Cookie Cook-Off

M+R

Date 4

Ingredients for Date #4:

One Boy

One Girl

One Empty House (no kids)

Chocolate

Sugar- and I'm not talking just the granulated kind

Hang out music

Laughing

Turning up the heat--you know.....the oven!

For this date, we had a cookie cook-off. Our rule was that it had to be a new recipe. I chose a new sugar cookie and frosting recipe. The hubby chose Fudge Ecstasies. A neighbor took all three kids, which was amazing. First time I've been away from my 4 month old for more than a quick run to the grocery store. The house was sooo quiet. Too quiet actually. It was really weird, and nice at the same time.

We got cooking right away. First thing first-- a tutorial on the difference between a sauce pan, a glass pyrex bowl, and a frying pan. That produced some good laughing! Then onto the measuring, mixing, rolling, cutting, and baking.

My cookies turned out great. My favorite sugar cookie recipe (which I needed). The hubby's turned out tasting better than they looked. His were flatter than a pancake. They were rich and more of a dark chocolate. He's more partial to sweeter, milk chocolate flavors.

It was a fun night anyway, and it went by way too fast.

One month of dates down, 48 more to go!!

Carl Bloch ROCKS

J+D

Date #5

BYU has an exhibit up that is a MUST SEE. Carl Bloch's depictions of Christ are just incredible and the spirit in the exhibit is so reverent and quiet.

D and I sat and stared at the paintings in awe for a long while just drinking in the holiness. The picture I included here was one of my favorites.

Everyone must go.

It's free (well, $3 if you want an ipod to be your guide)

but it surely isn't a cheap experience.

Strike Out

J+D

Date #4

I suck at bowling. I suck at any "ball" sport, for that matter (well, minus ping pong. I kind of rock at ping pong, actually), but bowling is one of my worst.

However, I LOVE to bowl and so does D, so we go as often as we can (which is like, hardly ever).

D knocks down all the pins all the time.

I knock down some pins only sometimes.

And to make it even more fun we take friends and make bets and try to be as creative getting the ball down the lanes as possible

The important thing is that we laugh and have a great time, and that's the main reason we are picking up on "dating" again. Because we love to laugh and have a great time together.

And though D strikes out on the lanes all the time, he never "strikes out" with me. :)

Bowl here....its awesome.

Can I Get Some Fries to Go With That Shake?

M+R

Date 3

For Date#3, we dropped the kids off with our free babysitters (i.e. family) and hopped in the mini (we just joined the world of minivan owners-nooo!!) for a hot date. We went to Smashburger.

{hubby and our little date crasher}

The hubby got the Sin City Smashburger and RAVED. He may or may not have been really hungry, but he said that it was the best burger he's ever had in his life. If you know my hubby, you didn't even have to hear him say that in words to know he was in love at first bite. He nodded his head in approval and mmmmmm'd the whole time he was eating.

Me? I just got the Classic Smashburger. It was good, but I am not a burger-fanatic either. The fries were yummy, and the shakes looked delish!! I'm still on a no-dairy diet at the time being, so the shake will have to wait for another visit-which there will be, according to the hubby! He's already dreaming of visit number two.

Since I was still pining over that shake, we went across the street to the mall to walk around and get some gourmet chocolates. We tried Mrs. Cavanaughs, but shhh, I'm still loyal to See's. No contest there.

Date 3, Let's SKI!

J+D

Date #3

Skiing Tahoe!

My hubby is a hottie no matter what he does, but when he's wakeboarding or skiing, he's so hot it melts me.

Laughing. You wanted to know that, right?!

So, being able to spend a few hours with him on the slopes ALONE (with the gorgeous view, of course) was pretty sweet. It was a switch-a-roo (which most date nights are thanks to the bestest friends ever) where we got to go have a date while "they" watched our kids and then "they" got to go have a date while we watched their kids.

That's the best deal ever.

And skiing with him was a great deal, ever....we got buddy passes and got to split the cost with Dust's Sis & Brother in law. It was a steal.

So is my hubby. :)

It was nice to remember that if ever I need a boost in memory of what a HOTTIE D is, all I have to do is go ski in the COLD with him. Cold water OR snow! :)

Massage

M+R

Date 2

This is what I always think of when I hear the word massage, and the hubby will appreciate this too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T7728shOIU

For our second date, we had a home date. For the sake of our bank account (52 dates could really add up people!) we decided to do lots of at home dates this year.

This night, we put the kids to bed and then when they were fast asleep, we created a date-like atmosphere. No TV, phones, internet, etc.

Then we took turns giving each other massages. We're no pros, but it was a comfortable atmosphere. We turned on some mello music and it turned out to be a very relaxing evening. The hubby almost fell asleep during his massage-that's how relaxing!

