We had a wonderful Christmas! Busy with fun and family.
Our cozy Christmas...
The girls had fun making gingerbread houses. We just melted sugar and used it as glue to stick graham crackers together, and then let the girls use icing to glue on candy and such. They loved it.
The girls did a good job at their school Christmas concerts. Can you spot Chloe, Lily and Izzy?
It has sure snowed a lot this winter. One day, the girls wanted to go out and shovel our deck and sidewalk in the front. All of the girls came in except Chloe. The others said she wanted to shovel the neighbours' walk too. I thought it was so sweet of her! I went and grabbed the camera:
We stayed here in Edmonton for Christmas eve, and decided to go to Millenium Place in Sherwood Park with the girls. For only $20 your whole family can skate, go to the wavepool and indoor playground all day!
They loved skating. We got them all skates and Olivia these little "bob-skates". We have sure made good use of them!
We came back home to make our own mini pizzas and have our traditional homemade cinnamon buns!
The girls got some new, snuggly, warm jammies to open on Christmas eve:
Presents set out and ready to go on Christmas eve...
...and here they are Christmas morning! So excited.
Chloe's new frog slippers. We took Olivia with us shopping this year, while the older girls were in school, thinking it would be fine, she would forget what we bought or not notice. We were wrong! Before the girls opened every gift, Olivia was quick to tell them what it was. Once before Christmas we were watching a movie on tv, and the commercial was one of the toys we bought Lily. Olivia said, "You have that Lily!" Thankfully Lily just said, "No I don't, I WANT it, but I don't have it yet," and then we changed the subject before Olivia could clarify herself. It was cute however, when Olivia would say, "Mom and Dad, this would be PERFECT for me!" She would pick out toys and fill the cart with all these things we weren't planning on getting her. She got upset when we put them back on the shelf. She was fine when we explained we wanted to surprise her. Haha, it was quite funny.
Izzy got the new Dumb Diary books she really wanted:
Izzy helping Olivia with her new makeup set:
Ooh lala..
Playing with some new dolls, Lily's LaDeeDa and Chloe's Lalaloopsy. Some of the names the toy companies come up are pretty hilarious.
Izzy had a Panda themed Christmas--a panda sweater, a panda robe, and a panda iDock station.
Lily's new kitty sweater. These sweaters are the latest thing for kids...
Lily got this Cake Pop set for Christmas. The girls had a lot of fun with it.
We still had some unpacking to do as well. I wanted to add this picture of the loft above our garage. It is so handy! This holds all of our Christmas stuff, camping stuff, and other odds and ends, and it still isn't even half full. It is nice not to have to store it in our basment.
We have this little bunny that hops through our yard every so often as there are no gates yet on two of the entrances. It is fun for the girls to see it out the window.
Christmas in Calgary was fun! All of our stockings....so many!
Ice fishing and skating on the lake were very fun...
Happy New Year 2013! Here is Mike with the balloons, haha...
Maci had her baby on New Year's Day!!!! Jade Rita LaRee Porter. She is so adorable and so tiny! We got to meet her right before we left to go home...
Proud Papa...
Jade has a lot of older girl cousins who adore her!
She was so tiny...only 5lbs 13oz
Olivia started her first day of Primary in January! She was so excited to go and be there.
Izzy having fun with cousins playing games in her room:
These are some of Izzy's most recent tests...as you can tell, we are very proud of our smart girl!
The Oilers had a practice day where fans could come and watch for free, and also get free popcorn and pop. Ben wanted to pull the girls out of school for a couple of hours to take them and so we did. It was fun, even for me who isn't a huge fan of the sport.
The girls have started up swimming lessons, and Olivia is in her first unparented class. They are doing so well and have so much fun!
