Recipe of the MONTH - BEST EVER BANANA BREAD

I wanted to get out this recipe of the month done before I forgot and September was over. Plus we are having this banana bread with dinner tonight so it only seemed fitting.



Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (3-4 medium)
1/2 cup buttermilk (I think this is the yummy secret ingredient)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts, if desired (I've made it before with and without, it's so yummy either way)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350. Grease bottom of loaf pans. I prefer to use little mini pans and make about 4-5 loaves instead of one big loaf, but it is completely up to you.

2. In a large bowl, mix sugar and butter. Add eggs, bananas, buttermilk, vanilla; beat with mixer on medium speed until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt, and nuts just until moist. Pour batter in pan or pans.

3. Bake 8 inch loaves 1 hr, 9 inch loaf 1 1/4 hrs., or mini loaves 45min-1hr (just test with a tooth pick). Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides from pan, and allow to cool on a rack. Cool about 1 hr. before slicing.

I hope you all enjoy this banana bread it seriously is the best ever and remember HAPPINESS IS HOMEMADE!!! Happy Baking Everyone!

I want to wear dress...

Today my super cute 2 1/2 year old man surprised me. My normally rough and tumble boy, the boy with bruises from running and jumping, the boy who likes transformers and making gun and car noises usually looks something like this...


But today for a split 5 minutes he looked like this...




Yes my boy wanted to wear a dress. I was impressed that he picked the blue one and Emma loved having a fellow "girl" in the house, but after 5 minutes the dress was to much and my man went back to being the cute manly man that he is! It was a pretty funny 5 minutes!!!

PINKALICIOUS!!!!

Emma and Logan love books, we read books through out the day and every night before bed. A few nights ago I read the book Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink to Emma. If you have a little girl you probably have read one of the Pinkalicious stories. This one is about a little girl named Pinkalicious who wants gum balls but she has no $$ to buy them so she decides to have a lemonade stand to earn $$ so she can get her gum balls. As she's making her lemonade she of course decides it needs to be PINK so she adds various things to it to make it pink. It is the cutest story and Emma get such a kick out of it when we read it. Well this last time we read the story Emma decided that she would like to make pink lemonade too. So below are a few pictures of Emma and Logan making their own PINK DRINK!!!

Getting started: Squeezing the Lemons for our Pink Lemonade...

...Logan had to squeeze some too.

Of course you can't make lemonade without tasting the lemons.

Adding the sugar to our water...

...mixing...

...here comes our fresh squeezed lemon juice...

...more mixing...

...added strawberries for that pretty pink color!!!

WE DID IT!!!!

Yum, Yum!!

This activity was so fun and a great way to encourage Emma and Logan to read and EXPERIENCE what they are reading. It is so important for children to connect what they are reading about to things that occur in their own life. This activity was initiated by Emma and took 15 minutes, but was worth so much. She was so excited to tell Justin all about it and to have him taste it and seeing that just made my heart happy!!! So HAPPY READING friends!!!

Latest Quilt Creation!

My newest quilt creation is for some friends of ours from church. Sarah and Shawn (the worship leaders at our church) are expecting there little bundle in just a few weeks. Yesterday we celebrated Sarah and baby Jack with a rock and roll baby shower. I created a guitar quilt because the babies nursery is guitar themed. Here are a few pictures of her super cute quilt. I really like the colors of this quilt, it is soooo boyish!

Movie Night Chase Style!

1 air matresss, 3 blankets, 2 pillows, 1 bowl of popcorn, 1 movie, and 2 happy kiddos makes for ONE FUN FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT!

ASU FOOTBALL!!!

ASU Football season is in full swing. Last night was our first football game as a FAMILY. For the past few years Justin and my dad have been going to the ASU football games. Each year my dad has bought extra tickets and this was the first year that we had enough tickets and the kids were old enough to go to the football games. When we bought our fifth wheel we knew that tailgating was going to be one of the uses for it. So yesterday we tried tailgating for the first time. It was definitely HOT! The guys went a little early to set things up and cool the trailer while my mom and I came about a half hour later. It's always funny what you learn when you do something for the first time. We learned that it will take longer than a 1/2 hour to cool our fifth wheel and the importance of bringing an extra shirt to change into before the game starts (we all were dripping sweet), but regardless we had a lot of fun because we were there as a family. The kids surprised all of us, they did so good at the game. Logan wouldn't stop talking about Sparky and Emma loved watching the cheerleaders. By the end of the night Logan wanted to play Pootball (football in logan words) with the big boys on the field and Emma was ready to go dance with the cheerleaders. Overall it was an awesome experience and we can't wait to go back next week!

Family Picture 1st Football Game 2010!

Emma and Logan in the trailer before the game!

Meme, Emma, and Logan

The Guys and Kids Tailgating

Our ASU Family

Our Family, Trailer, and the Football field behind us!

In the stands.

Our Little Sun Devil!!!

Goooo Devils!!!!!

TOUCHDOWN!!!!

Our Zoo Day.

Today I took the kiddos to the zoo. It was hot, but our zoo has two awesome splashpads for the kids to stay cool in. Below are a few pictures of our day.







I had to include this picture of the tiger. We have been to the zoo multiple times because we are members, but everytime we come he is hiding. Today was the first time we had been at the zoo and saw him up close.