JUNE 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELISE ON JUNE 2!!

The McBrides

Hello all:
Yes, the McBride family is BACK!!! Love the little lady, but today is the first day Lexi starts her summer stay in Utah, and I actually find myself finishing a complete thought! Now if Ringo would just stop playing her obsessive in-and-out game with the door! Okay. Since the McBride’s haven’t made news since December, I’ll just hit the highlights. Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, President’s Day were a smashing success! But that Civil Rights Day…not so much. Our local boy John McCain is still squirming because of his vote against making a national holiday for Dr. King. So us white folk are just happy we were given the day off.

Round 3 of the McBride Easter Eggs-travaganza was insanity at its finest. We had Shawn and Heather + Kids, all of my kids + Brandon’s friend, and big Brian, who joined us from the armpit of Arizona. The weather was perfect as was the swimming and fun. We are thrilled with the annual improvement of Mary’s maturity. Less items broken, less screaming by Heather, and less lock-jaw and pacing from Shawn. J Highlights always include an evening at Cheesecake Factory, swimming at night just to warm up by the fire pit, and watching the athletic and comedic skills of everyone drowning each other in the annual vicious game of pool basketball. And I am proud to announce that after our Easter weekend, we have a new American Idol addict in Brian. Yes!

Just as Brandon did in February during Super Bowl, Austin came down in April to stay with Lexi so I could go to the annual Girls Beach Trip to Newport Beach. Lexi had a great time, and those boys’ patience never thins. They are fabulous with that little girl.

Speaking of fabulous boys, both of them did incredibly well in school this past semester and made their momma proud! Austin is a sushi chef at one of the premier sushi restaurants in Salt Lake, Takashi. It’s a local favorite of many of the Jazz. Brandon works down the street from Jazz headquarters at Iggy’s Bar & Grill where I’m sure he puts on an act of comedy for every table. Brandon is still performing with Kid Theodore and has taken off where Austin left a few months back.

Now about us girls: Madi is still pulling straight A’s and recently was awarded the Presidential Recognition award at her junior high. Her vibrant-crazy attitude has won over her friends, teachers, and dance teachers. She made JV Cheerleader at Cottonwood High next year, although she isn’t loving the summer conditioning! Lexi just finished her senior year, but will continue to go at least another year at Desert Mountain High School so she can take advantage of their Life Skills program, aka job placement. She will also participate in graduation next year when the majority of her friends do. Lex just finished her last week working at Wal-Mart and is learning that it’s a bad idea to text message on the job. Somehow, her sweet smile helps her get out of the stickiest situations.

Work is going well for me, and living in one of the cities hit the hardest by plummeting real estate prices, I’m very grateful to have a job that has not been affected. I’m also happy to report that while most homes around me have dipped dramatically, mine seems to be holding its value through the storm. While many are suffering, our client Wal-Mart is having a banner year in sales. That’s what cheap pricing will do for ya in tough times. We also just brought on Ace Hardware as a client, which I love. Good people! These store owners all remind me of Jack Webster. Salt of the earth and always smell like horse feed and metal nails. And tomorrow morning, I will be attending an event on the governor’s lawn as a VIP guest during the roll-out of Arizona’s quarter! Mom, I will definitely get you a quarter fresh off the mint – literally! I was fortunate to do the PR for this event, and it’s been fun to watch the whole process. Arizona is the 48th state, leaving only Hawaii and Alaska to get their quarters. Theirs are coming this month as well.

No new love interests worth mentioning (or worth a second date,) so I can’t give you any tidbits of gossip other than to say that the guy from the Suns game is a coke-head, the pro-golfer who accosted me in the Starbucks parking lot is a bald and fat narcissist, and that freak guy who stalked me at Fish Lake LAST YEAR (you know who I mean) sent me a card inviting me to the Kenny Chesney concert, which of course for him was FREE!!

Happy summer to you all! Lexi is in Utah for the next 4-5 weeks. If you need a babysitter, she would love it! I am also hoping to get up there for a weekend at some point. If not, I hope to see you all at Fish Lake. I’ll try to leave all coke-heads, narcissists and stalkers in Scottsdale.

Loves,
Mel and Family


CONGRATULATIONS TO ELISE AND JUSTIN ON THEIR NEW ARRIVAL TO COME IN DECEMBER!

