Abraham; The first 3 weeks

As I was going through pictures I realized that I had lots of pictures of Abraham as he has grown and changed during this first month of life.  The following are a LOT of pictures of the first three weeks... close to daily shots.  I am just so in love with this baby!  He is so sweet, he has started smiling at me (which I absolutely LOVE), he sleeps between 5 1/2 and 6 hours at a time at night and then goes right back to sleep, so I'm getting relatively good sleep for this stage of the game.  He falls asleep best on my shoulder, rather than nursing always.  He is super snuggly and loves to be held up on my shoulder or nestled on Ethan's chest.  He is just so perfect!  We are so happy he's here!

Day 1: December 5

Day 2: December 6

Day 3: December 7

Day 4: December 8 This is one of my favorite pictures.  My mom is holding him and he is just content as can be snuggling with her.

Day 5: December 9

Day 6: December 10 I love the little yawn sneaking in the picture.  I made this little snuggle snack for him, it has been really nice to have! He enjoys being snuggled in it.

Day 9: December 13 Does anything beat the squishy, sleeping face of a newborn?

Day 10: December 14

Day 13: December 17

Day 14: December 18

Day 15: December 19 (Caught a cute smile on his face!)

Day 16: December 20

Day 18: December 22

Day 19: December 23 (Love these cute little church clothes that fit him a lot better now)

Day 20: December 24 (This picture cheered me up when I was feeling down missing family on Christmas Eve, he is just so sweet!)

Day 21: December 26  His first immersed bath, that huge umbillical stump took ages to fall off, so we finally got to put him in his tub!  Just like all his siblings, he enjoyed the bath a lot! 

Oh, I just love that little face!

And I especially love it when he looks right at me.  Melts my heart.

After his bath, we had a holiday photo shoot.  He is such a doll.  The first three weeks were fairly well documented I'd say... what do you think? Can you see a change in him from Day 1 to Day 21?

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was really great.  The boys were up before the little ones, we gathered in Levi's room and I asked if they wanted to sing a song, so we sang Angels We Have Heard on High, that lead to another song and another. I don't remember all that we sang, but I do remember that they were all Christ related and all the kids' choices.  I was touched that the didn't even suggest a Santa type song.  It was a really sweet, sweet way to start the morning out right.  When everyone was up, we said a family prayer and then headed down to the magic.

Stockings are always fun.  The kids are happy to spend a good 20 minutes on them.  Its nice to be able to take our time and not feel rushed off to one thing or another.  Incidentally, one of the reasons we were up so late Christmas Eve is that I made new stockings for everyone this year. Now that our family is complete we all have the same type of stocking and the kids got to choose the fabric for theirs. It was fun.

Ethan bought some chocolate ornaments and hung them on the tree along with some candy canes.  Once the kids realized they were there, they went on the hunt.  Ironically, when we were waiting for tithing settlement on Sunday Bolton took a bite out of a glass ball on the tree there.  Ethan thought maybe he confused him with the chocolate ornaments.  Not to worry, he spit out the glass he bit into and we haven't had any problems with his diapers since. 

Something new we did this year, inspired by one of my favorite people miss Heather Taylor,  was do a handmade gift for one another.  Everyone drew names and had lots of fun making a special gift for someone else.

Eliza made Bolton a robot.

Levi made Jonas a snow globe.

Bolton made Ethan a pillow case.

Bryant sewed Levi a Santa hat.

I guess we only have a video of Bryant opening his gift from Jonas.  I will have to get a picture of him on his new go cart.  Its pretty awesome.  Eliza opened a crocheted doll hat and cape but her real handmade gift is pictured below...

I found Ethan, the ultimate Jazz fan, an awesome lawn gnome wearing a Jazz hat and holding a basketball.  I got the reaction I was looking for.

Goodwill came through in a great way this year.  Bryant really wanted a mini keyboard and I found this one for $5.50!

And Bolton's horse was only $9.50 and its in practically new condition.  The whole family has enjoyed this one.

Levi was very adamant that he really wanted a bird book of his own for Christmas.  So I found him this awesome book that has tons and tons of pictures and it came with a CD of bird sounds, so he can begin to recognize them by sound as well as sight.  I also found him a beginner bird watching book that is a great place for him to record sightings of different birds and comes with stickers.  He is now reading the  big book with his dad at night.  Our little scientist.

Ethan and I worked together to make Eliza this beautiful kitchen.  I have big plans for making it even more fun, but I am so pleased with how it came together!

As a kid, I remember we almost always got a puzzle for Christmas (or my mom would, at least) and after all the craziness we would put the puzzle together over the next couple days.  My mom bought the kids some puzzles this year and we had fun working together to put it together.  It was the hardest puzzle the kids have done for sure!  But they loved it... especially spending time working on it with their dad!

There were way too many presents under the tree this year.  Opening all our gifts from cousins, grandparents, and us in one morning is just too much! It seems a lot less commercial when we spread it out over the weeks leading up to Christmas being with our family.

The kids have had so much fun playing with all their new toys.  It was a really fun Christmas, laid back and relaxing.  Just so nice to be together as a family.

Christmas Eve

Our annual Christmas Eve Nativity was calmer and more respectful than it has been in the years past.  I think that means our kids are growing up. 

Levi was a shepherd.

Eliza was Mary.

Jonas was a Wise Man, bringing the babe gold.  Bolton was a pirate. :)

Ethan was Joseph (and then a shepherd later).

Ethan thought she needed to look the part.  Too funny.

I was the angel (and narrator).

Baby Jesus with the gift of gold.

Bryant brought the myrrh.

After we finished the Nativity, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and everyone blew out the candle together.  Then we had cake.

Right before bed, the kids got to open their new jammies.

The kids were all really excited and didn't go to sleep for quite some time.  Ethan and I couldn't get started on the fun for too long.  And then we were up until 3 am!  I was lucky enough to be up again at 4 to feed the babe. :)  But luckily, the kids didn't get up until 7:45 or so Christmas morning.

While we miss being with our family during the holidays, we have enjoyed creating our own little traditions too.  And we have lots of fun with this sweet family of our own.

Christmas was especially touching to me this year having a brand new baby.  I couldn't help but think of Mary and how she must have felt.  We sang Mary's Lullaby during our ward program and I couldn't stop the tears from pouring out.  I got to do music in primary on Dec.23 (they've given me a break while having the baby) and we focused on gifts the Savior has given us.  It was really neat to think of songs that illustrate these gifts.  I'm so thankful for our loving Savior who came to the world and did so much for us.