November/December

February 03, 2016

November/December

Thanksgiving:

This year we spent Thanksgiving at Jaime's parents house. I had to work that evening but was grateful we got to go over and spend some time with family. I baked this new recipe I love which is butternut squash with honey, pecans, cinnamon, nutmeg and butter. Saul Sr. and Saul Jr. deep friend the Turkey which was delicious and Rosario and the rest of the family made amazing sides and desserts. We always love Aunt Nilda's fresh rolls. After eating dinner I had to rush off to work and found myself getting a little teary eyed when Jaime walked me out to the car. I reflected throughout dinner about all the reasons I have to be grateful and was overwhelmed when I thought about marrying Jaime and how much that has changed my life for the better. I thought about how wonderful and supportive our families have been. I thought about my brother and sister and that I am so proud of how both of them have chosen to serve mission as well as my older brother Garret and Cami who surprised us for Izzy's bday with a baby announcement. I thought about how fortunate I am to love my career and have the opportunity to serve patients through life's most difficult circumstances. I thought about the gospel and how happy I am to have perspective on my life as well as peace and understanding of my faith and values. I thought about crossfit, running and how blessed I feel that I can be active and enjoy being outdoors. The ideas kept flowing and then I looked at Jaime and realized how I was so grateful that I would get to spend every Thanksgiving with him for the rest of my life. He's my rock and I can always count on him for love and support. I felt horrible having to leave him on Thanksgiving but appreciate that he respects my career and encourages me even though he knows he has to endure many nights alone while I'm at the hospital. He never makes me feel bad and reminds me that he's grateful I can be there helping others. His support helps me find further confidence in what I do as a nurse knowing he is proud.

Guitar Lessons:

For Jaime's bday he started learning how to play the guitar. Fortunately he already had one that his parents bought for him in Mexico. I love hearing him practice around the how and think it's adorable how he loves to practice.

Bday Party:

For my 25th bday we hosted a party at our town home. I told Jaime not to get me a present and that I wanted to fix a few things around the house so I did what I do best...I made him a long list. He cleaned all the floors, patched up some holes on the living room wall and completely repainted it, installed new hanging lights around the bar, mounted our new TV, set up our new cabinet, swept the deck, touched up the baseboards...the list went on and on and he cleared everything off of it! That stinker still even got me a present. I put up a bunch of Christmas decorations I found in the garage and Jaime helped put up some lights in the living room. I was so happy with how the house turned out! We had one of our favorite restaurants called Mazatlan cater the party and the platters were amazing! Rosario wanted to buy my bday cake and I finally decided on a Lemon, raspberry and butter cream cake from Whole Foods which was amazing! It was so huge I had to bring left overs to work. We had around 40 guests come that night and I was on cloud nine. I saw friends from my childhood in Marysville, Mercer Island, work, soccer, church, crossfit and even my parents stopped by. Life has been pretty busy lately and it was amazing to see so many people make the effort to come. We had a white elephant exchange and the gifts were pretty amazing! The top stolen gift was a seahawks travel pillow. After we played this game I got from the white elephant where you wind up this lever and eventually someone gets whip cream thrown in their face! Finally we turned in and then Jaime and I went on a Dick's run and finally fell asleep around 5am. Fun fact, Jaime's mother Rosario and I have the same bday. She was in Vegas celebrating with Saul or else I'm sure she would have stopped by to party with us!

Missing some of the crew

Ogata's Funeral:

I was honored to be asked to sing at a dear family friend's funeral. I got teary eyed when they asked me to be part of the ceremony. I sang Amazing grace and had to fight back the tears. Funny thing was I woke up with a voice that sounded like a man in the morning and was freaking out...Jaime had to run and get me tea while I was practicing at the church on Beacon hill. My bday party was the night before and I figured maybe my voice was tired from all the talking I did...I don't remember yelling but I was pretty excited to see all my friends so I was probably blabbing non-stop. Everything ended up being ok because I warmed up my voice all morning (sorry neighbors) and Jaime came to the rescue. I was happy that I was able to see a lot of the grand kids I babysat growing up who were all there in honor of their grandfather. This family has meant a lot to me and my family over the years. We have been neighbors with Randy and Wendy, I have babysat for Julie and Randy's family, Brett taught 3/4 of the Bernal kids in high school Math and was also both Connor and my coach at one time or another. We interacted with his parents and father Yosh quite a bit. He definitely left his legacy which will be carried on through his amazing family and I'm just so glad I could take part in celebrating his life.

