Daddy & Emily

One of Emily's favorite places to fall asleep...

Nothing better than being together watching a great game of Boise State Football...

Conversing in deep conversation...

Fast asleep...

"Santa came! Santa came!!"

Christmas was so fun this year because both girls were excited and it was hilarious to see their reactions to each present they opened. Avery was a little more excited about her candy then the presents however, but it was sure fun! We celebrated Christmas on the 24th. Yep, that's right. Santa came a day early to our house....I know, I know. But my little brother couldn't be with us unless we celebrated Christmas a day early. Luckily, the kids are too young to know the difference.

I think the girls got what they wanted...


Madi got a horse and a dinosaur costume.

Avery got an airplane and a barbie doll.

And Emily got her two front teeth. :)

She was pretty excited!
"Solid foods, here I come!"



After opening our presents at home we drove to Rexburg to stay with my family for the weekend. We played Mario Brothers on the Wii, played Rook at least 100 times, went and saw New Moon, went shopping in Idaho Falls (got some cute boots!), had lots of good food, many laughs and loads of hugs! Just my kind of holiday!

Madi and Colton opening presents from Grandpa and Grandma.

Avery loves her Grandpa!

Merry Christmas!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

This year has been full of action, adventure, joy, sorrow, and pretty much anything else you can think up. The most exciting thing to happen in our family was the birth of our two newest children, Emily and Ethan. We were very shocked to find out we were having twins and totally excited at the same time! But we didn’t expect that they would come so early. They were born in Salt Lake City at the University of Utah hospital at 23 weeks. Ethan was with us for 17 days before he finished his mission here on earth and returned to heaven. We miss and think about him every day but know that this was Heavenly Father’s plan for our family. While you sit back with your eggnog, apple cider, or hot cocoa all nestled up in your blanket in front of the fire (or space heaters in our case), listen carefully and we will tell you the tale of the Hodges’ latest adventures…

Ryan has completed his academic year of PA school and is now in the middle of his E.R. rotation. He absolutely loves what he’s doing and he’s starting to feel a little more confident in his ability to heal people. He’s still got 5 more rotations to get through, including a pediatric rotation in St. George, Utah, and psychiatric rotation at the Maximum Security Prison in Kuna, Idaho (I said rotation, not incarceration!). Can you say fun and exciting!

Christy spends her time mostly at home taking care of the house and the kids. She loves to be able to stay home, do things with the kids, crafts, blog, and scrap book, that’s if she finds the time! She also loves going to the gym and getting a good workout in every morning.

Madi is now four and has been in pre-school since August. She has made some good friends at school. Her best friends are Maya, Eubin, Logan, and Jeramiah and talks about them constantly. She gave her first talk and prayer in primary and even though she wouldn’t look at anyone while doing it, she did great. She’s learned how to write her name, and loves to draw now. She and Avery are inseparable! They are constantly singing, drawing, painting, and running around together.

Avery is our little comedian. She also loves to eat and will have half her dinner gone before the prayer is even offered. She and Madi play all the time and it is cute listening to them sing, laugh and play together. Her hair is growing out and starting to curl at the ends, and her smile is always popping up on her face. She is quite the talker now too and is always saying the funniest things. She is quite stubborn too, like her mom. She’s also a very good sister to Emily and is very careful when she holds her.

Emily is growing really fast. She’s had heart surgery, been on a ventilator for about 3 months, and overcome all of her physical limitations to become a pretty normal baby. It’s crazy to think that when she and Ethan were born they only weighed a little over a pound each. She and Ethan’s arms were the size of my pinky! And now she is cooing, smiling, laughing, rolling over both ways and has some mega rolls on her cute little legs. We are so grateful for the progress she is making and that she and Ethan are in our family.

As a tradition in our Christmas letters, we want to let you know some of our favorite things from 2009.

Favorite movie of the year: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Ryan and Christy), Madagascar 1 and 2 (Madi), Cars (Avery), and Boise State Football games with Daddy (Emily).

Favorite experience of 2009: Meeting Emily and Ethan (Ryan and Christy), Going to Pre-school and making new friends (Madi), discovering chocolate milk (Avery), and coming home to Idaho from the hospital (Emily).

What we’re looking forward to in 2010: Graduating from school and becoming a PA (finally!) (Ryan and Christy), learning to read and write even more (Madi), potty training for good and discovering other delicious foods(Avery), and learning to eat solid food (Emily) ;).

Love, the Hodges

Ryan, Christy, Madisen, Avery, Emily, and Ethan

"Mom Jr."

