Sweet Home Alabama... part 1

We made it...after 7 hrs and an overnight in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, then another 3 hrs. to Birmingham, we settled in New Years Eve eve. The drive was gorgeous and the kids were absolutely fantastic the whole trip, thanks to lots of snacks, movies, and good music. We are getting used to seeing Auburn and Alabama fanatics everywhere and have been warned not to publicly show support for one team. Hopefully we'll be neutral in our Texas and BYU gear.

With the exception of a visit from "Paul" (our downstairs neighbor, whose uncanny resemblance to Joel Olsteen is quite hilarious being that he has the exact same accent as well) about all of the noise we were making, you know "walking around" and normal things humans do, we are LOVING Alabama and our the corporate housing arrangements. We've got tennis courts, a gym, a business center, and a movie theatre with a popcorn machine that you can either screen movies or play Wii. The kids are not shy around here and have already buddied up with the Ririe kids. We can't get over how cute their accents are and how sweet and inviting they are.

It's usually between 29 and 54 degrees around here, but we've gotten used to it and I love getting to add layers of scarves and sweaters and junk.