“Happy Birthday to the best dog mom, cat mom, goat mom, horse mom, chicken mom, pig mom, Texan and most of all wife.”
That is how Brendan McLoughlin opened his Instagram post to Miranda Lambert on Tuesday, Nov. 10, the day she turned 43. He added photos of her with their animals. The first one, OK! Magazine noted, shows Miranda sitting in a green pasture with a kitten held up to her face.
Brendan is the former New York police officer Miranda married in January 2019. They have a farm outside Nashville, and his list of animals tells you most of what goes on there.
“You continue to touch countless lives, not only with your music but with your friendship,” he wrote. He closed with a wish: “Keep turning your dreams into reality, keep creating, most of all keep being exactly who you are. I love you. Cheers to 43!!”
If you know Miranda from the radio, she is the voice behind “Kerosene” and “The House That Built Me.” Next Wednesday, Nov. 18, she performs at the 60th CMA Awards (8 p.m. ET on ABC), where she has seven nominations. One of them is Female Vocalist of the Year.
You might expect a star like that to throw a big party. She even owns a bar in downtown Nashville. But Miranda has said for years that a night out is not her idea of a birthday.
“I’m kind of like a go sit at my farm with a bonfire and s’mores type,” she told the radio show Taste of Country Nights. The outlet ran her words again on her birthday this week, and at least part of that talk goes back to 2019, the year she and Brendan married.
“I’m not like wild club birthday anymore,” she said. “Now I’m just like, ‘Friends, let’s sit around the fire and listen to ’90s country.’ That’s more my jam.”
This year, somebody had a louder plan.
On her birthday, Miranda shared a 19-second video on Instagram. In it she stands on the dirt floor of an indoor arena in a white cowboy hat and a blue jacket with long fringe. She has both hands pressed over her face.
All around her are the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. They are in full uniform, white boots and all, with blue and silver pom poms up in the air. Country Rebel reports that the squad gathered around her and sang “Happy Birthday.”
Miranda posted the clip together with the cheerleaders’ own account. Her caption was short: “A dream birthday,” followed by a thank you to the squad.
For a girl who grew up in Lindale, Texas, that one makes sense. On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26, she headlines the halftime show when the Cowboys host the Philadelphia Eagles at AT&T Stadium. It is the 30th Red Kettle Kickoff for The Salvation Army. Reba McEntire headlined the first one in 1997. The surprise reportedly came while Miranda was getting ready for that show.
She announced the booking in October with a one-minute film on her own channel. A cheerleader wonders where the headliner is, and then Miranda turns up at the stadium riding a Texas Longhorn.
Miranda rides a longhorn to the Cowboys’ stadium
“I can’t wait to be back home in Texas this Thanksgiving to help carry it forward,” she said when the show was announced, according to People.
CBS19, an East Texas TV station that still calls her a Lindale native, gave the birthday a short spot on the news too.
An East Texas station marks her 43rd birthday
The birthday video itself lives on Miranda’s Instagram page, and it runs shorter than the time it takes to toast a marshmallow. The bonfire can wait for a free weekend. Kickoff on Thanksgiving is at 4:30 p.m. ET on Fox.