Sariah is 9!!!

Happy Birthday Sariah!
Sariah picked a "brave" theme for her party. I know I had to be brave to host a birthday party the day after Christmas! In reality, it wasn't bad at all.  All of the girls were great.  It was a little sad that most of the girls invited were either out of town for Christmas or sick. Sariah, its your fault you were born the day after Christmas.  Should have come in February!  Corrine decorated the door for the party.  Pretty cute, eh?

Here is the cake. I think Im not ready for Cake Boss. Im not sure why I thought I was.

It was yummy though.

After cake, the girls watched the movie "BRAVE".  Best relaxing  birthday party ever.

Happy Birthday Sariah!

CHRISTMAS!!!!

Christmas blew up all over my house!!!  Christmas was a big hit around our house.  We liked it so much, we plan on doing it again in a year.   Kate woke us up at 5:00am.  Then 5:30am. Then 6:00am. By 6:30 she had been patient enough and wanted breakfast.   This year for Christmas WE WOKE THE KIDS UP at 6:45.   I think everyone is pleased with their gifts.  We have a family tradition of opening a family game and playing it on Christmas eve. This year I couldn't help myself. I got 2 games. We became addicted to the game Dominion over the summer (thanks Hales family.) We got 2 expansion games for Christmas. This is Jakob and Keith figuring out the new games so we could play them. Highly recommend them.

Keith got a pillow. I know. Don't get all jealous on me. In my defense it was a very expensive Sleep Number pillow and its supposed to cure all his ills.  It had better work.  He also got this book about killing zombies or something like that.

 I got a book that explains photoshop. I needed it.  I haven't read it yet... but pretty soon my pictures are going to be AMAZING.  Please don't hold your breath, I don't want to be responsible.  I also got a cook book (Im addicted to those things), a Belgian waffle maker, a scarf and some movies. I said a few times this morning "IM MAKIN" WAFFLES".  It was required.   Jakob only asked for 2 things. A guitar and a very specific book . He didn't think he was going to get the guitar. I was SO EXCITED for him to open it.

 Yep, thats the dictionary, school books, and a copy of the constitution in the background. Not going to crop those things out :)     Jakob had to improvise his own music stand for the guitar books we got him.

Um, ya... look at the title of the book Jakob requested.  (Its the Utah Driver Handbook)

 

Corrine didn't ask for anything in particular for Christmas this year.  She told me she trusted me. I got her legos. Its always a safe move with Corrine.   I also decided to get her a camera. She has taken about 1,000 pictures since this morning. Im not kidding.

Sariah asked for "An M3 player".   I couldn't find any of those, so I got her an MP3 player instead.  She LOVES it.  Its been hilarious watching her dance and sing to herself.

She also got Legos... again, never a bad move.

Hayden got angry birds stuff.  LOTS of angry birds stuff.  (note the shirt as well)  You build the things and it has a catipult and you can shoot birds at it.  Its pretty cool!  This has kept him busy most of the day!

Kate got a "jumper" thing.  She LOVES it.... mostly. Jakob said she looks like the nucleus in an atom.  I think she will like it more when she can touch the floor and really get jumping in it.  Note the box we had to put under her feet!

Merry Christmas!   We have had a great day and we are so blessed!!

THE CODE

There has been a lot of talk around our house about THE CODE.  A couple of years ago, Keith and I invented THE CODE.  We found that the kids were spending a lot of time rooting around under the Christmas tree looking for their presents. They did all of the traditional shaking and "hey thats mine!" thing kids do. I got tired of the kids looking for only their gifts. Keith started THE CODE. We have had the same code on the presents for 2 years now.  I wrap presents, add a "Christmas word" and a number. Its a 3 layer system. (wink, wink)  Here is our Christmas tree with all of the gifts....

 This system has been fantastic. Now the kids work TOGETHER (mostly) to figure out who is getting what.  Jakob was really into figuring out the code for the first week or so. Then, I think he decided it wasn't worth his time and effort and all but gave up. Sariah just says "I just want to know what Im getting" and hasn't really bothered with the code.  She took the route of figuring out what the actual gifts were and thought that would be better than worrying about THE CODE.  Hayden is just excited for Christmas.  THE CODE has really got to Corrine.  The poor kid spends every extra second (and some seconds she doesn't have) thinking about THE CODE.  Here she is working on THE CODE instead of her homework. Please notice the text book sitting next to her. Oh if she could put that kind of energy into school work.....

