She got 6 to 10 years for her crimes

I've dreamed of the day that I would have a little girl for as long as I can remember. I imagined that she would be girlie and share my love for purses...

I also hoped we could have tea together.

We could bake cookies and cakes...

We could play with dolls..

We could go to the ballet...

She would love make-up...

And we could have matching toe-nails...

This is where I went too far. Daryl freaked out and hates her toes painted. Reese loves them and every time she sees a bottle of nail polish she gets all excited and shouts - "Reese's toes, Reese's toes!" He told me he doesn't want me to paint her toes again. WHAT? I love to have my toes painted, why would I deny my little girl, who clearly feels the same. I tell him, "You can't be serious!" He was serious. Let the negations begin...

Shanna: How old do you think is acceptable for her to paint her toes?
Daryl: 10 years old
Shanna: 10 YEARS OLD, are you CRAZY? That's just nuts!
Daryl: How old do you think?
Shanna: Umm, right now. I don't think it's a big deal and she loves it so much. She's so proud of her toes, she shows them to everyone!
Daryl: 10 years old.
Shanna: Okay, okay, how about 4 years old?
Daryl: 8
Shanna: 6
(long pause)
Daryl: Fine, 6 years old.
(hand shake)
Both: Deal
Shanna: I would like the record to show that I fought for our daughter's rights to paint her toes. So, when she's older and asks why she can't, I want her to know that I did my best to get her a fair deal.

Happy "Half" Birthday Diana (aka Mimi)

Thursday was my mother-in-law Diana's birthday. The kids helped me make her a birthday cake. Please see below.

Aidan and Reese helped grease the cake pans.

Reese helped with the clean up.

the cake before the sprinkles.

The final product. Yes, you are correct, it is only half of a cake. Here's the quiz part of this blog:

Is it only half a cake because:
A. We are all trying to stay slim and half the calories would be better
B. It is Diana's Half Birthday
C. Diana is dreaming of being in her 30's again.
D. The oven mitt was too thin causing Shanna to almost burn her hand and she dropped one of the layers on the floor and was unable to salvage it so she took the surviving layer and made a half cake.

Did you guess "D?" Please see previous posts regarding the fact that I have lost my baking touch and am unable to bake at my mother in law's house.

The cake was delicious, I just wished there was more of it.

Dear Santa and Holiday Armadillo

Dear Santa and Holiday Armadillo (Friends fans will remember the Holiday Armadillo as Santa's part-Jewish friend who taught Ross' son Ben about Hanukkah),

The Gourley's have been very good this year and would like the following for Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus (for the Seinfeld fans), or Chrismukkah (OC fans will know this one):


A family trip to New York City. We would love to bring the whole Gourley clan to New York in the Spring. We have frequent flier miles to cash in and an apartment to rent for the weekend in Brooklyn. Aidan talks about where he was born all the time. We want to show him and Reese our favorite city in the world. Daryl and I are a little home sick for all things New York including our friends. We also have new friends to meet - Will Davis, John Faro Vitale, Lyla Berton and Axel Cortinas-Dabich. We are planning to take the kids to the New York Transit Museum, The Met, FAO Schwartz, Magnolia Bakery, Chelsea Market, Central Park Zoo, Dylan's Candy Bar and so much more. We've never taken a family vacation together that didn't have an alternate purpose (i.e. business meeting, wedding, holiday, etc.), so this would be our first.


This is what Aidan wants, a Sock Monkey Jack in the Box. Thankfully Santa already picked one up at Target, so we are all set with that.


Reese wants this Cinderella set. After the superglue incident, I was unsuccessful in reattaching Cinderella's head, and sadly Cinderella is in a better place. Santa also found this at Target.

Too bad we can't get 4 one-way (oops, I mean round-trip) tickets to New York at Target, they sell everything there anyway.

To the Batcave, Santa...

Aidan loves Batman. Aidan still thinks my Uncle Jeff actually IS Batman.

Reese and Jill enjoying a refreshing beverage.


Batman (I mean Uncle Jeff) and Aunt Jill drove down to St. Louis to visit us for the day. They came bearing gifts for the kids. I told Aidan they were coming the day before and he kept asking over and over again if they were here yet. This is the reason our policy is to give 0-24 hours notice to the kids for all activities, any farther in advance and they would drive us CRAZY!

Aidan wore his new Batman shirt anticipating that Uncle Jeff would also be wearing his Batman shirt. When Jeff & Jill rang the door bell, Aidan screamed, "they're here, they're here! Batman is here!" As soon as they walked in the door, Aidan showed Jeff his Batman shirt and asked him to take his jacket off so that he could see his shirt. Jeff not only had his Batman shirt on, but he also had his Batman belt. AWESOME!

The kids drooled over the very large presents that Jeff and Jill brought for about 10 minutes until we let them open the presents.

Reese's new pony. She gave him a little kiss on the nose. I hope we have room in the stable for him.

Holy Batcave, Batman! Uncle Jeff immediately started putting this thing together and it is the new favorite toy. Aidan loves all the characters that came with this, it's all you need for hours and hours of fun!


Reese and Jeff enjoy Banana Cream Pie. I made it especially for Jeff because it is his favorite.

Jeff teaches Reese & Aidan how to blow up and pop ziplock baggies. The kids thought it was hilarious. They kept running back into the kitchen for more baggies and they went through about a dozen before I figured out what they were up to.

Does Dinosaur Poop Smell?

When we planned our trip to the St. Louis Science Center I didn't think we'd be able to answer that question. It was supposed to be a day out with the kids to have fun at the Science Center and see the Christmas Tree that AmerenUE hired me to design for the St. Louis Children's Hospital Holiday Event. I didn't realize the day would include dinosaur poop and cockroaches.

