This Guy

This guy turned 29 last week!

Alas, I was in Florida on my girls trip during his birthday,

but overall he had a great day anyway :)

(Wrangling two little boys at church- sounds exciting no?)

I did send him this pic from Florida so he knew I was thinking of him.

Since I missed his actual birthday we had a few alternate celebrations this month-

both of our favorite was the night in early February when I surprised him

with a night away in Salt Lake!

My brother babysat the boys and we had a lovely dinner at Tucanos,

spent a lovely night at the Sheraton downtown and went to IHOP in the morning.

Then I dropped him back off at work and headed home to our two little sweeties.

We had never left the boys like that before,

and it was wonderful.

Then a few days after his birthday we had a little family celebration.

Nothing super fancy. 

Cinnamon rolls (instead of cake- because I have the world's worst 

track record at making my husband birthday cakes) and a few presents.

We shopped a week before and Chase did so well at keeping his presents a secret...

up until the moment he handed Ben the present and said, 

"We got you a new tie daddy! You like your new tie?"

(Also- while picking out said tie Chase kept pulling them off the rack

and saying, "We buy this one, it's $4.95"

The saleslady thought he was so cute,

but not cute enough to let me buy the tie for just $4.95)

And as soon as Chase handed Ben the chocolate we picked out for him

he said, "You can share it with me dad!"

Ben's not a hard guy to please.

Apparently, my dad and brother (who had dinner with him on his actual birthday)

totally forgot about his birthday until my mom called them late that night.

So my dad had Will break the Sabbath and run to the store to get cupcakes 

and ice cream. And then they showed up back at our house at like 9:30

to eat them with Ben, who was very grateful.

As was Chase, who was being a stinker about going to bed and had failed to eat any dinner,

and I'm told he literally licked his plate clean.

The boys and I love Ben a lot.

He's a hard worker, a problem-solver, honest and loving.

And he makes the best biscuits and gravy.

Happy Birthday Babe!