5 Happy birthday Daddy!

My dad is 46 today!

First Christmas! December 1963 Playing with toys, Christmas of '65

Mom, doesn't this remind you of Chase playing hot wheels? so concentrated. crazy, huh??

Aunt Loraine & Elaine taking him for a ride

Dad's neice Janelle (my cousin), my Dad & Aunt Diane

My Dad, Uncle Richard, niece Janelle, nephew Jon & Aunt Diane

Grant, Loraine, Stephen, (in the back) Kay, Richard & Dad cheesing it up in the front

Dad with Grandma, Grandpa Dean, and his neices & nephews.

DISNEYWORLD in the '80s!
Dad graduating from BYU
Dad & Chasers Dad & Spenceys

So today is my dad's birthday & he's the BIG 46 :)

My dad is honestly the greatest guy i know. He is so so smart & so hardworking & has tried to instill the values of hard work into his children. My dad is not like other dads at all. After a long day of work, he never sits down and watches TV. I think my mom WISHES he would just sit for a second, but instead he'll go outside and chop wood or be in the garage building something. Sometimes we joke that my dad doesn't know what "play" means. I can remember growing up, we knew to never do a job half done because we'd have to go back until it was completely finished. He is the 13th out of 15 kids & was the first child to go to college in his family. He paid all of his way through school. I can remember in highschool before my dad started traveling so much, he would come in my bedroom at 9pm after a long day of work & help me with my math (still my weak subject), and he would literally be falling asleep when he was talking to me because he was so tired, but would stay in there until all of my problems were done & correct. I really took that for granted! He has such a calm, easy going demeanor & i've rarely ever heard him yell or get mad at us, yet he expects his kids to be the best they can. There were some times a few years ago when I had really messed up, but he calmly would talk to me about his concerns. Because of that, I never felt afraid to call him when I was going through that rough patch because i knew he wouldn't get mad at me. He is so non-judgemental & understanding. He spends most of his time out of the country because of his job & all day Sunday he has to be at church for meetings, but when he's home, he makes good use of his time. He teaches my brothers how to be hard workers (literally puts them to work on building the house). That's why my new house is so special to me. I know it was built with love and hard, hard work on my parents' parts. My dad would be out there from 4, 5, and 6 in the morning and not come home until midnight whenever he was "off work" and in the U.S. Since he was in charge of this whole project, I see the hours and hours, days and years he spent out here. I see how handy he is (that farm boy raising taught him to fix everything & build anything- my mom's always said "You can take the boy out of Idaho, but you can't take Idaho out of the boy!"), how honest he is and what a hard worker he is (everyday he was in town he would go out to the property & work until sun down sometimes dragging along my brothers). He is the greatest guy I know, I hope that one day I can develop his qualities! People in my family always tell Rach & I they feel bad for the guys we have to marry because they have to live up to my dad. I wish I was more like him, patient, calm, diligent and hard working. Happy Happy birthday! I love you dad!