He's here!

baby boy came eight days early this morning via an emergency c-section.
mother and baby are doing great!
he's very cute!
stay tuned for more details.

mother's day

3:30 am. potty break

7:00 am. potty break. russell gets up to do his primary lesson

8:30 am. get up and waddle to the shower

8:45 am. smell food. head downstairs and calvin, sitting at the table, greets me with "happy mother's day!" eat yummy breakfast prepared by my dear husband. flowers, home-made cards, and chick flick on the table.

10:00 am - 1 pm. church. primary kids remembered the words and sang an awesome medley for their moms, calvin was SO reverent in sacrament meeting, got a dark chocolate candy bar for the mom's gift, sharing time duty for me and calvin pooped 5 minutes before i needed to teach senior primary (russell was also teaching), it's 107 (ONE-HUNDRED AND SEVEN) DEGREES in our car when we leave church

1:30 pm. start soaking my hot feet w/ swollen toes in ice water. russell thinks i'm crazy. he makes me lunch anyway cuz it's mother's day. calvin and i eat ice cream cones. call moms and grandmas to wish them a happy day. calvin keeps saying "happy mother's day" and "happy birthday."

3:30 pm. put calvin in his bed, try to take a nap, no such luck.

4:45 pm. calvin out of bed after he sang and practiced gymnastics the whole time. we wake russell up and he starts dinner.

6:30 pm. delicious mother's day feast: chicken cordon bleu, rice, fresh green beans, watermelon, and cream puffs...thank you my love! calvin takes AN HOUR to eat because he just wants to sing "i'm trying to be like Jesus" instead of chew and swallow. i didn't even know he knew that song - fun surprise.

7:30 pm. decided we should take some pictures today (see below...i'm now regretting this for obvious reasons). also shot cute video of calvin singing...no regrets there! i've been singing this song to him since he was in the womb and it's the best mother's day gift that he is singing it back.

(calvin's modeling my new pearl bracelet!)

9:00 pm. family prayer...calvin helps his daddy: "thankful for mommy, thankful for daddy, stinky toots, Jesus Christ, amen!" couldn't stop laughing.

10:30 pm. went to bed

11:15 pm. got up w/ a bottle of tums and wrote this blog post. 4 weeks (3 now) til baby comes...boy am i ready to start sleeping again. haha (at least the heartburn will be gone, right?)

some recent silly pics of my boy - i do love being a mom!

1:00 am. went to bed again

firsts

Calvin had his first camp out in the backyard with Russell a couple weekends ago. It was a trial-run for our ward father/son camp out and I think Russell's glad he tried it at home first...

my boys ready to set up their camp site

making their foil dinners

they did some exploring in the back while dinner cooked

they were nice enough to eat inside w/ me - it was too hot outside!

ready for bed...calvin lasted until 11 pm and then they came inside for bed. he was so excited that he wouldn't even sit still on his sleeping bag. russell even tried pretending like he was asleep and calvin put his face like an inch away from russell's and just watched him for a few minutes, then kept talking and asking questions. so, no father/son's this year with the ward, but they certainly had a good time (and a good sleep once they came inside)!

the next day, calvin went to his first friend birthday party. it was a disney princess party with a bounce house, bbq, and face painting! he got a baseball and a football - no surprise - and had a great time!

last weekend we went to our first diamondbacks game. calvin wanted to wear his mariner's hat and bring his mitt, but we were a little high up to catch a fly ball. we sure had lots of snacks, though, and a great time!

it's probably also a first that i've posted as much as i have in the last few days. i'm trying to catch up before baby comes (in 3 1/2 weeks!) and i have a real excuse to put it off. so, stay tuned for a couple more posts in the next few days...

spring break

we had a much-needed break for most of april and got to see lots of family. calvin and i flew to slc on apr 1st and spent a week with grandma and grandpa perkins. we got to see aunts, uncles, cousins, great grandparents, and friends. russell got to study and take finals and then met us in seattle for his spring break - apr 10-19th. it was nice to spend so much time together that last week and see family in seattle. here's a summary of our marathon trip:

utah

grandma & grandpa perkins took us to see the farm animals at thanksgiving point

learning to milk a cow

goats

horse (he changed his mind about a pony ride when he got close to them,
but loved looking at the horses)

cute baby calf

grandpa had a little shadow for the whole week, unless he was gone, then he followed grandma

easter egg hunt with some cousins

i think that's the one he ate w/ the wrapper still on

logan, alex, jacob, hannah and calvin (sorry about the weird reflective eyes...)

calvin with great-grams and gramps perkins after a delicious lunch at el matador

playing w/ cousins in jamie & rich's fun backyard


seattle

riley and calvin enjoying smoothies

playing with ethan - calvin loves his "big" cousins

dyeing easter eggs

so glad we got to meet new baby owen

calvin's blue egg w/ his name on it

easter morning - at least the easter bunny brought toothpaste along w/ all the junk

another egg hunt

who would expect them to actually look at the camera?

ready for church

russell and i got to go to the temple

we had to hurry and snap this picture while his shadow was showing (the sun wasn't out much until the end of the week)

russell, chip, calvin and riley riding the train in tacoma

bridge in tacoma

tacoma union station in the background

glass museum in tacoma in the background (weird looking blue things and cone-shaped roof)

displays on roof of glass museum

fountain in front of glass museum

eating delish seafood at ivar's in seattle

and feeding leftovers to the seagulls...

on the wharf

we got to see ethan's first t-ball game - he had a great hit!

mariner's game

calvin loves his aunt kyle


wow...i'm tired just reliving this whirlwind trip. but, it was SO good to see loved ones and to enjoy some cooler weather! it's already in the low 100's here and i'm miserable.
thanks mom & dad and chip & deb for hosting us!