Happy Birthday Ben!

Twenty two years ago today, my lovely mother-in-law had her third baby, my wonderful husband, Ben! I am so blessed to have him in my life. I couldn't ask for a better husband. Here are some things I love about Ben. (disclaimer: this is mostly for Ben, if you get nauseous at cheesiness, I would close now. haha)

1: He encourages me, and sometimes forcefully(haha), to try new things. For instance, I had never had sweet potatoes but I really didn't want to try them, they just looked sick. Well he made some and I felt bad that no one was going to try them but him... so I worked up the courage and tried it. They were amazing! Which brings me to my next favorite thing about Ben...

2: He is an awesome cook. From the time we were dating I always knew this. One time he made me waffles with homemade syrup (yum!) and another time I came to his house to find him scooping out baked pumpkins to make a pumpkin pie from scratch. From that moment on I knew we were destined to be together. Hahaha.

3: He is patient with me. I will be the first to admit that I can be a difficult wife. I think it is partly to do with the fact that I am a self-diagnosed OCD... haha. One day when I was hugely pregnant with Andrew, I started crying in the car that I really wanted a good peach... (dang those cravings!) All Ben said was, "Okay, we will drive all over town then to find you a good peach."

4: He is so thoughtful. He watches the kids every morning so I can sleep in and he always empties the dishwasher before he goes because he knows I hate doing it. He is even good to me when I don't deserve it. When we were in high school, my car got broken into and they stole all my cds. Even though Ben was annoyed at me for the circumstances surrounding it... (long story, won't go there) He bought me all the Smashing Pumpkins cds again because they were my favorite band at the time. There were like 10 discs!

5: He makes me feel good about myself. Ben just really doesn't care, for the most part, what people think about him. Granted he doesn't want to come off like a bad person, but if someone doesn't like him, he doesn't care. One particular bad hair day, I was bawling to Ben about how I was so ugly and what people were going to think of me. I think his first thought was probably that I was retarded but he told me that it didn't matter what people thought. He said that if someone was going to judge me by the way I look and decide not to be my friend than it would be good news for me because I wouldn't want friends like that anyway. I didn't think anything could make me feel better, but that comment did. He is always telling me how beautiful I look even when I feel like an ugly. Hahaha.

6: He is always inspiring me to do better. When I first started dating Ben it seemed that we would never go through the temple, be active in church, etc. etc. But Ben has changed so much so that we could be together forever. When Andrew was blessed by Ben's dad, he promised everyone that he would never ask someone else to bless one of his children, he kept true to that and blessed Olivia. He is one of the most humble and spiritual people I know.

7: He is a great father. I never realized how much I missed out on not having a dad around until I saw Ben bounce Andrew and Olivia around the hospital room when they were born. He is always going on about how Olivia is the most beautiful baby in the world and how Andrew is his best bud. He never uses the excuse that he has no time (even though he doesn't!) when he gets home. He gets right down and plays and talks with them both.

Anyway--- I could go on and on and on about the things I love about Ben. It's a good thing I married him I guess. I will just have to tell him the rest of the things over dinner tonight! Whoo Whoo! A night out without children! Another miracle. Happy Birthday Benny!