Happy Birthday, Old Man

On Saturday Eric left for Europe for a week and will be celebrating his 30th birthday out there. After a long good-bye Eric left and he wasn't even gone 5 minutes before the girls were saying they missed him. I started to ask them the reason why they missed him. They had some really cute answers, and pretty quickly we came up with 30 reasons why we love to have in him our family. Eric, this is only 30 reasons why we love you and since we can't be in Amsterdam on your actually birthday, we hope you can still feel the love from across the pond.

1. His singing voice, especially when he sings his favorite song, Beyonce's "Single Ladies".

2. Because he always wrestles us.

3. He'll play soccer and baseball in the backyard.

4. Working hard to provide for us. (As a side note, Cameron has been praying that Eric's company will pay him more money to work part-time so he can be home more. Wouldn't that be awesome?)

5. He is starting to share the remote more.

6. His handsome smile.
7. For listening to all the stories, big and small, and not letting us stress about it.
8. Because he is my dad.

9. He loves me, so I love him.

10. We go golfing.

11. Our phone calls...I know you love them too.
12. Taking us to Cubs, Blackhawks, and Bulls games, but why not Bears?
13. Your funny sense of humor.
14. Your gorgeous blue eyes.
15. For getting "slithers" (aka slivers) out of my foot while Cameron was sleeping.
16. We love that he take care of us.
17. He reads us Allie Finkle: Rules for Girls even though he is a boy reading about rules for girls.
18. For convincing mom to get a dog. Now we just have convince him to get a cat...
19. He thinks our jokes are funny, unless they are about boyfriends.
20. For teaching us about God and Jesus and how to crush Satan. You know, we step on him.
21. He doesn't like princesses just like Kaylee, however, some would say that you married one
22. We like to get mom away from you.
23. Knowing that you will cuddle me if I have a bad dream or growing pains in the middle of the night. (They always ask Eric because he always says yes, but then get irritated that he steals the blankets from them and their mom.)
24. He is good with our money, however, Kaylee is annoyed that he is always borrowing from her to go to the driving range.
25. He almost always says yes to going to Dairy Queen, since mom never takes us.
26. He's cool.
27. For surprising me after almost 8 years of marriage.
28. He prays for us.
29. He's got spiky hair.
30. We know that he is going to bring us cool stuff home from Amsterdam.

Can't wait to celebrate your birthday in Florida when you get back. Have fun and be safe.
With much love, Lauren, Kaylee (age 7), and Cameron (age 4). xoxoxox