Max and Mommy

These were taken when Max was 5 weeks old by Susan Johnson nfocus photography, she takes most of our family photos...special moments

Look at Me...

..I can be serious

...and I can smile too!

Happy Birthday to my Love

Our family picture at the end of a busy birthday

We were in Mpls for Scott's bday(Saturday Feb 20th). We headed there on Friday late afternoon. (Max's first road trip, he did well but not sure how more than 4 hours would go right now at his age...we had to stop and nurse once and by the time we got home he was DONE) The boys had the weekend off of basketball and our nephew Charlie had hockey, so we went to Mpls to watch him play too.

Alice with Max when we first got there on Friday night...

note I had just changed his diaper and hadn't even

gotten his pants back on before she grabbed him.

Saturday was Scott's birthday....we celebrated with breakfast at Perkins, time playing with Alice and Charlie, Indoor mini golf, lunch at the Classic Lions Tap Burger joint...then I did make his favorite dinner that night and we celebrated with his favorite Boston Creme Pie. My Mom and Dad were gone most of the day at a funeral. But they were home in time for dinner and Mike, Cara, Charlie and Alice came too to celebrate.

Saturday morning with Alice and Charlie...sledding.

Alice in her snowpants but must hold Max first...

Alice kissing Max

Uncle "Cott" helping put the bib on

Charlie on the ice

We made his favorite Boston Creme pie for dessert

One of the cutest things of the weekend was Alice, our sweet niece who is just 2 years old. She adores Max, I mean ADORE's Max. She cannot get enough of him, can't get close enough to him, can't be with him enough...it's so so cute. She wants to hold him ALL the time and gets such a sad face if he is sad. She says "Asha hojo Max" (Alice hold Max), or "OUT" if she wants him out of his carseat, "Max nigh nigh" in her not quiet at all voice, so fun to watch her love on Max. One of our favorite Alice sayings of the weekend was "Hap To" aka "Happy Birthday to you" she kept saying to her Uncle Scott. She cracks us up and is at such a super fun age.

At home on Sunday, opening gifts with our 4 boys

It was a bit of a whirlwind, we left after church and brunch on Sunday... I hope Scott felt our love throughout the day Saturday. He is my knight in shining armor. We have been through a lot in our 16 years together almost 15 married, and through it all I feel we have only become stronger and better for it. What a joy to share my life with him. He makes me laugh everyday, strives to be the best Dad and husband he can be...works hard, plays hard and makes me so proud. He is a mellow, yet super competitive guy...strong, yet surprisingly sensitive to his boys and wife...hard working and hard playing guy and the quickest witted person I know. Love you so very much.

Happy Birthday to my beloved...I love you.

Gift

One of the best gifts you can ever give your child....a sibling.

Smiling baby

Yesterday Max smiled his first real smile. Not his sound asleep smile. I was up in our bedroom with him and he had just finished nursing. He smiled...I quickly ran down to the basement where Scott was in his office and he smiled again for Daddy.

Today I spent much of the day trying to get him to smile...here are a couple of pictures where he ALMOST does his big smile but doesn't quite.

...and by the way don't you just LOVE this shirt? I may have to order every size of it until he is 10 years old. SO so SO cute. www.Etsy.com

Gingham Baby

This is the outfit Jack wore home from the hospital....

P.S. Mom, I did put socks on those cute feet before we went out.

Meeting of baby Max

The Shisler boys with Gma and Gpa Shisler

Max and Aunt Kathy

Our sweet boys

Drew's team won their tournament

Tommy's lay up..happened so fast I was too zoomed in to be able to see the ball :(

Great defense Tommy!

Jack playing his game on Saturday

Scott's parents and sister Kathy came on Friday night for the weekend, to meet baby Max. They have also had the bonus pleasure of watching a few basketball games for the older boys and one for Jack yesterday.

Valentine's day has been full, church, basketball, lunch at home, more basketball, some olympics, baking of pie and cookies (by Grandma Shisler) and then heart shaped pizza for dinner.

Baby Max is proving to be a little trooper, as long as he is fed he is happy to be wherever. The boys love to have him along wherever we do go.

First family photo...

Here it is...our first official family photo. Many more to come through the years.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Getting ready...

Random thoughts for Today

-Scott left at 4:30 am for a meeting somewhere, a drive away

-washing sheets (Tommy and Drew put them in the washers and got them started)

-Tonight Scott's parents and sister are coming to town to meet Max...

-cleaning out the fridge (trash comes today)

-tried to burn the sounds of Max nursing into my brain at 3:30 am, there is nothing like the sound of silence in the house and a sweet baby humming, almost, while nursing I don't want to forget the sound and I am afraid I will.

-Tommy and Drew have basketball tourneys this weekend, games start tonight

-record the opening ceremony for the Olympics

-praying for my friend Sarah who is having her baby very soon!

