Loadin' up the truck

It's official! We're moving. No, it's not a huge move in way of miles but it is a huge upgrade for us going from an 800 sq. ft. place to 1600!

Oddly enough we started our search this weekend after I convinced Jamie that it was time for us to move out of this tiny place and get something bigger and better. This place was the second one we saw and we knew it was for us.

Now for the upgrades; the old versus the new:

• 1 Bathroom v. 2 1/2 baths (thank GOD!) which includes a full master bath
  
• a dishwasher named Sarah v. a machine to wash dishes (woot!)
• one car garage opened by human muscles v. 2 car attached garage with opener
• only one door to outside v. 3 doors leading outside including a sliding glass door off the living room that goes into the fenced in backyard
• 7 cabinets in the kitchen v. 12(!!!) cabinets with adjustable shelves
• about a 2 1/2 ft. counter work space v. probably triple the amount of counter space AND it's all granite!
• 4 small closets and 1 linen closet v. 5 large closets and 1 linen close

I probably could go on for days about how much better our new place is, but I won't because it will just bore you and I need to pack! ;)

Thankfully we will have both places through April so we can slowly pack and move over...but I gotta tell ya I'm wishing that I could be like Samantha on Bewitched and wiggle my nose to just move it all over there :p

Here are some photos taken from the listing that perked us to want to look at this place.

The living room looking back toward the kitchen. Sliding doors on the left side.

Living room from the other end looking at the front door. Notice the nice wood burning fireplace :)

The kitchen ♥

The half bath downstairs right off the living room.

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

no, no, no.... I'm not talking about Christmas. I'm talking about St. Patrick's Day! It's almost like Christmas in our house :)

It's the time of year that we celebrate our pride in our Irish heritage (even though in our house we do that every day!). It's the one time of year that I make corned beef and Irish soda bread (which is so flippin' good that I don't know why I don't make it when it's NOT St. Patrick's Day!

The day after Valentine's Day is when I start putting up my St. Patty's Day stuff - well, the things that aren't already up lol And you will hear traditional Irish music coming from the house more often than usual. And at night you can find me and Kian reading a book dealing with St. Patrick's day or Irish Fairytales or Myths.

Even though it's a happy time in our house there are so many things to remember about Ireland. I recently watched an episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" where Rosie O'Donnell traced her roots back to Ireland and discovered that her family was brought over to North America during the Potato Famine. Whenever I thought of the Famine, I just figured our families scrounged for money and bough passage for themselves to immigrate. Through this episode, I realized how ignorant I was to believe that my relatives actually had money! I mean, they couldn't even feed themselves! Rosie discovered that her descendants were living in communal housing for at least a year - 4 children, men and women separated, babies 2 years old and older were separated from parents, and beds were just lined up in one large room. It really looked like concentration camps - sparse, dark, and gloomy. It was pretty much the last stop for those who had no food, no shelter, and needed help to survive. Her family petitioned to go to Montreal after being there for at least a year and the organization that headed up the work houses provided passage for the whole family to immigrate.

With this knowledge I have a new found pride in my Irish blood. The Irish people were tough! They endured through wars, famine, and persecution. They are fighters strong in spirit and will.

I can only hope that I have gained some of their spirit and will through my genes.

Disney World - Day 2 Highlights

Day two of our trip was spent at Epcot - one of our favorite parks.

We arrived when the gates opened and when walking into the park we saw Daisy (one of few places she can be seen!) and Stitch. As you can see, Kian asked Daisy to sign his autograph book. Each character has their own signature and it remains consistent no matter when you see Mickey - his signature always stays the same and looks very much the same :)




The first ride the guys wanted to do was Mission Space. Kian is standing in front of the ride's sign (super cute photo too!) This ride is a simulator so you can feel what it would be like to be on board a spaceship. I decided to pass on this ride (motion sickness plagues me bleh). Kian really enjoyed it though :)



While waiting to Talk with Crush (the turtle from Finding Nemo), Kian decided to look at the fish in a tank nearby. There were sting rays, small sharks, and this puffer fish who took a liking to Kian. In the photo above you can see him actually looking at him! I know that sounds strange, but he really was! He would swim away for a bit (if you weren't paying attention to him) and would come back to us - it was crazy!


Here comes puffer fish again! I wish we could have taken this guy home with us.

