fast and furious February

So much stuff to blog-I will keep it as brief as possible...

Dax

• met up with some high school buddies in St. George over superbowl weekend
• working hard for his money
• dreaming about this year's hunting trips
• best dad and husband ever
• got violently ill but is now feeling good

Tristie

• started jogging 3 mornings per week and loving it
• working hard and trying to save her money
• dreaming of a new haircut-my appointment is set!
• best maid ever
• healthy and happy

Preslie

• excited to donate her hair to Locks of Love next week
• working hard in school and dedicated to her homework
• made some cute flip flops out of duct tape

Hunter

• reading Harry Potter 4 with Dad and Preslie
• fell in love with the Super Nintendo my bro gave us and has earned the (ridiculous) video game belt loop in cub scouts
• loves a good one-liner

Mack

• has OCD and smacks Quinn's head uncontrollably
• loves to get thrown, flipped and dropped into a pile of pillows
• builds awesome Lego ships

Quinn

• smiles a cheeser when someone pulls out the camera
• loves the park
• is obsessed with lids. twist them on, twist them off, repeat, repeat

Our family

• goes through AA batteries like crazy
• watched The Last Flight of Noah's Ark, 17 Miracles, and Jurassic Park this month
• celebrated 3 years being in our house

Happy February! What a great month!

Feeling the LOVE ! ! !

We had such a fun Valentine's Day! I woke up to the kids chatting excitedly about all the hearts that were taped on the walls and "have you seen the kitchen?, it's crazy!" I was pleased that my 10 minute decorating the night before had them so wowed.

I let my husband sleep in while I got up and made heart pancakes with fresh strawberries for breakfast, fed the kids and got Preslie and Hunter out the door.

After Dax left for work, I got ready and made sugar cookies and frosting to take to Preslie's class Valentine's party. I dropped Mack off at my neighbor's and Quinn and I headed to the school. Preslie and her classmates were excited. I am glad I thought to bring my frosting bags to spell the kids' names on their cookies. They all wanted their name in cursive. I had fun helping my friend Lana with the class party and seeing all the people that Preslie talks about everyday. Quinn was an angel and after the party, we grabbed Hunter and headed home to start our sugar-induced comas.

It is tradition that you dump all the Valentines on the floor and start eating the candy as fast as you can until it is all gone. I told Preslie and Hunter to be careful because when I was in second grade, I did that same thing on Valentine's day and when I went to bed, I puked conversation hearts all night long. I can vividly remember that night and I have been careful never to repeat my sugar overdose.

The kids and I got some valentines ready for some of our neighborhood friends- kids and adults alike- and set out to deliver them the way I did when I was a kid: by putting them on the doorstep, knocking and running away. Apparently my neighborhood was the only one who did it that way because my husband didn't do that as a child and I've never heard of anyone else doing it either. I think it is one of my favorite Valentine's Day memories. Picking the right Valentine card, planning your escape plan and hiding spot, sneaking up, placing the valentine, knocking, and running like heck.

But let me tell you, the kids LOVED it. We all had the best time. We had one close CLOSE call when we delivered cookies to Hunter's primary teachers. He and I were hiding in their garage and their son pulled up with his buddy and came walking right past us. Talk about adrenaline rush! The kids did get caught by one of our fun neighbors but it just adds to the excitement for both giver and receiver.

Dax came home and we ate crock pot roast, baked potatoes, peas and homemade bread for dinner. Then we played and wrestled and laughed our guts out on the floor. A couple of sugar-induced meltdowns (of course) and then into bed.

And what do you think happened in the middle of the night? Preslie woke with a stomach ache and ended up puking and staying home from school the next day. She can't say I didn't warn her.

elk hunt

Yes I went elk hunting. Yes I took my 2-month-old. Yes I am crazy. The kids and I only went for one night. I got my fill of the beautiful yellow and orange aspens. I also got my fill of stress worrying about keeping a baby warm over night. It will get better as our family gets older. The kids had a blast. Hunter woke up early and went out hunting with the guys. He is so cute.

Congrats to Craiger on his bull! So fun to have him and Matt come out and spend some good American quality family time with us!

Quinn's Blessing

Our parents came to spend the weekend with us and celebrate our beautiful baby. We had a great time and delicious food. The grandmas loved Quinn to pieces and I loved having extra adults around to hold the baby. Dax gave a beautiful blessing Sunday in our ward's sacrament meeting and Dax and I both shared our testimonies. A special day for sure.

Happy Easter

Wishing everyone a wonderful Easter time. I'll just be here listening to LDS General Conference curled up with those I love.

(and stuffing my face with Reece's eggs and cinnamon bunnies)

moving forward, hopefully

Preslie had a follow-up visit with her Doc today, and he said it was ok to stop the oxygen. Yay. She is not 100%, but seems to be up a little more each day and wants to do kid stuff a little more each day. I am not going to send her to school yet because she still gets worn out easily. She's missed 11 days of school this month. Thank goodness she is a smarty and the work I got from her teacher is not a problem for her.