The Peacocks

Hello from beautiful Herriman! We are happy to say that things have actually returned to some semblance of order here in our home after the benefit event for Nate. Unfortunately, I am still dealing with "Mt Washmore" - my laundry project after not having time for laundry for 2 weeks but it is slowly dwindling down. We were saddened to hear of Uncle Cutter dying. What a great man he was. Some of my favorite memories I have of him were of him tickling my knee to see if I had a boyfriend when I was little, always calling me "honey" but pronouncing it "Hoh-ney", and just listening to him tell stories with that wonderful southern drawl and great laugh. He will be missed. We ended our big soccer season with Cayden and McKell. Cayden is all signed up and ready to go for next year...McKell wasn’t so excited about soccer so we are going to try to find a good dance class for her in the fall. We are so proud of both of them and the great work they did in soccer. We are now focusing on the HUGE project of getting our backyard finished. It is quite a daunting task, but one we are determined to get done this summer. I am working on learning how to do a pondless waterfall in the backyard so hopefully that will work out. We are also nearing the end of the school year with only a few days to go. I’m not sure I am ready for this big adjustment, but we will adjust sooner or later. The kids are excited to start swim lessons again and do some fun summer activities. We also hope to actually squeeze in some family trips. We had fun watching the big Herriman rodeo fireworks. This is a favorite family tradition with the kids as we all wear our pajamas, bundle up in blankets, and eat popcorn on the trampoline while watching the fireworks. Sadie joined us this year and was fascinated with the whole thing. Rob is enjoying work and has enjoyed having his wife back. We have just hung out like our college days watching movies, playing games, etc. We will be celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary this month! He is a huge help getting the yard done. I am trying to juggle work, primary, FHE groups, Mommy duty, and all sorts of other fun things. My business is going really well, it is now just a matter of finding the time to work, especially with the kids being out of school this week. I have enjoyed having this alone time each day with just Sadie. But I have a lot of fun things planned for the summer that I am excited about. Cayden has had a busy month. He did great in soccer and has also been working on his scouting, skateboarding, and biking skills. He has been such a trooper this month with getting his spacing appliance on his top teeth. He will get braces mostly likely in August. He also had to have a tooth pulled which I know I was more anxious about than him. Our pediatric dentist is a saint and Cayden didn’t feel a thing! He just had the laughing gas and that was it. He couldn’t feel the shot, or when they pulled the tooth out. What a brave guy he is. He has enjoyed going to the new skate park by our house with Rob and can’t wait to be out of school, although he will miss it. Ashlee has had a very trying month. We attribute this mostly to the fact that she hasn’t had glasses for the past 3 weeks. Unfortunately, she broke both pair of glasses and because we order them out of state, it takes a while to get them in. We usually have a back up pair so it is no big deal, but because both were broken, she has been without glasses for a long time. It is amazing how this has affected her behavior and it has been a very difficult month for us. We are hoping with the return of the glasses, she will be back to doing well. She does still keep us entertained. While at the skate park with Rob last Saturday, she got into a full out debate with a 16 year old skater kid because he wasn’t wearing a shirt and Ashlee was determined to let him know that he was NOT being modest! We had to explain to her that it was okay for a boy not to wear a shirt which opened a WHOLE big discussion. She took quite a bad spill at Mom and Dad’s on the driveway and after tripping and falling down, Cayden mowed her over on the bike that he didn’t know how to stop. She was very brave. McKell is excited for summer. She has worked so hard this year and is reading like crazy. It is amazing how well she is doing. She can pretty much sound anything out now. She is my little helper and is always inquisitive and insightful. When I told her about Uncle Custer dying, she paused and then said, "Oh no, does this mean we have to do ANOTHER benefit concert!?" I had to chuckle at that and told her no, which then made Cayden not too happy. Apparently they both thought that when someone dies, we do a carnival. McKell can now ride her 2 wheeler really well and can’t wait for swim lessons. Little Sadie is getting so big! She is such a sweet baby. She is getting very close to crawling which I am not ready for! We all love to play with her and talk to her. She is very opinionated and knows what she wants. She is such a snuggly little baby and loves to give hugs. She had a rough week with her first 2 teeth coming in at the same time and then getting sick with a throat virus and high fever. She was back to her happy self for a few days before a double ear infection hit. Not fun. We now head full force into summer with swim lessons, field trips, yard work, etc. We hope you all have a great summer. Love ya!

Scott, Tiff, Ryan, Jaydee, Gage, and Bump:

Where to begin with the month of May.
I started out going for a week long getaway to Camp Guernsey for training. Tiff, meanwhile, had all kinds of various illnesses involving stomach projectiles hurling everywhere. This has become somewhat of a tradition for us every time I go away to training. Quite fun for me really, not so much for Tiff.

I scored big time points on Mother's day which is a first for me. I took the kids over to shop for Tiff and Jaydee picked out a heart locket with an Angel on it to help remind her Jenni. Ryan, in turn, gave her a shirt that read, "So you want to start somthin' with the pregnant woman?". Which brings me to our next adventure for the month...Benefit Concert.

First, Thank You's to Marci and Rob, Shawn and Heather, Miki, Jay, Mom and Dad for all your help, could not have done it without you. The concert was on Saturday, the 17th. We spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday setting everything up. It was long and hard but everything came together in the end. For those who got to watch it, we were told it was a fantastic event. Not the least of which was the carnival portion of the event which I am proud to say, Tiff pulled off remarkably well. I overheard one little boy tell his mom, "Look mom, it's Disneyland!" I thought that was great! Tiff literally worked herself to exhaustion, which I know is surprising (said with extreme sarcasm) and actually had to be taken to mom and dad's as she was cramping so badly that she could no longer stand up. She is doing much better now and has already begun planning the next event - Ryan's and Theoryn's Birthday parties.

