Thank You Times a Million

I just want all of you to know that Wednesday morning this household woke up in a way that most mornings do not start. Claire started screaming (I know, shocker) for her Grandma and crying for over an hour. I am talking pounding her feet, throwing herself all over the floor because she was upset that her Grandma (and Grandpa, Tanis and CO.) weren't there. Porter sat sulking in the corner and I was bawling my eyes out.

Why? Well, here are your choices:

a) because I now had to stand up and get my kids breakfast on my own after a wonderful week of soreness, stitches and pampering,

b) because I missed Mom, Dad, Tanis, Hudson and cute baby Tate,

c) because I wished they could stay forever...seriously,

d) because I was still emotional from being pregnant, or

e) because I am always, pregnant or not, an emotional basket case.

The answer would have to be....ALL OF THE ABOVE. I called Tyler at work crying. (This he has been used to for the past 3 weeks, let's be honest, the past 6 years of our marriage), and when he asked why I just said, "I miss your family". He started almost laughing but his reply was, "I'm glad you love them so much." And, yes, I do love them so much.

Okay, here come the tears again...ahhhh! I just wanted to say Thank You a Million Million times for everything. Heavenly Father has given me so much insight and so many tender mercies throughout this whole experience, and one of those was MY family-you guys. I am so grateful for such a WONDERFUL mother-in-law...first off that she was in tune enough to feel the prompting to come with me to my doctor's appt 30 minutes after she walked through the door. Without her, I really don't know if I would have made it. I was a mess. I was a mess. I don't know another mother-in-law that would a)eat McDonald's for all meals in one day and pace the floor while I was in surgery. I don't know a mother-in-law that would sit there with you and counsel you with so much love and be the first one in the recovery room after surgery. She dressed me, helped me up, held my hand, talked for me when I couldn't, questioned the doctor when I was in shock and couldn't think for myself. I love you Mom. You were and are such a blessing. Thank you for the chicken noodle soup, for doing my laundry and dishes and for everything in between. I love you. I am seriously bawling so hard right now .

And Dad-thank you for the support and love and for the blessing that calmed me before surgery. Thank you for being such a wonderful grandpa to my kids. They love you and miss you so much. Tanis, holy cow-seriously, thank you for helping with the kids, cleaning, meals and being there to talk to. I miss you so much. It felt so wonderful to sit and have friends to talk to. I am bawling even harder. And Tim of course for being so flexible. I feel so awful that I feel like I ruined your short trip but I am so glad that you and Tanis got to go into the city before you left! Thanks for hanging out and being here.

Every morning since you left feels like Wednesday morning. I feel like crying. I miss you all and wish the rest of you could be here too. Thank you for all of your prayers and phone calls and concern. I have the best families in the world. I needed the support and you were here. I just owe you all a really big....something...i'm not sure but it would have to be big. Thank you. I miss you and hope that you come back (this time hopefully on better circumstances! )

Okay, I am bawling and can't see the keys to type anymore. Gosh, this feels like our Christmas Eve circle time bawling fest! Can't wait for that one! I wanted to leave a comment on Mom's blog but didn't know if you read the comments and I really needed to say thank you to everyone! I love you all.

