That's right, the chickens are no more at the Perkins house. I guess we can't really call it an urban farm anymore. The isn't even anything in the garden except for a few herbs and chard and the fruit trees. The boys have become our priority for now!
Anyway, the poor chickens. They had gone way down in their laying, mostly because they were getting old. Pot Pie was the last to go, and she was one of our original hens that we got 5 years ago. She was the one that John sewed up with a needle and thread once when she was attacked and on her last leg. I picture her with an old smoker's voice telling the other hens the tricks of survival in the Perkins backyard.
After we weren't getting very little eggs, if any, from the chickens, we got lazy with closing the chicken coop at night. So, one by one, something got them during the night. It happened over a few weeks. We're not sure what it was, maybe a raccoon or possum. Whatever it was, it wasn't a pretty sight in the coop in the morning. Poor Ladies. They had a good life in our backyard. Thanks for the eggs, Ladies.
Eli played flag football for the first time this January and loved it. John was the coach, and the kids loved him of course. It was a fun and short season. Jed and Max had fun watching Eli play, too. Max, especially, was ready to get out there and play. He'd say, "bah, bah, bah" over and over and point to the field. One day at practice, I put the flag belt on Max, he got a football, ran over to the huddle, put his little hands on his knees and bent over to be a part of the team huddle, and said, "eh", like he was participating. That was priceless!
I am determined not to let this blog go! I love looking back at posts and videos and pictures too much to stop blogging here. Things have been a tad busy around here, and blogging is always the last on my list of things to do. You know how that goes...the "to do" list. I have about 4 months of pictures and posts to catch up on. So, be ready for some more posts!
Our Christmas this year was a little different from years past because we went to Colorado for the Perkins Family Reunion from Dec. 21-27, so we had to switch things up a bit to make it all work. Usually, we have to squeeze all of our Christmas gatherings with family all into a few days, but not this year. I acutally like how it all worked out because I got all my shopping done early. It all seemed a bit less hectic and stressfull, which was nice.
We ended up going to Dallas to do Christmas with my family on the first weekend in December. It was a whirlwind of a trip but fun! It also happened to be Grandpa's birthday that weekend, so we started out by celebrating his birthday at Casa Milagro, the restaurant they go to every Friday night. We had a fun day the next day opening gifts, playing games, eating good food, and just being together. Then, we headed over to Mammy's Saturday night for our annual Christmas cookie decorating. Sunday, we opened more gifts with Mammy and got to hang out a bit before heading back to Austin that afternoon.
Since we were going to be traveling by airplane and would be away from home on Christmas day, we asked Santa if he could come to our house on the 15th, and he kindly said yes! So, we celebrated our family Christmas early and still included all our little traditions. The boys thought it was great that Santa came to our house early. It was like a special treat from Santa! Eli even wrote a letter for Santa, which said, "We hope that you have a safe trip home. Signature______. Are we the first? Yes or No____. To Santa from The Perkins". Santa even signed it and told us that we weren't the first ones. I thought we were for sure!
The afternoon we had our Christmas, John had to go to Dresden for work. He was gone the 15th-19th, which means that a couple days after he got back, we all had to leave for CO. This was the first time that it wasn't too hard when he was gone, thankfully! Maybe it's because I was trying to pack for our CO trip the whole time. The night we picked John up from the airport, we thought it would be fun to go see The Trail of Lights. It was a great idea until John's plane was delayed, which meant that we got to the trail of lights late, which means the boys were up late. I just wanted to squeeze it in and make it work, but it was a bad idea. To top it off, there were so many people there that night that we could barely walk and the boys couldn't see the light displays very well at all. The Zilker tree was fun to see though! Oh well, a memory was made in the end!
Ah, the Perkins Family Reunion...so glad that's over and done with! It was great to see everyone and fun to be in the snowy mountains, however, the stomach virus that we all passed around was awful! Out of the 21 of us, only two that I know of didn't get sick. I was the last adult to get it, so the whole time I felt like I was walking around in fear of getting the bug. It got me day we left, but luckily it wasn't too bad. We did get to do some sledding, and the cousins had plenty of playtime with each other, including some craft time and snowball fights. Our travel time to and from Colorado was miserable due to flight delays and getting home at 1:00 am when we returned. I think it took us a full week to recover after we got back from our trip. We will look back at the PFR 2012 and laugh...someday!
