BLOG HOPPIN'!!

Welcome to the My Scraps & More first blog hop!
The arrival of a new year always brings resolutions along with it.

We at My Scraps & More are focusing on these resolutions all through the month of January with a crop on the forum and we are starting it off with a blog hop!

This is the order of the hop:

My Scraps & More blog
Lisa
Shawna
Janelle (you are here)
Tracy (go here next)

My Scraps & More Blog

As you hop along to each of the Design Team's blogs you will be collecting "ingredients" to our New Year's recipe. After you have collected all the ingredients, create a layout using those "ingredients". Post a comment on the My Scraps & More blog with a link to your layout.

Layouts are due Sunday, January 8, 11:59 pm.

Tammi will randomly select a winner for the grand prize of Fancy Pants Winterland paper collection. Watch along the way, some of the design team are giving away RAKs with their own requirements.

Read more: http://myscrapsandmore.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=bloghop&action=display&thread=1875#ixzz1i5N1AvrF

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Here is my layout! I have been thinking about the goals I have for the next year and I decided to make a layout about the things I want to improve in 2012. I had a lot of fun with this layout, using my favorite papers and techniques to make it personal. My ingredient for you to use on your layout is a journaling card/block. I used four of them on my layout, three to actually write journaling on and one to ground my title.

supplies: Crate Paper Random and Emma's Shoppe Collections

Bad picture...ughh....anyway......

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Leave a comment telling one of your new years resolutions and you will be entered in a drawing for a set of five handmade cards!

Now hop on over to Tracy's blog!

Happy Hopping!

Well, hi there!

Umm...It's been awhile. :)

I hope y'all had a great Christmas! Our Christmas was wonderful! We surprised our kids, and their grandparents, by driving up to Utah for Christmas....so fun!!! I will be back soon to share that story and some fun pictures from our trip.

I wanted to let you know that this weekend My Scraps and More is having our first ever blog hop...should be awesome! So come back on Saturday and check it out! Each of our blogs will have an item that you will need to include on a layout that you make, and then you can submit your layout and be entered in the drawing for a fun scrapbooking prize! Fun, fun!! Also, Tammi is offering 40% off at her online store through Sunday, and she just got in some super cute Valentines lines, so you may want to check that out as well... :)

Be back soon!

Card Night {Round 2}

Hi!

We are on our way out of town, so I've got to make this quick, but I wanted to post the pictures of the Christmas tags we will be making at my November card workshop. It will be held next Tuesday, the 29th, @ 7:00pm at my house, so if you are interested in coming, let me know by next Sunday and I will make you up a set!! The cost is $5.

Have a great Thanksgiving! There are so many things to be grateful for, aren't there?!

Finally some Pictures :)

YAY!! We got our computer fixed.
That was a happy day!
The man who fixed is asked if I was having computer withdrawals. :)
Yep, I sure was...although mostly is was photoshop withdrawals!

Anyway, I have been waiting to get the computer back so I could edit some of the fun Halloween pictures! The grandmas have been asking to see pictures of the kids in their costumes. So I thought I better get them up before Thanksgiving, at least! :)

Joshua was Troy Bolton "The Basketball Man" as he calls him. He still puts the costume on every once in a while and dribbles his basketball all around. I am starting to wonder if that ball is permanently stuck to his hand...I can't get him to put that thing down these days!

And Miss Grace was Fancy Nancy...so adorable! I want to dress her up like this everyday!

{actually, most days she chooses her own outfits that aren't too far from this! :)}

They had so much fun on Halloween this year, it really was a joy to see!

.....and on that note, HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

My computer melted down...

Hi-ya.

I have been a little MIA on this blog recently, but never fear, we are alive and I have a very valid excuse for not blogging!

Our computer suffered a bit of a melt down...

as in it was making roaring/car engine noises and then it wouldn't turn on.

It is a bit of a problem for me since I have lots of fun pictures that I would like to edit and post, but I have no access to my Photoshop...bummer! I may have to post some of them from the laptop anyway.

After all, as I'm sure you can see from this post, blog posts with no pictures are kind of lame. :) Hopefully we will have a remedy soon!

