Ho! Ho! Ho! and One More Surprise!!!

We thought we were lucky enough just having Nanny here for Christmas this year, but you'll never guess who walked through the door yesterday afternoon??? TREY!!! What a terrific surprise!!! None of us knew he was coming to visit (though this is his usual holiday haunt) ... Bryn kept his secret beautifully!!!

Here's a little peek into the Landsberger7 & Gracie + Nanny and Super Surprise Trey Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas Family & Friends!!!

Twas the night before Christmas

And all through this home

Steve & Brad were going nuts

And Norad said Santa was in Rome ...

Kayla is wired

And so are the twins

Nanny is exhausted

And Rob is out of grins.

I stole away a moment

To drop you a line

To Say Merry Christmas

and throw back some wine.

It's just not the same

For the boys without Trey

And we miss our sweet Bryn

And Baby Colton today.

Uncle Brian and Tammy

The girls, Mamaw too

and dancing Papa John ...

we miss you guys too!

Bobo and Sharon

Grandpa Bob and Jan

Maybe next year?

Wouldn't that be grand?

No presents are wrapped

There's much work to be done

So I'll have to get going

Morning will soon come ...

Then their faces will shine

When Santa's done his part

But right now I'm sending you ...

all the love in our hearts.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

With all our love!!!

Snow Days & Cookie Swaps ... What A Week!!!

This week has been WILD!!! No school Monday - Wednesday ... finally back on Thursday & only half a day on Friday ... talk about living it up!!! On Tuesday & Wednesday, there was a lot of this:

On Thursday night, we held the first annual Landsberger Cookie Swap (and *next year ~ crazy Christmas Sweater) Party. It was loads of fun. All of the girls brought wonderful cookies and we had lots of great snacks. Becca Wilson won the "girl" doorprize ... a gingerbread house to decorate and Karen Degonni won the "mom" prize ... some cookie tools!!! Click the picture above to check out the Wilson-Six blog. Her snow days blog is called "3 Snow Days, 2 Glassees of Wine, & A Partridge in a Pear Tree

And just imagine ... all of this while Rob was on the east coast! ((pat on the back for me!!!)

ICE, ICE Baby ... Again ... With A Little Snow This Time

More precip. last night ... another snow day ... no school today.

The temp is hovering in the teens and everyone is a wee bit anxious ... will we get to go outside? when will we get to go? Is it time to go out yet? How many more minutes? Now?

And so goes the day (I'm guessing).

Just wanted to update. Must go make more snacks and break up a fight.

XOXO,
Ann

ps ~ our computer is on the skids ... working on Bahar's laptop we borrowed last night ... so if updates are few and far between beyond this point, don't worry ... we're working on it!

ICE, ICE Baby!!!

Today's a SNOW DAY!!! ... just without the snow!!! Ice only ... even on the inside of our storm door!!! ... yes, that is where Kayla wrote her name in the ice ... from INSIDE!!! It's not supposed to warm up past freezing until late tomorrow & the weather channel says snow/wintry mix tomorrow as well. EEEEK GADS!!! Then, up to 61 on Thursday??? I love Jim Cantore as much as the next girl, but whaaaa??? We have about a half inch of ice on various parts of the terrain here ... mostly on the driveway & road, but practically none on the grass (I don't much understand global warming, but this seems totally hinky to me). Yesterday afternoon at 2 o'clock it was 71 degrees and by 6 pm it was only about 25! How crazy is that!!! We've had winds from 20 - 50 mph for the last three days (lots of our neighbors have lost their siding) ... and now this ... but hey, ... nothing like a White Christmas. As for those staying home from school today ... so far, so good ... everyone is getting along and enjoying the long weekend. We'll have to wait and see how long that lasts. Robbie got off to work ... but said the roads were very slick ... he had to go super-slow.

OOPS!!! The door was blocked by the ice ... Kayla had to go out and scrape the ice off so Gracie could go out to potty!!! ... boy, this is one of those times, I'm glad I'm not a dog!!!

Update later ... pray for me!!! :) Ann

We're Right On Track!!!

