HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE MCKIBBINS

We hope you all have a WONDERFUL Christmas and an AMAZING New Year!!!

Love,

Rick, Candice, and Lilly McKibbin

"The Crew" Holiday Party

Rick's crew of guy friends from high school has a holiday party every year, which is so fun, and amazing for a group of guys to keep up. They rotate who host the party every year and this year Rick and I volunteered. WE HAD A BLAST! It is so much fun to see all these guys together, it's like they are teenagers again. Lilly was NOT so excited for the party, she looked to Beth for protection, but this did not last long.

As you can see Matthew & James are pumped for the National Championship, as they practice for Glendale, AZ.

This is my FAV pic of the night, notice Clark Griswold in the background?

Matthew loved the eggnog.

Here are all the girls.

And the guys, James HATES taking pics as you can see in the back.

The party was great fun, with great friends, and something I look forward to all year. I just adore the wonderful group of friends I married into, I am a very lucky girl. LOTS TO BE THANKFUL FOR THIS YEAR!!!!

SEC CHAMPIONS! WAR EAGLE!

Rick decided Friday about 7pm that we should go to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game the next day. So I jumped online, and booked a room. We didn't have tickets, but felt sure we would be able to find some once we got there. We rode over with one of Rick's friends from Auburn, Healthy, about 8am. Checked into the Melia Hotel (which was 1 mile from the Georgia Dome, and a great deal from Hotels.com $93), and headed to "tailgate." We met up with James (Rick, Healthy, and James were frat brothers),and Abnous, had some lunch and met up with a huge crew of guys from their frat @ Taco Mac. Fun times! Lots of guys Rick hadn't seen in years.

Our friends Burton and Jennifer came to meet us later, and ended up having 1 extra ticket for us. So we looked for 1 more ticket, and found NONE! Didn't see a single person selling tix anywhere!! So I decided to make the ultimate sacrifice for my sweet husband, and told him to go without me. There wasn't much argument, and I am pretty sure I did not get enough credit for this deed. So, I went to a nearby sports bar, STATS and met up with my friend Kelly and her husband, and watch the game there. We had a blast! The sports bar was AMAZING!
After the game, the crew came back to STATS pretty excited that Aub was heading to the National Championship. Obviously proud they were #1!

Here's the crew.

FABULOUS weekend! Next stop Glendale, AZ! (Rick & James are going!)

Our 1st official McKibbin Thanksgiving

This was our first married Thanksgiving, and I was pretty excited. Neither of us really care for the holiday food, so we don't get very excited about this holiday. BUT this year I was so excited! We went to Rick's brother (Scott) & Sister in law's (Katie) house here in Homewood, and had a FABULOUS DAY! Rick's dad was there, and his aunt, uncle, and cousin from Charleston, SC, along with Katie's mom & aunt. This really was one of the best Thanksgivings EVER (other than not being with my family)! Thank you McKibbins for making me so welcome, I am SO THANKFUL to be a part of such a wonderful family!!!!!
As you can see Lilly made herself at home. What you can't see is Rick made her wear her Auburn jersey, because his Uncle Bill is a huge Bama fan (they really came for the Ironbowl).

After lunch nap for Uncle Rick.

Our niece Claire came down with this Barbie, and said this was her "Candice" Barbie. I LOVED IT! Katie says she calls it Candice every time she plays with that particular Barbie.

ALWAYS McKibbin wrestling time. All the McKib guys were wrestlers in school.

As most of you know, my all time FAVORITE team, the New Orleans SAINTS, played on Thanksgiving day. Well, Andrew (nephew) played his first year of football

and his team won the championship! So now he is into NFL football. I took this opportunity to influence him on what team should be his #1. I have officially created a SAINTS FAN!!! I am so proud of myself. I taught he and the other kids the Who Dat cheer, and just exactly what tone to use when saying it (they were saying it a little too sweet). I went outside with the rest of the adults, and could hear lots of Who Dating coming from inside, and all I could feel was JOY! I SERIOUSLY LOVED THIS!! Maybe this is why I loved this Thanksgiving so much??? Needless to say, guess what Andrew will be getting for Christmas??? SAINTS GEAR!Here are the McKibbin men that were there this year. What a crew.

LOTS TO BE THANKFUL FOR THIS YEAR!!!

Look what I WON!!!!

I simply voted for my favorite HOBO International leopard handbag on facebook, and now it's MINE!!! SUPER PUMPED since I never win anything!!!! Happy Thanksgiving to me!!!

PS: This email went out to all HOBO Int. Newsletter subscribers, was on HOBO's Twitter page, and Facebook. I'm semi-famous.

