my valentine

i love my husband. his birthday is feb 10 and so i usually end up flaking out for valentine's day. i always make him promise to not get me anything either, but he inevitably shows up with flowers, a card, and dark chocolate. the stuff is nice (that whole bag of chocolate is almost gone), but i love that russell is so thoughtful when he has a million other things to worry about right now and he was technically off the hook.

here's a couple pics from russell's birthday...calvin was so excited to give his dad the birthday card he made:
we had about 15 friends over for the party and ate shish-ka-bobs, loaded baked potatoes, fruit, salad, and cake. apparently 28 candles generate a lot of heat:
russell is one of the most ambitious and caring people i know. he chose a med school that focuses on serving underprivileged people and truly has a love for helping others. he's up at 6 everyday, rides his bike 5 miles to school, goes to class/studies til 5 or 6, rides home, eats dinner and plays w/ calvin, and then studies for a few more hours before bed. i admire his dedication as well as his efforts to be so available for us despite being so busy. it's very important to him to have weekends be for family time and i'm thankful for that. russell is an incredible dad and loves to spend time playing sports, trains, or anything with calvin. he's a kid at heart and is so fun to be around. this pregnancy has been a rough go for me and russell has been so good about helping out around the house and making sure i'm comfortable (and well-fed). i'm thankful that he's my valentine every year.

weekends

We've had some free weekends this month and have been able to spend a lot of time together. The weather has been gorgeous and we found a great park in Chandler, complete with a motorcycle, bus, and fire truck toy that you can drive. Calvin was in heaven:

We've also been playing a lot of "Sorry," which is Calvin's new favorite game. He actually will sit down and play it and just needs help counting out the spaces (and remembering not to cheat - he likes to take all his pieces out of start at once). My favorite is how he says "sorry" when he draws that card...I'm pretty sure he got this from Russell. It's pretty funny:

surprise!

boy #2 is due june 8th!

2!

our boy turned two the day after Christmas. as mentioned, calvin was sick that week and we actually had to wake him up for his birthday party, but he seemed to have a good time. thanks to all those who celebrated with us!

my mom made calvin his own three layer cake. he ate the top layer for dinner
because he woke up right before we sang to him!

joshua sure enjoyed his rainbow chip cupcake

birthday bath with cousins...notice calvin's flopping mohawk!

calvin got to open his new birthday bike when we got home from utah. he's already getting the hang of the pedals and now just needs to work on steering. (i love the bulky helmet and knee and elbow pads, which have actually already come in handy!)

this kid has quite the personality.

he loves to:

drive things - calvin loves anything you can drive: helicopters, airplanes, cars, motorcycles, bikes, scooters, and especially trucks - he always asks to drive them when he sees them; he has a book of different trucks and can name most of them (many of which i didn't even know existed); if i let him, he would sit behind the wheel of our car and drive for hours

hold things - our neighbors have a huge lab and calvin always asks if he can hold the puppy when he sees him; the other day he saw some construction workers on a roof in our neighborhood and asked if he could hold them; he loves holding babies and sometimes even asks to hold me

zoom things - he loves to zoom his race cars, train set, and anything that you can pretend is a race car or train

hug and kiss things - calvin loves our vacuum - he went into the closet and gave it a hug and kiss 3 times yesterday; he also kisses random stuff in books that he likes

play sports - everything has a mitt right now: baseball mitt, football mitt, soccer mitt...?

read books - he likes to read to his stuffed animals

jump and run - calvin doesn't walk anywhere unless i'm holding his hand and he has to

animals, especially puppies and monkeys

calvin has decided that he's pretty much done taking naps and he celebrated the other day by taking off all of his clothes AND his diaper during his "rest time." he's learning to count and can go up to 7, except when i ask him to. he's also learning his colors and his favorite is red. calvin is a jabber-box and has a "manly grunt-like voice" that he uses when he says stuff like basketball or big truck. he continues to shadow his daddy whenever russell is home and loves to help with anything.

we sure love this little boy!

december highlights

here i am wondering where half of january has gone and i still haven't posted about december. we had a busy month and were blessed to spend lots of time together and with extended family and loved ones. here goes the marathon post:

one of our traditions is to bake Christmas goodies to share...

