Nellie's Birthday

Happy Birthday Janelle! Can you believe it? Nell is 25! That means that together we now add up to 50 years of total wisdom. I hope it is a good birthday for Janelle, we are happy that she has made it this far.

This has been another fun and demanding couple of weeks. Most of the last couple of weeks has found Nellie frantically at work getting her Photography Show finished up. It is now up at the HFAC, or Harris Fine Arts Center, at BYU and will be up until the 14th of this month. If you are around, I strongly encourage you to go see it because it is simply amazing! (of course, there is some bias in my statement)

Jaden has been excited helping to get ready for mom's birthday. Last week I was discussing with him what we should get mommy for her birthday. First came "birthday cake," then "thomas birthday cake," but when he realized that might not be mom's style, he finished with "basketball cake!" (which sounded more like baks-et-ball) So, yesterday as they were walking to the library, Jaden spilled our secret to Nellie: "mom, your birthday, basketball cake!" No word on what kind of cake Nellie will be enjoying, but I don't know if I can carry on with our plans now that Jaden has spilled our secret.

The other night I had one of the best moments in my life. Of course, Nellie is Jaden's favorite parent by FAR which is what makes this moment so special. Nellie and I were watching a movie, when Jaden got out of bed to go to the bathroom. He came in and sat on my lap for a few minutes before going back to bed. I had to move him off my lap in order to do something else for a moment. When I got back to the couch, Jaden left his mommies lap to lay in my arms. There was something that hit me about the way he wanted his dad that really threw me for a loop. Looking back, even trying to write about it, it seems silly and unremarkable, but for that moment it was one of the best of my life.

It's Official

Good News! It finally came, Nellie's diploma arrived in the mail on Friday afternoon. We both reflected on how expensive that piece of paper was, but I think we're excited for it to be done. I'm proud of Nell, that is quite an accomplishment. Speaking of the artist herself, I've decided to no longer refer to her as a "photographer."
My Reasons?:

• Anyone who enjoys photography automatically considers themselves a photographer
• In Utah county if you mention photography, everyone automatically asks if she'll do a wedding
  
• In Utah county If you do a wedding for someone you "know," you automatically must discount your rates and deal with ornery mothers

So now when people ask me what she does I reply "she's a PFAP," to which the reply comes: "What's a PFAP?" "Well, it's a professional fine-art photographer." To which I have not yet had the reply "Can she do pictures for my cousins wedding?" Thus, making it successful.

Nell is busy, busy, busy completing her show that runs for two weeks beginning October 2. If anyone reading this is interested the reception will be October 6 from 7-9 in the Harris Fine Arts Center (HFAC) at BYU. Her show is really neat (yeah, I'm biased) and is entitled "Missing," come and see what it's all about.

This week I decided to dye my hair a darkish brown, it's always fun to have a change and both Nell and I really like it. Although it was not the pure motive, it is pretty fun to tell people that it is to prevent people from asking where Jaden got his dark hair from. My website is also growing day to day with new products being added. I'm working on my marketing, but there is still a long way to go. I'm going to add a link on the right side of the page for anyone who wants to help someone get a quality ring! (15% Discount for Utah residents!)


Jaden is still the cutest kid in the ward to us, and we think it's cool to watch him. We have noticed a few kids in the ward have tried the "faux hawk"(his hair-do) with varying degrees of success. Fortunately, as the originator of the trend, credit is always given to Jaden, hence we hear "you did your hair like Jaden." I don't know how 17 year olds feel about having their hairstyle compared to a 4 year olds, but that's alright. Speaking of hair, last week after a quick run out the door, Jaden realized that instead of creating his usual hair-do, Nell and I had kept it down with a quick part. As we approached the glass doors to the church, he began to grab at his hair and pull it up "Mommy, my hair is broken," he said, we just laughed.

Nellie and I both have new callings since last I updated anything to do with that. Nellie is an advisor in the Beehives (the 12 and 13 girls in church) and loves it. She takes multiple hours getting her ornate lessons ready, and I know the girls love it. I on the other hand am serving as a counselor in the Elder's Quorum. I enjoy it, and the President is really on the ball, so it makes it fun to do our job. Nell has been supportive which is good because it means a bit more time away from the house.

