Valentines Day

Look at this, we're updating again. Thanks iPhones. Thanks apple. You make all of our lives easier :)

This was a fun idea that Andrea had! 

While at the Wright's house, Peter wanted to be a doggie, so he grabbed the leash, attached it to himself, and got Grandpa to walk him around the kitchen. It's funny, I remember when I was about 14 years old all of the teachers were sleeping over at the Wrights house because Ron was our advisor and we were going on a snowmobiling trip the next day. We played in the basement all night playing, and I remember Ashton coming down (he was about as old as Peter is right now) and doing this same thing with a jump rope. He wrapped it around himself and wanted me to walk him around the basement. He's 16 and driving now! Yikes, time flies.

These mag-formers that Peter got for Christmas are really fun to play with. They're just magnetic shapes that you can build with, or use as earrings.

More often then not Max can be found crawling around with a toy fish or other animal with it's head in his mouth.

He also loves to unload the diaper bag.

And he's been grinding his teeth quite a bit. We gave him a carrot to try to get him some relief. He destroyed it with his 6 teeth!

Max playing with the ballapalooza at the Wright's house.

On Valentines Day I got up early and put hearts behind the window shades so that when the sun rose it would look like this for my family. I'm so cool. 

Andrea made heart shaped pancakes. She's so cool. Would've been cooler had I gotten to eat any! The kids ate them all!

Peter and I went to get Andrea a rose and I put a ribbon on it when I got home. Peter wanted to put one on it too. Then I thought, might as well put one on for max too. So Happy Valentines Day Andrea, from your three boys!

Andrea bought me some fancy chocolates from "Hatch Family Chocolates." They were delicious. I LOVE chocolates, especially on V-day.

We made sugar cookies for the neighbors. I love making sugar cookies! They turned out pretty nice, I saw a thing that I want to try really really bad next year though, so stand by until next February and we'll see how it goes. 

Andrea took Peter to a free class at "The Little Gym." He LOVED it and for the past few days he keeps talking about his "Little Class."

It is so much fun to have a pair of boys! I love grocery shopping, and I love my boys, so whenever I'm grocery shopping with my boys (especially when they are side-by side at costco) I just feel like I have to take a picture! 

They have a matching pair of jammies.

Max loves to crawl into Peter's room after family prayer. He likes to touch his head or play peek-a-boo, or try to kiss him! It's fun to see them enjoying each other and laughing. 

That's it for now.

February begins.

Andrea, her sisters, and her mother, all have periodic "girl" times where they just need to go shop and have fun together. This occasion was Samantha's 21st B-Day. Her husband was working that evening so she wanted to have some fun with the girls and they decided to go eat at Macaroni Grill where Ronny works. Andrea had a wonderful time! I did as well for that matter. I watched Peter, Max, and Silas and it was really fun. 

Andrea and some of the other Mom's in the area have a preschool that they do once a week. Andrea was in charge one morning and she was supposed to prepare a lesson on the savannah I think. When we went to bed the night before she hadn't planned anything so I was wondering what she would come up with, and then I found out that she did this awesome shadow puppet play! Way to go Andrea!

Max is in the "get into everything" stage and it is so fun! I just love watching little babies so intently busy . . . I just imagine what they could be thinking: "This place is pristine! Mom and Dad are going to get so bored unless I get to work . . . better pull out the pans . . . nonono, gotta get the shoes now, that's right. Yes, now they're busy! What would they do without me!"

We were sooo excited to go to Smokin' Bones for Caleb's birthday on Saturday. Once again, if you haven't tried it, go. Try it. I have never even cared about BBQ in my life, but now I literally think about Smokin' Bones everyday! Peter had a BBQ pizza, Andrea had a Navajo Taco, and I had a three meat meal with chicken, a hot link, and the best ribs on earth. YUUUM! It's always fun to talk with Kile too (the owner who we grew up with). He's always happy to see everyone and it's fun to hear about what may be coming up next for Smokin' Bones! We're all so proud of him.

Can't believe he's 29! 

Between the finger puppets that we made for Christmas and the felt board set that my Mom got for Andrea, we've been having some fun family home evening lessons! It's so fun to give Peter a few Puppets/Pictures and act out the story together. It's pretty easy for Andrea and I to lead the plot along with the main points while we improv and play off of each other as we go. Peter always wants to do it again and I'm so impressed with Andrea for taking the initiative to get the Bible education going. 

