Elder Sanders- Home with Honor!!

Phew! I'm finally posting about one of the most important events of the year.... my little bro Pete's came home from his mission!!! He came home on Friday, Sept. 7th. Mom and Dad were here visiting us that week, and took Mariah home with them that Wednesday. Peter came home on Friday morning. I had to wait until the next Monday to fly down with Harrison to see him, but at least Mariah was there to represent! Here are lots of pics from that week in Dallas. I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to go. Tyler was sweet to let me go for a week and held down the fort with Logan who had to stay behind because of school. Mariah was gone for about 2 weeks since she left early with mom and dad. She was missed!!


It was so nice to see the extended Sanders family. It is so fun to get together and laugh and hang out. I was so touched at the effort everyone made to be with our family.

One reason I was dying to get to Dallas was to meet Joanna, Freddy's lady friend. I had to make sure I was there to check out her every move and try to find something wrong with her, because apparently everyone in my family fell in love with her so fast. But there's no foolin' me. My eyes were on her the whole time.......and I loved everything I saw! She is beautiful, sweet, very thoughtful- the only thing I don't like is that she makes me look bad. I gotta find her weakness. I'll just wait 'til Christmas -that's when everyone's true colors come out. :)

Mariah is a social butterfly through and through. She loved having so much family around. She was 18 months when Peter left, and she always talked about him when he was gone. One cool thing we did was we burned all of his pics from the mission on a cd and watched them on tv and listened to some of the experiences he had.

The rest of these pics are just random fun times. I stayed at John and Paula's house, and with their 2 cute girls. I had so much fun. They are the best. We stayed up late every night, and they got me completely hooked on "The Office", so we watched most of season 2 since I had never seen it. This pic is of Savannah. She has curls to die for. One night we fro'd (sp??) it out. The picture doesn't do it justice.

It was great to see Toccoa. She is a good girl, and is hilarious! She has so many funny facial expressions, and a great personality. And of course, you are gorgeous!

Coa and my cousin Bre (she and Aunt Lori flew in from Cali). I'm so impressed with Bre everytime I see her. She has an amazing countenance. She is a beautiful person, inside and out.

" Excuse me, we don't do that at Charlotte" - (inside joke, had to be there)

Yummy dinner at Abuelo's. The more I look at this picture, the more mom and Aunt Lori look like they could be sisters - she is actually my dad's little sister- maybe after you've been married for so long, you even start looking like your in laws.

This is our youngest cousin, Conner. He flew in from Utah with Uncle Todd and Aunt Kathleen. He is a fun kid to have around, as is great with all the nieces and nephews.

Of course, Grandma came too. She is always there for the special times. After going to John's softball game, we all headed to Braums. Mmmm, hot fudge brownie sundae with toasted almonds.... good thing they don't have those here.
I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to spend time with Harrison and experience the joy I feel everyday.

As much as I love taking the kids to the Frisco mall and riding the carosaul (sp?), I am glad my mall just has a play place. I would be broke. Mariah could do this all day.

Mariah fell in love with High School Musical this visit. She danced and danced... and great now I have the song stuck in my head..... and now so do you.

This is a sad picture. Do you see Mariah's face? We were so excited to go have lunch with Toccoa at school. Mariah waited all morning. When we finally got there, she opened the door and cracked her big toe nail. It spoiled both of our appetites. The next week at home, she did the same thing to her other toe on the way to church. Now she has no toe nail on either toe. Now I've spoiled your appetite. You're welcome.

A happy moment for Harrison. These are times I cherish. I take pictures of them. I print them. I blog them. I am determined to remember that he is a good baby. He must have forgotten because he is screaming and trying to bite me as we speak. It didn't help him to see the happy picture of himself. And, honestly, I'm not sure it's helping me. Ouch! he got me bye