With All Our Love

Dear Tanner,

We hope you had a wonderful week. Ours seems to have been very busy, but when I sit down to type nothing in particular comes to mind. Other than the fact that a van full of your extended family came to visit us!!!! Aunt Becky braved the highways, and fourteen hours in the car, all with seven kids, to visit us during their spring break. She came with all her kids plus two of Uncle Aaron's - Sarah and Emma. What a joy it has been to have them here. They arrived after dinner on Saturday, went to church with us Easter Sunday, and have kept us busy thus far.

Saturday night and Sunday morning were chaotic in ensuring each body was bathed. Sixteen people with two bathrooms almost necessitates a list. It was a beautiful Easter service. We used our favorite tree to get all your cousins in one picture! My favorite part of the service was your Primary aged brothers singing "Gethsemane," a new song as of last year. Honestly the best part of church was singing time in Primary. Becky brought Joe in, and while the kids sang, he sang. Even when it was a "boy" sing, he sang. Not during the girl sing. He LOVES music! You'll love him. Music gets Joe all excited and he wriggles and bounces, and you have to either get him calmed down or turn the music off. He's been a delight. I loved going into the room in the morning, and playing our old records for him to listen to while he was hooked up for his feeds.

After church we hosted a small egg hunt with Larry's grandchildren. I hid a $10 bill in an egg, and Stevie was the lucky winner that picked it up. Breyer declared herself the winner (?) ;-) Your cousins are very enjoyable indeed, and we laugh so much. They like to entertain, and if not talking, are very busy outside. The fire pit has gotten a lot of use. They used our large exercise balls outside for a massive dodge ball game. Hunter and Cooper set up the big tent and have been sleeping outside every night.

Monday Miller stayed home from school to entertain mostly Emma, and Stevie and Sarah. Dad took the rest to the National Corvette Museum in bowling green, KY. It was a long drive, but Kaleb was so excited to finally go! That will entail a post all by itself, but here's an appetizer for next week's postings: 

Sawyer's baseball game was attended by everyone who didn't go to Bowling Green, but only Emma watched the game with me. She was interested in seeing how I scored the game. He had a tough time at bat, with a couple of strike-outs, but had a solid triple. And he plays a spectacular short-stop (he wasn't pitching this game). The coach loves that he is such a natural leader on the field, and always backs up the third on throws, and second base when in play. He made a leaping catch while running backwards and came up with the catch for the out. A few of the kids hung out at the park near the ball fields, and Becky coaxed these two kiddos to take the leap. It's a great picture. They got along fabulously, and by the end of their stay, Breyer was singing songs from her book, and he was hanging with the stuffed animals and listening. Too bad these cousins aren't closer!

Emma had the best quote of the day. She came in the house late Monday afternoon, and flopped on the couch and said, "I wish I had a baby brother to play with. He'd keep me in shape!" Miller had her playing all his sports, soccer, baseball, frisbee, basketball...he kept her moving from one side of the house to the other but she had fun. She said her favorite time was in the morning when Sawyer and Miller both would go into her bed to wake her up. She noticed that none of the older teenagers wanted to play with Sawyer and Miller so she took it upon herself to do so. They love her dearly. They want to sit with her in the car, sit with her at the table, and have piggy back rides by her as they go upstairs to brush their teeth.

While we were busy with these activities in Ohio your Aunts Jenny and Rachael were working the water station at mile marker 19. Aunt Jenny shared this awesome story about the winner of the men's division, who is shown below. His name is Meb Keflezighi. He's a 38 year old resident of California. His official winning time was 2:08:37. He was at the 2013 marathon as a spectator. He was so moved by everything that happened, that he vowed on that very day to train to WIN the 2014 Boston Marathon for the victims of the bombing. He worked HARD for 365 days, and he came back with the names of the four victims written in each of the four corners of his bib, and WON. His is a story of resiliency and determination. He's the first American man to win the marathon since 1983. Such a great story! Frankie's mother ran as well, and Aunt Jenny caught her in action.

