Clayton Christmas Tree Lighting 2017

The weather was great for Clayton’s Annual Christmas Tree Lighting this year!  Most years it has been SO cold and Nolan and I almost froze, but this year Anthony got to go with us and it was in the 50’s.  We found a good parking space that took us right up to the train ride.  Luckily, we got there pretty early so we didn’t have to wait to long.

Waiting in line for the train...

The line for Santa was longer than Nolan wanted to wait, so we decided to just make our way down the street.  Well, SCORE because another store had a different Santa right outside the door, so Nolan was perfectly fine to sit with him for a minute (and he was really eyeing the candy he had – ha).  It didn’t take long to get a picture so we continued on down the street where we passed the doggie costume contest.  It was the cutest thing and it made me wish Vegas wouldn’t have a heart attack if we took her in public!  Although I am not sure how happy she would have been with me if I had put her in some of the costumes we saw anyway.

The Clayton Police are always so awesome to him.

Not the real Santa, but he will do!

We made our way down the street to the tree, although it was unlit when we got there.  They usually light it around 9:00, so maybe once Nolan gets older will actually see the “lighting” part of the whole gig.  They did have a “snow/bubble” machine on top of one of the buildings, so we had fun standing under that for a little while.  I think it was actually soap, so I tried to keep Nolan from eating it!

 Our stomachs told us it was time to go soon after, so we headed back the way we came.  I don’t know WHY they don’t work out something with more food at this thing, but each year there is never anything to eat.  A couple of restaurants were open, but they were really crowded and we didn’t want to wait.  So, we headed to our favorite pizza place where we knew it would be good!  We rounded out the night with full bellies and lots of great memories – yay for Christmastime!

Thanksgiving 2017

As usual, the long weekend went by in a complete blur, and I barely got any pictures!  It was well worth it, though, because we had a lot of great family time and Nolan was healthy!  Win-win!




We drove to my cousin's house on Thanksgiving day for lunch, and Nolan loved hanging with his big cousins.  He has big "girl" cousins at my dad's with Bella and Marli, but never any big "boys" to hang with!  Although, his favorite of the whole weekend was cousin Maddie, who was SO sweet with him and he was totally smitten :)






We spent some time hanging out and eating, and then tried to snap a pic for Christmas cards...here is what I think we are going to use...spoiler alert!

After spending time in Concord, we drove to Hickory to meet up with Dad and Leslee and the other Maldonado crew!  It's such a great time - but SUPER noisy, rowdy and crowded, but everyone has such a good time with each other.  Nolan especially.  The girls shop late on Thursday night, and I got a ton of good deals.  The boys hang out, and everyone pretty much eats and watches football! 


The best thing I did this year was take the Monday after the long weekend off - I needed to recover! :)

Something New - Gymnastics!

We totally have a little monkey daredevil on our hands, so we figured gymnastics was the best place to let him burn some energy and learn how to do all of his flips and stunts safely!  He has gone to about 4 classes so far, and just loves it.  It’s so much fun and we found a great gym only a few minutes from our house.  Parents can sit and watch the whole time, which is fun but kind of nerve-wracking at the same time.

 

Ready to go!

 

Showing us his balancing skills...

 

Pretty sure he doesn't mind being one of only 2 boys in the class...

 

Of course WE know how much he flips and jumps, but the first couple of times he was in class he about gave all the other moms heart attacks from some of things he did.  Anthony and I just chuckled and sat there, but there were some loud audible gasps from some of the moms a few times – haha!

 

They want to us to go ahead and move him up to the next class, but our goal is just to get through the Holidays and see how he likes it.  He may start t-ball in the Spring anyway, so we will just have to see how the schedule works out.  Either way, he is having a great time and almost has a complete cartwheel after just a few classes!

Blue Power Ranger it is...

Halloween is even better now that the pressure is off for having to come up with Nolan's costume since he has his idea of what he wants :)  This year, he decided he had to be a BLUE Power Ranger.  So random considering he has never even watched the Power Rangers (that I am aware of), but thankfully we did in fact find the BLUE costume.  He looked SO cute!

One of the only pics I got WITH his mask on!

Since Halloween was on a Tuesday this year (boo), we decorated early over the weekend and then planned to "live it up" on Halloween night!

Teeth already blue from the candy...ha!

I had lots of fun doing the decorations this year.  I really didn't buy anything new, but used some leftover cardstock from his party to make the bats.  Thank goodness they saved well, because I really don't want to have to cut those out again next year - ha!

Cell phone pics...the lighting is terrible!

My favorite ribbon I have used every year!

Even Nolan's bathroom got a little Halloween treatment...

I left work early to make it to "Trunk or Treat" at Nolan's school.  It was precious because I got ther at the tail end of nap time, and he was still asleep (amazing considering he hasn't slept through the night in two weeks!)  He was so adorable I just sat there and waited for him to wake up.

Once he got up we got him all dressed and headed out to the cars in the parking lot.  He got lots of candy and although I thought he would have wanted to pet the two ponies they had in the lot, he wanted nothing to do with them.  I thought they were adorable so I pet them while he hid behind my back :)

She was cute but SMELLY!

We got home and I let him watch his movie while I got our chili mac and cheese started for dinner.  G and Ollie were coming over to eat with us and man the house while we went out a did our trick-or-treating.  It turned out pretty good, but the best part was getting Nolan to eat BEFORE we went out.  I did all I could do prevent the sugar high for later (see above about NOT sleeping through the night - hahahah).

We headed to next door to ride on the trailer with the kids and it was so much fun.  We hadn't done this before, and it was the best idea!  It was a bit cold, but the kids were so excited about it and we all bundled up in blankets.  They had lights, hay seats, and yard decorations in the trailer so it was super festive.  We did the same thing we did last year and basically just covered the cul de sac across from us.  We would drive a bit and hit a few houses, drive down some more, etc.

By the time we made it back to the house, it was cold so we hopped off and went inside to eat dinner with G and Ollie.  I think Nolan's favorite part was sitting on the front step like last year and handing out candy to the folks that came by (or the fact that his dad was sneaking him candy the whole time)! 

Thankfully, our candy lasted long enough for Nolan to get his fill of the whole ordeal, and then it was bed time!  We hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!