cousins!

mattie loves to play with her cousins, rebekah and andre. on this particular day in early march, they were together to play while glenn and wendell pruned apple trees. they had all kinds of fun, watching a "jay-jay" video, coloring with sidewalk chalk and riding bikes.

mattie crawled up on this chair to see what andre was coloring...and to play with his hair!

it was fun until she started hugging a little too hard and pushing him off the chair!

the kids enjoyed coloring on this metal barrel with sidewalk chalk

bekah helped me pose the little ones for a picture

little artists

bekah and mattie. i love bekah's grin!

bekah teaching mattie how to draw a circle

playing outside on a nice evening in early spring. mattie loves to push around her shopping cart (or anything else with wheels!) and fill it with random things.

we had these straw bales stacked on the west side of our house to insulate from winter winds. time to come down soon, i hope!

mattie is learning how to pose and smile for pictures. i love this cheesy grin!

toledo zoo

at the beginning of march, mom & dad kauffman came out for a visit. saturday was forecasted to be sunny and spring-like (with a high in the mid 40's!), so we decided to take mattie for her first trip to the zoo. we had a great time watching mattie's reactions to the animals. she liked the elephants best!

eating funny cake for breakfast before we left - yummy!

monkeys!

we all enjoyed watching this chimpanzee eat his apples

watching the big gorilla

fun with gramma & grampa and the stoic gorilla. what is grampa doing?

are you finding any bugs?

i love this one of you two, mom & dad!

colorful fish!

octopus!

elephants!

we loved her reaction to the elephants. she was in awe, speechless. they're for real!

pretty lizards

family pic with the tortoises

lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

watching the birds

taking a stroll with grampa

laughing with mommy

look at daddy!

these eagles put on quite a show for us. in this picture, glenn caught one in mid-flight!

what a great time! we will definitely be back this summer!

beating the winter blues

here are some fun shots from the month of february. they are in chronological order from top to bottom this time. enjoy!

i came downstairs one morning to find mattie and glenn playing in a fort they had built around the dining room table

complete with DVD player and toys!

mattie asks us to "sit" in the funniest locations sometimes

reading "numbers on the farm" with daddy before naptime

daddy's awesome hat. he was dressed up to go out on a date with his sweetheart for valentine's day. :)

valentine's day flowers from my wonderful hubby! mattie liked them, too!

mattie enjoys filling laundry baskets with toys, books, etc. and pushing them around the house. sometimes they are really heavy!

tea party with monkey

one of mattie's new favorite things... she brings her "pups" (cups) to the sink in the bathroom, stands on her step stool, turns on the water, and fills and empties the cups to her heart's content. here, she's asking me for her bib.

pizza night at WUPO (west unity pizza oven)!

this one's for you, grampa! she pushed her rocking chair and "table" all the way to the kitchen.