We're Back in Business!

Well, Tyler, the kids and I pulled into our house around 10pm Sunday night! What a drive, but what a time we had in Utah. Finally we are back in business with our AWESOME computer (seriously for those of you who don't have Mac's you've got to invest!). Ty and I walked in and went right for the computer. Sad huh? Well, now we can actually post pictures, so I thought that it was about time that I write about what's been going on in the last few weeks. I do have to say-I wrote the cutest post a few days back at my sister's house, and yes, it was lost because her computer froze! AHHHHH...I didn't have the patience or energy to retype, so sorry it was left unsaid!

So...first let me say that about two minutes ago I almost wet my pants laughing. Why? Well, Tyler just headed out to the gym, but we were both back in our bedroom. He was charging and updating the iPod and I was laying on the bed talking to him about his day at work. So, imagine this...Claire was strapped into her high chair and Porter was watching "Shrek Christmas!" and all of a sudden we heard screaming. It was Claire-no big surprise right? Well...the screaming went on and on for over five minutes and really sadly enough we didn't think anything of it because of her lovely screaming habit. Until....Porter comes running into our room and stops all of a sudden and with both hands on his hips he says...."Guys, guys...wait a minute, wait a minute. We had a problem....(pause for seriously a long time, then he gets this sheepish grin on his face) Claire's hand in stuck in her yogurt container and she can't get it out!" I felt so bad-we left her in there for quite some time as she must have been growing more claustraphobic since her hand was indeed stuck in the yoplait yogurt container. She had been shaking it to try and pry it off, which was the reason that there was yogurt all over the walls and all in her hair and on her face. Squirts of yogurt. When I got it off, she just looked up at me and said, "Thank you" in her own special language! Then it was followed by, "I Stinky!". Double Whammy folks!

So, we had a blast in Utah-although it was FREEZING cold and yes, I only brought one sweatshirt and the rest of my clothes were short sleeves! I can't find our winter clothes. We had a great time though. We mostly just hung out at my mom's house and at my sister Stef's house. We babysat for my sister while they went out of town-four kids? Wow...but I have to say it was SUPER bad-but we didn't leave the house much. We went to the park, went on walks around the block while Porter rode a big bike! He was AWESOME at it! He would speed down the sidewalk and he was just having the time of his life. Santa...bring him a bike! Ty and I got away for a day or so up in Park City which was a blast. We shopped, went to eat and watched endless movies in our sweet room. We spent a lot of nights up at my sister's watching shows and movies...many sleepovers up that way. We had a great time at Thanksgiving and especially playing dart tag that night at Mom and Dad's house. Dad-you seriously have to find a new place to hide! The kitchen corner isn't working for you anymore, and for the record...I did shoot you in the den-there is NO way I could have missed. The best though was me hiding under Joni's bed and I went to shoot Tyler and the gun went off, so I got shot in the head! Darn! For those of you who missed the game...there will be plenty more at Christmas.

One of the greatest things that we did was go up to Gardner's Village with my sisters and mom and yes, all the kids. Wherever we go it is one big goat rodeo with all five kids under the age of four. Wow! It was a blast. I guess that is just the stage of life that we are at right now, so live it up...right? The kids had a great time up there. They had decorated for Christmas with these little elves-I thought they were cute, Tyler on the other hand thought they were creepy-really creepy, so you'll have to judge for yourselves. We dressed all of the kids in red and white to attempt to take a Christmas picture-you can probably imagine how well that worked. Porter was about the only one that was sitting still, looking at the camera with a constant smile. The others (Brooke is three and the others are between 12-18 months!). Yes...it was quite the experience. But we did get some cute pictures. I just think my kids are the cutest things in the world-I know some of you may say that I am biased, but how can you not love their little faces? Seriously? Well, the moment for me was when we came to this one display. There were two elves there making lists-can you guess? Naughty and nice lists. Porter was so excited and wouldn't let us move on until he found his name. Okay...no one is named Porter, we are realizing...and so you guessed his name wasn't on either list. He first checked the naughty list-does he have a conscience? He got through it and turned around and smiled (photo) saying with a grin..."I'm not on that list!" Although it did disturb him that pretty much all of the rest of us were on that list-Tyler, Erica, Stefanie, Elizabeth, Brooke, Jenn, Carolyn, Wayne...yeah, funny huh? He got very defensive when he found out that his dad was on the naughty list. He could have been a star attorney to save Tyler's name from being on that list! "My daddy is NOT naughty!" Well, then the concerning part came when he looked through all the names on the nice list and did not find his name. "What about me?" He seemed to say....my sister Stef chimmed in..."I guess they haven't decided yet on you this year, so you better be on your best behavior." Wow...a little motivation and the kid was a saint for the rest of the day. His sweet little smile-I just love him and Claire so much. They are such joys. It was a great afternoon-the last day of nice weather in Utah! So, enjoy these few pictures.

