It's the Holiday Season!

It’s the holiday season and I can honestly say that in the past few weeks we have been doing anything and everything we can to celebrate just that! As the Facebook world already knows, we took Nolan to see Santa Claus and he was thrilled terrified. He did great waiting in line though. He would look at him, point at him, say “Santa” and “ho ho ho”, he was amused by trains that were set up and we thought this might actually go ok. When we were next in line Nolan clung to me saying, “no! no!” and so I tried to ease him into it before just plopping him on his lap, but that did not matter. I am actually 100% in love with this picture and I know that Nolan will enjoy looking back at it someday.

Checking out the trains awhile we wait to see Santa!



Warming him up for....

his meltdown.



Merry Christmas

2013

Check out last year here!

My nephew, Lincoln’s birthday is on December 4^th. This year his birthday party was at a place called Learn & Play which is basically an indoor playground showroom. They do birthday parties and open the entire showroom up for the kids at the party to play on. My husband is just a big kid. He was the last one off the trampolines.

Pictures from Lincoln's party are at the end of the post.

 

As a birthday present my sister bought us tickets to go see White Christmas at the Hippodrome Theatre downtown. The show was amazing! We were both so excited to go see it because it was my mom's favorite Christmas movie. I know she would have absolutely loved it had she been able to go with us.
 

 

Over the weekend Ryan and I had multiple Christmas parties we attended, but before we did that we took Nolan to My Gym for a Christmas party with his friends, Quinn, Harper and Lily! Aside from the man in the red suit showing up yet again, Nolan had a great time playing! I seriously want to buy him a mini trampoline now because he enjoyed jumping on it so much.

 

 

 

Harper and her mama!

 

 

 

Lily loved the ball pit! 

 

 

Obsessed with jumping

 

How cute is she!?

 

 

Still not a fan of the jolly old man in the red suit.

 

Cheese!

 

These two.

 

Smooching on their playdate!

 

 

 

 
Hmm..what else have we been up too?

Last picture with the beard.

I went to two Christmas parties on Saturday evening with this guy.

And then both the beard and mustache were finally retired. I will admit, it is really weird not to see them on Ryan anymore, but regardless I definitely do not miss that mustache.

I'm just going to throw this picture in because I love that Sam is in the way back photobombing it. It also looks like Jessie who is in the front right was as well, but I am pretty sure she was not intending too. :) I love Christmas parties!

Nolie having fun with his cousins awhile mama and dada are at a Christmas party! :)

I just really love this picture!!

We have had 2 snow days and Nolie loves the snow. He calls it “bubbles” and loves throwing and smashing snowballs! On the first snow day we painted a picture and baked cookies. On the second day we built a snowman! I really hope we have a snowy winter ahead!

 

Best picture I could take of Nolan with his snowman

 

.....and we blew bubbles inside.

 

At the bottom of our street is a small Auto Body shop that sets up a train garden every year. We took Nolan there the other night to check it out and he had so much fun running around checking out the “choo-choo’s”. The setup was great because they had an underground railroad that was the perfect height for Nolan to look into. The place is so close to us that we may go back again!

Nolan did have 1 night where he decided to revert back to infancy and woke up at 2:30 AM. He stayed awake literally the remainder of the night morning. So, Ryan stayed home in case he was going to be a little cranky monster that day, but he was his normal self. They went to Pump It Up and I was sent a video of Nolan FINALLY going down slides on his own. I like that he decided that for his first time he doesn’t want to go down a little playground slide, but rather a giant inflatable slide. I would also like to add that Nolan’s molars have popped thru and I think I can attribute that miserable night to teething. Thank goodness it was not a repeat event.

Hmmm…what else have we been up to? Oh yeah, on Sunday both Alaina and Grandma came over and we baked way too many cookies! We were in the kitchen from a little over 5 hours making all kinds of delicious treats. I wish we would have counted just how many we made, but we will have to do that next year! It is a fun little tradition we have started. We each bring different recipes to try and crank up the Christmas music. I am sure next year we may possibly even bake more!

I think we were at the midway point here!

 

Sugar cookies, hot cocoa cookies, peanut butter cup cookies, cherry chocolate cookies, butterballs, church windows and pretzel hugs

 

On Tuesday we met up with our friends, the kiddies and the dogs to take a walk thru the Symphony of Lights! The event is called ‘Tail Lights’ and you register to walk with your family including the dog thru the lights. The event is normally open for cars to drive through, but I liked the walk and just may do it again next year! Lately we have discovered that Nolan hates being constrained. What I mean by that is he hates his stroller and hates shopping carts. I literally carried Nolan thru the Symphony of Lights awhile Ryan walked the dog and pushed the stroller. Stubborn child!

 

This was too funny! Jamie is carrying Lily, but Chloe is the smart one going for a ride in the stroller!

Last night Lincoln had his first Christmas concert. We went to watch him sing and he did great. We recorded it to share with everyone… enjoy! J

 

Lincoln's Pre-K performance

Nolan loved it!

<3

 

Tonight my favorite part of the holiday season happened. Santa came down our street on the fire truck. We went to dinner across the street at Ledo's and then we were stopping at the gas station and about to head out to get some Christmas shopping done. I was telling Ryan that I was upset because I felt like we had to have missed Santa on the fire truck and then no lies, we hear the siren and Santa turns the corner on the firetruck. I was SO EXCITED! Ryan quickly pumped gas and got us home in time to happily wave at Santa as he rode down our street. The fireman even gave Nols a candy cane. I think he was a little confused by everything he was seeing, but he definitely was taking it all in. Needless to say, I still have more Christmas shopping to do, but I am so happy that we came home to see Santa instead!

 

  

Seriously, I must take after my mom when it comes to Christmas because I was SOO EXCITED about this!!!!!!!!

 



And now here we are, there are just a few more days until Christmas and I still have to do some more shopping. We also still need to make the homemade raviolis for Christmas dinner. So much to do, but first Alaina and I go to NYC tomorrow!

And of course, time for a toddler activity…

Handprint snowman ornament!

Aunt Ginnie has created so many different things with Nolan for us to keep as memories. This year she surprised us with a handprint snowman ornament! Since I did not actually make this craft I am not going to give any step by step instruction, but rather will just share the pictures. Feel free to recreate the memory with your little ones this holiday season!

Merry Christmas from the house one neighborhood over from my dad's!

Lincoln's birthday party -