Christmas break

Holy Moly! We've had too much fun!
Preslie requested homemade chicken noodles for her birthday dinner.
Mack helped me make the noodles. He loves to help do everything!


Preslie is officially 10! She had a great birthday this year! Hard to believe Dax and I have been parents for a decade! Preslie is a wonderful girl. So responsible, hard working, obedient and a great help to Dax and me. She will go far with her dedication and talents! We love her.

We caroled with our neighbors by firelight in the street and before bed we opened a gift from the person that had drawn our name. I always love the big hugs that follow the present opening!

The kids were so excited for Santa to come they begged to go to bed around 6 or 7 pm. I should have let them because a few short hours later (4am) they were up and chatting excitedly in the boys room where they all slept (They will not all sleep in the same room next Christmas eve!) They got so excited and loud that Quinn woke up.

So we opened gifts at 4 in the morning! This will also not happen next year!
Mack was very much into the candy. Quinn too. She cruised around all morning with a mouthful of M&Ms.

Mack hugging Hunter for the tamarindo candy

Here are the kids after church. Preslie had already changed out of her beautiful Christmas dress my Mom made her.

We had a fun day. I enjoyed our sacrament meeting with all the music and then going home after! Everyone had at least one nap on Christmas except Preslie and Hunter. They were trashed by bedtime!

The day after Christmas my parents came out to see us! It was so fun. We played games a ton and the kids showed Grandma and Grandpa how to play their new Wii.

One of my fave gifts I got for Christmas was a sheet of mdf (4x8 piece of wood). I am in the process of making a really big, really cool art for my wall. I am getting close to completing it! I am so excited to have a decoration for the biggest, barest wall in my house!

Here is my big helper! Always wants to be in the middle of projects!

Here is my piece of wood beginning its transformation!

Quinn has been so much fun! She is going from baby to toddler and has us whooped!

The kids LOVE their new Wii Santa brought. They each got a game (not Quinn). Preslie and I have a great time playing Just Dance 3. Playing and exercise at the same time: LOVE IT!

Dax's parents came out to see us and we had a fun visit with them! They are so into everything that the kids are doing. My kids think it's funny how their Grandpa mentions everything Quinn does like it is the biggest deal. I remind them that we are used to having a baby in the house but Grandpa just has Grandma and a cat to look at everyday. So Quinn is very entertaining to him!

We played games and went to the dinosaur museum. On New Year's Eve, we had a dance party. Here is Mack and Grandma doing their special move...

Dax cooked up some tamales that were awesome!

Dax has been home a lot this week and I have just loved it. He cooks and takes care of Quinn and I've been able to work on my project a lot. I am very excited about it! I love my man!

Quinn has loved riding piggy back on people. Hunter is always a willing pig! He is such a cute brother. I can't believe I didn't cut his hair this whole Christmas break! It is time to get the kids in bed. School starts tomorrow and it's back to a schedule and homework and early bedtimes. Yay! Booo Hooo!

our house: happenin' place to be

Holy COW! Monday night we got a knock at the door and when we opened it, there stood SANTA CLAUS! It was SO awesome! I was just as excited as the kids. He gave each of us a treat and told the kids to be good and he would see them in a week!

Dax's dad was here so we were all able to get a photo with Santa.

We enjoyed having Dax's Dad stay with us a few days. The kids love their Grandpa! (We missed you Grandma Beaner!)

Preslie had some friends over for a birthday party! She wanted a luau and it felt a bit like summer at our house! The girls made their own fruit kabobs and Dax served some delicious teriyaki chicken and rice. YUM!

Seven girls came to the party. They had fun!

No one got a picture of me in my awesome pink Hawaiian mumu!


It is so nice to have the kids out of school! Dax's work schedule is light right now, too. I love spending time together at home with not much to do. We have been delivering 12 days of Christmas surprises, eating too many treats, playing games and I've been trying to get the kids to still do their jobs around the house. They think they are on vacation or something!

comings and goings (and stayings home)

Quinn's 2 week check today. she is up 6 oz from her birth weight and a half inch taller.

lots and lots of reading. Mack's new fave: The Fat Cat (a book from my childhood- it has no cover and has been colored in and loved). Preslie, Hunter and I are in the middle of Fablehaven 4. Awesome. I registered the kids for school this week. Can't believe summer is almost over.. BOOO HOOOO!

