an anniversary date!

well, since the anniversary is a special day & we celebrated ours two days after Reddick was born, I'm a little slow at posting about it.
this year...we did nothing!  we may have kissed.  we may have watched a video & i fell asleep.  i did write Zach a super sweet note.  he made me breakfast in bed...because it was mother's day too.  this is probably not at all helpful. :)

here are a couple of our favorite lower budget anniversary celebrations we've had.  hold on to your hats!...or your glasses.  apples for non anniversary celebrators at the end. :)

this weekend.

well, for our date this weekend.  Zach signed us up for a body language class! :)  that should be interesting.  i am quite intrigued!

so, we're doing that and heading to lunch following.

what are you doing?

oh and last weekend, we didn't end up going to DQ after the parade...we went straight to bed because i stayed up talking to my brother til 3:30 in the morning.  yeah, it was a miracle i survived the next day.

we did go to the Temple and then Pace's Dairy Ann afterward.  that was very nice.

have a great weekend!

Last call!

Huntsville Barbecue just donated a $50 gift certificate for a door prize! There are MANY more like this! Come for the prizes, come for the classes, come for the good times and come for each other! Today is THE LAST DAY FOR THE EARLY BIRD PRICE!!
http://smithstix.com/events/item/root/2012-northern-utah-marriage-celebration

The apple for the day is: get tickets to this! ha ha :) OR walk up behind your spouse and just hug or hold them for a minute. (make sure they aren't stressed or busy and wouldn't appreciate it) And since I didn't post one for yesterday, here is another. Express specific appreciation for something they do all the time. Example: for going to work, school, making the bed, fixing dinner, keeping the kids safe and clean, for their optimism. But be specific and genuine!

Party on Baby!

Do me a favor?...and you and go on a date! Please!

A date is something with just the two of you. If you can have someone come over for a half hour and the two of you can go window shopping at the mall or visit a widow in your ward...it is just nice to do something together.

If you must stay at home which happens more than Zach and I would like then call it a date. Start at 8 and end at 10. Play a game of Sequence, Speed or slap jack. Pop some popcorn and try throwing it in each others mouths or have a contest to see who can throw up their own and catch the most. After you are sure the kids are sound a sleep bundle yourselves up and go for a short walk outside and enjoy the silence and the company.

do a date! have a party! happy friday to ya!

good times, good times.

it is time to plan that date! What will you do?

First. Get a sitter. If you can't, call a friend and swap. There are two nights in a weekend. Invite your spouse. Go. Have some good times.

Go sledding. Come back and have cocoa. You don't have to be gone long to come back refreshed.

What are your favorite winter dates?

Today

is Tuesday. It's looking good. cold. but good.

I think for my apple today I will write a few notes and put them about the house. Love notes and perhaps an invitation to a desert date and a game after the kids are snoozing.

What are you going to do?

need a date for this weekend?

If you live in Northern Utah you should consider THIS and if you don't then you should carve a pumpkin too. :)

Do you usually do something for Halloween? What? I don't like all the candy, I wish everyone gave out fruit and nuts. :)

Did you ever do that date where you made a menu with spooky/weird names for things and you place your order without knowing what it is that you are ordering? You could do that with your spouse and the whole family-whichever.

HERE is a link for some menu ideas.

The apple for the day is: get busy planning and do something fun-it can be something you've done before called by a different name but plan and do it!

Bedroom = Torture Chamber (ha ha!)

Massage=

Kiss=

What can you think of?

for a change

Going out this weekend? Well, you should. We all should.

Call some friends and swap. You watch their kids Friday, and they can watch your kids sometime on Saturday. or call your mom or sibling or something. Plan that date!

Don't have any money? Sure you do! Empty your pockets of all your change or grab your coin jar. Do a date with what you've got in change. (unless you have a huge jar and you're saving for something else-use part of it, not all of it!) So what if you end up window shopping or eating penny candy outside the hardware store! Go to the park and throw around a frisbee or hit a local art exhibit..that's free of course. :)

What else can you do with change?

It's paradise

Go on a date! The weather is nice!

Borrow someone's roller blades if you don't have some!

or

take a bike ride to get some ice cream. -sit on a curb and eat it.

or

Give yourself a budget of five dollars and buy dinner and dessert at the store with it. Better that, split up in the store, take your own carts and meet in the front and ask a random passerby which dinner and dessert sounds better to them and buy that one!

or

go out in your front yard and toss the Frisbee or the football, then eat Popsicle and talk about your favorite past time when you were kids.

