CSN Stores Gift Card Giveaway

I have been contacted by the fantastic people at CSN Stores... and they offered to do a giveaway for my wonderful readers!  Lucky ducks!  CSN Stores have something for everyone... not even joking.  From awesome furniture to home decor and home improvement, to outdoor recreation and pet supplies, they have EVERYTHING!  I'm going ga-ga for some of their extra tall bar stools, some of their gorgeous sofa sets, and their amazing cookware!  If only I had a house to fill...  CSN stores is offering a $20 gift card to one lucky reader!  How perfect for the upcoming holidays!

Here's how to enter:
1)  Become a follower of FHE for Newlyweds and Couples
2)  Become a follower of FHE Made Easy
3)  Become a follower of While He Was Napping
4)  Tell me your favorite dating activity
5)  Visit my Etsy Store and leave a comment about your favorite item

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

This giveaway will end next Wednesday, November 10th @ 11:59pm PST.  Winner will be chosen by Random.org and announced on Thursday.  Winner will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.  Please be sure to include your email address if it is not accessible from your profile.  Good Luck!

*Giveaway open to US and Canadian Residents only.  Sorry.*

Temple Night

This one is fairly self-explanitory and I'm sure a lot of newly weds take advantage of this.  If not, you should.  Once the kiddos come along it's A LOT harder to go.  Between nursing moms and finding sitters and actually making it out the door without smelling like spit up or worse... It's a lot more to juggle. 

We didn't have the opportunity to attend the temple before our son was born.  But we often made trips to walk around the temple grounds.  Even on the outside, it's a special place.  It helped us remember our goals and what we believed in.  This is also a good idea when you've got fifteen minutes to spend together, but you don't have an hour or longer to take in a session.

If you don't have a temple close by I suggest finding a place in your area that is secluded from everyone else.  You may not think one exists, but I promise everywhere has one.  You have to look.  Check out Google Earth.  You can find places you had no idea about.  For example, I lived in our current location for ten years, a whole decade!  My husband found a spot on Google Earth that he wanted to go check out.  He asked me about it and I had no idea where he was talking about.  We went and checked it out and it is now "Our Spot"!  It overlooks the city and is secluded enough that we've not ever run into anyone else.  It's fantastic and is our special spot.  We always enjoy our trips up there and it's a good break from the hustle and bustle of life. 

Scripture Chase

Things You'll Need: a list of different scriptures. These could be Seminary Mastery scriptures (if you're like me, you could definitely use a brush-up on those), favorite scriptures, a list of topics you have to look up in the Topical Guide and then find your own scripture, scriptures relating to a certain topic, ect. The possibilities are limitless.

Lesson: Each person has their own set of scriptures. Then, take turns choosing scriptures to look up. You might have all the references written on paper slips and in a bowl to be drawn. Or parts of the scripture written out and you have to find the reference (but I'd only do that with fairly well0know scriptures... otherwise you could be there all night). Or topics written on paper slips. Pull a topic out of the bowl and then look it up in the Topical Guide. It's interesting to see what tidbits you can learn this way.

Activity: Discuss your favorite scriptures and why they are your favorites.

Treat: Not sure why, but scripture chases always make me want cookies. Maybe it has something to do with my seminary days? Anyways, a fabulous cookie recipe is always a winner.

Story Time

Things You'll Need: A copy of "Becoming More Powerful Priesthood Holders," by Elder Walter F. González Of the Presidency of the Seventy.

Lesson: Read "Becoming More Powerful Priesthood Holders," by Elder Gonzalez. Discuss the importance of reading good books, especially the Book of Mormon.

Activity: Head to your local library or book store. Start in the children's section and take turns reading your favorite books to each other. Reread The Velveteen Rabbit, Oh The Places You'll Go, Goodnight Moon or other favorites. After you've explored the children's books, suggest adult or adolescent books to each other. What books did you read in high school or more recently that you loved and want to share with your spouse? Check out or purchase one or two of these books to read at home. Or get a book on marriage to read together. Shortly after my husband and I married, we read What We Wish We'd Known When We Were Newlyweds, by John and Kim Bytheway. It was great! We enjoyed it and learned a lot. And it was light-hearted enough that it kept us entertained without making us feel like we were being preached at. We could totally relate to what we were reading. I highly recommend it. Also, books by Joy and Gary Lundberg are great and they've got some good ideas to improve marriages. Although it has some humorous moments, it's a little drier than the John and Kim Bytheway book.

