First Date

Somehow at dinner we were talking about daddy dates, and how Gabby has never been on one. Ben has normally taken Charley to get ice cream or dinner every once in a while. Gabby heard that she got to go on one, so she quickly ate dinner and got her shoes on and told Ben she was ready to go. She was so excited!

Ben just took her to get some ice cream, but she LOVED it!

The girls are so lucky to have such a great dad....

Princess Party

Charley's 5th birthday party was a few days after her actual birthday. She was turning 5, so I wanted to make it special, however, I just had my 3rd baby...and had a ton of family over for Christmas. So we decided that she could invite a few friends to do a princess party. Last year a cosmetology school opened up next to Thanksgiving Point. I had gone there with Charley a few months ago to get our nails done. While I was there I asked if they had princess parties. For $5 a girl they did their hair, nails, and make-up! SWEET!!....party done! We called the hair school to make an appointment, invited a few friends. They met at our house, we drove over....each girl was assigned a student....so none of them were waiting around board. They got pampered....we drove back to our house and had cup cakes and opened presents and took the girls home. It was great. I really didn't have to do anything, and Charley was beyond happy!

Later that night we invited a few more friends over for cake and ice cream. .....after that was over, I felt like super mom!! ....baby born, holidays over, birthday party complete....time for this mama to relax!

Holiday Recap!

I kinda posted about the holidays, but not really. Dani was born the week before, and I was in the hospital from Monday to Thursday. In that time Schramma & Schrammpa entertained the girls. Schramma made tons of yummy treats with the girls, had a princess party, and organized my kitchen!....it's amazing! A few days later my family arrived and the girls were pretty much in heaven with all eyes on them....with a bunch of their aunts and uncles and both sets of grandparents!
Charley got an Easy Bake Oven from Santa......this was her first batch of teeny, tiny cookies!....everyone got half a bite of a cookie!
When I asked Gabby what she wanted from Santa, she just said "presents"....easy enough...so she got a tent and tunnel combo!


We managed to get a family photo of the Zendejas side.

It was a really fun holiday. The girls were excited and happy with everything they got!....they were a little spoiled, but they are only young once.

Highlights of the week:

*Playing the dance game on the kinect....Go Schramma for getting the high score!!!

*Finishing a 1500 piece puzzle!

*Temple Square

*Uncle Carlos playing hide and seek with the girls for 2 hours!

*of course Dani was born!!!....

.....and I know I am missing a ton of things we did. It has already been too long for me to remember everything. All I know is that it was a great time!

I have a TON more pictures of the weeks activities, but they are not formatted in jpeg, and if I waited to post until I did change the format, it may not be until July. So here are my few pictures I took with my small camera that is already formatted right.

A look back...

Looking back at 2011, I can't help but feel really blessed. Of course every thing wasn't all perfect, but it is hard to dwell on those things when those trials only turned to great blessings down the road.

This past year Ben got a new position at work. He is still with the same firm, but he is also an in-house attorney for one of his clients. This has meant a lot less stress and a happy dad! Last year we also found out that we were expecting another baby girl. Charley started pre-school, and Gabby started nursery and we finally got her potty trained!!! 2011 was also the year we bought our first home and welcomed Danielle into our family.

We were also lucky enough to finish out the year and spend the Christmas season with both families!

*Pictured above is our sweet Dani at 5 days old. Our good friend Michele Reyes took them for us. She is a great photographer in Utah county. She is the one that has taken all of the beautiful pictures of my girls.

Fancy FIVE!!!!

Today my baby girl turned 5!! CRAZY!!!...how do I have a 5 year old?!

I was very proud of myself for getting us all ready and Charley to school on time today!! After I dropped her off I ran to the store to grab a treat for her class for snack time. Then when I picked her up from school, we also picked up Ben and went to lunch. We are planning on having her party with her friends on Thursday. We decided she could pick 3 friends and we would take them to the hair school next to Thanksgiving Point to get their hair, nails and make-up done.

Charley doesn't have a doctor apt. until this summer when we take her in for her kindergarten check-up. But I can tell you she is pretty much perfect! She is a great big sister, and a great helper, she is always wanting to help and always thinking of others. She has a photographic memory...literally, she remembers EVERYTHING you tell her. She is a great friend and everyone loves her. And we love her too!

Happy Birthday Miss. Charley!

she's got skillz

Get this girl to a pow wow....quick!

Danielle

Danielle Denise Schramm

Born December 19, 2011 ~ 8:12am

7 lbs 5oz ~ 18 1/2" long

Big Sister Gabby

Big Sister Charley

There isn't any crazy story that goes along with the birth. Dani was a scheduled C-section. There was a point when we thought she would come early, I was having pre-labor pains, but then they went away around 37 weeks. But things went about the same as the other two c-sections. We were scheduled for 7:30am, so we had to be there at 6:15am. They were running a little late, and didn't leave for the surgery room until 7:45am, and we started shortly after that. Ben decided that he wanted to film this one. He even streamed it over his phone through a web cam and some of that family that wanted to was able to see it. Yes, I reluctantly agreed to letting him do this...as long as no one saw anything personal and it was just family! I am fully covered except my belly. Apparently I had a LOT of scar tissue from my previous c-sections, and it took a few minutes to actually get through it. But Dani was born at 8:12am! And she is perfect! She looks just like her sisters did when they were born, with lots of dark hair!

*For my own note: Dani was a very healthy baby. Most c-section babies have to have help with oxygen and have to be pumped of the fluids right after birth. And some times they wont cry right away because of it. But Dani didn't need any of it!

Because my body just ain't what it used to be, the recovery is a little bit more than the other births. I can already tell it will be a while before I am back to my normal self.

Schramma & Schrammpa were here to help with the girls, and brought them to the hospital to meet there new baby sister later that day. A few days after that, my family arrived. By the time I came home we had 8 extra people in our house. Some thought we were crazy, but it was actually fun. It was great to have so much help. But now every one is gone except my little sister. And I may keep her around for a few more days to help me get adjusted with 3 kids!

Today we were all kinda ready by 11:30am. I just have a few more days before school starts again where I need to have us all ready by 9am to get Charley to school on time....things are going to be interesting!

The Craziness that is Gabby

Woke up one morning to find Gabby wearing this little outfit over her PJ's. She's kind of a crazy little girl!

Potty Training.... Again!....

That is right folks, we are on our second try at getting Gabby potty trained. She beat me last time, but this time, I am winning! It took me a few days to not be frustrated with her. She was still having accidents, and not willing to go poo in the toilet. I didn't want to buy pull-ups this time, we went straight to panties.

The last few days have been great. She's been in panties all day and no accidents expect #2...which only happened every other day. However tonight we made a break through!! If you do not have kids yourself and have gone through the potty training process you will not understand the excitement I am feeling right now!....Gabby just went poo in the toilet!!!!!!!!!! We had already put them to bed, and Gabby came running in our room panicking and told us she needed to go potty. Sure enough, she went! #1 & #2

Oh Happy Day!!!

Count Down

Today we worked on a few craft projects....some can not be shown because they are Christmas presents. But here is one I can show you. It is our count down chain. We have listed on each link birthdays, who's coming that day, when baby sister comes, all the way to Christmas! There were just a few links that didn't have anything written on it. We are going to have a busy next few weeks. But we are all excited for everything that is happening, and we can't wait for all of our family to get here!

In other news, we started potty training Gabby again. I took a break a month or so back, and bought a big box of diapers from Costco. We only have a few more left, so we decided to try again. And things seem to be going slightly better. We only had one accident today!! We have 9 days until Danielle comes, I'm hoping she will be about done by then. ....crossing my fingers!

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!