Thanksgiving in Wisconsin

We decided to make the 5 hour trek up to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving this year. It was the first time that all three of us were in Wisconsin at the same time! We really enjoyed visiting with all our family :)

Thanksgiving Day we headed over to my Grandma and Grandpa Zuelzke's house. I think that all the people were kinda overwhelming for Kian at first, but he is so social he warmed up pretty quickly. Grandpa Z had a good time teasing Kian - brought back a lot of memories of him teasing me as a child! Kian also quickly made friends with my cousin Steve's daughter, Ameerah, who is only 4 months older than him. She called him her "new friend."

Below are some photos of the festivities.

Grandma and Grandpa Zuelzke with their 5 Great Grandkids!

Kian hanging out with his Great Uncle Jack

Kian's picture of Grandpa Zuelzke's turkey leg - and yes it is real :P

During the time we were in town we got to hang out with my little sister, Laura, and her fiance Brian. I went to see them perform with their band Wavelength at a bar on Wednesday night. Laura and I had the happy surprise of seeing my Uncle Paul (my biological father's brother)there!

Friday night Jamie and I headed out to see Brian and Laura perform as The Moonlighters at the St. James - a martini bar in Darboy. Below is a photo of them performing. It was so neat to see them and the place was something that Jamie and I really enjoyed and would enjoy it more if it was in our city!

Laura and Brian performing as The Moonlighters at the St. James on Darboy.



Me, My Mom and Laura - the three girls :)

All-in-all it was a great visit. Kian got to know our extended family better and so did Jamie! We look forward to many more trips up to Wisconsin in the near future :)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

We had our first snow fall since we arrived in Champaign. Jamie and I drove Kian to preschool this afternoon and the snow started to really come down - it was so pretty! Jamie asked Kian if he could see the snow and he said, "Yeah, it's from Santa!"

Week with Grandad and Nan and Bailey's First Vet Visit

Monday Jamie's dad and step-mom arrived for a short visit. Kian had a great time rough-housing with Grandad and read lots of stories with Nan (mainly I Spy books). We all enjoyed having them here. Even little Bailey who was almost puppy-napped by Grandad ;)

We took Bailey for his first vet visit and shots. He is healthy in every way :) He weighs 20lbs even and the vet said that at 4 months she can triple the weight and that will be about how much he will weigh full grown....he will be around 70lbs - so a big boy!

Bailey also has caught on quickly to a lot of things (although he still has a lot of things to learn) but he already knows how to shake! He is such a good boy, we are very lucky to have him in our family :)

School Pictures 2008

We got Kian's school pictures back last week. They turned out pretty good - I can tell that in some of them he's smiling and saying CHEESE (like in the one right below this text lol!) I just thought I would share some pictures of our cute guy :)

Kian and Bailey :)

Things have been going really well with Bailey. He is a very loving guy. He also is very smart and takes well to redirection. Kian and I went shopping for lots of chew toys for Bailey. Kian's favorites were a slice of pizza and a hamburger. Bailey would chew on them then carry them around for a while. He would laugh and laugh!

I took some pictures of Bailey and Kian while they were playing on the floor. They both love each other a lot :)

Meet.......Bailey!!!!!

Since we lost our Toby we have been wanting to get another dog. But we knew a move was possible for us so we put a search on hold. Today Jamie and I were talking about getting another dog. We wanted a yellow lab for sure...today he was looking on craigslist and found this CUTE puppy! We emailed the lady who had him, drove an hour, and picked him up!

He is a 9 week old white lab (his parents are a white lab and a yellow lab). He weighs about 18lbs right now. We decided to name him Bailey (yup, just like the yummy Irish liquour lol!)

He is so sweet! He loves to give kisses and follows Kian all around :) I know they will be best friends! He is actually pretty mellow for a lab puppy - which is nice although I am not sure if it will last lol He is a lab ;)

The photos below are the ones that we saw of Bailey that drew us in :) I will take some more later on for sure. But we wanted everyone to meet our new family member!

Crickets.....

