The Duke Family Times

Taking Kaylee to BYU I

2010-09-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

Well the much awaited trip has came and gone. It started out with a little turmoil, and a lot of prayer and Shelly not being able to go at the last minute. So at 9AM Thursday the 2nd of Sept we were off. First stop Grand Parents Ron and Pat Spradlin.
Kaylee got to feed the ducks.

We drove all day and all night and stopped for gas, Rock Star's, and a little gaming.

we got so so tired but finally made it to our favorite place in Utah. That's where ever Kevin,Carli,Sam,Jess and Tyler are.

As always we had a lot of fun with the Utah Spradlin's

We got to see our favorite Nevada Spradlin's. I was even privileged to stand in in the blessing of Danny and Jaci new baby.

After the blessing he headed for Idaho the land of my love. This is a sacred place to Shelly and I it's where we met dated and got ingaged. So many great memories came flooding in to my mind. The closer we got the more I missed the love of my life Shelly Denise Spradlin. I could not stop the tears from flowing like they are now as I write this post. As we entered Rexburg the thoughts of our park our Pizza Hut our Circle K our first appartment. The time we flew a kite together. The first slow dance. The hospital where our first child was born. So many great memories that I hope my mind holds for ever and ever. I wanted Shelly there so bad to hold her in all those places to tell her I would do all over again. I love you Shelly!

We made it wish I was there now.

Family fun. PCB 2010

2010-07-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

Florida Tides and Breezes

2010-07-18T06:29:00.000-07:00

The Duke Family is in Florida, sort of. Kaylee is officially on a trip with her high school friends. Sweet girls, but growing up girls. We beg for her to come down for a picture. Shayna was with her , a rare sister moment. Dallin had to be rounded up from walking way down the beach talking to a girlfriend on the cell phone ...again. And Cody...well we look toward the northeast, our minds and hearts traveling the miles and miles across the ocean to a foreign land, Burton upon Trent, England. He's gone for a wonderful cause, but it is evidence still of time passing us by. The sands in the hourglass keeps pouring without regard to our feelings. The tides keep coming , and the winds keep blowing, and we are realizing our family is a rare precious thing that will forever be changing. We love these people so much and yet they keep growing up and silently threatening to create their own lives. (I knew this would happen when I was rocking these babies! Darn!!) But we will cling and hang onto them as tight as we can until the TIME comes. I'm so thankful for the promise of ETERNITY with these special people, but TIME ....time is fleeting.
I'm thankful for this snapshot that I can hang onto. I can still feel the breeze, and can hear the crashing waves, and I hope to feel them in my arms for a long time. Well... other than that, Vacation has been GREAT! Wish you were here! See you when we get home!

TEENAGERS AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH !!!!!

2010-06-16T04:07:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone look at this picture. Do you see the scowl? Do you see the wrinkles under the eyes? Do you see the gray beard? Do you see the pale skin? Do you see the crooked teeth from caused from grinding? Do you want to know what caused this? Well I'll tell you. Teenagers that think you don't know what your talking about. Teenagers that try to bend the rules thinking there tricking you. Teenagers that think your dumb. Teenagers that say I'm 15 I should be able to do what I want. Teenagers that think you should buy them what they want when they want it. Teenagers that get detention for anything and everything.

Then there's the 19 year olds who have jobs. That have more money in there bank account than there parents because they can save every penny, because they some how get there parents to still pay for there cell phone, give them a car, and pay for the insurance. They don't pay rent or utilities and when they buy a loaf of bread they come home with it and come through the door with there hand opened wanting the 2 dollars that they paid for it. Then they think there an adult, pay for a plane ticket, to go on vacation, and think the rules don't apply. Even tho they are with good people in an awesome place doing good things. They still apply!!!!!!

I love these teenagers unconditionally and I always will and one day they will say. Now I know why my mom and dad said and did what they did. The only thing I can hope for is that they will look a little like the picture above.

AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. Come on yall its not that hard. Help and old man out. Ok I'm gonna go take my happy pill now.

Cody's third E-Mail. We love that Boy!!

2009-10-13T06:48:00.000-07:00

Hey guys sorry I can’t reply to everybody I don’t even have time to read all the e-mails now ill have to print them off, thanks so much! The packages you guys sent were freaking awesome thank you. I really liked the Corvette ZR1!! And the yoyo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Thanks dad) but the letters were the best! You can’t get any of the candy you sent here everybody was like what the heck is this! And the other package was great too! Good idea. The candy (sweets as they say) here is really good.

