Enjoying Labor Day Weekend with the Volpes

Hi, it's Isa. We had a nice time over at the Volpe's house on Saturday 9/5/09. Little Gianna was under the impression that I would be remaining with them when Mommy, Daddy and Xia left. It's nice to be so loved by your God family :-)

Maryam loves to hold me:


And, as you can see, I love to be held by Maryam!


Isaac is enamored with my ears:


Vivi and Brian came over too. Vivi had a hard time telling the story of her sister making spit bubbles because I was feeling rather chatty:



And my big crazy sister had way too much fun running around with Isaac and Gianna. Apparently, in this game, if you fall, you are relegated to the couch with the armadillo puppet - oh the horror!



Hope you all had a relaxing Labor Day WEekend!

Visit from Jeanie and Hal

It's Xia again. We had a blast when Mommy's good friend Jeanie and her husband Hal came to visit from Sunday 8/30/09 to Tuesday 9/1/09. They live in Florida and were at the end of a 6 week trip where they were all over the East Coast visiting family and friends. They had done this a few years ago and stopped by when it was just Mommy and Daddy. The first thing they asked when they got here was if this was a different house? Mommy said no, it's just been kiddified! Mommy and Daddy and Grammy also visited them back in October of 2004 during their trip to Florida in Grammy's RV. What fun!

They brought me some really great gifts (I'm having a blast with the big container of foam stickers!) and I had a lot of fun playing with them while they were here. We were sad to see you guys go and hope to see you again soon!!

Here's a shot of me saying good-bye to them on Tuesday 9/1/09:

Block Party Time at St Mary's

Xia here. Mommy had the pleasure of singing with the Praise & Worship band she is in,Sound Doctrine, at this year's Block Party at our church. She got to do this last year too. All the neighbors of the church are invited for a fun cookout and activities.

It was amazing how the economy these days brought 3 times as many people out as last year. The line for food was constant for 2 solid hours.

Here's Mommy, Heather, Nate (not a regular member but will be helping out at a future event), and Tim"


Next, Brian and Fred:


Then a fan shows his appreciation by groovin' to Brian's beat:


And the party was complete by enjoying my first Nutty Buddy Ice Cream Cone!
Oooh, that's cold:


Oooh, I'm kind of messy:


oooh, I'm in HEAVEN:


See it live:



Another fun Block Party for all!

Isa is Five Months Old

Hey everyone, it's me, Isa! Yep, you heard it right - on Sunday 8/30/09 I hit the big 5 month mark. Hard to believe, isn't it?! Everything is going well. I feel healthy and strong. I'm trying to crawl, but only really manage to get my butt in the air and that's about it. I can roll from back to belly and belly to back pretty easily now too. Still only eating breast milk and formula for now; however, I am VERY interested in food and stare intently at anyone eating near me. I guess that will be coming next month. Well, back to slobbering and putting the next thing I can grab into my mouth...


PS - see how Herbie wanted to get in on the action?!

This and That from Wednesday 8/26/09

Just a mishmash of stuff from Wednesday 8/26/09:

First, Isa is getting pretty good at holding up her head! And she has the most dazzling blue eyes...


She's doing very well in the exersaucer too!





Xia's drawing has taken on a whole new level. Here's the whole Zimmerman family! Mommy on the left, Daddy on the right, Xia on Daddy's head, and Isa floating in the sky with no legs. None of us have arms, but her newest creations do. Love it!


As the sun went down on the day, a flock of birds descended on the neighborhood. They were flying from trees in our neighbor's front yard across the street to trees in our backyard. The shades were drawn and the eerie shadows of the birds going over the house was incredible. These 2 videos give you some sense of it, but too bad we didn't get the recording started when it was MANY birds going over. This was just the tail end. Enjoy...

Millersville University Theater Reunion

Hi, Xia and Isa's Mom reporting... On Saturday 8/22/09, we all went to a reunion of good friends who were involved with theater at Millersville University in the late 80s and early 90s. I was there from fall 1987 through spring 1991 and a member of CITAMARD (spells dramatics backwards and is the student-run theatre organization) and ACMO (All Campus Musical Organization). Such good memories and it's very hard to believe it was 20 years ago! A bunch of us have found each other on Facebook and Kim (Reinemuth) Barden graciously offered her home to all of us.

Stephanie Cornell and Isa:


The lovely pond at the Barden's:


The Barden's Home and awesome property:


Me with Jeff Slocum (my FIRST boyfriend - still a great guy):


You can see Michelle on the left side here and Iris (Risso) Cree as well as John Gallagher


Here is Jen (Wenrich) Richard and her daughter who ironically began her freshman year at Millersville the Monday after this gathering! Also, Jen works at the Lancaster Public Library, so we see each other pretty often professionally.


Kim and her husband Stu have 2 kids and a great play room. Xia and Isa enjoyed themselves!





And lastly, Xia LOVED the awesome tree swing:



So many wonderful memories were brought to the forefront of my thoughts from seeing everyone again. I certainly hope I don't have to wait another 20 years to see them again. And I hope to see many more of the folks who live farther away next time!

Pretty Sunset

Hi, it's me Xia. Yes, we are all still here and apologize for the break in posting. We will begin this flurry of posts with a beautiful sunset we saw on Friday 8/21/09. We were going to go to Ephrata to see one of Mommy's friend's from college, Eric, who does amazing artwork. However, there was major road construction going on and the traffic was not moving at all. Isa wasn't having it in the car seat, so we decided to just go out for dinner instead at Oregon Dairy (we had never been there before). What a cute, country style restaurant. It even had a train on a track that went around the restaurant up high near the ceiling. Pretty cool. Anyway, getting to the sunset... when we left the restaurant we saw this beautiful sunset. So nice...