Last Visit to Santa

Welcoming ANOTHER baby

My dear friend Leanne had her baby boy today.  Jack Robert entered the world this afternoon.  I can't WAIT to meet him, hopefully next week when we are going through Minnesota.

Congratulations to big sister Abby and big brother Luke too!  Hugs and kisses to all!!!

UPDATE: My Mom went this morning to deliver a fruit bouquet for us, since they were not taking any more deliveries with Christmas coming AND she was looking for an excuse to see baby Jack.  So SO SO cute.  Mom just called to say he is perfect...she loves babies almost as much as I do. :)

Cupcakes

 Tonight Miss Emily and Ross stopped by with some cupcakes....

 each of the boys took a bite!

 ...and saw what was inside....

 Tommy saw it first and saw the color...

 PINK!  It's a GIRL!

 Perhaps Max's future bride is growing right there inside...

...an exciting night for everyone!

Woo hoo a little girl to buy some pink for...

Birthday

39 years ago today, in Columbia Hospital for Women, In Washington DC at 11:10 pm  My parents welcomed me into this world.  My Mom had made caramels earlier in the day and sobbed, thinking if she didn't have this baby soon she would miss Christmas at home with her preschooler and her 1 year old.  Around 9 that night, she knew it was time to go.  Hmmm they lived in the suburbs but leave it to my calm and collected Dad, not so much calm or collected, to get her to the hospital by 10.  And yep 1 hour and 10 minutes later I was born.  They call me their Christmas Angel...I came home on Christmas Eve, sent home in a red felt stocking.  My Dad says I was the best Christmas gift ever.

A quick recap of the day today 39 years later.  I woke up to breakfast in bed, the boys had made it on their own.  Scrambled eggs, deviled eggs, toast with cinnamon and sugar and toast with strawberry jam and a glass of milk.  I was then given the honor of doing Jack's lego advent calendar with him.  

The boys went to school and Max and I had a regular morning, a few phone calls later and a song from my Mom and it was mid morning.   My brother called with his 1st grade class and the entire Red Bird class sang Happy Birthday to me, Cha Cha Cha style, that was a riot.  One of them asked on speaker phone how old I was...when I said 39 they thought that was REALLY old.  I reminded them that their teacher, Mr. T, was older than me.  :)   Max and I then picked up Tommy at 11:45, he has finals this week so he has a different schedule than his brothers.  We headed to Panera for some soup for lunch.  Scott met us there.

Max and I ran errands this afternoon, ran to the grocery store...the normal.  Came home to a house smelling like angel food cake.  Scott and Tommy had evidently been busy baking while Max and I were out.  

After the boys came home from school, they brought me a Starbucks hot chocolate by the way mmmm....  we opened gifts before we headed out to dinner.  Some thoughtful homemade gifts from the boys...

We went to Appare which is a Japanese Chop House, a first for our family...we had one who was scared to death of it all, one who couldn't wait to eat, one who asked a bazillion questions and one who just sat there looking cute as could be...it was an experience.  At the end we all decided it was a fun experience and we were very happy to learn that mondays are buy one get one free meals.  What a deal!

We came home to make homemade ice cream, slice up some strawberries and dig into the angel food cake.  It was all very yummy...

after all of that I remembered I needed 3 dozen baked goodies for school in the morning so the rest of our evening I spent baking with Drew and Tommy helping me...

It was a great day.  I felt loved and special.  After a fun weekend overnight in KC I would say this birthday has lasted a few days.  :)

The Plaza Lights

Yesterday morning, Saturday, I was told by Jack to pack up a suitcase for Max and for me.  And be sure to pack swimsuits, we were heading to a Surprise Ride and a hotel.  hmmmm I wondered.  Scott was at Tommy's bball game with Drew.  I had thought we had nothing going on the entire weekend so was a bit confused.  I showered and packed it up.

We left around noon, drove through McDonalds and started heading towards Kansas City.  Scott knows that I love the Country Club Plaza at Christmas time.  The lights are so pretty in the Plaza.  He has taken me there 2 other times in December, I always love it.  The boys had never been.  We checked into our hotel around 3:00 and headed on down to the plaza after a clean diaper and a quick snack for the baby.  A few tears shed by this Mommy as we looked out the hotel window at the Plaza and Scott reminded the boys that this was a gift for Mom, to do something she loved.  I hugged him and cried.  It meant a lot to me, to have him be so thoughtful.  So much of my life right now is about everyone else...and Scott recognized that.  

We had so much fun strolling around and looking in the stores.  The boys were so patient, they let me look in stores they had no interest in.  Much to the bigger boys dismay there wasn't a sporting goods store anywhere to be found. Only "fancy girl stores".  We did stop at Barnes and Noble for a bit of a break for them to look at books and Max to get down and crawl around.  As much as he loves the snuggly and being held he liked getting down and reading books for awhile too, Tommy managed to locate a Starbucks for hot chocolates for us all.  We left and wandered around the plaza some more.  We only shopped in one store, and that is one of my favorites, Anthropologie.  I was told I could pick something out for a birthday or Christmas gift, so that was fun too. 

As we walked out of Anthropologie, it had begun to snow.  Tommy said to me "Mom is that snow real?  Or is it just for effect?"  It was so cute.  He was so serious.  I think the fact that it was so picture perfect with the lights, and the horse drawn carriages it seemed the snow came on cue.  I told him Daddy had to pay extra for the snow to fall for our special time there.  :)

We headed to Winsteads, which is like an old diner, for a burger and a milkshake. HUGE milkshakes actually, called Skyscrapers.  The boys loved it there as well.

We then went back to our hotel and some of the boys swam, and some  of us snuggled in and watched Madagascar on TV.  Everyone slept well.  We left this morning, ate some breakfast at Bob Evans enroute home and drove in the driveway by noon.  A quick trip that meant so much to me.

Thank you boys for making this Momma feel special...

Loved this

Found this in Jack's folder today...he had made it for Grandparents Day when my parents were coming.  I somehow missed it.

"you should meet Roy and mary Lou tewileger,

my grandparents are very funny.  I love making cookeis with my grandma. they are really fun. by Jack Shisler"

Please note I asked what Grandma was wearing and Jack said "oh she is in her nightgown, I couldn't think of what else she wears." laughing to myself as he shared that one...

A day in the life...

I think the pictures speak for themselves more than my words can...but I will say that the gingerbread house is a tradition that began when I was in the 8th grade with my friend Stacey Curry.  Continued on with our dear family friends, the Colbys...and now at our house.  We usually make it over Thanksgiving weekend...but we were in Ohio this year.  So it happened tonight.  I am becoming less and less involved as the boys get older and more independent with it.  I love the end product, it makes me smile.  I really REALLY really love traditions.  Oh and a quick side note speaking of traditions...as I walked by Tommy's room this morning he was playing Christmas songs on his iPod speakers and Anne Murray Christmas songs were one...I grew up with those songs.  I love that our boys are growing up with her singing them too.

Susan

P.S.  The tee shirt is in honor of our good friend Gailen who is battling pancreatic and liver cancer.  We just got them yesterday, all of the boys wore them today.  The purple is for pancreatic cancer.