thegillettefamily

2009-02-19T18:22:00.000-08:00

Sarah in her Dora pajamas

Sean and Sarah playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Jason, Meghan, Sean and Sarah

Aunt Kim and Sarah singing and watching themselves on t.v.

We just had a great visit with my sister and parents who were in town this past weekend. Kim was here to celebrate her 40th birthday in Milwaukee. It was great to be able to be a part of her milestone birthday and to remind her that she's 3 1/2 years older than me. Tee-hee. It was fun to watch Sarah monopolize Kim's time while she was here. She wished Uncle Cleo could've been here, too. I love having her here to visit, but hate to see her go. Of course, I cried as we said good-bye at the airport. While I know she's happy to be with Cleo in Virginia, I miss her terribly. Thank God for free calling after 7 p.m. Thank you US Cellular. :) Now if I could only get her to have a DSL connection to her computer so we can webcam better. It doesn't work real well with her wireless connection for some reason.

Sarah's vocabulary increases every day. It's so amazing to watch that process occur. She knows her letters, counts to 13, knows her colors, says some words in Spanish, and is extremely independent. "Do it myself" is a very common phrase in our house. She had the stomach flu for the first time a week ago. Poor thing. She didn't know what had hit her and was quite upset. It passed through all of us before my family came to stay. So if we had to get it, it came at the right time. Not fun.

Jason's staying busy with school activities and lessons. He's getting ready for solo/ensemble and a couple of jazz festivals coming up in March and April. We're looking forward to going out with Meghan and Bob this weekend to celebrate their February birthdays. It's always a good time when we all can get together.

Better go. The Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice crossover show is on and I haven't started watching. Priorities. :)

Trip to The Cities

2009-01-08T13:07:00.001-08:00

Thoroughly enjoying our time with old friends

Roomies!

The reason for our trip up north...the happy couple: Tim and Angie Hoffman

Starting from the front center and going around to the left: Doug and Sue Berg-Williams, Heidi and Eric Songer, Jason, Stacy Julson (Dan was ice-fishing--we really missed him), Paul Budde, Drew Disher, Kim Budde, and Camille Disher.

It was a fabulous wedding and an extremely fun college reunion! Thank you to Tim and Angie for having us share in your special day. Thank you to Kim and Paul for your amazing hospitality. It was wonderful to catch up and spend time together! We are so lucky to have maintained our close friendships with these college friends that mean the world to us. It makes us want to live in The Cities every time we go visit.

Sarah reading a Dora book to her baby doll while we were up in Minnesota.

Thank you Mom and Dad for watching her while we were gone!

Happy 2009 to all of our blog readers!

The Holidays

2009-01-08T12:24:00.001-08:00

Sarah playing in the dress Great-Grandma Laura made for Aunt Meghan

Sarah and Grandma Gillette posing for a picture for Grandma's 65th B-day

Sarah and Aunt Meghan admiring the Christmas village

The cousins opening up Sean's gift

Father and daughter on Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Whitehead's house

Opening presents Christmas morning

Reading a book with my cousin, Val, her husband, Garry, and daughter, Aida.

Watching for the jack(Snoopy)-in-the box at Great Aunt Ellen and Great Uncle Dick's house where we celebrated with Jason's side of the family.

Cousins: Sean, Sarah, and Gabe (Jason's cousin's son)

Uncle Dick, Aunt Ellen, Nikki, cousin Steve, and Gabe.

The pictures pretty much lay out our holiday season. We had a great time celebrating my mother-in-law's 65th birthday the Saturday before Christmas. The Lane family came up and we enjoyed all of the Christmas decorating at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

We went to Iowa for 5 days and enjoyed a lot of relaxation and good food with my folks. The first Christmas Eve service in their new church was wonderful and Sarah enjoyed every minute of the visit. She especially loved playing with her 2nd cousins, once-removed (????), Aida and Cassidy. We really treasure the times we're able to see my cousin, Val and family. What would've made the visit perfect would be if my cousin, Scott and family and my sister Cleo and family could've been there, too. :) We really missed Kim and Cleo's presence at Christmas, but were glad to hear that they had an enjoyable holiday together with his side of the family.

After driving back to Wisconsin in dense fog, we turned around the next day and headed down to Illinois for a fun, belated Christmas get-together with Jason's family. Dick and Ellen always outdo themselves with all of the entertaining details.

We had so much fun watching Sarah experience all that is Christmas. She was constantly pointing out Baby Jesus and Santa wherever we went. We're very thankful for all the blessings in our lives and the time spent with family.

Sarah's two-year pictures

2009-01-08T11:57:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving and Sarah's Birthday

2008-12-05T14:11:00.001-08:00

Relaxing downstairs after our big Thanksgiving meal.

The Gillette-Lane Family

The Whitehead-Battle-Gillette Family

Jason and nephew, Sean having fun on the piano.

Uncle Cleo, Aunt Kim, and Sarah

Sarah opening a Geo Tracks toy

Sarah and friends playing in the balls.

Mom and Dad were not expecting to be in this picture. Santa roped us in after Sarah started crying.

We had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Kim, Cleo, Mom, and Dad all got in on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and stayed the week. Kim got the chance to meet up with her Milwaukee friends as well as spend some quality time with her niece. Mom and Dad were so good to help finish projects around the house and help me get ready for the Thanksgiving meal. I had decided to paint the bathroom the week before. Those types of projects always take longer than planned, but we got it done. Dad helped hang up some things around the house so everything looked nice for guests. :) My aunt and uncle drove up from Iowa on Thanksgiving and stayed the night. We ate a lovely meal and just had fun spending time with family. We played a game of dominoes late into the night where we belly-laughed multiple times. After Thanksgiving, we got the house ready for Sarah's family birthday party. The weather was much better for her birthday this year compared to the ice storm last year. Her Grandma and Grandpa Gillette, Aunt Meghan, Uncle Bob, cousin Sean came over. Jason's Aunt Ellen, Uncle Dick, cousin Steve and family (Nikki and son, Gabe) came up from Illinois. The Edmond family joined us, as well. I was a little worried that Sarah was going to have a bad time since she had a cold and hadn't napped. She was a trooper and had a great time playing with her friends and cousins. I wish I could upload video since we have a hilarious video of our nephew, Sean playing the piano with Jason and moving to the music like Ray Charles. It was adorable. It was so fun to watch Sarah with Kim and Cleo. She loved having them around to play with. It was great to have them here for 5 days and we hated to see them go.

After all that hosting, we've been taking it easy this last week and this weekend. I'm not sure I've updated the readers of the blog about Jason's hearing issues. He's been diagnosed with hearing loss after experiencing sound distortion at certain frequencies. He's isolated it to concert A and Bb above middle C for those musicians who are reading. Many factors can contribute to it. His band room is a terrible set-up acoustically in addition to various gigs he's played over the years. It's been very disheartening and he has his good and bad days. When he went in for a follow-up visit to get his musician's earplugs, he met with a different audiologist who was very sympathetic to his situation. She is a former musician and her band director went through something similar. Many of us have heard of tinitus (sp?) where you have a constant ring in your ear. Jason has some of that, but it hasn't affected him the way this distortion has. It's as if the sound is tinny and gives you the sensation you feel when there's feedback on a microphone. There's a machine that is new to the scene which can help desensitize the patient to the tinitus and the doctor thinks it may work for Jason's sound distortion issues. It's very likely that workman's comp. will cover it which is a huge relief since it's $5000. Please keep Jason in your prayers. Those that know him, know that music is his biggest passion aside from his family. It's who he is. This has taken part of the enjoyment away and has made him wonder if he can teach this way for the rest of his career.

Now to something more postitive....

We can't believe Sarah is two. We're so blessed to have her in our lives and marvel at how much of the world she takes in and discovers each day. She's talking more and more and sings constantly. She loves her dolls, books, and playing with her playgroup friends. She is in the 95% for heighth and 90% for weight. She's a solid girl. :) We'd love to give her a brother or sister soon. We've been trying for a year and after 3 failed artificial inseminations, we're taking a break from it for awhile. We try to focus on the fact that we were so lucky to have Sarah and trust in God's plan for our lives. I would love to have another child, but who knows what will be. Only time will tell. Until then, we celebrate Sarah and all the blessings we have in our lives.

I think I'll head upstairs and make some pizza for a nice, cozy Saturday night spent at home.

The Cousins at Apple Hollar

2008-11-05T20:16:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post these pictures with the Halloween pics. We met Jason's sister and family down at Apple Hollar off I-94 the weekend before Halloween. My camera had some condensation on it so the pictures are fuzzy. It was a cold day, but a nice time spent with family. Our nephew is so stinkin' cute! They're growing up way too fast. We look forward to seeing them again for Sarah's birthday party after Thanksgiving.

Learning about the life cycle of an apple

Posing for pictures

Seriously....it's not fair to all the other boys that he's that cute! (I'm not a biased aunt here, either. It's just simply fact that he's that adorable!!)

It's a Beautiful Day!

2008-11-05T07:02:00.000-08:00

YES WE CAN!!!

Halloween

2008-11-01T08:25:00.000-07:00

We had fun getting ready for Halloween. Jason had Thursday and Friday off since it's teacher's convention weekend. Since he goes to the Midwest Clinic every year in Chicago, he decided not to attend the state convention. He usually has musical rehearsal over this weekend, but they're ahead of schedule and didn't need to practice. It's been so nice to have him home and do stuff as a family. The Christmas music started on one of our local stations today. Yikes! 'Tis the season.

Playing in the leaves

Helping Mom and Dad rake

Playing some more

Our little bumblebee with Mom and Dad at the zoo.

With one of her buddies at the zoo

Ready to trick-or-treat

October 15th

2008-10-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

It's the middle of October already. We're keeping busy in the Gillette household. Jason finishes the marching band season tomorrow after the Homecoming game, unless the team makes it to the playoffs. He's also starting to rehearse more often for the fall musical, "Little Shop of Horrors". I subbed a few times in September for the Central M.S. band director due to a death in the family. I was glad I could step in and help her out with getting her elementary kids signed up and rehearsing her 7th and 8th grade bands while she was gone. It felt good to teach again. While I love staying home with Sarah, I miss having a little something that's "mine".

We just went down to Iowa over the weekend. Kim and Cleo were back from Virginia. Mom and Dad hosted a nice "meet and greet" reception since many of the Iowa relatives and friends didn't make it down to Jamaica for the wedding and had never met Cleo. It was great to see everyone. The only down side was that it seemed to fly by and I didn't feel like we could really visit with everyone. Sarah and I stayed a few extra days and had a great time with Mom and Dad. We went to a pumpkin farm northwest of Cedar Rapids. Sarah was having so much fun, she could hardly contain herself. She literally ran from one attraction to another and loved watching the cows and chickens up close. She played in the hay and a "corn seed pit" Kids took off their shoes and jumped around in corn. She wasn't too sure about that one. We also went to the Children's Museum in Coralville. She loved playing in the different exhibits. A lot of the exhibits were similar to the Betty Brinn Museum in Milwaukee. Good times.

