Christmas Pictures...

The Christmas Tree!





Baumholder on Christmas morning...





Just thought I’d post some more Christmas pictures. Luke is being extremely clingy and fussy right now – so I don’t have too much time to type. So, I’ll just give the quick details with the photos.

Christmas Eve - we let Luke open one gift (foam bath letters) so he could play with them in the tub that evening.




After Luke went to bed, it was time to assemble his gifts...






In the morning, Luke came in to find lots of toys and presents! We let him play with the big unwrapped toys while we made a breakfast casserole.




After the casserole was in the oven, we read the Christmas bible story and had a Christmas prayer together.






We opened gifts leisurely the rest of the day. Luke liked to stop and play/read/look at his gifts - so we just took our time. We stopped mid-way for brunch, and Luke needed a nap before it was all done. But it was fun and relaxing. Here are a few pictures - I have like a hundred, but won't post that many...=)
















Chris and I (and even Baby Bee) got lots of fun and exciting gifts too! Once again, I have a ton of pictures, but will just post a few for now...








Not all the Christmas packages arrived before Christmas - so we've opened additional Christmas boxes since Christmas!

Elmo!



Leap Frog!


36 weeks and 5 days along here...I'll have to post a 37 week picture/update in the next few days.


Alright, I must go for now - Luke is making it impossible for me to keep going...but I'll try to post again soon.

We hope you all had a good Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We just want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas!



We had a wonderful Christmas here in Germany. Luke got lots of presents, and somehow so did Chris and I! We missed being with family and friends, though, and you were all in our hearts. We hope you have a blessed, joyful and merry day!

Marketing Christmas

Yesterday we finally got out of the house now that I'm back, and hit one of the Christmas markets that are held all over Germany. We wanted a close one- since travelling a long ways with a toddler is just not fun- so we chose Trier. Trier is less than an hour away on the border of Luxembourg, it's really old, and it had a market in the town square (the Hauptstrasse). So we hit the road.


Mindy wanted to take a picture of our speedometer while we were on the autobahn. We're doing about 90 mph here (140 kph), which is fast, but I was getting passed by eurocars doing much more than us. The old Contour just isn't made for German roads.


This is a town across the Moselle River on our way into Trier (we're heading south and looking west). It was very picturesque, especially with the river in the foreground. Western Germany is nothing if not scenic.


Here we have arrived after much searching and getting lost (in my defense, I knew where we were the whole time!), and in the parking garage. OK, note to everyone: in Germany, you don't pay an attendant on your way out of a parking garage. You get a ticket coming in, pay at a machine on your way up to your car, and then you stick the ticket in a machine that opens the gate. Let's just say I'm glad no one was behind me when I went to leave, since I did not know this was the prescribed method.




This is the Christmas market, with some gorgeous people and a beautiful child who never cries standing in front of it. Oh wait, that's us...forget the no crying thing. In fact, after about an hour there, that's all Luke did. He was good for awhile, and then I think a combination of hungry and tired hit him. Plus we made the mistake of buying him a little toy too early, and when he kept dropping it in the crowd, we took it away. We actually wanted to stay a little longer, but I think the Germans were considering expelling us.



More of the shopping center. We didn't get to the "real" stores in the marketplace; we just hit the Christmas ones. I don't know what you call them- kiosks? But that makes it sound like the mall.




In the Hauptstrasse there's a big cathedral that dates back to Roman times. It was really cool. There's a few other sites around Trier, but this is the one right in the middle of town. It was really amazing inside. We don't get to many cathedrals- I think I've been in one, and that was in NYC. This one was very impressive though. There was even a one-legged beggar outside!

Here's a video of us in the square:

The saints!



The pipes!


Overall it was a good time, excluding Luke's tantrum. We got all the trinkets we could handle. It was very crowded, but everyone was in a good mood (for Germans, who are just not really polite in our sense of the word). I think the Gluhwein had something to do with that, too.

Two more days until Christmas!

The Holiday Greeting I Received This Year...

Yes, these are my parents. God bless us every one.

Poll and Update

39 weeks with Luke...(June 06)


35 weeks and 2 days with Baby Bee...(Dec. 07)

I took this picture last night, but was inspired to post it after Mom Scott sent me a comparison pic from my pregnancy with Luke. What do you think - will I go:

A. Before my due date (if so how many days would you guess?)

B. On my due date (January 17th?)

C. After my due date (how many days late?)


Luke was 7lbs 3 oz - what is your guess on how big Baby Bee will be?

A. In the 7 lb range (any exact guesses?)

B. In the 8 lb range (any exact guesses?)

C. In the 9 lb range (any exact guesses?)

D. 11lbs 14 oz? (That's actually a joke - I was so zoned out after delivering Luke, when the nurse called out "11:14!" I thought for a second she meant that was how much Luke weighed...uh, no - that would be the time he was born...!)

To give you more incentive to fill out my little poll (muhahahaha!), if anyone gets the exact date and/or the exact weight (meaning you have to give me more then just pounds...gotta throw in the ounces too) right - I will send you an authentic Germen trinket.

I'll tack on a quick update here - since I said I would in my last blog. =) Luke and I have been staying quite busy over the last few weeks.

We are almost completely done with our Christmas shopping - just have a few last minute items to pick up. We're hoping to get to a Christmas Market next weekend. I'd like to pick up a few authentic German items - not to mention, I'd love to experience a German Christmas Market first hand. Hopefully we can go and I'll have pictures to post from it.

