Beware: It's a Never-Ending Post!

Here's December the day before we left for Michigan, helping Mommy clean the bathroom. We went and visited my family for Brad's Spring Break

Here is Brad studying for his Hebrew Exam that he took on the day we left.

December and her cousin Makenzi, taken the day after we arrived. Mom and Dad picked us up from the airport that was 2 hours away from their house, and we ended up getting back to their house around 2:00am. That was a long travel day, but not nearly as long as our return trip.

My sister Kelli had come over to Mom and Dad's house to practice with my Mom for my cousin's wedding. Mom played the piano for it, and Kelli played the flute. So Kelli brought over December's three cousins, and they had a blast playing together!

Brad and I at the wedding...

Mom and December having December's very first tea party! Before we left, December had watched a video of Mom having a tea party with Makenzi, and she kept asking if she could have one with Grandma, too.

December pouring the "tea" (cold water). It's a good thing Mom uses water because December spilled it everywhere!

December blowing on the tea, to cool it.

Playing dolls with Grandma

...giving kisses to the doll

December playing piano with Grandma

The first Sunday we were there, my Mom's side of the family came over. December loved playing with all of the girl cousins! Sitting next to December are Danielle, Makayla, and Makenzi

Everyone got together to celebrate the people who had March birthdays. Here we are eating birthday cake around December's high chair. My cousins, from left to right, Makayla (in the front), Justine, December, me, and Tara. They are all such great girls!

Here's Justine playing with December. Justine does soo good with all of the little kids! She loves playing with them, and they all love her!

Making silly faces on the window ;)

Dad put up the trampoline so that the kids could jump on it, even though it's still fairly chilly there (according to our California sun-weakened bodies)

December having a blast as Justine helps her jump!

There's my little bundled-up girl! She's not used to getting all dressed up to go outside, so I had to take pictures of how cute I thought she looked.

December and Belle (my parents' dog) playing together. Belle LOVES to play fetch, and December LOVES to throw the ball to Belle. The only problem with that arrangement is that the farthest December has ever thrown a ball is about three feet...so December would throw as hard as she could, and the ball would just land at Belle's feet. Belle didn't even bother bringing it back to December. I enjoyed watching that immensely.

December and I right after coming inside from the cold

Almost a week after we got in, Mom and Dad took us up to see my brother Karl and my sister-in-law Maria's new house!

Everyone standing in a closet: my dad, Maria, Mom, December, Karl, and Brad.

Brad checking out the view from one of their bedroom windows

On Saturday night, Karl, Maria, Brad, and I watched the four cousins (December, Makenzi, Markus, and Emilia) while Mom & Dad and Kelli & Craig did a Youth Group event together. Here are December and Emilia hanging out together.

Emilia is such a cute little girl! Brad thinks so, too :)

The four cousins on the couch with Brad

Karl was picking them up and swinging them around, so here they all are, clamoring to get picked up next

Then they took turns hand-feeding Belle as Karl helped them. They all loved it, and Belle enjoyed all of the attention!

December's turn to feed Belle!

Later that night...three tired girls, all ready for bed!

Easter Sunday! Easter egg hunt downstairs in Mom and Dad's house because it's too snowy outside

December, Makenzi, and Emilia filling their Easter buckets

All the kids and their M&M-filled Easter eggs!

December apparently doesn't like the taste of this particular gummy candy, so she's spitting it out...

This was taken on the day we left...here's Mom and December singing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" (one of December's favorite songs) while hitting sticks together to the beat of the song. December still talks about how she did this with Grandma and makes Grandma sing the song and hit sticks together when she talks to her on the phone.

Our return trip to Calfornia was pretty crazy! As I mentioned earlier, the airport we flew in and out of was 2 hours away from my parents' house. We left the house at 1:30pm to begin our journey. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 5pm. All went well driving there, and Mom and Dad even stopped to let us eat at Tim Hortons! Our 2-hour flight to Atlanta went well, too, and December did well. She's a fairly good traveler. We arrived in Atlanta around 7:00pm, and we were scheduled to leave a bit after 9:00pm.

