beautiful fall day

A quick tuttle update on a beautiful fall afternoon! It is really too gorgeous to be inside on the computer, but Heath is napping and Ella Brooks could use a little down time before we head back outside...



We're doing very well!

Today we're packing for our annual trek to the Waterford Fair in my Nana's town in northern Virginia. The rain has stopped, hopefully, and we look forward to a great weekend away with my family.



It has been a few weeks of visits from family and friends--what fun! Uncle Jamie returned from Haiti for a few days tacked onto the end of his trip to southern Georgia representing MFK (Meds/Food for Kids, the organization he is working with in Haiti) for a Georgia peanut convention/farm tour. Our dear friends, Pen, Lindsey and Wells Peery came through town too, so we got to have a good short visit with them (and a little dance party for the kids!!). Bob came after school the same weekend and stayed for a couple days, and a great treat was that Aunt Diane (Bob's sister) was able to come down from Salem, VA, to see us as well. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Robert came over for dinner...My Aunt Nancy was able to come visit on Monday--and we got to have a good visit with she and my cousins Margaret and Rodger at my mom's house too. Then, Aunt Jo (Strow's sister) came into town on Thursday and we had a fun lunch date with her too. Wow--does that make you tired? During that weekend/week, several people said, "wait, you mean you have a different family member here now?" It was actually a FABULOUS time with everyone!!! Never a dull moment in the Tuttle household, that is for sure.

Our friend Rodger Nishioka was here doing a "spiritual enrichment weekend" at Westminster (he had been signed up for this for a couple years, actually), so we got to see him and catch up on all the fun happenings at columbia. Even Rodger was unable to escape the lovely Tuttle evening dance party...although he only had to watch.



Perhaps we are also getting all our visits in now as we prepare for flu season. Apparently the flu is running rampant around this area. Reality has begun to sink in that it is about time to start to hunker down for flu season with Heath. That is particularly tricky because the sweet guy is about the biggest extrovert I have met in quite some time!! (and you know me--that is saying something!) He doesn't meet a stranger. I just have to figure out how to say, "please don't touch the sweet toddler who is trying to talk to you..." We probably won't stay in quite as much as last winter, but we've already stopped taking him to church or to pick EB up at school or putting him in too many shopping carts.



Ella Brooks taught Heath how to say, "poo poo," for which I am so grateful (very sarcastic). Ah, older siblings. It is actually pretty funny, so I am trying to master the fine art of the "parent sternly saying "no" and hiding how tickled your child has made you. Thankfully, right now he is pretty obsessed the word "ball," so I can distract him easily. He has a VERY LOUD VOICE and yells at people from our screened porch. He is pretty hilarious. I wish you all could see him in action.



That, believe it or not, is my update. No sickness, no heart caths. I hope all updates can be as normal (well, its all relative when it comes to our family, but you know what I mean...)



love, carrie