christmas!

on the morning of christmas eve is started snowing. and it did not stop. its snowed and snowed and snowed. i personally was happy about it because all of our previous snow had melted and we were going to get a white christmas! overall i think we got about a foot of snow.

 this christmas eve was pretty mellow. jeremy went during the day to check our mail for the last time before christmas to see if we had more packages. we pretty much had dinner and then later that night before bed xavier listened to his auntie jenna read him "the night before christmas". she bought him one of those hallmark books and recorded herself reading it so he could hear. it was pretty awesome.

we left cookies out for santa and then started finishing up the wrapping and putting the presents out. once we were done with that, we headed to bed.

we woke up and santa came! i was so excited to see xaviers reaction to all of the presents.

of course, we let him open his first. well, the ones he wanted to open. he got through the first one or two and then decided that he just wanted to play with those. jeremy and i really opened up the rest. i was kind of disappointed because i thought he would just want to tear them open, but i guess he is still too young. 

after we cleaned up most of them mess we just let xavier play with his toys and we opened up ours. we didnt get a lot of the presents we ordered for each other but we had presents from other people we could open, which was nice. samara came over after we were done and we opened each others presents. we pretty much lounged the rest of the day. we went to our neighbors for a little bit but we couldnt stay long because we were reheating some food up that our dear friend sharon and tom made and gave to us (we were supposed to go over their house for dinner but an unfortunate thing happened and plans changed but they had to cook a 25lb turkey and gave us a lot of it with fixings for our christmas day). that night we just hung out and messed with our new gifts. pretty mellow and oh so nice. oh, we also had to take a bunch of pictures of xavier, but here are a couple:

 nana got him this onesie to wear today! adorable!

grandma got xavier this santa outfit to wear. how cute!

xavier is 8 months old!

look at this face. dont you just want to kiss it?

yep! he is 8 months old! its so crazy how time flies so fast when you have a little one. xavier has advanced in leaps and bounds and continues to do so. everyday is a new adventure with him and he makes me smile and laugh everyday. its so awesome!

*xavier is on the verge of walking. yes, i said it, walking. its craziness! he has taken 4 consecutive steps and is always trying to walk. 

*we always catch xavier standing up by himself. 

*he is still babbling away. he laughs everytime i repeat after him. 

*i dont think i mentioned this before but xavier recognizes sign language. i have been signing to him since he was about 3 months old and for the past couple of months he has been recognizing it. he understands "eat", "hungry", "more", "please", and "thank you". i have been teaching him "mommy" and "daddy" as well lately. i cant wait for him to sign back.

*he loves books. he likes looking at them, but also likes to taste them. hehe

*he has 2 teeth. chomp chomp!

*xavier loves this apple drink here in germany called apfelschorle. we gave him a taste of it once and now he always recognizes the bottle and tries to get it. all it is is apple juice mixed with carbonated water, and other natural things too like lemon juice and such. no sugar added, so its not too bad for him, right? we rarely ever let him have some, but sometimes we give in.

*for some reason xavier does not like to eat baby food. he will have almost half of the container and then he stops and doesnt open his mouth anymore. we have to trick him into eating it! i know he is hungry too. its nuts!  

he truly is such a joy and im so blessed to have him in my life.

leading up to christmas...

christmas was very good this year! it was so much fun with xavier. we did a lot this season and it was so nice to actually do so. last year i was pregnant and sick and didnt enjoy food all that much and didnt really want to go out and do anything in fear that i would get sick.

this year we made it to 2 christmas markets. one that is about 15 minutes away in a little mid-evil town called esslingen. that one was fun and very intersting. we had bread on a stick and i tried gluehwein for the first time - which wasnt the greatest drink ever. there was a parade of people dressed up in weird looking costumes and a guy telling stories with a torch. there was also a huge pyramid that was in the center of the market, it was pretty darn cool! the other market was just in downtown stuttgart. we started that market off by eating the biggest pretzel i have ever seen! we browsed and browsed, bought a couple of things and got a bite to eat. we had a bratwurst that had potatoes in it. it reminded us of a breakfast burrito type meal. it was good though. we were there for about 3 hrs. before heading out though, we had to grab some starbcks. and the awesome thing is that xavier slept the whole time!

we went to jeremys office christmas party and that was really fun. i always enjoy seeing the people that jeremy works with, especially sharon, renee, and josie. the party was at the commandants house. they are from louisiana so they had jumbylaya, seafood gumbo and the like. his wife also made this huge tray of almost bite sized cookies that i could NOT stop eating. they were delicious! they had the white elephant present exchange and after that we left. it was a pretty good party.

one thing i almost forgot to mention is that we ordered our first brand new car! its a metallic black volvo xc-90. it's pretty amazing and I can't wait to have it here!


most of our christmas shopping we did online again and we ordered about 3 weeks in advance, which wasn't long enough. some of xaviers presents didn't make it in time and still haven't came and the same with mine and jeremys. lame!

a couple of days before christmas i made sugar cookies for the first time. i was quite happy with the way they turned out. we decorated them that same night. these were the only cookies I ended up making this year. maybe next year i can make more.

i think we had a pretty good start to the christmas season. it only gets better on christmas day.

i want mom, and only mom!

it has begun. xavier has started wanting only me. i love being him being such a cuddle bug with me but i would love for him to not want me all. the. time. if he sees me he automatically wants me and will throw a fit pretty much until he gets me. i feel bad for jeremy because he can't console him right away. if i dont go to his want for me then it takes a while for xavier to calm down and actually enjoy being with his dad. =( its sad. i hope this phase doesnt last long.

on another, cheery note (which in fact, kind of goes with this), xavier can say "momma". i keep asking him to say it and he has a few times. i dont know if he truly understands that he is saying my name, but it sure seems like it. for instance, yesterday we were at the exchange and i had been with him the whole time while jeremy was getting some last minute things for me. when he was done, jeremy met up with me to check out everything and so he took xavier with him and while they were rolling away i heard xavier say "momma" because he didnt want to leave! is this just wishful thinking on a moms part, or is he really saying it and knowing what he says? i think its cute nonetheless! =)

icckk...

i have no motivation at all to go through photos today. maybe later.

massages and teething

since xavier cut his first tooth (november 17th) it has been quite hard to get him to sleep at night, and now with the jet lag, its insane. one night he just couldnt stay sleeping and no matter if i held him, rocked him, sung to him, he wouldnt stop crying. so i just laid him down and massaged his feet. he fell right to sleep!!! it was amazing! i continue to massage him to get him to sleep and it works so well. i even do his legs, not just his feet. he must really like it and/or it takes his mind off the pain. im not sure but im diggin' it!