Cade's Graduation and stuff!

YAY Cade is finally done with school for now! He graduated with his masters in curriculum and instruction. :) Smarty pants. Since we were down in College Station we went ahead and went over to New Braunfels and stayed at the condo. Woo Woo! It was funnnnn. Really great way to end the summer. We went with my sister and her boyfriend.

He is going to kill me for putting this up, but the back is so pretty!!!

Also, the weekend before school started I got to 'cater' another party with my cupcake skills! :) Haha- or lack there of. I looooove baking though. You have got to try this strawberry cupcake recipe I used for some of the cupcakes: (This is not my recipe, but I cannot remember where I got it- so thank you stranger who I borrowed this from) :)

Strawberry Cupcakes (makes 18 cupcakes):


1/2 cup butter


1 cup sugar


3 egg whites


2 teaspoon strawberry extract


1 cups pureed fresh strawberries


1/4 cup sour cream


1 1/2 cups cake flour


1 teaspoon baking powder


1/2 teaspoon baking soda


1/8 teaspoon salt



Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting:


1/4 cup butter-softened


1 8oz package cream cheese-softened


2 teaspoon strawberry extract


6 cups confectioners' sugar (sifted)


Pink Food Coloring



Directions :

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large mixing bowl,beat sugar and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add egg whites one at a time,beating well after each addition.

Stir in strawberry extract,pureed strawberries,and sour cream.

In a medium mixing bowl,sift together flour,baking powder,soda,and salt.

Gradually add to butter mixture,beating until combined.

Pour batter evenly into prepared cupcake pans. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Frosting:

In a large bowl,beat butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add strawberry extract beating until combine. Then Add food coloring until desired color is reached. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.

Here are the cupcakes I made for the party! :)

School started this week! It was awesome compared to last year. GEEZ! I loved it. I mean- I'm ready for my kids to already have procedures and stuff down, but that will come with time. I love them though. SO CUTE! Talkative though...

The family is wonderful. Cade started back Monday too. Needless to say we are both whipped after this week of getting back into the rhythm of things.

And of course. Ms. Olivia. SO BIG these days. :)

OLIVIA

I know everyone is just as obsessed as we are with Olivia. :o)

So this is an update on Olivia blog. She's been doing good! Leaving for 10 days was much harder than I expected. She is somewhere around 10 pounds now and about 4 and half months old. Cute as a bug... cute as a goldendoodle I guess I should say. We're trying to get in as much time with her now as possible because were about to go back to school and she'll have to get used to being in her crate a lot more. :(

Here some pictures!

Our Vacation

Well, we made it back! We started in Italy, stayed there for two days and then went on a seven day cruise to Turkey, Croatia, and Greece. These were the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I think Heaven will look like Greece. :)

We had a wonderful time in Italy. We went on a Gondola ride, visited Saint Marks square, and ate more Italian ice cream than necessary. In Turkey we went to Ephesus. In Greece we went to Santorini and Corfu. In Croatia we went to Dubrovnik. Greece was definitely my FAVORITE! Here are some pictures! :)

Greek Food... it was yummy. Most of it... Hahaha!

Santorini, Greece. They built their city on these cliffs. They are all white. It is beautiful!

Cade and I & Jeremy and Rosanna. Cade's sister and brother and law!

Cade eating Gelato (Italian Ice cream)

This looks like a postcard. Everything is this beautiful. In fact, more beautiful!

Update!!

Hi everyone!

I apologize for not blogging in a few months. But, I have done a lot so you will have a lot to hear about!

First there was Fathers Day and that is always fun. I like making my Dad feel special! My whole family took him to Roadhouse and we just kind of hung around the house all day. Cade returned from Nebraska. That was a loooooong week. You just don't know how good you've got it till you don't have it anymore. :)

There was also ECLIPSE and the amazing/creative festivities that came with. Some girls that I work with did a great job throwing the party and all 19 of us were there 3 hours before the midnight showing patiently waiting. It was a blast! Thank you Christy for this picture!

I also had a lake day with my family. Olivia was introduced to the lake and loved it... I think... She is just silly. I LOVE that dog but, her looks can be deceiving. So went spent some fun in the sun just relaxing. It was wonderful! Though, while I was sitting doing absolutely nothing I got to thinking... how in the world am I going to convince myself to start working again! Haha

The 4th of July is always a busy time of year for Cade and I. My parents run a fireworks stand that we always help with. You meet some really different people! Although it is hot, hot, hot... did I say hot?... we always have fun and its really helpful for my family!

Olivia is fabulous. Still a tough little girl. CUTEST thing you have ever seen, honestly. She is almost 10 pounds now. When we got her she was about 3 ish pounds. :) Eek... we haven't decided if the crazy weight gain is a good thing or a bad thing! Here we are going to puppy kindergarten.

So, all is well in the Butler household. We are preparing to leave for our Mediterranean cruise. I am having a hard time containing myself!!!! Woooo! We are staying in Italy for a few days before boarding. I want to go on a gondola ride with Cade and eat enough gelato to feed a small country. Yay. Happy summer!