Ole Miss vs Auburn 2010

Rick and I headed to Oxford, MS Friday after work to see his #1 Auburn Tigers, play my very unranked Ole Miss Rebel Bears. As you can imagine, Rick's team came out with the victory, but luckily as an Ole Miss fan we don't let these things get to us too much. We had an AMAZING time, it made me realize how much I LOVE OXFORD!!!! If you have never been, I STRONGLY suggest if your team ever plays in Oxford, that you make the trip. Our fabulous friend Martin, invited us to come stay with his family, and go to the game with them. The Millettes are the best host ever!!!! They cooked us breakfast, lat us watch the game with them in their end zone suite (the Archie & Eli were 2 suites down from us, I love the Mannings!), and put us up for the weekend, not to mention they provided us with perfect weather. Here are a few pics from this fabulous weekend!

1st thing we ran into on the way to the grove was a Rebel Bear.

We also ran into Angela, a family friend from the coast.

LOVED this REBEL pumpkin.

Lindsey, Martin, and the McKibbins in the grove.

The 3D halftime show.

Rick and the only other Auburn fan in the Suite, celebrating after the game.

Thank you Sam, Lynne, Martin, and Lindsey for a PERFECT weekend! HOTTY TODDY!

Lilly's 6

Our sweet baby shihtzu Lilly turned 6 last Saturday, October, 23!!! She is so much fun, so loving, & adorable. We love her so much (although I am pretty sure she loves Rick more than me these days). HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILLY DUNN-MCKIBBIN (yes she changed her name too).

Will & Lacey

Rick and I are heading to Hattiesburg this weekend for our sweet friends Will & Lacey's wedding weekend! Looking forward to celebrating with this fabulous couple. CONGRATS FRIENDS see you in a few hours!!!

Ole Miss vs Bama

HOTTY TODDY! Last weekend my dear friend Jeni, came up from Biloxi, and Martin came from Jxn, for the game. Martin had tix for us all, and in true Rebel form, we lost. Good news is, we had a GREAT time in Tuscaloosa. This was Jeni's first trip to Tuscaloosa, and it being game day, she was SHOCKED by the abundance of hounds tooth. I am not kidding you, these people LOVE hounds tooth!!!! She LOVED IT!!!

Instead of tailgating, we went to a few bars to meet up with some of Martin and my friends from our ole Oxford years.

Martin was very proud of Rick and my wedding huggies making it to the game.

We met up with Katherine just before the game (she had been tailgating since 12pm), and headed into the sea of BAMERS! I do have to say that stadium is amazing! I have been before, but every year they expand. Like I said, the Rebel Bears lost, but at least we put up a fight. We had a GREAT time, thanks Martin, for the fabulous tix!

Our entire lives in a slideshow

This is the slideshow that was played at our rehearsal dinner, thanks to our fabulous, talented friend, Sam McAlister.

Candice and Richard McKibbin from McAlister Creative on Vimeo.

OUR WEDDING!!!

This was the most AMAZING, PERFECT, WONDERFUL, FABULOUS, SWEET, SPECIAL, UNBELIEVABLE DAY OF OUR LIVES!!! Rick and I are SO blessed to have been surrounded by so much love and support on such a special day. All of our friends and family from near and far, beautiful weather, and the man of my dreams, what more could I ask for? We had 13 bridesmaids, 13 groomsmen, 2 flower girls, 1 ring bearer, and 5 ushers. Just a small intimate affair, right? Ok, not really, but I wouldn't have changed a thing!! I seriously can not express in words how amazing this day was, and at the end of the day Rick and I are married. I am such a lucky girl! If you want to see the photographer's pictures click here. Thanks to all who worked so hard to make our day so perfect, my mom, Mrs. Maureen, Angie, all of my mom's friends, and so many more I am sure I have left out. None of it would have been possible without you all! Most of all THANK YOU RICK, for making me the happiest girl in the world!

The Rehearsal Dinner

Our rehearsal dinner was SO much fun!!! We had buses to take all our guest from the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, to Scranton's in Pascagoula. This was the first bus with the wedding party and dates.

