let your hearts be light....

so christmas day has come and gone already! wow. it is so weird to even think about next week being 2010 already!

our christmas was really nice. jeremy and i woke up and we opened up our presents for each other. i got him a sweater, assassin's creed II for the xbox 360, zelda: spirit tracks for the ds, where's waldo for the ds, and the complete farside collection books. i have two more presents coming for him and those are his BIG presents. =) he got me a bunch of dvds("the alfred hitchcock collection", "the greatest show on earth", "scaramouche", "the pirate", "meet me in st. louis", and "arsenic and old lace") that i wanted and an owl ornament from the german christmas store and an ornament that was the snowman and rudolph from the classic rudolph movie. my BIG presents from him didnt make it in time either so i still have those coming. before christmas my mom sent us a package of goodies and included was a pair of baby booties for xavier, they are so cute! jenna also sent me a package of things i wanted from the states and got xavier a little onesie! after we opened presents and our stockings jeremy made me waffles and we had that and clementines for breakfast. delicious! then we started watching "meet me in st. louis" but i was falling asleep so we stopped it and i took a nap while jeremy played his new assassin's creed game. i woke up around 1pm and i baked a cake to take to our friends house. i then hopped in the shower and got ready. before we left i called my family to wish them a merry christmas and talked with them for a bit. we got to chris and sandi's house at around 4:30pm and chatted, snacked and played "taboo" for a while. then dinner was done so we ate and watched "elf". after we were done eating we talked for a while and opened up the presents we got for each other. they bought us a cute teddy bear, a blue photo album, another little photo holder, and some blue baby scrapbooking stickers! it was all so awesome!! then we played the new super mario bros wii! it was a lot of fun! i like how you can play with 4 people on that game. i was starting to get tired and so we decided to head home. when we got home from our 2 min walk, i saw that it was 12:30am!! i had no idea it was that late! jeremy called his family and talked with them and then i called some more of mine that i didnt get to talk to earlier. i was so tired that i layed on the couch while jeremy played his game. i think i fell asleep around 2am. jeremy woke me up at around 4 to go to bed. we had a wonderful christmas! =)

today i am 20 weeks pregnant! i am super happy that we are halfway there! xavier is a busy little man! i feel him moving every day and a lot during the day. it is so awesome. jeremy should be able to start feeling him move soon too. maybe in the next couple of weeks. on tuesday we have our BIG ultrasound, which i am super excited about! i am hoping to finally hear xavier's little heartbeat! and im excited to see him moving about for an hour!

next week we are finally buying a car! the woman that is selling it in jeremy's building is finally transferring, which we knew about when we picked the car, but it just seemed like it took forever! anyway, so i am really excited about that! we will finally be able to start traveling and such!

ohhhhh i also forgot to mention that on christmas eve jeremy and i finally got our couch and loveseat that we have been waiting for!! they called on tuesday to tell us something else was in so i called them on wednesday to see if the couch and loveseat were in and they said YES! so jeremy went up there to pay for them so we could definitely have them and on christmas eve he rented a van to bring them home! i was sooo happy! it is so nice to finally have a living room set and we even hung pictures! yay!

all in all we had a very wonderful christmas and i am looking forward to new years!

what a kick!

ever since i started my 16th week i wanted to feel xavier move. well, week 16 is now past and i am in the middle of my 17th week. i was getting a little anxious on feeling him and was trying to figure out if every little move my belly made was him. i was trying to feel for "flutters" or a sensation like goldfish swimming around. that is what i read and heard it would feel like, so that is what i was looking for.

well, yesterday i felt something a little different. it was like actual kicking. very light, more like popping popcorn! at first, i wasnt sure it was him, because it wasnt what was described to me but after thinking about it a bit, im pretty sure it had to be him! it was right after i ate breakfast so he was probably happy that i fed him! hahaha =) i didnt think it was real at first, so now, if i feel him again soon i am going to be super excited and not over analyzing if its him or not!

i am really happy that i felt him move! now it can only get better. i am getting excited for the day that jeremy will be able to feel him too! =)

this is when we found out we were having a.....

today i had my doctor appointment! it wasnt at all what i was told it was going to be. just a simple ultrasound. thats it. previously i mentioned that i would be taking a glucose tolerance test and having an hour long ultrasound. this was what was told to me at my last appointment. they said my appt was at 9:30am but to be there at 8am to drink the sugary drink. they also said not to eat anything and drink very little water if i needed to.