Sarah continues to take in the world more and more every day. She loves to sing to the "Twinkle Little Star" melody and can't wait for music class on Friday with Ms. D. She's starting to attempt to verbalize more (instead of just grunting)by saying , "please", "one more", "choo-choo". She loves the number 2. Anytime she sees two similar objects, she shouts out "TWO!!" I can't believe we're coming up on her 2nd birthday at the end of November. Time flies!

It was great to see my sister and Cleo last week. We're looking forward to seeing them at Thanksgiving, as well. I don't know when we'll see each other next after that visit. This living far apart stuff isn't fun. :( It does make us treasure the times we can be together.

It's getting late. Better get ready for bed.

Go Obama!

Sarah and a rainbow

Aunt Kim and Sarah playing in Grandma and Grandpa's yard.

Aunt Kim and Uncle Cleo having fun with Sarah

Sarah was so excited to see all of the cows in the pasture at the pumpkin farm.

Sarah playing in the post office at the Children's Museum in Coralville, IA

Sarah and Grandpa playing in the theater at the Children's Museum

Nicci and Sarah on the carousel at the Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville, IA

Is it September Already?!

2008-09-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

Sarah at a friend's birthday party last weekend

The last few weeks of summer flew by and now we're back to the school year routine. Sarah hates to see Jason go to work so early and not be able to play as much. His school year is off to a good start. He's happy to have his co-worker, Matt, back with him this year. Matt is also helping our friend, Kevin, over at Brookfield East this year. Jason is excited about his student teacher this semester. It's always good to start out on a good note.

I'm going try my hand at substitute teaching this year. I'm subbing two days next week for my friend Cynthia whose father is not doing well. I'm glad I'm able to help her out, but wish it was under better circumstances. Subbing will help me keep my resume' updated but also give me a little control over how much time I want to contribute.

Sarah and I have activities set up for the fall. Between playgroup, library tot-time, music class and swim lesson, I think we'll be plenty busy. It's more about getting me out of the house sometimes. :) She's becoming more like a two-year-old all of the time. She gave Jason a run for his money yesterday when she refused to get into the car seat. Who would've thought that a 21-month old could arch her back and exert so much strength as to overpower her own dad. She's taken an interest in potty-training and is starting to say more words and put words together. She's also taken an interest in Thomas the Train. I put the DVD in that came in the box with Thomas and the track I got for her the other day. What a mistake! Now she wants to watch that thing all of the time and those songs will not escape my brain. We had a fun weekend playing outside and running around. I try to savor those unscripted moments with her. It flies by way too fast.

My folks and Kim and Cleo purchased a gps system for Jason and me for our birthdays. Many of you know about our "issues" in the car. This gift will be a great assest to our marriage! I no longer have to be the one to blame for not saying when to turn fast enough or saying when to turn when it's not solicited. Ahhhhhhh. Thank you satellites!

It was an interesting couple of weeks watching both the Democrat and Republican conventions. It's a crazy world out there. While I wish Obama had more executive experience, I'm still behind the Obama/Biden ticket. Doesn't it make you sick to hear people make racist comments? or to say he's not "Christian enough". Who gets to decide that for someone? I like John McCain but don't support his party's platform. I wish we had cable so I could be watching the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Both shows put such an intelligent, humorous spin on the whole deal.

On that note, I'm off to bed.

Virginia Trip and Birthday Party

2008-08-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

We had a great trip to Richmond, VA a couple of weeks ago. Mom and Dad drove up from Iowa and we loaded up the car top carrier, packed the van full of Sarah's stuff, and headed east. It was so wonderful to have Mom and Dad along to help entertain Sarah along the way. She really was a trooper and went with the flow. There were a few fussy moments trying to get her to sleep in the pack n play in the hotel rooms. We'd finally give up and let her sleep in bed with us.

We arrived in Arlington on a Thursday night and made plans for our day trip into D.C. We took the metro train and walked the mall to see most of the monuments. We didn't make it over to the Jefferson Memorial or the Korean War Memorial, but we saw the rest. It was a super hot day. I appreciated everyone's willingness to walk the mall with me since I had never been there before. It's quite an amazing experience.

Sarah in front of her future home

Jason in front of the Washington Monument

We went to the Natural History Musuem to cool off and make the day more interesting for Sarah. We walked the Hall of Mammals and saw the dinosaur exhibits. Mom, Sarah, and I went into the Butterfly Exhibit. Sarah was really paying attention to all of the butterflies.

Sarah and I in the butterfly exhibit

We ended the day on the Washington D.C. Mall by taking Sarah on a merry-go-round and having some ice cream. She did much better sitting down than going on a horse like she did the previous two times on a carousel. We had a very full day taking the sights. We trained back to the hotel, loaded up the van, and headed to my cousin Val's house in Arlington. Sarah and a fun time playing with their daughter, Aida who is only 2 1/2 weeks younger than her. She also had fun hugging her other 2nd cousin once removed, Cassidy. Kim and Cleo drove up from Richmond so it was a fun little family reunion. Sarah was so excited to see Kim and so was I. I even teared up when I saw her since I hadn't seen her since her wedding.

Nicci, Sarah, and Dad on the carousel

Aida and Sarah

Cleo, Jason, Dad, Kim, and Garry enjoying good food and drinks

After saying our good-byes to the Heishusen-Young family, we drove down to Richmond. Jason, Sarah, and I stayed at a local Hampton Inn and Mom and Dad went on to the Battle residence. We met up with them the next day and enjoyed a tour of Richmond and a day around the house. We saw Cleo's boys, Kelvin and Brennan, and met his Dad, Cleo Battle, Sr. and Cleo's sister, Angelica. It was great family bonding time. Sarah spent the night at Kim and Cleo's in Mom and Dad's room so we met back at the house the following day to head out to the local amusement park, King's Dominion, for the day. It was a hot, hot, day, but we had fun going on roller coasters while Sarah went with Mom, Dad, Kim, and Cleo to the water park area. Jason and the guys stayed a bit longer to catch more rides after the Whitehead crew took Sarah back home. She had a full day.

We road-tripped to Virginia Beach the next day. I hadn't been to the Atlantic Ocean since a band trip in high school, so it was nice to see that part of the country. We boogie-boarded for the first time. It was fun to get out in the water. It took me a little longer to get in the water since Sarah had a slight temperature and wasn't feeling quite herself. I finally got her down on a blanket for a nap so I got to "play" after that. Jason was a trooper on the drive since he had Kim and I commenting on his driving the whole time.

Sarah napping on Virginia Beach

Sarah and Aunt Kim looking at the seagulls

On the last night of our stay, we went to a Mexican Restaurant with the whole family. We had a great meal and a fun night together. Kim still needs to find a place that serves margaritas like La Perla. :) We had to say our good-byes to Kim that night since she was heading out early for work the next day and we were staying at the hotel. It was hard to say good-bye, but we know we'll see each other next in October. Still...I miss her like crazy. It was great to see where she and Cleo live and be able to picture her environment.

(from left and around the table)Brennan, Dad, Kelvin, Jason, Mom, Kim, Cleo

Kim and Sarah on the front porch

Thank you for a great time Kim and Cleo! It was great seeing you all!

We went to Jason's aunt and uncle's house yesterday for a 2-year-old birthday party for Gabe who is Jason's 2nd cousin (his cousin Steve's son). It was a beautiful day to be outside playing in the pools and doing outdoor stuff. Aunt Ellen and Uncle Dick put on a great party and Sarah had a blast. Happy Birthday Gabe!

Sarah playing in the pool. She wanted to stay there all day.

Sarah playing a game in the picture below. The dads had to put a cup on their foreheads and the kids had to pour water into the cup. Pretty funny stuff!

Gabe pouring water into Bob's cup. Sean is watching and learning.

Sarah riding around in the toy car in the basement

Sean picking out a ball from the row of prizes.

Thank you Aunt Ellen and Uncle Dick for a great time!

We spent a lot of time outside today playing at the park and in the yard. Jason is soaking up these last few days of break before heading back to school. Marching Band Camp went well so he's already off and going for the school year. I'm helping teach a little music hour/play time class at church a week from tomorrow for babies through 4-year-olds. Wish us luck. :)

We hear that people check into the blog from time to time. Hope all is well and keep in touch.

cousins, museum, zoo

2008-07-27T20:27:00.001-07:00

We've had a lot of family and social gatherings the past few weeks. While Jason played at Festa Italiana, I got to watch our nephew, Sean, while Meghan and Bob went to Meghan's 20-year reunion for Waukesha South. The first picture is of Grandpa Gillette holding them before they went to bed. Grandma and Grandpa came over to play with the kids, too.

We had a rare family day...just Jason, Sarah and me at the Betty Brinn Childrens Museum.

The first picture is in the "Backyard" area for toddlers.

On the dance floor area

We went to the zoo yesterday with cousin Sean, Aunt Meghan, and Uncle Bob. Sarah loves saying Bob's name and doesn't like for him to leave the room. The zoo was packed, but we had an enjoyable time watching Sean's reactions to being at the zoo for the first time.

This picture is of Sarah watching the elephants being groomed and doing tricks in their indoor exhibit

Sean watching the elephants on Bob's shoulders

Sarah at the giraffe exhibit

The above picture is of Sean's 1st time on the merry-go-round. You can't quite tell in this picture, but he loved it! Bob took some great pictures of Sean smiling and having a great time.

The picture below is of Sarah's 2nd time on the merry-go-round and she cried quite loudly the entire ride. However, after it stopped she clapped and said, "Yay!" followed by, "MORE!". Go figure. It looks like I was crying, too. :)

I'm sure there's more to report, but I need to get some sleep. I have lots of packing to do tomorrow in order to get ready for our trip to Richmond.

Sad day to be a homeowner

2008-07-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Jason noticed a huge crack down the trunk of our gorgeous maple tree in front of our house. After a few estimates and tree experts who told us it couldn't be saved, we made the decision to take it down. I cried when we made the decision and I still have a sick feeling in my stomach. We loved that tree and felt terrible that we had to end its life. The tree people think that the tree took up a lot of water with the heavy rains a few weeks ago. Since it was at its fullest foilage, it couldn't handle the weight of the limbs and cracked down the center. They've seen a lot of trees like it this season.

The view from across the street

The crack down the trunk

Another view of the cracked trunk

It was such a great tree. The colors in the fall were beautiful

Trimming off the limbs

More trimming

It was such a tall tree.

The view from inside the kitchen this morning. Some neighbors came and hauled some of the wood away and friends of the workers hauled more away this afternoon. One of the guys busted his chainsaw so he has to come back later to finish off the trunk of the tree. I want to put a sign in our yard letting everyone know that the tree was cracked and couldn't be saved. I've seen some people drive by and shake their heads. What are ya gonna do?

