Trishia and Brett are going to Kenya!

A friend from our church and her husband are going to Kenya. They are missionaries with an organization called Vapor Sports. I have added a link to the Vapor Sports web site and a link to Trishia and Brett's blog, so please check them out. They are following God's calling, so please keep them in your prayers.

In Memory of Mary Aline Hinson Rigby

June 5, 1918 - January 4, 2009

On January 4, 2009, Bo's mother, Mary Aline Hinson Rigby, passed away. Born June 5, 1918, Mrs. Rigby leaves behind 11 children and 46 grandchildren and great grandchildren. She had been sick for some time. It is a very sad time, although we know that she is in a better place and no longer suffering.

I hate that Sophie will not meet her grandmother in this lifetime, but she will know the legacy of her namesake and what a fine woman she was.

Our Last Christmas Celebration for the Year

The first weekend of the New Year we had Christmas with Lee, Regina, Tyler, and Brianne. We played with Playdough, and I cooked dinner. Brianne started this new thing of wanting everyone to pick her up. I told her we were going to change her name to "Pick Me Up" since that was what she said most of the time. We had a lot of fun and opened the last gifts for the year. Enjoy the few pictures I was able to take.

 

Post Christmas Shopping

On Monday, Bo and I went on a little post Christmas shopping trip with my mom, sisters, and nieces. We stayed at the Rossbridge Resort and Spa in Birmingham, which is absolutely beautiful! It sits on one the of Robert Trent Jones golf courses among rolling hills and a beautiful landscape. Photography by Selma native, Katherine Tucker Windam, was displayed throughout the hotel, as were some very interesting pieces of art. Each room has a balcony overlooking the golf course or pool area. Our room overlooked the pool, and we were able to open the doors and sit out on the balcony and relax. Right after we checked into our rooms, we went out on the balcony to have a quick look around. We all heard music, but thought it was being playing on an audio system. The music kept getting a little louder and a little louder. We caught a glimpse of something walking from a distance, and lo and behold, it was someone walking the grounds playing a bagpipe. It was so neat!

We relaxed for a while at the hotel and then decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Our brother-in-law, Shannon, joined us there. The food was delicious, and the cheesecake was absolutely out of this world. We all made pigs of ourselves. To work off the cheesecake, we shopped! What a way to exercise! It was a lot of fun spending a few days with my mom, sisters, and nieces. I hope we get to have many more trips just like this!

 

The Birthday Girl!

On Sunday, we celebrated Anna Kay's first birthday! It's hard to believe that she is already a year old. Where does the time go?

The party was a lot of fun, and the food was delicious. As always, the cake was precious. Anna Kay had lots of help opening her gifts. Her big brother, Nicholas, and cousins, Ava Grace and Maddie, made sure that all the gifts were opened and enjoyed. I'll bet she won't need any help next year!

 

Christmas Day

We started out the day bright and early with breakfast at my grandmother's house. She is 92 years old and has a birthday right around the corner. All of my mother's sisters and most of their families were there for breakfast, so the house was full.

After breakfast, we drove to my older sister's house for lunch and to enjoy the rest of Christmas day. We spent the day chatting, eating, catching up with everything that is going on with my nieces and opening gifts. My brother-in-law was working, so unfortunately, we had to open gifts without him. :(

Sophie got a couple of Christmas gifts again this year. My family is always so sweet to remember her, even though she is not with us yet. My older sister and her family gave Sophie the book, The Mitten. I had never heard of the book, but I read it when we got home. It is a very cute book, and I know we will enjoy reading it to Sophie. My parents and younger sister gave Sophie her very first jewelry, a silver cross necklace. It is beautiful, and we just love it! Thanks to all of you for thinking of her and us.

We really enjoyed getting to spend the day with my sister and her family, and we hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Enjoy the pics!

May I Open A Present Pleeeeeease?