Aw dates, we should do them more!

of all the apples...

I am out of my habit of posting...well, that was obvious!

As I sit down ready to type a million "apples" are going through my head and I can't decide on one.

Zach comes home from scout camp today! This girl vacuumed, washed our sheets, made our bed and even scrubbed the kitchen sink! I've spent the last few days at my parents house and so we will all come home to a clean house...which I pretty much love. :)

It has been quite the week without him but I'm glad I wasn't home for most of it because that seems to make it worse for me.

Before he left I cried. I simply said, "don't mind me and my hormones" and cried some more. :) As I look at me from an outside perspective, it is quite comical to see the things that make me cry and what I say when I'm crying. Bless my patient man!

Once upon a time on Thursday's I would post a date idea...

What are you going to do this weekend?

my favorite!

When thinking about a date idea to post today I got thinking about what dates have been my favorite to go on with Zach.

They are the "different" dates.

I do enjoy dinner and a movie. But my favorite dates are the music in the park, art exhibits, live entertainment, arcades,hikes, bike rides, etc. I think the reason why is I enjoy the conversations we have about them later. They add a different element to our friendship.

Yesterday Zach was working from home so during our kids nap/quiet time I invited him for a walk. I set the timer for the kids and told them we'd be back before it beeped. It was so nice to have an uninterrupted conversation for fifteen minutes!

Dates help us to have this and it is SO needed! Don't neglect it this week! Call your mother, the neighbor, the babysitter, someone and go on a date! Even if it is an hour! After you've found the babysitter, pick an interesting date and call your spouse and invite them out! -don't assume, invite them.

Enjoy each other and the time alone. :)

And don't forget to enter to win the 16x20 canvas wrap! Today is the last day!

yummy!

Date idea: Do something yummy!

Does that mean try to fondue?

*make a treat you've never tried or your favorite one?

*tour a fabulous garden near by?

*give your spouse a yummy make out session?

*take pictures of things you both think are yummy?

What is a yummy date anyway? I must be hungry.

to date or not to date?

that is the question...

Do you already have plans for this weekend? Are you doing something fun for Easter?

If you don't have one planned you can send them on a easter egg hunt. Put clues inside the eggs. A fun activity awaits at the end. If you can find a sitter then send them around town. Take the eggs with you in your purse/bag but make them do something or buy you something to get the clue. You can also make them do something to get the clues at home too.

Have a good time. :)

it's what fun is!

A while back I mentioned a CD I got from my parents for Christmas....

I listened to it the other day. After Dr. Lund's clients' (he's a marriage and family therapist) go through their "laundry list" of why they are there, he asks them what they like to do for fun.

Their response is "nothing"! Nothing?

So, I ask myself while listening to the CD, "what do Zach and I like to do for fun?". What a great question! I thought about it and then asked Zach later what came to his mind.

This question has motivated us to find the certain thing that we do for fun. For my grandparents it was Dominoes, my parents it was Rook. Our thing could be Hand n' Foot since we play that monthly with some great friends. :)

I think it's camping. We really love doing that. Could be playing ping pong, basketball, going to sporting events or musicals.

So, the date idea. After you ask yourself the question of what you and your spouse do for fun, then do that thing. If you can't logically do it for your date then do something else you think you might like. Try something new!

OR

If you can't get out tonight, pull out the laptop or computer and search and plan your next big anniversary with something adventurous that you both might like.

We did this last weekend and had a good time!

This is what we came up with...http://www.oars.com/grandcanyon

Bet you CAN'T wait til' tomorrow! I'm so excited to announce the winner of our getaway! Leave a comment if you haven't already! -you've got til' tonight!

Spring time!

Aw, isn't it refreshing! I absolutely love to see flowers coming up!!!

Well, if isn't too cold where you live and you live close to a Temple then go for a walk for your date! Go get an ice cream cone and go walk around the Temple!

I love going for walks. I specifically enjoy Temple grounds because the flowers always look so nice!

You could also go to an art exhibit or run a race together. If you aren't a runner, you could go cheer for people who are running. :) -you know, pretend like you know them and make signs! (I'm getting excited to do that for the Ogden marathon!-I would rather be running it but I missed the boat)

What are some dates you look forward to doing this time year?

Share!

Today's date idea comes late in the day because I procrastinated this post and then my internet wouldn't work until now! go figure. :)

So, the idea....

Share everything you can think of! I'm not going to tell you what specifically to do, but here are some ideas.

