Happy Birthday Benni-boo!

Ben turns 28 today! So for those who may not already know, here are 28 good reasons to love him!
1 he is a good back and shoulder rubber. Even though his hand gets cramps, he'll still do a good job.
2 he will pause or turn off the tv to watch one of Kara's little dances she likes to do. This even includes football.
3 he does almost all of the vacuuming around here.
4 he works long hours so I can stay home with my girls.
5 He's a cat person. He will never make me own a dog.
6 He can cook. He is by far the better cook between us, and usually cooks if we have people over. He still appreciates my cooking and likes the dinners I make.
7 He's really strong. He once picked up me and 2 of my sisters all at once when we were trying to attack him with markers. Also, he can open any jar or bottle.
8 He's well groomed. He is always flossing his teeth and clipping his nails. He is always very clean.
9 He likes to play games. He loves to win, and usually does, but he will still play games with me if I'm better than him. Sudoku and Dr. Mario are some of the very few.
10 He knows and will sing the "bum change" song.
11 He honestly believes our girls are the smartest and cutest kids on earth. Of course I agree with him.
12 He is a loyal fan to his favorite sports teams, even when they suck. He tries to say he doesn't care about the KC chiefs this year, but he still always checks their score, rewinds sports center if he hears them mentioned, and gets excited on the rare occasion that they beat anyone. He's done the same with the Knicks and the Mets.
13 He takes endless pictures our kids. He truly thinks everything they do is so cute and needs to be recorded in a photo.
14 He is happy to just be at home with me. He doesn't usually want to go anywhere unless we go as a family. I always feel like he wants to just hang out with me, and never feel like he would rather be somewhere else.
15 He puts up Christmas lights. Even though he thinks some people should get a kick in the butt for putting up so many and wasting so much electricity, he still puts lights on our house, and points out lights for the girls to see. He lets them be excited about those extra extravagant displays, and keeps his feeling about it to himself.
16 He's honest. This has gotten him in trouble with people from time to time, but it's a quality I definitely love. I know he will tell me the truth about anything. I know I will never have to walk out of the house thinking I look fine, when I really look like a wreck. He would definitely tell me. It might sound weird, but I also like when he tells me that something I do is annoying, or rude, because then I know what things to work on. And he tells me in a loving way.
17 He sings like Frank Sinatra. Maybe not exactly like Frankie, but I love the attemnpt.
18 He can fix things. I once took my sewing machine apart, thinking I could fix an issue it was having, but then I was clueless to put it back together. Ben had never touched a sewing machine, wasn't really aware of how they work, and didn't see me take it apart, but was still able to put it back together correctly and fix the problem I was having with it. Even when he doesn't know the actual way to fix something, he can always come up with some sort of idea to fix the problem.
19 He can pick out the girl's outfits. When he gets them dressed, I don't have to worry that they will be mis-matched. He also accessorizes them very well.
20 He's a nintendo freak. This usually makes gift giving a lot easier than it would otherwise be. I love that he likes the good kind of games, like Zelda and Mario. He doesn't play those war games, or the killing type games. If you want to see him excited, be there when he's just gotten a new game. It's like an 8 year old on Christmas.
21 He encourages me. I lost a good amount of weight this year, and he was there every step of the way telling me how well I was doing, and watching the kids so I could work out. he always said I looked good and didn't need to lose weight, but was proud of me when I did.
22 He takes care of the yard. Even though he always says it is a lost cause, and a waste of time, he is always working on it and making it look better.
23 He loves cereal. And he always notices and appreciates it when I buy his favorite kinds of cereal. It's a good strategy, because that makes me want to buy his favorite kind the next time too.
24 He hardly ever leaves his dirty socks on the floor because he knows I hate to touch them. But sometimes he will leave other clothes on the bathroom floor, because he knows Kara likes to pick them up and put them in the laundry hamper.
25 He knows lots of stuff. If I ever have a random question, I ask him first, because he usually knows. He somehow retains all the little bits of info he learns here and there.
26 He makes really good smoothies.
27 He goes to the zoo all the time. We seriously go to the zoo 9 or 10 times a year. He is always willing to go, and often it's his idea. He loves to see how much fun the girls have there.
28 He lets me go to bed early if I'm tired. He will stay up with the girls, feed them dinner, and put them to bed without my help, just so I can get caught up on sleep.

Those are just a few of the reasons I love my Benni-boo. I didn't even notice I went way over 28 and had to narrow it down. I'm sure I could easily think of a hundred!