#FakeFirstDay

Jack on his first FAKE day of school - 8th grade

Last night we went to bed early. 

Today we woke up at 5:00am. 

Showered.

Got dressed.

Ate breakfast.

Took pictures.

Read Scriptures. 

It was a really good morning and we really set the tone for how we want the rest of the school year to go.  

Too bad the school year starts tomorrow!!!

Brayden on his first FAKE day of school - 10th grade

When Jon pulled up to the school and no one was there he knew that someone dropped the ball {it was me!} so he checked the website are realized that school starts TOMORROW. 

That's when I got a phone call.

Jon:  "Hey Tice, I just pulled up to the school"
Me:  "Yeah, how did it go?  Did the boys find their first classes?"
Jon:  "Well there's a problem"
Me:  "What do you mean?  Is everything okay?"
Jon:  "Well there are no cars here"
Me:  "What do you mean?"
Jon:  "Wanna know why there are no cars here?"
Me:  "Yes, what's going on?"
Jon:  "There are no cars here because TOMORROW is the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!"

Then I heard everyone in the car laughing their guts out and I started laughing my guts out!!!  How did I lose track of my schedule and my life enough to send my kids to school a day early??? **Sigh** Mom brain!  

I'm just grateful they all had a good attitude and that they also have something to hold over my head for the rest of my life!

Now can we please talk about the most serious part of this post... that my oldest is a FREAKING SOPHOMORE???  

WTDH???

Trooper

It's that time of year when Bella and I seem to spend quite a bit of time downtown at 

Phoenix Children's Hospital. 

Smiles for cookies and a bear. Tears for the blood withdraw. 

She's a trooper. 

These appointments seem to be harder and more exhausting for me! Phoenix Children's treats Bella like a star and she feels the love. We are so grateful for her team of specialists and all those that help and support her as we try to get some answers to questions that have us puzzled.  

And since we are on the topic of Bella... here's my favorite quote of the week from her during a conversation she was having with her daddy!



Bella: "Where are you and mommy going?"
Jon: "On a date."
Bella: "Why are you dressed up?"
Jon: "Because we are going to the temple."


Bella: "What? I thought you already got married in the temple!"
Jon: "We did but we still go back."
Bella: "Why?"
Jon: "We do work there and plus, it's the house of the Lord."
Bella: "I thought that's what churches were."

                           Drop the mic Bella.
                           Drop the mic!

Life is Hard

My nervous break-down view - The Gilbert Temple 

Sometimes (actually this is the first time) when I'm having a nervous breakdown (this isn't my first by any means) my husband gets me my own hotel room for one night so I can get grounded again. I know he does this 99% for me and my sanity but that other 1% comes from his fear of WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HER! Here's the view from my hotel room... it speaks volumes to me. Also, I have to ask, does everyone else just handle life better than me? Why isn't everyone else running to hotels to get a grip?

Or maybe the better question... 

Why don't we share our messiness with each other more? 

Happy Father's Day

I don't know who is luckier… me (because I have my dad as a dad) or my kids (because they have their dad as a dad). Happy Father's Day to these two amazing dads. Welcome to their boulevard, they are the presidents… 
obviously! 

Today Brayden was TERRIBLE. He gets so panicky and looses perspective. I hope he gets things figured out. We are trying something new, something we are referring to as “snap”. I am sure I will be following up with this.

Bella is incredibly cute and sweet. It’s almost too cute and too sweet!

Jack is solid. He is needy but he is solid. He was so excited to serve Jon today for Father’s Day. We started a restaurant called “Jack’s Warehouse Storage Unit” and it was fun! We made everyone nachos and served everyone in bed for nap time! Jack is SOLID.

Tennis Day

Jack had his first tennis tournament today! 

He took 2nd place!

Brayden invited Dylan to go with us! It was cute having her there with him. They like each other but what I love is that Brayden was himself around her, he didn’t alter at all! 

Brayden is "in love" and awesome. 

Jack is awesome-awesome. 

Bella is hard and awesome. 

Jon and I made some dubsmash videos, it was fun and awesome.

THIS IS MY LIFE!!!

Mother's Day

Today was great! 
I was spoiled! 

My favorite part was spending time painting my picnic table with my family. 