Share:

a plate at dinner, a shake, a bucket of popcorn at a movie, a blanket, a book, a bed...

Enjoy this date night by sharing everything possible!

So, I have totally slacked when it comes to April Fools day. Are you guys planning on doing anything fun? I might go downtown and move his car to a different parking spot at work...assuming he doesn't read this post before then! :)

Do you have any favorite jokes you've done in the past? As you can tell, I need the help! :)

Green date!

I forgot to post a date idea yesterday with it being St. Patrick's and all...

This could be easy or you can make it a little more complicated. It can also be cheep or costly. You pick. :)

Send your spouse on a search for a crock of gold!

The gold could be a bucket of popcorn at a movie theater, a root beer float at A&W or at home, or a bunch of coins at an arcade!

Make up some clues and send them to as few or as many places as you'd like! The clues could have something to do with things they like or reasons why you like them. You could also have them do something to get the next clue. Leprechauns like to trick and tease. If you want to be like that. :)

Have a great weekend! It is the end of lucky week! It is lucky to wear green and it's lucky to kiss. If you did both, you would be super lucky! Just sayin'. :)

a very important date

I sat down to make a post this morning and what comes to mind, but the rabbit from Alice and Wonderland. I tried to get a picture of it and my computer wouldn't cooperate. So, maybe later.

As you well know, I am an advocate for the "little" things. But I am a believer that dates are very important. I know life happens and we can't do big things all the time. If you haven't set a specific day for date night, that is a good place to start. I knew a couple once that Thursdays was there day. He worked on weekends and Thursdays was best. The plus for them was they could always get a babysitter. It wasn't mutual night and they didn't have much competition. :)

What to do this weekend?

Here is a free one: go to the library/book store or an art exhibit. About 3 years ago Zach and I went to an art exhibit and it made the biggest impact on us. The artist had traveled to Africa and had painted various pictures of the people. Oh my, I will NEVER forget it! Incredible.

I thought the library one sounded fun. Look at books of places you want to go or find a recipe book for the country your spouse served their mission, check it out and try something. The library is super fun! I could spend hours there!

when the goin' gets tough.

This is a lesson from our two year old. He has been different in a lot of ways from our other two kids and has forced me to be creative with him. (hence the loaf of bread to himself and the orange to do with what he chooses. :))

Well, he has been saying "stupid" which is the "s word" at our house, among throwing tantrums, saying "I don't wanu" to about everything, etc. To try and smooth things over with him one day I tried something that shouldn't have been and epiphany.

I did what he loves. We played basketball. I am not kidding, we played for about an hour, with bouts of kicking the ball and playing catch and then basketball. I only enjoyed his company. What a delightful time we had. I think that was a huge deposit in his love bank. He apparently needed it.

What I learned from this is probably obvious. If we are having a rough time with our spouse, then we should probably take a step back and play. Think about something they love to do and express your desire to do it. Whatever it is. Make it your point to just enjoy them, especially if you don't enjoy their activity of choice. Enjoy your spouse and just play! There's the apple! Heck, make it your date night!

So this weekend if I wanted to make a deposit by doing something Zach loved, it would be watching college basketball while eating caramel popcorn. But then again, that isn't really playing, it's watching other people play. I guess after that I will beat him best out of three in ping pong. Then he'll want to play best out of five. :)

don't get out much?

This is just my opinion. I think that what you do for your date isn't as important as having a date. Stated plainly, don't stress so much about what you are going to do. Just figure out how you are going to get out of your house with just the two of you!

Here are two suggestions:

Babysitter swap. If you have friends that live close by that have kids close to the same age as your kids, then take turns watching the kids. My older sister does this and it works well. Three couples each take a turn every three months. So, when it is my sisters month, the other two couples bring their kids over to her house and they talk off and do their date for a couple hours. My sister just orders pizza and the kids have a party. The kids love it, the parents get out once a month, so everybody wins!

If you have no other way to sneak an overnighter in every now and again, you could enlist these same friends for help. An overnighter could be at your own house. Yes, it is totally different being at your house without the kids there! Amazing the difference. :)

Maybe do the babysitter swap for a while, let the kids get used to the friends houses. After some time, and you all feel comfortable, just go over there at bedtime, put your kids to bed and then go home without any kids! Come back in the morning and pick them up! Obviously, this will only work if your kids sleep through the night. We do want to keep our friends. :)

These dates are definitely deposits in the love bank! Make a date out, AT LEAST once a month, a priority!