Letter - Tilly's birthday, Thanksgiving

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Happy birthday to my Tilly today!  I am so thankful for Tilly and her cute, kind, helpful, fun, easygoing attitude.  She is a wonderful girl with a great smile.  I’m so glad she is part of our family.

Four years old!!

Last week was wonderful!  I love Thanksgiving time.  For the first time ever my kids had the whole week of Thanksgiving off school.  It was so nice.  I hope that continues every year from now on.  On Monday afternoon I took the kids to Ross and we got each of their cousin’s Christmas gifts.  They had a good time picking out gifts for the cousins they drew this year.  Ross has nice gifts.  When we got home from shopping the kids had fun wrapping all of the gifts.  I was glad we got that all taken care of so we could deliver the gifts to the Flake cousins on Thanksgiving while we were all together.  It sure saves a lot of shipping costs when you are able to deliver them in person.  Monday evening I made up a menu plan for the weekend so I could go shopping and prepare for Amy’s and Kayla’s families to come stay with us. 

Tuesday afternoon I went shopping at Walmart and Costco and got everything for the meals I planned.  It made it so easy to have everything planned out ahead of time so I didn’t have to waste our time being together worrying about what to make and running to the store.  Tuesday the kids and I also did some cleaning to get the house and bedrooms ready and I mowed the lawn while Bryant did the weed eater. 

I gave the boys haircuts on Tuesday.  Bryant had been growing his hair long, but decided he wanted it cut.  We had fun giving him a tail and bangs before we finished the hair cut.

 Amy and her kids got here Wednesday morning after they dropped David off at work.  The kids had so much fun playing together that day.  I had fun visiting with Amy all day.  My sisters are my best friends.  Kayla, Jeff and their kids got here on Wednesday night around 9:00pm.  Our house was quite full with 13 kids and 6 adults but it was SO fun.  My only regret is that I didn’t have a big enough house for all my siblings and their families to come stay together.  Wouldn’t that be cool…until time to clean it anyway?

Karalee was so excited for her cousins to come and stay.  She watched out the window for several minutes waiting for Amy to pull up on Wednesday morning.

Thursday was the day we’d all been preparing for.  We had a pretty relaxing morning.  David went to ride his bike with his brother, Chad, Jeff, Spencer and Bryant went to our ward’s turkey bowl.  (Chad didn’t get the play, but was asked to get the donuts and bring a big jug of water for drinks.)  Amy, Kayla and I and the rest of our kids walked or rode bikes and scooters to the park by the football games.  We had our Thanksgiving dinner at 1:00pm at Celeste’s ward’s church building.  I made a green bean casserole; Chad made homemade root beer and red cream soda.  We brought our bucking barrel and our “quarter” horse that we inherited from Art and Brenda.  (The “quarter” horse is kiddy ride like outside of a grocery store.  Chad installed a button to push so you don’t actually have to put a quarter in it to ride anymore.)  After dinner I put on a stick horse rodeo for they family.  The stick horse rodeos have turned into a fun tradition.  Everyone loves to watch and/or participate.  I’m glad most of the high school and college age nieces and nephews get into it and participate.  They are fun to watch.  When the stick horse rodeo was over Crystal organized a 3 on 3 basketball tournament.  Spencer, Reggie and I were on a team together.  I had fun playing.  We won several games, but didn’t win the tournament.

Trevin, Natalie and Mary on the horse.  Terry Sue aka Princess sitting on the corn hole game.

Tilly and Terry Sue

Shelby, Karalee, Marlee, Josh, Connor and Rachel

Trever with Jesse in the background

Connor

The grand entry

Gunny Sack Race

Tilly and Cameron in the grocery race

Me and all my siblings and their spouses

Friday afternoon Amy, Kayla, and I took our kids out to Tyler’s to ride horses.  Doug and his family was there too.  It was sure nice of Tyler to arrange for us to be able to ride.  After that we went over to Art’s (Chad’s Dad) house to visit and to meet his girlfriend Lisa.  She was very nice.  We weren’t able to stay very long though.  Later that night when I was thinking over the day I realized that I didn’t ask Lisa very many questions so I could get to know her better.  I was mad at myself for that.  However, maybe if I asked her a lot of questions she would have felt like I was interrogating her?  Friday evening I made reservations for several Chad and I, my mom, several siblings and their spouses and a couple of nephews at Charleston’s for dinner.  There were 16 in our group.  It was a yummy dinner and fun visiting.

