Thanksgiving Weekend 2012

Thanksgiving weekend was, of course, filled with all kinds of activities. We started off the long weekend with the ultrasound to find out about the health, growth and gender of our baby. The great news was that everything looked good in the ultrasound. Baby was very active and we got to see a lot a lot of it since three people each took a turn with the ultrasound machine (the tech, the intern, and the specialist). But probably the big surprise was finding out our baby is a BOY! Both Ross and I were a little taken back at the thought of having a boy. We are so used to having a little girl, that we were both not sure at first what we were going to do with a boy. However, the idea is definitely growing on us and we are getting more excited to meet him each day.

We decided to keep the gender a secret until we could tell our families in person. On Thanksgiving Day, we went to Ross's mom's. One of our food assignments was a jello salad. So we decided to make it a blue salad and cover it with cool whip so no one would know the color until they scooped into it. After the prayer was said, we let Ross's mom do the honors. Needless to say, she was very excited to dish into the jello salad and find out she had a little grandson on the way!

On Friday we went to my parents' house. We invited my parents, siblings and the kids to join us in our gender reveal activity. (Marc and Alison couldn't be there since she was having gall bladder/pregnancy issues and was at the hospital.) We filled up 16 balloons and put pieces of paper in each of them. Only one paper had the words "It's a BOY!" The other papers had messages like "Keep looking," "Try again" or "Not here". Then each person took a turn popping their balloon to see if they had the revealing news inside. I was afraid they would find it in the first or second balloon cutting the activity and suspense really short. But everyone popped their balloon and some got to pop a second one before we found it.

After our immediate families knew, I sent out a bunch of text messages with this picture. We saw this book at the library the day of the ultrasound and I had to get a picture of Leah with it so that I could use it to announce that she would be getting a little brother.

On Friday night, Leah happily stayed at my parents' house while Ross and I went to the Jazz vs. Kings game. I had hoped to see former BYU star, Jimmer Fredette, get some playing time. We were surprised to see him play for almost 2 quarters and nailing 3 deep 3-point shots. The Jazz were trailing most of the game, but made a great run in the 4th quarter to tie up the game. Then with a jump shot at only about 4.5 seconds left the Jazz took the lead and won 104-102. It ended up being a great game to see in person.

On Saturday, we had our annual Putnam Family Christmas party. It was great to see and visit with so many family members. I love my Putnam family and just don't get to see them enough anymore. One of the highlights for the kids was a visit from Santa. Leah talked about seeing Santa all week, but I was a little worried about how she would react when she actually saw him in person. Here she is waving to him when he came in.

Here's some of my family hanging out for our turn to see Santa. Leah was a little hesitant at first. But she did sit on Santa's lap. (It helped that he was handing out candy canes.) She even answered him when he asked her questions. But I doubt he understood anything she said since she was whispering so quietly. Later she wanted me to take her back up so she could wave to him again, but she made it clear that she didn't want to sit on his lap again.

Here's all of our family with Santa (minus Alison who was still at the hospital). In her present, Leah found Minnie Mouse pajamas and a "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" DVD. One of the sayings around our house is that Leah "can't get enough Mickey!"

Here are my Grandma and Grandpa Putnam. I love these two people SO MUCH! It is great to still have both of them here for the party yet again. Here's to more years with both of them still together!

We made sure we got pictures with my mom's generation along with their parents. They got a picture with and without spouses. These people have been so important to me all of my life. I am so grateful and proud to call them family.

After Santa, the little kids broke open a pinata. I would have gotten pictures of it except that Leah was so tired by then that she didn't even want to try it and ended up falling asleep on my lap through most of the excitement.

By the time the weekend was over, we were all exhausted. We had a great time and loved spending so much time with our family members. But I daresay, Ross may have been happy to go back to work on Monday so he could recover from our busy long holiday weekend.