Anne Frank Wax Museum

The third graders at Dodd Elementary had a wax museum performance tonight. A couple of weeks ago, each student chose a character to "become". They did research about that character and then wrote a little speech from their point of view. They had to memorize it and then get a costume together to wear in a wax museum. They stood still and had a "button" on the floor in front of them. When someone pressed their button, they gave their speech.Chloe chose Anne Frank. She wrote her speech and had it memorized the first day... but she was so nervous to say it in front of people. Everyone was really close together, and she got a bit distracted when other students were giving their speeches at the same time as her, but she did really well! (It is really quiet in the recording... sorry!) We are so proud of how well she has done in school this year!

We're not in Kansas anymore...

Tornadoes have been ravaging this part of the country. There have been storms doing major damage all around. The weather has been crazy. Last night, there were huge thunderstorms moving across the Dallas area. There were tornadoes and funnel clouds spotted all over. There was hail from the size of peas in places to the size of grapefruit in others. Peoples homes businesses and lives have been lost and damaged from such storms. It is scary to be in the potential path of such a storm, as we were last night.
Brooke and Autumn went to bed in ignorant bliss last night, and while Ciera, Chloe, Dave and I were watching a little TV before the big girls got into bed, the warnings came on the TV. We were glued to the updates all evening. Ciera and Chloe went in to go to bed, but were so scared they couldn't settle down. The predicted path of the storms was over our home... it was a bit distressing, to say the least. Dave and I went out to clear the garage so we could fit his truck in with the van, and when I came into the house, Ciera and Chloe were saying a prayer together in their room. I went back out to tell Dave something and when I came back in, not a minute later, the newscaster was saying... "It looks like Wylie is now out of the path of this storm for now. The tornado warning for Wylie is over for now." I don't think it was a coincidence.
My girls have such faith, I think they could move mountains... or tornadoes.
We ended up getting a thunderstorm that produced rain and wind. Others in the Dallas area were not so lucky, which I am sad about. I think the outbreak of tornadoes and crazy storms that are destroying so much is sad... but I know we were spared last night because of the faith of some little girls who prayed to their loving Heavenly Father because they were so frightened of the tornadoes.

Birthday Activities

Since Ciera's birthday fell on a Sunday this year, we took her out for her birthday dinner date Saturday. She chose "Big Daddy's" BBQ. (She fits right in in Texas!) She got ribs, brisket, baked beans and homemade fries. After dinner, we went out and got her her big birthday present... a new bike. She has been wanting one (and needing one) for a while, and is very happy with her new one (which I will have to get a picture of soon!).Sunday, we woke up early and had homemade cinnamon rolls and Ciera opened the rest of her presents from us. (She already opened the gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Elvester... and ordered her gifts from Amazon from Grandma and Grandpa Tanner. Thanks for those!!) After church we ate taquitos (Ciera's request) for lunch. For dinner, we had cake and ice cream. I know, bad right?!? But it is only your birthday once a year! This year, Ciera has been very into ancient Egypt and wanted a pyramid cake. (That is her name in hieroglyphs on the front!)We had a good day with our little girls... we are so happy that Ciera is one of them! She is such a joy to have in our family and we love her very much! Happy Birthday again Ciera, our 11 year old sweetheart!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy CieRa!!!

Today my baby girl turns eleven years old. I can hardly believe how quickly the years have flown by! Ciera Marie was born in Clovis, CA and had a lot of family around to welcome her into the world. She was loved immediately. Ciera had a rough start... when she was about 2 weeks, she started crying. She didn't stop until she was about 4 months! She had colic, and was really (and I mean REALLY) hard to calm down! When she was 5 weeks old, she was admitted to Valley Children's Hospital with a Urinary Tract Infection... she (and I) stayed in the hospital for 3 days. It was really difficult. After Ciera grew out of the colic and the difficult infant stage, she was a really happy, sweet baby. She grew into a really great, sweet, caring, sensitive girl.Ciera is so smart, kind, and loving. She is fun and loves to be with her family. We are so proud of her and love her very much!

Happy Birthday sweet Ciera Marie!

wild Texas

We went for a walk last night with the girls along the greenbelt across the street from our house. We saw fireflies, spiders, a snake, rabbits and a field mouse. We went looking for fireflies because Dave and I had seen some on a walk a couple of days ago. It was really cool and one of the good things about Texas. (Well, minus the spiders.)

Wild Things

Brooke's Kindergarten program was last night. It was called "Wild Things", and each Kindergarten class performed a poem and song. Then all the classes got together for the final song. Brooke's class did a poem about a hound and porcupine. (Which I took a video of, but I was not able to upload it for some strange reason...) Then their song was called "Never Polka with a Porcupine". Brooke was my favorite, of course! It was really cute. They finished up the evening with a song called "The Amazon Rock". Brooke has been singing this one around the house for a couple of months, so I knew it was going to be fun! I can't believe Brooke is already done with Kindergarten... time flies!

My, Oh, My!

Autumn, Brooke and Chloe have been on antibiotics since last week for strep throat. Yesterday, after I picked her up from preschool, Autumn had a little bit of a rash developing. By the time she went to bed last night, it had spread all over her torso, arms and legs. This morning it was covering her whole body. She has an itchy rash from head to toe. I took her in to the doctor this morning, along with Ciera who now has strep throat (ugh!), and she said that it looks like a drug allergic reaction. So it looks like Autumn has developed my Penicillin allergy. (Double ugh!) It actually looks worse in person... but I thought I'd take a couple of pictures to document how she looks... pretty sad looking, huh?!?

Kindergartners at the Dallas Zoo

I chaperoned Brooke's class to the Dallas Zoo last week. It was quite a mess! It took us two hours to get from Dodd (Brooke's school) to the Zoo... it should have only taken an hour. EVERY school in the Dallas area was at the zoo that day, I think! It was super crowded!
Despite the crowds, we had fun. We had less than two hours to walk around before the kids had to meet to get back on the bus, so we went around the zoo at a really fast pace. I was in charge of three little girls... Brooke, Karli and Cameron. We ate our lunches as we walked so we didn't waste time sitting. We saw almost the whole zoo, even if some of it we saw as we ran by! It meant a lot to Brooke to have me there, so the day was worth it!