It was like I captured happiness in a single moment. 

Being a mom is hard and being a wife is harder. But there are moments where I feel so happy, and so content, and so peaceful and it makes all of the fear and anxiety and all of the doubt worth it. 

Happy Mother's Day.

Anniversary and Birthdays!

Jon and I celebrated our 8th anniversary this last August by going to a BASEBALL game! Not only was it a perfect day for baseball but it was The Diamondbacks (my team) vs. The Dodgers (Jon’s team). Jon was feeling pretty cocky going into the bottom of the 9th inning being up by 2 runs, but I wasn’t worried, my Diamondbacks have a flare for coming back at the end of a game… you know, they love to give their fans a good game. So, just as I expected, we came back to tie it up in the bottom of the 9th… all of my fellow Diamondback fans supported me in a pretty lengthy trash talking to my husband, who was brave (or some would say stupid) enough to wear a Dodgers jersey in the middle of a red river! To make a long story short, the D-Backs won in extra innings by one run… oh yeah baby!!! We had a good anniversary.

Bella turned 2! Two years old, I can’t believe it. She’s so much fun. I love this little girl so much. She brings such a great balance and dynamic to our family. She’s… well… yummy! We celebrated her big day by having a simple family birthday party. Uncle Ryan and Aunt Jen came over with their kiddos to have cake and ice cream and open presents. Anabelle had a great birthday.

In September I turned the big 2-9! Jon and the kids spoiled me and we had such a great time. My favorite is the big 29 balloon. Jon taped them together but he originally taped the 2 backwards and could not figure out, for the life of him, why it looked so wrong!! It’s okay, he’s senile, after all, he’s 30 now!

Oh, and please notice that the boys had already started wearing their Halloween costumes in the middle of August... oh yeah, it was a long 2 months!!!

Hard week...

This week has been a difficult week for our family.

My husband brought me flowers to make me stronger.

They cheer me up.

Please send prayers our way...

My mom told me that "prayer changes things".

I'm on hold with the hospital to schedule an MRI for Anabelle.

This is hard.

The Tales of Jack

I couldn't make this crap up even if you paid me.

I know I just posted a post on our crazy little Jack, and I'm pretty sure if I gathered all the "Jack stories" I have written it would be a compile of disaster after disaster after disaster, but what can I say, we love this kid. Really though, he will shorten mine and Jon's lifespan, if he hasn't already. This happened this weekend.

On Saturday we decided to have a camp out in our backyard. We missed our ward camp out and the kids were really bummed so we promised them that we would set up a tent and sleep under the stars.... uhh, I guess under the tent that's under the stars, but you get the idea. So Jon went with the boys to borrow our friends fire pit and our brother in laws 5 man tent. He wasn't able to fit everything in our trusty little mini-van so he had to make 2 trips. The first trip was for the fire pit. Jon retrieved the 50 pound thing and wanted to know if I could help him unload it, well I was busy bathing Anabelle so he decided to put the van in park and unload it himself. He told the boys to stay in their car seats because they were just dropping off the pit and then heading to uncle Ryan's house for the tent. As Jon proceeded to carry the fire pit to our back yard he heard a crunch. He didn't think much of it but as he walked back to the front of the house to get back in the van he noticed that the vehicle wasn't parked in the same spot anymore.

Then he noticed Jack sprinting from the front of the van to the back where his car seat was.

Jon came back into the bathroom where I was still bathing Bella and said to me, "Tice, I have to tell you something". This is never a good introduction to a conversation. "Jack drove your van into my car"... (see, never good). I gasped and demanded more details. Jon told me what had happened. He admitted that he knew the car was running "but I insisted that the boys stay in their seats, I TOLD the boys to stay in their seats." I couldn't get over the fact that he actually left the car running with the boys in it... I mean seriously, has he met Jack?... his son?... his middle child? HAS HE MET HIM?!!!

Apparently Jack got bored, unbuckled himself, made his way to the front of the van, turned on all the lights, messed around with the GPS and put the car in drive drifting into Jon's car that was parked in our garage... hence, the crunch.

