Sometimes I Wish. . .

that they were always this still and quiet

but then life would be very boring

and Asher wouldn't have anyone to wake him up

right when I put him down for a nap

so I'll take the craziness

Johnny's 1st Birthday

He is now a 1 year old. That kid is growing fast and loving every minute of it. And we are loving every minute of it too.

His birthday was Friday (May 15). In fact, part of the significance of his name (John) is that he was born on the Commemoration of the Priesthood on which day John the Baptist restored the Aaronic Priesthood in 1829 (D&C 13).

On Thursday we went to the store to pick up some stuff for his birthday party. As we were strolling along, he reached out and grabbed a plastic baseball bat. I decided it would be a good birthday present. He has hardly let it out of his sight since.



Grandma and Grandpa Perkins stopped by on their way home to Mesquite. They gave Johnny some wonderful presents, but the best present was that he got to see them on his birthday.

We had a little party for him that night. We put some newspaper down, took off his shirt, and then gave him some cake. He was a little shy at first with everyone watching him, but he eventually got the idea and started chowin down.




After his sugar rush, he crashed pretty hard and slept all night...well, most of the night. Overall, I would definitely have to say that his favorite present was the balloons. The wiffle balls and bat came in a close 2nd.

Johnny's First Steps

That's right. He's walking. Kind of.

Johnny has been able to walk while supporting himself on something else for a while now. Lately he started standing up without the support of anything else. Then the other day we got him to take a "baby step". In this video, I coerce him to take about 4 steps without holding on to anything else.

Big News

Everything has been going great and life has been coming at us pretty fast. This is just a quick update on our lives over the past (and coming) few months.



Right now I am sitting in the Phoenix airport on a 4 hour layover on our way to Mexico. If I didn't get the chance to tell you what I'm doing, here goes. For one of my engineering classes we have been working with engineering students in Mexico on some civil engineering-related projects in Mexico. My project involves flood mitigation in the city of Tlaltenango. For the next week, we will be in Zacatecas working on the project, presenting our results, etc etc, and living up the spring break that BYU doesn't give us. So it will be quite fun, but a great learning experience at the same time.

The downside of all this? Being away from Keriann and Johnny all week :( But they will be visiting Keri's family in Seattle, which will be good for them.


I'm graduating! This is my last semester and I will graduate in April. The company for which I have been interning for the last year or so (JUB Engineering) made me a job offer. So I will be working there full-time beginning in May. I have also been accepted to BYU's graduate program. So, along with working at JUB, I will be working on a Master's in Civil Engineering beginning in September. That, along with the new baby, will keep us pretty busy. That means that we'll be in Orem for at least a few more years.

Oh, you're probably wondering about something that I just dropped in there towards the end of the last paragraph. That's right...I said "Orem." We found a new place to live that will be quite a step up and much more hospitable to all of you when you come visit. It is a 3 bedroom newly remodeled basement just off of 1600 South in Orem. We are very excited to move in at the beginning of April.

It just seems like everything is changing with school ending, a "new" job, new house, and of course, Johnny becoming a big brother.



Johnny is getting bigger everyday. He crawls all over and can stand on his own, but he is not walking yet. He has 4 teeth (2 front bottom and top). He also says, "Dadda" and "Momma." And he thinks (correctly) that he runs the house.

Keriann is also getting bigger, but for different reasons (she's not really big at all...I just thought that would be a good segue into the next topic). Ok, so here it is...Number 2 is on the way! Keri is about 3 months along and she handled the first trimester much better this time than last time. The baby is due on September 21 - so it could end up on Daylen's birthday or Cori's birthday (or anybody else's birthday in September). We waited this long to tell people because Keri wanted to tell her sisters in person. We already told Mom and Dad and, surprise surprise, Mom did a great job of not letting it slip. Thanks Mom.

So there it is. I'll give you updates when we find out the gender and anything else that is going on. We hope you are all doing great. Keep in touch.

Christmas

Merry Christmas. We had a good one. It was Johnny's first. And he loved it.

Keri flew up here (Seattle) on Thursday, December 18. I had a final on Friday so we had to reschedule my flight for Saturday. Keri had a hard enough time getting out on Thursday because of the snow in Salt Lake. My flight actually got canceled. That also had to do with snow in Seattle. What? Snow in Seattle? I'm sure you've heard all about it already, but yeah, it snowed quite a bit here in Seattle the whole week of Christmas. I finally got in on Sunday and I was lucky I even made it in then.

No, I was not on that bus, but this does illustrate how icy and snowy it got in Seattle. They don't have a lot of plows because it "never" snows like this. Also, apparently they attempted an alternative, more "environmentally friendly" strategy for melting the ice (and by "strategy" I actually mean "way to save money at the expense of public safety").

Keri had gone to her sister Fran's house to spend the night and spend some time with her niece and nephew before I came. But when I did come, she was basically snowed in and unable to safely come home. Her sister lives on a very steep hill. The next day (Monday), her dad, brother, and I went on a rescue mission. The roads were slightly better, even though the hill was still closed. Keri, Johnny, and I were finally reunited at last.

We didn't go out much before Christmas because of the snow. But I did at least get out a little bit to play some basketball with Stephen (Keri's twin brother...no they are not identical) and some guys from the stake. We fed Johnny a lot. In this picture he looks like a little Santa with rice cereal running down his face. We did try him on yams as well. For the most part he did all right, but there were times that he looked more like Grandpa Perkins than Grandma Perkins.

We were also able to spend time with Keri's sister Melinda, her husband Daniel, and their son Henry. Johnny and Henry had a fun time together and I think Johnny only gouged him once.

On Christmas Eve we got to open 1 present (or 2 or 3 in some cases). I got a very nice tie from Keri's parents and a nice shirt from her sister. Johnny opened a BYU sweatshirt that we had got for him. He was more interested in the wrapping paper. He also got a large alligator toy that makes various noises etc. He loves it.

We got a little BYU cheerleader outfit for Keri's 3 year old niece, Emma. Her mom asked, "Do you like it? Would you ever wear it?" Emma quickly responded, "NO!" and went on playing with her other things. Even Mom couldn't sell that one.

Christmas Day was wonderful. We waited to open presents until Stephen woke up. He had to work the night before. We got some nice things that we really appreciated. I gave Keri some slippers that she absolutley loves. She gave me a cool BYU zip-up hoody that we picked out together but I forgot about. Her mom gave me some pretty cool under armour (the nice thick kind) and Stephen gave me an authentic Cubs jersey, which is much cooler than any Cubs jersey that Daylen or Maurie might have.

So it has been a fun break and a wonderful Christmas. We go back on New Year's Day. School starts again for me the following Monday, so it will be good to have a few days to settle back into the swing of things and get ready for school. This will be my last semester before grad school, so we are looking forward to it. The Goodriches have been very hospitable and it has been absolutely wonderful to share this holiday season with them. Johnny has also enjoyed it very much.

New Updates!

Well lots of fun stuff has been going on. For all of the updates, go to Keri's blog. She's better at blogging than I am. In fact, it seems like all I ever really blog about is Keri's blogging. I'll give more updates soon.

Tucanos

Baby Johnny loves going to Tucanos with his Dad. He sat in his high chair and was excited for the food. And even after he found out he wasn't going to be eating, he still enjoyed just checking things out. These two always have fun together. Brad made sure we got a picture showing off what onesie Johnny is wearing. We had a great time and Johnny was also happy his Uncle Stevie was there to join in on the fun.