My love,

Today, you are thirty years old.

Thirty. 🙂

So
it seemed fitting that in honor of your thirtieth year on this earth, I
would list the top thirty reasons that I love you. Know that this list
is in no way exhaustive nor is it in any order. You are my dearest
friend, my favorite person and my sweetest love. There are infinite
reasons I could list. 😉 But in order to not keep you here forever, here
are some of my favorite reasons why I love you:

1. You love Jesus. Actually, there might be some order to this list since that is hands down the biggest reason I love you.

2. I love the way you look all dressed up for a date with me.

3. And I love the way you look in your comfy sweatpants when we are about to snuggle on the couch and watch a movie.

4.The expression on your face when our boys were born. I will never forget that as long as I live.

5. How much you love your boys. You love them so much and you care for them so well. And they adore you. It brings tears to my eyes to think of how you father our children.

6. You get teary when sweet things happen with our boys or while watching a movie. I love that.

7. You’re always great for a good, long hug.

8.
You work hard, long hours for the students at your school and you genuinely
care about them and their futures. I wish every child had a teacher
like you.

9. I love that when I’ve taken my ring off to bake
or put on lotion or something and you find it on the counter you
come propose to me all over again every single time. It’s my favorite.
😉

10. That you understand that we need lots of nights of no deep conversations
and just straight relaxing on the couch after I’ve had a long day with
the kids or trying to cram in a writing to meet a deadline.

11. There are no words to tell you how much I love that you take over when Nathan has a stomach bug. No words.

12. I love that you’re willing to watch my sappy chick-flicks and Christmas movies with me but you don’t suggest we watch your movies that you know will scare me.

13. I love that you are so proud of your kids. It is so sweet to hear you talking about them.

14. The mornings when I wake up after a long night with the baby and you’ve got the kitchen cleaned and dishwasher empty before you leave for work. Sometimes that almost makes me cry, I love that so much.

15. That you are more concerned that we had a fun, good day than that our house is in any order when you get home. I really appreciate that!!

16. Our inside jokes from other inside jokes that originated with TV shows or movies that we can’t even remember anymore.

17. When we all burst into the Chicken Dance in the kitchen after dinner. 🙂

18. I love standing next to you at church while you hold Parker in one arm and my hand in your other hand and you sing the songs with your eyes closed, just totally worshiping Jesus. I love those moments.

19. I love when we’re debating something and you totally know I’m right and you just resort to tackling me onto the couch rather than admit it. 😉

20. That you get just as excited about new kitchen sponges as I do which just further solidifies how pathetic our adult life is. 😉

21. I love that you love playing with the boys so much. They absolutely adore every second of it. And I love that you are totally willing to dress up in whatever ridiculous outfit Nathan wants you to wear.

22. When I’ve fallen asleep on your shoulder in the middle of one of our shows and you keep jostling me and making me wake up so I won’t miss it. I still never remember what it was about. 😉

23. That we always end up ordering the same thing at restaurants.

24. The way you get so excited over every milestone the boys cross and commiserate when I get so sad about how quickly they are growing.

25. I love the way you can always make me laugh, even on my very worst days.

26. I love that we are both late-night-snackers together. I absolutely love our sweet, boring routine every night.

27. That you do cool tricks off the diving board or dress in goofy outfits or talk in silly voices just to make Nathan laugh.

28. I love that you spent so much time getting your Masters and tried to do it without it affecting Nathan and Parker as much as possible. And I especially love that you are DONE!!

29. This crazy, loud, busy, sleepless, cozy, goofy, perfect life that we’ve created together.

30. Because you are you. I’m not going to say never change because we are constantly changing, but let’s just keep changing together and keep Jesus close to us. 🙂

I love you, Jon!! Happy 30th birthday!