We love you all and can't wait for Christmas and for a rematch of the dart game! Get your guns ready folks. Keep posting-we are all falling a little behind it seems! We love reading how you are doing...so keep it up!

Until next time....Love Erica

Here's a LITTLE motivation for you.........

Um yeah, so if anyone ever questioned if Tim could actually fit into our family, I think this pretty much clears it up. Heaven knows that even Grandpa Condie would be flipping out about now. So Tim pretty much had the best day of his life so far on Saturday, when he and 3 other guys heading up to Lake Erie for a day of fishing. They had a blast and landed I don't even know how many. All I know is the allotment of 4 landed in my kitchen sink that night. They walked in with this garbage bag FULL and I was thinking, "Holy, they must have kept everything in the river", but no, it was ONLY 4 fish. They were unbelievably huge!! So just in case you don't know much about this fabulous region of the Northeast, we have what is known as a GREAT LAKE, which is very descriptive of what you can pull out of it.....actually, I guess it is the rivers off of the lake where you actually fish. In the fall, the Steelhead move from the lake upstream into the rivers to spawn. You can see the massive amounts of fish that occupy these rivers and you can basically sight fish them if the weather is right. Just one more reason to come visit and especially a little more motivation to the male gender in the family. Fall/November is apparently the best month of fishing, so I propose Thanksgiving next year in the grand state of Pennsylvania. Just a little something to think about......maybe it will HOOK you.

Lame I know, but I couldn't help myself from bringing in a Tammy joke. Anyway, Tim really had a blast and is addicted to fishing. I was way excited for them since they were the biggest fish I had ever seen except for Uncle Ken's monster at FishLake. Needless to say, we cooked up an enormous mass of fish yesterday and had a feast fit for kings!! No really, it was pretty good. I did the whole BBQ thing and everyone really liked it. It took me back to the good old days of when we would have fish every weekend. I love a good trout.

Anyway, in other news, we just keep plugging along. Hudson is finally starting to get back to normal after all his shots and the enormous growth in his mouth. We still don't what in the world was going on, if it was some type of infection or just him biting on it. I looked in his mouth last saturday and noticed there was a little white dot that looked like a canker, but then he stuck out his tongue on Sunday and I could not believe it. So that is when we took a picture of it and Tim took it took school to get a diagnosis from his Oral Diagnosis teacher. All thought it looked like he was just chewing on his tongue, so we kind of watched it for awhile and I think it is pretty much gone now.....but weird. I swear, it is one thing after another.

So we head out for DC on Wednesday. In honor of Thanksgiving we decided that we would do things completely untraditional. I just figured, if I can't do things completely right by being at home with family, we may as well not even try to mimic it!! So vacation it is!! We are way excited and it should be a lot of fun. We have two other families going with us and will be going to the Zoo, memorials, museums the white house and Thanksgiving dinner in some random restaurant. I am not sure if it will be as great as Thanksgiving in MOTOWN with the Jackson V, but it should be good.

Well, that is it for now. Know that we will miss you terribly this weekend!! There is nothing like Thanksgiving dinner in the church????? Oh well, it is not about the location as much as it is about the family. Tell everyone we love them and miss them so much. Think of me mom, when you are hanging the garland on the banister of the stairs....and get pumped for CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! Only three more weeks. I can hardly wait. Love you all.

PS. Marci, I will look for the orange and blue spandex....Or I guess I should ask if it will be you or TYLER wearing it........CAPTAIN SASSY!!

Thanksgiving is Coming!!!!

Hello Everyone!!!!

Well this week was a little bit CRAZY!!! I had performance this weekend and I am sure Marci understands the way I feel. Performance week basically runs you over. On Saturday, I was at the theatre from 10 a.m. til 10 p.m. It was so so fun. Actually the performance was really fun.

Thank you to all who came. I am pretty sure we have the best parents anyone could ask for. Thank you so much mom and dad for always supporting me. I really do appreciate it so much. Also Tammy, Amber, Carleen and her kids, and Kris, Mitchell, and Sydney came. It was really fun to see all of them. I hope they had a good time. I know I had tons of fun performing and it was alot more fun cause I knew all of you were in the audience. You are awesome. Thanks Marce for the text :). It was great, I wish you could have been there too. Hopefully I will get to see you perform soon. Please, Please, video tape your piece. I am so sad I can't see it.

Everything else is going fine. I am just so excited for tuesday because I get to go to Holden. YAY!!!!!!! I am so excited. Well that is about all that is happening here in Provo. I love you all and am excited to see you soon. Love all of you so much.

Jones

Still Goods Feel

Not to long ago Joni came to stay with me and we were getting into the car and I had just burned the new rascal flats cd and wrote the title on it. Joni picks it up and starts busting up. I don't know what she is laughing about and then she says "Still Goods Feels, uh Marc" It's suppose to be "Still Feels Good". Kind of catchy the other way if you ask me but I wanted to dedicate this title to Jonified.

