Sunny, Sunny, Bo-Bunny...

Today is...

SUNNY'S BIRTHDAY!!!!

Can you believe my baby sister is already 32?! How can that be when I am only 25? ;)

Sunny- unfortunately I was a little late getting your gift in the mail... and I'm a little late posting this... but I hope your day has been fabulous!

I will try to narrow down the things I know and love about her to 32 in honor of her day...

1. Sunny was supposed to be named after my mom, Pam. But after the difficulties mom had while pregnant with her- and the fact that she came out blonde- it seemed more appropriate to name her "Sunny"- Dad's nickname for Mom.

2. When we were little my parents would ask us which temple we wanted to be married in. Sunny would say Nauvoo. Mom says she didn't have the heart to tell her it had been destroyed long ago. Well, guess who was one of the first to be married in the Nauvoo Temple when it was rebuilt in 2002?! :)

3. Sunny, since she was very little, is at home among the flowers. I remember her walking around the flower beds of our old house, singing to herself .

4. Sunny graduated from Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) in horticulture.

5. Her first roommate at Ricks, Emily, was a stranger, but could have been her long lost twin!

6. I have always admired Sunny's faith and ability to recognize answers to her prayers.
7. After college she prayed about what to do next with her life. She got the answer she should serve a mission. She did NOT want to go. But she went and there is no doubt in any of our minds, it was exactly the right thing for her to do.
8. She speaks Spanish now because she served in the California Ventura Spanish Speaking mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

9. During her mission she learned to eat things like chicken- though she prefers it with tortillas. (Before her mission she had a list of about 10 things she liked to eat.)

10. I think Sunny has always enjoyed dressing up in costumes. (And likes to be "in character" too!)

11. Sunny is a great seamstress. She tried to teach me, but I wasn't a very good student. SHe made some of her own dresses- and one for me too!

12. I used to help her with her homework when she was young. (Sunny, do you remember improper fractions? "My name is Helga, I'm from Sweden. Would you like some Swedish meatballs? Helga is a-top-a-heavy!")

13. We used to read and memorize poetry together... "Goosey, goosey gander, whither do you wander?..."

14. Sunny used to type and type stories and poetry on her fancy electric typewriter.

15. When Sunny is happy, she's very, very happy.

16. When Sunny is moody, she's very, very moody.

17. Moody like chase-your-sister-around-the-house-with-a-knife moody!

18. She learned to scream into a pillow instead.

19. It must be a pain to be the youngest. We always made her go get stuff for us, left her out of things, and gave her all the hand-me-downs.

20. No wonder she gets moody.

21. Sunny saves everything like the Great Depression is returning. She has boxes upon boxes at my parents house full of high school notes, pictures, playbills, candy wrappers, and many other things that have sentimental value. Holly and I tried to help her purge a bit, but... here's where the moody comes in again. ;) Someday soon she'll have storage place in her own home for all of it!

22. She loves her sisters even after all we put her through! And we love her!!

23. She has LONG legs!

24. While single Sunny went on some family vacations with us... Palmyra/Kirtland/Cleveland's Worlds of Adventure amusement park and Disneyland. SO much fun to have her along!

25. We traveled to surprise Sunny a couple of times. We surprised her by flying to Michigan from Utah for her high school graduation.

We also showed up at her dorm at Ricks one weekend unannounced. Greg had badly sprained his foot just before we went up there from Provo. We spent most of our time with Sunny in the hotel room- all napping! (Ahhh, college days!)

26. She was Derek's first real kiss. She must be good because he married her! There couldn't be a better match for her anywhere. He was well worth the wait for her. They have a great marriage- 2 peas in a pod.

27. She and Derek have made one of the cutest boys EVER!

28. She's a great mom- even if she did make him wear a speedo on his first visit to the Lake Michigan lake shore!

29. She is a great aunt to my kids- and they love her like crazy!

30. She loves Michigan.

31. She's a romantic.

(This is her helping me set up for a date. She used to get so excited for me to go on dates- and so embarrassed to see me with a date. She's still actually easily embarrassed when it comes to mushy stuff- and unfortunately Holly and I know it, and we have worked hard to embarrass her whenever possible.)

32. She is the most frugal person I know- to the point of going without heat, cars, and storage space in the name of paying cash for everything! It's actually quite impressive, but I bet many of the outfits pictured in this post are still in her closet! :)

Happy Birthday Sun! Thank you for being WONDERFUL to all of us! We miss you so much! Now I need to go read Holly's birthday post to you. I hope she covered different things than I did because there's still so many good things to say about you! :)

Oh! One last note: Happy Birthday to my cousin Michael today too!! He was born on Sunny's 16th birthday. Today he turned 16 himself!!