Belly Shots

I'm 39 weeks and counting! My official due date is next Saturday, the 20th. Now, it's just a waiting game. I'm in no real hurry to have this baby for now because I know what's coming and I'd like to enjoy these last days of a little bit more freedom and being a family of three. We are excited to add another baby to the family and be a family of four, don't get me wrong, we'll just enjoy our time for now. I'm not miserably uncomfortable right now either. That might change soon, though! I thought I'd post a couple pictures of my big belly. I actually think my belly looks smaller in these pictures than it really is. My midwife is predicting a big baby...no surprise there! If he comes tomorrow during Hurricane Ike, we might have to reconsider the name! Ike Perkins...hmmm...

Backyard Fun!

A couple weeks ago, we invested in a playset for our backyard. It's the real deal with a fort, ladder, rock climing ladder, swings, and a slide. We're hoping this will provide hours of playtime and entertainment for the boys for years to come. We got a good deal on it from Craig's list. Eli's enjoyed it so far but still trying to master getting on the swings without help. He calls the playset his "house". Thanks to Dada for putting in the hours to put it together!

Playin' Around

Eli's into doing "cool tricks" for us lately. We hear, "watch this cool trick!" many times a day. The tricks usually involve falling on the floor or kicking his leg up. Here's one that IS pretty cool (it's the first time he actually got the spoon to stay on his nose):


Eli's imagination has taken off lately as well. He likes to talk to his animals or toys and play with them, take care of them, watch a show with them, and especially take them places in the car. He usually calls them his "guys". Here's a picture of "Puppy" and "Buddy the Backhoe", two of his favorites.


And here's a picture of Eli just being silly wearing a couple of my headbands:

Eli the Storyteller

Lately, Eli has been wanting us to tell him stories at bedtime instead of singing songs. The other morning, he decided he was going to tell us the stories.

Here's Eli's version of The Three Little Pigs:


And here's another story, which I think is a combo of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Pigs

Just Pictures

How do you like the new look?

Here are some recent pictures for your enjoyment...

Grape face

Eli's new floaty swim suit...think he likes it?









The black eye I got from a projectile toy thrown by Eli on accident.

Recent Prego Pics

What a difference one week makes! Maybe it's just the camera angle or what I was wearing, but according to these pictues it looks like I grew a lot in one week!
33 weeks pregnant

34 weeks pregnant

Witty Boy

Eli came up with this himself! Fork lifts are very intriguing in Eli's world right now.

New Additions to the Family

Okay, so this might change your mind about what we should name this blog. We have more chickens! John and Eli went and picked out two chicks and one adult chicken. Some of our neighbors have told us that they'd like to buy some eggs from us, so John decided to get more chickens so we could do that. He's really been wanting to get more for awhile, and this was a good excuse to do it.


Eli and John named the new hen Cacciatore. Eli's been calling her Ketchup for short. We don't know exactly what kind of chicken she is, but she's pretty with white and black feathers. The other four chickens are taking awhile to warm up to her, but it will come once they figure out the pecking order.

The chicks are staying in their box in the garage until they get a little older. It's hot enough that they don't even need a heat lamp. They will be exotic-looking chickens with longer necks. Supposedly they are both hens, but we're a little suspicious because the brown one is pretty feisty and aggressive. Hopefully we're not surprised when we find out we have a rooster! Eli loves holding them and petting them and checking on them. It'll be fun to watch them grow.
Oh, and Boone's adjusting well to the new additions, too. He better get used to it!

New Names

Changes are ahead...a lot of changes! First, we need to change up this blog since Eli will be sharing his blog with his little brother, along with just about everything else! So, what do we call the blog now? Maybe we should vote on it. Any ideas? John likes The Perkins Family Urban Farm and Brewery, I'm thinking maybe just Eli and Jed, or maybe The Perkins Clan. Here's a poll to vote on the name just for the fun of it:

poll by twiigs.com

Also, we think we have a name for the new baby on the way. Eli's name of Mee-maow is nice, but I think we're going to go with........Jed Michael. Michael is my dad's name, and we just like Jed. I also realized that it's our initials: John, Eli, Darby. NO, it's not like Jed Clampett! We are reinventing the name Jed to a more hip, urban farmer! Our boy is no hillbilly!

