thanksgiving

my first cousins on the kauffman side have committed to getting together for thanksgiving at grandpa kauffman's house every other year. 2010 was the year, and we filled the house, literally! the fourth generation is growing our family exponentially! the little ones were a source of much entertainment and joy. we have so much to be thankful for - praise the Lord!

mattie and i worked on making an advent paper chain soon after thanksgiving

helping gramma make chocolate sandwich cookies

my cousin gretchen's sweet little girl, marley

lydia, marley and mattie playing with marbles

my cousin heidi's little boy, brody. i think he was intrigued by glenn. :)

marley liked it when her daddy put marbles down her shirt

glenn reading a book to the little ones

lydia and mattie interested in something at the piano...

the marbles were a hit!

marley loves the camera!

my sibs

brody playing with cars

just a random picture of one of mattie's recent interests - stacking and organizing her books on the hutch

baby cake

these are pictures from october 2010. we decided to find out the gender of our baby this time around, and a friend from church gave us a fun suggestion for how to do so. at my 20-week ultrasound we had the technician write the baby's gender on a piece of paper and put the paper in an envelope (which we sealed so we wouldn't be tempted to peek!). we gave the envelope to a very talented baker and asked her to bake us a cake that would reveal our baby's gender on the inside. michelle rupp made us the beautiful cake you will see in these pictures. it was gorgeous! glenn, mattie and i, both sets of our parents, and most of the wait staff at max & erma's restaurant in dayton that evening got to find out together that we're expecting...

mattie was less than thrilled about having her picture taken...even though she had an appetizer of finding nemo fruit snacks

the crew with the cake. can you feel the excitement?

what a scowl!

the grandpas

gramma & grampa kauffman

proud parents

grandma nofziger. i think glenn said something funny before taking this picture... do you remember what it was, mom?

max & erma's famous garbage burger - a bit messy!

the beautiful cake

pink and blue frosting on the outside...

...but the inside was BLUE!

mattie's saying, "it's a boy!"

praising God for the miracle of life...and waiting to meet this new little miracle any day now!

kitties and cousins

these are pictures from late september and october - more fall fun! some of the pictures are out of order (like icing the cookies before cutting them out!), but at least they are posted!

thought i should get a post or two in before my "free time" is less easy to come by. baby boy nofziger could come any day!

our barn cat, penny, had a litter of kittens this fall. we started with four...but ended with one.

three of the kittens, including this yellow one, had distemper...or something. they were very frail from the start and unable to walk.

this is eclipse, the survivor! healthy as can be!

mattie and bekah, watching a video at grandma & grandpa nofziger's house

intent

grandpa brought out the ice cream!

paint with water

riding in the combine with daddy and bekah

mattie loves these eric carle puzzles. thanks uncle jason and aunt lisa!

a frolic in the woods on a beautiful fall evening

melanie, anna and i had a great time hanging out with the kids

i love all the goofy faces in this picture...and abigail fast asleep. :)

fall cut-out cookies, made with grandma kauffman

pretty sure the icing was her favorite part!

yum!

grandma's little helper

i love how their shirts match color

uncle joel's kitten, butters

mattie had fun trying to lure her out of hiding

mattie was invited to a fun halloween party at creighton's house. creighton is a friend from church.

mattie was dressed as a kitty. here she's hanging out with another church friend, natalie.

playing in the corn with daddy. we have a huge mound of it in our barn for winter storage.

rolling, or rather sliding, down the mound