The Perkes Family

Asa turns 2!!

2009-09-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

Reading his new Mickey Mouse book with Dad.

I am not very crafty or creative and really have only decorated one other cake (the T-Rex for Rex's 3rd bday) so I was pretty happy with the result. It even tasted good too! Asa really likes dogs so he thought the cake was pretty cool.

He had the classic "wow" look on his face every time he opened a present. So cute. He really liked the Little Einstein's rocket that I got him. He flew that thing around for a half hour before he played with anything else.

The hand are behind his back since we have had experiences in the past with little fingers getting burned. ooops :) If you look closely here you can also see the spit hanging from his mouth and landing on the table as he is trying to blow out the candles. Luckily it didn't land on the cake!

My little 2 year old! Growing up so fast. I swear he was just my baby. We love Asa so much. He is so full of personality and attitude. His expressions are priceless. He just loves his family so much and he really is a happy boy. I couldn't ask for more. We love you Ace!

Dinosaur egg!

2009-09-21T14:52:00.001-07:00

Looking at the empty egg.

It's hatched!

The dinosaur came up through the egg. The boys would look at it often to tell me if there was a new crack or how big the hole was.

Dipping it in the water.

This posting is for Uncle Ryan. He bought them a dinosaur egg that is supposed to hatch after 72 hours. The boys really had fun watching it grow. It was a great idea. Thanks Ryan!

Benton County Fair

2009-09-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Bob's Grandpa has been on the fair board for many years, so he always came to this fair when he was a kid. It is a really great fair and our boys had a really fun time. Thanks for putting together such a good fair, Grandpa & Grandma Underwood!

The boys loved the rides.

There are a lot of great animals here. The boys especially liked petting the babies...who doesn't?

Overall, it was a great day. We were able to meet up with our friends, the Kelly's, so the boys liked hanging out and seeing all the other stuff with other kids. We had some yummy elephant ears to top it all off :)

Fun in the Sun

2009-08-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

The 3 boys watching their Dad ride the wave. Aren't they cute?

Go Dad!

All in all it was a really fun day at the water park. Jake, Nanda, and the girls were able to come with us. The kids really enjoyed playing in the water and doing the "river float." The weather was good and we got to spend another day with Dad...what's not to like? We are getting some fun days in before school starts in less than 2 weeks!

Moses Lake Water Park

2009-08-20T13:35:00.000-07:00

Rex riding the wave.

Eli enjoying the slide.

Whoa! I love the look on his face. He had so much fun there.

Splashing around with cousins.

Waiting for our turn on the floating river.

Coeur D' Alene, Idaho

2009-08-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

We did it! We helped Mudgy find Milly :)

Rex hiding in Mudgy's other antler :)

The expanation of this is in the previous posting. We really had a fun trip. Bob was supposed to have a softball tournament, but he canceled it because several people couldn't make it. So we decided to have a family weekend. Thank you Goodlanders for offering your home to us! It was really nice to get away and have Bob's undivided attention. The boys really liked having him around. We spent a little time at triple play playing arcade games. Next time we go up we will have to spend the day there. It is a really fun Family Center. We watched some movies and ate at some fun restaraunts. We also were able to see the Leisy's for a couple of hours! On the way home we drove around Bob's old neighborhood in Spokane and spent some time out by the river throwing rocks and walking along the trail. Good times.

Mudgy & Milly

2009-08-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

Rex reading the map.

Posing with Mudgy at the Library.

Following the signs on the street.

Following the moose tracks.

Where the trail begins.

For Christmas we received a book "Mudgy & Milly" from our good friends, the Goodlanders. In the book the two friends (a moose and a mouse) are playing hide and go seek. In Coeur D' Alene, Idaho they have the trail from the book with sculptures of Mudgy looking for Milly at different places around town, when the whole time she is hiding in his antlers. It is a really cute book. Phil's brother is the sculptor. So we did the trail from the Marina, to the library, to downtown, to the city park, and to Independence Point by the boardwalk. The boys really enjoyed following the map and finding all of the sculptures. The floating boardwalk was really fun to walk along.

3 cute boys!

2009-05-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

I really liked how these pictures turned out. They are all on my wall at home!

Family Pictures

2009-05-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

A lady in our ward at church took our pictures and I think they turned out really good! We are going to get some outside pictures later in the summer.

Eating is such hard work!

2009-05-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

Don't you wish putting your kids down for a nap was always this easy?

Birthday Cake

2009-05-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

Bob got me another really cool 3 dimmensional cake for my birthday. Elise got me the flowers behind it. She also made me a cake, so we had a lot of yummy chocolate cake to go around! My day turned out really good. In the morning we went to Rex's tball game and after lunch Elise and I went out shopping for my birthday. I was really excited to get new bedding for my room. I had so much fun helping Elise decorate her room when she moved that I decided that I finally want to make my bedroom look nice. We are going to paint it next weekend. In the late afternoon we made it to Bob's softball championship game (he had a tourney all day), which they won, and then came home to some delicious mexican lasagne (my fav) that Elise made me. After all the festivities (I got some great presents!) Bob took me to a late night showing of Star Trek. Not that I have ever been a huge star trek fan, but the movie was pretty good. It was a fun-filled day. My mom sent me several cards through-out the week since I like to celebrate "birthday weeks"! I love birthdays. What is not to love about presents, cake, and attention? Elise especially worked hard to make the day special. I am glad she is here.

There was another really cool thing that happend on my birthday. Before dinner Eli asked me if I could take off his training wheels. So I did, and after a couple of times going across our backyard patio he could ride a two-wheeler! I took him across to the walkway behind the house and he learned to start on his own and didn't fall at all! I was amazed. I had tried getting Rex to do it a couple months back and he gave up and told me that maybe we should wait until he is 6. Well, since he saw Eli doing it he decided to give it another try. It took him a lot longer to be able to do it, but he eventually did. Eli can ride a lot better than he can, so I hope that he will get the hang of it soon. He gets really frustrated when he can't do things. Anyway, I was really proud of them. I don't know too many 3 year olds that can ride a two-wheeler :)

T-Ball

2009-05-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

Rex is playing t-ball/coach pitch right now. He doesn't like it as much as I expected him to. The honest truth is that Eli would enjoy it more than he does. Eli wants me to play baseball with him everyday. He actually is better than Rex and Rex isn't too happy about it. He asked why Eli was better than him and I told him because he practices a lot more then you do. Then he said that he wishes Eli would stop practicing. Rex would rather be playing video games. UGH! Oh, well. Hopefully he will regain interest in a year or two. I think he looks super cute in his uniform though!

