"...Smile that Frown Away..."

I can't (actually, I CAN) believe it's been 2 months since I last blogged.

Blogger just makes me sad! It was once something I enjoyed and even looked forward to doing. Now it's just depressing and has become something on a check list that I HAVE to get done....which I then don't.

I think blogging has become sad for several reasons:

1. It's sad thinking how very few people even post anymore, and even then, rarely. (Come on people! You post more and I will too! ;)

2. It makes me sad thinking how far behind I am on events and pictures of my kids. And super overwhelming  thinking about trying to get caught up! ugh.

3. It makes me sad thinking I haven't been good at journal-ing our lives and keeping up with the small and even great things that have happened to our family the last couple of years, which I guess goes along with reason #2.

4. It makes me sad that I haven't taken the time to compile all the blog post I have done into a book for our family. I keep saying I am going to do it and haven't...

5. I say I don't have time, but I waste plenty of time doing other things far less important...*cough*, Facebook and watching dumb shows like Chopped, and Storage Wars.)

In spite of these reasons, I am going to simply sit down once a week for an hour and blog! (I say, "simply" like it's super easy. Obviously the past two months of not blogging has shown otherwise!) But I can do that much.  I WILL do that much. I want to post at least 4 posts a month! No more sad faces around here... So check back every week for a new post! :)

In October I know I mentioned we went to Disneyland but I never had the time to post pictures and I still don't have the time, as there are hundreds of them.  I made a digital book of our trip with many of the pictures and stories so if you would like to see that go here. We had the best time at Disneyland! We went for 4 days at the park and two other days we spent just hanging out, swimming and resting. Here's a quick sneak peak...

It was so much fun surprising the girls and being with Dad and Trudy. We also got to be with some of our best friends, Alan and Cristi and their two adorable girls, Emma and Brooke. We are so glad we did this! Best vacation trip ever!

November and December were both great months. They flew by super fast. Those two months always seem like time goes by the fastest every year.

The girls have been busy, Madisen with school, homework and dance. Avery with Preschool, learning to read and write better and doing dance class as well. Emily and I go and do our coupon shopping while Avery's at Preschool. Emily is a big help and loves to hold mommy's coupons. Avery likes to help cut all the coupon's out for me. Her cutting abilities have really improved! However, she still pronounces, "coupons" as "Q-cum-pons" or sometimes even, "Q-Cum-ners". Hmmm...have to work on that. lol. Last week Emily and I had a successful trip at Wal-greens, stalking up on razors and toothpaste. The total came to $49 but I only paid $17 after all the coupons. I was bummed though, as we got out to the car I realized one of the coupons I had got misplaced and it was for another $5 off, so I would have only had to pay $12 for all of it. Bummer! :)

For Thanksgiving we headed 2 hours east to Pocatello to my parents house for the weekend. It's always fun to hang out with my siblings and parents. We play hard and eat hard. It's what we do best!

We celebrated Audrey's Birthday early while we were all together. She's a cutie! We love her and love having a baby in the family again. Audrey was named after my Dad's sister, Audrey.  My aunt Audrey died when she was just 16 from a brain tumor, so I never met her. Aunt Audrey died on December 2nd, the same day April's Audrey was born. 

April made her this really healthy birthday cake, but I think it was so healthy that Audrey didn't want to eat it! (We didn't blame her!) She preferred the chocolate cake we were all eating! I kept teasing April that this cake looked like Grandma Cherryholmes meatloaf that she makes and feeds to her dogs!! haha!! Sorry April, but you know it does! My sister, April is amazing. She is an amazing cook and an amazing mom!

Some of the gang hanging out and watching a movie.

We're missing April in these!

My baby sister Celeste! She is pretty funny. :)

Grandma with her two youngest grandkids

We finally bought (well Ryan's work bought) an I-pad.  We are probably one of the last families in America to own one. We have never tried to "keep up with the Jones" as they say, but it's great to be a "Jones'" now! I have a love/hate relationship with it already. I hate it because the only thing my girls want to do now is play games on it, but I love it too because it is so convenient to be able to look something up really fast and because I love doing lots of pictures like this with them:

And you thought we were a normal family. Ha! 

Let's just say I am glad that my kids, husband and myself don't look like these above images in real life all the time. That would be a bit frightening! But it is sure fun to mess around with how we could change ourselves to look.

