Today I am grateful that my kids love each other!

whether they are playing in the snow together for hours like today, or helping each other with homework without being asked, or the times when I catch them being sweet to each other for no reason at all like last night when Sophie took the time to play with Lanie and teach her a new hand rhyme, It does my heart good as a mother and it makes me feel like I have done something good. I really am so blessed...

The kids are SO grateful for the snow today, and that it's SATURDAY and they can PLAY in it for as long as they can stand the cold!

last nights snowfall...

made today possible!

check out Sophie's snow fort!

Flashback Friday

The Kids 2006

Memory Lane

The kids had a great time this morning when they busted out the big tote of all their school memories that we have saved over the years. What a blast! It was so great to hear them reminisce about way back when when they were in first grade. For some it was actually a while back, but for others it wasn't so long ago, but they were still talking about it with such fondness. Happy times!

Whether it's building a fort in the boys room, or playing outside for hours, or opening up a pretend book store in the family room, you can hear Xandi saying..."you know they wouldn't be doing this if we still had t.v.!"...and he is right!

The Book Store

Neptune Park

The DISNEYLAND of SARATOGA SPRINGS

The Schmalz kids on a cold and blowing December day. Pictures taken courtesy of my cute friend Andrea and her fancy camera. I love these cute kids of mine and I love these pictures of these cute kids of mine!

The G Team

Sister by chance, friends by choice

I TOLD YOU SO!

I have told people a million and one times that my kids just came to me being the amazingly good kids that they are, and nobody believes me. I have nothing to do with it, and here is my proof. I woke up this morning to these two signs posted on the fridge and pantry door to remind themselves that it was fast Sunday.
I am pretty sure my ONLY job is to not screw them up!

Oh, what do you do in the summertime...

when all the world is green? Do you swim in a pool, to keep yourself cool, or swing in a tree up high? Is that what you do? So do I.

We also have some other plans...

*The Bass family reunion
*Our summer vacation to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Park
*Summer science camp for the older kids
*Space camp for Sophie
*Pioneer trek for mom, dad, and Gavin
*Little G's big day, getting blessed and sealed for time and all eternity to his loving family
*Scout camp for Grayson
*High adventure camp for Gavin
*Girls camp for Sophie and mom, yeah!
*Flaming Gorge
*We get to welcome and love a new baby into the Schmalz family, little baby K! (no, not our family, Xandi's sister Sarah is about to give birth)
*Schmalz family, Park City getaway
*School shopping

Does anyone have some more time and some cash we can borrow? We'll pay you back in about twenty years...or so :)

Rules to live by, according to the Schmalz Kids

The kids made this gigantic cardboard clubhouse in the basement and then went and came up with a list of rules to live by in order to play inside. It made me laugh so hard to read all the things that they thought were important. I have a feeling that the little mother, I mean big sister, Sophie had something to do with the rules. A boy would NEVER come up with the "no tooting" rule! Brilliant idea in my book, especially in those close quarters! All the things that they listed I find are great rules to live by, even if you don't live in a cardboard box.

My Funny Valentines

Thanks to an awesome aunt and uncle who outfitted Gray with these snazzy disguise mustaches, I had quite the show put on for me.
Lets just say that there is NEVER a dull moment around here!

I LOVE YOU KIDS!

We're Baaaaack

and we had a blast!

It all started with an airplane ride, the first for the younger kids, and in the wise words of Grayson after we took off for the first time, "this is way better than watching TV"!

How do you take an entire week of fun and way too many pictures of all that fun and try and get it into one little blog post? Well, I am going to try!

We are so happy that we had the chance to share our vacation with our awesome aunt Kimmie and our Grandma and Grandpa Bass. They sure were troopers that tried so hard to keep up with us Schmalz maniacs. I know that my kids loved being able to make those memories and they are memories that I know they will carry with them throughout their lives.

Grandma Bass with Pluto and the kids

Mickey with the Schmalz Family mousecateers.

A worn out couple of kids with a very worn out looking Grandpa

Rides, rides, and more rides!

Meeting some of Lanie's favorite princesses. Gentry and Sophie got in on it too! Gentry would not even get close enough to the princesses to get a picture, but he would give them a five.

Sophie and Grayson were picked from the crowd to participate in Jedi training and were proven worthy to be guardians of the galaxy.

Gray had to fight the dark lord himself, Darth Vader.

Sophie proved herself and her training in an epic battle with the evil Darth Maul.

After four fun filled days in Disneyland, we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. The kids had so much fun looking at all the pretty fish and petting the sharks and stingrays.

After that we went and took a tour of the haunted Queen Mary. The grown ups thought it was fun learning about the history of that old ship and the kids just thought it was fun walking around thinking that they were going to see a ghost. No luck there. I was a little disappointed myself.

I could keep going and post all 200 pictures if you want, but I think you get the idea. We had a ton of fun, hopefully enough to last us until we get to go again. I can't wait until next time. Are you going to be up for it again Grandpa? We aren't sure if we can do it without you!

Schmalz Family Happenings

Life is so crazy these days. You know how life is, I am so busy pretty much doing nothing, but it keeps me so busy, that I have no time to do anything else!

Here is what we've been up to these days.

Gavin is a Lego maniac. Every time I turn on the camera, he has taken another picture of one of his Lego creations. He also is a recent graduate of hunters safety, so watch out! We also just had the opportunity to go enjoy his first ever band concert. He is playing the trumpet this year, a requirement for Grandpa Schmalz, in order to be given the chance to be taught the alp horn, you need to learn how to play a brass instrument. Gavin did a great job, and he is getting better everyday. Thanks to all my neighbors that haven't complained yet for me sending him outside to practice.

Sophie has been raking in the bucks with her babysitting jobs. I am tempted to take up babysitting myself with the kind of money she has been making. This picture is a sad one. She is in major pain today, see the brace face? She is not in a good mood today! I think we will have soup for dinner. She also has been doing really good on her piano. She loves her new teacher, and she is getting to be quite the little pianist. It's those long, skinny Schmalz fingers.


Gray just wrapped up the fall soccer season with a GOAL!
He is the funnest person to watch play soccer, so fast on his feet with really cool moves. He is looking forward to the winter indoor soccer season to start up again, and he is going to start back up with his piano lessons here pretty soon too. Busy, busy, busy!




Delanie is the queen of preschool. She got to go on her very first field trip to Hee Haws this past week and had a blast. She has been talking about all the fun she is having in school with all her friends non stop. She is so funny and smart and she makes us all laugh every single day.








Gentry is doing really good in his new little preschool and he is really improving with his speech therapy. At least I am learning a lot. I am not sure some days if he is getting better, or if it's just that I am learning his language. He is also so funny about dressing up. He loves getting in his "costumes" as he likes to call them, especially the Spiderman costume that he got for Halloween. What a fun funny boy!



There you have it, my life in a nut shell!

Extreme Pumpkin Carving

A Halloween TraditionThe kids wanted me to post this picture and have everyone vote on the best pumpkin. I told them that that wouldn't be fair to any of them because I already knew that Lanie and I would win!