L.O.V.E.

HappyValentine's day!!!! I absolutely loved Valentine's day when I was a little girl.  What a fun pink and red holiday it was.  I loved making sugar cookies with my mom and taking them to my grandparents house to leave on the doormat, doorbell ditch, and think for sure they would never find me. I loved making valentines boxes to take to school  for other kids to drop valentines into.  I loved trying to pick out the coolest valentine of my boxed cards to give to the boy I had a little crush on that year. I loved getting the valentine from "Guess who", I always knew it was grandma.  I loved love day.  

As I grew older and into my college years, I experienced a couple Valentine's days as what some would call, "single awareness day".  Valentine's day seemed to have lost its sparkle.  On Feb. 14,

 2008, my sister and I celebrated V-day with Sushi and a facial, boasting about how we didn't need a man on Valentine's day. (That was fun Laur!)

Two weeks later, into my life, walked Gabe Valenzuela, my Forever Valentine.  And all of a sudden, the sparkle came back...

This year for valentiene's, Gabe and I took a little trip to the east of Cali and hit the Sunshine in Arizona.  Gabe has a lot of Marriott points from all of his travels, so we decided to put some of them to good use. What a nice weekend it was, feeling the sun on my face and holding the hand of the guy I am head over heels in love with. 

We dropped Texas off at a little place called "Camp Bow Wow". What a fun place for him.  He loved it.  There were so many other dogs to play with and playgrounds to play on. And the cool thing is, you could watch him on the internet... (even though we didn't).  I felt like a mom, finally getting some time with my husband, with out the kids around... (is that terrible?)  We did miss the little guy though... that's him... can you see him on the t.v.?

We finally made it to the Marriott... I love Marriotts by the way.  Gabe had them send up Ice Cream and Diet Pepsi.  There's nothing better than eating ice cream in a big, clean, white, king sized bed, surrounded by pillows... I love it!

We were loving our treats. 

So judging by our last SuperBowl post, you would think I could lay off the food pics.  But I couldn't resist.  We went to the NUMMIEST resteraunt called Fajitas on Saturday night.  (Crashing the wedding didn't work out) ;) The table was so colorful, I had to take a picture.  Don't worry, I will spare you the picture at our valentine's lunch the next day after we stuffed ourselves full of Black Angus Steaks...After dinner we went back and enjoyed the hot tub and the robes... another reason why Marriott wins.... The Robes.  I don't know what it is about wearing a robe in a hotel.  I feel so posh like I need to be in a movie or something. And yes, there are swimsuits under those awesome robes....On Valentine's day, Gabe and I became official Califorinians.... (I'm not sure that's a word.) We'd both been wanting some good flip flops and I found a Rainbow Sandals place near the beach that sells them for an awesome deal.  All the "locals" here own a pair of rainbows.  I didn't get what the big deal was... until now... Totally Comfy.  Pretty sure I haven't taken them off.  Gabe said "NO" to the foot picture, claiming he didn't want his Fred Flinstone foot to be posted on the internet.  I think his foot is cute and therefore... the posted picture of our new sandals.The Ice bucket and the 10 second timer didn't act as the greatest photographer in the world.  But at least we got a pic together on Valentine's day.  Gabe looked so handsome.  My husband is hott.Gabe bought me a beautiful single red rose.  It was perfect.

The whole weekend was simply amazing.  And the best part was that I got to spend every second for two whole days with my amazing husband, my sweetheart, my best friend.  I feel so lucky to be his valentine.  What an amazing man he is.  I am so in love.

Hope your Valentine's was filled with love.

Oh...

and Texas wanted to wish you all a

    

Our awesome weekend....

What a fun weekend and eventful weekend we had!  First off and foremost, I must say that I have got the coolest brother in the world!  Let me explain... This last Friday night Weston had his White Coat ceremony at Loma Linda, the dental school he's been attending for the last four years.  My mom and dad flew out for the occasion and we got to see Wes recieve his White Coat.  What a cool event it was.  