Last night we had Christmas with Tim, Michele, Nicholas, Anna Kay, Michael, and Jessica in Spanish Fort. We started out by going with Michele to take Nicholas and Anna Kay to see Santa Claus. Michele was afraid that Nicholas would not sit in Santa's lap, but to our surprise, he did! He was such a big boy and told Santa what he wanted for Christmas and had his picture made. Anna Kay liked Santa too! They are both getting so big.

After we got back from seeing Santa, Nicholas wanted to start opening presents. We told him we had to wait until after dinner to open gifts. He could hardly stand the wait. He begged and begged. Well, since we couldn't open presents, we played with them. We made a Christmas present train, and we shook and squeezed the presents to see if we could guess what was inside. We even tried to peak into some to see if we could catch a glimpse of what they were. Anna Kay stole some of the bows and decided to chew on a couple, but who doesn't love a little baby chew on their gifts? Especially such a cute baby at that!

After everyone finally finished their dinner, which was quite delicious, we opened gifts. The wait was definitely worth it! We had a blast!

Thanks to Tim and Michele for having us over! It was great spending time with everyone.

Enjoy the pics!

A Christmas Carol the Musical

As we continued to celebrate my Dad and sister's birthdays, today we went to the Shakespeare Festival to see A Christmas Carol the Musical. It was terrific! The actors and actresses did a wonderful job. I am ashamed to say that at the age of 40, this was the first time I have ever visited the Shakespeare Festival, although it is only an hour and a half away from where we live. There are several really good plays scheduled, so I hope to get to go again soon. If you have never been and want to know more about the Shakespeare Festival, click here.

December Birthdays

December is full of birthdays!

Our oldest grandson, Tyler, turned 6 on December 9. Bo and I went to visit them last weekend, and Bo, Tyler, and Lee went to see the movie, BOLT, in 3D. Tyler was so excited and had a blast. So did Bo and Lee!

My dad, whom I will let you guess his age, had a birthday on the 12th. We took him to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, after which we went to my sister's to open gifts and have birthday cake.

My sister Brenda had a birthday on the 18th. We celebrated last night with a birthday dinner and her favorite red velvet cake. We will continue my dad and sister's birthday celebrations tomorrow with a family trip to the Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery to see A Christmas Carol and lunch at the Olive Garden. Yum!

Our youngest granddaughter, Anna Kay, turned the big 1 yesterday, the 19th. She was supposed to have her birthday party today, but her big brother, Nicholas, got sick, unfortunately. We are going to celebrate her birthday as soon as everyone is all better.

Lastly, but certainly not least, we will celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Christmas day. Let's all remember the true reason for the season!

It Was Fun While It Lasted

This weekend, Bo and I went to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta, Georgia. We started the season by going to Atlanta to watch our team, Alabama, play Clemson, so we thought it only appropriate to close our season of traveling to see the Tide play by going back to Atlanta to watch Alabama play Florida. The Tide started out the season ranked 24th. No one expected us to have a good season, nor did they ever expect us to go undefeated and ranked #1 going into the SEC Championship game.

As most of you probably know, we did not beat Florida, but we are so very proud of our team and all they have accomplished this year. We have so much to look forward to next year, and can't wait for the 2009 football season to arrive.

Enjoy the pics from the weekend.

Roll Tide!

My sister, Beth, and I on the MARTA

Having fun with the Chick-fil-A cow at Fanfare

Bo and I with the SEC Championship trophy

Bo and Beth

Our brother-in-law, Shannon, trying to win a prize

Leigh Tiffin warming up

Offensive line warming up

Do you think this guy might have been an Alabama fan?

The press waiting for Alabama to run out of the tunnel

Not many press waiting on Florida to run out

The coin toss

A Great Raffle-Way!

What is a raffle-way, you may ask? It's a combination of a raffle and giveaway.

