Marriage

A recent acquaintance asked me why Tony and I got married so young

Which got me thinking,

Why did Tony and I get married so young?   

I was (an still am) 22, and Tony was 24

but we definitely weren't factoring our age into the marriage equation.  

So what could possibly posses us to forgo relationship spontaneity, random flirtations, and thrilling "firsts" to shoulder responsibility, monogamy, and a lifetime of the same thing over and over and over again?

Truthfully, that's an easy question to answer.

We like it.  

In fact, we love it.  Because we love each other. 

We still have spontaneity, random flirtations, and thrilling "firsts"

and we are lucky enough to share each and every one with our best friend. 

Marriage isn't a ball and chain for either of us, and this is my list of my top 5 reasons why:

1.) LOVE.  Real, honest-to-goodness, pure, simple, deep love. I love him.  He is my sunshine, my motivation, my steady hand, my foundation, my happiness, and my 

best friend. 

It's the most important reason we got married.  

With every single day that passes, I find the love between us growing stronger.  

2.) TRUST.  I don't have to worry about him, and he doesn't have to worry about me.  Period. Nothing in our past causes shadows of doubt.

Nothing in our future scares me.  

I trust in our love, our relationship, and the foundation of our marriage. 

3.) GOALS.  We are striving to achieve similar goals in life; therefore, we help each other along the twisted, convoluted path of life.  

4.) FAITH.  We share a love of God, Jesus Christ, and our faith in our religious convictions. 

5.) TONY.  He is definitely a huge reason why I wanted to marry so young.  He is one of the best men I have ever met, and I would have been foolish to let him slip through my fingers.  It was time for me to grow up, and cherish the beautiful responsibility of being a wife and, someday, a mother. We may have been young, but our relationship was ready for this step.  

And it's not the same thing over and over and over.  

Every day seems like a better day than yesterday.  

I'm just so lucky to have found Tony. 

We still flirt. 

We still can be spontaneous.  

And we get to spend every day living

happily

ever

after 

:)

Nerds

Go... live your dream!

I will. 

Your dream stinks. I was talking to her.

 

I love Tangled :)  It is so applicable to life.  

Tony and I were discussing our passions the other night.  He described to me my passions (he was totally right), and I took a stab at his (which were also right).  Glad to hear how well we know each other.  I am so grateful to have a constant motivator- patiently supporting me in my endeavor to achieve my dreams.  I hope I can do the same for him.  The most comical moments in our marriage happen when we start attempting to interest each other in our personal passions.  We never get very far on each other.  However, we have both discovered that we are extremely nerdy.  An example of our conversations:

Tony: "Class today blew my mind!  Did you know that HR in most organizations is totally misused, causing employee dissatisfaction and low achievement?"

Me: "Did you know inherent filtration occurs within the primary beam passes through the glass window of the x-ray tube, the insulating oil, and the tubehead seal, which includes approximately 0.5 to 1.0 mm of aluminum?"

Moment of silence.

Both: "Baahahahahahaha....."

Tony: "We are nerds."

The Big Apple

This is what dreams are made of :)

Tony and I had a fantastic day full of magic, delicious food, and snowy strolls

visiting New York City!

We started our day pretty early, riding the train to Grand Central Station

(which is totally fabulous, by the way).

The we walked.

And walked.

And walked.

And... I think you get the point.

During our walk around NYC, we visited the most fascinating places!

Disney Store

my Rapunzel hair :)

Lego-land

 

Heshey's Store

Did I mention they gave free samples when you walked through the door?

M&M Store

Hard Rock Cafe

Rockefeller Plaza

Yankee's Hub

Toys R' Us (don't laugh... it was amazing)

LDS Temple

NBC Experience, Chinatown, Saks 5th Ave, Radio City, 

and went went and saw..... 

MARY POPPINS on Broadway!!!
Mary Poppins was simply stunning.  The songs were beautiful, the effects were unbelievable, and the dancing was perfect.  We loved Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Step in Time, and Feed the Birds.
Broadway is simply magical.
We are savoring every moment of this east coast life!

Subconsciously Sweet

My husband is so sweet.

He was totally pooped last night.

So when he fell asleep, I got up and 

sneaky-style

worked on his Valentine's day gift

(more to come on that!)

When I finally crawled into bed,

he wrapped me in his arms 

and lightly stroked my arm

and said

"I won't let anything hurt you." 

