101 reasons I love you part 2

After I posted about the 101 reasons I love you idea for your spouse I had a great idea to make a list for each of my girls and to make it a tradition each Valentines day. I could then make them into a book for each one. It was pretty easy to come up with a list for small fry but my list for my little pumpkin was much shorter as she just doesn't do much yet. But she will soon. It is kind of a good way to recap the things they have learned through the year. I know they will be real treasures to them someday too. I have a few letters that my parents wrote to me at different times about me as a baby and their feelings about me as a baby and as a child and I can't even read them still because they make me cry too much. So I think this would be a really nice keepsake/tradition to start. And a pretty easy one too.

Love Dove Stuff #2

Here are just a couple more Lovey Dovey ideas with V-Day fast approaching.
1st- I read somewhere of a great (and inexpensive) gift idea for a spouse is a list of 101 things you love about him (or her). I think that a husband would really treasure something like this and I know if my husband took the time to write 101 things he loved about me I would not even be able to read it through the tears.
2nd- I also read in another book about a marriage strenghthening ritual-a 60 second hug. I know when my husband and I were dating it was not hard to hug for that long or longer but after kids came it seemed like our hugging time got cut by a lot. I love the feel of a good hug and so one night I just grabbed my husband and held on for as close to 60 seconds as possible. He squirmed and did all these weird little things and I had to tell him to just chill out but soon he got the hang of it. Now we try and fit at least one in everyday. I didn't realize how much I missed the hugs of our dating relationship. Sure feels good to do it again.

Love Dove Stuff

Not like I am some expert by any means on relationships or marriage counseling or anything like that but I definitely feel strongly that it is super important to keep the spark alive between husbands and wives. I have seen how crazy life can get with children and work and activities and it is so easy to just put your relationship with your spouse on the back burner. I mean heck you see each other everyday and you sleep in the same bed at night, you talk about schedules and lunch menus what more do you need.
Well I recently read about this idea in a book and thought it sounded like something that would be great to do with my husband. We are good at trying to keep little traditions between the two of us and so I thought this year it would be great to add another one.
You start by making a his and her's jar. I made mine out of formula cans (those cans-so handy for so many crafts-which they should be after you pay so darn much to purchase them). I just covered them with some scrapbook paper.

Inside you cut 52 strips of paper (1 for each week of the year) and yes I know it is February. We still decided to do 52 (we just filled ours out last night). You keep your can and give the "HIS" one to your husband. On each strip of paper you write something that you want to have the other person do for you or with you (rub your back, go for a walk, take you on a date, buy you flowers, dance in the kitchen etc etc). He does the same on his. We wrote the word BONUS on 5 strips of paper to account for the weeks we missed with Jan. Then you will swap jars. Then once a week you will each pull a strip of paper out of each others jar and will have to do whatever your spouse asked for. If it says BONUS then you will pull out another strip.
Here are the rules we set up:
-We will pull out strips on Sunday.
-We will have the whole week to accomplish the request
-You have the option to put it back and pull out another one if the paper says something you know you can't do that week (maybe it is seasonal, or you just know it will not happen. We want to be successful at this not make promises we can't keep).
-We will put the papers on our mirror in our bedroom where we can see them all week to remind us
I am looking forward to the year and fun little extra moments with my husband that we might not make time for otherwise.