Date Night

We are always so thankful that we have amazing grandparents to our baby boys.  Every so often they will come spend the night with us so that Jer and I can get some alone one-on-one time.  And every time we have an awesome dinner with great conversation.  Mainly about the boys and our business, which is like our third baby.  That's when we get the most business strategy done when we don't have a baby to feed or a toddler to handle.

This time we chose to go to Del Frisco's Grille.  And gosh darn was it delicious.  So delicious I'm boring you with food pictures.  :)  Everything taste perfect and, of course, I ate way too much.  Totally went of the diet.  But that tends to happen a lot.

After dinner, we decided to just sit there and enjoy the peacefulness of it all.  So instead of going and doing anything else, we stayed right there and sipped on our adult beverages!  Yes, we had some alcohol.  I know, I couldn't believe it either.  It had been over 20 months.  I just knew that I'd have to pump and dump, but then some of my lovely mama instagram followers informed me that there would be no need to do that if I wasn't feeling "wasted" by the time I started to feed/pump.  Love that instagram community.  I learn so much from other mamas.  So, I got to keep my "gold" milk as we call it around here.  But isn't that what everyone calls it?!

Anyway, until next time....

xo

Our Most Favorite Type of Date Nights

Friday night date.

Jer text me around 3pm and asked me if Boston could go spend the night with my parents because my mom had asked him if they could have him for the night.  I said, "Yes!"  Then Jer proceeded to tell me that he would be leaving work around 4pm and for me to be ready and to have Boston packed so that when he got home we could head out for a date night.

So that's what I did.  I quickly got in the shower, while B played on the iPap (as he calls it) and got ready.  Then packed his bag.

By the time Jer got home, my mom was almost to our house to pick up the B-man.  She loaded him up and they took off.

Then Jer and I headed out to sushi.  That's always on the top of our list to eat when we go out for dinner.  Since one of my really close friends just had a baby, we headed over to visit their new sweet little guy.  We spent a good hour with them and then headed over to Barnes and Noble where we finished our night.  I read DIY magazines while Jer did a little work.

Now that's our kinda date night.  Sushi, friends and magazine reading.  Who doesn't love to just read magazines at B&N?  It's so calm and quiet.  Pretty much perfect to me.

Can't wait until the next one.

Oh and getting to sleep in was blissful.

xo

Just The Two of Us

Just the two of us....we can appropriately cue the Will Smith song "Just The Two of Us."  Remember that song?  Funny that I do since I wasn't really into it.  But it was one of those catchy songs that I couldn't ever get out of my head.

Anyway, onto the reason for this post.

It's not often that my lover and I get a night alone.....just the two of us.  Eating dinner at a restaurant without worrying about a meltdown.  Driving to whatever suites our fancy.  Getting in and out of the car in a flash.  Talking without any interruptions. Stopping to just hang out at a coffee shop.  Acting like high schoolers and having a sense of freedom to be able to go and do anything we please.  As parents now, it's these simple things that have now become blissful when we get to experience them.  :)

Last weekend, after the pumpkin patch, we headed over to Jer's mom's house (Nana) to drop off the bambino for a few hours.  She was excited to spend some time with him and he was excited to play with his two little cousins that were there, too.  And Jer and I were happy to get a night out on the town.  It was a win for all.

It was a quite simple night, but one that was pretty darn fantastic if you ask me.  We had no plans - it was a fly by the seat of our pants kinda night.  Which are often the best.  Because who knows what we'll end deciding to do.  That's the most fun.  Spontaneity.  But the most exciting part, was that end the end, we knew that we would be going back to Nana's house to pick up our prize possession that was well taken care of and who had had a blast playing all night.  We couldn't ask for anything better.

Date night bound.  With no clue to where we are heading.  :)

Kohl's sounds good.  We walked hand in hand while browsing/shopping in the toddler boy section.  Ultimately buying him too much.  

We built up an appetite and Jer wanted steak.  So Logan's it was.  And Logan's delivered.....very well. 

The night was still young and we wanted something sweet.  We chose Starbucks.  There were only 3-4 people and us in the whole place.  We had our iPhones with us and I took my iPad.  Jer did some news/politics reading while I peacefully did some blog stalking while sipping on my pumpkin spice latte and shared a blueberry scone with my lover.  

At one point (for about 15 minutes straight), we were both engaged in our phone/iPad and didn't even say one word to each other.  It was like we were sucking it all in.  All of the calmness that comes with it just being the two of us.  Every once in a while, one of us would look up at the other and we'd make eye contact and mouth, "I love you" or give a wink to one another.  That's all we needed.  And we were back in our zone reading.

