Thursday, December 4, 2008

December 2008

Derek & Melanie
Well, it was a sad weekend for BYU....Five turnovers????? Sigh......Even still, we are so excited for Thanksgiving this year! Derek and I are going to Washington DC for about a week! We are leaving on Thanksgiving day. Derek has a conference to attend the week after Thanksgiving, and so we decided to make a vacation out of it. We are planning to visit lots of museums, monuments, and other historical landmarks (and I am hoping to do some shopping!) My brother has been in France this semester, and he will be flying back through DC while we are there. So, we will be able to spend some time with him, which will be fun. We are sad that we won't be spending Thanksgiving with family this year, though; so I hope you will all enjoy some extra pie in my behalf. :) We'll send some pictures of our trip for the coming edition of this newsletter! In other news, I got a job working for the Church. I work in the Risk Management Division at the Church Office Building, and I started about 2 weeks ago. A lot of what I do involves processing and researching claims people make against the Church. I am enjoying this job a lot. Derek and I commute to and from work together everyday since we both work downtown. I am so happy to have a job! Derek is also enjoying his job, and he recently made a new teacher certification proposal before the legislative education committee. I was also called to be the first counselor in the Young Women's presidency in our ward recently, which has been fun. Well, I think that's about all for us. Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! Love, Derek and Melanie

Melanie and Fam
My client is Wal-Mart. I have a 7-day work week packed into 3! Have you heard of Black Friday?!? I'm lucky to find my involuntary senses to breath.

Quists

It has been awhile since we have written, but we will be brief. Heidi: As you can see from the pictures, Heidi is doing great!! She loves the work, and is really enjoying the experiences that she is having. The weather is very hot there right now, and she is struggling a bit with that. She is in a threesome companionship. She has made some lifelong friendships, and loves every aspect of her mission. Warren: As you can see from Warren's pictures, he is doing great. He is training a new missionary from Chile, and they are getting along great. Warren has a lot of energy, and loves the work so much. It is also the hot time of the year there, and as the viking that he is, doesn't like the heat and humidity much. He still presses onward, and doesn't let it get him distracted from the work. Ian: Ian is very much involved in swimming right now. He is doing great, enjoying every minute of it!! He has had some challenging meets, with some great times in his individual events. He just completed his last merit badge for his Eagle!! (Yes, now he can drive in April) So, he is happy to have that done. School is keeping him very busy. Ian loves engineering, and is taking some college classes in engineering for college credit. His interest is in aerospace engineering. Needless to say, we don't see much of Ian around the house right now. Jakob: Jakob loves 6th grade, and is doing great!! He has some great teachers - Mr. Alarcon from Spain is probably his favorite. Jake is busy with scouts, and was just ordained a Deacon last month. It was so great to have Grandpa Neilson & Grandpa Quist stand in the circle. When he isn't busy with those things, he loves being outside on his "rip-stick" riding through the neighborhood. Kaijsa: Kaijsa is doing great in 4th grade. She frequently lets us know that she misses her big sister. She loves to dance and sing, and was able to go to the Nutcracker with her achievement day friends, and loved it!!! She dances even more, now that she has seen that. Kaijsa is loving this weather, and loves to be outside with her friends. They have become the neighborhood leaf rakers. Miriam: I am staying busy with the nursery, substitute teaching, and my ward callings. Much to my dismay, I have recently been called as the choir director. I guess when you don't go, they figure that's the best way to get you there. I have had a huge sense of relief to get Christmas sent off to Heidi & Warren. I keep on the go with Ian's swim meets, and keeping up with Jake & Kaijsa. I love being a mom!! It is so busy, but is so rewarding at the same time!! Paul: Paul is staying busy at work overseeing the construction of projects. He also keeps going with his calling in the Elders Quorum. Yes, Paul has even joined the ranks of the choir (that was part of the acceptance of the calling). We are looking forward to the holidays, and the great times and experiences they bring. We will miss Heidi & Warren, but would not trade their growth and experiences for anything right now. We thank all of you for your love & prayers in their behalf. They both are constantly saying that they are surrounded by angels bearing them up, and that your prayers in their behalf are heard and answered. We have great blessings in our home because of their service. Have a very Happy Holiday Season!! Love, The Quists
Dad & Mom
And a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to each of you!!!!! Chronologically: Thanks Shawn and Heather for the lovely dinner and visit. We appreciate it very much. For those of you who may not know, Bishop Ted and Myrt VanDam have gone to Nauvoo on a mission to the Visitors Center for two years. they were very excited and will do a great job. They said to tell everyone hello and to keep them in your prayers. They told us how much they love and appreciate all of you. We have been working at the Temple with Norm and Lois Crump as part of our "three- somes". They haven't changed in the least. Lois just had a hip replacement and is doing good. And speaking of doctors, Mom had to go to the doctor and have her throat and esophagas (sp) checked. It was the reverse procedure of a colonoscopy. Not pleasant, but all turned out well. Dad enjoyed going to Jordan's, Livia's and Ben's, and Kayden's, Ashley's, and McKell's schools for Veteran's Day programs. It was special to be there, and all of the kids did great. Thank you so much for the invitation. We enjoyed a couple of hours at the Murray cannery. As one man said, "I have decided the Lord put Church canneries on the earth to help the poor and the needy and to keep the rest of us humble. It is hard to feel that you are special and part of a royal generation when you are sitting on thousands of cans of beans and the temperature is 110 degrees and it is Friday night and your wife is at home playing with the grandchildren". UDOT came out and marked how much of our property and driveway they are going to take foor the new road. It's only about 15 feet back from the fence. The new road should be a benefit to us as we will now have a center turn lane and won'd have to stop over in front of Wayne's waiting for a chance to gun it to our driveway and turn into our yard. The City decided not to Master Plan our property commercial which is great news. Hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving as much as we did. Enjoyed having the 31 of you here, and missed not having the rest of you here. Now to work off the 10 pounds. And we are so blessed and have so much to be thankful for. Enjoyed the annual trek out to Eureka for Christmas trees. Thanks Scott and Tiffany for bringing along the ATV's. It was most enjoyable and thanks Marci and Rob for having us to your home for the "sloppy joe" party afterword. We are singing again in the Temple Choir for the Temple workers meeting in January. Just having 4 practices this year, two of which we have already had. Our director is of the opinion that we don't have to compete with the Tab Choir, so less practices. Again we wish each of you a Merry Christmas and a joyous and prosperous New Year. We look forward to being with you at the upcoming festivities. Love, Mom and Dad
Above: Cayden's Jedi Party Below: McKell at Dance

