They say it's your birthday...

It was my 28th birthday at the beginning of the month and I spent it in the traditional Barbarakah fashion.

John's family hosted a birthday dinner for the October and November birthdays (Sue and Anne's are in October, Barb and Sam's in November). Since Sam is currently in Louisiana serving a mission, we took this picture to email to him so he'd know we we thinking of him on his birthday. (That's Anne's cute boyfriend Austin with us).

The traditional birthday song- we join hands and sing both verses of Happy Birthday, then For He's a Jolly Good Fellow, followed by three cheers.

All I wanted for my birthday was to gather with my family and to not have to cook dinner or do the dishes. Well, since Catherine and my mom were in town, they made the birthday dinner into quite the party! They decorated the room with streamers and Cat made this cute mini-pennant for the cake she baked! My family put together an incredible meal, plus spoiled me with gifts and words of kindness. It was so special to be with my family and to have Catherine, Elizabeth, Mom and Dad there with me.

Charlie loved singing happy birthday with us...

...and Sam and Lily helped him learn our family's tradition of the kids helping blow out the candles.
I went to the So You Think You Can Dance tour with Cat. It was so fun to see the dancing in person- and as expected, it was spectacular. The scripted dialogue in between numbers was so cheesy, but the audience made primarily of pre-teen girls ate it up anyway. Catherine and I had a blast- singing to Kelly Clarkson on the way there, laughing, talking, dancing, flirting with the snack bar dude to get free stuff (I have no game, for the record) and being without our kids for a few hours.



Catherine, Elizabeth, Charlie and I went to the Sweet Tooth Fairy one day to sample a cupcake or six

John and I went to dinner at MacCool's with both sets of parents- we had such a fun time together. My favorite part is when my mom, my dad and John's dad passed around a single pair of magnifying glasses so they could read the menu.

My friends took me out for a birthday lunch at Red Butte Cafe and then my visiting teachers, Allyson and Cheryl took me out for lunch another day. I felt very spoiled and loved and I really enjoyed having lots of fun things to look forward to instead of just one big day.