Missionaries and doctor's appointments

March 9-15

- Daylight savings time started this week.  I was not excited.  I was quite happy with the sun starting to come up while I was getting ready and leaving for work.  After his day, it was dark again.  Oh well.  It's starting to come up again (even though this is the last week I'll be getting up that early for work).

- We met with a lady in our ward about our taxes.  Not going to lie...I didn't realize how much we got back for our college payments.  Neal only went to school part time at the beginning of the year before he finished his degree, so we didn't spend nearly as much for school.  That made our refund pretty much plummet this year.  Oh well.  At least we are getting SOMETHING back!

- I had a doctor's appointment (which you can read about here.)  After that we headed down to the temple in Denver for the last time before little dude is born.  It was a bit weird to think that the next time we'd be down there, we'd have a kiddo.

- The missionaries came over.  We've got some awesome missionaries serving in our ward right now.  They come over every once in a while to teach us.  We absolutely love having them come over.

- My friend, Ashley, and I went to the ward Relief Society Appreciation Dinner at our church.  We had a wonderful dinner served by the high priests group of prime rib, broccoli, and dessert (angel food cake with strawberries...YUM)!  We then had a fun quiz about how well we knew the history of Relief Society.  I also learned about Goodreads during this dinner.  Oh my gosh.  I love it!  If you're on Goodreads, add me as a friend.  I'm so excited about it!

March 16-22

- We went to our friend, Jessica's, farewell talk.  She leaves for her mission super soon, and it was so wonderful to hear her speak!

- The people at Neal's work had a baby shower for us.  I hadn't met most of them, so it was fun to go and meet his coworkers and have a lovely lunch!  We did a potluck, and one of Neal's coworkers made "Sloppy Joey's."  It was so cute!

- I made corned beef and cabbage with potatoes for the first time for St. Patrick's Day.  I was really nervous, but it ended up being really easy, and turned out really well!  I was excited!

- I had my weekly doctor's appointment.  I was still 50-60% effaced and 1 cm dilated, so not much changed.  Joey's heartbeat was good though, and everything measured good, so he just needs some more time :)

- We had the missionaries come over for dinner.  Hamburgers and bratwursts.  Yum!

- Neal ran 9 to 5 at the Candlelight a couple of the days.  The show closed this past weekend, so it was the last time he was going to run a show there.  It was a little bittersweet for him.  He also got to mix monitors for Tracy Lawrence and John Anderson.  He said it was a pretty incredible show.  I was jealous.

That's about it for these last two weeks.  I keep hoping every day that little Joey will make his entrance into this world, and I will be able to post tons of cute pictures on here.  Not yet thought :) I keep telling myself that really, at most, there are 2 1/2 weeks until he will be here.  They seem like the longest 2 1/2 weeks of my life ;)

Goodbye February!

Goodness time has gotten away from me.  I looked today and realized I hadn't posted about anything but little dude and what's going on with him since mid-February!

Week of February 9

- We did our last baby class this week.  Neal couldn't go because he was working on getting the Christopher Cross show loaded in at the Candlelight.  So my partner that night was the fake baby that they gave us (that we really didn't even end up using).  I took a picture of it, but I deleted the picture off my phone thinking I wouldn't need it anymore!  Gah!

- We had a baby appointment this week.  Hearing little dude's heart beat is so awesome :)

- Over the weekend we stayed at my parents' house with my siblings so my mom could go to Phoenix to visit my dad.  Every year for the last like 5 or 6 years, my dad has had to go out of town for work over Valentine's Day.  In high school I can remember going and getting flowers for my dad to give to my mom because he was out of town.  This year, my mom was able to fly down and visit him so they could be together :) We were happy to help!

Week of February 16

- We were still down at my parents' house the beginning of the week.  Since Neal had to work on Valentine's Day (welcome to the entertainment industry), we celebrated our Valentine's Day on the 17th.  We went to a cute little Italian restaurant called Pinocchio's by my parents' house.  They have SUPER yummy food, and we ended up getting a free dessert because they messed up Neal's order.  I gave Neal a really nice Fossil watch that he'd been looking at for a couple weeks, and he gave me a beautiful, Celtic style necklace.

- That Tuesday we went down to the temple.  Our friend Jess came down with us :) Afterwards, we went to Chili's for dinner.  Their molten chocolate cake gets me every time.  I love it!

- On Thursday I went to Noodle's and Co with some of the girls from our ward at church.  We ate a delicious dinner, and enjoyed catching up.

- On Friday my mom threw me a baby shower that you can read about here.  It was wonderful to see a bunch of my family and friends!  My sister and her husband even drove in from Utah :)

- On Saturday we had our Stake Relief Society Conference at church.  (To read about what Relief Society is and the role it plays in our church, go here.  It's a pretty awesome organization).  I went with my friends Ashley and Jocelyn.  We ate a yummy taco salad that was provided by Neal's aunt, Donna, and his uncle, Randy, and then listened to some wonderful musical numbers and speakers.  One of the speakers was Neal's mom, Judy.  It was kind of crazy to watch her give a talk to all of the Relief Society sisters in our area!

Week of February 23

- On Sunday, we had the missionaries come over.  They come over about once a month to teach us a lesson.  The lesson can be anything from how to be a better missionary to basic gospel principles.  We really enjoy having them over.  They work really hard and bring a real joy and peace to our home.

- On Monday I had a baby appointment.  Read about that here.  I also went to the chiropractor.

*Side note* I love my chiropractor.  I totally recommend that any woman who is pregnant goes and sees one.  He's helped me so much with back and hip pain throughout my entire pregnancy.  The minute I have any pain or sciatica or anything, I go in and see him and he fixes it.

- On Tuesday we went to a birthday party for Neal's nephew, George.  I can't believe he is 5.

- On Thursday Neal went snowboarding while I was at work, and then we had the missionaries over for dinner.  We made them Qdoba/Chipotle style burritos with moose steak.  They always tell us that they love coming over for dinner because we feed them meat they've never had before.  Haha.

- On Saturday Neal had the opportunity to participate in a really awesome experience.  He was asked to be a teacher for a mock Missionary Training Center that our stake did for the 16-18 year old young men in our stake.  He had a group of four that he spent the afternoon with, and taught them about being missionaries.  He really enjoyed it, and said it was a great experience.  After he was done, we went to Neal's cousin's daughter's first birthday party.  Neal's cousin Steph has had a luau for each of her kiddos when they're turned one.  We ate super yummy Cafe Rio style salads and just enjoyed being with family!

That's it for our February adventures!  Hello March!

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!