On the upside, the kids were adorable on Halloween, and they had a great time, too! It was the first year that they really went trick-or-treating. In the past we have always just done a trunk-or-treat at the church, stopped at a few friends houses, and called it good, so this was new for the kids. They loved it...almost as much as their parents loved watching them love it!! :) Joshua was Troy Bolton, the basketball player from High School Musical. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be a basketball player, or a ninja, or something else, so we were looking around online for some ideas and he saw the Troy Bolton costume and was sold! Grace was Fancy Nancy, one of her favorite book characters. She was so stinkin' CUTE, and she has the perfect fancy attitude to go with her costume so it worked out really well. :)

And now it is November....time for Christmas shopping and Christmas music!! YAY!!

I already bought my Mint M&Ms to celebrate the onset of the Christmas season! :)

I can't wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas, how about you?!

Beauty

Early last spring I planted a few seeds in our front flower bed, and I think I created a monster!

I planted three different kinds of flowers, but the zinnias came up so well (and grew like CRAZY once they were up) that they completely overtook the flower bed! Nothing else would grow.

The zinnias were supposed to be about 24" tall...they are currently about 4 1/2' tall! And they have started to grow out of the flowerbed and over the sidewalk and driveway. I actually ran one over with my car the other day...Oops! :) When we had our garage sale in August, we actually had a lady ask us if she could pay us for some of the dead blossoms so she could have the seeds! Don't worry, though, I let her take my dead flowers free of charge! :) I quit watering them a few weeks ago, thinking they were hitting the end of their season, but they are still growing away.

The last couple of weeks the flowers have been attracting some awesome butterflies. I thought the kids would think that was pretty cool, but admittedly, I get more excited about it than they do! I have loved seeing all of the different butterflies floating around. I couldn't help but look at their intricate details and remember the wonder of God's creations, both big and small! Aren't they beautiful?!

Sketches Galore!!

Hello! I hope you are having a happy Tuesday!

We had such a great weekend enjoying the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It left me feelings so uplifted, refreshed, and remembered by the Lord. So grateful for that and for the way it has lifted my spirits! I will have to share some of my favorite quotes soon!

I just wanted to let y'all know about the month long sketch event going on at My Scraps and More. Every weekday during October a new layout sketch will be posted...with lots of prizes a long the way for those who participate! The first couple have already been posted, and they sure look like fun.

Also, Tammi is offering 40% off everything in her store! Such a great deal....one that I have already taken advantage of myself! :) Use coupon code SCRAPIT40 through October 9th to get your discount! And have I mentioned her amazingly quick shipping? I ordered Friday night and it was on my doorstep by noon Monday! Gotta love that!

Also, last week I got to create my first sketch for My Scraps and More, and I loved how it turned out so I wanted to share it! Here is my layout and the sketch I made from it:

If you like to scrapbook and you use this sketch, feel free to post a link to it in the comments, I would love to see it!

Have a great day!

Grateful

Today I am especially grateful for Bryan.
I have been reflecting on how seriously AWESOME he is...and well, I couldn't help but be grateful (and amazed!). How did I get so lucky?!

One thing that made me remember, yet again, how great he is: I had my card workshop last night. Bryan came in and checked on everyone to see how they were doing. I love that he isn't embarrassed/afraid to come into a room of 9 women crazily crafting away and "Oohh and Ahh" over their creations! :) I mean really, most men would stay far away from something like that. I love that he not only supports my hobbies, but he does it happily! What a catch!

I am often left in awe of how really, truly, perfect he is for me. I can't imagine anyone better!

And since he supports my little hobby so nicely, I thought I would share a layout I made recently with some pictures we took on our last anniversary. It's my favorite!



Isn't love grand?!

Growing Up

Kids just seem to have a way of growing up way too fast, don't they?!
I have pretty mixed feelings about it, but haven't found a way to stop it yet! :)

This past weekend we had the opportunity to go visit some wonderful friends for a few days. It has only been a couple of months since we saw them...but I'll take any chance I get! :) The Odells were our 'family' while we were in Law School. We made a lot of fun memories together during that time! We are SO Grateful for them and that they are still apart of our lives!

I only took a couple of pictures while we were there, and one of them reminded me of this picture we took at a pumpkin patch 3 years ago:

Look how little they all look! Can't believe it has been three years already since we went to this pumpkin patch. Such cute friends!

