Guilty as Charged

Will & I played hooky from church yesterday morning because it was sooooo cold - I didn't want to risk getting him sick. Unfortunately he caught my cold anyway :( We opted to stay in our warm cozy house and make Dad's favorite comfort food for dinner...chicken pot pie.

While it was in the oven I was trying to get some other tasks accomplished and here's what I discovered minutes later in the kitchen...no wonder Will was so content to keep himself occupied!



















"I didn't do it."

Winter Wonderland

We have had some bitter cold temps lately, but I've always said that if it's going to be cold, it might as well snow...at least then it's worth it because you've got something pretty to look at. Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful snowfall - big flakes and all. I actually woke Dave up because I didn't want him to miss how pretty it was :-)

It was nice that this weather fell on the weekend so we could enjoy it from home, and Dave wouldn't have to venture into work...not to mention brush off the car and shovel the driveway! We had a lazy morning, which was a welcomed change, as things have been very busy around the Perkins household.

Attached are a few photos I took from our front porch...as well as one of Will peering out our front door watching me :-)















































"hi, mom"















Taken from Will's bedroom window...and what we refer to as "stickies."

Christmas in Chicago

Although we won't officially be spending Christmas with my side of the family this year, it helped to see some of them in Chicago last weekend. I'm a bit sheepish to admit that this was the first time for many of them to meet Will. We had good intentions to make it to Chicago a couple times this past year, but it just didn't work out with all the other travels we already had on the calendar. My mom and brother also flew in from Florida to join us.

Will "helping" me pack for our trip

My Uncle Dan and my not-so-little-anymore brother, Scott picked us up at the airport on Friday evening, then dropped us off at my Nana & Pop's. Will was a trooper - he usually goes to bed between 7-7:30, but we stretched him until 9 so he could hang out with us. The little guy didn't miss a beat! I don't know if it was because he was overly tired or what, but he was being quite the funny man that night. My Aunt Sonny also stopped by and gave Will an early Christmas gift - lots of fun books and a Curious George stuffed animal, which he found to be really funny because he kept laughing at it.

With Nana & Pop at their place :-)

Me & Pop...this is the wonderful man Will is named after :-)

Thankfully Will woke up a little later on Saturday morning to make up for those lost z's. After breakfast we packed up and headed off to my other Grandma's house. This was Will's first time meeting her, but he warmed up immediately (I think the fact that Grandma had 6 kids helped a little...she knows the kiddo department!).





Gigi, Will, Grandma, me & my bro Scott













Will enjoying all the pictures of himself on Grandma's refrigerator :-)































Will & Uncle Scott











When we returned to Nana & Pop's, a few more of the Thorns clan stopped by. We hung out there for a few more hours, then Dave, Scott and me headed downtown for dinner and to see Over the Rhine in concert (yea!). Fortunately we didn't have to twist any arms to line up a sitter (thanks, Mom!!). We soon discovered we can't do the late nights we used to. Following the opening act, Over the Rhine didn't even get onstage until 10 that night. They played until close to midnight, and then we had a 45-minute trek back. We were pretty tired the next day, but well worth it to see our favorite band again :-)

"Flying" with Uncle Dan

Hanging out with cousin, Crystal

Sunday was fairly relaxed & low-key until we had to head to the airport. Somehow we managed to fit a lot into a short weekend without feeling to stressful. Hope to see you all again soon...we love you!!!

Photo Fun

This was on my friend Becca's blog, so I decided to play along.
Here are the rules:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder

3) Explain the picture

4) Tag 4 people to do the same

NO CHEATING! (cropping, editing, etc!)
This past June I threw a bridal shower for my friend Heather (she got married to a really cool dude named Justin on September 6th - 1 day shy of Dave & my anniversary, nonetheless!).

I'll never forget what a crazy night we had leading up to it. You may recall that Omaha was hit with a boatload of very strong storms this spring. The night before the shower was the worst one we had experienced all season. Not a funnel cloud was spotted, yet we had 90 mph winds! If you were to drive around town, you'd assume we had numerous tornadoes touch down. Trees uprooted and homes destroyed. Most of the city was without power for several days, yet we were one of the lucky ones to get it back later that night. Many of the girls called the morning of the shower to be sure it was still on. It turned out to be a gorgeous day and we had a wonderful time :-)

Better Late Than Never...

I realized the other day that I never posted video of Will walking...what kind of a mother am I?! Sheesh! I have footage on our "real" video camera; however the cable is MIA, so I'll resort to posting the not-so-high-quality video taken from my cell phone. Last weekend we were shopping around town, and decided to get lunch at Wheatfields...a yummy bakery and eatery (what kind of a word is "eatery," anyway?!) across the street from Dave's office. Apparently we were feeling like cheapskates that day and therefore brought the chili up to Dave's office, rather than having to pay a tip just to be served chili. Oh yeah...and the office fridge is stock full of beverages, too (shameless, I know).

Will had a great time wandering around the halls and snooping in people's offices. He particularly enjoyed the tile floor in the kitchen.

It's That Time of Year Again...

