Harlem Globetrotters

In early January, I came across a groupon for tickets for the Harlem Globetrotters.  We had just made our resolution for more dating, and not just dinner and a movie (which we love!).  I called Marcel at work and had him check the date with anything that may have come up that I didn't know about yet. I was determined to keep it a surprise.  Until it came time to purchase the tickets and I started to get a little worried about spending so much money on something I wasn't 100% sure he'd want to do.  I tried to let him let me tell him about it, but he wouldn't.  He kept saying "we said we didn't want to just do a dinner and movie all the time.  We have the money in our envelope.  Just do it"  So I did.  Then we started referring to it as "the surprise date"

I later realized that since I made Marcel his envelopes filled with planned date, each date is kind of a surprise date to him, but this one was an extra big surprise.

We met at Target to drop the girls off, which we often do if I need to be off a little early, and headed to Boise.  I didn't tell Marcel where we were going, just put the address in his phone and let the directions lead him there.  He still had to drive, because I don't like to if I don't have to ;)

Once we got more into Boise, he figured out that we were having dinner at Big Juds, thank you groupon!  Neither of us had been there before and we were both excited to try it out.

Marcel had a mushroom, bacon, something something burger.  He loved it! I had one of my most favorite out-to-eat dinners: finger steaks!  They just don't photograph well :)

After dinner we went out to the car and Marcel finally got to open his envelope and see what the big surprise was.

He really had no idea, even though he did admit to me that he was struggling to not google events that were going on that day because the anticipation was killing him.

Marcel had been to a game/show of their before while in college, but it was my first time.  I was really excited to see the first girl on the team.  It was everything I expected and yet nothing at the same time.  We had a lot of fun.

Back in the car for the long wait out of the parking garage and drive home!  We were laughing at ourselves the whole night because they were only at half-time at our normal bedtime, but that is what happens when real-life includes a 5:30am alarm for me, and even earlier for Marcel!

February, part 1

We've had a great month so far and because of a surprise date for Marcel next week that should have lots of pictures, I decided to split this month up into 2 posts.  

The month started with a couple very excited for the Super Bowl.  Our Seahawks and the Patriots.  We stayed home to watch the game so that we could actually watch the game.  It was that important :)  

We tried a new homemade queso for nachos and it was delicious!

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2015/01/26/recipe-creamy-queso-dip-veggies/

We also made our own salsa and guacamole in my new Blendtec.  We always make our own guacamole and do our own salsa most of the time, but they were so much easier (and quicker) in the Blendtec.

In September, we ran in the FitOne race and I have since "liked" their facebook page.  They had posted a Super Bowl exercise routine.  I had joked that we should do it but didn't think too much of it.  Then half-time came and they posted the recap of all the exercises that should have been done and we decided to do them!  It was really hard, especially all the calf raises for each timeout.  But it felt so good to exercise, even if we ended up saving some of them for the next day because the game got too close to be exercising (and because after it was over, we were too depressed to do anything but sulk)  

We enjoyed Katy Perry's performance in the middle of our planks, wall sits, jumping jacks and high knees and got quite sweaty, as seen below:

Cece started gymnastics this month and loved it.  I have only tried to take pictures once and it is so hard because I have to help her do everything, since it is a "mommy & me" class.  This picture is at the end of her first class when I told her it was time to go.  She wasn't happy, but loves getting a stamp and sucker at the end!

Lilli is just about done with naps, even though I'm not ready for it, so on Fridays we've been cooking together.  I've been trying to find things that she can do all by herself.  The first week was ice cream.  She measured out the milk, whipping cream, vanilla and pure maple syrup and got it all in the ice cream maker.  Then she made chocolate syrup.  I can't believe how big, helpful, and independent she is!

The girls and I had a great time with Valentine's Day crafts.  I didn't take very many pictures of our creations because Lilli decided to save all of them and give them to her parents at once as a Valentines gift.  I loved these colored macaroni noodles

(1/4 cup noodles + 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol in a ziploc overnight, then drain and let dry)

 Cece isn't as excited by crafts, especially painting, like Lilli is so we did this project Friday while Cece was napping.  I loved how well they turned out.  Toilet paper tubes are so useful!

1 week before Valentine's Day I gifted Marcel with 24 preplanned dates.  2 for each month: 1 out and about and 1 at home or done cheaply/free.  I had planned it to be for Valentine's but he was getting so curious about my "secret project" and I didn't want him to feel bad about not getting me anything, since we never exchange gifts on Valentine's.

 (thank you www.cleanandscentsible.com/ for the main page)

We/He picked Valentine's weekend to open February's at-home date.  It was originally supposed to be a redbox movie weekend but all the free codes I had been saving ended up not working, so I rearranged some envelopes and let him open a new one: 

We started Friday night realizing it was our 9th Valentine's Day together.  Where does the time go?

We moved our mattress to the living room and pretty much stayed there the entire weekend.  We watched 1 on Friday, 4 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.

My mom gave us some money for a Valentine's gift so we escaped to Qdoba for lunch for their BOGO burritos on Saturday.  We had to kiss at the end of the line to get the deal, so worth it :)  They were so big that we only ended up eating popcorn for dinner.

 We made it to the end!

Monday, President's Day, I was supposed to have the girls, even though Marcel was off from school but they both ended up staying home sick.  Lilli has been asking forever to have a day without Cece so Tuesday Marcel stayed with the napping Cece and Lilli and I went out.  She chose to go to the lotion store with the coupon for a free lotion that Grandma Wende gave her, go the pet store, Sonic for a special drink, and Target.  She got to pick out a design-your-own My Little Pony and a Frozen notepad.  She was in heaven.  Checking out at Target there was a baby crying and it made her miss her sister so we headed home.  I love on-one-on time!