The code was driving them (meaning Corrine) crazy, so we decided to start the 12 days of questions.  Each night at dinner we would allow them to ask one yes or no question.  This encouraged them to think and to work together to come up with their one question. Oh, boy... we need to work on deductive reasoning.  They asked the same question 3-4 times over the last 12 days. They were also very warm in figuring out the code one night and then went SO FAR the other direction for another couple of nights. Last night we let them EACH ask a question. Ya, the 5 year old asked the best question. This morning (Christmas Eve) I couldn't stand it so after dropping HUGE hints, we let them each ask another question.  Here they are FINALLY recording the information they know and using some sort of deductive reasoning.

THEY FINALLY GOT IT!!!!  Holy cats. They now know whom most of the gifts go to. They still have a couple things to figure out.... but that can wait till tomorrow.

Christmas Letter.... of sorts

Here is our official Christmas letter.  I decided to let the kids write the letter. I was curious about what they would say about each other.  Here goes.
Kate: When I asked Kate about her family she just smiled and squealed. Im going to assume she loves us all and she is very glad to be here.  Im pretty sure she would add.... give me a bottle and hold me all the time.
Hayden said this about the others:
Kate: she likes to scream a lot.
Sariah: she is nice and plays with me.
Corrine: she does school work. She plays pretend Minecraft with me. I love her!
Jakob: he is nice because he is my brother.
Mom: mom does the dishes and helps me with school... most of the time.
Dad: Oh I love daddy! He goes to work because that is what he does.
Sariah said this about the others:
Kate:She screams a lot trying to learn to use her voice.
Hayden: He is very funny but some times he teases me a lot.
Corrine: She likes to craft.  She has crafting stuff all over down stairs.
Jakob: He always goes to seminary. He also reads a lot.
Mom: She is the best mom ever. Some times the kids fight a lot. I don't think we should fight.
Dad: He goes to work. On Saturdays he gets to stay home but we have to work. Dad plays the wii with us. He likes to tickle us.
Corrine said this about the others:
Kate: Cutest, chubbiest, person EVER! Screeches a lot and she loves to play.
Hayden: He is very energetic, way small, and he likes being a big brother.
Sariah: She loves to play pretend. She also got baptized the beginning of 2012. She is very happy.
Jakob: Spends free time on computer or kindle. He switched piano teachers to a more advanced teacher.He is a good big brother.
Mom: Best mom ever! She runs us around everywhere and deals with us. She home schools us and I love her.
Dad: He is very hard working. He is the best dad ever! He loves us a lot and does nice things for us. I love him!
Jakob said this about the others:
Kate: I can't believe she is 6 months old! (a half a year!) She enjoys spitting, screaming, drooling, and puking. She thinks she is as big as everyone else.
Hayden: He started kindergarten and he says its too easy. He enjoys being my shadow and he likes to watch me do stuff.
Sariah: She is always happy. She is in the 3rd grade and I think she likes school.
Corrine: She will be 12 in a month. It seems weird that she will be going to mutual with me. She likes to color and can use anything to make a craft.
Mom: I passed mom up.. Im taller!!!   She is extremely busy, and she always seems to be taking me places. She should let me drive so I can take myself to places.
Dad: He likes to do lots of projects. Because of him, I have memorized the insides of most of our cars. He is busy as executive secretary. ( I thought Sunday was a day of rest!)
Mom& Dad

Kate (6 mo): Born in June. We are so glad she is in our family! She is a good baby. Because of her, we have realized just how old we really are.

Hayden (5): He is funny. Hayden is very smart and loves to work. The boy wanted to haul firewood for his birthday activity. We talked him into riding 4-wheelers instead.  He also started piano lessons and loves it. He loves Tae Kwon Do and its perfect for him.

Sariah(9 day after Christmas): She is always very happy. She has really progressed in school this year. She is a great helper with the baby. She loves activity days, crafting with Corrine, reading, and Tae Kwon Do.

Corrine(11): Corrine is Kates second mom. She would rather play with Kate than do anything else. Corrine is excited to go into young womens, she likes Tae Kwon Do, playing piano, and she is very good to help with the younger kids.

Jakob(14): Jakob is taller than Camille. He is also very busy with school, Tae Kwon Do, piano lessons, piano recitals/competitions, and seminary. He also became an Eagle Scout. Jakob is a great help with the kids and with Keiths many projects. 

We have been busy with a new baby, church callings, running kids to many activities, chickens, a cow, 3 dogs, work, laundry, and all that comes with living a great life. We are so blessed! We want to wish you a Merry Christmas. We are grateful to count you as family and friends.

Tis the Season

Tis the season for piano recitals! Hayen, Sariah, and Corrine all take piano from the fabulous Betsy Fox. The kids LOVE her.  Ok, I love her to.  The kids all did great!  The only mistake they made is that Hayden and Sariah were SO EXCITED to play that they totally disregarded the program and just got up and played when they were overcome with the urge to play. Sorry to those that they totally ran over.   This is the group that Betsy teaches.

