Corn-mazing 2

These boys sure love each other. I am glad they are such good friends. 

Another picture of us. 

Asa playing in the grain box (actually it was a circle). Instead of sand they used small grains and there were all sorts of trucks and toys to play with. 

The boys, young and old, really liked racing the ducks in the water. Look at that male bonding.

They also had a mini-maze for little kids to get through by themselves. The boys had a good time racing through it. At one point they were going different directions and actually ran right into each other. It was pretty funny. All in all, it was a great place. I think we will go again next year. We went the day after Halloween so it wasn't busy at all. They had stuff there that we didn't even get to because it started raining. The boys got to play with some puppy border collies. One kept pulling on Rex's pants. It was so cute. Dad didn't think it was a good idea to take it home though. What a mean guy. Actually, as much as I think I want a puppy I know they are hard work. Plus, we can't afford the $4000 fence that would have to come with it :) One day....

Corn-mazing fun!

We took the boys to a corn maze which had all sorts of fun things to do. Here they climbed the giant pyramid made of haystacks. They raced to the top.

I thought this was a cool little tractor toy. (plus a really cute boy sitting in it)

We did the maze with Beth, Ryan, and Ender. It was a lot of fun and we didn't even get that lost. I like how the dads are packing the babies around. It's nice to get a break once in a while :)

The giant pumpkin was set up right where you walk in. There was pumpkin smashing and Eli was all set to do it until he saw the guy in the werewolf mask. He got really scared and moved to behind our legs. Rex was scared too, so we didn't smash any pumpkins. We also got to see them drop pumpkins from really high and see them explode when they hit the ground. 

Happy Halloween

Rex and Eli were really excited to be superheroes this year. They are really big into them right now. Eli has worn his costume everyday for the past 2 weeks. Asa was supposed to be a scarecrow but on the night of Halloween I forgot to draw on his face, so everyone thought he was a farmer. That works too. Between the church harvest festival, playgroup party, and Rex's preschool we did a lot of dressing up. It ended up being a really fun night. Although I think I enjoy trick-or-treating more than my boys do. I tried to encourage them to go down more streets, but they kept telling me this is the last one. When we got back onto our street they informed me they were done trick or treating and passed about 10 houses to get home so they could trick-or-treat to dad. Funny kids. We also stopped by grandma's and Chrisi and Elise's halloween party. Eli didn't know who Christi was the whole time, but we didn't realize it until we were leaving. We were wondering why he was acting so shy and stand-offish towards her. It was funny.

Ever since Asa discovered candy he has been addicted. He is like a little magnet and finds it everywhere. And once he does, he opens it himself and it goes straight in the mouth. The candies he can't open he stuff in his mouth as well, so we have to keep a close eye on him. I think he got that sucker on the first house we went to and he was eating it the whole time. Sticky, but adorable.

The boys had a lot of fun carving pumpkins. They liked taking out the goop so they took their shirts off so they wouldn't be messy. They are just the cutest threesome!

First day of preschool

Here's my handsome little boy off to his first day of preschool this year. It is actually his second year of preschool because he missed the cut-off for kindergarten. The first week he came home and said, "I already know all this stuff. Why do I have to go to preschool?" He has really enjoyed it though and he especially loves spending time with his friends. But last week, my sweet little boy had his first "fight"! I came to pick him up and his face was all scraped up with a bruise above his eye. "What happend!!" Apparently he had been "accidentally" kept running into another kid on his scooter while he was riding on his. ("I don't know how it kept happening." Yeah, sure.) Well, the kid got fed up and tackled Rex off of his scooter and his face hit the cement. I will never be surprised when Eli gets in a fight or called to the principal's office--he is my little troublemaker, but Rex was a total shock. He is my nice boy. I have come to the conclusion that boys will be boys, and mine are 100% boy!

Here he is riding his new big boy bike, waiting for his ride to school. 

Rex is 5!!

We arrived home from our vacation on Rex's b-day so Aunt Christi made his awesome birthday cake! Rex still is obsessed with dinosaurs, so the cake was perfect for him. We had some family come and sing to him. He got spoiled, of course. I just can't help myself :) 

Bob saw these huge dinosaurs at Toys R Us and just had to get them. He still asks for dinosaurs every b-day and christmas. He is a true T-Rex at heart :)

Five years. I can't believe it. It is weird to think I have been a mom that long. I don't feel that old! These have been the greatest five years though. He is such a good boy and big brother. He is helpful and loving. He wants to do new things and more grown up things all the time. The other day I let him cut up some celery for our dinner and he was so proud of himself. "I'm a really good chef! Dad will be so proud of me." He was excited that he got to use a real knife. Don't worry, he was supervised very closely! He really tries hard to make us proud of him and he wants to show us what he can do all the time. I just love talking with him. He has a lot to say, but he has started to have real questions and his vocabulary is insane. Yes, we are raising a genius :) All kidding aside, he is actually a very bright kid. He has started to read, he loves puzzles and mazes, he does math on his own, and he really enjoys playing board and card games. This summer he struggled a bit with his tantrums, but we have those mostly under control now (hallelujah!). I am sure I have gushed enough so I will just say this: We love you Rex!