Dax's bro and Abbey and Mya came out to see us and meet Quinn. Here is Matt posing as a local.

It was our area's huge annual celebration while our visitors were here. It is a week full of activities, shows, talents, pageants, a parade and always a "big" performer doing a concert at the park Saturday night followed by fireworks. This year Patty Loveless came, opened by Nathan Osmond. I stayed home with Mack and Quinn but could hear the whole concert since the park is practically in my back yard. We were bummed Patty didn't sing our favorite song of hers "I Think About Elvis". Here is Preslie so ready for the concert and looking cute in her cowgirl boots..



Earlier that day we took advantage of the fair food and festivities in the wind, rain and all..


Preslie and Hunter pooled their money and bought a little frog that now resides with their 2 fish. They named him Basin.
Having a newborn, Dax and I lacked the energy we would have liked to really party. But we had fun with what little we were able to do and are glad Matt and Abbey came out to hang with us.


Here is my attempt to show Quinn's reddish hair. It is a super pretty color, light brownish-red.


And this is probably the last pic I'll ever have of her sucking a binky. For some reason, NONE of my kids have taken a pacifier. Quinn acts like I've fed her poison when I try to put it in her mouth. She screams.

excitement in the air

this week's highlights:

I bought a fridge lock and installed it on Monday. By Tuesday, Mack could unlatch it with ease.



My brother Lance stayed overnight with us while he was working in the area and brought us steaks and asparagus to grill up. It was so fun to have him visit! While he was here, the kids found this Halloween delight in our window well...

Dax's birthday and we hit Cafe Rio. Alone. Together! It was everything I hoped it would be. Except for when I inhaled a bite and coughed for like 5 minutes. Yeah, slow the shoveling down, Tristie. I am super proud of my man and his dedication to finishing his thesis. He's been working on it so diligently and he worked on it all morning ON his birthday!

My visiting teachers came to see me. They are so cool and always share an inspired message that I need to hear.

I hung up my new bulletin board at the school. It turned out good! I took P and H before school to hang it up and the crowd of little kids around us grew and grew. And the questions were non-stop..."What are you doing? Why are you doing that? Is that a witch? Why is her hair like that? Why are her nails orange? Why doesn't she cut her nails? Is it Halloween? When is Halloween? Is it next week?


(The words read, "Stir up some cash for our school Bring Labels!")

For Cub scouts we did Bike Safety and the boys had fun riding their bikes together. We had 9 out of 10 boys show up. Next week, we'll have 2 less boys cause of birthdays which is good for sanity but bad cause we love them all.

A family in our ward had a house fire on Friday and it was a total loss. Everyone was ok, except they lost their 2 dogs and cat in the fire. They are devastated. But it has been such a neat thing to see their good attitudes (they came to church today) and see how the ward rushed together to provide them with clothes, underwear, other personal items and two handmade quilts within hours of the disaster. This is why it is called a ward family. So cool. And it made us really count our blessings and made Dax and I move food storage higher on our priority list. We are planning to finish our storage room this weekend.

I attended the General Relief Society Meeting. I enjoy this each year just being with my sister friends from my church and getting inspired with ways to be a better person. I have always loved Relief Society and I'm so grateful to be apart of an inspired organization of Christian women!

Lastly, I decided to throw a Halloween Party this year! I am so excited. I will probably drive my husband nuts but he is being so patient about it. He actually came up with a cool project we're going to do next weekend... we're going to make a coffin...like the creepy kind that are tapered at the bottom. I am so excited. This will be after we finish our storage room. It will be a fun weekend.

FAM-tastic

My sisters and some of their peeps came to see me and i tried to think of fun things to do here. It really is fun here in the summer. I had a few plans and then the morning of the day they came, I saw my neighbor out riding in his horse-drawn cart and asked him to come by later for some niece and nephew rides. Poor Matisse...her eyes swelled up the instant she touched the little horsey.

I have never fed that many people (13) by myself (Dax was out of town for work) but my sisters are such great help in the kitchen and after dinner we went to our park and hit a pinata (thanks for the idea, Beaner!).

