Early Christmas Present for ME

We debated about shopping the day after Thanksgiving, but in the end we decided to go for it, but we were not going to wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning.  We decided to hit Costco first because it opened at 9:00 and we could still get the doorbuster deals, but not wake up before the crack of dawn. I had my eye on a vacuum...but not just any vacuum...a Dyson.  You know you're old and lame when this is the highlight of the day and worth running walking very quickly through the store when the doors open.  Its a good thing because within 2 minutes all of them were gone...but I snagged 2 for my mom and I!  It is an early Christmas present for me, from me : )

Isn't it beautiful?!? haha...

By 10:00am the back of my parents' Sequoia was full to the top!  We still had 6 hours of shopping to do, by then we were busting at the seems and had no choice, but to call it quits. 

Matt was just as excited as me to get this little toy.  We spent the rest of the afternoon vacuuming away, I never thought it could be so fun! I'm sure the novelty will be wearing off any day now...

I got a very good jump on my Christmas shopping Friday (I didn't just buy for myself, ha)...I would say I am almost half way through.  Thats good because we have a very busy month! 

A Family Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful this year.  As I had mentioned, Matt and I hosted and we had my parents, my brother, Matt's dad, Jordan and Will, Richard and Lauren, Richard's parents, and Richard's brother!  It was so much fun and everyone had a great time, I think. 

The best part of Thanksgiving is watching the parade will cooking the meal. 

Table #1 in the dining room

This is table #2 in the kitchen

Matt had seen this crazy recipe on TV for chicken fried bacon...gross, I know.  We he insisted (after a pretty good fight from me) that he had to make this on Thanksgiving.  I finally gave in and said if you do, you had to do it outside!  So he did, he made fried bacon.  You basically batter the bacon and drop it in a big pot of oil, as if bacon needs more oil.  It was disgusting...but I'm not going to lie, slightly good. 

It was so warm, we were able to enjoy some cornhole!

Here is Matt frying one of our turkeys.  We also had a baked turkey for those who don't like it fried. 

Tober kids :)

Tiger loves him Aunt Lauren and Uncle Richard

Now thats a turkey!

All the cooks- my mom, me, Jordan, Richard's mother Miss Anne Marie, and Lauren

We had SO much food...it was all delicious!  I absolutely loved hosting it at my house- now I appreciate all the hard work my mom has put in for the past 25 years hosting Thanksgiving.  It had been a while since we had big, family thanksgiving since all our extended family lives out of state, so it was really nice. I have so much to be thankful for this year- wonderful husband, wonderful family, a wonderful new home, and a wonderful job.  Mostly importantly an amazing God that has given us more than we deserve, I am so thankful to be called His. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! This year I am thankful for so many things, but mostly today I am thankful to have my whole, sweet family under my roof to celebrate this day.  I hope everyone is enjoying this day with friends and family and eating lots of a turkey : )  

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
   come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
   It is he who made us, and we are his;
   we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
   and his courts with praise;
   give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
   his faithfulness continues through all generations.

                                             Psalm 100

Lacey's Last Fling!

I know what you're thinking, Lacey's wedding has taken over my blog, haha!  Its ok, that's what happens when one of your best friends gets married, lots of fun parties and celebrations :)

This weekend was loads of fun from start to finish.  It all started Friday night because I got to spend the night with Cameron, Courtney, Ryan, and DURHAM!  She is the cutest thing ever and she is such a fun age! She talked  non-stop the entire time we were there. 

Here she is when she came and woke us up on Saturday morning, this picture cracks me up! We were dying laughing because Durham has a lot of words, especially for her age, but she refuses to say "Cam Cam."  You can't even get her to try.  When you ask her to, she just stares at your in wonder...it made me laugh.

On Saturday before the Bachelorette Party we went to The Mad Platter downtown Columbia.  For those who don't know, its a place where you make your own pottery.  It was very fun!

Ellice making her homemade Christmas gift for her dad.  She said she made sure to the put the date on it so he remembers that she was 26, not 6 when she did it, haha.

That night we had a Lingerie shower at the hotel and then went to dinner at Takosushi. 

We then hit the town!

What bachelorette party is complete if the bride doesn't get on some sort of stage/bar/table?

We had SUCH a fun time! Only THREE more weeks til the wedding! As a bonus for the weekend, Matt got to spend the weekend with Jonathan, Will, and Mark.  So we both had a very fun (and tiring) weekend!  Now we are busy getting our house together because all the family is coming to our house for Thanksgiving! Wish me luck!

Weekend in the Wilderness

I guess I should change the name of this post to night in the wilderness.  I wasn't exactly the 'wilderness girl' I might have once thought I was. I really thought that I could go the whole weekend, but it was so cold and that tent was not as comfortable as I thought, ha.  My mom and sister had made bets that I wouldn't make...I hate it when they're right. 

 We did have a great time for the time that we were there!  We built an awesome, warm fire, went on a few hikes, and cooked over the campfire. 

 I stayed by the fire the entire time! I was sad at bedtime because that meant the fire had to go out. I know, I am a complete camping wimp. 

 Tiger was in absolute heaven, of course! 

 We camped at Ghivan's Ferry State Park which is on the Edisto River.  It is so beautiful there and especially right now when all the leaves are changing. 

