Happy 35th Birthday, Lance!

Lance's 35th birthday was yesterday.  We celebrated with grand fanfare!

And by grand fanfare I mean we went to church.  And then we came home.  And then I did a quick, unexpected visiting teaching thing while Lance stayed at home with the kids.  And then Lance had a nap.  And then we had dinner and cheesecake.

The cheesecake was spectacular. (Mainly because I didn't have to make it.) ((Kidding.  It was DELICIOUS.  See, I edited Don's dissertation and in return Heidi made a New York cheesecake with homemade cherry topping for Lance's birthday.  I'm pretty sure I got the better end of the deal here.))

Anyway, poor Lance.  His birthday was not very celebrated.  However, I don't know that he really minds all that much.  Lance likes a party just as much as the next guy, but he also likes things to be low key every now and then.  (This is why we only have 2 big parties a year, as opposed to, oh, 6 or 7.  Lance reigns me in.)

Because I did not want the wax of 35 candles on such a lovely cheesecake, I decided to make one row of three and one row of five: thirty-five, right?  But Cole counted them all and now thinks Lance is eight.  It's pretty awesome.  Spencer and Josh get a pretty big kick out of it.

So I was thinking that I should do some big, grand gesture on this post about Lance.  Like list 35 things I love about him or write some epic poem full of inside jokes.  But I don't know that that's really necessary.

What I can tell you is this: Lance helped me put up a rabbit fence around my garden and didn't complain once.  He also helped me repaint the entire great room of our basement the day before his birthday.  He cleans the dishes after dinner every night and he often puts the kids to bed by himself while I'm out of the house doing church stuff/girl stuff/whatever.  He lets me steal the blankets in bed.  He has mini LAN parties with the boys and talks to Tessie about cute dresses.  He compliments on how I look every Sunday morning.  He enjoys his job and he works hard at it.  He often does the laundry on Saturdays.  He builds computers a and stairs and pinewood derby cars and digital picture frames and he's good at it, too.

What it all boils down to is this: he's a good man and I'm lucky to have him.

Happy 35th birthday, Lance.  I love you!