David's 30th Birthday

This wonderful, amazing, handsome man of mine turned 30 yesterday. 

{One candle for each of his ten years}

Thirty years old is kind of a big deal. In fact, it's a really big deal. Several weeks ago, I put out some feelers to David and subtly asked how he felt about it and if he wanted me to put together a big birthday party for him. (We have some friends who have done big parties for their 30th birthdays.) Birthdays are a big deal to me on a regular basis and I wanted to make sure that David's 30th birthday would be special for him. However, he told me that he just wanted a simple, at-home birthday with his little family. I'm grateful for such an easy-going, loving husband, because with a brand new baby an at home - a simple, at-home birthday was about all we were up for.  

Even though I wasn't going to throw a giant surprise birthday party for him, I still wanted to make sure that David would feel special. So each day leading up to his birthday during his birthday week, he got a coupon card good for five particular items. (Special desserts/treats, backrubs, dollars for fast food, uninterrupted sport watching, movie date nights, and freebies like ironing his shirts etc...) I titled the coupons "30 Super Special Coupons for my Favorite 30 Year Old". Kind of cheesy, but hopefully he will get some good use out of them this year. 

For his actual birthday, I told him that we could do whatever he wanted. We started out with Carl's Jr. breakfast sandwiches and followed that up with a fabulous trip to Cornbellys. It was so nice to be out in the sunshine with our little family (plus Amy who came to play with us the day before, stayed the night, and got roped into coming with us). Lydia loved it, and is so lucky to have a Dad who wanted to do something fun for her on his birthday. 

After Cornbellys, David's one real request was that he wanted to watch football all afternoon. So we came home, put Lydia down for a nap, made some delicious hamburgers and watched football for the rest of the day. (When Lydia woke up from her nap, I took her with my to our ward Fall Festival where I helped set up the primary booth. David stayed home with baby Austin and watched some more football.) Later in the evening, we let David open his presents. It wasn't a very huge birthday (a $60 budget doesn't stretch super far, although I think it's the biggest birthday budget I've ever had), but he got some new sunglasses, a new belt, a white board, and a few other fun things like a shadow-box to hold our ticket stubs and some toy cars to play with Lydia. 

After presents and racing cars in the kitchen, we fed Lydia dinner, and put her and Austin down for bed. (Which is a fairly exhausting routing lately.) We ended our night with a fabulous dinner of frozen pizza- because we decided we didn't want to go out and pick up dinner after all and, hey look, there was a frozen pizza in our freezer- and watched some Netflix.

It wasn't the most spectacular birthday ever, but I sure hope this boy knows how much he is loved. In years past I've tried to write a special blog post about how wonderful David is, but this year - let me just say this:

I never knew I could feel so completely comfortable in my own skin.

I never knew someone could be so kind, so loving, so understanding, or so supportive.

I never knew I could laugh so hard with someone or feel so comforted when I've cried.

I never imagined that I would find someone who would be so perfectly matched to me. Who would be my perfect partner in marriage, parenthood, and live.

I'm so grateful for this wonderful boy who is now thirty years old and I am so glad that I get to spend the next thirty years by his side.

We love you David!