April…

Here’s our recap instagram style:

Made some turkey meatloaf potato cupcakes for dinner for April Fool’s day!

Jasper styling a bowtie I made for a friend’s baby shower gift

General Conference: Always comes at a perfect time!

Some of my favorites from this conference:

Favorite saying right now:

Boston Bombing: My Heart broke that someone would do something so cruel to all these people who trained so hard and for so long to run a marathon.

Jasper got comfy while Neal was sleeping.

Neal’s family had a German exchange student when he was 10 yrs old and they still keep in touch with her. Her and her family came to visit and I got to meet them for the first time. They were absolutely delightful! Silke, Marc and Ben (Jasper photobombed)

I got to go to Time Out For Women with my sister Holly and my mom and then I went back home to visit the family for a week afterwards. It was so fun but I sure missed Neal!

Grandpa Ron and Grandma Olsen

Grandma and Grandpa Davies

Of course it would snow in April in Idaho

Bonfire with my sister Heather and her hubby Mark and my parents…roasted starburts, smores, and hotdogs

Early birthday party while I was home with delish food

Went to the temple and then to Scotty’s Drive in where we used to always go growing up.

I also got to meet up with my brother and sister in law Nephi and Mallory at Orange Leaf (frozen yogurt place) and we talked for hours. Love the family I married into!

I got super spoiled for my birthday this year! My family threw a little party for me while I was home, my friends threw me a girl’s night with games, cupcakes, and yummy food, and Neal topped it off with a great day and Birthday Itinerary.

Choice One: Breakfast at Cottage Cafe

Choice Two: Shopping and G.I.Joe Movie

Choice Three: Work Out, open present {Neal was so proud of himself for color coordinating the bag and the present} and Soup and Salad at Olive Garden

Friend B-Day Party at Cara’s: Thanks for the fun night and laughs!

December…

We had a few Christmas parties the first one started for our work party. It was a fun time we went to the Davenport Hotel had delicious dinner, played some fun games and got great Christmas gifts.

 

We got to order “mocktails” at the work Christmas party they were divine!

Our ward Christmas party they had desserts and a little program put on by the YW and YM. These little yummies I made for the party

Find the Salted Carmel Shortbread Squares recipes here.

The next week we had an ugly sweater Christmas party put on by our good friends the Barker’s. We had delicious treats, many laughs, and played some Winter Olympic Games (aka minute to win it)

Our good friends the Sullenger’s had us and the Rencher’s over to make gingerbread houses

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To get in the Christmas spirit, we watched the Fireplace episode on Netflix, while drinking hot chocolate.

Made these little Christmas gifts  for my cute beehives

We went home for Christmas and updated our family photos with the Guymon’s and enjoyed spending time with both our families. We realized how lucky we were to have 2 weeks off while Neal was in school. We only had 4 days this year…we must be in real life now :)

Kira and I found the most awesome glasses in Claire’s

Best white elephant gift at the Guymon Christmas Party

Grandma Guymon playing some Christmas songs on the organ (she has been taking lessons and did a wonderful job!)

Made it to the Davies Family Christmas Eve Breakfast. The nativity was amazing and the kids did a great job!

My adorable nephews and niece I could seriously eat them up! Miss them so much!

November…

Went to Gibliano Brother’s dueling piano bar for my friend Cara’s birthday…it was so fun! If you never have been to a dueling piano bar, it's a bar with two pianos on a small stage.  You pretty much sit and listen to music all night long!  You can put in requests and tip the piano player and they can play pretty much anything and they sing too!  The night we went, a guy put in a request to sing a Louis Armstrong song and sounded just like him.  The pianists are usually a little crude, but funny!  We got made fun of for only drinking water and eating and Erica got asked to dance from a random guy…haha we were all rolling on the ground laughing while she danced with him.

Neal did his first scout out with his scouts. Of course it had to snow that week so it was FREEZING for them but they had a good time.

 

Had a girls night at Cara’s and we made these signs. We were able to make them for free and they turned out super cute!

Here was our Christmas Tree this year…

I won this little lovely from the girls over at Oh So Delicioso! I was thrilled to win something for once :)

We got to go home for Thanksgiving, we ate a delicious dinner with the Bodily’s and then went off to the Guymon’s for the annual Ping Pong Tournament where Neal is the reigning champ. My sister-in-law Mallory and her sister Caitlin and I braved the crowds Thanksgiving night and got what we were after{ a TV for our bedroom and a Blu-Ray player and some boots and clothes.}

October…

My parents came for a visit the beginning of the month and it was so much fun to have them come and see where we live! We enjoyed conference weekend together and went to Greenbluff, Bowl and Pitcher and visited the Spokane Temple. It was such a wonderful weekend and I loved having them here. I have the greatest parents and feel so incredibly blessed!  Love you maw-maw and paw-paw.

Neal's Grandpa passed away on October 9th. The funeral was that next weekend  so Neal and I hopped in the car and drove home for the funeral.  Neal gave a great prayer at the funeral and his brother Nephi gave a great talk. I enjoyed hearing the grandkids tell stories and reminisce about Grandpa Richins. It was a beautiful funeral and the family paid a great tribute to him.

We had 3 Halloween Party’s this year. We had the annual chili cook off/trunk-or-treat as a ward party and also the following 2 parties! 

Party #1: The Klain’s a cute family in our ward did an adult only party. We played Pictionary, family feud Halloween style, murder mystery and ate great food!

Heather and Ken Klain

Brian and Becky- A”SALT” riffle and peppered with bullets

The Rippey’s: Baby wranglers

Heather and Justin: Brick and Brick layer

Sarah and Brandon: The Farmer and the Dell

Shawn and Felicia: Granny and Red

The Urichs: Gladiator and Medusa

Schaber’s: Prisoner and Officer

Sharps: Scott Pilgrim

Anneice and Tim: UPS man and the Total Package

Cardoza’s: The Walking Dead

Emily and Gene: Kate and Will

Alex and Christy: Wonka and Oompa Loompa

Neal and I

Owl Cupcakes for Party

Party #2 at Sullenger’s:

We ate food, drank homemade root beer, played pictionary, the game of Things and chatted it up.

Cheese Ball for Party # 2

All the costumes:

Danielle and Bobby as a Bee and Captain America

Summer and Brian as Tinkerbell and Captain Hook

Cara and Kash as TMNT - Donatello and Leonardo

Angie and Tyler as angels

Kevin and Julie as 80's era.

Brad and Robin as "Bradman and Robin"

 

Me and Neal as crayons if you couldn’t guess :)

Erica and Landon as a bee and a genie

Ordered this little cutie from my friend Christine—she’s so talented—Love my new Halloween Doll!

Neal got bored in Sunday school and drew this

My fav hot chocolate of all time