4 year anniversary

My sweet husband and I have been married for 4 years now.  I really can't believe it.

Look at us :) we were just babies (ok, we still are, but not as much).

I really cannot put into words how much I cherish this man.  In four short years, we have been through a lot together - birth, death, financial hardships, financial plenty, house buying, parenting...the list goes on and on.

I'm so grateful for the love and the relationship that we have built over the last four years.

We celebrated by going to dinner and a show at the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse.  We were treated really well.  It was fun to go somewhere that we had a connection to, and celebrate with people we know and love.

I love you babe.  Here's to eternity!

The Honest to Goodness Best Part About Being a New Mom

A lot of times when you ask new moms what their favorite part about being a new mom is, they gush about how much they love breastfeeding, or watching their baby sleep, or looking into their baby's eyes, etc., etc..

As much as I enjoy doing all of those things (let's be honest, breastfeeding only about half the time), I think my honest to goodness favorite part about being a new mom is watching the man I love more than anything in the world be a new dad.

Before Joey was born, I asked Neal several times if he wanted to cut the cord.  He replied that he didn't know...it kind of grossed him out (really...who can blame him?).  When Joey was born though, and the doctor looked at him and asked if he wanted to cut the cord, I happened to look at Neal.  The look of absolute adoration in Neal's eyes for this little human that he really hadn't even met yet is one I will treasure, and never forget.  I am so grateful that I just happened to look at him at that exact second.

While still in the labor and delivery room, the nurses did all of Joey's measurements, and Neal took a TON of pictures.  I won't post them on here since I already posted them in the post about Joey's birth that you can read here.

Fast forward about 9 hours, and this was my view from my bed:

They slept like this through three sessions of General Conference.  It was the sweetest sight to me :)

During the first week of Joey's life, he had jaundice.  It was severe enough that we had to go get him tested every other day, but thankfully didn't become severe enough that we had to go back to the hospital.  During this time, I was pretty much a basket case about it.  One night, I asked Neal and my dad to give Joey a priesthood blessing.  Listening to Neal give his first blessing to our son was an incredibly special moment.

My favorite part of every day is when Neal comes home from work, and kisses Joey sweetly on the forehead.  He also says "goodnight" to him this way every night.  It makes my heart swell with love.

I'll let you in on a little secret - Neal swore we would not be those parents who posted a gazillion pictures of their kid on Facebook.  For the first little bit we posted a ton, but we've slowed down a little.  However, I love it when I get little surprises like opening my Facebook and seeing that Neal posted a picture like this with a caption "This kid!!!!":

It makes me swoon to watch Neal be so gentle and loving with this tiny human.  It truly is my favorite parts of being a new mom!

The Cat's Out of the Bag

We've known this for a while, but I wanted to wait to post anything on my blog until I let my coworkers know....

Ever since Neal and I got married, we have felt that it would be important for me to stay home with our kiddos.  After we got pregnant, we not only felt it was important, but after a lot of prayer and discussion, we decided me staying home was what Heavenly Father wanted us to do.  The problem at that point was we had NO idea how we were going to accomplish that.

During the first couple months of the pregnancy, we tried so hard to focus on Nephi's experience trying to get the plates from Laban in the Book of Mormon, and our theme kind of became 1 Nephi 3:7

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

We knew that Heavenly Father would not ask us to do this if it were not possible for us to accomplish it, and that He would provide a way as along as we put our faith in Him.  So, we began praying specifically that we could accomplish this, and that we would be able to see the way he had prepared for us.

In December, Neal applied for and was blessed to be offered a job that you can read about here.  We were so grateful because it really was an answer to our prayers.  It not only had benefits, but I made us feel more comfortable (financially) about going down to 1 income.

So, there you have it.  After little dude is born, I will get to stay home with him.  We are so incredibly excited, and extremely blessed!

