Communication

M&R
Date #8
Communication Workshop and Tucanos

This date fell on my hubby's birthday. It was a two-part date. In the morning, we went to a workshop on communication. One quote that I loved was not even about communication, but I'll share anyway--

"Romantic love is not only a part of life, but literally a dominating influence of it. It is deeply and significantly religious. There is no abundant life without it. Indeed the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom is unobtainable in the abscence of it."

--Bruce C Hafen

I love that for two reasons. I love that because it doesn't say a "husband and wife unit"--it says, "romantic love". The other reason is that romantic love between a husband and wife is deeply and significantly religious. I think it's easy to lose focus on the romantic love in marriage. Life just gets crazy sometimes, but it is so very essential. These date nights are a great reminder to re-focus on each other in the midst of all the craziness and busyness that each week brings.

Later in the evening we went to Tucanos (Hubby's choice for his birthday dinner). As we sat there talking during dinner, we started realizing how hard it was to not talk about the kids and finances during dinner. Do other couples have a hard time with this?

It occured to me how much we need these date nights if we have a hard time finding things to talk about aside from things going on at home.

Which reiterates the fact that I'm so happy we're having these date nights. It really is an important thing to take time for in marriage.

No pictures this time--sometimes I feel silly pulling out my big camera at every place we go. This was one of those times.

Temple Morning

T&D 

This week's date was short and sweet.  A quick trip to the Temple to enjoy the peace and quiet and spirit there.  And then a quick trip to Walmart for some groceries.  Not a ton of time, and most of it was spent in different rooms, but we were connecting in spirit, which is just what we needed.

El Templo We Go

J+D

Date 9

In the spirit of going to visit the temple, we forgot the camera...

...so we thought we'd improvise.

Can you see us?!

We won't discuss our date "within the walls of the temple," but we thought it might be fun to share a few things that we learned ABOUT this particular temple*...

• The Provo Utah Temple (formally called the PROVO TEMPLE) was the 17th temple to be constructed for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
• It is one of the busiest of all the temples (we didn't have to look THAT fact up)
• It was dedicated by President Joseph Fielding Smith on February 9th, (MY BIRTHDAY) 1972 (NOT MY BIRTH YEAR)
• It's temple grounds cover 17 acres of land at the base of a hill called "TEMPLE HILL" (how fitting)
• Within the temple, you'll find a total floor area of 128,325 square feet
• Originally, the temple had escalators inside, but it has since been change to contain only elevators and stairs
• 31 years after its dedication, the Provo Utah Temple received its Angel Moroni, which, on its own, has turned from a gold-gold to a white-gold
• The temple's architectural design comes from the scriptural imagery found in Exodus 13:21-22 with the base being the pillar of a cloud and the spire being the pillar of fire

How cool is that?!

*fun facts found on wikipedia.com

Game Night

M+R

Date #7- Game Night for Two

You'd think we were already an old couple in our 70's when I tell you what we did for our date this Saturday night.

Yup, that's right Yahtzee. Next up....Bingo and Pinochle.

Since the kids are on another round of colds/coughs/flu, babysitters were out of the question. So it was another night in for date night.

We had ice cream sundaes and played a few rounds of Yahtzee (I was pushing for Scrabble but Hubby refuses to play that game with me). I'm realizing that we need some serious expansion of our game collection.

'till then....Yahtzee it is.

the THAI date

T+D

Date night this week ended a bit earlier than planned, but still great to get away for an hour just D&T. We ate at our favorite Thai food place - SPICY Spicy Noodles for Dane (don't understand how you can even taste it with all that HOTness) and Massaman Curry for me (SOOO delicious - the night of and cold for breakfast the next day!!). The plan was to then stop at Recreation Outlet and price out equipment for Rock Climbing - since it my new favorite hobby that I don't do often enough to even have it considered a hobby. :) D and I both really love it so we wanted to start dreaming about starting our rock climbing plans and collecting gear. However, the store was closed. Who closes at 7pm on a Sat night? Rec Outlet. Next time - along with some browings the internet to start the search.

AND - I need to do better remembering the camera for pics of our dates (and not just use it for pics with the kids) although I did try to put up pics of our favorite thai entrees, and that's not working either. So just imagine. :)

Harleys & Marley's

J + D

Date #8

D & I only had an hour to have a "date night" tonight, so we made our plans and took them from 0 to 60 in 60 minutes. :)

What we REALLY wanted to do was take a Harley Davidson Motorcycle on a test drive, but since we got to the shop at 5:45 pm and it closed at 6, we only got to play around and dream about which one we WOULD'VE taken on a drive...or maybe buy one day.

We liked this one:

We looked good on it together...

Then, as the shop closed, we motored ourselves next door to MARLEY'S GRILL to have some "sliders" (mini burgers), shoe string fries, killer soup, and yummy drinks.

It was awesome.

Like Bad A** awesome.

The Valentine Date

T+D

In the same spirit as J&D and M&R, we chose not to go out on Valentines Night to avoid the crowds and stay at home with our coughing, snotty (like mucus, not bratty) kids. But we did find a way to get some time to ourselves and enjoy a nice dinner. Dane and I usually compromise when going out to eat, but today - since Valentines is a celebration for BOTH of us - Dane picked up our favorite fast meals. Cafe Rio salad for me and Panda Express for him. He got home from work as I was feeding the kiddos. I put a table cloths and silverware on our bed and threw the kids in the bath. They played happily for almost an hour while Dane and I enjoyed some of our favorite foods and uninterrupted conversation while watching the kids in the bath. It was fabulous! We are going to do it more often for sure.

