Spring Break and Easter

Spring Break, my amazing friend... last year Neal and I went to France, this year I stayed home and lounged all day. Equally enjoyable? Not exactly, but lounging was nice! Here is a picture of me looking HUGE (I really don't look this huge normally, or at least I don't think I do so shhhhhhh) for viewer enjoyment, and to illustrate why international travel wasn't in the cards for us this year.

I planned activities every other day--which was a very great idea. First outing was out to Cheesecake Factory with this girl: it was such a good time! I really miss working with her!
Second outing (excluding the carseat inspection debacle) was getting pretty toes with my favorite Rachels!

When I could no longer reach my toenails to paint them, I asked Neal if he'd give me a pedicure. He looks grossed out and told me he'd pay for someone else to do it... either way works for me! We also went out to lunch. It was a great girls outing! I also ran a few errands, mailed a package to my missionary brother, washed/organized all the baby clothes, had a dr appt, and did a LOT of lounging.... it was so lovely! I hope I'll be able to make it through the rest of this week working again starting tomorrow.. yikes!

Easter was a great day. Yes, I made Neal hide me an Easter Basket-- I love holidays. I think I get it from my mom. Since we're very good at finding hidden baskets, we simply hid a representative egg for each other to trade it for the basket. Neal hid mine in the uninstalled carseat (one of them, anyway) and I hid his buried in the flour bin. He said that was cheating when he finally found-- what a baby! How is that cheating?!?

Neal got me this basket at Michaels while we were dating-- he was very proud of himself!
It was a little hard to find a manly(ish) bucket for Neal, but I think this one is fine. Also I gave him that lovely Easter tie. I also insisted we decorate eggs-- we tried the tie dying with silk ties that everyone is raving about, but for whatever reason, they really didn't turn out. Luckily, we had plan B dye:

I know, mine is cooler. RIGHT?!?!

And to top it all off, we made a DELICIOUS Easter dinner last night. It was so yummy! We were so full I didn't even make the lemon bars I promised Neal... maybe I'll make some today!

This post might be more cheesy than usual.....

Okay, I know some of you roll your eyes at how lovey I am about Neal... if this is you, you might want to stop reading now. I don't know if it's the pregnancy hormones, but I've been feeling really, really, REALLY grateful for Neal lately. This will probably come as a surprise to him because I've yelled at him a bit more than usual lately too... I still can't figure out how these events coincide but they do, and I blame the pregnancy 100%.

For those of you who don't know, dating Neal required hard work and some stalking on my part--I'm embarrassed now about how shamelessly I pursued him. Exhibit A:

"I saw you at church, but you didn't say hi
so my Neal o'meter is running quite dry."

That's right, a poem AND cheesy... plus this was before we'd ever been out on a date! This was July 2nd, 2008, to be exact, and our first date was August 2, 2008--sheesh. But, there's more! Neal's response to one of my many e-mails, word for word:

"You are SUCH a stalker...merciful heavens! Why must you creep me out?"

I know, I'm ashamed. HOWEVER, as you can see-- IT WORKED! So the moral of the story is, it's okay to be a creepy stalker as long as it produces a husband--it worked for Machiavelli and it worked for me. I have never pursued anyone in my entire life, so I think it was good for me. It should also be pointed out that after our first date, Neal pulled out all the stops to woo me, it just took him a WHILE to actually ask me out. (and by a while, I mean 2 months of Hannah charm. Sheesh!)

Anyway the point of this blog is that I'm so glad Neal and I got married. It took him a *whole* SIX (6) months to finally get down on one knee... but I'm glad I was so patient about the whole thing, because marrying Neal has been the best thing to ever happen to me. Neal is the most patient and loving person I have ever met in my life (seriously) and he is also hilarious and loads of fun to be with. I could go on and on, but it suffices to say that I feel so grateful, and nigh unto emotional, to have Neal as my husband. I love him more and more every day, and I can't wait to see him being a Dad in a couple of weeks! He'll be awesome-- I would know, I hand picked him!

Our first date part one: August 2, 2008-- peach picking and a picnic at Great Falls Park

First date part two: Rodeo and movie. (Note disgusting facial hair... lucky for him I was already on the Neal train) Yes, our first date was an all day thing-- seriously 12 hours together with a shower/shave-gross-facial-hair break in the middle.

February 11th, 2009: Neal about to propose! Note the symbolic peach.

May 16th, 2009: Our wedding day! What a blissful, perfect day.

Last weekend: Still happy and in love nearly 3 years plus one (almost) baby later!

A little bit of this....

Well now let's see... what have we been up to since the last post? First and foremost, I am getting bigger and more uncomfortable by the minute, it seems! My little guy doesn't really understand the concept of shared space--sheesh! Now, people are always telling me "you can't be eight months pregnant... you are so tiny!" While I love this, pictures suggest otherwise! Exhibit A:

See what I mean? In no way could "tiny" describe me!!!! I comfort myself with that fact that from far away/straight on, I don't look as huge... Exhibit B:

Anyway, enough about that. In other news, my dear friend Melinda threw me a ward baby shower, and it was lovely! Delicious food, fun people, and loads of presents! Melinda also prepared a darling little quiz on the name Gideon-- so thoughtful and fun!

Since I'm being honest in this post (i.e. about my hugeness), I'll let you all in a little secret..... I am NOT photogenic AT ALL in candid pictures. Exhibit C:

I'm pretty sure I wasn't really crying in this picture-- I think this is more my "oh-so-adorable" face but... yeah.... candid pictures aren't very flattering for me, and now everyone knows it. Moving on.

We went to see the Cherry Blossoms this morning, and it was gorgeous!!!!

It's pretty cool to live in this area, I'm not gonna lie. Now, with my 8 month pregnant self, I told Neal it would be easier for everyone if we drove.... little did I know there was a 10k race this morning and EVERYTHING was blocked off-- Neal dropped my friend Rachel Wall and I off and then tried to find a place to park for about an hour. . . oops! Don't worry, I fully admitted it was a bad idea and next year we could metro to the blossoms. Luckily, Neal is the most wonderful husband ever and didn't even act annoyed at me at all! (To my face, anyway) I love this man! I mean, seriously, who wouldn't?!?! I shall leave you with Exhibit D: