Birthday boy...

Ryan's birthday was last week and he gave us the gift of TAKING THE ENTIRE WEEK OFF! (We actually contemplated whether or not he should switch weeks due to all this darn rain, but we took a chance and lucked out with spots of amazing weather). I picked the kids up from school on Tuesday and we headed to HEB to get all the stuff for his cake plus a few extra treats. He spent all day on his birthday trimming trees, mowing the yard, raking and spring cleaning that we were way behind on. 

And while he was busy finishing up all of that with the kids - Rad became a pro at using the extended hand saw. He cut down EIGHT branches by himself. 

After everyone had cleaned up we settled outside for our first meal of the season on the porch. Y'all - it's been raining THAT much. Ryan picked sloppy joes - I am such an overachiever that I surprised him with deviled eggs and beer to go with it. And I think the deviled eggs were his favorite gift. 

#easytoplease

Then they just had some general backyard shenanigans before heading inside for cake. 

Yellow cake with yellow icing... 

and a whole lot of love baked in.

Now, he didn't reveal his wish... but I'm guessing it came true in the form of these three. 

One of my favorite part of birthdays is watching the kids pick out gifts for other people. We all went to Academy and I had made a few suggestions of things we could get Ryan, but they had very distinct ideas of what they wanted. 

Radley insisted on a red golf shirt. 

Emmy picked the blue and green hammock. 

And Landry is generally just a "yes" girl for now.

And the celebrations didn't stop there. I took the day off on Wednesday so we could combine our February date that we didn't get to because of rain (ha!) and headed to the golf course. 

 He opted for 9 holes since we were short on time (Rad had a school picnic) and I opted not to play since the weather was lurking over head and I wanted him to get to play all nine holes. But, it was a great morning of golfing (him), reading (me), and spending time together.

And know about 2% of what it takes to make a great golfer, but he sure looks good, eh? 

I hope that this birthday was great, Ryan. And I pray that the year ahead is the best one yet!

A Year of Dates: Where we began

You didn't think we skipped a month did you? It was a little tricky to find the free time to get away since Ryan is gone during the week and wants to see the kids on the weekends, but we did manage to find 2 hours to take for ourselves. 

So, what was on the docket in April...

April is our dateiversary which was 16 years ago!!! I still even have the dress I wore for that first date and posted this pic on April 6 with this caption:

16 years ago, I put on this dress with some killer doc marten sandals, some too dark lipstick and gold hoop earrings. A boy came over to pick me up in his jeep with the top down and doors off. I split my dress trying to get in (bc he clearly had lifted tires), my hair was a mess by the time we got to the restaurant and he had a horrible case of poison ivy on his eye. We were a mess sitting there eating our fancy salads and crazy entrees but we stuck with each other. We are still a mess. That dress quit fitting 3 kids ago. That jeep is rusting away in the driveway. And I've sadly said goodbye to those sandals. But we keep sticking and who knows maybe in 16 more years that dress may fit again.

And then for date night... I did the unthinkable...I put the dress on. And it zipped. Y'all.

IT ZIPPED.

#butletsnotdiscusswhatsundertheshirt

And no I didn't actually wear it out 

#becauselookatthatslit

#thankyoujeep

But we did head out on a date. 

We enjoyed a meal free of wiping other people's faces or telling anyone to eat. We people watched and talked about all the couples missing out on each other by staring at their phones and just enjoyed a couple of hours to ourself. 

At the place it all began.

I love that my last first date was with this man and that all my dates here after are reserved just for him.

A Year of Date: March Madness...

The dating continues and this month was just plain "mad"! 

March is a pretty big month for us. We have Landry's birthday and our anniversary so spending is at a level orange, so I decided to do a fairly simple date and celebrate another fun March tradition... 

MARCH MADNESS!!!

We had a simple "at home" date where Ryan got to pick ANY movie he wanted and I relinquished veto power. Y'all. Let me repeat myself...

I. RELINQUISHED. Veto power. 

And what did he choose?

Robocop. The remake. 

SMH.

And what did he think of his choice...

Yep. 

Maybe I'll be nice and let him pick one more.

;)

Year of Dates: Something old, Something new...

Ryan and I went on our first date in our year of dates. For this first month, I wanted to embrace the new, but stick with the "old." We are pretty set in our ways when it comes to our "fancy" nights out. We have one favorite restaurant in town that is definitely a favorite. Christopher's opened the year we met and while it wasn't our first date, it is our place. We are the kind of people that would call in to go orders in college and pick up food in our pjs and eat at home. We don't mind spending money on food. Clearly. 