The house should soon be moving along a lot better, I leveled a mound in our front yard on Saturday, but didn't get much else done. We're going to have some guys cut some holes in our basement and that should get us off to a good pace again.

That's about life for now, in parting I will mention that Jaden's new favorite phrases right now are "oh, DANGIT!"(and he really isn't mad when he uses this), "Honey..." and "oh my gosh!" (ditto on anger not being present at its use).

Another Try

If anyone still checks this blog, they will realize that I struggle trying to keep everything up to date. Instead of lamenting that fact, I am trying to resolve to do better. Lately our family has been busy, which is the usual.

Nellie just graduated from BYU in August! That was really exciting, that means she is an official stay-at-home mom, and Jaden keeps her busy. In addition to graduating, we finally got her a nice, new computer! She spent the first day with it out of the box working on her upcoming show. It is an awesome computer, a 20 inch apple imac with intel duo-core processor. Mostly, it just looks awesome.

I finally launched my businesses website: IDoTitaniumRings.com where I sell titanium wedding rings, tungsten wedding rings, even celtic rings and wedding ring sets. Feel free to check it out and pass it on to anyone you know in need of a ring. For the first six months I figure I will give a great deal to anyone in need of a ring, so tell them to e-mail me at my site to ask for details. As you can tell, I am working on my marketing and advertising. It will be interesting to see what comes of this work.

Jaden is as awesome as ever. We just got back from visiting Nana and Papa in Arizona, where he was spoiled and coddled. Imagine our surprise when he has been a little on the bratty side the last couple of days. I guess it is hard to go from being waited on, to be required to do things like pick up a toy! Last night Daddy and Jaden were horsing around and J-man smacked his head into the wall and got a bump. Naughty daddy!

Sealing--Belated

Well life has been somewhat busy, or I have been somewhat lazy! It's been nearly a month since we had our sealing in the Salt Lake Temple and I have not taken the time to write anything about it. May 27 was an AMAZING day for our family. Nellie and I took Jaden and picked up our friend Liz and drove up to Salt Lake. It was a rainy day, and the drive that usually takes us forty minutes ended up taking us an hour, making us about fifteen minutes late. After getting to the temple, we were ushered around filling out paperwork, verifying paperwork, and waiting. The Lord's house is definately a place of order. Nellie and I had the chance to sit in the Celestial room together and wait for everyone to get ready. It is always nice to sit there and meditate upon higher and holier things. After a half-hour of waiting, we finally were ushered into the sealing room where some of our family and close friends were waiting. Once we were seated, they brought Jaden into the room. The image of Jaden all dressed in white, lightly padding into the room looking around for someone he recognized is something I don't think I will ever forget. He finally found his Grandma Grow, and from there found Liz. Nellie and I knelt at the altar, and Jaden knelt on the side and put his little hand on ours. It was a short moment, but an amazing one. Knowing that an eternal seal now holds our family in place is something I am so grateful for. Now it's just up to us to do what we should.
After the sealing, we went home and had a little get-together at our house. It was a lot of fun seeing our friends and getting a chance to speak with them. Hopefully we will post some pictures of Jaden in his white blessing/sealing outfit soon. He is adorable!

