Mid-Holiday Post

I must say, a 2.5 week vacation feels WONDERFUL but a little odd at the same time. I came home for Christmas from California four times while in college and stayed several weeks. But this time, I came home from California with a husband for a couple weeks. I guess it's just odd because I'm not in school nor do I have a job to go back to. I just get to live life in a different spot with a husband. :-)

It's been quite busy too, compared to what I am used to. Autumn and Andy and the kiddos got here the same day we did. So it's been a community of 10 people living together in one house. I'm thankful my parents' house is big enough to accomidate us all...quite nicely at that! The bed Matt and I claimed has actually been quite good for my back and joints. I think it's the foam layer on top. Firm but gently cradles me. Oh, and I can't forget to mention the four pillows I sleep with and the husband I sometimes use as a body pillow in addition to those. :-P

It has been SO AMAZING to see Matt with the three kids. I am convinced now that we MUST have a daughter someday (Please, Lord!). He is simply adorable to watch with an even more adorable Hailey. He makes her (and the boys, too) giggle whenever they play together. He's got so much energy to fly them, horse around, play video games, snuggle, tickle, and the list could go on. We've never been around kids together for this much time. I consider it a blessing from God to have seen my husband's temprament with children just a couple months before we have one of our own. ::sigh:: I love Matt. End of story.

Speaking of our own...Judah's growing and I think I have too. :-P I still haven't put myself back on my parents' scale since we got here. Probably cause it makes me nervous. The eatin' has been good! I've been able to help with dinner most nights and expose my family to some of the dishes I cook for Matt and I. It's been cool to see what it would be like to cook for a family of 10. Double the food...and the flexibility!

We got quite blessed at the baby shower Rachel threw. An extra suitcase home is in order! (That's Diane, the lady who did the devotional.) Judah has been getting stronger as he grows. His kicks have become so strong when he's most active, that more than just my belly moves. Matt even "felt" a kick when he was just sitting next to me! I've also had a couple times where I'd be laying on my side and Judah (as usual) has used the bed as a trampoline. But now he has started pushing up against the bed so that I feel him on both sides of my belly. He pushes and holds, and if I gently push back he'll immediately recoil. I hope I'm not scaring him, but it's been the first...um...human to human interaction with him (for lack of a better way to explain it). Action and reaction between two human beings? Whatever. It's been awesome. Take my word for it!

Matt and I are thinking about going to spend our Kohl's gift cards today to get some date time. I'ts been totally fun being with so much family all the time, but we all have to admit it is not something Matt and I are used to! Matt is the only person I interact with 5 or 6 days a week on average, and I don't usually do much except for household tasks everday. When our plane hit the runway here, our feet didn't stop running. It's been a lovely change of pace, but one that my pregnant body has been exhausted by! And, when you're used to so much time alone with just your hunny...you miss it even when life is 10 times as lively as usual!

I know I'm going to have people withdrawals once we get back home, though. I've got plenty of options for activity here. Remind me what I did all day when I was at home?

Random list to keep having text in this post so you will be sure to see all the pictures:

I got my hair cut as a non-Christmas gift from my mom. I wish I could have Glynn at the snap of my fingers. There is nothing like 100% trust in the person who cuts your hair. I LOVE my new cut. It's definitely shorter, but I think it looks great and it is easy or complext to do at my own whim.

Things we got for Christmas:
1) A quilt journal with pages for pictures and explanations for all the quilts I have and will make. Hope started it for me.
2) A flip flop and flower chip and dip set from Autumn that matches our Fiestaware perfectly.
3) Giftcards to: Kohl's, Olive Garden, Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Cold Stone Creamery. Date heaven!
4) Christmas towels for our kitchen. Something I've wanted for a while now! Funny- I helped Hope pick out kitchen towels for my mom's stocking, when my mom had already gotten ME kitchen towels.
5) A GORGEOUS clear blue snowflake ornament from Hope called "Winter Fantasy" which I will henceforth name our future tree.
6) Lost, the First Season on DVD
7) Casting Crowns' Lifesong CD

Fun Christmas Survey of Self

Ok, so I've finally forced time for a quick post. Today is our last day at our new home for 2005. We get to go Home to LR tomorrow! But...I've just woken up and had breakfast. Now I need to get moving on all that's to be done today! I hope my body will forgive me eventually. Last night was my first time to discover what grinding lower vertebrae feel like. It's not excrutiatingly painful, but it certainly is NOT comfortable. And this morning it was quite painful to turn over and get out of bed. But I love my little Judah. I realized I've forgotten about him a lot the past few days because we've been so busy with getting ready to leave. It always makes me wonder how a pregnant woman could forget at times throughout the day that she is pregnant. It becomes second nature somehow to have a whole other human being inside of you! :-P I bet it will be weird to not have one in me anymore come March. By the way, welcome me to my final trimester!

