A Brand New Cousin

My sister's first baby!

Little Cohen arrived Monday night.

Cohen is the first cousin who lives right here in Charlotte, and we were so excited to get to visit him in the hospital.

We all took several turns holding him...

I have a feeling my kids will give this little guy whatever he wants.

This picture copyrighted by Jordan Mattingley Photography
(ie: Jordan wants credit for taking this great shot of Cohen)

Welcome to the family, Cohen!

Talent Show Fun

Thought I'd go back and post pictures from our ward talent show in September. The Mattingleys were well represented...

Our little author Courtney read one of her short stories - The Adventures of Bill the Amazing Flying Gorilla.

Jordan on his guitar playing "21 Guns" by Green Day.
(And thanks to Bro. Reynolds for the cool fog effects.)

Jason (on the far right) with the rest of the Bishopric performing their very impressive sychronized swimming routine. Talk about hidden talents...

And Alyssa and I had fun in the audience taking pictures and video. =)

Happy Halloween!

This year we had...

a sailor girl...

and Alice in Wonderland...

...and a teenager who's too old to trick or treat.

Our ward had a hot dog dinner and trunk-or-treat on Saturday. Lucikly, I happened to talk to the right person that nite and learned that a nearby neighborhood was doing their trick-or-treating that nite (instead of on Sunday). So when the trunk-or-treat ended, we grabbed some friends and headed off for more candy.

We were happy the neighborhood was home to the Carlsons (a family in our ward famous for their Halloween and Christmas displays). Trust me, this picture doesn't do it justice. It's spectactular. We parked at their house and walked around from there.

Alyssa and Courtney with their trick-or-treating buddies. They weren't expecting to get to trick-or-treat this year, so this adventure was definitely an added Halloween bonus.

Happy Halloween!

Squished Witches and More

Living close to family is great. Living close to family who like to throw fun holiday parties is even better...

Uncle Ben apparently has connections to a real Count, and every year, the Count secretly arrives and leaves a box of ingredients (things like ghost blood and frog eyes) on the porch, so we can make squished witches.

Here's Uncle Craig adding one of the ingredients to the bowl.

Once all of the ingredients have been added, everyone in the room has to take a turn stirring. As you stir, you must say your name backwards, or the witches will not turn out properly. Here's Uncle Ben helping Courtney take her turn.

Aunt Melanie taking her turn (and then another turn for soon-to-arrive baby Cohen)

Once the ingredients have been stirred, the witches are squished into balls and rolled in powdered ghosts.

The witches are not around very long.

Then it's time to carve pumpkins...

Joanna and Craig's masterpiece

Alyssa with her creation

Courtney and Ben's pumpkin

Jordan is definitely creative

Then we finished things off with Melanie's awesome monster cakes.
Thanks Melanie and Ben!

Afternoon at the Pumpkin Patch

One of our favorite things about Fall is our trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Years ago, we found a farm we love, and they get our business every year. The first stop is usually these giant farm animals which apparently beg to be climbed on...

Alyssa taming the wild rooster

Courtney on a rather depressed-looking pig

Family fun on a horse

Posing in the pumpkin patch
(Jason was still on vacation, so he got to join us for the first time this year.)

Courtney was really excited about this tiny pumpkin

Court and Jason checking out the combine

Jason possibly rethinking his career path?

The highlight is definitely the cool slides at the playground area

Everyone (including Dad) heading up the ramp

Jason's first trip down was a little more painful than expected

Love this daddy-daughter shot

At first, the kids went down by themselves. That was only fun for so long, though, and then it turned crazy as they started going down together...

...and chasing each other down the slides.

We take this picture every year, and every year, it gets harder to cram them in.

And it's even harder for two adults...

I call this one "quiet repose." Actually, you might be able to see the corner of a DSi sticking out of his hand. This is really "teenager was ready to go before everyone else."

Had to throw this one in (especially since I was teased for taking this picture). But really, when do you ever see a goat like this? Officially, it was called the "goat walk." The goats could go up a ramp from the pasture, cross the bridge, then descend the winding stairs on the other side where people could feed them.

Until next year...