Fathers and Sons

As you can see, fathers and sons was the funnest event EVER in Jaden's life! Alright, it was pretty fun, but I bet fifteen minutes with a Thomas train beats the event for him. On Friday night I had the opportunity to take my boy camping for the very first time! It was a lot of fun, but I won't say it was the most comfortable night of sleep in my life. We went to a campground that is up the canyon, only about twenty minutes to get there, it is very beautiful up there. Our camping area was by a small stream, and after a quick bite to eat and an adventure putting our tent up, we went exploring. Actually, we only made it as far as the stream where Jaden had a lot of fun crossing the stream. After he accidentally stepped in it and got six inches of his pants wet he didn't seem to be enjoying it quite as much, so we found some rocks for him to throw into the deeper areas of the stream. The campfire scene was fun, but a little dry so Jaden soon volunteered to go to bed. I went to check on him after he had been in bed for fifteen minutes and he convinced me to stay for a while. He has such a sweet persuasive manner of doing things. Instead of whining, he just gave me a hug and wouldn't let go, then proceeded to offer me a pillow to lay by him.
In the middle of the night, Jaden woke up and was freezing, so I let him slide into my sleeping bag...BIG mistake in terms of sleep. The rest of the night I had his cute head cutting off circulation in my arm, and his sharp heels digging in to my thighs. Needless to say, we were the first ones up in the camp.
This week we probably did some other exciting things, but I can't really remember at this point. We are excited to see all of you for the sealing this Saturday, that is going to be the greatest thing ever!

Two Weeks Notice?

Has anyone noticed it has been two full weeks since I last posted on the blog? Does anyone read this thing anyway? I don't know, and I guess it doesn't matter too much anyway. This past week, well two weeks has been more of the usual mixed with a little of some other things.

The most exciting thing that has happened would be the blessing of Jaden in church last Sunday, the 7th. Jaden's Nana Grow in Arizona sent up the outfit she had slaved over for our temple sealing. She did a great job on it, he was dressed all in white including white trousers, a bowtie and a vest. He looked so cute. Unlike a traditional blessing in which the baby is held by those participating in the blessing, Jaden set on a chair for the blessing. The blessing talked about him developing a deep and abiding faith in the Savior, also about him choosing to be obedient to the truths he understood. He was blessed that he would have an opportunity to serve a mission, and to bring joy to others lives.

At the end of the blessing, for a kick I lifted Jaden up for the congregation to see him. This is a common practice among people blessing their infants, but it got a pretty good reaction and a lot of people laughed. Afterward we had a little gathering of friends and family at our house. It was a lot of fun, and we had a lot of cheesecake left over! YES!

Nellie started her internship at the museum and has been adjusting to working outside of the home a lot more than in recent months. I think she really likes a lot of what she is doing and learning about, but a few of the first days involved data processing which she didn't seem to enjoy too much.

Jaden has been spending a lot of time at our friends, the Nielsens house. He ends up there right before nine most days of the week and I pick him up at noonish. It has been good for him to interact with their three girls. Almost every day Jaden informs me that "Play nice with Jackie," which means he didn't fight with the girl just younger than him. Liz and John have actually helped out on the potty training front, and just this past week a major breakthrough was made. After refusing to go "cu-cah in the potty" (translation....well you'll figure it out) for a long time, Jaden finally decided he could do it, and since first figuring it out on Thursday has lived free of accidents until today! This is more exciting than it should be, but I never knew how frustrating potty training could be!

I had a great week at work this week, and am feeling better about where things are headed. My business is going forward at a steady creep (although that might be too fast a word for it) perhaps it will pick up if I ever find more time for it. With full time work, school, and trying to keep our family doing fun stuff, it gets pretty hectic. Hats off to all of you who do more than I (and that's pretty much everyone!)
Today being Mother's Day, Jaden and I decided to cook mommy breakfast in bed. This turned out to be more fun than I could have anticipated. We made omelets, bacon, sausage, and hash browns with orange juice. Jaden was there for the whole episode, he helped lay the bacon in the pan, slice the sausage, and even tried including a healthy dose of egg shell in the omelets. Jaden also made a card with a picture of he and Nellie on it. Inside the card I recorded what he wanted to tell mommy which included: I love you, I like you, Skarloie (a train he likes) needs station, beep beep, and some weird MMMMnnnn grunt noises.

Tonight we went down to my Mom and Dad's house to have a family barbeque and to talk to my brother Davin who is on a mission in Bolivia right now. It was a lot of fun, but I must admit I feel bad for my mother. Her birthday was today, and quite often she has to deal with Mother's day and her birthday on the same day, which is never much fun. I don't think I do enough for her after all she has done for me.

