Date Nite

I follow Dating Divas on Pinterest. It's a website with tons of great date ideas-they range from completely free, to at home, romantic, and everything in between. I saw this one that was free and done at a bookstore. Daniel and I love going to Barnes & Noble, so I surprised Daniel with this date last night. I just printed out the sheets, it was SO easy!

After Paige's last feeding, she went to bed and stayed at home with grandma and grandpa. We first hit up Starbucks to use a giftcard we were given (thanks mom!) then I gave Daniel his note for the date. When we arrived at B&N, we each got the same task card of things to do/find. We ended up doing them together.

There are 2 parts of the bookstore date, but we just did one. We are saving part two for next time. It's basically a mini scavenger hunt-with instructions on what to do. For example, it said to find a magazine with a quiz and take it together. This part was hysterical! We laughed pretty hard taking the quizzes!

We did the quizzes in 2 teen girl magazines. It was hilarious! We weren't sure how accurate one quiz was because we didn't know enough pop culture to answer the questions! One of the questions, was Which person from One Direction are you? We both knew it was a band, but nothing else, so we just guessed. It is OBVIOUS that we are not up to date on the lingo or aware of who the famous people are. At least in the tween world anyway.

The instructions say to leave 3-4 hours for this date, but we did part one in about an hour. I could see how you could stretch it out though. We tried to give 5-10 minutes for each part.

I would highly recommend this date-it's so much fun and free!

oh and PS!! Daniel just got his blog up and running again, so head on over!

love

laura

Our First Date

Well, our first date since having Paige! When we were in the States my mom watched Paige a few times while we went out. But now that we're back to real life in EA, a date takes a little bit more planning. We've been back about 10 weeks now, it was time for a date!

Daniel surprised me with these flowers. They are beautiful and still going strong!

A very kind friend of ours offered to watch Paige for us. Since it was her first time to give Paige a bottle, and for someone else to put her down for the night, we didn't want to wander too far...just in case.  We knew she was in good hands though!

The weather was perfect that night! We walked to a local restaurant near our house that we had never tried before. We got beef and peppers, with fried cabbage. It was pretty good....a little spicy but that's what our city is known for!

I did check my phone several times to make sure I didn't miss a call from my friend, in case of a problem. After dinner, we walked to Starbucks. It was a holiday this week here, so it was insane!!! But we were able to get comfy chairs, so I consider than a win, ha!

We actually ran into some friends of ours who were also out on a date. At 8 my friend txt me and said Paige took her bottle, was asleep, and to stay out as long as we wanted!! I felt so much more at ease after that. Once Paige is asleep, we can count on her being out for the night.

Daniel and I had a great time! I'm so glad Paige did well! It was a great night, with perfect weather and amazing company! 

This week we also celebrated our 4 year anniversary of getting engaged!

love

laura

Lately...

We are officially counting down....one week from today we will be on a plane heading back home to East Asia. It will be Paige's first of many airplane rides. Tomorrow we are doing our big shopping trip to stock up on stuff like velveeta, fiber one brownie bars, medicines, and baking mixes.

Here's a little bit of what we've been doing the past few days:

Daniel and I had a date night on Saturday, while my parents baby sat. I left a bottle for Paige. It was SO nice to get out and not have to rush back to feed. It's weird to schedule everything around feedings...and most places are about 30+minutes from my parents house, which doesn't leave a lot of time to actually eat or get errands done. So to be able to have a nice dinner out, do some shopping without being rushed, was so nice!

I'm going to miss having a built in babysitter!

Paige has been doing some tummy time. She can pick up her head and move it from side to side. Daniel and I just watch and cheer for her each time she does it. I'm afraid we are going to be those parents that makes people watch 30 minutes of video of our daughter moving her head. But it's precious to us :)

She really does get cuter and cuter every day!

Right now she's snoring on Papa.

My plans for the week include getting a pedicure, eating at IHOP, and packing packing packing. Hopefully I can sneak in Sonic and CFA too! I also have my 6 week postpartum check up on Thursday. I'm excited to hopefully get cleared for running!

Also, we got 15 inches of snow yesterday. It is beautiful outside!!!! If Paige was older and had real winter clothes, I would've taken her outside, but sadly she just isn't appreciating it right now. Some day.....

love

laura

Random Photo Post

I was travelling last week and have just random photos I want to share.

First, Sarah sent us a Christmas package/baby Paige package. We were allowed to open our Christmas presents early (separate post). This is my new mug!

Daniel and I had a date night at a Turkish restaurant two Saturdays ago.

This was the tub at the hotel where I stayed. It was really big and deep and I was pretty careful getting in and out.

