PRAYERS FOR LIBBY

Today is sweet Libby's big day. She is having surgery to repair the hole in her heart. If you are reading this, please take time to pray for her, the physicians and nurses as well as her family. Mary and Connor have been so strong and their faith is definately a testimony to their lovefor the Lord. WE LOVE YOU LIBBY!

ANOTHER YMCA BASKETBALL TEAM - THE MAVERICKS

Grayson started the winter basketball league on Saturday. This team is different than the summer league team in that all the kids go to Wilson and are all in the 2nd grade. That is a recipe for craziness! I am so proud of them despite their silliness. They won 15-8! I don't think the summer team scored 15 points all season! They have some good potential here. Kudos to Mike Mathis and Billy Shaw for being brave enough to coach!

I've never seen this group listen so intently!

Stanley and Grayson...double trouble!

Grayson is great on defense!

Who Brought That??

Friday night the Shortino's hosted our annual Sunday school party/ornament exchange. Like always, we had a blast with great friends, good food and goofy ornaments! I feel sorry for the new couples who had never experienced our "friendly" ornament exchange. It gets a little chaotic to say the least. Last year I had the football Santa ornament that has been passed around for 8 years! I thought it clever to document with pictures and a little note things football Santa had done with the ol' Huff family over the past year. No one really thought it to be that funny. Most people (the new folks) just looked confused. Katie was clearly disappointed that she and Nathan ended up taking football Santa home. I mean, it is an atrocious ornament, but the fact that he gets passed around year to year is great! Oh well, I'm not as funny as I think I am! Here are a few new memories from our party!

These two love each other wwaaayyyyy too much!

Surely Shane has a better sweater than that!

Clayton, a new guy, and Stephen

They all LOOK so innocent

Katie and Me...cute

They love each other NOW, wait til the ornament exchange starts!

Bet you could never guess who brought these...the guy in the tacky green sweater, maybe?

Rosemond was NOT pleased when Eric traded their cute little ornament for the cat and bird prostitute ornaments!

For a moment, Eric thought it was funny. That was until Ro gave him "the look".

This is the whole group. We had a great time.

Katie and I never seem to have anyone who really likes our ornaments. Shout out to April for acting like she liked my "Go Jesus It's Your Birthday" ornament.

Christmas by Candlelight

Thursday night was our Christmas by Candlelight Ladies Night at FBCC. I was in charge of gift baskets for the raffle and I also hosted a table for a few friends. It was a lot of work and stress, but well worth it once I was sitting around the table with my gals, enjoying our guest speaker and listening to the beautiful choir from the high school. The biggest and best surprise was that Courtney used a picture of my kids as a sample for her donation item. She gave away a photo shoot that included several portraits. I was so surprised, I cried! Imagine that!

Just a sampling of the 16 gift baskets we raffled off.

My table
My handsome husband was an usher. Lanette made sure he ushered her in!
Jeanine

Luci and Cathy

Kendall would not have left without having Sheila on his arm for a few moments!

Finally, I get the handsome guy!

Courtney, Mary and Lindsey

The gals at the registration table

A Little Christmas Cheer!

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring. Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, EVERY single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl. We should've known... ONLY women would be able to drag a fat-ass man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost.

Yet Another Activity...

I think one of my weaknesses is that I think I can do everything and do it perfectly. Once more I have taken on the task of coordinating our Ladies Night Out gift baskets at church. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE doing it, but WOW...like I need something else to do! Tomorrow night (or should I say tonight since it is 1 am) we will have our Christmas by Candlelight ladies night. Church members are invited to host a table which we are responsible for decorating and inviting guests (we usually have about 200 attendees). We have a good ol' fashioned Baptist pot luck dinner, a speaker and then give away some awesome door prizes! I have spent countless hours getting donations from local businesses as well as soliciting donations from our Sunday School classes. I am quite sure people are tired of me asking for things! After being at the church until midnight last night and another late night tonight, I can honestly say I am proud of everything that has been done. The ladies that are on the committe are awesome Christians and a lot of fun to be around! I hope all of my guests will show up and enjoy the evening with me...Hopefully more posts tomorrow as we finally sit back and relax...

Whew...We Have Been Busy!

Even though it has only been a few days, I feel like I haven't blogged in weeks! A lot has gone on in our lives as you can see by the photos. However, there has been much more behind the scenes that sometimes even I can't pull out a camera to document! But, let's stick to what you can see...


On December 1 the cub scouts built bird houses with their dads. It was funny watching them hammer and glue the pieces together! They all did a great job but let me say...there was wood glue EVERYWHERE!

Who's the cub scout that is supposed to be doing the work??

On December 4 Kendall and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary! I can't believe we made it. However, we didn't celebrate on this night. I had my annual gal pal Christmas dinner at Bob's Steak and Chop house with Kelly, Niki and Robyn. We had a great time catching up with each other. I appreciate Kendall letting me go out with my girls on our anniversary. Not that he and I didn't celebrate, as you will see later...

This was a great night of fun!

I love these girls, but we sure missed having Donna there too.

