fair time!

these pictures are still from september - fun at the fulton county and wayne county fairs, visit with gramma & grampa kauffman, and mommy & mattie time at the imagination station in bryan.

2011 will be a year of change for us as a family. as we shared in our Christmas letter, glenn is planning to attend seminary in the fall. the specifics of this transition have not yet been discerned or decided, but we're excited about following God's call and trust that He will open the doors He wants us to walk through. in the meantime, we are preparing to welcome a new baby to our family...in less than 6 weeks! we talk about the baby often with mattie, but are pretty sure she has no idea how her world will change with his arrival. i'm sure she will be a great helper. :)

eating our picnic lunch at the imagination station

close up!

posing for the camera

my little tree hugger

mattie's first day of sunday school. she loved it!

fulton county fair. first time doing rides...with daddy, of course!

if you could zoom in on this picture, you'd be able to tell that this slide was a bit scary for mattie. poor thing!

the train was her favorite

wave to mommy!

mattie and sarah foor

she was brave enough to let sarah take her on this clown ride

then the berry-go-round with daddy

she liked this one, too, because she got to help spin the wheel

drink break - it was a hot day

outside the baby animal barn

at gramma & grampa kauffman's house. somebody had a blue sucker!

playing in the sandbox

petting snoopy

picking grapes at great-grampa's house - that brought back memories!

is this why you're not supposed to use crib bumpers?

wayne county fair - petting the sheep

chickens!

my crack-up husband - love this goofy guy!

yummy fair food!

sharing a blue snow cone

driving a steiner!

our little cowgirl!

rebekah's 4th birthday and salsa making!

it's time to get the blog back up to date! i think i left off in september... here are pictures from our niece rebekah's totally fun fall birthday party and a few from our day of salsa making.

all fresh veggies from our garden

gotta love those romas!

the goggles really helped hold off the tears

rebekah zoe turns 4!

we played some fun games at bekah's party...like dunking for apples. daddy was showing mattie how it's done.

after some coaxing, she finally tried it...

...and found the stem! yay!

then they brought out the big bucket! galen received some "help" from behind...

daddy's turn

hanging donuts - this one was a hit with the kids :) here's the birthday girl!

no hands!

here kids, let us show you how it's done!

fun times!

it was a beautiful, warm evening. the leaves were just starting to fall.

playing in the leaves

the kids covered glenn up with leaves...then pounced on him!

little eden 2010

here are some pictures from our week at little eden camp with the nofzigers (august 2010). we were able to be there for most of the week, and had a great time! mattie was a bit tempermental (teething, or just simply being 2?), but she enjoyed playing with her cousins at the beach and on the swingset.

mattie found a new fruit to enjoy - pears!

i want a big one, mommy!

playing with daddy on the slides

getting ready to watch veggie tales', lord of the beans, on the big screen in the roundhouse

she kinda likes ice cream!

playing on the beach at little eden with daddy and cousin bekah

andre loved jumping off this blue raft to any arms that would catch him!

playing in the sand with grandma nofziger

hugging daddy's sand castle

teamwork!

i took this picture to show off the beautiful braids in mattie's hair done by erika. :) wish i could do that!

sand castle (with a moat!) at lake michigan

mattie was pretty brave in the water here - it was surprisingly warm for lake michigan!

running away from the waves :)

the bridge...

...but only for a few seconds!

hugs for uncle kevin

snorkeling off the pier