Happy Birthday Danny Boy!

I wanted to pay a special tribute to my fantastic husband on his 31st birthday. I even contacted his family and got some great material. That’s soon to come…

I love hearing stories about what Danny was like as a child. Everything I’ve heard leads me to believe that he was hilariously passive aggressive, kind, funny, thoughtful and very sensitive to other peoples’ feelings. Danny is still exactly the same! Danny was his mom’s “surprise” baby, and it’s the surprise that I am most grateful for!

From the VERY first time I met Danny, I knew there was something really cool about him. I remember we met while singing in a choir at the Taylorsville Institute of Religion. Danny was so NICE to everyone. Seriously. The thing that really caught my attention is when he would go out of his way to do kind things for some of the people (girls) who weren’t all that attractive in the worldly sense. He would open doors for them just like he did for any one. I know this is a selfish time of life and it’s easy for many guys to just impress the girl they are going after. Danny wasn’t like that. He treated everyone equally, and that has always stayed with me.

We had an Institute class together before my mission and I remember he was asked to play the piano for the opening song and I was intrigued. I remember thinking “wow, he’s cute, he’s funny, he’s nice AND he can play the piano…I need to get to know this guy.” Getting to know Danny White was the best thing I ever did.

Danny is hilarious, thoughtful, kind, loving and compassionate. He is an animal lover. He volunteered at the zoo when he was younger and still likes going to Wheeler Farm and the zoo for family outings. He’s a hard worker. He has worked 2 jobs for most of our marriage. Danny hardly ever complains. He usually lets me do that! He is talented in many forms of art. Pastries, drawing, insane creativity, anything to do with music or graphic design.

He's a whiz on the computer and has made me into a total techy. He loves putting things together and doing little projects. He's a Pixar and Disney fanatic. I seriously love this about him.

He is a family man. When some members of his family were in a very serious automobile accident in 2002, his sister Laura was severely injured. In an attempt to keep everybody (extended family/friends) up-to-date, he started a website with pictures and updates. He has also helped create videos for when his brothers got their Eagle Scout award. Danny is an Eagle Scout too, and got it at a young age.

I could go on and on…but I want to share some excerpts and input from those who know him very well. His immediate family:

Dad—(an awesome journal keeper retrieved this from his journal):

“Here are a few excerpts from my journal: The night before we couldn't decide on a name - between Mark Andrew or Daniel Morgan. The birth was hard for Eva because he wouldn't come out at first, but then he just popped out. Danny weighed 3,890 grams and measured 53 cm at birth. He is a handsome little boy and came out crying like a real champ. His skin is soft and red and clear. Such a perfect body. He yawned and looked around and shut his eyes again. We bought him a little cardboard crib like the one we used before for Scott & Brian. The other boys really made a fuss over him. The other three have really smothered him with brotherly love. Brian is a little feisty - maybe a bit jealous. People keep telling us they are sorry we had another boy instead of a girl. I can't believe it. If they could see Danny they wouldn't say that. We really love our boys. I think this is the happiest time of my life.”

Mom—(mother of 6 boys and 2 girls!!)

“Danny was our "surprise" baby. He and Brian are just 17 months apart, and we weren't really planning on having another one so soon. But Heavenly Father always knows best and Danny was on his way. His original due date was June 13th and so everyday after that Danny didn't come was a test of my faith. I remember sitting in the rocking chair and crying everyday because he wasn't here yet…Danny was a beautiful baby. He was very calm and well behaved. At 3 weeks he was sleeping through the night. At 2 months I would put him to bed at 10:00p.m. and he would sleep until 8:00 a.m. It was a good thing he had a good disposition because when he was three months old I was called to be the Relief Society president in our ward and with 4 children under the age of 6, that was quite an undertaking.



Danny turned out to be the best "surprise" I could ever have.”

Greg—“I remember he always "swore" by saying "Dummy poopoopeepeepoopoopeepee...etc. etc." The more the "poopoopeepees" the madder he was. It never really had the effect he hoped it would, I'm sure, because we laughed so hard when he did it”. {this cracks me up, because Danny still doesn’t ever swear—and I wish he’d continue on with his hilarious insult}.

