Happy Birthday!!!

Sariah is 12!!!  What?!  I know, its crazy.  She is growing up so fast! In the last 6 months, she has got so tall and skinny. She wanted young women stuff, make up, and earrings. She was pretty brave when she got her new bling.

Corrine made the birthday cake this year because I was cleaning up all of our Christmas stuff. Good job with the cake Corrine!

The evening of Sariah's birthday we went with cousins to eat dinner at City Creek Mall. Sariah choose McDonalds.... humm.... Here she is with her cousin Isabelle.

We went to the Conference Center to watch The Savior of The World. Here is part of the cousins waiting to get in. Yep, Sariah was lucky enough to have Mike and Julie and their family come to our house ON HER VERY BIRTHDAY!!  What a gift!

Happy Birthday Sariah! We love you! You are growing into such a beautiful and amazing young lady!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was good to us this year.  Here are a few highlights from the best holiday of the year! First, Kate was really into the Christmas thing. The idea of presents and candy was just the best idea we have ever had to a 3 year old. Every evening she declared it Christmas Eve. She could hardly believe it when it finally was!  Kate got magformers (her favorite toy) as well as many other things. Her favorite thing to play with was the connect 4 game.

Hayden got some legos. Its always easier to build with your tongue out.

Hayden also got PVC pipe.  No really. It is part of his hut making kit. He loves it!

Sariah got a jewelry making kit, clothes, LOTS of books, and a few legos. She especially liked this little tractor.

Corrine got clothes.  She also got these boots that she was begging for but wasn't sure she could get because they were so expensive. The shirt she is wearing came from her best friend. Isn't it cute?!

She was surprised by the blankets. She just had to test them out.....

Jakob got luggage. I know, exciting, right?  He also got a camera and lots of ties. Do you see a theme here?  He also got this book that is a quick reference and answers lots of questions about church things. Im glad he found this interesting.

Here is proof of our gluttony. Its embarrassing, really.

Merry Christmas!!!

Officially official.

Sariah had her black belt ceremony today. She is OFFICIALLY a black belt! Im so proud of her. This represents so much work for this girl! Here she is actually getting the belt.....

This is the newest group of black belts!

Sariah could not stop grinning!

Congratulations Sariah!!

Beautification?!

This is lovely picture of my trees in the front yard. I like them.

This is a notice I got on my door Thursday afternoon.

The voices in my head were saying all kinds of bad things about the city ordinance lady. Im not a huge fan of government regulations... federal, state or city. I was mostly bugged by the 3 days... 3 DAYS?!  The last weekend before Christmas?  Does that city ordinance lady even have a clue of how crazy the last weekend before Christmas is?! Ugh.  Basically this happend.

 And this.

Then this.

Now my trees look like this.

Ugh. Im not happy about it. Now I almost want them to die in the spring so we can dig them up and I can complain about the city for the rest of my life.

Christmas Letter

Dear Family & Friends                                                                                     

Here is a quick summary of the 2015 year for the Schramm family.

Kate is 3. We had her arranged marriage all lined up, but the young man found out she was still wearing diapers and called the whole thing off. The prospect of her living with me forever was enough to start potty training. Thank heaven it worked.  She is the boss and I’m terribly afraid of her. I realize this will be a problem when she is 13, but that’s 10 years away. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Hayden is 8. He is the hardest worker I know. The kid can haul firewood like none other. I wouldn’t know for sure since that sounds like child labor and it also sounds like we have an evil woodstove.  IF we had the use for firewood, I assume Hayden could carry very large pieces of wood. He also got baptized.  He wanted a cereal bar for treats that day. I loved it because it required minimal work on my part and that’s honestly what I’m all about these days.

Sariah will be 12 the day after Christmas. She also got her black belt this month.  This is quite an accomplishment.  Now she is a hormonal black belt pre-teen. It’s as scary as it sounds.  She has also become a very avid reader.  This is fantastic except when I need  her to do math, clean her room, clean the bathroom, get dressed….. you get the idea.

Corrine will be 15 in January.  Please consider this your warning and I will include it in our insurance paperwork… you were warned that she can start driving.  Corrine is doing well in speech and debate. This proves how dumb Keith and I are. We are actually paying money for our 15-ish year old daughter to learn how to argue.  Not to our surprise, she is very good at it and has won a few awards. Corrine has started teaching piano lessons. This has been the best thing to help her appreciate her piano teachers.

Jakob is 17.  My need for help getting kids to and from various activities has overcome my fear of him driving.  He has started his mission paperwork so I have officially kicked into a new level of panic and worry.  Have I taught him all he needs to know? Will he remember to actually wash his laundry? (Not this week). Will he remember to put the milk back in the fridge? (He didn’t yesterday). Will he be patient with a messy companion? (If by companion you mean younger brother, then no.)  I think I need to cram 18 years’ worth of “life skills” into the next 4 months. 

I am the family coordinator. This means I tell people where to go and how to get there.  I’m pretty good at my job.  I’m also the family homeschool teacher.  Most days I don’t feel like I’m very good at that job (Remember, more life skills classes). I have been called to be the Gospel Doctrine Teacher. This is a fantastic opportunity to feel dumb in front of forty to fifty of my closest neighbors. 

Keith has been given additional responsibilities at work which adds additional stress without the additional paycheck.  He is also the coach of Jakob’s and Corrine’s robotics team. This means he gets to stress a lot about a robot that 16-year-olds make.  His current calling is corrupting the young men in the teacher’s quorum. Basically, these three major activities in his life require a lot of time and patience. Sadly, he can’t get either of those on Amazon. 

The big project this year was ripping out the disgusting carpet in the family room and school room as well as painting and replacing the baseboards.  I had ideas that this project would take a month or so.  Reality check… it took 3 months.   The kitchen still isn’t painted but I tell myself I’ll get it done before company comes for Christmas.

We hope that this letter finds you well.  If you are terribly bored or a stalker, you can see more about us on our blog: www.kcschramm.blogspot.com

Merry Christmas,

Keith, Camille, Jakob, Corrine, Sariah, Hayden & Kate Schramm

SNOW!!!

We finally have some GOOD snow.  We have had a few snow storms this year, but nothing that would stick. The kids were pretty happy this morning when we woke up to this!

Im grateful Jakob is home to help me clear all of that snow!

This was measured on the driveway..... its still snowing! Before we shovel again, I'll have to get another total and add them up.

Christmas is 11 days away! Hopefully the snow will stay (and maybe even keep coming till then)