so i woke up bright and early this morning, and got to the hospital on an empty stomach at 8am. we waited for a bit and got called in by a nurse and after i gave urine then she called me into the room and tried to take my blood. well, since i hadnt eaten or drank anything my veins were really dry. it took them a while to finally get some blood. she then went to get the doctor. jeremy and i waited in the room for a little while and finally a doctor came in. this wasnt my regular doctor. after she talked with me for a bit i got into a gown and she started the ultrasound. the first thing she asked was if we wanted to know the gender, and we said "yes". she asked if knew what it was by her pointing at something and i said "a boy?" and she said "yes." he was sitting bottom down, with his legs open so we could see everything! it was pretty darn cool! and that was all she really showed us. i was kind of bummed that she didnt show us his face or anything. after that i got dressed and she talked with us a bit more and explained that our next appt was going to be the really long ultrasound and i mentioned to her that they told us this one was the glucose and big ultrasound and she said that its too early to take the glucose test and that we will have that around 26-28 weeks. so our next appointment on the 29th of december is for sure the really long ultrasound. they are going to make sure all the organs are working correctly and limbs and fingers are all there! i am hoping we get some good pictures this time! i am really looking forward to seeing him move about! =)

after the appointment we had to wait around a bit to get our picture, which isnt a very good one. and i weighed myself. my last weight was 81.5 kilograms and this time i was down to 77.5 kilograms! which means i lost almost 10 lbs!!!! crazy! i read its normal to lose weight, but by now i should start gaining. hopefully! we walk everywhere we go so maybe that contributed to some of the weight loss. who knows!?

all in all we are SUPER excited we are having a boy! his name is going to be xavier douglas. xavier after jeremy and douglas after my dad. due date is still may 15th as far as i know! oh oh!! and jenna is going to be out here on the 26th of may! if i go over long enough she might be able to be there for the birth!! yay!

thanksgiving weekend!!

this years thanksgiving was pretty awesome! jeremy had a four day weekend which was really nice. i like that this command gives 4 day weekends whenever there is a holiday. =)

i hosted thanksgiving again this year, which is one of my favorite things to do. we had our friends chris and sandi over! they came over around 3:00. i made hot apple cider and we enjoyed that before dinner was ready. dinner was a little late. i wanted it to be ready by 4, but that doesnt usually happen with me. hahaa it was ready at like 5. everything turned out really good. chris and sandi made mashed potatoes and the pumpkin pie. it was just a really nice dinner and im glad that we all shared that together!

after dinner the boys cleaned up (yeah!) and sandi and i talked until they were done. when everything was good to go, we played the new super mario bros wii! it was soooo much fun! i really like how they made it so 4 people can play at the same time. sometimes it got confusing, well for me anyway, but it was really cool. we played for a while and then chris and sandi went home around 9 so they could call their family and we also had to call ours!

on friday we headed out to the christmas markets that just opened up in the area with chris and sandi. our first stop was in ludwigsburg. it was pretty big. we walked around there for a while. we found this awesome present for roberta! she will love it. they had a bunch of nutcrackers and wooden figurines. we really wanted to buy some of those for our family and friends but they were so darn expensive it wouldnt have been possible. a small one was like 25€ which is about $37.50! crazy! there also was a lot of ornaments there but nothing seemed to scream to me "hey! im from germany!", ya know?! so, we went away empty handed with only buying one present. we then headed to the stuttgart christmas market and it was bigger than the ludwigsburg one but had a lot of the same stuff! it was really nice to get out and stuff, but it was super duper cold! at the end of the night we ate salmon dinners in this big teepee tent that had firepits inside. it was really cool!

on saturday and sunday i was really sore from the previous day and so we took that time to rest and relax. jeremy and i played video games and watched movies and such. it was really nice. on saturday night we played rockband with afton and that was pretty awesome! we hadnt played rockband with her since the states so it was really nice to talk to her and play games! =)

so all in all our thanksgiving weekend was great! its now monday and we have a doctors appointment tomorrow!! we have to be there at 8 and i will drink my sugar drink for the glucose test. then we have our hour long ultrasound! im really excited about that! we will get to see the baby a lot! we might also find out the gender of the baby. i am a little over 16 weeks, so im hoping that it will be noticeable! if not, we will have to wait until after the new years! which is fine with me, i guess i cant wait! =)

what im thankful for - thanksgiving 2009

this year i am thankful for many great things, they are:

