My birthday was so much fun this year! I was showered with love and fun surprises. We had the traditional family dinner with my fam and Luke's parents on the Sunday preceding my birthday. My mom made some delicious enchiladas and the most beautiful spring birthday cake I've ever seen! I will have to post pictures once I can get a hold of them. After dinner we all gathered in our family room and everyone went around saying something they appreciate about me. This, too, is a family tradition, and let me tell you it is just so nice! It's so nice to hear all your siblings and everyone tell you how much they love you, at least once a year. It turned out to be a great day.
On my actual birthday that Wednesday I woke up to surprise Toaster Strudels for breakfast! They are one of my favorite breakfast foods! (That should really be dessert, considering the sugary fruit-flavored filling and icing on top!) I ate three of them immediately, and consequently felt rather sick. Then, rather than give my body a break, I ate the FastBreak mom and dad Perkins had given me for my birthday (my favorite candy bar) and several oatmeal cookies that night. My body was seriously displeased, as it had every right to be, and I swore not to eat sweets again for awhile. I didn't last. Sweets are too yummy! But I have been good about just having a little bit on the days I do have it, so I feel pretty decent about that.
The following Saturday Luke took me on a surprise date. We went out for lunch at a little place near our house called "Flour Girls and Dough Boys." They make soup, sandwiches, meat pies, and desserts all from scratch, and it was soooo good! We tried a tomato basil soup that was divine, as well as a chicken and guacamole panini and a fresh green salad. We topped it off with a mint brownie (the kind with a layer of mint ganache on top, and a chocolate topping over that). It was very rich, but very good! Luckily we were just sharing one, since they are huge! I certainly couldn't have eaten it all on my own, and Luke had to finish it off for me as it was.
After that we went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3-D! Now, I have never in my life seen a movie in 3-D, and I was slightly worried that it would freak me out if anything came flying at me out of the screen, but it ended up being so cool, and not the least bit invasive. :) Also, my opinion on the movie itself: SO MUCH FUN!!!! I was completely expecting it to be somewhat weird/creepy, considering how the posters make it look and the fact that Tim Burton is the director, but it wasn't! It turned out so cool! Luke and I want to own it for sure. I would suggest everyone go see it! There is a somewhat scary creature in it (the Jabberwocky), so maybe little tiny kids would not like that part, but other than that it was so fun and fanciful, and just great!
After that we went to Barnes and Noble to look around, and I found a book called Raising Boys that I decided to buy after sampling a chapter or two in the store.
Thus my birthday was one of endless bliss and happiness (aside from the sugar damage mid-week). :)
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
A Wish Come True!
This picture is his hand. If you can't tell he's saying "Please, please, hold the applause. I know I'm amazing already, thank you."
Here you can see him curled up inside Mommy from above. The two long horizontal shapes are his legs, the halfway cut off part on the right is his head/chestish area, and I believe that the diagonal swoosh is part of an arm.
This picture is his profile.
This one is a confirmation of his boy-ness.
This last one is his tiny foot!!! Isn't he just adorable! This is so much fun for me! I love it!
It was funny when we were there with the Sonographer, Philip, because he said "it's a boy!" and Andrea said "How can you tell?" and Philip whispered to her "He has a penis!" I'll never let her forget that. It was such an amazing thing to see him there all developed and looking just like he should and he was even kicking and moving around! SO MUCH FUN!!!
The following is our beautiful baby boy from the outside at 19 weeks:
Isn't Andrea GORGEOUS? Like I said, the kid doesn't have a chance. With genes from a gal like her and a guy like me, he's destined to be a heartbreaker.
After we did the sonogram thing all I had on my mind the whole rest of the day was babies! I just can't wait for him to be here! When we got home that evening we went to the library and picked out a baby name book and "The Happiest Baby on the Block" DVD that I, yes I, had on reserve and we spent the remainder of the evening going through EVERY boy name in the book (about 30,000). It's going to take a lot more work than that though. The book had some pretty stupid names, it even suggested "Primerica" as a name. Girl names are easy for us. They just have to sound nice, pretty, and somewhat classic. Boy names are TOUGH! You can't just name him anything. The name's gotta be strong and steadfast, and worthy of a man like he's going to become, you know? So we'll be working on that for a while.