I was at a womens training last week, which meant lots of girl talk and lots of Starbucks!

Back in my city, I took some friends to the Toys R Us here. I saw this. It was near the baby bathtubs. 

There really are no words.

Our city just got a GAP....like a reallllll GAP!!! It even has a baby and kids section, and totally felt like being in America. This was the babyGap.

I was away for our 3 year wedding anniversary, but these greeted me when I came home!

We went out for dinner this past Saturday nite to celebrate. There is this amazing italian restaurant in our city that is our fave. But we got there and it was a special reservation only wine tasting set dinner. We ended up going to a restaurant near our house instead. But we plan to re-celebrate in a couple of weeks.

love

laura

Around Here

Here's a little of what we've been up to around here....

I did want to post about me and Daniel's date night a few weeks ago. We walked to this cute little area a few miles from our house and enjoyed yummy pasta and pool!

We didn't even finish the pool game because I struggle making the pool stick connect with the balls, so it was more of a one person game. But it was fun!

Mom's first full day here we took her to eat at our local noodle shop. They make the noodles right there.

Mom enjoyed the noodles, and we'll probably go back again soon!

We also took Mom to my favorite place to get breakfast...it's a Texas themed Western restaurant in our city that has the best french toast!! It is also the same place I would always go to skype my parents when I lived here before. It's full of memories...

In my mom's free time, she has been cleaning our kitchen tile and bathroom floor with a toothbrush. I wish I could say I was joking.

Outside our apartment building:

This morning we went to a walking street touristy area near our house. 

UMMMM...where did that belly come from???? Can I just say I feel a lot smaller than I look, ha! I looked at the pictures we took today and was shocked! Maybe I'm finally passing that 5 lb mark, ha!

Tomorrow is the 21 Week Recap!!

love

laura

Random catch up

So sorry for the long delay in between posts! I would claim I'm busy, but really i feel like who isn't these days?

Anyways.....

Last Sunday night, Daniel and I had a date and went out for dinner and a movie. We went to a western restaurant then walked (in the pouring rain) to the movie theatre to see Avengers.

Daniel ordered chimichungas:

And I had the chicken Caesar salad. I feel like salads here are a huge treat! I have never made a salad at home because it just takes too much work washing all the vegetables and making salad dressing. I appreciate it a lot more when someone else does it :)

After dinner, we walked by an import store to pick up a treat for the movies. And lo and behold they had Milk Duds!!! I would never normally just buy Milk Duds to eat, but because they are a treat here and I completely associate them with movie food, I bought them and devoured every single one. They were uber good. Daniel bought Reese's Pieces.

Last week I was out running an errand or something and saw this. Now, I'm not judging them, but I thought it looked a little crazy!

Also, this past week we had some friends over for dinner. Food was in the crock pot and I came home from class about 3:30. When I walked in, Daniel warned me not to look in our bathroom.

Our bathroom fan went out about 6 months ago.

It took the repairman a few hours to fix it...apparently the motor was complete dead. He had it fixed right as our friends arrived. And of course, this all happened the day after the house was just cleaned :)

Oh, and I forgot to share this pic......it was taken the day we left the mountains. Isn't it gorgeous?

I'll blog again tomorrow about our weekend, it was amazing!!!!

love

laura

Oklahoma!!!!!!

Let's catch up shall we? Cos i have way too much to say!

Daniel has been working crazy hours this week, and is actually currently away working as i type. Despite the craziness of our week, we took a few hours away and headed to the state fair on Thursday. I had never been in OK, just Texas. I really just go for the food. pictures to prove that in a minute.

As soon as we got there we headed for the petting zoo. I'm not a huge "have animals live with you kind of person", but i'm a sucker for a good petting zoo!!!

you can't really tell in this pic, i'm very excited!!

me living it up!!

Goats scare me because they attack you. Let's not talk about family vaca of 08. don't worry it's all on video.

 

Daniel getting in on the action.

the yak was my all time fave!! he's so cute!!

 and then we ate...and ate....and ate...

First....chocolate covered cookie dough...mmm mm!!

Second....pork chop sandwhich...surprisingly delish!!

ummm hello!!! please appreciate the joy! we got the sampler...fried mashed pot's, fried manicotti (my fave), fried ravioli, and chicken tenders  (fried of course).

i want you to feel like you were there...

i like this pic cos it wasn't really planned but it captures the essence of our love, ha!

this poor lady took this pic for us and kneeled in the rain to get it!

it rained a little, but that didn't stop us from fried oreos!! (these were actually my all time fave!)

have a good Saturday!! stay tuned for more :)

love

laura