zoo light safari

yesterday mom and maggie came up and we went to see the christmas lights at the zoo. i can't get over how grown up maggie is!

a black belt birthday

michael’s birthday was the 11^th. friday night we had dinner at the red barn with john and the fellows as well as frances and bill. great friends and a great night!

the red barn in demop...


i had already given michael his birthday gift {iron bowl tickets for him and stephen} so we really only had dinner planned for saturday. he had been wanting to go to gaines ridge dinner club in camden. on our way up we drove through linden and they were having a fair {could possibly be the smallest fair ever} so we stopped.

love the smell of carny food....


michael loved this game {note the roasted sweet corn in hand}....

after we drove for an hour and a half we made it gaines ridge. only to find out that a local bank had rented it out for the evening. it was so cute, so we will definitely be back.

gaines ridge dinner club all decorated for christmas...

we we ended up for dinner....

the food was actually great and we were able to watch cam win the heisman....

santa

on sunday after the sec championship game we headed over to cherokee town club for tripp’s santa pictures and brunch. tripp did so well – didn’t cry one bit while sitting in santa’s lap. the decorations were beautiful and it was so fun to see all the kids decked out in their adorable christmas outfits.

sec champs

for our wedding gift michael’s aunt francie gave us tickets to the sec championship to see the tigers take on the south carolina gamecocks. as well as two nights at the palomar hotel {highly recommend} in atlanta. we had a great time! friday night we walked around midtown, went to taco mac, then had a drink at the w hotel.

on saturday francie took us to lunch at houston's then we made our way to the game.

gena and her family sat on the row behind us (thanks for the picture, gena!). such a small world and so great to see them again!

auburn finished it's season 13-0 and are headed to glendale for the bcs national championship!

iron bowl 2010

on friday dani drove down from her parents in madison and we made our way to tuscaloosa. a bama fan had told me at work that we were not having a tiger walk. i should not have listened to him because while we are waiting to meet our ticket guy {via ebay} we see the mass of au fans walking from somewhere – only to find out they did actually have one...
after getting our tickets we made our way to galettes for a pre-game cocktail {you know, just to keep us warm during the game}...

i don’t know why i felt the need to take a picture of this…

we then made our way to the stadium. our seats were in a sea of crimson on the bama sideline. this is where we would be harassed throughout the second qtr. mind you we were two of four au fans {three being females} in our section. we were screamed at to "shut up" and to watch our shakers when we were cheering. then the grown man next to me also felt the need to flip cam off. but it was oh so worth it!

i would like to thank the birmingham news for the following pictures as i was evidently too worked up / fearing for my life to snap any of my own...

WDE! and can't wait for the sec championship in atl this weekend!

thanksgiving 2010

the night before thanksgiving i noticed jackson limping around. i picked up his paw and one of his pads was completely gone. gross. so being the good nurse i am, i quickly bandaged him up.

for thanksgiving michael and i drove up to hartselle to have lunch with my family. it was so good to see my brother and his family who i don’t get to see nearly enough...

mary helen and american girl doll kit...

maggie and her doll julie....

we spent lots of time doing cart wheels and climbing trees...

mallory taking a break...

sweet caroline...

and of course eating delicious food {while talking a little smack to the alabama fans in my fam}...

along with a new addition from my cousin – sweet baby jackson...

we then came back to birmingham and had dinner with michael's family. this was the first time we have seen tripp since he started walking. he is going 90 to nothing {hence not getting a good pic} and such a happy baby!

and off to bed early to hit up the iron bowl on friday...

confirmed

i’ve been slightly busy the past month and a half. between running around atlanta and birmingham searching for that perfect wedding dress, every sunday for the past 6 weeks i have been driving to greensboro to attend confirmation classes for the episcopal church. and today i was finally confirmed! i grew up baptist and michael grew up in the episcopal church. and now with this little thing called a wedding coming up, michael and i both feel it is important to attend the same church when we are married and have children. so on saturday my mom, roger, maggie, vicki, and michael’s grandparents came to demopolis. then on sunday michael’s parents came down. michael gave the grand tour of demop and greensboro. small town charm + friendly down home people = everyone loved greensboro.

st andrew's in gallion....

rural studio in newbern....

horseshoe farm...

pie lab in greensboro....

michael's grandparents after church.....

maggie and me outside st. paul's....

my grandmother loved that wine was served with lunch at the church. she couldn't wait to go and tell her girlfriends about "cocktail hour". no one could believe she is 91.