Max continues to entertain us at meal times. He insists on feeding himself and it's so adorable, especially when he's sucking down spaghetti noodles. 

Peter and Max get along pretty well. There's some bossiness from Peter, and yelling when Max scratches him or pulls his hair, but other than that, they get along great. I love the moments when Peter wants to hold him or play with him back in his room. 

Andrea and Peter visit the library pretty regularly. This is a foam block tower they built together. 

Max in his nice warm suit that Heidi and Devin are letting us borrow for the winter. 

Playing with cousin Silas .

Another buddy-buddy shot of the boys. 

It may not be immediately apparent, but this is Peter helping me to change Max's diaper. 

Another thing that happened in the past few weeks is Andrea volunteered us to teach dance lessons in our stake on the first Friday of every month. I found out on Thursday afternoon. I was not happy about that, but it turned out pretty well. Darn girl, making me do stuff I don't want to do . . . I love her! She keeps it real. 

New Computer!!!

It has long been my dream to own a 27" iMac. Now that dream has come true!!! Now that we have iPhones and an awesome iMac it is going to be SOOOO easy to blog! The photos we take on our phones are automatically put on our computer, and then we can just slap them up her for all of you guys. I guess that technology may be old news though . . . we tend to be behind the times. 

So here's a few pictures of what we've been up to. 

What a sweet child. 

Silas and Max get along very well. It's fun to see Silas wanting to sit by him and kiss him etc. This picture is in one of the rooms that Dad Wright so graciously provided for us on our MLK weekend snowmobile getaway at Daniels Summit! Even though it was just an overnighter, it was SO FUN!

Andrea had never driven her Dad's snowmobiles, so this time we made sure she got a chance. She liked it pretty well when she was driving. When I was driving she was screaming and squeezing the breath out of me. I honestly thought it was because she was having fun (how do you differentiate?) but later she said she was pretty scared. 

Grandpa watched Peter while we were gone on our little jaunt. The rental place had a little mini snowmobile that was available for kids to putter around on, so Grandpa made sure that Peter got a taste of that! He enjoyed riding around on it with Kaden and Ashton.

So cool!

There were no toys at the cabin, so Grandma got Silas and Peter some little farm animal sets to play with. They loved them!

I photoshopped the above image on my iPhone. I can't believe how cool smartphones are. We've been missing out!

Monday afternoon we went to the "Ice Castle" in Midway. Was it cool? Yes, but a little underwhelming. When you think of a Castle you think of architecture, rooms, roofs, etc. This was really just a big maze of organically forming ice. It was cool, but . . . eh. Been there done that. Peter loved it though and that's mostly what matters.

It is so funny to watch Max and Andrea at dinner time. They both suit up and he just shares her food with her. It's such a mess! He's a ferocious little eater though. If Andrea stands up at all during mealtimes he gets very upset. 

Peter is such a . . . well, the above photo for instance. We were going shopping. Everyone got out of the car, I unbuckled Peter, asked him to come out, got our bags out of the trunk etc. etc. and then where's Peter? Right there. Silly kid. Drives me nuts. 

I felt so proud to be able to use both seats in our Costco cart!

Peter looking very handsome one Sunday morning.

Andrea and Max at the Ice Castle (you all know I don't care about putting this stuff in order.)

Bath time.

One of my New Years resolutions this year is to fully plan and execute a date with Andrea at least once a month. I've been terrible at that during our Marriage, and I intend to change! I made fun tickets that I can surprise her with that let her know what the activity is, who's babysitting, other details, etc. It's fun. Our first date was to the Sacred Gifts Exhibit at BYU. It's really cool, and if you haven't gone, you should. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and it's free. 

These are some pics from the Natural History Museum. Peter, Andrea, and Max all got to go with some ward friends on a free day!

And that's it. 

Thanksgiving to 2014

I don't have access to our photos from my current location, but I just felt like this ought to be updated. So here I go.

The holidays this year were great! It's always a fun and exciting time, but it seems like each year Andrea and I learn how to enjoy them a little bit better.

November was a good month. My birthday was on the 21st and I told Andrea that I really would love to just go and shop together without the boys for a while. It was so fun! We weren't even shopping for ourselves, for the most part. We were able to get several things for the kids and we got a few Christmas gifts out of the way. We also learned a few things about the holiday shopping season that will help us immensely in years to come.

