Happy Birthday to my Sweetheart!

Today is my husband's birthday! He is now 40! I am so blessed to have him in my life! He is a wonderful husband, friend, and daddy; I am blessed daily by his love, his affection, his companionship, his protection, and the wonderful way he provides for our family, and not just materially, but spiritually as well.

To start off his birthday today I baked his favorite breakfast dish, apple cinnamon french toast, and presented him with 40 cards; on each card I wrote a favorite memory from our life together or a reason why I love him. I thought I would share some with all of you in blog land, although I can't share all that I shared with him, some are private just between the 2 of us!!

40 Memories and reasons I love my husband so....
1. He is a Godly man who spends time in the Word and in prayer.
2. He loves me and asked me to marry him at DeSoto Falls, the location of our second date!
3. He has a caring and sensitive heart and is always quick to help others in need.
4. When we found out we were having twins all he said was "ok". I think he was in as much shock as I was, I couldn't even find my car in the parking deck!
5. He taught me to ride a bike using clipless pedals!
6. He is very handy and I am so thankful for all the extra hard work he put into making our home so nice! He screened in our back porch, built a brick pad off of the porch, built me a wonderful pantry with pull-out shelves, and built pull-out shelves in my lower cabinets in the kitchen.
7. He built a wheelchair ramp for one of my favorite home-health patients!
8. He helped me find the hubcap that fell off of my car when I was traveling crazy miles doing home health care and early intervention. He traveled with me on his day off, and when he found it he says I did the Toyota jump!
9. He loves my cooking!
10. He loves my cat and has spoiled her way too much. At our previous home he installed a pet door for her in a window with a little ledge, the ledge had a walkway to our deck because she didn't like to get her paws wet in the morning, and he installed steps on our fence so she could climb to the top and sit on her perch he also installed!
11. I love watching him and the boys sitting in his chair and watching guy stuff on TV.
12. I love the way my boys want to be just like daddy, they always want to help him work on stuff and work on their dumptrucks and tractors like he works on our cars.
13. I love how we take nite-nite walks as a family when the weather permits.
14. I love to hear him sing in church.
15. He always has a tissue for me when I get emotional, which is quite often!
16. Fun family vacations before kids and after!
17. I love hearing the laughter from our boys when they play "Big Ant" with daddy!
18. I love seeing all of them have fun driving the remote control monster truck.
19. I love the way he decked out our double job stroller with reflective tape, headlights, and tail-lights so we are easily visible when we walk after dark.
20. I love how his family is a priority to him.
21. I love that he takes me out to eat for Sunday lunch so I can rest from cooking and cleaning the kitchen, and then willingly eats leftovers for dinner that night!
22. I love that he is a man of honesty.
23. I love that he is loyal and faithful.
24. I am thankful for how he takes care of me when I am sick.
25. The sweet prayer he prayed for our marriage and our life together on our wedding night.
26. Our honeymoon "fiasco" at the cabin that grandma had never moved out off! Thankfully he had a backup plan and we only had to stay there 1 night!
27. Hiking to waterfalls in North Carolina!
28. The "swing" at Botanical Gardens where we sat and talked for hours on our 1st date!
29. Moving into our new home we built together, and a week later bringing our boys home from the hospital.
30. When we both had food poisoning (not from my cooking!) and had to go to the ER, where we shared a stretcher together!
31. Sharing scriptures and praying with Granny and Grand-daddy in his hospital room just a few days before he died...
32. How he stayed with me in the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks before our boys were born, sleeping on that horrible fold-out bed...
33. How he did his best to make my hospital room more cozy, even setting up speakers with my walkman so I could have praise and worship music playing...
34. When I tried to make him carrot souffle and burned the carrots and blew up the food processor!
35. When while on vacation I floated out way too far in the ocean and had to be rescued by a boat passing by!
36. How he came to the rescue the day I ran over our cat and couldn't find her... she ended up being fine, I had just hit her shoulder a little.
37. While we were dating, I had a flat tire that I noticed before leaving my house for work. I called him and he told me that he had AAA and he would call them to come fix it for me. Well, AAA showed up, James himself! He fixed my flat and made sure I was safe to go to work!
38. The fact that we always buy chocolate milk for a treat on vacations!
39. I love it when he prays at dinner, "Thank you Lord for this meal so lovingly prepared."
40. And I treasure the fact that he loves me and our boys so faithfully and sacrificially!

Happy Birthday Honey!! I pray you have a wonderful and glorious day, and I praise God for the day that He made you!

All my love.... Tricia