These pictures crack me up.

I asked Ryan to take a few pictures of us girls before heading off to church one Sunday (a few weeks back), which always turns into like 20 pictures as Avery will not smile on demand no matter what. Of course, I don't know why I even come to expect it anymore, her track record for smiling on demand is pretty low to non-existent really. But I keep trying anyway, to uncover that adorable little grin of hers. And these pictures are a rare success of that trying. And that's only because we bribed her with chocolate milk if she smiled. Boy does that work! A new favorite "nack" among the hundreds.

However, this is not why these pictures crack me up.

If you look at Madi in all of them, it shows you why I think they are so hilarious. Her personality comes right out and shows you how she has taken on her role of being the big sister. Making sure Avery is doing what she is told and even spies on her to make sure. Madi has become somewhat of a "Mom-Jr." recently,(the exact thing my family called me, more like teased me about through the years...not my proudest moments that's for sure;). But Madisen is starting to really take on her role as the oldest and making sure Avery is doing exactly what she is told. HAHA!

I love my girls!

First Place- Beautiful- Edible -OURS?

We got a knock on our door two weeks ago, and when we opened the door, to our surprise were two Laurels (the ONLY two Laurels we have) from our ward. They were dressed up and looked so pretty both wearing matching blue Christmas dresses with Santa caps as they were on their way to a choir concert. They showed us this awesome gingerbread house that they had made and won first place for! Then they both said, "We made it for you guys."


What!? FOR REALS!!??

I thought they were joking or that I heard wrong at first. We couldn't believe it! What a wonderful thing to make for our family. They spent so much time and energy on it and I still can't believe they gave it to us. We have such a great ward here and feel so blessed with such loving and wonderful friends and ward members. Thanks for the beautiful gingerbread house! It's awesome and good job on winning first place Katie and Amanda!

Madi admiring the....candy.

Avery admiring the...chocolate.

Ryan and I admiring the light shining through the windows.

Drooling over the house. The girls kept saying, "Wow. That's awesome."

Melalueca Christmas Concert

This last weekend Ryan was asked with some other guys, Shaun Heier, who was Ryan's former roommate in college, (before I took over the job permanently ;) Scott, Josh and another guy named Ryan, to to sing a few songs at the Melalueca Christmas Concert, both Friday and Saturday night. Shaun and the other guys work for Melalueca in Idaho Falls and asked Ryan to come along and sing with them, so this was the first time Ryan and I had met the other guys. Shaun and Ryan also started an A Capella group at Ricks called Poprox, so they have been singing together here and there ever since. They practiced a for about a week before they had to perform on stage, and it sounded awesome!

(I had to cut off the last little bit of the song because the file was too large.)

Then the unbelievable singer, Collin Raye came on stage and completely rocked the house! It was so fun! Collin Raye has had many hit songs that are just fabulous so here are just a few that I recorded to share with you.

He has had 15 number 1 single hits and 5 platinum albums!

Back stage with Collin Raye!

Shaun Heier, and his date with Collin Raye.

They called themselves the Mela-A-Capella. :)
Ryan and I after the concert on Saturday night.

Hmm...

Can you guess which picture of Avery is chocolate pudding and which one is brown crayon?

Yes. One is brown crayon.

*Jingle Bells*

We had our ward Christmas party Saturday, but since our kids were not feeling well, Ryan and I took turns going back in forth to the church. I am on the ward activities committee so I went to set up and clean up after, and Ryan did a skit with some other men in the ward. They did a little twist on the song, Jingle Bells. I was sad to miss it but they caught it on video for me. ;) Ryan's a little embarrassed about this, as you will see he was the first one off the stage...hehe. :)They only practiced twice for it, so none of them knew the song that well, but I thought it was pretty cute. PLUS, I finally figured the video thing out! Yea! It would never let me upload one because the format was different or something. Anyway I am way excited I finally figured out how to do it another way.

Oh, and Ryan's in the front with the yellow/blue coat if you couldn't tell. ;)

"Return to You"

I am home with my three girls today, who have all been sick the last few days, while Ryan heads to church to teach in Elder's Quorum. Today is my birthday, and as I sit and reflect back (which I like to do a lot) on past years and memories, my heart is full of love. I feel so blessed and my life is so rich with love and laughter, family, friends and kindness. I have such a wonderful family and friends who love me even with all my faults, shortcomings and stubbornness. Thank you for showing me love even when I am least deserving of it.

