February 2015 Valentine Date

For the third year running, I made Hubs a date night booklet for one of his Christmas presents. Because we had the baby in December, I decided all the dates for 2015 better be very easy and at-home. There's only one where we could go out - our anniversary. And she'll be 8 months by then, so she could stay with someone for a couple hours. :)

This is one of our favorite traditions, and I'm so glad we do it every year. February's date this year was obviously for Valentine's Day. We made s'mores and watched a movie. We also continued our other Valentine's tradition of getting a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's. Yum!

I used picmonkey.com to make all the little descriptions for each of the dates. They all look just about the same, just using different colors. When I finished all of them, I printed them all on white cardstock. I still haven't connected them together...y'know how babies take up a lot of your time and energy? So I've yet to do that, but I'm just going to punch a hole in the top left corner and put some ribbon through to tie them all together.

Here's my really awesome phone picture of all our s'mores ingredients. We'll obviously have the ability to make s'mores for days considering there's only two of us. :) We ended up watching a movie I'd never heard of before called Stardust. If you haven't seen it, it's really fun and interesting. It's running on Netflix Instant right now. It was a pretty great romantic Valentine's movie without being too incredibly mushy.

We are so lucky our little Bubba is such a good sleeper. We were able to put her down for bed and have our date without interruption. And here she is wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day!! We hope you had a good one!

January Date Night :: Minute to Win It

I just realized that I haven't shared my 2014 date night book! So I will get on that right away. I'm so glad we did that again this year. I think it will be a fun tradition.

January's date was Minute to Win It themed. It only cost us like $2 because I had to buy was M&Ms. This post is also kind of a picture overload. Enjoy!

Challenge 1: Moving M&Ms from one bowl to another with a straw.

Winner: Steven! He got 24 M&Ms and I got 21 M&Ms. 

Challenge 2: Moving paper bags of varying heights from the floor to the table.

Winner: Steven! This was a shocker because I'm kind of more flexible than him.

Challenge 3: I cut a cereal box into a puzzle. We saw how much we could do in a minute. In hindsight, I should have made these pieces much larger to be doable in a minute. Oh well.

Winner: Lynnette! We each took different strategies, but I wooooon!!

Challenge 4: Stack 3 golf balls on top of each other.

Winner: Steve! He got this in about 30 seconds! I couldn't get the third to balance. Boo.

Challenge 5: Set up 20 CD cases in a horseshoe (like dominoes) and then tip them so the last case falls onto the ground.

Winner: Steve! Steve did this and made it look waaaay too easy. I knocked mine over half way through, so I didn't have time to fix it.

Steve was the big time winner. I lost tremendously. But we had a lot of fun just doing funny things and laughing at how silly we looked. We ate some wings and fries and watched Meet the Robinsons. It was a fun (and basically free) date night!

Secret Service Date Night

Well today was the first official snow of the wintery season. There was a time of slushy snow once, but this was actual snow today, ladies and gentlemen. And I didn't mind it. Especially since we got to stay home all snuggly and warm today. 

The only thing we had to do today was go on a date! WOO! I decided to give my big curling iron another try. In previous tries I have never liked the result. My hair would just end up curling under or out. But this time, it looked sa-weet. Holler. I loved it. Not sure what I did differently, but it looked great.

For our date we went to a new BBQ restaurant. It was called Dickey's Barbecue Pit. It was like a fast food feel with walking through the line and ordering. It was okay. We still like Famous Dave's better. :) This place had all-you-can-eat soft serve. So we tried it, and we're pretty sure it was nearing the bottom, because this is how the ice cream looked. Whoops. But I had a good laugh about it for a few minutes.

And my lovely hair lasted throughout dinner and until we got home to make silly faces at each other in the mirror. YAY for date night!! For the rest of November we will be "secretly serving" each other to help us remember our blessings.

You Are My Hands

"As we extend our hands and hearts toward others in Christlike love, something wonderful happens to us. Our own spirits become healed, more refined, and stronger. We become happier, more peaceful, and more receptive to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit."
-Dieter F. Uchtdorf
"You Are My Hands"
April 2010 General Conference

So grateful for my hubby's talk in church today. He quoted from this talk (highly recommend reading/listening to it...right here on lds.org), and this part really touched me today.

September Date Night (kinda)

Good evening!!!

