advent

we are enjoying the advent season here in NW ohio. it's been fun to relive Christmas through the eyes of a child. mattie's nativity is the only Christmas decoration in our house as yet...but for some reason that feels ok. we've been trying to teach her the names of the characters in the nativity, and nine times out of ten she can correctly identify baby Jesus...though she can't quite say his name! we have also been listening to lots of kids' Christmas music (thanks, mom & dad kauffman for the old tapes!), which has been fun...and brings back great memories! the message in all of these songs is so true and refreshing in its simplicity - that Jesus is the one gift that means EVERYTHING!

here are some pics from the last several weeks. enjoy!

she's enjoying being read to more and more - we love it!

reading a bedtime story with daddy. gotta love sandra boynton books!

entertaining in the kitchen. she likes to put "food" on the plates and pretend to pour milk from her sippy into the cups.

playing with her nativity set, an early Christmas gift

lately, when mattie sits down somewhere, she will pat the place beside her and emphatically say something (we can't quite decipher it yet!) to indicate her desire for you to sit by her. even if the chair is only big enough for her, she still wants you to sit! mattie wanted both gramma and me to sit on this chair with her, so we both squeezed on and had uncle joel take a picture!

grampa, did you teach her to do that??

making sure gramma & grampa put enough cheese on the pizza bread

playing with pots and pans in gramma & grampa's kitchen

mattie taking huge bites of gramma's yummy pumpkin bars!

cousins hanging out with uncle kevin on thanksgiving day

the next day daddy had her in this onesie!

game day! this is for you, uncle joel! she's not too happy, though... wonder what that means??

mattie can climb onto this chair all by herself! she looks so big and grown up in this picture!