MTC Cafeteria

Recently the family toured the new MTC buildings. It was so awesome! It makes me want to serve a mission when I'm older.

But, I couldn't help but get a little giddy when we got to walk through the cafeteria. That's where Joey and I met! It's always going to be a magical place to us. We have lots of memories there, good friends, a lot of flirting went on during those lunch shifts!

11 year anniversary

Joey is a great person. Some things I love about him include how he spends time with our kids taking them on bike rides, out fishing, or shopping. He reads to them and plays with them. He is smart, he is dedicated to his career and using that career to provide a good life for us. He's a hard worker. He actively notices the good traits of others. I love that he doesn't have a habit of negative talk about other people. He is soft spoken too, which is one of the first things I noticed about him when we met.

Above is our first photo together. I think it was taken in November of 2002. We were at P.F. Changs. He really liked me! We had a lot of fun on dates together.

 A long time before I met Joey I had the desire and goal to marry a return missionary in the temple. I stumbled upon a very good, kind, devoted boy that first year of college, and I got to marry my return missionary in the temple just as I had hoped would someday happen. It was a LOT sooner than I ever expected! I was only 18. He was 24.

Here we are after 10 years of being married (last year). My goals now include to be a spiritually and emotionally strong woman so that I can support and strengthen Joey through our years of life together. I have a goal to show him charity, kindness, patience, and friendship each day. I want to show him each day that I love him by my actions and words.

My heart swells when I think about Joey. I am grateful he's my companion!

Happy Anniversary to my sweetie!

I heard this song on a Disney CD the kids and I got from the library and it reminded me of my sweetheart. Since today is our anniversary I wanted to share. Joey is a huge blessing, a great friend and companion. I am so thankful for the hero of our family story (and my own story too). Love you Joey!

8 years!

Love this guy! I'm so excited that we have been married for 8 years! Can't wait for more anniversaries down the road! We've learned a lot in the last eight years and we've grown together.

2007; White Mountains, AZ

2010; Maui, Hawaii

2010; Maui, Hawii

2006; Provo, UT

 And this is us on Saturday, right before we went out to celebrate 8! Grandma and Grandpa Hancock babysat for us and even watched Clay. It was a great date.

My greatest asset

Tonight Hailey went to bed at 6:40pm. Miles is still awake, but he's hanging out with his dad right now. In fact, just a couple of minutes ago I looked out the front window and saw this:

Miles and Joey love each other!

I could hear Miles and Joey chatting through the window. The thought occurred to me that the greatest asset I have in raising this little boy is his dad.  I think the same thing is true for Hailey and this baby boy I'm about to give birth to too. I'm so lucky to have Joey! He's not only my greatest asset when it comes to parenting. He's my greatest asset in just about every way!

Hawaii!

We recently took our dream vacation! For months  we planned, saved up, paid for everything before we left, asked family if the kids could stay with them, and then we waited, and waited, and waited for September! Well, it came, and we left!

My favorite part of the trip: The Road to Hana on Maui! It had BEAUTIFUL waterfalls, rolling hills covered in lush green tropical plants, cliffs overlooking the ocean, natural pools that we could go swimming in, black sand beaches, etc...

 Iao Valley, Maui

Front Street, Lahaina, Maui

 

Front Street, Lahaina, Maui

On the Road to Hana, Maui

 

On the Road to Hana, Maui

Green everywhere! A welcome sight to us Arizona dwellers...

A black sand beach! On the Road to Hana, Maui

Sea cliffs made from lava rock!

 

On the Road to Hana, Maui (Mile marker 45)

 

Check out this Banyan Tree! Amazing! On the Road to Hana, Maui (Mile Marker 45)

We took this strenuous, uphill LONG hike through jungle and a bamboo forest and at the end we saw this: a HUGE cliff with this beautiful waterfall jetting down the side. It was breathtaking. Totally worth the sweaty hike!

 

Also at the end of the hike--this beautiful pool of water--open for swimming! Great way to cool off!

View from the balcony of our hotel room on Oahu!

 

 The beautiful Laie temple

Another highlight was being together, of course! :)

Another favorite: snorkeling! We saw lots of fish and HUGE sea turtles! We also took a submarine ride and saw more fish and a shark!

It was an awesome trip and coming home was great too! I didn't realize how much I'd miss Miles and Hailey after being away from them for over a week. One woman on our plane said she wouldn't have minded staying for a few more days. I felt opposite--paradise was really nice but it's still no substitute for home!

Love

BYU graduation, 3 weeks before Miles was born.

Today we've been married for 7 years! Joey is...wonderful. I could gush on and on about him but I'll save you the hassle of reading it :).  I will say that I love this guy beyond measure. He truly is my better half!