Congratulations Ryan and Jill

Last month Bob and I (and Asa) flew to Indiana to see one of our closest friends get married. Ryan was the best man in our wedding. We both knew him from college and he comes out to see us at least once a year. The kids call him uncle. Anyway, it is rare that Bob and I get a nice picture together so I thought I would post it. 

We make a good pair, don't we?

The happy couple, Ryan and Jill.

This is Asa sitting next to the flower girl, Ryan's niece. They had the wedding right in a cool building right on the beach of Lake Michigan. It was beautiful. 

Asa traveled really well. We couldn't have asked for better. Bob and I enjoyed the time away. We spent a lot of it with Ryan, but he had to work too so we had a nice little vacation. We talked with the other two boys everyday, but we knew they were in good hands. My sister, Elise, watched them the majority of the time and then they spent a little time with grandma and grandpa Perkes. (Thanks, we owe you guys big time!) We were gone for 5 days, so even though we enjoyed ourselves it was nice to be home. We were exhausted and all pizza-ed out. We were right outside Chicago so there was a pizza shop on every corner. I am a pizza lover, but man I was sick of it after having it every day. The very next weekend we went to Seattle to another friend's wedding and since it was just one night Elise was nice enough to watch Asa for us. It was just the two of us. It felt really weird. We haven't been alone like that in a long time and we had a fun, relaxing time. Several times I had to check in the car to make sure we didn't leave a kid in there though :)

The Big ONE!

I think he agrees with the rest of us that cake is a wonderful thing! He definately made a mess of himself.

The first thing he did when we put his cupcake in front of him was do a face plant. I am not kidding. It was hilarious. He just kept doing it so I was able to capture a picture. Who says you have to use your hands anyway?

His (and his brother's) favorite present. I had to do some convincing to Bob, but I think he realizes it was a good decision. For the next three days it seemed like it was in use all day long. 

Asa loves balloons so we had several around the house for him to play with. Overall I think he had a great day. I just don't know where the time went. I don't have a baby anymore! He has been walking for a couple of months and climbing even longer than that. This boy knows how to get into anything and everything. He fits right in with the other two. I am amazed at how well they play with one another. He already starts mimicking their actions. The other day we were playing tickle monster and the older two were running away and screaming, so Asa thought he would join in too. He kept looking back to see if I was after him and he would just laugh. He is almost up to running speed and he had the screaming down too. He is already one of the "boys" and no longer my little baby. It is fun to see him understand so much and to see him figure things out. Today we even saw him throw some trash into the garbage can. (my 3 yr old barely knows how to do that!) He still has such a sweet disposition. He LOVES to bounce. He hasn't quite figured out how to jump on hard ground yet (although he is not far off) but if he is on the couch or on a bed he starts bouncing away. He laughs the whole time he is doing it. So cute! We were truly blessed when he came into our lives. He has brought me so much joy this last year and I know there will be many more joyful years ahead. I love you Ace!

Who's that good-lookin' bunch?

Some family friends came along to the reunion and took pictures of everyone. She did an excellent job. Thanks Jessica! We really liked how this turned out.

I know what you are thinking, "That is one cute baby!"

Here are the cousins crowded together. Taking pictures of a group of kids is nearly impossible!

Perkes Family Reunion

Rex was the hula champ!

We spent a few days in a cabin on a river north of Spokane. We did some jet-skiing and game playing. We had a luau night with some fun activities. Mostly we sat around and visited with one another. Fun was had by all. 

Procrastination is my friend

  I am sure a lot of you can relate to, "I'll get it done later." Well, later kept coming and I still wasn't doing anything about it :) I don't know what it was, but I have barely even checked my email over the last couple months. So the blog was definately down the list of things to do. I have a lot of catch up reading to do on all of your blogs too. 

 To all you superbloggers out there I am sorry that I have been slacking. Something happend with our computer a while back, but it has been fixed for a while and I just hadn't gotten the urge to get on since I am so far behind. That being the case, all of the occasions of the last couple of months won't be blogged in great detail. I am just going to put the highlights to show what we have been up to.

Who can blame him?