After touring different areas of the park we headed over to the "Country" area called The World Showcase. Jamie wanted to get a photo of Kian and I but Kian said he wanted to take a photo of the two of us. The result is the photo below - pretty good, eh?


Then Kian decided it was time to be silly.... which also included camera switching lol




Then someone standing nearby asked, "y'all want me to take a picture of the three of you." Thankfully we talked Kian into having a "normal" face in this one :) So a special thanks to the southern gentleman ;)


The country area is vast and there is SO much to explore. A fun part for the kids is called "Kidcot." Kids get to color a bear named Duffy and if the have a "passport" (that you can buy at a gift shop in the park) a person sitting at Kidcot will sign it in their native language!


Our first stop was China. The cast member was from Hong Kong and wrote Kian's name in Chinese and wrote out a message to him in Chinese and thankfully wrote the translation under it :) It was fun for Kian to go to each country and find the area where he could get his passport signed! If you have a kiddo and go to Epcot, this is something that you must do :)


For dinner we ate as the newest restaurant in Epcot, Via Napoli in Italy. They are known for their pizzas baked in wood burning ovens. I got my own pizza! Which meant I could try something strange ;) I had what they call Quattro Stagioni. It has eggplant, artichokes, parma cotto ham, mushrooms, mozzarella. Let me tell ya, it was delish!


And if you know me, there is absolutely no way I would leave an Italian restaurant without having tiramisu! This was super yummy too!


Kian's meal (a cheese pizza) came with chocolate gelato. As you can see, he really enjoyed it as well :)


We wrapped up our day watching the fireworks show on the water of the World Showcase. Then it was onto the hotel to gear up for day 3!

Disney World - Day 1 Highlights

We spent our first day in the Magic Kingdom. It began with breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and friends then it was onto the awesome touring plans that Jamie made for us thanks to Disney Touring Plans.com. We were able to do everything in the park that we wanted and more! If you're going to Disney World or Disneyland, I highly suggest using this site - it's worth the membership.

Anyway, we were able to get on all the rides in fantasy land before the lines grew to over 30 mins long. We were actually able to pretty much walk right onto all the rides! By far I think that Kian and I liked Peter Pan the best :)

it's a small world is located in Fantasy land as well. Which of course we had to take a picture of the representation of Ireland ;)


Kian had the opportunity to meet a lot of characters. He met Frontierland Donald, Woody and Jessie from Toy Story, Prince Eric and Ariel (when she had legs ;)), and Aladdin and Jasmine as seen below.

Aladdin apparently took a liking to Kian and had a pretty long conversation with him! Aladdin challenged him to a carpet ride and of course they had to discuss who would win ;) Aladdin was JUST like he was in the movie - same mannerisms and talking the way that Aladdin did.

At the end of the long discussion, which included Aladdin getting down on Kian's level and motioning with his hands on how fast a carpet would go, Princess Jasmine suggested that they have their picture taken with Kian so Aladdin told Kian to pose with his arms crossed.

And so he did! This was by far the best character meeting that Kian had and honestly, seeing the photos and watching the video brought back a lot of great memories. Big props to the Aladdin of the day :)


One of Kian's favorite rides was the People Mover in Tomorrowland. Do you know what that is? I didn't until we got on it. It's almost like a train ride that's up above the ground and takes you through some of the attractions. It was pretty cold when we were at WDW so this ride was not my favorite since we were moving in the cold air!

We ended our day with a special dinner called Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. The food is AWESOME and the show is funny and very entertaining. The people on stage portray a group that travels, sings and puts on plays. As you can see from the animated faces it was pretty funny. The other super funny thing was that the actors would do impromptu jokes which sometimes would make the other actors laugh! It was actually my favorite meal of the whole trip.

And we are home....

Well, at least Kian and I are. We arrived back in the land of FIBs and snow last night and brought some super bad colds with us. As of today Kian is on the mend, and I'm trying to be :p Needless to say, I miss The Mouse and all the fun we had in FL. I'll post more about our trip and have photos to follow :) For now we are just keeping warm in the house and keeping our plague to ourselves :p

A Look Back at 2011 - Better Late Than Never

In 2011 I thought that I would do away with our Christmas Letter, but after looking back on the year I realized that I really needed to since we had a lot of changes and fun things happen in our family! So, here it is: The Durall Family in 2011

We kicked off 2011 with a trip to Disney World! It was SO cold (yes, even in FL it can get around freezing) but we had a great time anyway. This time around Kian was made Prince of the Day at Cinderella's Castle and participated in the Jedi Training Academy where he battled Darth Vader himself. He alo got to meet Rapunzel and Flynn Rider from the movie Tangled.