Buddy Fun DAY!

At Northrich Elementary you can definitely tell the year is winding down because we have something fun and excited to do every other day. :) Last week it was Buddy Fun Day which is like a make-shift track and field day. It was so much fun. It was cowboy themed and my kidos came dressed to the 9's. We also had our volunteer luncheon that day- I made veggie bars. :) SO yummy! I used this recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Veggie-Bars-62378 I used green bell peppers, brocoli, carrots, and no olives.

Due to the fact that Friday HAD to be the longest day ever, we had Richardson Relay for Life that same night. It was fun hanging out with some of the Northrich teachers. There were a lot of survivors at the walk most of them were young which was both surprising and sad to me. I'm not sad they survived, I was just sad that they had been sick. It was a good experience and I'm glad I walked. Our team theme was "Cowboys and Cupcakes" :)

Olivia is persistant. :) Haha, she is a puppy and I could not ask for more. She is in her rowdy stage and very rambunctious. Still working on potty training. We're getting there. I'm glad we'll have the summer to work with her.

YAY 8 days till SUMMER!

Puppy Fun!

Cade and I were in need of free activities. So, to humor ourselves, we took to dog to the park for the first time! :) It was precious. There wasn't anyone else there so we just ran around in the wet grass. FUN!

Also, because of the recent showers, Ms. Olivia got wet and dirty. We decided while we were on our day of firsts, we would give her the first bath. :) That too was absolutely adorable- other than the sad "I hate you for doing this to me" puppy face I got.

OLIVIA! SHE'S HERE!

Well, I was sick all week last week with a sinus infection. So, my lovely husband surprised me and took us to get Olivia 3 days early! (Longest car ride everrrrrr)

Anyway, she is perfect, as I new she would be. I am having a crazy hard time with this crating thing. She sounds like someone is beating her she cry's so loud! I feel awful! But, I am getting better. She stay's crated while I'm at work. Well, I'll keep you updated on her growing. :)

TAKS = Extreme exhaustion

So today was the first day of TAKS...

... ... ...

I mean, I just don't like this test. It's so hard on my kids both the day of sitting for an entire day and the lead up with intense curriculum. I really like that both my kids and I are held accountable in a way. JUST FIGURE OUT A DIFFERENT WAY Texas. :)

So since nothing interesting is going on at this time my blog today will be a life update.

Cade is wonderful. He's got his feet as a tech theatre director and is doing an amazing job. I'll post some Thoroughly Modern Millie pictures below. That was his first musical. We are both excited for the summer- We're crusin' to the Mediterranean! Wooo! Real excited about that! Right now Cade is finishing up his masters in education and is very ready to be done with school.

I am just hanging around. :) haha. I am applying for grad school at TWU for library science. I'm excited about that- hopefully it all works out. School is school- the TAKS test is almost over. Hallelujah. Our families are doing really good too! My sister is in school for nursing and rocking that... because she is awesome. :)

That's all these days. Olivia comes in 11 days!

We've MET HER!

We met her tonight! Ms. Olivia: the most beautiful goldendoodle in the world. :) We get her in 20 days. May 8th. She is so cute and has a very fun personality. I can't wait to have her home.

Here she is!

Quilting Retreat

This weekend I went on a quilting retreat with my mother-in-law and it was very fun!!! I learned so stinkin' much from these ladies. It was at this really big house in the country. They cooked and served us three meals a day (Each one with a dessert which was my favorite part) and all we did was sew. One word- Wonderful. I learned some very cool things this weekend that I'm excited to start on. I did finish month 3 of our block of the month. It's the block of tree's below. There were 3 blocks this month. I'm excited to see how they end up. I started my rag quilt. :) SO excited about this one. It's very southern- love it. How the rag quilt started is the second picture. The third is the first block of the quilt. :)







At this retreat there was a family - a mom and two sisters. These sisters were in their 70's and their Mom was 96.... and let me tell you, she made me feel silly. This 96 year old woman would quilt from 8:30 in the morning till midnight. WOW. Anyway, these ladies were making quilts for soldiers who are discharged to use on the plane ride home. They said it is usually really cold and that most of them don't get much 'comfort' like a blanket. In 4 days, they made 25 quilts to send to them. What a beautiful act of kindness... plus they were making them while drinking a Shinner and I told them the soldiers would probably appreciate that. The picture below with all the fabric on the floor- the sisters and Mom are the first 3 ladies in the picture. :)


Feeling blessed. I have a wonderful husband, a job that I love, a great family, and soon- a puppy. Have a good week everyone.

Recent Developments: Gooldendoodles!!!

AHHHHHHH! Cade got me a puppy! Best. Husband. Ever. :)

Here are the four we get to choose from in a few weeks. They're mini goldendoodles. I'll keep you posted on who we actually pick. There are 3 people in front of us that have to choose first. The anticipation is unreal.