Merry Christmas

For a few days, we had been telling the kids Santa was going to bring their gifts from Grandma Dorine,who lives way up in Idaho, for them to open on Christmas Eve. They were really excited about this, but started to get worried when it was almost their bedtime and still no Santa. He did show up just in time to give them their gifts. Santa was actually Isaiah's brother Gideon, who did an awesome job.Their presents were a pair of pajamas and a fishing game.

Amita loved the fishing game, but figured out using her finger to catch the fish was easy then the fishing poles.

Here are the boys in their p.j.s.

Once the older kids were in bed, we got the stockings filled with Melody's help.

On Christmas morning, the kids got up and opened their stocking presents. Then, we made breakfast and waited for Jeannie's family to come over and open presents with us. It always makes Christmas so much fun to have them over.

Here is James and Jeannie waiting for presents.

Melody loved playing with all the wrapping paper and packaging.

Carter with is star wars lightsaber.

Benjamin with star wars legos. Both boys totally into star wars.

Michael opening his presents.

Isaiah opening his present with Amita's help. She was the official present opening helper. She would go around to each person when it was their turn to open and help rip paper. Sometimes it was hard to get her to slow down and let us enjoy the last present before she starting opening the next.

Me helping Melody open on of her presents.

My mom got the girls matching dressing. They looked so cute in them. That is one fun thing about having kids so close together is getting to dress them up a like.

Rachael coloring a bag she opened earlier in the morning.

And me wearing a beautiful shirt Isaiah got me.

We had a wonderful Christmas and got way to much stuff.

Melody @ 11 Months

My little baby has only one more month before she is a year old. I can't believe how fast time flies and how much she has change in this first year.

Melody has defiantly started to change from a baby into a toddler. She is starting to figure out that her legs are for walking. She will walk a little bit while holding onto my hands. She isn't very good at it and likes to walk tippy-toed.

She has two games that she likes to play. One is "pick the hand." It is where I hide something in one hand and then she has to guess which hand it is in. The other is where, I will hold her, and let her throw a bouncy ball, and I run and catch it.

Just in the last week, she has noticed all the little things I have around the house. She loves to have you hold her and show them to her. Her favorite is a little Korean doll. When you get it down to show her, she just laughs and giggles.

Amita and her play a lot together. Amita loves to have her follow her around the house. They also like to play on my bed together. When ever Melody wakes up from her naps, Amita is the first one to go to her.

Melody still doesn't like riding in the car. She likes to be doing and seeing new things all the time, so after being in her car seat for just a few minutes she is ready to being doing something else. I am hoping once we put her in a forward facing seat she might be happier.

Family Photo Shoot

We finally got around to getting a family picture done. It's always interesting to see how each kid reacts on picture day. I was actually very pleased with how well the kids behaved while getting their picture taken and in between shots. Benjamin even tried really hard to help get the younger kids to smile. Below are some of the funny pictures that we ended up with. I wanted to post the not so perfect ones, so our kids personalities would show through.It was really hard to get all the kids to look and smile at the same time. Benjamin pulled about every funny face he could. Amita was in the most serious mood and didn't want to smile. Carter kept wanting to see what everyone was doing, and Melody wanted to attack all the cords and lights.

Isaiah worked hard to finally get a smile out of Amita.

We had to give Melody something to keep her attention off the cords and light stands.

My two handsome boys, who are the best of friends.

Carter was also very serious that day and didn't want to smile. Isaiah finally got him to give us a few smiles after promising he could some funny pictures with these crazy glasses.

And here is Benjamin. He is always so full of laughs and craziness it is hard to get him to just give a normal smile.