Chris should be getting back from the field tomorrow. I'll be glad to have him back so I can stop worrying about going into preterm labor while he's 6 hours away...something tells me I'll have a quicker labor this time around - and I doubt he could make it back if I went into labor while he was in the field. Anyway - back to Chris - it sounds like this field exercise was less stressful then the last - and he didn't have to work the night shift this time around either.

Luke is doing good. He's always doing something new and cute. He's trying SO hard to say words. Some of his words are:

Kwinkull = Twinkle (he's trying to sing twinkle twinkle little star now!)
Poopy = Open (don't ask me why...I wish that poopy would equal poopy, but for some reason it means "open" in his mind. =) )
Gru-Kaa = Grandpa
Kinky = Stinky
Kookee = Cookie
Bippy = Sippy
Ahpel = Apple
Bee = Bee (he loves the Bumble Bee song!)
Doo-Da = Santa
Gu Ja = Good Job
Cauks = Socks
Guk-Guk = Quack-Quack
Crawk-er – Cracker
Hucky = Hungry
A-me-maa or nanaa – A banana
Daddy = Daddy
Mo-Mo or Mo-Ma = Elmo
Uh-oh = Uh-oh
Baw = Ball
Bewr = Bear
Doddie = Doggie
Git-ty=Kitty
Bah = Book
Beh = Bird
Mow = More
Yay = Yay
Daw-Da = All Done
Dowl - Doll
and sometimes he'll say Mommy =)

I think he tries new words every day. It's so amazing - He just tries to repeat the things we say. Sometimes it all just mushes together - like when he tries to repeat, "I love you." It kinda sounds like, "Ahuuuvuuuu." But it's so sweet!

He loves animals - and I think we could spend the whole day going through every book in the house pointing out animals and making the sounds they make. Right now he likes to find and mimic:

Elephant
Dog
Cat
Pig
Cow
Chicken
Duck
Tiger
Lion
Bird
Fish
Bumble Bee
Bear
Monkey
Snake
Horse
Giraffe
Penguin
Sheep
Kangaroo
Bunny

Sorry I'm writing so many lists - I know I'm probably the only one that cares about these details -but if I don't write them down now, I'll never remember them when I go to fill out his baby book...which I'm months and months behind on.



Luke has become a big fan of the sippy cups with straws in them. I've started getting him a few - but don't want to transition him too quickly until he learns that the liquid will come out the straw if he just throws it on the floor! =) Right now I give him one when I can supervise closely - he's doing very well with it though.



Though Luke is cute most of the time - he still misbehaves, so I've finally had to start doing Time Out's for him. I feel like I'm on Super Nanny when I do them...=) I put him on the loveseat - with no tv or toys or anything for him to play with - make him stay for about 1 to 2 minuets. If he gets up before his time is up, I put him back and the time starts over. After he has stayed for his time - I try to simply explain why he's there ("Mommy said not to touch the knives in the dishwaher") - ask him to say he's sorry ("tell Mommy you're sorry" - which he actaully attempts to say)- give him a hug and then let him go play. The first time I did it - he threw a huge fit! He was trying to grab knives out of the dishwasher...which is something I've been trying to get him to stop doing for ages...and nothing else was working. So I warned him a few times - and finally out of desperation, tried the Time Out thing. He got up 2-3 times, but finally got the point. After his Time Out was up, he came back to the kitchen and tried to test me again with the dishwasher (it was written all over his face.) I warned him once - he did it again - and back to Time Out he went. This time he cried, but stayed his time without getting up. I've only had to use it one other time since then -and he sat quietly for his time and didn’t attempt to misbehave afterwards. I was concerned that he was to young to understand the concept of Time Out - but he seems to be grasping what it means. We'll see how long it lasts! =)


Alright, this has become much longer then I expected. I need to sign off so I can get some things done around the house. Here are a few pictures!



Just relaxing...

Dressed for church...

He has figured out he can turn on the lights he can reach...

We were out really late the other night - so I swung by the drive-thru at Burger King. Luke was pleased. =)

Here Luke is eating a "nanaa." Banana's are really the greatest snack ever!



I'll post more next week! Stay Warm!

35 weeks

Hey all!

Just a really quick post of my 35 week picture. I’ll write more later, but I have to run to the store (for the millionth time this week.) I’ve dropped slightly - though I’m still carrying a bit high – but I can breathe a little better now – which is nice. =)



More later!

At the Beach

In the midst of all this cold weather, I thought I’d post some warm pictures! I was doing a bit of organizing the other night, and realized I hadn’t posted hardly any of our summer pictures. So, here and there, I’ll try to get up a quick post with pictures from the summer.

Things have been quite busy over the past few weeks. All our windows were replaced – which was a HUGE pain, but I’m glad we won’t have to worry about rain pouring through them now. =) We’ve also been busy as bee’s trying to finish up all our Christmas shopping. Sunday afternoon, we had our FRG Children’s Christmas Party. It was fun to watch Luke take it all in. He’s still pretty shy and likes to stick close to my side, but he really enjoyed himself. Also – he stayed in the nursery the entire service Sunday morning – yay!

I could write a million more things, but it’s sadly after 1am – and I must go to bed. Enjoy the sun in the photos! =)


It takes great concentration to use this shovel in the sand…

It takes great talent to shovel sand all over your head too…

Fun in the sun with Grammy and Grandpa Scott...

Luke thinks he can take on any wave that comes his way...

Sand is so much fun!

Feet soaking in the sand...

The wave is coming - you better stomp on it!

Wish we were at the beach right about now! =)

I'll post more later!