Because I Will Never Get Over Rexburg

Why can't I be a professional photographer?
Maybe I have my hand dipped into a few too many things right now, but these pictures don't do this event justice.  Today Hemming Village put on a Christmas Event for the town of Rexburg.  We had Santa, the Grinch, real camels, sleigh rides, free milk and cookies, and a live Elf on the Shelf hiding through the event.  We had such a fun time,  Porter got really cranky towards the end, but at 5:30, they were playing a live Nativity play (with all real animals), and I sure wish we could have been there to witness such a special event. 
But hey. What do you do. 

Really. I can't take pictures to save my life. 
I hope to take a class soon.  I mean, I am not looking to make money off of this, I just want to take decent family photos when we go to these events!
Every day this week, I have planned a little Pinterest activity for Porter and I to do when I get off work.  We have played with muffin tins, playhouse balls, pipe cleaners and a strainer, and so much more.  They have all been pretty successful!  This has been a pretty good week for Porter and me. Porter has {{FINALLY}} started using his words and I am dying of happiness. Instead of throwing a fit because he wants a pretzel and can't tell me, he says, "Pretzel?" in his cute little voice.  Then I give him a pretzel. That's it. No meltdowns included. Your the best, Portmaster. I stinking love you and your sweet little words.
Today, Trent had to paint an apartment (boo!), so the little guy and I had the morning and afternoon to ourselves.  I had bought the ingredients for bath paints this week and decided to try it out.  I was super nervous the dye would stain our tub, or that this would be a failure.  But it actually turned out pretty good! The tub was a MESS with paints, and I was having a slight panic attack.  But the damage was done, so I let Porter keep playing.  Great parenting. 

If only you cold have seen the disaster.  That was just one side of the tub.  All four sides including the wall and the outside of the tub, were covered in paint.  The water was foggy with all the paint colors combined and Porter was a mess of colors.  But I mean. Look at that face! He had so much fun!
So after the anxiety reached an all time high, I let the water drain and ran warm water through the tub (without putting down the stopper) and let Porter play in the clean water.  I had a magic eraser and I got to work on cleaning up the mess.  Total clean up time: Less than five minutes.  That includes the tray, all for sides of the wall, and groggy water. I was shocked! It was SUPER easy to clean.  So I filled the bathtub with a few inches of clean water and we finished our bath.  Although I would not do this every bath time, I would definitely do it again.