More Wedding Photos!

Beautiful dress and a handsome couple.

Tristan and Schyler (Gary's granddaughter). So cute together! Schyler's mom, Sarah, actually put all those blue flowers inside the bottom of the Flower Girl dress. So cool.

Dorian wouldn't sit still until he pulled a flower out of Grandma's bouquet. Grandma thought it was funny, but I heard quite a few gasps when it happened.

Left to right: Mariann (Tye's wife), Sarah (Gary's daughter), Schyler (Gary's granddaughter), Penny, Tiffany (Penny's daughter), Melissa (Aaron's wife), Christy (Alex's wife).

Left to right: Denver (Sarah's husband), Eric (Tiffany's husband), Owen (Gary's cousin & Best Man), Tristan (Penny's grandson), Gary, Tye (Penny's son), Alex (Penny's son), Aaron (Penny's son).

All 3 of Penny's sons "gave her away".

Walking down the aisle.

After standing for quite some time, the Ring Bearer and Flower Girl had to sit!

They both stumbled over the vows and had a cute crack up. (That's Gary's mom, Evelyn, in the background).

Ring Bearer in action.

The wedding party dance.

Dorian grabbed up his own partner, a string of balloons!

Musical Montage

Dorian loves songs, has since birth.

Tristan loves music. He has always been very "in tune" with the emotion of music, and the sound and feel of different musical instruments. This is great, esp. considering how young he is. He'll hear music and tell me what instruments he hears and the emotion that the song is trying to convey.

Over the last few months, he's been trying to learn piano on a toy piano that is very out of tune. It came with a book of songs that has numbered dots instead of notes that correspond to numbers on the keys. It's been bothering me that he's learning to play that way instead of reading real music. Due to this, I've been pestering my husband to get a computer together for Tristan and I inside the house so that we can use the electronic keyboard. I'd like to teach him piano. He's also asked if Daddy would teach him guitar and violin. He's also been playing Dorian's drum a lot. Eric tried teaching him some notes on his guitar but it was just too big for him. We had been "looking" for a kid size guitar for Tristan for quite some time, but now realized that the boy is getting serious about music.

Eric "is working on" a computer for inside the house to fix the piano problem. And last weekend he found the perfect guitar for Tristan. The child's brain is like a sponge. Without looking at the cheat-sheet, he can strum all the strings and tell you what notes he's playing. He can also play 2 chords. Eric taught him E minor and E major. Tristan right away surmised that E minor was sad and E major was happy. The second day he had the guitar I heard him say, "Daddy, will you show me how to play E major again? I'm feeling very E major right now and would like to play it." One day this week, I was upset about something and was sitting sadly. Tristan went into his room and got his guitar and "wrote" a song for me. He strummed and sang to match whatever it was and made up lyrics all about me and how nice I am and how I'm going to live in paradise. It was very heart-warming.

Here are some family jam-session photos/videos:

Silly Sleepers

You may think that you've slept with some movers and groovers in your time. I'll bet you've never experienced anything like sleeping between the Duermen Duo that these two Silly Sleepers are:

This picture was taken an hour or so after they fell asleep.

This one was taken another hour after the first one. They were totally in sync that night.

Growth!

Tristan is getting very tall. And he's reading words like jumps, bumps, hash, mash, fox and clock.

Dorian has started saying Deegam-deegam, bapol-bapol, go-go-go, dee-dee-dee, outside, yeah, and other words and non-words. He's become a little chatter box at home. He's still pretty much silent in the car and at other people's houses.

We mowed the lawn for the first time of the season last week. And we went hiking on Friday and Monday. Spring is on the horizon!