Happy Holidays!

 
So a lot has happened this year. We started out the year with Daniel getting a new job. He now works for Xerox, which was a move up in pay and benefits. Xerox has education reimbursement, so Daniel started back to school! He’s going through University of Phoenix and working towards a bachelor’s in Business Management. It’s been a busy year, trying to cram school into an already busy schedule, but it will be worth it.

Jennifer has expanded her responsibilities on many levels. Jen is keeping our household together, first of all. She is a nanny as well, getting up early and taking Ian with her to go care for Maddox. Ian and Maddox are like brothers, which can be stressful for Jen, as they get along just like brothers! In September (an early birthday gift), she was given a nice digital camera by her loving husband, and is now generating 500 beautiful pictures every month.

Ian is possibly the smartest child ever, at least in his parents and grandparents and great-grandparents eyes. At two, he can say his alphabet, count to ten, sing lots of songs, and have little conversations with others. It’s very cute stuff. He is also a camera hog, and loves smiling for photos. His aunts and uncles can’t resist him, and he’s just a joy to everyone’s lives. Of course, he is two, so he does have his temper tantrum moments and gets in as much trouble as he can.

Hurricane Ike hit Galveston Island in September, and changed thousands of people’s lives forever. We didn’t lose any of our stuff, but our apartment sustained mold damage, and we had to move out. We then managed to buy a house in 30 days, and we are now living in our own home in Texas City! See our new address on the envelope. We feel extremely blessed to have come out so well, and we continue to pray for those who are still working to recover from the storm. We have learned so much this year, and we are hopeful as we go into 2009.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Daniel, Jennifer & Ian

Ian's Alphabet Song

Ian singing the alphabet... enjoy :)

Ian's 2nd Birthday

Ian had a WONDERFUL 2nd Birthday!!! Lots of family and friends came out to "MeMe and Poppy's" to help us celebrate. It seems like only moments ago I was holding him for the first time. It is my prayer that God will continue to show Daniel and I how to raise this precious little boy. I am so excited to see what 2 is going to bring us and yet I am a little sad because he is not a baby anymore. He will always be my baby though. Here is a poem I found that describes the way I am feeling right now...


It seems like only yesterday
that I held you in my arms
for the very first time
And now you walk beside me
holding my hand
and teaching my heart
to see the world
through the eyes of a child
Today all of nature
is your playground
and tommorow will dawn
with a rainbow of surprises
waiting to be discovered
by your innocent eyes
and open heart
It seems like only yesterday
that I welcomed you into my world
for the very first time
And now I can't imagine
what my world would ever be like
without you!

Some photos...

Daniel bought me an AWESOME camera for my birthday. He had to give it to me early because he couldn't hide it from me in the car!!! Here are a few pictures I have taken. I have taken close to 700 already. I had better start deleting some of them...

Post- Ike

I know everyone is wondering how we are doing...we are fine!!! Our home has received minimal damage(we are on the second floor), praise God! I hear that everyone who lived on ground level was impacted greatly by the storm. I have a friend who got six feet of water in his home. Scary!!!We have some water leakage in the ceiling, our chimney stack is down and it stinks like rotting food but I can handle that:) We are currently staying at Mom and Dad's in Santa Fe until the situation gets better in Galveston. I know there are a lot of people working very hard around the clock to make my home livable again. I read in the news paper last night that the city will be letting people back on the island as early as Friday. However, there won't be power yet so Dan and I will continue to stay right where we are. We plan on going to the island to clean out the apartment and to drop off some things that have been in the trunk for over a week now. I hope everyone is doing well. Please pray for those that are in need!!!

Love you all,

Jen

A Little Visit with Granny

These are pictures of Ian and I with my Granny Yost(my Mom's Grandmom). I
love how these pictures turned out. I have many fond memories from my childhood of drawing her pictures to keep on her refrigerator and her giving me too much apple juice...and ALWAYS having red licorice in the house. I smile every time I think of her.

Cuties

This picture is a favorite of mine...simply because all three of them are looking at the camera and SMILING at the same time! It is hard work getting three young children to all sit down and smile long enough to get a good picture. The other two kiddos are Ian's second cousins Bobby(age 4) and Abby(age 2).

Over the River and Through the Woods...

This is my dear Great- Grandmother.(and Ian's Great-Great Grandmother!) Ian and were fortunate enough to have a
little visit with her. It was Ian's first time to meet her and he warmed up quite nicely.

What a Difference One Year Makes!!!