I love "My boyfriends back song"! We did one of our big prop routines in high school to that song. I am glad to here that Tyler is home and I wish with all my heart that I was babysitting instead of Richard and Shelane (I don't know how to spell your name yet, but I still love you :)) I am sure Rich will teach Porter all kinds of new tricks. Please share the highlights of their stay.

As for Thanksgiving, I am actually not coming home. Out of the blue I forked over a lot of hard cash for a plane ticket to New York to stay with Linsey and her husband. 4 of my other friends are all meeting up there and so I am going on Tuesday and staying until Sunday. Then two weeks after that I get to come home for 3 weeks. I figured this might be the only time that I get to do this and so I am going in just two days. I think we are going to go to the Macy's Parade so Mom if you could send me that blue/orange/yellow costume that I once wore for the Parade that would be great. I think I will bust out the old moves and make my way down the parade route. Just kidding. Remember when we went to NYC that guy in china town that kept trying to sale that monkey to us. He kept saying: Jumping and Climbing like )*&^%%$#^%^&^ (really bad words). Funny. I'm excited but also a little sad that I will miss the football game and Thanksgiving at the Church (actually, I hate that it's at the church) but I will miss the family the most and Mom's stuffing.

Other than that I got to do baptisms for the dead yesterday and that was really awesome. I also painted and assembled little toy cars at a service project yesterday. It was an multi-faith service project at our church and it was really cool. I love watching the scouts paint. They had all kinds of puffy paints there and I think most of the cars that the scouts painted are probably still drying because the paint was about a inch thick. Classic. My finger is really sore though from putting on the wheels but all around it was a really good day yesterday.

I am making Cherry cookies today for my visiting teachers. Mom wins best cook ever!! I think I will go start. Love you all and I can't wait to see you soon.

Marci

He's Back...and We're Outta Here!

Well, Richard just pulled out of my parent's driveway with both children strapped in! Wow...it is quiet in here. A little too quiet! Tyler is back-"my boyfriend's back!" (you know that 80's song, well it just came to mind), and we are off for a relaxing weekend at the Stein Erikson's Lodge in Park City! Yeah for us! Another weekend away-we are getting pretty accostomed to this lifestyle! We've had a great week, but the best part for us is that Tyler is finally back and done traveling...well for now. We are excited and anxious for Thanksgiving to see everyone! Marci-we are so excited that you are coming home! Not to mention there is 7 days and counting until the Millard Alum are beating each other down on the HS field! Tyler has been training for two months now, so everyone better be ready to witness a pro in action! Well, I wanted to write a quick note to tell you all that we love you and Joni we will miss your sweet ballet! If Ty wouldn't have planned this weekend I would have been front row! We are grateful for such a great family and hope that Richard and Shelane survive the weekend. In Tyler's words..."I hope they make it through without killing each other..." I was puzzled...my kids killing each other or Richard and Shelane? heheheh! Thanks guys you are the best! We love you all...more to come in a few days!

I miss you all so much :(

Hi my family,

Ok so Erica I love this blog so much. Thank you for setting it up. You are awesome. It is so fun to here how everything is going in the family. Well as far as my life goes it pretty much is the same. I told mom today that I am seriously burned out, but luckily its THANKSGIVING soon!!!!!! I am so excited to be home in holden. Sleeping in my own bed, and oh how excited I am for the all day activities of putting up the Christmas Decorations (if we are still doing that :( sad if we don't ). So basically, I can't wait for the break.

Other than that everything is going good. We have La Coquette this week on saturday. If anyone wants to come call mom k. You should come to the 2:00 performance because that is when I get to be La Coquette, but honestly I think you all (Tyler, yes, even you) will like this ballet. It is Dad's favorite ballet. It is really cute and actually funny so all come. Just a little preview, it is about 4 sisters. The youngest is the flirt (La Coquette). The others are bossy, ditzy (who is Rachelle and she is hilarious), and the other one is shy. Anyways the just of the story is they all get to get married and I don't. So I get mad and flirt with all the boyfriends. Well anyways it is really fun and you should all come, if you can :).

Well I think that is it here in P-town. I love you all so much and miss you with all of my heart. Talk to you soon.

SOUTH DAKOTA!

