Lexi's 6!!

Lexi turned 6 on December 12th! 

WOW. Growing much too fast, that's for sure.

We had family over for cake and ice cream in the evening.

Frozen cake

This part spins

Decorating their hats

 Present time!

Lexi was SO excited about these shoes. She put them on immediately.

Happy birthday big girl!!

I'm so grateful for my spunky, sweet, thoughtful little girl!

Gingerbread houses

The 2nd annual Porter Gingerbread House competition went much better than last year.

I made the base of the houses earlier in the day so that the frosting would be dry (unlike last year when the candies were too heavy for the still warm frosting). We also had Shane's sister and her cute family over to join us!

I was glad I'd gotten extra graham crackers when this kept happening! So frustrating!

Finished the cutting!

I helped Lexi, Shane helped Ari, Val helped Ryley, and Kaden did it all by himself!

Ari just wanted to eat it. hahaha

Ryley did a great job!

Nom, nom, nom...

Lexi came up with the idea of a "fence" all around it. So creative!

Kaden wanted pictures of every angle...

He did an orange fence. :)

Kaden's car.

Kaden did a very basic car last year. This year he added a gummy-person inside it and headlights. 

Next year's will be bigger! :D

North Pole Express

Shane's parents took us all on the North Pole Express at the beginning of December. I was really looking forward to it because none of us had ever been and we love "The Polar Express" book and movie.

We had pizza in our van on the drive up to Heber City, which the kids thought was a super cool picnic.

Kaden, Lexi, Ryley, and Ari ready to ride

 

 

 

I tried so hard to get one good picture of Ryley and Lexi where they were just smiling....

So close

I'll take it! Even with a forced smile from Lexi. haha

 They had homemade cookies, which I assumed would be store bought because that's a TON of cookies to make for everyone. Um, no. They were honestly homemade and REALLY good homemade ones, too. Mrs. Claus said they were her personal recipe and gave me a copy of it. :D

Our entertainment. She was so much fun with the kids.

Can't ride to the North Pole without hot chocolate!

My one complaint about the event is that there is only one bathroom on the train...and it's at the very front...and we were at the very back of the train. It's a 90 minute ride with young kids, people, get another bathroom! Of course, Ari HAD to go potty 2 minutes before Santa was coming. An elf helped us get to the front (which was honestly scary going in between the cars - it was soooo shaky and windy) and back, but Santa was almost through with our car when we got back. So I stole these pictures from Shane's mom.

This last picture is Ari and I with Santa. We made sure she got to meet him. 

But seriously, he was the real Santa. 

He 100% had ME convinced. 

I've never, ever met a better Santa. Amazing. And the best part was that all of the kids had name tags on, which at least Ari forgot about, so every elf we passed on the way to the front of the train would say, "How you doing, Ari? You having a good time, Ari? Need another cookie, Ari?" And every time she was blown away that they knew her name, and then Santa did as well, so it really added to the magic.

Everyone on board got their own Christmas bell with a ribbon tied to it so you can hang it on the tree. It was so much fun! This will definitely be a yearly tradition for us!

Chuckles

Our elf on a shelf, Chuckles (yes, still a super creepy name for him), came back this past Christmas! He wasn't going to, but the kids kept asking if he would, so he changed his mind.

I don't think it's fair that the elf gets to make trouble while the kids are expected to be good, so I decided he would mainly just move positions this time.

A poem Chuckles brought

The kids loved the "magic snow" he decorated with.

These are the only pictures I took the whole time he was with us, but that's because he just moved around the rest of the time. ;)