January

I'm going to give blogging another try.  I love that I have so many details saved for the years I was blogging and then I only posted once in 2014.  No good.  To start, I'm planning on doing just 1 post per month so that I don't have to do it so often, unless there is an event with too many details/pictures. And in order to blog, I'm going to try to take more pictures again!

Marcel was still on Christmas vacation the first week of January and we spent our time binge-watching Criminal Minds on Netflix.  We also talked through our goals and dreams for the year. Continuing from last year, a big priority for us was to go on at least 1 date per month, out of the house.  We also set a pretty big financial goal in terms of how much debt repayment we'd like to do this year in order to be debt-free on our 10th anniversary.  Yes, we're still that far away, but a huge pile takes a long time to move with a little shovel.  And we're grateful to still be faster than if we didn't work at it at all.

We spent our last day before school started at Cece's 2nd birthday party.  Of course, it had to be Minnie Mouse.  She's been so Minnie obsessed, so it made sense!  And unlike her sister, she seemed to enjoy being sung to.

We had a great 3 day weekend for MLK Jr. Day.  We enjoyed our monthly date on Friday night.  We went to dinner at The Counter.

For Christmas, the adults did a restaurant gift card exchange and this was one of the 2 that we got (one for each of us).  Neither of us had ever been there before and we were excited to get to build our own burgers.

Marcel's hamburger.  I didn't get a picture of mine, but it was WAY better than his :) 

He choose a gross sauce to go on his.

Then we headed back to Nampa to see American Sniper.  It was opening night, which we never do, and will probably never do again!  The first theater we got to was full for the time we wanted to go so instead of waiting in line for an hour for the next screening, we headed to a different theater.  We had to wait in line for just a few minutes before they opened the door and then got great seats. The movie was so good.  Definitely a must-watch.  And after it was over, I said "I couldn't be a military wife" to which Marcel replied, "I couldn't be in the service."  Such a new found appreciation for the troops.

 Marcel had a rare Sunday off from serving at church.  Marcel normally leaves for church around 6:30am, when I get up, so it was nice to have him home in the morning.  And he cooked me breakfast!  We decided to attend service at CFC Caldwell, the campus of our church we moved to in November in 2013 when it launched.  We have been back at main campus since July 2014 and even though I visit Caldwell regularly, this was Marcel's first time back.  Everyone was so surprised to see him there.

We spent most of Monday in Boise.  We wandered around the mall and running into many of Mr. Bailey's students.  I was looking for a Seahawks shirt because they had just won the NFC Championship game and were headed to the Super Bowl.  It has been a long 2 weeks waiting for the game.  We are both just a little excited!  After our shopping we headed to Aspen Leaf frozen yogurt for a yummy treat.  

The past 5 or so days I've been dealing with an infected finger.  I finally went into urgent care last night (1/27) because the redness was spreading and it was not getting any better.  He prescribed me an antibiotic and even though it barely looks better today (he said it will take a few days to see a difference) it is already feeling better.  Thank goodness, because it was rather painful, especially when it got bumped.

sorry to end with such a lovely picture...

Tubing @ Bogus Basin

We love date nights and have committed to having at least 1 date per month out of the house.  We have movie and restaurant gift cards to cover many dates, but we want to do fun activities as well, so we started the year off with a bang. 

Marcel and I both had MLK Jr Day off from work and headed up the mountain for our favorite winter date: tubing!  Love the chain to pull you back up the mountain :)  Also, in Caldwell we were experiencing a nasty inversion and hadn't seen the sun in forever and had constant temperatures of about 25*.  We were so lucky to have a sunny day of 42* at the mountain and were able to leave most of our clothing layers in the car, including Marcel's jacket!

Because no post is complete without pictures:

waiting in line with a million kids

selfie riding the tube back up the mountain

Marcel's selfie

Marcel is always being artistic with a camera.  This may be one of my favorites!

Getting ready for take-off

Just around the corner from the tubing hill

When I have more time I'll watch the videos of us going down the hill and find a few to upload.  Mostly for us to have, because I scream the whole way down and Marcel just thinks it is so hilarious :)

Anniversary #4

We loved our anniversary celebration so much last year that we decided to recreate it.  The only differences were a different room at The Anniversary Inn and different gifts!

We did continue the tradition of giving traditional gifts.  Year 4 is fruit/flowers.  So hard to get a guy anything fruity or flowers.  I was only successful at it this year because of some lucky google searches.  Marcel received a gift card to the Apple Store.  I let him open it before we headed out for anniversary activities in case he wanted to spend it while we were in Boise.

Marcel had an edible arrangement sent to our room.  He even made sure that one of the fruit pieces could be cut into a flower so he would have given both parts of the gift.

This was not our most favorite room, but still what an oasis it provided for us to escape the stress of everyday life.

We had dinner at Cheesecake Factory, and found humor in the fact that we go there but don't even get cheesecake.  Normally we'd probably splurge for dessert on an anniversary but it comes included in the room :) 

Marcel's Golden Birthday

Marcel got home from school to discover 26 wonderful presents to celebrate being 26.

Lilli was such a helper and was so proud of all the presents we wrapped

After all the excitement from the presents we took the girls to feed the ducks.  It was more like Lilli took Marcel to feed the ducks, because she had planned it for a fun activity to do on his birthday.

When the day was over, we took the girlies to their mom and headed out for our real fun activity: Wahooz.  Thank goodness for free passes on your birthday!