Fall Fun

This fall has been so nice. We don't really have fall in Miami, it is just a break from the really really hot. Like it doesn't break 80 degrees until 10am kind of break. I miss the cool weather of fall and the feeling that things are changing, but I know I would only want hot weather if I had the cool weather. Despite the warm temperatures, we have had a lot of fun. We got to go home and celebrate my mother-in-law Vicki's birthday. We went out to dinner and had an awesome cake. It was fun to go home and celebrate the great mother she is.

The last few weeks has also consisted of lots of sports. Fall is the best time because you have football and then basketball! I can't wait for college basketball to start again. We had the chance to watch a UM game and a Heat game with some friends. The boys are not so photogenic so we only get pictures of girls… either that or they are too busy watching the game. I don't know which one it is :) 

Lastly, we had the chance to help with the trick-or-treat party at church. We set up a few rooms for the kids to come in and get some candy. It was kind of a mad rush, but we had a blast. Derek was a basketball player (Kentucky of course) and I was a pretty witch ;)

Now that Halloween is over I am fighting the urge to not jump into Christmas. If you have seen my Pinterest, you know I am failing. This is my favorite time of year so I can't wait to dive in and enjoy the Holiday Season! 

Derek's 26th Birthday

My amazing husband turned 26 on September 30th. I can't even describe how much I love and appreciate my husband. We aren't much for PDA, but I will take this chance to gush about him. I don't know anyone who works harder and smarter for his family. Derek is loyal, generous, empathetic and determined. He can make me laugh whenever I need it. He sees things I would never see and helps me look at life from a fresh perspective. He is pretty much the best guy I know... I am so lucky I snatched him up!

For his birthday we went to dinner at a little Italian place downtown. After we watched the Dolphins game and played games with friends. It was a great night! Thanks so much to everyone who came and helped me celebrate Derek! 

Birthday Celebrations

Last week the birthday celebrations we started at Islands of Adventure finished with a dinner for Jacki. Olivia's birthday was the Friday we were at Islands of Adventure, and then Jacki, her roommate, had her birthday on Wednesday. Olivia planned two awesome celebrations. We had cake the night before, and dinner at Michael's Genuine on her birthday. I think Jacki had a great time and we loved celebrating the birth of such an awesome girl!

Jacki and the goofball boys

The birthday kids

Love these girls

Happy birthday Jacki!

The group at dinner

All of us outside. So many lovely ladies!

It's My Birthday

If you have read my blog then you know I have had very mixed feelings about my birthday this year. I feel like I am still a kid in so many ways and part of me has felt very nostalgic for my childhood in the last few months. The best way to describe it is this: I want the knowledge and skills of my 20's combined with the care-free lifestyle of my teens. I think we all feel that way at times (or at least that is what I tell myself). I saw a quote recently and it really resonated with me.

In lieu of Dr. Seuss's amazing advice, I truly enjoyed my birthday. Derek and I were talking about how, when you are a kid, your birthday means an excessive amount of sweets, gifts and attention. As you get older it becomes more about doing things with people you love.That was exactly how I celebrated my birthday. The night before my birthday I went and got pedicures with Alana, Olivia and Jacki. I love these girls and spending some girl time at the salon was the perfect way to kick off my birthday celebration. They also brought me some amazing cupcakes that Derek and I ate much too quickly. 

Such a fun night :)

These didn't last long! 

The night of my birthday Derek took me to a Thai cooking class. It was so much fun! We made spring rolls, soup, custard and an Indian dish as well. I love Thai food and it was a very enlightening process to learn how to make all of these dishes. We were in charge of the spring rolls and it turns out I make a pretty mean spring roll (evidence below). Since this was my first cooking class I had no idea what to expect, but I am happy to say that I loved it and now feel very motivated to take additional classes. It was the perfect way to spend my birthday night! The next step is taking Derek up on my birthday gift of starting my urban garden. Once he is done with finals it is on.

Derek was suited up and ready to cook. 

I was really into rolling my Spring Roll

The finished product... I am pretty proud! 

Shrimp and Mushroom soup... sooo good! 