Jana Allison, our "Parent's As Teachers" teacher came to visit today to check on the little boys. Parents As Teachers is an awesome program here ... Jana has been coming to see the boys ever since we arrived in Missouri. In the beginning, she came once a month and that continued until they turned three this year. Now, we get 3 or 4 visits/year. The boys always look forward to her coming because she lets them do the most super-fun things. Not only does she do fun things to check on hearing, vision, language & motor skills, she also brings along giant tubs of rice, Moon Sand, and today ... making Trail Mix ... she has so many cool ideas for keeping up with their development.The lesson was about pouring, stirring, mixing, using spoons and scoops ... counting, colors ... I was totally amazed at how many things she could think of to teach them about using M&Ms, Goldfish, pretzels, & raisins. They had so, so much fun!!! Watching them was just as much fun for me. Jana was extremely pleased with all of their motor functioning and especially with their sharing and language. She loved it most when Andrew told Cameron to say "please" when he wanted Drew to give him some of his mix. It was hilarious!!! Twins are so much fun, everyday ... and today was no exception!!! Parents As Teachers is such an awesome program. My neighbor and dear, wonderful friend Jane also works for Parents As Teachers. You can read her column in the Joplin Globe here. This week's article is about saving money by making homemade Christmas gifts for your kids ... and believe me, that Parents As Teachers crowd knows how to have a good time ~ these are great ideas!!!

The Life & Times of Bradley

Bradley wanted everyone to know that he's writing exclusively in hieroglyphics now.
Please address your Christmas gift cards accordingly.

Christmas Memories ... Gingerbread at The Grove Park Inn 2005

One of my favorite recent Christmas memories is of a trip to The Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC to see the gingerbread houses made for the Food Network Gingerbread Contest. The sheer splendor of The Grove Park is amazing enough but when you throw in an ounce of celebrity and enough gingerbread to feed all of Santa's elves ... you've got yourself an unrivaled holiday spectacular!!! And let me tell you ... it did not disappoint!!! We had an unforgettably wonderful time!!!

Getting there was a bit of a trick though ... Miss

Belinda had to sneak a "sick" day, the girls had to play hookie from school, the big boys skipped out on Mamaw, Sharon (Fairy Godmother of Charm & Beauty) & Trey stayed with the babies ... and we took off for the NC mountains.

Kayla, being a Food Network super-junkie was so, so excited to be going to the Gingerbread Contest ... she was almost trembling!

It all started with caroling and hot chocolate with the Grove Park Bear.

(Check out that cool purple suede purse ... NICE!!! Boy ... did I used to have style ??? and if so ??? what happened to it???)

We sang all the classics and everyone got a souvenir booklet of the songs to color and hang on the tree at home (we still have one!)

We toured around the grand hotel and stopped to check out the amazing view of Asheville ... the mountains are simply spectacular, but obviously, Stephen and Megan were the only ones impressed by the view!!!

We checked out the unbelievable gingerbread houses and even got to stop into the Food Network studio to watch some gingerbread houses being built. This was totally cool ... we couldn't believe we were right there while they were taping ... we didn't stay for the whole thing (some of us were a little "restless"), but we got to see a lot of it & it was so, so unforgettable!

This was one of the most super-fun things we've ever done and the memories (and thank goodness the pictures) will be with us for many, many years.

Friday Afternoon ... and all's well!

I lived through my oral surgery (surprise! surprise!) and the healing has begun!!! I have to say that this gaping hole in my mouth feels better than the thump-thump-thump-throbbing of the compressed nerve though. Read all about my EXPERIENCE here!!!

Trey, Bryn & Baby Colton are traveling right now ... well, maybe they're home right now ... I am taking quite a bit of medication and can't really remember their schedule. Either way ... they are gone and we are very, very sad :(

TGIF!!!

They're Heeeee-rrre!!!

Bryn, Colton, & Trey arrived yesterday around 3 o'clock. It has been a wonderful whirlwind ever since!!! Colton spent the night with Robbie & me; Kayla spent the night with Cameron & Drew; Trey spent the night with Stephen & Bradley; and Bryn got Kayla's super-comfy bed all to herself!!! A full night of uninterrupted sleep is priceless (believe me, I know!). We are all looking forward to our time together. Unfortunately & fortunately ... I'm having my bad tooth out and a bone graft (for my implant) tomorrow morning ... I'm hoping I will bounce back quickly ... don't want to waste any of our precious time together!!!