-grateful for friends who continue to bring us meals

-learned broccoli and cauliflower and Max don't mix well

-looking at the beautiful flowers Scott brought home yesterday for me

-Max is asleep in bed right now, can't imagine our lives without him...love having him here with us.

-need to get off the computer and get my projects going, Max will be awake any minute

Valentine's today and yesterday

It had just begun Valentine's day 1994

-the date was the NBA All star Game in mpls

-I was a Senior in College had come home to edina for the weekend...

-Scott came from Omaha for the weekend

-A Baccarat crystal heart shaped necklace as my gift

-the first time Scott told me he loved me

Let me take you back to Valentine's day 1996

-married for 10 months

-flew to Washington DC to celebrate

-red roses and candlelight

-strolled hand in hand through museums

-ate at specialty cafes

-had our Valentine's day dinner in our hotel room with glass views all around of the city

-probably even wore some special jammies to bed ;)

Fast Forward to Valentine's day 2010

-married for almost 15 years

-probably still some roses

-Valentine's day at home in Iowa

-2 basketball tournaments this weekend

-Scott's parents coming to town for a visit to meet little Max

-leftovers from meals friends have made

-holding hands to pray

-a newborn baby sleeping by our bed

-3 other boys snuggled in beds

-maternity mismatched pj's to bed, oh and a nursing bra

The changes 16 years can bring...and guess what? I wouldn't change a thing. I love Scott more today than I did then...I love that we now share 4 children, 15 years of marriage and memories that I cannot even begin to count. We have praised God in good times together and held hands and praised God in bad times. We have walked this journey together. I love that

I feel blessed...I love you my Love

4 weeks and NOT counting

Max is 4 weeks old...right about this very moment. Where have these weeks gone? ugh he's already growing up too quickly for me. Way too fast. I think I will stick with calling him weeks vs months for a long time, even though he will be 1 month old in a few days, I am sticking with 4 weeks old. Makes him seem younger? Doesn't it?

We adore him, can't imagine our family without him. He's worth it all, a true blessing and gift.

Some pictures from the last few days...he is awake more and more which is fun. His eyes are getting to be very blue, who knows if they will stay that way. Tommy has blue eyes, Drew green and Jack brown...we will see what Max ends up with. He is busy looking around...and yes we are in the green chair a lot it's in most of the pictures.

Happy Birthday Alice...

Happy Birthday to our sweet niece Alice, she turned 2 yesterday. She is such a joy! She brings such sparkle and sweetness to our family.

Alice can be a girly girl who loves her purses and goes in phases with her love of hairbows. She is part tom boy too and loves her trucks. She is determined and always knows just what she wants. She is not quiet and never is she afraid to voice her opinion.

We love you sweet girl...

Rambling on a Saturday

Valentines: went to Target today, Max's first trip there, and realized we needed to get the boys their Valentine's for school. Parties on Friday. I was oddly pleased to find out this year that Tommy is now done with Valentines. They do not exchange them in the 6th grade. Odd because that could make me sad that he is growing up...but THRILLED as I don't love doing Valentines, don't like making the boxes and bags for them to be collected in. I love to make crafts, but on my own time, not ones I am required to help with. And frankly our house does not need any more messes right now.

Shopping: The entire family ventured to the mall today to do some returns for Max. And had Chick Fil A as well...mmm I have missed that. Our first time using the new stroller, Max's first time to the Jordan Creek Mall. Our new diaper bag even has straps to hook it onto the stroller, the stroller adjusts for taller people...ah the improvements in baby gear since Jack was a baby. So wonderful.

Napping and basketball: Jack had basketball today, the other boys have the weekend off which is fun. Max and I fell asleep around 2:00...Scott quietly asked if we were going to go and watch Jack's game, which was at 2:40. I was so tired and happy to be napping, hadn't napped all week and was up 3 times in the night with Max, that I opted to stay snuggled with Max and sleep. SO nice. BUT then the boys all got home around 4:00. We were still asleep...and Jack was SO excited to tell me he made a basket. Ugh his first of the season and I missed it...okay Mommy guilt set in. Oh well I am going to have to learn as a Momma of 4 I will miss things, I will miss baskets, hits, touchdowns...I can't be at everything.

Superbowl: Tomorrow is the Superbowl. Dad is down in Florida going to the game, the boys have their tee shirt requests into him. We are heading to a friends to watch the game, they have a theater room with a HUGE TV...needless to say the boys can't wait to watch the game there. Jack is excited because they have star wars stuff and laser tag stuff which we don't have. I am looking forward to the food and the commercials...and our friends have started a list of who gets to hold Max first. It was cute Tommy and Drew have both been very curious how feeding Max will go there. Obviously they are wondering how you nurse a baby when you are not at home with your family. We have had some good conversations about how it's natural to nurse a baby...and how feeding Max is the most important thing no matter where we are...and they both agreed and understood. They think Nursing is pretty cool at home, they actually like to see how he eats and think it's pretty amazing how God has it all designed. But I do think they were relieved to hear me say I would probably go and nurse him in a quiet room tomorrow night, whew their buddies won't have to see it all. :) cute.

