Good Times, Good Friends

We are so fortunate that when we moved here, we fell into a wonderful group of friends! It is always so hard leaving your family and friends and moving to a whole new place, but with people like this, it is a lot easier! Last night a bunch of us went out to celebrate our friend Sridhar's birthday at this AMAZING Brazilian steakhouse, Fogo de Chao. Now I know what you're saying.....what could I eat at a steakhouse? Well, let me just say these Brazilian steakhouses have an amazing salad bar with everything you could possibly want. In fact, many people go here for the salad bar alone! It was phenomenal. On top of that, you get this FANTASTIC Brazilian cheese bread and many vegetarian sides. It was a scrumptious dinner with great company! Happy Birthday Sridhar!



Sam and Magdalena


Dave & Anjelica


Teresa and I

Mahesh - Shaun's cousin who lives in Fort Lauderdale

Bubba

Shaun's mom (or Bubba as Kam calls her) is officially here in Miami! She came down to stay with us for a little while. We went to a few dinners, took her to some hot spots, and introduced her to some of our friends. Mom I'm so glad you are here and I hope you enjoy your time with us and the kids :)

At the window

Here are a few pics of my little sugarplum princess playing by the widow one day :)

Rub A Dub Dub...

Kam and Ari in the tub! Tonight Kam really wanted to take a bath with his baby sister. It was so cute!!! After all, every parent needs a picture of their kids in the tub together, right?

Birthday time

This weekend was chock full of birthday parties. Saturday we went to Justin's 3rd Spiderman themed birthday party at this really cool place Jungle Gym. Sunday was Blake's 2nd birthday. He had a very cool firetruck theme. We had a blast at both parties!! Happy Birthday boys :)

Blake and Justin, the birthday boys :) Justin had Spiderman come to the party and boy oh boy, was he a huge hit with the kids!!!

Kam really enjoyed the trampoline!

Shaun's mom is visiting is for a little while. It is so great to have her here! The kids have really missed their "Bubba!"

Kam LOVED LOVED LOVED Spiderman (from a distance). Initially he was scared to go near him....but eventually he warmed up and I got this great pic! Although he still looks a bit apprehensive in this pic :)

Blake's firetruck party was a big hit! They even had a real firetruck come and all the kids got to go and play on it.

The Birthday boy, Blake

Sweet smile from Gabriella

Lucky lady

I am such a lucky lady I had a fantastic birthday...in fact, I had a fantastic birthday week :) Monday the market was closed so Shaun and I had a "date day." We spent the entire day together, baby free :) Wednesday, my actual birthday day, I was pampered with lots calls, messages, flowers, gifts, etc!! In the evening, Shaun and I went to dinner at Mr. Chow. I have to say, I was NOT impressed with the food there. The atmosphere and service both got 5 stars, but as for the food, 2 stars at most. Overpriced and bland. But I am glad that we went and at least tried it out. The next day, Shaun got me my birthday present - the Louis Vuitton Mahina bag that I have LOVED for a while!!! Thank you so much honey!!! Thank you everyone for making my birthday so memorable :) Love you all!!!!

Kam had a great time eating all the fruit from the basket sent by Natasha, John and the twins. Thanks guys :)

The beautiful flowers were courtesy of my Mom & Dad and Maya & Ajay! GORGEOUS!!! Thank you :)

Surprise!

Sunday afternoon Aria and I headed to our friend Anjelica's for a surprise baby shower for another friend of ours, Julia. Anjelica, as always, did an amazing job!! Julia was truly surprised. It was a very nice afternoon get together with the girls :) Congratulations Julia!!



Julia is expecting another boy! Double the fun (or trouble) ;)

I was so surprised Ari actually left her headband on! Her hair is getting longer and and it is kinda curly so I need so employ things other than hair clips (which she does not keep in) to tame it down a bit and keep it from going in her eyes. She was so cute in her little Juicy dress (thanks Aunty Maya) and her matching headband! Did I mention I LOVE having a little girl??

Ari and Zara (Dave & Anjelica's daughter)

Anjelica (the hostess) had a little finger nail painting session with the girls. So cute!

Soooooooo close to walking!

Picnic

We decided to go on a little picnic this past Friday. We met up with a few of our friends and everyone brought food. It was a lot of fun, but it got pretty chilly since we were right by the ocean. My camera ended up dying, but not before I managed to get a few pics of our outing. We will definitely be doing that again :)

Beautiful baby Stella

Shaun and Sam (Stella's dad)

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I never thought that when we moved to Miami we would still experience Michigan weather. Okay, maybe I am being a bit dramatic....but it has been FRIGID here lately!! And I know I should be used to the cold, but what can I say, I got very spoiled very fast in terms of the weather. As a result, we spent most of the weekend indoors, relaxing and playing with the kids. Next week it's supposed to warm back up so hopefully we can get back to enjoying more time outside in the warm Miami sunshine....the way it's meant to be :)

Grand Finale

We have been so fortunate to have so many of our family members and friends visit us in Miami this past holiday season. My cousins from Toronto were our last set of visitors (that is, until Shaun's mom comes in a few weeks :). Here are some pics.

We all went to a nice lunch at a fun Italian restaurant that Shaun and I frequent a lot. This little cutie pie in the pics with Aria is Cassia. She is our cousin's cousin's daughter......does that make sense?? It was so cute, both girls were in the same shade of purple and they were happily eating little bits of our food.

Sidenote - during this lunch, my poor Kamran fell right out of his high chair and got a big boo-boo on his head :( He was exceptionally jumpy and active that day and he kept trying to stand up in the high chair. I tried seat belting him in, but it was too short. The one time I turned away from him he went tumbling out and landed right on his head. It was VERY scary, but thank God he did not suffer any serious damage. We packed up the pizzas and brought them home to finish eating there where I could give Kam some TLC and fruit snacks (his favorite thing ever). We had him sleep in our bed with us that night so we could watch him. But like I said, there was no serious damage and he is completely fine. It's amazing how resilient kids are!! But from now on, it's only booster seats for him!

We met up with my cousins again a few days after the lunch and hit up a few Miami beach hot spots :)

Baby Cassia's mom and dad (our cousin's cousin)