One Year Ago...

I had my sweet baby girl Melody. Since I didn't start blogging till after her birth, I thought I would write about it now.

I went into labor a week early. It was in the middle of the night when I woke up with contractions. All my other labors had been really short (2-3 hrs), so I figure this one would be too. How wrong I was. I was in labor for 8 hrs. Even though it was my longest birth, it was also my easiest.

Melody was born just after sunrise at home in the water. As soon as she was put on my belly, she lifted up her head and look around. It was so cool to see her so alert and aware of what was going on around her. It was also really awesome because the other kids had woke up about ten minutes before I had her. So once she was born, they got to come in and see her and watch the midwife doing her assessment.
Amita was totally into what was going on with the baby. The whole time I was pregnant, she loved it when my midwife Brenda come to do checkups. She loved to listen to the baby's heart. With my boys they didn't even seem to notice I was pregnant or that a new baby was around, but Amita was totally into it.

She was my smallest baby weighing exactly 7lbs.

Isaiah showing off his new daughter.

Us as proud parents to our new baby. As you can see Amita loving the new baby, the boys no where to be seen.

Happy Birthday Benjamin

Benjamin got to celebrate his 7th birthday on January 8th. I can hardly believe he is seven and that in ten more years he will be almost ready to leave home. Just thinking about it almost makes me cry.

Birthdays around here are pretty simple. I let Benjamin pick out what kinda cake he wants. He chose strawberry short cake. Then on his birthday, he helped me make it. Actually, he did most of it from chopping the strawberries to mixing up the cake.

We also measure each kid on their birthday and make it on the door jam. Benjamin had grow 3 inches from last year.

That evening, when Isaiah was done with work we all gathered around to enjoy cake and sing happy birthday. Grandma Mary, The Broadbent family, and Jeannie's family all came to help in the celebration. After cake, Benjamin got to open his presents, then we had a huge paper war with all the wrapping paper. It was a total blast.

Snow Days

We have gotten a lot of snow this year. On one of the warmer days, I took Melody out for her first romp in the snow. She wasn't impressed.

After being outside for a little while, Melody finally got a little more comfortable in the snow. Whenever I put her done outside, our dog Buster always lays by her till I pick her up again.

I pulled the girls around on the sled for awhile, but accidental dumped them off into the snow. After that Melody was done being outside.

I did take the three oldest sledding one afternoon. We had a lot of fun. At first I was going to down with Amita, but she decided she was brave enough to go down the hill herself. After doing it once, she didn't want to go down with mama anymore.

RAW FISH!!

One of Isaiah's many talents is sushi making. This spring he decided he wanted to learn how to make sushi, so him and I sampled a lot of sushi. Then we bought a kit and the rest is history. He makes the best sushi rolls I have ever had.

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.