Happy Fathers Day Papa Jon!

I couldn't ask for a better step dad. My mom found such an outstanding person to share her life with.

My mom and Jon met eachother online at LDS singles.com. They had planned to meet and when he came to pick her up.. on his way awesome motorcycle.. he brought her, my sister and I all flowers. He had always said something like, "If you give one woman flowers, you can't forget the other women in the house too!" Thank you, for my very first flower from a gentleman.

 I remeber when I met him and what I was wearing! It always took a while for me to like someone my mom was dating but I knew Jon had something special to offer. And I was right, Jon always has offered so much love and care to my mom, my siblings and I. I'm so glad my mom found someone who loves her dearly. My mom deserves the best and that is who she got :)

We've had some great memories throughout the years! He had a surprise planned for our family the day Kayla was flying in for Christmas. He had us all get ready and wait for the surprise, when it was time he had us go outside.. there was a limo there waiting to pick us up! I had never been in a limo and we were all so excited! We drove to the airport to pick up Kayla, who was also surprised! It then took us driving around down town as we had a good time enjoying eachother:) the last place we ended up was our family's tradition of going to get Icecream and Fries at Letherby's!! Thank you, for planning such a memorable night.

 My mom and Jon were great friends with my best friend Ambers parents.We got a motorhome and went camping a lot a long with using our new 4-wheelers!! Ambers parents also had a motor home and 4-wheelers almost identical! We would always go on trips with them..so fun. My do I miss those times! Thank you for the motorhome and 4-wheelers.

There was also one time when we drove the motorhome to Cali to visit my sister Kayla. We decided to go check out Holywood and it was the funniest thing, Jon driving us through the SMALL Holywood streets with all the expensive, awesome cars everywhere and there was us in the huge ol' motorhome and Jon honking at everyone haha. Thank you for the laughs :)

 Jon would also take us Jeeping in his black jeep that he loves! It got SO muddy that you couldn't even tell it was black, anywhere. Even the inside was covered. He had fun taking it apart and cleaning out though! Thank you for the fun times!

Jon was so great and always took care of our family cars. Whenever there was somthing wrong, he would fix it. Even if it had to be fixed over, and over.... and over. He was always on top of it! Always buying the right parts, randomly washing our cars and filling it up with gas, checking the oil.. I think back and wooow he did so much for us. Thank you.

I always had a hard time with math. I can't even count how many times he stayed up, helping me with the million math problems my teacher gave or helped me study for a test. Even when he had a lot of work to do himself and had to get up early in the a.m. for work. Such a blessing, thank you for all of your help.

Jon was always cooking up a storm! He is such a great cook. A lot of Sundays, I remember him just BBQing away with lots of yummy sides. Of course, it always tasted amazing. Thanks for the delicious food!

Whenever I was to go on a school dance date, or have boys and friends over to hang out, or whenever I had a boyfriend, he always made sure to get to know them and let them know if anything happened to me, he wouldn't take it lightly. He was always friendly but made sure they knew who he was. He gave one of my boyfriends a bullet. He told him to put it where he could see it everyday just so he could make sure nothing ever happend to me. (He ended up putting it on his nightstand and he always respected Jon for that.) It wasn't a threat. Just a reminder. Thank you Jon, for being that dad that no one messes with, or messes with his daughter.

One day Jon was riding to work on his Motorcycle. There was an accident. A car came out of no where and Jon slammed into it, breaking the car glass/door, totaling the motorcycle, and breaking open the helment. Jon was very injured.
I was out with my mom and my sister Kayla when my mom got a call saying to get to the hospital, Jon had been in an accident. My mom knew he took his motorcycle to work and started panicing. We rushed to the hospital (about 40 minutes away) the whole time praying everything would be okay. When we got there, he was in emergency care. When we walked into the room he was laying down, totally out of it, from the crash and from all the morphine, bloody all over and his face with a huge gash bleeding and a doctor using tweezers to pick out bits of glass out of the gash and out of his face. It was a hard sight to see, my poor step dad was hurt and miserable. Kayla and I ended up leaving the room, we couldn't handle the stress. But my mom stayed by his side the whole time and wouldn't leave him. Ends up he broke some ribs and had to re-learn to walk. When we went to visit him one day, it was time for his physical therapy so we had to wait outside the room. I remeber hearing random yells of pain and it just broke my heart. He was so strong though it all and I'm so thankful he was alright. Thank you Jon, for teaching me to never give up.


