Christmas Decorations

I think Charley looks so old in this picture. But she will be 5 in a few weeks.....crazy!!

My wreath I made!...I think it turned out so cute! ...Thank you dollar store! It cost me $7 for the ribbon, ornaments and flowers at the dollar store and $3.50 for the actual wreath. It literally cost me just over $10 to make!!! and I LOVE IT!

The day after Thanksgiving....after we slept in from shopping the night before....we broke out the Christmas decorations. We had our siblings over to help us put them all up. Our new tree is so pretty. A guy at Ben's office moved into a smaller house a few months back, and his huge 9ft tree wouldn't fit. He tried to sell it at a garage sale, but couldn't. He found out we had a 7ft tree and wanted to trade. I told them our tree wasn't as cool, but they didn't seem to mind. So we traded.....We had to use a ladder to get the ornaments on the top!

Thanksgiving is done

Decorations up

Christmas shopping 90% done

Bring on Baby!!!!.....3 weeks left!

Turkey Day!

Ben's first Turkey! It was actually really YUMMY!!! It was perfectly seasoned, and really moist...no gravy needed! He did a great job!
The girls couldn't wait for the food....they were really excited to eat!
After dinner we ate so much, we just needed to lay down!.....we all crashed in our living room!

And of course we had to go through the Black Friday ads to map out where we were going!

Thanksgiving was soooo much fun! We had 10 people at our house. My sister and her friend, Calvin & Courtney, Kristen, Aunt Kay and us 4. We divided up dinner, and everyone made delicious foods!! After dinner Charlene & Jared came to stay the night, so the girls could all go shopping. And since stores seem to open up earlier and earlier every year....we headed out at 10pm on Thursday to Walmart, then 12am at Kohls. It was Char's, Courtney's and Lexi's first time going black Friday shopping. I had to break in the rookies!

We loved having so much family over! And we have so much to be grateful for!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Let it Snow

It was Fr-EE-Zing outside that day, but the girls didn't seem to mind. They LOVED the snow! And yes, that would be Gabby in a tutu! This was our first measurable snow fall. Since then it has melted...but I'm sure we will be getting plenty more!

Crunch Time

Okay people, I know I have been MIA lately with the blog. I'll try and get photos up later, but for now here is a quick update on what we've been doing.

*Charley's been loving school. She has school 4 days a week, Tues.-Fri., and every time Tuesday rolls around, it seems like the week flies by. And she is making a ton of new little friends here in our neighborhood. She is invited to friends house at least twice a week. It is fun to see her growing up and being so independent. It is a good thing we are having another baby, because otherwise I would be sad about Charley growing up so fast.

*Gabby changed her name for a day. I was teaching her a while back what her whole name was. But she somehow just remembered her middle name, so one day....a few weeks after I told her her name. She goes on this rampage on how her name is Sofia Schramm. And when we tried to tell her it was Gabby, she yelled at us and said "No! I'm Sofia Schramm." So for the whole day I called her Sofia, and she answered to it. But by the end of the day she told me she wanted to be Gabby again.

*We decided on Danielle Denise for our 3rd baby girls name. We'll call her Dani, and Denise is after my aunt who passed a way over 4 years ago. We thought it sounded pretty together, and plus we love our aunt! We have already scheduled her delivery for December 19th around 7 am. However, the little stinker is really wanting to come early! I started having signs of pre-term labor, and even started contracting last week. I was sent to Labor and Delivery twice last week. Not to actually deliver, but to check on the baby to make sure she was okay. I am not completely on bed rest, but I am almost useless....I can't exercise, lift, or do anything that may induce labor. It is a little bit stressful b/c I still have a lot to do before baby comes. I am just glad that I have about 75% of Christmas shopping done!! I knew I wasn't crazy for starting 2 months ago!

*This week we are having Thanksgiving at our house! We are kinda excited! Just because it will be the first in our new house.

The past few weeks really have been a blur, and plus with my pregnancy brain, I can't remember a whole lot. So once I get the pictures off my camera I'll post some more. But until then, we hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving holiday....and we wish we could spend it with more of our family!

Halloween Festivities!

Charley wanted to be a witch and Repunzel for Halloween. So she was a witch for her school party. That is my shirt....with pins in the back. And my Christmas socks!!!...pulled up to her thighs!! But that was the best we could do last minute! She only has school Tuesday-Friday, so her class party was on Friday (which I got to help with....so fun!), and then the school parade was on Monday, on Halloween. It was an optional activity that Charley wanted to go to, so that time she was Repunzel.

Our pretty princesses! Repunzel and Sleeping Beauty!

Then Friday night we went to our ward/church Halloween Party/Trunk or Treat.

Monday, after the School costume parade, we had a neighborhood trick or treating kick-off!...Hosted by our little cul-de-sac. It was really fun....everyone brought food to share, and we had a few games. After we all cleaned off, the kids were off trick or treating. Calvin and Courtney came over to spend the night with us....Courtney went with me and the girls trick or treating. Calving stayed back with Ben to pass out candy....or to scare kids. Ben dressed up as a scare crow on the porch, and pretended he was fake....and scared kids and their parents.....and Calvin took videos of it! They had a fun nigh!
Last Sunday, after church, I came down the stairs and found Charley reading to Gabby. It was so cute....both girls have their arms around each other. I promise I didn't tell them to do it.

On a side note, I am so grateful/lucky to have such great jobs. I just came home from a meeting with one of my jobs. I am the certified teacher for a private school that has an independent study program. I created the curriculum, and now the students finish the packet, it gets emailed to me and I grade it....I've done it for the last 5 years, and now I can grade them super fast. For the past 5 years we have had a "provisional" accreditation....and have been working toward full accreditation. Tonight was our meeting with the National Accreditation team, and it went great! It was fun to hear all the good things that they saw we were doing....and it made me feel good as a teacher. Since I have been out of the actual school system for a few years, sometimes I feel out of it. But after tonight, I felt like I really am a good teacher. The team was really impressed with my curriculum!! Pat on the back to me!