Well I thought i would get on and give a little more detailed description for everyone of the most awesomest hunting trip of my lifetime! So here it goes... Tyler and i drove from utah up to idaho falls to meet dad and we got there around 6:00 pm. on the way we took a brief stop in tremonton to have a little arbys with mom who was on her way to utah and that began a long five days of the sick road gut we all experienced. we rolled into the shelley are with the gas light on so to prevent running out of gas i called dad to see if there was any gas out at his tanks off the shelley exit. dad immediately assumed we had run out of gas a was NOT happy about it thinking he was going to have to come rescue us, which made for a good laugh, but we made it to a gas station and all was well and dandy. after a quick stop at sportsmans warehouse, we were on the road headed for bozeman montana. from there we passed through good ol red lodge and billings. dad drove to bozeman and i took over til about 230 am where i began entering into what tyler and i refer to as the "hallucination stage" where you are so tired you begin to see things that arent really there. in my case i kept thinking the black skid marks on the road were huge pieces of tires to which i was swerving to avoid! tyler took over for a while followed by dad and then i went in for the final leg through the gauntlet. i call it the gauntlet because there are so many deer on that road. we finally arrived in gettysburg south dakota at 10:05 and bought our licenses and headed out to hunt. we hooked up with our local mormon friend frank, who is about 65 or something like that and has sooooo many cats! so we hunted alot of his property and on one push i had a big ol rooster come right over the top of me and i just rolled him over! i ran to pick him up and he started running from me so i swung i gun at him as i have done so many other times in my life, and my gun snapped in half! i broke the whole back end of my gun off and when i realized what had happened my heart just sunk and i really just wanted to cry. ive had that gun for ten+ years and has so much sentimental value to me. so now i have to get it fixed and i guess it just adds to the value. luckily for me i had told uncle steve earlier in the week to bring his old shotgun for a back up which paid off. so after that we split up and we went off on our own, dad, rob, tyler, and myself and started driving around. we ended up getting into them pretty good and shot our limit in no time. that night we ate at the firehouse cafe, food and board is never a luxury in gettysburg, and then crashed for the night. at dinner steve ordered an apetizer plate for everyone to share which consisted of anything they had deep fried and served on a big platter. curt ate a bunch of that stuff and then ordered fish and chips and ended up getting gut sick probably because everything he ate at dinner was deep fried. satuday we found what came to be known according to rob as the "field of dreams" which was a corn field out in the middle of nowhere just full of literally hundreds of birds. sunday we went to church at the branch, we more than doubled their attendance as they only had 7 members. after church they had a break the fast potluck dinner that they had us stay for and even with all of us they had enough food. monday we shot our limits and then some in less than 2 hours and headed back to montana. i had the late driving shift again and i really think i saw a wolf but i was approaching hallucination stage so i could be wrong. anyway dad told the buffalo story so i will pick up from after the killing of tatonka as mom calls it. we were low on fuel so we finally found this tiny town in montana that had a gas station. the gas station ended up being a bar with an old gas pump, you know like the ones down at sids y service, and we fueled up there. tyler and i went in to use the bathroom and it was just creepy with all the old locals in there smokin it up. so we went back outside to find dad chattin with some good ol boys about his buffalo. we loaded up and dad started pulling out and then BANG!!!! the truck came to a complete stop in no time, crushing my knee caps into the dash. we jumped out to see what we had hit and it was a huge cement post that put a big dent in the bumper to which dad responded, "this truck is on its last leg" so that was it we jumped in and were off. so that pretty much completes the trip. we missed you tim so get done with that school so you can come again. all is well here in springville. we both got callings in our ward, i am a teacher in the elders quorum and shelane is a teacher in the relief society. hope all is well with all of you. we love you!
Rich and Shelane
P.S. thanks for all the great compliments on my past christmas presents! Mom your hammock is almost done, i really can make hammocks marci!!!:)

I am here now!

I have been sitting here for about an hour trying to decide what to say since this is my very first post but I realize that if I try to be perfect, I won't ever write anything. We have posted some pictures that show you what we have been up to for awhile. If you will notice our garden, this was the last pictures we took of it before the freeze. This is one of our spots at the community garden. This was our flower garden that of course Marci helped me design and I think that Joni helped some of the time. Everyone called it the Parisian Cafe! Anyway, you will notice that Dad is showing our huge Sunflowers. (Dad is doing what he always does, in the background, questioning my blogging you know how he always questions my driving) But needless to say we still didn't win the garden competition which of course was a consternation to me because you know how I love to be the winner! And sorry to the Millard Football team, Tammy and I will both tell you that the stars all have to line up to win the big one! Make sure all the grandkids see the infamous witch costume. Dad and I also dressed up that night to go to our friends birthday party. He turned 60 years old so we went dressed up as mourners. I had some kleenex in my purse and when I walked in I got my kleenex out and went through my crying spell telling him that I was so sorry that he had turned 60 and then we gave him 60 kleenex. Notice dads attire carefully, he is wearing a black shirt and a black tie that we bought of course at Ross. He has never owned a black shirt in his life but he looked pretty sharp! Like a gangster or something. I found my fantastic hat at Deseret Industries. It was in the antique area. We had a great Halloween! Last night we had our POTLUCK dinner for Thanksgiving at our ward and after that we came home and I found my new favorite TV shows. "I want to be a cheerleader again" it was hilarious but the next show was even better, "Trick my Trucker" now this might be worth watching again!!!!!!!!!!!! Wives turn them in for a truck driver makeover. They change their eating habits, excercise habits, of course cut their hair not only on their head but their face. They just don't know what to do about their teeth!
It is on Saturday night at 9:30 pm on CMT, I'm sure you will want to see it.
Well Marci, I hope that those people have recooperated over your dance and Tanis you just keep informing us about the dangers of this world! The rest of you don't worry about the Christmas presents! By the way, I still have the white blanket with the puffy paints up in my closet. All presents mean something wonderful to me!!! I still have my board with the Peruvian signs carved in it that Tyler gave me! I still have a lot of those presents so we will get them all together during Christmas and take pictures of them. Well, everyone have a great week I am sure I will talk to you all soon! You are the best family in the WORLD! LOVE MOM

And I've decided....

