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!

100th post!!!

Crazy!!!  I was typing up another post, and realized that it said "Posts: 100" on my sidebar!  

A little crazy that it took me 3 1/2 years to get there (my first two years I didn't post a whole ton), but SO much has happened since I started!  I decided that I'd do a special post for my 100th post about everything that's happened, and then put the other post up tomorrow :)

Here's what has happened since I started this blog:

- Neal and I got engaged

- We got married: 

First reflections 

Part 1: Family

Part 2: Individual Photos

Part 3: Neal and Amanda

Part 4: Ring Ceremony and Reception 

- Neal taught me how to snowboard

- I graduated from Front Range with my AA

 - Neal graduated with his AA from Front Range

- We went to Utah several times, and went to General Conference once

- We moved to Fort Collins because of my new job

- We got two little parakeets named Sierra and Miyah

- We took several trips: Breckenridge, Las Vegas (1 and 2), and Glenwood Springs, Idaho

- Angela passed away

- Neal got to mix a bunch of awesome shows!

- My sister, Tiffany, got married

- We saw a bunch of awesome shows

- We finally got pregnant with Baby J :)

- We found out Baby J is a boy

- Neal got a rockin' new job

It's been a cuh-rayzy and amazing 3 1/2 years!

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!!