After assessing the damages, or lack of damages (thank goodness) we sat the boys down and gave them a good talk. Poor Brayden, he always has to endure these talks that are brought on by Jack but we figure that it doesn't hurt him to hear them either. He kept saying "but mom, I sat in MY seat", "but dad, I didn't get out of MY chair". Yeah, yeah I'm sure he probably dared Jack to do it or something!!

Later that night Officer Petroni (aka my dad) called and left a message that scared the crap out of Jack. The "officer" said that he had heard there was an accident caused by a Jack Jolley. We called the officer back but he didn't answer. Jack is pretty sure he is going to jail. Brayden made us say a prayer right then and there to ask Heavenly Father to make sure Jack didn't have to go to jail. After the prayer that Brayden offered, he said, "mom, what if Jesus didn't hear us? Maybe we should say another one and make it louder." Brayden couldn't risk his brother going to jail, they are the best of friends and bunk bed partners.

Jack has decided that when he actually does get in contact with Officer Petroni he's going to explain that it was an accident and that he will NEVER do it again. He's hoping that this explanation will keep him out of jail.

Of course as a mother I have to go to the dark places in my mind and wonder what if Jack would have put it in reverse and backed across the street right into our neighbors garage? Or what if a car in the street was passing at the same time they were drifting out in the road? Like I said, years of my life will be taken off by my little Jackie Bear.

And like I also said, I couldn't make this crap up if my life depended on it.

Welcome to my life people, welcome!

Jack's Reality Welcome Home at Christmas

Okay, it's time to travel back in time with me to a great memory around Christmas time, our ward Christmas party to be exact. I've been meaning to write about this for...well almost 5 months now...but I haven't gotten around to it (there are about 10 other stories I've been meaning to blog about too, but I'll start here). So it had been a little less than a week since I was reunited with part of my family and I was on cloud 9. I still hadn't picked Anabelle up from my parents who were watching her while I was at Remuda so it was just me and the boys and I was trying to adjust to being a mom and a wife again. I felt awkward and weird to be back. Anyway, our ward party was really catered to children because in our ward we have a million kids. There was a room where Santa was greeting the children, a room where we decorated sugar cookies, a room for family pictures (which turned into a couples picture because I wouldn't take a family picture without my little girly) and then outside there was a "sleigh ride" (it was really a hay ride considering the lack of snow in Arizona these days). Anyway, we first ate dinner then went to meet Santa (which is where my camera ran out of batteries), then proceeded to make the most frosted and sprinkled cookies EVER, and then outside for hot chocolate and the "sleigh ride", by now it was dark. I was trying to balance socializing with keeping track of my kids, with staying close to Jon (I was really nervous to be back), with acting normal... I don't think it worked! Anyway, it was my boys' time to jump on the back of the trailer and get dragged around the parking lot going about 15mph. Jon and I decided that they were BIG enough to go alone, without any parental supervision, plus my friend Kim and Liz were taking their little ones and would be close. Jon and I nonchalantly watched the truck pulling the trailer as is circled around and around. It was dark so there was only a silhouette of the truck and trailer but the kids were having a great time when all of the sudden someone jumped out of the trailer and rolled about 10 times. Everyone that saw gasped and then I heard Liz and Kim screaming unsuccessfully for the driver to stop. This poor child that launched him/herself off the trailer popped up after the rolling stopped and started chasing the trailer in hopes of getting back on. By this time there were some parents running towards the truck and the child to make sure everything was okay. Then, as the child ran, I saw who it was by the light of the moon, and why was I even surprised, it was JACK. Jack, unhurt, was laughing hysterically and Jon, in a panic, was sprinting across the parking lot, and I standing alone with my hot chocolate in hand was nudged by a ward member who whispered "welcome home"!!!

Not much has changes in the past 5 months... I'm so scared for Jack's teenage years!!

Home to this...

I get to come home to this...

and this...
and this...

and this...

and this...

ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9TH!

A Reunion I Never Want to Forget

Today (Sunday journal entry) was the first time in 45 days that I saw Brayden and Jack. It was such a joyful moment and I don't ever want to forget the way it made me feel.

