Happy Father's Day! Happy Anniversary! Happy Birthday!

 Jon Mark,
I know you hate it whenever people publicly express affection....  oh well!  I love you!  The kids did this photo session with Lindsay for you.  It was HARD WORK!  Mercedes was in a firecracker mood because she had fallen down and scraped her leg up.  I bribed her with candy to get a couple of smiles.  Lindsay did a great job with the material (ahem, our children) that she had to work with.

Anyway, she was able to get these cute shots of your four children.  You're a wonderful father.  You make raising kids look easy because you're such a pro at it.  You add the perfect balance to our family.  Thanks for raising our sons to be respectful and kind to women.  Thanks for making our daughters feel loved special.   Thanks for leading us in righteousness as the head of our home.  You truly are amazing.  I do love you.  Joshua loves you because you play monster with him.  

  Miss Mercedes loves you because you carry her to bed and from the car (notice how she wrote the 'M' and 'E' all by herself for you).

 Luke loves it when you put him up on your shoulders.

 I tried having Lindsay write that Hannah loves it when you stick your tongue out at her, but I guess she thought that would be a little silly.  But, Hannah does know that you love her so much.

Here are some of the things I love:

I love how you play with the kids.  You play rough with the big boy which is awesome because he loves it (and quite frankly needs it).  You play with each child the way that s/he likes being played with.  It takes a special father to know how to play both individually and collectively with the kids.

I love how you are the bug killer.  I know it seems small and perhaps it makes me out to be quite a wimp, but I love that you kill the bugs for me.  Oh, and that you clean up the guts afterward.  That's the best part about it!

I love that you lead our family in righteousness so well.

I love how knowledgeable you are about the scriptures.

I love how good you are at public speaking.

I love how you have such an alpha-male personality.  When you go after something, you get it.  

I love that you work so hard to provide for us.  Studying as much as you study would make weaker men crumble.  But, you do it because it's necessary.  

I love how intelligent you are.  You remember how to do math even though you haven't had to use it in forever... Let's face it, you'll be the one helping the kids with their math homework.

I love that you discipline the kids so perfectly.  I admire your natural ability to discipline so fairly, so consistently, so perfectly all the time.  

I love how you take time to make each child feel special and wanted.  

I love walking around Target with you.

I love that you will wake up with the kids when I need you to.

I love that you make me laugh.

I love how supportive you are about my own personal goals.

I love that you love my cookies enough to make them alongside the children when I am too tired to make them for you.

I love that you take time to spend one-on-one time with me, even though you are so busy right now with studying for the bar exam.

I love that you take out the trash.

I love how you totally rocked law school (What? Did someone say something about being on the Dean's List 2 times?  Ohhh! I just did!).

I love that after 8 years of marriage I still miss you like crazy when you're gone for the day at work or school.  And, that I am as excited as the kids for you to come home.

I love how you pretend to find the kids when they're hiding from you (after having heard your car pull up and they want you to think that they've also gone to their own work.  It's a game you play and they love it.)

I love that you're such a challenging person to beat at Bananagrams--alright, and sometimes I can't beat you at all :)

I love how challenging you are to race in the pool.

I love that you enjoy having fun--that the stresses of adulthood don't keep you from remembering to enjoy the ride.

I love that I can get into water fights with you and that you're a good sport when the kids get into water fights with you, too.

I love that you have always got my back.

I love how you were supportive about me keeping my armoir :) It's a beastly piece of furniture, but when I hesitantly tried to sell it, you told me you thought I should keep it because you know how much I love it.

I could go on, but I'll sum it up for the sake of any blog reader who may be gagging right now.  I suffice it to say, that I love everything about you!

Love, Ralae