It's Officially Our Summer

We are still celebrating the end of the spring semester.  We received our final grade for the semester last night.  Kolt did very well, and I made it through! We have had several adventures over the past week(s).  We started by going to my friend Candace Clifford’s bridal shower on April 27^th.  Jocelyn put on a great shower.  Kolt and I left as soon as my volleyball tournament ended, and he sat in the car while I hit the end of the party.  We stayed at the Clifford’s Saturday night, and then left early Sunday for Dani Hardy’s farewell.  Dani and I served in the Relief Society presidency together in Rock Springs while I was at Western.  She is the sweetest girl.  She often calls and leaves sweet voicemails and knows just how to make my day.  She spoke very well on Sunday.   We had a nice dinner at her house and then made time to run over to the Leum’s to drop off a gift for Ashlee’s graduation and introduce them to Kolt.  The Leum’s were my adopted parents when I was at Western also.  We had a long drive that afternoon to get home, but Kolt and I really enjoyed the chance to visit.

Candace got married on Wednesday, May 1^st.  Kolt and I left classes a little early to go down to her sealing in the Salt Lake Temple.  We were so glad to meet up perfectly with Mark and Jocelyn.  Kolt had lost his wallet in the arena the night before, so we had to get special permission from the bishop to attend the sealing.  The sealing was beautiful.  Candace looked stunning.  The sealer did an excellent job; this was the first sealing I’ve attended other than my own.  It was so nice to hear the things that were said.  After the sealing, we took pictures outside the temple.  It was a windy May day, but we had fun talking with Jocelyn and Mark.  We then went to a dinner put on by Justin’s parents.  It was delicious.  Kolt and I left a little early to get home sooner, but we were so glad Candace and Justin came to visit with us during dinner.  I am so happy for them and their choice to be married in the temple where they are now sealed together forever.

On the 4^th, I had my last volleyball tournament at Snake River High School.  I had such a fun time with the girls; they have improved so much and always had so much energy.  I will definitely miss these girls, but am glad I will have the chance to follow them in the next few years.

We are excited that Kolt’s niece Paisley is home from the NICU.  She seems to be doing very well and just keeps growing and growing.  She is in the 2^nd percentile for weight and head size and just keeps trucking along.  I think her parents and grandparents love having her home.

Kolt got called to be the Institute Vice President for the Idaho State University-IF Campus.  He is quite excited to start.  We had a really nice dinner for the ASISU Awards night.  It was nice to visit with Brother Toone, who is now moving up to the Institute Area President.  Brother Seedall is now the new Institute President.  We are excited to start the summer semester with him.  We also had a great BBQ at Freeman Park on Saturday.  I practiced my cooking skills and made macaroni salad.  The highlight of the BBQ was almost attending it twice; Kolt and I got the date mixed up and tried to go Friday night first.  When we found out it was on Saturday, we went back home and picked up Tyler for a date night at Winger’s.  We are enjoying every minute we can with him before he leaves on June 12^th. 

I got called to teach the 12-year old Sunday school with Kolt.  His partner, Malin Reynolds, got moved to a new position.  Kolt does a really good job teaching.  I decided I would help by bringing the treats and handouts.  It’s only been one week, but the Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars were a hit.  We taught about Learning from the Living Prophets this week.  The handout was the 14 Fundamentals of Following the Prophet.  I love how much emphasis it puts on following our current latter day prophet.

I have been working hard to clean out our office to make room for the baby.  I have sure held on to a lot of things.  We had a fun time cleaning out some old boxes of school work.  Kolt and I laughed and laughed as we read a couple of 4^th grade writing assignments.  I wrote about my favorite dog Daisy and how annoying it is when she scratches on the door.  I also wrote about my favorite place in the world, Uncle Corey and Aunt Janis’s house.  I described every floor of the house and then talked about playing with my cousins.  I even mentioned the time Buddy ate my sock.  What a simple life we lived when we were younger! I enjoyed the flash from the past!

On Thursday, I took my last final at 7:30 AM at Pocatello.  I stayed the day at the school until Natalie and my mom came down with Tyler.  He threw the shot put at ISU for District Track and then played tennis at Century High School.  He qualified for State in both.  We are so excited for him.  He is doing very well; I especially love watching him play tennis.