Jon was dropping off my cell phone at Remuda life and he was suppose to be there before I got there so I wasn't going to be able to see him, but when I got to Remuda Life they told me that he called and left a message saying that something came up and he won't be able to drop my phone off until later. I was nervous because I wasn't sure if I wanted to see him or not, it's so hard to say good-bye. Then it dawned on me, he would probably have the boys with him (Anabelle is in Utah with my mom). My stomach dropped because I wasn't sure if I was ready to see the boys. I wasn't scheduled to see them until November 15th so this was a big surprise. I thought about it for awhile and decided that I really wanted and needed to see them. It's been so long. I've been able to talk to them on the phone but it's not the same as holding them in my arms. So I called Jon and told him to call me at my house when he arrived at the main office so I could see him and the boys.

He actually didn't even need to call because I was sitting at my window watching and waiting as nervous as ever. Once he pulled up I started walking toward the van, I was holding a bunch of clothes that I needed Jon to take home with him, so my arms were full. Jon noticed me walking towards the van and waved... my heart sank. I really wanted him to take me home, I wanted to be done with Remuda and with this program. I felt ready. Just as I was thinking about how much I wanted to go home, the sliding door opened up and out ran a little boy. Brayden was running toward me as fast as his little legs would carry him and he was screaming "mommy, mommy, mommy!". I dropped whatever it was that I was holding and just started sprinting towards him. My heart was filled with so much joy the second he jumped into my arms. He just smiled and laughed and I just smiled and cried. I missed him so much. I love him so much.

We talked and played for awhile and then I asked him where Jack was, he informed me that Jack had fallen asleep on the drive over. I asked him if he would go wake him up for me so off he went as I reunited with my husband for a moment. I picked up my clothes and started walking to the van when I saw Jack. Jack looked ticked off! He wasn't very happy that Brayden had woken him up, but then his eyes met mine and he just started giggling. I ran toward him and embraced him too. Seriously, I can't describe how I felt, the only word that will do it justice is joy, I felt absolute joy. I was back with my boys. We played and talked for awhile until it was dinner time and I had to leave. Jack kept patting the passenger seat saying "mommy, come with us", "mommy, get in your seat and come with us"... it broke my heart. I explained to my boys that I was so much healthier then I was the last time they saw me but that I needed a little bit more time to get "all the way healthy". I hugged and kissed and kissed and hugged them and they watched them drive away. It's not fair. The pain was physically there. I know I'm where I should be but sometimes that doesn't make it any easier.

I am getting a lot healthier and feeling a lot better physically. I'm working hard in this program and am expected to be done on December 9th... 30 days longer than I anticipated.

I get to see my boys again tomorrow, and maybe even Anabelle tomorrow night when my mom gets in town. I miss my little girl more than anything. I can't wait to see how big she has gotten. I'm sad to have missed the last couple of months in her growth but this is what needed to happen, or so I keep telling myself. I'm sad. I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss my life. But when I think about it, I wasn't really living life, I was entrenched in my eating disorder and a zombie in my own body. I'm getting better. I'm learning. My family is so special to me and I thank all of you that have helped and prayed for us. It means the world. I can never thank you enough.

Love you all... TC

Singles Ward

THIS
+ THIS

+ THIS

= THIS...

So while we were in Utah I was contemplating going to my dad's ward on Sunday. My dad is the Branch President of a singles ward and as you can imagine, kids don't really "fit in" at the silent singles ward! After thinking about it I decided we could survive a sacrament meeting and keep our kids quite enough to not be a huge distraction... well, I forgot to factor a few things into this equation! Jack started acting up right after the sacrament was passed so I asked Jon to take him out in the halls for awhile. I wasn't anticipating that Jon would run into Tom Horman (an old friend) and loose track of Jack ("for only a few seconds"... is what Jon told me!).

I was sitting with Brayden, Anabelle, my mom and Milli listening to a girl bare her testimony when all of the sudden the fire alarm starts blazing and the strobe lights start flashing. At that moment I leaned towards my mom and with my own intuition said "mom, I think it was Jack". I got up and headed out to see what exactly had happened, and as predicted, JACK PULLED THE FIRE ALARM! He was outside bawling his eyes out with Jon while every bishop in the building was trying to see if they had the magic key on their key chains that stopped the unbelievably loud fire alarm. I went outside to speak calmy and rationally with my husband (yeah right) and the first thing Jack said was "mommy, it was daddy, daddy pushed the button"! I about died with laughter, I couldn't hold it in, and this made Jack cry even harder.

