Annoucement!

The Perkins family is growing again! We recently found out that Little Perk #3 will be joining us the end of Oct. The lovely first trimester symptoms have already begun to rear its ugly head, but other than that things are going well. Nathan is hoping maybe this time he will get a little boy. Although, Claire would not be too happy about that. We shall see!

Gettin my Style on

Claire is always keeping us entertained with the things she says. She has been semi -obsessed with her ears being pierced since she saw one of the twins on Jon and Kate plus 8 get their ears pierced. She doesn't want them now(thank goodness), but has always said when she is older. The other night we were sitting on the couch and out of the blue she said "Mom I don't want to get my ears pierced." I told her that was fine, some people never get their ears pierced. She then said "But mom, how will I get my style on when I am a grown up if I can't wear earrings? I will only be able to wear necklaces and bracelets." Do you think I have a Diva? Gotta love her!

Sweet Pea Designs

Well, it is official! I have started my own stationery business. I have posted a picture of my first design. I will be offering announcements, invites and stationery. This has been something I have always enjoyed doing and just haven't been sure where to start. Thanks to the help of my good friend Stacey Baker, my business is now up and running. Over the next week I will be creating more templates and posting them on etsy.com. If there is something special you would like please email me and I would be more than happy to create a custom design for you. I am so excited about starting this new chapter in my life.

New Year's Around the World

Reading her letters to us this morning.
Claire's Chinese Red Dragon

Pink Roses to represent giving roses to those who are special on New Years Day in Ethopia

Decorating and writing her letters to mom and dad

Playing wooden spoons to folk music like the children do in Canada

Yesterday Claire's school day was spent learning about different New Year celebrations around the world. She made a chinese dragon, she played spoons to folk music like they do in Canada, she wrote letters to her mom and dad telling us how thankful she was for us and then read them this morning standing in a chair just like they do in Belgium. She made a traditional Brazilian New Years Morning breakfast (with my help of course), she made tissue roses and gave them to someone special to represent the custom in Nigeria and of course, she made a New Year's resolution. Her New Year's resolution was to swim underwater this summer. Claire and I both had a lot of fun learning about how different cultures celebrate the New Year. It was fun for her and I both to spend the day making fun crafts. Here are some pictures of her fun projects.

Merry Christmas

My parents came to visit us this year for Christmas, it was so good to enjoy a few days with them. As much as I enjoyed our Christmas with them, it wasn't the same without my brother here to celebrate. My brother is serving our country in Afghanistan and his presence was deeply missed. I am so proud of him and his brave service to our country.

This year we started a new tradition for Christmas that we adopted from our friends the Bakers. This year instead of giving the children a ton of toys, which can be very costly and take away from the true meaning of Christmas, we gave them three gifts. A "gold" gift, a "frankincense" gift and "myrrh" gift. The gold gift was a costly gift and something that they really wanted, the frankincense gift was a special gift, something that really means a lot to them. Finally, the myrrh gift was a practical gift. After our tradition of reading the Christmas story together as a family we explained the three gifts Jesus received and their meanings. Then we explained to Claire what each of her three gifts represented. I am excited about this new tradition. I am always looking for ways to help our family reflect on the real meaning of Christmas. I hope this made the girls' gifts more meaningful to them as well.

There were also a few cute moments during our Christmas morning festivities. All season long Claire has only asked for one thing, a princess cash register. That is all she has wanted. Then, two days before Christmas, when we were out shopping so Claire could pick out a gift for Keeley, she saw a Princess Magic Oven. Oh boy was she excited! She wanted one so bad. Well, Nathan and I had already bought her Christmas, but since it was all she talked about from that moment on we felt it would make a more appropriate "frankincense" gift then the one we had picked out for her. So the next morning my mom and I returned her original gift and went and got her the oven. I was so thankful we did this. On Christmas morning before we opened gifts she said "If I get a cash register and a oven I will really have my hopes up!" Then when she opened her gifts and saw that she did indeed have a cash register and a oven she said "I got my hopes up!" It was too cute and made us all laugh. Keeley was also quite fun to watch. Last Christmas, not only was she really sick, but she was really too young to get into it. This year she was so excited. Every present we brought to her she would take to my dad (aka poppy) and say "help" or "out". He would help her unwrap her presents and her usual response would be "wow"! Nathan and I had so much fun watching the joy on our children's faces as they unwrapped their gifts.

Biltmore Estate Visit

The Biltmore Estate has so much to offer for families and so this year for Christmas my parents gave us a year membership to the Biltmore. They actually gave it to us at Thanksgiving so we could see the Biltmore Christmas decorations. The first time we attempted to go, the wait to get into the house was three and half hours. We knew that would never fly with kiddos so we decided to just check out the barn animals this time and come back another day to see the house. Although it was bitter cold the girls had a great time petting all the animals. Keeley especially liked the goats and Claire's favorite seemed to be the baby chicks.

Grove Park Inn

One evening we took the girls to the Grove Park Inn to see their display of Christmas Trees and all the gingerbread houses. Each year the Grove Park Inn hosts a gingerbread house contest. They have hundreds of entries in several different categories. There is even a contest for the kiddos. The houses were very impressive and after attempting my first made from scratch gingerbread house this year I can REALLY appreciate all the skill this takes. The girls had a lot of fun looking at all the neat gingerbread houses.

They had a sleigh and a christmas tree set up in front of the gorgeous fireplace and I thought it would make the perfect background for the family Christmas card picture. After several attempts I finally gave up and decided to use a picture we already had. It was hard enough when I needed one child to sit still and look at the camera, it is near impossible with two!