We got some awesome ultrasound pictures at Mountain View last Monday.  The baby was in the perfect place with his head down.  He was so well-behaved that he even turned his face towards the ultrasound machine.  We got lots of good shots of his face.  The ultrasound tech told us he is definitely bald.  He was going to confirm gender, but our little boy had his hands and a foot between his legs.  Guess he’s a modest kid already! We are so excited to meet him and his cute chubby cheeks!

 

 

 

Reader's Digest Version

Where have the last 3 months gone?  Here's the Reader's Digest Version of the past couple months...

School has officially finished for the semester.  Kolt and I finished our last finals this week and are very happy to finish the year.  The best part of school being over is that I’m finally getting around to writing a family letter again.  Kolt says the family “letter” is going to have to be a family “novel” to catch us up for the past few months, so sorry for the length! I’m trying to cover everything we have been doing the past few months.
 

The week before Easter was spring break for us!  We spent the week off up at Gaylen and Susan Stucki’s house.  Gaylen and Susan were out of town for the week, so Kolt and I stayed at the house and calved.  We had 8 calves over the week including a set of twins.  Kolt and I had a great time staying there for the week.  I worked at the Post Register every week.  Kolt fed and watched the calves and rode the horses that he is breaking.  He rode Ike from his house up to Gaylen’s to stay there for the week.  The 3 mile ride hardly fazed Ike at all.  We enjoyed staying just down the road from Kolt’s parents for the week.  We had a great time visiting with Kolt’s Aunt Kolleen on Monday night. 

On Thursday during our week off, we drove down to Provo at about 12 with Tyler and my mom.  We stopped by Uncle Corey and Aunt Janis’s house and visited with Megan and her new baby Blake.  He is so cute and made me so excited to have a boy! We even got to walk to the park and watch my cousin Brady play tennis.  After tennis, we drove to BYU and watched the Men’s Volleyball game.  They won in 4.  It was Kolt’s first BYU game; he was pretty amazed at how big they were and how hard they hit.  We drove back late that night to check on cows.  I stayed up all the way until Blackfoot, and then I crashed.  Thank goodness Kolt was awake!

We celebrated Easter on Saturday at Aunt Karla’s annual Easter party.  We had a great lunch and then started the festivities.  The highlight of the day is the adult Easter egg hunt.   Neither Kolt nor I got the golden egg, but we got a good handful of candy! Brand was nice enough to come hold my bag after about 30 seconds.  It’s a lot of work hunting for eggs!

Work at the Post Register has been good.  Our ad layout specialist got a new job in Provo starting in April, so I took on the ticket entry portion of her job.  It made work a little busier over the past month, but it has been good for me to put in the hours and came at a good time for me.  My boss is very good about letting me do homework while I am there and always makes sure I am caught up on my classwork.  We have now hired a new girl Beth, and so things have been much slower now.  I got to switch desks a couple weeks ago.  My boss thinks this desk will give me more room for the baby this summer.  She keeps reminding me to bring him in with me when I come back to work.  I’ve heard she loves holding them in her office.  I think this little boy will be spoiled.  I do love my new desk though.  There is much more space, and it’s quite a bit quieter.

We enjoyed listening to General Conference last month.  I challenged myself to write down a few questions before listening and found that all the talks were directed towards me.  It’s amazing how quickly you find answers when you pin point exactly what you want to know.  I have been quite overwhelmed about being a parent, but conference helped me understand that by simply doing gospel things, we can be great parents.   Attending the temple, regular prayer and scripture study, and listening to the Spirit have become my new goals.

My awesome sister-in-law offered to throw me a baby shower.  She only requested that we have it in April before her baby was due.  Of course, I picked the day her little girl was born! Paisley Pearl Harris was born on April 20^th.  Talk about horrible timing! Or perfect timing! I’m so grateful for my amazing mother-in-law who put everything together just perfectly! I had an awesome baby shower and have so much support.  I am so grateful for all my friends and family who support me.  We played a few baby games and had some yummy treats! That night, we visited Miss Paisley.  She has been in the NICU for almost 3 weeks.  She just keeps making progress.  We are so happy for Shauna and Landon and are excited to get Miss Pearl home!

