With All Our Love

Dear Tanner,

What a fun letter! I laughed and laughed at your April Fool's joke. I do think you got the better end of the deal. Sleeping in versus waiting in the dark and cold for a long time? But. NEVER, ever, never leave your companion... We are glad you got extra sleep while still being obedient ;-) And your Easter testimony is beautiful.

Sis. Tavares posted a few pictures of your zone conference. It was so fun to see you!

 Monday it was good to have everybody back where they belonged: school. Having two weeks of spring vacation wrecked havoc on the house. Although I got a mammoth portion of the cleaning done this day I still wasn't done until the end of the week ;-)

Tuesday morning was hard to go to speech, as once you leave the house your day seems done. But we went. Miller doesn't have to many more sessions before his teacher is done for the year. He's made tremendous progress this year. He's gone from the diagnosis of having severe reading difficulties to being able to finally identify all his letters, and their sounds, to sounding out words to spell. Yeah! I think he's just a late bloomer, but we'll see if any of his teacher's fancy jargon labels him later on. Breyer too gets a little help. She is a little behind developmentally, but that might be from having a lot of brothers speak for her versus having speech issues. But either way, she's adorable pronouncing "her words," and is very cooperative. For cub scouts we had a grandfather make us kits for our toolbox requirement. What a great project! They were big and heavy!

Wednesday morning after seminary was over, Larry knocked on our back door. Startled me just a little. He asked me to come out on the deck. All I could think of was that we had hurled a baseball at his house again, and wrecked his siding. He pointed to the rabbit cage, and said he thought the rabbit had gotten out. Sure enough, the cage door was open, and the rabbit gone. Then he said he thought perhaps the rabbit had been run over by a car, and he had picked it up and had it in the back of the truck. Poor Thumper. Larry asked if we wanted it buried in the back yard or up at his father's farm. I chose the latter. I dreaded telling Sawyer, and didn't mention it that morning. Later that day after school, Miller found the cage opened, and we began the slippery slope towards sadness and tears.

I decided to visit my parents this weekend, and spent the majority of my "free time" this week getting ready. So in between the usual seminary lessons, wash, dinner preparations, cleaning house, chasing Breyer and Miller, I gathered and packed.

We left Friday after school and drove halfway, with Sawyer, Miller and Breyer. What a crew! Breyer begged and begged to get out of her car seat, Miller begged and begged not to squeeze the lemon into a bottle, and Sawyer begged and begged for us to drive faster! Hunter, Porter and Cooper were left behind, with an invitation to dinner each night we're away, a fridge full of food, and a driver (Hunter) for practices, meets, games, and conference. We hope they smile, love, and laugh with each other. 

Saturday morning we left the hotel a little later than we wanted and got to Northboro by 1:30, so we missed a little of the first session. But the food was good, your grandparents' and Aunt Shirley's company great, and the sweet message of the gospel superb.

Dad and Grampy got to go to the priesthood session together, and be served a yummy hamburger dinner. They were joined by Bro. Bach. They all came home and spoke of how wonderful the talks had been.

Today Aunt Becky drove down with her family, and Uncle Roger and three children came over. Aunt Jenny is in Utah with Sarah visiting all the Utah colleges. Miller thoroughly enjoyed Mason. "Mom, he has a "M" name, and his hair is the same color as mine!"  It's been fun watching Breyer become reacquainted with her eastern family, and be amazed at how everyone keeps growing and changing in such a short time!

Of course Uncle Aaron had the semi-annual run around the yard with Sophie. I think because she was distracted by Gracie, a few of the runners were able to beat her. And Uncle Roger got bumped out of the race by Uncles Aaron and Steven turning the corner at the same time. Good times!

Aunt Becky brought her four-layer carrot cake, and we got to sing Happy Birthday to Grampy. He had a BIG bite!

I thought it would be fun to have a few of your beautiful cousins send you a quick note. I'm laughing just reading them now, so I'm sure they'll put a smile on your face:

My Dear Cousin,
I'm sorry that its taken me to write so long, but my life has been full of chaos.  I miss you and I love seeing all the pictures of you on your mission in Brazil!!  Parker Ayer received his mission call to Brazil also and his mission interlaps with yours.  Anyways, I miss you and I'm excited for your success in your mission!! I promise you will receive a letter from me soon!! I love you <3 p=""> Love Kayla

HI TANNER.
Thanks for your letter.  You are very wise in the ways of the colleges.  I hope that your mission is going fabulously and that you're doing lots of great missionary stuff.  There's a missionary from my ward who is from Brazil.  Don't know which part, but I do know that he is flipping awesome--JUST LIKE YOU. hehe. Hope you love your mission and we will see you as soon as you come home! Miss and love you!
-Sara (H.)

TANNER,
HI HI HI HI HI!!!! how are you? its Stevie by the way. I can't wait to see you soon in what like a year?? well any whoo you remember Parker right? he got his mission call to Brazil too just like you!! except his mission is south of yours. Well I think that i'll write you soon because i have been slacking a little, well i guess a lot, but you will soon get an email or a letter from me its so good to see your siblings, namely miller, breyer, and sawyer. Did you know that kayla gets her mission call after she graduates high school. its going to be soooooo exciting! hopefully she goes somewhere cool like tonga or russia. so i will go now. anna will write you a email now. have fun on your mission and tell your companion i said hi even if he doesn't know who i am!
-YOUR FAV COUSIN< stevie!!

dear tanner,
hola. my name is anna.i am 11 years old. hows life? my favorite sport is basketball. i play aau.(a bball thing.) your siblings are playing with our toys and they are making cool lego things. easter was really great and there was a lot of chaos.sophie,my dog, is super crazy and she misses you.of course i miss too.how is brazil? i read your moms blog and i see all of your letters. i hope i see you soon. i love you.<3 p=""> love,
  Anna Hutchins

I look forward to hearing about your conference summary! I loved Elder Ellis and Elder Clayton's talks. Right now, I'm leaning towards your grandfather's stories.

While listening to Elder Kopischke, he stopped conference (DVR), and recounted Porter's picnic table surprise. He was building an enclosure around the oil tank, and had tools and wood all over a picnic table. He gave Porter a few leftover pieces of wood and nails, and told him to build with those. He was gone for about 45 minutes and when he came back found over thirty pieces of wood nailed securely to the benches and top of the table. Elder Kopischke said, "The feeling of being accepted by someone we love motivates us. It increases our sense of self worth." Grampy motivated Porter to work harder and better than three year old boys should be able to do when given a hammer and a few old nails. Grampy's love that Porter felt motivated Porter to work extra hard.

I hope you can feel of our love. That our love for you helps motivate you to work harder, increase your sense of self worth. Knowing you're a loved son, and a loved son of Heavenly Father, are all we have to really give you.

Love,

Mom and Dad