~ The Saunders Place ~

2009-12-30T20:24:00.000-08:00

MISC. HANGIN' OUT PICTURES

AT GR & GR GERBER'S

WE LOVE YOU VICKI & CHI CHI

2009-12-30T19:12:00.000-08:00

~ LAGOON ~

Grandma & Grandpa took us all to Lagoon! A family tradition!

Yeah we got soaked... Watchin' Grandma!!!

Oh...Cute Grampa!!! James hangin with Grandma

Mom having a great time....

...and then the grandkids drug her to PUFF the Magic Dragon Coaster...

Oh yeah...that's my mom screamin' on PUFF...I'm so proud...I'm sure she was just screamin' to make the grandkids feel better on the Coaster!!! Yeah that's it! LOL :)

2009-12-30T19:03:00.000-08:00

James & Uncle Strat wrestling during the Summer

Take a good look at James...he looks just like Strat CRAZY!

I hope Strat & Laur's kids look like ME! :)

2009-12-30T18:19:00.000-08:00

WOOKIE'S MOMENT IN FAME!

2009-12-29T20:32:00.000-08:00

MY FAIR LADY

I was privilaged to perform as Miss Elzia Doolittle

in The Grand Theatre in Iowa

We had a great time and was able to perform with some absolute amazing people. Thanks to everyone who made this show happen! What an expereince to remember!

2009-12-29T20:10:00.000-08:00

EASTER with SPECIAL VISITORS

Grandma & Grandpa Gerber came to visit in April to see mom in 'My Fair Lady'

TOO CUTE!!!

They made us an Easter Egg hunt around the house.

Can you guess who had the most fun?

Do U C candy? Nope...do U?

2009-12-29T19:47:00.000-08:00

Women's Conference In Nauvoo, Illinois

I performed with a few other Professionals, always a spiritual lift!

Todd Boyer played accoustic guitar for the conference and many of you might know him from arranging my Oh Holy Night song. The version on Youtube that we did at The Christmas Wish in 2006 & 2007. An amazing talent...I'm grateful to know him and his sweet family!

You may recognize a few of these people. Dean & Kathy Hughes (famous author and General Relief Society Presidency) also Bro. & Sister Ludwig (Nauvoo Mission President & Wife) and President Wayne Peterson & wife Joan (Temple President & Matron) All such amazing friends of ours. And the Temple President is Matt's cousin. Our kids have adopted them! We love them!

Kim Smith & Brian Davis are such awesome friends and co-workers to Matt. They have an incredible heritage, one which you should ask them about. They do firesides all over the country right now. They are Joseph Smith Jr.'s great great grandchildren. Amazing stories about joining this church!

Some of you may remember me talking about the surprise hotel room concert I did about 3 years ago at the first Women's Conference. Well...here are a few of those nearly 40 first groupies! They are back and we had a blast!!!

2009-12-29T19:27:00.000-08:00

Our friend Sebastian was baptized. Matt got to polish up on his Spanish skills and the kids and I got an education in the Spanish language every Sunday taking him to church. Matt also taught and started a Spanish Sunday School in our ward.

2009-12-26T20:49:00.000-08:00

Chenille Saunders & Marvin Goldstein in Concert
April 18 2009

Remember this Marvin? Where is your Celine Dion Wig?
We should have gotten a picture of that!

Several hundred showed up in Iowa to see the concert.
We had such repore on stage together it was rather
classy, yet impromtu...the audience didn't know what to expect next.
PERFECT!

The Grand Theatre is designed after the theatres in Chicago.
It seats almost 800. What an amazing theatre to perform in!

2009-12-26T20:27:00.000-08:00

The annual Pea Battle Ridge Ball in Keokuk, Iowa. We went with a group of friends from church and the theatre! The Dancing and the Grand March is our favorite.

Great fun! There are usually around 300 at the balldressed in time peroid clothing. Thank you Linda for the use of your gorgeous gown!

The dancing and the Grand March are our favorites! Other than the mingling that we get to do with all of our tri-state area friends!

April Flowers

2009-12-26T20:18:00.002-08:00

Sophia brought me a loverly bunch of lilac flowers

Then big brother, James saw that if mom liked those small flowers then surely she would love a WHOLE branch of flowers better! Funny kids...

