Jenica's 27th Birthday

This year's birthday completely exceeded my expectations and my wonderful friends and family made me feel like a million billion trillion bucks! Seriously, I felt so loved all week long and at the end of the night on my birthday I couldn't help but tear up because I felt so special. To be honest, I think this is the first birthday that I wasn't really looking forward to as much. I used to wonder why people didn't get SO giddy and excited for their birthday and now I get it. No one wants to get older because that means that we have one less year to live! Maybe it's a good thing that I really appreciate my life and want to savor every minute. It does freak me out that I graduated high school 9 years ago, I've been married for almost 6 years and I graduated from college 5 years ago. Turning 27 just reminds me that my life is flying by! It's a good thing too because I have a lot of experience and our experiences can hopefully shape us into better people to take on the challenges that life throws at us. I tried to look at my birthday as a celebration of all that I have done and accomplished and all that I hope to accomplish in the future! It's Jenica's New Year. My new year isn't on January 1st, but on March 19th every year. 

It all started out Monday when my darling friend Traci sent me a message at work telling me "happy birthday week!" and asking when I had time for lunch. I think she knows how obsessed I am with birthday weeks so I thought it was so thoughtful that she remembered. The best day to go to lunch that week turned out to be that day so I chose Zupa's because I love their salads. Carey came with us too and it was a fun girl's lunch. On Tuesday after work I met Carol at Sunglass Hut and I picked out some new polarized Ray Ban sunglasses for my birthday. I have been wanting them for a long time so I was so excited! Lindsay came to help pick them out too. Afterward, we went to Carrabba's to eat my favorite meal of all time, their chicken marsala. We met the rest of the Parcell family there. I savored every last bite, of course, and had leftovers. YUM!!! Rach and Drew gave me a cute candle, Heather and Casey got me a pretty necklace and chocolate, and Lindsay gave me glasses cleaning supplies for my new Ray Ban's. The next day was my birthday and my cute Tyler kept texting me all day asking how my birthday was. That morning, Kacie texted me a happy birthday and asked if I had plans for lunch. Originally there was a lunch scheduled at work but that got cancelled so I didn't have plans for lunch. She came to work, picked me up with her cute girls and took me to Zupa's (my choice again...I like what I like!) After work I came home to take a nap then met my family at Brick Oven for dinner. My mom bought me a bunch of black, pink and white animal print balloons. A couple months before I had needed a carry-on suitcase for Hawaii so my showed up at my door with that as my early birthday present with a "happy birthday" ribbon wrapped around! Jocelyn gave me a cute shirt from J. Crew. Dinner was delicious! That night I got home and there was a nice gift of my front porch from dad. It was a card with a restaurant gift card in it. Then Tyler took me on a cute scavenger hunt all around the house with different clues! I loved it! It finally led downstairs where he had a Nike jacket laying on top of the new water softener for our house that I wanted so bad! And that's when I teared up :) 

Oakley put together a friend birthday dinner on Friday up at Longhorn Steakhouse. Jocelyn and her boyfriend Leigh drove up with us after we met them at the outlets, and Brittany and Austin met us at the restaurant too. That's my favorite steak in Utah. After dinner we went to Oakley and Scott's house for cupcakes and Dance Dance Revolution. She got me a cute jewelry holder for the kitchen when I'm cooking, some candy and makeup brushes. She is such a wonderful friend and I'm so lucky to have her

We had a birthday dinner for me at my grandma and grandpa's on Sunday too! I went over early to photograph my grandma making fried chicken for my new blog, A Slice of Style. I'm filling it with all of my favorite recipes! And lastly, I met my friend Marin at the gym this week and she gave me a beautiful candle for my house. What a long, extended birthday celebration! I'm such a lucky girl to have so many amazing people in my life who lift me up. 27 isn't so bad after all :)