If you remember, I made this Twelve Dates of 2013 scrapbook for one of Steve's Christmas presents. We have been right on track every month. Except September got way busy and we ended up not going on our date that month. So we just decided to double up in October.

Tonight we went out for our September date. We were supposed to go to Barnes & Noble and listen to some music and enjoy our favorites and find some new music to enjoy. Well...who knew that Barnes & Noble didn't have the music area anymore?? Or at least the one nearest us doesn't. Boo. So that was a bust.

Instead, we went shopping for a few more Halloween crafts/decorations and got some Subzero ice cream. That was fun and relaxed, which is how we like it.

Sheldon is really eyeing that ice cream...

The sizes were bigger than anticipated. Mine (the first picture) was a size small. Wuuut?? And Steve's was a medium. And no, his was not vomit-flavored, even though it looks that way. His was mint.

So glad for my date night with my hubs.

Connection

Do you know those moments/days/weeks when you don't feel truly connected to your special someone? It could be your spouse, child, mother, or good friend. I don't usually have those moments, but when I do I think it's safe to say I don't like it. At all.

Mosiah 18:21
And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.
[Emphasis added by me.]

I have always loved scriptures about people who have unity in their communities through love and a single purpose of heart. Because I want this same principle in my marriage, I have decided to think of some ways I can reconnect with my hubby when I occasionally do have those moments of disconnect.

Turn off the TV and really talk to him about his day/activities/etc. for at least 15 minutes each day. Usually when we come home we talk about our day with the TV on and we're playing on our phones. So we need to take away the distractions and really communicate and talk to each other.

Have a good hug. I've talked about The Five Love Languages before, and I super love that book. (Speaking of, I should re-read that. It's been a while.) I know that Steve's top love language is physical touch. The days when one of us is really stressed, we have a long hug and it seems like the stress starts to melt away. So we need to have a regular good hug and it could help us connect and de-stress.

I'm starting out simple. I think small and simple things help in very large ways in the long-run. We'll see how this works out and if hubby will be on board with reconnecting.

Any other ideas on reconnecting with special people in your life? Any ways to keep some unity in your family relationships?

Shakes

Shakes VS Ice Cream

Steve and I occasionally get in arguments about this topic. It's silly and I am very grateful this is one of the few things we ever argue about. I grew up in Indiana until I graduated high school. I moved to Utah and suddenly everyone started calling this (see below) a shake:

I remember the first time I ordered a "shake." Someone handed this to me and I was nearly petrified. A shake? This is a shake???? In Indiana, a shake is something you drink through a straw. "Shake" is short for "milkshake" ... which is something you drink. You can use a spoon if you want, but really you have to drink it at some point.

In Utah, a shake is just ice cream. Like a Blizzard or a Glacier. (This is what they were usually called in Indy.) You can't drink it. You must use a spoon. That picture is NOT a shake. I don't care what you say, it isn't.

And don't even get me started about the "shake" sizes in Utah. The one I am holding in that picture was a size "mini." It was the size of a medium drink cup ... called a mini! What?! No.

I'm not looking for an argument. I just need you all to know that I am right on this. That's all. ;)

PS. If you ever go to St. George, Utah, go to Iceberg. Yummy food and really good shakes ice cream.

FIVE

Today we are celebrating our FIVE YEAR anniversary! It is so insane and I cannot believe it has been this long! For our actual anniversary we went and saw Grown Ups 2. It was stupid and we loved it. So there ya go!

But this post is going to go over the trip we took to Cedar City for our 5th Anniversary. We decided since it was our 5th we should do something a little different than just the one night away. We decided to go the Shakespeare festival in Cedar City. We both enjoy theatre and thought it would be great.

And we're off!

Pretty much I was obsessed with the beautiful-ness on the drive down.
(These pictures are all natural and not edited at all.)

The first show we saw was Peter and the Starcatcher. Cool set, huh? Except those ships were just the places where the sound effect/music people were. It was a cute show that is based on a novel. The performers were incredible. But it wasn't my favorite show in the world. Just not my favorite type of theatre.

Right before our next show, we went to the Green Show. It was cute to see some performers in those costumes. And it was nice to be outside. Kind of a silly show.

Later that night we saw Anything Goes. I have seen this show before and I really enjoy the music, dancing, and fun story. And these performers were amazing as well! And believe it or not, I didn't realize how many different shows are all in the same places. This stage is the same stage as what we saw earlier in the afternoon. I can't imagine the work they go through immediately after shows are finished to get things ready for the next show. But I loved this show! I really enjoy the stereotypical, classic type of theatre.

