Celebrating Him

Today is the start of lots of celebrating at our house. Garrett's birthday is today, our anniversary is Monday, and Father's Day is the following Sunday. We try to pack it in, you know. And being the 'efficient' type, I'm knocking it all out of the way with one blog post! :) Here you get it--it's all about Garrett!!

Not only is today his birthday, it is his 30th birthday!! And thinking about that makes it seem a little crazy that some day my cute babies will turn 30 too. Now, that is a crazy thought!! I've been teasing Garrett all week about turning 30 and getting old. And this morning Tyler got really upset with me and put his hands on his hips and scolded me saying, "Mommy, he's not going to be an old man on his birthday! He will be a new man! He will turn thirty and be a new man because he bought that new pick up at Houston!". Wow!! I guess it's all how you look at it! I guess if new vehicles make you a new man, Garrett is indeed a new man! So, in honor of his birthday, here are 30 things about this "new man": (and wasn't he the cutest little kid EVER?!)

1. He served a mission in the Dominican Republic. 2. He was born in Washington state and moved to Idaho when he was still a baby. 3. He graduated with his bachelors degree from BYU. 4. When he is on 'song duty' before bed, he sings "I am a Child of God" to Tyler in Spanish (this was their little secret until a week or two ago and I found out) 5. He pronounces the word "milk" very funny (you just have to hear it). 6. He has a nickname for everyone. 7. He always calls me Rebecca. 8. Every time we purchase something, from small to large, he will read the instruction manual for it. I have gone to sleep many nights while he is in bed with the lamp on reading an instruction manual for something. (it is quite beneficial for me since he just shows me how to do something in a few seconds when he read about it for hours). 9. He moved pipe as a summer job when he was growing up. 10. He got his JD at Drake University 11. From the time he was very young, he always had some sort of a job and has done many odd jobs since then (paper route, farm work, telemarketing, driving range attendant, soil analyst, groundskeeper, to name a few). He now works as an attorney. 12. If we ever have a girl he wants to name her Lucy after his grandma Lucille. 13. He and his grandma are very close and he still calls her very regularly. 14. Every time I talk to him on the phone throughout the day, he asks how the boys are and asks what they are doing. 15. He makes people laugh very easily. 16. He is friends with everyone. 17. He spent his 28th birthday alone in Louisiana while I was still in Iowa getting ready to move us down here. 18. He is very, very smart in so many areas. I always tease him that he is a wealth of useless knowledge, but let me tell you, it's not useless when you're playing Trivial Pursuit! He knows random facts about everything! 19. His dad is his best friend and he seeks his dad's advice for many things. They have a great relationship. I can only hope for him to have that same relationship with our boys in 30 years. 20. He drove a 1972 Pontiac LeMans throughout high school and sold it for $300 right before we got married. It was still running like a top. 21. He used to tease me about my blogging, but now he checks the blog at least once a day. He thinks it's cool. :) 22. He knows every Thomas the Train character there is, I swear. And there are a lot of them. 23. He sleeps with his contacts in at night. 24. He is very handy and can fix almost anything. He's done a lot of repair work on our old junky vehicles. 25. He is also a whiz with computers and again has fixed many of our old junky computers and even built us new ones. 26. He loves to play golf and taught me how to golf when we were first married. 27. He loves watching the Food Network (especially "Good Eats") and the History Channel. 28. He is SO supportive of me. 29. He doesn't cook much, but can grill just about anything. 30. He's just a great guy all the way around!

Happy Birthday, Old/New Man!

And now...to celebrate our 8th anniversary! Is it possible that we have really been married that long??? June 9, 2000 was our big day and it was such a beautiful day. I loved Garrett so much that day, but can honestly say that was the day I loved him the least because I love him SO much more now! 8 years, a bachelors degree, a law degree, numerous jobs, 4 states, and 2 kids later, I can't imagine my life without him. I never would have dreamed that marrying a "hometown boy" would take me 2,000 miles away from home, but I am thankful every day for it, even though it is hard at times. Moving away has strengthened our marriage more than any other thing we have done. We have truly learned how to be our own family and rely on each other. And because of this, I have become a much stronger individual myself and have learned how to stand on my own two feet. I never dreamed I would have to do that, but I'm so glad that I have. And if it weren't for Garrett, I would have experienced none of this.

And here we are 8 years ago, soooo very young. That day I thought I carried myself to be way more than the 19 years old that I was, but looking back, I'm sure I didn't! Garrett had been 22 for all of 3 days and I had been 19 for all of 6 weeks, bottom line...we were young!! But as young as I was, I guess I must have been capable of making good decisions because marrying Garrett was the best decision I've ever made!
But oh, weren't we young??? :) And on a side note...when I was pulling out these old pictures, Tyler was particularly fascinated by our wedding pictures and just kept looking at them. He then said "that is so sad. I wanted to marry you, but I had to stay home that day. I didn't want to stay home. That's just so sad." And then later on (he was still thinking about it), he said, "oh no, I was there that day. I put on my married clothes and took that picture of you. Yes, that's right. I took the picture. Oh, yeah.". Silly kid! And now to celebrate this wonderful daddy...he is such a good dad. He loves his boys so much and simply loves spending time with them. He is so proud to be a father and just loves all the little things these boys do. His face lights up when he gets home from work and he always has a smile for them, even if he's had a bad day. He is a great example and I can only hope that they follow in his footsteps when they get older. A brand new daddy! December 7, 2004 (yes, that's Tyler in that blanket!)
Going home from the hospital with Sam, September 16, 2007

So, to a great person, a great husband, a great father...Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Happy Father's Day!! You've accomplished a lot in 30 years and have a lot to be proud of and I'm just glad you've included me in 8 of those years. I'm so glad you came into this world 30 years ago! I LOVE YOU!