Tyler and Tilly

Bryant and Marlee

Marlee

This is the first time in years that I could convince Karalee to get on a horse.  She is quite a cautious girl.  She didn't really enjoy this ride, but when I pulled out the camer she pasted on a smile.  

Yesterday morning Jeff, Kayla, Chad and I did a session at the Gilbert temple.  Then we came home and joined up with Amy and took all our kids to Discovery Park.  When we got home Celeste came by to give a gift to Kayla before she left town and we had a nice visit with her.  Amy and David left for home after dinner last night and then Jeff and Kayla went home this morning.  We were sad that everyone had to go home, but it sure was fun while there were here. 

Bryant and Colt at Discovery Park

We’ve had an enjoyable Sabbath Day and a fun day celebrating Tilly’s birthday.  This morning when Tilly woke up she came into my bathroom to find me blow drying my hair as I was getting ready for a meeting.  I asked her if she was ready to open her presents.  She said that she wanted to eat breakfast first.  When I asked her what she wanted to eat for breakfast she said, “I don’t know birthday food I guess.”  She is so cute.  She has been SO excited for this birthday. 

My quote for today is from Joseph Smith.  “Happiness is the design of our existence.”

Love,

Mindy

Letter - Big Expectations to Fill, Time Together

Sunday, November 22, 2015

The last two weeks have been wonderful.  Last Wednesday, Nov. 11^th was Veteran’s Day.  Chad was blessed to have the day off work and the kids had the day off of school.  Around 8:45 that morning Spencer, Bryant and I went to help with an Eagle project for Bridon Bowen, a ward friend.  We planted plants at the Gilbert Temple for a few hours.  Our good friend Derek Rudd, who is also in our ward, was just hired on as the head gardener there and so Spencer has been talking with him hoping to do his eagle project there too.  Spencer hasn’t progressed much in scouts lately.  He’s been pretty busy with school and I’ve lost steam in encouraging him.  He doesn’t lack much to complete his eagle though. 

Later that day Chad and Spencer tore the broken floor out of our new-to-us little trailer.  After that Chad, the girls and I got new lumber for it at Lowes and then the Chad and I spent several hours waterproofing the wood, and installing it.  It was hard work, especially since Chad is on crutches and I had to do all the lifting and carrying of the 10ft boards.  A few weeks ago Chad tore out the old lights since they were all broken and installed all new lights from a kit at home depot.  Chad has really been glad to have a project in repairing the trailer while he can’t walk.  A good project is good therapy.

Installing new lights. Nov. 7th

Tearing out the old floor.  Nov. 11th.

Looks good!!  Such a sense of accomplishmet at the end of a good days work.

The last two Friday nights I have spent away from Chad and our kids and home.  I don’t like to be away from them, but the experiences I had were worthwhile.  On Friday the 13^th,  Brenda, Chad’s mom, arranged for all the girls in the Sanders family who were able to come to go to Time Out for Women over in Phoenix.  It went from Friday night through Saturday afternoon.  Brenda put us all up in a hotel near there Friday night and we had a great time.  There were many funny, interesting, inspiring speakers at the event.   It was especially a treat to be able to watch and listen to Jenny Oaks Baker perform on her violin.  She graduated from Julliard and was the first chair violinist in the National symphony for seven years until she retired to be able to spend more time with her family.  I would venture to say that she is probably one of the best violinists in the world.  On two of her songs, Love is Spoken Here and I Know that My Redeemer Lives, she seamlessly played both the harmony and the melody at the same time!  It was incredible to see someone who has put hours and hours every week, year after year into developing and perfecting her talent.

This Friday night, Nov. 20^th, I was gone to a Stake Youth Conference.  Since Spencer turns 14 in a couple of weeks he was invited to go too.  The conference was held at the old high school in Superior.  A Brother and Sister Cardon from this area purchased the old high school and are in the process of remodeling it.  They live there and they allow stakes to use it for youth conferences free of charge.  The youth and YM YW leaders in our ward drove to Superior on Friday evening to start the conference.  We got back home around 8:15 last night.  It sure was fun. 

Can you find Spencer in there?  He on the left side, midway up.