2008-07-10T17:42:00.000-07:00

Coming down the hill at the park by the Wilson Center in Brookfield

Our baby is growing up too fast!

The above photos were taken by our good friend, Andrea Warp (http://www.arwphotography.com/). Each photo shoot gets better and better. We had a perfect weather day. Sarah definitely did better for the outdoor pictures than she did for the indoor pictures. Running around suited her much better!

I can't believe it's already July 10th. The summer is cruising by so fast. We traveled down to my parents' in Iowa the weekend of June 21st to be at the 1st service in their new church building at St. Paul's Methodist Church in Williamsburg, IA. It was such a powerful day since we've witnessed the long road the church experienced to achieving this goal. Mom and Dad put a lot of sweat and tears into the process and it was a joyful day to be there for the first service. We were thankful that Williamsburg didn't experience the flooding but were sad to hear the stories of all those affected in nearby Iowa City/Coralville and Cedar Rapids.

Mom and Dad came up to Brookfield the following week to spend some much needed time away. Dad helped Jason get a lot of projects done around the house and Mom loved watching Sarah so I could get things done, as well. It was so lovely to have them here for more than a quick weekend now that Dad's retired. Sarah absolutely loved having them here and kept calling for them in the mornings after they left. The best part was watching her reach for both of their hands when she wanted to show them something. It would melt my heart.

We had a nice family get-together on the 4th of July. Ron, Ann, Meghan, Bob, and Sean joined my folks, Jason, Sarah, and me in celebrating the day. The cousins were in the baby pool for a short time together and had fun playing with the sidewalk chalk and the bubbles. It was such a beautiful day and we spent most of it outside. A bunch of us played croquette. Bob is definitely the croquette master! He won all three matches much to the chagrin of Jason and his dad (they're usually ultra-competitive....it's pretty funny actually). We tried giving the cousins a bath together, but Sean wasn't about to let that happen. He was a little freaked out by the strangeness of the tub. Put Sarah into the mix and forget about it. :) All in all, I'm glad it worked out for the family to spend a relaxing day together.

Jason is excited to go to the Cubs game tomorrow. I'm going to drop Sarah off at the grandparents' house so I can finally see "Sex in the City". I think Jason is actually a little disappointed that I'm going without him. Let that be our little secret. :)

The rest of the weekend is up in the air which is kind of nice. I think we'll finally take in the Brookfield Farmers' Market and go on a long bike ride now that we have the bike trailer put together. Sarah has been a couple of rides and seems to do well in it. We're also getting excited for our trip to Richmond to see Kim and Cleo. Kim can hardly wait to see Sarah.

That's all for now!

We love the summer!

2008-07-09T17:29:00.001-07:00

Cooling off on the 4th of July

Playing with the balls

Uncle Bob, cousin Sean, Aunt Meghan, and Sarah

It's been a crazy few weeks

2008-06-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

I apologize ahead of time. I'm having trouble with the layout so it will be a little hard to read.

It's been a crazy few weeks for our family and once again, a long time since I've posted anything on the blog. I'll start with our nephew, Sean's birthday party on May 17th. It was a fun gathering to celebrate his first birthday. He was such a trooper since he had been up the night before with a 103 degree temperature as he was getting over his double ear infection. Since then, he's had tubes put in his ears and we're all hoping that it will help the little guy. The party was celebrated with a great meal of lasagna, salad, and bread followed by cake, presents, a trip to the park with all of the little nieces, nephews, and cousins. The guys even played some basketball. Good times.

This Sarah about to go down the slide at the park at Sean's birthday party.

After Sean's party, we started looking ahead to Kim's wedding in Jamaica and preparing for a busy Memorial Day weekend of socializing, packing, and going to the Brookfield Central H.S. parade performance on Memorial Day. My Grandpa Whitehead had seemed to be having more and more health problems and complications and was very frustrated. We got the call on Saturday morning that he had passed away in his sleep sometime the night before. He passed away the way he had always hoped. While we were sad to lose him, we knew he was in a better place and happy to be with Grandma again. We went down to Iowa on Sunday and over to Winterset, Iowa on Monday for the evening visitation and the funeral Tuesday morning. Kim flew in from Virginia so we were all able to be there. We stayed at our family friends', the Meases', while we were there. It was so nice not to be in a hotel room and to be with them. They're like my second Mom and Dad. The picture below is of Sarah riding their play horse in their basement. Sarah did great with all of the traveling, etc. She wasn't too happy during the funeral when I had to play the piano and sing and Jason played the saxophone. She's in a clingy, Mommy phase right now. My Aunt Jan and my sister helped occupy her when we were busy during the service. It was nice to see our extended family and friends and to hear all of the fun stories about Grandpa. He and his friends were quite the pranksters.

After the funeral, we drove all the way back to Milwaukee to unpack, do laundry, run errands, and re-pack for Kim's wedding in Jamaica. Mom, Dad, and Kim only had one day to do that while we had two. It was a stressful experience, but we all made it down there safe and sound and had a fabulous time. The first night was the welcome dinner so we got to meet Cleo's family and friends. It was a wonderful evening as we were right next to the water enjoying great food, music, and conversation. The picture below are of
Cleo and Kim welcoming everyone to the dinner.

Cleo, Kim, Vicky and Jerry Mease, and Jason at the welcome dinner

Below: Kelvin (Cleo's oldest son), Cleo's Uncle Charles, Brennan (Cleo's second son), Rebecca (Cleo's mom), and Cleo's Aunt Shirley

We slept in on Saturday morning which felt awesome. While we missed Sarah, we knew she was in good hands as she was staying in-between Jason's folks and his sister and family. We were relishing the opportunity to sleep in and catch up on a bit of sleep. We ordered room service and ate out on our patio overlooking the resort and the ocean. Jason went snorkeling with Cleo, his boys, and Uncle Charles. It went much better than our honeymoon snorkeling in Maui. :) While he was snorkeling, I went to Kim's room and we had a leisurely morning getting ready for the ceremony. We both had our hair done by a lovely Jamaican woman who crazily hairsprayed our hair to withstand the humidity. I was surprised when Kim asked me to do her make-up. Being the younger sister, I always looked up to Kim for make-up and hair advice. I was honored that she trusted me with that on her wedding day. The nerves started building up as we neared the ceremony time. It had been windy all day long and right when the ceremony started, there wasn't even a light breeze to be felt. We all dripped sweat throughout the ceremony, but it was still beautiful. The minister was charasmatic, yet focused the marriage on their committment to God and their love for one another. It was lovely! Once we got through the pictures on the beach and in the garden area, we moved onto the reception.

Below: Kim before the ceremony. She waited up there until the last minute to avoid the heat.

Below: Jason and I before the ceremony. He walked my Mom down the path and I walked by myself as the Matron of Honor.

Below: Kim and Cleo Battle's first dance as man and wife. They danced to the Etta James song, "At Last".

Below: Cutting the cake. Note the beautiful view in the background.

Below: Paul (Kim's former co-worker in Milwaukee and he introduced Kim and Cleo), Vicky, and Jason having a blast on the dance floor. It was very hot, but it didn't stop all of us from dancing!

Above: Brennan, Kelvin, Kim (Paul's wife), Paul, and Vicky

Below: Kim, Paul, Cleo, Kim, and Aunt Shirley

We had an fabulous night and everyone danced right up to the end. The dance ended around

9 p.m. so Jason, Kelvin, Brennan, Dad, and I got our suits on and cooled off in the pool. A fun way to end the night. On Sunday, everyone did their own thing. We eventually met Mom, Dad, Vicky, and Kim out on the beach and relaxed by the water. It was overcast the entire time we were there, but the sun still filtered through pretty strong. That night, we all met for drinks and dinner. Everyone mixed so well and had a truly enjoyable time. It was sad to see it end.

Below: Mom and Dad dancing to the local entertainer who sang and played the keyboard.

Below: Kim and I at Sunday night's dinner. Our bunched up cheeks hide our eyes when we smile.

Below: The view from our room

Below: The view from the end of the pier looking toward the resort. We stayed at Coyaba Resort on Montego Bay. It was a small, family-owned resort and we loved our stay. The food was excellent and the service was amazing.

Our flight home was uneventful. Since we got home late we didn't pick up Sarah until the next morning. I could harldy wait to see her. She had a great time while we were gone, but I think we were both glad to see each other. I had to take her straight to the pediatrician for her 18 month check-up where she measured 34 1/4 inches (95th percentile) and 26.4 pounds (85th percentile). She got some shots but all is on track. We went to school to see Jason since he was anxious to see her, as well. She was beside herself with excitement when she saw him come to the door. Too fun.

We spent the week getting back into the groove of things. We had a huge storm on Saturday night and water got into our basement. Our sump pump simply couldn't handle all of the water. We're in the process of seeing if we can save our carpet without the threat of mildew and getting estimates on a more powerful sump pump. While it was a record-setting rainfall storm, this isn't the first time we've had water when it's rained a lot. We now know that the previous owners lied on the disclosure statement when they said they didn't have water problems. A few neighbors have said otherwise. Ugh. We've kept a positive attitude. After all, it's just carpet. Many people have had sewage back up and high levels of water. We're blessed to have a roof over our heads, clothes on our back, food in our stomachs, etc. It's all relative and life is good.

If you made it to the end of this post, thanks for checking in. Let us know how you're doing when you get the chance.

2008-04-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago, Kim came home for a dress fitting and a "Going Away Brunch" held in her honor at Trocadero's on the East Side. It was great to have her home and do wedding stuff together. It was kind of a crazy weekend since the initial plan included Mom and Dad coming for the whole weekend due to Kim's festivities and the Brookfield Central "Be-bop and Barbecue" fundraising event. My Grandpa Whitehead had fallen the weekend before and broken his hip at the nursing home. He spent close to a week in the University Hospital in Iowa City before the cardiologists and orthepedic surgeons could come to a decision on whether to have surgery. They did go ahead with the surgery and it was successful. Dad planned to stay another day to see if Grandpa was still doing okay so we met in Illinois where I brought Mom back to Brookfield and Dad was to come up the following day. When Dad got home, he got a call from the hospital that Grandpa was "unresponsive". He continued to be in that condition until Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Mom felt terrible that she wasn't home to help support Dad, yet she wanted to be here for Kim. Needless to say, it was an emotional rollercoaster with Grandpa's condition, Kim being home and seeing Sarah for the last time until August, and Jason's stress of making the fundraiser a success. The pictures above are from that weekend.

Grandpa is back home at the nursing home and receiving physical therapy 5 days a week. He's still getting disoriented from time to time. We're hoping that's just the effects of the drugs. He's not wanting to do much physical therapy, either. He just wants to stay in his room and not do too much. At 88, it's hard to make that effort.

We had a pretty relaxing weekend this past weekend. Jason's parents watched Sarah overnight on Friday so Jason and I enjoyed some Sarah-free time together. I got a ton of errands done that afternoon, we went to dinner together and watched a movie. Good times.