We found a fun, local BBQ place. PS-We reeeeally love BBQ. And it was yummy. Other than this place, we really couldn't find another local place we found appealing. It made me sad, but it was fine. Applebee's treated us well. ;)

Here were some statues that were around the theatre where we saw our shows.

Juliet

King Leer/Lear? I can't remember

The man this is all for.

The second day of our trip we visited St. George. We had never been to that temple. We have a tradition to do sealings in the temple on our anniversary. Since we were only about an hour away from St. George, we decided to go there.

My artsy picture of the temple.

Luckily there was a wedding photographer waiting for his people to come out, so he kindly took our picture for us. Yesss.

When we got home we were going to go on a scenic drive in the Canyon Breaks National Park. Well, on the way up to the park, we got these amazing pictures. It was mostly in the Dixie National Forest. The drive through there was super scenic anyway. And before we even got there, it was twisty-turny enough for me to feel sick. So we just turned around and enjoyed these pictures.

This picture was partially accidental. And it turned out beautifully!

Steve's smile looks funky here, but it's still cute.

Well it was a lovely anniversary. And I'm so glad we got to spend the weekend together. Happy FIVE YEARS to my hubby! And here is to the rest of eternity!!

Journal Writing

About once every 6 months (usually around the time of General Conference) I am reminded of how important it is that we keep journals ... and how little I write in my journal. Uggh. This is one area that I have always wanted to be good at in life, and I have never been able to motivate myself enough to do it regularly. But since I've been pretty good at blogging lately, I've just decided to dive a little deeper and use my blog as a journal.

Obviously I'm not going to be writing all my deepest, most personal feelings. But I want to write more details of our lives and what feelings/experiences are impacting our life right now. We have many things going on - with the house, starting a family, family time, church, school, work, and so many other things. So here's to hoping I can kick-start my journaling process. Bonus: My far-away family will get to hear a little more about my life. :)

I'd like to start the process with mentioning my sweet hubby. I got to hear him sing in a ward yesterday and I love his tenor voice. And I love seeing his testimony shine in his eyes when he sings about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I have an amazing partner for this life. And I am so grateful to be celebrating our five year anniversary next week!!! I can't even believe it's been five years!!!

We had a special walk this evening together. We talked about our jobs and how we're a little bit very unsure about things in our near future. It's frustrating. We are frustrated every day. But somehow we've learned to cope with the stress. We are in this together and we've found ways to talk it out and release the stress for a while. I'm so happy that we have a home to be a haven away from the world, and that we can bring the Spirit into our home every day. It's an enormous comfort to help keep us sane.

In Mosiah chapter 4 verse 9, it says:
Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all things which the Lord can comprehend.

I love the simplicity of this verse. Simply believe in God and all His power. He knows things I don't know, and He is the one that makes sure I have the experiences I need to have. I learn from these experiences and gain new perspectives on life and what I am doing here. I'm grateful to know that someone is in control of our situation and our future. And thank goodness, it's the most wonderful person I could ask to be in charge of our life.

3 Days

For Trek we have had different challenges every month for our spiritual and physical preparation. For May we were supposed to have "3 Days of Sacrifice." We were asked to give up something that we really liked for 3 days. Some examples they gave were Facebook, sugar, texting, etc. I was thinking about Facebook, but I'm not super addicted to it -- there have been times when I went three days without getting on Facebook and didn't think anything about it.

I decided I would not watch any TV or movies for 3 days, and Steve decided to do the same. When I tell people that they look at me weird like, "that's really a sacrifice? I barely even watch TV." I know -- well, Steve and I watch it a lot. It's sad. But I'm not in school and we don't have kids, so many of our evenings are spent watching TV shows, movies, or Netflix together. I look at it as some quality time together, so I don't see it as bad or anything. We are doing something we like together. We also usually have a movie on when doing other things, like puzzles, playing games, homework, cleaning, etc. The TV is on a lot in our house.

I was going to "cheat" and do this 3 Day Sacrifice during the week so we could just be at work and not have to think about it. Then I decided that would not be a true sacrifice since we wouldn't be at home with it tempting us. Or something like that ... it made sense to me. We started it Friday morning and did not watch TV or movies until Monday.