And here they are today...just as cute, and just as good of friends! Love it!

Thanks for having us, Odell family! We enjoyed every minute!

Wonder"FALL" Crop (and some random stories)

I just wanted to let you all know that there is an online crop at My Scraps & More this Saturday!!

There will be lots of fun fall themed challenges, and the lucky winner will recieve the Finally Fall line from Bella Blvd....lucky indeed! And to top it all of, Tammi is offering 30% off your total purchase from the store. Just use code FALLCROP30, good through this weekend.

Stop by and check it out at My Scraps & More!

______________________________

Now for some funny kid stories...at least they were funny moments to me!

First up, Miss Grace!

We were driving to my friend Brooke's house for a Primary Presidency Meeting for church. Brooke lives an hour away. About halfway there Grace gets the fabulous idea to play the quiet game.

This is quite the feat for her....she talks non-stop, especially in the car!!

I agreed, and she informed me that it was going to be a contest to see who could be quiet all the way to Brooke's house. I was pretty surprised because I had just told her that was another half hour away. So I decided to watch the clock and see how long she made it. :) Any guesses?

Yeah...she made it approximately 20 seconds before I heard "Mom, lets start over because I have something to say!" Hahaha...love this girl! Then she changed the rules so that some talking was allowed, but only if you were asking for a drink or a snack or singing along to the music...but you could only do that if it was one of your most favorite songs. :) Where do they come up with these things?!

Now Joshua:

He has been really into any topic from History lately. I love this about him! We've been checking out books from the library on a number of subjects: the Titannic, George Washington, the Revolutionary War, the Pilgrims, Sam Houston, the Civil War, Sept. 11th, etc. He asks me questions constantly all day after school!

Now, I did major in history and I have quite a love of the subject myself, but my studies were pretty focused on WWII era, so with some (OK, a LOT) of these topics I don't have all the answers to his questions. For a while I could satisfy is questions, but lately I've been getting question like "How many men did it take to build the Titannic? Did it take more men to build the Titannic or the Statue of Liberty?" If I tell him I'm not sure, he wants to know why I don't know!

On the one hand I am flattered that he thinks I am supposed to know everything. I am his mom afterall. :) But on the other hand...who really knows those answers!?

Then today after he asked yet another question I didn't know the answer to, he very seriously says "well Mom, you're pretty smart, but you're not the smartest."

Dang...he's figured me out already!

I'm so grateful for these kids that made me laugh today!

Starting up again...

Some of my Lubbock friends know about my card workshop nights I used to hold monthly.
Well, I am very excited to announce that I am starting them up again...but not in Lubbock, of course. :) Although, if you Lubbock ladies are desperate for some cards, it really isn't that bad of a drive! ;)

Anyway, I am going to start holding the workshops every other month at my house. The first one will be on Thursday, Sept. 29th @ 7:00. We will make the following four cards, and the cost will be $5.

Here are the cards:

Cute, if I do say so myself!

I hope you will join us! I will put a kit together for you with everything cut out so all you have to do is come and glue it together, stamp a bit and add the finishing touches. You don't even have to bring anything, I will provide everything you need to make the cards. It is always a fun night of creating and visiting...and a yummy dessert is thrown in the mix, too!

Hope to see you there!

The End of Summer and the Beginning of FALL!!

I tell you what...
there were days these last couple of months that I thought summer (and the INSANE heat it brought with it) would never end!!
Much to my surprise and complete joy), we seem to be hitting the end of Summer!
Welcome Fall, I love you!

We started this last weekend by going to our first football game of the season.
Our poor Harvesters got walloped...but you will probably still find us watching them play again next home game.

After all what else do you do 'round here on a Friday night?!

These Harvester Fans are a sure sign that fall is here:

The kids were so excited for the game. Joshua was excited because he likes the games, Grace was excited because she knows she gets to pick out a treat at halftime. :) That girl...

On Saturday we had one last summer swim. The kids and I spent all afternoon outside in the perfect 85* sunshine. It was lovely. Fido even joined us outside...he loves to eat grass (or anything, for that matter).

It was a fun way to say goodbye to summer...and I'm glad it was cool enough to be outside that long!

Can't wait for all of the fall and winter activities coming our way soon!

