We've had major internet problems, and major computer problems, so every time I had time it wasn't working, so I haven't blogged for over a month. Here's the last letter to Nate with all the goods.
Elder Anderscott! I LOVE YOU~! How is the missionary with the secret superhero symbol on his underoos? I am going to make a bobble -head of you with 79% more bobble, and a superhero cape, and put it on the antannnae of my Big Mormon Wagon! Yes! And you can show the way, everwhere you go, we'll follow you...YES! That is what I'm going to do! We love your letters, we love your toes, we love how you floss your teeth, and put on your socks and say your prayers, and eat your sushi. We love everything about you, and not a day goes by that we don't miss you crazily. It is so fun to pray for your investigators. I am so grateful for your precious and exceptionally valiant example for the youngin's I'm puttin' all my fixin's on in this here's love shed. I love you.
We are doing great, swimming in blessings. I bet we don't even recognize or acknowledge 98% of the tender mercies that stream continually into our lives. I watch my children eat well, sleep safe, and spend time worrying about cell phones and 7x sugar intake, with no idea of the blessings, sacrifices, heritage and privilege in which they live. I am sure Heavenly Father looks down on my young innocent occasional gratitude with the same love and head-shaking. I want to much to continually increase my gratitude and pray for eyes to see His love more clearly.
Life is looney tunes, I'm sure you're shocked. The boys have been off track for nearly three weeks. The first week was dedicated to the geography bee, almost all of our spare minutes. It was a cool experience. The kids down there are so smart it's sick. They asked 8 questions to 100 kids, and anyone getting 8 right had an immediate place in the top 10, the 7's fought for four remaining places. One of the final rounds included pictures of bridges around the world. Not only do they have to know current physical geography, mountian ranges, rivers, passes, inlets, peninsulas, but they also must know cultural geography; money, religion, race, preferences, also ecomonic geography; major imports, exports, etc. and the HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHY, who may have ever owned any part of any island, country or waterway ever in the history of the world. They also have a current event section that covers anything that happened anywhere in the world in the last year. It was fun to be a part of. Both Grandma's and Grandpa's came down and the wild fam, and we had a good lesson and got our hinies whooped. Actually, he did pretty well, below average there, but better than I would have done. He had already made two cuts just to be there, so it was pretty cool. We got to see Angie the weekend before and that was so precious to me.
Last week was taken up with Joseph's job and our Easter Celebrations. Joseph was called back to the church, honestly I was shocked because he had a hard time holding still. He went back for 2 more days of voice-over work and another $100. He has become a popular little man in the house, as all of the children have great ideas of how he can spend his money. Our Easter was precious, though I wish I had done more. I have the most precious book called a Christ-centered Easter. You have come to some of our Jerusalem dinners. We followed the last week of the Savior's life in the scriptures, and had the feast of the passover. As parents, we try so hard to see the glimmer of testimony, gratitude and civility twinkle in their eyes. It was fun after our Passover dinner Annie said she wanted her next birthday to be a “Jesus” birthday, and dress up “like this” and act out Bethlehem. I can't describe the gratitude and joy I felt as three sets of grandparents sat around the table and bore their testimonies of the Savior. We pretended or “tended” that we were a family in Jerusalem trying to make up our mind about the Savior, so everyone told stories they had heard or seen about him for a long, precious sweet time. I was just in heaven. We watched the Lamb of God and had a sweet testimony meeting afterward.
The next day, Friday, we took all six kids up to help Jeff move offices.Jeff has been put in a new position as chairman of the Steering committee, which is all the forward energy of the company. He moved buildings and is near and reports directly to the CEO. We see this as a great blessing. It was so crazy that morning. Of course it took so long that all our messy hair no teeth brushed kids were still hauling things out of the office when people arrived at work. Jeff took them all to the Deli, (we chose a table outside as afar away from civilation as possible). It was a fun morning. That afternoon, I had the chance to do some service and tend someone else's kids for about 5 hours. It was supposed to be one hour, and I found myself getting frustrated because I felt like I had to get out and plant in my greenhouse, I was already so behind. I didn't realize until halfway through that the Lord had given me an opportunity to serve at the very hour when we commemorate his final and ultimate gift, those very hours when we commemorate the cross, and the agony of Gethsemane came back to Him and he gave everything, all of Himself, every possible gift of love that could be given, and here I was whining and selfish. I repented, cried, and sat down and played with the kids. Sometimes I wonder If I ever learn. I am still on lesson #1 in life.