We're really looking forward to Kim and Cleo's wedding at the end of May. It will be here before we know it. Better go. Sarah's looking like she's getting ready for lunch. Bye for now./

April 12, 2008

2008-04-13T18:24:00.001-07:00

We had a nice visit over at Jason's parents' house yesterday. Meghan and Sean traveled up from Illinois for the afternoon so the cousins had some time to play together. Grandma brought out the crayons and the play dough so they were having a great time exploring those textures. She also made a wonderful meal. Of course mealtime isn't a very relaxing experience at this point in our lives since both Sarah and Sean require more attention. :) It was still nice to sit around the table and enjoy time with the family. Ron is pictured with the new addition to their family. They adopted Oscar from the Milwaukee Animal Shelter this last week. They're anxious to get him checked out at the veterinarian's on Tuesday. He's a Yorkiepoo (sp?). Cute little guy.

I hosted book club at our house on Friday night. Sarah spent the evening over at her grandparents house and Jason had a gig, so the house was just for us ladies. We had wonderful and deep conversations about the book, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and life, in general. It's a diverse group of women who brought many points of view to the table. Even though the subject matter of the book is tragic, we found time to laugh and make the evening "light" at times.

Jason is busy getting his students ready for the Bebop and Barbecue event this coming Saturday. Mom and Dad are coming up for the event, but mostly, to see Kim who will be in town from Richmond. We have some wedding misc. to finish up like dress fittings, looking for wedding jewelry, and we have a "going away brunch" scheduled for Kim Saturday afternoon. Busy weekend ahead!

Has anyone else been reading the Oprah book club book, "A New Earth"? I've been downloading the webcasts and it's been pretty enlightening if you're open to it. The basic principle...'live in the present moment'. So many people hang onto events in the past or worry about things they can't control. Check it out if you feel so moved.

It's been a long time...

2008-04-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since my last post. I'll try to catch up on all the major events.

The band trip to California went very well. While the weather was a bit cooler than we'd all hoped for, it was a memorable trip. After we landed at LAX (some kids saw Keanu Reeves at the baggage area) we went to Venice Beach and then to Santa Monica Pier for some sightseeing and meals. It was at least 70 degrees that afternoon, so we watched the sunlight bounce of the ocean waves. Very nice. The next day, we took a long bus ride down to the San Diego Zoo (the bus driver was lost but we finally found the zoo) and saw a lot of the zoo in a short amount of time so we could leave early and beat the traffic to get to downtown LA and Hollywood for some more sightseeing. The tour guide was excellent. She took us to see the new Disney Theater and pointed out some of the arts attractions in that area. The first picture on this post is of Jason and me in front of a sculpture dedicated to Disney's wife who donated a ton of money for the theater. It's made of broken pieces of china (the blue and white kind....I don't know the name). After the downtown LA tour, we went off to Hollywood to the Chinese Theater where we saw all of the hand/footprints of the stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We also saw the entrance to the Ford Theater where the Academy Awards Ceremony is held. Some kids saw Tom Cruise going into the Chinese Theater. I didn't believe him, but the guy at the door said it was really him. One will never truly know. There are a lot of look-alikes in that area. The next day started with clinics at a local high school that was organized by Sal Lozano of the Gordon Goodwin Band the Dancing With the Stars Band. He had some guys from the Big Phat Band and other area studio players come in and do clinics with all of the kids, followed by a jazz clinic with the top jazz band. Excellent clinic. After another bus snafu, we finally arrived at Universal Studios and City Walk for the afternoon/evening. It was pretty cold but we still went on the Jurassic Park ride even at the risk of getting wet. The last day was spent at Disneyland. Both bands did a recording clinic and the jazz band played at Carnation Plaza with Sal Lozano as a guest soloist. It's always a magical day when at Disney. I laughed so hard on some of the rides and enjoyed spending time with Kathi and Sarah Campbell throughout the trip. We left for Milwaukee the next day and everyone made it back safe and sound.

While we were in California, Sarah spent the week with my folks in Iowa. They had a great time with her despite the fussiness due to cutting a molar. I did laundry and repacked when I got back from California and got down to Iowa as soon as I could since I missed her terribly. It felt so good to hug and kiss her when I saw her. I spent the rest of the week in Iowa where I met my girlfriend, Serena and her daughter, Michaela for lunch at the restaurant that Kenny (Serena's husband) opened on the west side of Iowa City this past December. He owns the Mid-Town Restaurant on the east side and decided to go in with some partners to open the Mid-Town 2. So if you're ever in Iowa City, check it out. Nice family restaurants with home-made mashed potatoes. :) It was great to see them. Kim, Cleo, and Jason made it down to my parents' house for Easter and to celebrate Kim and Cleo's upcoming marriage with my Grandpa Whitehead, my Great Aunt Gladys, and my Aunt Jan and Uncle Wayne. It was good family bonding time with absolutely no shortage of food. My mom completely outdid herself! Mom and Dad had huge news for us after the celebration for Kim and Cleo subsided. Dad is retiring! Yeah!!! They're very excited for this new chapter of their lives to begin and we're looking forward to seeing them more often. I already told Dad I have a long list of projects he could help with around our house. HA!!!

Mom rode back to Wisconsin with us to help Kim get ready for the big move to Richmond. We helped pack her kitchen and worked on some wedding planning. The big job came with move out day. My girlfriend, Andrea, watched Sarah all day while we went down to help pack and clean. Bless her!! I was worried about how Sarah would behave since she's reached the tantrum phase. I was thankful to hear that she had a 2 1/2 hour nap and did just fine with Andrea. Whew. Anyway, after we got the truck loaded and house cleaned, we scurried back to the house to clean up and go out for Mexican and Kim's favorite restaurant, La Perla. I'm sure it wasn't a very relaxing dinner for Kim since Sarah was pretty fussy and I looked stressed out. The margaritas tasted great, nonetheless. We celebrated Mom's birthday with a piece of flan which Sarah attempted to devour. It was hilarious! She wouldn't let Mom hold the spoon and she kept shoveling the flan into her mouth. She would've eaten the entire piece had I not grabbed her and handed her off to Jason to distract her in the other room. Too funny. The picture of Kim kissing Sarah and the picture of Kim and Cleo, and Sarah eating the flan are from our La Perla night. The pictures above those are of Easter and the stay at Mom and Dad's. (The last picture was taken by Andrea who has taken so many of our professional pictures. It's nice to have a friend who uses your daughter as a guinea pig to test out her new orange background. Too fun.) Kim and Cleo came back to our house for their last night in Wisconsin before the long drive to Richmond. We all put on a brave face and didn't get too emotional since we'll be seeing Kim the weekend of April 17th for her dress fitting and brunch shower,etc. I'm sure the tears will flow heavily when she leaves that weekend since she won't see Sarah until sometime this summer since Sarah isn't coming to Jamaica with us for the wedding. The fact that Kim has moved is starting to gradually sink in. It's now becoming real. I'm so happy to hear that her first two days of work have gone well, that her cat survived the traumatic trip, and that Cleo's family welcomed them when they arrived. Of course we'll continue to talk every day. That's the kind of close relationship we have and no amount of distance will ever change that.
We had a nice dinner out with Jason's sister, Meghan and husband, Bob on Saturday night. We met at the Texas Road House in Kenosha. Great hot rolls with cinnamon butter. We met to celebrate Meghan and Bob's February b-days. It was great to be out without the kids so that we could enjoy good conversation and laughs without interruptions. Meghan was a good sport to come out since she was still getting over being sick. She was also a good sport to get up on that saddle as the people around us all wished her happy birthday. Sorry about that by the way, Meghan. I really didn't know they made people get up on a saddle. :) Anyway, good times.

I started my babysititing job today. I'm watching a 3 month old named, Jacob, two days a week until the end of the school year. Jacob was adopted by friends of ours from our small group at church. Silvia had to return to her teaching position after being on adoption leave so she needed help on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Jacob was lovely. It's Sarah that may be a problem for awhile. She wanted to sit in the bouncy seat, his swing, take his socks and bib off. Of course she wanted to be held when I was holding him. She never wants to be held...she always wants to be on the go. This will be good for her since she's been the center of attention up until now. We're hoping to try for baby #2 soon so this will be good training for her. Wish me luck. :)

I'm sure there's more to tell you, but I need to hang it up for tonight. Keep in touch!

The injury

2008-03-02T19:46:00.000-08:00

An update for our loyal blog readers.

Jason beat the high school kid that bet that he could beat Jason at a game of one-on-one basketball. If Jason would've lost the game, he would've been made to shave his beard and wear a Kenny G shirt to school. It was a close game, but Jason won. Some kids lifted him up and carried him off the court while the crowd was cheering. Evidently, it was a glorious moment. It would've been nice if he would've ended it on a high note. Instead, he decided to keep playing in a two-on-two tournament. He and another kid went up for a loose ball and Jason came down and twisted his ankle. He spent some time (early in the morning) in the emergency room with our friend and band parent/chaperone, Bruce Campbell, to get an x-ray. I didn't know any of this had happened until he comes walking in the house on crutches. Thank God he didn't break it since we're leaving for the band trip to California soon.

I've been the dutiful wife. Getting him his meals and giving him his medicine and ice packs. The swelling has started to go down but he's still in some pain. Poor guy.

On another note, we just got done watching the movie, "Gone, Baby Gone" with Casey Affleck. Very well done. It made us want to wake Sarah up just so we could hold her.

First hair cut

2008-02-29T20:28:00.001-08:00

Sarah got her first hair cut today. The top picture is the "before picture". The salon had quite the set-up. It wasn't fancy, but they had all sorts of toys, Dora on the t.v. in front of her, and stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling. She did really well and didn't want to stop playing with the toys when she was finished. I went ahead and had the lady give her bangs since her hair is pretty whispy in the front and always hangs down over her eyes unless I pulled it back. As you can see in the last picture, they put her hair up in a little barrette and put a boa around her. Most of you know that I'm hoping my daughter doesn't become one of those "princess-obsessed" little girls, but it was pretty adorable.

We went to Jason's concert tonight. It was the first concert she's attended and she made it through until the last piece. We went off to the side and walked up and down the hallway while the jazz band finished up their set. It was a late night, but she seemed to enjoy the music and the crowd. Jason said something about her in the middle of the concert so everyone turned to look at her. When she saw them turn around she waved to everyone right on cue. What a performer.

After the concert was over, kids helped clean up so they could get on with their overnight band lock-in. Jason had a bet with one of his students over winning a game of one-on-one basketball. If he loses, he has to shave his beard and wear a Brewers or a Packers hat for a day. I'm not sure Jason realizes he's 35 years old. I'm sure he'll be hurting a little tomorrow as he tries to catch up on some sleep.

Speaking of sleep, I better get some.

3 generations on the Whitehead side

2008-02-18T12:21:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of 3 generations of Whitehead girls at about the same age. The first one is my Grandma, Isabelle Whitehead. The second one is of me and the third is Sarah. It's crazy how we all look so much alike. I swear that Sarah and my grandma have the same teeth and smile. Dad, Sarah, and I looked alike as newborns, as well.