Steve was joking on Friday night and asked me, "But when we get home from church on Sunday, what are we supposed to do all afternoon??" I answered, "I guess we'll have to rough it, just like the pioneers!!" I also feel kind of silly when talking about how this 3 Day Sacrifice is supposed to show us how it felt for the pioneers when giving up something they loved or needed to journey across the country. We all know that 3 days are a tiny speck compared to what the pioneers had to actually give up for their beliefs.

Despite how silly it felt sometimes to think how small that time period was, and how silly it is to give up TV, I learned some things. They weren't really tangible lessons that I could list, but I felt the spirit because I was doing something to prepare me for Trek. We spent more time talking, we learned a new card game, we put puzzles together, we actually cleaned the entiiiiire kitchen, and got other home things finished. See the things we accomplish when we turn off the TV??


We might even try electronic-free weekends every once in a while. Even though we still had our phones available and we played video games, we still interacted more and it felt like we spent more time together. It was a great time to re-focus and think about Trek and what type of things I have learned that I can share with my family when we are there. Even though I'm still not excited to go camping and not shower, I am glad I'll have this experience. I know it will be good.

Trek is in a month. Holy crud!!

Steve's Eye Surgery

Well I think most of our friends/family know that Steve had surgery on his neck to remove some basal cell carcinoma (sp?). He got it removed with no problem at all. He had a "mole"ish looking thing on his eye and her dermatologist thought it was just a wart. But when they checked it, it was also the same thing. So we had a surgery scheduled for Steve to get everything removed from his eyelid, and then get his eyelid reconstructed. I have more pictures of this process that I need to find.



 

Before:

This was after the first part of the surgery where they just removed the cancer stuff. He had a big crater in his eye for a day.

He had surgery for his reconstruction the next day. He had to go to the surgical center and everything. He was there for a few hours, but he said the actual procedure only took about 30 minutes. But they just kind of folded a little bit of the eyelid above that hole over the hole they dug out.

He had a sweet black eye for a couple weeks, but it's all healed now. For now he's carcinoma-free! But we now know to keep checking on his (and my) skin.

The 12 Dates of 2013

This year for Christmas we set a rough budget to spend on each other. After I felt I had spent enough I wanted to think of a gift for Steve that was something that wasn't a "thing." I had been on Pinterest (because I'll be honest and say that I am obsessed) and saw a few different ideas I liked:

http://followinginmyshoes.com/life-as-i-know-it/wifedom/hubbys-gift-a-year-of-date-nights/ 

http://www.thepoefam.com/2012/01/year-of-going-out-by-staying-in.html 

www.thedatingdivas.com



I love the dating divas - they have so many cool ideas for date nights, that include going out or staying in. And you can adjust the ideas to whatever suits your time and liking.

So I just chose 12 of the dates that I thought sounded fun, adapted a few, and made a book out of scrapbook paper. I made little tickets for each date and then I added any explanation for the date on the page for the month. I made sure to leave room for any pictures we took on the date. Then I left the inside of the page open like pockets and used brown paper bags at pockets for pictures. Then I can also write details on the bag. I looooved it! And Steve enjoyed getting it. It was a really nice and cheap way to make sure we have at least one date night a month in our busy schedules.

Here is what it looked like:

Here is a picture from our first date in January to the Jazz Game. (This one was technically another one of Steve's Christmas gifts, so that was easy to plan.)

The Same

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.
                                     -Emily Bronte


I love this guy and I am so thankful for him every day.

Absolute delight

I had the MOST DELIGHTFUL surprise yesterday!!! You will never believe it. I found a place, just a few minutes from our house, that sells the Vanilla Bun! The most delicious candy bar EVERRR!!!

If you haven't had this, go to that old-fashioned Farr's ice cream place across from the grocery store on Washington. Then buy one. Then enjoy! If you end up hating it, bring it to me to finish! What a fantastic surprise. I never thought I would find one in Utah.

Steve and I were taking a break from our hectic homework schedule by growing mustaches. ;)

A couple weeks ago we went to The Pizzeria..Pizzaria... I'm not sure which way is correct. But we decided to try their chicken alfredo pizza. It. Was. Delicious. So I decided to make my own a few nights ago. And... it. was. delicious. I was very proud that I made something really good that is a play off of 2 of my favorite foods - chicken alfredo and pizza. YUM!

Steve even asked for seconds! That means he liked it too!

Despite the insanity that is our life right now, we still find a little bit of time to enjoy the little things. Especially now that it is warm outside! Hooray!