Merry Christmas!

Such a fun day. Shane and I both woke up around 6:30. We kept listening for the kids and didn't hear them. Finally Shane ran down the hall and opened the door to their room and then ran back really quick. Poor Natalie...she is such a silly girl. She started yelling from her room, "Who opened my door? Who opened my door?" She was not happy. Then she came in to our room repeating the same thing over and over. Shane and I are pretending to be asleep so she can "wake us up on Christmas morning" and she is just obsessed with the fact that someone opened her door. Finally Heidi yelled from down the hall that maybe Santa opened the door. Then it clicked and Natalie got really excited. Both girls jumped on our bed and asked if we could go downstairs. This year Shane and I both went downstairs to get everything ready and we made the girls wait at the top of the stairs. While we were turning on Christmas lights and making coffee, they were singing Christmas carols at the top of their lungs. So cute! After we said they could come down they both came running into the family room. Heidi was so excited about her doll house that Santa left. Natalie didn't understand why Santa left her a doll house when she specifically asked him for a rainbow loom! We did stockings and then exchanged gifts. When Natalie opened the rainbow loom from Shane and I she was so happy. That must've been why Santa didn't get it for her then! 

After finishing our gifts, I threw together some Nutella Cinnamon Rolls and then we headed to my parents.  Dad read the three page Santa letter, we tossed snowballs into a pot to see who would open gifts first each round and had an amazing spread of food. Cookies, cinnamon rolls, muffins, cheesecake, egg casserole and coffee cake. That's how we roll at the Mellecker house! :) After finishing with gifts we headed back home. The girls played with their toys and I took a nap. Then we headed back over for Christmas dinner. Nan's amazing lasagna, lots of picture taking and playing with new toys. It was a really great day. 

   

 Everything before the kids came down

 Heidi is super fast. Always. Seriously...she doesn't walk, she only runs!

 Natalie looking for the rainbow loom that she asked for. Crazy girl!

 Shane reading the letter Santa left the girls

  Natalie practicing her golf swing with the new club Shane got her.

 Dad reading his 3 page letter from Santa...complete with Scottish accent. Our Santa was always Scottish while we were growing up. :)

  We got Dad a jersey for Christmas. Natalie is a professional photo bomber and she completely took over the picture. 

 Dad is covering her face so she can't photo bomb ALL the pictures being taken on Christmas morning. :)

 Heidi and Luke had so much fun after the gifts were done. It started with him throwing her in the trash can. 

Then it turned into an all out "snowball" fight. Mom has these little stuffed snowballs. Heidi and Luke were going at it and she was serious! The would throw the ball and then duck behind the trash. Then she would throw it again while diving behind the couch. This kid has skills! And her aim was right on! It was really funny to watch.

 Shane bought me a new lens for my camera so we were all trying it out a bit. 

 I love this shot of my dad

 Colie and Gracie

 Almost 22 weeks

 Heidi and Gracie

 Colie and Jon

Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas with Shane's family on Christmas Eve this year. It changes every year with his family because of everyone's work schedules. That morning, Shane did his annual Guy's Shopping Day with my Dad, Brent, Luke and Matthew which consists of a few hours of shopping and then lunch and beers and golf arcade for a few hours more! Then in the afternoon everyone came over to my house to do Christmas. Shane and I made taco's for everyone. I love having something way non-traditional on Christmas Eve. That's my tradition. :) Anyway...my parents make the best tacos ever and we wanted to share that with Shane's family. We had all the yummy toppings on the table and then Shane fried up the corn tortillas to make shells. So good! After dinner we opened gifts. Christy and the kids were in North Carolina visiting her family so Justin represented for them. The kids were so excited about gifts...they were bouncing off the walls! They loved everything they got and were even really good watching everyone else open gifts. Cookie decorating came next. I just wasn't feeling the cookie baking this year like I usually am so I bought some sugar cookies from Publix instead of making my own. They were amazing by the way. :) I did whip up some frosting and set out a ton of decorations so all the kids could make cookies for Santa. We all had a lot of fun and it ended up being a later night than I had planned. When everyone left, the girls threw their reindeer food out on the front lawn, put their cookies and milk out for Santa and we got them ready for bed. Shane and I got the stockings and gifts ready and then crashed ourselves. I really love being the parent at Christmas time. It's so fun making everything magical for your kids!

 So many gifts!

  The cousins

 So easy to buy for...he LOVES Angry Birds! :)

 Totally don't get minecraft but Jayden loved the gift we got him

 Seriously my favorite pic!

 Sabrina and Colby

 The cookie decorating

 So happy this actually turned out

 Natalie and Heidi wrote their own letters to Santa. Heidi also drew a picture...that is Santa after he comes down the chimney because he is so dirty. :) She wrote her letter all by herself too.

I love this letter from my adorable first grader. So sweet! We watched all the Santa Clause movies before Christmas this year and it really changed how she viewed Santa. We looked up how old Santa is for her too...1,743 years old. :)

Ooops...It's a Girl :)

Such a funny story. Kind of. We went to the doctor a few weeks ago to find out the sex of the baby.  As soon as the doctor started the ultrasound she got excited and said, "Did you see that?" She said it was a boy but the baby moved so much they couldn't get a good picture. Because she couldn't get a good pictures she said she was only 65% sure it was a boy but I was convinced. Probably because we had already planned our gender reveal party for the next day. :) I'm really not that patient of a person.  We told everyone it was a boy. We even put it in our Christmas cards as most of you already know. Well, this week we went to see my specialist. Her machines were much better quality. They told us we were having a girl. That probably what we saw before was just the umbilical chord between her legs. So crazy! Honestly Shane and I don't care either way what we have. We are just as excited to have a girl as a boy. The only thing was that we had already told everyone! Kind of embarrassing right? Oh well...I asked the technician if she was completely positive that we were having a girl because if I keep going back and forth people are going to think I'm crazy. She said she was 99% sure. Natalie still thinks there is a chance that we are having a boy because they didn't say 100% sure. :) I'm just really glad that this time we got some good pictures that weren't blurry. I love this perfect profile shot.

It's a Boy!

We decided to have a gender reveal party this time around. It was so much fun! It was really low key. I had a small urge to go all Pinterest crazy but my sister reigned me in. :) We found out what we were having the day before. It was so hard to keep it a secret! We made a big dinner for some close friends and family. Chili and cornbread...yum! We had everyone come wearing either pink or blue...whatever they thought we were going to have. Natalie was not happy that we kept it a secret from her too! :) Anyway...we filled a box with balloons and once everyone got to our house we let the girls open the box. It turned out awesome. 

Everyone thought it was going to be a boy....almost. :)

I had Gracie video it too. That is definitely my favorite!

County Fair

Last Sunday we took the girls to the fair. So much fun! They are seriously getting way too big. We got them an unlimited ride pass. Shane too. They wanted to go on every ride. When they were too short to go on a ride they were so sad! I think their favorites were the spinning rides. And the flying swings...they were super happy to go on those. I think because Shane didn't have to go with them. They loved going on the ride all by themselves. :)  My favorite part of course was getting a corn dog. There is nothing like a corn dog from a fair! Especially for a pregnant person. :) 

 Last year Heidi was too short for the Ferris Wheel so this year she was so so happy to get to go on it. 

 The flying swings

 This ride flung the girls all over the place

 Poor Natalie almost got a black eye from this ride. Her head flew forward and hit the safety bar. 

 The last ride was the merry go round. 

 Have you ever had an icee from a Koha Ice truck? Seriously soo good! Like a snow cone but the ice is softer. Another one of my favorite parts of the day. :)

I thought it was cute that they all had the same "tattoos"