Here he is taking off for home plate.

I just had to put this picture up because of his tongue sticking out. Do you remember the blog entry I put up a long time ago of Rex playing sports with his tongue sticking out? Well, he hasn't changed. He does it when he is concentrating on anything. He is going to bite it off one of these days. Funny kid.

Happy Easter

2009-05-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

The boys got some moon sand and have made plenty of messes with it. I only try to get it out when Asa is taking a nap. Asa was on a sugar high for about a week. That kid loves candy!

We had a fun Easter weekend. The boys got to do 3 different egg hunts, we had a primary activity, and it was Rex's very first t-ball game. They all got plenty of candy...we still have eggs stashed away in the pantry for when I need a good bribe :) The older two got new scooters and they LOVE them! They ride them everyday. Rex even informed me that I could throw away his bike because he likes his scooter better and only wants to ride it.

I win, you lose!

2009-02-18T15:41:00.000-08:00

So last week Eli's sunbeam teacher talked to me after class. Apparantly she had gotten some good laughs from him that day. The class was playing musical chairs and while the other little (innocent) kids weren't quite grasping the concept, little Eli catches on and starts shoving kids out of his way so that he could be in the right chair. When the game was over he proceeded to say, "I win, you lose!" while he is pointing and laughing. Who is raising this child anyway?! Then during the lesson they start talking about families and the teacher asks Eli if his family loves him. He says, "No. They are rude to me. Only Rex loves me." What?!!! First of all, he has never said to us that he thinks we are being rude. And I was trying to think if there was anything we had said or if he had gotten in bad trouble lately, but I couldn't think of anything. It's a good thing my friend is his teacher, otherwise I would have been mortified. This makes me really wonder what my children are saying about me when I am not there! So, apparantly I need to do some better mothering.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-18T14:28:00.000-08:00

I was unsuccessful at getting all of the boys to smile at once. But they were so cute in their matching clothes that I had to take a picture.

We had a great Valentine's Day. The boys and I had spent the last few days making valentine cards and goodies to give to family. (of course I didn't think to take pictures of any of that) It was a lot of hard work, but the boys had a lot of fun. They made some pretty cute valentine's too. We took them around to everyone on Saturday after we had exchanged our own valentines and had a yummy breakfast. The boys picked out some beautiful tulips with Bob along with some candy.

Later in the day Bob surprised me with this awesome cake and a gift certificate for dancing lessons! We are going to start next month and I am really looking forward to it. I have wanted to do that for a while, but he totally surprised me. You can't really see all the detail in the cake, but it is a tree stump with our names carved in it. It was really yummy too. Bob and I were able to go out that night together as well. It was a great day all around.

New to the Family

2009-02-18T14:14:00.000-08:00

Congratulations Christi and Byron!

Bob's sister, Christi, got married last month to Byron Nield. The reception was beautiful and there were many people there to wish them well. Towards the end of the evening Rex ran into the sharp corner of a wall and he was bleeding pretty badly. Eli came and found us and he was crying telling us that Rex was bleeding. (Eli is especially concerned with our family's well being, so he was pretty upset that Rex was hurt.) Rex had a good little cut above his eye and his lips were split and bleeding a lot. Rex HATES blood. Once he sees blood the injury is automatically 10 times worse. We calm him down enough to get home and as I am holding the ice on his lips he asks me, "Am I dying?" The poor little guy was scared. He wanted to cuddle the rest of the night. The very next week Bob took the boys to a basketball game and when they came home Rex had another band-aid on his forehead. Apparently he fell on the corner of one of the bleachers and had a puncture wound while there. Bob didn't bother calling me. He said he figured there was no sense of me worrying until they got home because he was fine. Ugh! Men. Anyway, Rex is going to have a lot of scars on his face. This now makes 4. That's ok because he is still a handsome devil.

Baby, it's cold outside!

2009-01-05T19:07:00.001-08:00

After spending 20 minutes finding all the snow gear and getting it all on, Asa spends one minute out there and he is done. I had to hurry and snap a picture to document this experience. Doesn't that face just say it all! I can't blame him that day. It was single digits and the wind was blowing like crazy. I don't know how the other two stayed out there as long as they did. When the weather warmed up in later days Asa could last at least 5 minutes :)

Meanwhile, the other two love the snow and withstand the cold pretty well. Rex is always the last one standing though. We have to make him come inside before he freezes over.

I just loved this picture with Eli loving his brother. They have such a good relationship. I am so happy that they play as well as they do. I hope they always remain this good of friends. This day Bob took the car with Eli's coat in it, so we had to layer him in several sweatshirts. Fun times.

When my dad was here he worked so hard at shoveling our driveway and sidewalks. He spent hours out there doing it. And it seemed like every time he did it would snow again (kinda like how you wash your car, then it rains). He then used the snow he piled up to build snow forts for the boys. Rex especially liked it and even helped him out shoveling. We had to get a smaller shovel so he could actually lift the snow. Thanks for all the hard work dad. It snowed again and our driveway is full of snow...we miss you :) Unfortunately for my parents we had an unusual cold streak while they were here. Single digit weather and snow almost everyday. I think they were ready to get back to California. Of course, as soon as they left it warmed up (relatively speaking) and the snow melted away.

We miss you already!

2009-01-05T18:42:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in the previous post my parents came to visit us for the holidays. They braved the icy roads all the way from California to spend a week with us. We really enjoyed having them here. Although, what is it about kids totally misbehaving at the times you want them to behave the most?! So frustrating!! They did deserve that coal in their stocking! Aside from that, I always enjoy playing games with my parents. We played our go-to game, Quiddler, several times along with canasta, quelf, last word and some others. Happy to say there weren't too many bad tempers to report :) As you can see in this picture my parents are holding up the jean quilt that my sister, Elise, and I made for them. We spent a month making this thing. It is a lot bigger than it looks on this picture. It is the size of a queen sheet (as that is what we used for the back of it.) We spent endless hours cutting and sewing and tying. We were so pleased when we were done. I haven't tackled a project that big in a really long time. It felt good to accomplish something. Now Bob keeps bugging me to make one for him. They are really nice, heavy duty quilts. I hope they enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed making it.

Those of you who know my dad know that he has a big smile that he wears a vast majority of the time.

