October Birthdays and Christmas!

October birthdays are fantastic.

Some of my best friends have birthdays in October:

October 11: my wonderful college roommate, Laura!

October 15: Tiffany... We have known each other FOREVER... 

Seriously. And I'm so happy we're still friends!

And as most of you know, I spent nine months living with the Nugents. 

My little buddy, Rachel Rae, is 5 today -- October 25!

This picture is from December 2009, so it's been almost a year since that picture. Even since I left in September, I can tell from Kelly's pics on her blog that Rachel is growing... She is so precious to me... and I'm pretty sure she's one of the only people who kept me sane last year! Time spent with those three Nugent girls was priceless. 

Thank you Rachel, for enjoying the simple things of life, like hula hooping, playing outside, playing with Barbies, and for all the little video clips we took this past year. 

(from left: Nicole, Rachel, and Morgan. I am obviously the one with dark hair... haha...)

 Morgan has the same birthday I do: October 23! She is my birthday buddy! She has a super contagious laugh and enjoys life. She enjoys reading as much as I do. 

Don't want to leave Nicole out of this post (even though her birthday's in June)... she has been emailing me while I'm in Italy and I LOVE it! :) She and Morgan are doing Bible Bowl: Genesis this year! I'm excited for them.

Yes, the reason why I know October birthdays are fantastic is my birthday is October 23.
This year, my birthday was full of great food and time with my sister Irene. 

We went to breakfast and had a brioche and cappuccino.

Then we went to her dad's store where we had wonderful food (as always).

You guys in America are celebrating fall with your pumpkin spice latte.
I'm celebrating fall with pumpkin lasagna.

My special birthday coffee... I only had one sip...

Later that night we went to Giddy Up Diner, a 50's/60's American style diner.

They brought me cherry cheesecake with candles while Marilyn Monroe sang happy birthday in the background.

 I'm not one to like cheesecake, but this was FANTASTIC! yum yum.

 Mara, me, and Irene. LOVE these girls. It was fun celebrating my birthday with them.

Yea for October birthdays. I sure do miss the fall colors in Michigan: 

(taken last year from the church house)

PS -- 2 more months until CHRISTMAS!