Ryan Duke - a photographic retrospective

I was going to do a long post all about Ryan's birth, but I got started and it was wearing me out...so for now, I am just going to post some pictures, so everyone can see how handsome he is, and give you a brief summary of his life so far...This is me, right after they officially admitted me to the hospital. As you can see, I was in good spirits. Ryan was 20 inches and 8.2 pounds when he was born. Pretty average size, but when I saw him for the first time, I said "oh, he's so small!" Here is the proud daddy:

These pics look a little weird, as Jared took them without the flash, cause he was trying not to make his first bath any worse:

He has since grown 1 3/4 inches and is up to 8.13 lbs. He is SUPER mellow. He only fusses for a short time when he is getting his diaper changed (really, who can blame him?) or when he is hungry, but as soon as his needs are met, he is happy to sit quietly using his shifty eyes to see what is going on around him. He has big dimples in both cheeks. I only have one on my left side, and just when I am smiling, but he has them all the time. As you can see, it was a poor choice of finger I used to point out his dimples, sorry!

The big kids couldn't wait to meet him:

Nate came with Daddy to bring Ryan and I home from the hospital. He couldn't be more pleased to finally have his little brother here. As he told me "I have been waiting my whole life to have a baby brother!"

The only "problem" we had the first few days of having Ryan home, was the big kids fighting over who got to hold him. Since his newness has worn off, the fighting over holding him has stopped, thank goodness, but they still want to hold him all the time and be great helpers.

I can't try and be modest here, I make BEAUTIFUL babies. When Ryan came out, he didn't have a cone head or any birthmarks or any of that baby acne...he is just one good lookin' baby!

They say babies don't smile before 6 weeks or so, but I have photographic evidence that this is not the case for Ryan, as he is only 2 weeks old in his super smiley picture, and no one will ever be able to convince me it was just gas.

Hopefully that is enough pictures for now for those of you who have been pestering me to update my blog. I have tons more, and I promise they will get posted in the next few days...keep checking back.

Ever wonder what it looks like when someone who is 9 months pregnant takes castor oil to start their labor? Well, here you go:

Yes, it really is that bad, but it does work.

School's Out for the Summer

Okay, so technically, school starts up again in less than 5 weeks, but I am really behind in my postings, and I felt like Nate needed some love on the blog. This school year was great because I was able to volunteer in Nate's class once a week and I really felt like I was able to get to know not just his teacher, but his classmates as well. For the last day of school, I was able to attend his BBQ party and it was really fun. It was cute to see all the kids "signing" each other's yearbooks.

Nate learned how to do the monkey bars really well this year. I was really impressed because I never really had the upper body strength to do the monkey bars very well, and I definitely couldn't do two at a time like Nate. The big thing this year in first grade was tether ball. All the kids were playing it and Nate got pretty into it too. He isn't the best, but he sure has a lot of fun doing it. In fact he asked me if I could get a tether ball for him so he could practice over the summer...I am still "thinking about it."Nate made some really good friends at school this year: Nate and AustinNate, Austin and Alexis

Nate and Jack
Nate's friend Darius crashing after the sugar high he got from all the goodies.Rebecca, Paige (Nate's "girlfriend") Nate, Diego and Devin all writing notes and pictures for Ms. Miller on the board.

First grade was an overwhelming success for Nate, not only did he develop some really neat friendships, but he also really developed a love for learning and an even greater love for reading (if that is possible). We did get some exciting news for Nate this past week or so too. At the end of 1st grade, he participated in the Terra Nova testing that they do for all 1st graders around the country. They only tested in reading and math, but Nate scored in the 94th percentile for reading and the 99th percentile for math, giving him an overall score in the 99th percentile. Way to go Nate, we are so proud of you!! Keep it up and you'll make us all rich someday!

Funny Quote

So Dana was giving me a foot rub tonight, and to help me relax even more, she offered to rub my temples by saying: "Mom, can I rub your pimples for you?"