Both of these photos were taken in my Grandparent's BEAUTIFUL flower bed. The top one was taken last summer when Ian was only 8 months old and the lower one was taken just a couple of weeks ago. Its amazing all the changes that have happened in only one year! He has gone from a baby to a walking,talking toddler.(He will always be my baby though) Ian loves God's beautiful outdoor creations...especially flowers. We can't walk by any flowers without stopping to smell them...I think we could all try to remember that more often!

Fun at the Zoo!

My Aunt Julie and I took the kids to the zoo while we were up in Pennsylvania. She has two
young kids,Bobby and Abby.They are really cute kids and even better,Ian LOVED them. He wanted to do everything Bobby did(I hope it didn't drive him too crazy!)and he thought Abby was "pretty". Anyway here are a few of my favorites from the zoo trip. Oh yeah,it was Ian's first time to visit the zoo and he just couldn't enough of it. I don't think I knew what it meant to be REALLY exhausted until I experienced chasing a toddler around the zoo for five hours. But it was well worth it and I would love to do it again!!!







This elephant was NOT camera shy!

Ian looking at a tiger(there is glass separating them)
Ian the Leopard!!!(I love the face!)
A close up...the artist was wonderful!
Bobby the Crocodile,Abby the Piggy and Ian the Leopard

Summer is flying by!!!

During the first week of August Ian and I took a (long!)airplane ride up to visit my family in Pennsylvania. And boy did we have fun!!!!By the end of the week I had uploaded close to 500 pictures that had captured many smiles and memories. I will refrain from putting them ALL up here:)It would take too long anyway!! The picture of Ian was taken out on my Grandmom's swing. Isn't he a goofball? The other was also taken on the front porch. I believe my Grandpop actually planted those plants in an old pair of his workboots. I love it! More pics of the trip coming soon.

No we haven't disappeared!!!!

Okay okay, so I haven't gotten on here to do updates in a VERY LONG time. Sorry Pop-Pop!!! Here are some pictures of what we have been up to this summer. I am going to try and do better about getting on here more. Fun times at the Moody Gardens Aquarium. Ian is pointing at starfish.

Ian listening to the new "headsones" mommy got him.
He decided to break dance!!!
Future Hip Hop Dancer???

Summer Fun

So it has been a little while since I last updated everyone on our summer. We have been spending all of our free time at the pool or just hanging around our apartment.

An evening at the beach...

One evening after dinner Dan and I decided to take Ian to the beach. Actually we were headed to the pool when we realized it was locked and we couldn't get in. Ian was devestated that we weren't going so we decided to tell him we could take him to the beach. He was on board with that plan!!! While there I took pictures and a few of them turned out cute. I love the one with Ian holding Daniel's hand.

I love these boys!!!

I took these pictures of Ian and Maddox(the little boy I nanny) this morning during a rare but very sweet "hug". They are just like brothers...but every once in a while they are nice to one another. I especially like the last picture because it looks like Maddox is squeezing the life out of Ian.

He is supposed to be sleeping....

A little bit ago I quietly slipped into Ian's room determined to take
"sleeping" pictures of him. Apparently he wasn't asleep yet! Does he look like he is going to sleep anytime soon? I have a feeling it might be a long afternoon...

Daniel's Birthday

Daniel's birthday was last Thursday. I went to Kroger and bought steak for the very first time.(wasn't as hard as I though it would be). It was so good!!! I also made brownies for dessert which we shared with our dear friends Carlos and Elisabeth. It was a wonderful day,and I think Dan is very greatly anticipating his gift...still. I am running a little late on it. Thank God he doesn't hold grudges!!! I am forever thankful to God for giving me such a wonderful husband and Ian a fun daddy:)

Ian Performing on Video

This video is especially for the Duke side of the family. Yesterday, Ian went swimming with Grandma, Grandpa, and his aunts Audra, Natalie, and Ariel. That evening, during our discussion of the day's events, we reviewed all those names. He never really got Grandpa (sorry, Daddy), but he did pretty good on the rest. Check it out!

First Time at Moody Gardens

Last weekend Daniel and I went to get our Moody Gardens passes made. For those of you that don't know what Moody Gardens is, its a local tourist attraction that consists of a rain forest, aquarium, and and a large swimming area named Palm Beach. There are other things to do there but I don't really know what. Since we were there and had some free time on our hands,we took Ian to the rain forest for the very first time. He was enthralled!!! The kid just kept walking around in awe of the animals and water. Some of his favorites were the bats(no good pics) and the colorful macaws. There were also some brightly colored birds walking around and he had fun following them around too. I think we will be visiting Moody Gardens a lot this summer. I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!