Just a Small Snippet

Of an afternoon Christmas at Grandma and Poppy's.... 

 

Mannequin Challenge

When you spend Christmas in a hotel room, it's not uncommon to find yourself at a bar that night, watching the Chiefs game with all of the 20-somethings in town for the holidays.

Totally, weird, I know.

But it's also weird to wake up on Christmas morning and swim.

Anywhoo, Christmas night, we made all of Tyler's dreams come true by doing the "Mannequin Challenge."

It took me a long time to get why this was such a big deal: people sitting/standing around not moving, but when you actually participate, it's a hoot watching people trying not to move. Do you see anyone move?

Merry Christmas

You know the day is going to be crazy when you pack 30 people into a two bedroom town house and the 90 year old matriarch opens a bag of "poop."

And "The Donald" makes an appearance.

Just another family holiday with the B clan.

This year, everyone was able to make it to Grandma Roof's house for Christmas.

From age 1 to 90, the house was packed not only with people but with food. And presents. And brown bags.

After our traditional brunch and present opening (scrub brushes for you. And you. And you. And you!), is the brown bag, or white elephant as some call it. It's the highlight of the day. 

the four youngest or the great grands (missing Luke)

Tyler even bought his own gift this year (the poop game grandma opened!)

Everyone (except Tyler) is trying to NOT get the underwear that has been making the rounds since the 90s. This year, it made its first trip to school where Tyler showed it off to the class as part of his "heritage."

Who ever thought a giant pair of tighty whiteys would be used to show our family heritage?

Goes to show you the fun of the family!

Tyler ended up with the Trump mask. We totally didn't want it coming home but we lost that battle.

At the end of the festivities was one last bag for Justin. We knew what was inside; we knew something would happen regarding the bathroom disaster; we just didn't know what! 

 

At least we can blame Brett instead of me for it - as it wasn't my fault either!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving

From our family to yours

Labor Day Weekend

It was a weekend of "family" this Labor Day.

While we weren't able to attend my Grandpa's annual Labor Day party at his house, we were able to visit with him on Saturday during lunch.

My best friend, Glenna, and her little man, Ollie, met us and Grandpa in Pleasant Hill.

It was a nice break up to the drive, but an even nicer way to spend part of the afternoon. I miss both of them so much. Grandpa enjoyed hanging out with Tyler and Ollie - and seeing his Little Bit.

Ashlee stayed behind at the lake with Peg as attending athletics games has become torture for her (and us).

After lunch - and a short stop to visit my dad - we headed up to Ames for the home football opener. Iowa State played UNI and this is always a family affair: red vs. purple.

Obviously there was a little more red than purple (but purple won the game)

Speaking of family, look at Luke! A junior in high school, thinking about college.

Brett and Susie took him on a campus tour. I'm not sure enough convincing will get him to pick Iowa State over K-State. But we can always hope!

At the tailgate lots, we ran into Georges Niang, Tyler's favorite basketball player. He was being honored at halftime of the football game.

Niang was drafted to the Pacers and actually earned a spot on the team. We can't wait to watch him play in the NBA, especially when he plays the Bulls and his old coach/pal Fred Hoiberg, who he was tailgating with.

Speaking of the basketball team, we ran into Matt Thomas, Tyler's coach from the ISU basketball camp - two years in a row.

Tyler wanted to go up and say hi to him. I was nervous about this as I didn't know if Matt would remember him, and Tyler, of course, thought he would....he was right!

Matt immediately "Hey Tyler! How's it going buddy!" and gave him a handshake or whatever you call those hand things they do when they see people they know.

He asked about his trip from Kansas City. He asked again about his high school; what sports he was playing. He remembered everything about him.

I was very impressed!

Tyler just sat there and smiled. And nodded his head as though he was in front of a celebrity.

Then, when we went to Fred's tailgate, Paige came up to him and started talking to him "Hey Tyler!" and asking about Kansas City things.

Again, he just grinned (as I think he thinks she's pretty cute!).

Who knew my kid was so popular among the college crowd? Hot stuff!

After the game, we drove back to Kansas City, arriving at 1 a.m. I hate driving this late/early!

We spent the rest of the holiday weekend at the lake where I took ZERO pictures. I did snag one of the kids fishing with Luke from Susie, and I did take one of Tyler that I sent to Jillian. We learned he has allergies. How? His eyes swelled up and his face turned red. Zyrtec to the rescue - when we get home as it's all gone from here (apparently everyone else has the same issue)

So This is Christmas...

Art supplies and tights. New toothless smiles.

And family {cousin} fun in the snow. 

What could top that on Christmas Day - besides food? Lots and lots of food!?! 

 

4th of July Fun at the Lake

EIGHT is GREAT

Sunday rolled around and Tyler was finally able to celebrate his birthday.

It's hard to have a Spring Break birthday.

Because many of his friends typically go out of town for the week, he has to wait a week or more for his friends party.

To him, that's what's truly his birthday.

Oh and the day he spends with me counts too, as long as I let him do whatever he wants to do. There's definitely no shortage of fun on the birth "day."

For the family party, we kept it low-key and low-maintenance.

There were no decorations.

The only food was lunch: chicken tenders and mini sandwiches catered from a local grocery store and an Oreo cake from WalMart.

We did get a special 8 shaped candle and sang happy birthday to him. And there were plenty of presents to keep him surprised!

There were no socks this time either, instead there was lots of KD from Grandma and Poppy. In fact, the KD shorts looked like pants - and we all know how much Tyler loves pants {sarcasm}.

He was instantly in love. They're his new favorites!

Brett hid his "real" present inside a pink baseball bat bag thinking he wouldn't like it. He didn't realize pink was Tyler's favorite color and he was actually pretty excited to get the bag:

Brett made him give the pink bag back. He got to keep the backpack that will carry all of his baseball gear, including the bags of gum, sunflower seeds and eye black that was inside.

And Grandma Fancy Nancy and Grandpa Tony ... they may have gotten him the best present of all: football and baseball men, including the hard-to-find-in-stores stadium!

I don't think this fad is going anywhere any time soon.

In between lunch and presents, there were inside and outside games - and LOTS of basketball watching on TV:

Before cake

He immediately dug into it. You would have thought he was 1 rather than 8. Boys will be boys! {that became his piece}