Abe smells the dinosaur poop. Abe's response: "It doesn't smell like poop!"


Our scientists learning more about dinosaurs and sharing their knowledge from hours of episodes of "Dinosaur Train."

Two future "Ross Gellars"

Princess Finni is afraid of everything, yet here she is holding a cockroach. Her mom Lisa looks on waiting for Finni to freak out, but she never did. Lisa however, was freaking out but did a great job hiding so that Finni wouldn't pick up on it.

Aidan is also unafraid of the cockroach. He thought it was so cool and talked about Dr. Cockroach from Monsters Vs. Aliens and the cockroaches from Enchanted. He loved it. I did not. I was on the phone with my sister-in-law, Natalie when the attendant came up to me and asked me if I wanted to pet the cockroach. I almost peed in my pants.

My Nutcracker themed Christmas Tree.


Aidan sits on Santa's lap for the second time this season. He also "blew-it-up" with his fist for Santa. Not sure what's cooler, Santa "blowing-it-up" or the fact that my kid can do that and did it for Santa. He must really want his gifts this year.

Gobble, Gobble

Market Street at 8:00 am Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving was fantastic! I hope all of our family and friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving, because we did!

I have always been a huge fan of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York and a few of the years that we lived in New York, we were fortunate enough to experience it in person. Now that we live in St. Louis, we can also experience a Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, but on a much smaller scale. We've been experiencing really warm weather over the past few weeks, but the weather on Thanksgiving Day was predicted to be extremely cold. I offered to get to the parade extra early to secure our spot so that everyone would not have to wait in the cold. I especially didn't want the kids to have to freeze to death waiting for the parade to start. Daryl, Guy and I drove downtown and the boys dropped me and the blankets and chairs off while they went to park and pick up some hot chocolate (time: 8:00 am. Parade start time: 8:45am). As soon as they drove off, I realized that I left my phone in Daryl's car, but I figured that they would be back in about 10-15 minutes, so it would be no big deal. I did however wish that I had my phone with me so that I could update Facebook, call Evie and let her know where to meet us and all that jazz.

Not only was it cold, but it was windy, so the chairs kept blowing over. Eventually, I folded them back up and let them lay on the ground because I got tired of picking them up. The clock in my head continued to tick and I got colder and colder. I longed for my phone and my warm boots. At 8:45 there was no sign of Daryl and Guy and I had no way of letting the rest of the family know where our spot was, so I borrowed the mobile phone from the family next to me. After two tries, I got through to Daryl, who told me they were a block away from me. I asked him to call his mom to let her know our location. I also asked him if he brought my phone - response... "No." When Daryl and Guy found me they handed me what can only be described as chocolate milk, but I'm sure it was bubbling hot 45 minutes ago. Daryl went back to his car for my phone and I grilled Guy about what took them so long. Chit-chatting at the coffee shop - I knew it! Thanks for leaving me out in the cold!

(Time check: 9:10. Can officially not feel my toes.) When the rest of the crew arrived, they brought sausage and biscuits and THANK GOODNESS... HOT CHOCOLATE. The kids were freezing and we waited forever for the parade to reach us, because as it turns out we were at the end of the route. EPIC FAIL. Note to self, must get a spot closer to the starting line next year so that we can get out of there ASAP. We did meet up with Brent and his father in law, Phil and The Starks and Evie's mom Sandy was with them. Sandy is from Florida and must have really been freezing. We saw a little bit of the parade, but it had lost its rhythm by the time it reached us and with the high winds the balloons were riding close to the ground. This was not good for Louie the Lightning Bug who must have gotten trapped at some point on the route because his butt was deflated and the parade attendants were just dragging his butt down the street. We finally just decided we had enough and we packed up our stuff and headed home to prepare dinner.

Brent and Rebecca hosted dinner this year at their new house and her parents were in town. Rebecca had the table decorated so beautifully and we were anxiously awaiting a delicious meal. We were not disappointed. The food was so good and there was plenty of it. We couldn't stop eating because it was so good. We had so much for dessert too, but we ate so much food that we barely touched dessert. I should have worn elastic pants.

Doug, Leah, Charis and Roman came over later for games. The guys played chess and poker and the kids were playing "Go Fish" or "Uno" I think, but the girls just hung around talking and Rebecca let us view a video from Jameson's first birthday. The only downside to the day was an "under the weather" Pappy did not join us for dinner.

It was another great holiday. Can't wait until Christmas!

Evie and Noah

Fred Bird

Poor Louie The Lightning Bug, his butt was dragging down Market Street.

The parade crew trying to stay warm

My gorgeous sister-in-law, Natalie. Don't you love her hat?

Me and Reese trying to stay warm.

Naptime for Pappy & Reese. This is before the Turkey.

Rebecca's beautiful table.

Cousins playing after dinner. I hoped they put all the dominoes back in the box or I will be in for a real treat the next time we try to play.

Pumpkin Pie Take Two

I did not know that Evaporated Milk could expire. I thought that stuff lasted forever. Not so much.

While preparing this year's pumpkin pie, I found that indeed, even Evaporated Milk can curdle.

I opened two cans of Libby's Pure Pumpkin and then added a can of Evaporated Milk to the pumpkin. But something just didn't look right and I almost threw up. I've always been a little freaked out about canned milk so I thought it was just me. The second can of milk was chunky and for kicks I checked the date on the can. Best used by 2007. Ooops! A quick check of the calendar in my head and I realized that this can of milk had missed its destiny over two years ago. Now how about the first can? Best used by 2008. Not bad, only a year late, hence less chunkiness in that one.

I headed back to the store for more pumpkin and milk. When I returned, Reese helped me prepare the new, non-poisonous pies. Whew! Thanksgiving is saved!