And I've decided that Tanis and Dad should both write books-why? Because when I am reading their posts, they sound so professional and eloquent-not to mention Dad's excessive plan...that took some effort! Dad gets an A on my blogging report card! I can't wait to hear more about this "plan" of Dad's-so where are we moving to? Even though we are the professionals at moving, we do not offer our talents and/or services to help pack and move! Well, I guess for the right price we are willing to help! j/k...we do hate moving. Tanis, thanks for the update on Christmas this year. As Joni and I were driving back from Asher's shower last night we were talking about it and trying to figure out who had who! Your list is much easier to figure out than our counting and recounting! And, Shelane...don't be fooled-THE PRESSURE IS ON! We only accept top notch gifts-just ask well anyone I've made gifts for! In reality, I am soooo bad at this Christmas gift making but this year I hope to redeem myself! I am sitting here laughing thinking back over the past five Christmases and how I still wear that homemade sweatshirt that Tyler and Porter made for me! Hint Shelane: puffy paint can really do wonders! Well, ironically that is about my favorite Christmas tradition ever-the making gifts and the "spotlight" in the chair even though I am still working on fitting in to the gifts of the family. I figure that I entered the Tuttle Family equation atleast 15 years after the start of the tradtion, so I've got atleast 10 more years to get my gifts up to par. I figure that is only fair. It's like I have a handicap in golf, but it is in Christmas presents. Tim and Shelane, I declare that you both have the same handicap! For our ward Christmas party they came over and video taped our family talking about "White Christmas" and they asked me what my favorite Christmas tradition was-and this was it. Tyler also chimmed in about sledding on the farm in the hood of the car-now I've never experienced that myself, but maybe this christmas we could make it happen-what do you say? Who's in charge? Dad, Richard? Anyone?

Well, this week I feel like Tanis-groundhogs day. I have been watching my sisters two children (Brooke-3, Davis-1) along with my two children and at the end of the day I look back and wonder what I did all day long. It is groundhogs day. I remember talking to Tyler this week and he asked me what I did all day-and I said, "I have no idea-obviously something, another day of my life gone and I can't remember what happened over the last 12 hours-its all a blurr!" I guess that is what happens with four children-mom how did you do it? Have we left the house? No-only once and we all stayed in the car. I have mastered-ok maybe that isn't the perfect word-my own two children out and about. We go to the zoo, to the park, to the mall and even to the grocery store-which I have vowed recently it would never happen again with both of them. They just egg each other on-as Joni was witness to in the car last night on the way to Asher's shower in Holden. Porter would scream, count 1, 2, Claire would scream. Count one, two, Porter would howl, count one, two, Claire would howl. It is pure chaos but how I love it. I just have to roll with it and let the good times be. Claire is growing up so fast and now she is starting to be at an age where she and Porter love to be together and play together, and oh how it makes me want to add more to the family....ONE DAY. I guess that is why Heavenly Father sends the children one at a time-to give the mom's time to adjust and regroup. I love my dear children.

Well, Tyler has now been gone for two weeks straight, except for a lovely few hours that I got to see him on Tuesday night after the hunting extravaganza. He changed his flight so that he could spend some time with me and the kids, but oh to our surprise that time was spent not exactly as planned. Here is how it went down.
5:45pm Left my parents for the airport to "take Tyler his clothes"
6:15pm Arrived at the airport and waited in the park and wait-watched a little Ninja Turtles courtesey of Mom
6:45pm Richard and Tyler arrived
6:50 pm Tyler decides to change his flight to leave in the morning
6:51pm Tyler unloads his things from Richard's truck into our car
6:55pm Tyler goes into the airport to change his flight-to a 7:00am flight
7:10pm We leave the airport
7:45pm We arrive my sister Stef's house to drop off some photos
8:00pm We arrive at my parents house
8:01pm We sit down to watch the Biggest Loser
8:15pm Tyler decides to unload the car and repack his things
8:16pm PANIC ATTACK BY THE WHOLE FAMILY=when Ty can't find his work computer
8:17pm Tyler is in a mass sweat attack thinking of how in trouble he is
8:18pm Tyler calls Richard and Shelane answers to have him look in his truck
8:19pm Tyler calls Richard-no answer-ok
8:21pm Tyler calls Richard-getting a little frustrated-no answer
8:25pm Tyler calls Richard-face getting really red-no answer
8:30pm Tyler calls Richard-PANIC-no answer
8:35pm Tyler calls Richard-really mad-no answer
8:36pm Erica calls Richard-no answer
8:37pm Richard calls a happy Erica back-and has found the computer
8:45pm Porter throws a tantrum about wanting to drive down to Springville with us to get his computer
8:50pm Tyler gives in
8:51pm We leave for Springville
9:15pm We arrive at Richard's-to some yummy Oreo cookies thanks to Shelane
9:45pm We get the computer and a little Del Taco-not me, no no my stomach says.
10:25pm We arrive back at my parents.
10:45pm Tyler packs and Erica falls asleep.
5:45am We leave for the airport.....