Kolt has really loved riding horses this spring.  He put a lot of thought into buying a horse.  My parents needed someone to eat down their pasture, and Kolt really enjoys working with horses.  He has been looking for the right horse for months and finally picked one out a few weeks ago.  We bought a 5-year old sorrel gelding named Chex.  He has been ridden, but not much in the past year.  He has quite a temper and is a little flighty, but Kolt is sure that will be gone after he is done with him this summer.  We are hoping to make a lot of progress on him this summer and then re-sell him before winter.  The day after we picked him up in Burley, we went for a horseback ride.  I couldn’t stand to be left behind this time, so I asked Kolt if we could borrow his dad’s horse.  He was super mellow and did exactly what I needed.  It was a very smooth ride! Chex did great also.  He had a couple of moments where he wanted to buck, but then settled right down.  Rope was nice enough to take a picture of us too!  Since our ride, Kolt has trimmed him, buttered him up with grain, and washed him.  He is coming right along!

I also finished the women’s volleyball league up in Rexburg.  Our team won! I had an awesome time playing and was excited when they wanted me to set.  I also played on a team in Jackson, WY.  It was so good to see Candace, Jocelyn, and Makayla! I just don’t see them enough!

Our baby is growing perfectly! We are now 31 weeks along and only have 2 months left! I am started to look very pregnant or as Rope says “about ready to pop”! I’ve been feeling a lot better.  I still have moments of morning sickness but am doing better at fighting it.  I have had a lot of back pain and am learning that I have limits and can’t do everything I want to do.  Kolt has to help me do a lot of things I would rather just do myself, but now can’t.  Sleeping is starting to be a chore with frequent bathroom breaks and lots of switching sides to get comfortable.  I am getting very anxious for July!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom! We are anxiously looking forward to spring time and can’t wait for the warm weather to come to Idaho!  Kolt and I started the new semester in January.  Kolt has decided he loves a full class load and is taking 21 credits.  He is in Chemistry, Biology, Microbiology, Philosophy, English, and Spanish classes.  He does a good job of being busy and manages his time well.  He has found he gets a lot of work done at school and enjoys going early and staying until the work is done.  His favorite class is Institute, and he likes helping out at the activities.  He had a cool experience the other day at school.  He invited one of his friends to institute who actually declined the offer, but another classmate heard him talking about it and met him at the next institute meeting.  He was quite thrilled to see that his efforts had touched someone.  Kolt works really hard in school, and if he continues to do well with the class load, he will graduate with his Biomedical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree in May 2015.

I am taking my usual 15 credits this semester.  I am in a Tax, Intermediate Accounting, Accounting Information Systems, Critical Thinking, and Cost Accounting class.  I am really enjoying my classes this semester, but they are quite fast-paced, so I’m working hard to keep up.  All 5 classes have the first exams this week, so we will see just how well I am doing! I am really excited to finish this semester because it means I only have 12 and 9 credits for the remaining two semesters, which means graduation next spring.  I am looking forward to that!

On Tuesday, I will be 20 weeks, ½ way done with this pregnancy.  We are both very excited about that! I have started to feel better, but can’t seem to kick the end of this morning sickness.  I have several relatives that have said they were sick the entire 9 months, so I’m grateful that it’s getting better and hope to pass through the end of this stage quickly!  We have an appointment tomorrow to have our ultrasound and watch this baby boy move.  I am looking forward to when I feel a kick!

We have had a fun time watching basketball games this year.  Evan is playing on a 5 year old team.  I’m not sure how much basketball gets played, but he loves being on the team with his friend Gavin.  The most exciting part of the game is when one of the players passes the ball in and all 4 teammates stand in a straight line hoping their teammate will pick them and pass them the ball.  He was so excited the other week when he made a basket! Rope is playing on a 5^th grade team and also an older 6^th grade team.  The 5^th grade team had a hard time finding coaches, so they are learning lots.  He enjoys playing on the 6^th grade team and is learning to be quite the team leader.   Brand is playing on a 7^th grade team at RMMS and in Rexburg. He is learning quite a bit.  Boys at that age start to develop as basketball players, and it’s fun to see them do good things, such as pushing the ball up the court and making good post moves.   I enjoy going to his games and helping the Belnap’s with the score.  It is always fun being with them! My mom is also coaching Lacey and Lindsey’s basketball team.  She has taught them a lot.  They know how to V-cut and face the basket when they dribble.  Also, they all shoot one-handed! They have learned that if they “execute” the play, they will get ice cream.  We enjoy this time of year and usually find out Saturdays going from game to game around Idaho Falls.