Peter Brienholt, J. Marc Bailey, and Ryan Shupe were gracious and amazing performers. I had a chance to talk with each of them individually after the performance and they were amazed at what had been pulled off. The best, and most important part of the whole thing was that Nate and the kids all were completely overwhelmed with the whole thing. They all had a great time. I can't count the number of people who approached us in tears with what had been accomplished. It definitely couldn't have happened without help from above, and it made the last month and a half worth it even with all the trials and struggles. Truly remarkable in all aspects.

We then needed a break from the afore mentioned stresses so we retreated to Jackson Hole with the Harris's to watch the Bar-J Wranglers preform over Memorial Day weekend. That is always a nice treat and it was nice to see a performance that required no effort on our part.

MOM AND DAD

Dear Family,
First of all, Bonnie called and said to thank everyone for their kindness and love in Custer's passing. Stacy and Amy said the same. They said to tell you how much they love each of you and appreciate both those that were on the program and those that called and sent cards. The funeral was nice and we have received several compliments on how well it was done. One person in our ward said that it was the highlight of the service. Not sue of that, but thank you all.
The graveside Military service was also good. Sorry that Shawn and Heather and their family and Scott got delayed by an accident going up Nephi Canyon, but so thankful that they were not involved, except to help at the accident.
George Pemberton said to also tell everyone thank you for your time and energy on Nate's behalf, especially Scott, Marci, and Jay who spent countless hours making sure that it was a success--which it was.
Mom said to thank eveyone for the special Mother's Day. She loves all of you and you are her life.
Mom has been doiing a solo at the Temple for the past few weeks while Dad goofs off at home. The hip started bothering a little bit and the doctor said to get back on the cane or walker for a month. Had a bone scan done and will know the results in a couple of weeks. Just don't bury me yet. All is going to be well.
We had an enjoyable Memorial Day--- at the cemetery program, at Denny and Gloria's for breakfast, and here at the barbeque. And what a great Country that we have--inspite of what is happening on the politcal scene and $4.00 gas. Glad that we spent the time that we did in the Air Force.
Hope and pray that all is well with each of you. We love you.

Mom and Dad

Hello from the Quist Family
So, May........... you know it all starts to blur together. SCHOOL IS OUT FOR THE SUMMER!!!!!! WAHOO!!!!!!
We'll start with the missionaries.
Heidi continues to do very well in the CTM in Sou Paulo. The highlight as of late was having Elder Bednar there for a visit to speak to them. She was able to shake his hand and he gave her some great advice. The week before that, the Relief Society President - Sister Beck was there along with the Primary President. So, she has had some great visitors there just recently. We are anxiously awaiting to hear about her participation in the Curitiba Temple dedication & celebration. President Monson was there, and they were hoping for a visit from him as well. We'll let you know next month. She loves learning the language, and even speaks it in her sleep. She was a bit concerned, as her companion told her that she wants to go home. So that has been a bit of a shakeup for her. We're confident that Heidi will do her best to keep her there. We anticipate her leaving the CTM sometime around the 9th or 10th of June. She is very excited to get to Santa Maria.
Warren continues to do very well in Argentina. He is in a suburb of Bahia Blanca, and is teaching a lot. We are waiting to hear about their first baptism this past Saturday. He loves the work, and he constantly has great messages for us in his letters home. He said the weather is a little up and down right now, so that's an adjustment for him, but other than that, he is doing great!!
Ian finished with track, and did quite well. He struggled with some shin splints, and other aches & pains, but was happy with his accomplishments for Jr. High. He had his spring choir concert, and did very well. He tried out for the show choir at Layton High, and made that, so he is quite happy. He is just even more happy that school is out.
Jakob is still playing baseball, and enjoying that. He's hoping their team will go to the play-off's. He is also very happy to have school out for the summer. He and Kaijsa live outside on the trampoline and riding their bikes all over the place.
Kaijsa finally got her room all cleaned out from Heidi being gone, and she loves that!! She loves the space for her and her dolls (her little sisters). She is also very happy to have some time off from school!! However, she will miss her very favorite teacher Mrs. Banks.
Paul is currently recovering from minor toe surgery - both big toes!! OUCH!! He is also very happy to have the back yard sprinklers in. So, just the front yard, and we are there!! WAHOO!!
I am still working at the nursery, and hoping to have fewer hours now that the kids are home from school. It's been a very busy spring. I still don't have our flowers planted yet.
Well, that's our month at-a-glance. We are just looking forward to the summer activities ahead!!
Until next time - Adios & Tchau
The Quists