Here is Elise holding a painting that my dad painted for her. It is really beautiful. I am really proud of my dad for starting his art back up. Elise was really happy to get it, if you couldn't tell.

(Late) Merry Christmas!

2009-01-05T18:22:00.001-08:00

I am sure this is a familiar sight for many of you. After all the fun toys are opened up, the kids play with the boxes. My boys have spent the last couple of days playing and sleeping in their "forts" made from the cardboard boxes from xmas. Gotta love it.

The older two essentially opened every one of their presents together. They sure made a haul.

One happy customer. Eli is really into the Hulk right now.

This is how we open presents at our house in case anyone was wondering :) J/K I just love seeing Asa trying to figure stuff out.

We had no shortage of presents to open on christmas day. Keep in mind that my parents and my sister were here with us, so it's not all ours :) I was mostly excited about my new barstools (that you can see on the right). We were definately spoiled by my parents. Thanks mom and dad :) We really enjoyed the holiday. The night before we went looking at christmas lights and then came home and read the christmas story from the bible. After that we watched "claymation christmas." It is a show that we used to watch as a family when I was a little girl, so I found the dvd online last year so that I could do it as a family tradition. The boys really like it. Luckily we didn't have to wake up too early the next day. Rex and Eli got up at 7:00am. They were very excited. My mom found some cole to put in our stockings--it was candy :) We had a really nice dinner later in the day. We had fun watching some home movies and playing our new games. I love christmas!! I am sad that it is over already.

Corn-mazing 2

2008-11-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-07T18:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-07T17:57:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-07T17:46:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-11-07T17:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-07T16:56:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-07T16:21:00.001-08:00

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?

2008-11-07T15:32:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-07T15:13:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-07T15:05:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-08-20T16:47:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-08-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-07-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

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.

Family Reunion in Wyoming

2008-07-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

Here is my wonderful family! It is all of my brothers and sisters with their families and my parents. There were 38 people there for the week. The week started off badly because the original spot we had picked was horrible. So we had to find another one before the sun went down, so stress levels were high. Thanks to Bob we were able to find a campsite close that was a nice place right on a lake.
Can you say DIRT!!! That is all Asa was covered in all week. He is not the sit in your lap type of baby. I had no choice but to let him roam. So he was covered head to toe. (with a little in his mouth and belly too :)
Here is one of the nights where I couldn't take it anymore so we gave him a bath before bed. Isn't he adorable? Yes, he is smiling like that at least 50% of the time. He is a happy little boy.
Here is Rex playing with his cousins. This is a game of Bob's family that we brought that is a lot of fun. It is a beanbag throwing game which is a lot of fun. The adults played more than the kids!
Here is Eli playing the game (their modified version) with Malina. They were so cute playing together, laughing and taking turns. Good family times!

Riding the wave!

2008-07-28T10:35:00.001-07:00

They had a surfing simulator there that was so fun! We all took a turn (except Asa, of course). Eli technically wasn't supposed to go on since you had to be taller than the body board, which he wasn't, but we talked the lifegaurd into it anyway. He did awesome! He stayed on there longer than most people we saw.
Here is a close up of him riding the wave. On one of his turns he totally wiped out. When that happens the water takes you all the way back up to the top. Since he was so small he got zipped up there fast and slammed against the wall. He wasn't hurt, but he was embarrassed. When that happened his swimsuit dropped to his knees and Bob had picked him up and threw him in the air without realizing it. So when we talk about him going on it all he says is that people saw his "naked bum bum." It's pretty funny.
Rex was good at the bodyboarding too.

Of everyone, I think Bob had the most fun on this thing. He went several times. I didn't have the camera there when he did his flips that he is really proud about. He was like a little kid getting in line over and over. I am glad he had fun. He was the biggest guy doing it and everytime he started there would be a huge wave of water that splashed everyone that was close. Fun stuff!

Water park!

2008-07-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun going to the water park in Moses Lake. It had a lot of fun things, plus it was relatively cheap! Bob even had a lot of fun, which is saying something! Our boys loved it and they wore themselves out. Neither of them have ever taken swim lessons before, but they did really well in the water. (They love our pool in the backyard.) Bystanders were calling Rex a little fish. My kids were some of the only ones that would go face first into the water. Then Rex started going down the slide and would stand up at the bottom to jump off the end of the slide to use it like a diving board. He had some pretty good dives!
Here is Eli going down the slide. He loved splashing in the water.
Here is Rex swimming. By the end of the day his eyes were killing him. They were so red from the chlorine. He has no qualms about putting his head under water. He is learning to swim all by himself. I think I should sign him up for a class anyway. He would have a lot of fun.
Our good friend, Ryan Penrod, came to visit us from Chicago. He was Bob's best man at our wedding. We actually all worked together at college. He came out here for Hoopfest in Spokane. (Their team didn't do so hot this year, don't bring it up :) So he was able to come to the waterpark with us. He does a good job playing with the kids. They call him Uncle Penrod.
Here is Bob and Rex chillin' on the lazy river. We would take breaks throughout the day and hang out on the intertubes. I had the camera (of course) so you don't see the pics of me with Asa.

Birthday boy turns 3!!

2008-07-28T09:29:00.001-07:00

As you have seen in earlier posts, Eli really likes to help out. He was excited to help make his birthday cake. And yes, he smiles like that all the time.
Here he is enjoying being sung to with anticipation of blowing the candles. We were able to have some of Bob's family here for the celebration.
What can I say? He is really good at cheesing for the camera. He was excited to have a "pirate" ship's wheel to add to his swingset.
The big present of the year was his hockey equipment. We got him sticks and pucks and grandma and grandpa perkes got him a hockey net. He has become obsessed with hockey since Bob took him to a game earlier this winter. (We have a semi-pro team in town.) He tells us all the time he wants to be a hockey player. Needless to say, he was thrilled to get his hockey stuff.
Water hockey, anyone? Yes, our crazy son was so excited he took the hockey sticks with him everywhere that night. He ended up in the pool swimming with them singing "Happy Birthday to me." It was really cute.

