CHRISTmas

Our Christmas celebrations started a few weeks ago at Grandma's house.

We spent some time with her and then exchanged a few presents.

Last week we headed north to Gatlinburg to meet up with all of "the people"...that's what my Papa refers to us as.

On Thursday we celebrated Dad's 59th birthday with some Gluten free cake (made by yours truly) and birthday presents.

After the birthday party, we hit the road for Dollywood. It has been quite some time since I've been there...they've added quite a few more rides and attractions over the past few years. Although we didn't get to ride any of the roller coaster (due to the almost freezing temperatures), we had some good food and a fun time.



Christmas Eve we were finally able to meet our newest member of the family, Caleb. He was born on October 13th (his grandmother, my aunt's birthday). Such a great baby...absolutely precious...can't wait to see him again!

Now you may have noticed the electric blue shirts we are all sporting??

Well my aunt (and Mema) got these for everyone. Our family has a slight obsession with Christmas Vacation. The front of the shirt says, "Nobody's walking out on this Old Fashioned Family Christmas"...if you are familar with the movie, then you should recognize this line. The back has several favorite memories from past Christmases. We had our first Christmas in Gatlinburg in 1985...25 years ago! We've since add quite a few family members and mountain homes to the mix since then. I will see if I can dig up some old photos from our first Smoky Mountain Christmas!

Don't let the blue blind you :)

Glad we had at least one meal together on Christmas Eve, since we did not have a chance to eat together on Christmas Day, because of this....

WHITE CHRISTMAS!

this is what we woke up to on Christmas morning!

Yeah, yeah, everybody wants a White Chrismtas...but a White Christmas in Gatlinburg is a different story when you are on top of a big mountain with curvy roads that leads up to your house.

Click here for sister's blog for a little more commentary and details about the day...

Kristen's wonderful skills with the camera timer...

Time to check out out stockings

Now for presents...

We had a ton of fun riding the sled down the driveway and throwing snowballs at each other. We had planned to build a snowman, but those plans changed once we decided to pack up and attempt to get off the mountain.

Now here's where the fun starts....

ahhh, not really...I was just short of having a meltdown.

This was the view I had from my seat in the car. Do you see how thick the snow is on the windshield??

High, curvy mountain roads, just don't mix well with winter snowy weather...and they don't mix well with me either for that matter.

That's my cousin's car just ahead of us. We had a caravan of six cars coming down the mountain. Thankfully we made it down without any problems...other than when we would have to move to our side of the road when we met a few cars. I don't know why anyone would want to come up the mountatin! If you are at the bottom...stay there!

Let's just say that I am fine with staying away from Gatlinburg until spring

Yea! We made it to the bottom!

We wrapped up the last of our Christmas celebrations with visiting Steven's parents on Monday.

We had a fun day hanging out with each other and then had a wonderul dinner later that day.

Hope everyone had a wonderul Christmas!

Thanksgiving in Sunny Florida

Well I am finally getting around to posting pictures from our Thanksgiving trip to Ft Lauderdale. We had a great time as usual!

Aren't these puppies precious?

Steven's cousin's dog had puppies several weeks ago, and we had so much fun playing with them. I couldn't figure out how to get one home in my suitcase for my Mom...hope my Dad isn't reading this :)

Steven's other cousin (actually his cousin's husband...does that still make him Steven's cousin? aww, who cares) has a hotel on the beach in Ft Lauderdale. We had dinner there on Monday evening and then hung out by the pool while the kids swam. Very nice place if you are ever looking for somwhere to stay in the Ft Lauderdale area.

Tuesday we took the water taxi around the intercoastal waterway...the waterway that has been nicknamed, "The Venice of America". I totally understand why!! The homes were beautiful and quite expensive. One single story home on the waterway for sale, couldn't have been more than about 1400 square feet and it was listed for close to 4 million! Crazy!! The person that started Sunglass Hut has a house there...pretty sweet...as well as the guy that started Waste Managment! Who woulda known a garbage man could have so much money? :)

Sorry these pictures are so white. I had my camera on some crazy setting and could not figure out what was going on. FINALLY figured it out just a few days ago...stupid me!

Wednesday night we had our big Thanksgiving meal. It was wonderful and so nice to sit by the pool while we ate.

We have so much to be thankful for!

Alabama MS State Game

Weekend before last, one of my very dear friends came to visit me in Tuscaloosa for the Alabama/MS State game. I had such a great time spending the day with her (as well as with my other friends and family) and I am so thankful for her friendship. A special thanks to Mrs. Joyce for letting Raylin spend the day with her, so Christie could come see me in Tuscaloosa!

Can't believe we only have one game left...a big game at that. Looking forward to seeing all of my tailgating buddies this weekend for one last tailgate of the season.

Roll Tide!

Can't beat free...

I love Christmas Cards! Love sending them and more so, love receiving them!

I was very excited to hear about Shutterfly's free Christmas cards for bloggers!

So, go here and gets yours too!

These are so cute, and so are these!

There are so many cute cards and designs...I don't know how I will ever decide which one to order.

Be sure to check out some of there other great products as well...

I love the wall calendars! I gave several of these as Christmas gifts last year and they were a big hit...it's also something you can give every year!

The magnets are also another favorite of mine. These can be great stocking stuffers or just a little happy for a friend. You can create a magnet with any picture that you have.

Who hasn't ordered one of these photo books? I ordered a small one with pictures from our wedding and it is the perfect size...fits right in my purse. These are a great keepsake for anyone, including yourself.

Happy shopping on Shutterfly!

Hallow-dega

I know you all have been on the edge of your seats waiting on pictures of the race.

We really did have a good time and the weather was quite nice on Halloween day.