I hear them through my open window! An occasional car drives by. But really the only sound I hear is crickets. It's been a long time since I have lived anywhere that was this quiet! It is so nice to be back in the MidWest!

Halloween 2008!

We had a big day yesterday! First, Kian went on his first field trip with preschool. They went to a Nature Center, walked some trails, talked about autumn and animals. It was a lot of fun (I went too - I volunteered to drive).

When we got home, we grabbed Kian's costume and headed to Volition for their Trick or Treating around the office. Kian got quite a haul of candy from that - even after i picked through what was not safe for him to eat (processed near nuts).

After that we were home for a short time and then all three of us headed over to one of Jamie's co-worker's house. They have 2 little boys. Another couple and their little guy was there as well. We ate pizza, the boys played (yep, they are all boys) and I think we all had a good time!

Then it was time for Trick or Treating so it was costume time.

Kian wanted to be a sword wielding Batman - we had him leave it behind ;)

My Handsome little Batman

All the Trick or Treaters

Kian mid run to the next house - he ran the WHOLE time with his new friend Nicholas.

Here are Kian and Nicholas running to the next house!

The local fire department walked down the street with the fire truck and gave out candy to the kids - how cool is that!

Trick or Treating at our new friend's house ;) Not like the kids needed more candy ;)

Jack 'O Lanterns

Yesterday Kian and I went to Walmart for some things and picked up some pumpkins for carving. There weren't any larger pumpkins and Kian wanted these cute little ones so I told him he could pick out two. Then I found kits that allow you to kinda make your pumpking a Mr. Potatohead of sorts. He picked out the animal one. The pumpkin on the left is a dog and the one on the right is a cat. He's so proud of them! Anytime anyone comes to our house he tells them about them and wants to show them off :) A great idea

We are All Moved in!

We checked out of our hotel today. The heater should be fixed today and some repair guys should be showing up any minute to ground some of our outlets. We still have a lot of unpacking to do. But the house is starting to feel like a home :)

Happy Birthday to Me

Yep, today is my birthday :) It was mostly spent unpacking with some phone calls from family sprinkled in. Our house finally has cable and it starting to really come together. We are having to get kinda creative with storage, but it's all coming together.

This evening Jamie and Kian took me out to eat at Olive Garden. We had one of the best meals as a family there! Our sever was amazing first of all - we tipped him nicely! We had some really great wine, Kian ate salad - A LOT of salad (he's not a lettuce guy but he was tonight!). Most times we are still eating when Kian is finishing...we tonight we were waiting for him!

It was a good birthday, enjoying the crisp autumn weather and spending time with my two favorite guys in the entire world.

Unpacking, Unpacking and More Unpacking

Today Kian and I hung out at the house today waiting for the heating guy to come and fix our furnace. Of course they came, replaced a few things and left before really making sure it was running. Two minutes after they left the furnace stopped working so I had to put another call in....that was at about 10AM. The guy would "be here today" and didn't show until 6PM :P bleh. Needless to say I have the entire Kitchen unpacked. I am realizing how much counter space I have lost :( I am having to compromise on a few things that I like having in my kitchen....like a portable dishwasher and a nice toaster oven :( I keep reminding myself that we only have a 9 month lease and hoping that when it's up we will be able to move if the place still seems like it's not all it's cracked up to be. I sure do miss owning our own place that's for darn sure.

Unloading and Unpacking

Bright and early the Allied truck was sitting in front of our new place. Unloading went faster than loading that's for sure. Kian was a mini manager telling the guys what room to put things in - oddly enough he informed them that the big screen TV was to go in his room lol Smart kid! He also spent a good part of the time putting things in the backyard and riding his bike around an area on the walking path right next to the house.

I got a good amount of unpacking done while Kian was at school and I hope to get more done tomorrow. Unfortunately we found out today that our heater was broken so it was rather cold in the house so I didn't want to bring Kian back over there after school. He had a pretty rough day anyway and was pretty crabby. Poor guy is still adjusting to the time change - just like the rest of us.

Tomorrow morning the furnace guys are coming to fix it and hopefully we will be able to hang out there for a good part of the day and get more settled. But it sure is good to have all our stuff with us now in Illinois. Now we just need our cars and we are all set!