Sweetness

Lucky us, we got to go meet our brand new niece last weekend!

We had a great visit.
The kids got to swim and play with their cousin Stanley and Bryan and I got to hold baby Elizabeth and chat with Wayne and Kristen.
What a beautiful baby girl!

Isn't there something just so peaceful and sweet about a baby fresh from heaven?
We could certainly feel it while enjoying our couple of hours with baby Elizabeth and her family.
I love that feeling.

Some Layouts

Just a quick post here. It has been a busy, busy day and there is still more to do! YIKES!

I wanted to share the layouts that I made for the design team call at My Scraps & More. I had a lot of fun with these!
The first two are my own designs, the last was based on a sketch they issued for the call.

It has been fun to be on the team, and it is definitely making sure I get a good amount of scrapbooking done each week! :) You won't hear me complain... just be warned that I may be a little more sleep deprived than normal!

Growing Up & Growing Things

Joshua decided to celebrate starting first grade by loosing his first two teeth as well!

For those of you who have kiddos, you know what an incredibly HUGE thing this is for them! Joshua had been waiting for this day for what seemed like FOR-EV-ER. :)
He had been wiggling them for weeks, and he was so excited when they were loose enough to pull out.

He came to me in the afternoon and wanted me to pull them out.
Umm...no thank you.
I had never thought much about it, but when faced with having to pull my son's teeth out it was suddenly very clear to me that this was a "Dad job." :)

So the poor kid had to wait all the way until dinnertime.

But he survived and we had a lovely pre-dinner show of watching Joshua get his teeth pulled...lovely indeed.

Seriously, we were sitting at the table and Joshua was wondering how he was going to eat when his teeth were so loose. So Bryan took care of it by pulling them out, then and there!
Yeah, next time we will pick another time and place for teeth pulling, I think! :)

But anyway, it got the job done and we still even enjoyed our dinner.

Here is our toothless boy!!:

Toothless and his accomplice, so happy!!:

Funny thing is, his adult teeth were already growing in behind, so he really doesn't look too different, but, you know, it is still really cool!!

So while Joshua has been doing things like going to school and loosing teeth and other things that mean he is growing up, I have been attempting to grow things in our garden.

The weather has really not helped me out this year! It has been so HOT! Of all the five things I planted, only one has survived....and I even remembered to water them all.

Anyway, the mighty survivor is......

The Cantaloupe!!!

It was small, and beautiful and perfect....and so very, very yummy!

I didn't know I liked cantaloupe so much 'till I ate this one.

I was so proud of myself!

And I just picked another perfect one today...amazing!

Lots of good Growing going on around here!

Fun! Fun!

Guess what!?!

I was chosen to be a new member of the Design Team at My Scraps & More!

I have kind of been up and down with the news. :)
First, very excited!
Then, I started wondering what part of my brain thought I could keep up with one more thing. :)
But now I am back to being excited!!

I get to work with some fun and very nice ladies in making up scrapbooking challenges for the members of the site. Quote challenges, sketches, all kinds of fun things! We have a new challenge posted every week day, so if you scrapbook be sure to check it out! And I really do love Tammi's online store she has got going, too, so I am happy to help it grow!

How fun!

First Grade!!

Yesterday was Joshua's first day of school!
He is officially a first grader, and so far he is loving it!
He seems to really like his teacher, and he was thrilled to have his little kindergarten buddy in his class again, as well as lots of other friends and familiar faces.
It is amazing how much easier it was to leave him this time around; knowing he knows the people I was leaving him with made such a difference.
I was still sad to let him go, and we still miss having him home during the day.
But...I didn't cry this year like I thought I would!! {at least not too much} :)
And I have been reminded of how fast the days really do pass, and before we know it he is home with us again.

YAY! We love 3:00!

Here are a few pictures of the big day:

What a handsome boy he is!

And one of Grace, too! The cute girl...
she wouldn't let me do her hair. She is really into having it down lately. Drives me semi-crazy, but she still looks adorable and she is happy, so I can deal with being semi-crazy. :)

And I think that is it!

Hope the back to school transition is going smoothly for you, too! :)

...I can say that this year

...next year I'll have to take them both to school, and I'm going to be a wreck!

Consider yourselves warned! :)

Up for an online Crop?