If you notice, there is a "Rebel for a Cause" button on my sidebar. If you click that button, it will take you to a blog post on My Charming Kids blog telling you about this raffle/give-a-way for 3 great charities. One is for the charity, String of Pearls, and the other two are charities benefiting China adoptions, No Hands But Ours and the Elison project. In this Raffle-Way you could win a wonderful Canon Rebel digital camera, zoom lens, memory card, camera bag, custom-made camera strap, a 16X20 canvas, and blog make-over! Wow, that's a lot of really cool stuff! For a suggested donation of $10, you can be entered to win all of this! If you donate $20, your name goes in twice, $30, 3 times! You see how it works.

Well, go check it out. It's for 3 great causes!

36-0 The Streak Has Ended!

Roll Tide!! Last night was one of the most fun nights of my life. Alabama beat our in state rival, Auburn, 36-0! There was a huge party in Bryant-Denny stadium after the game! The atmosphere was electric. If you live in Alabama and have never been to a game, you must go to at least one in your lifetime. There is nothing like it.

Enjoy some pics from the game, courtesy of AL.com!

Happy Thanksgiving and Roll Tide!

I'm a day late posting our Happy Thanksgiving wishes to everyone, but it's because we were having a great time with family. The weekend before Thanksgiving, Lee, Regina, Tyler, and Brianne stayed the weekend with us. The weather was great, and we were able to play outside for a long time on Saturday. We made pictures and Tyler drove Bo around on the golf cart.

Bo and I were on vacation all week, and we have been working in the yard. Boy have I been sore! I could definitely tell that I sit at a desk everyday!

On Wednesday night, Tim, Michele, Nicholas, and Anna Kay spent the night with us and spent part of today with us too! We played and played and just had a good ole' time. Thursday, we ate waaaayyy too much, but the food was just too good to pass up. Today my sister and I helped my parents decorate their Christmas tree. It's hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and since we will be heading to Tuscaloosa bright and early tomorrow morning for the Iron Bowl, I will close with a big Roll Tide!

Enjoy a few pics from the week!

Mike and Rhonda are in China!!

Our friends from Birmingham, Mike and Rhonda, are in China to adopt their daughter, Hannah. They arrived yesterday and are touring Beijing now. If you would like to follow their journey, you can so do by clicking here.

Blog Giveaway!

Every once in a while someone will have a giveaway on their blog. Well, I was reading one tonight that you should really check out. It's in celebration of her 100th post on her blog. Check out PeepToePumpsandPearls.

The Big 4-0!

Yes, today I turned 40! Can you believe it? It doesn't seem possible.

The celebration started on Friday when my boss kicked me out of my office early in the afternoon so that he and my co-workers could decorate my office. None of them make into the office early enough to decorate before I get there, so they had to get a jump on it.

On Saturday, we celebrated with my parents, sisters, and nieces. My mom cooked a delicious lunch, and we had cake and ice cream for dessert, of course. It was great to have most of my immediate family together at once (My bro-in-law wasn't able to make it.).

Today, I began the day by opening gifts from my sweet hubby and several family members. Then I arrived at work to an office brimming with red, white, and UofA crepe paper streamers (Thanks, Renee'). I was expecting plenty of black and Over the Hill, but, thanks to Halloween, there were no black streamers to be found in town. My co-workers took me to lunch, and then finished the day with Chocolate Lasagna. If you've never heard of it, you are not alone. I hear this was a dessert served at Olive Garden at one time. It consists of thin layers of chocolate cake with rich, delicious cream cheese icing between and on top with chunks of chocolate mixed in. Yummmm! Thanks to Marcia for making such a wonderful dessert.

Tonight, my hubby surprised me with something sparkly and then cooked dinner. Did I mention how great my hubby is?

What a day it was. It was certainly something to remember, and I hope to have many more just like it!

Enjoy the pics!

Opening gifts from my sister and her family

Love the Vera Bradley bag

My sister, Beth, and my mom

Oh, look at this office!

They even put streamers on my computer monitor!

I have a lot of cleaning up to do tomorrow.