This morning, when I asked him

if he remembered anything from

 last night and he looked at me like 

I was crazy.  

Little does he know

how sweet he really is 

:)

Attempts and Confessions

Ice skating!  

You would not believe our terrible luck with ice skating.  

Attempt 1: Took us 45 minutes to find the arena because of road construction so it was closed!

Attempt 2: They only take cash!

Attempt 3: Child scavenger hunt... ages 4-12

Attempt 4:  SUCCESS!!!!

It was worth all the stress :)  Tony is really getting the hang of it!  Although, the last 15 minutes, Tony might have found a football game to watch in the lobby.  I think it's safe to say the last 15 minutes were his favorite!

 I have something to confess:

It was me

in the bed

with the ELBOW!

Poor guy!  It bled all over everything... the sheets, the comforter, mattress cover.... and he had an early meeting with his professor.  He handled it like a champ though, because truthfully, it was pretty funny.  We had just finished praying, and he poked my side.  My disclaimer: everyone knows how ticklish I am.  My brothers know when you tickle me, I am not responsible for any damage that may occur as a result.  Tony learned that lesson last night. 

 Um... yes.... we did go to Les Mis again :)

 We visited Yale again on Saturday.  

I have another confession:

Tony and I are writing a book

inspired by Yale

:)

 More gingersnaps for the Dalton family

Family, Love, Laughter

Christmas magic, family, rootbeer floats, basketball, games, and more family.

Sounds like fun, right?

Right!

Best. Christmas. Ever.  

Getting to spend Christmas with the love of my life and all of my family while in Virginia made this Christmas extra special.  Tony and I took the train down from Connecticut, which made us feel like kids riding on the Polar Express because the train station was so beautiful and we rode the whole way in our pajamas.

Are we dorks? 

Yes!

Words fail to express to describe the cuteness, perfection, and fun-level of my niece and nephew.  Alivia can play games endlessly, and her intelligence astounds me.  She knows significantly more about dinosaurs than anyone I have ever met, including names of dinosaurs, their typical diets, and which time period they lived in. Her favorite: Brachiosaurus.  Amazing.  Blake is such a happy 1 1/2 year old.  His independent streak already dominates his behavior, making him smart, athletic, and quite advanced for his age.  He can jump off of two feet, peel his own oranges, and attentively sit through reading lengthy books.  Plus, they melt their aunt's heart with many hugs, kisses, and cuddles.  Aww :)

We also got to go to Christmas Town, in Busch Gardens!  One word: stunning.  Christmas Town boasted of over 6 million lights... trees, buildings, amusement park rides all showered in scintillating lights.  Snow lightly dusted the North Pole, while live penguins flaunted their diving abilities.  Hot cocoa, hot apple cider, turkey dinner, and frosted noses.  Oh, and Verbolten.  

FUN. PERIOD. 

We went to Virginia beach, which was, as expected, frigid and empty.  However, we inlanders never shy away from an opportunity to treat our toes to beach sand.  

To cap off all the fun, we took family pictures as a Christmas present to my parents.  Here are a few teaser pics!

Christmas Season

 It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Dalton home... 

We have our very first Christmas tree! Our pure joy couldn't even be marred by 

the fact we had no better transportation ideas than to tie it to

the hood of the car and drive very, very slow...

Which worked perfectly!  

This bad boy smells implausibly delicious.  I made the flocked, cinnamon-scented pinecone decorations, which add to the yummy-ness smell factor by about a million.  

Then I made pumpkin cake. 

If Christmas has a smell, come on over and take a whiff :)

We don't have a chimney, so our stockings are from the decorative table with care!

Exhausted, pine-scented, and glittery.... but happy to have our Christmas decorations all up!

My volleyball team participated in the Elite 8 National tournament in Pensacola, Florida last week!  What an amazing, humbling adventure.  We ended up losing to Indiana in the first round (although we put up a very good fight!), but the experience was well worth the heartache.  Tony came and watched, and, since we lost, we came back and he got to stay in Florida an extra day by himself.  Sounds like fun, but we were both pretty miserable.  Our apartment isn't a home without each other.  

We are all getting pumped up for Christmas in Virginia!  Tony and I are taking the train down... so we are going to wear our pajamas, drink hot cocoa, and pretend we are taking the Polar Express :)  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year!