I have found this new online scrapbook website that I love called My Scraps & More and they are having an end of summer Crop! I haven't participated in an online crop for a while {like... a couple of years!} so this looks like fun. Besides, I need something to do to stave of the my-son-is-going-back-to-school-blues I'm feeling! Come join the fun!

Also, the owner, Tammi, has a great online store, and she always seems to have some kind of special going on. So if you are addicted to pattern paper and cute embellishments like myself, you should go check it out! ;)

Have a great day!

Dear Summer.....please don't leave!

On Tuesday, Joshua will go back to school and start first grade.
I am excited for him to find out who his teacher will be and who will be in his class.
I am excited for him to learn new things and grow in new ways.
I am excited for him to see his friends again and to make new friends.

I am a little bit sad for me.

This summer has been wonderful. I have loved our slow mornings, our laid back days and our relaxing times. I have loved the things we have done with out going far or spending a lot of money. I have loved that it has been a lot of time together. I feel like it has been a summer full of simple joys....just what I needed.

I was a bit worried about what it would be like to have Joshua home for the summer. I was afraid that he would be bored with just us, or worse, that I would go crazy because he was so bored. :)
I didn't want to be the mom who, with a huge sigh of relief, pushed her kids out the door on the first day of school after a long summer. I wanted to enjoy our moments together and be grateful for them. I wanted to miss him at the end of the summer!
I definitely got what I wanted this summer! :)







I have loved that this summer was as just great as I had hoped for.
Except now I feel like I am sending him off for the first time all over again. :)
I know it is good for my kids to go to school, and I have loved the experience we have had thus far with the Elementary School and particularly with his kindergarten teacher.
I know that while he is not home he is in good and capable hands.
And I do really enjoy the one on one time I get with Grace, at least for one more year.
But Grace and I sure get lonely when he isn't around!! We just have too much fun being together!

Looking forward to next summer already!

My Delightful Girl

I made this scrapbook layout the other day, and I loved it so much I wanted to share!

It looks nothing like what I had envisioned when I started, but sometimes that is when I end up with my favorite pages! I used Crate Paper's Emma Shoppe papers and some die cuts from SEI, as well as some mini alphabet letters from October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket, and MME. Fun stuff! :)

I love these pictures of Grace. They were taken on Easter of 2010...doesn't seem that long ago in my head, but she has changed so much! I love how carefully her hands are folded...she was trying so hard to sit perfectly for the pictures! And sitting still is not easy for this girl. :)

Oh, my Grace Ann...

She really brings so much joy to my heart! She is beautiful, and funny, and silly, and smart, and helpful, and loving, and spunky, and sometimes even ornery...all rolled up in one little body! And she talks a mile a minute!!

I feel such a great responsibility to help her realize the wonderful potential she has for good in this life! I know she will do amazing things. The title is perfect for a page about her because when I try to think of a perfect word to describe Grace, DELIGHT is the word that comes to mind! Love this girl! XOXOXO

I think they call it a "Staycation"....

Well, staycation, mini-vacation, quick trip, weekend getaway...

whaterver you call it, we had a grand old time!

We took the kiddos down to Lubbock for the weekend for a little bit of time away. It was so much fun! It was really nice to enjoy some time as a family and to do some fun things together.

We started off with a short stop over in Canyon to check out the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum. Joshua has been really into history lately, so we thought he would especially enjoy it. They had a fun blackout game for the kids to play; they had to look for certain items and mark them off on their papers, then they could trade in their completed paper for a bookmark. It was a fun way to learn a bit about where we live.

Then we headed down to Lubbock where we found our hotel and did a little school shopping. After that Bryan took the kids swimming and I got to go to the temple. What a blessing it is to have a temple {semi} close by! I could feel the peace just walking throught the gates....I love going to the temple!

The next day we did a little more school shopping and then we went to the mall and took the kids to Jumping Jungle. That was their one request, to go there, so they had a blast jumping around for an hour and a half. Where on earth do they get that kind of energy!?!

Next, we met up with our friends, the Williams, at the Science Spectrum. It was so fun to see them, meet their sweet new baby girl, and visit and play for a while. We sure are grateful for their friendship, and we are glad it has continued even though we have moved away!

Then we went to dinner with them at one of our favorite local places, said our good-byes, and headed home.

