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:

Utah visit and baby G's shower

Well, my Aunt Shelley commented on how I haven't posted in a while, so it has inspired me to blog. Over President's Day weekend, I ditched my loving husband and flew to Utah for these two:

Clint Sattherthwaite is MARRIED! It was so great to be at their wedding dinner/sealing/reception and it was great to see my high school friends as well. See facebook for more pics, I'm too lazy to download them all here. It was also amazing to see my wonderful family!!!!! I miss being around my family so much--thank heavens Cali and Josh live by us! I loved seeing my squishy little niece:

and I loved spending time with my parents and siblings. I even got to see both sides of extended family too-- it was so nice! And Shelley's birthday celebration should be recognized as well:

The only bad part about the trip was that I got stranded OVERNIGHT in Denver because of weather in Salt Lake-- it was a NIGHTMARE!!!!! I did get a hotel voucher, food voucher, and 400$ flight voucher, but I would have rather just gotten to UT as planned! Plus, if you've tried to use a voucher, you realize what a ROYAL PAIN they can be.... arg. Oh well, as they say, all's well that ends well, so the trip was a success.

Shortly thereafter, my wonderful friend Kristine threw me (Gideon) a baby shower-- it was so much fun! Fortunately, Kristine hadn't even heard of the gross diaper games, so there was none of that--PHEW! It was simply good food, good company, and PRESENTS FOR THE BABY! It was awesome! I couldn't even believe how generous my girlfriends are, and how cute baby clothes are! My voice raised three octaves every time I opened something. I should have taken a picture of all the clothes, but alas, I did not... and now they're washed and folded. Just take my word for it--they are all DARLING!

I am such a lucky girl!!!

And lastly, a picture of me at 31 weeks (7 months--getting big, people!)

and for those of you thinking "man, she's so tiny" trust me, I'm not as small as I may look. Just today, one of my students exclaimed "Your baby is growing a lot bigger!!!" (as you can see, I have them trained to know that me getting bigger = the baby getting bigger, NOT my belly getting fat. . . it's a good trick for the self esteem!)

Did I almost end this post without so much as ONE picture of my one true love? Ahem.

Valentine's Day fun!

Last year Neal and I decided to do 2 Valentine's Day dates ... His and Hers. This is our second time doing it, and I would highly recommend it. (Although I hear once you have kids you can never do anything fun again EVER, so who knows!) As most of you probably know, I am a creature of habit. Example:

Neal: So should we try out a new French restaurant for Valentine's Day this year?

Me: I'd probably just rather go to the Melting Pot...

Neal: But we go to the Melting Pot fairly regularly, I thought we might try something different for Valentine's Day to make it extra special.

Me: But extra special to me is the Melting Pot because I know exactly what it will be like....

See what I mean? I would rather go to where I know I love, rather than risking it on something new. (yes, I always order the same thing, too... sue me!) So it won't surprise anyone to know that the "Her" date was the Melting Pot... and it did NOT disappoint!

Neal's date this year was going to the Newseum. He's been wanting to go for a while, but we (mostly me) find it hard to get downtown, even though we live 20 minutes away. But, for a "His" date, I mustered up the motivation to go and we had a lovely time. The baby also loved it, if loving something means kicking me under my ribs nonstop. I think he was trying to shake his pelvis like Elvis, as there is a special Elvis Exhibit right now. The Newseum was a lot of fun, but I did feel a little strange not to get emotional at the 9/11 exhibit... pregnancy has prevented me from crying over truly sad/upsetting/horrific events, and I can only cry for crazy reasons, such as my belly preventing me from lotioning my legs easily, dropping a molten cake on the oven door, or Neal eating more than his fair share of truffles. (Although the last 2 are arguably valid reasons to produce waterworks, now that I think about it....) We didn't take any pictures in the Museum, but this is the view from the top--note the Capitol Building between our heads.

On a side note, this coat is getting a *little too snug..... here I am at 28 weeks (6.5 months)

*and by a little, I mean I'm practically bursting the buttons.... c'est la vie!

On a more spiritual note...

note: this picture was taken SECONDS after we found out we were having a baby. I love it!

My amazing sister Taylor just blogged about this idea, and I loved it so much that I'm doing it too! The idea is to find a theme scripture for 2011. This year, I've chosen Psalms 27:14

"Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord"

I chose this scripture because I've felt pretty anxious about this pregnancy.... I'm always worried something is wrong with me or the baby. (I shouldn't have ever started reading 'What to Expect when You're Expecting!) This scripture will remind me to have faith in the Lord and focus on the positive. I also really like the idea of the Lord strengthening my heart... I could always use a little of that!

Neal's theme scripture is Luke 17:15

"And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God"

Neal wants to work on glorifying God this year (and me, hopefully... joking, joking. I have about the most appreciative husband in existence) and also focus on being grateful.

I love this idea! I tried to find a funny scripture for baby Gideon, but it was taking way too long, so insert funny baby scripture here < > Now I shall leave you with a recent picture of my sixth month belly... I'm still shocked to see how big I look! Luckily I won't get any bigger... oh wait...

Christmas Break and my first blog about being pregnant

Hello friends, it's been a while, I know. Christmas break this year was SO MUCH FUN-- mostly because we got to spend it with family. I've posted loads of pictures on facebook, but here are some highlights for your viewing pleasure:

I'm very proud of these two "artsy" shots..... isn't Utah GORGEOUS!?!?

Very relieved that my second homemade stocking hasn't disappeared yet!

All 4.5 grandchildren!
We mostly spent time with my family, but we did make take a very stressful drive up to Boise to see Neal's Grandpa, parents, and sister. It was a lot of fun, although the driving was STRESSFUL because the roads were pretty awful. We also tried to see as many friends as possible-- if we didn't see you, don't take it personally! No matter how much time we have in Utah, it seems there are always people we didn't get to see. See facebook for friends pictures, I don't have the patience to upload them all here!
Kudos to my husband for surprising me with tickets to go see Yo-Yo Ma at the Kennedy Center-- I was THRILLED!

Okay, so I guess it's time to blog about my pregnancy. I know I surprised quite a few of you with my "It's a boy!!!!" on Facebook since that was the first many of you had heard about it. I found out I was pregnant the very beginning of September. We were THRILLED and also shocked-- this baby was planned, but let's just say he didn't waste ANY time implanting himeself in my uterus! Sheesh! I haven't been sick at all, which has been really nice. This might be TMI, but the reason I waited forever to tell people was because I've been spotting on and off my entire pregnancy, and at the beginning it made me too afraid to tell people. Then, by the time I was ready to tell people, I was almost 20 weeks along, so I just thought I'd wait until I know if it was a boy or a girl. . . and I must say, the reactions I got were pretty awesome! I'd highly recommend waiting 5 months to tell people--the shock value makes it TOTALLY worth it! and here is a pregnant looking picture of me, if you were wondering:
I am 21 weeks along in this picture-- about 5 months along. I'm not HUGE, but I do have to wear maternity pants now, which is a really strange development! Baby boy is due May 7th and we are EXCITED!!!! 'Hope everyone had a great Christmas break!