LeGrand, Brittany, & Family

Preschool

2010-03-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is telling me that I am a wimp.

I finally have found out what it feels like to have the feeling of sending one of your kids to school. Although, I haven't actually done it :) I am that scared! I just called and set up for my boy to go to preschool in the fall and I am nervous as heck! Good thing I know his teacher and she happens to be the mother of my 4th grade, 8th grade, and 12th grade crush. Anyway, whooo I am still nervous. I hope he enjoys it as much as he talks about it. He still has trouble going to primary, so learning in school might be difficult, but I bet I will be shocked. He is so stinkin' cute. This morning he was telling me that he really wants to go to school and that when he is 8 he gets to be "back-tized." We were able to go to his cousins baptism this last fast Sunday and he still remembers his other cousins baptisms from 2-3 years ago and talks about it non-stop. What a cute kid he is.

Everytime I take pictures of the baby he always jumps in and always manages to make her smile. He is my littler poser in pictures. Yes, his face is sunburnt and swollen. Daddy forgot to put sunscreen on before they went ice fishing with Grandpa Perkins.

The twins are next to go to preschool. I wonder myself why I had them so close together, they go to preschool NEXT YEAR! How will I do it?!?! Anyway, they are spouting their alphabet let crazy and our new thing is counting in spanish since Grandma Perkins speaks spanish.

Anyway, never a dole moment at our house and then thank goodness for "quiet time." The twins have been potty trained for five months now and it is great having ONE IN DIAPERS! First time since my little boy was a baby.

New Addition

2009-11-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

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

2009-07-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-12-23T07:43:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-17T13:48:00.000-08:00

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

2008-07-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

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.

Diapers, diapers, and more diapers

2008-06-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

I told LeGrand the other day about how much we spend on diapers and wipes every year...about $500. Changing 3 kids diapers up to what 3-4 times a day! It's fun let me tell ya. But I've got good news! I may only have to change 2 kids diapers now! WooHoo!!!!!! Quincy has decided that he wants to wear "big boy" underwear and go "poopies" in the toilet, although he only has gone #1. I'm just so happy that he wants to start potty. He was so excited when he saw me so peppy as a cheerleader that he goes all the time. But the #2 business...yeah I don't know how our mothers and mothers beyond us dealt with cloth diapers! It's not fun to deal with that. I'm just lucky that he hasn't finger painted with the filthy stuff, knock on wood! It gets a little bit annoying though. Since I've done his blog he has told me that he's had to go 5 times. It's only been a 1/2 hour. Do I need to learn patience or what? Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but atleast I can save how much money? Yeah.

Handful

2008-06-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

I was recently chastised by my sister whom by the way seems to be competeing with me in how many postings there are. She suggested that I tell a mishap that came about a couple of days of go. So this one is for you Holli :)
Ahhh, where to start....oh yes....My youngest twin Madison, only by 2 minutes anyway, in her baby blessing Heavenly Father decided to warn me that she would be a handful....to her mother. I very lively girl anyway. Its coming true as the days go on. She was the first to crawl and right afterwards decided she wanted to start climbing stairs, mind you at a very young age. She is now walking and crawling over EVERYTHING. There's nothing wrong with that until she starts getting to be a dare devil. We have a green dragon that is a plastic rocking horse and she rocks on it so well that she knows that she won't knock herself backward or sideward. Well now she has decided that instead of rocking while sitting down, she would like to stand up and rock. It's a fun sight to see, but wow sometimes its scary and she doesn't even think twice about it.
I mentioned earlier that she was the youngest of the 3. Quincy, who is 18 months older, one day came crying to me and I found that Madison had taken his grahm cracker out of his hand and refused to give it back. On multiple occasions I hear crying from Savanah and find that Madison is just holding on to Savanah's long hair and just grinning ear to ear and pulling as hard as she can. Don't get me wrong, I love this little girl who is a handful.
Two days ago I had 5 people searching in their belongings, the house, outside, and all over for a possession of mine...my cell phone. I tried to remember when I had it and where it was and all I could think of was that I left it on the kitchen counter because I didn't have pockets. My sisters Veesla dog Harley was big enough to get to it, but would she eat it? Finally I remembered while I was playing catch w/ Harley, Madison grabbed the phone from me. So Madison had it last. We called that phone 50 times and I had charged it that morning....weird thing, none of us ever heard it ring. Finally we just gave up and got an old phone and switched the phones. Well my little handful likes to do something that I do not like. She takes out the air vent and tries to crawl in. There are 3 in particular that she does that to. Tiffany thought she saw her throw something into it, but nothing. LeGrand finally put his arm down one of them and felt my phone. That little twirp threw it down there. Thank goodness it wasn't winter or it would have been toast. Somehow she turned my phone off, not that we would have heard it anyway. So that is my story of the missing cell phone and my little handful.