I leave the MTC tomorrow! And it’s a couple of hours by bus. I can’t wait to get there and get started. We just did another finding activity last Thursday where we went tracting door to door. We ran into some really weird people one Satanist she was creepy but we managed to give out 2 Book of Mormons. One guy was riding a mini bike and he seemed pretty interested. The MTC is so great! The spirit is thick enough to cut with a knife almost. I loved Elder Holland’s talk. It was so powerful. Well IV got to get off the computer now. Talk to ya later.

ps. mom fix all my misspellings before you send this to people. Lol

Happy Birthday Elder Cody Duke

2009-10-06T15:31:00.000-07:00

Cody's 20th birthday in England! His Mission President's wife Sister Clegg sent us this picture of him. We also sent him a candy/chocolate basket from a local bakery there in England. Hope it was a wonderful day for him!

Cody's first e-mail from England

2009-09-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

Ello Mum,.
Just kidding this is Cody over in the UK. Sorry for not writing, this is my first chance to E-mail at all ,and I only have a few min, so excuse the misspellings.I'm doing great here though so far. my comps. name is Elder Foong, he's pretty cool he's actually from Malaysia but he speaks great English. we have been studding a lot like every little bit of free time we have. as soon as I got here they called me to be district leader over the Nephi district, so that's been kinda tuff. I'm not really used to being a leader I guess. It seems to stay pretty cold here when I landed it was like 50 and it only goes down from there, and its always cloudy but it doesn't rain very often. the Preston temple is beautiful. its all made out of granite. and it has some of the nicest grounds I've ever seen, with lots of strait hedges, bushes, lily pad ponds, and trees. we actually just got back from there. Well i've only got 5 min. left so I apologize for the sloppiness of this E-mail. How are you guys doing? What's going on in church, and school, and stuff. write me back.

2009-09-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

Cody,Friends,family,last meal in Arkansas for 2 years.

2009-09-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

2009-09-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

Cody Leaves for his Mission to England !!

2009-09-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

Our Visit to the Grand Canyon

2009-08-09T21:23:00.001-07:00

Our family had the best Vacation ever.

2009-08-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

We stayed at our Brother and sister's house in Mapleton Utah for our families best vacation ever. We went to the Temple and did the tour of the Conference Center and Temple Square and the Bee Hive House. We went to The Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving point in Lehi Utah. It has the distinction of being the world's largest display of mounted dinosaurs.

We took a beautiful drive to Cascade Springs which is on the Alpine Loop at the summit between American Fork and Provo Canyons. The road travels to Cascade Springs in the Uinta National Forest, then north to Wasatch Mountain State Park and there is a beautiful view of the back side of Mount Timpanogos. The Springs features large springs cascading down the mountain slope in a series of limestone terraces and pools.

The kids climbed Y Mountain. went swimming with Aunt Carli,Provo Mall To Mr. Mac's, Deseret Book ect ect ect. Went to Cabelas, Brick Oven, Five Guys,Hogi Yogi's,Cold Stone and In and Out Burger.

We left Kevin and Carli's and Went to Danny and Jaci's in Las Vegas. We saw the fountains at the Bellagio Hotel, saw the Las Vegas Temple at night, went to the Hoover Dam, and to top it all off we visited the Grand Canyon

Our Salt Lake Temple trip.

2009-08-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

We took Cody to the Salt Lake Temple last week in preparation for his departure on his mission to England. We had a truly blessed trip and are so thankful to all the love and support during our trip. There are a few things in a parents life that are truly Awesome and that will let you know that you have done a few things right and this is one of them.

The Blessing of Melissa Hester

2009-07-11T07:14:00.001-07:00

Cody and Sean where able to help in the blessing of the newest child in the Duke clan. Sean's niece Susann had a 9lb 2oz baby girl about a month ago. We just happen to be there the sunday they blessed her.

Trip to Saint Simons Island

2009-07-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

There was a full moon over the water that night.

Shayna is learning to swim.

Cody and Dallin entertained us.

Kaylee? Guess? She's not listening to the ocean in a shell.

Shelly was able to have fun at the beach. She didn't have to worry about little ones for a change. She loved it.

