In honor of your 28th birthday, I am going to list 28 things that I love about you . . .

1. You’re hilarious in a one of one level and group level.

   

2. You are never nervous.  How is that possible!
3. You want to and do serve people.
4. You’ve been my nurse 3 times after I’ve had major surgeries– you know, not like your cyst removal.
5. You pray with me every night.  I love that you love the Lord.



6. You’re normally the first to apologize.
7. You’re handy with technology.
8. You’re not hairy.
9. You don’t worry about things; you are that rock who lets me know I should relax about some things . . . that they will eventually be okay.
10. You’re smart, and if you don’t know something off hand, you want to find out the answer.



11. You give Abigail her bath every night, which gives me a much wanted break.
12. You’re a hard worker.  You don’t want to simply finish something; you strive to complete it well.
13. You do things I would never in a million years want to do: kill spiders and roaches and other nasty bugs, mow/weed eat/edge/blow the lawn, take the trash out to the dumpster, fix the car, sweep and mop the house.  I love that you get rid of the dirty stuff.
14. You bounce your eyes.
15. You get Abi up on Saturdays and Sundays.

    

16. You assumed the responsibility to give Toby his shots, so I wouldn’t have to.
17. You are so good to my PaPa, Grandma, Mom, Dad, and Brothers.  They all love you.
18. You love to play sports.
19. You love to watch sports.  I would’ve never dated you if this weren’t the case.



20. You can make up songs spur of the moment that make me laugh.
21. You pop my back for me and never complain that I complain about my physical ailments.
22. You ask for my opinion on issues and compliment me.

    

23. You eat left overs.
24. You love (truly agape love) me.
25. You help clean up the house.
26. You’re confident in yourself and not concerned about what people think about you.



27. You are in a good mood about 360 days of the year.
28. You’re my better half.

Thank you for being the best human being on the planet.  I love you now and forever.  You’re my #1!

I don’t know how to write this post.  So many thoughts going through my head and tears flowing from my eyes.  As a mother of two young girls, this story has really impacted me.

[On July 10] Preslee fell into a canal in Rigby (Idaho). About 2 miles down the canal a farmer who was working in the water saw her and immediately started CPR. His brother was with him and called 911. She was air lifted to EIRMC (Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center) and then flown down to Primary Children’s Hospital. . . Her body is healing . . . but her brain is swelling.

Please join me in prayer for this sweet 18 month old little girl.  I’m praying that she grows stronger to live a healthy life with no brain damage.  But above all, I’m praying for peace, strength, and joy for her family and for the doctors to make wise decisions and for God to show mercy and grace to this family.

I have the best daddy.  And my girls have the best daddy, too.  How is that possible when they’re two different men?  I don’t know, but it most certainly is.

I often see someone’s status update on facebook saying, “I have the most beautiful kid” or “my husband is the best.”

I used to think, “What are they trying to say: that my child is not cute, or that I don’t have a good husband.  Do they think that?”

Then, I realized that it’s so awesome that Emily S. and Ryan & Jess love their kids so much that they’re the cutest.  And it’s terrific that Jennifer and Audra, can say they have the best husbands.  It’s great that those men can be best friends to their wives; it’s awesome that there are enough men out there who love their wives and enough parents who love their children, just as my Dad and my Jonathan do.  Thank you God for this.

Sooo, all that to say that when I tell my daddy, “You’re the best daddy,” I in no way mean that Jonathan is not the best.  He is!  He is the best for my girls, and I love that.

To my daddy: As the church song goes, I love you because “you first loved me.”  And I mean the real agape love.  You have always displayed a Christ-like attitude.  It was very rare that you got upset.  You are known for your good humor, patience, gentle teaching, kind words, and knowledge.  I admire all these things, and I want to be a good parent as you were (and still are) to me.

To my husband, my baby daddy: Just as I am confident God matched us up perfectly, I also know that he made you to be the best daddy for Abigail and Lydia.  I adore seeing you play with Abigail’s baby doll house.  I love the look on your face when Lydia smiles at you.  Abi loves riding horsey on your back, reading books with you, giving you butterfly kisses, and going to get pizza with you.  You are the best Father for them.  Thank you!

To all the good daddies out there, like my brother Joshua and brother-in-law Travis and Father-in-law Rob: Thank you.  Thank you for raising your kids up in the Lord.  Thank you for helping out with the dishes and giving baths and kissing boo-boos.  Thank you for being good examples so that your kids know what to look for in a spouse.  I hope you all have a wonderful day and know that people appreciate your hard work.

Happy Father’s Day!

I was going to write about this prior to Vday to give y’all a free gift idea, but I didn’t want to spoil the surprise to Jonathan.  Sorry, I guess I love him more.

Anyway, here’s a gift you can do at any time, not just Vday:

I covered some canisters with paper and stickers.

Here are the rules:

His & Hers Requests

-Write 46 things (since there are 46 weeks left in the year) that we want the other spouse to do with us or with us.

