Christmas Light Caravan

Our friends Jonathan & Desirae from church had the fabulous idea of going to look at Christmas lights together. A few days prior to Christmas, Dave, Will and I crammed into a car with them and their two boys - yes, carseats included! We made hot cocoa for the kiddos and coffee for the grown-ups :) We also brought a bag full of junk food to enjoy along the way.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but Jonathan snapped a couple of the boys with theirs. Samuel & Joseph are twins and just turned 4 in December...in fact, their birthday was the day we looked at lights together. They were all fired up because they were able to watch Star Wars for the first time earlier in the day. I asked them what their favorite part was, and they just went on, and on and on...amazing how a movie that's been around as long as it has, still has the same impact today.

Will loves hanging out with Samuel & Joseph...it's so cute to watch him follow them around their house. I think he feels like a big boy when he's with them :)

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Okay, so as my previous blog title stated, I'm in "catch-up" mode. I'm way behind on updating this blog, so please bear with me as I try to sum up the happenings with us in the Perkins household. I didn't even so much post a re-cap of our Christmas, so here goes. It was great...very relaxing to say the least, as we didn't do any traveling. Of course I missed not being with my side of the family, although I was able to see some of them in Chicago back in mid-December.

It was nice to stay put in Omaha and have others come our direction :) All of Dave's family was here in Omaha over the course of about a week. Thanks to Dave's mom, we had lots and lots of good eats and time to hang out with the fam. When Dave's sister Kristin comes into town, we often spend a few nights out at his parent's house so we can spend more time together. This works out especially well because that way we can all hang out even after Will goes to bed.

Being that Will is the only grandchild so far, he gets quite spoiled with attention AND gifts, to say the least. I've attached a few photos of our Christmas at Dave's parent's house:


















"I don't think there are enough presents under the tree."



















































Watching "I Love Lucy" with Aunt Kristin













Will loves his Daddy.















The next couple photos were taken a few days later, back at our house. Will was having so much fun playing with all of his new toys. I think he caught on pretty quickly this year...Christmas is fun :) I'm sure by next year he'll have even more appreciation for it!



























Will's first "John Deere"

Playing Catch-Up

My sincerest apologies, dear blogger friends, for being so out-of-the-loop over the past month. Seems as though our life has been on fast forward for several weeks; however, we're now currently on pause...at least in one area. As some of you know, we've been on the house hunt for over a year now. We love our current home, but it's not the most "user-friendly" for a growing family...don't read into that too closely - we don't have any news to report ;-)

One thing I've realized I would appreciate more and more is a garage I can actually use. Our current home is a 1950's ranch, and only has a 1-car garage. Unfortunately the vehicle I drive does not fit in the garage, so I have to load Will up outside. This typically wouldn't be a big deal, but we have had an exceptionally bitter cold winter this year, and although it's a luxury, it's one I admit I'd like to have :)

We found a home a few weeks ago we were particularly excited about and felt at peace to make an offer. We got together with our Realtors (also good friends of ours) this past Friday to write up the offer, and ironically enough, we discovered while sorting through old paperwork that our official search started exactly one year ago to date!

We really enjoy the layout and convenience of ranch homes, and the one we made an offer on was also a ranch, but was in need of some major remodeling. With that in mind, we low-balled the offer, figuring it'd get countered, and we'd be in the negotiating process for a while. Turns out they did not accept our final offer. We were a little disappointed, but completely at peace. In some ways, I felt a bit of a relief, just knowing how much work would be in the days/weeks/months ahead. Thankfully we're not in a rush to move...we love our house and are just waiting on the Lord's best in HIS timing.

In all honesty, I will be really sad to move when the time does come. I realize that it would probably happen sooner rather than later, so why delay the inevitable? But this is Dave and my first home together, and of course we have the memories of Will being born (well, not technically, but you know what I mean) in this house. We also love the neighborhood - we have the best neighbors! Many of them have lived here for a long time. In fact, the family that lived in our house previously didn't want to leave this street, but did need more space, so they literally moved about 5 houses down from us.

For sentimental reasons, below are some photos of our current home...I love seeing photos of other people's homes so I can picture where they live. Perhaps some of you would want to post some of your home as well?

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 :-)