i'm dreaming of a white christmas.

oh wait. that actually happened. hahahaha. i couldn't believe it but we had a white christmas down in texas this year. what are the ODDS of that ever happening?! that pretty much sums up ashton's perfect first christmas ever. it started on christmas eve when i headed out to do some last minute shopping (i know. i planned on doing something different and it failed. horribly.) and pick up ashton's new car seat (thanks MOM & mike!). when it started snowing! first it seemed like your typical flurries that texas gets every year. nothing big. just an hour or two of flurries. where nothing sticks and next day you're wearing shorts and flipflops again. boy, was i wrong. get ready for a play by play. i know my family (but mostly my mother) wants to see how it all went down for ashton's first christmas :o).

then it got worse.. much much worse.

by the time i got home we had two hours before we had to make it to david's family annual christmas party. thing is. i couldn't even pull into our own driveway, it was that icy. never the less, we packed up the car and the poor baby who didn't have a say in the matter and attempted to leave. we made it to the stop sign down the street and got stuck. so after we got out of that ordeal. we went back home and called it a day... missing the party and free food. we watched all the unfortunate people who had to drive in the weather on the news...

...and played christmas tunes (beat drum style) on our christmas gifts. my sweet next door neighbor brought over some sugar cookies that her kids decorated and some delicious homemade tamales the day before, which ended up being our christmas eve dinner. i called it a night around 9:30pm. santa was late putting gifts under our tree. i caught him at 8am this morning while ashton was getting a diaper change (he SLEPT the entire night without waking. too good to be true?).

doesn't david's bed head bring the lols? cute! ashton was excited! and not because he was chasing a cat. he knew, (i know he did), that today was a special day.

i love our christmas tree. i never blogged how we got it (i've been kinda sorta busy). we wanted to chop down our own tree this year (we have christmas tree farms in texas.. who knew!?) but ended up shopping at wal-mart. we went in on a friday where they had a butt load of noble firs (the kind we wanted if we had to buy a pre-cut tree). decided sunday we would get one and when we got there they only had ONE left. it came home with us. it's been a nice tree.. sheds a little but not nearly as much as the others we have had. smells nice. we had to buy all new ornaments that would be safe for ashton. (i.e. plastic. gah). we have four cats and glass ornaments were not happening this year. i went with a gingerbread/candy theme (of course). anyway. i really love our tree. i admire it everyday. i'll be sad when it gets picked up by the mulching crew.

we did something out of sync. typically this is the moment where we rip open our gifts in excitement but because of all the snow and the fact it was SUNNY and nice outside we decided to get out and take some nice shots before it all melted. maybe even build a snow man.

you can't tell but that is an inch of ice on the street! (thank goodness for snow boots)

isn't his sweater the CUTEST!?

frosty the snowman kept his promise. he came back on christmas day! david did most of the building. ashton and i watched from inside, where it was warm, sipped apple cider, and munched on peppermint bark.

then finally, after lunch, and a nap for ashton, we were ready to open gifts. at 2pm.

a gift from santa. he has his own special wrapping paper (with santa on it). he loved this toy. he isn't walking alone yet. but he will (try) to push it while holding on to your hand and walking. it's actually quite comical to watch. hehe

next up..

..the cute wooden choo-choo train (and yes, i did just say that).

mama needed some new reading material. ashton doesn't really "get" reading yet. i read to him several times a day and sometimes i feel like i'm reading to myself. i hope he starts to love it as much as i do. he wasn't too happy with the books. in fact he seemed annoyed by them LOL. a classic. "the giving tree"

ashton's thinking "what is this.. more books?" hahaha. great classics imo. i love dr.suess. 'fried green eggs and ham', 'cat in the hat', and 'the best nest book'.

special gifts from his aunt ariane and uncle jon. love it. thank you!

stickers!!!! tons and tons of stickers!!!! he eats them right now. i have some practice stickers we are working with before he can use his good stickers (for art). but he still enjoyed getting it. this is when he started getting annoyed with unwrapping gifts.

legos!! i ordered this huge set. not thinking that it would be huge. well, it's huge (i know. made sense right?), it came in a ugly brown box (turns out it's wholesale for lego education but any joe can still buy them). it's a good price for how much comes in the set. could use better packaging though. what you see is how it arrived! he really loves legos (yes!). and ashton not enjoying unwrapping gifts anymore lol. oh no. poor kid. he has to un-wrap gifts. the horror!!! the HORROR!!! good thing there are bows to keep a kid happy! parents for the win!

so we switched gears. time for mommy and daddy to open some of their gifts.

so far he got new socks, undershirts, three stooges (volume 5.. david LOVES the stooges), and the bourne trilogy set.

back to ashton. woot woot.

david: "look ashton, a new BOOK"
ashton: "oh hell naw, these pine needles laying on the floor look like more fun!"
hahaha. i really hope he starts to enjoy story time... soon.. real soon.

this wooden car really caught his attention. he was grabbing at it before david even had a chance to get it out.

ashton lovesssss puzzles. he doesn't fully understand them yet. he knows the pieces can be pulled out and he knows they are supposed to go back on the board. he just doesn't get that they each have a spot etc. he still loves them though.

one of david's favorite beers. he had been eyeballing this gift set for a month. he wanted the glass ::eye roll:: hahaha.

another santa gift. i think this is when ashton finally realized what opening gifts meant. he was very eager to participate and even more when he saw what it was. (wooden beads!! cute right?! that santa sure does have great taste). see him pointing? one of these days that pointing finger is going to disappear. because i ate it.

clothes for david!

there he goes again with that finger. and am i seeing things right. is... he... showing interest.. in a BOOK?!!!!

a sign your kid is SO done opening gifts. david had to unwrap the rest. two sets (abc & 123) touch and feel flash cards.

my gifts! admit it.. how many of you are green with envy that i have a pioneer woman cookbook? hahaha just kidding. i love her. props to david for remembering i wanted a set of new mixing bowls.

the aftermath. david had it all cleaned and organized within 5mintues. he's pretty amazing.

his new set of wheels (he also got a cozy coupe car).

and just because this is freaking hilarious. i suppose he sat on a bow. he was crawling all over the place with it jiggling around.

when you know your kid is done with christmas until next year.