It's cold today. Very cold, but so beautiful as it snowed yesterday and sprinkled some this morning covering everything in sight. Most years it either snows on my birthday or the day before. To me, it's a birthday gift! Really I am not a fan of cold weather, never have been. In fact, I would rather live in Arizona or somewhere equally as hot. Yet, I love when it snows on my birthday. I love touching a spot in the snow that hasn't been tampered with. It's so PURE and white which makes me think about what Heaven might look like, only 100 times more spectacular! And my greatest desire is to be worthy to live with my Heavenly Father again.

I am not perfect, far from it. I probably make more mistakes than rights. And often times what I feel and want to show my parents, siblings*, spouse and kids comes out just the opposite. I pray to be a good person, neighbor, friend, mom and wife but fall short all too often. I want to be able to embrace my Savior. To touch His hands and feet, for Him to say He is proud of me. I want to be like Christ. I know that it is possible only through Him. I believe Him when He says, He can take all my sins away and make me PURE and white, just like snow.

I want to be with my husband forever. I want to be with my family and friends. I want to be with my little boy who I miss so much. I want to have eternal life and everlasting joy. I want to be surrounded by my family and friends in PURE joy!

My husband, the awesome stud he is, ;) wrote, sang and composed a beautiful song while we were dating and going through some rough times together. It's called, "Return to You." I wanted to share it so I put it together in a slide show. Ryan's goals and greatest desires were and are to do good continually, obey God and return to live with Him again having eternal life and exaltation. This is why I married him, (and the fact that he is unbelievably HOT!!:) We both had and still have these same desires and goals and I love that we can do it together. Ryan is a great example to me and is always wanting to be better. He tries hard at everything he does and makes me so proud.

I am grateful for the church and for my testimony and for the spirit in my life. I don't know what I would do without that knowledge, that Christ lives and has suffered for me so I can return to live with Him again. That there is always hope and it's never too late to repent and Return to Him. I hope everyone can remember the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior during this holiday season!

Merry Christmas!!!

Thanskgiving Weekend! (never to late to be Thankful!)

Thanksgiving weekend was a blast! We had my family (My parents, Celeste, Randy, Adam, Genn and Colton) over at our house this year for the grand feast. I was a little nervous cooking the turkey as I burn everything, remember? But it actually turned out pretty good, as in, I didn't burn it :). I don't have any pictures to show for it, so you will just have to trust me on this. Of course I couldn't have done it all by myself. My lovely mom brought the yams, the rolls and a pumpkin pie cake. And my beautiful sister-in-law, Genn, brought a delicious broccoli and bacon salad and two pies. Everything was so good! Sometimes I wish Thanksgiving was everyday of the year...of course then I would weigh like 800 pounds, but then, we ALL would. :)

I wanted to get pictures of the whole day, but forgot to do that as things were a little crazy, however I did snap a few pics of the girls and their Grandpa Newman. I also got a few video clips of my family doing the Hula Hoop on the Wii that I wanted to share, that is quite hilarious, but it still won't let me download videos! ugh.

Madi gets poked in the eye.Grandpa gets picked in the nose.


A few hours after our Thanksgiving meal, Ryan and I drove down to Utah with Ryan's aunt and uncle, Wendy and Jerry. Ryan's dad got remarried on November 28th. So we flew from Salt Lake to Colorado on Friday morning. It was so much fun to hang out with Ryan's family! It's been a few years since we have all been together. I don't think there was a minute from the whole trip where we weren't all laughing and having a great time...well, except when we were sleeping, and even then we were probably smiling. :)

Hey, this is Ryan. I would like to write about jamming out with my brothers. I didn't realize how good they had become at the guitar and the drums! They totally rocked out and I did a little rocking myself on our 25 year old keyboard. I am so proud of how far they've come! Can you say awesome?!?

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Wedding Day!!

My dad married a wonderful woman named, Trudy and the ceremony and festivities went great! Dad looked awesome and Trudy looked beautiful!

Nate's wife, Erin and Sean's Fiancee, Jeanette.

We were so touched and started bawling when they lit a candle in remembrance of our little boy, Ethan.Dad and Trudy thanking everyone who came and sharing their love with all of us.

First Dance

Wendy and Jerry gettin' giggy with it!

Jerry had some sweet moves! :0Look at that stud!

A bunch of goof balls.

Say it..."Aww!" ;)

(*Sorry, I didn't get any goofy or nice pictures of Erin and Nate together! Gosh I'm an Idiot!)