Here is Max in the cutest snow suit ever!
This snowsuit may have made our trip all worth it!
Here's Jed at his Christmas program at school. He's right in the middle with the Spiderman Santa shirt. I loved how they sang this song...YES! Jesus Loves Me!...
This is Mammy's dancing/singing snowman, which Max loved to play over and over and dance to it!
Max loves balls...footballs, golf balls, basketballs, bouncy balls, big, little, etc.! There have been a few instances when other people were playing basketball or football, and Max follows the ball, saying "ba, ba, ba" over and over until someone gives him the ball. He can roll, throw, and kick them. He also knows how to run for a touchdown if the football is passed to him! Maybe he'll be into sports or be an athlete?...we'll see. (I don't like labels for kids) All I know is that for now, give him a ball and he's happy!
This is Jed's drawing of himself with his heart, Jesus with stretched out arms, and God (in the middle), all inside his body. I love this sweet drawing!
Right after we got back from our Thanksgiving trip to Dallas, Boone stopped eating and was acting sick. He had done this before so I thought he'd be fine when I took him to the vet. The vet said that he was in a lot of pain due to either a blockage from something he ate or possible pancreatitis. To find out what the cause was, he would've needed a $400 ultrasound, but either way, the prognosis wasn't good. He would've required surgery for a blockage, which we didn't want to do, or chronic pain and meds for the pancreatitis. So, after a really hard day of trying to decide what to do, we thought it was best to put Boone down. I thought it would be more apparent that he was sick or that he would be sicker when we had to make the decision. It felt like we had no warning. We shouldn't have to make decisions like that. It just doesn't seem right. Looking back, Boone was pretty miserable, and we made the best decision for Boone. He was 12 years old and lived a really good, long life, so it was time.
Loosing a dog is hard because you get reminders of their absence every day throughout the day. You're used to them always being there and loving you no matter what. Boone was our first child and was such a big part of our family, so he is so missed. The boys are doing pretty well now, but they still talk about how they miss Boone and how Boone is in heaven. One of the hardest things to do was tell the boys that Boone was not going to be around anymore and having them say goodbye to Boone that day. To see them love on him and cry and say goodbye...oh man, I still get choked up thinking about it.
After I posted about Boone on Facebook, it was amazing to see how many lives Boone touched in the 12 and a half years he was with us. Thanks for loving our Boonedog with us. He was truly a gift!
Well, the last two months have flown by since I last posted, but I am determined to keep up this blog. So, I'm going to play catch up a little bit.
We went camping with some friends near New Braunfels. It was cold, so I decided I'd just do a day trip and take Max home with me to spend the night in our warm house while John, Eli, and Jed stayed the night in the tent. It was fun to be outside with friends for a day, and the campsite was beautiful, especially the fall colors!
Here are all the kids that were there. I think there were 8 families in all!
We decided to go to Dallas for Thanksgiving at the last minute, and as always, it was worth the trip! Football was watched and played, good food was eaten and nice quality time with family was had!
I love this description by Jed of what he's thankful for: "Jed is thankful for: Going to school and the grocery store and Spiderman and Max and Eli and playing with Eli even though he plays rough"
We had yet another fun-filled Halloween this year! First, we went to the Sunset Valley Elementary Fall Festival at Eli's school. Thanks to more parent involvement and a bigger, better PTA, the fest was 100 times better than last year. It was outside with bouncy houses, live music, food, several booths, cake walk, haunted houses, and more! As the room parent, I recruited John to volunteer for the 1st grade fishing booth, which was a success!
We also went to Jed's school fall carnival, which was fun as well...perfect for 2-5 year olds. My favorite part is when the kids sing their Halloween songs.
