December 2009

The 5th was another important day on the Baby Calendar. We went with Paul's parent's Janice and Phil, to Lee's Mongolian Barbecue in Ogden. It's a pretty cool restaurant. I think I would have appreciated the food it more if I didn't feel so sick! Anyway, we announced that their first grand baby was on the way! They were very excited and properly surprised. We walked around New Gate Mall after because we weren't done chatting at dinner. Paul and Phil got trapped at one of the kiosks talking to some chick from Jerusalem (I think) about a $2 nail buffer she was selling for $70. Janice and I managed to steer clear of the trap. We got in a little shopping/window shopping.

I had my first doctor appointment on the 8th. I got to see the baby (...looking more like a fuzzy peanut than a baby) on the ultrasound and hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time.

The very next day I visited another doctor in the ER. I had a really scary migraine. Luckily there wasn't any pressure built up in my brain. They gave me a crazy concoction of pain medicine that sounded scary for the baby, but the nurse assured me that it was safe. I never ever want morphine again even if it is ok. It was horrible. The pain went away, but I felt out of control, stressed, confused, and like my skin was crawling with bugs or something. Terrible.

We had a good time at my work Christmas party at The District movie theater on the 18th. It's always fun to see my co-workers out of a work situation and be able to interact with their spouses/significant-others.

The Carey Family Christmas party was a blast as usual. Paul's Aunt Christine snuck the secret out of me! I kept it from my sister-in-law Shasta even though she asked me constantly, but I couldn't get it around Christine. Santa came, like he always does and he kissed me!

The next day we went to the Christmas Sing-Along at the Energy Solutions Arena. Even though Paul was waiting in line for free food for half the time, we still enjoyed ourselves and got some great free stuff!

Christmas Eve. So my family got together on Christmas Eve for a big dinner and party. After dinner we gathered everyone to sing Christmas Carols to entice Santa into visiting us. Just before we started Christmas Carols I noticed that my sister-in-law Steph was wearing a printed t-shirt. She and my brother often have funny shirts so I looked at it more closely and noticed the picture was of a bun in an oven!! I just started laughing, partly because I got it, and partly because Paul and I were about the break the news that we were expecting too! Anyway, we coaxed Santa (who kind of had the same twinkle in his eyes... and the same eyes... as Paul) into coming with our beautiful singing. So the kids (except our niece Avery, who was VERY freaked out by Santa) sat on Santa's lap, then it was the big kids' turn. Steph sat on his lap and sure enough told Santa that she wanted a baby, but not for Christmas, a little bit later... in JULY. Everyone was very excited and gave hugs all around. Then I was up to sit on Santa. Santa said he had a special gift for me in his bag. I looked in and pulled out a diaper bag, on the inside there was a paper that said "July 12, 2010". Everyone erupted! It was awesome! Steph kept apologizing for stealing our thunder, but it really made it that much more exciting.

Christmas Day. We opened our gifts from Santa and from each other here at home, then exchanged gifts with my family, and then headed down to Alpine to share some more fun with Paul's family. We found out on our way there that Paul's brother Matt was calling from his mission an hour early. Luckily we had planned on getting there early! We got there just a minute or two after he had called. We talked a little about how we were all doing and how the San Bernardino mission was going. Then we passed the phone around so we could each have a turn to ask a question or share whatever. Emily and Jeremy went first. They had a gift for Phil and Janice. I knew exactly what was up. It was a story about Emily and Jeremy's relationship. The end of it said something like, "First came love, then came marriage, here comes the baby in the baby carriage!" Everyone was screaming and hugging. Then we got our turn. Paul told everyone about our gift from Paddywack (our Christmas elf) that had instructions to open with family on Christmas. He slid the wrapping paper off a long slender picture frame picture by picture. 1st frame says "Coming Soon to a Family near you...", 2nd a pic of Paul and I on our first date, 3rd me as a baby, 4th Paul as a baby, 5th a morph of the 2 baby pics, 6th a baby ultrasound, 7th said "July 2010". Everyone exploded again! Jill and Cody were after us and they said, "We're not pregnant yet, but we're trying!"

We got a new calling in our ward in December. We're Valiant 9 teachers! We LOVE our class SO much! It's truely been a great blessing. I've learned and remembered a lot about the Old Testament and my testimony of the gospel basics has been thoroughly fortified.