One of the men that was trying to turn off the alarm went into my dad's interrupted sacrament meeting and whispered to my dad that it was a false alarm and that it was his grandson... hey dad, have I ever told you that I was raising YOU THROUGH MY SON?!?! Jack is you, you are Jack and I'm dead meat!

We love you Jack, you little stinker!

Happy Father's Day

Happy 29th Jon!

Jon's birthday was on the 7th of May so I'm a little bit behind with this "Ode to Jon" post! But I just want to talk a little bit about how wonderful my hubby is... not perfect, but wonderful!

10 things I love about Jon, in no apparent order:

#10. He listens better than any man I've ever met!...
#9. He's HOT... just look at him, he's sooo handsome!
#8. He loves ME... all my flaws and moods and all... he actually loves me... and believe me, he knows EVERYTHING about me!
#7. Best DAD EVER! The boys love rough housing with him, they adore their dad. And as for Anabelle, she just stares at him the moment he walks through the door.
#6. He's hilarious and doesn't even know it! I don't think I've stopped laughing since I met him, sometimes with him, sometimes at him... but he laughs at himself too!
#5. He's honest. He's honest even when he knows he's going to be in BIG trouble!!!
#4. He checks my blog and leaves comments... I don't know, I just think that's cute!
#3. He treats me sooooo good! Every night, and I mean every night, he plays with my hair until I fall asleep.
#2. He has a relationship with God and I love that about him. He has a strong testimony and strives to do the best he can in this crazy life.
#1. I love him just the way he is. I am so lucky because I got "one of the good ones".

One of my fondest memories of Jon:
Okay, back to senior year when my life was OVER! Here's the scenario... There was about a week left of high school, my freakin' softball team just got knocked out of the state tourney by Mt. View (yes we were suppose to take it that year), Jon was leaving on his mission in about 3 days... and I thought I was going to curl up in a ball and DIE! Anyway, I was feeling pretty sick about being out of the state tourney and Jon could tell. He called my dad and they talked about different ways to cheer me up... I couldn't be cheered up! Jon explained to my dad that they had to do something "real big" and "unforgettable" so that I would never forget it. Well, my clever dad and cute boyfriend came up with this plan...
On Friday night Jon told me that on Saturday he had some plans for us but that I had to wake up at 6:00 am... my response... "NO"... my plan was to fall asleep and never wake up... I was so dramatic! So on Saturday morning, with my alarm reluctantly set, I woke up, and when I woke up Jon was sitting there waiting for me. He told me to hurry up, jump in the shower, that I had 45 minutes until we were leaving. About 30 minutes later Jon told me that my time was up! I climbed into my dad's car and then my mom and dad got it too... what the?!?! We got on the freeway and headed to Salt Lake. I was trying to guess what we were doing but I never would have guessed that we were going to end up at the airport and fly to Las Vegas for the entire day! We went on EVERY RIDE they had. Ate all the yummy food. And my dad even gave me a quarter to put in a slot machine... I got in trouble of course, I looked like I was 14! And then around 5:00 we flew home, just in time for Jon to take me out to dinner at a really nice restaurant. This was a day that I'll NEVER forget... how cute is Jon? How cute is my dad and mom? This was and still is one of the greatest days I've had... it was flawless!

One of the most "Jon" moments:
So we were dating and it was my senior year. I was in this seminary play that he came to watch one night. Anyway, after the play we went over to Joe Ghiz's house to hang out with everyone and ended up staying pretty late. It was March and there was snow all over the ground... it was freezing. Jon was taking me back to my car which was parked at the church right by Alta. It was after midnight when he dropped me off, and being the gentleman he is, he dropped me off and drove off before I got into my car. So there I was, in this dark parking lot, freezing and I couldn't get my key in the key hole. Once I worked that out, I couldn't turn the key because the key hole was FROZEN. After maneuvering that for a couple of minutes I managed to get in my car... Jon was probably half way to Provo by now. Anyway, I got in my car and turned the key and "click"... nothing but a click., My car wouldn't start! Luckily I was one of the only people in high school with a car phone (more like a car brick) so I called my dad and he had to come save me! Oh Jon, what a guy! I COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED! I swear they made a CSI about this exact situation, but the girl didn't have a car brick!