katy and her kids, who sadly moved to kansas right before Christmas, came over for a farewell dinner and we also decorated cookies and opened presents.

koby and magavin with their masterpieces

then we headed up to the mesa temple to see the lights

this is something i've never seen before, so i had to capture it on film. yes, those are oranges (or maybe grapefruit) blooming on the tree covered with lights.

we also got to celebrate koby's birthday with them at amazing jakes, which is a restaurant place with lots of fun rides and stuff like laser tag and go-carts...

calvin and delaney on the train

the carousel with delaney and dad

teacups...i had to laugh because i took this picture just as russell was trying to squeeze in behind the spinning wheel thing in the middle =)
we had a great time! we really miss having katy's family close by, but we're glad that they got to kansas in time to spend Christmas with dan.

our next adventure started the next morning when my sister heather and i left for utah with 3 little boys in the back of the corolla. (heather drove out here with her friend after their husbands were deployed to iraq.) needless to say, it was a long drive, but we thankfully didn't hit any snow and the roads were clear.

max and calvin didn't waste any time getting out the dress up stuff:

ezra is such a smiler for pictures and makes a cute lion!

russell flew up on the 23rd and my grandparents came down for a visit just before the snow started falling on Christmas eve.

calvin with great gramps and gram

that night we performed the traditional perkins family Christmas pageant

2 shepherds and the angel of the Lord

this was one of the best pageants ever, and maybe one of the most sacreligious, and i laughed so hard that i was crying (maybe you just had to be there). max started out as a shepherd, then decided that he wanted to be buzz lightyear. he insisted on accompanying mary (played by hannah) and joseph (my dad) to the stable and he had to carry the baby Jesus. he wouldn't let hannah pick up the baby to swaddle Him and put Him back in the manger, but he did it for her. buzz made an excellent addition to the pageant this year:

we also opened a present from grandma and grandpa and some new jammies

calvin with his power painting set
this was our best shot at this festive picture

new jammies, robe and slippers

our Christmas miracle was that all three little boys slept until about 8! here they are first thing:

calvin got a baseball mitt from santa and we made the mistake of having him open it first. he loved it and wouldn't take it off his hand to open anything else, so he went with the one-handed technique.

it started snowing Christmas eve and came down for about a day. we were glad we didn't have to go anywhere! here's the huge snowdrift in the backyard:
it's sorta hard to play in snow when it's taller than you, but calvin and daddy managed...


in addition to the snow, another unwelcome gift is that we all got sick. calvin got his first ear infection and russell and i got colds, so we did a lot of sitting around the first week and tried to squeeze in everything else the last few days. russell and i saw the movie twilight, which was entertaining, and we went to the temple with heather. we had to get breakfast at kneaders (yum!) and got the traditional chinese food feast for new year's eve. we also got to have lunch with some college friends in provo and went to our good friend's wedding before we left. it was a much-needed break and we are so glad we got to go.

calvin is still asking every day if we can go see grandma and grandpa and go to koby's house to play. how do you explain to a 2 year-old that it takes a day to get to utah or kansas?

holidays

turkey bowl with friends from russell's school

calvin was not content to sit on the sidelines and they graciously allowed him some playtime

this was my only picture from thanksgiving...i made rolls (my first attempt ever) and they turned out pretty well. we had a delish dinner with katy, dan, the cousins, and the missionaries.

we actually started decorating for Christmas on thanksgiving. those of you who know russell should know that he started it even though he usually protests anything Christmasy before turkey day is over. calvin found his stocking, a mitten decoration, and squished his "my first Christmas" hat on his head for a festive outfit...

i came downstairs and found two boys watching the train circle the tree

we've also been to two light parades. we went to this one in tempe with katy and her kiddos:

and, Christmas came early when toys r us delivered a small gift in a huge box (it was a big waste), so we made an airplane out of it. calvin enjoys taking his animals for a spin.

in unrelated news, russell participated in a dodgeball tournament (no fractured fingers this time!) for charity that was hosted by a club at school. here's his team in their goofy costumes. yeah, russell's the one with his underwears showing and the sporty pink headband...

his team won 2nd place!