After a quick stop for an actual rehearsal, we were off to Scranton's. I grew up going to Scranton's at least once a week. One of our close family friends/ one of my mom's best friends from high school owns Scranton's. My mom also was there accountant most of my life. Lots of memories there, so it was only appropriate to have the dinner there, not to mention I had to show the out of towners my ole stomping ground. Scranton's building was the fire dept, court house, and police dept back in the day, so its a pretty neat building, not to mention the food was AMAZING!
We decided to invite all out of town guest, the wedding party (plus dates), and everyone involved in the actual wedding, so we had a large dinner. 120 to be exact. I wasn't sure how it would all work out, but it was PERFECT! Seriously, so much fun. It was fun, casual, and we were surrounded by the most important people in our lives. Lots of hilarious, sweet, kind, fabulous speeches, here are a few comments about a few:
1. There was a top 10 list about me, loved it.
2. One speech started with: I was a 1 man wolf pack until I met Rick.
3. LOTS of talk about Rick's high school vehicle.
4. A VERY sweet one by my step-dad about how glad he was that we came into his life.
5. Another from one of my high school friends saying how glad they were that my step dad came into our lives as well, because we had LOTS of parties at my house when my mom was in Little Rock. Actually he said it was the best thing that happened to our high school. Lots of applause from the rest of my high school friends.
6. Lots of talk of Rick running into things.
7. One about a National Geographic show about an antelope getting attacked by an alligator on one end and lion on the other end, this some how related to marriage.
8. Last but not least, a really sweet speech from Rick that ended with, "And that's about it."
There were lots more, we were crying we were laughing so hard. We have AMAZING friends and family!!!!!
Here I am with a few bridesmaids, Traci, Fancy, and Taylor.
And a crew of our Bham friends.
I forgot to mention that my very talented friend Sam, created a slide show of pics from mine and Rick's entire lives. I cannot express to you how fabulous this was! When I get the cd from Sam, I will try to put that on here, because it was really AWESOME. Rick and I also introduced everyone to our wedding party, just so they would all know each other, and how we all know each other. After that, Rick's dad decided to intro all his friends from college. IT WAS HILARIOUS!!! Rick looked at me and said "What is John doing?" He was just having so much fun, he totally forgot to intro his brothers that came from Virginia and South Carolina. The entire night was just SO much fun. I wish we could have a rehearsal dinner every year! After all that perfectness it was back on the buses and back to the Beau. Rick and I had a BLAST!!!!
If you want to see the rest of the pics click here.

Wedding Welcome Bags

I was so excited about the welcome bag for the guest staying at the Beau Rivage for our wedding! I thought they turned our super cute, and we had fun making them too. Rick and I went to SAM's Club an stocked up on goodies, and it cost much less than I expected. So here is what we put in them: Cheez-it, bottled water, granola bars, chips or smartpop popcorn, Advil, mints, laffy taffy, assorted mini candy bars, sweetarts, and a weekend itinerary. I got plain white gift bags, navy and aqua tissue paper, and I printed labels myself. Here is the finished product:

Here is a close up of the label. Sorry I don't have a better picture, but after making 60, we were over it.

Let the Wedding Weekend begin!

After our night in Meridian, MS, we drove straight to the Beau Rivage, dropped off all our stuff (LOTS OF STUFF! We couldn't even see out of the windows in the car), and headed to the airport to pick up Rick's college roommate Eric and his fabulous wife Rachel. Rick talked about "the Erics" all the time, and I had never met either of the Erics before the weekend, and was pretty pumped to meet these people that meant so much to Rick. Rachel and I had become besties on facebook, so I was beyond thrilled to FINALLY meet my new bestie! Rachel and Eric came all the way from Appleton, Wisconsin to be there with us for 4 days in Biloxi, were the first to book a room, and the first to book flights, I knew I would love this couple! Below are the famous Eric & Rachel.

Aren't they adorable??? I LOVE THEM, and can't wait to see them again soon. We took them to one of the Biloxi staples, the Old Biloxi Schooner for lunch, and caught up, then it was back to the Beau to unload again, then Rick & Eric headed back to the airport to pick up the other Eric. The other Eric is the other college roommate I had yet to meet. Rick, Eric, Eric, and James all lived together at Auburn, and oh the stories they tell. Below is a pic of the 4 of them back together 10 years later.
They were like little kids, so excited to see each other. I was super excited to meet Eric H., but we were sad his wife couldn't make the trip. She stayed home with their 3 kids for football games, back to school, etc. AMY WE MISSED YOU! They live in Cape Coral, FL, by the way. All of Rick's roommates were groomsmen in our wedding as they were all 4 in each other's weddings. They are quite the crew, and it was so fun to see them all together again reminiscing about the good ole days on the plains. To the Erics and Rachel, thank you SO much for coming so far to be there for Rick and me, you have NO IDEA what it meant to us!
Here are Traci, Rachel, and me at eight75 in the Beau.

Our sweet friends Kristen and Brad also made it down from Hattiesburg to get the weekend started early, as you can see Traci, Kristen, and me below.

We had quite the crew on Thursday night, Matthew, Jordan (who came from NYC to be a part of our wedding), Walker & Heather (it was H's birthday!), James & Abnous, Beth & Kyle, Charles & Jennifer all made it down. The few of us that were there in time for dinner went to my dad's (now my step-mom's) restaurant Manhattan Grill. It was so nice to have all these new friends of mine in a place that meant so much to my dad. The dinner was EXCELLENT as always, as was the company. It was a PERFECT way to start off the weekend. Then it was back to the Beau to meet up with the late arrivals at eight75. We had a FABULOUS night, and were so thrilled to have so many amazing friends there to celebrate with us on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the place I love so much. THANK YOU ALL for a weekend we will NEVER FORGET! We are so blessed!

OK, so I had to put this pic on here because it cracked me up when Rachel sent it to me. Apparently, Rach was trying to find something in her purse, but had too much stuff in there. So I helped her out. All the stuff in my hands, and the sunglasses are from her purse. I LOVE IT!