Christmas #2

Christmas at my parents always includes a birthday celebration for my mom as she has a Christmas Eve birthday. 

Neelly got to eat in the old Neelly high chair.  It is fun to see these family treasures used for the next generation.

We changed our gift openings to late afternoon after naps so the little ones would be in better moods and so that the people who were leaving that evening could get an earlier start. 

And two more of my favorite subjects.

Christmas #1

This was Christmas at our house on Dec. 22.  The kids all came in the evening for dinner and opening presents.

It is impossible to get everyone looking in the same direction!

Braden ate his dinner from his Great-grandfather Bauer's high chair.  It collapses into a stroller too.

Neelly got a Tiger hat.  Purrfect!

This boy is on the go.

Blake is ready for duck hunting in his new waders.

Braden is sitting for just a minute.

Whew!  A fun, fast evening.

Snow Day

Paige, Neelly, Abby, and I decorated cookies this afternoon. Actually, I made the cookies and Paige and Abby did most of the decorating. I told them to find some of their favorites for the blog.  I know you can all see it, but the one on the right is a Powercat.

Here we have a United Methodist cross and flame, a tree, and the Star of David.  We are an eclectic group.

The poor snowman on the left met the neighborhood dog.  Drats!

And this girl would not nap!  But she was pretty happy in the jumper.

Congratulations

This post is a week late, but we celebrated Tamara receiving her masters degree at KSU last Friday.  She had some small ones at her graduation.

The kids did very well considering it was rather lengthy. 

Tamara crossing the stage.  The doctoral candidates took longer because they each received their hoods.  The masters degrees walked across the stage in the same way the bachelor degree people do.  This was the first grad school graduation I had been to.

"Hello.  Yes my flower doubles as an umbrella."

"And my hello wave is like a fist pump."

The graduate's family.  I didn't get one of Tamara with her family, but her parents were there and her sister, Tiffany.  Then we went to So Long Saloon in Aggieville to have a bite to eat. 

Now we have our third masters degree in the family.  Congratulations Tamara!

Attempting a New Profile Picture

Since the kids were both here on Sunday, I thought I should update my profile picture since they change so much. Paige took 5 pictures, and here they are.  They are on the move and it isn't an easy task.

They were both really good and played before a nap.  Please don't notice that I am wearing my cat burgler outfit.  I really meant to put another shirt over the black one, but it just didn't happen.

Thanksgiving in Denver

Kyle, Abby, Derek and I traveled to Kyle's sister's in Denver - actually Centennial, for Thanksgiving.  Russ, Paige, and Neelly had to come separately since babies take up a lot more room proportionally than their size.  Jenna, Lori's daughter, and Neelly are getting acquainted. ( And 1/2 of Austin in the picture)

I didn't take a bunch of pictures and didn't realize it until we were getting ready to go to Austin's playoff football game.  He goes to Grandview High School which is really close to their house.  Grandview was playing Columbine in the semi-finals.  Below are Lori and Brad all decked out as Wolf parents.  Kyle got up at 5:30 that morning to help feed the team at 7am.  Their game started at 11am.  

I was impressed with the number of people at the game.  Brad said it was one of the bigger crowds he had seen at any game.  Usually the bigger the school, the smaller the following.  In Colorado, 5A is the largest classification.  I think Brad said there are 2600 in Austin's high school.

It was a great ballgame, but Grandview lost. 

The ballgame crowd.  Derek, Abby, Jenna, Lori.  Back row - Bradly, Brad, and Kyle.

We had a great time and even though we didn't go up into the mountains, there was a great view of the snow capped peaks from Lori's house.  The weather was warm enough to be outside without a jacket which is always good.  We did a little shopping on Friday, but mainly visited, played games, and watched ballgames.



Another Weekend

The weeks roll on fairly quickly.  This weekend I went to Manhattan on Saturday to keep Braden while Tamara was giving a horse riding lesson.  Blake was at his 151st bachelor party.  My goodness, surely his friends will all be married soon! 

Braden and I first went to Hobby Lobby to get fabric for stockings and some Christmas things.  He was a good boy in the cart.

Note to his parents, I did use the cart cover thing behind him until he had to get out for a bit and then it went behind him. 

Then we were going to go to the zoo in Manhattan, but they don't open until noon during the winter and I thought that was too late to have a good time and take a nap.  So we went to McDonalds for our treat.

Note to parents - he had milk instead of pop.  The downside was he wanted to hold it himself and that wasn't so successful.  Also you can still faintly see the mark on his cheek which is a bite from a boy at the babysitter's.  Better the bitten than the bitee I guess.

Then we went home for a little play time and nap. 

In the evening, I fixed soup and we went to Paige and Russ's for the KSU game.  Neelly was really excited even though she forgot to wear purple.  I told Paige I have a hundred pictures with this expression in different outfits.

Then Paige helped and the Wildcats had a good play, and we got these.

Not to worry.   One of her favorite things to play with is the infant Tylenol bottle you see.  Or the wipes wrapper on the left hand side. 

Weekend

Russ and I tag-teamed to keep Neelly this weekend while Paige was gone to Women of Faith.  We got along just fine, but I didn't get too much else done!  Neelly is showing off her new thing - lifting her arms so she will get picked up.  Even if I was sitting right next to her, she would do this to sit on my lap. 

She is facinated with the computer screen, just like her cousin.  Maybe I am too. 

Holy Cow

Our first trick-or-treaters were two farmers and a "Holy Cow".  That is the halo on her head.  Kyle guessed she was Dairy Queen which I thought was kind of clever.  They received the grand prize of a chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn dinner.  We thought about asking later trick-or-treaters if they would like a chicken fried steak, but decided to keep them for ourselves, and the crew pretty much wiped out the gravy and potatoes. 

Abby also came home for Halloween - actually for a haircut.  Unfortunately, after her haircut she looked like this.

She got her first speeding ticket ever by Garfield school during a school zone time.  She pulled over to let the flashing lights get to the place it needed to go, then they pulled in behind her.  So she was going 27 in the 20 and is $85 poorer.   The rest of us have spent quite a bit of time feeling really sorry for her. 

I'll be hopping tonight answering the door.  We usually have around 30 kids, but a brisk business so far this evening so we might have more with the nice weather.

Birthday - A Little Late

My birthday was the first of October and I am just late getting pictures downloaded to share.  Kyle fixed the meat, and everyone else brought the rest of the meal.  Abby and Derek brought the above Dairy Queen cake which is a favorite.

We were glad my parents could be here too, actually I think it is the draw of these two!

I got out the Little Tykes car that my parents gave Blake when he was almost 2.  We didn't ever take the car outside as there was plenty of room in the old house to ride in the car.  Braden is old enough to really enjoy getting in and out.  Neelly wasn't quite as sure.

Here is an old picture with the kids in the car.  I know it was in the fall of 1986 because Blake broke his arm the Sept. he was four. 

There is a reason this is blurry.  Hold on Neelly!  Actually don't send me concerned notes.  There was someone right beside her.

It was a great day with everyone there.