Date night.

I chuckled a little as I typed the title of this post.

Date night.

For the first 7 years that we were married, my hubby and I went out a lot. Heck, every night was date night! It was just the two of us and our dog and we lived a carefree life. We ate out a lot, we went to movies, concerts, and sporting events. we went bowling and miniature golfing. We rode our bikes and played tennis and took long walks.

We had plenty of time and resources to do what we wanted when we wanted.

When we talked about growing our family we said we'd make ourselves a priority. Once a week we would have date night and go out. We would go on romantic trips without the kids...etc.

Then Adam was born.

We were head over heels in love with him so why on earth would we want to leave him and go on a date? Besides we weren't yet comfortable with the idea of a babysitter tending our precious little guy. Finally when he was about 9 months old we took a risk and got a sitter. We went out to dinner and talked about him the whole time. I can't even remember if we went to a movie that night because we were so anxious to get home!

We went on a handful more dates here and there but I could probably count the number of times on both my hands.

Adam is 3 1/2 years old now and Cooper is 5 months and we haven't gone on a single trip alone together.

Life is busy these days. Our time is invested in our children and our money is tied up with all those things that keep our home running smoothly.

Date night isn't as cheap as it used to be.

Does this mean I don't think date night is important? NO! I think it's so important for us to "date" our spouse. It's important to have one on one time with each other and keep that spark alive. When we do get an occasional date night I look forward to it and cherish every moment I have alone with my hubby.

But over the years since we started our family we have had to get creative mostly for economical reasons. We find ways to connect every single day with each other. Even if we only get 10 minutes alone in the kitchen as we are cleaning up after dinner, we make sure to pay attention to each other. we talk we laugh we flirt.

Some of the times I have felt the most love for my husband are the times when he is playing with our boys and I see his genuine love for them.

Every night after I'm done singing lullabies to the boys, My hubby is waiting in the hallway to give me a hug and to tell me he loves me.

One of my favorite date nights that I remember after Adam was born was when we decide to roast marshmallows. It was the middle of winter so we pulled out our camping stove and set it up in the living room with our s'mores supplies. We laughed at our own craziness and had a fabulous time.

We make treats and we play cards.
We have movie night downstairs where we can cuddle on the couch (with more treats of course!)
Instead of leaving the house to go bowling we bowl on the Wii
We still go on bike rides, we're just towing kids behind us now!
we still go on walks and hold hands as Adam walks along next to us and Cooper sleeps in his stroller.

I know that one of these days we will get to go on that elusive romantic getaway but for now I am just grateful that the spark is still there, stronger than ever, date night or not.

What do you do for date night?

10 years baby!!!

WOW...can't believe we've been married for 10 years today!!

What better way to celebrate than with a super long post filled to the brim with old photos of us!
make sure to scroll down to the end of the post for some interesting tidbits, and facts.


We dated for 4 years before saying I do...... so without further delay here is a quick recap of the last 14 years.

we spent the summer of 96' hanging out with friends at Deer Creek Reservoir

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Here I am getting ready for a date with Clayton :)

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Awwwwe! I know...aren't we cute!

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Hiking in Moab

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Our 1 year dating anniversary!

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Valentines Dance 97' at UVSC

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We loved playing softball!

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Our engagement photos!

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Our wedding day! June, 10th 2000

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Our honeymoon! Can you tell how much fun we had?

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Our 2 year wedding anniversary

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Our 9 Year wedding anniversary

And last but not least, here are some interesting facts, tidbits and trivia from the last 10 years of our marvelous marriage:

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Fact #1 Clayton has had Cancer

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Fact #2 Clayton has shot 1 nail through his finger (not on purpose either!)

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Fact #3 Clayton has sprained his ankle numerous times

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Fact #4 He's had 3 surgeries

Fact #5 He even broke his elbow once while skateboarding...He was 26!!!

I should at least mention (in case you haven't already figured it out) that he is quite the accident prone person. I wish I could say how many times he has tripped and done a face-plant in the middle of the night while walking from the bed to the bathroom! (love you sweetie!)
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Fact #6

This is our white-trash wife-beater shirt phase....We were actually stuck in this phase for quite some time

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Fact #7

Clayton has bought and sold at least 7 guitars with the intention of someday learning to play them. He currently owns two....

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Fact #8

2 1/2 years after we were married I was baptized by Clayton...for some reason I didn't think it was important to brush my hair that morning...

We were sealed in the Manti temple the following year

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Fact #9

We worked on this Simpson puzzle for ages. We got so excited as we neared it's completion only to find that after all that hard work 1 piece was missing!!!

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Fact #10

We have gained and lost a lot of weight over the last 10 years. In the last year Clayton and I have lost 43 lbs each!! So we have a combined total of 86 lbs down!!! Hopefully we will get an updated family picture soon to show our progress :)

And finally some interesting tidbits:

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On June 10, 2000:

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*Bill Clinton was our President

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*Top headline in the news: Elian Gonzalez returning to Cuba

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*A gallon of unleaded gas cost $1.67

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*An adult movie ticket cost $6.50

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This morning Clayton summed up the last 10 years perfectly.

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"There are two events that have changed my life forever. The first one was meeting you and having you come into my life...."

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"The second one happened the day Adam was born and made us a family"
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we didn't have any way of knowing how our life would turn out 10 years down the road but it's safe to say that it's better than both of us could have imagined..

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Memories

We've made some great memories over the years and thought it would be fun to show some pictures of the "early years" back when we were dating and first married!

This is one of the first pictures of the two of us right when we started dating. We were both 17 and had HUGE crushes on each other!

We loved going to dances while we were in college. This was the first college dance we went to together, it was the winter formal.

This is our engagment photo taken 4 years later


We had a beautiful June wedding.


We chose Disneyland as our honeymoon destination..


This was our first Christmas card photo


One of the many things we enjoyed doing together was playing softball. We were fortunate enough to be on a great team made up of all our friends for several years.


This is one of the many camping trips we've been on. We love to go camping in the summer.


We have a lot of fun trying new things together! (or in this case, something neither of us had done in years..skiing!)