Funny story. So Saturday morning when we woke up and started walking around the park we saw a whole bunch of cars...which is unusual for a state park.  Anyways, as we kept walking I looked off in the distance and I saw some big objects in the field.  I asked Matt, "Is that a trebuchet?"  You may ask yourself what is a trebuchet...I may not know except for the fact that I had to build one of these apparatuses in high school. You can see what it is here.  Then Matt said, "is that a knight?"  I said, "yes that it definitely a full-armored knight."  As we kept looking we realized there was a full-fledged medieval reenactment taking place.  It looked like a scene straight out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This led to a whole conversation about what happens when you let your child play way too many video games. I really wanted to take a picture, but  a) Matt didn't want to get close enough and b) I was a little afraid of their swords and flying objects from the trebuchet. 

Anyways minus a cold, sleepless night and a the gathering of King Arthur and the knights of the round table, it was a very fun trip had by all!

Free? Yes Please!

Since Matt and I have been married we have always said we were going to do a Christmas card, but it never fails every year that it gets to be around Dec. 15th and I haven't taken the picture, we dont have our addresses complied, and no cards are ordered.  Then its always, "well next year we definitely will do it!"  This year is next year and I am for sure doing it.  I have already gotten my excel spread sheet almost completely filled in with addresses and I am determined.  Well I had been looking online at different websites and I fell in love with all the cards on Shutterfly.com.  THEN I found on several other people's blogs that they were giving 50 free cards away to anyone who posted about it.  There is nothing more motivating to send out cards than to make them FREE.  So if anyone has a blog they should check this out!  Shutterfly really does have some cute designs...

There are so many cute ones I don't know how I will choose!  Bloggers, click HERE to get the deal or just click HERE to get super cute Christmas cards from Shutterfly.com.  Now all I need is some super cute kids to fill up my card, anyone have some I can borrow? :)

Goodbye lil' Chinese Man...

When we moved into our house there were several things that really bothered me... this being one of them...

We called it the little Chinese man because that is exactly what it looks like.  It hung above our table and it was just an eye sore and I hated it (to say it bluntly, ha).

Well I had been scoping out my favorite (Pottery Barn, of course) and decided that I needed this (see the beauty below).  It was PERFECT to go over my table...but it was pretty pricey, $329 to be exact.

Isn't it just perfect?

Well in awesome motherly fashion, but mom continued to scope out Pottery Barn Outlet until one day she found it!  And it was a STEAL! I believe it came to $68.  My mom rocks.

This is from my cell phone, but I had to snap a quick pic to put up here.  It doesn't quite do it justice.  But take my word for it, its awesome.  I already have plans to put holly on it for Christmas...can't wait!

A Night at the Theater

We are always looking for fun and different things to do, and when you live in a city like Charleston...there is always something!  Our friends Holly and Ben told us about a cheap way to get to go to the Dock Street Theater and see their productions.  One Wednesday during each of the their plays they do a "pay as you will" night...and it costs between $5-10 a ticket!  Much better than the normal $38-45!  The only trick is you have to stay up and buy the tickets at midnight the night before. We went last month to see Hairspray and it was fantastic.  This week we went and saw an Alfred Hitchcock play called 39 Steps.

It was so good!  It only had 4 actors in the whole play and they were hilarious! Always changing characters and roles, they were great.  Highly recommended!

If you don't know much about the history of Dock Street Theater you can check it out here.  They have recently renovated it and it is beautiful.  Such a fun and historic place to get to enjoy a fun night!

I will leave you with a few pictures of the theater from their website...



Beautiful Saturday with Beautiful Friends

We hosted a fun tailgate shower for Lacey and Kyle on Saturday at the PC game

They got lots of fun items to entertain with

Girls enjoying a beautiful Saturday

We laughed at this picture because it looks like Will is the 98 year old grandpa at the family reunions that everyone crowds around the wheelchair for a picture :)

Only 38 more days til you are Mrs. Craven!

Spotted the lil bro doing his thing at PC, I didn't remind him that he is about the enter the depressing semester.  The one where everyday you have to count down how many more days left til you enter the "real world." The one where everything is the "last time you do ____."  I am pretty sure he's aware, but we try not to rub it in...ha.

YAY Lacey and Kyle! We love you both!

It was a "Super" Halloween!

Halloween is always one of the holidays that I feel like we never have good plans for.  So when Kathryn asked if we wanted to come to a Costume party at Spinner's we were very excited.  Matt and I were going to go as super man and super woman, but last minute he ended up not going and so Cameron was happy to fill in :)

 Cameron and I...they dynamic duo!

 yep...we are ridiculous

Usually Spinner's is super crowded and lots of fun...well...maybe not so much after Labor Day.  When Cameron and I pulled up there was about 10 cars in the parking lot.  Then Cameron had to walk in the fancy dining room (keep in mind what she is wearing) while others are enjoying a nice candle-lit dinner.  Finally we found Kathryn and Caleb, and things were a little bit better....

 But, in our true style, we had a blast anyways!

 Caleb and Kat were Pirates

Kathryn dancing with her new friend, tastefully dressed up as the B**** Witch. 

Even the the party was lame with a capital "L," we had a blast!  I think it was even better that it was lame!  Makes for much better memories.  Lesson learned though, we won't be back to Spinner's until after Memorial Day :)