Anyway, I just can't believe Eli is already three. It is weird to have him get older. He has grown a lot in the last year. He has started to talk where we can understand him most of the time :) He is very athletic and tags along with Rex everywhere. He is so sensitive and compassionate. He has such a loving heart. One of my favorite things he does is when he comes up to me and randomly gives me a hug and says, "I like you, mom." He loves his baby brother, sometimes a little too much if you know what I mean :) He has such a different personality and we already know he will be the child we will always have to keep an eye on. He has a little devilish side to him that he makes us aware of everyday. Examples from just this weekend: He threw a rock at a car after waving at the driver. He put bubblebath in the toilet and got Asa to play in it with him. He got a hold of the swiffer and left puddles of cleaner everywhere. He turned on the hose and went after Rex, laughing hysterically. He broke a tent pole. I washed their carseats and he ripped up the foam cushion on the seat. I think you get my point. But despite all of that we love him to pieces. Our life would be boring without him. I can't imagine life without him and I am so happy he came to our family. We love you Eli!

Hogs 'N Dogs

2008-07-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

Hogs 'n dogs is an event in town where people get together to eat hot dogs and check out a bunch of motorcycles. Since I am not a huge motorcycle fan, I took pictures of my kids instead. They make better pictures anyway. Here is Eli chowing down on his hot dog.
Rex thought he was cool for putting one of his fritos over his teeth. Lovely smile.
Here is little Ace chilling in his stroller. It was just a good night to share as a family doing something different.

Sorry so long!

2008-07-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

After you slack off in the blogging department it is a dooming task to try to tackle. Thus I have been avoiding it, and now I have even more to catch up on. Oh, well. I guess you will just get shortened versions of some things.

Welcome to the world!

2008-06-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

This is Ender Paul Douglass. He is the newest addition to our extended Perkes family. It is Bob's sister, Beth and her husband, Ryan's baby. They named him after the book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card--a good book, I might add. He was born May 17 around 9:00pm. I don't know the exact measurements, but I believe he was 9lbs. 3oz. and 20 inches long. It was a long day for Beth, but they are both doing great. For the longest time their dog, Maycie, was their "baby" so we are excited for them.
Here is Rex taking a peak the day after he was born.
Here is Eli smoochin' him up. Both boys were really excited for him to be born. Now he just has to catch up to Asa so they can be friends :)

Preschool Graduation

2008-06-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

Here is Rex holding his diploma with Mrs. B. He had a really fun time with preschool this year. I was really impressed with some of the creative things his teacher came up with. He learned a lot. Even though it was a graduation, he will actually be going back next year. He has a later b-day so misses the kindergarten cut off date. Bob likes this so that he can be the oldest in his class and better at sports. Boys!
They are supposed to be singing a song and doing actions. My sweet boy was like the only one actually doing it. Way to go Rex!
Here is his best friend, Dawson. They used to live right across the park from us, but they just moved last month. :( They still live in town, but it isn't the same. He was actually the first kid Rex met when we moved here. His mom is my good friend and we do playgroup together.

Congrats Rex! (I can't believe he is growing up so fast!!)

The Beach!!

2008-06-05T15:39:00.000-07:00

You gotta love California. I was happy to be going to a beach, but unfortunately on the day we went it wasn't near as warm as it should have been. It was windy and poor Asa had goosebumps. So, we kept as many clothes on him as we could. I was really bummed because we temporarily "misplaced" our camera for the day. These are pictures my dad took (thanks dad). Asa couldn't get enough of the sand. He ate tons of it, needless to say it was in his diaper for almost a week! The gross thing was that he had a runny nose and he drools a ton, so it was like he had sandcicles hanging off of his face. I wish I could have captured that!
Eli enjoying playing in the water.
Here are the boys running from the waves. The older boy with them is my nephew, Cody. He is 13 and joined us for the day. The boys had a lot of fun spending time with him.
Here they are playing in the sand with Grandpa.
Wait for the waves...wait...wait....run!

The Redwoods

2008-06-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

The Redwoods are really beautiful. We were able to go and have a picnic there and we also went on a mini hike. The boys really liked exploring and climbing. I think they will enjoy camping this summer.
Here we are walking across a log. At one of the crossings my dad had Rex check to see if there were any trolls underneath. He probably had to read 3 Billy Goats Gruff about 10 times while we were there.
Bob is helping them across here. What you don't see is the water underneath with a whole bunch of rocks they can crack their skull on. I was a little nervous watching them go across, but their older cousin did it so ofcourse they had to as well.
My handsome little devils.

More rides!!

2008-06-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

Here is my dad riding the "Thrilla Gorilla" with Rex.
Here is Eli and me on the same ride. It is one where you go really really fast in this big circle. You should have seen the look on Eli's face once we started going. It was pure terror. I ended up having to put my arm around him through the whole thing. He was happy to survive. We told him he shouldn't go on it, but he wasn't about not to go when everyone else was. He is an adventurous boy, but can also be scared pretty easily.
Eli and Bob enjoying the big swings together. I am in front of them and Rex is behind them. He wanted to ride by himself :)
Apparently the Dumbo ride is really exciting to Rex :) My parents always tell me about the first time we went to Disneyland and I was about 3. They said they had to wait hours in line so that I could go on the Dumbo ride...and I wanted to go again of course :) Here, there was no line at all!
They had a Thomas the train part of the amusement park, so here they are riding the helicopter. We all were able to ride Thomas together. Choo! Choo!

As you can see, the day was fun filled. There was a lot of great stuff to do there and it was the perfect day for weather and for crowds. Thanks again mom and dad for taking us there!

Random fun throughout the day

2008-06-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

Asa loves being on Daddy's shoulders. He was a good sport throughout the day. He is almost always smiling.
The boys enjoying the looney toons land part of the park. There were all sorts of cool things. I don't know how many of you Portlanders have been to the OMSI, but they have a really fun room where you shoot balls out of random places. You put them in tubes and buckets and there are just balls flying everywhere. Well, they had a place just like that here too.
Luckily, my mom told us to pack some swimsuits. No other kids were in theirs really, but no other kids were as soaked as mine either :) They love these kind of water parks. We have one in the tri-cities, but we have only been to it a couple of times. I will have to get them out more this summer.
I just thought this was a really cute picture of Eli. I am sitting right next to him and we are about to enjoy a fun ride!

Animals up and close

2008-06-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

Discovery Kingdom is a lot more than rollercoaster rides. We got to see a lot of animals there too. The boys liked seeing the lions and tigers and similar animals. Here they got to pet the elephant on her trunk.

They weren't too cooperative with this family photo, but at least you see us all there together.

They had whale and dolphin shows, which were fun. We got to sit in the third row for the whale show so we got to see it up close and personal. We did get splashed, but not as much as I would have expected. They did some fun tricks.

