Christmas Surprise!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We have had a great holiday season and are excited to welcome in the new year! We are excited for the new adventures 2013 will bring!  We had a great Christmas, but Thursday was the highlight of the week for us! We had an official ultrasound at the doctor’s office.  We had an excellent nurse that gave us a great view of our new baby! The baby was wiggling and waving the whole time. It’s no wonder my stomach always feels sick! Our nurse has been doing research on how to determine gender earlier than 20 weeks.  There is a place in Salt Lake that you can go get an early ultrasound to determine your baby’s gender. She has been predicting gender early for about 6 months at this office and so far, she has been 100% on every one! So of course, we were happy to hear her prediction! And….It’s a boy! We are so excited! I have actually felt like it was a boy all during the pregnancy, but I think secretly hoping for a girl. Now that we know it’s a boy, I have had a little internal crisis because I realized I don’t really know how to raise boys! Kolt is really excited to have his boy though, and he will teach me all the things I don’t know! The nurse did ask us not to buy all the boy clothes yet, in case we are her first mistake! We will get an official ultrasound at 20 weeks which happens to be Valentine’s Day!

This week has been a very nice break from finals and classes.  I was very happy to finish with A’s and B’s in all five of my classes.  Kolt did very well in his classes getting all A’s and one A- in Chemistry.  He had an interesting story with finals…Kolt got an unexpected B+ in his English class and was really disappointed when grades were posted late on the 27^th.  He immediately wrote an email to his teacher explaining that he couldn’t see his grade on the final and explaining that he believed over the course of the semester, he had earned an A.  Kolt worked hard to draft a well-organized email and sent it immediately. He got a response from his professor immediately telling Kolt to call him in the morning on his cell phone.  When Kolt called his professor, he found that for his final, he had turned in one complete essay booklet and one unfinished booklet, taking home the second part to his final.  His professor was very understanding, and Kolt took over the completed second half of the final to his home.  He was very glad he sent the email when he felt like something was wrong! And now that he has turned in the second part of the final he will probably receive a better grade in the class!

I have had work this week at the Post Register despite the holidays! I missed Friday because I wasn’t feeling well, and I couldn’t seem to remember what the office schedule was this week! I have now learned that we were closed on Christmas Eve and actually open on the 26^th, although I had problems remembering that this week.  I am told that is the pregnant mind failing me! My boss gave me a key to the office and the building this week, so I can now work when I drive in, even if no one else is! 

We had a great Christmas Eve party on Monday night at Kolt’s Aunt Karla Denning’s house.  I look forward going to this party every year because I went with Kolt before his mission.  We had yummy potatoes and ham for dinner, the annual gift exchange, and a surprise visit from Santa. This was the first year that I haven’t seen Kolt’s dad as Santa, so I was pretty surprised! Kolt ended up with an Axe cologne set and I got one of the surprise money envelopes and chocolate truffles! After the party, I got a call from one of my longtime friends Candace Clifford! She just returned from a family cruise, and I am excited to hear her engagement news HOPEFULLY soon!! 

Christmas morning we got a sweet awakening from Nathan telling us it is “Present Time” because it is “Birthday Jesus”.  We opened presents with the Lindley’s in the morning. We got a fire proof safe, a pancake grill and lots of new books for babies. Kolt got some new large scriptures and a case, socks, a robe, and a medical kit for all the days he has to take care of me.  I got boots, a scarf, a purse, a car seat canopy, and socks! For our sibling gift exchange, we had Natalie! We gave Natalie some supplies for her crafts, Brady a pizza stone, Nathan a big block set, and Brooke a cute outfit!  Tyler gave us a donation for our swim with the dolphins over the cruise! Thank you thank you!

After we opened presents, we headed out to Kolt’s parent’s new house! They finished and moved in on Christmas Eve, and we are very excited for them! I got a beautiful pink pearl ring from Kolt’s dad.  I haven’t even taken it off yet! I just love it! We got chocolates and a new white camera that I love! Kolt got a pair of pants, sweater, shotgun shells and clay pigeons.  And we both had excellent stockings with all the bath supplies to make us smell good all year! For our sibling gift exchange, Kolt gave Rope a big box with an X on it (the Xbox he has always wanted!) with an iPod dock inside and some Itouch covers for his new Itouch. Landon gave Kolt a new watch!  Shauna and I drew each other this year! I gave her a foot spa and a zebra scarf and gloves! She gave me 2 super cute maternity shirts and some Palmer’s cream for all those stretch marks on the way! We had a great time visiting and eating breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Piquet and Karla and Scott and then came back to Lindley’s to eat Christmas dinner. 