So, most likely the next time you check the blog, it will have a different name and a different look.

Colorado Vacation Recap

We spent last week in Estes Park, Colorado with John's family and had a great time! Eli got to spend time with his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and his cousins, Will and Alex, who are 6 months younger than him and live in Denver. So, it was loud and active when they were all together, but lots of fun! Each day we did a different activity and most were firsts for Eli. We had a lot of time to relax as well, which was nice. Here's the recap:
Day One: Eli got to ride on a pony named Nibbles. We weren't sure if he'd like it or be too scared, but Eli was a natural at riding horses!


Day two: We went to play miniature golf. Eli got tired of waiting on the people in front of us, so we had to skip a few holes. He would sort of start at the end of the putting green and hit it and then pick up his ball and move it right next to the hole and put from there. Eli definitely knew the color of each of our balls and knew he was to hit his green ball. He just didn't know to get out of the way when John or I were trying to hit ours.


Day Three: Eli went fishing and caught a fish. We went to a place called Trout Haven where they have a pond stocked full of trout. Therefore, it was not difficult to catch a fish. We caught four fish total (Eli, Will, and Alex each caught one, and John caught the last one since Eli was loosing interest and I had no luck catching one) and we ate them for lunch the next day...yummy!





Day Four: Aunt Laura, Aunt Lisa, John, and myself took Eli and Alex to go ride a little kiddie train, which they enjoyed. Poor Will got sick. John and Eli also rode a go kart. Eli said his go kart was like Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars because it was red and very fast! It was hilarious watching John and Eli because John barely fit in it and you could barely see Eli. Eli's face was expressionless the whole time, but I know he enjoyed it because we are still hearing about his go kart ride.


















Day Five: Eli, John, myself, Aunt Laura, and Alex (Will was still sick) went on a hiking adventure to Bear Lake. It was an easy hike around Bear Lake although hiking in the altitude while 7 months pregnant isn't easy, I found out! Eli and Alex had a blast and lead the way the whole time. They did stop to check out butterflies and other interesting things along the way (while I rested on the benches). We ended our adventure with a picnic by the lake. Very beautiful and fun!





















To finish our time in Estes, John and I got to go out to celebrate our 10 year anniversary! We went to a nice dinner at Mary's Lake Lodge and then walked around in downtown Estes for awhile. The view at dinner was amazing (the picture doesn't do it justice). The fact that we got to see it at sunset was even better. I took a picture of our yummy dessert of chocolate "enrobed" strawberries because it was too pretty not to. Dinner was delicious by the way.
















And finally, here are some more pictures of the trip:
The view from our cabin






John and Eli taking in the view

















Eli wearing his "rain hat and rain jacket" on the one day it rained






Playing at the park









Storytime with Uncle Dan

Special Underwear

Big news! Eli has now been wearing "special" or "big boy" underwear full time for a week straight now! He is doing a great job going pee pee and poo poo on the potty. We've not had any accidents this whole week. Yay! He's doing a great job telling us when he has to go, and we've been doing a good job at asking him, too. A couple times, he's even gone to the potty without me asking. I've gone to see what he's up to after hearing silence, and I've found him on the potty! This is very exciting! Let's hope this continues! I hope I didn't jinx it with this post. As you can see in the pictures, Eli picked out some really cool underwear. They have characters from the movie Cars. They are the cutest little things I've ever seen...and Eli wearing them makes it even more cute! These pictures have undies with Mator on them. We're leaving for Colorado on Saturday for a week, so hopefully we can keep up this up. We'll try!