Love,
Erica

My trip has come to an end

Dear Everyone,
We are finally back home and as of yesterday afternoon I had my house all clean, laundry done and all my food storage organized in my back room. It's not very pretty but very functional. When I got home I asked dad why I couldn't feel like Idaho was home! It took me a day to adjust but I realized that my home is really where all of my kids are! And so I have come to the conclusion that where ever my family is when we are together, that is HOME! Don't get me wrong, I do love it here because dad is here so just for further knowledge that is my new definition. I had a marvelous time on my trip, I got to see Tate blessed with both of his grandpas in the circle. That was a great blessing! We take these things for granted when we are so close. We had a great time with Tims mom and dad. We really got to know them better and made some great friends. We had a great dinner and got to visit with Jake Taylor and his family and Lindsey and her family (Tanis' friend) It was a great time. Jake was telling us about all of his hunting. I didn't know he was such a hunter. I have promised some chili sauce for his deer meat! On Wednesday we went to the Amish community because dad wanted to see them. They were driving their horse and buggies all around. It was fun. I would say that it was one of dads kind of vacations where you just relax and enjoy. On Thursday we drove to Connecticut. We left at 5:30 am so that the kids would sleep a lot of the way. They did great however, I just want everyone to know that I ate breakfast at McDonalds! We got to Tylers at 1:30 maybe and Erica had to go to the Doctor to get an ultrasound. I had a feeling that someone should go with her so I went with her and Tanis and dad stayed to babysit. You all know the outcome, she had to go into surgery and Tyler picked up dad and brought him to the hospital so that they could give her a blessing. Tanis was left with all four kids! She did WELL! She put them all to bed! I was grateful that the Lord would let us be there to help! She did great. I paced the whole time but it worked out the best it could. But Tyler and dad bought me some food guess where? At McDonalds. Two times in one day!! Tim made it to their house even though it was his first time to the big city NEW YORK! Tanis and Tim got to go to NEW YORK on Saturday and enjoyed themselves. I had all my grandkids together at the same time for 6 whole days and I enjoyed every minute of it. Each one of them has their own personality and that is what makes them so special. I just wish all of you could have been there to see JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. We got a blow by blow commentary from Hudson all through the movie and when the fish jumped out of the water he stood up and threw his hands on his face in terror! You know just another one of those good old nights watching movies together. However, Tyler had just recorded that great infamous move KRULL (remember that movie we have seen it about two times with the princess and the kingdom that keeps disappearing and moving to different places!) we started to watch it and everyone started balking so we didn't get to see it even though Tyler and I wanted to watch it. Maybe you could bring it home when you are here at Christmas, Tyler!
On Tuesday the girls went to New YORK shopping and the men went hiking and fishing with the kids. We tried on lots of clothes and everyone will be proud that I actually bought two purses, earrings and two scarves within 40 minutes in China Town. That is a record for me. Zara is our new favorite store. This was all made possible because of Tate. He was the best baby ever.
We enjoyed so much being with our family and those of you who couldn't be there, we missed you! It was great though to watch how you are raising and teaching my grandkids. You are great parents and are doing a great job. There is a lot of opposition in the world today and we must stay strong! We do this by doing the basics. Dad and I will attest, raising good kids is all about the basics. You must read the Book of Mormon, go to Church, say family prayers and ask him what you can do to strengthen your family. A one on one relationship with your kids is really important too. We are not always there but hopefully we can keep in touch enough to have our influence always felt. I still feel my mom and dads influence in my life and in your life and will forever. We love all of you and thank you for such a great time. We hope we didn't wear out our welcome.
Love, MOM
PS My birthday was the best birthday ever it went on for a whole month because every morning Hudson would say "Happy Birthday Grandma" and I would say "Thank you so much!"
and he would say "Your Welcome"
I also felt special everywhere we went because Porter always wanted me to sit by him so we had some good times in the back of the car. Even though I got spinal compression from all the bumps (Tanis will understand)
Not to mention our day that we played store in the house with the kids. We were trying to teach the concept of money, work, and tithing. I think it went over well. Porter got out of money fast, he was buying the big ticket items. However, after doing some work he made more money.
Also I didn't mention our dance shows. Hudson, Clair and I would take turns dancing and clapping for each other. It was great!
Dad even did a little dancing too in the Gazebo with Hudson!
I better end now!
Love you all!

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf??????

I couldn't help but quickly post some of these pictures from our Ward Halloween Party tonight. Hudson completely stole the show!! We had a blast and he was such a trooper. He actually kept the nose and hood on through the whole trick or treating part. I honestly didn't think he was going to do it until we showed him in the mirror the fur hood and the wolf nose. Then he got excited to be the Big Bad Wolf again. I wish you all could have seen him.....he was the cutest/scariest wolf. Could I be getting over my lifelong fear of wolves???????????

Hello Family: Is everyone still alive?

So it's been kind of a long time since everyone has posted. Lots of life changing things have happen in our family but this is no excuse to not post about them. Everyone give us a little detail into what is happening in your lives. Right now I am just wishing that I could make you all some peanut butter fingers and we could watch a movie like Little Giants or Big Daddy or lately I have been trying to refrain from watching White Christmas. I want to so bad but it's not even Halloween yet so I feel like I better just wait for a couple more weeks. Jones, are you in.... Do you want to watch White Christmas tonight? Everyone just come over around 8:30 and I will have the peanut butter squares ready to go. I promise to not add any extra salt or anything... I am sure you all remember those no baked cookies I made for conference that one time where I substituted the 1 tsp. of salt for 1 cup. Don't know how that happened and why I didn't catch that but I'm pretty sure I can remember Richs face when he bit into those delicious gems.

