Christmas at the Ridge

The day after Christmas we headed to Dallas to celebrate there. We enjoyed a yummy tamale dinner, laughs at the white elephant exchange, smiles all around, and overall just had FUN with the family. Crew got a remote control flying Nemo from Aunt Sandy and Uncle David and he had such a blast cruising it around for the rest of the time we were there! Overall our Christmas was just great, and we really enjoyed all the time spent with family, priceless!

The stockings were hung...

Beautiful stair garland.

The gorgeous dinner table!

Crew's Place!

(Everyone had their initials as their placecard.)

Brett's Uncle Jim carves wood.

He always makes us AMAZING one of a kind gifts every year.

What a wonderful treat- he has such a talent!

Grandma got this beautful spoon rest.

We all got different types of carved wood birds.

This one's belly opens up and the beak fits inside.

Uncle David and Aunt Sandy gave Crew a big "Nemo."

It's a big helium fish that has fins and a remote control.

Heeeeerrrreee's NEMO!

"Swimming" in the living room!

(this is my favorite picture!)

Crew controlling Nemo with the remote control.

He LOVES it!! Such a fun gift!

Thank you!=)

You never what you will get at white elepant, ha!

Grancie and Crew racing their doggies.

Crew trying out my white elephant gift:

A pocket chair- yep, it fits in your pocket.

It was just the right size for Crew.

Not sure how a grown person would fit on it, ha.

Duncan & Yvonna

Brett and his Grandma watching Crew enjoying all this gifts!

Christmas Eve and Santa!

Wow, what a whirlwind of holidays we had, and we enjoyed every minute of it (sorry I am behind, more posts to come)! All of the Lattal's and Grancie came in the day before Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve morning Brett and I prepared our first turkey dinner ever (of course with help from our mom's as well). I found a blog online on how to prepare the best turkey- We stuffed it with rosemary, sage, carrots, celery, and oranges it and then cooked it directly on the rack upside down. It was yummy!!! And with the help of the mom's as well, we had all the fixin's for an amazing Christmas Eve turkey dinner!

We also took Crew to church with us on Christmas Eve. He usually goes to the nursery, but since it was a children's service, we thought we would try it. He did wonderful! He was in awe of all the singing, loved the children's puppets, and even participated in the candlelight singing of Silent Night (they gave out glow sticks for the children). We then enjoyed our dinner, and a fun round of White Elephant. Crew wrote his letter to Santa, left out cookies, milk and a carrot for Rudolph and he was off to bed.

The next morning he woke up to streamers all across his doorway done by one of Santa's little elves! =) He busted through and walked down the stairs to find his shiny new.....TRAIN TABLE... right in the middle of the room. That could have been all he got because it was hard to even pull him away for a second to see the other gifts. We enjoyed a nice morning of everyone opening gifts and a big family Christmas brunch.

We truly enjoyed the day of our Savior's birth and were blessed to able to spend it with BOTH of our families. The happiness and joy on Crew's face made the whole day absolutely priceless!

We are beyond blessed to have such wonderful families. Thank you for making our 1st holiday in our new home so special- a year we will never forget!

but the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior- yes, the Messiah, the Lord- has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!
- Luke 2:10-11

Our first turkey! Stuffed the turkey with spices, and cooked upside down on the rack= yummy!!

Crew cooking (and nibbling) on the trifle.


Our table.

(glitter paper BELIEVE on the mirror via idea from Pinterest)

Finally got to use our china and Waterford!

Cutting the turkey.

Us with our first turkey on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas!

Uncle Truck, Uncle Money, & Crew.

Us with Grancie.

Uncle Money, Uncle Truck, Me, Crew, & Uncle Truck.

The Lattals.

Crew's letter to Santa.

Our tree with all our Christmas cards.

Crew woke up on Christmas morning to find that the elves wrapped his door.

He had to run through and break the streamers to get downstairs.

Crew got a big TRAIN TABLE from Santa.

He loved it so much he had to eat every meal next to it on Christmas.

WOW, this is AWESOME!

Checkin' it all out!

He found that the reindeer had dropped some of their carrots on our back porch.

Uncle Truck gave him a remote control firetruck.

Loves his firetrucks!

Mimi and Papa gave him a mini Dyson Animal just like mommy's!

...And then we vacuumed up the Christmas mess together!

Grancie gave him a shopping cart and groceries.

He was CAUGHT!

On Christmas day we found him in the pantry with his shopping cart, eating cookies!

Christmas morning right before the Lattal's left to head back to Houston.

*The day after Christmas we headed to Dallas to celebrate Christmas- more pics to come!

North Pole Flyer

Yesterday we rode the "North Pole Flyer." It is a vintage train ride that starts in Cedar Park, heads north to Burnet, and then comes back to Cedar Park. It was about a 2-1/2 hour ride along the Texas Hill Country in an old vintage train. Crew was so excited about! We had been talking about it the past week, and that morning he woke up at 5 am ready to go. Lucky for us, he did go back to bed, but when he finally got up all he could about was riding the choo choo and seeing Santa. Here are some pics of our excursion- What a fun day!

(And... if you are interested in this train the tickets go on sale in January- I know crazy! But I called up there about a month ago just to see if they had any cancellations and sure enough they had 2 seats available. So I guess this a major popular Christmas activity in Austin, so book early!)

Daddy and Crew walking to the train.

All Aboard! Ready for the fun!

The neat snack shop and souvenir train car.

(They served free hot cocoa to all the passengers.)

After we sat in our seats Mrs. Claus came by and delivered snicker doodle cookies, yum!

There were carolers singing Christmas songs.

Then they came to our car and read- "The North Pole Flyer" book.

And we were surprised by the big man himself- Santa Claus!

Santa gave all the kids a gift- a wooden train whistle.

Crew blowing the whistle- choo choo!

He loved his train whistle, even took it with him to see Santa!

The front of the train looking at the engine with Mr. C.

Crew LOVED Santa this year- he is still talking about it!

Can't wait for this excitement on Christmas Morning if he was this excited to ride the train.

Christmas through the eyes of a child is such a wonderful gift, we are truly blessed!
Merry Christmas to you all!

Crew's Christmas

This was one busy week for Mr. Crew! At school on Monday he performed in his first Christmas concert. To say the least, I had tears in my eyes as he performed! I couldn't imagine a 2 year old singing along, doing the hand movements- yet alone standing in one place- but he did it!!! And did a fabulous job!! Then at school on Wednesday the day ended with a class Christmas party.

He has had so much fun at school this year already- we have to pray for his teachers and everyone in his class every night (don't you just love the heart of a child?)- and cannot wait to see what next year has in store! Merry Christmas!

The kids each walked into the chapel carrying stuffed animals that are to be donated to the Children's Hospital in Austin. They laid their animals right by the manger with Baby Jesus.

They then sat in a pew with their class and listened to a short bible lesson.

(they all stayed seated- can u believe it?)

Getting ready for the big performance.
Crew's "best buddy" Jack is right behind him.

He found mommy!!

Ok, so cannot figure out how to get the video on here

(if you can share any advice I would LOVE it)

Here is the link to his performance on YouTube.

Crew is wearing the red shirt in the front row (near the middle).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaN1R35aBIE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Then today was the class party:

Don't you just love a 2 year old's imagination?

Enjoying some Christmas cookies and juice.

The kids each drew a picture and we had it laminated and bound for the teachers-

they LOVED it!=)

And now you can really see how Crew feels about crafts- he is def a boy!

He came home with a beautiful glittered pine cone Christmas tree and a decorated gift for us which was a ........

Beautiful wreath ornament for our tree!

I will cherish it and enjoy it for many more Christmas' to come!