Saturday was Chaelea's beautiful wedding. The Draper temple is so beautiful and the wedding was such an incredible experience. I am so excited and motivated to not be a member that doesn't must “run in, hurried, once in a while” but attends the temple consistently, not letting anything take priority over it. That is another thing I want to change about myself from conference. One of our favorite parts of the weekend is getting to hang out with Ella Bella and Kaden and their Mom and Dad. Ella loved the kitties. It was so fun to spend some time together.
I am mourning the end of our Spring off-track. The kids are going back Monday. I just love seeing their little faces as they are stealing each other's Easter candy, telling on each other, yelling, dribbling, drooling, fighting and picking their noses.
We loved general conference! I was walking around the house singing “I just got born! I'm brand new! It's not too late!” I love all of those hopeful, sweet joyous messages like “even if you give up on yourself, the Lord will never give up on you!” What a wondrous feast!
Coy was reminiscing the other day and remembering that he tried to fall asleep in Kindergarten because another kid fell asleep and his Mom came to get him. That kid is eating us out of house and home. He lives on the 1000 island or Catalina potato, 7 a day sometimes. He just finished the Glen Beck book. He has been so so cute with the kittens. We finally broke down and bought a new lawnmower. It's just a push, we're not buying a rider until the boys are all gone, so we've got 18 years on Seth. Anyway, Jeff brought it home and of course, didn't read the directions, and tried to use it, and it died every 30 seconds, and he was ready to take it back. Coy opened the directions and read “#1, turn the gas button to on”. He read through things, and mowed the whole lawn perfectly. We were razzin Dad pretty bad, it was funny. This was a week ago Saturday, the day we picked up our new 20,000 new bees. Ours had died from last year, so we're starting two new hives. I had to run to the store and get vanilla frosting. We covered the queen's home with frosting, and by the time she has eaten her way through it the other bees are settled in and ready to serve and groom her. It's pretty cool. That week the boys and I finished building the greenhouse. Mckay did all of the sawing and Coy did all of the drilling and put in all the screws, hinges and bolts. I was very proud of them, it was fun.I wish you could hear Spen, Mook and even Coy on the piano.
The other night we were reading our family book so all of the kids slept all over the floor in our room because we were at a really exciting part. It was SO FUNNY! First, Annie, sound asleep yells “Mom, are we going to take Brylea fishing with us?” I said, “I dont know” then she yells back “ask her Mom!” A few minutes later Spencer in a voice that would introduce a pro-boxer yells “Abduuuuuuuuuul!”. The next morning Mckay in his sleep said “I don't know what we're going to do with those carrots sticking out of your ears!” We were laughing about it later and Spen said that his Abdul dream was that all of his body parts could talk, but they all spoke a different language. That sounds like a very special kind of confused!
We miss you so much. There is nowhere I would rather you have you be, but this week we are trying to put together a one-man band for Mckay to be Bert in Mary Poppins. On the movie, Dick Van Dyke has a drum on the back that is hit with a mallet when he steps, , cymbals on the other side of the drum, and in front of his face he has a harmonica, trumpet and a bike horn that he plays with his cheek. He has one of those little accordians that you had that he plays. We will make something work. Mckay and Spencer can play the beginning of the song “100 years” (fifteen there's still time for you). It's so fun. I really want to get Spence in jazz piano with Nate the great when he gets home, and Mckay's looking forward to lessons on drums and everything else post mish. They are practicing in the meantime. Puberty is hitting Mooks hard, he is growing, sleepy, hungry, moody and occasionally grumpy. He is BYU obsessed, and is spending all of his money on BYU hats and shirts, drooling over the bookstore website. He's funny. He is one of the main dancer guys in the temple celebration at the Conference Center, and of course it will be broadcast. We had to threaten Coy to drop him off at every stake dance in the valley to get him to even be in the choir.
