He's Off!!!

Well today was the big day. Here is his plane at gate 17. I learned the trick of going to the top level of the parking lot and finding the gate that they are leaving from when Christopher left. So we did it again and everyone waved.

The last little picture of our wonderful boy, he is sending his love via sign language....

Right before he went through security. It was a wonderful experience seeing all those boys leaving to go and serve the Lord. They were all so excited.

Here he is with his friends Connor, David, and Tyler. David will leave March 2nd for Brazil, and Tyler leaves at the end of April for Mexico. I love these boys....

Cody, Stephanie, and Lexee giving great hugs.

These babies will be sooooo big when he gets back.

Just passing the time, great guys for sure.

We stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Welker's on the way to the airport to get good hugs.

We also stopped by the ward building because the Bishop told him his placque was up. Here it is!

The Hunt family will have 3 boys out on a mission together. Doug, their oldest is in Korea, and Jordan in the Dominican, and David in March to Brazil. He loves the Hunts for sure.

All packed and ready to go.

Bishop is always so supportive.

President Gulbrandsen gave Jordan such a beautiful blessing. He has been called to be a Mission President himself, so there were lots of tender missionary feelings. It was an amazing evening, filled with the spirit so strong. I love worthy Priesthood Leaders. He will be a wonderful Mission President. He even could end up being Jordan's!!! Would'nt that be crazy!!!

I am so proud of this boy. He is so great and fun. We will miss his spirit in our lives for sure, but are so grateful for his willingness to serve. He will be such a good missionary.

Go forth and serve with all of your heart sweet boy.

We love you........

Look what the mailman brought for me!!!

When Jordan was a little guy he loved his feety pajamas so much. He would quietly go to bed and quite a while later we would hear him in his room just giggling away. One night we went in to see what was going on and he came out with all of his blankets stuffed into his feety pajamas. He just laughed and laughed and laughed. Unfortunately I cannot get the picture out of the scrapbook to scan and show you. It is one of my favorite pictures ever. Anyway we went on line the other day and found a place that makes feety pajamas for adults (wish I had found it before Christmas) and we ordered them. He was really hoping they would come before he leaves next week.....

Here they are!Doesn't he look sooooooo cute!!! He is so funny. I love this kid. I am sure I have said that a few times before. Well little Anna and her parents came down to escape the snow in Flagstaff and spend some time with Jordan and this is what Anna found.....

It really has a flap in the back!!! So funny. So watch out Provo MTC the boy in the red feety pajamas is on his way!!!

What a great day...

We had a wonderful weekend. After a week of cleaning and organizing and creating, it was all worth every second. Thank you to all of you who came and supported our Boy. Your love was definately felt and we appreciate you so much. Jordan gave a wonderful talk, keeping us in stitches and tears. He is going to be such a great missionary and we are so proud of him. He had such a great day, here are some highlights when friends and his siblings gathered that night. ENJOY....

Jordan adores these 2 girls. I think they are the ones he will miss the most!
Crazy kids, Gotta Love it!!!



I just love these boys.
They are such great friends.


He had such support from all of his friends. Thanks guys for being great kids.

Here he is with Clint and Elizabeth Lawlor. They are always so supportive. Thanks Lawlors

The DeGracies'......What can we say. This is Jordan's other family. He has had a lifetime of adventures with this wonderful family. Thanks DeGracies for loving our boy.

Anna just loves her PAW PAW.

He was so happy to get his Anna Hugs.

So grateful Christopher and Rachel and Anna were able to come down. Poor Rachel is not feeling well with this pregnancy so thanks guys for traveling again.

I know that Jordan really wanted you there.

These girls played so cute together. Anna has been practicing holding her new dolly and she just holds on to Lexee or Lucky as she calls her. Lexee loves Anna's hair and is either kissing it, eating it, or pulling that little bob on the top!!!

Such fun cousins.

I love it!

How fun that the McNamara's came from California. Soooooo good to see them and have them there. Jordan really was grateful for that. We just love the Macs'!!!

I love this little video of Jordan and Anna they have quite the relationship. It is adorable, Enjoy

Look What He Made For Me...

I was at a friends house and saw this amazing magnet board the other day, so I came home and said, "Hey Herb do you think you could make me a huge-mongus magnet board where the china hutch use to be to put all of Jordan's missionary pictures while he is gone on?" And he said what all good men say "YES DEAR!!!" He is amazing, that's where all of the kids get it from.

He worked so hard all week finishing up on some projects that have been haunting him for quite a while. I love how things that are happening in our lives make us get busy and get things done that we have been too busy to do before. I'm telling you give this man a project and he conquers it with everything he has in him. He worked until midnight or later last night to get this up on the wall.....and I LOVE IT!!!!!

He amazes me how he measures and measures and measures and puts it all up so perfectly. He has the patience of JOB for sure. It looks wonderful.

So here is the finished product and it is more then I could have asked for. I still have to paint the trim white and on my friends board they had mod podged scrapbook paper. It looked really cool, but I am debating that I kind-of like the metal, but we will see. Give me your opinions and then I will debate it within my brain and decide. I will post later when it is complete. For now I just want to say THANK YOU HONEY, YOU ARE THE BEST!!!

Gutting and Cleaning.....I hate it and love all at the same time!!!