February 17th

2008-02-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

I just have to say that I'm incredibly sick of this weather! Enough already! We had flooded areas today since it was raining on top of melting snow. The worst part is that some of this flooding actually seeped into our basement on the "finished side". Jason noticed it when working at the computer and his socks were getting wet. Ugh!! There was too much snow up against the house from our driveway and it seeped down into the basement. Many wet towels later, it's still damp. We have fans and the dehumidfier going. Jason is going to borrow a machine from school tomorrow that sucks up the water and has a cleaning solution that will help. The water is clear so there's no staining, I just worry about mold.

We had a nice day yesterday as we celebrated Meghan and Bob's birthdays at Jason's parents' house. We had a great time watching Sean and Sarah play together. Sean is crawling now and is quite the chatty little guy. Sarah looks pretty funny in the above pictures since she was so tired. We had to try to bribe her with a book and toys to get her to sit still on Grandpa's lap since she had hit that fussy time of night. The time flew by, but we had a fun time with the family.

We went to this seminar at church this afternoon called, "Walk Thru the Old Testament". The guy really got you involved in learning the books and major events of the Old Testament. He had us doing motions in order to help memorize the order of events. We left before it was over since Sarah had been in the nursery for 3 hours and was ready to get home. It was a worthwhile seminar and I'm glad we made the time for it.

I have to vote in the primary here on Tuesday and I'm still uncertain who I will vote for. Just an aside....I'm reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns" right now. As screwed up as I feel our country and government can be, I'm thankful we live here. I can't imagine living in a country where women have little or no opportunity. I'm thankful to have the choice to stay home with my child instead of it being my only choice. That being said, I am really looking forward to a change in the oval office!

Snow Day

2008-02-06T17:35:00.001-08:00

Today was a snow day so it was nice to have Jason home. He took the snowblower to the driveway 3 times already and may do another time before heading to bed. We are soooooo sick of snow! I guess it makes us appreciate the warmer weather and change of seasons, right?

I don't have a lot to report since my last post. I just thought these pictures were awfully cute and wanted to share them. I think she was pretty proud to show Aunt Kim where her belly button was located. The other picture was taken by Jason, of course. He's trying to instill the love for the Cubs early on. We made an agreement when Sarah was born that he could have Sarah cheer for the Cubs instead of the Brewers. In return, she will cheer for the Packers over the Bears. It's hard to keep a hat on her for more than a couple of seconds so we were glad to get this picture today. I think I need to cave in and schedule a haircut for her.

Off to the treadmill. (ugh!)

2008-02-03T17:22:00.000-08:00

It's Superbowl Sunday and I don't really have a desire to watch the game so I'll write a quick post since it's been awhile. First of all, I've had trouble uploading video, so I'll try to figure that out and get some more video on the blog. We've captured some fun stuff lately.

We had a really nice weekend since my parents were here visiting to celebrate my sister's birthday. They got here Friday night. We woke Sarah up so she could play with them. You should've seen her excitement when she saw them. She didn't really know what to do with herself. I think they worry that she'll forget them since we don't get to see them very often. After her initial reaction in seeing them Friday, they have absolutely nothing to worry about. Kim came out Saturday and we had a nice day hanging out with the family. Sarah loves being the center of attention and was constantly wanting Grandpa to follow her around the house and play. After Sarah went to bed, we watched the movie, "Licensed to Wed" with Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, and the tall guy from "The Office". It was a good renter. We enjoyed it. Mom and Dad left after a late breakfast this morning only to run into terrible weather once they hit Iowa. We had no idea they were struggling to get home until I called and found out they had just walked in the door of their house and were so thankful to be there. We're soaking up the family time as Kim will be moving out to Richmond by May and we treasure every minute with her.

My grandfather isn't doing so well right now. He's in a nursing home in Mom and Dad's town so it's great that they're nearby to watch over his care. The doctors know he will eventually have heart failure so some of these issues he's having could be all leading up to that. I wish I could snap my fingers and make him feel better. He's pretty miserable and he's getting more and more confused. Sarah and I are going down in a couple of weeks to spend some time with him and we'll go down for Easter, too.

Jason is in full-swing band director mode right now. His head is constantly swimming with band trip details, concert details, fundraising details, jazz trip to New Trier details, etc., etc. He handles it all very well but I can tell when he's "gone away" in his head thinking about all of that stuff. I guess it keeps him out of trouble and all of those experiences are so rewarding for the kids and for him. I'm looking forward to going on the band trip in March even though I'll be away from Sarah for over a week since we'll probably have her stay with my folks in Iowa. I know she'll be just fine....I'll just miss her. :)

I just agreed to be on the nomination committee for church council. It's good for me to take risks since it's something I'm definitely not comfortable with. I'm not one that likes to call people and ask them to volunteer their time. It will help me grow so I'll get over my insecurities. I figure since we're not able to give a lot more money at this time since I'm staying home, I can give of my time to the church.

Sarah turned 14 months last week and is keeping us on the go. She's playing a lot with her blocks, riding on her little bus around the house, walking a lot, always wanting to eat, and still not drinking as much milk as I'd like her to. She'll drink milk out of a bottle, but not the same amount out of a sippy cup. She'll drink water or juice, but not the milk. Ugh! She'll get it eventually. We started a new music class last week. The class isn't big, but I think she'll have a lot of fun with the instructor. The other moms and toddlers seem very nice, too. I'm really getting ready for it to warm up since I feel like both Sarah and I are getting cabin fever. I try to get out during the day to break up the day and to get Sarah around other kids and people. It would be real easy to just be lazy and stay home. I think I'd go crazy. I did get to work with some former students at Central M.S. in Waukesha the other day. I volunteered to help out the band director since I know she gets swamped this time of year. I hadn't taught for 1 1/2 years so it felt good to dust off the teaching chops. I'd like to keep doing some of those things to keep my resume' updated when I'm ready to go back to work.

Better go. I think Jason needs the computer. Bye for now.

Sat., Jan. 12th

2008-01-12T19:34:00.000-08:00

We had a great time a week ago with a post-Christmas gathering with Jason's side of the family at Aunt Ellen and Uncle Dick's house. Dick took some great pictures of the cousins, Sarah, Sean, and Gabriel (Jason and Meghan's cousin, Steve's son). It's fun to see the kids start to notice each other more and interact. Jason also had a fun time putting on a puppet show for Gabe who was a captive audience.

Not much else is new our way. Jason is working hard to get all the details lined up for the band trip to California in March. He's arranged some clinics with the members of the Gordon Goodwin Big Band which I'm sure will be amazing. If you've never heard the band before, check them out at http://www.gordongoodwin.com/. The guys in the band are major studio players and are great clinicians. Anyway, it will be exciting for the students. I'm excited to go along and see it all take place.

Kim and I went wedding dress shopping for the first time. We have another stop or two to make this week. It's exciting to be a part of this time in her life. She's under a bit of stress with the wedding, the eventual move to Virginia, and finding a job, etc. She seems to be handling it all very well. All the details for the Jamaica wedding are coming together and will be a blast. How romantic...married by an ocean view. Of course, I'm still in denial about her moving. Any time I really think about it, I want to cry. While I'm sooooo happy for her that she's marrying the man she loves and moving forward, I'm going to miss her terribly. She and Sarah are quite attached to one another, as well. You should see Sarah light up and barely be able to contain herself when Kim walks in the house. Luckily, cell phones and computer webcams will keep the connection going and we'll always look forward to the next visit. Now I'm crying. See...I should just keep repressing it until it's actually here. :)

I had a lovely outing with my girlfriend, Susan, today. We met for lunch at Panera and then went to see a "chick flick", "P.S. I Love You". I enjoyed it, but I'm a sap. I'm always a sucker for a movie like that. It was great to see Susan and get caught up on one another's lives.

Jason and I just watched the movie, "Running With Scissors". Very messed up. I can't believe it was a true story. I didn't even recognize Joseph Feinnes (sp?) as one of the characters.

Well...I think I'll head upstairs and either read one of my many books on raising toddlers (I need all the help I can get) or escape into a Nicholas Sparks book.

Bye for now.

2008-01-04T21:05:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is at 11 p.m. on Friday night. I'm having trouble sleeping due to an annoying cough so I came down to the basement to sleep. Since I couldn't sleep, I decided to post a quick entry.

You can see in the picture above that Sarah likes to sit in Sammy's bed once and awhile. Should I be worried? Grandma Whitehead especially likes it when she lays down in it. (Ha!) Then there's poor Sammy. I caught her sleeping on the stuffed animals and had to take the picture. She's definitely realized she's not "numero uno" anymore since Sarah came into our lives. She's pretty tolerant of Sarah. We feel bad that we don't get out on as many walks or play with her as often. I haven't included her in many pictures on the blog so I thought I'd put this picture in. She's so cute...especially when she's sleeping!

Jason had a little scare this morning at 4:15 a.m. He woke up with a cramp in his chest and he was sure his lung had collapsed again. The wheels started turning in our heads on how we'd get to the hospital, arrange care for Sarah, etc. Instead of going to the emergency room right away, Jason got in the shower in case he'd be at the hospital for awhile. He felt better afterwards so he decided to wait until the urgent care clinic opened. After they took an x-ray, they determined he didn't have a collapsed lung or pneumonia. They did see some inflammation on the lung. He's been nursing a cough since Christmas so they put him on an antibiotic. We were very thankful to know it wasn't a collapsed lung since they may have had to do more extensive surgery.

So I've pretty much been up since 4:15 a.m. What am I still doing up?!!! This darn cough. I better try to get to sleep since Sarah's internal alarm is unforgiving.

Nephew at Christmas

2008-01-01T19:35:00.001-08:00

Spaghetti Time

2008-01-01T11:17:00.000-08:00

Sarah was having fun feeding herself spaghetti last night. We also got a good photo of her reading her book with Sammy in the chair. She does love her books.

Christmas Time

2007-12-31T18:00:00.001-08:00

We had an eventful Christmas this year. We (Jason, Sarah, and Kim) went down to Iowa the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with my grandpa. My aunt and uncle were able to join us, as well. The weather was terrible, but we enjoyed the cozy hospitality Mom and Dad always show. We played some dominoes and ate a lot of great food.

Sarah, Jason, and I traveled back on Sunday in pretty bad weather conditions. I think we hit it at the right time since those that traveled before us weren't so lucky. We must've seen 50 cars/semis off the road between Mom and Dad's and the Mississippi River on I-80. Needless to say, we were very thankful to get home. We spent Christmas Eve with Jason's family. Meghan, Bob, and Sean were up and Ann and Ron hosted a lovely dinner. Their house was decorated so nicely and it was a wonderful night with family. It was fun to see Sarah and Sean together. I'm holding Sean in the video. Try and catch his dimples as you watch. He's showing more and more personality and makes us smile.We went to Christmas Eve service where Sarah made me work very hard to keep her entertained. It was much different this year compared to last Christmas where she slept on Aunt Kim's chest during the entire church service. Mom, Dad, and Kim all traveled to Wisconsin together on Christmas day. We had another enjoyable day with family. Sarah was spoiled rotten by both sets of grandparents and her aunts and uncles. This girl has so many toys. You can see her playing with her new kitchen set in one of the pictures above.