We did some other fun stuff along the way these past two weeks, like go to a Cinco de Mayo birthday party, as well as a professional soccer game. Life is fun and good, and we are excited to be a part of it.

A Very Merry Unbirthday!

Jaden and Daddy April 29, 2006- We were at
temple square because Nellie was shooting
some engagement pictures. We were both
soaking due to our previous romp in the Gateway fountain.

Rather than writing about the week in chronological order, I will instead talk about the most important thing, and then continue talking about other unimportant things. (HINT- If you want to avoid boredom, just read the first section)

Friday, the 28th was exactly sixth months to the day that our beautiful baby (or not so baby) boy came to live with us. We got up early and headed down to the Utah County courthouse. We arrived at 9:20ish and as we walked in, we noticed three or four signs stating no cameras were allowed in the building. Figuring it was worth a try, we opened our mouths and the security personnel simply said "Adoption?" "Go right on through." This was good, but it did make me wonder how safe a policy it really is, considering they let us walk through, and set off the metal detectors without even emptying our pockets. Oh well, we got there safe. The court episode lasted all of ten or fifteen minutes. The judge came in, we got sworn in, Nell gave some testimony, I gave a teeny tiny bit of testimony, and that was it. The judge even let us get some good pictures of us in the court. It was really exciting, but honestly more comforting than anything. He is now ours, and we can even get him on our medical insurance.

I thought the finalization would be an exciting day, but after our tender short moment in court, we went to Mimi's Cafe. At Mimi's Jaden went back to his normal behavior and life was back to normal. Things feel the same way they always have, but it is nice to know everything is done. I think Nellie and I are most excited for our temple sealing. We are going to be sealed in the Salt Lake temple on May 27th, and I think that will be the day I breathe a true sigh of relief.

This week Jaden has morphed into a puppy. What started as a game between he and Mom has become an almost full time character. He does typical puppy things, including the puppy kisses he gives his mommy nonstop in the morning. Our puppy is special also, in addition to the whimpering and barking that he has down, he also has the ability to become Super Puppy, and Gorilla Pup. Super Puppy came about when Nellie was working on his quilt, and Jaden found a chunk of train fabric. Drawing from a Thomas episode, he convinced Nellie to tie the 'cape' around him. Super Puppy is very photogenic, but most images are too high res for my computer. I have to get Nell to e-mail me a bunch of pics so I can post them. Gorilla pup is just Jaden playing a puppy with a gorilla mask on. It is pretty funny to watch.

In molding Jaden to become a cougar ultimately, I have taught him how to tackle. We play a game where I tell him I have the football, and he runs after me, wraps his arms, and I fall. I then reciprocate, and he gets tackled, albeit very gently. It is cute when he initiates the game and runs up to me and says "I got foo ball," and runs away. For the BYU fans out there, I am teaching him how to wrap up.

This week has been pretty good, but I don't really have much more to say. We love all of you, and hope you are all feeling well and doing better.

Family Home Evening

Tonight we sat down for family home evening, always an ordeal in our house. Family home evening is where we try to spend some time learning about the gospel and how our family can be better and closer. It seems like Nell and I must be paying for how we behaved as children during family home evening. Jaden bounces off the walls and has a hard time concentrating on anything for longer than half a second. The highlight was when we sang "I Hope they Call me on a Mission," Jaden knows about half the words, and he catches up on some when they have already been sung. It is cute, and sometimes he tells me "Daddy, I go mission!" For instance I asked if he wanted to go to bed the other day and he said, "no, I go mission." One day he'll realize what he is actually asking for.

We went to the grocery store to do some shopping and get ice cream for family home evening treat. Unfortunately we listened to Jaden when he told us he wanted chocolate, and by the end of our store round he was pretty well marked. I wonder why vanilla ends up so much cleaner.

Jaden turns into a monster when its time to go to sleep. Tonight he screamed and screamed, but the trend is that when he gets overly upset, it is when he falls asleep the fastest. I think he is at his cutest in his sleep.