What a treat!

J+D

Date #2

MASSAGES and DESSERT

You can tell we've been worked...

Our muscles, that is.

For our second date, D & I found this chiropractic office that gives the public half hour massages for only $12 dollars......so we called some friends and invited them to come along.

Not only were the massages inexpensive, they were AWESOME. This is a must-do-again date.

After we all recovered and the circles around our faces (from the massage table) had gone away, we headed over to Kneaders for a little treat and some good, hard laughing.

We went away from the date thinking WE WERE SO SPOILED TONIGHT!

What a treat the whole evening was! Especially since we got to do it all together!

Our First Date

J + D

Date Number 1

It's pretty convenient that D and I got married at the end of the year (6 years ago) because we always have a "NEW YEAR" ahead of us whether we commit to something together or not.

This year, since I prepared and presented him with date nights each week for our entire 7th year, I was excited to start fresh with the first week of January and get going, making it a habit fresh off.

Our first date this year sent us to do temple work at the Provo Temple. Just the two of us inside a gorgeous building doing incredible things for incredible people.

The price? Nada.

The Experience? Priceless

Bucket Lists

M+R

Date 1

For our first month of dates, the hubby decided to be in charge.

So Date #1 was writing Bucket Lists.

We went to a little dessert shop, picked out something yummy, and pulled out pen and paper. Then after getting kicked out, since they closed at 8, we read our lists to each other. It was fun to just talk, laugh, compare and contrast each others' lists. Since I didn't take any pictures during the date, I had our daughter take a picture of us afterwards (hence the awkward angle).

If you need an idea for a place to go, the dessert shop that we went to was Dippidee.

Here are some other ideas in Utah County:

The Sweet Tooth Fairy

The Chocolate

Kneaders

Paradise Bakery

Lehi Country Bakery (for the donuts)

Flour Girls and Dough Boys

Save the Date: Mindy's Input

I’ve heard many stories lately of couples who fall in love, get married, have families, careers, and basically share their lives with each other. Then when the time comes for their kids to leave their nest and start their own lives the couples either split, they continue to live together miserably, or they have to get to know each other all over again.

Now I’m not here to pass judgment or criticize because that is not my place and who am I to do that? All I can figure is that, for whatever reasons, at some point along their road together, those couples fell out of love or stopped developing their relationship. They put each other in the back seat and their kids, jobs, the PTA, or they themselves took the front seat. Maybe their love never developed into the kind of love that can endure, or that they want to endure.

Whenever I have heard of those kinds of stories, it makes me sad first, and then it kind of freaks me out. It makes me take a good, hard look at my marriage and how we are doing together. Are we still courting each other? Are we being givers and not takers? Are we giving 50% because we feel like we are only getting 50%? Are we giving 100%, but only because we are focused on the 100% we feel like we should be receiving? Are we living life together or just living parallel lives? Do we laugh and have fun together like we did when we were dating? Is our relationship deeper than when we started out (emotionally, spiritually, and intimately)? Do we talk about our feelings and our deepest desires? Or do we just remind each other to take the trash out on trash day, and say “please pass the salt” at dinner time?

Well I could go on and on, but the main point I am trying to make here is this: I want to be the couple, that when our kids are gone and we face each other, it won’t feel like we are facing a stranger. I want to shut that door after our last kid leaves home and be totally comfortable and excited for the time we get to be together one-on-one. It won't be the start of a new adventure together, but just a continuation of an ongoing adventure that started long ago.

And that’s where Save the Date comes in for us. What better way to focus on us as a couple, than taking a little bit out of each week (52 weeks to be exact!) to play, laugh, and remember how our life together started in the first place?

And so.....it begins!

Save The Date

Once upon a time we dated our sweethearts........

........which eventually turned into romance, which then turned into LOVE, which turned into marriage, which was the main objective, right?

Well, we think the main objective was to fall in love, not just get married.

And in dating, we found that we fell in love with being together and discovering what we had in common, what we both liked to laugh about, what we both liked to DO together, and what attracted each other to one another.

It was awesome.

And then once we got married and worked through school and had babies, we found that time, money, and availability for continued dating came few and far between......and though we didn't fall OUT of love, we just forgot how much FUN we could have together when we were JUST TOGETHER (without family, without kids, without school work to do).

So we (Mindy, Jessie, & Tamara) made arrangements to FIND TIME, FIND MONEY (or places to go/things to do that won't cost anything), AND AVAILABILITY to start dating our sweethearts regularly during 2011 (inspired by Project 52).

This blog is to document our journey with our hubbies and to give others ideas as to what can be done to SAVE THE DATE FOR -US- each and every week---and hopefully it will inspire MORE couples to rekindle their courtship, too!

Follow along! Comment! Give more ideas! Join us!