Tuesday Sawyer stayed home from school to entertain the cousins. We took them to the local library for story time, where I introduced them to the librarians as my New Hampshire clan, and put them all on computers. Then we traveled to Spring Hill cemetery to see the memorial to the victims of the Marshall plane crash. A few of your cousins have yet to see "We Are Marshall," so it was good to help them understand the story. Then we were off to HillBilly Hotdogs where Kaleb attempted eating the homewrecker hot dog, with three pounds of hot dog alone, in 12 minutes, for a free tee shirt. This too requires its own blog, but here's another appetizer to get you ready for next week:

After our adventures in the backcountry, we took the whole gang to the honors math club induction ceremony that Hunter was conducting. Nothing like walking in three minutes late, with the gang, and having everyone look your way! Good thing your cousins can hold their own. This too will be posted sometime this week! It's been crazy around here. Surely you remember all the extra activities for seniors and end-of-the year activities for everyone else! It's that time of the year again.

Miller had a game tonight, and Becky, Emma and Brady came to watch. It wasn't as exciting as some of his other games but they saw him bat a few times, and play in his pitcher spot. He didn't disappoint. His coach, in reference to his last game, posted on Facebook how much he loves Miller. He calls him his human vacuum cleaner! as a ball doesn't get by him.

Since Miller had a game, I delegated my weekly cub scouts to another parent. But Larry still wanted his date with Breyer, so he took Sawyer and went fishing with her. They caught a LOT of fish! The lake had just been stocked with trout, and she caught a few, as did Sawyer. How appropriate that her first fish caught was pink! She loved the sparkling rainbows on the trout. I will also be posting these pictures later this week. Larry was tickled "pink" that Breyer would retrieve the worms for them out of the worm cup, but would not touch the fish. She would nudge them back into the water with her toe (more pictures later!).

I thought you might enjoy this comment left on the blog: "Amy Jo, thanks for the note on Elder Anderson's blog. It's great to see your son's perspective on his mission and to see my son mentioned. He has mentioned your son as well and really enjoys the missionaries he gets to do splits with. Thanks again!"

Also, for your housing application, we need a copy of your drivers license, as well as a written, signed statement saying we have your permission to sign your application. You'll probably need to send those ASAP. I'll try to pay the fee to help hold your application until we receive both of these documents. Thank you very much!

I found this church news article I thought was very interesting. "President Uchtdorf, Other Faith Leaders Meet With President Obama on Immigration." WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today reaffirmed its position on immigration as the White House met with religious leaders to discuss immigration reform. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the First Presidency of the Church was among invited leaders from various religious faiths to meet with President Obama and administration officials.Repeating the Church’s long-standing position on immigration laws, President Uchtdorf said that public officials should create and administer laws that reflect the best of our aspirations as a just and caring society, including not only immigration but securing religious freedom and liberties around the globe. “Such laws will properly balance love for neighbors, family cohesion and the observance of just and enforceable laws,” he said. President Dieter Uchtdorf is himself a German immigrant and U.S. citizen. He was a refugee in World War II and has personally experienced the hardship that many immigrants face today.

Your father found a new advertising gimmick by KFC we thought funny. For $20 you can order the drumstick corsage. Everything is delivered to your door except the meat, and that's represented by a coupon. The commercial shows a girl going in for a "kiss," and instead turns her cheek and takes a bite out of her chicken leg. Pretty funny! We were trying to convince your cousins going to the prom this was the way to go!

I found this picture of Evan on Facebook - just thought you might enjoy seeing him in action at West Point ;-)

We have been reading in 3 Nephi 27, and I thought of you as a missionary in the service of the Lord. At the beginning of the chapter it says, "And it came to pass that as the disciples of Jesus were journeying and were preaching the things which they had both heard and seen, and were baptizing in the name of Jesus, it came to pass that the disciples were gathered together and were united in mighty prayer and fasting...and Jesus said unto them: What will ye that I shall give unto you? Again at the beginning of chapter 28 it says, "What is it that ye desire of me?" And as the Savior truly understands He said, "...all this will I do because of the thing which ye have desired of me, for ye have desired that ye might bring the souls of men unto me..."

Have a wonderful week! Know we love you! We look forward to hearing about this week's adventures!

Love,

Mom and Dad