Wow what a week. Nothing like a boy getting ready to talk in church before his mission to get the January Cleaning Bug going. I hate cleaning, with a passion, but I sure love the outcome. I think I got in the Shower this week, but I am not sure. I know I will get there today because I get to clean them.....Oh what fun. Jordan is talking in church this week at 8:30 a.m. and so I only have a day or 2 left to get all that I want to done. Of course I only push myself like this when there is something amazing going to happen and people might be visiting. So today instead of being all cranky about another day of cleaning I am vowing to be chipper and thrilled that by tomorrow night my house will be spotless in every nook and cranny. Even my closet, which has needed a gutting for about a year!!! So while I continue my effort for this perfectly clean and organized home I will sing at the top of my lungs and be the happiest mom on earth getting ready for that wonderful boy to serve his Heavenly Father and Elder Brother Jesus Christ. As the time comes for him to leave I just seem to be reflecting on what a great young man he is and wondering to myself HOW ON EARTH ARE WE GOING TO SURVIVE LIFE WITHOUT OUR DAILY FILL OF JORDAN!!! But we will and we will feel the blessings of his service, and the Dominican People will never ever be the same. So here is to gutting and cleaning and to the joy that will be felt for the next 2 years.

Time flies...

It just seems like yesterday that Jordan opened his mission call and now he has less then 3 weeks before he reports to the MTC. Crazy how times flies. Here he is with Elder Jaden Turley. They are going to the same mission (isn't that great). Jaden leaves the Provo MTC today and will head down to the one in the Domincan Republic. It seems like we were just at his farewell. He wrote the greatest letter to Jordan yesterday. His recommendations were to just throw yourself into the language and work really hard at feeling the spirit of missionary work. I loved that letter. Thanks Jaden. I really hope that at some point in their mission they get to work together.

Here he is with his best friend since they were born David Hunt. David will be leaving on March 3rd for Brazil. I do wonder what they will do without each other. They are such great kids. I am really grateful for Jordans wonderful friends.

On Monday Jordan and I went shopping for all of the missionary stuff. It was so much fun. He knew exactly what he wanted and went for it. I know that will be the same while he serves. He knows what the Lord wants him to do and he will just put himself into the work and get done exactly what the Lord would have him get done. I really hope those wonderful Dominicans are ready for this wonderful boy.

I love the blessings that come when you have a missionary out. I Love This Boy and I know that the Lord loves him as well and will guide him and keep him safe.

Time flies...

Here we go.....

Well even though it was not what we had planned it was great. This year is our last Christmas before Jordan leaves on his mission so again our wonderful friends let us use their cabin in Pinetop. The week before nothing got done because I got really sick, and then once we got there Herb got really sick, so needless to say all the planning went by the wayside but our kids are great and made it the best it could be. This is the wonderful stairway at the cabin. This is actually the day we came home. Check out the hair on Herbies face!!!

Anna loved going upstairs with Aunt Jacque. then she could look down at all of us and just giggle...
Here is Anna and Lexee with their gifts. They were so darling together. They really are enjoying each other.

Lexee opened her presents very slowly and with great technique!!!

Anna loved her little phone. It talked back to her and she just got a kick out of that.

Jordan suprised his mama with this beautiful diamond necklace to wear while he is gone. I love it, thanks Jordan....

Curtis suprised Jacque with diamond earrings. They are so pretty. Good job Curt...

Jordan got a new camera. It's that touch screen one. He is going to make great memories with that camera....

Here is Herbie, this is the day he got soooooo sick. No fun at all, Merry Christmas. We thought we were going to loose him. He doesn't get sick very often, but when he does it, man does he do it up good. We did not see much of him until we left. Poor Herb...

Here's the kids, we just had a wonderful morning...

Isn't this so sweet. Lexee was so cute always touching Anna. I love that!!!

Again we did home made gifts. This is my wonderful jeans quilt from Jacque. She really hated sewing for most of her life, but now she doesn't think it's too bad and she did a wonderful job. I am so happy.... Thanks Jacque

Cody made this wonderful placque for Jacque. I love the saying....

Stephanie made Uncle Curt this great block with pictures that is a puzzle. It has like a ton of pictures and it is not as easy as you would think. Good Job Stephanie...

Christopher and Anna had Jordan and Cody so they made them Phoenix Suns snuggies..... Here they are doing the Snuggie Wave!

Curtis collected these beautiful leaves and framed them. It is such a beautiful picture. Good job Curt...

I had Christopher...

He has always wanted a kilt. I was so happy when I picked his name. He loves his kilt so that was wonderful....

Doesn't he make a handsome kilt wearer!!!

Here are the girls enjoying each other.

Isn't this picture hillarious. She was wearing these mittens because it was still so cold and playing with her toys...But the mittens were so big and she was so funny. I just love this picture.

Here are all of the kids helping to dig us out when we first got there.

Herb fell clear up to his hips trying to get in and get the fire started!!!

Here's the Jacque, of course she can't let the boys dig alone, such a helper...

Curtis is such a trooper, little did he know that being in this family means lots of work.....Too late now!!!

We all thought that Cody looked like a little old lady in his ear warmer! He couldn't get to the bag with his beanies...

This is the wonderful cabin that we get to enjoy. We made wonderful memories....Way too many to share and are so grateful for the opportunity to be together as a family. I am so blessed to have these wonderful children. Then make our lives so much better. Here's to a wonderful new year. Be Happy, Lifes too short to waste time being anything else. Thanks for the memories kids, we love you.....