Traders hill Gator

2009-07-11T06:18:00.000-07:00

On part of our 4th trip to Georgia we went to my Mama's home town of Folkston. Folkston is on the Georgia Florida border and the boundry line is the Saint Marys River. Theres a place on the river called Traders Hill where people fish and swim and lonch there boats. We saw these people acting kinda fishy over on the bank. They had a fishing pole but I don't think the fish where biting for some reason. What do you think?

CODY GETS HIS MISSION CALL !!!

2009-06-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

Cody's Mission call came in the mail Saturday June 6th. He was over mowing his grand parents lawn and Shelly had the idea to surprise him on Sunday when Ron and Pat came home from there month long vacation. So Ron and Pat where going to be getting home at 6:30 and we were going to pretend to have a welcome home party. We had some snacks and invited the whole family plus Bishop McKinney and two of his kid, who are Cody's friends. Some of the idea was Ron's so he got it started. He asked Cody if he had gotten his call yet and Cody said he hoped that the Stake President had sent it off. (We had been trying to call him with no luck) Then we went around the room and everybody guessed where they thought Cody would serve. Some of the places guessed where, Brazil, Hawaii, Wash. DC, Wash. State, Jamaica, Japan, California, and David (Randy and Felicia's son) guessed England. We had Cody's call in a gift bag next to the chair he was sitting in. I stepped over pulled it out and put it in his lap and said lets just find out right now. And he said "WHHHAAAATTT ARE YOU KIDDING ME". He said he thought this was a weird coming home party but he didn't have a clue what we were doing. And I guess y'all figured it out he's going to the Birmingham England Mission.

2009-05-19T05:06:00.000-07:00

Dallin after one week with his first bow.

2009-05-19T05:01:00.000-07:00

Kaylee shooting my 22 pistol in our back yard.

2009-05-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

Kaylee Graduated from Seminary tonight and from school yesterday. We are so proud of her. Now off to college to use her scholarship.

Things I learnt in Georgia

2009-02-18T14:40:00.000-08:00

1. A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road.

2.. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in Georgia..

3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in Georgia ..

4. If it grows, it'll stick ya. If it crawls, it'll bite cha.

5. 'Onced' and 'Twiced' are words.

6. It is not a shopping cart, it's a buggy.

7. 'Jaw-P?' means, 'Did y'all go to the bathroom?

8. People actually grow and eat okra.

9. 'Fixinto' is one word.

10. There is no such thing as 'lunch.' There is only dinner and then there is supper.

11. Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar.

12. Backwards and forwards means, 'I know everything about you.'

13. The word 'jeet' is actually a phrase meaning, 'Did you eat?'

14.. You don't have to wear a watch, because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you're done or it's too dark to see.

15. You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH EM.

16. You measure distance in minutes.

17. You switch from heat to A/C in the same day.

18. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal..

19. You know what a 'DAWG' is.

20. You carry jumper cables in your car --- for your OWN car.

21. You only own five spices: salt, pepper, Texas Pete, Tabasco and Ketchup.

22. The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local gossip and high school football.

23. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.

24. You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit 'a bit warm.'

25. You know all four seasons: Almost summer, summer, still summer, and Christmas.

26. Going to Wal-Mart is a favorite past time known as
'goin' Wal-Martin' or 'off to Wally World.'

27. You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees)
as good hog killin' weather.

28. Fried catfish is the other white meat.

29. We don't need no dang driver's ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive, dag-nabbit.

30. You understand these jokes and forward them to your Georgia friends and those who just wish they were from Georgia

We went shooting when Kevin was here.

2009-02-01T22:10:00.000-08:00

I guess you can tell who is the best shooter in the family.

Moon Shine in Arkansas

2009-01-05T07:25:00.001-08:00

I took this picture on January 1st 2009

Christmas at Grandma's

2009-01-05T07:21:00.000-08:00

Christmas

2009-01-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

Nana Loves us all

2008-12-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

Robert Lee Duke Jr. "Sonny"

2008-12-02T08:40:00.000-08:00

This is my Daddy when he was in the Navy.

2008-12-02T08:36:00.001-08:00

Thanks giving in Georgia

2008-12-02T08:14:00.000-08:00

Our PC got struck by LIGHTING!!