This is NOT Off to a Good Start

When I started this Blog, I envisioned the end of Doogie Houser MD, where he writes his journal and goes to bed. I guess Doogie was really before his time. I'm more like the guy who turns his school assignment in two days late and only meeting half the requirements. The concept of a blog to me was about Janelle and I getting to share our lives with people who are too far away to be involved day to day. Okay, it was mostly about showing everyone how cute Jaden is. Let's hope that I can fulfill the end to which I started this blog.

The best news of the week is that we sat down with our lawyer on Thursday and scheduled our adoption finalization! This Friday, the 28th, we will be in court first thing in the morning. It is exciting to think that after six months of living with slight anxiety over what could happen that we get to officially say he is ours!!!

We recently added a new member to the family, he is red and is named James...no it's not a cat or dog, it is a train. Jaden finally, after a month of urging, used the toilet to do something other than urinate in, and James was his reward. On Saturday he spent much of the day sharing his track with both Thomas and James. His favorite new game involves putting Thomas right in the way of James and then bossing Thomas to get out of the way, then saying "no, ask nicely!" To which James apparently replies "I would like you move, Thomas, please." It is nice that something we are teaching him is apparently taking root.

We took Jaden to the zoo on Wednesday, he got to hang out with his cousin Kai. Their favorite thing wasn't an animal at all, it was the train, but they seem to share an affinity for snakes. Go figure.

With her last final out of the way at BYU, Nellie has finally finished most of college. She got news this week that she will be doing an internship at BYU's Museum of Art (MOA for those of you who are into the lingo). This is pretty exciting because it will still allow her to graduate in August, rather than wait until December. With school winding down, I swear I see her twitch just a little when people ask her how long it took to finish school. "You know, a lot of people go to college for seven years,"-Tommy Callahan "I know, they're called doctors."-Richard Hayden. (from Tommy Boy)

I spent Saturday putting the downstairs bathroom back together with my dad and brother Ben. Truth be told, I really didn't do nearly as much as my father or brother. In the end we almost have a bathroom that is ready to use, and close to being ready to decorate. I tinkered on other small projects like pulling down two sattelite dish posts (sans actually satellites) on the roof, and getting rid of the dearth of weeds on our driveway. Fixing up this house will be financially worthwhile, but I don't know we will be able to leave after everything is finished. I also spent some time this week taking care of small details for the business. Nell has agreed to do some photography for my homepage, which I think is great, nothing like having a professional that I can bribe with ice cream.

That is about all for this week. I am working on setting up an account of pictures on Flickr. com, there will be a link on the right of the page, but I am trying to figure out how to link directly up with it so there can be more than one or two pictures in the body of the blog.

Easter-The First Holiday Observed on this Blog!

Easter is a lot more fun when you have a kid. I used to think it was fun back when I was a boy to color easter eggs, and later to hide them for my siblings. Today was a great easter day. This morning, before we went to church, we spent some time trying to teach Jaden about why we celebrate easter. We watched a video about the ressurection and I have the feeling that about 1/100,000 of what I said sunk in...always good to know something good is happening.
I'm sad to report that in terms of providing our son with a traditional easter, we failed. Nellie worked on Saturday so we didn't end up coloring eggs, and we didn't even give him his basket until after church (around 2:30). I don't think the boy minded, he happily ate his candy. We did get him a cute easter outfit, which his mom picked out, and dad tried to get some good photos to share. I am still learning to master that digital camera of Nell's (think normal digital camera on steroids). If Jaden looks unreponsive it's because he was watching Thomas the Tank Engine and couldn't be too bothered to look at dad.
We went over to my parents for a family dinner, it was good and a little hectic. It's funny to see my family grow up and expand. Even my little sister Becca had her boyfriend over, and with the four cousins it seems like my parents house was teeming with activity.
Overall, I definately reccomend any holiday with children over one without. Jaden is a stud.

It's ALIVE

After months of anticipation, and weeks of planning, and days of speculation (actually there was no wait at all...) The Perkins Family Blog is here...