Mom and Dad watched Sarah for a couple of days while Jason and I went to the Fox Hills Resort in Mishicot,WI. Jason won a free stay there for the music teacher of the year award awhile back. We both got 1-hour massages and did a lot of relaxing. It was a nice getaway but we were anxious to get home to see Sarah. She had a lot of fun spending time with my folks. It's nice they had the opportunity to spend that one-on-one time with her. Cleo got into town the day we returned from the resort, so we had a nice dinner at the house and did some more family bonding with our brother-in-law to be. Plans are in full-force for the Jamaica wedding.

Since then, we've been to dinner at the Campbell house, trying to get over colds and working to catch up on some projects around the house. Jason had a New Year's gig, so I watched a movie after Sarah went to sleep. A pretty low-key night. Jason doesn't go back to school until Thursday. It's been wonderful having him around more and to watch him play with Sarah. She'll really miss him when he goes back to school.

As we head into 2008 I'm in awe of how lucky we truly are. I think of those folks that are struggling to get by, sick, serving in military away from family, or unhappy people, in general, and feel grateful for all the blessings we have. We have food on the table, a roof over our heads, running water, etc., etc. On top of those basic needs, we have our faith, love of family and friends, and joy in our life. Now that's not to say our life is perfect every day...I think anyone would be lying if they didn't admit that. Nonetheless, we have so much and nothing to complain about.

I pray that 2008 brings you good health, compassion for others, love and joy! Don't forget to laugh and find humor in yourself. Life is just too short!

Sarah Walking

2007-12-16T19:39:00.000-08:00

While she's had a couple steps followed by a fall to the rear here and there, we finally captured her walking across the living room on video last night. Since then, she's been trying to walk more often. Watch out world, here she comes! You can hear in the video that I was just a little excited. Ha! :)

December 13

2007-12-13T13:37:00.001-08:00

Sarah is busy playing with some of her birthday toys so I thought I'd write a quick post.

I still can't believe she's one already. I marvel at how she changes each day and is interested in every new object or sight. She has her strong opinions about food and not liking to sit still for her diaper change, but otherwise, she's a pretty agreeable child.

I love that she's patting us on the back when giving hugs and that she rubs her forehead back and forth when giving "eskimo kisses" (I know...probably not politically correct, right?). I also love that she just wants to turn the pages of the books instead of letting us read what's on the page. I love how she pats her hand on the chair to signal Sammy (our dog) to come up and sit by us as we cuddle and read. I love how she waves to everyone she sees and seems to be a "people person". I love how peaceful she looks as she sleeps in her crib. I love her giggle. Basically, I love everything about her...even when the days are long and I haven't had a break. I've also realized how I respect working moms who are balancing so many balls in the air at once. Although, I've also realized how important it is for stay-at-home moms to have something in their life that's just their own. I'm working on that. I'm lucky to have a couple of play groups, a music class, and library group to get us out of the house around other people.

Jason has kept busy getting ready for upcoming concerts. He has the Sacred Music Concert this Sunday and his regular band concert on Monday night. He's playing with the Manhattan Transfer vocal jazz group tonight at Potowotomi Casino. He continues to play in the All Star Superband big band on Thursday night's at Long Wong's in Milwaukee. Those performing opportunities keep him involved with his passion for playing his horn. His biggest playing highlight this year was playing with Josh Groban. He played a concert here in Milwaukee and one in Green Bay. He said Josh Groban is the "real deal", a true musician, and nice guy. Jason's also attending the Midwest Clinic in Chicago this year. He had to miss it last year since Sarah was a newborn. I have to say I'm a bit jealous since I love that convention, as well. It's always good to go and refuel with some top-notch performances and get ideas from fellow directors.

I'm putting my name into the Elmbrook District to teach some private lessons after the new year. It won't hurt to have some extra cash and it will keep my "foot in the door", so to speak.

Despite the snowstorm, we had a fun 1st birthday celebration for Sarah. Meghan, Bob, and Sean couldn't make it due to the weather, but they came up this past weekend for an afternoon. It was great to see them. Sean is really starting to show more personality by jabbering and making some fun facial expression. You could tell he was trying to talk to Sarah. It was the first time they really took interest in one another. It will be so much fun to watch them grow up together.

Kim and Cleo came by while we were hanging out with the Gillete side of the family last Saturday. They're busy making plans for their Jamaican wedding on May 31st. We haven't decided for sure whether or not Sarah is coming along. I did pick up a passport application for her today while I was at the post office. :)

I better go start my Christmas cards. That's enough rambling for now.

Sarah with Santa

2007-12-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

We went to visit Santa Claus today. She looked at him very inquisitively and just wasn't too sure what to think of him as you can see.

2007-12-05T11:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a video from Thanksgiving weekend when Sarah's Great-Grandpa Whitehead gave her the TMX Elmo for her birthday. Aunt Kim can be heard scolding our dog, Sammy, who was having "issues" with Elmo.

Sarah's 1st BirthdayCake

2007-12-04T09:18:00.001-08:00

Sarah eating her first birthday cake

Sarah's Halloween Sing-Along

2007-11-10T18:37:00.001-08:00

I think I just figured out how to post video on the blog. This video is from the Halloween Sing-Along at the Brookfield library. Now that I've figured out the uploading and posting steps, I'll try to post video more often.

Jason finishes the musical tonight. Woo-hoo. I'd like to say we "get him back" now, but those with band director backgrounds know that isn't the case. He's performing with the Waukesha Area Symphonic Band next week Tuesday and rehearses with them on Monday. He's playing a piece written by our high school band director, Rick Kirby,to memorialize Rick's former student, Brandon Atherton. Brandon was the student teacher killed on the Chippewa Falls H.S. Marching Band bus a couple of years ago. He was a saxophone player so Rick asked Jason to play the saxophone solo.

Parent teacher conferences and gigs follow the rest of the week. I really have respect for single parents who also have to work full-time. Our busy weeks come and go, but single parents don't get a break. We're looking forward to Thanksgiving break to head down to Iowa for some quality family time.

Sarah has had a somewhat fussy week. She's discovered a high-pitch scream/whine that she uses when she's happy, curious, mad, frustrated....almost all of the time. I'm not sure if it's teething, voice exploration, or if she was missing Jason. Whatever it was, she was quite the "little squirt". She's normally a pretty agreeable child, but the determined toddler has definitely emerged.

If you all could say a prayer for Mark and Beth (friends of friends) who found out their 20-week old son had no kidneys or bladder. They induced labor and he had already passed away before the delivery. They got to hold him and spend some time with him. Please pray that they are surrounded in comfort and peace as they grieve their loss. It seems I've already known too many people that have had this specific heartache.

It makes you want to hug your loved ones even tighter.

My sister is engaged!

2007-11-04T17:30:00.000-08:00

We received very exciting news Wednesday evening that my sister and her boyfriend, Cleo, were engaged. His surprise, romantic proposal began by picking her up outside her office building in a limo, holding a dozen red roses. He had the limo take them to the art museum where they first met at a convention social event when he was in town from Richmond, VA. He got down on his knee and asked her to be his wife. (Awwwwwww) Champagne was waiting for them in the limo as they called to tell their friends and family. Kim thought he was coming into town on Friday, but he totally caught her off-guard by showing up on Wednesday. It was perfect since she prefers to know what's going on, and she had no idea. We were able to toast the happy couple Friday night when they came over for dinner.

They plan to have a destination wedding to Jamaica and are now starting to make those plans. We're very happy for them and look forward to being a part their lives for years to come. This does mean Kim will be moving to Richmond sometime in the near future. I haven't started dealing with that, yet, since we will all miss her terribly. Knowing that she's happy and starting her life with the man she loves will make that move bearable. Her ring is absolutely beautiful and I know she'll be a gorgeous bride. Congratulations Kim and Cleo! We love you!

Halloween

2007-11-04T17:04:00.001-08:00

Halloween was a fun event for us this year. We took Sarah to a local pumpkin patch. She was a bit tired so she didn't get too excited. It was still fun to stand her up next to the big pumpkins and watch her take it all in. I dressed her up as a pumpkin for a library sing-along and to answer the doors for trick-or-treaters. She was a trooper and didn't seem to mind the costume and picture-taking. She's also had fun playing in the bazillion leaves we have in our yard. Jason is busy rehearsing for the musical which culminates with performances this coming weekend. He also got new glasses which gives him a "hipper" look. He got the thumbs up from his students who tend to be his fashion critics. I'll try to get a picture of him and post it on the blog.

Sarah's 11 months old today

2007-10-28T18:57:00.001-07:00

Sarah is 11 months old today. I can hardly believe she's almost one already! Since our last post, Sarah and I traveled to Iowa and spent some quality time with Mom and Dad. They eat up every moment they can spend with her and she loves being with them. We missed having Jason along, but it was still a good visit. I'll never forget the laugh-fest between Sarah and my grandpa. He was over for lunch and Sarah started doing her famous giggle (it's pretty unique...it has a chainsaw effect). She would laugh and he'd laugh back at her. He'd start eating his meal, but she still wanted his attention so she's laugh and look right at him until he turned back and laughed again. It went on for quite a long time and it was a "pure joy" experience for all of us.

We left Mom and Dad's early last Sunday morning to drive to Illinois to attend our nephew, Sean's baptism. He's the one in the exersaucer up above. He was an angel at his baptism and was quite mesmerized with the baptism font since it was part of a waterfall-like structure. Meghan had her wedding dress made into a baptism gown so it was very fancy and beautiful. Bob has a big family and Sarah loved being around all of the activity when everyone went back to Bob and Meghan's for food and cake. She literally fell asleep once Jason put the van in drive as we left their house to return home. Good times.

We went to a pumpkin patch today but Sarah wasn't too interested. She liked the pumpkins, but I think she was a bit tired. We were going to go to the zoo after her afternoon nap but she ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap. Jason was pretty disappointed but he's slowly but surely getting over it. :) Sarah and I are going to the library tomorrow for a costume party/sing-along/costume parade. We may meet he friends, Maya and Drew Edmond up there, too.

Laundry is calling me so I better quit for tonight. Adios!

October 15

2007-10-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

Here are some of Sarah's 10 month pictures (what were supposed to be her 9 month pictures). The first two pictures capture her love of pointing. She climbed up the stairs for the first time today. She didn't seem to notice the accomplishment since her main focus was getting to one of our phones that happened to be on one of the stairs.

