New Beginnings - Come unto Christ

Last Sunday was New Beginnings for the young women in our ward. New Beginnings is an annual event for all young women and their parents. This event provides an opportunity for leaders to express their love for the young women, encourage parents to help their daughters in Personal Progress, and introduce new young women to the young women program. 

New Beginnings is usually closer to the beginning of the year, but since this was the first New Beginnings for a lot of our girls (we have a ton of new Beehives and new converts) we wanted to give them a chance to work on their Personal Progress a little bit more. And I'm so glad we did. We had 2 new girls complete the entire Faith value in less than a year. Also, recently we have been experiencing a surge of young women attendance and participation. We still have many inactive girls, but we went from having 1 or 2 girls on Sundays to 8-12. It has been an amazing experience to see friendships form among the young women and watch this increase of testimony and faith happen.  

Every year, the youth general presidencies along with the prophet choose a theme for the youth to focus on. This year's theme is "Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him and deny yourselves of all ungodliness" (Moroni 10:32). Along with this theme, we incorporated a lot about coming unto Christ by going to the temple. I am so excited to have the temple open so soon and go to the temple with these girls. 

LouLou's first time conducting music. She did great. 

We had so many girls and families show up (all but 3 girls came), that we didn't have enough seats for everybody. The girls sang a beautiful musical number with Vicky, our youngest, on the piano. The food was great. The messages were inspired. I am so thankful for this calling. It can be very hard at times, especially when the young women aren't cooperative or when you put so much effort into something and you don't see the immediate results. But this activity and recent experiences have been a testimony to me that your efforts in the gospel are never wasted. I'm so excited for this upcoming year with these girls. 

Glass Slipper Challenge Weekend

This year, Disney introduced a new race to their Princess race weekend. They created this thing called the Glass Slipper Challenge where you run a 10k on Saturday and then do the half on Sunday. Of course its crazy, but we still signed up. I didn't train at all. I hadn't ran more than 3 miles since August :/ But it was still tons of fun. The night before the race, we went to the expo and to Magic Kingdom for their new light show. 

Picking up our packets

I did actually run the 10k and only stopped for like 3 minutes. This was my slowest 10k but I felt good about it. It was a lot of fun. You ran through Epcot's World Showcase and Disney's Boardwalk. It was a lot less crowded than the half. Next year, I think I'll just run the 10k. You get the magic of Disney without the ridiculessness of waiting 30+ minutes for pictures with characters.  And of course, Blaine didn't run even though we all tried really hard to convince him. Maybe next year :) 

Running towards the finish line 

Woody, Little Bo Peep, Little Green woMan :), Jessie and Buzz

After the race, we ate breakfast at Keke's (so good), took a nap and then went to Animal Kingdom, sore and all. It was pretty rainy and the park was decently empty so we got to do most of the rides and even got a picture with Mickey and Minnie. 

Obviously, we were dead tired the next day. But this year's half wasn't as bad as last years. Last year I "cared" about my time and was anxious to finish and didn't really enjoy the Disney aspect of the race. Knowing what to expect, this year we took our time, took pictures with as many characters as we could and had tons of fun. Also, the weather was a bazillion times better than last year. It was extremely hot. This year there was a breeze, some fog and it was just cool, especially for Florida. 

Before we began - I don't even remember being fully awake for this picture

I wish I would've gotten a better picture of my cape. It was beautiful. My mom did a great job on our costumes. 

This was the cutest photo op but the line was crazy long
- like as long as a Disney ride type of line

storming the castle :) 

We were looking down at the photographer there 

With Woody in Frontier Land

Last year, I really wanted to take this picture but didn't want to wait in line. So glad we did this year. 

At the halfway mark they played "Let it Go" 

This crazy basically forced me to run this thing - love her for it. 

Kim got the most attention for her costume. Kids and adults along the sidelines were shouting things like "I like warm hugs too!" or "Don't melt!" at her the entire time.  

19.3 completed!

It was a lot of fun. I really don't think I'll do the half again. But that's what I said last year. Anyway, it was a great weekend! 

Birthday Celebrations

This year, my birthday landed on a Sunday so we had my birthday dinner on Saturday. We went to Cava, a tablao restaurant where they have live flamenco dancers and Spanish singers. It was so much fun. I enjoyed every minute of it. At the end of the dinner, my family surprised me with my birthday gift a day early - a Canon Rebel SL1! I really wasn't expecting it. I've been playing around with it, but I have lots to learn and discover with this new toy! 

The next day, my family surprised me yet again with a surprise party. I was expecting maybe some close friends at my aunt's house for Sunday dinner, but not a full-blown party. My sister spearheaded it all, while my mom helped with decor and my aunt and uncle helped with the food. It was really nice. They served some of my favorite foods and desserts. My sister even had a playlist in the background with my current favorite songs. Every detail truly was perfect. 

Dessert table with my favorite cupcakes from Sweetness Bakeshop, mini arroz con leches, mini flans, cheesecake, cake pops  and my favorite type of cake - Chocolate Turtle.

She's the best!

This guy knew about it the whole time :)

I'm so happy to have these amazing friends in Florida!

Love her

I like to eat all my desserts (literally) with milk. So she had that option available for everyone :)

The churrasco grill master

the trio

The girls in the family - cousins Luisa and Hortensia showed up too!

#thehairflip

I was also showered throughout the month and day with cards, packages, texts and phone calls from amazing friends and family. 

Favorite text! Love them <3

The next day at work, they surprised me with a cake and sang happy birthday.

I think it's safe to say that 24 (I feel old saying it) started off pretty good!