One of the sweetest memories from Jon:
Okay so he's going to kill me but there are 2 I want to tell people... the first one is that for Valentines Day one year after we were married, he got me this gorgeous journal, and inside there were strict orders that we were suppose to use this to write things that we loved about each other in it. To this day, I find this journal hiding in crazy places and when I open it there is a letter to me from him telling me the things he loves about me... so cute! The second is this story... One random day Jon came home from work with a couple dozen roses for me. I was so surprised and happy! He then proceeded to tell me a story about a man who was traveling by bus with a dozen roses. There was a girl who was intrigued with the roses and kept staring. Finally the girl asked who the roses were for and the man explained that they were for his wife... but seeing how much the girl loved the roses he offered them to her. The girl said "won't your wife be sad" and the man told the girl that his wife would be so happy and proud of him for giving them to her instead. The girl took the roses and was so happy and excited. Just then the bus stopped and the man got off, it stopped at the cemetery, his wife had passed away and he was taking the roses to her grave. So I looked at Jon with teary eyes and asked him why he sucked so bad by telling me such a sad story. He didn't say anything just lead me to the car where we drove to an old retirement home. When we got to the front desk he told me, "Tice, we're going to brighten someones day". Just then he took a rose from me and handed it to an old lady in a wheel chair. She cried. We proceeded to do this 24 times, until all the roses were gone. What a day, what a guy! Now he's going to KILL ME!

So that's a little bit about my husband! I was trying to think of an embarrassing moment of his but I can't... what's wrong with me!!!??? I'll think of one and post it later. Jon, I just want you to know that I love you so much, even though you are an old fart! You are my perfect match!

This crazy weekend!

On Friday night I got a call from Amy Hogue, the head softball coach at the . She told me that her team was in town for the weekend and was wondering if I wanted to come to dinner with them... I was SO EXCITED! I met them at Pei Wei on Thursday night and it was so great to get caught up with her. She, is one of the GREATEST coaches EVER... best female coach by far! She knows the game so well and learned from my other wonderful coach, Vaughn Alvey, (Amy is a former Alta Hawk and Vaughn coached her but he now coaches for BYU... boooo!!!)... oh crap, there are a lot of former BYU softball players reading this (including my sister) huh?!?! Sorry, but not sorry enough to erase my comment! Anyway, I had a great time at dinner then had to leave to meet up with Katie Thomas to go pick up Ali McMillian and Kelly Clark (also formal teammates of the Utah Stars) from the airport... YIPEE, friends in town! We had such a great time hanging out. We picked the girls up at the airport then ate at the Waffle House where we talked with the waitress who, I'm positive, was a lesbian coming onto us... hmmmm, a lesbian coming on to softball players... how do they always know!!!???

Then on Friday I gathered up the kiddos (mind you, I'm exhausted because of the night before) and went to ASU to watch the Utes get their butts handed to them by number one Arizona State University... it was fun to watch and of course, we all wore our RED! Softball is so beautiful to me, just like golf is beautiful to Jon... just look at this field, it's a little bit of Heaven on Earth!

On Friday night we went to a Suns vs. Jazz game. I tried to go for the Suns, embracing my new roots, but I just couldn't. I wanted the Jazz to win... Jon was so mad that I wore orange!

By the way Kell, thanks for the great seats!!!

On Saturday I woke up to go to my kids' soccer meetings. I met their coaches and got their practice and game schedules and bought them a soccer ball so we can play in our yard! It was so crazy and overwhelming... I left thinking "my life will never be the same"!!! After the meeting my family and I went to "The Carnival at the Park". It was a carnival that Highland Park Elementary (Brayden's school) was putting on to raise money. The boys, and I mean all 3 of my boys, had a riot! Anabelle and I just chilled!

After the carnival I met up with my friends and went shopping, to dinner, and then to a karaoke bar. The bar is a little out of my element but my friends loved it! I just hung out and listened to the worst singing EVER!

The girls left on Sunday at 4:30am so I said my good-byes, which I'm sure none of them remembered but Katie, and went home to my dead asleep husband!

Whoosh! What a weekend! Now we are preparing for next week when my parents and Sadie come for the entire week of spring break... YIPEE!!!