Sabrina's 9th Birthday

We had Sabrina's 9th birthday party at a local horse farm for rescued horses, and the girls got to learn about how to take care of a horse, and then spent quite a bit of time on the horses at the outdoor ring. We woke up to rain, but it turned out to be a gorgeous fall day to celebrate our little girl turning 9!

Lots more pics can be seen at: http://wooster.shutterfly.com/

Halloween - carving & parties

 

 

 

Halloween parties at school and carving our pumpkin at home.

Halloween - the FORCE was with us...

 

 

 

 

We had a whole STAR WARS theme going on with our kids (Clone and Padame) and Megan & Jared (Princes Lea & Obi Wan and one of their friends was Darth Vader) who we invited to trick-or-treat with us. It started to rain just as it got dark, but it didn't last long and the kids still got PLENTY of loot too bring home and tempt their parents with!

Van headed to Haiti

We've been raising vitamins/meds to send over in the container we shipped to Haiti that contained the van that our church donated to the orphanage there. After church, all the supplies were loaded into the van, and then Dave and his dad and the orphanage director loaded the van and well supplies into the container over near Dulles airport. The kids boxed Nate up and we told him we'd send him over!

Fall Leaves

 

 

 

A fall day of raking leaves...and believe me, there are many more still to be raked! Nate was a bit frustrated...

Fall Festivities

 

 

 

It's been a beautiful fall here in Maryland...this picture is of our drive through the mountains on our way to our friends' house (the Rooneys). We also visited Summer's Farm and took a hayride to the pumpkin patch and enjoyed some games, pig races and lots of warm cider donuts :o) ... that's life down on the farm!

Beautiful fall night at the lake

We bundled up and went the lake for a little early evening fishing last weekend. Sabrina caught 2 and Dave caught 4, while I sat in the beach chair and enjoyed the fall colors and watching my family fish until the sun went down.

My Brave Girl

Sabrina cut her hand while attemtping to open a box with a knife - took her right to the walk-in clinic and got her stitched up by the same guy who stitched up my broken finger in August. She was a trouper and didn't fuss about the painkiller shots or stitches at all! She's healing up nicely.

Funeral and Friends

Our friend Steve Faehner's father passed away recently, after a long struggle brought on by a stroke. Dave and Steve have been friends since they were young. This sad occasion brought friends to town that we normally don't see that often.

Mr. Faehner founded AMERICAN WOOD FIBERS which supplies sawdust and woodchips to companies like Wal-Mart. These trucks were parked at the cemetary to honor him.


We had lunch and enjoyed a beautiful fall day at the park with the kids.

Later that night, we came back to our place for hotdogs and s'mores over the campfire.

Haiti Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Oct 09/ Weekend in Maine

Slideshow speed is slow but I couldn't adjust it - you can forward through the pics more quickly by using the arrow buttons yourself. There's music too, so have your speakers on, but you'll have to pause the music player at the bottom of the page.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sept 2009/Grassroots

The deer checking out our new patio. They are so tame and we never get tired of seeing them, even if they do eat all our plants!

Our church hosted a dinner at Grassroots, a shelter in Howard County. Over 50 people came to help serve, so we had to go in shifts to give everyone a turn. Lots of kids so Dave arranged for the youth to organize their storage closet (below).

Sept 09/Orioles Game & Dinosaur Show

Grandpa took us and the kids to see the Dinosaur show in Washington D.C. on its last day here. The dinosaurs were HUGE and their movements were so real and life-like. The kids loved it! They also enjoyed riding the Metro.

Hit an Orioles game in September, our only baseball game we went to this summer, which is unusual for us.

Sept 2009/Visit from Ron & Anu Kedas

Our Maranatha volunteer coordinator from Mozambique, Ron Kedas, recently came to town with his wife and little boy for a short visit while they were in the states for a convention. We had a mini-reunion with some of our friends that we went to Mozambique with, and had a nice dinner together. It was great to see them and to hear about the plans for another Maranatha project in Zambia...hmmm.....