30 Reasons to Celebrate our Favorite 30 Year Old

August 7, 1986: our favorite man in the world was born.

30 years ago today.

What a beautiful life he has lived up until this point. I mean….he’s created 3 additional humans, among many other accomplishments.

We are opposite in many ways. (Ok, every way. And then some.)

I love talking. He loves silence.

I love chaos. He loves order.

I love spending time with 82,305,342 of my closest friends. He loves spending time with our family of 5.

I love big parties. He loves when people forget it’s his birthday.

Unfortunately he’s out of luck this birthday because THIRTY. It deserves extra attention.

So here it is.

30 REASONS WE LOVE TAYLOR:

1. He is fiercely loyal. Once a friend, always a friend of Taylor’s.
2. He can imagine with the best of them. I have a reputation for being the creative one, but THAT guy is the one who plays pretend with our boys like you wouldn’t believe.
3. He desperately wants to be a storm chaser. (Nope.)
4. He is logical. Period. Life just needs to make sense and add up. (Why he married me, a human with a shorted-out pinball machine for a mind, I have no idea but NO TAKE BACKS, SUCKAAA.)
5. He makes perfectly uniform pancakes. They can all stack in a neat, nice pile because they are all exactly 4″ in diameter.
6. He sees the positive in everything.
7. He is wickedly smart.
8. He always gets an appetizer, gets too full to eat his food, and then comments on the size of our check at dinner. And I love it.
9. He is funny. Really funny. Whereas I travel with my own megaphone-voiced comedy routine, he is in the corner making hilarious comments to the person sitting next to him.
10. He always knows an odd amount of celebrity gossip. He’s your go-to for who is dating who and what Rihanna’s new song is.
11. He shows grace more than anyone I’ve ever met.
12. He suffers from uncontrollable giggles at inappropriate times.
13. He is kind to the core.
14. He eats vegetables like a child. That is, to say, not at all. His gag reflex never aged past 4.
15. He has a hipster inside to his accountant outside. His inside is pure manicured beard and Warby Parker glasses; his outside clean shaven business professional.
16. He cares deeply for others. Especially those in need.
17. He loves brainy nerd games.
18. He is quite eloquent. Taylor uses approximately 0.02% the amount of words I do in our home, so when he does speak, we listen. And it’s always a wise, well-spoken thought.
19. He still drives the truck he was given for his 16th birthday because “it still works”. A business executive with a 48 year old, rusted truck. *swoon*
20. He is calm. (This is a big deal in our home.)
21. He condones eating late night fast food as a second dinner while we Netflix.
22. He will do whatever it takes to make the people he loves happy.
23. He can’t keep a secret to save his life.
24. He is a marketer’s dream. He once bought $400 worth of meat and seafood from a door to door salesman because “it seemed like a great deal”. (We don’t eat seafood. Also, no.)
25. He makes a terrible disciplinarian. He’s way too nice.
26. He is made of 50% human body parts, 50% Mexican food.
27. He works hard and with integrity. (Kind of a rarity these days.)
28. He is active on LinkedIn – the most social he’ll get on the internet.
29. He drinks a Sonic cherry slush at least 4 times a week.
30. He loves his family fiercely…and loves God even more.

It’s a good thing the numbers get bigger the older you get because I have about 3,023 more reasons to add.

We love you to the moon, Taylor Brooks.

And thank you, Lord, for this man and the family and legacy he is creating.

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P.S. when 4 of your 5 family members have birthdays in August, you get burned out on cake.

Sometimes a lemon popsicle with a candle zip-tied to it is just what you need, which leads us to a bonus reason why we love Taylor:

31. He is very easy to please.