And hooray for Dax's Colorado buck that he scored in 1 day of hunting. The Hunting Gods finally smiled upon him.

disasters and blessings

Long story, short: Preslie was hospitalized today.

NO SHE DOES NOT HAVE S.F. (I can't even bring myself to say the words, or type them. I am pretty sick of hearing about that illness.)


How about pneumonia? There's an illness for ya. That is what Preslie has and she is very sick. I have a million "I should haves" in my head, but none of them will make her better now so I will just be grateful.

I am grateful for Doctors that know what they are doing and diagnose correctly.
I am grateful for hospitals with machines and technology that can give me answers. I love hospitals.
I am grateful for neighbors who drop everything to come get your baby and pick up your kindergartener from school.
I am grateful for Grandmas who drive out to save the day when your husband is out of state so you can go get your kids from your neighbors' house.
I am grateful for a husband who works hard so our family can have good health insurance and who comes home from a trip he has had planned for a year and paid lots of money for so he can be with his family.
I am grateful for loving family who lend support and prayers when they can't be there to help.
I am grateful my boys and I are over the 'flu (or whatever we had). I hope to never take my health for granted again. To be able to stand up and walk and get my own drinks and chase my toddler and shower and have energy to move and work is SO AWESOME!

And I am going to need a lot of energy for what is waiting for me once I publish this post...



Also Mack was a big help while I was talking on the phone to many family members tonight, he got all the boxes of cereal we own and opened them and took them in various rooms in the house to snack on them. Plus he dumped one completely out onto the floor. He also emptied a box of kleenexes and my bathroom cabinets. I guess I'd rather have him healthy and full of energy than lying down in a hospital bed, barely able to move.

progress

I wanted to post pics of the house when it was done, but now I realize a house is never done. There is always something to work on so here is us at this point in time. I am not going to worry about the unfinished curtains, unpacked boxes, newlywed furniture, and dirty dishes, etc. I am going to say that we really love our new house and are so comfy and love to RUN and even walk without crashing into things and people. We also love TWO bathrooms. And a garage. And a sweet range. And a basement, which I've never really posted pics of before...

The Basement:

Our Room:

Dining and Kitchen: The 50's turquoise dinette is for sale. Any reasonable offer will not be refused.
The kids' rooms:

Here are some pics of our life right now. Hunter lost his second tooth. Mack still loves the bath and continues the perma-bruised forehead. Hunter and I went to church together and left Dax home with sick Preslie and crazy Mack. We've been to our new ward twice and everyone is super nice. We walked to the park and Preslie was not feeling well that day either, so Hunter held her hand and encouraged her all the way home ("we're almost there").

I need to get on my soapbox for a minute...

IF YOUR CHILD IS SICK, please, PLEASE, KEEP THEM HOME FROM SCHOOL. Preslie will pick up ANY illness that crosses her path and has the worst cough right now. I KNOW she got it from school. She is ALWAYS the first one sick in our family and gets TICKED when she has to stay home from school but I REFUSE to do what other irresponsible parents do and send their sick child to school. If they knew how much it affected my child and our family, they MIGHT think twice about sending their coughing, boogering kid to school.

JUST KEEP THEM HOME and STOP the spread of disease. Stop the insanity, and stop making ME and my family and my baby pay the price for your laziness or selfishness or whatever it is.

Thank you.

blog Christmas Card

Hello to all our family and friends who we love and miss a ton,
We hope each of you are healthy and happy this Christmas season! We have loved keeping in touch with many of you this year through visits, emails, letters, and blogging.

Each year we think that we cannot possibly top the madness of the last, but it seems we’ve done it again and learned a LOT in the process. Here are a few of the things we’ve learned in 2008:

If you get a bead stuck up your nose, hold the other nostril…and BLOW! (Preslie)
Weekend sleepovers with family are the best
Chubby babies are the cutest kind
Baby brothers (kind of) fit in a doll stroller
Getting your tonsils out STINKS, figuratively and literally! (Hunter)
Losing teeth is as good as a part time job (Preslie)
Water drives a baby wild!
Girls' days out for Mom are necessary for a family’s well-being
Laughter is the best medicine
Pirate parties kick booty
There are good people where ever you live
Bonding with your spouse with 66% less kids for a week rocks
Grandparent babysitters rock
Family reunion campouts are tons and tons of fun
Puke in a tent is not so fun
Visits with family always leave us wanting more
1 degree winters make 85 degree summers that much better
Going to work with Dad is better than a trip to the zoo
Starting a new adventure-building a house, pre-school, 1st grade, dance- is EXCITING
On road trips, driving through the night while your kids are asleep is crazy but worth it
Practice indeed makes perfect (skinning animals, baking pies, riding a 2-wheeler, writing, and walking)
The Oregon Coast is AWESOME
Swimming lessons are fun for kids and Mom
Never underestimate the power of a desperate Mom and a fake fingernail!
Thirty is the new Twenty (Dax)

