Santa

It is that time of year again....we love Santa around this house.  We have THE REAL Santa here in Des Moines.  And we have been blessed to have had him since we moved here...he knows the boys names.  He knows our names.  He calls me on my birthday.  I know I know...it's all a little odd but not really.  He is a great guy.  He loves golf, he loves baby Jesus and he is always interested in our boys.  We even bring him Christmas gifts every year to the mall.  After school we all headed to the mall to see him.  Scott is gone in Chicago all week so we went without him.  Only Drew and Max had seen him so far this year.

We were talking to Santa, Jack, Max and I while we were waiting for Tommy and Drew to meet us there.  Santa saw Tommy coming down the escalator and said "I think Tommy is taller than me!  Wow!" Sure enough Tommy came in and Santa stood up and Tommy has passed him up, Santa requested a photo with him.  Standing.  Cute.

So here they all are...grateful my big boys are such troopers with Santa.

Oh Max

Max is one creative and busy guy these days.  He is LOVING making us all laugh and half the time he doesn't even know what he said that was so funny.

Last Sunday in Sunday School they evidently had someone bring in their dogs for show and tell.  Their names were "Brutus" and "Buckeye" and from what I heard from the lead teacher in there the owner asked the class if anyone could guess why they would be named this...now remember we live in Iowa and we THOUGHT we knew all of the Buckeye fans in our church.

Max stood up and did his "O-H-I-O" in front of the entire classroom of kids.  He knew exactly why they would have named their dogs this.  Crack me UP

Then we were talking about Christmas lists and what he would like to get his brothers this year...

He has somehow become the kid who needs no sleep..no naps anymore...not much sleep in the night either.  He is absolutely all energy ALL the time.  Last night both Tommy and Drew had ball games.  Max ran out in-between each quarter of Drew's game....laps around the court...and then continued with doing the same between each quarter of the JV game, Tommy's game.  Then continued to stay awake on the 30 minute drive home.  Whose kid is this?  His Mom certainly doesn't have that kind of energy ALL the time.

And he is also now known in my mind as the destructor.  It doesn't matter what I pick up...he destroys it in minutes.  He hauls legos all around the house.  He takes his clothes off wherever he is and leaves them there.  Same with his shoes...jacket....just drops them and keeps moving.  

It's a good thing he is as cute as he is and tells me he loves me as much as he does....he certainly wears me out.  But I wouldn't trade him for the world.  

A Thankful Thanksgiving

I am always thankful on Thanksgiving, I have been blessed.  We have been blessed.  But this year was different for me.  So much of the year has been consumed with prayer, worry, care of my Mom that Thanksgiving felt different for me.  The table settings, the food, the preparation...none of it really mattered much to me...I just wanted to be with my Mom. I just wanted to Thank God for her, for her health.  For this journey.  For the hours and hours of prayers He has heard and answered.  

My sweet friend Ruth told me at the beginning of this cancer journey to "look for the blessings" in it all, and she was so wise.  There have been so many blessings.  So many hours I have spent with my parents this year, so many friends who have come through for both my parents and for us.  So many who are praying and willing to do anything to help.  Friends I can text at the drop of a hat and I KNOW they will pray.  Friends who have picked up groceries for me, taken Max last minute...brought meals...cancer shows you who is really IN FOR THE LONG haul of friendship.  

This Thanksgiving we celebrated early, so Jack and Scott could get to Ohio and Mom and Dad could get to MN for Thanksgiving with Mike and family too.  I really just didn't care about the details of the meal.  Yes we made it all, yes it was delicious, yes the boys helped with it all..but you know what...all I wanted was to look across the table and have my Mom there and my Dad.  And my Love, and my boys....I needed nothing else from the day.  I was choked up most of the day, trying not to lose it...and I didn't...well maybe only by myself when I went to nap after we ate.   But God has been SO good to me.  My heart is full.

Some photos from the couple of days Mom and Dad were here...the little stuff matters more to me than it ever has in the past.

 Jack got his birthday present, camo shoes.  He was SO excited

Jack's Buckeye Trip

Jack has waited a LONG time for his Buckeye weekend.  He has waited a LONG time to get to go to the Michigan Game.   That's a BIG deal in this house.  It goes on a rotation basis for that game, not to mention there are words at that game we prefer the boys not to hear at a YOUNG age.  As much as his older brothers begged to switch and barter JACK got to go to the game.

They left at the crack of dawn, actually the middle of the night, on Thursday.  In an effort to get to spend some of Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa Shisler.  (we celebrated here on Wednesday in order for them to be able to go Thursday...more on that later)

They headed to Columbus on Friday in time for lunch and some Buckeye store shopping.  Lunch at Cane's, dinner at Eddie George's....some traditions hold strong here.  Lots of them actually.  Saturday morning was breakfast at Bob Evans followed by tailgating and the game.  The weather ended up being lovely, which isn't always the case at the end of November.

What a fun time they had...saw Brutus, Beat Michigan and stormed the field.

Great memories made, lots of stories shared and wonderful Father/Son time.  The boys treasure these weekends.  Scott treasures them more than he can even express and always thanks me for the opportunity to take these trips with our boys.

Back here at the ranch we put up some Christmas decorations, I napped often not feeling 100%, I am pretty sure it was just exhaustion setting in.  Tommy hit up some Black Friday shopping in the night with friends and helped me out quite a bit with that.  He is great about helping me shop.

We were ALL thrilled to get the boys home on Sunday afternoon, in time for them to unpack, put away the deck furniture and Scott to repack and head to St Louis Monday morning early.  Such a crazy busy time of year for him.

Some photos from the weekend...

 with Grandma Shisler 

 Driving the tractor alone for the first time

visiting Aunt Kathy's house..she gave him this sweatshirt for his birthday, you will be seeing a LOT of it the rest of the weekend. :)  He REALLY liked it

 face timing from the field

 This post on Jack's instagram 

 #bestdadever  

These are memory making trips for our boys and are priceless to both Scott and to me.

Trying to sell Mom on this hat