Sewing (x2), a new show, and church fun

I really need to start taking more pictures.  I look back over the last couple of weeks and think to myself, "Hey, we did some pretty cool things.......and I have no pictures to show for it!"

Anyway, the last couple of weeks for us have been fun!

-Scrooge closed at the Candlelight Dinner Theater, and tech week for 9 to 5 started.  They just opened 9 to 5 last week.  Let me tell you - it is HILARIOUS!!!

-We started our prenatal classes.  Those have been entertaining (and kind of eye opening).

-We had an awesome Relief Society activity (that I'm finally able to go to...woohoo!).  They did mini classes on some things you could do to better yourself over the next year.  The classes were about sewing, wardrobe, photography, and music.  You could choose two of them, so I chose sewing and photography.  I learned how to do a hem by hand and a ladder stitch properly (thanks Sharon!).  I also learned some about composition of photographs to help me in my candid shots over the years (hence the "I need to take more pictures" deal).

-My friend Jocelyn invited me over to sew car seat covers!  It was SO much fun!  It's not finished yet because I'm going to wait until we have our car seat to sew the straps on.  It was really nice to spend time getting to know her better, and to do the sewing WITH someone else so that when things look wrong you can compare them with each other.  Haha.

-We took our monthly trip down to the temple in Denver.  I love going down to the temple, and I am SO glad that we have made it a priority to go at least once a month since we've been married!

-Neal got his job on the 16th!  Read about that here :)

-Late that same night Neal's brother and sister-in-law had their fifth little one, Daniel.  We went and met him the next day and then went to Red Robin to celebrate Neal's new job.  Mmmm their fries are sooo good!  (That's been my one pregnancy craving).

-Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference.  There were some incredible talks on the temple and missionary work.  Our stake president also told us that the Fort Collins Temple is progressing forward wonderfully :)  That made me so happy!  The mission president for our area is just wonderful, and a truly enjoyed hearing him speak on missionary work!

Bragging moment

Can I brag about this guy for a minute?

Neal was just promoted to the Assistant Technical Director position at the Union Colony Civic Center.

He applied for the job at the beginning of January, and had an interview yesterday at 11 am.  Around 4 pm, he was told he got the job.

We have seriously been praying so hard for this job.  It will be such a good fit for him.  He will be able to further his skills as a sound engineer, teach other people about sound (UNC has work studys that work there), and it's a full time position with benefits.  He will also be in a management position, so he will be able to learn more about technical theater from a management side.

We are super excited!!

The Lee Greenwood story

Every few months the Candlelight has a pretty big name come in.  They've had Diamond Rio, Maureen McGovern, and the Gatlin Brothers, just to name a few.  Yesterday the loaded in Lee Greenwood's show, and he's here until Wednesday evening.

When they do these shows, I usually go in during load in to have lunch with Neal, and to just see him.  He's usually there for 12-14 hours on load in days, so if I don't head over there, I usually don't see him until he's passing out in bed that night.  

So, I headed to the Candlelight yesterday to eat lunch with Neal.  After we ate, Neal headed back to setting things up, and I started looking at the other people who were sitting there eating.  When I looked at one of the guys who was sitting there, he looked kind of familiar, but I thought to myself "Nah...that's not Lee Greenwood.  There's no way he's here already."  I kept looking at the picture on his bio, and back at the man sitting there, but I couldn't make up my mind.  See, the stars don't usually show up that early.  They usually hang out in their hotels or go see the sights while the techs set everything up, and the band gets their stuff the way they want it.  So, to finally convince myself that the guy I was looking at was not Lee Greenwood, I walked over to Colin (Neal's friend and fellow sound engineer) and said "Is that Lee Greenwood?"  He chuckled a little and said "Yup."  I got pretty excited, not going to lie.