...scrambling to get a photo taken for the annual Christmas letter. Unfortunately I might prove to be a slacker this year, but Dave's parents will remain faithful in mailing one out, so I figured the least I could do was provide the camera & tripod :-)

We had high hopes of getting a Perkins family picture this weekend while Kristin was in town for Thanksgiving. It was all planned out...we'd go out for lunch after church on Sunday, then come back to our house and take the pic before Kris had to head back home.

Our plans were squashed when Will fell asleep on the way home from lunch; and we couldn't bring ourselves to wake him up - Lord knows that would've been a catastrophe! He's been transitioning from 2 naps to 1, and it wares a little guy out. He's typically pretty spent after a morning in the nursery anyway. So rather than waking Will, we resorted to taking a photo without him...perhaps I'll just photoshop him in ;-)

In all honesty, it may have worked out for the best (as terrible as that sounds); as Will hasn't been the most cooperative when it comes to photos lately. He ignores us (and it's most definitely intentional!) when we try to get him to look at the camera. Following his nap, I propped him up in front of the fireplace, and with the help of Cheerios and football on the tube, he stayed in place...for a few minutes, anyway! Guess there will have to be more than one photo included this time around.

Seeing Leaves

You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you we don't have a single tree in our yard...that is, when you hear we filled up 24 lawn & leaf bags full of leaves a couple weekends ago - and that was after compacting them as much as we possibly could. We spent the majority of the day on Saturday working on the front yard, and a good portion of Sunday on the back.

Earlier this year we wound up having to take down two ginormous trees in our backyard...it was sad to see them go, but they were in pretty bad shape, and with all the bad storms we've had this year, I think it was the right call. Although we miss having them around for various reasons, I must admit it's nice not having that much more to clean up afterwards :-) Below are a few photos of when those trees were being cut down...

The First "Official" Haircut

I must confess this is not Will's first haircut, although it is the first professional one ;-) I attempted to trim portions of it myself (the scraggly pieces that kept falling over his ears and the back where there was evidence of a baby mullet). I thought his high chair would be a good place - he couldn't move too much, right? Or so I thought. Every time I tried to snip from behind he would move his head from side to side trying to figure out what I was doing, and I cut some pretty pathetic looking hair!

My friend Heidi has done my hair pretty much since I first moved here and has always does a great job. Will came along with me this past week when I had mine done, and Dave met us over the lunch hour to help. As you'll see, I purposely avoided being in the pictures because Heidi had just finished putting my head in foils, so hence Dave wearing the pretty smock with hot pink trim...thanks for being such a good sport, honey ;-)

Heidi did a great job despite her squirmy client. Will wasn't very excited, but I couldn't blame the little guy, 'cause he was feeling under the weather that day.

































When we got home, I plopped Will in the leaves for a couple photos, and then one of our neighbors came over to snap a few of the two of us together...

Weekend in Wichita

We had so much fun spending this past weekend with Kristin at her place in Wichita. It was great getting out of town for a bit - even Will enjoyed the change of scenery. We arrived Friday night about 10p, hung around her place until mid-morning on Saturday, ate brunch at The Good Egg, then browsed around town a bit.

































Saturday evening Kristin invited her friends Amanda & Duane over to watch the Nebraska game with us...here's a video of Amanda making Will laugh with a teddy bear (nevermind the football talk in the background :-) ).














(Will thought he was so funny shoving the remote into Kristin's face.)



















(Apparently the remote was a good snack.)

I'm always so impressed by how Will does in the car. He slept for the last 2 hours on our way down there, and a good hour on the way back. Although he is very mobile these days, at least he's fairly easily amused with games we make up in the car.

The weather was perfect all weekend, so we decided to go for a walk on a nature trail on Sunday morning. Uh yeah...we skipped church so we could take advantage of being outside before we loaded up in the car for 5 hours :-)
























































Thanks for having us, Kris!!

Our li'l Fireman

Will wanted to be a fireman for Halloween this year. How do we know this, you ask? We took it as a sign when our neighbors gave us their little boy's fireman costume from last year ;-) Originally we were going to dress him as a linebacker since he's got the build for it, but when our neighbors dropped off that little fireman costume, we couldn't dare do anything else. Especially considering Will was so taken with Uncle Buzz when we visited him at his fire station a few weeks ago.

Dave, Will & I left on Friday afternoon to visit Kristin in Wichita for the weekend, so no trick-or-treating this year (I wasn't terribly disappointed, to be honest - I have a feeling it'd be a lot of work for Mom & Dad at this age), but I still wanted to dress him up. We popped into Dave's office on Friday. Will was so funny showing off for everyone there.

More Fall Photos

I can't believe how fast the summer temps are turning chilly. After coming back from Destin and enjoying the beautiful weather all week, it made for an easy transition coming back to mild temperatures last weekend. Sunday was the perfect day - mid 70's and sunny with a little breeze. By Tuesday, the lows were in the 40's, and tomorrow night it's supposed to drop to the 30's - ick!

I do love the fall, but don't like the fact that it turns quickly into to winter. And why, may I ask, do winters have to be so stinkin' long?! In my ideal world, winter temps & snow would last through the holidays, and then it would go away and spring would return immediately after!

Yesterday was cold, but not too cold that I couldn't bundle Will up and snap a few photos outside. He is so hard to capture these days since he's constantly moving and pretty much ignores me when I call his name, so rarely is he actually looking at the camera - if he is, he's sticking his tongue out at me :-)