New Addition

Here is the lovely Sydney Raquel Perkins. This was the first picture I got of her first smile. She smiles and coo's and tries to laugh now, but I wanted to post how adorable she is.

I love her little gums in this picture. While LeGrand was out trick of treating with the kids, she gave me a whole show of smiles and laughter.

We had a great blessing for her and I was so thankful that she stayed asleep the whole time. She is such a gorgeous little girl. I have to say that because I am her mother, but she really is a cute cute cute cute cute baby!

She is love by sisters and brother ALL the time. I am just glad they, and daddy, did not give her the flu when she came home from the hospital. That was hard. THEY LOVE BABIES! So this is Sydney and her favorite things to do are find mommy, hear mommy, eat, poop, and sleep.

Perkins' Reunion

We went to Great Basin National Park last weekend and had a blast! It was the girls first time camping in a tent and we even took Duke. We had no idea that it was about 5 hours away and ended up getting to the campsite at 1:30 am, but Madison and Quincy kept LeGrand and I awake as we drove up the windy 12 mile road that started at the elevation of 7,000 and climbed to 10,000 ft. I was glad that it was dark so I could not see over the ledge. The next day, we went to Lehman's Cave. Quincy thought the cave was so awesome! It was really neat to have a tour guide and learn about stalagmites and stalagtites and other terms I had never heard of. It was fun to go camping with the family, even though I am a little over 6 months pregnant. I especially liked making a dinner that brought back a lot of memories from camping with my siblings when I was young. Stuffed green peppers, spaghetti squash with mushrooms, and white cake filled oranges. mmm yummy!

Duke had a lot of fun chasing deer and chipmunks/squirrels (whatever they were). I especially loved that the first night after we set up camp, it was maybe 2 am and I had to go to the bathroom, luckily I was prepared with toilet paper, but boy...it is hard to squat when you're that prego. The next morning I could clearly see that we were camped right next to the porta potty. Go figure, only me! I hope that Scott, Emma, and LeGrand had good birthdays while we were there. It sure was fun for me. I think the kids liked it to. I know that Quincy mooned a lot of the family and thought it was so cool that he could pee on the trees even if he only went 2 ft. away from the crowd to do it.

The Host

No, I am not talking about the book. Last Sunday our family home teachers came over and when they came to the door, I found Quincy "sneaking" cherries from the kitchen instead of taking a nap. I told him that he could stay up, talk, and listen to our home teachers. In the middle of the spiritual message, Quincy came running in with a handful of cherries and offered them to our home teachers. They took it gratefully and Quincy ran back into the kitchen. I guess LeGrand had told him to go get some plastic cups so that they could spit the cherry seed into the cups. We heard the water tap go on and off several times and all of the sudden Quincy comes back into the family room with two cups very full of water and offers it to our home teachers. He then runs back into the kitchen and by this time I was laughing just amazed that Quincy was being such a good host. One of our home teachers laughed and said, "here comes yours." Quincy once again had two very full glasses of water. He offered one to daddy and I held out my hand for mine and he looked away and started drinking the fourth cup instead of giving it to me. LeGrand asked, "where is mommy's?" He looked at me with a shocked face, then widened his eyes and said while rubbing my pregnant belly, "I'll get mommy a BIG one." Needless to say, a even fuller cup was brought to me and it was not just a plastic cup, the biggest cup that he could find. My son is so cute. I just wish that he would listen and he would be even cuter!

Lots of Poop!

So it is Saturday. My morning began very early when my husband left for work at 6:20 am. I am NOT a morning person. As soon as he walked out the door, my girls started playing in the room and Savanah started crying. She probably either got woken up or a toy was taken from her by her sweet sister Madison. After hearing her cry for 20 minutes, I yelled to Quincy to open their door. Of course, they all came upstairs and the good mom I am, turned on the television and let them watch the Disney channel. Both girls came up in just their diaper. They are in a naked stage and that is where the dilemma begins. While I was "trying" to sleep while they were watching the television, I had a thought, "someone smells poopy and I sure do not want to change them right now. Wait, if I do not change them, they might start finger painting on my wall with poop." Needless to say, they both put their bums in my face and none of them were poopy. Thank goodness. Later on in the day I was still grouchy because I had not gotten my sleep. I was in the kitchen waiting for the fresh bread come out of the oven when I heard Madison start to cry. This is rare since she "rules" over her brother and sister. All three of them are in the music room and again my girls are naked. All the pillows are in the middle of the room and Quincy's car seat is just to the side. It looked like they were jumping off of the couch and landing on the massive pile of pillows. I see Madison caught by her diaper on Quincy's car seat. The car seat where it holds the seat belt up above has punctured her diaper, which is poopy and her upper body is upside down. Poop has fallen out of her diaper and she has it all down her leg. Of course, I am still grouchy. I tear off her diaper and while she is still hanging upside down, I take her down to the tub where I clean her off while screaming to the others to stay away from the poop and I can now hear the oven buzzer going off for the bread. I finally clean up the mess and after all this has happened and a couple of hours have passed I am sure glad that this incident happened instead of the finger painting poop dilemma. Sheesh, what mothers have to go through and also that it is amazing that I do actually have mothers intuition whethe I am a grouchy mom or not.