2008-10-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

We had to get our PC repaired after it got struck by lighting. They had it for a week and we got out of the blogging rhythm but, now we're back.

2008-10-13T05:47:00.000-07:00

Kaylee got Mono and was told by the guy who calls himself a Dr. she could not be on the flag line the rest of the marching season of her senior year. She cried I cried and her Mama cried. I wasn't satisfied with that diagnosis so I took her to a real Dr. and here's the results.

2008-08-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

2008-07-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

What's in a Name....  For Shelly

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car): Geanie Odyssey
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie): Praline Chocoalte Chip

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name): S.Duk
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal): Blue Horse
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born): Denise Conway

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first): Dukshel
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink): The Purple Root Beer

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers): James Lescley

9. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (first letter of mother’s maiden name & father’s middle name ): W. Linn
10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Webb Washington

11. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Christmas Cala lilly

12. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”): Kiwi Scrubs

13. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Biscut Hackberry
14. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, favorite weather element + “Tour”): The Drawing Snow Tour

2008-07-15T20:45:00.001-07:00

Our trip to Heber Springs

2008-07-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

We went to see WALL-E in the coolest little converted community theater in Heber Springs, AR. It was loved by all. I even stayed awake. Our family would suggest it for all.

We also went swimming at Greer's Fairy lake and went out to eat at our now favorite restaurant The Cravin Cajun Cafe. Check out the slide show above.

Fishing on the 4th

2008-07-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

July 4th 2008

2008-07-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

We went over to Ron and Pat's for the 4th of July. Did a little grilling of my favorite grilled food BRATS. We did a little fishing. Then went to see fireworks in Greenbriar. Even made a video.

Healing Hands, Healing Heart

2008-06-30T10:43:00.000-07:00

I wanted to tell you some of my experiences from my new job as a nurse! I work on the Cardiac, Telemetry floor. We get a wide range of patients; some with chest pain, some have had a heart attach, some have had a surgery and then their heart started having an odd rhythm, some need medications that can change your heart rhythm. On my floor they are all hooked up to heart monitors that are being watched. We get more practice with CPR than most other floors. Anyway it can get really exciting , stressful, scary , and wonderful. I have been called by one patient , "The BEST Butt Wipe Ever!" And there are many more "awards" I've been given by my patients. So I'll come back and tell you about some of my experiences when I get a minute. Gotta go cook right now. See you soon. Shelly

2008-06-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Cody hitting the streets in Virgina selling alarm systems to earn money for his mission. He looks a little more tan.

Week ending 7-6-08 Cody sold 6 systems this week. Good job Cody we are sooooo proud of you!

2008-06-29T11:14:00.002-07:00

Kaylee's Picture....

2008-06-29T11:14:00.001-07:00

This is a picture that Kaylee drew just last week,

2008-06-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

ATHENS, Ga. --- Uga VI, the winningest mascot in the University of Georgia’s history, died on Friday evening from congestive heart failure in his hometown of Savannah, Ga., owner Frank W. “Sonny” Seiler announced.

“He was a good one,” Seiler said. “What can I say? He had a marvelous record. He was a very strong and healthy dog. He was the biggest of all the dogs, and he had the biggest heart. It just played out.”

Uga VI, who would have turned 10 on July 22, will be buried in a marble vault in the Southwest corner of Sanford Stadium with his predecessors. The private ceremonies are expected to be held early next week.

I loved this Dawg. It was so cool to see him at the games laying on a bag of ice. UGA we will miss you!

Duke Family Movie review

2008-06-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

We saw Get Smart this last week we all thought it was pretty good. It was pretty clean except for a butt scene at the end, Which I have to admit I laughed at.

Shelly- It was a good movie but I fell a sleep in part of it.

Shayna- I liked it a lot.

Dallin- I laughed out loud.

Kaylee- It was really funny.

Sean- I also fell a sleep, but there some real funny parts. I like Anne Hathaway.

2008-05-31T14:42:00.001-07:00

Here is some of the Art of Shelly, Cody, Kaylee and Dallin.

A Cody update

2008-05-31T14:42:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, Cody is Rocking and Rolling! He has sold 3 alarm systems a week for the last 3 weeks and has plans for doing better. I wish I had had his dedication and will power when I was his age.We are so very proud of him.
Sean Duke

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-05-31T07:42:00.001-07:00