THE PIGTAIL GIRLS

2008-04-22T14:17:00.001-07:00

These are my beautiful girls! They will be 1 year old on May 4th. Also off bottles. WOOHOO!!! No more washing those cursed things. Anyway my point of this Post... Well I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but The one on the right (Savanah aka mini Brittany) has long pigtails and that is only 1/2 of her hair. She has hair down to the middle of her back. It's as long as mine. The one on the left (Madison aka mini LeGrand) that is basically all of her hair. This is her 1st time wearing pigtails where as Savanah has been wearing pigtails since she was 2 months old. The funny thing is, at one of my ultrasounds (I had like 5 ultrasounds) the tech said that Madison was the one that had tons and tons and tons of hair and Savanah was bald. This is proof enough that doctors and techs don't know everything. I was just glad that I am able to finally put pigtails in Madison's hair. They are obviously very excited about this too. They are tons of fun by the way and ALL OVER THE PLACE NOW!! I mean to say, they are learning to walk. Thank Heavens for baby gates.

The Stages of LIfe

2007-11-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

Being a mom for the 2nd time with #2 and #3 I am starting to remember the stages of life with #1. I wish I kept a better journal when he was getting older, but no...I am a procrastinator. Savanah and Madison just started on their solid foods this week and with 2 I'm finding out that I don't have as much patience which I had with Quincy. Teaching them to open their mouth really really big, eating from a spoon instead of slurping it in, and keeping it in their mouth instead of pushing it out with their tongue. I can't help but compare the 2 girls every time someone does something new. Madison has been rolling over like crazy for the last month and a half and Savanah....yeah just a content little girl sucking on her fingers giving me "the bull". Is it bad that when I do compare them, I give Savanah more tummy time then required because I think she should be up with her sister? Poor little girl, maybe I shouldn't push her too hard because think how it'll be when they are both mobile. Wow, baby proof city! Although I have to say that the worst stage of all in the first year is when they start to pull themselves up on items.....and then they can't get back down. There were numerous times where Quincy just cried and cried and after awhile when he hushed down and fell asleep I would have to go into his room and lay him back down. He fell asleep standing up! It's funny, but also annoying when you'd go into his room 40 times to lay him back down in a days time. I realized that a year ago on Halloween, Quincy took his first steps. Although he didn't start walking fully on his own till Last December, I'll always remember that. My girls are both sleeping through the night finally. Savanah has been doing this for 2 months now, lucky me. Madison? She's off and on, but we have to get use to her screaming through the night. Speaking of which, 2 nights ago I heard Quincy crying and calling for me. LeGrand went to his aid and he was downstairs. Get the bolts out, and lock the doors, we have a sleep walker...ahhhhh. That is the most scary thing. But all n' all things change and all of the sudden they're eating on their own, sleeping through the night, sitting on their own, walking and then running. And life goes on with more stages, I suppose....teenagers?

Halloween 2007

2007-11-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a very long day. We started off getting dressed so we could go see Oma and Holli at NuSkin. We showed off our costumes to everyone and decided to take lunch to daddy. Luckily for me, I kept all the kids up so that when I drove 2 blocks from NuSkin all 3 of the kids were asleep. We drove to "the city" of Eagle Mountain (an hour drive) and got to see daddy working his butt off. Quincy liked his Lion outfit, but if mommy wasn't such a procrastinator he would've liked the Monkey outfit because of Curious George. The girls will like anything at this point, so they have to deal with being girly girls until they can make their own decisions. They were cute Angel Ballerina's. I think they made it into the NuSkin Christmas Video and Insite (NuSkins website). I love showing off my kids because they ARE the cutest kids in all eternity. Me? I was lazy and thought, "hmm, I'll go as a hippy so I don't have to do my make-up" How lazy am I? But all 'n all we all had fun and Quincy's favorite part was being able to stand by Mickey Mouse at NuSkin.

