Burdorf Christmas

Over New Year's weekend we went to Omaha to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with the Burdorfs.  The weather felt more like Easter, but at least it was good travel weather!

Friday we got to Adam and Jill's just in time to see the Huskers get beat in their bowl game.  HOLLA!!  Sorrynotsorry Husker fans. ;)  Nothing goes better with games than game day food.  Yum!

 Saturday was our "official" Christmas.  We opened gifts.  The Burdorf tradition is one at a time, even the kids and they stick to it. ;)

 Miss Sass was super happy to get these new boots.  Not only are they cute, but they added another couple of inches to her already ever-growing self. 

 

The kids were hilarious.  They had the best time in the basement playing cafe.  You want to know the name of their cafe?  Kozy Korner, of course!!  I know that will make you Armstrong people proud.  We may have talked about it once or twice.  Ha! 

 Adam and Jill were pretty excited to give Aaron his gift.  It was a framed photo from the front page of the Chicago Tribune the day after the Cubs won the World Series.  So cool!

 

Another Cubs gift for this Cubs-loving kid! 

 I made Grandma Linda an updated photo collage (see below) of her grandkids.  I think she liked it! The one hanging up in her house doesn't include Noah or Claire.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out. 

 

 Grandpa Frank travels a lot for his job, so we thought he needed a new jumbo travel mug.

 

 

 We played some Skipbo and even put together a 300 piece puzzle.  This is big because I actually hate puzzles because I have zero patience, but the four oldest and I did it together!

 All eight grandkids.  Not too shabby.

 

Grandma and Grandpa with the tribe. 

 

And...all of us.  The whole Burdorf Bunch. 

 

 After presents, Aunt Jamie was in charge of some New Year's games for the kids and the big kids.  I, unfortunately, didn't get many photos because I was in charge.  We did have a lot of fun with balloons, let's just say that.  We took a break to wish Grandma a happy birthday and have a slice of birthday pie.  

That wraps up our holiday season.  It was definitely a blessed one.  We are so grateful for our family!

Halloween 2016

Halloween 2016 is in the books!  What a beautiful night for trick-or-treating.  I was telling the kids about the big snow storm in 1991 where we got 15 inches of snow.  LUCKILY, that wasn't the case. :)

I really, really wanted the kids to be the Ghostbusters because I think this might be Jenna's last year trick-or-treating.  They didn't buy it though and each chose their own thing.  If you all know me, you know I am not a big store bought costume person.  I like to try to make costumes out of stuff we have if possible.  That worked to my advantage this year.

First up, Mr. Bowen.  He wanted to be a baseball player and wore Brody's jersey so that was easy. 

Blake had this Iowa Hawkeye football uniform, so that was another easy-peasy pick.  Blake and Bowen just had to have eye black because that's what "those guys" wear.  That was definitely their favorite part.

 We headed to the store thinking Jenna was going to be Where's Waldo, but we couldn't find the right shirt.  I had screenshot some costume ideas and she decided on a pirate.  She found this shirt and the rest we just threw together.  The funny thing is, I have three boys, but have never had a pirate before. 

 And last but not least...Brody.  Brody and Aaron came up with the idea for him to be long-time Cubs announcer Harry Caray.  I'm in love with how it turned out.  I mean, HOLY COW!! We found the coat at Goodwill, the glasses were sunglasses that we popped the lenses out, Aaron made a press pass for him and I made the microphone.

I think this one will definitely go down as one of my favorite Burdorf Family costumes ever!  Perfect year for it, wouldn't you say?!  Go Cubs Go!

The kids and I (Aaron had to ref a volleyball game) stayed busy for almost the entire two hours and we got way too much candy!!!! 

Happy Halloween!

A BIG surprise on McCoy's birthday!

I have waiting since mid-July to do this post.  Patiently waiting for Mandy to give me the A-OK.  It's time.  We headed to Mankato for McCoy's third birthday and just about everybody was there from both sides of the family.

Let me get to the coolest, best, most surprising part of the weekend.  McCoy was opening up his gifts and the last one he opened was a dinosaur t-shirt (it was the theme of the party) that said Big Brotherasaurus!!!  We were all like....whaaaat?!  We were all so certain that Justin and Mandy were done having little Huneckes and we were all shocked.  Happy hugs and tears!

 We were teasing Mandy that she was going to have twin girls, but alas, the initial ultrasound showed only one baby.  Ha!  Please pray for a healthy baby and mama as we await the February arrival. 

We ended up something like 400 water balloons, so we had a water balloon fight, both big kids and little ones.  Justin got the sling shot and chaos ensued.  We went to the park/ballfield that's just a block from Mandy and Justin's place for some sling shot water balloons (Aaron, Cody, Mitch and Justin), playing on the playground stuff and some softball.  This was a day before Jenna's championship game.

 I didn't have to catch!  Ali was nice enough to actually want to catch.  My old lady knees can only take so much, so I was grateful for an off day!

Our fans.  Don't they look excited?!

 

Look at the birthday boy.  Pure joy. 

 I swear that the maturity level of these four dropped about 20 years....  They thought it would be funny to try to hit their wives who were ...

 ...taking some ground balls, just like back in the day from Coach Hunecke. ;)

 Somehow I got stuck playing shortstop.  Because why?  I have no idea.  Talk about an awkward shortstop!!

 Mandy felt as comfortable playing in the infield as I did at short stop.  I'm not going to lie though, I wish we all lived closer because our group actually looked pretty good taking some infield and it would be fun to play in a league together.

Then, it was time for a cake.  A Dairy Queen ice cream cake because obviously they're delicious.

 

I have pretty cute nephews, I'm just saying. 

 These two were like partners in crime.  They took over cooking duties and smoked and grilled some meat.  It was all about the spices and sauces and ALL THE THINGS.  They didn't disappoint.  It was delicious!

 Giant Jenga, anyone?!

 

When we get together with this side of the family there's a lot of boys.  Like SEVEN.  SEVEN.  

I mean, this looks safe, right?  What could go wrong?!  #boyswillbeboys

 

Love the smiles though!

 

Definitely a great weekend of celebration for McCoy and big news for our family!  Here were are, all of us!

Wordless Wednesday