We also found a little break that night to watch the "Happiest Baby . . ." DVD. It teaches you how to calm your baby when it's crying and upset. It was awesome! I hope that stuff really works. In fact, I was so excited about the techniques that I had to try them on Andrea to see if they would make her "The Happiest Wife on the Block." So I swaddled her:
She claimed she hated being so confined, not being able to move and all that, but as you can see from the picture, she's clearly loving it!
This is Luke, signing off.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day was always one of my favorite holidays growing up. My mom would often make us heart-shaped pancakes with strawberry topping and whipped cream for breakfast, and you got to give little Valentine cards to everyone in class and make cool pouches or boxes to put them in, and of course there was tons of candy! My Dad would bring home roses for all his special girls too, and who wouldn't love that? Thus, Valentine's has always been a favorite with me and Luke has done a wonderful job of making it a special day for me too. This year he woke me up bright and early to see my surprise roses. He also got me two Bath and Body cream lotions and body wash all in my favorite Japanese Cherry Blossom scent. I am so pampered!
I really have the best husband in the whole world for me. He always does simple little things for me that make me feel loved and beautiful. To show him my appreciation for him, I gave him Valentine's balloons with heart-shaped love notes inside and a bag of his favorite cherry Juju hearts. I wanted to put them inside the balloons too, but after a long fight with the first one I gave up and just gave him the bag. Have you ever tried to put candy in a balloon? It's HARD!
After doing some spring cleaning, making a trip to the D.I., boxing up some of our stuff to put in storage, and going grocery shopping, we enjoyed a delectable dinner of fettuccine alfredo with red peppers, broccoli, and chicken in the sauce. It was sooooooo good.
Wonderful as the whole day was, we didn't escape without a bit of a tragedy. We made heart-shaped pancakes with strawberry topping and whipped cream for breakfast to keep tradition, and naturally had the butter out to put on them. Well, I was going back for seconds, and I knocked the top of the butter dish off the counter and it shattered on our kitchen floor. This wouldn't have been such a big deal, if it hadn't been the very butter dish that Luke proposed to me with. I bawled for an hour, and poor Luke had to sit and hold me the whole time. Ha ha ha! It was pretty devastating. But I've decided maybe it's better that it happened now, so that later on when one of our poor kids accidentally broke it (as break it they must, sooner or later) they wouldn't have the wrath of their mom come down on their heads. Luke's going to make a new one, and it now seems inevitable that it too will end up broken at some point, but now we'll just laugh and add it to the pile, so to speak.
The remains of our butter dish.
All in all, it was a wonderful, simple Valentine's Day, and, aside from my devastation with the butter dish, I wouldn't have had it any other way!
I really have the best husband in the whole world for me. He always does simple little things for me that make me feel loved and beautiful. To show him my appreciation for him, I gave him Valentine's balloons with heart-shaped love notes inside and a bag of his favorite cherry Juju hearts. I wanted to put them inside the balloons too, but after a long fight with the first one I gave up and just gave him the bag. Have you ever tried to put candy in a balloon? It's HARD!
After doing some spring cleaning, making a trip to the D.I., boxing up some of our stuff to put in storage, and going grocery shopping, we enjoyed a delectable dinner of fettuccine alfredo with red peppers, broccoli, and chicken in the sauce. It was sooooooo good.
Wonderful as the whole day was, we didn't escape without a bit of a tragedy. We made heart-shaped pancakes with strawberry topping and whipped cream for breakfast to keep tradition, and naturally had the butter out to put on them. Well, I was going back for seconds, and I knocked the top of the butter dish off the counter and it shattered on our kitchen floor. This wouldn't have been such a big deal, if it hadn't been the very butter dish that Luke proposed to me with. I bawled for an hour, and poor Luke had to sit and hold me the whole time. Ha ha ha! It was pretty devastating. But I've decided maybe it's better that it happened now, so that later on when one of our poor kids accidentally broke it (as break it they must, sooner or later) they wouldn't have the wrath of their mom come down on their heads. Luke's going to make a new one, and it now seems inevitable that it too will end up broken at some point, but now we'll just laugh and add it to the pile, so to speak.
The remains of our butter dish.
All in all, it was a wonderful, simple Valentine's Day, and, aside from my devastation with the butter dish, I wouldn't have had it any other way!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Baby's Heartbeat!
