Brianna's birthday breakfast

My dear daughter-in-law turned 20 mid-September.  She is so precious to us and we are daily thankful for the marriage of Jackson and Brianna.

Jackson and Brianna 

The morning of her birthday we celebrated her with a birthday breakfast at the B house.  A nice way to start the day!

Brianna with her 'birthday muffins'  :D 

Jonathan and Marvin 

Brianna's beautiful new clarinet case

I shared with everyone the two videos that I made for Shonda and Brianna's birthdays.  We watched the shorter one (for Shonda) together.  The longer one (an hour for Brianna's video!) had to wait for another day so that 'the kids' could head to Columbia for a day of fun.  :)

watching the video

Here is the longer video for dear Brianna...

lovely sisters - Alaina and Brianna

Alaina and Brianna

Here are direct links to the two videos on my Vimeo page...
Happy birthday, Shonda! - https://vimeo.com/182956410

Memories - https://vimeo.com/182897866

Surprise party for Shonda

Success!  :D

We were able to truly surprise Shonda with a birthday party at my house.  I still can't quite believe we pulled it off!  It took a lot of doing to get all the t's crossed and i's dotted, but I arranged for Shonda to come hang out with me on a Monday evening.  She didn't know that about 20 others were meeting at the primary school parking lot to convoy out here when I texted that 'the eagle had landed'.  :)

Brianna and Alaina came bursting in first to surprise her.  I wish I could have been sitting there with my camera in hand to capture that moment, but alas, that would have given things away.  :D  At first Shonda thought it was just Brianna and Alaina, then she saw all the ladies pouring in the door and realized what was happening.  :)

It was a very enjoyable evening celebrating a very special lady who means so much to each of us.

Brianna, Shonda, and Alaina

We got Jonathan to come outside and take our group photo.  :D

Susie and Shonda

:D   ha!  (read their sign)

Shonda showing Chris her birthday card
that 'has a picture of her as a child'!  ;)

Daddy honored at football game

Saturday, September 10 was one of those stunningly perfect fall days.  And it was a great day for a football game.  :)

Daddy was being honored at halftime of the Truman football game so we all went along.  We were able to sit in the President's section of the stadium, which was fun.  It sure has gotten fancy since the 'old days'!  Wow!  That was fun.  :)

Laura, Jonathan, Brianna, Jackson, Mama, Daddy

Nice cupholder for the "Bulldogua'   ;)

Just before halftime Daddy went down to join up with the others who were also being inducted into the ROTC Hall of Fame to honor their support over the years.  How very nice.

We always love hearing and seeing a marching band.  Since this was the weekend of  9/11 they did a special tribute which was very nice.

Band forming USA

Always fun to spot 'kids' we know - Noah K playing the trombone

Alaina came for the 2nd half of the game

Jonathan, Alaina, Brianna, Jackson, Mama, Daddy 

The game was great and Truman won handily.  The other team was from Ohio and one of the players was horribly injured in the 2nd half.   He was taken off the field to the ambulance and then to the hospital.  Thankfully, his Mom was here in the stands and could go with him.  I can't imagine how difficult that must be... to be states away from your home and have a traumatic injury.

I was, however, quite impressed to see many of the Truman players on their knees with their heads bowed in what looked like prayer during the time that player was being attended to on the field.  Makes me even prouder to be a Bulldog.  And everyone in the stands stood and cheered for the young man as he was taken off the field... cheering even louder when he raised his hand in acknowledgment.  I know he had the prayers of many that day.   And I sure do hope he is recovering okay.