The Night before Christmas...

 Magic reindeer food.  Gabby got from school for the reindeer.  She poured it in a big pile on our drive way, so the snow wouldn't cover it!

 Milk, cookies, carrots and a note for Santa

Christmas Jammies.

*Charley actually opened her PJ's last week.  She had pajama day at school, and got to watch "the Polar Express."  The night before as she was trying to decide on what to wear, she came to me crying.  She told me all of her pajama's didn't fit her right, and she did't have anything to wear.  It was so funny that she was so worried about it.  So I told her she could open her pajama's early if she promised she wouldn't be sad when the other girls opened theirs.  She was so excited to have something new and cute to wear to school for pajama day!

Christmas Sunday

I didn't get the girls any "Christmasy" dresses this year. It was actually last minute I found some skirts for them, but they are pink.  And dani's cute dress is the dress she got from Aunt JoJo for her birthday!  It is super cute on her!  We put a cute little pink sweater over it, since it was snowy.  Merry Christmas from the UT Schramm's!

School Christmas program

The girls did awesome at the school Christmas Singing Program!  It was so fun to watch both girls!  (Charley was the top left corner of the kids. Gabby is a little easier to see, she has the red start and red skirt on!)

Dani's Birthday! She's 2

Can you believe my baby is 2?! I can't! She is growing up so fast.  Right now she is in her "I do it myself" phase.  And she is so proud to be a "big girl."

For her birthday we just invited a few friends over for cake and ice cream.  Her big gift she got was a big car.  It was in the box when she opened it, and would not leave Ben's side until Ben finished it.  She was pretty excited.

I love my sweet baby girl.

**Yesterday (12/23/13) we were visiting Granny and Grandpa Schramm in Ogden.  She was siting on their bar stools and fell off.  She bit through her bottom lip and chipped her two front teeth.  We took her to Insta care, where luckly she didn't need stiches, but she did have to get her chin glued shut.  She was a tough little girl, I on the other hand about fainted!  But she is doing much better, it looks worse than it is.

Lately

 This little lady lost her first tooth in November.  She lost it while we were in Omaha at my parents house.  She lost her second one a week later.  She is now excited to lose all of her teeth....she liked getting her dollar from the tooth fairy. Can you Believe she will be 7 in a few weeks?!?!?!  I can't!

 And this graceful little thing will be 2 in a few weeks!!!  Baby no more....it is kinda sad.

 And of course Gabby.  She did this pose intentionally. ....she cracks me up daily!

....and Back to Dani......This is her first night in a toddler bed. :(  We are having family come in for Christmas, so I decided to start getting the rooms ready for multiple visitors.  I put the toddler bed in the little girls room, not thinking Dani would actually sleep in it.  But she wanted to.  And Ben only had to tell her once that she couldn't get out.  And there she stayed the rest of the night! Maybe Potty Training will be just as easy, but I'm not quite ready to start that yet.  I am not ready to fully give up my baby! I am ok with diapers for right now.

We spent Thanksgiving with Ben's family on the Hinckley/Ewing side. It was a fun/relaxing day.  It was especially nice because I didn't have to host or cook anything big!  I bought a pie, and drinks, and made deviled eggs. The day before Thanksgiving, Ben had to work, but the girls didn't have school.  So we went up to Ogden to visit Ben's Grandparents, Granny and Grandpa Schramm. It normally takes the girls a good half hour to warm up to them.  But I was really happy with them.  They took the Granny and Grandpa right away.  I was glad, because they were looking forward to their visit.  Afterward, I took the girls to Aunt Virginia's green house.  They own a huge Green house not far from Granny's.  They grow thousands of poinsettias every winter. It is kinda cool to look across this huge green house and see all the flowers.  The girls LOVED it! And we came home with some as well.

But November is over, and December is here.  The tree is up, and shopping is pretty much done.  December is a busy month.  I have a lot going on with primary, and work, and the kids stuff.  But I will be happy and relaxed once school is out for break.  Then things really get to slow down!