Okay, so the next night, December 5, we went to the Glass Cactus with some friends to hear a great 80's cover band called the Spazmatics! What a great anniversary party we had. We went out with Paul and Melissa Stephen, Kevin and Anna Slayton, Robyn Orear and my newest buddy from work, Dan Yancy. While we were on the dance floor we ran in to Lanny and Amanda Huggins. They were the first couple we really got to know when we moved here. We had a great time long in to the night...

Anniversary gifts were - Kendall new watch with black leather band - me Ug Boots~

Melissa and Me

Kendall and Robyn

The Spazmatics dress like the Revenge of the Nerds guys!

Now on to Saturday, December 6. We watched the SEC Championship game with the Kilgo family (Florida fans). I was so upset afterward I didn't want to continue on with our plans. But Kendall talked me into it and we ended up having a great time despite my misery after Alabama lost to Florida.

Steve and Cindy Harris invited us to their Christmas party at their condo in Dallas. Steve and I used to work together so it was good seeing old customers. I met some new friends who live in Coppell so now we have one more couple to add to the circle of friends!

Allison, Kim and Me

Our wonderful host and hostess, Steve and Cindy

Finally, let's take some family time to finish our Christmas decorations and get this tree up! I can't believe my tree wasn't fully decorated until December 9th! I have never been that late getting the tree trimmed!

Grayson gave up after about 5 minutes, but Jessie was a huge help! Although I did have to move some of the ornaments after she went to bed. Afterall, we needed more than just the bottom 3 feet decorated!

ANGIE'S TIP OF THE DAY...

When taking out a new customer/distributor rep for lunch - DON'T order spinach. And if you do, check your teeth often. I embarrassed myself for talking at least 30 minutes with a giant green leftover in my bottom teeth. Now, you know I talk a lot and smile a lot. There is no way she didn't see it! What a way to end the day in Houston - a city I hate because I always get lost - even w/ a GPS.

Another Wreck...

Not me this time, but another female in my family had a little accident on the way home from work today. My mom hit a dog and smashed her right front fender. Clay West, if you are reading this, shut up! My heart hurts for the dog that she hit! She could have left that part out!

Bama Beats Auburn!!!

Well, my team didn't let me down. Alabama beat Auburn Saturday 36-0! An undefeated Bama team is just what Alabama Alumni are used to. It's been quite some time since we've had a season like this. Midway through the season all I wanted was a solid season beating Auburn. Well, give me an inch and I will take a mile! Now I won't settle for losing to Florida this week for the SEC Championship. I am so nervous about it. We will be watching it at a friend's house who is a die hard Florida fan - ugh! Gotta go pray for a win! ROLL TIDE!

Grayson's Comedic Antics

My child. Such the comedian. I just went upstairs to make sure the kids were all tucked in before I go to bed and found a note at Grayson's door that says - and I quote exactly-

Warning!

Keep Out!

No explosive diarea!

No animels!

No Jumping!

No Girls Aloud!

No Girls Toys!

Nock on the door before you come in!

P.S. or else you will be arrested.

It was just one of those late night laughs that I needed. Especially when I saw that Jessie had tried to copy him and make her own sign. It just said Waarnning - Keeeeepout (in purple crayon of course!)

On To The Next Holiday...

The long weekend is over. Part of me is glad so that the kids can get back in to their routines and quit picking on each ohter. The other part (the part has to go to work tomorrow) wants to sleep all day. The holidays are exhausting! Usually we are in Alabama for Turkey day, but this year we stayed home in Coppell. The Olivas family came over for a somewhat traditional meal. I tried not to over induldge and blow my diet. Here are a couple of our memories....

The good ol' "kids table"

Our meal consisted of Turkey, homemade dressing, corn, Jeanine's famous mashed potatoes, rolls, fresh veggies, chocolate pie, pumpkin pie, and wine - great for a diet plan!

Addyson loved the pumpkin pie and whipped cream!

Afterwards we all went outside to watch the kids, Kendall and Kiki play football in the backyard.

By 3:30 in the afternoon, it was all over. We tried to stay awake for the Cowboy game but I think I was snoozing before the end of the 1st quarter. But after a nice rest, the celebration picked back up at the Higgs house for a little Rock Band and left over food!

And the perfect ending to the exhausting day, was jumping in the hot tub on a cool night!

Despite the late night we had at Shari and David's house, Shari and I fared the crowd at Wal-Mart early Friday morning. It's funny and sad to watch people act like such idiots to save a few dollars. I could have waited until later to go, but since every 7 year old on the planet seems to be a Star Wars fan right now, I had to make sure to get there early enough to get the ultimate Star Wars gear. I did not however, go at 3:30 in the morning like my crazy sister in law did only to have a television snatched out of her hand by a grown man! I mean really! What kind of man takes a TV from a woman?? Anyway, she only came away with a scrath on her hand unlike the folks in other parts of the country who were caught in a stampede. Retail stores should have some type of accountability in this madness they create. Oh well, by the end of the day Friday I had most of my shopping completed. The rest will be done online. That is a good feeling!