VALENTINE'S DAY DINNER (plus kids)

Going into it, we knew that we'd have our kids along for our "Valentine's Day Date" which kind of broke the rules of "no kids allowed on dates." However, we decided to break the rules this once since finding a babysitter on V-Day is like finding a cell phone on a deserted island. Yeah right....

So, M & I got together early before hubbies were done with work and got to putting together our little fancy schmancy dinner. We filleted the chicken, decorated the table, iced the cake...and cooked away while our kiddos ran around the house like it was a holiday...oh wait, it was.

By the time the menfolk arrived, dinner was ready, the table was set, and everyone was hungry.

On the menu:

Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Raspberry Chipotle Sauce

Garlic & Herb Roasted Red & Sweet Potatoes

Lemon & Salt Soaked Carrots & Asparagas with a dill & teragon sauce

Pisano & French Bread

with Martinellis for the drink

and for dessert Triple Chocolate cake with a raspberry filling and raspberry cream cheese frosting

Recipes found on Pleasant & Plump

The Kiddos

M + R

J + D

(I was going to get all dolled up for my man, but I didn't get to before he came home...oh well...)

As we ate we pulled questions from a little tin and answered them about our spouses/relationship---

Such as:

• Our first day went something like this:
• If opposites attract, then these are the ways we are opposites but are good for us
• If love is blind, then these are the things we know we have to NOT SEE of each other to make our relationship work:
• Our first kiss went something like this:
• The first thing I thought when I met him/her was:
• etc etc etc.

It was really fun!

Our kids seemed to love playing, our hubbies seemed to love eating, and I think M & I seemed to love putting it all together. :)

YAY for Vday!

Whatever Floats Your Boat

J+D

Date #7

Some people wouldn't consider going to The Boat Show as worthy enough for a date night, but to us, doing anything where we can just talk, hold hands, and laugh together without having to juggle the kiddos and a diaper bag is worthy enough to be called a "Date".

Since D used to work at a boat dealership, we feel a certain loyalty to going to the boatshow--especially since D used to be so involved with the boatshow each year. We visited Taylor's Boats, where he once worked, said hello to old friends, and then headed to the boats we REALLY wanted to see...the NAUTIQUES. Boy, oh boy, does my man have a thing for those machines.

It was fun to see him so excited about them. We played in several, with D showing me every new feature and gadget and "awesome part" about each one...and dreamed of the day we can have our own "toy" such as this one:

SUPERAIR NAUTIQUE 220

I kept telling D, "By the time we can afford a boat, think of how many NEW features and upgrades there will be! It will TOTALLY be worth the wait!" I think I may have to keep convincing him of that.

For now, we are just grateful we have his family's boat to take out when we find the time...

Slow Dance

M+R

Date #6- Slow Dancing and Some Episode Catch-Up

They were throwing a Valentines Dance on Friday night at church. Normally I would have completely ruled that option out, but one of my goals with date nights with my hubby is to try new things together. Hubby wanted to show some support, so I obliged.

As soon as we walked in the door we felt totally silly. If not anything else, it was good entertainment. We socialized for awhile, got in one slow dance, and as soon as the chicken dance began to play (for real??) we decided that was our cue to exit the building.

We ran home to catch up on our recorded TV shows before picking up the kids. No TV was one of our rules for date nights, but seriously--being at home without kids bouncing off the walls once in awhile is a treat in itself.

Alone Time

T+D

Being new at this specific dating game . . . this one might seem a little odd, but here is our date for the week. My sister-in-law had her baby on Tues Feb 1st. Seeing as kids are not allowed at the hospital, we got a babysitter and planned a time in the evening on Wednesday that Dane and I could go down together to see the baby (and his mom and dad).

Although this may seem rather uncoventional or even a stretch as far as a "date" is concerned, I loved it! We spent an hour total in the car together - ALONE - where we had some great conversation. Got to relax and even watched the end of the Jazz game in the hospital room. Of course we held beautiful tiny new baby boy, which inspired lot more converstion about our plans and goals and future babies and such. All total - 1 1/2 hours with my hubby was a great date for me!! That counts, right???

And - at the moment I can't seem to be able to post the picture. So I will try that again later!

Lets Build Something Together

M+R

Date #5: Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie first. Home Depot second. Starbucks third.

Since seeing this blog turned website two years ago, http://www.ana-white.com/, I've been dying to try my hand at woodwork and wanting to do a project with the hubby.

Which brings us to our date. We had to grab something sweet to eat first, of course. Then we went to Home Depot to enjoy some time there without the kids. We looked at paint samples. We looked at small hardware. We looked at planks of wood. It was magical.

We priced out the project that we are planning to do together and figured out everything we need to get. If you're curious, we're going to make the twin-sized farmhouse bed.


The actual project will have to wait for another day, but we're looking at about $100. Not bad for a solid wood bed.

We ended the date hanging out at Starbucks with some hot chocolate since it was FREEZING outside.

Doesn't seem too exciting, but a couple of uninterrupted hours together was just what we/I needed to refresh ourselves for the rest of the week.

Movie (Scene) Night

J+D

Date 6

The original plan was to join M&R for a fun night of games and hot chocolate, but our babies' colds took a turn for the worst, making it unpardonable to leave them with any kind of babysitter.

So we decided to stay in, put our babies down early, and have a date in our living room. It turned out hilariously fun...

Here's what we did:

1: Turned out the lights

2: Pulled out all the yummy treats from the pantry

3: Took out our favorite videos, each taking a turn showing our favorite scene/s from the movie

Some movies we let run until we remembered that we were just watching our favorite scenes....turned out that we like most of all the movies we own! :)

It was a blast!