 Our custard was caramelized and I was pretty bummed we didn't get to use the fire. But it turned out awesome so I cant complain!

Vampire Diaries Party

Ok I'll say it, I like Vampire Diaries... a lot. In the end it comes down to the fact that I am a hopeless romantic and have an unhealthy appetite for soap opera inspired shows (Revenge, Vampire Diaries, Nashville, etc, etc). When I found out the season finale would be the week of my birthday, I decided to throw a finale party with a few of my friends from church who are also avid fans. I had a blast planning the party and trolling Pinterest for ideas. The party was a total success and the finale episode was a crazy ride! I can't believe we have to wait until October for more episodes! Guess we will just have to re-watch this season in our free time :)

 The table with the decorations

In the episode the characters graduated so I got a few graduation glasses and necklaces (Dollar Store)

 I made the fans out of card stock and printed the labels from Google images

 Everyone had a bottle of hot tamales to take home, telling us which team they are on. You can find these printable labels here.

 The cupcake toppers are from the same site. I used gel icing to make bite marks and red velvet cupcake batter.  

You can find the vervain print here. I thought it was a really fun touch :) 

 I found the bottle wraps for the drinks here as well as the "thirsty" print. I think that was one of my favorite touches! 

Of course Marisabel is Team Stefan and Melanie is Team Damon (the right team)

We had a blast together! I am so grateful for these girls as friends and I am so glad we could have a fun night together! Until October.... 

Where has 2013 gone?

Somehow it is April... APRIL?!? How did that happen? The last few months have been beyond busy. Every weekend had something going on and Derek and I have been on overdrive. Derek has gotten into a rhythm with school and has been doing amazing (surprise). March was filled with fun things like Derek's Pinning Ceremony, Girls Camp, a trip to Nicaragua, a visit from family and lots and lots of time preparing for those things. I will be sure to blog everything in the next few days. 

While this month has been busy, it has also been insanely fun! I feel so blessed to be living the life I dreamed of. I live in an amazing city with an amazing husband and I have a great job. Just this week I was driving home from work and I had one of those moments where I realized that I am an adult. I enjoyed this thought for a second... and then I realized I will be 26 next month. 26!?!?! I definitely don't feel like I'm 26... 26 means I can no longer claim to be in my early 20's. It means that I should probably finally establish a facial routine and start using eye creams (because yes, I have wrinkles!). I actually had to roll down my window and breathe fresh air. I don't know where all the time has gone but I am now an adult and, to be honest, I don't know how I feel about that. I mean, I watch shows that are targeted for teenagers, can't cook 2 days in a row, leave my dishes out far too long, don't do laundry until it is absolutely necessary, and let my gas tank hit zero before filling up. All of these things seem to allude to me being 18-20, not 26. 

Proof that I almost ran out of gas earlier this week.

I called my mom and talked to her this week about this because I was having a mid-20's crisis and you still call your mom for those. She just laughed and told me to join the club. Her words were, "We all feel that way... why do you think I hated my birthday." Ok, so this does explain a lot about my mom not acknowledging her birthday until I was in college. Then she told me that life isn't about age, but experiences. It made me think about what age is. It's a number... THAT IS IT! I believe that, after we leave this mortal life, we keep living. We still learn, grow, create memories and get older. This age after we die is measured in wisdom and experience, not by how old we are. So I am choosing to not freak out about turning 26 and not owning a home or having kids. I am going to enjoy every year I get to spend here on Earth learning and growing. I am not going to be hard on myself about what the social expectations are and I am going to do my life the way it works for me. I am going to be OK with my lack of "adulthood" and embrace my inner child (at least I still have one). And I am pretty excited about this decision!