I went back to where my bag of chips was still sitting (over by who I now knew was Lee Greenwood) and as I was finishing eating my chips, he looked at me and asked "When are you due?"  I was thrilled - one, because a stranger could actually tell I was pregnant, and two, Lee Greenwood was talking to me!  We had a really, really nice conversation for about a half an hour.  We talked about kids, he showed me a picture of his beautiful wife, we talked about his son's experiences as a freshman in college, and some other things.  It really made my day!  He was a very down to earth person, and just very kind and caring.

A little while later, I went back to eat dinner with Neal before the show, and ended up sitting next to him at the sound board for the show.  Before the show started, Charlie, the Candlelight's stage manager, walked down from upstairs where Lee and the band were, said "You really must have made an impact," and handed me this:

I was so thrilled!  It was so kind of him to think of us, and give us something so personal.

His show was absolutely incredible.  He sang some really amazing Christmas songs, some that I had never heard before.  He plays the piano and saxophone on top of singing.  Before one of the songs, he began talking about his son, and mentioned that his son was born in April.  Then he said "One of the technicians here actually has a bundle of joy due in April.  Congrats to him."  I was pretty excited when he said that!!  After intermission, he sang some of his country hits, and ended with three incredible patriotic songs.  He sang the last three songs with such enthusiasm and passion, that I literally sat there and bawled my eyes out.  You could tell he truly felt what he was singing.  He ended with his most famous song, "God Bless the USA," and as he was singing it the whole house stood up.  It was incredibly touching to look out over the audience and realize that the majority of the people in that group probably served in the armed forces, and had friends who died fighting for our country's freedom, and the freedom of others.  It was an extremely touching moment.

After the show, he went out in the lobby to sign autographs.  After he was done visiting with the patrons, I walked up and thanked him for the photo he gave us.  He smiled and gave me a little hug, and then asked if the three of us could get a picture together.  So we took this:

It really was an incredible experience, and was such a wonderful opportunity to meet him!  If you have tonight or tomorrow night free, I highly recommend going to see him in his show.  Hurry quick though.  There are only something like three tickets a night left.

Happy Thanksgiving!

On Sunday, our sacrament meeting was all about gratitude.  I learned some pretty cool things, and also was reminded of some pretty cool things.  One thing that was said that I feel is worth sharing is something the youth speaker, Adam, said.  "An attitude of gratitude is a disease we should share."  I thought that was pretty profound for a teenager.

On Monday, Neal and I did a Family Home Evening where we made a list of some of the things we are grateful for, and then said a special prayer just to thank Heavenly Father for the things he's given us.  It was pretty awe inspiring to sit down and write out a list, and then realize that we could never write down every single thing we are grateful for.  We have been so blessed and given so much.

Here is just a short list of some of the things I am so incredibly thankful for:

1. My faith in and testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ - I know that I am a daughter of God, and that Christ is my Savior.  I know they both love me tremendously.

2. Neal - I can't even begin to explain to you how incredible this man is.  I thought I knew, but he has become even more amazing to me over the last few months.  He does so much service for me, works so hard to provide for us, and strives to be obedient to the commandments.
3. My family - Over the last few months I have come to realize how much I have taken my family for granted in the past.  I am so grateful for how much they love me and support me.
4. This little guy that we hoped for for what felt like so long, and that has already started changing our lives in the most incredible ways.
5. My job - I have one of the most rewarding, frustrating, enjoyable, crazy, awe-inspiring jobs in the world.  Its something I can't put into words.
6. That we always have enough for our wants and needs.  That we always have food, clean water, and shelter.
7. That we live in the US.  Things may not be going exactly how I'd like, but its still one of the best places in the world to live.
8. Scriptures - I love studying the scriptures so much, and I'm grateful for the guidance and direction I feel I get from them.
9. The trials I've been through - They've helped form me into the person I am today.  There are a lot of positive things that have come from trials I've been through.
10. That we get to work with and teach adorable 4 year olds every week on Sunday.  It truly is one of the best callings I've had!

I hope you all had an incredible Thanksgiving!  What are you grateful for this year?