I must welcome Tate to the family. We are so glad you are here and we welcome you into the madness of the Tuttle family. I am excited to hold him at Thanksgiving. And until then I will just have to web cam 3 to 4 times a week. Then we have the Connecticutans. Yes I know, that English is amazing. I have a masters degree and 7 years of higher educations and those are the words that I am coming up with. I must get that from Mom. We all know that writing is not my strength but what can you do. Porter drew me an awesome picture whilst we were web caming the other day. It sounds like everything is going good there and that you live in Holden but you have the beauties of the city life not to far away. I am a jealous. Erica, take some pictures of kids playing around the house, with the goats (Even though Claire HATES goats, that's what she told Mom the other day) jumping on the trap, your house, your neighbors. Really anything. Rich and Shelane, what is going on? Shelane how is the job going? From when I stayed with you guys this summer I kind of think of your job like the girl in Two Weeks Notice because your boss was calling you at 10 o'clock at night. Are you liking it? Did your sister get there baby yet? Rich, how's everything going? How's nature care and the hunting? I had a friend tell me about his uncles hunting trip that was down in New Mexico and that it cost him $15,000 dollars to go hunt on this reservation but that he missed the elk or got it but it didn't kill it so they came home with nothing. That's a lot of money for no trophy bull to hang on the wall. I guess that's how they do it down here. Of course, that's how they do it down here.

I have started all of my jobs and they are going well. I am getting use to teaching the little ones again. I have a class of 12, 2 and 1/2 year olds and they are little monsters that can't even tell me their names but I do have a new game plan for that class so hopefully it will go better. The Lord definitely wants me to have patience of gold and so he keeps sending me experiences that refrain my capabilities to control situations around me. I am teaching all ages, I even have three grandmas in my college teaching job, they are so cute and they are just taking because they never had the opportunity to take when they were little. Two little latino grandmas and one philliopiao grandma. I love them and I really like teaching there. It's at Rio Honda College in LA and it's a very multicultural school as you can imagine. I love that and I hope that I get to teach there in the future. Everyone pray that I can get more work there. I teach a lot of ballet which consists of me calling Joni multiple times a week to teach me over the phone so that I can teach my classes. Ms. Vivians ballet school at the Tumbling Building was to long ago, I remember nothing and so Joni is my teacher. Which of course she is amazing and always belling me out and answering my questions. I have realized lately that this is the first time in a long time that I am not consumed with something. For the past 6 or 7 years I have had jobs or school or church callings that consume everything. This is a new feeling for me and I am trying to be ok with it because I feel like it might only last for a short amount of time. I do like my teaching, it's hard and my schedule is all over the place but I do get to do what I love and so that is a blessing.

We have been riding our bikes to the beach a lot. I love bike riding and we live about 10 mins from the beach so we just ride our bikes down there and play and then ride home. I am trying to take advantage of where I live because who knows how much longer I will be here. I have a performance this Thursday for the Laguna Dance Festival. I am doing a Gallery Installation at one of the art galleries in Laguna. They have so many in Laguna and every 1st Thursday they have what is called the Laguna Art Walk where all the galleries stay open late and people can walk in and out of all the galleries and they have fancy treats and of course wine so everyone is usually drunk walking the streets of Laguna. But there are a couple of choreographers that are doing pieces for this Festival so it should be good. I am excited and nervous. Did all of the women go to the broadcast? I loved Uchdorffs talk about creating.... SO TRUE! I loved it and I want to memorize it. Everyone should go read it, guys and girls. Anyways, this post is super long and I don't think I even really said anything so I guess I will just stop. I miss you all like crazy and I hope we are all learning a good lesson right now and that is IT'S NOT WORTH IT TO LIVE THIS FAR AWAY FROM EACH OTHER! So you have less than two years to wrap things up where you live and move to Idaho. Deal? You might think that I am joking but your wrong. I am being dead serious right now. And you don't want to mess with me, right Rich? Rich knows the one hard punch that would send him away. That's all it took. I am willing and ready to use that on any of you. I will stay true to the rule of no hitting in the face but this is your warning. Love you all. See you soon.

Finally got it done with my bow, smoked him at 42 yards!

Our little Pyro........