Work at the Post Register has been great.  I love working there, and they are so great to work with my schedule and with my sickness.  I often find myself working short hours because I am sick.  They are very understanding, and I sure appreciate the people I work with.  I am excited to start club volleyball this week.  I am coaching 2 Bonneville 10s teams.  I have quite a few kids from my neighborhood this year and that is always a perk for me.  I enjoy coaching kids that I know; it makes the job a little more fun.  We will have 5 Saturday tournaments this spring starting on March 16^th. I know quite a few of the freshman that will try out for the team this fall, so I’m looking forward to the school season already!

I started playing on a Women’s volleyball league up in Rexburg.  I am playing with Chantal McMurtrey, Crystal Jensen, Becky Arave, MaunaRae Carlson, and Amy Wood.  Natalie comes to play with us when someone can’t make it too.  We really enjoy playing with each other, and I’m really liking setting.  I don’t have to jump as much when I set as opposed to hitting.  And I also have a very good team, so they make up for my negative jump when I block and my non-existent defense!  I’m excited for March when we are going to go to a volleyball tournament in Jackson.  Crystal, Candace Clifford, Jocelyn Hobbs, Kristi, and Jenny are going to play on that team.  I am still sad Makayla is not on our team this year, but we are staying together, so I guess that will make up for it! :) I am so excited to play with some college friends and my sister!

Kolt has started riding a couple horses.  He is riding Ike, a pretty black half draft, for the Jared and Jeanna Hill.  He is shooting to put in 30 rides and says he has been doing quite well.  They live right next to us, so it is really convenient for Kolt to run over and ride after classes and before it gets dark.  He is also riding a horse for his dad.  His dad has a new Halflinger.  He is a short, pretty little gelding.  Kolt has been really happy with his progression and says he learns quickly.  Kolt is glad to have a way to make a little money while in school.  He was really excited to get a call from his cousin who works at a restaurant in town that is not open on Sunday.  He is thinking he may go apply there soon!

On Saturday Kolt took his two little brothers and Jared and Jeanna’s oldest twins, Carson and Stetson, on horse ride up behind his house on the hill.   He used the time to work with Ike and the Halflinger also.  His mom put together an awesome lunch at the house afterwards.  They all had a fun time and the weather was quite nice.  Kolt even managed to come home with a sunburnt face.

I am also enjoying teaching piano lessons to my cousins, Ashley, Lacey and Lindsey each week.  They are at very fun age for a piano teacher!  They are all making a lot of progress, and that sure makes a piano teacher feel good.  Ashley (11) is now the most advanced of any students I have ever taught.  She is learning many new songs each week and comes prepared to play.  It makes it easy on me to hear her.  We have now mastered the learning the notes level, the counting level, and are now entering the artistic level.  It is sure fun to hear them all play.

We are excited to have this baby boy here.  My dad and I have had a fun time shopping for baby clothes.  They sure make them cute these days! Kolt and I always find ourselves wandering through the baby section in Wal-Mart.  I have told myself that when we make it through the semester, we can start really getting things ready at home! We were so excited when some long-time friends Cameron and Ashley High called us and asked us to babysit for their 10-Year Anniversary trip.  We get to spend a week taking care of their 3 cute boys and baby girl.  We were so glad our schedules line up, and we found a good week in May after school gets out.  

I’ll work on getting some pictures next letter!

Embrace This Day??

Sometimes you just need to hear something no matter how hard it is to hear. And today I need to hear "Embrace this Day"...so I thought it would be a perfect excuse to tell you about the title of this blog.

When I was playing volleyball at Western Wyoming Community College, Kortnie (Christiansen) Ballesteros became one of my biggest role models.  Kortnie was from Tremonton, Utah and was on the volleyball team.  For those of you who know Kortnie, she is always upbeat and happy.  I can't remember a time when she would ever say an unkind word about another person.  She is easy to talk to and quick to help whenever needed.  During the season, I asked Kortnie if she would fill my IPod with music.  When she returned it, I found a folder called "From Kortnie" with 2 things in it.  First was a talk from President Hinckley, one that I love to listen to when I need re-motivated for life. The second made a lasting impression on me.  It was called "Advice from Elder Busche."