I had this typed up previously to post as Christmas got closer. Enjoy!

You all gotta do this on your own blogs! Tracie did it first...

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Homemade hot chocolate with big marshmallows when it's just Matt and I. Egg nog when it is combined with vanilla ice cream after decorating the tree. Those were the days!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Depends on what movie you watch, I guess. Neither in real life.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Oh, WHITE!!! But then, nothing would do for my parents' tree but colored. As much as I always thought our tree looked gaudy and wanted it different, I'd flip if it changed because it just wouldn't be "our" tree. It does look much better since it has been toned down over the years...and it is the perfect picture of a traditional tree now.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Where do you even find that stuff?

5. When do you put your decorations up? When we go somewhere for Thanksgiving, just before we leave so when we come back it is done. When we actually stay in our own home someday for Thanksgiving AND Christmas, we'll do it either the weekend after Thanksgiving or December 1st. Haven't decided yet. Can't wait to have a tree someday...

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Mashed potatoes by far and Nonie's "burn 'n' serves."

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? This memory is more of an across the years memory. I love how every Christmas we'd wake up in our Christmas pj's, have pancakes and a B-day party for Jesus, open gifts, then get cleaned up while Momma started cooking. Nonie and Gramps would always arrive first with gifts and pies around 10 or 11, then the rest of the family would trickle in. Dinner was always around 1:30 with the kids at their table and the adults all around the big table with the china and crystal. We'd feast, then laze around the rest of the day. Pie usually around 5 I think. So I guess my favorite memory as a child, and still today, is just the whole day itself and being with family.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I remember it was in the apartments in LR. I think I was about 4. Momma sat Autumn and I down and told us there was no Santa Clause. I remember not caring one bit, but if memory serves, Autumn cried.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Are we talking Little Rock's few inches that last only a few days or Evansville's few FEET that sticks around for forever? I love seeing snow. I even love to play in lots of it. But I don't love it when it shuts down civilization as we know it. And I don't like it when it gets all dirty and slushy looking.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes, but not especially well.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't remember a favorite but here are a few I remember well...my snow queen porcelan doll, my first Petra cd and MWS tapes, my first eye shadow, my bean bag (that we had to leave in Tyler, TX one year...no I'm not bitter), an "adopted" dolphin, and more recently the Swarovski crystal Christmas ornaments and my Pampered Chef soup pot.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? It's hard for me to say celebrating Christ's birth above what my first thought is. Each passing year I try to focus on the "reason for the season" more and more because I am older and wiser and know better. But to me, the first thought of what is most important aside from the spiritual aspect is being with family. I cherish every moment!

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pumpkin Cream Pie...and Starbucks' egg nog and peppermint flavored drinks.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Getting new Christmas pj's every year, having a pancake B-day party for Jesus, driving around to look at lights, decorating the tree to Christmas music followed with egg nog shakes.

17. What tops your tree? Tree? Well, when I HAVE one maybe we'll look for another Crown of Thorns like I gave my mom last year.

18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving? GIVING! Especially for the name I draw for extended family...since it's usually Nonie. I love to make things and give them rather than just buying something.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol? Secular - "I'll be Home for Christmas" by Amy Grant Spritiual - "Mary Did You Know" by Jubilant Sykes and O Come O Come Emanuel

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Doable, but usually only 1 or 2 for the holiday's sake.

As Requested

If you missed the previous post, read it first so you know why on earth I wrote this post. :-)

Tracie requested the recipe. Momma wanted me to bring some home. I want to make Jaclyn wish for them more. So here is the recipe, Tracie. Let's make some when I get there, Momma. And enjoy your nilla wafers, Jaclyn.

I love Betty...she's my kitchen's best friend. This recipe is compliments of Mrs. Crocker, with two tweaks from me!

::thinking of what to name them::

Chocomint Christmas Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/8 tsp salt
3 egg yolks
1 tsp peppermint extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 ziploc bag

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Mixture should be smooth and creamy (not very grainy). Beat in egg yolks and peppermint until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can. Stir in remaining flour.

