35 Things I Love About Josh

Happy 35th Birthday, Josh!

In honor of Josh’s 35th birthday, here are 35 things I love about my man….in no particular order.

  1. His sense of humor.
  2. The way he nicknames everything and everyone.
  3. That he loves me so much.
  4. How smart he is.
  5. He’s pretty cute, too.
  6. How much he likes to eat {almost as much as I do}.
  7. How long it took him to wear sweaters because he thought he looked like Bill Cosby.
  8. How much he likes reality shows.
  9. That we laugh at most of the same stuff.
  10. That he’s the father of 2 of the cutest kids in the world.
  11. How he teaches Rebekah the Bible and does crafts with her so patiently.
  12. How he can find mad deals everywhere.
  13. How he can fix most of my problems {even when I don’t ask}.
  14. How he’s a total hypochondriac.
  15. The fact the he has no less than 30 tabs open at all times on his trusty laptop.
  16. That he learned how to hunt to spend time with my dad and my brother, and then ended up loving it!
  17. How he can always fit a game of Old Maid in for Rebekah {and usually lets Luke be on his team}.
  18. How he has a hard time intentionally losing a game to his 4 year old.
  19. His love for all things pie.
  20. What a sweet and thoughtful gift-giver he is.
  21. The way he crosses his arms when he tries on a shirt.
  22. That he understands fashion and colors and what works {and conversely what doesn’t}.
  23. That he made a daughter just like him.
  24. That he will work for hours on my blog or something like it to fix an issue I didn’t even notice.
  25. How well he can explain things, especially complex things, to the point that I feel really smart.
  26. His love for Tim Keller and that all I have to do to “win” an argument is invoke his name.
  27. How we can’t play on the same team because he’s so competitive.
  28. How he abbreviates everything like it’s a big secret or special code {Hey, Em, do you have any CZ?  CZ=Coke Zero} and how Rebekah does it, too, not even knowing Josh does it {see #23}.
  29. How he makes me promise I’ll be careful because he only has 1 of me.
  30. How even when it’s freezing, he’s still warm- Rebes and I call it his “gift” and make him share it with snuggles.
  31. How affectionate he is.
  32. How much he likes to talk to me and tell me what he’s thinking about.
  33. What precise baker he is- he makes outstanding pancakes and biscuits.
  34. The voices he uses when he reads books to the kids- it’s amazing they let me read to them at all.
  35. How quickly he can make up a song in the moment- did I mention he sang to me when he proposed?

Josh, I love you!  Have a wonderful day!

Menu Plan Monday: Josh’s Birthday Week!

In the Malone family, we like to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries for at least a week.  Thus, happy 35th birthday week to Josh!  These are all foods Josh loves, so hopefully he’ll have a great week food-wise, too.  :)

This Week’s Menu

I’m linkin’ up to Org Junkie!

Rebekah’s Un-Birthday

My mom {aka Mamama- Rebekah’s 15 month version of Grandmama} is here!!!!! We are so excited for so many reasons! One of the main ones for me is that Josh is gone the better part of this week, so it has been sooooo nice having someone to help me with kids and just chat with {that is when the kids aren’t chatting over us!}. ;) We are already having so much fun- on Monday we celebrated Rebekah’s un-birthday so my mom could give her all her birthday gifts. As you can imagine, gift-giving involved many dresses and some really fun crafty things, as well as some toys. Check it out!

Happy Birthday, Brother!

Happy Birthday, Billy!

This weekend we took a trip out to Arlington (30 minutes from Dallas) to stay with my brother and sister-in-law and their 2 kids.  We loved having the chance to play with all the kids together, and we also loved getting to put them to bed and visit as adults!  We caught up on some shows and then watched a movie and ate some candy.  Definitely my kind of a night.  On Sunday we were able to visit Billy and Becky’s church, the Village, where it was Baptism Sunday.  I loved hearing the testimonies of the 4 people baptised and seeing the people who shared Christ with them actually stand by them in the water and baptize them.  Sunday was also my brother’s birthday so Becky made an amazing cake and homemade chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and fried corn.  As always, I was very impressed with my sister-in-law.

My sweet girls!

Can we talk for a few minutes before we go to sleep?

Giving Ibbie a bottle...

Luke wanted in on it.

Luke actually wanted in on everything, including crawling.

And giving Ibbie a snack.

Luke & Riley

Bec making the cake.

She had lots of help!

Seriously, how amazing is this?!

Fried corn and mashed potatoes.

Pile of chicken fry.

Becky and Riley!

My brother, Billy.

Happy 4th Birthday, Rebekah!!

Happy 4th Birthday!

My sweet girl is 4 today.  I would say I am surprised, but she has felt 4 for about 2 years now.  Rebekah is a treasure of a daughter and a gem of a big sister.  We are very blessed by her, as are all mamas of sweet girls.  ;)

Rebekah, I love you more than I know how to express.  You are everything I imagined having a daughter would be…but so much more fulfilling that I could have ever known!  I love spending time with you and cherish our dates.  I love that you still think I know everything and am the most wonderful mommy in the whole world.  I also love how you love life, how dramatic you are, how you express every thought you’ve ever had, how you love your brother, how loyal you are, how fully you commit yourself to causes and friendships with all abandon.  I love you.  You are truly spectacular.

{For a beautiful tribute to Rebekah, check out my parents’ blog.}

The Birthday Girl!

The Malone Ladies

Opening a few presents on the party day…we gave her the IKEA tea set which was a big hit (for Luke, too! He has been serving us “hot coffee”  with “milk” as often as he can.)

And today…Nana got Rebekah up this morning…she ran in at 6:45, yelling, “I’m 4!!  I’m 4!!!”  over and over again!  It was delightful.  Luke was about 50 steps behind her and the sight of him wheeling in yelling, “happy Birthday, Gecka!” about undid me.  We are so, so blessed!

After everybody got up (I dragged myself out of bed at 7), we gathered to do presents.  She got a lot of games and some dress up clothes, as well as a cute dress.  She loved it all!  She also got some craft supplies…you’ll see she was treated like royalty with Nana and Daddy-made chocolate chip pancakes and eggs…then, as she was finishing up, Josh and I pulled out her art easel and princess scooter.  I got the easel months ago at the NCT sale and a friend gave us the scooter for free!  Most of her gifts came from charity shops or NCT, too- all in excellent condition.  Anyway, Rebekah spotted the scooter and squealed, “What is THAT?!?!  A scooter!!!!!”  and immediately hopped on.  I think it was all a big success.

We’re going to Jimmy Chung’s for lunch and as requested, I’m making pizza for dinner. It’s gonna be a fun day!