Watching your house be built from the ground up is thrilling

simplifying and de-junking go hand in hand
Knowing your phone number gets you out of scary situations (Preslie)
Watching your baby grow and learn each day is worth more than a 6-digit salary
Catching up with old friends is so much fun and worth the effort
If you think your husband is sexy, put a mullet wig on him –rar!
Willing, helping, loving family members are blessings for which we can never express our deep gratitude

We LOVE Christmas and we are so excited to celebrate this year at home. We feel like we’ve already received all the Christmas gifts we can possibly handle just for all the blessings that we have. We count our family and friends at the top of that list. May the love of Heavenly Father surround you this Christmas and always.

Love:

Dax, Tristie, Preslie, Hunter, and Mack

sugar finale.

So fun to meet up with our friends Derek and Bridgett and their girls for some trick-or-treating down main street because our kids didn't have enough candy from the ward party and school. Thousands of locals showed up and I was honored to be on the arm of the sexiest redneck of the lot.

Chalk this up to another great Halloween.

business and pleasure

Not much down time lately, but I need to mention the highlights of the past couple weeks...

Firstly, I have a new nephew (thanks Matt and Natalie)! Quite possibly the most gorgeous newborn (not a smashed, puffy blob) I've seen in a while. And that hair....MMMM! Can't wait to hold Baby Wyatt at Thanksgiving.

Last week, we did our own St. George Marathon, running for the 2 days we were there to the:

cabinet shop
carpet store

tile shop

Home Depot

Fireplace store

siding place

Stone place

Big thanks to Grandma Beaner for watching the kids so we could get lots done and picked for the house. It wasn't all business. Beaner and I took a quick trip to Furniture Row...still looking for my table as we are hopefully going to upgrade from our current dining set: a 1950-ish turquoise beauty with chrome legs that my grandmother was given as a hand-me-down. I've used it since my sophomore year of college 9 years ago and we're down to 4 chairs that are still (barely) standing, although the table is as sturdy as the day it was made. People keep telling me it is worth a lot of money for its vintage appeal, but as of yet, NO one has beat down my door to get it. I will entertain any serious offers.

We also had a "practice birthday" for Hunter there with Dax's folks. We figured out why no candles went out when he blew and had him tilt his chin down and try again...Voila!

Back home again, Dax had to check deer for the opening weekend of the hunt. This is his one Sunday a year he has to work. I survived our primary program practice holding Mack the whole time so he wouldn't go play on the stairs and break his head. Choir practice was a little more tricky as I am the pianist, but somehow, I got through it keeping one eye on my kids and one on the music.

This week should be another busy one. Big grocery shopping, making/delivering party invites, final collections for church fundraiser, errands for the house, primary meeting, program practice & breakfast, Hunter's party, dance class, pre-school, and I think Dax is going to try and deer hunt a little, too.

Well, I'm off to go make treasure maps!

The UPs and DOWNs of building

Yay for stairs! We can now go up and down with ease. The framers are almost done. A few more details, and they're out of here tomorrow. What a crazy process. Now that it actually looks like a house, it isn't as daunting or overwhelming. There is an end in sight! A few people warned me about how stressful it would be, and I knew it would, but I didn't anticipate all the stresses. But wow, stuff is getting exciting and seeing each thing being added to create the end product is a cool thing.

This is definitely a family project...Pictured below is Megan-our designer and style expert, Kirk-our master framer (along with his son), and Craig- our contractor. Craig is Dax's Dad and Kirk and Megan are Craig's siblings. Craig's other brother is also key in this process as he gave us our construction loan! So yay for that side of the family all helping.

Then there's my brother Trent--our electrician who came and wired half the house in the cold and pouring rain last Saturday. Below is Dax sweeping water OUT of the house.

It is coming along!

family vacation

My sis and her family were the hosts

of our family vacation to the Oregon Coast.

Lighthouses, scenery, ocean views, and sand

We experienced beauty by sea and by land.

Old Town Bandon and Cranberry Sweets

Battered/deep fried prawns and halibut couldn't be beat.

Dax caught some crabs and cooked them up right

And hundreds of fatty sea lions were such a delight.

A boat ride, Cape Arago, and Coast Guard tour

Beach hopping from Coquille to Bandon, and more.

"Isn't Bastendorf the birthplace of Harry Potter?"

Said my bro as he threw a starfish in the water.

Picking blackberries and making freezer jam

was just as fun as playing Rock Band.

Golden and Silver Falls was next on our list

Oregon is so green and in the air there's a mist.

Gorgeous Shore Acres is where we stopped last

the gardens and beach there could not be surpassed.

Then bye-bye sis and hello sea anemones

And on up the road to Tillamook Cheese.

What a super vacation. I love my family!

It was worth the 19 hours to get there, YIPPEE!