Happy Anniversary & Date Nights for a Year!

Happy Anniversary to us!! :) Jon and I have been married for 6 years! Wow. That's weird! Seems so young, but yet so old, all at the same time. :) We got married on the 4th of July and exited our reception through a huge sparkler tunnel ending with fireworks. It was perfection!

6 years ago...

From this....

To this...

Now THAT is crazy. I feel too young to be married, and two kids? Wow. :) 

And some anniversary love...

For our anniversary this year, I made Jon's gift. It only took him 6 years to tell me how much he hates planning social events for us to hang with friends, and really hates planning our date nights. He said it "stresses him out." If I would've known how adamant he was about this, I would've done something about it a long time ago! I do plan our social calendar a lot of times, but I haven't really taken care of the date night stuff. Usually Jon does and I honestly never thought much about it. Maybe it's like that old couple, around age 90, that the husband finally tells his wife after 50+ years of marriage that he hates peas, despises them actually. But he always ate them in large amounts when she cooked them and never said anything different, so she assumed they were his favorite vegetable, and made them all the time! Maybe it's something like that! :) Who knows! 

So anyway, we got into this huge discussion about planning date nights and planning in general about two months ago and Jon was obviously a bit agitated. Then I got a GREAT idea. My anniversary gift would be an entire year of planned date nights!! Now that is not an easy task on a limited budget. But boy was it worth it. And, I actually really had a great time putting it together because I knew Jon would really like it. 

It took me hours and hours to come up with all the dates and organize them. I decided on two dates a month for a year. Each month, I planned one date costing money and one date that was a stay-in date or a no-money date. I made the entire date night can, including the envelopes (which no lie, took me 4 hours to make all of them)! Holy cow! 

The Finished Product!

"A Year To Remember"

Inside the paint can are 12 envelopes, labeled for each month of the year. 

Inside each month's envelopes are two little envelopes. Inside each little envelope is an invitation to date night. 

And that's it! I cannot wait for all our fun dates! I am a little bummed I have to wait so long to complete all of them, but it'll be worth it! 

We are huge, huge proponents of weekly date nights for married couples. Weekly you say? Yes. Absolutely!!! And sadly, most married couples only get time away/out together a few times a year. Unfortunately, many marriages see the affects of the lack of time spent together, alone. Ideally, a weekly date night is best, but our budget is limited so paying for a date night and a sitter is not usually possible. So I opted to plan for just 2 dates a month for this season of our life. We are extremely blessed for a few people in our life who selflessly and joyfully watch our two babes for free so we can get out together. I can't even describe the blessing that is! Need to start date night with the love of your life? Here are some babysitting ideas if you have little ones that make it seem like a weekly date night is impossible. 

1. Sitter swap- do you have friends that live in the same general area with kids? Get 4 couples together and swap babystting. One evening a month, you and your spouse have all 4 couples' kids at your house while the other 3 couples go out. And the other 3 weekends the other couples babysit. This means that each couple gets 3 date nights a months with free babysitting. 
2. Do grandparents live in the area? We know of people whose Grandparents take the kids one evening a week so mom and dad can have some time together. This can be a super great memory for your kids growing up, having their own special "date night" with their Grandma and Grandpa.
3. Do you have an "older" couple/family in your church who might be willing to encourage young married couples by sitting for free once a month? Sometimes elderly, grandparent-like couples love the opportunity to bless your children, or maybe a family whose children are older or already out of the house might love the opportunity as well. 

So let your creative juices flow and bring that hunny of yours on a date night! It will do a lot for your marriage and give you time to reconnect without the kids each week!