 This talk was given at a BYU Devotional in 1996 from Elder F. Enzio Busche of the Quorum of the Seventy.  It came to me at just the right time in my life.  It is essentially a list of thoughts to ponder and seek identification with.  Whenever I feel discouraged or simply down in the dumps, I have turned to this talk (which is still on my IPod).  At various times in my life, a different individual thought I had not considered before touches my heart and make a difference for me.  The very first advice he gives is this: "Embrace this day with an enthusiastic welcome, no matter how it looks."  This thought always touches my heart first.  At times in our life, we may wake up feeling physically tired or just emotionally weak, and this advice can help us through.  "Embrace THIS day!"  It doesn't say tomorrow or next Saturday or when you finish school or when this pregnancy is over! It says, "Embrace this day...., no matter how it looks."  That is something I have tried to adopt into my life.  Especially during this pregnancy, when I am constantly feeling sick and even when I do feel good, I am just emotionally drained and worrying all the time, learning to embrace THIS day can really help me through this difficult times.

When I was at Western Wyoming and Kolt was on his mission, there was another piece of advice from this talk that really helped me.  It is actually the very last words of this talk. "When you are compelled to give up something, or when things that are dear to you are withdrawn, know that this is your lesson to be learned right now. But know also that as you are learning this lesson, God wants to give you something better.  I can still remember how I felt when I listened to this the very first time.  One of the things that I was compelled to give up was Kolt.  That wasn't an easy thing for me at all.  It was so hard to live without my best friend and my other half.  Every day was a new test for me.  However, when I applied the "Embrace this day" advice and listened to this advice, I quickly learned that "God wanted to give me something better."  I didn't know what it was at the time, but I cannot even list all the "better things" I learned from the 2 years we spent apart.  The most important thing God gave me was my eternal family with my sweetheart and our sweet little baby.  I am so happy that I made that sacrifice because I got the best gift in the whole world...my family.

If you have 7 minutes, I really hope you all will watch this video.  I promise you that you will get something out of it that will help you in your life right now.  It's amazing how that works! And if you read this, you will now know the story behind the title of this blog, "Embrace This Day". 

15 Week Update!

Today I hit my 15 week mark of this pregnancy, a little over 3 months!  I thought it would be a good idea to write a little bit about this pregnancy. Here's the highlights of our last few months:

-Listening to the heartbeat at the doctor's office! I can't believe how fast the baby's heart beats!  It says a baby's heart rate can be between 120 to 160 beats per minute. It's no wonder I'm SO tired every day!

-Crazy dreams! Running away from the shooters, taking care of my baby, playing with my high school volleyball team again, and going on vacations! My brain is very busy every single night! I actually have more dreams that our baby is a girl, when the doctor keeps telling us it's a boy! As of late, our baby is actually twins! Don't worry...the doctor told us yesterday, there's only one! :)

-Baby's favorite foods: Jimmy John's, carrots, mangoes, kiwis, bagels and cream cheese, BLT sandwiches

-For the first time in my life, I heard that I need to focus on putting on a few pounds....I never knew it could be this hard!

-Exercise Routine: Rough....walking around ISU's campus, coaching volleyball, and a little bit of playing volleyball too!

-Had to go in twice to get an IV with anti-nausea medicine because I couldn't keep down any fluids.  Both days, I threw up over 10 times!

-My favorite thing to do: SLEEP! Kolt is such a good sport, but I usually lay in bed at about 8 every night. He usually does homework on the computer while I fall asleep SO early!

-Foods that this baby doesn't like: milk, sausage, anything orange flavored, crackers, smoothies

-Kolt is the best husband in the world! He gets me breakfast in bed every morning, helps me pick out my clothes in the morning, brings me lunch to work, and rubs my back every night before bed!  Couldn't do this without him!

-At one point, I had 4 days in a row where I didn't throw up!

-Haven't felt the baby move yet! Can't wait to feel it because he is always moving in the ultrasounds! Kolt says he looks like a ballerina in my stomach!

We can't wait for our 20 week ultrasound on February 18th!

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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.