Lots of Pumpkins!

On Wednesday, some of us seminary wives took our toddlers to Bates Nut Farm, which currently has a pumpkin patch and fun things to do. December's head is in the pumpkin on the far left.

The toddlers weren't very skilled at the put-your-head-through-the-hole thing, as you can tell.

They had fun haybales to play on, although they were quite scratchy, and December's legs looked pretty beat-up that night!

Cute fall displays -- we don't get to see too many of these here, since it still feels like July! When we arrived at the farm, it was over 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius). Our faces pretty quickly looked like ripe tomatoes from the heat!

We took along a picnic lunch and found some shade to hide out in while we ate. There's my friend Naomi in the pink shirt -- she's due with her baby in less than two weeks! I'm excited about that.

Geese and chickens that the kids enjoyed watching and feeding.

December and Noah trying to cool down before entering the haybale maze

The haybale maze. We didn't get through the whole thing because the breeze died down while we were in it, and there was no shade to hide under...we roasted a bit and then decided to cut it short.

The pumpkin patch!

December climbing on the pumpkins

She loved it, as you can tell!

She also found it amusing to cover the pumpkins with hay and then immediately brush it all off...

Me with December, the not-so-willing picture taker.

Standing on a pumpkin

Here's a picture of me, taken yesterday. As you can see, I'm getting bigger and bigger all the time! The baby's due in about 8 weeks now!

Family Time

On Monday, Brad, December, and I had some family time together and went to the Wild Animal Park. Here's December all dressed up for it...

These cute birds had a baby

Baby giraffe

This is the little water park December LOVES to play in! She begs to go in it every time we go to the Wild Animal Park (which is nearly every week) and has a major meltdown if we don't! So she's in her element in this picture!

This week was really hot here, like in the upper 90's and low 100's (between 35 -40 degrees Celsius) all week, so the water felt really nice on such a hot day!

December loves her "wings dress," as she calls it. She would wear it every single day, if I let her. Getting her to wear ANY other outfit is a struggle, and if I do manage to get a different outfit on her, she just begs to wear this dress multiple times during the day.

We took the tour past all of their African exhibits. Here we are on the train.

We are very excited, because December just got a new cousin last night! Brad and I have a new niece named Cayleigh (Jeff and Erin's baby girl), and although I haven't seen any pictures of her yet, I'm sure she's a cutie! We're very happy for Jeff, Erin, and little Caden.

Changing Her Tune

December makes me laugh. Let me share with you a conversation she and I just had...

She had been talking about how much she wants to go see De-kenzi (her cousin Makenzi), which is something she talks about forty-five times a day or so, and I was telling her that we have to wait until Christmastime to go see Makenzi. A few minutes later, December came back and said, "It's Christmastime now!"

"No," I said, trying to figure out a way to explain that Christmastime is not a time like 8 o'clock, that will come very soon. "Christmastime will come after the baby is born. What do you think you're going to get, a baby brother or a baby sister?"

"I got a baby brudder in my belly." She's been saying this for a while now, that the 'baby in her belly' is a boy.

"Oh, I see. What does Mommy have in her belly?"

"A baby brudder." Now this is surprising -- all of the other times I've asked her this, she's been convinced she's having a boy and I'm having a girl.

"A baby brother? Are you sure I'm not having a little sister?"

"No. A brudder." December is adament.

"Well, what should we name this brother?"

"Twenty-four."

Me, laughing, "You think we should name him 'Twenty-four'?"

"Yah."

"And what should we name the baby in your belly?"

"Kieka." This is fairly standard, as far as December is concerned. Anything she gets to name is called Kieka. I have no idea where she came up with this, but she loves this name. When we were playing dolls earlier today, she insisted that all three dolls we were playing with were named Kieka.

We may have to use December's names as our boy and girl names, after all. Yesterday, after I had thought we were just about set on our names, Brad and I revisited the name conversation and pretty much decided we didn't like the names as much as we thought we did. So we're back at the beginning...yikes.

Twenty-four. It has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Anyway, this is all to say that this daughter of ours is sometimes so funny, and to give you a snippet of life and interesting conversations with December.

Reading a Book

At 2 1/2 years old, December has learned how to read. Ha! Not really, this is just her current favorite book (called "The Wedding Day") and has memorized the words. You'll notice she doesn't read it all perfectly here, but Brad and I were amazed when she just picked up the book and read the entire thing, all by herself! So we thought we'd share our amazement with you.