Shape dough into 1" balls (or use a 1" cookie scoop). Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet or parchment lined stone. Bake for 20 minutes or until sides are set. Do not let edges brown. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

When cookies are cool, heat chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl for 1-2 minutes. Stir until all chips are melted and chocolate is smooth. You do not have to keep microwaving until the chips are gone. Stirring will finish the job. Fold lips of ziploc bag over to prevent messing the outside of the bag as you spoon the chocolate in. Fold lips back up and shake chocolate into one corner. Use a chip clip or rubberband to create a tight seal at the level of the chocolate. Snip a tiny hole in the corner of the bag, and pipe your decorations. Do NOT stack the cookies until you have chilled them in the refrigerator to allow the chocolate to set. To keep chocolate firm, store in regfrigerator.

Next year I will probably divide the dough in half and add red and green food coloring for more festivity. And maybe I'll coat them with chocolate and sprinkle crushed peppermint on top.

Ok, so now after all of that...I have to go eat one! And then wake Matt up so we can get to our fun afternoon!

Sweet Tidings

Yesterday was a long, busy, but fun day! Matt was at school until late in the afternoon because he had a meeting...the first of which he is not allowed to tell the details to even me! I should write a book, My Husband's Secret Life, and journal about what it is like to be the wife of a man who can't say everything he does/knows to provide for our family. :-)

It gave me lots of time to work on Christmas gifts, bake Christmas cookies, do some laundry, chat, and just do whatever. Not until I got in bed at 1:00 am last night did I realize I NEVER sat down just to sit and relax. That's not typical for me right now. But, oh what a productive day!

I'm very excited about what I am working on for family Christmas gifts. So far, Helen's (Matt's grandma) is my favorite, but Aut and Andy's was the most challenging in both decision and degree of difficulty. I spent at least 4 hours on theirs and my back and neck are still letting me know that today!

I'm also excited about the Christmas cookies. I think

we may have found our own little Esparza Christmas tradition...baking peppermint sugar cookies and drizzling chocolate Christmas designs on top to give to neighbors and friends (and ourselves!). They are simple, but very tasty! It's cool to see a sugar cookie and then get a zing of peppermint when you eat it. I think we are going to give our neighbors theirs today. It'll be fun to chat a little more with them when they are home...but I'm interested to see how giving it to the people across from us will go over. 2 men and 1 woman, all VERY business oriented and pretty reclusive compared to the family atmosphere the rest of us have.

Matt has two tests today. Tomorrow is the last day of the quarter! It's so insane to think that a week from now I'll be in the air on the way home for Christmas! ::sings I'll be home for Christmas...:: I can't WAIT!

After Matt gets home, we're going to eat lunch and take a nap (and then go get Narnia tickets for tomorrow and our Christmas pj's). I was up until 1:00 working on Aut/Andy's gift, and then crashed as Matt stayed up until 2 caulking our bathroom and killing the ants that infested our bathroom and trailed across our bedroom carpet. Last night marked the 4th day we've been battling ants. First the kitchen, then our bathroom, then the front bathroom, back to our bathroom. He's going to do some major caulking this weekend while I clean up dead ant bodies that were poisoned with the traps we have. Note to Housewives: Scrubbing Bubbles is an EXCELLENT but safe ant killer. They die instantly and are easy to wipe up, and those near the area you spray are stunned and slowly killed by the fumes. As effective as Raid, but not as toxic to you (esp. when pregnant).

So, off I go for my first nap of the day. :-P

Excitement Rising

Wow! Is it already holiday crunch time? I can't believe this is Matt's last week of his first quarter, finals being next week. 1 Quarter down, 7 to go. He's got a couple projects to fine tune, a paper to write, and several tests to take...then we can be whisked off to a LONG vacation full of family and celebration of Christ's coming and the start of a fresh new year!

I've been working on our Christmas cards today. It's so much fun! Instead of the regular cards, I found these CHEAP kits at Target that provide all you need, including envelopes. You write a Christmas letter, print it on the stationary, fold it like a tent card, and attach your 4x6 Christmas photo to the front of the card. They're quite sophisticated looking, but more personal since you can write more than "Have a good Christmas" or whatever. Tomorrow's task is getting the pictures printed and attached. Everything else is ready to go. Above is the picture we are using...we actually used the timer on our digital camera for the first time. I prayed beforehand that frustration and impatience wouldn't enter the scene as it sometimes can...and it only took us three tries to get a good picture!