Dinner with the Owens

2009-02-15T20:02:00.001-08:00

We love the David and Diane. These are our friends the Owen's they are our best friends here...they own the classiest Bed & Breakfast in Nauvoo, The Sander's House. Beautiful place, anyhow...they have kind of adopted our kids and we have adopted them. They were over for dinner not too long ago, and boy did the kids love it. James got to know David because we were performing a couple pieces of "The Magic Flute together. David was playing the role of Papageno (German) and James loved David so he called him Papageno, still does to this day! James knew all of David's lines and thanks to David, James is an avid fan of Opera! :)

J James and Sophia are checking out David to make sure he is not sick...as you can see I think he was perfectly fine, except for the fact that he probably had a headache after leaving our house! They have so much fun with them! :) We hope they stick around for a long time! :)

Swimming at Fun City

2009-02-15T15:03:00.000-08:00

FUN CITY!!! We went to "Fun City" indoor water park on Thursday. They have swimming for mom with their kids for a BUCK a piece! We had so much fun. Sophia loved going down all the slides, and swimming. It's a great place for the "kidlets" :) Also we were lucky to have several friends come along. We had a great time...I hope they did too.

Dinner Guests

2009-02-15T14:37:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely time with our dear Temple President,Wayne Peterson and his doll of a wife Joan.

We had them over for dinner about a month ago. The kids absolutely adore them.

They sent us Valentines, so the kids were thrilled and wanted to take them Valentines as well.

It was fun to see the kids deliver their little creations, decorated hearts with the pictures above...it was so fun!:) You can't ask for better freinds and examples to our children!

2009-01-25T14:47:00.000-08:00

James has now turned 6 and grandma thought it funny to send another singing card! :) Another clip for grandma cam, I think she sends these cards to torment me!!!! I think they call grandkids, grandmas payback!:)

Grandmas cards!

2009-01-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

Grandma Gerber sends us these cards and the move it move it card is a few months old but still kickin' I mean MOVIN' They dance to it all the time! Here's a sneak peak...we like to call this grandma vision...

slideshow

2009-01-01T21:22:00.000-08:00

2008-12-26T14:00:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Here are a few pics of our little fam...in no particular order!

Hope your's was as swell as ours :)

Oooooh, a present from Aunt Nyla!

Mandolin's First Christmas! The paper tasted great...

Mandolin LOVES music!

Dad and James

got competition

pieces! You go guys!

James likes his speedracer car thanks gr & gr Gerber! Wookie and Amidala got thier Christmas dinner too!

Sophia has a magic princess wand that apparently turns little sisters into frogs...

2008-12-25T15:48:00.000-08:00

Chenille's Solo, obviously 1940's check out that dress! Gag me... I love the silver tree in the back, a present from my mom for Christmas a few years ago. Perfect for the time period.

The kids and Rose singing Silent Night, hoping their daddy will be home soon!

This is Barry and Hannah Cozart! I so love these guys. Hannah was my "daughter" in the show. She has a beautiful singing voice, and an even more beautiful spirit!

The USO American Radio at the base in Italy. The Harmonaires, Carol, Holly, and Noel :)

Kara prepared all drinks and 2 of the Harmonaires, Joanna & Julia were our dessert specialists! Our desserts were awesome.

Everyone wanted to know who made them we elegantly replied...Samuel's Clube! :)

And finally.... THE1940's Christmas Homecoming CAST2008! Merry Christmas!!!

2008-12-13T09:47:00.000-08:00

I still haven't figured out how to do this picture format stuff...

This is last years pictures from the 1940's show that we are doing. I'll send pictures of the 2008 show later. Tonight is our last night. We have had almost sold out shows! Tonight's will definately be over sold out! Exciting. Here are a few pics from last year.

This pic is the Barry Household. We are waiting to hear from Eddie (husband/father) on our shortwave radio. He is supposed to be coming home for Christmas!

Eddie is Lieut. Barry and his commanding officer is going to disappoint him b/c he will be asking him to go on a dangerous mission to rescue many people, but it's on Christmas eve and he won't get his Christmas Homecoming!

The USO Radio show is what the Barry family is listening to when they get the bad news that he will not be coming home for Christmas! However through all the sounds of the bombs and machine guns he pulls up and yells to his dad,"Mission accomplished, mission accomplished!"

The story speaks about a father sending his only son on a dangerous mission to rescue people. The commanding officer is actually Lieut. Barry's father. They tell that this mission that he is going on is like the mission that God sent his only son on to rescue many people that would otherwise perish. It's a tear jerker that brought people back for more! What an awesome missionary tool! More pics of this year's show later!

2008-11-23T20:28:00.000-08:00

James decided that after watching Goofy's skiing cartoon that he wanted to make skis of his own, which meant that Mandolin and Sophia had to have a pair as well. So here are our little skiier with their cardboard postal skis duct taped to socks and shoes! I'm sure the post office would be glad to know their box went to good use! :) They skiied for hours! :)

2008-11-23T19:09:00.000-08:00

Mandolin's two favorite times of the day...BATH TIME & GIRAFFE PLAY TIME

2008-11-11T12:13:00.000-08:00

I'm canning pears right now at my friends house waiting for the next batch to be done. We were looking at our emails about food storage (canned pears:) and the last days, well here is one that was sent to me not too long ago! Interesting...

2008-11-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

We are just new at this, bare with us as we try to put a few things together! :)