Mother's Day

About 2 weeks before Mother's Day my mom called me on my way home from work. She told me that she was talking with her friends at work and they asked her what she wanted to do for Mother's Day... and she said she wanted to come to Miami and take a little vaca. So her friends told her to do it! She called me and asked me if Derek and I would like to host them for the weekend. Of course we said yes, and so we got to spend Mother's Day this year with my Mom and Dad here in Miami. It was exactly what I needed; lots of food, sun and relaxation. Mom and Dad came Friday after work and we went to dinner at La Moon, a Columbian restaurant by our house. It was a feast and the perfect way to start the weekend. 

Saturday we went to the farmer's market by our house for the first time. We got a ton of fresh fruit and some homemade ceviche. Mom showed me how to pick mangos and pineapple while we were there.

 Mom's instructional finger even got in a shot :)

After we went over to Key Biscayne and got papusas at Patagonia. One of my friends introduced me to that restaurant last summer and somehow I had never taken Derek. He loved it and so did my parents. Next we went to Miami Beach and rented bikes. We rode around the beach and took in all the crazy people and art deco architecture. It was perfect weather for a day on the beach and I am so glad we had the chance to enjoy the beautiful city we live in. 

 This picture made me laugh. Dad finally found soccer at dinner and was a very happy camper :)

 On Mother's Day we attended church at our ward. The young women were so happy to see Mom again and I think Dad and Mom both enjoyed meeting the great friends we have made at church. I thought it was funny that everyone at church kept telling me I look like my Dad. I hope I have inherited his great genes and look as young as he does! After church we took some pictures in our lobby since we forgot to at church.

 Love my parents!

 My Mommy is the best!

My cute hubby :)

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!

Christmas with the Estes

Derek had a whole 2 weeks off school so we decided to make the most of it and spend time with family. We spent Christmas weekend with the Humpherys family (Pics and post to come). On the 26th Derek flew to Atlanta with his parents and I went back to work for two days. I flew up late on Thursday and met the whole Estes clan in Atlanta. It was the first time since our wedding the whole Estes family was together at the same time! It was an awesome weekend. 

Carrie and Dusten flew in from Washington state with Gwen and Arielle. They had tons of delays because of the winter storms  in the Northeast but the girls handled it awesome. They stayed over at Buffy's with Buffy, Greg and Chloe. Derek, Me, Vickie and Phil stayed at Steve and Wendy's (about 20 minutes away) with the twins, Layla and Luke. They were great hosts! The brothers/boys spent a lot of time together bonding and enjoying being together and us girls had the chance to take the little girls to do all sorts of fun things. My mother in law planned a plethora of fun activities for the girls and they went nuts. It was a little crazy with 6 girls all the time, but it helped that I had two extra hands to help with. 

We took the girls to Build a Bear for a party. The girl who helped us was really good with the kids and they loved it. She had the girls give their bear's heart a kiss and had them do a little good luck dance... it was really cute. 

 Vickie ordered all of the girls sleeping bags from Pottery Barn. She had them embroidered with their names and then got matching sleeping bags for their bears. She also got them matching pajamas. We had the girls go upstairs at Buffy's and then we laid out all of the sleeping bags with their PJs. They came running down the stairs and found their sleeping bags and PJs then laid around and watched a movie. It was super fun! 

 

Since Carrie now lives in washington, she doesn't have Publix so we had to stop in and get her favorites. She exposed me to Publix two-bite brownies and nutella... It literally changed my world. Best snack ever!

We also had the chance to have family pictures taken while we were there, It was really cold out so we ended up doing it at Steve and Wendy's house. I cant wait to see how they turned out. Here is my sneak pic of Mimi and all her grand babies. They are a ridiculously cute bunch!

Buffy, Carrie and I snuck out for a little girl time and saw Les Mis. IT WAS AMAZING!!! I loved it! I was surprised how emotional I was in it. I saw the traveling Broadway a few years back but the movie just really struck me. Anne Hathaway was killer and Hugh Jackman was a hunk. I can't believe how much talent they recruited for the film. Definitely a classic for me now. And I am glad I got to go with the girls because I am sure Derek would have thought I was a crazy person as I cried through most of it.

Even though we all went in differnt directions during the day, we all got to do dinner together each night. It was a little crazy feeding 17 people, but the chaos was fun. I love being around family and I especially love being an aunt!

We also took a trip to Lego Land. Arielle and Gwen are so funny together. Gwen is the lone blondie in the family... all of the other girls have the exact same shade of brown hair. It looks like our kids have a good change of being brunettes like their mom :) Gwen is currently obsessed with Gangham Style. I think she is partly responsible for getting that YouTube video to a billion views. She can do the dance amazingly well! We told Carrie to tape her and send it to Ellen... we were all dying laughing at her!

Here is Derek with the twins and Chloe. They all loved to jump on their Uncle Derek and have him wrestle with them. He was a trooper!

These girls were my shadows. We had so much fun primping and playing. One of the days Vickie and I loaded Tabitha, Tatum, Arielle and Layla in the mini van to go out. Vickie and I looked back to make sure we had everyone and Tatum said "You guys are so pretty." It was pretty much the cutest thing ever. Tabitha loved to come up to me and grab my cheeks and tell me she loved me. Being an aunt is the best!

I didn't realize little kids loved cameras so much but my phone was hijacked more than one over the trip and I found some pretty funny pictures. This was one of my favorites. Gwen is doing her Popeye smile. 

All in all the trip was awesome! I have the best sister-in-laws. They are amazing mothers and I love that we can all be friends. Vickie did so much to plan this trip... it really was a dream for all of us! I look forward to many more trips like this in the future. Hope you all had a great Christmas with your families!

Thanksgiving

This was the first Thanksgiving Derek and I got to spend together in Florida! It was so fun to be home and spend time with family. Buffy, Greg and Chloe came down from Atlanta and Sarah and Ryan were in town on Saturday. School has been busy for Derek so I was looking forward to letting him take a break and get some rest!

Thursday we drove up and had lunch at Aunt Nez's house. As always, we had a healthy political debate over lunch and then planned our Black Friday shopping. We ended up going shopping on Thursday night and we had all of our shopping done by 11:30pm! Mom got some awesome deals and finished all of her Christmas shopping by the end of the weekend (jealous). We just hung out with my mom and dad the rest of the day and of course we watched lots of football. Friday we hung out with the Coddington and Estes families and ate another Thanksgiving dinner. No turkey at this one... just a yummy roast thanks to my FIL. Chloe is getting so big and we had a blast playing with her and getting a glimpse into her fun personality. I wish we were closer to all of the nieces and nephew, but thankfully the whole Estes family will be up in Atlanta for Christmas so we will get a chance to see them all soon. Saturday Sarah and Ryan got back from North Florida and we ate yummy yummy cheese stakes at Little Phillies. If you are ever in Satellite Beach, go there... they are the best! After we went to Viero and shopped at the outlets and got dinner. Surprisingly Derek got more clothes than I did :) He is all decked out now with a nice professional wardrobe from Banana Republic (thanks Mom and Vickie!) We had a blast with all the families... I could have used another day or two for sure!

 Our yummy dinner with the Estes and Coddingtons

Watching some football

We drove home Saturday night and recovered from the trip on Sunday. I pulled out the Christmas decorations and our family room is nice and festive now. I got a cold over the weekend so this week has been long, but I am so glad we got to go home for the holiday! I love our families and I feel so lucky to have them so close to us. I love the holiday season and I am ready to celebrate in fashion!

 

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!