Our Godbrother is Adorable

We got some cute pictures from Silas' first Christmas. Check out his adorable Christmas outfit - how dapper!

Here he is modeling the Dr. Seuss shirt we got for him:

Could you ask for a cuter Godbrother?!

Christmas Card & Video 2010

Here's our Christmas Card for 2010:

If you've never heard of a QR Code, read about it here (basically, a 2-D barcode). And if you own a smart phone, download a QR code reader here. The QR code is the funky looking image on the left side of the card and links to our video year review, which is right below...

And a video of our year in review: "2010 Zimmerman Style". (If you want to link to the actual video which can then be put into full screen mode, go here.)

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Hoping you all had a Blessed Christmas and 2010. Looking forward to see what 2011 has in store for all of us!!

Christmas Day 2010

Finally, it's here! Saturday 12/25/10 - Christmas Day. We can't believe it's our fourth one with kids!!

Of course the morning must begin with the obligatory picture on the stairs:

Show us what's in your stockings guys. Mmmmmm, Tootsie Rolls for Xia and Fruit Roll-Ups for Isa:

And look, a toy that makes a raspberry sound for Xia and bubble wrap for both of them! Who doesn't love getting bubble wrap in their stocking!



And Isa gets a light up yo-yo while Xia gets, wait for it... a Whoopie Cushion!!

Xia opens her Dora backpack WITH map!

Xia and Isa play with the flashlights from their stockings:



They also got Recorders (hmmmm, did Mommy and Daddy get ear plugs?):

Xia got her very own digital camera. We may see some of her pictures appearing on this blog soon!



And Isa got her very own keyboard:

Isa opens a manger plaque from her Godparents:

An aerial view of the present opening zone:

We all had fun playing with the Zhu Zhu pets!



Then we opened the BIG present from Santa to the whole family:



A NEW microwave (good timing Santa since the old one just died - which by the way was a Christmas gift to Mommy is December of 1998!!):



Whew, we were all pooped and getting hungry, so Mommy made some pancakes for breakfast. Then Grammy and Great Grammom came over in the early afternoon to see what Santa had brought. Unfortunately, Daddy got some kind of stomach bug and had to stay in bed the rest of the day!

So, later in the day, Mommy put the big cardboard playhouse together and we all got busy coloring it. Xia admires the house all put together and Mommy is just amazed she was able to do it without Daddy's help!

A view inside:

Xia peeks out of a window!

A view of the whole thing:

Busy coloring, LOTS to color!



We also broke open the new Play Doh set and had fun with the refrigerator and other stuff in there.

After that, we were done and very tired. It was an early night for everyone and a VERY blessed Christmas!!

Elf Yourself Christmas Countdown - It's Christmas Day!

To celebrate the last week before Christmas, we Zimmermans are going to entertain you each day with a themed elf dance. In our LAST dance, we entertain you with a Classic Elf Dance. We hope you've enjoyed our dances and enjoy our Christmas Day Dance!

Christmas Eve 2010

St. Mary's is always so beautiful for Christmas. We can hardly wait to see it each year. On Friday evening 12/24/10, it seemed even more spectacular than ever. This year the church has been restoring the murals at the front of the church and the center Assumption painting was just completed and put back in it's place this week! It looks so much brighter and there were details we had never seen before. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of it, but here's an article from our local paper that talks about it.

Here's a panoramic video sweep of the amazing decorations:



And a nice family shot in front of the altar:

And we just love the manger scene and enjoy the procession at the beginning of mass where Father Leo carries the baby in high above his head and lays him in the manger. Advent is over, the waiting is over, Jesus is here! Here are Daddy and Isa looking at the scene:

Xia joins in:

It's beautiful:

Okay girls, let's get a shot in front of the manger:



Trying to get them to pose...

That's better:

Okay Isa, we're home, you can take your coat off now (hmmmm, looks familiar: that's Xia Christmas 2008)

Hey, Isa, what's the name of the guy in red who's coming tonight? Oh, why won't she say it? It's so cute the way she says "Santa". You catch it just once here:



Hey Isa, let me get one more shot of you in that dress (Xia conked out on the way home from mass, so no more pics of her):

Hmmm, that dress looks familiar too. But here's the thing. Xia wore it at 11 months old and Isa is wearing it at almost 21 months old!

She does seem to enjoy twirling in it as she sings "Jingle Bells":



Okay, let's all get to bed so Santa can come!!

Elf Yourself Christmas Countdown - 1 Day Til Christmas

To celebrate the last week before Christmas, we Zimmermans are going to entertain you each day with a themed elf dance. In our sixth dance, we entertain you with a medley of Christmas Songs. We focused more on showcasing our vocal talents with this dance, so enjoy our 1 Day Til Christmas Singing Dance!