"You can work that out in the Millenium"

2007-10-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

I have a husband who really loves me. I'm just finding this out? When we first got married I was so afraid that I would gain weight. I mean c'mon just while we were dating I gained 5 lbs. The reason? He found out that I liked Oreo cookies. Every time we go shopping he always sneaks the crave of the month into the cart. If I catch him he gets mad at me for ruining the surprise. Just this last week I told LeGrand that my sister had lost some lbs. from running up her steep hill with a wheel barrow full of dirt. He said, "Awesome, so I can congratulate her with giving her a couple of my pumpkin pies?" Even though LeGrand says things like this and that I need to be on the watch out. One of my worst fears is getting big from pregnancy. Luckily I've been able to really avoid that, I'm not quite sure how, but I think I've done good this year. With the twins I was up to 195 lbs. and a week and a half later I lost 40 lbs. NOW THAT IS A GOOD WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM! But it's still not enough. How do I get motivate to exercise? I guess first of all I would need to actually LIKE doing it. Who out there will help me get motivated? And help me exercise with 3 kids under the age of 2 :) I love my husband so much for loving me for me, but I need to loose about 20-25 more lbs.

Are ya kidding me?!??!!

2007-10-22T11:21:00.001-07:00

While I was in the hospital this last May, the photographer of newborns came in. We chit chatted that I had twins and one was upstairs in the ICU and one was here with me. She then told me her story. She didn't look that old, but she said, "You'll survive with these 2 ya know? I know that because I had 7 kids within 4 years." Holy cow! She has 3 sets of twins and 1 single...IN 4 YEARS! Then she told me that it ran in her family. Her sister had a set of triplets, 2 sets of twins, and 2 singles within 7 years. Sheesh! I've heard that after having twins your likeliness of having them again is 50%. Well about last month LeGrand and I were talking and he is determined that I am going to have twins again. Before we were married we wanted a big family. He comes from a family of 8 and I come from a family of 7. I always wanted 8 (even #'s now, because if you went to an amusement park someone would be left out if you had odd #'s) and LeGrand wants enough for a baseball team. So we were talking and out of the blue he says, "yeah, we'll have 8, 9, 10, 12 kids." This picture seems to get the point across and it was our wedding day!

"Mommy, is Grandpa crazy?"

2007-10-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

This is my lovely husband. As a photographer at heart this is what I learned. When I lived in Logan after awhile of being married I was going through some pics I had developed. What a surprise that it was all nature stuff, but none of my hubby and me. So while he was playing Starcraft or some computer game I tried to take some snapshots of him and also us together. This is the kind of picture I get EVERYTIME! I can't even get him to smile nice with his boy, UNLESS it is a family picture (which I shouldn't complain about right?).

Well recently I took some pictures of some of my family and I saw this one of my father-in-law. Hmmm, now I know where LeGrand gets it from. I also remember after taking that picture my father-in-law asked, "Was that goofy enough?" Sheesh! I don't want my grandkids to think that LeGrand smiles this particular way. Especially since I like doing geneology I swear my grandkids and great grandkids are going to ask if he's crazy! What's the deal, eh?

The Hair

2007-10-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

So...the first comment I get when I go for a walk is, "Wow, you've got your hands full." They see my double stroller with my twin girls (Madison is usually in the front seat and Savanah in the back) and laying on the very bottom, Quincy fits comfortably. We walk to church like this, we walk to the park like this, in fact I have even walked to the store like this. It is very hard to fit 3 kids under the age of 2 in my little red car that only has 2 seat belts in the back. Why did I sell my Honda that fit 3 car seats? I had absolutely NO IDEA that twins would be coming. They are lots of fun and I especially like that one of them actually looks like me. When I say actually, I mean carbon copy. Poor thing. Quincy and Madison take after their dad in looks. Savanah looks exactly like my baby picture. In fact, last Sunday I put her hair in pigtails and went to a family outing and now they call Savanah BJ (Brittany Junior). Something I have asked Savanah to forgive me already is having thick - coarse hair. She was born with a lot of it and it likes to mold to whatever hairdo was done last, regardless if it has an elastic in it or not. So Savanah, publically...I am sorry.