Dana Graduates from Preschool

Okay, so I am about a month or more behind on posting, but that's how life goes. I wanted to post a few of the pictures from Dana's preschool graduation in May. She went to the Presbyterian Preschool here in town, and had an amazing experience. She was devastated by the fact that she was graduating, and couldn't return in the fall. The preschool is really a wonderful one, and usually has a years-long waiting list, but we got really lucky that they happened to have one cancellation last summer, so they were able to fit Dana in. It was pretty expensive, at least by our standards, it cost $220/month for three days a week, when we paid just $50/month for Nate to go to preschool. But that is the Bay Area...more expensive all around to live here. Anyway, they put on this graduation program/potluck that was unbelievable. The kids prepared several songs to perform, and the decorations for the potluck were amazing...the level of effort that went into the potluck was right on par with the effort that goes into the Brush Creek Ward activities...and that is really saying something.

Here is just one of the pictures of Dana on stage performing for the parents. She is the second one to the left of the kid in the bright orange shirt.

This is Dana's plate that the preschool made as a graduation gift for her. It's a picture she drew of her "Fabby-Fifi," which is what she calls her Daddy. Note that she made the picture very realistic by giving Daddy a red beard, but she put him in a dress with puffy sleeves. Too funny.This is just one of the decorations they put up. They hung all these big bugs from the ceilings and each one had a face of one of the different preschool teachers. The kids loved it. This is Mrs. Maloney, the director of Dana's class, and she was hanging directly over our table.

This is Dana's best friend ever, Sydney Wold. Sydney lives right near by and is in our ward, and the girls were lucky enough to get to be in the same class for preschool. They did great, because even though they were best friends before class started, they also never had a problem playing with other kids or letting other kids play with the two of them. The teachers commented to me several times how pleased they were with this.

Here she is with Mommy and Daddy at the potluck dinner. We took a picture of the three of us together, but you will never see it unless I am ever a contestant on The Biggest Loser. It is from a sideways angle, and for whatever reason, it looks like a "before" picture instead of a picture of me at seven months pregnant. Seriously, you can't even tell I am pregnant in the picture, I just look really fat. As Kimmy would say: "it's gigusting!"

Apparently they also used rocks that the kids painted into bugs as more decorations. This is Dana's bumblebee.

Dana Brielle turns FIVE!!

So Dana turned 5 last month! I can't believe my little girl is going to be starting all day kindergarten in two short months! What will I do without her, oh, that's right, I'll have a newborn plus mischevious little Kimmy to keep me occupied. She loves to hold my hand and is always offering to give me foot massages - lotion and everything. She is very empathetic and can just can sense when others are unhappy and goes out of her way to help them feel better. She loves to help around the house with chores or cooking and especially taking care of her little sister Kimmy. She can't wait for the new baby to be born so she can help change it and feed it. Dana's birthday was such a fun day. For her birthday breakfast she got to have french toast with strawberries and whip cream made by Daddy: The she got to open a new birthday outfit:

Then she got to go on a date, just her and Mommy to the mall. We had to make a stop at "her store" which is actually Claire's boutique so she could pick out a new present. I loved this hat, but she chose a diary with a lock and key instead...could she be 5 going on 15?

After the mall, we got to go see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D, again just the two of us. Dana is such a sweet girl with such a sweet heart, I loved having the chance to do something with just her. For her birthday cake, she wanted to get an ice cream cake, and Baskin Robbins had just the perfect one for her. It was pink and shaped like a purse. Too cute!

Of course, Nate couldn't wait to dive into the cake!(She was having a great hair day, don't you think? Kate needs the CHI Jed ;)) After cake, Kimmy had to go to bed because it was already after 8. So it was just Nate and Dana for the opening of the presents. I realize that it looks like from these pictures that Dana got a massive amount of presents, so I feel the need to clarify. The presents in her pile include those from both sets of grandparents and quite a few from Mom and Dad were much needed clothes, which I decided to wrap up to make it look like she had more. Jared said she is going to look back at these pictures next year and say "36? 36 presents? Last year, last year I had 37!!!" (for those who don't know that was a Harry Potter reference).

Of course, her favorite present was this one:

It was a great birthday, we are so happy and blessed to have her as a part of our family. Life wouldn't be half as fun without her.

To quote Dana: "This was the best day of my life. I got everything of my heart's desire!"