What a great few hours together we had! Atleast we found the computer. So now we are days counting until Tyler returns. It is like countdown to Christmas for us. So...7 days and counting!

Well, we love you all and thanks for posting on this site! It makes it worth it. I love reading all your blogs and hope that you will continue! Peace out until next time....Erica

Choo, Choo

CHOO, CHOO, Well I decided I'd better jump on this blog train or it may leave me behind forever. Besides being half the reason this family exists, I think at times it still needs alittle guidance. Although everyone SEEMS to be doing quite well. Also Erica this blog is going to be great for this family!! WELL DONE!!!!. Keep the goal in front of us. @ 2 pages/ day everyone should be finishing 4 nephi this week. Yes, we are trying to catch up in order to start agian in January.The south dakota hunting trip may have been the best pheasant hunting a man could hope for in a lifetime. To have four men get their limit in 2 hours or less is something to behold. The best was watching everyone bite the dust trying to get a shot at roosters running all over creation. The buffalo hunt was monumental because it took me 3 shots to bring the beast down! I do have the excuse that it wasn't my gun and Kim told me I had to shoot him in the ear hole. Now that is pretty tough even at 50 yards. Anyway, We'll all have some buffalo steaks for dinner at christmas time. This week I started work on my new project. We're (mom & I) are going to build a community. And the best part is you are all invited to come live in it. Your mother is going to kill me but a dad has to do what a dad has to do. I want you all to live by us and the only way that is going to happen is begin to build. SO HERE GOES! This is the vision. A place in rural america where you live in wide open places. Farmland all around your house, maybe a beautiful river, but a place for your kids to hike and fish and build huts and run down the road to grandmas house. If you can't tell we're getting kind of lonely in Idaho. Anyway I'm working on it. And here is the vision of the community.

Mission Statement:

1. Save the delicate ecology of the Upper Snake River.
2. Support and maintain the beauty of the Upper Snake River Plain.
3. Provide a blueprint to make the family farming heritage sustainable for generations to come.
4. Support local organic and sustainable farming practices.
5. Support rural living as sustainable.
6. Support local, natural, organic food for those who reside here.
7. Provide a HOME for institutions dedicated to:
a. The education of children; teaching them where their food comes from.
b. The education of farmers in organic and sustainable practices
c. Research pertaining to links between the food we eat and disease.
d. Medical research on organic cancer therapy.
e. Organic, Holistic cancer therapy
f. The collection and dissemination of natural medical cures.
g. The education of all of the above through eco-tourism.

8. Provide a blueprint of sustainable rural living by:

a. Demonstrating how farming, dairy and livestock production and other agricultural enterprises can not only co-exist but thrive and enhance the living experience of families, friends, neighbors and eco-friendly, green businesses.

b. Commingling homes, businesses, farms, dairies, commerce and enterprise to minimize the carbon footprint of this planned community.

c. Making it possible to walk or bicycle to work.
d. Sound sustainable rural green development with an emphasis on permanent conservation easements to maintain open space and rural lifestyles.

Anyway that's it for now, Love dad

And that's good..........................

Happy Friday Family. I seriously am so glad that it is Friday, but now that I am thinking about it, I don't know why.....everyday is the SAME day for me, regardless if it is the weekend or not. I live in a sort of world comparable to the all too familiar GROUNDHOG DAY. I don't know what I was thinking, but nonetheless, I am glad.

Life has been good this week except for the fact that I am sick.....Tim is starting to get over his sickness and Hudson had shots a couple days ago and is now sick. We are the sickly family. Thank heaven for Vicks and the wonders it can pull in helping to make it through the night without your nose and lips falling off in sheer dryness. Yes, my face shines at night. But all in all, we are doing good.

Anyway, I wanted to get on and Post the Christmas List for this year.....get your creative caps on and get constructing!! PS. don't think you are going to do a remake on the gift Mom was given when Richard was in the fourth grade....Marci has decided to take that one on. Do puffy paints, cream hospital blanket and smears ring a bell? Oh how I wish we kept some of those gifts. Let's think of them and take time to write them down at Christmas. So, here it is: Be aware that things have changed slightly since we have a new addition!! Shelane, we love you and are pumped for you to join us this year. I know it sounds intimidating, as I recall how it was when it was Tim's first Christmas, but really we are pretty easy going. If all else fails, coupon books work and they NEVER get redeemed.