We Got our Place and Will Have Our Things TOMORROW!

We signed papers and such for our lease this morning. I am planning on heading over there to do some laundry and check out what I need to do/buy to get the place ready for us to move in.

Then, after Jamie got to work, he got a phone call from the driver of the moving truck and asked if he could deliver our stuff tomorrow!!!! How crazy is that?!?!?!

So, we will be all moved into our new place in less than a week from leaving Livermore! Now, all we gotta wait for is our cars :)

Photos of our New Place :)

As requested, here are some photos that were in the listing for the house we are renting :)

View of the front of the house, garage, and side entry way:

Front Yard

Back Yard - behind the fence is a paved walking trail and a creek

Pantry/Electrial area. This is right when you walk in the side door - I am planning on putting up a curtain or something so people don't see all my Sam's Club goodies in there ;)

Kitchen shots - there is a small area in the corner across from the cabinets in this photo where our round dining table will fit perfectly in

Front entry way and living room (you can see the side entry from this angle as well)

Other side of the living room

Hallway in between the bedrooms and living room - this view is toward the Master bedroom

Hallway view toward the bathroom - laundry area is just to the left

Photos of each of the bedrooms - there are three in a row and look very similar - I can't tell which is which in the photos lol One will be the Master, one will be our office and one will be Kian's room

Newly remodeled bathroom

Well, that's the tour! We are going to go through the paperwork tomorrow! I am hoping that I will have a few days to start laying down some contact paper and what not before the movers arrive with all our stuff!

Ah, it's good to be back in the Midwest :)

Things just seem to be falling into place. We heard back this afternoon that we got the place we wanted to rent. Jamie started work today and he's really liking it. Kian started preschool and he's loving it there. I am starting to learn the layout of the area. AND we had Jamie home to eat dinner with us and he was actually able to spend time with Kian before he went to bed!

Here is a photo of the little house will be renting. Wednesday morning we go in and sign the paperwork to finalize it. It's estimated that our things will arrive on Friday!!! So at least I will have a few days to get somethings together at the house before the unpacking begins.

We Have Arrived!!!!

We arrived in Champaign, Illinois tonight - all our luggage arrived and everything went well without one hitch! :)

We did have a fairly entertaining day today...provided by Kian himself.

First, when we were at San Francisco Airport, we decided to buy some Subway subs to take on the plane with us. Jamie ordered his and I ordered mine and Kian's subs...we were both paying attention to what the sandwich makers were asking. Toward the end of the line I turned around to check to see where Kian was and what I saw made my eyes bug out of my head... Kian was standing in line with his pants around his ankles, showing his Lightening McQueen underware to anyone who happened to be looking. Of course as I say "Kian! What are you doing?" I see a lady sitting at a table right next to Kian laughing at him. Of course I help him get his pants on and I could not stop laughing as I am trying to tell Kian that he should not take his pants down in public. It was so freaking funny! We still have no idea what happened. I know those pants are a little big in the waist on him so I am not sure if they just fell down and he didn't notice...but the lady at the table next to us sure did LOL!

Second, we arrived early in Champaign so our limo was not ready to pick us up (yeah a limo drives you around from the hotel we are staying at lol). Champaign airport is really small. For my family members, it is very much like the Outagame County Airport. Anyway, Jamie found an empty luggage cart and told Kian to stand on it in a safe way and pushed him around in it. then Kian wanted to push Daddy lol I was laughing so hard I had TEARS running down my face! Kian was able to push him at a pretty good speed after a while!

Anyway, it was a long day of travel but Kian was a trooper and did pretty well if you ask me. We are so glad to finally be here, to see some leaves on the ground, feel the crisp autumn air....ah.....it's so nice to be back in our area of the country again :)

Kian Lost His First Tooth!!!!

