Our Elf on the Shelf made his appearance the first day of the month! This was our first year participating in the 25 days of Elf... and it went really well! Nolan was really into it, and as we read the story, he was completey tuned in. When I asked him to name his elf, he first said, "Santa!" and I told him he couldn't name him that because he was Santa's helper, and they wouldn't want to get their names confused. He quickly thought of another name... TOBER. No idea where it came from, but we loved it and it stuck. Every day, Tober brought the kids a new Christmas book to read, and Nolan quickly learned to run downstairs every morning to search for Tober's new hiding spot!
We welcomed December by visiting Snow in the Square at Town Square and the Zappos Christmas Tree Lighting!
The babes cuddled together in their Christmas jammies on a lazy Saturday morning.
Acelyn cheesed it up in her girly Christmas colors of bubblegum and mint!
We cheered on the Ravens on a Football Sunday.
Acelyn gave a good stank face while playing.
The sunset was unbelievable one night while Nolan and I went to check the mail. The same night, since it was gorgeous out, we decided to take a walk after the sun set to see all the Christmas lights in our neighborhood. Nolan loved every second of it and was so excited at each house we passed. We definitely walked down to the light show house on Desert Olive... and then I remembered we needed a radio to listen to the music (total mom brain)! Either way, it was a great little walk to see all the lights and enjoyed the warm weather that seemed to linger into winter.
Tober brought the Cheerios Christmas book one morning, and this lasted us some lengthy time of entertainment. Nolan definitely ate more than he played, and Acelyn thought it was just cool to hold the Cheerios in her hand! Afterwards, we spent time playing with toys and Santa hats in front of the Christmas tree.
We crafted some reindeers for ourselves, and Nolan also made some for his cousins Everette and Ivy to send with their Christmas gifts.
Acelyn turned 7 months old and had a doctor's appointment for her follow up flu shot booster. It was an easy peasy appointment, and big girl barely even cried with her shot. She showed off her skills and all of our unplanned matching stripes for the day!
At home after, Nolan took her for a roll in her walker that we recently busted out.
Acelyn looked adorable during lunch one afternoon and gave me all the smiles. Then she teased me with pretending like she was going to crawl... and faked me out. And laughed about it.
She practiced walking in her walker before dinner by chasing her brother and checking out Harley.
We attended Coen's 3rd birthday party at Kangamoo, and Nolan had a really hard time in a new environment and was completely overwhelmed with the play place and lots of people around him (we're definitely going to be working on his social game and anxiety in 2017!). He had a complete meltdown when we arrived and it lasted for a reallllly long time, but he finally calmed down enough to enjoy the party. I wasn't able to snap many pictures because of the chaos, but I'm glad that he was able to enjoy himself and his friends. Coen had a blast and I can't believe these boys are already turning three!
That night, we attended the Henderson Winterfest Parade and the next day, enjoyed our tradition of the annual Santa Train ride!
Acelyn died of laughter chasing her brother around the living room and spinning in circles, one of her favorite things to do.
She practiced her crawling attempts and is getting closer and closer! Instead, she gave up and rolled to where she needed to go.
Acelyn took the sweetest nap full of all the Christmas feels.
Nolan started pushing Acelyn in his dump truck, and as much as I hover over to make sure she doesn't get hurt, I can't help but feel so much love watching them bond and laugh together.
They wore matching Christmas outfits and looked adorable together!
We visited Santa at Bass Pro Shops.
We celebrated an amazing Christmas and loved watching Acelyn enjoy her first!
Jason put together our new dining table Santa brought us, and Nolan used his new tools to help "work on" his own chair, too!
We rang in the New Year very low-key, staying in with the kids. We had a fun photoshoot in the morning, where Acelyn just wanted to eat all of the hanging tinsel, but we got some cute shots. Later in the evening, we put Acelyn to sleep and allowed Nolan to stay up until 9 (for East coast time, making it to midnight!). We had a dance party while watching Rockin' New Years Eve, and had fun with our New Years hats and noisemakers (quietly, since Acelyn was sleeping). I really talked up watching the NYC ball drop to him, so he was super excited about seeing it. For some reason, the broadcast on Direct TV was super messed up, and ended up being an hour behind- so once 9PM came our time, it still had another hour left until midnight EST! I quickly scrambled to find a live stream of the ball dropping and we rewatched it so Nolan could see. He was so pumped counting down, 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! and then was extremely unimpressed when the ball dropped. Either way, he had a blast getting to stay up past his bedtime and spend special time with just Jason and I.
2016 was an amazing year of enjoying the last half of my pregnancy, watching Nolan grow leaps and bounds in both physical status but even more in his skills, milestones and vocabulary, enjoying time with our friends and our growing families, and of course, welcoming Acelyn into our world and watching Nolan become a big brother. We can't wait to see what 2017 has in store for us!
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