For about 4 years now, we have gone to the pumpkin patch at the Elgin tree farm with the Klentzmans. Jen and I were trying to figure out how and when we were going to go out there this year, which was going to be tricky since Eli and Mia are in school and we had to work around the babies' nap times. Luckily, the first grade classes at SVE planned a field trip out to the Elgin pumpkin patch, so Jen and I ended up taking the little kids there and met Eli and Mia and their classes on their field trip. It worked out perfect! We got to do the duck races, the corn maze (although it was more like a tall weed maze due to the lack of corn from the drought), decorated pumpkins, the hayride, train ride, picnic lunch, and the pumpkin pictures! We snagged Eli and Mia before they got on the bus home for some quick pics, and they almost got left behind! It was really difficult to get 6 kids to look at the camera at the same time. The series of pictures I took of the kids is funny.
And finally, we went trick-or-treating this year in our neighborhood with our friends who live down the street and have three boys, all a year older than each of our boys. They are good friends to have around! They came to our house for some taco soup and then trick-or-treating. Fun times!
As you may notice, Jed had some costume changes. We have plenty of costumes, so it was hard for him to decide which one to wear. He ended up as Storm Shadow (white ninja from GI Joe for the SVE fall fest and for trick-or-treating, Spiderman for his school carnival, and Iron Man when they wore their costumes to a party at our church). Eli was Snake Eyes from GI Joe, and Max was a frog ( the same frog costume that Eli and Jed wore when they were babies). The boys insisted that John and I dress up as well, so we went with our go-to costumes: John was a cowboy for the SVE fall fest and a Baylor basketball player for trick-or-treating (he also wore his uniform to work on Halloween...no one else dressed up, which he knew), and I was a farmer and a cowgirl. Next year, we'll have to put some more thought into our costumes. Jed already told me that I should be the either the pink Power Ranger girl or Scarlett from GI Joe. We'll see...
He had been standing alone for awhile, but not taking steps. Then he practiced going from sitting to standing by himself, without holding on to anything. After he got that down, he would stand up and take one or two steps and then fall. He did that for a couple weeks. Finally, three days after Max's 1st birthday, he started walking across the living room. It seemed like it was out of the blue when he first did it because I looked up and he was walking across the room! It was like he just decided he was ready one afternoon, so he started taking several steps and falling and doing that over and over. Now, about two weeks later, Max is walking about 85% of the time. When I see Max walking, it still takes me awhile for it to sink in. It just doesn't seem right! Now we're in the phase of having to keep an eye on him at all times! He's all over the place!
I'll say it again...that year flew by! My baby boy is 1 year old!
We had a small party at our house, and it was just perfect. There were lots of babies who had fun playing with toys and balloons all over the floor, we enjoyed good food, friends, and cupcakes. Max loved his birthday cupcake and made a mess while eating it, which made for great 1st birthday party pictures.
On Max's actual birthday, we had a play date with some friends at Zilker Park. Harper, who is two weeks older than Max and Eliza, who is one week younger than Max plus their moms, who are my friends, met us there. We rode on the little train called the Zilker Zephyr, swung in the swing, and had a picnic lunch. It was fun for all!
Max is learning new things and accomplishing new skills daily, it seems. As a matter of fact, as I was in the process of writing this blog post (I started it a couple days ago), Max has started walking! I'll write all about that and include a video in a separate post.
He is saying more words, (his favorite lately is "hi"), signing "more", "dog", and "all done", and doing things to make us laugh, like his surprised face that you see in a lot of the pictures, or laughing, or making funny faces. Max is copying what we do, especially if we think it's funny. His babbles are sounding more like words, and he wants to talk but it's not coming out right!
This is a fun stage, but definitely a hands on stage for us since Max is mobile and very curious, not to mention very fast and stealthy about getting into things. His favorite thing to snatch are markers. One minute he's right next to me and the next, he's found a marker and it's all over his face. Eli and Jed help us keep track of Max, too, which is helpful.
Max's little personality is emerging more and more. I just wish he would slow down because he's already growing up too fast!
Do other kids have cool notes from their moms in their lunch boxes? I doubt it. Does Eli think the notes are cool or dorky? It doesn't matter because I sure have fun leaving them in Eli's lunches!
