A Very Duke Christmas

Since some people love Christmas letters and others do not, I decided to simply put my Christmas letter on our blog. This way those who want to read it can, and everyone else can just enjoy our Christmas card.

Last year at this time everything was different. We had been trying to have a baby for 8 months since my miscarriage and I was pretty discouraged. I was trying to enjoy the time of year, but I was really discouraged that life was not working out how I wanted it to be. Little did I know that things were soon to change. The day after my birthday on January 16^th we found out we were finally expecting again. We only told our families at first because I frankly was just waiting for something to go wrong. Miraculously, everything went right and Shelby Ruth Duke was born on September 22, 2009 at 6:01 pm. After a stay in the NICU for a tear in her lung, you can read all about that below, Shelby came home on September 30^th happy and healthy.

Since bringing Shelby home we have learned a lot about being Mommy and Daddy and our little girl. Some of Shelby's current favorites are her play-gym, her bottle (she loves her food), her daddy and mommy, visitors, baths, and lights. She smiles all day long and makes us laugh all the time. We love her and couldn't image life without her!

Casey has had a great year on top of becoming a dad. He recorded his first cd with his band Our Dilemma in June. You can buy their cd from CD Baby or on iTunes. They also took 2nd place at the UVU Battle of the Bands in March. He just finished his second-to-last semester at UVU and will graduate this April in Business Marketing. We are so excited for him to graduate and be done with school. He loves his music and his baby girl. He is the fun in our house. He keeps us doing lots of things like bon-fires, movie & game nights, playing music, and lots of football parties.

As for me, Julie, I was pregnant this year. I think any of you who've had a baby understand. I loved most of the pregnancy experience. My highlights of the year revolved around my little girl. I loved feeling her move and kick inside me, and that's probably the only thing I really miss about being swollen, huge, and uncomfortable. I work part-time from home for the website Footnote.com as a marketing content specialist and historian. I basically write and research for the site. My screen name is Clio, so if you're ever exploring the site and see that name, it means I wrote it. I love my job, even though it is taking some getting used to with the baby.

Other highlights from our year would include our trips to Las Vegas and Bear Lake, fixing up the baby's room and getting ready for Shelby, and Shelby sleeping through the night. Life is crazy, busy, overwhelming, and absolutely wonderful. We are excited for this time of year when everything seems like a blur of family and food. We hope you are all having a wonderful time yourselves and wish you the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of New Years!

Love,

The Dukes