Scott—“After my mission I really got to know Danny pretty well. I think we all kind of went through something like that since we all came home a little more grown up and started looking at relationships with our brothers differently. He was the one living at home closest to my age when I came home and I remember spending a lot of time going places with Danny and really finding out how cool he is. He's thoughtful and hilarious and we share interests in a lot of things. I related to him in a lot of ways that I hadn't noticed since I looked at him as my 'little brother' for so long. We went on some really fun double dates and I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life. He moved in to my apartment to bail me out of paying rent on my own when stupid Edgar decided not to be my roommate. I thought that was really cool of him to do. We have an awesome time going to Bear Lake, just the two of us...{inside joke—they told everyone they were going to Bear Lake and went to Disneyland!} I think he is the loudest puker I ever met. I don't know if he still does it, but I remember hearing him a couple of houses away when he did it. I was outside and I heard this yelling/screaming coming from our house. He said he couldn't help it and I sure felt bad for him- between laughing my own guts out. I watched him do it one time and was pretty impressed. I tried for a long time to yell while puking at the same time and I could never figure it out. Nice talent.” {I can attest to this}

Brian--"Danny and I were buddies when we were little and we spent a lot of time playing with the neighbor kids together and it seemed like Danny usually came up with the games. He liked playing kidnappers or making amusement parks with rides and spook alleys or making club houses, it was usually a production of some sort and it was always fun to put together. As we got older we developed different interests, but I always loved hanging around Danny because whatever he was doing was fun."

Brad—“I remember the ton ton battles and the coaching when we'd fight as well. He was always my ton ton and my coach in the neverending battle against Bri and Jefe, there were some good fights. I remember him and I cooking or something in the kitchen, we were too young to do anything significant, so he made a "cheesecake", which was just alternating pieces of bread and cheese, and it was good. And I remember when he released his son onto the unsuspecting city of Tokyo, they sure didn't seem as surprised that this was happening in their city as we had hoped. I believe in this file photo you can see Dan muttering "oooh I do NOT envy you Tokyo-ans." Only a very loving father would be that willing to encourage his sons endeavors. He's a good man.” {This is totally something Brad would say}.

Jeff—“I remember playing Nintendo one time when I was probably 8 or 9 and he was sitting on the couch teasing me or something. He made me really mad anyway and I just threw down the Nintendo paddle, jumped on him and just started punching him as hard as I could. He just sat there with his arms up shielding himself and laughed and laughed. I don't remember ever really getting mad at him other than that one time. It's really funny to me thinking about it now. I was so mad!



Once on my birthday he had won Jazz tickets at work so he took me to the game. I'd only been to one once before so I was pretty excited even though the tickets were on the very top row. I knew he didn't really care too much about basketball so it meant a lot. It was fun.



Other fond memories include Brian and Danny being ton-tons for Brad and me at a campout. He was my biggest boxing rival's manager. Brian and him would get me and Brad to put shin guards over our fists and box. We both ended up with bloody noses, probably more than once. Also making cross-bows and rubberband guns out in the carport. And he taught me piano lessons for a couple of years which I wish I would have stuck with.”



Laura—Since I couldn’t talk to Laura about a specific memory, I’ll share one that I have of both of them. The first time I met Danny’s family, I remember his sisters Laura and Amy were totally “on”. They were dancing around the room and being so funny. Danny was so cute with his sisters. He remembers when they were babies and says that he loved to hold them and change their diapers and help his mom out when she was super busy taking care of a big family. I know that Laura loves Danny a lot. His family went through a really hard time after the accident and I love that even now, Laura laughs at Danny’s jokes.



Amy—"He never made me a burrito. When mom and dad and Laura were in Las Vegas {after the accident}and it was just Danny me and Scott, I once asked him to make me a burrito. He told me no. He said "You can make your own." I was six. I didn't know how to make a burrito. So I learned. He taught me lots of stuff during that time. " {ha!! This one totally makes me laugh. It seems pretty un-Danny like which is why it’s so funny to me}



I wish I had more pictures to document his life, but most of them are on slides that haven’t been printed into pictures yet. Ahhh, how times have changed. I know that Danny's family has helped mold him into the man he is today. They are good examples and have unconditional love for each other. This is the most important thing I wanted to tell him on his special day: I LOVE YOU DANNY. I always will. I like to think that you were a “surprise” baby for a reason…so that you and I could cross paths when we did. I can’t imagine being this happy with anybody else.