Mom's Birthday

Growing up, my mom hated her birthday. We always knew to stay clear when that time came around and be perfect angels so she could enjoy her birthday as much as possible. I think it had to do with getting older, but I have always just known she doesn't like it. The older I got, the more my mom seemed to enjoy her birthday. Since I have been away for the last 7 years, I haven't been able to celebrate with her. I know she said she didn't mind, but I also knew it would mean a lot if we were there this year. When Derek and I were planning at the beginning of the year, we realized he had a free weekend the weekend before mom's birthday and so we decided to surprise her. About a week before we were supposed to go up and surprise my mom, Vickie called us and told us Buffy and Chloe were going to be in Melbourne for the week. So we drove up to Melbourne on Friday and got to hang out with Buffy and Chloe for a day. Buffy and I shared YW ideas and we got to play with Chloe. It is so cute how much she loves her uncle Derek! She is so funny and perceptive... I have loved watching her grow up!

They are too cute together! 

After we surprised my mom during her birthday lunch at Five Guys. Her reaction was priceless! Then we went and did some cardboard boxing and kite flying. It was a great breezy day so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and time together.

Flying Kites

Showing Mom how it is done

Seester Time! The sun rays looked pretty cool too.

Man, I just love this kid!

While we were there we had to have like 5 photo shoots and take tons of pictures. We wanted to get a good picture of all of the girls so we had Derek take the picture. Luckily, Derek always takes tons of pictures when you hand him a camera because he caught this incredibly funny and candid moment between us. It really sums all of us up in a picture. 

Sarah is always fixing us up and mom and I are in another world laughing.

And the serious shot.

Afterward, we went and got Cantina Dos Amigos takeout and the boys watched some basketball. UM had a big win so Derek was a very happy camper. Sarah is incredibly talented and made a Betty Jean Jeopardy game. The teams were pretty unfair, Dad and Ryan vs Me and Derek, but we ended up making it a game. It was really fun to learn more about my mom and for her to share memories with us. 

Time went much too fast, but I am so glad we had the chance to go home and be with Mom on her birthday and see Buffy and Chloe. Being here in Florida is so awesome and I am so happy we are here and able to go home when we can. 

Christmas with the Humpherys

We started our Christmas break with my family. We went up on Saturday, the same day Mike and Kelly got in town. It had been about 6 months since I had seen Mike so it was great to all be together again! We had a really nice weekend of eating, playing games, going to church, and napping. Sunday night we all participated in a Humpherys family tradition of caroling with the missionaries. We visited several families and investigators and, thanks to Sarah, Kelly, Mike and the Elders, we sounded the best we ever have! It helps when you have a few music majors and a vocal performance major in the mix. It really makes it feel like Christmas driving around and singing Christmas songs together. We also visited our my mom's friend Rene's family. Her son Luke has down syndrome and is in love with Sarah. He macked on her all night and kept telling Ryan to get lost... pretty cute! Monday we celebrated my Dad's birthday. Since his birthday is Christmas eve, we have a fun ritual so it feels like his birthday instead of Christmas. This tradition is presents, Chinese food for lunch and a movie. We also played volleyball at the courts at the Satellite Beach library in the morning. Mike, Kelly, Derek and I were a team and we got worked.... so did our arms but it was really fun. Even Comet came along. We had an awesome lunch of Chinese food and then saw The Hobbit. Dad lucked out with his gifts... Mom got him a surround sound system because he gave up 1980's speakers this summer. That night we went to celebrate Christmas with mom's family at Rose's house. Crystal always takes the best pictures and she did great at capturing our family that night.

Here is the whole crew!

Me and grandma

Sarah and I with Crystal

Me and Derek

Sarah and Ryan had to go spend time with Ryan's family after the party so we rushed home and opened all of our gifts. We exchanged names this year and then Mom and Dad got us all gifts. My mom is the best gift giver. She always thinks of little things that we love and she makes the whole Christmas experience fun. Even as a 25 year old, I still love the excitement of opening my presents. Derek got some nice clothes to wear for when he sees patients and I got a sewing machine! I cant wait to get some practice under my belt and get better at sewing again. Mike and Kelly pulled my name and I think their gift was my favorite of this year... a Vampire Diaries shirt with Damon on the front. What more could a girl want?!?

The whole weekend was awesome. It went MUCH too fast, but it was a great time being with family and relaxing. The best part was I didn't have to get on a plane to go home! I am looking forward to many more Florida Christmases!