Courage

Just before the Brad Paisley concert, I received an email from Annie's teacher. Each month at Annie's school they focus on a character trait. At the end of the month, the teacher chooses a student who has exhibited that character trait and they are given an award during an assembly. Mrs. Stringfield was asking our permission to recognize Annie this month.

This month's character trait is courage. For those of you who know Annie, you know how appropriate it is that she would receive this award. She truly has earned it. It has not been an easy year for Annie Jo. I am so appreciative to Annie's teacher for recognizing who Annie is and what she has accomplished this year.

After the character awards, Annie's teacher took the stage to award the first four students in her class to get 100% on 50 multiplication facts in 60 seconds. The first name she read? Annie Jo Kraupp!

What a great day for Annie!

The bonus? It all happened on a no uniform day. She didn't have to wear her prison outfit (as she refers to the school uniform) as she was recognized.

This is Country Music

Emma LOVES Scotty McCreery. I LOVE Brad Paisley. Everyone loves The Band Perry. When we heard the three were coming to town together, it was a must go.

We got a ticket for Jake too, but the poor little guy starting throwing up about an hour and a half before the show. He stayed home with Kendall, and was so excited to miss school the next day AND be with Kendall that he never did process missing out on all the loud fun. Kendall is a saint. I already knew she loved Jake but only true love allows one to clean up another's vomit.

The concert was amazing. We are so happy we could go and we love Scotty, The Band Perry, and Brad more than ever.

Dyson Incident

Jake owns a Dyson so that he can take it apart and figure out how it works. Apparently, Sunday afternoon he was seeing if his toy dolphin fit into one of the tubes of the vacuum. It did. One problem--it would not come back out.

So, after the kids were in bed, Travis and I started to free the dolphin. Mistake #1: Travis sends Jamie to get pliers. Mistake #2: Travis pulls as hard as he can on the wedged dolphin tale while Jamie says: someone is going to get hurt.

The dolphin's tale did not withstand the pulling from the pliers. The pliers came free and came so close to Travis' eye. He was really bleeding, and I could see it was the kind of gash that needed medical attention.

I couldn't get a hold of someone to stay with the kids right away, so we started driving and praying someone would answer our call. Thank you Ali for rushing to our house and even cleaning up the blood!

The cut got some glue, Travis has a nice shiner, and the next day we freed the dolphin by pushing it through the tube instead of trying to pull it out.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas this year was definitely unforgettable.

Christmas Eve traditionally is a family filled seafood feast. Last year we hosted it at our house, most years it is at Grandma and Grandpa's house. However, this year Grandpa was in the hospital so the Kraupp family got take out from Red Robin and we had a picnic right there in Grandpa's room. When Red Robin realized why we were doing take out on Christmas Eve, they only charged us for half our meal.

Grandpa hasn't been much for pictures as he's going through this ordeal, but he did consent to let the grandkids gather around for a Christmas Eve picture. Gathering all our kiddos in Grandpa's room can be pretty stressful. They all did pretty well, and we were very thankful to have Christmas Eve dinner with Grandma and Grandpa.


Jacob cries everyday when it is time to go to school. Travis did some negotiating around Thanksgiving and promised Jake if he could brave school everyday without crying between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we would buy fireworks.

Jake did it! Christmas Eve we had a fireworks celebration. The missionaries joined us, as well as Ali and Kendall. Jake was in heaven. Santa and fireworks in the same night? Perfection. Good thing our neighbors already know we are crazy.

The kids got to bed a decent hour, and much to our surprise didn't have much trouble falling asleep. The trouble came at 3:30 a.m. when the Annie, Emma, and Jake were at our bed telling us Santa had come. We sent them back downstairs until 5:00, where they talked about what mean parents we are. I seem to recall one of them coming in every 15 minutes or so to complain or to report on the goods they were seeing from Santa in front of the Christmas tree.

At 5:00 we woke up the twins. Megan is always a joy to awaken, Justin not so much. He growled through the entire morning.

One of the reports every 15 minutes at my bedside in the middle of the night was from Jake, "MOM!! There is a DC14 out there!" Not long before Christmas Travis and I decided it was time to buy Jake his own Dyson. His knowledge of every Dyson made is incredible, and his ability to take them apart, explain how they work, and then put them back together is nothing short of impressive. In Jake's opinion the DC14 is the only way to go. According to the guru at the vacuum store, Jake is spot on. Look at the pictures from her out. Jake couldn't bare to be away from his vacuum. It even had breakfast with us.

Megan loves the Barbies and Squinkies she requested from Santa. When she talks about them she always jumps.

Justin is more of a Christmas afternoon guy...Christmas morning not so much.

The plan for Christmas dinner was to take all the food in and cook it at my parents. My mom was going to sneak home and eat and then Travis and I would take the kids in shifts to visit Grandpa. When we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house, my hands were full so I asked the kids to open the door. It was locked so they started ringing the bell. I told them no one was home...just as Grandma opened the door. We walked in I asked her what she was doing home, and then we heard the most wonderful "HO HO HO" coming from Grandpa who was on the COUCH!!! He was home for Christmas! Grandpa still has a long way to go before we will call him healthy, but we are so grateful to have been able to spend Christmas with him at HOME. Though his illness has been inexplicably difficult, it has helped us to not get lost in the greed that can become Christmas and instead be thankful to a loving Heavenly Father who watches over us, blesses our lives with miracles, and gave us the best gift of all--His Son.

We loved being at Grandma and Grandpa's on Christmas day. We are all pretty crazy about the newest Howell, Avery Jo.