We had our second prenatal appointment today. It was so great! Last time the midwife we met with couldn't find the baby's heartbeat because it just wasn't quite big enough, and I wasn't far enough along. This time we met with a midwife named Brigitte who we have chosen to be our permanent midwife for the rest of my pregnancy. She squirted the gel on and put the little machine to my belly and two seconds later we were hearing our baby's heartbeat thumping 150-160 beats per minute! It was so cool! How neat to actually hear the little baby that's growing inside me!
They also took my blood this time. I was pretty nervous, never having given blood before. I was worried I'd be able to feel it being sucked out of my veins and I was just sure I would die. As it turned out I was perfectly fine! I even was watching as my blood filled up the three little tubes and was somewhat fascinated. Poor Luke had to look away. Blood just doesn't agree with him. I'm so glad he was with me though. He is so supportive! He's already the best husband ever, and soon he'll be the best daddy too! Ha ha!
Now for the most exciting news of all. Next time we go in for a prenatal appointment, which is roughly a month away, we will find out what blood type I am (which will be really fun for me, since I have no idea what it is) and a day or two later we will have an ulrasound to see that all is well with the baby and to find out what gender it is!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!! I can hardly wait. :)
They also took my blood this time. I was pretty nervous, never having given blood before. I was worried I'd be able to feel it being sucked out of my veins and I was just sure I would die. As it turned out I was perfectly fine! I even was watching as my blood filled up the three little tubes and was somewhat fascinated. Poor Luke had to look away. Blood just doesn't agree with him. I'm so glad he was with me though. He is so supportive! He's already the best husband ever, and soon he'll be the best daddy too! Ha ha!
Now for the most exciting news of all. Next time we go in for a prenatal appointment, which is roughly a month away, we will find out what blood type I am (which will be really fun for me, since I have no idea what it is) and a day or two later we will have an ulrasound to see that all is well with the baby and to find out what gender it is!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!! I can hardly wait. :)
Monday, January 18, 2010
Me at Three Months
I can't believe my first trimester is already over! And I must say I'm grateful for it. I don't feel grossed out near as often, although I still like to sleep a lot. And the baby is getting so big! Okay, so maybe I'm not exactly showing yet, more like just looking thicker, but still! The baby is now three and a half inches long (the length of a lemon) and is making faces and peeing! Ha ha ha! I love it! Anyway, I just wanted to post this picture, and hope to continue posting one once a month from now on to show my/baby's progress.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Go figure.
jtlyk, this is Luke, not Andrea, writing this post.
I got home from my young men's activity last night with my mind made up: I WANT A BOY!
We were at the young mens president's house having a planning meeting, and after we were done with the meeting we all were playing Mario for the wii, the one where all four people can play at the same time. The YM President has two sons, I'm not sure how old, but they must be like 6 and 8 or something. Anyway, his wife had the kids in a different room in the house so they wouldn't interfere with the planning meeting I'm guessing. Well, once the mario brothers started, it got pretty loud and crazy, and after about ten minutes the older of the two little boys peaked into the room and shyly said "Dad . . . Mom said maybe I could come and watch." His Dad said "yeah, you can watch, come here!" and he spread his arms and picked up his son and sat him on his lap and was talking with him and laughing with him the rest of the night! About five minutes later the other son crept out and came over to hang out with his Dad too. IT WAS SOOO COOL!!! They were like, bonding . . . you know? I want a son sooo bad!
Andrea wants a girl . . . so she can dress her up and make her color strawberry shortcake coloring books n'stuff I suppose. pft, whatever.
So go figure, here we stand. Andrea, the Mom, would like a little girl, but I, the Dad, will be getting a little boy :)!
I do want boys and girls though, and a good amount of each. So I guess it doesn't really matter who comes first so long as we keep going so we can get my son down here asap!
I got home from my young men's activity last night with my mind made up: I WANT A BOY!
We were at the young mens president's house having a planning meeting, and after we were done with the meeting we all were playing Mario for the wii, the one where all four people can play at the same time. The YM President has two sons, I'm not sure how old, but they must be like 6 and 8 or something. Anyway, his wife had the kids in a different room in the house so they wouldn't interfere with the planning meeting I'm guessing. Well, once the mario brothers started, it got pretty loud and crazy, and after about ten minutes the older of the two little boys peaked into the room and shyly said "Dad . . . Mom said maybe I could come and watch." His Dad said "yeah, you can watch, come here!" and he spread his arms and picked up his son and sat him on his lap and was talking with him and laughing with him the rest of the night! About five minutes later the other son crept out and came over to hang out with his Dad too. IT WAS SOOO COOL!!! They were like, bonding . . . you know? I want a son sooo bad!
