2008 Neilson Family News

MARCH 2008

The Peacocks

Howdy from Herriman. Here is some quick news from us. We had a fun month in February with tubing at Mom and Dad’s, Valentines, mini-golfing, Heidi & Warren’s Farewells, and doing lots of organizing of our house. We also had a great time going to the zoo last week with Mom, Dad and Miki. It was a lot of fun! Some not so fun moments were the ridiculous issues with our car including having to have a new transmission put in only to have our car completely stall on I-15 three days later. After having it towed to the shop and fixed, we hopefully won’t have any further issues. Another not fun moment came on the night before Valentines when Rob was literally stuck in the snow in Lehi during a freak blizzard. It was quite scarey and he ended up having to run a half a mile in waste deep snow to a co-worker’s home. He couldn’t see anything and luckily a man in a truck saw him and picked him up and took him where he needed to go. It was a blessing that he was okay. He ended up having to spend the night and said it was one of the most freaky things you have ever seen to see all of the cars just parked and buried on Alpine highway. It took them all day to get cars uncovered and cleared out. We were happy he made it home and had a warm place to sleep. We’ve also had a few bouts of the flu/cold bugs and are ready for warm weather! The kids are doing well. We had parent teacher conferences and they all received lots of praise from all of their teachers. They are doing great in school and we are so proud of them. Cayden was excited this month to receive his Bobcat rank in scouts. He was so proud to get his new badge and loves scouts. He is working hard to get his wolf. He is such a sweet kid and is working hard to always make the right choices. Ashlee is doing great. She keeps us on our toes as always. A few weeks ago the toilet had a clog and she was upset that the water wouldn’t flush so she apparently just kept trying over and over and over to flush it. The end result...about 3 gallons of water all over the floor that then seeped into the carpets before we found the mess. She also broke her glasses at school and apparently told everyone that she looked "hideous" without them. Her other fun saying this month with the cold weather is that she is "frozen salad!" (Instead of frozen solid). She is quite a character. McKell’s biggest news is that she finally lost her front top tooth! It took a long time but she finally managed to get it out and the tooth fairy visited that night. She and Ashlee are both very excited that their room is pretty much all done. They are working hard to keep it clean and organized. McKell is also excited that we now have new neighbors including a 6 year old little girl named Kennedy that she loves playing with. Sadie Jayne is growing like a weed! She can now sit up on her own and gives mommy loves. She also has found her love for "real" food and loves when we sneak her pancakes, bread, crackers, etc. Everything goes in her mouth right now! She is such a sweet little baby for the most part and her brother and sister adore her. Rob is doing well at work. He once again shocked our ward at the annual Elder’s Quorum party. Last year he did an uncanny imitation of Randy Jackson when we did our ward American Idol and this year the theme was around the "America’s Got Talent" theme. He got talked into doing the whole Dance from Napoleon Dynamite and had people literally falling off their chairs laughing. He had the whole dance down and we had him wear his whole Napoleon outfit, including moon boots, from Halloween. I am doing well keeping up with kids, primary, etc. I have decided to get back into doing my business again after a few months off. We will see how that goes.
Well, that is about it from us. We look forward to seeing you at Easter. Love ya!

The Quists
Hola!! From the Quist's
Here is our news for "Febrero". Oh this is going to be FUN!!! We'll learn spanish together!! WAHOO!!

Well, to start off the month, we celebrated Warren & Kaijsa's birthdays. Just FYI, they are almost exactly to the day, 10 years apart. Kaijsa took 2nd place in the Powder Puff derby. Her car was "The Midnight Flames". Yes, we thought we were done with pinewood derby's after Jakob left cub scouts, but oh no, we do powder puff in our ward!! Kaijsa had a lot of fun!!

We attended Ian's awards swim banquet. He did very well this year, and we are looking forward to more good times next year as a sophomore.

We had a great open house for Heidi & Warren for our ward and friends. We just had a casual get together at the church, and visited with friends. Our ward has been great to give support to us right now. We want to thank you all for coming on Sunday, to support Heidi & Warren as they spoke. It was a very good day for us, and we want to let you all know how much we love you all and appreciate your love and support right now. Thank you for helping with the food, making my load lighter!!
Warren and Paul were able to go and spend a day on the Provo River fly fishing before Warren left. They had a great time and enjoyed spending time together. Needless to say, we haven't focused much on anything else lately.
Well, this is very short, but our fucus is pretty self explanitory.
We will fill you in on Warren's setting apart & the MTC in next months news. We haven't heard from him yet, but we're confident that he is just happy and busy!!

