! I want to take the kids back to Sea World this summer as it is one of the best Sea World's in the country (in my opinion). It has roller coasters, a water park, plus all the shows. We only did the shows on the field trip...

Best Banana Bread Ever!

I got this recipe from a friend at church. It is delicious!
Thanks Rachel!

BANANA SOUR CREAM BREAD/MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS:

* 1/4 cup white sugar
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon
* 3/4 cup butter
* 3 cups white sugar
* 3 eggs
* 6 very ripe bananas, mashed
* 1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 3 tsp baking soda
* 4 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Topping for muffins (optional):

* 1/3 cup brown sugar
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup butter, cubed
* 1 & 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F(150 degrees C). Grease four loaf pans. In a small bowl, stir together 1/4 cup white sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon. Dust pans lightly with cinnamon and sugar mixture.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and 3 cups sugar. Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla, and cinnamon. Mix in salt, baking soda, and flour. Stir in nuts. Divide into prepared pans.

3. Bake for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Tornado Warning!

Last night we had tornado warnings. Several were spotted and one touched down close to where Dave used to work (in Round Rock). There was a terrible storm and it was headed right towards us! We were watching the news around 9:30 pm and it was showing the storm on the Doppler and the weather man kept saying, "Tornado warning and severe thunderstorms around the Lakeline Mall area. Take cover." We live minutes from that mall! Luckily, we are fine and our house, neighborhood, etc. are fine. Some of the surrounding areas had hail damage (I guess in some places it was baseball size) but we did not get much if any hail. It did make for a LONG night. We spent some quality family time crammed in our master closet where we keep our 72 hour kits. Once we felt like it was safe to leave the closet, the kids slept in our room as we were not comfortable sending them upstairs to their rooms. Being from Wyoming where we never have tornadoes, it was a scary experience for me. The sky was very eerie. We had severe thunder, lightning, and wind until approximately 2:00 a.m. Dave grew up in Missouri and South Dakota where they have lots of tornadoes so he wasn't as freaked out as I was! Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep last night!

Worst Mom Award!

So, I feel like the worst mom ever! On Monday, Carter and Lauren had little performances in their music classes at school. Carter's was at 10:45 am and Lauren's was at 2:00 pm. Both kids called to remind me in the morning and I reassured them that I would be there. Well, I went to Carter's, came home, and finished my stuff I needed to get done. Then Dave asked if I could go with him to Home Depot. He needed my help getting some sheet rock into the van (it's now 1:00 pm). I said, "Sure, I just have to be back by 2:30pm." Totally forgot that no, I needed to be back before 2:00 for Lauren's music thing. I don't know where my brain is these days! I remembered at 2:25 that I was supposed to be at the school. I felt horrible. Lauren said she was a little sad and kept looking for me. A friend of mine that was there said Lauren came up to her after they were done singing and said, "My mom said she was going to come, but I don't think she did." That broke my heart when I heard that. When I was at Carter's performance I noticed that the kids whose parents weren't there were starting to get worried and were asking the teacher to call their mom's. I leaned over to a friend and said, "I feel so sorry for the kids whose parents can't make it." What an IDIOT I am! Hello! When she got home, she sang all of her songs for us but it's just not the same as actually being there. I still feel really bad about it today. Here's a little video of one of her songs (sung to us at home...I love the hula hoop part!):

Here's one of the songs Carter sang...his I made it to! Notice that Carter doesn't do any of the actions like the other kids. I guess he's too cool!

Quest Fair

Tonight was Taylor's Quest Fair at the school. They researched a topic of their choice, which included interviewing someone associated with their topic, a service project, and then they had to put together a presentation for their classmates. They also had to have a "product" which was a solution to their problem. They put the information they had gathered on a tri-fold board and displayed those at the Quest Fair. It reminded me of a science fair. Taylor's topic was the Parvo virus that is a danger to dogs, mostly puppies. She did a good job and learned a lot!
We are proud of her.

On the bandwagon!

Ok, I am going to try this blog thing as it seems like fun...not to mention I enjoy reading the blogs of my friends so, I thought I'd try it!

Wish me luck!