2009 Holidays

Dan and I started our holidays with a trip to Texas to spend Thanksgiving with his family. We decided to drive down this year and it turned out to be one really drive (almost 24 hours!), most of which Dan drove since I was still feeling the unpleasant effects of morning sickness. We stopped in Dallas on our way down and spent a night with Dan's sister Jamie before heading on down to Orange, TX. We spent about a week there enjoying the warm weather and spending time with Dan's family. My biggest challenge was trying not to be too sick before we told his family that I was prego. They were all really excited for us and our baby will be the 6th grandchild for his parents. Jim, my father-in-law, smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner and I got to try my first smoked turkey dinner. It was delicious! After Thanksgiving, Dan and I had to be back in Utah for work so we packed up and headed back up to Dallas where we dropped Jamie, John, and Bex off and then started our long drive home. We stopped several times so Dan could rest and I drove during one of the few hours that I wasn't feeling ill, however; we ended up in Arizona because I missed the exit to cut across southern Colorado into Utah. We backtracked and, needless to say, Dan took over the driving from there. We didn't get back into Logan until about 9pm that night and we promptly fell asleep so we could go to work the next morning!

After the Thanksgiving holiday, we rested and enjoyed the snow up in Logan until Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with my family at my parents house. My sister, Lisa, got to surprise my family with her exciting news (she had let us in on the secret before we left for Texas) She's pregnant too! Lisa is about 4 weeks behind me. So I'm due on June 20 and she's due about July 15. Now we are just waiting to find out what each of us is having. I find out on February 4th and Lisa will find out near the end of February or beginning of March. My brother and his wife had a baby last summer, so their son Hayden will only be about a year older then our kids. It's going to be so awesome that our kids will have cousins their age.

We got to spend all of Christmas Day and the rest of the weekend with my parents and my grandparents. Dan and I got great Christmas this year. We decided to surprise each other with our presents this year and it turned out really funny. Both of our DVD players started going out right before Christmas so unknown to both of us, we each got each other DVD players! It was pretty funny after we opened them. I also got some cute maternity clothes. a steamer from my parents (which is going to come in very handy for cleaning our house), and an amazing box of goodies from Dan's parents. Dan got a big toolbox, a new hat, an ice scraper that extends so he can use it on his truck, and a new pitcher. Dan was previously using one without a lid and is marked with permanent marker at the 2 liters level.

It was so nice to have a weekend to relax and spend time with the family. We had Christmas lunch at my Grandpa and Grandma Foster's and on Saturday we spent several hours at my Grandpa and Grandma Grant's just talking with them. Afterward, we spent Saturday afternoon and night at Cody and Lisa's before heading back to Logan on Sunday.

We also found out after Christmas that my sister-in-law Jamie is also pregnant! She's due in August with her second, so our baby will have cousins on both sides of the family!

The holidays this year were amazing and we have a bright 2010 to look forward to for our little family!