Last night when I was brushing and flossing Kian's teeth, I noticed the the front one was really loose. I told him about it and he was immediately worried about it. I told him about what happens with our teeth - losing them and getting adult ones and how the Tooth Fairy comes. I guess his understanding was limited because he wanted me to take it out (which it was really wiggly but not enough that I felt I could pull it out), he wanted me to put a bandaid on it, he wanted to take it out and put it in the trash (which I told him that he should come and get me and not throw it in the trash because it was a special thing!) He prayed in his prayers last night that Jesus would fix his tooth and that he would help us move to "champaign, noy" hehehe

Today he didn't talk much about it. I have seem him wiggling his tooth off and on as I continued packing. Then all of a sudden Kian ran up to me and said "I lost my tooth!!!" He was so excited :) I took a picture of him right away :) (btw, he is wearing a crown from when he was child of the day at school on Friday...he wears it whever he is home lol)

It's hard to believe he's losing teeth already!!! He's getting to be so big! His dentist told me that he would lose them with in 6 months the 4 front ones (yikes!) and that the adult ones might not come in for a while but it's normal. I just didn't think it would all happen so fast!

Anyway, that's our big news - now onto more packing!

5 More Sleeps Until The Movers Arrive!

We are getting down to the very end of our packing. The house is starting to have an echo in some areas. And others are just stuffed with pillars of boxes.

We have disconnected our phones, but thanks to Vonage having a forwarding option. The home phone is now forwarded to my cell.

It's hard to believe we have entered our last week of living in California - but it's exciting too!

Goodbye Discovery Kingdom

Today was our last day at Discovery Kingdom.

We decided to take a break from packing to have some good family time. Plus the park had Halloween themed stuff up so it was extra special. Kian even wore his costume from last year - he was Thomas the Train. Since Thomas is an attraction at the park he got a lot of comments about how cute he was :)

We saw the dolphins one last time - they are Kian's favorite. We also saw the Sea Lion Show and Shouka the Whale Show. They had some special shows for the Halloween theme which was kind of neat.

It will probably be a long time before we get to experience anything quite like this again. We have been very lucky to live so close to such a unique park which has amusement rides and a zoo inside of it.

We closed the park! Kian was so pooped he actually slept in the car on the way home...something he never ever does! We all had a good time :)

Even though it meant no packing for the day, I am so glad we went.

Happy Birthday Toby

Today our Toby would have been 8 years old.

We miss you Toby Bowbee!

My Goofy 4 Year Old

Kian and I were headed home after I picked him up from preschool. We turned a corner and the person behind us passed us...they were going faster than the traffic in front of us (which made me have to drive slower) and Kian pointed out that they were driving fast and a policeman needed to stop them and tell them to slow down. So we talked about how theyw ere probably doing the speed limit and there was just a lot of traffic in our lane making us go slower. So he says: "I'm gonna get my Mr. Incredible Phone (a play cell phone) and tell the policeman to pull that guy over and tell him to SLOW DOWN." I coudln't help but giggle. Then he said "Yeah, I'm gonna call two policman - one, two." I guess the kid already knows about speeding and obeying the law. lol

Testing for preschool, Flu shot, and gaining weight and height!

Today Kian had to visit the doctor for TB testing - he was supposed to have it before school but somehow paperwork got mixed up and I didn't think he needed it :P oops! Anyway, for his new preschool in Champaign he also had to have a urine and anemia test.....AND since I mentioned the flu shot to the doctor, he asked if we wanted to give it to him now since it would be a good protectant for Kian right from the start of moving PHEW! Poor guy got poked 3 times but NO tears! He is such a brave boy :)

We also got a height and weight on Kian. He's up 2lbs from May weighing in at 33lbs and his height is at 39 3/4"!!!! Kian's car seat is for kiddos 40" or less! This means that once we move to Champaign we will be shopping for a booster car seat for Kian! YIKES! He's getting so big!

Batman!!

This morning Kian was looking at a flyer for Toys R Us and saw the Halloween costumes. He told me he wanted to Lego Indiana Jones (it's just Indiana Jones, but he has played Lego Indiana Jones with Jamie) so I searched and wasn't able to find a costume that would fit him. So I told him that and he said he wanted to be Lego Batman (Jamie and Kian just started playing the game this weekend). He was adament about wanting to be Thomas again this year, even after I brought him downt he costume isle and dshowed him what he could be....but now he's changed his mind lol I even asked him if he wanted to be Batman and not Thomas and he said yes....so I halted packing to track down a costume that will fit him...and we found one lol He's so darn cute in it! And he's pretty excited about it too lol I also made sure he knew that he could not change his mind now on what he wanted to be ;) Batman is it!