*God, first and foremost
*my family
-dad & mom
---missy & ryan
----mackenzie
---steven
---patrick & kelly
-----caleb
-----haley
---melanie & scott
---benjamin
---monica
---michelle
---megan
---martha
*jeremy's family
-roberta & jim
---josh & alyson
----eli
---jenna
---jacob
---jaci
*all of my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins
*my friends
*my wonderful husband, jeremy
*the little one that God gave us that is growing inside of me
*having the opportunity to live in germany
*all of our armed forces, especially the ones fighting
*the beautiful world
*every day that i live

i wish you all a very happy thanksgiving! =)

just a little update!

ok, so it totally stunk not being able to write about anything that has happened since i havent had internet for a while! so here is an update!!!

alrighty, well we had our first doctors appointment on the 20th of october. our appointment was at 4:15pm. we got there, filled out some paperwork, and had to wait a long time to be seen. they first took me into a room and took blood. then a while later the doctor called me in and we got started. thats the difference between german and american, when you go into the room, the doctor is already there. but you just have to wait a while to be called. anyway, so we go into the first part of the room and the doctor asks me questions and such and then after he is done, the nurse escorted me to the bathroom. which off of the "office" is the exam room, then off that is the bathroom. anyway, i went in there and realized i was supposed to get into a gown. well, the nurse didnt show me where any gowns were and i didnt see any so i got a little freaked out. but i finally found one!! =) so i got ready and went into exam room, he did some exams, and then started the ultrasound. it was so nice to finally see the baby! we got to see the heartbeat and the spine and everything! ahh, it was great. he gave us one picture:


he estimated that we were about 10/11 weeks along by the length of the baby. so he put the due date, may 10-15. after the ultrasound was done i got dressed, he talked with us for a bit, and then we scheduled another appointment in 2 weeks to go over the bloodwork and get a better idea of how far along we are. next one, november 3rd. after the appointment, we were so happy! it was just so nice to see our little one!! =D i took a picture of the ultrasound picture(thats the only way i could show them) and sent it to our family so they can finally see too! they were all so happy!

the day after the doctors appointment jeremy and i finally moved out of the hotel and into our new place! we were so excited to be out of the hotel! you have no idea! even though we didnt have any of our stuff, it just felt nice to live in our home!

that weekend jeremy, me, chris, and sandi all went to the pumpkin festival! it was super cool! there were like over 300 different types of pumpkins there! there were also figures of fairy tales made from pumpkins. here are some pictures from the fest:


after we walked around for a while we got something to eat. i had pumpkin soup, which wasnt anything i would ever order again, and jeremy got the same but also pumpkin quiche. we were not impressed. hahaha it was a good experience though. after we ate we browsed a bit more and headed back. it was really nice to get out and about!

the tuesday after, which was october 27th, we got our household goods delivered! it was amazing! of course the first room set up was our bedroom, but close after was the living room! jeremy could NOT wait to set up the tv and gaming systems. the kitchen took me a while to get situated and everything because i washed all of our dishes! and let me tell you, it took about 10 loads in the dishwasher for them to be done. maybe 11 or 12. because we would accumulate dishes on the side from using them. the house is coming together nicely, however, we are still missing couches. the set we really want has not been delivered at the furniture store yet so that is what we are waiting on. its lame. right now we are using a camping chair and disc chair. classy, i know.

we had a pretty good halloween this year. i was pretty bummed because the commissary ran out of pumpkins pretty early on so i thought that maybe we wouldnt be able to get pumpkins this year to carve, but the day before halloween the commissary got a shipment in and we got pumpkins!! here are a few pictures of that:


we handed out candy with our neighbors in the building. it was nice to get to know them! there were actually a lot of kids that came to our building. we thought we wouldnt get a lot since we are way down at the bottom of the hill, but we were wrong! there were even a few local kids that came and kept coming! they would just switch masks and get more candy! hahhaa we thought that was funny! i guess germans dont celebrate it as much as we do in america so they just come to score free candy! haha trick or treating on base was from 5-8 and we ran out of candy before 7 so it was nice to go inside after freezing outside for a bit! we came in and watched "the exorcism of emily rose". that movie always freaks me out, and mostly because i believe it can totally happen to anyone! scary!