Andrea wants a girl . . . so she can dress her up and make her color strawberry shortcake coloring books n'stuff I suppose. pft, whatever.
So go figure, here we stand. Andrea, the Mom, would like a little girl, but I, the Dad, will be getting a little boy :)!
I do want boys and girls though, and a good amount of each. So I guess it doesn't really matter who comes first so long as we keep going so we can get my son down here asap!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
November, December, and the Big News!!!
Most of November involved doing school, and work, and school, and work, and more school, and more work, and then Thanksgiving! Which was a very nice break indeed. We spent Thanksgiving Day with Luke's family at his house where we dined on fine china!! Certainly a first for me. :) It was too much fun! Luke and I had decided that we'd better tell our parents our big news, a.k.a., that I'm PREGNANT!!! over the break, as I was throwing up and feeling rather sick, and things like that don't go unnoticed. So we prepared a little frame for his parents that said, "Grandbaby Perkins coming Summer 2010!!!" and at the end of the night Luke brought it upstairs and handed it to his dad. His dad told mom Perkins to come see, and by that time there was enough sly smiling going on that Lauren caught on and immediately said, "I knew it!!" Ha ha ha! It was fun. Everyone was so nice and excited about it.
Then we trekked over to my parent's house to stay the night and spend the next day with my fam. We waited for Heidi and Devin to arrive, then made everyone haul themselves upstairs and away from their movie, on the pretext of coming up to see Heidi and Devin and their cute kittens they were tending. They grumbled, but they came. After allowing everyone to greet and talk for just a minute we handed my mom a gift bag saying we got her something. Inside was a baby's onesie that said, "What happens at Grandma's, stays at Grandma's." Too cute! And this will be my mom's first grandchild, so we thought it was appropriate. :) Well, she started opening it and hadn't even gotten it all the way out of the bag when she screamed, "Shut up you stupid idiot!! Are you serious???" Ha ha ha ha ha! Classic mom. The screaming continued, and Heidi quickly realized what was going on and immediately starts screaming and bawling and saying, "Oh my gosh!!!" and then Samantha catches on as well and starts screaming and crying too, and they all mob me in a huge hug. Ha ha ha! My dad, Ronny, Devin, and the boys all realized what was going on sometime during the screaming, and they all gave me and Luke hugs too. And of course immediately afterward mom has gathered three books and some pregnancy tea for me, and Heidi is suggesting a gel she knows about that helps with stomach tone and stretch marks, and we're all talking like crazy about what's going on. Needless to say, the movie did not continue until quite a while after that, and by that point Luke and I were tuckered out so we went to bed with no more ado.
The next day was spent decorating the house for Christmas and then we all went out to eat and to see New Moon afterward. What a disappointment! Not that my expectations were high. They weren't. Which makes it all the worse that it still managed to disappoint me! In my opinion it was a worse job than Twilight. They may have had better special effects (admittedly, the wolves turned out well) but the script was horrifying, the makeup overdone to the point of being clownish, and the acting sadly without emotion or variation of any kind. Add to that the unbelievably silly lines Jacob kept spouting throughout, and you have a disaster of a movie. Honestly, they could/can do so much better!!! Why they fail is beyond me.
At any rate, we all swallowed that and of course will be attending Eclipse at the same time next year. No badly made movie can stop our tradition, no sir! Ha!
The next day we had a multi-birthday celebration at Luke's house for James, Sarah, Luke, Dad Perkins, and Lauren. We had a delicious lunch, opened presents, went and took the traditional Santa picture, played some kickball, and finished with a delectable cake and cupcakes, compliments of Mom Perkins and Dippidee's respectively. Having gotten our fill of good food, family, and treats, we headed back home to resume the battle against failing school.
Remarkably, we've come out quite well. Luke, of course, will have managed a much better gpa than I, but I like to use all kinds of excuses like, "Well it's my senior year" and "I'm really not as good at my major as everyone else" and, of course, "I am pregnant." Ha ha ha! Nevertheless, with finals done for Luke and halfway through for myself, I think we haven't done half bad.
