The kids got a haircut! If you know us, you know that we don't do that very often... They got it done the weekend before Thanksgiving, and they both love the results. Ariel's been wanting her hair to be short for a long while (since the past spring methinks), and so I finally let her get it done. She loved it so much that when we were out shopping afterwards, she kept pausing at every mirror she saw and said, "I could just look at myself all day long! I am so cute! Mom, am I beautiful?" Of course she's is and I told her so, but I think maybe her name should be Narcissus instead!

1999-2009

This year we celebrated our 10th anniversary. It was a memorable milestone. Hard to believe that it's already been here and gone. Time is progressively moving faster to say the least!

Dustan took the day off of work and we got some time to relax while the kids were at school. Then Romona came over to pick up the kids for the night. We went down to Baltimore (my first time in the city) and went to Morton's Steakhouse for dinner. Dustan had gotten a gift certificate from work for the place, and we're so glad we went! It was really a relaxed and pristine atmosphere, great food and fantastic service. We're very happy with our experience there and perhaps someday we'll make it back!

Oh, and did I mention the flowers? Not from Dustan, but I did get some from my parents, some friends at church AND I had pruned my rosebush out front, so my house was full of blooms. That always makes me happy!

Halloween & Family Time

We had a nice little get together here at our house on Halloween. Ariel dressed up as Ariel the Mermaid, Nathaniel was a pilot, and Dominic was Mario. They had a lot of fun roaming the neighbor and made out pretty well.



A few days later, I a got this pic of lounging around the house. Guess who's hiding under the blanket? Yup. Tater.

Emily & Wayne say "I do"

Emily & Wayne can now finally be referred to as the Zimmermans! Yeah! About time! TThey officially tied the knot on the 10th of October. The ceremony was held at a tiny mountain church and the reception place was at Ski Roundtop. It was a gorgeous day out and the ceremony was really amusing. The pastor kept referring to Emily as Debbie. Too funny!

The directions to the church were horrible - poor Aunt Lori missed the ceremony- and the parking left a lot to be desired.



The music was wonderful, (thankyou Uncle Tom, Aunt Susan and David!) everyone cried at the service, pictures were sweet, moods swung as usual, I got tagged with the kiddos and no food to give them... not the fun part.... all in all it turned out nice. And the best part is, now we have another nice guy in the family!

Violin Recital

I can't believe it's been so long since Ariel had her recital! But we had it on September 7th at my in-law's house. Monica had been her teacher over the summer, as an introduction the the violin, and she did great! She did not like practicing, and there were tears over the commitment some days, but she was so proud of herself and loved being able to play songs!


She was really excited about being able to perform her first recital for the family. There were a couple mistakes, but mostly from the accompaniment messing her up a bit. ; ) There was also one mistake that she caused because she was going her own pace instead of playing together with the piano. It can be a hard skill to develop in little ones, but at any rate, she was REALLY great! She loved it, even though she was quite nervous after she messed up, but everyone was encouraging her to keep going. Then of course, she got an award and some flowers and that made her smile.


But at the end of the ordeal, she decided that even though she loved playing and performing, she didn't want to put in the effort of practicing and learning new skills on it (It can be quite daunting when you're so young). Maybe next summer we'll give it another go or try out a different instrument. She's an automatic charmer when performing, that's for sure!