So this past weekend, Tim, Hudson and I traveled to OhioPyle state park here in PA for a little camping. I wasn't sure how the whole sleeping under the stars thing would go for me since I am now 8 months pregnant and enormous. But Hudson was so pumped to go and just kept saying, "mommy, camping, catch nemo" so of course we couldn't say no. I was actually really glad we went and amazingly enough, I slept most of the night and used my will power to fight the urge of having to make 50 bathroom trips in the middle of the night. It is amazing what the mind can do........

We went with our neighbors and really good friends the Irvings, and spent the night and most of the day up there. We had a blast hanging out by the fire, checking out the natural waterslides and waterfalls and then fishing by the river. It was absolutely beautiful there. The more I see of Pittsburgh in the summer, the more I LOVE it. We had to drive through these small little towns with these unbelievably beautiful farms and I just kept thinking to myself....I could live there and there and there, if only my family lived there too. So I think everyone should start thinking a little bit.....Erica and Tyler are getting closer with moving to CT, which I am so completely pumped about- within driving distance....I am already planning my first trip. Anyway, it really is beautiful this time of year.

So we had a great time and it seems that with every trip we go on, we learn a little more about ourselves and especially our child. Turns out, Hudson is a Pyro. He is definitely related to the Tuttle side of things since Tyler and basically everyone in my family is obsessed with fire. He would not keep sticks out of the fire and honestly thought it was the coolest thing in the world to stick it in and then pull it out and have it flaming up. I have included some pictures.

Anyway, we love you all and hope you are doing great. Only 5 weeks left.....I am definitely counting down the days. I will keep you updated. Tate Almon Mosher is almost here!!

Love you,

T

Ok so I thought I should give you the low down on my trip to the Netherlands.... Well first of all thank you to mom and dad who made this trip possible. As hard as it was, I would not trade it for the world and I learned so much in the process. So Thank you so much. But I will start from the beginning and give you the short (but detailed) trip to Europe.

So for those of you who do not know, I left on Saturday the 19th of July. After a long trip I arrived in Amsterdam on sunday. Luckily I did not get lost in my attempt to find the hostil (yes I stayed in a hostil and believe me it was not glamorous at all). So I finally make it to the hostil and there were 3 American girls there that I started to talk to. My first thought was "Thank you Heavenly Father" hoping that these girls would be my roommates for the next two weeks. They then brought me my room key and took me up to my closet of a room. Unfortunately, I was not with the american girls, but was with 3 Polish girls who did not speak a lick of English. Needless to say, I did not enjoy my room very much. I did attempt to talk to them, but all that came out was "sorry I do not understand." It was a LONG two weeks in that hostil. The room was extremely small. It fit the two sets of bunkbeds in it with about the size of me in the middle. It was crazy small. Anyways so that is a rundown on how I lived during my trip.

My schedule everyday was wake up at 7:00a.m. Get ready (which wasn't much because I would just sweat all day long). Go eat breakfast. For breakfast you could have bread, eggs, or muesli(which is like a cereal) so of course i stuck with the muesli. After breakfast we would go get on the tram. The tram ride was about 20 minutes or so but it was nice to rest before the storm hit! We then started dancing at 9 and danced until 2:30. We then had an hour lunch break and then danced until 5:30. It was super intense. We had ballet class, improvisation class, modern, and rep (which is learning choreography). That was the best part because we learned things from world renowned choreographers, and they were taught by former NDT dancers. It was tiring but so awesome.

As far as the dancing goes it was amazing. Dancing over in Europe is so much different then in America. It is hard to explain, but it opened my eyes to so many new things. The company over there (Netherlands Dans Theater) is unbelievable. It is amazing how they move, and they are lucky to have amazing choreographers. It was a great experience to see something different, and to experience something completely out of my element. I think it made me grow as a dancer but also just as a person. I learned what it truly means to rely on the Lord, and for that small part of what I learned I would not trade it for the world. I was extremely homesick (which I am sure you all heard from mom) but somehow I pushed past that and got the most out of the experience. Thank you Marci!!!!! (she will know what i am talking about). It is something that has changed my life forever, and whatever the future holds I can remember I got through this hard part in my life. I know now that there are so many opportunities out there if you are willing to put yourself out there and conquer the hard things that come with it. Thanks again for all who made this possible. I love you all so much!!!!

Jones

Just a thought!