Moving right along....footloose and fancy free.....

Ok, ok, maybe we aren't footloose and fancy free but we are certainly excited about the move!

Boxes arrive today for packing to begin. We have already started getting rid of some things that we don't use thanks to EABay.

I started research on Preschools in Champaign the moment we knew we were probably going to move there. The first website I visited that I was impressed with was through a Baptist Church. I was hoping there would be a place for Kian since school would have started before we knew for sure we could sign Kian up. I called them yesterday to talk to them about their food allergy policies and see if they had any openings. They had a few spots in Kian's age group available AND one of them happened to have a child with a nut allergy! (not a nice thing, but exciting that the classroom is already set up to be nut free!). This place must have been saved for Kian because we wanted him to attend in the afternoon and decided on the 5 day program....that just HAPPENS to be the same class that the child with the nut allergy is in! WOOT!

I also made a countdown chart for Kian to be able to count down the number of "sleeps" until we move. He's been very concerned about his toys coming with us and has mentioned certain toys he wants to bring with us. I also researched some books at the library and we have three right now that are all about moving. So far we have read one and it was so good - i am hoping Kian will want to read it again because it really goes through the moving process well.

So We're Loading Up the Truck and We're Moving to Illinois......Champaign that is

Changing gears a bit from the sadness of losing our sweet Allie to some exciting news.

Yep, it's true! We are offically moving to Champaign, IL. Our target move date is October 17th! We are pretty excited about the move to say the least! Jamie will be able to work 10 mins from home no matter where we are living in that area there AND we will be about 5 1/2 to 6 hours drive away from all sides of the family (different directions of course).



I am hoping that we can get boxes soon so I can start the packing process. Thankfully Kian will be able to continue preschool until the 17th - so at least his schedule won't change much and I will have a few hours of uninterrupted packing when he is there. A big task but exciting none-the-less! We have been doing many different things in the mean time to prepare for moving. One of them was taking Allie to the vet to see if she would survive the move - that was when I received the shocking news that she was not doing well at all :( Unfortuantely Miss Allie will have to move with us in our hearts and memories.



I know we will miss all our friends and family members that we do have out here in California. We have felt so blessed to welcome so many of you into our extended family - it certainly has grown throughout the years and family means that no matter how many miles are between us we will always stay in touch. And please know that if you are ever in the Chicago area, consider taking a 3 hour drive south for a quick visit ;) We will always have a couch or airmattress waiting!

RIP Allie

Sweet Allie went to heaven very peacefully. I was able to talk to her as she slowly passed away. I think she was ready to go. We are so blessed to find her clinging to a tree 6 1/2 years ago. We will miss her incredibly, but we are glad that both Allie and Toby can be together now.

Sweet Allie Kitty

Allie has never quite recovered from when she got sick after Toby died. She had liver issues back then. We nursed her back to health and we thought her yellow color was gone. She has been eating and drinking on her own. But she has been very tired and has lost a lot of weight. She normally would spend the day sleeping on our bed, but she hasn't been upstairs in months. She also liked to make me - yes make me lol - pet her before i went to bed - we would have to actually kick her out of the room so we could shut the door and go to sleep...I honestly can't remember the last time she did that. So we decided she needed a visit to the vet to see if we could do anything for her...I was hoping it was her thyroid or something easy that could be solved with medication.

Unforunately I left with bad news. Her yellowness had gone away mostely but it was still there. I didn't notice it until the Vet Tech showed it to me. The vet said that because of the feline AIDS she has, it most likely has compromised her system and caused her body not to fully recover. He said that she is just hanging on right now.

So tomorrow, we will say our final goodbyes. Kian knows that Allie is going to heaven to be with Toby. He seemed to take the news ok, but he did the same with Toby and took things a bit harder after he was gone. Honestly, the hardest part of it all is watching my little man having to say goodbye to yet another part of our family less than three months apart from each other. I know he will find comfort in Allie finding Toby in heaven.

