Christmas 2018

We love the holidays and since we were pretty settled in our new house, we had enough time to enjoys some fun Christmas events. We also love watching Christmas shows and movies. This year Zaiden loved the "polarbear spress" (Polar express) movie. We attended a Christmas party at The Cradle, visited with Santa at the Christmas concert at their pre-school, went to the zoo lights and had a holiday train ride with Santa. A highlight this year was having our Elf on the Shelf, Zelle to entertain the boys every morning. We hosted family for Christmas Eve for a fun afternoon filled with appetizers and presents. The boys were very excited for Santa to come and it was fun to have them wake up in our new house on Christmas morning and run downstairs to check out all the gifts Santa delivered. We were happy to have grandma and grandpa with us for Christmas day as well.

Christmas at our new house 

Santa came!

our silly elf

Visiting with Santa after their school Christmas concert

Christmas morning! (yes, Santa drank the beer they left for him)

The holiday train

Zoo lights 

Our New Home

This fall we said Goodbye to Chicago, the city Zeb and I have called home for 11 years and where Zander and Zaiden began their lives with our family. It was a very bittersweet decision. Zeb took a new position at work in the Spring and we are beginning to prepare for Zander to enter kindergarten which caused us make this big decision. We have loved living in the city (3 different neighborhoods) and exploring many more. There is so much the city has to offer, but we were ready to move to a more family friendly area. We decided to move to Park Ridge because it is still close to the city, has a small town feel, and has an amazing school system. We spent a lot of time getting our house ready to sell and although there were a few bumps along the way, our city house sold quickly. It was a lot of work to pack up our house and even harder to say goodbye to the home that has so many memories. We were also sad to leave a fun, expanding neighborhood, leave aunt Nellie and uncle Chris behind and say goodbye to Zander and Zaiden's friends at school. But...we are so happy with the house we moved into and are so excited to be in Park Ridge and are already taking advantage of the many things it has to offer (parks, library, downtown, etc). The boys are doing very well and already have a lot of friends at their new school. We are ready to make more memories in our new home.

Zaiden's old room 

Zander's old room 

We moved in just in time for Halloween

We love our new home 

The boys have grown along with our tree, Murry the Maple

The boys were so sad to leave their old school. They have grown so much there!

Zander's last goodbye in his room (he was so sad to leave  his "fancy paint")

Zaiden saying goodbye to his room 

Fall Fun 2017

Although we were very busy this fall getting ready for some big changes, we still managed to have a lot of fun. We love to go out and explore the city and continue to love to travel to visit family and friends. Zander and Zaiden are both growing in so many ways. They love to play together (and fight just as much!). With these two boys, the fun never ends!

We made our annual trip to the QC for a family road race. Zander ran his whole 1/2 mile race! 

We attended Cheese Fest in Wisconsin with grandma and grandpa- Zander was so excited to win the milk the cow contest 

Midnight Circus in the Park was worth staying up past bedtime for on a Friday night 

Some warm fall days allowed us to have a late trip to Maggie Daley Park 

We continue to enjoy exploring the museums and the Museum of Science and Industry is now one of our favorites!

The boys were getting their pumpkin ready for Halloween

We attended a Halloween carnival with some friends 

Zander the Penguin

Zaiden the Polar Bear