A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday, Park Day was held at a farm that had a pumpkin patch. December and I had gone there last year with our friends, but only that day was exceedingly hot -- as in, I thought I was going to go into labor because of the oppressive heat and my big belly that was filled with Isaac. This year the weather was much better! Only slightly hot this time. :o)

December taking a break on one of the pumpkins. Jesse (her kitty) had to come and see the pumpkins, of course.

The babies playing in the pumpkins. Isaac is in the hat, Oliver (who's 16 months) is in front of him, and Abigail is the cute little girl in the overalls. Abigail was born a few months after Isaac and her Daddy graduated this past spring. They have since moved to Arizona and are back here for a visit. It's been wonderful to see the whole family again!

Isaac LOVED using the pumpkins as props to help him stand.

A tractor, unloading hay bales.

We also went on a hay ride. I'm taking a picture of the cart behind us, which is carrying some of the Park Day ladies and their children.

Pumpkins and corn still growing.

The farm also has animals to look at and feed. Here December is watching some white geese with Calvin (Abigail's big brother).

A crazy turkey sitting on top of a stump...?

We all had a wonderful time there. And we're hoping on going back soon, with my Mom this time! She's arriving today, and we're soo excited to pick her up from the airport!

Isaac and the Dishwasher

Isaac has a favorite toy...the dishwasher. Every time I am loading or unloading the dishwasher, he is without fail right beside me, "helping." In this video, he was playing with the dishes I was loading into the dishwasher and he discovered that a certain rubber spatula had some peanut butter on it...

Oh, and at the end of the video, you'll hear me trying to get Isaac to wave goodbye. He doesn't do it, as you can see, but the very moment I stopped the recording, he lifted up his baby hand and waved! Of course.

Samuel's Birthday Party!

Last night was December's friend Samuel's birthday party! It was a costume party, and everyone dressed up -- kids and adults. So here we are in our costumes! I'll explain our costumes in the pictures below.


Brad and his good friend Ryan dressed up together as Mormon missionaries. Here they are making a house call :o) We see Mormon missionaries everywhere here, always in pairs, roaming around the streets, looking for people to talk to.



We looked online to see how they are instructed to dress, and we followed suit. So they are VERY realistic costumes! :o)


Ryan even made up name tags for them with hilarious names.

Here's December with Samuel the birthday boy. She was a princess (does that surprise you?) and started out wearing her crown, but she took it off pretty early on. Samuel was an adorable spider.

I was a 50's girl! This is the poodle skirt I had made for myself in a high school Home Ec class, and it's so much fun to wear.


I looked online to find the trends for hairstyle and makeup in the 50's, and it was usually a high ponytail with a ribbon or scarf, black eyeliner with heavy mascara, and red lips. It took ALOT of soap to get all of the makeup off my eyes later that night! I think I probably still have some on this morning.


Isaac, our little loaf of Wonder Bread! I think with his skin color, he'd be a whole wheat loaf.


He looked adorable, but he had a bit of a hard time crawling around!



Here's Christopher (Samuel's dad), who was Obi Wan Kenobi, and Clara had her costume taken off to eat dinner, but she was a ladybug.

This is a new family I am getting to know this year. They moved here from New Zealand for her husband to go to seminary, and they come to Park Day every week. Genevieve was a curtain (although she had taken her curtain off because the curtain rod was getting in the way and she couldn't fit down the hallway), and Sam was a pumpkin, and Levi was a fire. It was such a fun night! There were quite a few more people, but I didn't get pictures of all of them.

New Pictures!

Hello again! Thank you for being so patient in waiting for us! I am now writing on our new laptop, which I like very much! Here are some new pictures of the kids. All of these pictures were taken quite recently. Isaac will probably look bigger than the last time you saw him. He just turned 10 months. December will probably look much the same. Maybe her hair is longer. Anyways, here they are!

Isaac getting up close and personal with Baby Einstein. He said his first word just recently -- it's "uh-oh!" His new favorite game is to shove anything off a table or ledge, watch it crash to the ground, and then say, "Uh-oh!"

Dinner with my friend Della and her kids.

Isaac with Della's little girl, Clara. You may remember they were born just three days apart. I love watching them together and seeing two babies at the exact same stage playing and crawling along together! Aren't they just so super cute?!?

A sleepy Isaac, rubbing his eyes and wanting to go to bed.

Still, sleepy Isaac. You can tell he's a bit bleary-eyed.

December trying on Daddy's shorts.

The shorts are just a tad large for her...

This picture was taken only a few days ago, outside on our balcony. The weather has been GREAT lately, and we're enjoying some nice cool air outside.

December riding around on her tricycle.

We are definitely enjoying being back in California! It's been wonderful to see our friends again, and we've been making some new friends, too, as the new class of students has arrived. I've been going to Park Day again, where all the wives and children meet to go play at the park for a few hours each week, and we always have a fun time! Next week I'm hoping to start on sewing a quilt for December's bed...we'll have to see how that goes! It will be using a quilting technique called Paper Piecing, and I've never done it before, but one of my friends here has, and she's going to teach me.

Brad is back in school again and his classes are in full swing. His load this semester seems to be lighter than it was last semester, thankfully. Only three papers due at the end of this term...that's still alot, but less than five papers, like it was last semester. His most difficult class this semester is Aramaic in Daniel, where they go through the OT book of Daniel and have to translate the Aramaic language found in it. I'm not sure what his favorite class is. I'll have to ask him -- it might be Philippians, his evening class.