HI FROSTY! goodnight blogland. merry christmas to everyone. hope it was a good one!

how to break habits.

do you complain how you never have time to get things done. i.e. clean the house, cook dinner, take your baby/kids somewhere fun (park, museum whatever, anything), workout etc etc etc? yet you are all caught up on your DVR and celeb gossip? LOL! i think even though i recently cut back on my computer/tv usage, it's still not enough. it's hard breaking a computer/tv habit. i don't even know where to begin. i could start of by admiting that ashton went down for his nap at 9am. it's almost 11am and i could have cleaned, figured out what's for dinner, and take a shower. what did i do instead? play on the internet! it would be more justifiable if i didn't do this everyday, but i do! i need to manage my time better. anyone have sites or recommendations to help me out?

WHY?!!!!

update to the last post about nap training. ashton has been sleeping in his crib as if it was no big deal. it took ONE night. few tears were shed (we opted for a method that wasn't CIO. i am surprised it worked). i couldn't believe it. so, early tonight this is what happened:

david: "do you put ashton in our bed anymore?"
me: "not since he has started pulling up on the rails"
david: "so does that mean he won't be in our bed anymore?"
me: "until he knows how to get down safely. nope"
david: "so the bed rails can come down?"
me: "sure go ahead. it would be nice to get into our bed normally"

i just walked into our bedroom for the first time since david un-installed our bed rails and my heart broke in a million pieces.

me: blank stare as i feel that deep empty pit feeling in my stomach. "i want the rails back. right now. put them back. NOW."
david: "why?"
me: "i think i am going to throw up" ::leaves the room::

WHY WHYYYYY do babies have to grow up? it's not fair!

::sniffles::

dear ashton, you're growing up waaay too fast. sloooooooooow it down. thanks. xoxox mommy.

nap training fail.

david and i have started to sleep train ashton (we are co-sleeping since i nurse and it's just easier. but now that ashton has started to crawl easily on all fours and stand up where ever he pleases we feel it's no longer safe for him to be sleeping in our bed). i tried getting him down for two hours for his nap. we are using the lady sleep shuffle method. you stay in the room with them and gradually move to the door. until they sleep by themselves. anyway. ashton spent one hour crying (my head hurts) and one hour fooling around in his crib. i was right up against the crib with my back facing him (when i was facing him it just seemed to upset him). he was rubbing my back softly when he stopped. i slowly got up and peeked into the crib to see if he was finally asleep. this is what i found...

:o)

i love how david's eyes are shut in the first picture and i love it even more than i posted it. hey it was the only one. he should learn to keep his eyes glued wide open ;o) they must be banking it. they had two cars like this and the place was PACKED. david and i both figured hardly anyone would be at the festival because it was freezing and rainy. boy we were wrong. i love this place!

great news! i tied first place in the gingerbread contest at the german deli.

the house i tied first place with (we both won a $250 gift certificate). they said it was super hard deciding on the two, so they did something they have never done, gave us both first place lol. i'm not complaining. when i saw her house this afternoon i was FOR SURE i was going to place second. she did an amazing job on it. i congratulated her after we won and found out this was her second gingerbread house ever. just like ME! lol. i asked her if she plans on entering again next year (she is). so i better step up my game. mayyyjah competition lol.

house that placed 2nd

placed 3rd.

i don't know why that second picture came out so blurry but it was the only i had of the inside of the house (i was trying not to hog the entire table up). this house won the "most creative" award.

and now for the rest of the gingerbread houses:

MY HOUSE! when i started taking picture this one lady was looking at all the houses with a few of the people she was with. she pointed to mine and said, "i would vote for that one". my face lit up. i told her it was mine and she ended up talking to me for like 15minutes about how much she loves it and wonderful it is. talk about ego boost :o). i was so proud.

the judge... judging. i should have taken a picture when he lifted mine up to announce it made first but i wasn't paying attention lol.



my boys with the blurry gingerbread houses (my fault).

now for some random pictures of the german deli. YOU have no idea how thankful this place is so close to us! when i need a german fix (which is pretty much every week) i head here. now i have $250 to waste in this spot. (merry christmas to meeeee!).

that isn't even a fourth of the store. they have everything you can think of (for double the price. but when you have a german craving it sure does beat the expensive flight over there to bring it back lol).

the gingerbread house that started it all. they had this out on a table a weekend ago with the gingerbread entry forms next to it. i guess someone in the store made it or they had it made. it's supposed to be some buildings from a town (david's favorite german town btw) rothenburg.

david looks thrilled (wth?!) lol. a german map. you stick pins where you were stationed or from.



one pin for me and one pin my mother stuck in there awhile back. (the two push pins next to each other by themselves).