It was one of those nights that just felt awesome.  Awesome to be with my life partner and my best friend.  Just knowing he was right in front of me anytime I looked up.

Until our next date....I'll enjoy every day that I have with my little man and soaking up this season of my life as a wife and a toddler-boy-mom.

Lovely Date Night

One of my favorite things about being married to Jer are his surprise date nights.  I love getting texts from him saying, "Don't make plans for Saturday night."  :)  I always know what that means.  Please, pinch me.  :)


He arranged for my parents to come over to watch the B-man.  Typically he has a plan and certain places in mind to go to for our date night, and I usually always end up ruining them because I always have something else in mind to do.  Seriously, I need to quit that.  But geez, it's hard.  If I get to go somewhere with him I wanna take full advantage of that time alone with him and go somewhere we can't necessarily go (or it could end up cutting our time there short or going horribly wrong) to with the B-ster.  Luckily, he doesn't mind doing what I want to do.

Like, spending hours at IKEA!  Yup - I thought spending most of our date night shopping at Ikea would be ideal to do without B!  This place is NOT a place for toddlers that need your total attention, get hungry and tired of watching you indecisively shop.  Yup - when I get into that store I get overwhelmed and indecisive.  Totally.  It's terrible I tell ya.  Plus, it's about a 40 minute drive from our house so having a toddler with us for a trip to Ikea would be bad bad bad.

In true "Cook Date Night" fashion, we took our pictures before we left.  You know, for our memory book.  :)

Yes, I am standing on my tipey toes.  With my 5'0 stature standing next to a 6 foot stature I always feel like it's a must to get as tall as I can when I'm not wearing my heels.  Maybe, just maybe, it'll make me look a little leaner and taller.  One can dream.  

And we couldn't leave without a picture with our main man.  He was bathed and ready for sleep even though he had a few hours with the grandparents.  It would be one less thing they would have to do.  Plus, daddy loves giving him his baths.  :)

He is all mine!!  Please, pinch me again!

Before we left (while waiting for the grandparents) we had a little play time.  Daddy pushing Boston on his "CA" (as he calls his car).

He has stolen my heart.

Snuggles with da-da.  He is uber ticklish.  Like for real.  :)  But that's okay - I never get tired of hearing his giggles.

He loves his new car from his aunt TT.  This is such a cool car.  It spits out balls from the hood when you ride it.  Plus it makes all kinds of sounds that Bos likes to laugh at and play over and over and over.

Several weeks ago, he taught himself how to climb on and off of the ottoman and couch.  Seriously, can this guy slow down in growing?!  Can I push his time machine off?  I would.  I would keep him a toddler forever.  No lie.

Jet got some lovin' too.  We can't forget about our first baby boy.  Even though he has (sadly) been trumped lately (well, for about 16 months now).  Poor guy.

So, remember when I said I usually ruin Jer's plans for our date nights?  Well, he had plans to go eat somewhere good but since I wanted to get to Ikea as fast as possible we settled on Chicken Express since it was on the way!  Oh M Gee (yea, I just said that, ha)....if you have never eaten at a CE (as we call it) you are missing out, like seriously, you are missing out.  They have the best chicken tenders, gravy, fried okra, fried corn poppers, coleslaw and biscuits.....heck everything..... EVER!  

 Right before stuffing our faces with some fattening food (i called it my "off" meal from my diet).  Ha.

IKEA!!!  We made it.  We got some good stuff which I'll post about soon.  Let me tell ya, it was nice not having B there.  I think we ended up circling the store about 3 times.  We.took.our.time.  Yes we did and it was great.  

We couldn't end the night with out some more yummy-ness.  Our favorite ice cream shop is Marble Slab.  We always have the exact same thing when we go.  ME: strawberry shortcake with birthday cake ice cream.  JER: Caramel sundae with walnuts instead of peanuts.  We are absolutely each other's enablers.  But it works.  :-)

Just to show you what I scarfed down so fast, so fast that we were in and out of that place within 15 minutes.  From start to finish.  Makes me crave this dessert just looking at this picture.  Bad, Jeni, bad.

After we left Ikea, Jer had originally planned for us to go see a movie that started at 10:30 but after this dessert, I knew I would have been "lights out" about 15 minutes into the movie.  So we came home early and hung out with my parents.  

It was lovely.  

Thank you, Jer, for such a relaxing evening alone.  Until next time....

TGIF!

xoxo,

~Jeni

Weekend Review

Boy oh boy whataweekend.  It was jam packed weekend fun filled with friends and family.