Sharks!

2008-06-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

My internet has either been non-existant or really slow the last few days. Annoying! Anyway, there was a really cool shark exhibit there. You get to walk in this tunnel where the sharks swim all around you. There were some other really neat fish too. They weren't the hugest sharks in the world, but the boys thought it was neat.

Here are my boys showing off their chops. I don't know about you, but there is a reason why I NEVER want to swim in the ocean.

6 Flags Discovery Kingdom

2008-06-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

This was a little kid spinny ride, but it did the job for me. My stomach needed a break after this one. It was the first ride of the day for us.
Rex riding the rhino round and round.
Eli posing with Grandma on the carousel.
This is the boat ride that swings up and down.
I am sure you have noticed that we are the only people on all of these rides. I would like to say we had the park reserved to ourselves, but we had the next best thing. It was a friday so everyone was still in school. Majority of people there came on school buses for fieldtrips, so all of the little kid rides were wide open! No waiting at all! It was amazing. That is the least crowded I have ever seen any amusement park. When Bob and I went to go on the biggest ride of the park we didn't wait longer than 15 minutes. And that was a FUN ride! It had a huge drop in the beginning. Right at the point where my stomach dropped I looked down and I was only half way down the drop! It was one of the longest rollercoaster rides I have been on and there were plenty of twisty turns upside down and all around. If you couldn't tell, I really like rollercoasters.

Grandma's House!

2008-06-01T16:07:00.000-07:00

Asa with Grandma :)
We got some good swimming time in. It was definately hot!
Asa loved being in the water and splashing around. Here he is drying off.

Ok, ok. I have felt the guilt creep in as I have not blogged in almost 2 months. So here I am. In the beginning of May we were able to go visit my parents in California! We stayed for a week and it was a lot of fun. I flew down there with the boys all by myself. Yes, you heard me right. Me and three boys. I was not looking forward to the traveling at all. I was having anxiety about it, just knowing something would go wrong. So we drive to the airport which is 2 hours away. Everything is great. We go check in. Piece of cake. We go through security. No hiccups at all. We go eat lunch. We ate it all, went potty, with time to spare at the gate. We boarded the plane and the boys were excited. Asa fell asleep on take off and the boys stayed occupied with the things that I brought them. They each had their own backpack full of things to do. (the new spiderman crayons were a hit!) Asa woke up about half way through the flight, but he was all smiles. He just stood on my lap and smiled at everyone who would look at him. I just kept thinking, "wow, I can't believe this is going so well." I kept waiting for a problem to arise. But at the end of the flight I was told by the lady next to me that they were the most well behaved kids she has ever seen on a plane!!! Yeah for me!! That definately made me feel good.
So my parents picked us up and took us to a really fun park called Fairytale Land. There were a bunch of play structures and exhibits featuring different fairytales. The boys had fun there. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera there, but my dad took some pictures. As soon as I get those uploaded I will post them. We had a very fun time with Grandma and Grandpa Bell. On the drive home Eli kept asking us to turn around and go back. The next few posts will be about our trip. Thanks for everything mom and dad!

Like mother, like son

2008-04-10T22:27:00.000-07:00

It makes me so proud to see my boys playing soccer :) It has actually been fun to play with them on the sunny days. I taught Rex how to drop kick and he loves to do that. But they love to play pass and dribble. I need to get some of those little soccer nets. Of course, Bob thinks soccer is a girl sport so I better enjoy them playing it while I can before their dad brainwashes them. So, did you notice his tongue sticking out again? Too funny.

My Favorites

2008-04-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

Boys! Boys! Boys!

Yes, that is what my day is filled with and I love it (at least most of the time). These brothers love each other so much. They are very protective of one another and they play so well. They rarely fight (I will keep my fingers crossed) and if one of them isn't around they get concerned. Rex and Eli get so excited when Asa wakes up in the morning. It is so fun to watch them interact with each other. Last night I was folding clothes in the boys room and I got out the fisher price farm with all the animals. Asa was playing with the animals and I told Eli to come help him make all the sounds on the farm. So he came in and took Asa's hand to touch all of the buttons to make the noises and he would declare, "Asa did it, mommy!" Then Rex came in and they were all playing together. It just melted my heart. I can't believe Asa is to the age where he can actually play around the boys. So cute.

The other night at FHE we asked Rex if he wanted to be able to play with Eli forever. We had to laugh when he said, "No, sometimes we have to sit down and eat our dinner." You can obviously tell what we have had to deal with lately. They will not sit down for dinner and eat in one sitting. Day after day we say, "Come sit down and eat your dinner..." I swear we need to duct tape them to their seats or something. Does anyone else have this problem of meals on wheels? We have tried all the tricks. I guess they just can't get enough playing done in one day that sitting down to eat is a waste of their time. But somehow, miraculously on pizza or hot dog night they know how to sit down and eat everything and even ask for seconds. Go figure :)

Growing so fast

2008-04-10T21:56:00.000-07:00

Asa has learned how to sit up over the last few weeks and he loves it! It brings a whole new dimension to his playing abilities. I just can't believe he is already at the age he can do this. Personally, I like when babies get around 6 months because they really start to become fun. Their personality comes out and they are really playful. He is just a happy boy.

I knew he would like his exersaucer! I am still so happy that I found it on such a good sale. Now that he has more balance he really has started to enjoy playing in it. Like all other babies he really enjoys the toys that make the sounds. It makes for a noisy day, but who can resist that smile? Not me!

Daddy's little helper

2008-04-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

I posted a picture earlier of Eli helping me vaccum and now here he is helping his dad put up the baby's crib. He loves to help. He always comes up to say, "help you, help you." Hopefully it stays that way :) Well, we are starting the slow transition of moving the baby into his own room. He has been sleeping in our room for the last 6 months, so we are putting him in his crib for naps and the first part of the night. He has been ok with it, so hopefully it won't be long before he is sleeping through the night. Wishful thinking?

Hot mamas

2008-03-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Here is me with my sisters in law. Beth (Bob's sis) is expecting her first baby in May. Brianne (Bob's bro's wife) has two kids; Jayni (4), Mason (almost 2). We all got together to do some easter egg hunting.