Dad gives to Richard
Mom gives to Joni
Tyler gives to Shelane
Tim gives to Dad
Tanis gives to Mom
Marci gives to Tyler
Erica gives to Tim
Richard gives to Tanis
Joni gives to Marci
Shelane gives to Erica

Porter gives to Claire
Claire gives to Hudson
Hudson gives to Porter

PS. In thinking about what Hudson will get Porter for Christmas this year, a caution....Mom had mentioned to me that she took Porter to the store during the sleepover or something and he told her he wanted Aqua Dots for Christmas. Under no circumstance should anyone purchase this toy for him or anyone else since they are recalling it due to the fact that the chemical used on them turns into the equivalent of the date rape drug when swallowed.....yeah, nightmare. They are pulling them all of the market as we speak. I fear that all toys coming out of China are toxic. I want a lead tester for Christmas.

Well, that is all until Sunday. Just in case you were wondering, Hudson is excited for Christmas.....good times with the cousins, like the one above.

Love ya,

Tanis

PORTER, WHERE'S YOUR BODY?

This is the best picture I could find to illustrate my week. It's been REALLY busy and at times I felt like my body was taken away from me. I have been subbing a lot of the faculties classes and on top of that I've had to work 3 days this week which is a little different then my usual once every other week. But I am doing really well. I fasted last weekend that the Lord would help me get everything done that I need to and he has. Fasting is TRUE! I really couldn't do everything without the lord's help. Amen.

One sunday, I had something really embarrassing happen to me. I know...surprise, surprise but I thought I would share it. I had just pulled into my apartment complex and I was getting out of my car and I thought that my roomate was right behind me in her car. It was the same car so out of instinct I jumped in front of the car and did the Tanis/Marci dance which equals the ugliest dance you have ever seen (we use to do this to Richard all the time). Well I'll I could see was sheer terror coming from the people in the car and I didn't recognize any of them. Some random people got the ugly dance and I almost died. I ran back into my apartment and remembered that Alisa was still at the fireside. Stupid!

Right now, I am listening to James Taylor Christmas and I am loving it. I know it's a little early but I figured since the seasons never change here I could pretty much listen to christmas music at anytime. I am just gearing up for the holidays. I love coming home.

I am applying for my dream job right now. The application is due on Monday. It's the Dance Education Director at Saint Jospeh's Ballet. St. Josephs is a not-profit art center that focuses on low-income families and communities in Santa Ana. This is one of the most successful comumunity art centers in the nation and I would LLLLLLOOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEEE to work there.
So who is going to proof my application? If you don't volunteer, then I will just call you like I usually do.

Well, that's about it from California. No school on Monday so I think I will go to the beach. I'll take lots of pictures.

Love you all,
Marci

The dancing picture is of our last concert. I am the one jumping.

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Ok, I first have to apologize that I have not got on the "blog train" as of yet, but all with good purpose. Let me just tell you that at 11:54 last night, I submitted our Guatemala books. Of course it had to be in by 12:00....procrastination rules my life!! But oh, how you all better LOVE that book. I really think it is a great book and honestly looking at those pictures made me miss that wonderful country and all of you. I suggest closing your eyes and letting yourself go, even just for a moment. Go to La Casa Del Mundo and look out onto the most beautiful lake your eyes will ever behold.....the lush, green tropical vegetation overgrowing to the very edge of the water.....now get strapped onto the longest cable you have ever seen and let go.....see yourself whizzing through the cool crisp air, faster with every moment.....look to the cliff beside you and see the waterfall folding down the mountain side, so peacefully, and then to the other side of the cable to the native who seems to be coming faster than usual, growing larger by the second, and then there is the red flag, waving anxiously.....you reach to begin braking and pull down with your right hand, but nothing.....the flag begins to wave more furiously and quickly, trying to warn you of the inherent danger on the other end, and the panic sets in. You try with all your might, but nothing, nothing is helping.....all you see is the enormous boulder that you inevitably WILL hit......and then.......smack, the force of it all.......your legs swing into the air and above your head, causing you to almost flip....you don't know what has happened, if you have passed on until you turn to see that little native.....oh, the heavenly native who has saved you, who you now notice is laughing his head of at you.....Oh wait, that is not my memory. I must have transplanted into Marci or Joni's brain..... I swear I am dying just thinking about the sheer panic on your faces as you thought your life was over. Priceless.

Anyway, it really was the greatest trip of my life. A million thank you's to Mom and Dad who made it financially possible for all of us to go and of course Richard and Shelane who decided to get married in the first place!! Our lives are forever changed. Above is one of my favorite pics from the trip.

In other news, Tim completed midterms, and we all lived....barely. Now, he unfortunately contracted some kind of nasty bug that now has been reaking havic on his immune system. Hopefully he is on the downside of it now and will be getting better. Hudson is fabulous as usual. He is learning new words all the time with the recent additions of "socks and baby". He has finally picked up please and thank you which I love. He says please in sign language and thank you in normal words.....I think it is the cutest thing in the whole word. Oh and I should tell you, he is a completely accident prone. I don't know if he is going to live since he manages to hurt himself daily. As for the wound above, he was running down a cement path at the park and trip, hitting his face first....and right in the middle of taking family pictures. Bless him. He cried for a few minutes and then went on his merry way. He is so tough.

