Christmas was a lot of fun. It was great to get to spoil the kids and it was fun to see them so excited. I had a pretty spectacular Christmas thanks to Gilbert and an amazing friend of mine *cough* Lisa *cough*.

Santa left presents!



Elise's pile



Matthew's pile



Viviana didn't get much because she's still too little to really care about much of anything other than food.

Milk and cookies for Santa



Matthew was still knocked out when Elise woke up.



She tried to wait patiently for him to wake up.



But she just didn't have it in her



Reading the note that Santa left for them



Sitting in his new car



So happy that he got his Alphie robot that he's been asking for.





Taking Alphie for a ride



Then we went outside on a cold Christmas day to drive the cars.







After nap time they have a few tea parties with Elise's new Beauty and the Beast tea set



Mommy also made Matthew a new Autobots shirt =)



We went up to the Stewarts' house yesterday to have Christmas with them. The kids had a ton of fun together and so did the adults.

This captures the difference in the boys' personalities so well.



Matthew playing doctor. He gave Gilbert a shot and then put a "band aid" on it.



The babies =)





Vicki went to University of Texas, so I made this little ball as part of Amelia's gift.



Unfortunately, the ball and Matthew's shirt are the only handmade things I made. There aren't enough hours in the day for me to be as crafty as I'd like to be.

Elijah and Elise eating breakfast together



Viv showing off her cute leopard vest from Grammy. I love the ears on the hood =)



Cuddling with Tinkerbell on the way home.

My kids like going to the park. Elise likes the slides. Matthew likes the rocks. Viviana generally just hangs out in her car seat while her siblings have a good time... but she looks so darn cute while she sits there =)



Matthew and the rocks



This was a rather wet morning so when Elise went down the slides her pants got wet and her bottom started to turn black.



She loves the slides





My girls



Matthew found his old Dodgers hat and decided Viviana needed to wear it... while eating a wooden pizza...



I love him



Pig tails! I'm not sure Gilbert's completely on board yet.



Our lazy baby has figured out that she can get across the room by rolling. It's pretty cute. She sometimes needs to take a rest, though.



The kids had an early Christmas with Jason because he spent Christmas in California. Matthew loved his "Evil Dr. Porkchop".



Elise passed out while watching Star Wars with Daddy.



I love, love my girls' outfits on Christmas eve =). Sweater dresses!





Christmas post to follow!

3 small children and a mommy with a stomach bug is not something I would wish on anyone. I'm glad it's all over now, but that definitely was not the way I wanted to spend half of my week.

Gilbert and I went on the first real date we've been on in a while. The last one we went on was to see Iron Man 2 after Matthew and Elise went to bed. Viviana was still tucked away in my tummy =). We got really lucky and got to see Jimmy Eat World and Smashing Pumpkins play together. It was a lot of fun and I'm so happy we got to go. Thanks to our friend, Lisa, for leaving her family for an evening to come love on our kiddos so we could go.

Woo hoo! We put the Christmas tree up! We actually did this a couple of weeks ago, but I hadn't shared these yet.

Elise helping Daddy decorate the tree



Matthew pointing out his Optimus Prime ornament



This is where Viviana hung out while we decorated



The girls each got an ornament this year. It makes me happy to know that all of the kids are represented on the tree now. I tried to do an ornament for each of them as newborns but I just never got around to printing out the pictures so instead they each have an ornament of something they like on the tree.

Matthew has his Optimus Prime.

Elise got Tinkerbell.



Viviana got a frog =). She'll get to pick out something she likes as she gets older, but we thought this would be very appropriate right now.



This was last year's stocking set up. We didn't know who was growing in my belly at that point but there was no way that baby was going to go without acknowledgment at Christmastime. So we bought the tiny green stocking up on the mantle in front of the picture of Matthew.



This year we were pulling out all of the stockings and when I found that little green stocking I almost cried. For some reason I was completely overwhelmed by the idea that that tiny little baby is now 6 months old and growing into a beautiful little girl. I'm so happy that she has her own full size stocking to hang with the rest of them.



In an effort to capture my kids this Christmas season I dressed Viviana up and tried to get them to pose for me. This is the result.











Our small group had an ugly sweater Christmas party and because we didn't have any ugly sweaters but we didn't want to be complete Scrooges we showed up with our Christmas reindeer. Luckily, Judah came in his festive gear, too.



On Saturday one of Matthew's buddies from church had a birthday party. I took the kids and they had a blast. Elise LOVED the slides and if she had been coordinated enough to make it up by herself she would have gone down all day if I had let her. Thankfully because I was there by myself with the kids, the girl who was working at the party did me the huge favor of carrying her up for me... over and over again =)

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

Eating pizza after all of that bouncing fun



Rice cereal!!!





She's definitely getting the hang of it.

Every year Gilbert's mom sends the kids gifts for the 12 days of Christmas. I think it might be more fun for me to watch them open the gifts than it is for them. Their first gift this year was matching Christmas pj's. I almost died of cuteness.





I love Christmas even more as a parent =)