-Put those sheets of paper in your canister, and then we will swap canisters.

-On Sundays, we will each pull a strip of paper out of each other’s jar, and we’ll have to do whatever the spouse asked for.
-We will have the whole week to do the request.

-We will put the papers (with the writing hidden) on our bathroom mirror as a reminder.

On Sunday, Jonathan and I each drew one strip of paper (his were blue; mine were pink).

I don’t know what he’ll be doing for me or when, but I’m pretty nervous about what I’m supposed to do for him.  I’ll update you after I do his request.

I got this idea from an article I read, and I was happy that Jonathan was super excited about this project.  Yea for a good, free gift!  This way, we can work on showing love in the ways we want to receive it.

Do you have any good, cheap ideas for gifts??

Just a quick not to tell you that Husband and I have been featured over at Newlyweds for her “Meet the Newlyweds” segment, so go check it out here. Thank you Newlyweds for featuring us.

**Today is the last day to enter the Giveaway.**

Happy Anniversary to both of my brothers and their wives.  They married on the same day, 4 years apart.

May y’all be blessed with wonderful, loving, happy, and selfless marriages.

Go here to enter the Giveaway.

This has to be the coolest, craziest, joyful wedding processional.  And I love it!

I must admit that when the Bride came in, I got a lil teary eyed.  I love seeing happy Brides!

Anyone seen/had a wedding like this?

**Don’t forget to enter the Giveaway here.**

Jonathan and I celebrated 5 years of marriage on July 30th. We dropped Abigail off at my parents house around 10 am.  That’s all I knew of plans for the day.  Everything else, Jonathan had planned.

• After we said our goodbyes to her, we played 2 rounds of 18 hole Putt Putt.  I hate to brag, but I won both games and got several holes in ones!
• Then, we headed to Chick Fil A for lunch and dessert.  If you haven’t had their Shakes, do yourself a favor and order Cookies n Cream.  It’s amazing!
• After that, we picked up some items for a blog reivew that I’ll be doing tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.
• Then, Jonathan took me to get a manicure!
• After that, we came home to watch “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Psych” episodes on the computer in bed.
• Then, it was dinner time at Applebee’s!
• We went bowling, and again, I hate to brag, but I won 3 out of the 3 games!
• We came home, watched our wedding video and slide show, drank Guarana, and re-said our vows.  We always make sure to do these 3 steps on our anniversary.
• Jonathan felt like he couldn’t end the night having lost to me 5/5 times.  So, I obliged to play him in Mario Brothers Baseball on the Wii.  He did win.
• After that, we did last minute packing to visit our new niece and went to bed.
• And we picked up Abigail in the morning around 10 am.

So, I was away from Abigail for 24 hours!  The most I had been away from her before was about 2.5 hours.  I was a little nervous about leaving her, but I also loved my time without her.  We look forward to letting her have an overnight date again w/ GramB and PapaBon.

Happy Anniversary to ME!  My best friend and I got married on this day five years ago!

Yeah, we definitely love being married and know that we’re so blessed by God to have found each other so early (We met when I was 16, started dating when I was 18, and got married when I was 20.).  I’ll save the mushy stuff for Jonathan, but I’ll leave you w/ some pictures:

Our First Date (2002)

Forgive the lighting; it was before digital cameras (or at least before I got one)

The Night He Proposed (2003)

Our Wedding (2004)

Our One Year Anniversary

Other Events

Happy Birthday to my favorite friend and husband Jonathan!  I have loved you 7 years and liked you for almost 9 years.  I thank God every day for blessing me with the best man.  Wow, how did I get to be so blessed to have a husband that does all these  wonderful things for me and others . . .

1. You make me laugh multiple times a day.
2. You say you’re sorry first most of the time.
3. You make allowances for my bad days.
4. You are the best Daddy to Abigail.  I love watching you read to her, tickle her, “hide and seek” her, and help her.
5. You are extremely helpful to me: you give Sabra and Abigail their baths, feed Abby, do the dishes, take out the trash, sweep and mop floors, vacuum, etc without being asked.
6. You are a servant to others and you do it with a joyful spirit.
7. You pray for Abigail and me every night.
8. You always tell me you love me before you leave or we get off the phone.
9. You’re not afraid to be goofy.
10. You are very smart: book smart and common sense smart.
11. You work hard at your job.
12. You’re always trying to improve yourself and learn new things.
13. I can trust you with every thing.
14. You aren’t wrapped up in sinful activities that a lot of men are.  I’m so grateful for this.
15. You like me and want to spend time with me and consider me your best friend.

Dating Days

After we got Sabra

Pregnant Days

Modeling Days (hahaha)

Daddy Days

Our new Family

I love you.  Thank you for all you do for our family.  I hope your day is as special as you are.  Happy Birthday Husband!  You are my #1!

Love you,

Lori