Mattison is Eight!

Mattison's birthday was November 5th, but we didn't have her until this weekend to celebrate. We had a small party, since it seemed to creep up faster than I thought. I didn't even tell my sister about our sleepover until the day of. I don't know what has gotten into me lately. 

Anyways, I think all of the girls had a great time! I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. 

Party favors

Birthday girl

My nephew Lane who is growing up so FAST

Our new neighbor Emma who is also Mattison's age

Ava (a co-worker's little girl)

Who needs party favors when you have bubble wrap?

We were glad Grandpa came out.

The one present we couldn't wrap

This is the only pic I got of the sleepover, but the girls made all of these signs and taped them to Mattison's door to advise Matt to keep out of the room.

However, my niece Kaelin didn't agree with the "mean letters" and was the only one who wouldn't participate. Instead she was making pictures for her daddy. Such a sweetie!!

All in all, Mattison had fun and racked up on the gifts. She got an ipod touch, books, an electronic password journal, a 4 player Connect Four game, and a new bike to ride around in the neighborhood. It's unbelievable how fast she's grown.  

Camping and Campfires with the Collyges

Last weekend we loaded up the camping gear and went to Petit Jean for some much needed relaxation with our good buddies, Dustin and Carly. Since our friendship is long distance now (sniffle, sniffle), we were looking forward to catching up. We all took off on Friday and got an early start to the weekend.

The boys putting up the tent

Me and my bud

Fire time

This view could never get old

We stayed under complete control our first night . . .

On Saturday, we hiked a few of the trails and took in some of the beautiful Petit Jean scenery.

At the end of our first trail, we discovered Cedar Falls. Last time we came, the waterfall was falling heavily, but this time it was running in comparison to our kitchen sink faucet. Can you find it?

Trail #2 

From the outside looking in

I bought Harley a hoodie to keep warm in the chilly weather. Here are some candids I shot of him and his cuteness. :)

On the second night, we were a little more reserved and relaxed. I didn't even take the camera out of the case. The night ended with a successful win against the Gamecocks and even after we ate pork for dinner. I became very superstitious about eating our mascot on the night of a big game. 

I think the people next to us, however, had an opposite of quiet and lacking respect of your camping neighbors time. They busted out the guitar singing some Jewel and Goo Goo Dolls at MIDNIGHT!! The musicians were lucky they were amazing.

We hated to leave our buddies on Sunday, but we look forward to the next time we can be 

together again!!

Ta Ta's for Halloween

 We went to a Halloween party this past weekend. 

I found our costume on Pinterest. . . We went as cleavage! It was very simple to re-create and cheap too! Under our white shirts were "punching balloons." On top of that, we wore red tank tops and rolled one side of them to make it look like a bra strap.

Our ta ta's were a hit! However, the effect just wasn't the same if we were apart. 

This was my favorite costume of the night. She was the 2nd half fairy. 

:)

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! We had a blast handing out candy for the first time. My friend who used to live in our neighborhood had told me they didn't have many trick-or-treaters last year, so when we bought 4 huge bags of candy, we thought we'd have some extras to snack on. However, there were several kids who stopped by, and Matt starting handing out bags of gummy worms I had leftover from school. Guess we'll be better prepared next year.

Adventures at the Pumpkin Patch

A few weeks ago, we decided to make the best of a beautiful fall day and took Mattison and my niece Kaelin to the pumpkin patch. They had a great time, and so did we. 

When we got home, we set up the tent in our living room so the girls could "camp out." They got to eat their snacks they'd been begging for all day, but I won't say what it was in case my sister is reading. ;)

Steph, we would NEVER give Kaelin Nerds and gum before bed!

Ha-Lar-i-ous!!