Jam Session

The kids were really feeling the rock 'n roll beat the other day. I don't know where this came from, but they really got into it. Nathan was insistent on finding some black hair. He was unsuccessful, but Lily had better luck. . .



Lily going black!

Nathan with his groove on. :)

Kayla just wanted to be cool in her sunglasses, too.

Fun stuff. I love just being home with the kids and not having places to go!

The Brothers

Who's excited to have a little brother? I'll let you figure it out . . .

Potty Talk

So, this post may get a little more personal and graphic than I usually get, but it cracked me up, so I have to share.

This afternoon, the kids and I were looking at pictures of Nathan as a baby and Benson and comparing them (hence my previous post). Well, Nathan was very curious about how the baby came out of me. I tried to satisfy him with "I just pushed him out" and answers like that, but he wanted to know exactly where he came out. so, finally, I said, "He came out my bum."

So, later on at dinner time, the kids were getting a little to silly and crazy and talking all sorts of "potty talk." I told them that we don't talk about potty stuff at the dinner table (or anywhere else for that matter). They had all their excuses about how it wasn't "potty talk," so I had to define it and say the we don't talk about anything that comes out of our bums at the dinner table. Then Nathan, the bright boy that he is said, "Does that mean that we can't talk about babies at the dinner table?"

Oh, boy! I can't even type it without crying from laughing . . .

Who's who?

Well, just to show you how much Nathan and Benson look alike, I thought I'd post these pictures. Here is Nathan, just over six years ago:


And here is Benson, just last week:



Yes, they both belong in our family!

Benson Andrew Perkins

So, as a surprise to us all, Benson Andrew Perkins arrived 9 days early, last Monday, May 3rd at 9:27AM. He weighed 7lbs 14 oz and was 20 1/2 inches. I was having contractions all day Sunday, but never thought it would turn into the real thing until about 3AM Monday morning when I told Bryson that we should probably head to the hospital. Luckily, I have great friends around who are willing to come to my house after I wake them up in the middle of the night (THANKS, CHRISTY!!!!) and watch my kids while we were in the hospital.



So, we got to the hospital about 4AM and here is my before picture, since we hadn't taken one yet:

Benson was born at 9:27AM, the quickest of any of my kids and very smooth and easy. As Lily put it (after hearing Bryson tell the story to someone else), "Two pushes and out popped baby Benson!"

He is a carbon copy of Nathan. I'll have to post some comparison pictures soon.

Bryson with Benson.

Mommy and Benson.

Here is how much he loved being in the carseat, ready to leave the hospital:

We think he is just a cute as they come!

My mom and wonderful sister came down on Monday and ended up taking our other kids home with them for the week! It was sooooooo nice to have some time with just Benson (especially when sleep was rare) and not have other kids around needing my attention all day!

My mom and dad and sisters brought the kids back today and they were very excited to see Benson. Nathan was so concerned about missing time he could be spending with the baby while he was away at grandma's house. but he finally gave in and decided he would go, but only if I stayed in the hospital until he got back. . . It was very sweet.

Nathan is so excited to have a brother. :)

And here is our first attempt at a family picture. It took several tries, lots of pushing and crying to get one this good. . .

So, now on to real life with four kids! Wish me luck!!

Spring? Break

For Spring break, the kids and I hopped in my parents suburban and went down to Utah with them. It was fun to see family, but it wasn't very springy there. . .

We had an indoor Easter egg hunt. Nathan and Lily found the lucky golden eggs. :)

We also had fun coloring eggs. Everyone got to do their own special egg. . .

Here are Nathan and Kayla blowing on the eggs so they will dry faster so they could continue decorating them.

We spent one snowy day at Temple Square and had a great time touring around the Visitor's Center and wherever we could go that was indoors.

Here's our attempt to get a picture of Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandkids!

And me and my sister Jana with our bellies. She is due the day before me. We are 34 1/2 weeks in this picture.


And that's it! Now I can consider my blog updated. Yea!

Just a few new pictures. . .

Life seems to just get busier. I have a few pictures to post of the kids, even though we spent most of February and March at the doctor or the dentist, there were a few happy moments in between it all!





Nathan turned 6 years old on March 7th. Crazy! He plugged his ears every time we sang Happy Birthday to him.



A man in our ward brought us these apricot branches so we could enjoy the "Popcorn Popping" all week long. :)

Me and Lily.

Kayla takes good care of her baby doll and always has a bag of toys that she carries around with her. It is so cute to watch her motherly insticts kicking in already. :)

Silly kiddos.

I was going to have this be in my next post, but I couldn't delete it. We went down to Utah for spring break. Here is Nathan with cousins Daylen and Austin. Nathan and Daylen got along very well, if you can tell. :)