Sports Illustrated model Kate Upton celebrated her 21st birthday on Monday with her uncle, GOP Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan and GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy.

McCarthy, who's the number three Republican in the House, posted a photo of the trio on his Instagram page. He captioned the shot, "With Congressman Fred Upton and his niece, Kate. We are celebrating Kate's .21st Birthday #kateupton."

Upton took to Twitter to thank everyone for the warm wishes on her big day. She tweeted a photo of a bouquet sent to her, with the caption, "My friends and family are the best!! Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes."

Upton has had quite a year leading in to adulthood. At the age of 20 she graced the June 2013 cover of Vogue and the cover of Sports Illustrated's coveted Swimsuit Issue - both a major honor for an up-and-coming model. She became the first model to land back-to-back covers of SI since Tyra Banks in 1996 and 1997.

Her June Vogue cover was not her first, as she was also on the front of Vogue Italia's November 2012 issue.

She also made Maxim's Hot 100 List, released in May.

The Superbowl is one of the biggest sporting events in the world and the Florida native was featured in an ad that debuted during the February show. The commercial, for the all-new Mercedes-Benz CLA, featured the model standing around and looking pretty as convinces a group of men in football jerseys to wash the car for her. The video was posted on YouTube on Jan. 21 and by Jan. 24., it already had over 3 million views.

Upton is currently filming the 2014 film The Other Woman with Leslie Mann and Cameron Diaz.. The film is about a woman who, after realizing she is not her boyfriend's only lover, teams up with his wife and plots mutual revenge. The movie also stars Nicki Minaj and Taylor Kinney. 

Tags: Kate Upton