I like in this pic how Jason is keeping the toddlers at bay while holding the pinata rope. What a man! Back at my place Jason and Trina provided some fireworks out front in the street.

The next day we drove out to get some history lessons at the Dinosaur Museum and the Vernal Temple. I was excited to sign my sisters into the guest book at the museum since Tisha is from Idaho and Trina is from Oregon.

Four seconds after this picture was taken, a museum employee asked me if I could keep my kids off the displays and on the sidewalk. Sure thing.

For those who don't know, the Vernal temple is the only one that was built from an existing building. It was the Vernal Tabernacle, originally built in 1907 and they remodeled it to be the temple and dedicated it in 1997. It ended up costing so much money that the church will never do that again. But it is a beautiful historical building and the people in the Uintah Basin are so grateful to have a temple close by. The next closest temple is the Provo which is 2 hours away.

I am so happy that these guys came all the way to see me! I am also happy I had a house that could hold everyone (thanks Craiger)! It was fun fun.

relaxing summer!

This summer is insane...we are having a blast. And the best is still to come, I think.

Some fun from the week...

Hunter and Preslie are the best playmates ever. Having them so close in age has TOTALLY paid off, even though when Hunter was a baby (Preslie was also a baby), Dax and I questioned our decision several times to have babies that close. ANYWAY... Hunter is completely boy and into boy stuff and Preslie is TOTALLY all girl and trying to be 16 yrs old all the time. BUT, yesterday Hunter says, "Hey Pres, want to play Optimus Prime versus Barbie?"

And Pres shrugs and says, "Sure."

Mack continues to woo us with his darling smile, hilarious immitations of EVERYTHING we say, his spazzy little body, and his ADORABLE blonde curls. He says the funniest prayers and when he is done copying what you are telling him to say, he just yells, "AMEN!" And there is NO continuing on. The prayer is OVER.

Dax and I got to the temple and it was very nice to do some service and have some peace and quiet to think about things that are truly important in life. I have felt very strongly recently that my temple attendance will get more critical as the months and years roll on and our world gets more busy and more... worldly, I guess. Thanks to my good friend Tina S. for taking my kids so we could go.

More news...we are a 2 car family now! We have rarely needed more than one vehicle because I don't work outside our home and Dax has a work truck through his job. But Grandma Nola gave us a killer deal on her Lincoln and we couldn't pass it up. I cleaned and organized our garage and the my sweet granny ride has a cozy home in there.

Dax's friends (now my friends) from USU days, Shane and Kyle were passing through our town on vacation and stayed with us for a night. This is the first time anyone has ever been passing through. We really aren't on the way to much. But friends and family are always welcome! Kyle had mentioned she needed some good cookie recipes and so I had to show off my mad cookie skills and we managed to plow through 4 dozen cookies in 24 hours. Sick? No, try delicious.

more visitors: Craig and Beaner!

I hit the jackpot when I married Dax. Not just because he is the best and nicest husband, but also because his parents are also SO nice. They are so good to us and so good to my kids, it is unbelievable. They came to see us for a few days and here are some highlights:

• The Rodeo!
• Grandpa's "Rocket and Chiquita" stories at bedtime
• breaking a pinata at the park
• Beaner the fotune teller, seeing the kids' future
• the kids making a flag cake with Grandma
• 2 extra adults keeping an eye on The Mack.

Such fun Grandparents, I tell ya!

Mack is getting SO funny and is very interested and into everything. We have fun watching that kid.

He is starting to do tricks and show off. He'll say, "Grandpa! Watch me!" then hang on something.

My Mom got to come see us again because she drove out with my dad and the scouts for their hiking trip. She stayed over one night and the kids loved it. She brought Preslie some barbie dresses she made out of her scraps of fabric and played Barbies with her. Preslie ate it up, big


time. She cheered Hunter on after he ran around our block and so he did it 2 more times. She took Mack for a ride in Grandpa's big truck. Grandmas are just the best. Well, when she told Preslie, "I don't think I've ever had my toenails painted." That was it and Preslie and I got to work. Mom wanted her toes to be patriotic so we hooked her up...


I love my Mom's toes how her pinky toe snuggles her 4th toe. Mostly I love how she doesn't even care and is perfectly content to show them off. Well, I think that the new paint job will definitely draw some attention.

Love you Mom!