Hockey Fans! Go Stars!

What a "suite" game...too bad they lost!

Christmas Morning

Here's a video of Ryland's first Christmas morning!

Sadie enjoying her new monkey

Monster Trucks! (Also sporting his new watch...he loves this watch and had it prominently displayed in most pics...kinda like a girl who recently got engaged and manages to have her ring in every pic!)

Christmas wore this poor kid out!  Time to watch a movie with Aunt Chand!

We made Borsch!  We wanted to add a touch of Kaz to Christmas Dinner with my family!  It was really good and a hit with everyone! 

Christmas Eve

We had a fun Christmas Eve with Dustin's side of the family!  A delicious Christmas Dinner, Reindeer Hunt and Presents!!!

Our handsome little man!

Christen & Nyah  (Christen in a dress was her Christmas Present to me!!!  I loved it!)

The Zishka's, Patterson's & Stone's about to embark on Reindeer Hunt 2010

Playing with new Nerf guns!

At home, ready for Santa to come!!

Pre-Christmas Fun

Our sweet neighbors dropped by one evening last night to bring us a present that had fallen out of Santa's sleigh and into their yard as he was doing a dry-run before the big day!  Ryland was amazed and so excited to open a remote control motorcycle!!!  We took it outside and drove it all around the cul-de-sac...he's a pretty good driver.  The video below is what happened once we came back inside - he wanted to show Divo the motorcycle and thank him!  Precious!

 

 

Decorating Christmas Treats for Sadie

Ry found a clip-on Christmas tie at a friend's house that he just had to have and wear for 2 straight days!

 

Christmas Snaps! Part 3

Sledding!

Nyah & Uncle Dustin

Cort, Nyah, Dustin, Grandpa, Grandma, Ry & Uncle Todd

Christmas Snaps! Part 2

Ry with Oma & Opa

First time meeting his Great Grandparents (Opa's side)

My beautiful sis

The Stone's - Reindeer Style

The ladies - hiding in the laundry room while the boys hid our presents for the Reindeer Hunt

So excited to open presents!

With Pop @ the Gaylord Texan

Christmas in Texas

Ryland & Nyah @ SNOW!  Just before sledding!

Waiting in line for his first run!

Christmas Snaps! - Part 1

Snow in a can...that's how we roll in Texas...

Making snow

It's snowing!

Gingerbread Train

At the Christmas Tree Farm

Ry with Aunt Chandler

@ Bass Pro Shops

Dustin's Birthday Dinner

Ry - right before his first "Reindeer Hunt"  He was Rudolph!

Sadie and Ryland - ready to hunt for presents!!

Ry's First Christmas

I cannot even begin to express how excited and thankful I am that Ryland's first Christmas is now, when he's 5 and old enough to really understand what's going on around him.  Sure the Baby's First Christmas stuff is pretty cute, but it is awesome to jump right into doing everything with our little man!!  I am over the moon at all the cheesy/cliched Christmas things we've been doing and are continuing to do!  I love watching the magic of Christmas in his eyes - it's pretty amazing! 

Ry smells of Christmas after his Candy Bath last night!  He wore jammies to school for Polar Express Day and we're super excited to drive around and look at Christmas Lights tonight in pajamas with hot chocolate cocoa!!

Cheers - to the best Christmas I've had!!

Cortney

Ornaments

So, I have a small obsession with Christmas trees and ornaments. I don't have many sentimental ornaments, etc. I have carefully chosen, beautiful, coordinating ornaments and each tree has a theme.

This Christmas has been hard on me (in the ornament dept.) because all of a sudden I have all these hand-made items from my son. His first Christmas and he's about 37 ornaments in already (thanks to his aunts and school). I'm in a dilemma... They are cute and so special that he made them and he is SO excited...but the fact of the matter is that they don't match. Period. There's this wonderful mother inside of me that is so proud and full of love every time I see them mixed in with my 'collection' but there is this other side of me that just wants my tree to look perfect. And, of course, Ry can't even entertain the idea of putting them on the tree in his room or the one upstairs or any other tree in the house. He has to have them on the big tree downstairs, my piece de resistance, so that everyone can see them. For those loyal blog followers of mine, it's kind of like the bathtub thing...I just want to keep a little bit of the old me (Cort, 'fore she was Mama) around so that she is not lost!

I'm over it...writing this out makes me feel ridiculous. The new additions are precious and I need to let Ry have some room on the tree...it's only fair.

Or I could get another tree to keep all these cutesies on... (Dustin's gonna hate that idea!).

:)

Sleepy Little Fellow

Divo the Elf

Countdown to Christmas

December 1st...our official countdown to Christmas began!  One of my favorite Christmas traditions as a child was our Christmas Tree Advent Calendar.  Each day there was a little pocket that had an ornament to decorate the tree with and a slip of paper with something to do on it.  We really wanted to experience this with Ry so my mom (Oma) made him his very own Advent Calendar.  Today was the first day and we got to make Hot Chocolate Cocoa (as Ry calls it) with candy canes!  He was pretty excited.  The sad part was that he was amazed we could make Hot Chocolate Cocoa at home - he thought we were going to Starbucks!!

Also today we introduced our very own Elf on the Shelf!  Grandma brought him a very special elf that will be keeping an eye on him this holiday season.  It was truly amazing to see the twinkle in his eye as he was learning about the elf!  Christmas Magic!  We've always loved Christmas time, but this year is so extra special!!  It's really cool to see things through Ryland's eyes!  The evening took a funny turn when we were discussing what the elf's name should be.  Ryland suggested the following:  Divo, Hide Ya Kids, Mole & Ryland...lovely choices!  (Mole is the word Ryland uses to refer to a nipple.)  Our choice was obvious...we went with Divo.  Several times he went up to the elf tonight to talk to him.  "Divo - I sorry a getting yellow at school today, please do not tell Santa"  "Divo - why you have beard?"  "Divo - I brush a teeth all by self - please tell Santa"  Divo - I would like a surprise of a remote control motorcycle, blue."  It's been a pretty cute evening!

Ryland is in bed now and just called out to me "Mama - where is elf?  Why he not go see Santa yet?"