As a little sister, I am one of Weston's biggest fans.  I've always looked up to Wes, and thought he was just the coolest.  Growing up behind him and going to the same schools, older kids along with coaches and teachers would always ask if I was Weston's little sister.  When I would proudly say, "Yes", they would always respond with a comment about how great he was, what a great athlete, or how lucky I was to have such a cool older brother.  I already knew that. I've always been proud to be his younger sister, but there have been a few moments that I have watched him and thought, "WOW, He is really amazing", and, "That's MY big brother"...   First was when he won the 4A state championship football game at Olympus High School.  I was only in 7th grade at the time, and ran onto the field, right after Wes had caught an interception in the last few seconds of the game. All of Olympus celebrated with the State Champions, including my brother.  I gave him a huge hug in his sweaty football gear, and felt so proud to be his little sister.  I bragged out my brother for years... (still bragging).  Secondly, when he gave his homecoming talk after he had served a full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints to Tokyo, Japan.  I listened in awe at the testimony he had gained, the love for the people of Tokyo and how in the world he learned to speak the crazy, insane Japanese language. And now on this night, I watched Wes from the Balcony of the Loma Linda Chapel and watched my older brother, the President of his class, hand out white coats to the rest of his class, and then finally heard the last name read: "President Weston Spencer." Once again those words entered my head: "That's MY big brother!" 

Weston handing out the white coats to his class.

After getting his name called,

And putting on his White Coat

Dr. Weston Spencer D.D.S

Congrats Wes!  Gabe and I are so proud of you, and so proud to be your little sister!

The next night, Gabe and I busted open the Valentine's gift my mom and dad gave us.  An air popcorn popper.  We love it and keep popping bowls full of popcorn. Texas loves it too.  Some of the pieces don't make it in the bowl and fly onto the floor. Texas is then on clean up duty and loves the extra treats.  Thank you mom and dad!  It was so good to see you, even for a short little bit!

HAPPY SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!!! 

I love the super bowl!!! While growing up, I never really loved football, but my family would always gather at Grammy and Grampa's for a huge food extravaganza! I just loved getting together with everyone and munching on goodies all game.  As I got older, my love for football has grown, and now SuperBowl is just Super Fun!!! Since we live 10 hours away from Grammy's, we couldn't spend SuperBowl with the fam, so Gabe and I decided we would have our own little party, just the two of us.  As long as your best friend is there, (that would be Gabe) it's bound to be an awesome party.... and Awesome it was!

 I don't keep up with the NFL, so I didn't really have a valid opinion on who to root for, so I went with the COLTS, for one reason only.  My Uncle Todd is a HUGE Colts fan.  I remember the last time the colts won the Super Bowl.  Todd showed up with his Colts shirt on and his Colts hat, and waved his huge Colt's Blanket every time the Colts scored a Touch down.  So I joined my uncle Todd this SuperBowl and rooted for the Colts.  I changed my mind in the last quarter when the Colts weren't going to win... and rooted for the Saints.  See, you can tell how much I cared about the outcome.  It didn't matter to me, spending the night cooking and eating at our own little SuperBowl Party turned out to be one of the best Super bowls yet! 

One of the best things about the night... I got to finally use my football platter that my cute mother-in-law, Janice, gave me for Christmas.  I absolutely love this thing and have been dying to pull it out of my cuboard and use it.  

We marinated the Chicken legs over night in our own special citrus caribbean marinade.  They were the best chicken legs I've ever tasted. The bad thing is that I don't even remember everything we threw in there.  I don't know how to make them again!

We had so much fun getting ready for the Super bowl!  We started cooking after church and cooked right up until kick off. Our kitchen is BINSY so it looked like a tornado had hit it... but the Tastiness was well worth the clean up!

Gabe glazing the chicken

The MOST delicious Carribbean Chicken Legs you'll ever taste!

Gabe made his own version of Fried Chicken legs and they were YUMMY!!! We also had what we call, "Grandpa Jack Potatoes" meaning FRIED!  We weren't, by any means, skimping on the calories this SuperBowl Sunday!

"The final Spread"  We got it all out on the table right as The Colts Kicked off to the Saints. It was perfect timing.  Our Super Bowl EXTRAVAGANZA consisted of Brats with Onions and Mustard, 7-Layer dip and Chips, Chicken Legs: Fried and Caribbean, Cheesey Potatoe Skins, and "Grandpa Jack Potatoes".  Oh, And Pepsi One... only One Calorie.  (We're watching our weight)

I think our eyes were a whole lot bigger than our tummies.  We ended up putting way more than half of that in the fridge for left overs... looks like it'll be a superbowl dinner all week!

Congrats to the New Orleans Saints!  Oh and the Dorito commercials... amazing, my favorite!