Nolan snuggled with Elmo during his nap, which is super rare so I had to snap a picture.
We attended Costco Mom Hour this month and got into Costco a whole hour early to get our shopping done without the crowds, which was ah.may.zing. We also snagged a swag bag full of free goodies, free breakfast and Nolan got to snuggle with this awesome Costco bear! Too bad he was $300!
We hit 14 weeks in our pregnancy with Baby #2! We brought some Sprinkles Cupcakes home because we had visited Yardhouse down at the Linq.... and we may have eaten all of them in one sitting.
Harley kept warm in the towels fresh out of the dryer.
I couldn't believe the extreme bloat bump I've been rocking lately...
I took Nolan's fall pictures for Thanksgiving which came out surprisingly well for a very impromptu photoshoot I decided to take that morning! We visited Town Square and saw the big giant Christmas tree and played in the "Snow in the Square!" Nolan had a blast dressing up as a "Sup-Hero" from Hudson's birthday party, and recruited Harley as his sidekick. Even Harley dressed up in the cape! He absolutely loves to count "3...3...3.. (1...2...3..) Go!" and run in circles with his cape and mask. The next day we did the same thing, sans pants. SO CUTE.
As part of our yearly tradition, we visited the Ethel M Cactus Gardens again to see all of the amazing lights and decorations for the holidays. Last year, Nolan loved everything about it, so we were excited to see his reaction again this year. We also brought along the family this time around- my mom, Aunt Denise and Uncle Georges, since they were in town for the holidays! When we first got there, Nolan was a bit hesitant as we left the stroller behind, and he wasn't too sure of all the people around him and commotion going on (it was extremely busy). Once we started walking around and finding the fun blow-ups, he settled in a bit more and began enjoying the scenes and lights.
One of his favorite candies/desserts consists of M&Ms, so when he saw these blowups he wanted to run right over and give them a "high-five!" He also waved to Santa and Frosty, and was happy to see the giant Snowman since Frosty is his favorite Christmas song this year.
Some of his other favorite blow ups included the polar bears and the penguins, one of which popped out of the top of his igloo, and Nolan thought that was super funny and would yell, "Boo!" every time he popped up. He even snapped a picture with pilot Santa, although we only waved to the real Santa who was visiting, but seemed pretty busy that night talking to lots of other boys and girls waiting patiently in a long, lonnnnng line.
We spent a good hour or so walking through the gardens a couple times over, making sure we saw each display and took in all the beautiful lights. It was a pretty chilly evening, so we called it a night and made our way back to the warm car! Each season, this place never seems to disappoint with their decor and it's always so pretty to spend an evening to get in the Christmas spirit!
Over the years, we've had a few Christmas traditions that we've created as a family of two, but now that we have Nolan in our lives, I've never been more excited to carry on these traditions and make new ones with our first Christmas as a family of three! Along with visiting the Ethel M Cactus Gardens and the Bellagio Conservatory, here are a few other traditions we added to our Christmas "Must-do" list! In the beginning of the month, I put the finishing touches on our house decorations. Between the decorations, the lights, and the gloomy weather we had been having, the Christmas spirit was all around!
The day before Christmas Eve, Nolan helped me with all of my baking! While he napped, I made my Mom's peanut butter balls (YUM!) and when he woke up, we worked on baking some cookies for Santa! Nolan helped cut out shapes of stars, trees, snowmen and bells, into our sugar cookies, and may have put a few fingerprints in each of them (his special touch). Then, we sprinkled them together and he loved watching the sprinkles fly out of the container onto the baking sheet! Mommy also made some chocolate chip cookies since those are Santa's favorite. Our finished products were quite yummy, and we hoped that Santa would approve!
So proud after helping Mommy!
