David's 33rd Birthday

They say that good things come in threes, and this year that certainly proved to be the case! Austin turned 3, Shantel turned 30, and this handsome fellow here, turned 33!

 This may be my favorite picture of David right now. It so perfectly captures him as the loving husband and father that he is. I'm grateful for how much energy and effort he puts into being the kind, loving, gentle, fun, helpful, present patriarch of our family. The kids adore him, and I do, too. 

David is my calm, my steady rock. He is the bright spot in my day, and you'd think my whole world revolves around him, because basically... it does. I love to work along side him while completing a project, and I love to giggle with him in the middle of the night when we are both up with one child or another and one of our kids has said/done something ridiculous and we're both so tired that we can't help but laugh. (Okay, there are times that I love laughing with him more than when we are both in a sleep deprived state - but I love that I can laugh with him then.) It's clear that I think David is the bees-knees. I could write a thousand words about how great I think he is. But I'm telling you, I'm not the only one who knows that it's true. We started David's birthday month off with a fancy awards banquet with the Utah Association of CPAs where David was awarded as the "Rising Star" of the young CPA's in Utah. He's incredible. He works so hard in his career and others see his goodness and effort (and incredible intelligence, and engaging personality) and recognize how great he is.

To prepare for his actual birthday with our little family, I enlisted my sisters to come help me clean our our basement and organize, clean, and arrange a space for David's ping-pong table (that I gave to him for his birthday last year that we've only played a handful of times because there wasn't really a space for it downstairs.) It was a huge surprise for him, and I'm so grateful to my sisters, because I wouldn't have been able to pull it off without them. 

(candy kisses placed by Lydia and Austin leading him to the "birthday surprise")

Our birthday budget is pretty small, but the love in our hearts huge enough to make up for it. Happy Birthday David, my darling. We are so glad to have a special day to celebrate you and tell you how much you mean to us. We hope you know how loved you are.