Sariah is 11!!

Happy Birthday Sariah! We let Sariah open her family gift after breakfast this morning. I wanted her to have time to play with it.  What could it be?

Sariah played 20 questions with dad to figure out whats in it.  She never guessed!! A bow and arrow!!  Sariah has been BEGGING for YEARS for a bow.

Keith is in charge of teaching weapons class. Sariah attended the bow and arrow class today.

Did I mention that we got snow?!  We love it!

Sariah requested a Harry Potter birthday party. Corrine was my party planner and I have to say, this was the best birthday party I have ever had to pull off.  Im using a party planner from here on out. Here are the invitations.... owls...

Corrine ran a tight ship getting the house all decorated up. Keith was her main assistant. Here they are making the cup cake snitches.

Candy & treats for Honeydukes.

Corrine made the wands... they turned out fantastic!

The girls had pizza and avoided pictures.... mostly.

They played games

and then watch Harry Potter #5.  I planned on them watching #1 but they BEGGED for #5. I will admit, its my favorite.  They are watching it as I work on the blog. It is fun to listen to them talk and enjoy the movie together.  We are grateful for good friends that came to support Sariah this evening.

While the girls were upstairs having a party, the rest of the family was downstairs having their own party. I don't think it was as fun.  It was quieter, and colder.

I have to give a special thank you to Corrine. She pulled off the birthday party beautifully! And, honestly, I was exhausted from Christmas. Excellent party Corrine and Keith! Happy Birthday Sariah! We love you!

Merry Christmas!!

Finally... its Christmas! We had a great Christmas.... we always do! I love it.  I love the planning and scheming. I love that lies are ok.... oops, I shouldn't have said that. On Christmas Eve we had the Cain family come for lunch. I totally forgot to take pictures. I was enjoying the company and totally spaced it. Anyway, they were here.  The food was good.  The company was enjoyable. Santa did not disappoint this year. He did have two teen age helpers. It was fun to listen to them complain about assembling things.  The elf workshop isn't as fun as they thought it would be.  I told them they could thank Chinese manufacturing and instructions for that. Anyway... here is our little stash.  We have a tiny tree.  It is literally a quarter of a tree. I like it.  Keith LOVES it. The kids don't like it. They want a "big" tree.

Our favorite family gift was a picture that my parents gave us. This spring we went to Nauvoo and it was such an amazing trip. The kids STILL talk about it.  We all LOVE Nauvoo. My parents gave us this painting of main street in old town Nauvoo.  The kids especially loved that it has the gun smith shop in it.  That was their favorite building we went into.  Thank you dad and mom! We LOVE it.

 Christmas morning! Jakob got software for a music program.  Ok, he didn't really.... he got permission to download it.  When he went to download it, we decided that it would be cheaper to get it from Amazon (where all good things come from).  Why did I not think of Amazon?!  Sheesh.  Ok, he now has his music software on order and will be here in 2 shipping days. Until then, books and music will have to suffice.

Corrine did well this year.  She requested clothes. She got a lot of cute things. The best was her coat.  She has wanted one FOREVER and had no idea that there was one under the tree.  She was so excited!

She also got some jewelery making supplies and tools.  This was Keiths idea.... so she would stop stealing his tools.

Sariah got legos.  She LOVES legos. She asked for the "friends school". She is fairly easy to please at Christmas time.  She got a few other things, but the legos were by far the biggest hit.

Hayden got spy gear. He loves to play spy. Maybe he will get a job at the FBI someday and make enough money to support us in our old age.  Walkie Talkies are awesome. I need to note these are "real" walkie talkies... not "little kid ones".

Night vision goggles.  He wears them all the time... not at night.....The wrist thing has an alarm for the sensors he has set up throughout the house. We are now dodging lasers. If we hit them, loud and annoying alarms go off. Best Christmas present ever for a 7 year old boy.

Kate got a kitchen, some food, dishes, and some aprons. This is the item the elves helped put together. Kate was so happy and cute with her kitchen that it was all worth it.  Every last painful minute of building.

 The best part of Christmas this year was the SNOW!  Lots and lots of snow on Christmas day.  This was really the first good snow storm of the season. It made everything so beautiful!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas break activity....

We are in full swing of Christmas break. We are staying up late, sleeping in, eating junk food, and haven't looked at school work once. Well, Corrine has a math assignment to finish, but we won't talk about that here. She did go spend the afternoon at a friends house. They are starting a musical group and want to be the next youtube sensation. I'll let you know when they are ready for publicity. The rest of us are doing normal mundane non youtube worthy activities.  I spent the day cleaning as well as reading a book. Sounds rough, right? Keith, Jakob and Hayden have spent the last few days working on the tractor. Here is Hayden working hard:

Kate woke up from naps and REALLY wanted to work on the tractor. She was out in the garage long enough for this photo op.  Thats about it.

Here she is screaming because the wrench isn't working like she thinks it should.

Im looking forward to some more relaxing days..... I love Christmas break.  I just need some snow and all will be right with the world.

Sing a long

Our neighbors and good friends the Slaughters, host a sing along at their home the Sunday before Christmas.  There is always TONS of food.... TONS.  There are also good friends!

The Slaughters don't have small children at home. So... when I see Hayden and Sariah sitting with a plate full of food on furniture nicer than I will EVER own, I get a little nervous.  I shouldn't worry about them because I was the only one in our family that made a mess.  I spilled some hot wax on their floor.  It was not my finest moment.  Anyway, back to the nice furniture and my kids enjoying themselves.

Kate is REALLY into giving a thumbs up when her picture is taken.  You will see what I mean.

They had a nice little area downstairs with toys for the smaller kids to play! Kate loved the little tent/house. Hayden loved the bigger toys with the bigger kids.

Jakob and Corrine loved playing the piano at the sing along. They even stayed about an hour longer than the rest of us because we couldn't drag them away from the fun. We are grateful for some good friends in the ward! Slaughters... it was amazing... as always.

Schramm Fam Christmas

We had a tight schedule. Black Belt Ceremony.  Race to grandma Schramms for the Schramm family Christmas party.  Then, race home to go to the temple. While we were at the Black Belt Ceremony, we got a phone call from grandma Schramm that she was sick and couldn't do the party. Keith and his brother quickly decided that the party should go on.... and Keith and I offered to have it at our house....with ony 2 hours notice.  During the rest of the belt ceremony I tried to remember what condition we left our house in. I then made a list of chores for the kids to do. We skipped out of the Tae Kwon Do party and raced home and the troops got to work! My people rose to the occasion! They did a great job cleaning the house.  They were tired afterward though.

It was worth it! We had fun visiting with cousins and just enjoying each others company. There might have been talk about guns, how kids are growing, and plans for Christmas break. It was a very enjoyable, low key, relaxed day.

Cousins are so much fun! We are so blessed to be close to so many cousins!

Merry Christmas! Great job throwing the family party together last minute.  It turned out nicely!