My little helper

2008-03-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

We have this lap desk thing that has a cushion filled with microbeads and a really slick board on the other end (hence, the desk). Well, the boys love to slide down the stairs on this thing. They will even gently push the other one down so they can get more speed. Well, whenever they do this the microbeads litter my floor (there is a little hole in the side). So here is Eli vaccuming up the mess. He did a really good job too. He always likes to help, no matter what it is.

Golf pros

2008-03-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

Notice the tongue sticking out again? He's like a mini Michael Jordan...except not really. But he used to stick his tongue out too.
Eli struggle a little bit, but what little boy doesn't like to hold a long stick to hit a ball? He is especially crazy about hockey right now. He hasn't ever played (obviously) but the games he went to this winter he loved. He is obsessed and can't stop talking about it. We actually took the boys ice skating the other night, but that didn't end up going so well. Eli looked like Bambi on ice. We still had fun though :)
They didn't actually follow any of the rules. They would just pick up the ball and take it wherever they wanted. They thought it was so cool though. It was fun to go as a family. We haven't had a whole family day in a really long time. Bob was actually able to dedicate the day to us. Yay! We love dad. (This was Easter saturday, by the way.) We also went out to ice cream and got a movie.

Eggstra Fun!

2008-03-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

After they collected all the eggs they were being silly with their cousins. They got waaaay too much candy. They were on a sugar high for 3 days! We weren't very good at regulating the candy, but it wouldn't have mattered because Eli will find it wherever you put it. We ended up having to put the rest of it in a locked room because they kept sneaking eggs and would eat like 6 before we noticed. Boy, did we pay for it. They were monsters on sunday. Needless to say, bedtime was welcomed with open arms.
The boys working on their dyed eggs. They picked out star wars and transformers decorating kits. They are fanatics.
Eli is very proud of his creation.
Don't you love the whole tongue sticking out? He does that whenever he concentrates (as you will see in later posts.)
The boys were very pleased with what the Easter bunny brought...especially the spiderman punching bag. My boys are fighters in training.

I found one!

2008-03-27T14:14:00.000-07:00

The boys got to go on three easter egg hunts this year. This one was at the church.

Doesn't he look like he got caught doing something he shouldn't? He loved looking for eggs.

Here is Asa mouthing the egg that he found.

What a tricky easter bunny :)

Just a little higher!

In the life of a baby

2008-02-25T10:20:00.000-08:00

Asa really likes to play with this book. He enjoys playing on the floor with his toys. Only for so long though. When he is done he lets you know!

Bob and I had been "discussing" getting an exersaucer for Asa and of course he wanted me to get the cheapest one. Well, I wanted to get the best one so he would have more options of toys to play with, but it was twice as much. Since we disagreed we kept putting it off. Then one (great) day I was browsing the baby section at Target and they are restocking with new items. I happened to weave my way through to the exersaucers (which I almost didn't because there was stuff blocking each isle) and the one I wanted was on clearance!! It was half off so it was the same price as what the cheapest one! I was sooo happy. I almost did a cartwheel in the store (ok, maybe not) but I was excited. I love when I get deals like that. So, here is Asa enjoying his new toy. He is still a little small for it, but I can forsee a lot of great days ahead :)

A couple of weeks ago, Asa really discovered his toes. He loves sucking on them! Anytime I start to take his clothes off he starts kicking his feet in excitement and as soon as he is free his feet go right up to his mouth. It is really cute. We are all enjoying him a lot....even Bob! How can you not? We are glad he is part of our family.

Mmmm....real food!

2008-02-25T10:08:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we started Asa on solids. He was really excited. He had been reaching for my food for over a month so I decided to give it a try. So far there hasn't been anything he hasn't liked. He gobbles it all up like a champ!
This was after his very first meal. Can you tell that he liked it?

Both of the boys really like to help out with the baby. They were excited to be able to feed him. As you can see, Asa doesn't care who feeds him. He just wants the food!

We got dumped on!

2008-02-25T09:57:00.000-08:00

Last month we had freezing rain on a Saturday night and then it proceeded to snow and snow and snow the next day. We got 8 inches in the one day. It was crazy! Bob was over in Seattle. Luckily he left when he did because the next day all of the passes were closed for days. So we had a whole lot of snow to play with for a while. Being the cheapskates that we are, we haven't yet purchased a sled. So we let the boys use this piece of cardboard to go down our little hill between our yard and the park. Eli had a great time on it. He went down several times.

Here is Rex trying to start a war with me. J/K The snow was actually really powdery so we couldn't make good snowballs for a couple of days. That didn't stop us from trying!

Here is mom and baby all bundled up for the snow. We only lasted about 20 minutes though :)

Guess who turned 30?!!!

2008-02-25T09:41:00.000-08:00

Not me!! But, Bob officially became old last month :) I know that 30 isn't that old, but it is just crazy to me. How is life going by so quickly? I remember when I was a teenager thinking, "I'm never going to be married with kids. That is so far away!" And here I am with a husband that is 30 and I have 3 kids! How did this happen? It has all been wonderful though. We had a little party for Bob. All of his siblings were here along with a couple of our friends. We played games, visited, and of course had cake. It was a lot of fun!

Here are all of the kids blowing out the cake with Bob. We didn't actually have 30 candles, so we just divided by 10 :)

Here is Rex totally crushing Uncle Tom at the Wii. They were boxing. Tom was the undefeated adult and Rex wanted to play, so we let him. Well, he really did beat Tom...by a lot. Not even close. He just moved his little arms so fast no one could keep up. He proceeded to beat a couple of others. Needless to say he was pretty winded by the end of the night. And this was the first time that Rex had even touched a Wii. (Our friends brought it over to play.) We had fun doing couples bowling and tennis too.
Here is Eli and his cousin Jayni getting a turn. Their arms didn't move quite as fast, but they were having a blast! It was a great night.

First snowman of the year

2008-01-25T15:12:00.000-08:00

Last time that it snowed and stayed for a while we were all sick and I didn't want to venture out there, so this is actually the first snowman we have built this winter. It wasn't even that big because I had Asa in my baby bjorn and it made rolling snow balls pretty difficult. Plus, it was cold!! The boys were happy with the finished product though.

Here is Rex making a snow angel. Oh, how I wish he was always an angel :) At this point Eli had enough because he was freezing. I just came outside real quick to take a picture.

Baby's First Christmas

2008-01-07T10:15:00.000-08:00

I didn't get a lot of great pictures on Christmas morning because I was too busy having fun. But here are a couple of Asa getting in on the christmas action. I can't believe he is 3 months already!

