Day 2 and 3 in McAllen for Valentines Day

Well these pictures are completely in backawards order but at least they are all here and together:) Saturday we went to Incredible Pizza with Aunt Martha and had a blast. When we left we went for a walk since the weather down in McAllen was just beautiful. It was freezing back at home and so it was so nice to be in the 70s with sunshine and a nice breeze. While Aunt Letty and Grandma were at the doctors we played in Aunt Martha's backyard. Dalton loved playing with the leaves and helping her do yardwork. The picture of him with the rake just cracks me up because even though that rake is WAY bigger than him he was so determined to make it move and get it to bring all of the leaves together. Dalton and Aunt Martha had a ton of fun playing together probably because they are both energizer bunnies and just keep going and going and Chantz and I are not and we eventually burn out haha. I wish I had their energy. Later we went back to Grandma and Grandpas house and ate some WONDERFUL tamales. After eating we went to visit with one of Aunt Letty's friends. We shared some drinks and ate some chicken wings and hung out for a little while with her. We also got to see her Beautiful house that I almost got lost in it was so big. She was so sweet and we had such a good time meeting her. I spent most of the time talking with my cousin Heather who I had not seen since I was very small maybe not even in elementary school yet. She is pregnant right now and so we were just going on and on about pregnancy and babies and everything else that us girls talk about:) I am so glad that I got to see her I had been waiting so long to really "meet" her and her sisters since I really have no memory of them so it was like meeting her for the first time again. When we left from visiting we went back to Grandma and Grandpas and then went home to Aunt Martha's a watch a movie with Dalton. Dalton got two little valentines presents while we were at HEB earlier that day that he loved. One was dora and diego chocholate hearts and the other was a heart balloon that he kept hitting me in the head with. We loved that HEB because they were sampling so many things and of course Aunt Martha and I had to try EVERY SINGLE one hahaha. Chantz bought me some chocolate covered strawberries since I can never have enough of those:) which was very sweet of him and yummy!!! The next day when we woke up we spent the morning at Grandpa and Grandmas house until it was time to leave. Grandpa cooked us the best breakfast that was so filling I thought I was going to pop. Of course when we went to leave it was hard. I miss them so much and wish they lived closer that I could see them more than I am able to and so of course this was the time that the tears started flowing. I am such a believer in not taking time for granted and I am so glad that I got to be with them these couple of days before it was too late. We are planning on going back down there around Dalton's birthday so that we can have a birthday party for him that they can attend as well as the rest of the family. They just can't sit in the car that long to be traveling all the way to Houston so we are hopefully going to be able to get down there and spend some more time with them. We love you guys so much and there aren't even words that can describe how wonderful it was to have that time together:):):)



This picture was of little Dalton looking at me in the car like Mom how much longer hahaha.

February Random

Valentines Day is in February and we usually waste money on flowers, candy, going out to eat, balloons, etc. Well this year Chantz and I decided that we would finally take our very overdue Honeymoon. I had just started a new job when we got married so we only got to go downtown for the weekend after we got married since I didn't have vacation:( Soon after that we had Dalton and never got the chance to actually take a vacation just the two of us. Soooo.....
Chantz and I will be going on a 5 day cruise to the Carribean in April which will be a little after our two year anniversary.:):) We both cannot wait and I think Chantz is dieing of anxiety because he can hardly wait to go on his first cruise:) Even though I have been on two previously with my family, this will be my first time on Carnival cruise lines and it will be our first vacation just the two of us so we are both thrilled and very anxious. We also booked a Royal Swim with the dolphins in Cozumel while we're there. I know Chantz is a little worried because he thinks everything is "an animal and can attack at any second" but I have done a dolphin encounter where you are standing in the water and they come and kiss you and these dolphins are VERY trained. I know this will be a once in a lifetime experience to get to actually SWIM with them and it will be something that we will never forget. I am so blessed that we are finally going to be able to get away from all the craziness of our everyday lives with work, school, house projects and so much more and just share our love for each other. Dalton will be staying with my Dad and step mom while we're gone which is going to be VERY hard for both of us but I already told them we will be calling every port we come into:):) I know he will have a blast over there because they spoil him rotten and let him do whatever he wants with no rules but we will miss him.

Since we're on the subject of Valentines Day....we all went to eat at Wings N More a couple of nights before Valentines Day and Dalton and Chantz were playing games while I was waiting for all of our food to come to the table.

Dalton is SO awesome at playing those games with the claw that wins the stuffed animals:) and he won Mommy a little I Love You Monkey. He came up and said "Eee go Mommy" and gave me the little monkey along with a Dalton hug and kiss:):):) It was one of the sweetest moments of my life. I feel like I keep thinking oh no if he keeps growing he's not going to be my sweet little baby anymore but the more he grows the sweeter he gets and he says things that make you feel SO loved.

After that we went to the store to get his friends at his babysitters some Valentines cards. We let Dalton walk down the aisle and pick out which ones he wanted for them and he picked Sponge Bob. He had a hard time deciding between "kit kat" his new favorite thing (no Chantz won't let us get one) "bootball" and "ponge bob". When we got home he sat on the counter and helped me write out his valentines to his friends so he could bring them the next day to Miss Laura's house.

Then of course it was time to do what I'm always doing....HOMEWORK. Well this time Dalton decided he wanted to help me do my math homework. When a cute little face like the one below comes up to me and sits next to me and is talking to me about the calculator it is VERY hard to actually do homework because all I want to do it play with him.

So we did what we do best.....PLAY AND ACT GOOFY TOGETHER:):):)

Hey, we counted to 5 okay?? So we were learning numbers still in the midst of acting silly;)

Later that week in more preparation for Valentines we put out all the decorations and we even drew some hearts on our chalkboard. I drew all the hearts and then Dalton helped color some pretty pink and white ribbon lines on the bottom:0) I don't have pictures of all our valentines decorations but I did take one of us with our drawings.

Some of these pictures are going to look crazy and out of whack because of the clothes we're wearing some of them we're in sweaters and bundled up and some we're in shorts and tee shirts. I know it looks crazy, but unfortunately down here in Houston, TX that's how the weather has been lately. How we've been managing to stay healthy during all this is beyond me.

Dalton's new favorite things to eat are "gapes". He was yelling at Poppy the other day when he was at nana and poppys because he wanted the grapes and poppy is a little hard of hearing (even though he doesn't want to admit it) and so he couldn't understand what he wanted and Dalton finally YELLED "GAPES!!!" and pointed to the fake grapes in the bowl on nana's table hahaha. It was really funny and nana was cracking up.

I was doing homework while Chantz took these pictures of him sitting on the couch but he said it was adorable. He said he gave Dalton the plate with grapes on it and Dalton went and walked over to the couch, put the plate down, helped himself up on the couch, then sat there eating them and went to change the channel which ended up on Diego so that he could eat his snack while watching his show. It amazes me how smart he is and how he knows EXACTLY what to do and how to do everything we do.