Until next month!!
The Quist's

Mom & Dad

Dear Family,
It's difficult to realize that President Hinckley is not with us anymore. What a great man, a great Prophet, and a great friend to everyone. Probably none, except the Prophet Joseph have had such an influence on the Church and on the world. He will be missed.
And speaking of being missed, most of you probably already know this, but Neal Allen died. We went to his funeral and it was very good. He and Beverly had some trials in their life, as their oldest son was paralyzed from the waist down while he was playing Church basketball, and their second son lost an eye while helping Neal change a tire. And one of their daughter's has Lupis. Neal was head of security at the Jordan River Temple for several years.
You may also know that Mary (Mame) Mousley died. The old folks in Bluffdale are getting fewer and fewer.
We are thankful that prayers are answered and that Scott was not hurt when a car hit into his car while he was investigating an accident on I-80. The results could have been so much different. We hardly worry at all. And if you believe that.......
We enjoyed the traditional tubing party this year, this time held sliding from Sam's hill down in the back. Everyone seemed to have a good time and the weather cooperated so that we could enjoy the time. Glad that Jason was able to make it.
We enjoyed going down to Trafalga with Tiffany and the kids and Marci and Rob and the kids and Miki for a round of miniature golf. We won't mention the scores. It was a lot of fun even if we all have a little hearing loss due to the loud music.
And one more congratulations to Heidi and Warren on their mission calls. And to Paul and Miriam for their teaching and encouragement. As the saying goes, this is one of the great "defining moments" in their lives. We envy and are jealous of them for the experience that they have ahead of them. Their talks in Sacrament Meeting were great, as was the whole day. They will be in our thoughts and prayers.
The Temple calling continues to go well. It is a joy to be around the workers there and we enjoy so much working with the patrons who come there.
That's about all from here. We love you all and appreciate you help and support.

Love, Mom and Dad
ps here is some "humor" from Dad

DAFFYNITIONS:
ARBITRATOR: A cook who leaves Arby's to work at McDonalds
AVOIDABLE: What a bullfighter tries to do.
BERNADETTE: The act of burning a mortgage.
BURGLARIZE: What a crook sees.
COUNTERFEITERS: Workers who put kitchen cabinets together.
ECLIPSE: What a barber does for a living.
EYEDROPPER: A clumsy ophthalmologist.
HEROES: What a guy in a boat does.
LEFTBANK: What the robber did when his bag was full of money.
MISTY: How golfers create divots.
PARODOX: Two physicians.
PARASITES: What you can see from the Eiffel Tower.
PHARMACIST: A helper on a farm.
POLARIZE: What penguins see with.
RELIEF: What trees do in the Spring.
SELFISH: What the owner of a seafood store does.
SUDAFED: A lawsuit brought against a government official.
HUCKABEE: Seeing how far you can throw a wasp.

The Monsons

Hi All!!A very brief update of the past couple of months for our family!! Bruce & I keep busy, mostly with our church and Institute responsibilities. The highlight of this past month was having Elder Ballard visit for our Stake Conf. and getting the opportunity to meet him! What a great and humble man...so down to earth, yet such a spiritual giant! In one of the sessions of conf. he told us that grandparents are the "memory makers!" Bruce and I plan to live up to that title! Our Stake RS presidency had the opportunity to fix a dinner for him and for the Bishops of our stake and their wives. It was a special honor. I also had the opportunity to prepare a sack lunch for him. (Just in case you ever need to know, according to his secretary, he really enjoys a good tuna salad sandwich and dill pickles!). We've had some really great weather here recently. The other day I walked out the front door and the sun was shining, there were 4 deer in the front yard grazing, 2-3 robins were hopping across the lawn, and birds were chirping in the trees!! I felt like Snow White!! I was tempted to burst into song but fortunately was able to refrain!!Ang, Scott, & Andrew have recently all had the flu bug, but are now doing much better and life is back in full swing for them. Fortunately Katie didn't get it. Of course this is a hectic time of year for Scott as a busy accountant and auditor. (Tax reminder!!) Ang also stays busy being a mom, and enjoys Elise's company on nights when Scott and Justin are working/studying. Andrew is doing great in pre-school and enjoys entertaining Katie and making her laugh. Katie is growing and has learned to maneuver the stairs and stand up to furniture. Brian is busy with school, dating, and singing. We recently got a singing phone call from him and a few of his friends. Evidently they had been singing to various girls' apartments and wanted us to be part as well! It was great!Derek & Melanie had fun celebrating Derek's birthday this past month. Thanks to mom and dad for inviting them up for a special birthday dinner, and "thanks" to all who were there and shared the memories of the Board of Education and BYU ring experiences with them!! Melanie said she received quite an education!Elise is still working for USU doing evaluations, interviews, and recommendations for the "Birth to Three" program. When Justin has classes in the evening she becomes "Auntie" and enjoys spending time at the Burtons. Justin is very busy in school and is preparing for the MCAT (a huge medical test to qualify for med school). He'll take approx. 14 practise tests, each 3-5 hours in length (real brain fryers!), before he takes the real one in about a month! On other fronts...we're glad to hear that Jason is home and doing better day by day..."love you man!!" Also "bon voyage" and good luck to Warren, and to Heidi next month as they enter the MTC and embark on the wonderful and spiritual journey of serving missions!! Hope all is going well for everyone! We miss and love you ALL!!