There's not too much else to report today. We had a nice weekend since Jason didn't have to rehearse for the musical. He got a lot of yard work done and we had some quality family time together. I'll head to Iowa this week to see my parents and meet Jason at our newphew's baptism in Illinois. I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to post next time.

Until then, remember to live simply so others may simply live.

End of July through mid-October

2007-10-08T20:03:00.000-07:00

Well...once again, I've gone way too long in between posts. No excuses except that Sarah is keeping me on the run and I don't take the time. I was also having trouble uploading pictures and finally figured it out a couple of days ago. I think I'll just give the highlights month by month since my last post.

End of July

We visited Iowa a second time and started out the trip with a reunion of the "Centerville Music Gang, (plus Bette and David :)), in Iowa City. The Pringle Family hosted a lovely lunch at their house and we did our fair share of eating. We all drove to the Coralville Reservoir to go boating on the Pringle boat, play volleyball, and do some more eating. The picture of Sarah in a life jacket was on Pringles' boat. She was so uncomfortable in the life jacket. We were all relieved when she fell asleep. :) It was great to see everyone and we're always thankful that we're able to get together and catch up on one another's lives. The visit is never short on laughs. We stayed with Mom and Dad and had some more quality time with them in Williamsburg. We traveled up to Manchester, IA to visit with my cousin, Scott and his family since they were up from Houston visiting my aunt and uncle. Again, more great food. We also did some swimming in the neighbor's beautiful indoor pool. It was wonderful to see them and share some family time. The next day my whole family traveled down to Creston, IA for the Eischen reunion (my Grandma Whitehead's side). It was the last time we stayed in Grandpa and Grandpa's house and we shared a lot of "Grandma memories" so it was definitely a sentimental weekend.

August
When August arrived, Jason's wheels start turning fast as he prepared for marching band camp and the upcoming school year. We had a combined birthday party for he and his dad so Meghan, Bob, and Sean came up for the day. My mother-in-law made one of her special homemade cakes and we enjoyed the visit. I surprised Jason with a surprise 35th birthday party shortly after his birthday. The cake was adorable (pictured above) since I had a picture of Jason and Sarah scanned into the frosting. It was a fun night shared with really good friends, food, and laughs. We laughed especially hard when we pulled out the videotape of Jason's hypnosis at Project Graduation in 1990. It was hilarious!

We had another family birthday celebration down in Illinois for Jason's cousin's son, Gabe who turned one. It was fun to see Gabe, Sarah, and Sean all in one place. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay too long since we had a previously scheduled get-together with our church small group. It was a busy day of driving, but definitely well worth it!

Our friends, Kim and Paul Budde, welcomed their new baby boy, Daniel Paul, into the world in August, as well. It's boy #4 and he's just as adorable as the other 3! I admire Kim and Paul so much that they're able to keep all the balls in the air with Kim's demanding administrative position and Paul's teaching schedule (and fishing :) plus raising 4 wonderful boys. I tried cutting and pasting a picture from Paul's new website, but it didn't work. Congratulations to the Budde family!

Jason's marching band camp went very well. It's always interesting to see what personality the band takes on once the graduating seniors leave. He's lucky to have kids "step up to the plate" and dive right in. We went down to Iowa....again...:)...over Labor Day weekend. We were able to get together with my cousin, Val and her family who live in the D.C. area. Their daughter, Aida,like the opera (pictured above with Sarah, Kim, and Val), was born a couple weeks after Sarah so it was wonderful to get them together for the first time and see them interact. Of course, it was wonderful to see Val, Garry, Cassidy, and Aunt Jan and Uncle Wayne, too. It was a great visit and we're always so appreciative of the time we can spend with them.

September
School got off to a good start for Jason after returning from Iowa. Being home full-time with Sarah has been a gift. I'm not regretting the decision at all. I think staying home last year for medical and child rearing leave made it easier this year. We're very fortunate to have the means to make it work.

More babies entered the world in September. Our good friends, Andrea and Rich Warp, welcomed their son, Bennett Matthew, into the world. There's a picture of Bennett, Sarah, and I up above. Andrea and I (and are families) are participating in the Young Families group at church every 3rd Sunday and the Mom's bible study on Thursdays. We're looking forward to watching the two grow up together. She and Rich have photographed Sarah for her newborn, 6 month, and 10 month (it was supposed to 9 month pictures, but I spaced out) pictures and are wonderful photographers.

My girlfriend, Serena (she was one of my bridesmaids and dear friend that I met in Centerville for those of you who need a frame of reference) and her husband, Kenny, welcomed their daughter, Michaela Kathleen into the world in September, as well. She was actually born on her due date. How often do you hear that? Mom and baby are doing well . There's a picture of Michaela above with the plaid shirt next to her. I can't wait to meet Michaela when Sarah and I visit my folks next week.

I ran in my first 5K race for the Komen Race for the Cure on Sept. 23rd. I decided to set a goal for myself to run the 5K since I was having trouble motivating myself to work out and get back in shape. I stuck to a running schedule that brother-in-law, Bob, sent to me. I must be honest and say that I didn't enjoy the training process, but appreciated how much stronger I felt when I completed my runs. My good friend, Leah Wanner, ran with me. She normally would've sped right past me, but decided to take it easy since she was nursing a knee injury. I finished the run in just over 30 minutes. It was pretty powerful to be running with breast cancer survivors and their family and friends. It was also a fun morning for Leah and I to hang out...just the girls. She especially appreciates it since she's the mother of 1 1/2 year twins and a 4 year old boy. So now...ask me if I've run since the 5k. Nope. I've returned to my lazy self and must re-motivate. Maybe I just realized that I'm not the running type. I think I appreciate group classes more since someone is standing at the front telling me what to do and won't let me stop until the class is over.

After the 5K, Jason, Sarah, and I hopped in the van and drove down to visit Jason's sister and family. We had a nice afternoon hanging out, eating pizza, and playing with the babies. There's a picture of Bob with Sean and Sarah up above. It will be fun when the kids are older since we already have plans for camping and fun trips with the Lane and Gillette families.

My folks visited the last weekend of September. After they arrived, we went it to wake up Sarah. She reached out for my mom and dad to hold her instantly melting their hearts. I think they worry they Sarah isn't attached to them since they live hours away. Quite the contrary. She lights up in their presence and was so excited to show off for them. We had a relaxing weekend going up to the Farmer's Market and taking a stroll to the park in the wagon my dad gave us. I wish I had a picture of her first wagon ride. She loved it and was singing all the way to the park. We were also able to spend some time with my sister, Kim and her boyfriend, Cleo who happened to be in town that weekend. It was a lovely weekend all the way around and great to see Sarah interact with my parents, her Aunt Kim, and Cleo.

October
This last weekend was a busy one. We had the Homecoming chili feed and game at Brookfield Central on Friday night. On Saturday morning, we hopped in the car after Sarah ate and we took a road trip to the Twin Cities for a former student's wedding. Matt Tremel married his beautiful bride, Emily Mack at the Grand Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. It was a beautiful event and we felt blessed that we were asked to be a part of it. It also gave us the opportunity to visit college friends in the area. We stayed with the Julson family in Farmington and they watched Sarah while we were at the wedding. I think she kept them busy until she finally went to sleep. We also squeezed in a visit with Tim Hoffmann who continues to amaze us with his travel, work, and gig schedule. Doug and Sue Berg-Williams came over to Dan and Stacy's on Sunday afternoon. Great food and conversation are never lacking when we all get together. It seems like yesterday that we were at UW-Eau Claire and we love that we can just start where we left off when we get together. It was a whirlwind trip, but it was surprisingly relaxing. I think it was just nice to get away.

Sarah Update
This post is entirely too long but I guess that's what I get for waiting this long. Here's a quick synopsis of Sarah's milestones.

4 teeth, two upper, two lower
crawling fast and pulling herself to standing and moving along furniture
Says "mama" and "da-da"
Uses the sign for "more" when eating
Points at everything...it's soooooo cute. She literally starts pointingthe moment she wakes up. She's very curious.
Waves hello and good-bye
Laughs
Responds to music by wiggling when she hears it
Loves to shake rattles, homemade shakers, tambourines
Gives hugs to stuffed animals and humans
Loves books...as evidenced in the above picture
Loves to turn the pages of books and pull up flaps in the books
Eating well
Almost weaned (Mom is having a harder time than she)
Brings us joy each and every day

We're very lucky to have Jason's folks nearby to babysit off and on and to spend time with Sarah. They've taught her to wiggle her finger on her lips and make sounds, so they're quite proud. :) The fact that they're close by and home sometimes during the day, allows me to get out on my own for a few hours. Both Ron and Ann and Kim have become our main babysitters. Kathi and Bekah Campbell also helped me out a couple of weeks ago so I could go to my twice rescheduled hair appointment. I think we've adopted the Campbell Family as our relatives since we consider them family, too. It's just nice to know we can leave her in such caring hands.

Okay....I'm going to put this post to rest. Feel free to reply to the post and let me know how you're doing. I know I've said it before, but I'll truly try to keep this updated more frequently.

Love,

Nicci

July 17th

2007-07-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

Cousin Sean Robert Lane

Well, I haven't posted anything since April. That's the reason for the many pictures. Since April, we've welcomed our nephew, Sean Robert Lane into the world. He's already two months old and growing fast. I believe we will see them again in August. We'll all be celebrating the first birthday of cousin Steve's son, Gabe. It will be fun to watch the cousins together in the same room.

Sarah experienced her first outdoor kiddie pool. She loves to play and splash in the water. We're also enrolled in a swim class at the YMCA which helps her get acclimated to the water. She kicks and splashes the entire time. She's also been to the zoo and reacted to seeing the big fish in the aquarium as well as the big gorillas. We've been keeping busy this summer with trips to Iowa, as well. We went down for a wedding of a former student and family friend, Jenny Pringle. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding along the lake outside Solon, IA. Mom and Dad babysat Sarah and had a blast. We stayed the week to help celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mom and Dad's town of Williamsburg, IA as well as the 4th of July. They had so much going on in that town and we kept busy going from event to event. Sarah had a good time watching parades, concerts, and seeing many new faces. It was fun to bond more with her grandparents as well as my aunt and uncle and my parents best friends, Jerry and Vicki. Sarah, Kim, and I turned around this last weekend to go down to Iowa to help pack up my grandpa's house. He decided to move into the nursing home near my folks so we helped Mom and Dad with the big job of packing up many years of accumulation. It's been a hard 6 months for Grandpa filled with lots of changes since Grandma passed away. He's been a real trooper and we're thankful that he's safe, eating better, and close to Mom and Dad. I'm glad Mom doesn't have to make the trips over to take care of him, too. With him there in Williamsburg, we'll get to spend more time with him on our visits.