Flynn showing Kian what is in his pack while Rapunzel looks on.

(Shhhh, it's a secret and he was only shown because Kian asked).

In March we moved to a bigger house - almost double in size from our previous place! Everyone has enjoyed the extra space. Bailey has especially loved our fenced in back yard where he can roam for as long as he wants and come to the patio door and "knock" when he's ready to come inside. And there are sidewalks where Kian can ride his scooter or bike safely.

Kian turned 7 in May! (yikes!) He was a little fish this summer during his swim lessons, loved playing T-ball, and of course loved the British Soccer Camp he attended TWICE over the course of the summer. Then before Kian started 2nd grade in August, we took another trip to Disney World (yes, we are annual passholders). This time it was super hot but there was great fun had the entire time!

Kian in awe of his Phinea and Ferb cupcakes Cream and Flutter made for Kian's party

On July 5th Sarah and Jameson went up to Chicago and saw U2 perform for the second time during their 360 tour. They were able to get tickets in the (RED) Zone which gave them a close view of the stage and helped provide funds for those struggling with AIDS in Africa. Jameson thought he might have to catch Sarah after Bono walked past her, but she held her ground....barely.

The stage is "cutting through" Sarah's head and "decapitating" Jameson.

Yep, that's how close we were!

In September Sarah celebrated being a froster at Cream & Flutter (formerly Cakes on Walnut) for one year. Getting up at 5AM to get ready to frost the cupcakes is not a problem for Sarah - which only proves how much she seriously loves her job (this will make more sense to those who really know her and her morning persona). Not only does she make the frostings, she is also dyes sprinkles, bakes cookies and brownies, and frosts specialty sugar cookies for the masses in Champaign to enjoy.

At the end of November, Sarah and Jameson started a medically supervised diet. Yep, that meant no more cupcakes for a few months! But it has been worth it! Jameson has lost a total of 43lbs in the last 7 weeks and Sarah has lost 25lbs! Jameson said goodbye to two medications he has been on for several years and went down at least one pants size. Sarah is able to get in to smaller clothing - well, except for jeans. She's pretty sure there's no way to get rid of the "Kesler thighs" she genetically inherited. Before and after photos to be included in next year's Christmas letter.

Early in 2011, Jameson was promoted to Design Director on "Secret Project Y" at Volition. This was something he has sought after for many years and we all are proud of his accomplishments! Hopefully in our 2012 Christmas letter we can reveal the name of the project - we will have to wait and see! He also did quite a bit of promoting of Red Faction: Armageddon (the project he was on that shipped) which took him to London, Germany, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Dublin. We know what you are thinking: Yes, Dublin as in Ireland. No, Sarah did not accompany him. And yes Jameson felt Sarah's envy all the way across the ocean that he brought her back lots of gifts to get her to turn back to her normal coloring from the green hue it had taken on.

Jameson with the pint he poured perfectly at the Guinness factory in Dublin. He also had several other correctly poured pints at the famous Temple Bar during his stay (yeah, Sarah is still pretty jealous).

And the biggest news of all for all of 2012 was Jameson's induction into the Full Sail Hall of Fame. He was selected this year as one of 6 Full Sail Graduates to receive the honor out of a pool of 30,000 grads to choose from! Both of our families made the trek to Orlando to watch Jameson receive his award and give a moving speech about his journey in the video game world over the last 10 years. Saying that we are proud of Jameson does not even do justice to how we feel about this honor - we are beyond proud of him and all his accomplishments.

Jim, Jameson's boss on the last few projects he's been on at Volition,

introduced Jameson and handed him his award.

Kian cold not have been prouder of his Daddy!

All-in-all is was a pretty awesome year. So awesome that I just had to share (ok, brag). Even if it meant it was done a month after Christmas.

"Frying Pans....Who Knew?"

Last night we took Kian to see the new Disney film Tangled. When I first heard of the movie I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but since it's a Disney film it's a must see for all of us.

I don't think I have ever laughed so much while watching a Disney film ever before in my life! And the art is amazing to say the least! The movements of the characters are very human like and the hair.....oh my the hair! It looks as if you could reach out and touch it it looks so real! Makes me wonder if Disney has saved this fairy tale until they could animate hair that looks so very real.

