March 27th Grandpa Tweeten's 80th Birthday Celebration

Saturday March 27th we were on our way to celebrate my Grandpa Tweeten's 80th Birthday with all of my relatives on my mom's side of the family! It was such an amazing feeling to be in the presence of everyone! I didn't get around to having a one-on-one conversation with everyone like I would have loved...but we made do with the very short time we had! And I have to give my husband some props....he was the only significant other to attend this family gathering (other than my brother's girlfriend Sam). It probably wasn't first on his list of favorite things to do...but he was a trooper! Maya got passed around to EVERYONE and she did really well! We would go to our private place about every 2ish hours, multiple people were able to put her to sleep just by walking around (which we figured out a few weeks ago that she likes to be on the move!) And it was so LOUD in that community hall, which she likes too...she enjoys listening to the vacuum, the hair dryer, anything super loud! funny huh?!?!

4 generations: Grandpa Tweeten, my mom, me and Maya!

all of the tweeten cousins: front row chad, justin (my older brother) grandpa, brett, brad

back row: ty (my younger brother) janelle, kirsten, me, regan, danielle and corey

getting silly! we were lucky that our parents made it a point to have us grow up together so we are all pretty close! my girl cousins are as close as I can get to having sisters!

lori's family (the oldest of my mom's siblings, lives in Marshall, MN)

back row: Janelle (has two littles ava  and paige and lives in Littleton, CO), Kirsten (has two littles hayley and mikayla), Grandpa, Regan has one little mr. cannon,the only great grandson) and Danielle

front row: hayley, David holding cannon, Lori, mikayla and paige

the other 3 girls all live very close to Marshall, MN

Lon's family (second oldest) lives about 1/2 a mile away from grandpa in Woolstock, IA

front: Corey (is about to graduate from high school and is the youngest cousin) and Chad (2nd oldest cousin)

back: Lon (trying oh so very hard not to smile) Grandpa, and Darla

we were giving him the HARDEST time about not smiling and he was trying SO HARD not too!

Linda's family (my mom was third born)

front: my mom holding maya, and dad

back: sam (justin's gf), justin, me, jason, ty holding his daughter kenady, and Grandpa

Larry's family (my mom's younger brother)

front: Brad (lives in Ohio with his wife) and Bret (lives in Kentucky and just graduate from college)

back: Larry Grandpa and Jo (they made the trek from Kentucky to be here!

Grandpa and all of his great grandchildren. Maya made #7 (my all-time favorite number)

the boys men from shortest to tallest!

Chad and his girlfriend Ashley and of course little miss

Aunt Jo and Maya

cousin Brad and Maya...she was a tiny bit fussy but it had NOTHING to do with Brad! He is going to be a great daddy some day!

cousin Brett, he admitted it was his first time holding a baby! he did GREAT!

Janelle and Maya..so sweet....I love how your loved ones love on your baby like this...it just fills me up

Kirsten and Maya...you can tell all of these ladies are mommies!

Regan and Maya (we are only 6 months apart)

Aunt Lori (mom's sister...see any resemblence?)

little mikayla and maya (I actually witnessed mikayla being born!)

Regan and her son Cannon...he was all about those tractors!

I still can't get over cannon's little bear hat and gloves...isn't he the cutest??

He has the biggest brownest eyes...he is SO ADORABLE!

paige and kenady playing...I think kenady was getting a lecture about taking paige's princess party hat out of her little tractor trailer thing!

 

isn't my dad the BEST?!?! Kenady just loves him to pieces and he was trying to get her to smile for the camera for me! Love you Dad! he is the best grandpa, just like papa silber :)

Janelle and her baby Ava

isn't she GORGEOUS? she is the sweetest little girl....this cup is labeled mom and she went and got her mom a refill of lemonade. I just hope Maya is as sweet as she is! Mikayla has a boo-boo on her face/nose from tripping and scraping her face on the cement at school...she is a tough cookie....I asked her if it hurt and she said yes and I asked her if she cried and she didn't hesitate to say yes!

we all had to fill out a letter to our grandpa telling him what our favorite memories with him are and this is what J did for him! He drew his portrait! My Grandma that you see pictured in this pic has had Alztheimer's for going on 14 years or so. She lives in Marshall, MN where my Aunt Lori and cousins live. She is in a memory care unit at the hospital. My Grandpa flies his own plane there every week to see and spend time with her. His love for her is something I have never seen....it is one of the most special things I have witnessed in my life!

it is crazy how time and kids change things! we spent the majority of the time entertaining our littles!

sam and maya....maya was super hungry hence her expression!

cousin brad with mikayla and kenady.....he was such a good sport with the kids!

i love how kenady is looking up at mikayla!

maya LOVES to stand up!

I remember when I was a little girl I was ALWAYS the one holding the babies, and here are my little 2nd cousins (but we call them my nieces) holding maya....

Mikayla is 5 years old (first picture) held maya 3 different times and would've liked even more chances!

 she said "jenna I like your baby" see...isn't she just the sweetest?

she will randomly just walk up to you and say

 "you are so beautiful" with so much meaning behind it, it just melts your heart!

Hayley (second picture) is Mikayla's older sister and she just turned 11 years old, she is a NATURAL!

Paige (third pic) is 6 years old and held maya for about 3 minutes and was like..."ok I am done" haha at least she told us instead of dropping her!

cousin chad just checking out maya

(yes that is her sleeping in her car seat!)

Maya slept the whole 2 hours there and back in the car! We had lunch with all of the family and then we just hung out, chatting, playing with the kids. Then later that afternoon we had a catered sit-down meal with Grandpa and all of his friends/neighbors. After the dinner all of the cousins stayed at the same hotel....it was a lot of fun! It is so fun to share the experience of parenthood with your family! We all had little ones to watch after, and all understand what it means to be parents! We did play a little catch phrase, drank a few drinks and laughed A LOT! The next morning the Luneburg family had to head out early because we were having Maya dedicated to the church back in Des Moines, IA with the Silber family.

I will draw this post to a close and post about her Christening later!