Happy Holidays!

We love hearing from all of you! Merry Christmas!

Visit to the Zoo

All of the Duke family gathered in Dallas this weekend and went to the Fort Worth zoo.

Yeah, Dylan loves leaves. How did you know?

The bird exhibit is so fun. The birds are not afraid to eat the seeds off the sticks...

...or let your child grab them before you can stop it:

Dylan crawled after this bird and it just hopped around...

until it flew away in the direction of my head. I stumbled backwards in surprise but caught myself. Pretty funny.

This lion fascinated all of us with its loud roar:

Case in point. Tommy's too intrigued to turn around:

We went to the reptile house:

This tiger was pacing very close to the glass with hungry eyes.
Danny decided to 'play' with it...

so it 'played' with him:

We saw a couple of cute monkeys in the trees playing peekaboo:
That night we had an early Christmas since we are all scattering for the end of December. Dylan loves his new toys:

It's fun to watch the kids interact with each other. Dylan used to just observe or do his own thing, but he has started to jump in with them. Sorry, kiddos, your toys aren't safe anymore!

Duke Kidlet Holiday Pics

We took the kids to get their pictures taken in their cute Christmas outfits the day before we drove home. They turned out pretty good. This was the first time he had ever been to a portrait studio where a stranger was taking the pictures. I wish Dylan would have been his smiley self, but considering he was sick the entire week with a fever and snotty nose, had to go to an urgent care clinic 3 days earlier because he was throwing up, and had to get a priesthood blessing at 2am just hours before this picture was taken, I'm just glad he wasn't crying. What a little trooper. These kids are so adorable. Since Lori and Allyson are expecting babies, next time there will be 5 cute kidlets.

The countdown to Christmas has started!

Thanksgiving in Houston

After the weekend in San Marcos, we drove down to Houston to stay for a week. Matt and Autrey had to go back to Dallas, but they drove down on Wednesday night after work. The kids played ball with Papa and played the guitar: We went to the Children's Museum:

Children's Museums are apparantly tough on some adults. Papa and Matt were plumb tuckered out from playing so hard:

The kids played in the mini ball pit house:

Tommy was spitting the balls out and making Dylan laugh so hard:

Where else could you swim outside at Thanksgiving?

This ride entertained the kids for the better part of a night:

P.S. - I nearly ran over an armadillo the other day, literally. With my feet. I was running and it just sauntered 2 feet in front of me. I don't think it ever saw me as it moseyed to the other side of the street. My next lap around the neighborhood the dog across the street was barking frantically. I bet I know why. I also know why seeing a LIVE armadillo is such a rare treat. They are not very bright or fast if I about took one out. Gotta love Texas.