The Ogata Grandchildren

Work Holiday Party/Tam's Bday:

After the funeral we took a power nap at home and then rushed off again to my work holiday party. We had bomb Hawaiian BBQ and got to take our annual photo with "Santa" who was one of our HA's. He did a great job dressing up and surprising the kids and the loved it! It was fun to catch up and see people outside of work. The partying for the weekend didn't end there either. We drove out to Snoqualmie Casino to celebrate with our friend Tam too.

Ma's BDay:

We went to one of Ma's (my mother in law) favorite places downtown for her bday dinner. Fun fact we share the same bday! We enjoyed a delicious meal at Morton's and brought her flowers.

Christmas:

This year we decided to focus Christmas with Jaime's family because two of my siblings were out of the country and my older brother and wife were celebrating with her family in Utah. It made most sense so next year my family can get together. On Christmas Eve we always go to mass with Jaime's parents. I enjoy being able to go with them on a special holiday. It's fun to sing and learn more about the Catholic church. Plus I enjoy sitting next to Pa because he always likes to hold my hand and it's very special to me. I can see where Jaime gets that trait. After we went back to Ma's and she had a delicious meal prepared and we exchanged gifts. Jaime and I got Carter a Little Tike basketball hoop because he's so active and he loved it! We were thrilled. He kept finding ways to cheat when we would make the hoop higher but we had to adjust it because it was too easy when it was low! Jaime and I "invested" in a new TV and fixing up the living room for Xmas. I couldn't be more thrilled with a new buffet/stand under the TV and Jaime loves his TV!!! Jaime was so diligent setting up the stand...he got to assemble it few times because the company sent us a crooked piece and we had to request another. It was all worth it though because I love it! We gave Ma and Pa a digital scrapbook of our Mexico trip and they loved it and appreciated the meaning behind it. We gave Saul and Jan movie tickets to see Star Wars and Cy a Champs gift card. We gave Rosy and my Dad a Dominican Republic scrapbook from our trip and Dallas and my mom a Cheesecake Factory Gift card. As you can tell we are all about experience vs. "things." Things are always fun too but these days everyone just about has what they want.

All of the Silva Family

Tamale Making Tradition:

When Jaime and got married he said "One of my dreams has always been for my wife to make tamales with my Mom at Christmas. It would really mean a lot to me if you would make them with her and learn our family tradition." Sure enough Ma called around Christmas and we ordered a truck load of Masa. She taught me the secret family recipe...I'll admit it is a little hard to remember because nothing is measured out...it's all about the taste and a "hint of this or dash of that." Anyhow we spent a couple of hours preparing them. It was actually very relaxing to sit and spread the masa, put in the pork/veggies and be able to talk and laugh. Ma was surprise how fast I worked and thought I would get tired of the endless amounts of masa we had. I'm all about efficiency. I lost count of how many we made though. A week later we were able to enjoy them a week later with my parents. It was really special for Jaime and I to have all our parents under the same room enjoying our new family tradition. I know my Dad was really excited to have some real homemade tamales. I said if they are good I made them and if they were bad it must have been the one Ma made. Ha!

Endless amounts of Tamales

Cami visits:

Cami came to visit for a bit on route to see her family and we got to see her baby bump!! I cannot wait to be an Aunt and am going to spoil that sucker rotten. It was fun to see her and have her stay in our guest room. We love it when family visits.

MI Ward Party:

We did get to go to Christmas Sunday with my Mom/Dallas and Rosy/Dad and it's always fun to visit my home ward and enjoy the brunch after. My ward also asked me to sing at the ward holiday party which was themed The Polar Express. I got to sing the song by Josh Groban called "Believe" and I will admit I love that song.