Our Christmas Surprise and More!

Disclaimer: You may need to take breaks while reading this post. It's a long one.

Like some of our friends, we are also a little late with our post-Christmas blogging. To be honest, I have been waiting just a little while so we could let you all know about our special little surprise.

I awoke from a dream on the morning of December 15th at about 6 AM. Said dream led me to creep into the bathroom (hard to do quietly with our creaky floor), trying hard not to wake up Ben. His alarm went off a few minutes later. I turned on the light and showed him the pregnancy test I had just taken. He squinted, tried to make sense of what was going on, and then asked, "Are you pregnant?" The test indicated that I was, but to be certain, I took a few more tests over the course of the day. All positive! :)

Unfortunately, this was also the morning of Ben's last and most difficult final. That morning while he was supposed to be studying, he was looking up apartment complexes and talking about the baby (we were so excited!). I said many extra prayers that day for him and he did really well on his test!

When we were in California for Christmas we had our first doctor's appointment and ultrasound. Wow. It all became real when we saw our tiny little baby (then about the size of a grain of rice) and the doctor asked, "Do you see that movement?" Yes, we could. "That's your baby's heart beat!"

I am now about 12 weeks along and my pants are getting tighter and harder to button. Ben has been such a wonderful help to me. I am so grateful to have such a loving and kind husband who is so quick to serve. He makes me breakfast every morning, holds my hair back when I'm sick, names off a million different things to eat when nothing sounds good but I know I need to eat something, says family prayer almost every night because I am feeling too sick to talk, runs to the store to get something that I need or to do the grocery shopping, and so much more. He is the absolute best! Engaged and involved husbands feel the pregnancy almost as much as the wives do!

Now, on to the Christmas recap...

The day after we found out I was pregnant we flew to Vegas to spend time with family for a few days. I had a bad cold and so we ended up just relaxing at home and enjoying time with Dad, Cassandra, and Romario for most of the trip. Dad and Cassandra took us to Name that Tune and Ben made it to the 3rd round! We had a blast! Here are a few pictures:

This was a pretty intense moment. Ben won this round by naming Pink's "Get this Party Started" and John Mayer's "Gravity"

Ben and Romario waiting for the rest of us to be ready for church...

The Christmas decor at the Bellagio was amazing!

Cassandra spent a good amount of time making delicious food

And we helped a little...mostly with the eating part!

I felt pretty good (besides the persistent cough) until our last day in Vegas when I began to feel a little queasy...

We then rented a car and drove to Long Beach, CA to spend time with Mom, Sam, siblings, siblings-in-law, and nieces and nephews. What a lovely time we had! Here are a few moments caught on camera:

We got an upgrade because they were out of the basic car we had rented. Ben LOVED driving it!

Christmas day at Cesar and Lindy's house. The kiddos opened a few presents...

Jackie got an Easy-Bake Oven. I was pretty jealous...I always wanted one.

Lindy helped Jackie bake some little cupcakes. It turns out the Easy-Bake Oven is not so easy at first. They conquered it though and Jackie shared her treats.

A gift from Cesar and Lindy

Michael and his very nice new ties!

Grandma was visiting from Mexico

Cute baby Espy. This was our first time meeting her!

Ben enjoyed playing with the kids

We went to the Santa Ana Zoo

And we saw a lot of little monkeys!

Most of the crew

We loved spending time at the beach!

Other highlights included Mom taking such good care of me while the nausea and heartburn set in, Christmas Eve at Mom and Sam's when we told everyone we were having a baby, fun at a park in Irvine with the kiddos, and visits with our good friends Kipp and Natalie.

We love family and friends!