The other big news, besides the little blueberry that's growing inside me of course, is that Heidi and Devin were sealed!! On December 12, exactly a year from their marriage. Luke and I, as well as my parents and Devin's parents got to go through the session with them at the Salt Lake Temple, and they even asked Luke and I to be the witness couple! That was so neat! I got to sit right by Heidi the whole time. Afterward we went straight to the sealing room, where Devin's sister and her husband joined us, and they were sealed. It was so beautiful and wonderful! I'm extremely happy for them both.
After the sealing we went to eat at Tucano's (always a pleasure) and then Luke and I strolled around Temple Square for a moment looking at some of the lights, and caught the first half of the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert in the tabernacle that was going on across the street at the conference center. We left early in order to avoid traffic, but I imagine the rest was quite beautiful.
So there's the update! I will add pictures as soon as I have them, and this post shall be complete.
Then we trekked over to my parent's house to stay the night and spend the next day with my fam. We waited for Heidi and Devin to arrive, then made everyone haul themselves upstairs and away from their movie, on the pretext of coming up to see Heidi and Devin and their cute kittens they were tending. They grumbled, but they came. After allowing everyone to greet and talk for just a minute we handed my mom a gift bag saying we got her something. Inside was a baby's onesie that said, "What happens at Grandma's, stays at Grandma's." Too cute! And this will be my mom's first grandchild, so we thought it was appropriate. :) Well, she started opening it and hadn't even gotten it all the way out of the bag when she screamed, "Shut up you stupid idiot!! Are you serious???" Ha ha ha ha ha! Classic mom. The screaming continued, and Heidi quickly realized what was going on and immediately starts screaming and bawling and saying, "Oh my gosh!!!" and then Samantha catches on as well and starts screaming and crying too, and they all mob me in a huge hug. Ha ha ha! My dad, Ronny, Devin, and the boys all realized what was going on sometime during the screaming, and they all gave me and Luke hugs too. And of course immediately afterward mom has gathered three books and some pregnancy tea for me, and Heidi is suggesting a gel she knows about that helps with stomach tone and stretch marks, and we're all talking like crazy about what's going on. Needless to say, the movie did not continue until quite a while after that, and by that point Luke and I were tuckered out so we went to bed with no more ado.
The next day was spent decorating the house for Christmas and then we all went out to eat and to see New Moon afterward. What a disappointment! Not that my expectations were high. They weren't. Which makes it all the worse that it still managed to disappoint me! In my opinion it was a worse job than Twilight. They may have had better special effects (admittedly, the wolves turned out well) but the script was horrifying, the makeup overdone to the point of being clownish, and the acting sadly without emotion or variation of any kind. Add to that the unbelievably silly lines Jacob kept spouting throughout, and you have a disaster of a movie. Honestly, they could/can do so much better!!! Why they fail is beyond me.
At any rate, we all swallowed that and of course will be attending Eclipse at the same time next year. No badly made movie can stop our tradition, no sir! Ha!
The next day we had a multi-birthday celebration at Luke's house for James, Sarah, Luke, Dad Perkins, and Lauren. We had a delicious lunch, opened presents, went and took the traditional Santa picture, played some kickball, and finished with a delectable cake and cupcakes, compliments of Mom Perkins and Dippidee's respectively. Having gotten our fill of good food, family, and treats, we headed back home to resume the battle against failing school.
Remarkably, we've come out quite well. Luke, of course, will have managed a much better gpa than I, but I like to use all kinds of excuses like, "Well it's my senior year" and "I'm really not as good at my major as everyone else" and, of course, "I am pregnant." Ha ha ha! Nevertheless, with finals done for Luke and halfway through for myself, I think we haven't done half bad.
The other big news, besides the little blueberry that's growing inside me of course, is that Heidi and Devin were sealed!! On December 12, exactly a year from their marriage. Luke and I, as well as my parents and Devin's parents got to go through the session with them at the Salt Lake Temple, and they even asked Luke and I to be the witness couple! That was so neat! I got to sit right by Heidi the whole time. Afterward we went straight to the sealing room, where Devin's sister and her husband joined us, and they were sealed. It was so beautiful and wonderful! I'm extremely happy for them both.
After the sealing we went to eat at Tucano's (always a pleasure) and then Luke and I strolled around Temple Square for a moment looking at some of the lights, and caught the first half of the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert in the tabernacle that was going on across the street at the conference center. We left early in order to avoid traffic, but I imagine the rest was quite beautiful.
So there's the update! I will add pictures as soon as I have them, and this post shall be complete.
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