Dylan's John Deere

Dylan liked his new battery powered backhoe loader while we were in New Mexico, but was wary about actually driving it. He still gets scared with some loud noises. But he did warm up to it and started to ride it in short spurts with Mimi and Papa after we drove back from NM and Amarillo.

Here are some clips of Dylan riding it:

Christmas at Nana's

All the Duke crew drove to Ruidoso, New Mexico to be with Nana. We did it because we love Nana. The 10 hour drive also taught me that I love portable DVD players, Bob the Builder, and Between the Lions - for sanity's sake. Thanks, G-ma and G-pa for that well-timed gift!! I do not support kids watching shows and playing video games for hours every day, but it sure was nice to have something to entertain a 2 year old who was trapped in a car seat. Actually, I'm pretty sure it was longer than 10 hours because of all the snow we hit... Anyway, we all made it on Christmas Eve. Here are the kids with Nana, except Gorilla Joe: In their cute pjs that night:Boys kissing Maggie. They ought to have kissed Santa. Santa was VERY good to them, and the rest of us: We definitely had a White Christmas. Needed 4-wheel drive just to get to the rental house. The kids loved the snow. Dylan loved to throw it, roll around in it, and play in it:
Tommy and Dylan both got battery powered John Deere backhoe loaders from Santa. Dylan liked it but wasn't so sure about the noise it made. Tommy, on the other hand, wasn't afraid to run you over. Right, Maggie? Haha:
Autrey pulled the boys down the road:
See my sweet new Tahoe Santa gave me? Never mind that Dylan still calls it Mimi's Truck, because it allegedly used to be hers.
Big boys throwing snowballs at the house. You make Mimi's shades look good, Papa!

All bundled up:

Building Dylan's 1st Snowman:

Video of Dylan playing around in the snow behind the rental house:



1st time sledding at a place in town Jared goes:

The 1st run was hazardous (aka Autrey steered them into a tree):

The next 2 videos are of runs that ended better:






We went to Alomogordo to the Toy Train Depot to ride on the little train:

Then we went to the little zoo next door:
We went to have old-time western pictures with the older kids. Turned out pretty cute:

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and has a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas Card this year. (This is a picture I took of one of the actual cards, since the website wouldn't let me copy it or save it to another location. Figures they wouldn't trust people like me to do something like this. So you will have to settle for this lower quality version for the blog. Sorry. It's the thought that counts, right?) Merry Christmas, everyone! We love you!!!

Love, Autrey, Shilo, Dylan, & Baby BOY Duke

Grapevine Polar Express Train

Mimi and Papa were here the past 2 days and took Dylan on his 1st REAL train ride on the Grapevine Polar Express. He was so excited before we even got there. He was wearing his train conductor overall outfit, but it was too cold to go without his big jacket over top of it. Here we are in front of the train. Dylan, of course, had his eyes glued on it in fascination:All aboard!
Lookin' out the window:
Santa brought Dylan a giant bell necklace. He has been wearing it every waking moment since that ride. (He is napping as we speak. The only way I could coax it off him was to have him put it around his elephant's neck, who sleeps with him. I was ok with that, since elephant won't accidently choke himself.) It's fairly loud. I know where he is at ALL times. I'm not sure if I want to feed him grass or throw money at him. Also, Dylan saw me trying to put his souvenir ticket with our other family keepsakes and he insisted on carrying it around. Too soon, I guess. He was pretty cute waving at Santa and saying, "Merry Christmas, Santa!"
Fun little train ride. Although, they had a very energetic pre-teen 'elf' MCing the ride. She came out of nowhere and shouted/asked me what I wanted for Christmas. Scared me so bad I about jumped on Autrey's lap. She did make it up to me by taking this picture after my heart stopped racing:

Thanks for the ride and the fun shopping weekend, Mimi and Papa! I got a sneak peek and Santa is being very generous this year!

Stockyard Santa

Aunt Elaine and Aunt B were awesome enough to come down to be with us to help take care of Dylan (and the rest of us) while I had my cerclage on Friday. I had slept enough and was hopped up on enough vicodin that I felt well enough to go to the Fort Worth Stockyards with them Saturday night to get out of the house for a little while. We saw a Texan Santa: The funniest thing? This video of Autrey chicken roping:



We came home and Autrey finished building Dylan's tool bench. With the help of his assistant, of course:
Dylan loved it! He's a regular Bob the Builder.