He's Not 37!

As some of you may know, today is my man's birthday and he is no longer 37. He has moved on to that great unknown realm of 38. I remember when that seemed kind of old. Fortunately, I don't recall ever thinking of 40 year old people as being old which is good because in two years I'll have my very own old person, I mean, 40 year old. Hee, hee. Anyway, I thought this would be a good day for a photographic retrospective because Rob was and is one cute male-type person.

We begin with the early, early days. If I recall correctly, he's 6 weeks old in this picture. He was the first of six adorable bundles of joy added to Dave & Vicky over their marriage. I think they started off pretty darn good!

Next comes the naked bath picture. I love naked babies. There should be more of them, in my humble opinion. I'm not too sure how old he is here but he's cute and that's all the really counts.

I must confess that I find him to just be an exceptionally adorable little boy. I also confess that I find him an exceptionally adorable grown-up man, too.

Now, I will admit that I do believe Christian Bale is very attractive as Batman but not as cool as Mr. Rob "I'm Batman" Elieson. Man, those cheeks need pinching!!

 Here's one of his school pictures from 1977 so he's 6 or 7 years old. It's funny to see how much he looks like his siblings sometimes.

I can't really locate any teenage pictures right now so we'll just skip straight to his mission. Here's one from when he was assigned to Lovelock, Nevada, which is far north and desolate. This was in December 1989.

He's always had a young looking face but this just doesn't even seem close to 19 to me. He sure was cute, though. At this point, I'd known him for 2 years and we'd actually gone out a few times before his mission. I'd sworn I was going to write him every week of his mission and even managed to send out 2 letters of which he got one. Not quite the stellar record I was hoping for but at least it worked out in the end.

Here we are at our little reception that we had when we got married. He was so nice to let me smash cake in his face because he knew I really wanted to. Aren't we cute?

And here he is with our beautiful Kyrieann, hanging out and enjoying some daddy/daughter time...while playing with a Boba Fett action figure, of course.

I love being married to Rob and having him as my best friend. I cannot imagine anyone I'd rather share my life with.

I am so thankful to parents who love him so much and gave him such strong foundations in his life. The older I get, the more appreciate how awesome of a family Rob has. But I'm especially thankful for how wonderful Rob's helped make our own little family. He has brought me happiness beyond what I could have dreamed for myself and it keeps getting better and better. He's such a great dad to Kyr and really helps fill in the areas I struggle with. That whole "kids should have a mom AND a dad" idea really is a good one.

So, to you, my dear sweetheart, Happy Birthday! I hope you find even more happiness and joy in your life as you head into the great unknown desolate wasteland that is 38. Oh wait, I meant, the beautiful Oregonian-style forest that is 38. :-) I love you.