Have you ever heard of "Cyber Monday?" I certainly hadn't. It's awesome! It's like Black Friday but you don't have to go anywhere or compete for products. You just buy stuff online. During our shopping trip we had both gone to pick out some shoes for ourselves, but when we were getting ready to buy them I asked the cashier if they were going to go on sale within the next few days and she said "Yes. All shoes will be buy one get one 1/2 off starting tomorrow." So we put our shoes back on the shelf and waited. I went back to the store and they were running the deal, but they had raised the price of the shoes. So I waited. Then on facebook I saw an ad for Cyber Monday and the shoes were buy one get one half off, plus 20% off or something, plus free shipping. I bought them at that point.

I also had purchased some levi's (34x34, 514's, I will not wear another jean as long as I live) at full price, but on Cyber Monday they were 40% off! So I returned the pair I hadn't taken the tags off of and saved $15.

Moral of the story? Go on a pre-shopping trip before Thanksgiving to pick out what you want, then buy it online on Cyber Monday.

So that was fun.

We went to the zoo on Thanksgiving Morning to see the elephants eat giant pumpkins. That was really cool to see! Then we had thanksgiving dinner at Tucano's. Tucano's is always good, but I did miss the traditional food. Lucky for me, my Mom had prepared all of her usual food and I ate plenty of it when we got back to my parent’s house!

The day after, we decorated the Wrights house. It's always a big production that takes most of the day, and I LOVE IT! Every year Pam says "Hey you guys, we aren't doing it if we don't have help." And every year I think "Um, as long as I have a pulse, I will be here the day after Thanksgiving adorning your home with these beautiful decorations."

The following day, Andrea and I got family pictures taken by Masterpiece Images. They did our wedding and they are just the best photographers for our taste. I love them. You can see the photos they took here: http://mpimages.smugmug.com/Family/2013-Family/Luke-Perkins/n-X7Ktf/i-Q5G89cd/A

On Sunday, we went to my parent’s house to help them set up their Christmas tree. I LOVE THAT TOO!!! And for the past few years my parents have been saying "We really need to think about downsizing and getting a more manageable tree." And every year I think "Um, as long as I have a pulse, I will be here shortly after Thanksgiving adorning your home with this beautiful tree."

We also decorated our apartment a bit more extensively than we usually do. I did a great job, I must say, lining our windows with colored lights. I think white lights look prettier, but it's for the kids isn't it? Kids like some color! My Mom came and helped us paint Christmas stencils on our windows. It looked fabulous, and I enjoyed coming home and seeing it every evening.

Other than that, we got together with friends a few times, with family a few times, ate a lot of sweets etc.

Christmas Eve was REALLY fun! We were with the Wrights this year and we invited our friend Sumedha and her friend Vasu (both from India) to come and celebrate with us. It was a lot of fun to share our traditions with them, and they shared some of their traditions with us too. It was great. 

After the party at the Wrights, went to my parents to spend the night. Grandma CeCe read Peter “The Night Before Christmas” and then helped him prepare some refreshments for Santa before he went to bed. It was really fun for me to “help Santa” this year to fill Peter’s stocking and leave him a note on the snack plate ;).

On Christmas morning we opened our presents with my Mom and Dad and later on the rest of the family came over. It was a very nice day. Except Max was fevery, but he turned out to be okay. 

The next few days we purged our apartment of the old and useless. I think I might like doing that better than I like opening presents! Try it sometime, go through each corner of your home and ask yourself if you really need this and that, and get rid of the stuff you don’t need. You will feel like this: “Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.”

On New Year’s we went to the Wrights house and ate some freezer aisle goodies and watched some movies. THAT is the ideal way to spend New Year’s in my opinion. 

Now the New Year has begun and it’s been great. We reflected on our past goals and realized that we’ve made progress! Then we set some new goals. We also decided to get with the times and purchase iphones. We LOVE them. Apple knows what they’re doing. Everybody acts like Apple is just good at Marketing/brainwashing consumers
. . . and they are. Part of that recipe is FANTASTIC products and FANTASTIC customer service. It’s like, they are just a great company or something. You shouldn’t hate on that. 

Okay, that’s all. Maybe Andrea will put some pictures on to support this log, we’ll see.