Here is Hayden performing a duet with his teacher at his very first piano recital! He played We Three Kings.  It is now his favorite Christmas song.

 

Here is Sariah performing Oh Christmas Tree. She had it memorized!

Corrine played Away in a Manger.  It was memorized as well.... and a very hard song to play, if you ask me....

Jakob takes piano from Sheri Aston.  We love her as well!  She has been so good for him.  I was holding Kate while trying to take Jakobs picture.  She didn't hold still.  This is the moment where she knocked my glasses onto the floor and took this picture while I was bending over to find them.

This is Jakob, (in another moving picture) playing Here we come a wassailing.

I tried to load the video of the kids playing and couldn't get it to work. :(  Anyway, I really enjoy the piano recitals! Its fun to watch the kids progress and enjoy playing the piano.  Thank you piano teachers!

Kids Pictures

Im cheap.  Or, rather, I have a budget and have to be careful how much money I spend. I intended to get professional pictures of the kids this year, but things just didn't work out. Schedules and budget never came together.  My sister and I got the brilliant idea of attempting to do photos at home. We bought a black sheet, white sheet and grey blanket to use as back drops.  Um, ya... pictures went as they always do. A DISASTER. The lighting was terrible. We tried shop lights, but it just didn't seem to work.  Kids lost interest quickly. I wanted to post a few of the pictures...... some I really like... some... well...here are some light issue ones:

 This one isn't too bad. Its mostly cute.

 I like this one a lot.

 Whats with this face?

 This is just weird on a lot of levels. Lighting is way wrong.  Jakob looks like a ventriloquist holding his puppet. Strange-ness.

 The kids were all excited about doing this picture. I like it. They LOVE it.

 This looks like a 3 headed purple monster or something. They look like they are all wearing the same dress... not the same looking dress.... but one large continuous dress for all 3 heads.

Im not sure what the answer is for pictures. I know we need them.  I love them when I have them. EVERYWHERE was booked the entire month of December. I made a valiant attempt. You will see the few passable pictures off to your right.

Festival of Trees

Last week Jakob performed at the Festival of the Trees.  He did a great job!

After he performed, we decided to walk around and check out all of the cool trees! Jakob said it looks like Im rich and I hired some guy in a suit to carry around my baby.  I wish. 

Usually when you think Festival of the Trees you think "classy, fancy, expensive..."  Well,  you were thinking right about one thing.  Classy and fancy don't exactly describe some of these trees.  For example, this is the "chewed up gum tree".  Everything on this tree is chewed up gum from an elementary school class.  My first thought was "creative".  The more I dwelt on it, the more disgusting I thought it was.

If chewed up gum isn't your taste (ha ha) then I have a couple more in the "white trash" category. How about the "dryer hose" tree?

Or the ever popular "red solo cup" tree.  I get that it is named after a popular Toby Keith song. Im all for Toby Keith. I've sung the "red solo cup" song more than once.  However, I see at least 2 things wrong with this tree.  First... ITS NOT RED!!!!   Second, check out the price.  Really?  I wish I could make that kind of money for gluing the WRONG COLOR of cups together.

So you don't get the wrong idea about Festival of the Trees, I will post some that weren't in the very expensive"white trash" section. We really liked this Planes/Trains/Automobiles tree.

Or the tree for the military. Corrine especially liked the solders dressed up in military uniforms. I liked the plaque. What a great saying... I might have to adopt it as a stand by lecture.

The BYU/UTES tree was pretty popular with my group as well. Please note which side all of my children chose. Never mind Kate being asleep.... She likes the Utes.

The kids thought that Kates favorite tree was the "sleeping baby doll" tree.  See how Kate got into the moment for the picture?

The most popular among my group was the "Lego" tree. They all love legos. This was a pretty good tree and it had a LARGE display. They had a train track, a whole shelf with lego stuff... it was impressive. Please note the "star" on the tree.

Here are the kids in front of the "Lego" area. They are posing as lego people. Jakob is going as the "Nanny in a suit".  Kate prefers the "sleeping baby doll" look.  The rest of the group are strange lego people.

Merry Christmas! Im looking forward to this month of December. Its always my favorite time of year.

Tower of Schramm

Keith, Jakob, Kate and I went car shopping on Saturday. We were gone ALL DAY LONG. It was almost fun. Corrine and the other kids stayed home. This is the project they worked on. Pretty cool, eh? My grandparents had blocks like these. I spent HOURS playing with the brothers and sister and these blocks. Last year my parents made a set of blocks for the grandkids. My kids LOVE them as well.

Good job babysitting Corrine. I know it was a long day. Believe me, I know.