I am feeling a smile coming on, aren't you!? I think I changed my frowning face for a smile after all! Yippee!!! Blogging's fun!!! (No sarcasm in that at all...

...maybe a tiny smidge ;).

Red Head

I dyed my hair red several weeks ago, and I actually LOVED it.

I didn't think I would like red at all, as it tends to bring out my freckles, and I have never liked my freckles. Avery actually said to me, "Mom, I love your hair red so you should ALWAYS keep it red."  The first week I loved the color, then it started fading and after the end of two weeks it really washed most of the red out. So much so, that Avery said to me again, "Mom, why did you get rid of your red hair?! I told you I loved it and that you should always have red hair." Well thank you Avery, I only wish I could have kept it.

Boise Temple Trip

We wanted to take the girls to the Boise temple re-dedication before it was closed again to the public. Not many people get the chance to show their kids where they were sealed and married. We  pulled Madisen out of school and took off early Monday morning to Boise. The temple was beautiful! It was beautiful beautiful, when we got married, but it was even more stunning this time around. The outside of the temple was covered in granite and the inside was changed to dark rich tone woods through out. The girls got to see the brides room where the bride gets ready, and the girls loved that room! They can't wait to be able to go to the temple someday and get married. The sealing room where Ryan and I were sealed was beautiful as well. It was such a great experience to be able to do that with the girls. 

Afterwards we went out to Chuck A' Rama for lunch.  

It was a fun day out with the family.

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween! I love decorating for it and even dressing up with the kids!  October was kind of a busy month, so I didn't do as many Halloween-ish activities as I would have liked to do with the kids but it was more fun in other ways too! Two weeks before Halloween Ryan and I and Grandpa and Grandma Hodges surprised the girls with a trip to Disneyland and California Adventure for a whole week! We had a blast!! Best vacation trip ever!

It has also been a little busier for us as Ryan was called to be the 1st counselor in the Bishopric. We are excited for this new adventure and it will be a huge learning experience for the both of us. I am proud of him for accepting and jumping right into his calling. He is gone a lot more though, which is hard for me, but I will survive! :)

So Halloween was pretty simple this year. The girls loved dressing up as usually and getting a butt load of candy! I think Ryan and I were just as excited to dress up as they were this year!

The girls helped me make cupcakes for the ladies I visit teach and the families Ryan home teaches, and of course I let them have one for their hard work in making them.

Emily was a cute little Lady Bug 

I asked Avery if she wanted to be a Princess again this year (That way I would have to buy one less costume) but she said, "Seriously Mom, I have been a Princess for 4 years! I want to be something scary this year!"

Well. OK then. haha. Can't argue with that.

My husband dressed up for work as they have a contest every year. This year they were doing the 50's and wanted him to be the "Fonz"

Madisen was a Dalmation dog. 

Of course I wanted to match Ryan's attire so I went all out 50's style too. It was fun turning my hair big and giving myself big bangs. Totally hot, I know! haha. :)

Emily saw me posing and did the same thing. It was pretty funny.

Here's the Adams Family as the Addams Family. This was at our Ward party. And this was the only picture I took that night...?? It was really fun I guess, so I forgot to take pictures.

We went to the Corn Maize with the Adams Family as well. The kids had a great time running around trying to find the exit. We got out in exactly 30 minutes. So they did pretty good we thought. 

 We also painted and carved pumpkins. Here's Madisen concentrating as she painted her pumpkin.

Ryan and Avery carved a pumpkin together.

Emily was really into her painting as well.

Madisen painted a pirate pumpkin.

Avery made a "Cinderella" Pumpkin.

Halloween Morning we woke up all the Beehives for a surprise birthday/Halloween breakfast. It was a lot of fun being with these girls. They are such a great group of girls! We just love our Beehives!

It was also Lauren's Birthday! Welcome to Beehives Lauren! 

Later that day we headed to Madisens' school for a Halloween parade...Here is her teacher coming down the hall... 

and there is Madisen...behind the fairies wings! haha!  They were walking so fast down the hall way that my ancient camera couldn't keep up and take another picture of her before she passed on by...

Well I hope everyone had a great Halloween this year!! 

Now for some Thanksgiving dinner! Bring on the pies and turkey!