Two Growing Guys

We measure our two guys every 6 mths, on their birthday and half-birthdays.  We started with Eli at 18 mths, so that's what we decided to do with Landon too.  That being said, we recently measured Eli as he turned 5 years old and Landon as he turned 18 mths old.

Eli helping Daddy measure.  42".

Landon boy was SO EXCITED to finally get to be measured on the wall.  He stood so still and let Daddy mark off his height - 30.75"

I love that smile!  And those sweet little legs!

Fun fact:  Landon is actually 3/4" taller than Eli was at this age.

Egg Huntin'

So I'm several months late posting this, shocker, I know, but my OCD won't let me skip over it.  Plus, these two boys were too cute not to share!  : )

We egg hunt in our own yard.  Wesley and I both grew up hunting eggs with our cousins, but since the boys' cousins are 12+ hours away, that's not really possible.  I'm just glad that Eli had a partner in crime this year.  Landon was slow to get the hang of egg hunting.  I think he more enjoyed the freedom to roam!

I love them in matching clothes!

Talking strategy!

Anddddd he's off!

When did he turn in to a big kid?  He is so tall and handsome with his fresh hair cut!

Mid-hunt yoga break...

Candy time!!!

Collins the Elf

I have never done Elf on the Shelf with Eli.  It's not something we really wanted to do, for a variety of reasons.  I'm not one to jump on the bandwagon, just because, and we were really striving to keep Christmas focused on Jesus and less on Santa.  However, Eli's class at school has an elf (Annie), and he started asking why we didn't have an elf and maybe we could ask Jesus to tell Santa he wanted an elf named Collins.  All that being said, the Taffs ended up with an elf  in the middle of the month.

I have no idea where Eli came up with the name Collins (I like to think he's a British elf).  My guess would be Eli's buddies Kherington and Kinzley have a little sister named Kollyns and we had gotten their Christmas card earlier in the week.

The premise of the elf is that he appears each Christmas season to keep an eye on you.  During the night, while you are asleep, he flies back to the North Pole and reports to Santa about your behavior.  The next morning he's back at your house but in a new location.  Eli had fun racing to find Collins each morning, but you can't touch him or he loses his magic!

I'm glad Collins wasn't here the whole month of December.  It was a chore to get that thing moved each night and to come up with funny antics that he could participate in - our elf will not be bad, or he will be shipped back to the North Pole!

The first morning, December 15, with Collins.

So proud!

December 16

December 17

December 18

December 19

The look on Eli's face is hilarious.  He grabbed the crayon box and Collins fell over.  Eli was devastated and on the verge of a meltdown.  He wanted to make sure that we knew he didn't touch Collins; he fell all by himself!

December 20

December 21

Mommy missed the picture, but Collins was hanging out at the nativity, worshipping baby Jesus.

December 22

Collins and Rudolph were playing reindeer games last night!

December 23

December 24

Collins leaves tonight to head back to the North Pole to help Santa prepare for his biggest night of the year.  Goodbye Collins!  We'll see you next year!

Home for the Holidays

This year's Christmas pictures happened on the iPhone.  And I was lucky I got that!  December is going by so quickly and there's been so much to do.  I don't feel on my game this year.  Two kids has still been a game changer for me! : )

The outside of our house.  We got the first floor outlined in lights.  Wesley's dream is to have the second floor outlined in lights too.  Notice our crazy little tree on the left.  Our lights made it only one time around before we ran out.  Looks like a frisbee!

Love my snowman in the carport!

We kept things minimal this year having a crawler in the house.  We didn't even put out any of our Auburn decorations (and we have a lot), but we moved the tree to the Auburn room so Landy wouldn't have as many opportunities to get his hands on it.  I saw a quote from Honest Toddler on Facebook.  It said something to the effect of Adam and Eve couldn't keep their hands off of the forbidden tree and he wasn't either....well, that's our Landy!  He would definitely eat the fruit.  The tree is so tempting!

There's nothing like the scent from a real Christmas tree!

I love our tree.  One of my favorite traditions is we always get an ornament from our vacation spots.  I love this one we got in Atlanta during our five year anniversary get-away!

And this one was fun to add to the tree this year too!  It matches one Eli has from 2010.

 One of my favorite decorations is the Santa that sits on our steps.

Love my Willow Tree nativity too.

 My stockings that won't ever hand straight...

I also have a Christmas/Santa picture that I frame from every year.  It's so fun to look back and see how Eli has changed each year.  Looking forward to Landon-boy being in the pictures too!

I got this whimsical reindeer last year and he makes me happy! : )

Trying to bring a little Christmas tree scent into the kitchen!

Another Christmas favorite has to be Christmas cards!  I always leave them up well into January.  I love walking by and seeing all of our friends and family!

The boys also have a felt tree and presents to play with!

Another favorite thing that Eli has really enjoyed is this advent nativity calendar.  Every night he finds the calendar date and gets to match it to the stable scene.  I look forward to it all day!

Thanks for stopping by!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Our home for the holidays:
2013
2012
2011
2010