I thought it would be fun to venture out a little so we went to a highly recommended favorite among some of our friends.

When I went to pick up the gift card, I had all 3 kids with me and it was rainy and cold and I didn't feel like dragging them all in with me. So, I did what any good mom of 3 would do... I sent Radley in to do it for me. I like to think that I was encouraging his confidence, boosting his character, showing him trust and empowering his responsibility. (You may refer to this as being lazy.)

So in he went with a crisp Benjamin in his hand and giant kool-aid smile on his face. And y'all - he could hardly contain his excitement when he came back to the car.

"Mom! READ it!" 

....

I could just see him walking in there all Macaulay Culkin-like doing his thing. 

What makes this date even better? It was a MONDAY y'all! And my brother watched the kids. So - free babysitting to boot? 

#perfect

We chatted, enjoyed the wine, ate every last bite of food and didn't have to get up once to take someone else to the bathroom.  It was by far my favorite 1.5 hours of 2015 so far. This man, crazy as he makes me, makes me crazy for him. 

We made it home in time to kiss the kids goodnight (because Uncle Pete clearly let them stay up late) and watched AN ENTIRE movie without falling asleep. (If you haven't seen This is Where I Leave You... we loved it).  We were basically teenagers. 

(Teenagers that also counted out tickets for our kid's school festival.)

(But whatever.)

1 down, 11 more to go! And so excited about the envelope he opens next!

A year of dates...

Ryan and I decided that we weren't exchanging gifts this year. We agreed that Santa was bringing us new boots and aside from that we didn't really need anything. (We didn't really NEED those.) But, my love language is gifts. I really really really love to give gifts. I love everything from picking out something unique for a person to wrapping the actual present. L-O-V-E.

So this "agreement" was going to be hard for me. 

I thought and thought about how I could get around this little deal and it hit me - what if the gift wasn't for Ryan... what if the gift was for US? We always talk about going on more dates or having more time for just us, so I decided I would make it happen with... 

I asked my bestie, Pinny, for some pinspiration and as usual, she did not disappoint. This was my favorite post by far. Except she started way in advance, has much better camera skills than me, and lives in a cooler town that College Station. But still - I got some ideas. 

(I had to make this blurry on the off chance Mr. King actually reads this blog).

Cindy found these calendars last year so I checked to see if she had uploaded some for 2015 and she had. JACKPOT! I simply downloaded the images and then uploaded each month into PicMonkey to edit. 

Once the picture was uploaded I added a "label"...

The label I chose wasn't part of the "royale" package - so if you don't have a membership you can still use this option! I made the label the size that I wanted and then changed the color to match a coordinating color with the calendar. In this case light blue. Then just added text and changed fonts/colors that I thought looked good. 

I did this for all 12 months and then placed them in each in an envelope. I printed extra calendar pages and then cut the top to be the labels for the envelope. Again the free printables are these  (FREE y'all. FREE!) 

Then I placed them all in a box with an explanation about what was inside... 

Things to consider:

1. Cost - 12 pre-planned, pre-paid dates can be expensive. I was pretty strategic with my ideas and followed her advice by keeping some of them "at home." (I also only paid for the first four... I intend on getting some items as I go to add to the remaining envelopes.)

2. Childcare - Y'all. Adding a babysitter into the price of each date will add up. (See "at home" date idea.)

3. Sneakiness - I didn't want Ryan to suspect anything so I pulsed cash from my account to pay for the first four dates.

4. Creativity - They don't have to be HUGE date ideas to be fun. I'm most excited about some of the "smaller" date nights. (That I will disclose later). 

5.  Personalize it - No one knows your hubby/significant other quite like you. Think about fun things that you always said you wanted to do together. Or that HE always wants to do and you find excuses not to go. ;) 

6. Coordinate - This isn't a "must" but I tried to think of things that match the month. For example:

What better way to celebrate the New Year than at a NEW place? (Ok, the place isn't new, but we've never been there). Each envelope contains a "clue" or "instructions" along with something small to match. (And to keep him from guessing.) 

We will open the envelopes together on the 1st of each month and then pick a date that works for us. (On some months, I have already picked a date). I can't wait to see how much fun we have over the next year!

First up... January...