Friday
Jer got home and he took me out for a date night (he actually told me on Tuesday to not make any plans for Friday night so he could take me out on a date since he knows I'm notorious for making plans for us).  He had made reservations at a fancy restaurant here in Roanoke called The Classic Cafe (doesn't sound like it would be a fancy restaurant, it sounds more like a home-cooking restaurant).  It was delish but too pricey for my budget.  It was definitely a "been there done that" kinda experience.

Before we head out pictures.

 I tried to get a picture of the restaurant sign but my iPhone couldn't handle the bright lights shining on it.

Yes....we are those people.....but luckily we were in a room by ourselves.  And yes....these are yucky iPhone pictures.  Blah.

Next, Jer planned for us to go bowling.  We hadn't been in years and both of us have a good time when we bowl.  But before heading to Main Event, we hit up this place:
They have AWE-some ice cream.  It's so creamy and tasteful.  My favorite is mint chocolate chip on top and birthday cake (with real chunks of cake in it) on top.  Fan-freaking-tastic!

Once we got our sugar induced a coma we headed here:

When we got to the counter to buy our bowling passes the lady told us it would be a 2-2 1/2 hour wait to get a bowling lane.  So we got a beeper that would tell us when a lane was open, walked around for a little bit and decided that even though we felt like teenagers among the other teenagers, we weren't willing to wait that long.  So...we went here:

We hadn't been to a theater in for-evah!  So it sounded like fun.  We knew that my mom was at the house while Boston was sleeping so we took advantage of our time alone together.  Our movie started at 9:50p.  Within 20 minutes of the movie, I was asleep.  Yup - out like a light.  I was so tired.  The kinda tired that when you try to open your eyes they would cross.  Ha.  But woke up with about 15 minutes left of the movie.  Oh, and, we saw the move the Descendants with George Clooney.  From what I saw, it was a good/weird movie.  But don't ask how the rest of it was.  But Jer would know.  :-)

Saturday
Since my mom stayed the night and was going to spend the day at our house, we decided that would be a perfect time for Jer and I to go Christmas shopping alone so we could get more done without a baby in tow.  So mom stayed home with the B-Man.  We were gone for a good 5 hours and it was so nice to be able to hop in and out of the car without having to put a baby in and out of his car seat and stroller.  I am officially done with Christmas shopping except for stocking stuffers which are easy peasy.  By the time we got home, mom left to a family party and Jer and I went to Schlotzsky's for dinner then to the grocery store.

Sunday
We got up watched church on the laptop through our church's live webcast.  Once it was over we headed out to meet my cousins, aunt, mom and grandma at a little Mexican restaurant called Dos Molina's in Fort Worth.  Best mexican breakfast, ev-ah!!!  Seriously, I have the most awesome cousins. Each of them are so stinkin' sweet and fun!

Then we went to a local flea market that my grandma wanted to go to where we found this fun little man and woman.  Uh huh, we are adults AND we are parents.  And we claim to be mature adults :)

After, we came home to change and put Boston in his pj's and headed over to Grapevine to the North Pole Express train ride.  This is a tradition our little family will be doing each year.  I heart heart heart traditions....especially traditions during Christmas time.

For our first year, we went with the Mitchell's!  oh M Gee (yes I just spelt it that way) they are THE sweetest people!  We love them so much.  Mer is a sorority sister and I'm so lucky to have her as a sista-fo-life.  :)  Fingers crossed that they agree to go with us every year as "our little tradition."

We were heading through the maze of lights/trees and "snow" (really soap suds) to get on the train.

The Mitchell's.  Aren't they just adorable.  Their son, Cash, is only 2 months younger than B-man.  We hope to have them grow up together since they are already Best Buds.  They told us they were.  We totally didn't make them become best buds.....it was totally their choice.  Yep.

 On the train.  We got to face our seats toward each other.  It was a little cramped, but cozy.  :)

 Love little Cash's face!  Ha.

 They handed out bells to all the children and the boys loved them.

 They even wanted to snatch them out of each others hands.  That's what Best Buds do I guess.

People were ice skating on fake ice.  I had never seen such a thing.

 Fireside Pies for dinner.  The boys and their pizza faces.  :-)

We ended the night with these guys.  Jer put his hat on him and he never took it off till we headed up stairs to take him to bed.  He must secretly be a little cowboy at heart.....I mean we ARE from Texas.  ;)

Whew, what a weekend.  Busy but great fun.

P.S. If you are a Facebook friend, there will be tons more pictures on my page.  :)

~Jeni