Tony turned 40 today and we had a lot of fun celebrating with him and just plain ol' celebrating him. Tony and I first met in 1987 (when we were both just young whipersnappers) so we've known each other for almost 22 years now.

I knew he was a special guy right from the first time we met as friends. Even when my mother met him as she and I shopped in Wal-Mart one day, she commented on how nice he was.

Back in those days, people were buying cassette tapes of their favorite groups.
Today he got his first Ipod.
We're on the cutting edge of technology around here you know.

But anyway, I'm glad that my mom and I were right about him being a nice guy being as how I married him and all. Cuz we've got these three boys and wow are they like him.

He practically shares a brain with this one.

This one has his make-everybody-laugh personality.

And this one has his heart.

Anyway, we wanted to make him feel extra special so we made him a card and wrote 40 things that we love about him in it and took him out to eat at a Japanese steakhouse.


Whoa baby, that was some yummy teppanyaki. (My friend Mel taught me that word.) Our chef quickly spied Jon as the one to impress and had lots of fun wowing him with twirling spatula, egg tricks, cool fires, and the flaming onion. If you haven't ever been to a Japanese steak house, this YouTube video shows kind of what it's like. It was an awesome night of doing something new and fun together.

And a great way of celebrating just how much Tony means to all of us!