Our Christmas

2008-01-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

My sister's family sent the boys this star wars game and it has been a big hit. They have played it everyday. There is 4 different games you can play on it and Rex is better than me at one of them :)

Tearin' open some fun presents! I really like the imaginext line from fisher price. They have a lot of cool toys.

All I have to say is that this has been the best present ever! This is a star wars sticker book with over 600 stickers and Eli has been in heaven. He gets concerned when he doesn't know where his book is because he likes to carry it all around the house. It was the first present that he opened up and after each present that he opened he would go back and look at his star wars book. Who knew that a $6.00 present could make someone so happy? Santa definately scored with this one. The first sticker he pulled out was a darth vader one. His imitation of darth vader's breathing is a crack up. He is a star wars addict. It is really cute.

They got a new spinosaurus so that their big T-Rex would have someone to battle :) They are still really into dinosaurs, and yes, the T-Rex is still Rex's favorite dino. The boys play really well together. It is fun to watch them and listen to their little conversations. Rex is a really good sharer. He is a great big brother. Eli wants to do everything that Rex does. They spend a good part of the day laughing together. I am glad they are good friends.

Christmas Spirit

2008-01-07T09:42:00.000-08:00

The boys went over to Grandma's house and made some yummy christmas cakes. They had a lot of fun making them. They decided to make one for their friend too and were excited to take it to him. Don't you love the the double rows of teeth smiles? :)

Christmas Eve we had Bob's family over for dinner. Good food was had by all. Originally I thought we would dress all the kids up and have them play out the nativity scene, but then the flu hit our house and all of my motivation went out the window. They still wore towels on their heads as we read the nativity from the bible and we showed them the story with their fisher-price nativity scene. I was a little bummed to find out that our video camera wasn't working so I didn't have it for Christmas morning either. Ugh!

Our life these days...

2007-12-17T14:23:00.000-08:00

Last week Bob and I were really sick. Don't you hate that feeling when you can't stop coughing because your throat is so irritated? Bob's mom was really nice and made a huge pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. That's what we ate for 3 days! We are all feeling better now, but we are still a little sleep deprived. We burn the candle at both ends. We should really start taking better care of ourselves...I mean, we are adults. You think we would know how by now :)
Rex and Eli have been causing some mischief lately. But they get forgiven pretty quickly because they will turn around and do something really cute or thoughtful. Yesterday after church we were sitting at the dinner table and Rex asked, "How did your lesson go today, mom?" I just thought, wow my 4 year old just asked me a question because he cared about me and we can have an actual conversation. It is so fun that my kids are real people. Rex is actually one of the best sharers I know. Everytime he gets a treat from preschool he will save some of it in his hand all the way home to give to Eli. Then the other day when they wanted to play in the snow Eli was throwing a fit because his snow boots didn't fit him and he wanted to wear some like Rex. So Rex took his off and let Eli wear his and he wore regular shoes. It was so sweet! They are best friends and love each other so much. Eli is really trying to talk more and it is fun to watch his vocabulary grow. He is still obsessed with star wars. We have been getting all of the holiday ads and he finds the toys r us ad with the star wars toys and will carry it around all day. It is really funny. We know what will make him happy this Christmas!
Anyway, we are getting really excited for Christmas. Only 8 more days! Hope everyone is enjoying the season and has their shopping done :)

7 years!

2007-12-17T14:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was our anniversary! I can't believe we have been married 7 years already. In seven years we have lived in 5 places (in all different states)! We have made many good friends along the way. We have been so blessed in our marriage and I am so happy to have him by my side. He takes good care of me and our boys. He is so forgiving and he tells me how much he loves me every day. I am never in any doubt about how much he cares for me. He is a hard worker and a good friend and I just hope he knows how much I love him too!

Sweet baby

2007-12-17T13:52:00.000-08:00

Here is some pictures I really liked of Asa. He is going to be 3 months this week! It has gone by so quickly. He is past the really newborn stage. It almost makes me sad that he is getting bigger :)

Take my picture please!

2007-12-17T13:15:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of the pictures that turned out cute from the photo shoot. They are both pretty photogenic. Eli sure got sick of taking pictures though. I think it was mostly because we were at our friend's house and he just wanted to play.

Mommy, Daddy, & Baby

2007-12-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

We love the new edition to our family! It's easy to smile with him in our arms! The other night he slept from 11pm-6am! It was great. Regularly he sleeps 4-5 hour stretches though. He is starting to "play" with little toys now. It is so much fun to watch him try to grab things and to see him learning already. All my friends here can't believe what a content baby he is. I am really blessed! On Saturday we were even able to leave him with Bob's sister for a few hours so we could go out for our anniversary and he took a bottle and did great for her. Yeah!

The Boys

2007-12-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite picture! They are handsome little devils :)

We went to my friend's house for a photo shoot and we came out with some super cute pictures. If I shared them all this would be a never ending blog, but I am posting a few of my favorites. Here are my most favorite guys in the whole world!

Pure joy!

2007-12-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

My baby brings a lot of joy into my life. How can he not with a face like that?! Last week I came home from my young women's activity very unhappy. A lot of things contributed, but the topper was me backing into a parked car with my in-law's surburban. I never even saw the dang thing. I was just thinking in my head, "There goes our christmas!!" This was one of the first times that I left the baby with Bob, so when I came home I went straight to him and he welcomed me with the hugest smile!! I didn't even have to try to get one out of him with a cute voice or anything. He just saw me and was genuinely happy and it just made my heart melt. It really makes that nine months of misery all worth it. He really lifted my spirits. (And just for informational purposes the insurance covered all the damage so our christmas isn't ruined after all! Yeah!!)

Let it snow!

2007-12-06T19:41:00.000-08:00

It was the first snowfall of the year and the boys had a blast. They didn't want to wait for their snowpants so they got their jeans completely wet. Needless to say they weren't out for long because they were freezing. They enjoyed seeing all of their footprints and throwing snowballs. I only braved it long enough to take these pictures :)

Mmmmm! Nothing like fresh snow! Here are my boys being boys. Although I'm not sure if it is just a boy thing because I recall eating snow a time or two....or three or four....:)

Special Day

2007-12-06T19:31:00.001-08:00

Asa was blessed in church over Thanksgiving weekend. It was a wonderful blessing. My parents and grandpa were here and of course all of Bob's family lives here so we were able to have a lot of family there in the blessing circle. There was Grandpa Bell, Grandpa Perkes, Great Grandpa Crook, Uncle Tom, and Uncle Ryan. It was a very special day!