Spence is our Sports man. We are constantly telling him not to dribble in the house. We are in a basketball phase with all of the kids in the neighborhood. They are out at Laura's, Lucy's or Grandma Jello's hoop all the time it seems. Spen just finished up his second Basketball team series, he signed up again after Jr. Jazz. He really needs to be set free with chords, he is one that needs to play the piano by chords. I'm doing what I can, but it will be fun to have you teach him when you get home.
Joseph is such a wild man. Now he thinks he wants to get an agent and have an acting career. I don't know if we are going to support him in that or not. That is a hard world for moral and righteous living. I hope it's a phase that turns into maybe a hobby, but not a career. He's a crazy dude, and he is getting taller as well. His questions are a little more thoughtful and the dinnertime belching is down by about 3%. At least it's progress. A couple of days ago I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said "what I am now, famous!" We're a little worried about this one. He's going to homeschool next year.
Annie is another little attorney. She said the other day, “So, which one do you want me to get, braces or ears pierced?” I said “you don't need braces!” then she said “Okay, I'll get my ears pierced,” if that's how you want it....Mom.....Sweet Joseph plays barbies with her just to make her happy. She has very interesting outfits and a love hate relationship with gymnastics. We have a mat now, and she practices all the time, but sometimes when it's time to go to class she doesn't want to. She has a lot of questions right now about earth, heaven, life, babies, etc. The other day at dinnertime the boys were talking about cell phones, and how their cousin Scotty has one, and Mckay is so convinced that he needs one, and out of the blue Annie declares, “When we're resurrected, we're IMMORTAL, Claire taught me that.” She says a lot of cute things that make us laugh.
Seth is so so funny. He dances by tipping his head to one side our bouncing up and down as fast as he can. He can do all the actions to Popcorn Popping now, and he talks like crazy, we just can't understand what he is saying. He says this word that ends with a P, and he is trying so hard to get us to understand it, but we can't recognize it. He has this scream that is just horrid, it can melt the wax in anyone's ears instantly. All the kids were showing their six packs the other night (including Annie) and they decided that Seth has a one-pack. He's kind of on the skinny side, but he has a little bulgy tummy. He is into everything. He stands on the piano keys and dances, colors on the walls, gets my lipstick out and puts it on, kisses the dog and when he's done eating he just starts throwing his food as fast as he can. This last antic he has learned produces immediate attention, and he is into immediate attention.He drags around the toilet plunger or the can opener and loves to put everything in the toilet. He is such a little joy.
We finished Percy Jackson, book 4, and we are going to go at midnight to get the fifth book next week, that is one of the funnest family books we've ever read. Percy is a half mortal, half Olympian God, and he goes on these quests and has all these adventures here in our mortal world but none of us can see it. It is so well-written, imaginitive and funny.
Okay, so now I'm jumping on this old unsent letter to catch up and send it off. This last week we had testing in downtown Salt Lake 2 days for Coy's homeschool, on Wednesday we had an Arbor Day assembly for the school that I was in charge of. Smokey the Bear came and a representative from the Utah Division of Foresty, Fire and State Lands. I taught preschool right afterward, then I had pack meeting that night. Friday we had a hugemongous Birthday Bash for Jeff's 40th. It only took all day even with Jayna, Grandma, Chaelea, Merrilea and Anna helping me to shop, and CLEAN. (90% clean, 10% shop)I hope it was fun for him. We had junk food to end all junk food, Jeff trivia, a video we made for him, a poster of “It's a Wonderful Life” with all of our faces, and about 70 people over. We stayed up until 1 in the morning having one of those awesome talks where we just go over everything and everyone feels so much better about life. After that on Saturday we only had basketball, volleyball, temple celebration practice, ward clean up, dance pictures, a bid for the downstairs apartment and a ward movie night on Saturday we didn't make it to. Today I spoke in church,a nd I spent about 7 hours getting it together and I did not feel very good about it. Add to that, we had two kids come down with pneumonia. It has been really really relaxing week. I find myself definitely convinced that I don't even have 5 loaves and 2 fishes to throw into this thing, I often feel that my offering looks more like a tuna patty and cracker, but I wonder, which patty, which cracker? Of all the choices, causes, people to love and help, what is best, what is most important? Ritz and salmon? Club and herring? Cheese crackers with albacore? One of my biggest challenges is prioritizing. I'm tired today. Even though it is Sunday, I'm so in the mood to knock back a whole sleeve of Oreos and watch an old episode of Walker Texas Ranger. But I won't because it's SUNDAY!