As of today, Sarah is buzzing her lips a lot, eating a variety of foods, rolling and scooting everywhere, getting close to crawling, saying "M" sounds and "da-da" syllables. She loves to make noise with all of her toys and press the piano keys when Jason has her at the piano. She has to touch everything and then put it in her mouth. She keeps working on more teeth after her two bottom teeth have come up. Jason is her best friend. She doesn't like for anyone to leave her alone, but she especially fusses when he leaves the room. He's so silly with her and he makes her giggle. She'll miss him this week since he has rehearsal all day tomorrow for Festa Italiana. The festival starts Thursday and ends Sunday. He'll be starting at noon and ends at 11:30 p.m. every day. I worry about his lung after his lung collapse. (Oh yeah..his lung collapsed in June and he spent some time in the hospital after they stuck a tube in his chest and inflated it with a suction device).

Back to Sarah...she's our entertainment and our delight. We marvel at how much she changes every day. My goal is to do more play dates with other kids since she needs to have that social interaction as well as other models of different development milestones (crawling, walking, etc.). Jason and I also need to make more time for each other and "get away" for an evening here and there. We're lucky to have his folks and my sister nearby who are always ready and willing to babysit. Mom is coming up next week to spend some time with us. Dad is heading to Canada on a fishing trip so we asked her to come up and spend some quality time with us. It's fun to watch Sarah with all of her grandparents. They all light up in her presence and show so much love. She's a lucky girl.

I've decided to stay home full-time next year since I was officially laid off in Waukesha. We're going to buckle down and watch our budget more closely. We'll see what the world has in store for me career-wise in the next few years. Jason is checking into various masters programs and is thinking of starting one in the near future. He's still very passionate about teaching and continues to have rewarding experiences.

I do hope to update this more often. I'm sure I forgot some big things, but it's going to have to do for now. Feel free to let us know if you've visited the blog.

Take care!

2007-04-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

Hope you all had a great Easter. We had a wonderful spring break since Jason had the week off. It started with Meghan and Bob's baby shower in Illinois. Meghan looked great and the shower went well. They received a lot of great stuff for their baby boy...he'll be set once he decides to enter the world. After the shower, we helped unload gifts at Meghan and Bob's, hung out for a bit, and then headed for Iowa for a few days. We were glad to see my Grandpa Whitehead so he could spend some time with Sarah before heading home after the wonderful Easter dinner Mom prepared for all of us.

As always, we had a relaxing visit with my folks. They babysat the Monday after Easter while we went out to our first movie in the theatre since Sarah was born. We went to see, "Wild Hogs" with John Travolta, etc. It was a fun, non-thinking type of film. It was just nice to spend time together. I'm sure Mom and Dad enjoyed having Sarah all to themselves, too. :)

We waited an extra day to come back home since we were having snow back in Brookfield. Once we got back, we continued to have a relaxing break. Jason and Sarah really had the chance to bond and spend lots of time together. Sarah's face lights up when Jason enters the room. You can tell she has him wrapped around her finger already. She got to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa Gillette on Saturday night when Jason and I used a dinner gift certificate at the restaurant, "The Grove", near our house. Our meal was excellent and I know Ron and Ann enjoyed their time with Sarah. Kim came out Sunday for pizza and to hang for awhile. It's fun to watch her around Sarah.

Now we're in the home stretch until the end of the school year. Jason is keeping busy with conferences, concerts, lessons, and gigs. He started a band lock-in years ago that has now become tradition. He was hoping the kids would forget about it this year but they held him to it. It's a good social bonding opportunity for the band kids and they always have fun. I just have to remind Jason he's not 18 and should watch how much time he spends on the basketball court.

I've started working in the yard cleaning up sticks, etc. It's good exercise. I'd rather exercise that way instead of "formal exercise". It's a bit cool and rainy here today so we didn't make it outside. Sarah likes to sit in the stroller and watch me work in the yard. She's really trying to talk more and has rolled over a couple more times. She keeps me laughing throughout the day.

After watching the news of the Virginia Tech tragedy, I just have to be grateful for every day. You never know what the next day will bring. The details of the shooter are now coming out saying he was a loner, mentally ill, etc. Our society is becoming more and more about "me..me..me" and so many people are feeling disconnected and aren't aware. It makes you hold the ones you love and care about closer to your heart and try to make efforts to reach out to those who need help. Are we here on earth to acquire more and more "things" or are we here to help each other. I know Jason and I have talked more about volunteering. We need to act on that and just do it.

April 3rd

2007-04-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

Sarah and I had a wonderful visit to Iowa last weekend. Good friends from Centerville, Iowa City and Charles City came to my Mom and Dad's house in Williamsburg to meet Sarah. It was great catching up with all of them and to introduce Sarah. Sarah was a trooper as she was passed around all afternoon. I finally met my girlfriend Renee's twin girls, Madaline and Margaret. Too cute! She definitely has her hands full. I don't know how she balances working full-time and raising those two active bundles of joy. She's doing a great job! My girlfriend, Serena, is starting to show now that she's in her 2nd trimester. We're very excited for both Serena and Kenny as they prepare for parenthood.

It was fun being down at Mom and Dad's house. Their home is so inviting and it's easy to relax when we're there. It's so heartwarming to watch them interact with Sarah and see the unconditional love pour out of them. They'll have to work hard with future grandchildren to keep up the pace of picture-taking that they've set with Sarah. Her face is all over their house. :)

Big news for Jason! He took both jazz bands up to the Eau Claire Jazzfest and his Jazz I won and Jazz II came in second in their category. It was exhilarating for the kids as they got to perform for the night concert. They've all worked so hard and it's great to see that work recognized. The students were well-behaved and a good time was had by all. We were all glad to see each other on Monday and are looking forward to spring break to reconnect and catch up on lost family time.

Meghan's (my sister-in-law) baby shower is Saturday. It will be fun to see her open gifts and celebrate the upcoming arrival of our nephew. Her mother-in-law is providing brunch at a local restaurant and myself and Meghan's good friends, Jan and Katie, are in charge of cake, decorations, and activities, etc. After the brunch, Jason, Sarah, Sammy and I will head back to Iowa to celebrate Easter with my family. Kim will be home and my Grandpa Whitehead will be there so it will be good to spend time with him. We'll celebrate his 87th birthday as well as my mom's @#!'th birthday. :) which is actually today.

Until next week.....have a Happy Easter!

March 25th

2007-03-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

We just finished visiting with our good friends, Matt and Leah Wanner. We fixed a Mexican dinner and topped it off with carrot cake (obviously didn't fit the Mexican theme but it tasted great!). They came without their 3 1/2 year old and 10 month old twins so they got to have a little "adult time". We always enjoy our visits with them. Of course, since we're all musicians, we sit around solving the world's problems and share how we think things should be run! :)

Jason had a busy week with concerts and contests. Tuesday night, the Brookfield Central Bands had a "Hurricane Katrina Relief Concert". They premiered a piece by Rick Kirby (our former band director and talented composer) based on the events of Hurricane Katrina and its effects on the Gulf Coast. Sarah and I listened in the lobby and loved every minute. They raised close to $2000. The rest of the week was spent preparing for jazz band contests. Jason judged in Menomonee Falls on Saturday and rushed over to the Bob Kames Jazz Festival in South Milwaukee to conduct the BCHS jazz band. They won the event and took home $1000. Both jazz bands head to Eau Claire, WI next weekend for UW-Eau Claire's Jazzfest. Busy, busy, busy.

Meanwhile, Sarah and I had a pretty uneventful week. We loved getting out and going on walks the past couple of days. She likes looking around at her new surroundings and enjoys feeling the breeze on her face. She's getting close to being able to roll over and likes to stand up on her legs when in your lap. She's also starting to notice the faces of her stuffed animals and she's paying a lot more attention to Sammy (our dog). Aunt Kim came over yesterday and got lots of smiles from Sarah. We watched the movie, "Holiday" with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet. If you're a romantic comedy sucker like me, you'll eat it up.

Sarah has her 4 month appointment on Thursday. It will be interesting to see how much she weighs and how much she's grown. She'll also get her shots. Not fun. I hope all goes well so the trip down to Iowa will be "fusiness-free".

I better go spend some time with Jason. :) Take care!

Baptism Day

2007-03-19T16:50:00.000-07:00

We had a very special weekend celebrating Sarah's baptism. She was baptized Sunday at St. John's Lutheran Church in Brookfield, WI surrounded by our family and close friends. I still have to pinch myself sometimes to make sure it's real. We are so blessed to have this wonderful baby in our lives. She did really well until the water was splashed on her head. Aunt Kim (Godparent along with Jason's sister, Meghan and husband, Bob) did a great job consoling her for the rest of the ceremony. We feel extremely lucky that so many of our family members and the Edmond family were able to share in the day. We also feel very fortunate to have a such a close church family. The love for Sarah was tangible in the sanctuary.

After the baptism, we had a luncheon at our house. It was fun to connect with everyone. Sarah was passed around a lot and was a trooper since her normal routine was turned upside-down. Her next big event will be a reception my mom is hosting in Iowa so some Iowa friends can meet Sarah for the first time. We're making the trip without Jason since he'll be in Eau Claire, WI with his jazz bands for a festival. Tis the life of a high school band director.

My job was officially cut for next year in the Waukesha School District. I'm not sad for me, but sad for the district. It's on the decline due to the state's funding formula. I'm thankful for the opportunity to stay home with Sarah. Speaking of Sarah....I hear her waking up from an evening catnap.

That's all for now. I'll leave you with a quote from our pastor, Dave Meissner.."Live simply so others may simply live."

Sarah Elizabeth 3 months old

2007-03-10T18:14:00.000-08:00

Well...I tried posting a long message a month ago and it didn't go through. Now that we have a new computer, I'll try to keep this more up to date. Sarah is amazing! She's growing so fast. Right now, she's asleep in her crib. We're counting our blessings that she sleeps through the night. We'll see what daylight savings does to her internal clock. Sarah is holding her head up, cooing a lot, smiling and giggling, and using her hands more and more. She seems to favor her left hand. We're looking forward to her baptism next Sunday. Both sets of grandparents, two sets of great aunts and uncles, her Aunt Kim, Aunt Meghan and Uncle Bob and Jason's cousin and family will be there. We'll post more pictures after the momentous event.

We are in awe of her and so thankful that we are her parents. We can't imagine our lives without her. I'll sit and rock her at night and almost pinch myself to make sure it's really happening. I never knew how much my heart could love until having Sarah. Of course, I love Jason, my family and my friends. Being a parent adds a whole new dimension to your soul. Thank you again for all of those that prayed for Sarah! We are truly blessed.

Tuesday, November 14th

2006-11-14T17:40:00.000-08:00

This is my first entry on the blog. We're at 36 weeks, 6 days of our pregnancy. I had an appointment today and it looks like we'll make it to the scheduled c-section on Tues., November 28th. We've been so blessed to make it this far since we were only expecting to make it to 36 weeks. The baby is being quite cooperative. I've been keeping busy getting organized and hanging around the house as contractors have finished up our additional room in the basement. The carpet comes the day before Thanksgiving. It's going to add a lot more living space to the house. Maybe my next entry will include pictures from our newborn bundle of joy!