Birthday Man

My Joe had a birthday last week.  We celebrated with a week of cute notes with treats hidden around for him to find, dinner out with friends, and the yummiest cake you ever could have!  Click here for the recipe.
I love this guy so much.  The kids and I are so lucky to have him.  He sacrifices everything for us, is patient, and a great example of what a dad and husband should be.  He is always the first person to jump in and help others, especially me, and he makes us laugh all the time.

Yes, he is all sweaty and dirty in these pictures.  He had gotten home from working outside and we had to hurry and sing happy birthday and open presents before he could get in the shower so that some of the kids could leave to their various destinations.

We got some exciting news last weekend also.  After 15 years of working rotating weekends and holidays he will be working Monday-Wednesday one week and Monday-Thursday the next week, which means he will be home weekends and holidays!  He will still rotate between nights and days, 12 hour shifts, and it is only for 9 months but we are all so excited to have this schedule for a little bit.

This comic from For Better or Worse made Joe and I laugh.  He has been on nights for almost a month now. His new schedule starts in October when he normally would be going back onto day shift but he will be starting on nights and doing that for 6 weeks so that means he will be working nights for 2 1/2 months straight which will be really hard, and after this weekend of trying to keep the kids quiet while he sleeps it will sure be nice to have weekends off so he can sleep when they are in school!