The movie has everything every other Disney movie has - love, comedy, action, bad guys - but this film is so very different from any other Disney movie I have seen. Don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE Disney fan and have a favorite movie list about the length of my arm, but this movie takes the cake! I'm seriously thinking that it might move my all time favorite Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast, to number two!

This movie is a must see for all ages!

Dear Bose, I Love You

So, last year I started using my iPhone to download audiobooks. I started listening to them A LOT which meant I had headphones on most of the time. Well, the ear buds that came from Apple are well, frankly pieces of junk. And they apparently didn't think they would have an adult with child sized ears wearing their gear lol! After complaining and trying cheapo ear buds I finally caved and ordered the Bose ear buds. O.....M.....G..... they changed my life!


The ear buds came with small sized ear forms to put on the end of the buds so I finally had a pair that would fit me and stay in! I used the Bose ear buds all the time. I mean ALL THE TIME. It had a button that I could easily answer calls in the midst of listening to a book or just pause my book quickly.

Sadly, last month the button stopped working. I coped with it- I couldn't live without the darned things! Then, as I was scraping snow off the car the ear buds fell out of my pocket and when I picked them up one of the ear pieces was completely torn off and the wires were severed :( :( :(

So, I made a call to Bose to see about the warranty on the ear buds - after all I did get them in Nov '09. First of all, I gotta say that the customer service people are very friendly and quickly got my information and asked me pertinent questions. I would say that within 15 mins or less I was getting my broken ear buds ready to be shipped to Bose so I could start the process of them sending me a BRAND NEW PAIR of ear buds! Yep, you got it, brand spanking new for the year of 2010. And when I arrived home from our Christmas trip to see family, I got my own gift from Bose :)


I know, I know - these things look like they're made for Vulcans (you know, Dr. Spock) but really they are very comfortable! The ear buds come with the traditional style of covers in case you're not into rockin' the Vulcan look. For me, I'm a geek anyway so I don't care - they're comfortable. The pause button also works like a charm! It actually responds faster than my other pair of ear buds.

Needless to say, I will be buying more Bose products. They're stuff might be pricey but it's worth it and they treat their customers more than fairly :)

Highlights of 2010

Kian started 1st grade in August!

My nephew, Braeden Thomas Liam Harrison, was born on September 13th. He was extremely early but...

he's thriving and as sweet as can be (and must have a pretty cool aunt too boot!)

I landed a part time job as a froster for Cakes on Walnut. I love the job and so do my friends and family...where I go cupcakes are sure to follow (or at least the scent of powdered sugar).
Jamie was promoted to Design Director on an upcoming project at his studio! Needless to say, Kian and I are extremely proud of him!

We look forward to what 2011 has in store for us. And we plan to kick it off with a bang when we leave for Disney World in a week! woot!

New Year...New Blog...

Since I haven't been posting much over the last few months, I decided to make this blog not just about Kian but about our family, me, my blabberings and so on. I'm hoping that since it's not just Kian news that I will tend to post more :) Hopefully in the coming year you will hear more for me and hopefully learn something or just be entertained.

Chirstmas 2010

Sorry folks, no personal photos yet but here is a recap :)

This year was our year to spend Christmas in Kentucky with Jamie's family. Thankfully this year mother nature decided not to bring a blizzard on while we were driving (that happened the first year we went for Christmas)! Since we leave close to Christmas we do our family opening of gifts the weekend before - that way we all have time to enjoy our new "toys" before we head out for a week or so.

This year my top fave gifts were the Ireland hoodie I have been wanting for over a year! (Thanks Mom and Dad!)


And my wonderful husband got me the following....

Instead of an angel we now have a fairy on top of our tree :) He wings change colors. She's so cute! I put her up straight away!


And this awesome treeskirt which Jamie had personalized with our family name! Of course that was put on right away as well :)
And this was an early gift from Jamie - not this platter but a set of dinner plates, mugs, and desert plates all done in this pattern! And for Christmas I opened a salt and pepper shaker to match :) These are some dishes I do not mind having to wash (I'm the dish washer, not some mechanical device).

