::bye-bye, we'll miss you...::

Yesterday we had to say goodbye to a couple of our closest cousins...

(Addyson-4 1/2, Porter-almost 4 1/2, Cooper-almost 2, Brylee-2)

Addy and Brylee are moving to Minnesota. We had our last evening with them last night before they headed out this morning. It was a tough goodbye. The kids have been sad about their cousins leaving for a few months, and I don't really think it's completely sunk in yet. They don't realize that Addy and Brylee won't be at Grandma's when we go up anymore, and they don't realize how far away Minnesota really is! It was so fun to see the little cousins play together these last few years. I've said before how much it reminded me of when I was little and played with my cousins. Cousins are just plain fun!

We'll miss Adam & Krystal too :) Matt will for sure miss him on the golf course, and any time there's a project to do. Being such a close family, this is going to be kind of tough. The furthest any of Matt's family lives from eachother is 30 minutes. We wish you the best, and we hope you know we'll miss you and think about you often!

Thanks, Addy and Brylee for being so much fun! And we hope you'll remember us when you're out in Minnesota. We sure love you girls!

::another year older::

Yes, I'm another year older. Remember when you were little and you couldn't wait 'til your birthday and being a year older?? Those days are long gone for me! I'm not too excited about how close I'm getting to 30. I'm going to try to drag out these last two years as much as possible, and maybe not even ever admit to being 30.

So my birthday was last Sunday. On Saturday, we went down to spend some time with my side of the family. Grandma Kitty had "high tea" all set up for us at a tea room. It was a new thing we'd never done, but SO fun! We went into this cozy little library type of room. The dishes were so dainty and cute-and so was Chloe. She wanted to wear her Belle dress and bring her Lanie doll (American Girl ).

We had our hot chocolate, some chocolate mint herbal tea, some homemade scones (which were d-lish!), some dainty little sandwiches (PB&J for Chloe-cut into little flowers and hearts).

See how dainty she is? Pinky up and everything :) It was such a fun little outing. So girly and just fun. Thanks mom!

A bit later, we met back at Grandma & Papa Kitty's house for some pumpkin carving and some dinner (we were planning on going to Cornbelly's, but it was too cold & rainy). Billy showed us a couple of things he can do with dry ice-including how to blow up a pumpkin...

The last photo is pretty awful. It exploded and was so loud that I jumped while I was taking the picuture-which is why it's so blurry, but you get the idea. It was pretty neat!

The kids started out painting their pumpkins with just some poster paint. Then they decided carving them would be more fun, so we washed off the paint and carved them. Chloe drew some eyeshadow and eyelashes on hers after it was done. We had a really good BBQ dinner and some cupcakes from a really great little cupcake shop!

Then on Sunday, Matt and the kids made me breakfast, and brought me some little gifties. They were socks and some jewelry, and everytime I opened something else, Portie said "I picked that, Mom!" He was so proud of himself. Matt and the big kids went to church (Bubb and I stayed home due to me having a terrible headache and him missing a nap). After they all came home, we made dinner and they sang to me. It was so sweet.

I love my family so much!! I feel so loved and appreciated by them, and especially Matt. He never fails in making me feel special, beautiful, and loved-other than when he's telling me I'm old :)