Dear Everyone,
While I was home at the funeral, Steve told me about a book that Pres. Monson had given to all his relatives that was called "On the Lords Errand" that tells stories about his life,Even stories that he wouldn't want the whole church to know! When he told me the name of the book it sounded really familiar. Steve was afraid that Myra had dads book but while he was there we went down and found dads book in all my church books. I had no idea what was actually in the book. Anyway, I am going to read it, it has a bunch of funny stories about when he was younger and going to church. It is kind of like a journal of just all the little things that happened to him in his life. This book is not suppose to get into the hands of anyone but the family! I guess his secretary found one being sold on ebay for about $2000 and he about died. Anyway, as I read it I will have to keep you informed about all the stories. It is quite the book. Steven took Phils and was reading it! But while I was reading the church news today I was reading the Messages of Inspiration From President Monson so I am going to just leave you with one that I liked. Take it as the Tuttle Timely Tidbit for the week!

Make The Effort
It is not enough to want to make the effort and to say we'll make the effort. We must actually make the effort. It's in the doing, not just the thinking, that we accomplish our goals. If we constantly put our goals off, we will never see them fulfilled. Someone put it this way: Live only for tomorrow, and you will have a lot of empty yesterdays today.-- From General Conference Priesthood Session, October 2007.

Love MOM

My dreams have come true...I am GIDGET!!!!

I went down to San Onfre on Friday night to learn how to surf. And SURFING IS THE ULITMATE!!!! I paddled out to the waves and it was about 7:30ish at night, our friend Eric was coaching us and it was beautiful. The sun was setting and it really did look like a scene from some surfing movie. I was nervous because it seems that although I love the ocean, she tends to just mall me and slam me into the sea floor so every other time I have tried to do something in the ocean I just come out worked, wondering why I even went in in the first place. So we get out there and the waves are starting to to die down a little so we are just sitting on our boards and it was so relaxing that I almost fell asleep. But anyways my first attempt I rode it in on my knees and it was so fun so that next time I stood right up and went for a little bit and then I lost my balance. The third time I stood right up and I rode IT ALL THE WAY IN! My teacher was quite surprise and said that I was a natural and I told him it was because I had watched Gidget so many time. It seriously was the coolest thing I have done since moving to California. I am going to go once a week and get really good and I am getting a surf board for christmas. So I have three months to work on the practice boards so that when it's christmas I can get a real one. It was soooooo fun. We surfed until is was totally dark but the moon was so bright that we just keep surfing, night surfing until I was shaking so bad because it was kind of cold after the sun went down and my arms were so tired from paddling. Then we had a bonfire and it was really fun. I loved it.

I am posting some pictures. Some of them are from my beautiful pot garden on our porch. Now I know it's no Mom and Dad's garden, only the two of them combined can produce amazing results but it has kept me busy and I have loved doing it. I got some of the plants from the Fair Plant sale. They have a big OC Fair every year and they decorate it with plants and stuff and then they have a big sale and they sale everything for super super cheap. I went not knowing that I was going to hit the jackpot but I did. I bought some beautiful hibiscus trees for only $20 bucks and everything else was a dollar. I was running away pulling all my stuff together and there were grandmas that were trying to take my stuff. I kept haven'ting to tell them to back off. Obviously, I didn't say that but it would have been kind of funny. I politely would tell them that they were mine and then we would sit and admire them together, me and the grandmas enjoying our purchases together.

I am glad that Joni is home and that she survived the foriegn land. Why don't you post some pics of your trip Jones. I am so excited to see you tomorrow. I want to hear all about it. Ty and Erica have you decided to move yet? Rich and Shelane, are you alive? Tim and Tanis, I want your child to come live with him. And Mom and Dad how's the befriending of the people that live on our property by the river, have you talked them into letting us demolish there house so that we can build there? That sounds mean but I dream about that property.

I am posting a video of claire singing at the cabin if I can get it to work and a lot pictures from this summer. Enjoy and talk to you all soon. Love you, Marsupial.

I am sure you have been dying to see...

I am sure Erica is going crazy by now since it has taken me forever to get her pictures done. So I finally finished editing them last night at about 1 so I thought I would post a few of my favorites. I absolutely LOVE actually most of them. Claire and Porter were troopers for sure and we actually got quite a few great shots of Claire- which was probably one of the hardest kids I have shot. But we love her for her little personality.

Erica, I hope you like them. There are so many that now is the hard part......picking.

Love you,

Tanis