Happy Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! Since our budget is basically non-existent like everyone elses in the world, this is what you get and don't throw a fit! :)
We are all doing well. LeGrand and myself are back in school taking online classes...yippy skippy! Brittany is working full-time since the winter is slow for the business. That means...Daddy is a stay at home dad! The kids sure love their daddy being home.
Quincy is 1/2 way there on the potty training. Thank heavens to saving money on the diapers. He's been learning lots. Since we sing the ABC's while we wash our hands, he's got the majority part of the song and by far I think his favorite part is L,M,N,O,P...he kind of mumbles it, but he gets the jist. We've started playing the game memory with him using uno cards, so he can learn his numbers, and LeGrand made an alphabet one, so he can learn his letters. He loves to help in the kitchen. I think Mommy and Daddy love that except when he tries to use a real knife and gets the hotpads out to open the oven. Sometimes he helps a little too much. Maybe he'll be a chef one day.
Savanah is our little angel. Especially during this christmas season she loves Oma's bells that sings songs. I came home from work yesterday and she pointed to the bells and had the look of, "c'mon mommy I'm a princess, please?" on her face. I turned them on and she started swaying back and forth. Sometimes I worry about her for the fact that when her sister takes something away instead of going after it to take it back she comes right to me to defend her. On the other hand I guess it's good that atleast one of them is assertive (Madison) They'll do well in school.
Madison like I said is the assertive girl. If she sees something she wants or something gets taken away from her, she'll squeal at the top of her lungs until she gets it. She is mommy's little snuggler and cries when mommy leaves for work, but she's daddy's little hound dog. Ever since we got our puppy, Duke that's her puppy. She let's Duke know whose in control. I've found her biting Duke and making him yelp. They have a love hate relationship. Both girls now Howl like a hound dog. Madison especially finds all the dog toys we have and carries them around the whole house.
Quincy is starting to go into the primary and he loves the song part. The girls got a little bit of time to be with Quincy in the nursery. Last Sunday was their 2nd Sunday in a row of just walking in to nursery w/out Mom and Dad's supervision. They love it and so does Mom and Dad. We can go to church to listen and learn now!
We are a happy family and by far our favorite song is, "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam" We hope you have a Merry Christmas and may all your dreams come true!

It's been awhile, I am so bad at this. I never get online anymore. I just wanted to say, I just got a new job, today was my training. Let me tell you that I had no idea what the job entailed except that my position would be Appointment Setter. When I went in for my interview yesterday, I must have impressed the guy, NO I did not flirt with him! He drew on the back of my resume what they are about. I had 3 people in mind at the time when he told me what it was. First, myself, my mom, and my older sister. Eliminating debt and creating wealth, that's what it's about. It started in Austrailia in 1980 and the average Austrailian owned their home in 10 years rather than 30 w/out increasing their payments. How awesome is that? Well this company I work for is setting me up on the program and when it works for me, because I know it will because it all makes sense, I want to share it with you. How many people want to get out of debt, own their home, and save for retirement? EVERYONE. This is no scam fokes. If you want to know more just get in touch with me. Nobody feel obligated, but when you hear it, you'll want it.

Michigan Reunion

In 2 weeks LeGrand, the kids, and I are about to venture out on a trip that I may regret taking. My mother-in-laws family has a reunion every other year. We went to South Dakota in 2006. Quincy was only 7-8 months old and we drove the whole way. Breast feeding in the car is one weird and almost impossible thing to do. He was fine, but he did cry quite a bit. Now I've got a 2 year old and two 1 year olds. We found a great deal on flying so I snatched it up quick. The hard thing is keeping track of my kids now. 2 infants in our lap and Quincy by himself will be very interesting. I need help finding deals and I only have 2 1/2 weeks left...I'm going batty! We found the deal starting at Vegas, so now we have to drive down there. Gas prices are so high that the only car we have that will hold all of us is Dodge Truck. Prices on Rentals are just the same as flying there but a little cheaper. We rented a car in Michigan and have 3 car seats to carry with us...arghhh. How in the world do I make this trip cheaper?!???!!! We'll see how this goes and I'll try to keep you posted.