Gilliam Family

Saturday, January 27, 2018

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

Sunday, January 21, 2018

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

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Best Summer Yet!

We have had an awesome summer so far. We love getting out and enjoying the city, being outside and visiting family and friends. It has been so much fun to watch Zander and Zaiden as they grow. They are truly best friends (and best enemies at times)! They love to play together and make each other laugh. Zander loves to teach Zaiden all he knows. Luckily, I (mom) only work 3 days/week which leaves a lot of time to get out and have fun. Our summer started with a yoga class, many trips to the library and once the weather began to get nice - spending most days at the parks. We love to try different parks and bring our own picnic lunch to finish it off. We have also had a lot of fun outings including trips to the zoo, beach, pools, spash pad, Day out with Thomas, downtown to Maggie Daley park and the Adler planetarium. We also made a trip back to Wisconsin to celebrate the 4th of July. We hope to finish off the summer with some more trips to the pool and beach and are looking forward to all things fall.