Grammy's Christmas Party 2010

Hi, Isa here. Grammy continued her tradition as in years past by having a wonderful family Christmas gathering at her house on Thursday evening 12/23/10.

When we arrived, Grammy and Joey met us at the door. Joey is Grammy's new little puppy and we LOVE him!

Here I am showing off my pretty dress for the evening:

And here is Xia in her pretty dress:

Here's Hans, Kathy, Grammy and Kris. Poor Kris just had some plates and screws put into her leg from a bad break that didn't heal well from the summer!

And here are Great Grammom and Grandy:

Cousin Allie and Uncle John are lookin' good:

Here's our cousin Katelyn and her new boyfriend Chris:

Next I got to spend some time rocking in Grammy's rocking chair, which was actually Great Grammom's chair first. And Great Grammom's mother made the seat cushion I'm sitting on. I had some trouble getting started with the rocking:



But then, with Great Grammom's coaching, I got going pretty good:

Here's Kate with the clock Daddy made for her; she really liked it:

Next, Xia and I opened my big cardboard playhouse from the Shirks!



Grammy handed out her presents in the coolest light up bags:



Then Daddy got an old favorite book of his, a Little Golden Book called "The Color Kittens" given back to him and he read it to me!

Xia had some fun with Kate trying to keep pieces of tissue paper up in the air...



And we ended the evening with some more quality time with Joey:

Awww, c'mon, can't we take Joey with us?

Thanks Grammy for another great party! We are so blessed to have such a loving family!

Elf Yourself Christmas Countdown - 2 Days Til Christmas

To celebrate the last week before Christmas, we Zimmermans are going to entertain you each day with a themed elf dance. In our fifth dance, we take you to the beach for a Surfin' Style Dance. It was tough staying on the boards, so enjoy our 2 Days Til Christmas Surf Style Dance!

Elf Yourself Christmas Countdown - 3 Days Til Christmas

To celebrate the last week before Christmas, we Zimmermans are going to entertain you each day with a themed elf dance. In our fourth dance, we entertain you with dancing from Mommy and Daddy's decade: an 80s Style Dance. Take a step back to neon and crazy arm movements and enjoy our 3 Days Til Christmas 80s Dance!

Elf Yourself Christmas Countdown - 4 Days Til Christmas

To celebrate the last week before Christmas, we Zimmermans are going to entertain you each day with a themed elf dance. In our third dance, we get down with a Country dance. Come into the barn to watch our smooth moves, and enjoy our 4 Days Til Christmas Country Dance!

Elf Yourself Christmas Countdown - 5 Days Til Christmas

To celebrate the last week before Christmas, we Zimmermans are going to entertain you each day with a themed elf dance. In our second dance, we entertain you with a blast from the past: a Charelston Style Dance. We worked extremely hard getting the steps down for you, so enjoy our 5 Days Til Christmas Charleston Dance!

Elf Yourself Christmas Countdown - 6 Days Til Christmas

To celebrate the last week before Christmas, we Zimmermans are going to entertain you each day with a themed elf dance. In our first dance, we have chosen to showcase our amazing hip hop abilities. It took a lot of practice to get the timing and the moves down on this, so we hope you enjoy our 6 Days Til Christmas Hip Hop Dance!

The OSM Christmas 2010 Compilation

Be sure to click on over to Daddy's Blog to see his latest creation. It's music so bad that it's good and each release gets better and better!!

Making Christmas Cookies

Isa here. On Sunday 12/19/10 we had a blast continuing our Christmas tradition of making Peanut Blossom Cookies. Xia and Mommy started the tradition in 2008, I watched last year, and this year I joined in on the fun!

Here I'm helping Mommy pour in the baking soda:

I take wiping my hands a step further and wipe my face too:

Xia helps Mommy stir in the flour:

It's a LOT of work stirring in all of that flour. Xia is asking when she's going to get to lick the spoon.

Mommy finally lets Xia lick that spoon as Mommy continues to stir and stir as you can see in this animated gif:

Yummy!

Then Xia and I both help to open all of the Hershey Kisses that will go in the center of the cookies. Xia was making sure I put these on the plate and not in my mouth as we opened them all. Mommy was amazed that we were both fine just eating one!



But the best part was each of us got to eat one warm cookie out of the oven. Mmmmmmmm....

Time to Decorate the Christmas Tree

As in years past, on Sunday 11/28/10, we put up and decorated the Christmas tree.

Xia decorates - This looks like a good spot:

Almost there...

What do you think?

Isa's turn. Hmmm, should I put on the bell...

Or this AMAZING disco ball!

Here goes another one:

Mommy found the famous Santa on a Chicken ornament from Daddy's childhood:



The bell still has not made it to the tree as Xia and Isa both like it so much. Also, Xia points out the pretty bird ornament Grammy gave her last year:



After we were all done, we had to redecorate the tree so that only the top 1/3 of it has ornaments. Seems little hands just cannot stay away...