A Month or so....in review.

Reece's Baptism:

*YAWN* "I'm a bit tired today, can I get baptized another day?"

What do you mean they're gonna dump water on my head, can't you see I'm already a bit chapped?! (poor guy has very dry skin! not for lack of lotioning though!)

The Annual Rottschafer Christmas Tree Hunt!


This was the year of tree toppers- the Heemstras and the Harveys went home with just the tops of a tree- a tree that would normally be too tall except that other people had chopped off the bottom branches making only the top useable. Surprisingly, they make beautiful Christmas Trees!
The customary "Andy picking our tree up over his head" picture

Welcome to the Belfast Christmas Party!!
Belfast Babes. Like our sweaters?!

Please ignore the effect primary-colored horizantal stripes has on my body...unfortunately it's not flattering!

(For you photography buffs out there- why do my jeans look all digital-y?)

Belfast Boys :)

Grace and Jeff were a matching set. Kinda like their sweater vests and turtle necks.

Kristin with her Charlie Brown Tree for Talia- a taste of our White Elephant Gift Exchange.

Grace modeling their gift- a lovely Santa wall hanging.

Ho Ho Ho.

Rottschafer Extended Family Christmas Party

Miss Molly was none too happy about having her picture taken under the tree.


Reece says: "Yay! Presents!"

"They're for me...right?"

Like all of my neices and nephews Molly just loves me. You'd be hard-pressed to rip her from her auntie's arms...

The kiddos with their slinkies! The most fun for 99 cents.

Meet Molly

Meet my new baby niece: Molly Violet

Born 11/06/2009
8lbs. 1oz. 19" long

She's purty cute, and has a lot of hair. Welcome to the world Molly!!!

Apple Picking and ArtPrize

One of my favorite things to do with the middle school kids in the fall is go apple picking. There's just something about selecting exactly the right apple off the tree...and getting to taste-test a few along the way.I dislike goats. But this picture was kind of funny...

Oh dear, it's a llama. A dirty, matted llama.

There was a makeshift play area for little kids, so of course everyone had to pile on. They aren't city kids per se, but a big hay bale is always a good time.

And horse-shaped tire swings are cool too!

"Family Portrait"

Here I'm pretending to be that squirrel in "Ice Age" after a nut..."Ehn! Ehn!"

The Orchard

Lovely.


Moving on to ArtPrize- Rachel and I went last weekend:

This was a maze-like piece about the amount of trash we produce.

An awesome boat- all inlaid with different colors of wood.

"Gently Down"

Rach and a tree friend.

I found one too!

Can you find me in this picture?

A Trash-Bag Baby outside The Bob

A butterfly made of onyx. I sat next to this artist at a wedding, his wife told me to "look for the butterfly at The Bob" I was expecting a painting and actually had forgotten all about looking for the butterfly until we were in the car headed home and I realized I'd taken a picture of it!

Paper Lanterns/Garlands in The Bob

This was pretty cool- it's made of different colored toilet paper rolls and you couldn't see the image clearly until you looked through a camera or camera phone. Or I imagine if you got further away but that wasn't possible in the small room.

The infamous Table and Chairs. And this is where the battery on my camera ran out. Fantastic!

Lately...

Lately we've been pretty busy. Here are a few pics from the last couple of weeks to catch you up!

Went with the boys to the track in Martin for drag racing. Andy got about 13 seconds!

Don't blink!


Chris' car

Conrad watching the cars go by.

This weekend I headed up to Big Rapids to hang out with my friend Kim. They are building a new house on their property that I had to check out and we wanted to go to the "Extreme Cowboy Challenge" a local trainer was putting on. This is one of her pastures in the morning:

Hank and Joy

We spent most of the day watching the cowboy challenge- which turned out to have a lot of cowgirls!

The log pull - it's harder to do when the horse is facing the log so it earns extra points.
Going through a gate

Carry a cup of water without spilling! This little girl blindfolded her pony, who proceeded to barrel around the ring wherever she asked- pretty impressive.

Nobody really likes the water obstacle.

I loved this horse- he looked like a lot of fun to ride and gorgeous! He wanted to drink the water too.

Cowboy Challenge- It's a spectator sport.