Superior has some beautiful views.  It was SO windy though.  They have wind that rivals Snowflake's spring winds.

The first speaker of the conference on Friday night was our former Stake President Matt Riggs.  He recently returned from serving as a mission president in Washington D.C.  It was cool to hear from him again.  During his talk, he did an object lesson about receiving the Holy Ghost.  He asked the youth who played football this year to raise their hands.  Spencer and several other young men raised their hands.  Pres. Riggs called on Spencer and said, “What position did you play?”  Spencer said, “wide receiver”.  Pres. Riggs said, “Oh that’s perfect.  What’s your name?”  Spencer replied, “Spencer Sanders.”  Pres. Riggs excitedly asked, “Are you related to Chad Sanders?”  Spencer said, “Yeah, he’s my dad.”  Pres. Riggs said to all the youth, “Let me tell you about Chad Sanders.”  He proceeded to tell everyone there about a church basketball game where our ward played against his ward.  He said, “Our team was good, but Chad Sanders’ was great.”  Then he explained that since our ward only had three players and had to forfeit that he and his son played with our ward and how his son threw Chad an alley-oop and how Chad reached way back grabbed it and dunked it.  Then he turned to Spencer and said, “That’s your dad.  You have some big expectations to fulfil.”  After that he asked Spencer to get up off the bleachers where all the kids were sitting and come out onto the gym floor.  Then he said something like ok I’m going to throw you a pass and I want you to receive it.  Then just before he threw it he paused and said, “oh man that’s a lot of pressure, everyone’s watching.”  I was kind of an anxious mess inside at this point hoping Spencer wouldn’t drop it in front of everyone and feel badly about himself.  Then Pres. Riggs threw Spencer the pass and really rocketed it to him.  (Pres. Riggs is a former quarter back.)  Spencer caught it perfectly!!  I was so glad for him.  It was such a proud evening for our little Sanders’ family to be spotlighted like that.  When I came home last night and told the younger kids all about what happened they were so proud of their Dad and big brother.

I have been thinking about what president Riggs said to Spencer.  “That’s your dad.  You have some big expectations to fulfil.”  While Pres. Riggs was talking about Chad’s athletic ability, there are many other qualities that Chad has that give our kids big expectations to fulfil.  Chad truly is a great athlete, but he is an even better man.  He is kind.  He is obedient.  He is a stalwart Priesthood holder.  He never yells at or belittles me.  He treats me as an equal.  He is an intelligent, hard worker.  I know that all my children can develop and are developing these qualities.  I know they can meet and are meeting the expectations that are set for them. 

Here’s my quote for this week, “Time together brings insights and experiences that strengthen us and bind us together as friends, and more importantly, as disciples of the Savior, forever. It is a great blessing to be together” (Elder Neil L. Andersen, Nov. 14, 2015 Facebook post).  I felt that it was a great blessing to be together with the Sanders’ women two weekends ago.  It was also a great blessing to be together with the youth in our stake.  Relationships were strengthened and we were bound together.  As this coming Thursday is Thanksgiving, I’m looking forward to time together with my Mom and all my siblings.  It is a blessing that we will be able to be together.  We will be strengthened and our bonds will grow deeper.

Love,

Mindy

P.S. Here are several pictures from the last month or so.

Oct. 20, 2015 Waiting for Chad's knee surgery

Chad said the IV was the worst part of the whole surgery.

They had to shave Chad's leg.  This is the last view of his knee before it got all scared from surgery.

more waiting

Recovering

Playing shapes bingo with Tilly.  She loves this game.  She knows all the shapes and colors.  Oct. 23rd.

Chad doing his physical therapy exercises.

Fun with Dad's crutches

I love this picture.

I got to go help at Karalee's class Halloween party.

A little nap on Halloween Day.  I thought it was so cute how Tilly fell asleep holding Chad's arm.

Nov. 1, 2015 - Karalee's 9th birthday

Morning snuggles

Tilly learned how to ride a bike without training wheels on Nov. 5th.

Marlee and her friend Jade at their soccer game.  Nov. 7th

Chad getting some beauty sleep.

Spencer's basketball game Nov. 17th

Karalee's soccer party.  She got the best defensive player award.

Karalee and her friends at the school turkey trot. Nov. 20th.