I am finally posting about Jed's birthday now that it's almost Max's birthday next week! Jed had a great birthday. He celebrated his birthday at his school with some birthday cookies for his class at snack time. His birthday fell on a Saturday this year, so he woke up to birthday pancakes and presents. Then we had our usual party at the park, and it was a hit! Jed chose a Lego Star Wars theme this year.
Jed is definitely a typical four year old. He's becoming more independent by helping himself to snacks, making himself lunch, and doing chores and getting money each week. He's also started to draw very detailed pictures and color very neatly in the lines. He's quite the artist! Jed is counting and writing numbers and letters, too. My favorite number that he says is "eleventeen". He says some funny words I want to remember, like "seer-ee-up" for syrup and the way he says past tense works, like "waketed up" for woke up or "runded" for ran. Jed is also in the beginning stages of learning to ride his bike with pedals!
The years go by so fast! I wish I could remember every detail! That is one reason I do this blog...helps me remember.
Baylor played SMU this year, so we thought it would be fun to meet Grandpa (SMU football alum) and Gramma Ninny in Waco to go to the game. The boys had never been to a college football game, so it was fun for them to see all the action. John and I took a chance because we knew it would be a late night and very hot that day...and it was very very hot, too! It was worth it though.
I feel like I grew up going to SMU football games, so it was fun to sit in the SMU section with my dad and hear all the SMU songs and chants again. It brought back fun memories. Baylor beat SMU (duh), but Grandpa was a good sport. Go BU!
Remember that baby Yoda costume I had for Max when he was first born last year? I needed to give it back to my friend, so I had to get a few more pictures of Max in it before I gave it back. I think it is the cutest costume ever!
Max went from this:
To this:
He's got the light saber fighting down, thanks to his brothers!
On Labor Day weekend, we went to the Lego Fest at the Austin Convention Center. It was a ton of people and a ton of Legos. The boys were in Lego heaven! They had different areas to build, mostly separated by the types of Legos, as well as building competitions, Lego stores, Lego movies to watch, but my favorite thing was the giant characters built all out of Legos. John and the boys also had fun building Lego race cars and racing them down the ramp. I think they had everything you could think of to do and stuff for all ages! It was all fun until it was time to go and we were all hungry and deciding what to do for lunch...but we don't need to remember that part! I think we'll go again if they have it next year, but we'll come prepared and pack a lunch!
Bath! Max started saying bath ("ba") at around 9 months old. He loves the bath, so of course it was his first word! Since then, he's said other words, like hi "I", Boone "boo", Mama, Dada, book "buh", yay "ay", and most recently Eli "eeyah". Now that he's almost 1, his babbles are sounding more and more like words. It's fun to hear!
It's hard to capture him talking on video, but I was able to get him saying bath this time. This video is from a couple months ago...
Eli played flag football for the first time this January and loved it. John was the coach, and the kids loved him of course. It was a fun and short season. Jed and Max had fun watching Eli play, too. Max, especially, was ready to get out there and play. He'd say, "bah, bah, bah" over and over and point to the field. One day at practice, I put the flag belt on Max, he got a football, ran over to the huddle, put his little hands on his knees and bent over to be a part of the team huddle, and said, "eh", like he was participating. That was priceless!
Our Christmas this year was a little different from years past because we went to Colorado for the Perkins Family Reunion from Dec. 21-27, so we had to switch things up a bit to make it all work. Usually, we have to squeeze all of our Christmas gatherings with family all into a few days, but not this year. I acutally like how it all worked out because I got all my shopping done early. It all seemed a bit less hectic and stressfull, which was nice.
We miss our Boonedog so much!
Jed is definitely a typical four year old. He's becoming more independent by helping himself to snacks, making himself lunch, and doing chores and getting money each week. He's also started to draw very detailed pictures and color very neatly in the lines. He's quite the artist! Jed is counting and writing numbers and letters, too. My favorite number that he says is "eleventeen". He says some funny words I want to remember, like "seer-ee-up" for syrup and the way he says past tense works, like "waketed up" for woke up or "runded" for ran. Jed is also in the beginning stages of learning to ride his bike with pedals!
