The above picture is of the Birthday cake I made for Payten's and Joseph's combo birthday celebrations tomorrow night. But I have a picture of the birthday cake tonight, because today is my totally awesome, extremely handsome husbands birthday! He turned 35 today. I am dedicating this post to him, for he deserves to have his absolute awesomeness highlighted. (If you can't tell, I am totally smitten by him and a little bias on my thoughts and feelings in regards to him!) Joseph and I have been together for 12 years. We met through my Father. Yes you heard that right, we were set up by my Dad! If you know my Father, then you know how outgoing he is and when I was in my "young adult" years, my dad was bound and determined to find me a "man"! His exact words to me were, I am tired of you cramping your Mom's and Mines style, therefore I need to find you a Man to date! So while he work at Chase Bank (as a second job) him and Joseph shared a desk and my Dad talked Joseph into asking me out on a date. The rest is history! I guess the saying is true, Father knows best! Well, at least it is true for Joseph and Mines story.
To say it has been marital bliss would be a lie. We have had many ups and downs, but I absolutely believe that by and through our faith in God the Eternal Father and in his Son Jesus Christ and through our own efforts of compromise and work, we have made it through those ups and downs, for we have a solid foundation of faith and love. As cliché as it sounds, Joseph completes me. He is my better half and I am thankful to have him in my life. I would like to believe I am/do the same for him and his life. However there are moments we have wanted to strangle each other throughout the years, but we quickly realize that strangling each other is not an option and then we try and remember what made us fall in love in the first place! This seems to always or most always bring us out of our moment of anger and frustration and look at each other through different eyes of love and understanding.
To say Joseph is a great father would be an understatement. His wife and children are his world. He works 14 plus hours a day and still comes home happy and ready to play with his kids and helps his wife with whatever she needs. I know that there are moments he would rather be napping, but he has put his priorities in order and his family comes before napping. He is his kids biggest fans and his kids are his biggest fans. Our children love Joseph so much. When Daddy gets home the house fills with squeals of joy, for they can't wait to have "daddy time". Whether it be outside jumping on the trampoline or running around or wrestling on our bed, the kids are up for anything, as long as it is with Daddy. And Joseph makes absolute sure that Payten is in the middle of all the fun, for she is his heart and soul. Don't get me wrong, he loves all his children, but Payten is his prized possession, and I believe that has partly to do with her fragile state and numbered days, but mostly I believe it is because she is an absolute angel. It truly melts my heart to see him with our kids. It makes me fall in love with him all over again, each and every evening as I watch him love our kids!
Here are a few of my favorite photos of Joseph throughout the years, doing what he loves, caring for our kids,
This is Joseph with Zachary on Zachary's second birthday!
This is the day we brought Makenna home, such sweet moment of Makenna with her Daddy!
Joseph, Zach and Makenna, building and destroying, which is something they all love to do!
These two pictures are probably my absolute favorite of the ones on here, for they depict Zachary's third birthday, where Joseph dressed up as Batman for Zachary's party. The top is of Batman holding Makenna and the bottom is of Zachary with Batman. This meant the world to Zachary and those of you who know Joseph, understand how huge a deal this was for him to dress up, but he did it because he loves his son. Such a sweet memory we will cherish forever!
This is a picture of Zachary's first Christmas, so he was not even two yet. We were playing and wrestling in Zach's ball pit he got from Santa! Such a fun picture of Zachary, Joseph and I, again this is a wonderful memory.
Joseph helping Payten experience the world. I love this picture and the love and service behind it.
Father's Day this year. These faces say it all, they truly love one another and I love them!
This depicts a typical evening in our home and it truly makes my heart happy!
Joseph being a good sport and allowing the children to have their way with him!
A nightly routine with Joseph and Payten. He holds her before bedtime every night.
Emmett at a day old! Joseph was one proud Daddy for sure!
All of these pictures are a testament of what I said about Joseph being a great father and husband! Our Family has been truly blessed with a great Man, who was taught at young age, how to be a father, by good and honorable parents. I am lucky to call him mine and I hope he knows how much he is adored by our little family. We celebrated his birthday with a nice dinner and presents,
Steak and potatoes is what he wanted and steak and potatoes is what he got! Then we ended with presents, not the finest of gifts, but hey getting old stinks and so do the presents! He got socks, pens, and cream soda, as well as a tool box Zachary made for him! Though the presents were not the finest, he still loved them and was grateful for them! He should know by now, presents are not my forte, I mean the first present I ever bought him for his birthday while we were dating, was a beta fish and I still got a ring on my finger a month later! So he should have expected that the gifts would go downhill from there! Totally kidding! He has gotten some awesome presents throughout the years, this year just did not happen to be one of those years! Oh well such is life!
Let me leave you by saying that Payten had an okay day, she is still struggling with her breathing, so most likely tomorrow or Thursday, we will be headed in to see the Doctor to try and nip it in the butt before her upcoming surgery. Also she did not have as great a day at Physical Therapy as she had last week, I am chalking it up to the fact that she is not feeling good, at least I hope that is the reason. All in all today was a fantastic day and I am thankful that Joseph Merrill was born on this day 35 years ago, for he has blessed my life the past 12 years and will continue to bless it! I love you all and I hope you all have a good night!
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