After baking and eating dinner, we decided to go check out one of our favorite spots during the holidays, Quiver Point. It is a street in Henderson that goes all out with decorating for Christmas, with lots of different lights, cutouts, blow ups, and all things Christmas! They play music and sometimes Santa even shows up! (He was there during our trip this year, but Nolan didn't want to go anywhere near him... so we skipped out. Maybe next year!) We bundled ourselves up for the cooler weather and headed out to check out the lights!
Once we got there and put Nolan in the stroller, he squealed with excitement and absolutely loved all of the lights and fun decorations. It wasn't long before we just kept him out of the stroller since he wanted to see everything close up! The first few houses we came upon, Nolan recognized right away: Minnie and Mickey, the animals from Madagascar, and Nemo and Dori! He loved them all.
At the end of the street, a whole village is lit up with a moving Santa, and each little house is filled with decorations of different themes. Nolan wasn't too sure about the moving Santa so we moved on to check out other things!
We finished up the street by passing by some minions from Despicable Me that Nolan loved, and 101 Dalmatians that he just giggled and smiled at. Dogs are still among his favorite things so he really enjoyed this display! We took some pictures in front of the giant Christmas tree, and said goodbye to Quiver Point by ending with Yoda and the giant Duckie.
Since Nolan was all hopped up on excitement from our adventure, he didn't fall asleep like I thought he would in the car ride home. We decided to go check out the huge light display in our neighborhood that we like to visit every year, also. This house is rated one of the best light displays in Henderson and always a favorite of ours. The lights are set to music that is programmed into a radio station, so you can listen and enjoy right from your car. The street was packed when we got there, so we waited for a bit and snuck into a spot to enjoy the show. I let Nolan sit in the front seat with us while the car was stopped so he could see all the moving lights and sounds, but he was more interested in all the fun buttons and lights on our car dash. Either way, we enjoyed watching, and then took a 10 second car ride home.
We always watch the movie Elf every Christmas season, and we had yet to watch it this year, so we decided to have a movie night on the couch and let Nolan stay up (or see how long he would last). We weren't sure how he would do since he's used to his bedtime routine, so I was prepared for ten minutes of watching and then having to pause to put him to bed upstairs. To our surprise, he took his bottle, laid with us for about twenty minutes and then passed out while cuddling between us! It was the best moment and I loved that we all could be in one spot together, snuggling and enjoying each others company. With the glow of the Christmas tree and our sleeping babes next to us, I don't think I could have picked a better ending to our fun filled day.
The next day was Christmas Eve, and we spent it lounging around the house since Jason had the day off of work. That evening, we went to my Mom's for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and opening presents. We had our usual delicious variety of dinner- Canadian meat pie, chicken wings, cocktail hot dogs, and my absolute favorite food ever: homemade baked beans (no one makes them like my Mom or Grandma)! Nolan checked out Grandma's snow globes and we tried to get a family picture in front of the Christmas tree. We exchanged gifts with my mom and opened some from some family back East and from Aunt Denise and Uncle Georges in France. Nolan loved all of his fun gifts (thank you everyone!!) and was super serious about unwrapping each one of them. I think he was so focused on the wrapping paper, he forgot to smile for most of these pictures! :)
We ended up staying at my moms until about 10:00, and Nolan was pooped. He fell asleep almost instantly in the car, and once we got home, we put him down right away so Santa could come! Since Nolan was sleeping, I put out Santa's milk and cookies for him, and we also left some carrots for the reindeer and a piece of cheese for Santa Mouse (I grew up with the Santa Mouse book and tradition, so we decided to carry that over to Nolan, as well! Just like you leave milk and cookies for Santa, you can also leave a piece of cheese in the branches of your Christmas tree for Santa Mouse, who is Santa's little helper mouse. When Santa Mouse takes the cheese to eat, he replaces it with a tiny gift, wrapped in a yellow bow!)
And sure enough, sometime during the night, Santa magically snuck in and left all of our goodies and presents! Nolan must have really been good for his first Christmas. I snapped these pictures to capture the moment. :)