As you can see Steven was a "leeeeettle" tired at the race, and decided to take a quick nap once we were in the shade.

I took some other pictures of a few "sights" near where we were sitting, but I will spare you of that...don't want to offend anyone...just in case someone you know was sitting around us :)

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from us!!

We celebrated Halloween with friends this weekend in Talladega...race pictures coming soon!

A few weekends ago we carved pumpkins with the Beasley's. The kids always love picking the hardest pattern. As Missy was finishing up Brook's, it didn't quite turn out like they had hoped, so she tuned it around and carved something on the other side.

We were slackers...we didn't even get around to lighting the pumpkins. Well the Bama game came on and we got a little side tracked.

Jam out for Julie

A BIG thanks to everyone that played a part in last Friday's event, Jam out for Julie. We had a great turnout and raised over $4,000! Julie stopped by for a little while and even gave a touching speech on stage (I should have known to take some tissue with me). We also raffled off some great prizes, including restaurant gift cards, jewelry, a purse, AU football and basketball (thankfully I did not win this), a weekend in Gatlinburg, and several other items.

Music provided by Simone Durand Trio added great atmosphere to the event.

Please feel free to visit Julie's fundraising page to read her story and if you would like to donate, please do so. Click the link below and enter Julie Monroe under "find patient" on the right side of the page.

http://www.ntafund.org/

Thanks again on behalf of Julie and her family...

Football Filled Weekend

Last Thursday we went to the Simmons 7th grade football game...well really to see Brook cheer. She did such a great job and is just the cutest cheerleader. Here she is leading the squad in a few cheers.

Then on to the Hoover vs Pelham game Friday night.

I look really out of place without an orange shirt...guess I'm going to have to break down and get one (although orange really doesn't look very good on me).

Then on to the Alabama Florida game on Saturday. As always we had a great time hanging out with all of our tailgating friends. These night games wear me out though...I'm getting too old for this. Here's to hoping the next home game is a day game...

This little future Crimsonette came walking by our tailgate and I could not resist getting her picture! I think she looks just like the real Crimsonettes, don't you??

Big Al came walking by our tailgate too!

It was a little warm on Saturday, if you were out in the sun, so Big Al's mom made sure that we knew that she did not make him wear this...the child insisted on having it on!

Be sure to check out the gator he is dragging behind him.

They were handing out these stickers at Gallette's and I just knew Steven would love to wear this!

Gulf Shores

Weekend before last, we took a trip to the beach with my parents. New appliances were ordered for the condo, so Steven and I went along to assist...well Steven actually helped Dad install the new dishwasher, not me. I just made sure there were snacks made for the game on Saturday :)

The weather was great, other than a few stray rain showers, so we did get to sit by the pool for a little while. Going to the beach in September is so nice...you can have the pool all to yourself and there are no crowds...well except at the Oyster House.

Looking forward to our next trip!

Show us your life - Master Bedroom

Well here it is! I haven't participated in Kelly's "Show Us Your Life" in a while, but I decided to mainly because our room was all cleaned up (which is rare) and I have new bedding.

There's only one picture, because, let's face it, our master bedroom is not not very large.

I purchased this king size bed frame off Craig's List a few months ago for a steal. I really liked the furniture I already had (which I got in collge), and didn't really want to buy an entire new bedroom suite. So I found this bed and it matched pretty well with my dresser (seen below) and nightstand...the queen size bed is now in the guest room.

The comforter is new...it was a wedding present...well it was purchased with gift cards we received from our wedding (we also put some of our wedding money towards our new comfy mattress which we love!). The curtains were just recently purchased as well. Right now, I just have one panel on each window (on either side of the dresser), and I haven't decided if I need two panels. Gotta get my decorator over here and see what she thinks :)

Hope you enjoy!

Bama San Jose State Game

Can't believe football season has already started! I guess I was too involved in planning a wedding, and the summer just flashed right before my eyes. Wouldn't change that a bit though.

We enjoyed the first game of the season last weekend in Tuscaloosa. The weather was so very nice...so unusal for the first of the season. It was great seeing all of our tailgating friends that we don't see enough throughout the year.

Be sure to notice the football cupcakes that were made by yours trully. I will have to give credit to Steven though...he did the A's and I did the other ones. He's so handy like that.

Isn't Harrison just precious in the dog cage? Their new dog was quite precious too!

Gotta go get ready for the Penn State game tomorrow.

Yeah, mon!

...We definitely heard this a time or two while we were in Jamaica!

We had such a wonderul time and the resort was fabulous! I highly recommend it or any of their resorts for that matter.

This is one of the first things that we saw when we arrived.

the wonderful lazy river

Steven checking out the bed

Mom has this print in her living room, so when Steven spotted it at the resort, I just had to take a picture to show mom

beach aerobics every morning at noonish...don't spend too much time looking for use...we weren't participating, just watching :)

spent a lot of time hanging out in this area just looking over at the beach

view from our balcony

dinner at the Mexican Restaurant

relaxing on the beach and by the pool

dinner at the Gourmet Restaurant...the steak was fabulous!

dinner at the Steakhouse

Can you tell we were sitting outside? I really wasted a lot of time fixing my hair because as soon as I would walk out of the door, the humidity hit! We hadn't been sitting at the table 5 minutes, and I looked like I had been sitting outside for hours. The joys of having curly/frizzy hair!!

my dessert at the steakhouse...so pretty

more of the same...as you saw from a few pictures earlier

the pool was so very nice!

just boarded the sunset cruise that we toured around Montego Bay

again...lovin' the frizzy hair

our last picture at the resort as we wait for our shuttle to the airport.

I thought it was crazy leaving the resort over 4 hours before our flight, but what do I know...those Jamaicans don't fool around when it comes to security!