We headed down to Kentucky and the day after we arrived it started to snow....and snow...and snow! The snow was normal for us northerners to see but in Kentucky for it to come down that much and stay is rare! It made for a beautiful Christmas but also canceled our trip to Gatlinberg with the whole clan. We made the best of it by spending the day after Christmas sledding, drinking hot cider, and playing card games. We all had a blast and it was so good to see everyone. Kian really went down a snow covered hill for the first time ever that day. He had a blast! I had not planned on riding down at all but was coerced by Jamie's cousin Caleb to join him on going down - I caved and ended up going a few more times! I had not been sledding since I was a child.

Kian brought home a haul of gifts which included a remote control truck (!!!) Kian had been wanting and a Star Wars At-At (that I live vicariously through Kian watching him play with it) among a myriad of video games, and various cars. He made quite a haul this year! Now we just need to find homes for all the goodies he got from all his family and Santa :)

Halloween Recap

We all had a great time on Halloween! Our friends invited us over to their place for ToTing (our third annual ToTing with them :)). Kian made quite the haul and had a blast ToTing with his friends :)

Here are some photos from All Hallows Eve....

Our stoic Ghostbuster.
Ghost busting is a serious job!

Ghostbuster Kian has his phaser out and is ready for action!

AND THEY'RE OFF!!! The race to the next house for candy begins!

Notice the pumpkin behind Kian in the photo above....

No see where it has landed (to the right of Kian). And his friend Nick gets a little laugh out of it lol!
Just another casualty of Trick or Treating.

Butter face?

All three of us were heading to Kian's piano lesson. Lady Gaga was playing in the CD player and I asked Jamie if he thought she was pretty. He asked why and I said because I heard a DJ on the radio say something about 'butterface' (but, her face).

Kian was in the back and little did we know he was really listening to our conversation in the front.

Kian: Momma, is that Lady Gaga
Me: Yep
Kian: How did she get the butter off her face?

Jamie and I laughed - how do you explain a not-so-nice pun to a 6 year old? lol!

Me: I don't know, Kian. Maybe it has something to do with boogers on her face.

Kian rolls with laughter and thankfully drops the butter to say boogers as many times as he could before we got to piano lessons lol

Recap of the last few weeks

Highlighted Events:

• We traveled to Kentucky the first weekend in October for the Woodlee/Harris family reunion. Kian had a blast with his Aunt TyTy, Granna, and Papaw. We also scored another Jeff Woodlee print that was up for auction to raise money for the next year's reunion

• Kian's Grandad (Jamie's father) came for a very short visit the weekend after our Kentucky trip. The three guys went on their first Durall Men Golf Outing on Sunday morning. It was so neat that Kian could join them with his own clubs! For more highlights and photos check out Jamie's blog.

• My nephew's birth and continued card in the NICU (more details below). It's amazing how motherhood has brought my relationship with my sister closer. I'm so thankful for her and that we are able to talk so often!

• My new job started about a month ago! (see below for details)

• Jamie shaved his head lol Yep, he did and it actually looks really good. He has yet to post photos on Facebook. I think he's waiting until he gets his new glasses in the next week or so.

• Planning continues for our trip to Walt Disney World in January! We are all getting excited about it and continue to do our family movie nights to count down until we go to WDW. Jamie has done a TON of research and has made some flippin' amazing reservations for us for character meals and places that just have awesome food. I have never been disappointed at Disney ;)
  

Yeah, yeah, I've been a slacker with posting. But I have a good excuse! I'm now a working mom! I started working as a froster at Cakes on Walnut. I posted a photo from their website below. You can see that the frosting is one of the most important parts of the cupcake and so is the technique for the swirl. Believe me, I know from all the practicing I've been doing before I frost anything that goes in the store. I have a feeling I will be moving to frosting my own cupcakes very soon. For now I make the frostings and the two owners frost the cupcakes.


Being a froster is part time gig that's 4 days a week from 8-12 so I'm home to help Kian get ready for school and able to pick him up with school is out. It has caused me to have to do some major adjusting to my household work since I usually did that when Kian was at school. Sometimes certain rooms get attention and others look like a tornado ripped through it! But everyone is happy in the house and that's all that really matters. Oh yeah, and we have cupcakes at least once a week in the house ;)

My Nephew

It's now been a full month since Braeden entered the world. He's doing well. Still in the NICU but progressing toward not being hooked up to anything.


The above photo was taken a few weeks ago but it's one of my favorites of my Lil' Irish :) He's such a fighter and I can't wait to meet him at Thanksgiving!