The John Deere is VERY exciting!

There is no doubt that Mr. Will is all boy! To give you a few examples, he loves to throw things down stairs, destroy towers
built of blocks, throw his mini-basketball into Hank's water dish, watch Dave mow the lawn, and my personal favorite...he laughs SO HARD when Dave belches! I'm serious when I say that they have a secret language consisting of several bodily functions (eh-hem). If Dave belches, Will looks over at him with a big grin and they both laugh really hard. If Will belches, he looks over at Dave as if to ask, "Did you hear that, Dad?!" Now what makes this even more humorous, is if I belch. Even if it's one that I think is pretty darn good, Will won't even so much as acknowledge it. I could be holding him when I do it, and he won't even look at me or react in anyway...this is how I know it truly is a "guy thing." Pretty funny, if you ask me!

Will loves his dad, that's for sure. Perhaps it's because I spend the majority of my days with Will and he's just used to having me around, but when Dave comes home after being gone for awhile, Will gets super excited. His eyes light up when Dave walks around the corner and usually starts jumping while making a sound which resembles a squeal of some sort ;-) I love to watch those encounters...they never get old!

A Visit From the Kijanko's

Josh & Nikki came to see us last weekend...we had such a great time together, but sad to admit we don't have any pictures to document their trip :( We crammed a lot in in a short amount of time, but as always, the time went way to fast. They arrived last Friday night and we just stayed up talking until pretty late.

We met up with some of their other friends who live in town at a yummy breakfast joint. Later that afternoon Dave and Josh went to an air show at the air force base (as Dave put it, it was the two of them and a bunch of Dad's with little kids...Dave is kind of a kid himself when it comes to aircraft ;-) ) while Nikki and I came back to the house to nap - as did Will. We had arranged for a babysitter that night to stay with Will so the 4 of us could go out. We went to our favorite restaurant (Mark's, once again, in Old Dundee) and enjoyed dining outside. We then walked down the street to the local homemade creamery to get ice cream - yum!

Sunday morning we went to church and as you might have guessed, went out for lunch...we ate a lot of good food last weekend ;-) The guys returned the favor by taking Will home for his nap so Nikki and I could go shopping. They took off Sunday evening to head home.

Nikki is pregnant and due early January...she's got the cutest little belly and I got to feel their little guy, Kolton move...that never gets old!! So, as I mentioned, we don't have pics to share from last weekend, but here's one from when Dave and I went to visit them in St. Louis in July last year when I was pregnant. Why is this relevant, you ask? This photo was taken after we purchased some fresh produce at a farmer's market and Nikki stuck a watermelon under her shirt to compare our bellies. Picture her with a bump about 1/4 the size of that watermelon - oh, and I guess her belly is more round, not oblong ;-)

HaPpy BiRThdAy to WiLL, hAppY BIrtHdAY to wILL!

How is it possible that our little munchkin is already a year old?! All the cliches are so true...time flies when you have a baby! I honestly feel like we just brought him home from the hospital, and today is is first birthday. It's exciting and sad at the same time...exciting because he's a healthy and happy growing boy, and sad because it's gone way too fast.

We're doing the "big" celebration over Labor Day weekend, because my parents are coming up, as well as Dave's sister, Kristin. Tonight we went to one of our favorite restaurants with Dave's parents in Old Dundee. It was a gorgeous evening, so we ate on their outdoor patio...it's so pretty because it's surrounded by tons of flowers and tall trees canopying over the dining area with lanterns hanging from them. Here are a few photos of our time there...

























































Earlier today Will & I spent some time on our front porch just hanging out and waiting for Dave to come home from work...

Random happenings of the Perkins household

We've had a break in all our travel, which I'll admit, has been nice. The past couple weekends we haven't had a whole lot on the calendar, so we've enjoyed hanging around town and getting things done around the house. The weather has been extremely hot & humid the past few days, so we haven't been outside much, but we did spend the day out at the cabin yesterday and went for a boat ride. Thankfully Will has gotten used to the life jacket (he LOATHED it the first time we put it on him up in Minnesota...see photo). The cutest thing, though, is that the motion of the boat (especially when going fast) makes him tired. The first time we took him on a ride in MN he literally fell asleep...so funny!













About this time last year we started attending a new church, and are so thankful for the friendships we've made there. A couple weekends ago we had a BBQ and pool party, and as you may have guessed, Will was quite happy to get in the pool. Here's another pic of him in his cool board shorts from Uncle Buzz (thanks, Uncle Buzz!).

















Will thinks that he & Hank are good buds...Hank isn't so sure about this. In fact, he (Hank, that is) has been showing his displeasure since Will's arrival by deciding to throw temper tantrums every now and then. Recently it's been more frequent, and let's just say that he's "mistaken" our rugs for grass more than I would like! Here's a photo of Will watching Hank romp around in our backyard :-)


















Last, but not least, Will is working on "walking" his way around furniture lately. He doesn't quite have the confidence to take those first steps on his own yet, but he's pretty proud of himself when he uses furniture as a crutch. Yet again, Hank looking oh-so excited.