Anyway, enough about us, how are you? It is so FUN AND INSPIRING to read your letters. I love you so much. It is so fun to hear Annie remind us every single prayer to pray for you and Will and your investigators.

Another entire week has flown by. This is ridiculous! This letter is going out tomorrow no matter what! This last week we have been working on the One Man Band a lot. Bentley will be over here today to try to help us, we need to figure out how to get the mallet to hit the drum when Mckay lifts his leg, anyway. It was my date with Joseph this week to "American Fork Idol" at the Desert Star. It was SO SO FUNNY! We need to start a place like that, a variety, comedy, talent show, open but pre-scheduled stage and then do a one-hour parody play like that. It is just so fun to go laugh and laugh, so healthy. We went to Jen's 80's play last night, that was so fun, too. I had home-school group at my house Thursday, and Tuesday I had the blessed opportunity to go to the conference center and be filled in on all the details of the temple celebration. I am just a driver,but one entire hour of the meeting was filled with a general authority talking about temples. The promises he read were absolutely amazing.
Dear Nate,
When you're resurrected you're immortal! I'm in gymnastics, I can do a back walkover. I go to dance and that's where I learned all my moves, and the day after dance it was gymnastics, and that's when I learned my back walkover. Sethy pulls my hair and one day I said “My hair is CLOSED!” My Dad had a birthday. We had these plans that we're going to go to Lagoon (surprise to me) and we're going to go to a hotel (another surprise to me). Well, spencer jumped and pinched Joseph twice and three girls were in front of him and he like “ow, ow!” and the three girls turned their backs and one of them did a kissy face to him because it was true he told me it. Joseph plays barbies with me.
Love, Annie
Dear Nate,
I got another check today. Dad gave it to me. It's spring now, like all the flowers in our front yard are bloomed. My job's cool. I get to speak for a radio station at a place where they make movies, like all the church movies. And soon I'm going to be famous. I get to speak about Jesus Christ on a radio station, it's awesome. How's everything going on your mission? I love your letters, they are funny. By, love you, Joseph
Dear Nate,
We finished Jr. Jazz. We lsot the last game to a really really good team. All of their players are really good, only 3 or ours are really good. Easter was fun, I got tons and tons and tons of candy. It was fun at Easter. We had lots of fun on Thursday when we dressed up as Jews and talked all about Jesus, that was fun. Dad's birthday was fun, too. We invited lots of people. It was kind of like a wedding reception when people can come and go, something like that. When we were off track we just hung out at our home and had fun most of the time. I'm playing basketball all the time, you have to see how much I've improved, maybe. I'm getting pretty good on my waveboard. I've gotten really good at the piano. We get on our waveboards and we hold on to the dog and he runs and we get tons of speed. We can do it on the rollerblades, too, and it works the same. One time I got so much speeed I had to let go of the dog. Another time I had to run into someone's tree, and another time I fell backwards on my head. I'm reading my scriptures and I'm almost done, I'm on like the last one until I am done with the book. I'm getting good feelings. I love when Ammon cuts off the arms, and then when Samuel the Lamanite stands on the wall and can't get hit by any arrows. I love you, Nate, see ya, by, Spence
Dear Nate,
How's it goin? Things have been moving a mile-a-minute around here. We haven't had normal church for the last 3 weeks! First it was General Conference, then Easter, then Stake Conference. Also, we've been rebuilding the greenhouse, our internets been down for 2 weeks, and my dads birthday party was last Friday. We stayed up til 1 in the morning at the party and I had a huge multistake choir practice at 8:30 A.M. the next day. Our stake is doing the