One more thing worth mentioning...

There is actually just one more thing that I should really blog about before taking a break for the Christmas holidays. Many of you have been wondering about this for quite some time now and I'm here to tell you that if you had a "hunch" about us, your hunch was correct........

Jon and I are expecting our first child!!

I'm exactly 14 weeks pregnant today and we're SO thrilled to finally be sharing the news with everyone! We decided to keep it a "secret" (only family and very close friends have known until now) just until we were out of the first trimester--- to be on the safe side :) It was VERY hard to keep it to ourselves and its starting to feel much more real, now that we're able to share about it.


Unfortunately, like almost every other woman I know, the first trimester was fairly brutal. Right around the 6 week mark, the nausea/throwing up and extreme exhaustion hit. I not only had "morning sickness," but ALL DAY sickness from week 6 'til about week 11 or 12. It also didn't help getting the flu right around that time too. I'm still experiencing some morning sickness but it has tapered off a lot compared to how bad it was prior to the 3 month point. I'm really hoping that this second trimester will prove to be better than the first, as I'm promised it will be :)


Our due date is June 22 which means that unless the baby is very late, we'll have another June birthday in the Esau family. Jon, his Dad, his brother-in-law Erich, and his nephew Konrad, are all in June. So we'll either be adding another boy birthday just to take the count up to 5, or, we'll have a girl to even out the score a bit :) We've decided to wait until the delivery day to find out the gender of the baby and will be overjoyed, no matter which way things go. As long as he/she is healthy and doesn't weigh too much, we'll be thrilled ;) Though I think the weight issue matters more to me than Jon :)

So to finish off the post, I'll leave you with a picture of the "baby bump" at 14 weeks...

Just around the corner...

Its hard to believe that Christmas is only 7 days away! I never did get around to my Christmas baking this year, nor did I get any Christmas cards written or mailed. Oh well... I've finally come to the realization that with the craziness of life, I can't "do it all." So if you were expecting a Christmas card this year or a tasty treat, I'm very sorry--- maybe next year! :)

I'd love to post some new pictures but unfortunately, that is another thing I don't seem to think of these days. I haven't pulled my camera out in ages. So in order to add a little "color" to this post, I stole this adorable picture of my niece & nephews from Naomi's blog. I just can't get enough of these three and their constant cuteness!

As I mentioned in my last "Christmas post," this has been our busiest December, BY FAR. I think we've had something up every single evening for the last two weeks and the madness won't end until we've hit 2009. Then again, does the madness ever really end :) I was in our church's Christmas production this year and it proved to be quite a big commitment. Between singing practices, a 4 hour dress rehearsal and then 7 performances (yes... you read that right. We had 3 nights of 6:30pm & 8:30pm showings and 1 night of just one performance). I'd say the production was a huge success and everyone involved did a fantastic job. But I'm kind of hoping they keep it down to just a few performances next year if I'm involved again. It made for some very busy evenings.

We had our first snowfall yesterday and as I posted earlier, it got to "blizzard" conditions. They closed most of the highway between Chilliwack & Abbotsford early in the afternoon and then apparently closed the rest of it after 6pm. I'm really glad I have a sister in law in Abby that was willing to let me stay with her for the night. Though I'm also thankful to hear that the roads have improved today and I shouldn't have any trouble getting home tonight. Driving in the snow doesn't really intimidate me after growing up in Saskatchewan, but our little Yaris is extremely light compared to our old Volvo and doesn't handle quite as well in this weather.