Thankfully, we were somehow put into first class when they assigned us our seats. It was fun! December and I sat together, and Brad sat four rows behind us. December slept the whole flight (waking up every 30min and fussing, wondering where she was), and Brad and I got a meal (!) and watched movies! All in all, not bad! However, just when we were about to land in San Diego, we were told (after circling around for a while) that there was too much fog to land. We had to re-fuel in Los Angeles, which is about 25 min away, they said.

When we landed in Los Angeles, the stewardess told everyone that we would need to take busses to the San Diego airport. We got off the plane at 2:30am (Michigan time/11:30pm California time) and gathered our luggage. After being bussed to San Diego airport, being picked up and driving home, we stumbled into our apartment at 7:00am (Michigan time/4:00am California time). Here's a picture of our travels:

Jeff, Erin, & Caden's Visit!

December and Caden on the first morning after Brad's brother Jeff, his wife Erin, and their their 18-month old son Caden arrived. They drove down to us during Jeff's Spring Break, and we spent four days together -- it was a TON of fun!

I bought this hat for December when she was about four months old...she has refused to wear it every time I've tried it on her -- until Caden showed up! He was wearing a hat, and seeing him, December insisted on wearing a hat, too.

We walked to the nearby grocery store, which is about a half-mile away, to pick up a few things.

We also went to the mall later on that first day they were here, to pick up December's 2-year pictures and to look around. They have a pet store in the mall, and they've got some pretty cute puppies there (there's some ugly ones, too).

This puppy bordered on the cute-ugly line, but he had spunk! December and Caden LOVED watching him.

Ahhh...relaxing in the hot tub.

A live-action shot of December's favorite hot tub game -- being lifted straight out of the water and HIGH into the air!

Erin and I bathing our babies!

We took December and Caden to a couple of different parks, and they loved running around and going down the slides! Thankfully, the weather was really nice all of the days that Jeff and Erin were here, so that meant we could do lots of fun things with them!

December in the tunnel...I've learned that they definitely make these teensy-tiny tunnels for small children and NOT parents!

A cute family picture of Jeff, Erin, and Caden

December really likes the swings! I started doing something that my Dad did with me on the swings -- and it was my favorite! It's called 1-2-3-Underdog! You just push them three times, and then give them a great big push as you run underneath the swing. December loved it!

Here's a bit of a view of the park. This is my favorite park to go to.

Happy December

December and Caden coloring

We went to the beach! The kids really liked it, until Caden slipped and fell...then he wasn't so keen about the sand. But other than that, they had a blast!

December and Daddy going down to the waves. I really think December is the happiest when she's at the beach.

This day was pretty windy and a bit chilly, but it didn't phase her or Caden very much!

Another live-action shot!

Brad and December looking at a passing "choo-choo," as December calls them

Caden and December all bathed and ready for bed

Here's what our van looked like for those days! Here we are on our way to the Wild Animal Park

December at the Wild Animal Park, wearing the new shirt Uncle Jeff and Auntie Erin got her for her birthday -- with princesses on it! She likes the shirt ALOT.

December, Samuel, and Caden at the petting zoo, petting a deer.

Della and Samuel came with us, too. We all really liked going there!

Brad, December, and I thoroughly enjoyed our time with Jeff, Erin, and Caden! We were all sad to see them go. I think December is bored now that Caden has left. She has been getting into all kinds of mischief and doing things she doesn't normally do, like shoving my toothbrush down the sink drain, thereby making the bristles completely black with gunk. Gross. She asks, "Where Henny go?" (Henny was her name for Caden). She also fell in love with Auntie Erin and many times wanted Erin to hold her instead of Mommy. It was so much fun to have them here!

Brad got sick on Friday, which hampered how much he could do with his brother. He actually has been quite sick, with a high fever, chills, sore throat, stomach problems -- you name it, he's got it! He went to the doctor yesterday and now has various pills he has to take. It's an unfortunate time for him to get sick, because it's a busy week at the seminary with alot of things due for him. AND we leave for Michigan on Thursday! YAY! We're super excited about that. I'll try to put another post up before we go to Michigan, but it may get pretty busy. So we'll have to see...