Dinner: It is leftover night here. With all of the meals we have been getting all week long, Saturday nights have become leftover nights. Last night we had 2 meals, I had put porkchops in from my friend Lisa when the neighbor called and reminded me she was on her way with dinner, oops forgot she was coming too. So we had both last night and will have both tonight with some other random things from the fridge. No complaining here....

Cookie Cake

Tonight our neighbors brought over dinner, and a cookie cake. How fun is that?

The birth weight is off 10 oz...but SO so cute. I am going to remember that idea next time I bring a meal to someone with older kids. The boys loved it.

The story of Max

Here I am...

note Dr. Hoegh looks as excited as anyone

Mommy's first look

I am just now realizing I never posted about the night of Max's birth. The story, I will give the quick version here...

Max was scheduled to come on January 20th, 6 days before his original due date, he was scheduled to come via csection. All of the other boys were csections one week early as well. Sunday, January 10th I was not feeling great. Just a lot of not feeling good stuff happening but didn't think a lot of it. Monday I decided to take it easy, to empty out the desk and sort through all of the papers and bills from 2009 and get ready for 2010. I was home all day. I picked up the boys at school, then took them to Hyvee with me for groceries. I know most people think it's easier to shop without kids, in our house it's the opposite. The boys are all great shoppers and helpers it is easier for me to go with them. We did our Hyvee run and came home...I had dinner in the oven, had just had a yummy Hyvee cupcake and 2 pickles as I made dinner. And then....

yep you guessed it. Something was not right...I went to the bathroom trying to figure out what was going on. Scott was at home in his office, I went to talk to him, told him I thought my water might be leaking...wasn't sure what was happening. He was a bit panicked and I then went up to our room...to change clothes really...and call my Mom. I called her and told her I thought my water was breaking and about midsentence and tears with her I KNEW my water was really breaking. She said hang up and call the hosptial. So I hung up...but I couldn't get to the hosspital number. It wasn't working. I called my friend Makila instead. She was excited and calm all at the same time...she gave me the number to call and said to call her back. I got the hospital called...the Dr we loved was not on call so Scott called him on his cell (got that number from another friend in the meantime) and I called Makila back. I couldnn't think and had no clue what to pack for the hospital. She told me what I needed, I packed...I found a friend to watch the boys, not an easy task at 6 pm on a Monday night. And we told the boys...who were beyond thrilled that their wait was almost over for this baby. We headed downtown...Mom and Dad were headed down from Minneapolis, boys were being cared for...whew

sorry this isn't so short is it...I will shorten it up...

We got to the hospital around 6:30 that night. They sent to me the maternity floor triage and agreed my water had broken. Our Dr. showed up, what a guy, and was as excited as we were to meet this baby. I am not kidding...he was thrilled. I had to get a full bag of IV fluids in me before they would send me to the OR.

I was wheeled into the OR around 7:45 pm. at 8:34 pm we heard one of the most beautiful sounds we have ever heard...Max was born. SCREAMING as loud as his lungs would allow him. Beautiful and perfect. Our Dr. was beaming, and he let Scott tell me it was a boy. He was wonderful and we were in love. God chose Max to be in our family....he was the one I had felt hiccup, kick, squirm and push all of those months. Scott and I were beyond thrilled.

Mom and Dad made the trip from MN in record time to be there

So excited to introduce baby Max to his big brothers

checking him out

Jack beyond excited

People have been asking about his name, as most of you know we were struggling with boys names forever. Max was one of the very first Scott ever mentioned, he has a good friend Max, and just loved the name. I thought it might be too hard to say Max Shisler so had moved onto other names...well we kept coming back to Max. After looking at him in the recovery room, he just looked like a Max. and we already knew we were going to use the name Harold for a middle name if it were a boy...Harold was the name of my Grandpa Twig, aka Grandpa Terwilliger. I always adored my Grandpa. He passed away when I was in Jr high. I always felt close to my Gpa. And my Dad's oldest brother's name was also Harold, Harold Lee. He died while in the air force, his plane disappeared off radar never to be found. My Dad was only 16 yrs old at the time. My Dad and Harold Lee, his biggest brother, were very close. So we wanted to use Harold to honor them. All of our boys have middle names that honor the men on my side of the family...they have Shisler to honor Scott's family and middle names to honor mine. We think that's very special. Thomas Scott (my beloved) , Andrew Roy (after my Dad), Jack Michael (after my brother) and now Max Harold.

It was one of the 5 most special days of my life....the day Max was born. The baby I dreamed of, the one Jack prayed and prayed for, the one Scott and I asked God for many years ago. God knew...He knew. Our hearts are filled with joy and love.

oh well.