The Peacocks
November was a fun month. We had a great birthday party for Cayden. He wanted a Star Wars Clone Wars party so we obliged. We had about 25 very active Jedi's here and even had a visit from Darth Vader! I had a fun time doing some Christmas crafting with Tiff and her sisters. Something we need to do more often for sure! We had a great time at the U/BYU game. Thanks for the fun festivities! Rob and I are still feeling the effects of our accidents. Rob's back and shoulder are still really bothering him. He is supposed to get an MRI when he gets a free minute. He is still doing physical therapy. Work is going well, although they did lay off a lot of people at Micron in Singapore and Boise. We are happy that Rob's job seems to be okay. I am still plugging along with Primary. I got a new second counselor this month which will be nice. I am having a lot of problems with my back and neck. I met with a neurosurgeon this month and found out that I have 2 herniated discs in my neck and back and tears in the discs as well. We're hoping physical therapy will take care of it. I am trying to get everything done for Christmas. Cayden is excited to be a Bear in Cub Scouts. He is doing great. He is loving piano and doing really well. He just did his school unit on Ancient Greece and was in the play in his class. We had a great time having Dad come out to the kids' school for Veterans Day. It was neat to have him there. Ashlee has had a rough month with a bout of croup followed by weeks of her brain trying to get back on track from the medicine we had to give her. She is having a hard time at school and at home, but we are hoping to see the end of that soon. She is excited for snow and Christmas. McKell is working hard both in piano and dance to be ready for her recitals. She is doing great. She gets to perform at the Festival of the Trees this week which she is excited about. Sadie is growing like a weed and getting so big and very opinionated. She LOVED being outside to get Christmas tree and would live outside if we let her. She is now walking all over the place...we say she looks like Yoda for sure! We had a great Thanksgiving...thanks for all the yummy food! We also had a wonderful time getting Christmas trees. We look forward to a great month ahead with lots of fun holiday plans!


The BYU vs U of U Game


THANKSGIVING 2008
Shawn's after-Thanksgiving nap
Justin & Sadie - the celery buddies
Wow! That is a lot of testosterone!

THE GREAT TREE HUNT 2008

The Peacocks find their tree

Alex & Jordan and their "mighty" tree!

Sadie pretty much says it all....

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