Can you see the excitement in his eyes and the smile beneath the cone? This little guy takes after his mom and loves ice cream. It's like he senses when anyone else is having it and he isn't going away until he gets some--and 'til it's all gone! So we were having ice cream cones for FHE treat a couple weeks ago and I didn't want him to feel left out. So I strapped him in his seat and we got him his very own cone. He was so happy. The craziest part is that there was barely any evidence that he even had one when he was done. He literally ate all of it! Aside from the ice cream dripping down his chin he was surprisingly clean.
Here he is going at it. Who doesn't love an ice cream cone anyway?
Here are the other two with their cousins Peorola and Emily. They had FHE with us that night. We had a fun game of hockey before this. You gotta love summer!

My team!

So the other night we are at my soccer game and Bob is watching the boys on the sideline. There is another little boy there that is Rex's age, and they decided they were going to team up against Eli. (I always feel bad for Eli when this happens.) But Eli sure wasn't feeling sorry for himself. He walked over to where Asa was, picked him up and carried him around the fence to the other side where the other two boys were. He put Asa down and said, "My team!" When Bob told me this story I just had to laugh. Is that not cute? Obviously Asa really couldn't help Eli out too much, but Eli sure loves his baby brother a lot. Eli is especially defensive with his brothers. For example, if Rex is getting spanked for something bad--which usually has to do with hurting Eli--then Eli will come over and spank us and tell us to leave Rex alone. Gotta love him.

Another funny story about Eli: The other day I found some star wars shirts on clearance. For those of you who know my boys you know the LOVE star wars, especially Eli. Of course they were really excited when I gave them the shirts. Later in the day when I was walking by their room I saw Eli on the floor. He had his star wars shirt spread out on his lap and he was caressing it and staring at it like it was something sacred. The look on his face was priceless. He cracks me up. I'm glad something so small can make him so happy :) I hope it stays that way!

We miss you, Simpsons!

We left a day early from the reunion to stop by our friends, the Simpsons, who lived just a couple of hours away from where we were. They were our friends from chiropractic school. They were actually the very first people we met at church and they invited us over for dinner that night. How nice! So we were friends from day one of 3 years worth. It was a lot of fun to see them and visit. Our kids are similar ages. Rex and Kymora were really good friends.
Eli and Bo were getting everyone wet. They had a lot of fun in the sprinklers.
Here is Asa with Quinn. I can't believe Asa is almost as big as him (they are 4 months apart). Two chunky babies, but they couldn't be any cuter!
The kids played well together. Bob enjoyed visiting Darnell's office, while I got to stay home with Amy and catch up on all the gossip. Yes, that means we were probably talking about you if you are reading this blog. J/K...well, sort of :)
Asa loved playing in their yard. I just thought this was a cute pic. Thanks for the hospitality guys. You made us feel very welcome...and the showers were awesome!!

Happy Campers

Just some more random pictures from the reunion. Apparently it was hard work riding in the backpack.
Bob making us some firewood with his new hatchet.
What is camping without smores?
This is my dad and grandpa. I only see my grandpa once in a blue moon and who knows, this could be the last time that I see him. It was nice to have him come up for the day. It was a good visit for everyone.
Asa is really enjoying his licorice. Bob brought a big old canister to share with everyone. Lots of red tongues!

All in all the reunion was fun. It was a long drive for our family, but that allowed us to see some friends on the way. Bob was nervous for his office to be closed for so long, but when he came back his numbers didn't drop at all, which was nice. People missed him. I have decided that camping with little kids is a lot of work! Kudos to you mom for doing it all those years. I think camping is way more fun when you are a kid :) I have proof since my boys loved being there, except for when their older cousins told them there was BigFoot. Camping for a whole week with no showers wasn't my favorite, but it was nice to be out in nature away from things. Rex did get really sick that Bob had to take him into town. It ended up being really expensive because we had to buy a nebulizer for him. His cough was horrible. When he went to the Dr. he sat there and told him that he was already getting better because his grandpa and dad had given him a blessing on his head. How sweet! I love those little learning moments. Anyway, between the campfires, games, and just visiting it was a successful trip and it is always good to see my family. I wish we didn't live so far away from them all. I am glad Elise is living in tri-cities now! Hopefully the next one will be even better in 2 years!

Fun at the lake

Here is grubby faced Eli ready to go out on one of the inflatable boats. One time when I took him out he started screaming and grabbing the back of his neck saying, "Bug!" It turns out a HUGE bumblebee was stinging him. He went to grab it and it stung him on his finger too! Poor thing. Bob came over really fast to get it off of him, but he was done on the water after that. I don't blame him.
Asa had a good time on the beach. I put his feet in the water, but it was a little too cold for him.
Once again, Rex and his cousins throwing things. This time it happens to be mud and water. Boys, boys, boys.
He is not discriminate to what he ingests. Dirt, sand....it's all the same :)
Bob is treading water with my brothers. Good bonding time.