Happy Birthday Mr. Wonderful!!!

Today was an amazingly wonderful day. It's my best friends birthday. He is the greatest thing, that Herbie. Such a hard worker, a great servant, father, husband, grandpa, son brother, uncle, friend. He is loyal to the end, and never ever gives up on any of us. He is the man for sure.

Today was his 51st birthday. Since his birthday is on Halloween we don't ever get to do much, especially since we had kids. It was always his job to take them trick or treating and I would stay home and pass out candy. Now that the ward has Trunk or Treat that's what we do for his big day. Today was a bit different though. Today we spent the morning in the Temple.....

With all of our children, and all of their spouses. Together...

ALL OF US....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET MAN
What a wonderful day for him. He said it was the best way to celebrate his birthday.
Jordan received his endowments today. It was amazing, incredible, and every other happy and wonderful feeling you can imagine. It was a good good day.

So Happy Birthday to my sweetheart, the best husband in the world, the best dad ever for sure, and the #1 grandpa alive.

Thanks for making such great kids. I love you sweetheart, more then you will ever know.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!

p.s. you do live in a zoo......

Road Kill in oh so many varieties!!!

I had so much fun this past weekend with Marilyn. We flew into Tulsa Oklahoma and then drove down to Ft. Smith, Arkansas. We slept, ate, shopped, drove around, took tons of pictures, shopped some more, ate some more, and slept some more. It was a great adventure.

I went to Arkansas with Marilyn for her family reunion. Arkansas you say..... why on earth would anyone go there. Well let me tell you, it is always a blast. This is the 3rd time to go, I love it. As you can see Arkansas is beautiful.
The colors (which aren't as great as I had hope, but we could see it!!!) are amazing, so many different colors in one tree. I sure wish that we could have colors like this in Mesa.

Here is the wonderful Pitchford family. I feel like I have been welcomed in just as if I was born to them. I get so excited to see them each time we get to go. Which is about every 2 - 3 years. Marilyn lost her father, her sister, and her mother and at one of these funerals she said "Now who is going to go to my family reunions with me?" And I said "I Will". I had no clue what an adventure I was in for. The bugs, the overalls!!! I loved it from the get go. So thanks Marilyn for taking me with you and letting me become a part of this great family.

Then we went to a little town called Van Buren and walked up and down the most beautiful old main street. Took some fun and crazy pictures and really just enjoyed the beautiful weather. As you can see we are sporting a jacket!!! Yeah for the beautifl weather.

Here we are in front of the museum, but you can't see it!!! It was a really cool looking building.

This is just one of the cool little nitches on main street. Good picture of Marilyn by the way!!!

But I would have to say we had a blast after the reunion when we saw sooooooo much roadkill. We counted 3 cats, 3 skunks and you will never believe what we found next. I screamed out loud, and I can be really loud, and then we flipped a U and went back to get a picture for my dad!!! Here it is. (Warning: if you have a queezy tummy do not look at the picture below!)

Unbelievable. Who would have guessed. You had to be there! We were just dying. Never in my life would I have had this wonderful experience unless my dear friend had invited me to Arkansas. You never know what you might get to experience.

It was a great experience, so thanks again Marilyn. I hada blast. Until next time........

The Call to Serve.....It's an amazing experience

So here it is........
Cody was holding all of the phones with the siblings who don't live here Hi guys, sorry you could not hear very well, but we were glad to be able to have speaker phones!!!

This is his expression after he faked all of us out by saying that he was called to serve in the St. George South Spanish Speaking!!! Isn't he sooooo funny. I sure fell for it. Thank heavens Cody gave me the look that he was teasing, cuz I was in hook line and sinker.....But then he read the real one. Here it is, enjoy the video, hope it works...

Well what do you think? I think it is amazing and so excited for him. He is soooooo excited and is really happy to be speaking spanish, it will be such a good experiece. His cousin D.J. returned last summer from this very same mission, so he is really excited to talk with him and get all the information. We feel really really really blessed. What a great day. Love all of you.

Happy Birthday Curtie

Happy birthday to the most wonderful Son in Law in the world, and not just because he is my only one, but because HE IS wonderful. When we had Jacque and knew that one day there would be a wonderful man come into her life, we never realized just how blessed we would be. We have known Curt all of his life and have watched him grow into the man that we trust with our girl. Thanks Curt for honoring the priesthood and always, always being willing to work hard and provide for your little family. We are so proud of you and your accomplishments. Because Jacque was still up at school when they were dating, I got the privilege to hang out with Curt a lot. I still hold those memories very close. Thanks for that. Whenever I am missing this kid I run to my computer and click on this wonderful picture and get my hug for the moment, but it is oh so much better when I actually get to see him and get that wonderful hug. Thanks for that. So I hope that today was amazing. That you got to do everything that you wanted. That you enjoyed your mama and brother, and that you got even better with age!!! Thanks for always making her dreams come true and for taking such good care of her. We love you so much and are so grateful that you are a part of our family too. Thanks Dana's for sharing such a wonderful guy with us. Happy Birthday!!!

A Little Update...

Sorry no pictures, some to come I hope. I just have not updated for a while and thought I need to journal some of this stuff so I never forget the journey. We have done a ton in the last month. We went to see our sweet Jacque and Curt in Logan for General Conference weekend. We got to attend the Sunday Morning session and it was fabulous to sit with the Prophet that day. The spirit is amazing in the conference center, and it is a great experience to be in the same room as all those wonderful priesthood holders who lead the church. We played games and shopped and ate enough candy to fill an elephant (me!) and just really enjoyed each others company and the cool weather. So thanks for the wonderful memories made that weekend. Jordan has put his papers in and we are hoping to have his call either today or tomorrow (hence the pictures to come) so that is very very very exciting. We are so proud of him and his desire to go and serve the Lord. He is very anxious to get to the Temple so that will be happening soon as well. We are aiming for his dads birthday on the 31st of October. (More pictures there). In the meantime we have had somewhat of a turnaround with Nana. We have noticed her begining to weaken over the past few weeks. While we were in Utah she fell and broke her right wrist. When we got back we took her in for surgery and a stay at the hospital. After we brought her home, she became even more weak and was put back into the hospital this week with fluid around her lungs. They have now drained her lungs and sent her home on Hospice again for Adult Failure to Thrive. She has quit eating as much and so she is down to 117 pounds today. That is not good at all. She is in a really chipper mood though because we fought for her to come home instead of being placed in a rehab nursing home. So that is good. Hopefully we can convince her to get on the eating bandwagon again and gain some weight and some strength. Getting old does not appear to be the funnest adventure around, but we will once again enjoy the journey and see where it leads too. For now that is our update. We are all very happy here at the Sunderhaus home, life is good, we have a roof over out heads, clothes on our backs (not the size I want them to be but they are there!!!) and food in our tummies. We also have very strong testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So grateful each and every day for that. I love the plan of salvation or happiness and am grateful for the gospel in my life each and every day. Thanks for all of your support, I feel your prayers and love and concern each day, so really.... Thank you for that. I love all of you and can't wait to give you the wonderful news of where our amazing Jordan will be going..... Stay Tuned....