Halloween was great. Hudson was the cutest little dracula I think I have ever seen.....so did the whole ward. They had a costume contest for the kids, and to everyone's surprise, Hudson did not win. Some other kid who dressed up like Captain Hook won....he was cute, but nothing like Hudson. Anyway, after it was over, EVERYONE kept coming up to me and telling me that they didn't know how the other kid won because they all voted for Hudson.....come to find out the little boys older brother and friends went in and voted for him over and over and over again. They were all giving each other high fives saying "yeah, we did it, we did it!!" It was hilarious. I think his hair was what did it....not to mention the fabulous cape that I slaved over. Ok, I have to confess, Hudson did not go to sleep at night without a costume and then magically have an unbelievable costume in the morning....but he did take a nap and when he woke up it was done....ok, so not the same, but making his costume really did make me think back to all the AMAZING costumes mom did for us when she stayed up ALL night long to finish them before the parade the next day!! Hats off to you, Mom.

Anyway, I should probably end now, but KEEP posting everyone. We should all make it a goal to post at least once a week, if not more.....that means you, mom. It really is so easy. I can walk you through it over the phone. As for this week, I will be editing more pictures as I am now an official, REAL photographer. I actually made
$50 last week. YEAH!! Hopefully it is just the start of something great. I have so much to learn, but every time I shoot, I feel like I get a little better. It has been a blast to learn and now it is funny, because my mind is starting to change. I swear I drive down the road now, noticing all the great pictures I could take of this and that and how the lighting is affecting everything. It is nuts, but really fun.

Until next week........

Tanis

Hello...from the dead of winter!

I LOVED reading your post Tanis! Yeah, you jumped on the blog train but I know that you have been swamped-especially in the past few days! You take on soooo much! Well, Mom that leaves you! Hint, Hint! Well, here we are in the dead of winter in Utah! It is quite different than 95 degrees in Scottsdale. I think that my blood must have thinned out because I can barely stand this weather, not to mention the poor kids are freezing! Porter was definitely the beneficiary of the cold weather-we went shopping on Friday and he ended up with a new wardrobe complete with shirts, pants, jackets, and shoes! My poor kids are running around in shorts and short sleeves, so to avoid the doctor something had to be done. So, we decided last minute-literally to come up to Utah with Tyler as he went hunting with the boys. So, me and the kids are here for the next three weeks and we've been having a great time so far.

Well, Wednesday was Halloween and after the kids had a BLAST trick-or-treating at Tyler's work we packed up the car and drove through the night to arrive in the beautiful Utah Valley at 6am! I didn't want to be home alone for three weeks while Tyler traveled so I opted to survive the drive, but it was more like Tyler had to survive the drive since he was the one behind the wheel until we hit Nephi. At that point he tapped me and woke me up explaining that it was my time to drive because he was hallucinating-he said that he just saw a huge bear run in front of the car and across the freeway-yeah, so needless to say, I rocked out to my music (no, not Shakira Marci) and pulled in to my mom and dad's around 6am! We've been busy since Thursday-shopping, playing, babysitting, making dried apples, working in the yard, digging in the dirt, playing on my sisters iMAC, and who could forget a FABULOUS sleepover with most of you in the family! (Mom, Joni and Shelane!) Shelane-thanks for the hospitality while Tyler was away! I had a great time with all of you. It is just nice to be with family-but of course we missed you Marci and Tanis!

I wish that I was at home so that I could attach some photos, but no luck! Sorry my letter is kind of boring this week, but I will write more in a few days. My contacts are sticking to my eyes and so that means I've got to head off to bed! I'll post more tomorrow! Love you all...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween Everyone!
This is a picture of my first Halloween costume. I was a spider women. As you can see I had spiders crawling all over my body. I glued them on with eyelash glue and it seemed to work pretty good. My second costume consisted of ......Drum roll.....Who can guess? Tanis? Anyone? Last night I was a gypsy! How I love being a gypsy! I can't seem to get enough of it and since half of my wardrobe has a gypsyesk feel, it's an easy classic. We went to a Halloween party last night and the best costume went to my friends who were polygamist. It was a great costume. Tyler do you remember when we drove out to Garison. I remember it because we listened to Shakira for 24 hrs. Good Times!

On a side note: what are you and Erica going to do when Porter grows up and his favorite song is still "My hips don't lie" from yours truly, Shakira. It makes me laugh when I think of him sitting in is car seat singing the words.

As for school, it's going pretty well. It seem to get busier every week. I have to start teaching another class next week so that will add to the load. Right now I am choreographing for the Graduate show and that is stressing me out. But other than that this semester is going pretty good.

Who does everyone have for christmas? Who did I have last year?
Does anyone want to come visit me? Just thought I'd ask.

Smiles,
Marci

Please post pictures of the kids trick or treating.