New Calling

The Sunday before Halloween I was called into the Bishop's office and he released me as a ward missionary, and called me to be the new primary president!!! I told him I would be out of town for the next few Sunday's (we were in Omaha), but he said it would be fine and it would give me some time to find councilors.  It was a lot to process in my head.  Primary is a HUGE calling.  And I am just now figuring out what it entails.  We have so many kids!  And lots of classes with lots of teachers to find to fill those callings.  And helping plan the baptisms, Achievement Days, Faith in God, Scouts, "8 is Great", Priesthood Preview, the Primary Program, teacher training, Nursery, and probably 20 more things I am forgetting.  But I have great councilors!  We have only been sustains for the last week, and we have gotten so much covered and restructured!  I am looking forward to this Sunday to see how everything works out that we have put in place.  They aren't huge things.  This week we have been mainly working with teachers and leaders, helping them and making things easier for them. I am hoping it works the way we planned it too!

It was a little frustrating when everyone would come up to me and offer their condolences.  I think everyone thinks it is a horrible calling to have.  But this past week, as I realize how important these little children are, I have realized a greater importance in what I am doing.  My focus right now is on the teachers.  Everyone remembers their teachers as a kid, never who their presidency was.  So I want the teachers to be happy so the kids have a great experience in primary and remember the spirit that they felt.  It is a lot of work, but we will get there, and one day I will be able to catch up on my shows!!  :)

Omaha & UNO Native Film Fest!

With my Aunt Carmella!

 Charley and Gabby made "flower necklaces" with Nana.  They were getting creative with entertaining themselves while we were at the film festival all day.

 Dani giving Grandpa some lovin'

 Me with Chaske Spencer.  He presented 2 new films at the film festival, and he also did an actors workshop.  He is a really nice guy.  It was fun meeting him.  He is known for his role in the "Twilight Series" as Sam Uley.

 At the film festival they also showed a documentary on these brothers, Jeremy and Jerome Thompson.  They are Native Lacrosse players who's goal all growing up was to play Lacrosse at Syracuse University.  But they had a lot of things come up where they were always having to fight to finally get there....they had to deal with learning dissablities, which lead to not getting a high enough SAT score to play at a D1 school, and having to go to community college first, but finally getting to play at Syracuse.  It was really inspiring.  And they too are really nice!  A bunch of kids from the rez came to watch the movie and meet them, and they brought Lacrosse gloves and sticks and balls to sign and give to them!

The day after Halloween we left for Omaha. Omaha Public Schools Title VII asked me to come out and do another hoop clinic.  I was able to time it right so I could catch the last two days of the UNO Native American Film Festival.  My dad is the Director of Native Studies at UNO, and he teamed up with Vision Maker Media to put on this film festival for Native American Heritage month.  I thought it turned out great!  And I love how they brought in the actors to present the movies.  

I put on my clinic on Monday and Tuesday and then I had the rest of the week to go to the zoo, and visit family.  I even got to go to dinner with my aunt Carmella!  I had to take the girls out of school for a week, but the teachers gave us their school work before we left, and we were able to get it all done so they didn't fall behind. 

We had so much fun, the girls were crying when we left!  But it is good to be home, we missed Ben!  

Halloween - School Parade

 Before school started.  We had to take one with the masks on, because they couldn't wear them to school.

This morning Dani and I went to the school to watch the girls at the school Halloween Parade!  So many creative costumes!  And the girls looked cute!

School Pictures

 Charley 1st Grade

Gabby Pre-K

We decided to get actual school pictures this year!  I think they are beautiful!!! It is crazy how big they are getting!  Two in school!  (technically 1, but since Gabby's preschool is at the elementary, it kinda counts!)

Fall Festival

Today was so nice! It was almost 70 degrees. We were outside taking advantage of the nice weather, because Monday we get a cold front coming in!  The girls had fun making a leaf pile and messing it up.  It must be fun to be  a kid!  We don't have a lot of leaves on the ground, our trees arn't very big to begin with, but we made due with what we had.

Tonight was also our ward Fall Festival, and Trunk or Treat.  The two older girls were excited to wear their Power Ranger costumes, and Ben pulled through and made Dani a zombie.  And I am proud to announce that my chile won the chile cook off!!  I was pretty proud of myself.  Go me!

Painting Pumpkins

For Monday night family night we decided to paint our pumpkins we got last week. I think they turned out pretty cute!

Fall Break

A few weekends ago was fall break.  We decided to just stay home this year.  On Friday, Ben took a half day and we grabbed lunch then headed out to the mountains to see the leaves changing color.  If we ever do move out of Utah, the mountains in the fall would be one this I would really miss. We brought bags for the girls to collect leaves. And then we all tried to catch "lucky leaves."  It was a pretty and relaxing afternoon.  After the mountains, we went to the dollar movie to redeem our free movie with the Pass of All Passes and watched "Monsters University."