40 FORTY 40!!!!!!

Today my sweet, amazing, adorable, funny, intelligent, remarkable, thoughtful, hardworking husband turns 40!!! That means that we have spent over half our lives together!!! The crazy thing is....on most days we just don't feel that old! Derek has to work today. He is on day 2 of some ginormous presentation that he has been prepping for for the last several weeks. Tonight Miranda is treating him to the 12:01 showing of the last HP movie. Tomorrow Derek and I leave for a fun weekend together (which he planned and has kept as a total surprise).

Today I want to tell you 40 things that I love about this wonderful guy!

1. His smile. It still melts my heart.

2. His ability to make me laugh....even when I sometimes don't want him to.

3. He loves Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ.

4. He is firm in his faith.

5. He is a loving and patient dad and loves to make our girls laugh and giggle.

6. He never complains.

7. He works harder than just about anyone that I know.

8. He is a wonderful husband.

9. He is setting such a great example for the girls and I by going back to school.

10. He introduces me to new music.

11. He loves music and helps all of us to love music too.

12. He is supportive of all of my endeavors, activities and outings.

13. He has been so amazingly patient with me over the last 20 years!

14. He is tall, dark and handsome!

15. He does his own laundry and ironing (until now....one of my gifts to Derek on this 40th birthday was to do all of his laundry and iron ALL of his work clothes...with a promise to continue for one whole year!!!).

16. He doesn't care what size I am or how much I weigh....he loves me no matter what!

17. He is easy going and fun to be around.

18. He puts up with my crazy family.

19. He is a worthy priesthood holder and blesses our family through this faithfulness.

20. He is a fabulous tooth fairy.

21. He attends and participates in plays and musicals.

22. He is learning my love language.

23. His tolerant of all races/religions/peoples and accepts others without judgement.

24. He acknowledges his faults and shortcomings.

25. He loves me.

26. He loves to read (and listen to books on CD).

27. He likes to travel.

28. He would give me anything that I ask for. (I have learned not to ask for much!)

29. He believes in homeschooling.

30. He is accepting, supportive and kind to people with special needs.

31. He runs with me even though he doesn't like to run!

32. He is not a picky eater.....as long as he is eating pizza, pasta, hamburgers, hot dogs or cereal! ;)

33. He is compassionate. He loves to serve others. He would love it if he could make it his full time job.

34. He wants to be a philanthropist when he grows up.

35. He is generous.

36. He is a willing handy-man and all around fix-it-guy.

37. He is strong and athletic.

38. He cuts his own hair!

39. He once drove all the way to Papillion, NE (about a 7 hour drive) just to pick me up and drive me right back home again!!!

40. He accepts the fact that he is not getting of all the things I WANT to give him for his 40th birthday (like a trip to NY, a new car, an ipad, a new computer, a lake cabin and a 2 car garage), and instead will be thrilled with this blog post, all of his work clothes being ironed the few little trinkets of my affection that I am able to muster up.

Have I mentioned how much I love this guy???

HaPpY hApPY 40th BiRtHdAy Derek!!!