Wednesday we had family pictures at Bell studios.  Our Lindley family has now grown to 17, and it’s a miracle to get all the kids together! We are looking forward to seeing the pictures!  Right before I got there, Kolt and I went to the Social Security office and the DMV to officially change my name to Susan Lindley Piquet! We also found that we didn’t have an official copy of our marriage license and we were happy to get a hold of that! 

Thursday Makayla Wilde came and picked me up at work and took me to lunch at Café Rio with Hailey Asbury, Kim Cooper, and Erica Shenton. We had a fun time catching up. I always love getting back together during the holidays when everyone comes home from school! I was also really excited to show off the new ultrasound pictures!

Friday night we went to Kylee Searle and Riley Sessions’ reception at the Riverbend Ranch.  I played volleyball and basketball with Kylee at Bonneville and miss her dearly! She looked absolutely beautiful. Thank goodness for weddings to get all of us girls together again. We missed Mailie Medina though and are excited to see her in January!  We were so happy to have Makayla back in town and be able to take her with us. We even stopped by Arby’s on the way home.  Hopefully, we will live closer someday! 

Saturday I was asked to play at the Museum of Idaho Christmas Production for an hour.  It was really nice to play on the beautiful grand piano in the big room and got many nice compliments from the guests and elderly volunteers.  It went perfectly minus one quick run to the bathroom after about 20 minutes! I left Kolt on the piano to fill in, but he assured me that my music for Deck the Halls didn’t look anything like the one he had been practicing!  In the evening, we went and saw Playing for Keeps at the Centre Theatre with Kolt’s parents, Rope & Brand. It was about a dad who coaches his son’s soccer team.  We enjoyed the movie, but we were all disappointed that it wasn’t what we had expected! 

Sunday we went up to the Wilford church house to my cousin Kenny Dalling’s pre-missionary talk in church.  He leaves January 9^th for the Tucson, Arizona, Spanish Speaking mission.  He did a great job and shared stories about Christ-like examples in his life, his mom, Grandma Nickol, and dad.  He finished with the story of Abish in Alma.  He is going to be a great missionary. We had a great visit with Uncle Rodney, Uncle Jared & Aunt Trish at the lunch afterwards.

We are so grateful for this opportunity to reset goals and make resolutions for the New Year. I am anxious to learn all the things about being a mother and hopefully continue to be a good wife (because I am still working on that!) We are grateful for the gospel and the blessing of our Savior.  Hope all is well with each of you over the holidays. Here are some pictures from the past little while!

Baby's on the Way!

Well, I finally succumbed to my family tradition of the “Forgotten Family Letters.” I finally got around to writing today and wanted to first of all, let you know we are alive! Second of all, for those of you that haven’t heard, we have announced that we are having a baby due on July 9^th.  We are very excited and can’t wait to see this new little one.  We are a little more excited to first get out of the first trimester! I have been very sick for the past 4 weeks including many Wal-Mart prescriptions and 2 IVs.  I have had a hard time keeping fluids or food or anything for that matter down, and when I went to the doctor, they have given me IVs to help keep me hydrated and boost my start to some anti-nausea medication. I got one a couple weeks ago and then went in for another one on Friday.  It has helped quite a bit and today, I have felt pretty well.  Hence, I am finally getting a family letter out.

Just a few highlights from the past few weeks—We did get back from the cruise. We had a good time on our trip, but unfortunately, I started my first morning sickness symptoms while on the cruise. Plane flights, a rocking ship, foreign countries, new food, and small cabins were a little rough for someone with morning sickness! Kolt was a great sport and took good care of me.  The highlight of our trip was swimming with the dolphins and stingrays, all-you-can-eat ice cream, underwater caves, and the weather of course! We have talked about going on a cruise for years and were glad to be able to go at this time in our lives.   We have decided that if we ever have a chance to go again, we definitely want to make sure to bring family or friends along. 

When we got back, we geared up for finals and pushed through until the end of the semester. We barely finished on the 20^th of December which is way too late for me! Kolt is hoping to pull out A’s in all his classes, and I am really hoping to pass! We are excited to celebrate Christmas with our family. We are very less than ready for Christmas. We did a load of shopping on Saturday.  I ran into Kylee Searle’s bridal shower at noon.  She looks very happy and we are excited for her to marry Riley finally! We took off to Tyler’s basketball game at Marsh Valley at 2.  The team did very well and they have made a very good start.  After the game we went to the Lindley Christmas party.  We had a good time eating soup, sharing our most memorable Christmas gift, and hosting the Favorite Goodie Gift Exchange.  

We are grateful for this time of the year and are excited to celebrate the birth of the Savior.  We hope you each have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope to be better at writing the family letters. We will try pictures another week! We love you all.