So I know it wasn't much, but it was really nice to get away for a bit and just have fun. Maybe we will have to make a "staycation" a yearly tradition!

Party Time!

Two weeks ago we celebrated a special occasion at our house...

Our house's birthday!

We like to have a bit of a party every year on the anniversary of the day we bought our house....so we've done it a whopping two times now! :)

I am pretty sure this is a tradition that will hold, though, as the kids love it and, really, who's going to complain about an extra opportunity to eat cake?! Especially house cake.

It is fun to take a minute and think about all the things we have done in this house in the last couple of years.

We have made a lot of changes to the place, inside and out.

We've taken down wall paper, painted pretty much the whole house, replaced light fixtures, torn out bushes, fixed up the porch swing, and put in garden boxes and a sand box (thanks to our dad's for doing that one!). I love that we have been able to make it ours!

And we have made so many memories here already! We've had our first Christmas all by ourselves, we've had family game nights, we've had dinners with friends, we've celebrated birthdays, we've had family come to visit and we actually have room for them to stay with us!! That is the part that I love the most! Room for everyone!

So, happy two years to our house!

Here's to many more years of fun memories within your walls!

Random thoughts and a couple of Layouts :)

I am sitting here are enjoying a bit of peace and quiet after a not so quiet day...it's quite lovely, really.

Not that today was a bad day. Actually, it was quite good...just not quiet! :)

We even had quite the jam session this afternoon. We were baby sitting an almost one year old and she was getting a bit fussy, so we busted out the homemade instruments and attempted to serenade her. We made quite the racket and sang all our favorite songs from church. I know y'all wish you could have seen/heard it, but well, we reserve that opportunity for a select audience...like babies who can't tell us to quit singing! :)

Anyway, just wanted to share these two scrapbook layouts posted above (not sure how to get them to the bottom of the post). I haven't done much scrapbooking in the last few months, so it was good to get some practice! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Fun Date Night Idea! :)

How's it going there? Hopefully you are having a good week so far. Our week started out with a kind of crazy Monday so we'll see how the rest of the week goes from there!

Bryan and I actually got to go on a date two weekends in a row....isn't that crazy!?

It seemed a little crazy to us, we weren't quite sure what to do! So we started with dinner at a Chinese place we hadn't tried and while we were eating we came up with a fun idea: an ABC photo scavenger hunt of our town! It was a blast!

We went around town to some of our favorite places, or places that have been significant to us, and we collected each letter of the alphabet from the various signs:

Kind of cool! I want to figure out how to better fit them together without any of the black spots so I can print it and frame it for our wall!

Anyway, it was a lot of fun to go around town and remember all the fun things we have done and the memories we have had here. Can you believe it has been two years this month!? Wow, time flies!

I won't bore you with every detail of our lives, but here are a few:

B is for Braums, our favorite ice cream spot. We take every person that comes to visit us to Braums, and we have converted quite a few people into Braums lovers! And let's face it, we eat way too much ice cream, so yes, you will find us there many a Friday night!

C is for Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are quite involved with the ward here, and we are grateful the opportunities we have to serve and to learn the gospel of Jesus Christ here in Pampa. We are grateful for the good people of the Pampa Ward!

G is for Guymon, from Bryan's name on the sign outside their office. After undergrad and three years of law school it was a very happy day when we saw his name on that sign!

K is for this really cool wall, I know, wall doesn't start with K, but it is on the back of an old building and it is from an old radio advertisement painted on this wall. It is one of my favorite spots for taking pictures.

L is for Lovett Memorial Library, where we faithfully attend story time every single week because it is the happening place to be for kids every week. :)

P is for Pampa High School, where we spend many a fall Friday night, watching our high school football team. After all, we live in TX, and really, what else do you do here on a Friday night?!

Z is for PlaZa Restaurant, yeah, this one is a bit of a stretch, but it is our favorite restaurant for two reasons: 1 - the food really is yummy, and every time we go there we run into someone we know, which is why I love small towns. 2- it is the only restaurant in town where Grace will eat anything, therefore, it is our favorite!

So there you go, a bit about our town and what we do here!

And really, if you ever get to go out on a date with your spouse, try it out! It was a lot of fun to relive some favorite memories from the past two years!