Treat: Fruit Smoothies. Easy to make, good for you... AND oh, so delish! Combine any mixture of fresh or frozen fruit, yogurt, ice cream, and fruit juices (apple is our fave). We usually use ice cream or sherbet and frozen fruit... this eliminates any need for ice. Put in a blender, blend until smooth and ENJOY!

ABC's of Love

Here's a fun FHE for a couple:

Give each person a sheet of paper. Have each person write the alphabet down the side of the paper. Now, your challenge is to write a word that begins with each letter that describes your spouse. For example: A= Adorable, B= Beautiful, C= Charming... You get the idea. See who can be the most creative. My hubby and I even went so far as to make up words. We also allowed use of a thesaurus (I think we used our laptops). We kept our lists and put them in a "First Year" scrapbook. It was a lot of fun to swap lists and see all the complimentary ways my hubby could think of to tell me he loved me.

Remember to open and close with a prayer.

Date Night!

As newlyweds or couples without children yet, I urge you to take full advantage of this time you and your spouse have to focus on each other. It becomes soo much harder after you have kids to have quality time with your spouse. Make it a point to have a weekly date night. If planning dates is difficult for you, do it together. Take one Monday night a month and plan your date nights for the entire month. If you need help come up with some awesome date nights, check out this site:

Love, Actually

Go to the "ideas" page and click on the "date night" category, although I also suggest checking out all the other categories too. This blog is my new obsession. She has so many awesome ideas! Most are fairly cheap and would be tons of fun. I highly recommend it!!

Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love being a mom! But, my husband and I have to make a real effort to reconnect with each other than we did pre-baby. And it's even harder now that we are living with my parents... definitely is an incentive to find our own place in the somewhat near future.

Take advantage of the time you have to really get to know and have fun with your spouse!

The Art of Apology

I have learned in my marriage that there is absolutely an art to apologizing. I am, by no means, perfect. I have spent countless hours kicking myself for getting angry about something dumb or taking my frustration out on my husband. I could have saved myself so many of those hours if I had just apologized from the beginning.

Things You'll Need: A copy of "Color Me Sorry!", by Anya C. Bateman.

Lesson: Read "Color Me Sorry!" and discuss it. How does it make you feel when someone apologizes to you? Why is it so hard to apologize sometimes? What can you do to practice apologizing when you need to? Don't go making each other mad just so you can practice apologizing... I promise it will happen often enough without any extra 'help'. What is the difference between an apology and merely saying sorry? Talk about this and about how you can make apologizing part of your marriage. Face it, we're human and we make mistakes. Things will go much more smoothly if we take the time to learn how to communicate with our spouses and how to mend the most important fences. You will be so much happier and content with your relationship if you learn to tell the one you love that you made a mistake and ask for another chance to sweep them off their feet.

Activity: Ok, so I don't have a good activity to go along with this lesson. I guess if you really want to, you can practice apologizing to each other. Always a good FHE activity is to plan a date night... I'll keep thinking... if anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

Treat: Ice Cream Sundaes. The ultimate apology token.

The Importance of Dating

Family Home Evenings should be fun, even if it's just the two of you. We have been encouraged to have a lesson of some sort that will help us remember or better understand the gospel.

Things You'll Need: A copy of "Dating at Home", by Geok Lee Thong to read together. A grocery sack for each of you.

Lesson: Read "Dating at Home" and discuss how you will continue to nurture your relationship now. If you decide to set a weekly date night, make plans as to who will plan it and ways to keep it going. If schedules don't allow for a weekly date then set a date for your next outing and make plans to keep it.

Activity: Each of you take a grocery sack. You have five minutes to find 3 things that you kept from your dating years, pre-marriage. Change the time limit or number of items to fit you. Reminisce about the things you did while you were dating.

Treat: If the two of you had a special treat you often had together while you were dating, eat that. My husband and I have a thing for Sonic Cranberry Juice Slushes. If you didn't have a special treat, choose something to be your special treat and share that... now and for years to come.