If you still check my blog,

You get a gold star of friendship! 

Clearly, I have fallen so desperately behind on my blogging that the thought of returning is overwhelming.  However I have been stuck home sick and unproductive so I figured I should at least make an attempt at an acheviement.

What I guess I will do is try to update month by month, starting with OCTOBER.  Yeah...I know its halfway though January, but a LOT has happened in the last 3 months.  So much that I have been too busy and stressed and exhausted to write.  Sorry, friends.  Sometimes life is just too much and one added responsibility, even something as simple as blogging is just too much.

In October we turned in the rest of our school applications.  Getting all that done and paid for was stressful.

At the beginning of the month we got in the last swim of the season.  Gotta love fall in AZ, where you can still play outdoor in water from the hose in swimwear!

We gave Kate her first cookie (yeah, we deprived her until this moment), she LOVED it.

We spent lots of time outdoors enjoying the gorgeous weather.

Lily practiced writing, she often writes in mirror image, though not so much now as she did then.

We also painted pumpkins keeping up our family tradition.  Poor daddy worked the night before and woke up just in time to do it with us, so excuse his groggy-ness.  He was pretty much running on E until the end of Nov.

We then took our annual trip to Southern California.  We did nothing but sit on the beach for 4 days.  It was amazing and just what we needed. 

 I married a handsome man

 I went for a morning run, then we took the girls on a walk to an AWSOME donut shop, to pick up some donuts to bring home.  I just like to keep it balanced :)

 The big girls loved the doughnuts, Kate was less enthusiastic...

 Getting ready to hit the waves,

 unsure if I REALLY want to get in the freezing water!

 The girls and their alligator, or is it a crocodile?

 Have I ever mentioned that I think my husband is handsome?

 Kate, trying to escape daddy's grasp and get to the sand...

 Our upstairs neighbors brought the girls donuts from the shop down the pier, so the girls got to eat them 2 different mornings.  Pretty lucky girls (and a lucky mommy, who made them share one so that I could eat the other one.  Yeah, that's how I roll.)

 Lily has officially entered the fake smile phase...sigh.

 Handsome, handsome, handsome (feel free to roll your eyes)

 I know this is random, but I LOVE seeing old surfers.  They are cool dudes.  I only hope I am this cool one day.

 Finally reaching the sand, and becoming mesmerized by it.

 The wonderful grandparents (matt's folks) taking the girls on a walk

 The next couple pictures had to be included to document how hard it is to get a good picture of Iz.  She is so animated and so ornery that her pictures are always entertaining, if not always flattering :)

 Pretending to surf

 Neither of the girls would get into the water at all, so on the last full day, I decided to just dress them in warm, normal clothes and not swimsuits.

 Me saying, "Of COURSE she want to sit in the water today, since it is the ONLY day she is NOT in her swimsuit".

 Another typical Izzie face

 And now that I got Iz to smile, Lily is making a weird face.

We got home just in time for our ward halloween party.  I made a couple last minute adjustments to our costumes (I made them all) in the 2 hours or so between when we pulled in and we had to be at the party.

Us girls were all princesses and daddy was our prince charming (He is dressed as Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, and I am Belle from Beauty and the Beast--in her easiest/cheapest costume to sew--, Lily is Sleeping Beauty, Isabel is Rapunzel --from tangled, her favorite movie--, and Kate is Cinderella)

Then on Halloween we went trick or treating, then came home and passed out candy to the neighborhood kids, which the girls LOVED.

Well, that sums up OCT.  Had enough pictures yet?  Nov was a CRAZY busy & super stressful month, but there will be FAR less pictures.  But lots of fun tales to tale!