Three days in Dallas

Joey and I spent 3 AWESOME days in Dallas this last weekend. I loved every minute of it! We drove to the airport early Friday morning (5:30am) and got off the plane in Dallas at about noon. From the Dallas airport we drove to the Dallas temple and did a session there. The Dallas temple was HUGE and empty for the most part. There were only a handful of people in our session. It was so quiet and peaceful.

It was a great start to our mini-vacation!

 

(It was cold and rainy and Joey forgot to pack at coat or jacket!

At least his suit coat kept him semi-warm for most of the first day.)

After the temple we went to a park Joey had read an article about. From the park, we could see the skyscrapers from downtown Dallas and there was a big beautiful lake with lots of green grass. So pretty!

 

(We went straight from the temple to the park and Joey decided to change out of his suit in the car!

Lucky for him nobody walked or drove by while he changed.)

 

b

After walking around the park we met up with Joey's sister Laura, her husband David and David's brother  and sister-in-law John and Andrea. John and Andrea took us to a Texas steakhouse with a live country band, wood dance floors, and...

 

a mechanical bull! 

I wasn't going to ride it, I felt like everybody in the restaurant was watching those who rode the bull and I  certainly didn't want to be the center of attention. I was just going to let all the guys have a turn...But when Laura had enough nerve to do it that gave me some courage! I'd like to say it was fun, but it was actually a little scary. I was afraid to let go of the harness and I had to wait until my fear of getting whiplash from the wild ride was stronger than my fear of falling off the bull before I could let go!

On Saturday we attended SIX hours of a parenting conference. It was great! I felt like a learned some good stuff and I hope to apply it! I've been waiting for Miles and Hailey to say thanks for going and refining my "mama skills" but they haven't yet ;).

We were able to see our very good college friends, Alex and Adraine Cavallini for lunch between conferences. They live in Fort Worth and were in Dallas for the day. I regret not getting a picture of us all--we were pressed for time and it slipped my mind, but it was fun to see them!

Saturday night we went to one of the BEST restaurants I have ever been to. It's in Garland, TX and it's called...

 

 (The food was delectable! I want to go back there again someday!!)

Sunday we went to a good ol' Dallas suburb ward with John and Andrea's family. And then we flew home. 

Word has it Hailey "wasn't herself" while I was gone. And I think I know why. I noticed last night both kids had pinkish eyes...and today my fear was confirmed..it's pink eye. Poor guys! Thanks Leslie, Marcus, Lindsey and Dave (and little Sophie) for taking care of our kids while we were gone.

Sneaky Husband

A few weeks ago I received an email from Joey when he was at work. It said:

Subject: Bad news

Tiff,

It looks like the Equinox is leaking oil. There's a small puddle under the vehicle now and it was a little smelly as I was driving into work. I heard a big "clang" noise driving in this morning. I'm hoping it was a rock and not a piece of the engine. It drove fine after that; I'm just concerned about the leak.

I spoke with Douglas Auto and they can take it in tomorrow morning. Do you want to meet at my parents so we can drop it off tonight?

-Joey

We’ve met at his parent’s house after work to take one of our cars into the shop many times, so without giving it another thought I met up with Joey at 5pm.

Turns out, the car was fine. Running smoothly! It was all a hoax---so he could take me out to dinner!

He wanted to surprise me and he did. Joey’s mom watched the kids for us while we went to Olive Garden. We had a great night and I am still impressed he fooled me so well!! I was  grateful for the date…earlier that day he called me and I mentioned to him he was the only adult I'd talked to that day and I missed him more than usual and I even hesitated to say good-bye when he needed to get back to work…little did I know he had the perfect date planned out on a day I could really use it! I’m grateful for Joey!

6 years!

Six years ago on July 18th we got married!


(...and our car got creamed!!)

I consider Joey the greatest treasure I have! I'm lucky to have him by my side:


Wedding luncheon-I had a hard time focusing on anything other than Joey.



Our college years...



Always been my great friend...



He's been there whenever I may need him. I hope I can do the same for him!

Lynette came over and watched Miles and Hailey while we went out to celebrate. We've been swapping babysitting and it seems to be working out pretty well. Thanks Lynette! Miles told me all about the his fun night when he woke up this morning.

We went out to dinner at Macaroni Grill and then went to La Paloma to walk around and check it out. We found some secluded chairs by a pool with a waterfall and just sat and talked for a while. It's a nice resort; it'd be romantic to stay there sometime! Maybe next anniversary.

Here we are last night after our date. He's still the only one for me!


6 years together

You only turn thirty once

Or you never turn thirty and just keep turning twenty-nine over and over again!

Joey's birthday is tomorrow (the 2nd). Joey and I have a song. In the lyrics it says, "baby, baby you are the world to me." Well, happy birthday to the guy who is the world to me.

July 18th - Five Years