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! 

Some of the Best Things that have Happened in 2014 So Far

Papo turned 19! We're only 5 years apart, but it really makes me feel old. We went out to eat at Los Verdes for his favorite Colombian food.

My beautiful and talented sister got an awesome new job, complete with her very own huge office :) She was at First Coast Service Options as an auditor for around 5 years. She is now the new director of accounting for the Miami office of Church World Service, an international nonprofit organization that helps immigrants and people in need all over the world. I used to work for them before leaving to BYU. I'm really proud of her and know that she'll do great in this new capacity. 

Nina and Luna visited! Blaine only saw them once for a little bit. He didn't let me hold Luna the whole time we visited and she had no problem with that. Little Luna fell asleep right in his arms! But I was able to spend a whole day with them. We ate good food, walked around Lincoln Road, and shopped at Aventura Mall (what Nina and I do best - somethings never change!). We stopped at my place quickly so that Nina could see Rue and so that Luna could meet her. Luna got so excited when she saw Rue. It was adorable. I wish I could've seen them more, but it was so so good to see my best friend and the world's cutest baby girl. Seriously, she's adorable and behaved so well the entire time! 

I've decorated our apartment a little bit more. It's a work in progress but it has been a lot of fun.

Everybody loves Grandma Sepuvelda's painting of the D.C. temple!

I tasted strawberries and cream oatmeal for the first time and now I'm obsessed. I have to stop myself from eating it everyday for breakfast. It truly is one of the best things that has happened to me this year :) 

Uli turned 12. That's right. For his birthday, my aunt gave his room a makeover. When he left for school, my grandfather and I started taking things down and started painting the room. It was a big family effort but by the time he got home from school, he had a completely new bedroom. It was a total surprise and he loved it. His cowboy room was nice but it was time for a more mature look! At night, we went out to dinner at The Big Cheese - one of Uli's favorite restaurants.

Andrea visited Miami and after years of being friends, I finally cooked dinner for her. We also celebrated her birthday by going out to dinner at Crazy About You.

Abuelo turned 70. We all got together after church to sing happy birthday to him. He's so excited for his trip to Europe in February.

The dates for the Fort Lauderdale Temple were finally announced. The open house will start as early as March 29th! The dedication will be on May 4th and the cultural celebration will be the day before. We are SO extremely excited to have a temple so close so soon! It has been an answer to so many prayers throughout the years for so many people. Also, as I work with the young women, I will be heavily involved in the planning of the cultural celebration. They called me to help with the choreography and teaching of the dancing portion of the performance for our stake. I'm so grateful that we get to be here for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

Blaine got his first bonus with DealerSocket. He has been working extremely hard (and I have missed him so much) so this bonus is well-deserved! We celebrated by going to a little Spanish restaurant right by our house. It was delicious! We will definitely be going back for more. So far, 2014 has been a great year! 

December

Speech therapy has been very fun during the holiday season. There are so many cute activities and crafts to do and it gives me the excuse to read my favorite childhood Christmas books. The downside to the holiday season is that a lot of people cancel or no-show for their sessions but I didn't have the worst of luck.

Candy sleighs that I made for my kids

For my aunt's birthday, we went to Disney world with the family. Blaine and I got seasonal annual passes. I have been dying to get them ever since we moved here. It's definitely worth it considering how often we go. So it was an early Christmas present. We went to Epcot and Magic Kingdom. While we were at Epcot, Kim and Jonathan joined us :) Disney was awesome as always and it was nice to have the whole family there. When we got back, we got together to cut a cake and sing happy birthday to my aunt.

Dragon slayers :) 

It was a gorgeous day and evening

New favorite thing to eat at Disney - waffle sandwiches!

Turkey-leg enthusiasts 

Jonathan & Kim had never ridden Figment before.

We went to several holiday parties this year. My job had a company party that was very nice. Blaine was able to get to know my work friends better and also meet their boyfriends and husbands. We danced a little bit and talked a lot like girls do :) It was a lot of fun to hang out outside of our typical work setting.

Most of the north staff

The next morning, we went to a holiday fundraiser for Best Buddies that was sponsored by one of the dealerships Blaine works with. It definitely made us miss Devin and all of the Best Buddies activities we'd go to with him. It was at Gulfstream Park, a race track for horse racing. We went for free and ate at their delicious buffet while watching the horses race from the inside. It was a really nice experience. I had never been to a racetrack before.

We also had our ward Christmas party. The young women were in charge of decorating and it all turned out nicely. Blaine was part of the Christmas play/program last minute as a Nephite. Somebody didn't show and the bishop's wife asked him to fill-in. If you know Blaine, you know that he hates doing stuff like this  especially without any prepartion. It wasn't a big deal at all but he wasn't excited about it. I think he did a great job  :)

That Sunday, Ivan was baptized. Now everybody in our family is officially a member. Ivan had been preparing for a while to be baptized. We are so happy he made the decision to be baptized. 

I also went to watch Ivan sing in his school Christmas show. It was really cute. I love watching little kids perform. Most of the songs were Spanish holiday songs, which I thought was a little strange and also hilarious. But I guess that's one of the things that happen when you live in Miami.

My mom's birthday was also in December. My aunt and her are the same age every year for about a week. We took her out to lunch at a nice restaurant called the 94th Aero Squadron restaurant. She's always loved that place ever since we were small. I hadn't been to it in years. At night, family and friends came to her house to sing happy birthday. Blaine made it right in time. He had been in Puerto Rico again.

For the last mutual of 2013, we had a Christmas dinner with the young women and their parents. We had a good turnout and had a lot of fun together celebrating the real meaning of Christmas.

We went to the Trochez 2nd Annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party (its official) this year. Dinner was delicious and we had a ton of fun in the photobooth. We took the sweaters off immediately after we were done because it was hot and no matter how many times we washed them, some of them had a weird stench to them (the mystery of ugly Christmas sweaters is real). Valentina and Oscar were nice enough to let Rue come and play with Millie (their tiny Yorkie) so she was part of the fun too. 

She's a little too big to be carried, but Blaine is in denial. 

Aren't these hilarious? 

the boys

the girls 

We ALMOST went to the theaters dressed up like this, but decided not to in the end. It was a great night with friends. We miss our Utah friends a ton, but we're so grateful for the friendship of the friends we're making here! 

We visited Orlando the last weekend of the year. Kristin and Kathy were in town. Kristin just graduated from BYU-Idaho so we went to P.F. Chang's to celebrate. She's now working in Downtown SLC as a digital marketing intern for Deseret Book Co., so I was so happy to see her before she left again. We're all so proud of her.