I do have a very favorite memory. That memory is all of your support while I was falling in love with Corbin...
Quick explaining before I share my memory:
I was 18 and had been dating him. I hadn't told any of my family because I felt it was hard to explain that I was dating a 23 year old who had a 3 year old daughter, and who wasn't here to meet. He was in Cali for the Marines- SOI school and all I could do was Skype. Corbin became my best friend very quickly. I finally was liking Corbin so much, I thought about him every second of the day and couldn't hold it in anymore. I had to tell them about this amazing guy I've been liking and missing so much. One day he sent me a message on Facebook, a very long, well put, heart felt friendly message explaining how great of a friend I was to him and how much I meant to him. I thought it was the perfect way to tell my family about him. I sat down with my mom and Jon and explained everything to them..that we met and became best friends.. spent a lot of time together.. he left for boot camp and I had missed him for 3 months and wrote him every week.. he came home and I had only seen him for 2 days... he left again and I missed him dearly. I then showed them the letter he wrote me and they were very impressed. Of course parents would be nervous for their youngest daughter dating a 23 year old Marine with a daughter. But my parents.. were so happy and supportive of what I was going through!! I don't know why I had been so nervous to tell them because that's the way they are. Supportive of anything for my siblings and I. They became very interested in getting to know him. I had them meet through Skype. They were always talking to eachother through Facebook. Wrote E-mails back and forth. They already had approved of him before they had met him in person. They couldn't wait to meet him. And I still had yet to meet Chloee. I would look at her pictures everyday on Corbins Facebook and would always love when Corbin talked about her.
Christmas was coming around and Corbin was unable to come home. Since he had to stay in Cali, he rented out a hotel room for himself to have time to Skype his family and I on Christmas and enjoy it the best he could.
On Christmas Eve, something horrible happened. Corbin called me and told me to get on Skype asap. He told me that Chloee's birth mother had taken her own life. There he was, daddy to a precious 3 year old, in the Marines unable to come home to his motherless little girl. To be there for her. And for anyone to be there for him. I stayed on Skype with him while he would talk to me, and I would listen and cry for Chloee. I wanted to be there with him and I couldn't. He would explain how he didn't know how to raise a little girl by himself. He would say he didn't want me to feel obligated in anyway of anything he was saying. I understood and just wanted him to explain what he was feeling.
Now for my favorite memory of Jon.
During this happening, my sisters boyfriend had just broken up with her, so she was in her room crying and I was in my room crying as I skyped. My mom and Jon kept running back and forth helping my sister and talking with Corbin and I.
Corbin had gotten off Skype just to be alone and think and do what he needed to do. Jon and my mom were there to talk with me all night till we went to bed. Whe I had gone to bed.. I couldn't sleep. I was wide awake. Thinking about Corbin. Thinking about poor Chloee. Thinking of the whole deal. Thinking of everything!! My mind would not stop racing. I ended up just being on my laptop looking up comforting songs and sayings and writing letters to send to Corbin. It was 3 or 4 a.m. Christmas eve night.. well, morning.. when Jon walked into my room, I was listening to music and painting my nails on the floor. He was surprised to see me awake and came in and sat down next to me. He saw my eyes all poofy from crying. He could tell I was so tired but couldn't sleep. We started chatting. We showed eachother some songs that were special to us, memories from his past. I started talking about Corbin a lot, and I told Jon I think the reason I can't sleep is because I have this crazy feeling I've never felt before. I knew I was falling in love with Corbin. I was so happy yet so sad for what had happened. Jon and I ended up talking for hours. We were already close but talking with him all morning bonded us even more. Thank you Jon, for being there for me every step of the way.

Throughout the years I wasn't very close with my dad, you were always there. To talk to. To listen. To cry on your shoulder. To hang out with. To go out on a daddy daughter date, just because. To be the dad figure I was missing. I thank you, Jon for every second of that.
There is one memory that is so hard for me to even think of. I can't think about it withought tearing up. I know you know what that is. The biggest thank you I can say Jon, is thank you for staying. And I mean, really, staying. It means more than you will ever know. I love you so much and our family is so blessed to have you in our life.

Happy Fathers Day Papa Jon !

Love always,

Miss Kizz