Here are the upcoming "highlights" of our busy Christmas season:

Dec. 20/08
-- Saturday morning Christmas brunch with our small group from church.
-- A quick afternoon trip to the States for the last few gifts.
-- Glen family Christmas in the evening at Mom & Dad's, as well as a birthday celebration for my sister Viv.
Dec. 21/08
-- Extended Esau family Christmas gathering at Grandma & Grandpa Esau's.
Dec. 24/08
-- Christmas Eve service at Erich & Naomi's church (Konrad & Ava are in the kids production this year and we can't wait to see them up there singing!)
Dec. 25/08
-- Esau family Christmas at Erich & Naomi's.
Dec. 26-28/08
-- Surprise weekend getaway to Vancouver with Jon (I decided to surprise him this year. He knows we're going to Vancouver, but doesn't know where we're staying or what we'll be doing. We haven't done anything like this in a long time so I'm VERY excited about getting away, just the two of us!)
Dec. 31/08-Jan. 4/09
-- Getaway to "The Hills" ranch in 108 mile house with Jon's family. Rather than gifts this year, we told Mom & Dad Esau that we'd like to do a family trip. We're really excited about spending a few days skating, snowboarding, playing games, going for a sleigh ride... Hopefully it won't be TOO cold :)

So... if I don't get a chance to do anymore blogging before Christmas, Happy Holidays to you and your families and have an awesome time celebrating the Christmas season! Blessings to you.

Here's why I won't be going home to Chilliwack tonight...

BLIZZARD WARNING: Fraser ValleyIssued at 3:37 PM PST WEDNESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2008
HEAVY SNOW COMBINED WITH STRONG NORTHEAST WINDS HAVE PRODUCED BLIZZARD CONDITIONS IN THE FRASER VALLEY. VISIBILITIES NEAR ZERO WITH COLD WIND CHILL VALUES EXPECTED TO PERSIST THROUGH THE NIGHT. THIS IS A WARNING THAT BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WITH NEAR-ZERO VISIBILITIES ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING IN THESE REGIONS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS..LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS.
A STRONG AREA OF LOW PRESSURE DRIFTING SOUTHWARDS ALONG VANCOUVER ISLAND IS BRINGING SNOW TO MUCH OF THE SOUTH COAST. IN THE FRASER VALLEY THE SNOW IS COMBINING WITH STRONG OUTFLOW WINDS TO CREATE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS. FURTHER SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF UP 15 CM ARE FORECAST FOR VICTORIA AND EAST VANCOUVER ISLAND WHERE WIND OFF THE WATER WILL GENERATE HIGHER AMOUNTS. LESSER ADDITIONAL AMOUNTS NEAR 5 CM FORECAST FOR METRO VANCOUVER..THE FRASER VALLEY..GREATER VICTORIA..THE GULF ISLANDS AND SUNSHINE COAST. WIND CHILL VALUES BELOW MINUS 20 OVER THE NORTH AND CENTRAL COASTS WILL SPREAD SOUTHWARD TO FRASER VALLEY..WHISTLER AND HOWE SOUND AS COLD AIR OVER THE INTERIOR RUSHES INTO THE COASTAL VALLEYS AND INLETS. TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS AT SELECT COASTAL SITES UP UNTIL 3 PM WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 17, 2008. CAMPBELL RIVER AIRPORT 17 CM COMOX AIRPORT 23 CM POWELL RIVER AIRPORT 12 CM VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 6 CM NORTH VANCOUVER 10 TO 15 CM SURREY 10 TO 15 CM ABBOTSFORD AIRPORT 10 CM.

... good thing I have a sister in law in Abbotsford that is more than willing to put me up for the night :) If you're driving tonight, take it easy!

Christmas has finally made an appearance...

Other than the lingering cold that Jon is still fighting, the sickness seems to have made its exit from our home now. I usually like to have our house decorated for Christmas by Dec.1 but given how awful we were both feeling, it didn't happen this year. I was finally able to get around to it this weekend and had a lot of fun with the tree this year. Target had an incredible "end of season" sale on Christmas decorations last year, so I bought a complete new set of ornaments for the tree. It was fun to do the tree a little differently and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Instead of white, gold and red, this year's ornaments are dark green, lime green and red.

Here's a close-up of some of the new ornaments...

The Christmas spirit has hit me just as hard as it always does, so I'm glad the house now matches how 'Christmasy' I'm feeling :) Pretty much all of the Christmas shopping is done as well so now its just a matter of tackling some of my baking. I doubt that I'll do as much as I usually do, as this is our busiest December since we've been married, but I hope to get at least a few treats completed in the next week or two. Hope you're all enjoying the beginning of the Christmas season too!