Here are some photos of Allie from the good times. The last one is of Toby and Allie laying together. Allie loved Toby most out of all of us in our family lol Now they can be together again.

All About Me

Kian's preschool is assembling a book of each child in the class - what they are interested in and their likes. It also includes a photo the teachers have taken of each child. Here is what Kian's page looked like (some answers I had to help him with).

What is your full name?: Kian (K-I-A-N - this is what he ALWAYS spells his name after he says it lol) obviously I put Kian Jameson D......

Where were you born and when?: Canada (what? I have no idea where he got this!) Correct answer is San Luis Obispo, CA and May 8th

What is your favorite color?: red and purple (that was today's answer - yesterday it was green and pink)

What is your favorite food?: Carrots and yogurt (obviously not together lol)

What did you do this summer?: Discovery Kingdom, soccer, tae kwon do

What are three things you want to tell us about you?:
I have a cat named Allie.
Toby is in dog heaven. (he still talks about Toby at least several times a week).
I like to play outside with my friends.

Imagination Movers

Disney Channel has an new preschool program called Imagaination Movers. If you are familiar with The Wiggles - they are an American (an personally I think WAY cooler than The Wiggles) type of group. It's made up of four guys who play different instruments and sing some pretty darn cool songs about things from cleaning up your toys to trying over and over again until you get it right.

So for now the big things Kian is into is Imagination Movers, Star Wars and Thomas the Train - what a mix of some great things ;)

TGIF!!

Phew! Talk about a busy week! I am so very thankful that it is Friday and our whole family will be together this weekend.

Kian really enjoyed going to school this week :) In fact, I picked him up on Wednesday and he asked me if we could come back tomorrow! lol! Last year he wouldn't say much about what he did during the day at school - this year he has told me what they have done (and I also kind of know because they teacher writes a brief description of the days events and posts it outside the door) so I can kind of help him find words for some things he is telling me about.

Kian also started speech with a new therapist this week. He is now going twice a week and really has excelled from where he was the last time we were going. He's also enjoying going - he gets to play games as he says words so it's fun! And the therapist is very encouraging and works with him well.

Kian has been pretty beat though this week. He dropped his naps last year some time and now we are returning to them. Our summer schedule was very lax compared to what he's doing now so I can see why his brain would need a rest.

We are all excited about our little man doing so well :)

Kian's First Day of Preschool!!!!

Today was Kian's first day of Preschool :) He is attending a different school than he did last year and he's attending one extra day a week (Monday, Wednesday, Fridays from 12:30 - 3:15). I am SO excited about all the things he is going to learn and all the new friends he's going to make.

I created a new layout to celebrate the beginning of school - which also includes a photo I took of him before we left this afternoon :) Here a few more photos....let me preface that some of these poses were done by Kian himself...he is such a goof!

Our Encounter with a Dolphin!

Today we went to Discovery Kingdom (an amusement park and zoo in one). We checked into something we had never really looked into before - which was the dolphin experience. Usually the park has many more people attending and the "experience" is sold out. This time we were quick enough to get there in time :)

Each group (family) was set up with a trainer and a dolphin - ours was named Bella :) We were able to feed her, touch her and have her to a trick...then we got some super cool photos! Here are the few that we bought :)





I really hope that Kian remembers this for the rest of his life! It was such a unique experience! Kian was even wanting to tell the dolphin to do the tricks the trainer was teaching either me or Jamie to do lol He was pretty excited about that!

Grieving with Friends :(

Our house has been filled with a looming sadness since Thursday morning. Jamie received a call from our very good friends with bad news - they had lost their baby girl after 30 weeks of pregnancy. These friends are the closest thing we have to family in the immediate area - they are Kian's "aunt" and "uncle - so it feels like we have lost a part of our extended family.

I post this in honor of Julia Anne who was loved from the moment we knew she was there and will always be remembered in our hearts. And to offer up prayers and thoughts to our dear friends as they encounter an unimaginable greif.