Here is our first family picture with all 5 of us. Eli is the only one not in his church clothes because he threw up at church :) I can't believe how big our family is now! When you say family of 5 it just sounds huge. Like we can't fit comfortably in most cars! But we are happy and that is all that matters!

Tag...I'm it

2007-11-12T17:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my friend Amy Simpson I have been tagged. I had no idea what this was until I went to her site and got my instructions. Apparently I have to write 3 little known facts/habits about myself and then tag 3 more people, post their names, then go to their blog and leave a comment telling them they've been tagged and asking them to read my blog for these instructions. So, we will see if I can surprise any of you with things about me. The people I am going to tag are Brianne Perkes, Abby Leisy, and Mandy Young.

1) While attending BYU-Idaho I was a finalist for Woman of the Year in 2003. I probably didn't deserve it, but I got nominated anyway. I didn't win, but at least I got a new dress out of it. I convinced Bob that I needed one in case I had to have my picture taken that would hang up on the walls of the school for the rest of forever. No picture--but I like the dress. It was a fun experience though.

2) When I was 11 I was walking along a fence and I fell. Thinking I peed my pants, I rushed home only to find blood-soaked underwear. I had to have stitches in my crotch area, but luckily I healed up just fine...and I have 3 kids to prove it :)

3) I am a big napper. I loooovvee my naps. I am a person that really needs their sleep and if I don't get it I am not very pleasant. Luckily I can still get all of my boys to nap so I can have my rest in the afternoons as well. And most of the time I wear an eye mask. Don't mock--it helps! I dare any of you who laughed to go by one and see how well you sleep!

Asa...getting personality!

2007-11-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

Here is our little pumpkin on Halloween. He is already smiling and trying to coo a little bit. I look forward to those moments everyday. He is especially happy in the mornings...he does not take after me in that way!

I was able to capture some really cute expressions from him. He is just so fun to have around!

I don't get many pictures with my kids so I had Bob take one of me and the baby a few weeks ago before church. I think he makes me look good :)

Veterans Day Parade

2007-11-12T17:10:00.000-08:00

Bob had a float in the tri-cities Veterans Day parade and we won first place in the float division! The boys had a blast riding in it. We had 5 50 gallon barrels connected to each other to make a spine and we had signs with his name and office number. The boys waved flags and we also had larger flags connected on each end. It was cold so I rode in the truck with the baby.

Star Wars Family

2007-11-12T14:31:00.000-08:00

This is our family at the ward trunk-or-treat/Halloween Carnival. After we moved here the boys have become obsessed with star wars so that is what we all decided to be this year. As you can see I am princess Leia, Bob is Han Solo, and all of the boys are Jedi's. I personally haven't dressed up for Halloween since junior high so it was a lot of fun for the whole family. The boys got a kick out of it. You better watch out--we have the force with us!

Here are my two little Jedi's in front of the house. I got asked several times that night if they were twins :) They own 6 light sabers, they have action figures, and most of the movies. Eli requests to see star wars everyday.

Here is the happy couple! This was taken at a Halloween party that we went to. It was fun to have a party without the kids (we took Asa of course). We have made some good friends here.

Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

We went on a hayride out to a pumpkin patch with all of Bob's family. The boys got to pick their own pumpkins and we enjoyed some yummy hot cocoa. Later that day we got together to decorate the pumpkins. We found some potato head decorations, so their pumpkins are ninjas. Everyone posed in front of their pumpkins (left to right): Eli, Jayni (cousin), Rex, Uncle Tom and Mason. It was a fun day!

Rex is 4

2007-10-15T19:10:00.000-07:00

The boys helped me frost the cupcakes for Rex's little party. It wasn't a very clean venture, but it was enjoyed by all. The other picture is of Rex enjoying one of his creations with his friends. He got a pirate pinata and had a lot of friends come to celebrate with him. I can't believe he is 4 already! Now we have boys that are 0, 2, & 4. :)

Baby Asa

2007-10-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

As most of you can see, our little Asa looks just like his brothers did when they were born. There is no mistaking they are all related. It's funny that I still get asked if Rex and Eli are twins. Here are just a few pictures to show him off. Doesn't he look precious when he is sleeping? :)

Brotherly love

2007-10-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

The boys absolutely love their "baby." They always want to hold him and have him go where they go. The other day I was getting ready and had to lay Asa on the bed for a while. He started to get fussy so Rex came over and talked to him and gave him his binky. After a few minutes of that he totally soothed him to sleep all by himself!! It was the cutest little moment. Sometimes they will just sit by his chair that we lay him in and hold his hand and they tell me they are "just loving him." When people joke about taking the baby with them they are adament that the baby stays with us because he is a Perkes boy! It is really fun to watch them together.

1st bath

2007-10-15T11:09:00.000-07:00

Here is Asa after his first bath. Like most babies, he hates to be naked. He was much happier after I got the towel on. As you can see he is a very alert baby.

Welcome Asa

2007-10-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

Asa Robert Perkes was born September 20 at 11:59 pm. He was 7 lbs 13 oz and 19 inches long. He came out a healthy boy. I was a little crazy and decided to go all natural for his birth. Big mistake!!! It was awful. I was that lady you hear screaming down the hall. It was very painful. Luckily it didn't last too long. We were all happy to have him out, although I didn't have the strength to hold him right away. Bob held him on top of me for a while. I actually lost quite a bit of blood so they had to work on me for about a half hour before I could hold the baby again. But we are both doing well now and we are happy to have him part of our family. As you can see the boys were thrilled to meet him.

2007-10-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

Rex and Eli were excited to see the baby. We were all anxious to have the baby come out!

Perkes Boys

2007-09-16T09:56:00.000-07:00

Here are the three handsome devils. This was taken earlier in the summer before church. Rex and Eli still look very much like their dad.

9 months pregnant!

2007-09-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

Here is my fat belly! Nothing like showing a little skin for my first blog post :) Keep the laughing to a minimum please. We are expecting little Asa Robert (to be called "Ace") any day now. I've been trying everything, but he is not coming out! Overall, this has been my easiest pregnancy. I am a little nervous to have three little boys running around though.

Here we are!

2007-09-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

I finally got talked into starting a blog since I was being kept out of the loop. I can't promise I will be the best at it, but at least you will get to see some pictures of our cute family :)