In pregnancy news, apparently my pelvic bones are starting to loosen up (to match my hips and lower back) as is normal when approaching the third trimester. Autumn warned me of it. She's not kidding. It's NOT comfortable. Last night I could barely get out of bed it hurt so much to move. Thankfully, it mostly felt like pressure today rather than pain (except for when I was grocery shopping). I just keep remembering Romans 8:18--my current sufferings are not worthy to be compared to the bundle of joy that is soon to be revealed!

Just saw a picture on the news of Washington, DC's weather. Two words. Heavy snow. THOSE are the visions I get when I think of where we will be living in a couple years. Lord? Am I cut out for that kind of weather? Did You bring us to California to have us store up as much sunshine and mild weather as we can so that we can survive East Coast Winters?? :-P

And so it begins...

Well, Matt and I began the Registering Road Trip today. It is much different than registering for a wedding. With wedding stuff, you know what you want already and have lived long enough to know what brands/items are good or bad. I've never done this baby thing...and I realized today that I am quite meticulous and curious about all the stuff that's out there. I like to read all the descriptions of products and compare them with a few other brands. Matt also realized I am meticulous and curious. :-P I just want the best for Judah, as Matt does. It just takes me longer to make the decision than it does Matt. Linda is the same, so I know I am not the only woman out there that loves to read everything before you decide!

I think we're far from done, but we've certainly started up a good registry. We are currently registered at Target (with more to be added) and are planning on registering at Toys-R-Us. Boy, that looks weird without the R backwards. Target has most of the smaller, practical, necessity type items (feeding to diapering to health/safety). Toys-R-Us will be more of the toys, pack 'n' play, car seat/stroller, etc. Basically the fun stuff and the big items. That's not to say this division is set in stone. We saw a car seat at Target we really like. Argh. So many decisions!

I hope people think to look online when they start the gift buying. We decided today that we will not be using the quilt I made for the room. People apparently think babies shouldn't have brightly colored bedding -- aka NOTHING matches the Scripture quilt. So we decided that will be our multi-purpose and travel blanket. Neither Target nor Toys-R-Us had beddings sets we liked...until I looked at Target's web site. Search accomplished. I found a Safari bedding set (with room accessories available too!) that keeps with the animal/Noah's Ark theme and has brighter colors than most other bedding, though it is still pastelish soothing-like. It's adorable, and it even has a quilted look. I NEVER thought I'd go for anything close to a quilted look. Just goes to show how we change as we get older...and how silly old quilting ladies can change your taste without you knowing it.

Here is the registry page where you can look at what we've got so far.

Here is a quick link to the bedding.

So back aching, body tired, brain taxed but still wanting to scan all the goodies...we returned home to a relaxing evening of homework/reading. I finished ANOTHER book. We only bought it last Saturday. Me having fun-reading for when Matt is doing homework is proving to be a budgeting issue in my eyes. Even though I ONLY allow myself to crack the books we get when Matt has serious studying, I still finish WAY fast. Francine Rivers is just too good.

Wow. This ended up being a long post. I'm sure you understand. Sometimes a woman just needs someone to listen while she rambles. Of course I've got Matt...but he was with me the whole day, so his day was my day! And I want others to be in on it! Therefore, I ramble as I go off to empty what is apparently invading Judah's precious space. His foot is good at poinpointing my "holding tank"...or what my mom calls his "waterbed." :-)

JUDAH GABRIEL ESPARZA

God answered prayer yesterday in three ways.

1) The first thing we saw on the screen was a view that showed us God chose to give us Judah Gabriel rather than Elaina Marie.

2) Everything is perfectly normal with both Judah and myself.

3) My fears about not getting along well with Dr. G were dispelled.

The appointment went quite well yesterday. Things were very relaxed, light-hearted, and pleasant. Matt and I have decided last time was a fluke -- my nerves were way on edge and maybe Dr. G had a busy/hard day.

Dr. G spent a good long while looking at Judah and getting all the measurements, making sure everything was normal. Praise the Lord it is! He weighs 2 lbs exactly, a couple days ahead of schedule. My weight however...well, let's just say no more 5 week stints of not gaining anything. We are questioning the weight though because what the nurse told me and what I saw on the scale were different. If she is right, I'm still within the gain range though I gained 11 pounds in 4 weeks. If she is wrong, I lost 5 pounds but still have a baby that is a quite healthy weight. I hope it's the latter! :-P

Here are a few of the pictures we were given on CD. Dr. G was not able to get a good 3-D view of Judah's face, but he promised next time he will try again. I was thankful because he was bouncing my belly all around to get Judah to move...and my bladder was full! Enjoy the pictures...and no, there is NO mistaking this for a girl! Click on the pictures to enlarge!