on the 3rd of november we had another doctors appointment! it went very well. he did another ultrasound and the baby grew 2 centimeters in 2 weeks! wow! i could see the heart beating and we saw the brain. he said we were a little over 12 weeks and he gave us the due date of may 15th. we scheduled our next appointment which is on the 1st of december and we do my glucose test that day as well as the hour long ultrasound. i think then we will be able to tell the gender of the baby as well! i will be 16ish weeks! oh and i also found out from a lady that called me from the wellness center on base that my doctor doesnt actually deliver the baby. that a midwife does! i was super happy about that! i initially wanted a midwife but being overseas i didnt get the option, and so i am happy that they deliver the baby. i am not even sure if the doctor is present at the time of birth. weird, huh? i wonder if the midwife comes into the appointments at all before birth. like in the late 2nd or 3rd trimester. i want them to know what i want.

now it is the 6th of november. we finally got internet and phone setup yesterday and it has been so nice to call people back home and talk to them for a bit. oh, and its super nice to actually have a computer to type on rather than a bitty phone with a touchscreen keypad! tomorrow we are going onto another base and getting some groceries and then maybe going to ikea. since we dont have anything to sit on and are getting a futon set for the guest room anyway, we might just buy that from ikea and use it in the living room until our furniture is available. at least that way we will be more comfortable watching movies and such. on the 16th or 17th of november i start pregnancy classes on one of the bases. which i am not sure if i want to do since its for the 1st trimester and i am already past that point, it might be a waste. i will get more information before going. there is also a new expecting moms class that is every other wednesday that i might start going to. i need more information on that one as well.

there is so much going on here, its crazy! thanksgiving is coming up, then the ultrasound, christmas, and then the new year! crazy! i cant wait for it all to happen though!

living in a hotel is a bust

so i totally remembered recently and figured out how to write a blog
through email! i am super happy! =)

well, we have been in germany for 3 weeks now! it is totally weird
that we have already been here this long! we are currently living in a
hotel and boy does it stink. i cant cook decent meals because we only
have a microwave, the cleaning people come everyday to change our
towels and stuff(which is nice but when they come at like 9 in the
morning, come on), and i am bored by myself all day. the only websites
i can get on in the hotel are secured ones or i would have to pay like
300 dollars extra(that the navy wont pay) to get total internet. its
lame. tv is getting really boring here since there is only 3 channels
that are in english. anyway, next week we should be getting our stuff
and moving into our new place. i am super excited to have our stuff!!
plus we can wash our clothes anytime we want since we will have a
washer and dryer! =) plus, our new found friends live only like a
building away from us so maybe her and i can do something during the
day!

speaking of next week, we have our first doctor's appointment on the
20th! i am super excited for it but also really nervous because it is
a german doctor. i am really hoping he speaks good english. =) jeremy
and i went on the hospital tour last week and the lady informed us
that whenever we are seen by anyone it is always the head of the
department. that makes me feel better! german doctors are also more
compassionate than american ones as well. we are really hoping that
they do an ultrasound because we really dont know how far along we
are. they put my due date down as march 21st, but i do not think its
that early. i guess we will see next week!

we didnt make it to oktoberfest this year, which is alright because we
have a couple more years for that. i would have liked to go but with
me getting sick, it really puts a damper on things. we have made it to
downtown stuttgart and it was nice. they have this huge indoor market
full of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, bread, cheese,
everything! and up top they have this store that goes all the way
around it full of furniture, kitchen stuff, bath stuff, decor, it is
just awesome! i want to go again when i start feeling better. the
train kind of makes me sick to ride it so i wasnt feeling the greatest
when we went. where we are going to be living is super close to
downtown as well. only like 5 stops on the train, so thats cool. we
really want to make some trips to places soon but since we dont have a
car its pretty hard. there is a lot on base called "the lemon lot",
where people can just put their cars they want to sell, and when we
went to check it out people are trying to sell them for crazy prices.
they had one for $16,000! if i wanted to pay that much for a car i
would put it towards a new one! we did find a german car on there for
$4,000 and it included snow tires which was pretty cool. we have to
wait to actually purchase a car anyway because we need our
international drivers licenses. we are still looking and hoping to
find a good deal.

it has gotten pretty chilly here in the past week which i am really
happy about! i love love LOVE this time of year and cant wait until it
gets even colder! hopefully in the beginning of november is when we
are going to start seeing the snow! its going to be really cool!
especially since they have a good snow removal system here! ahh!!
winter! yay! christmas is my favorite holiday and i cant wait to
celebrate it here! its going to be awesome!