Happy Birthday Ma!

Luke wishes his gramma K a happy birthday! We love you so much Ma!

Can I just say I am the luckiest girl in the world?

I have the cutest baby and the best husband!

I love my boys :)

Luke's Baby Blessing

Luke was blessed on January 17, 2010. He had pretty much ALL of his family there. It was great having so many people be able to come and share that special day with him. UNFORTUNATELY Luke had a blow out in his diaper as soon as we got home from church SO we could not take any pictures of him in his outfit that day! So sad. I just got around to putting him back in the outfit yesterday and had a little photo shoot. He did great! I love his smiles! The outfit is actually Nathaniel's blessing outfit that we borrowed. It's such a cute little tuxedo. :)

Baby Wuke Baby Yuke Baby Luke?

Sleepin in his "bopsy". That's what Francisco always calls it at least... haha

We took some pictures of Madyson and Luke together last night because they were both in overalls and looked so cute! Wouldn't you agree?



I just took this picture this morning after Luke's bath. I was trying to capture his fluffy fuzzy hair! It sticks straight up! SO CUTE! When I was a baby Jeff always called me "Fluffy"... Now I think I know why. :)

Posing in his preppy polo that is way too small! That was the last time he could wear this adorable little outfit. I just think he looks so GQ/Abercombrie in his preppy shirt! This actually wasn't the picture I was thinking it was... There were cuter pictures of him but I'm too lazy to go back and add a new one...


Luke's first smile caught on film! It was the last half of the smile, so it's not the big true smile, but still pretty cute! :)

So, life is busy! It's amazing how fast the time flies by! School is in full force and Francisco and I are both dreading it and just wanting to stay home and play! Luke is an angel and we love him so much!

So here is the story for the title: Olivia calls him Baby Wuke and Nathaniel calls him Yuke. It's funny what some kids can pronounce or choose to pronounce... I would have thought that most kids would pronounce Luke similarly but apparently not. Maybe the next cousin will call him Ook. haha

Luke's 1st Bath!

Luke LOVES the bath! He just hangs out in the water and enjoys every minute of it! He doesn't really love it when we put lotion on him afterward though-- I guess he's too manly for lotion. haha
Anyway, isn't he cute? (and for Luke when you get older-- notice that I spared you of completely naked pictures! We'll keep your privates private... :)

Life with a newborn

Francisco with Luke studying for his last final. haha What a life. Thankfully we both got through the rest of our finals and didn't even have to file incompletes for our classes. Thankfully Luke came AFTER classes were over and only had finals left.

Merry Christmas! Luke underneath the Christmas tree on Christmas morning! That is the stocking that the hospital brought him to me in after getting him cleaned up in the nursery. :)

Luke with more of the tree. Amanda's dad Dave actually gave us the tree! It was so nice of him! Today we went out and bought a whole bunch of 1/2 off ornaments for next year! We chose fall-like colors-- burgandy, burnt orange, gold, and bronze. We bought a bajillion ornaments for only $22 and Tai Pan Trading! AWESOME! The ornaments we used this year were borrowed from Victor and Amanda (except for the few special ones from my grandma).



Luke with the cousins-- Mady and Nathaniel. Mady is only 1 week older than Luke but she looks so much older! She is so much more awake and alert with big eyes! She's so cute!

Baby Baby Baby

For those of you who haven't heard already, Luke Javier Darquea was born on Tuesday morning at 5:02 am. Here is the labor story: I had a slight lower back ache that started around 7pm Monday with increased Braxtin Hicks contractions (or so I thought). We went to bed around 11:30. I woke up at 3 am to a loud pop and sharp pain in my hips. I thought it was just Luke moving or something but then I felt some liquid leaking out of me. I was in such denile- I thought it was pee or something. (Appearently that was my water breaking...) So I went to the bathroom and got back in bed! haha. A few minutes later I had a really strong contraction. I woke up Francisco and he suggested that I take a shower to help me feel better. ( We were both expecting another 10 hours or so... ha.) So after my shower and getting things packed, we headed to the hospital. WE got there around 4:15. They got me checked in and got the monitors on me. When they checked my cervix, I was FULLY dilated! Crap. Too late for an epidural! and they hadn't even called my doctor yet! So, I had to WAIT to push until he got there... Thankfully he doesn't live too far from the hospital. Anyway, Luke was born at 5:02 am. He was 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 in. long.
Recovery has been good so far. Not too much to report. We are happy and healthy!


Here is little Luke Javier Darquea-- just a few hours after he was born. He hadn't been to the nursery to get cleaned up yet. The hat was crocheted by Shaun Nelson. SO cute! He made Luke 3 different hats. Sorry the littlest hat he made for him didn't fit him! It was too little!



This is after we got him back from the nursery. They cleaned him up and checked him out to make sure he was healthy. He was perfect! :) They brought him to me in that adorable little hat and a Christmas Stocking! How sweet!



The proud Daddy with his brand new son! They are both so handsome! I hope that Luke inherits some of Francisco's good looks-- so far we decided that he looks pretty much like an identical male version of baby Emily. It is amazing to see my features in a brand new baby...



Here is Luke all ready to go home! I decided I would rather sleep in my own bed so we discharged at the end of the day on Wednesday. We planned to be out of there by 10 pm but somehow the nursery didn't get that memo and didn't start doing his assessments until 10! So we didn't leave the hospital until 11:45 pm. It was a little ridiculous.


Here is a close up of Luke on Thursday. We got him swaddled up good and he just looked so content and cute! I like this picture because his eyes are so clear. I wonder what color they are going to be!

36 weeks!

So, I don't have much to report except my growing belly!
I'll let Francisco post his own stuff about El Salvador!

Thanksgiving was pretty good considering Francisco was out of town. Ma and Pa came down which really helped me get through the week without my man. Thanks Ma and Pa!

I also got a haircut-- it's ridiculous how fast it grows when you're pregnant! So, it looks just about the way it did 3 months ago even though we cut off about 3 inches and thinned at lot of hair out! It's a good thing I have Sarah to cut my hair! Thanks Sarah! you always do a great job. :)

Umm, school is almost over and that means Luke is almost here and Christmas is coming! yay! So many good things all in the same week or so!

Comparison pictures!

5 Months (20 weeks)


6 Months (24 weeks)


8 Months! (32 weeks)

So, I am officially 32 weeks! Wooohoo! I still am very small but I know little Luke is just really good at stretching out so it looks like he's small. My ribs feel bruised because he is constantly pushing on them. He is a really good baby though. I can't complain too much. ;)

October Update

Here is a short updat of what has been going on in the dietetics life that I live. I pretty much spend my entire school hours with the girls in these pictures and they are awesome! We all have so much fun.

In mid October we went to Denver CO for the annual Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo. FNCE was awesome! It was such a great experience to see so many dietitians all in one place! There were some really good sessions that we went to that taught us a lot. Currently I am working on a group project that is teaching a kindergarten class about unfamiliar vegetables and so we went to a class on barriers to teaching moms with childhood nutrition and a session that incorporated theatre into teaching children about health! They were perfect supplementation for our project! The picture with the giant Ensure was at the EXPO. It was HUGE! I think I spent a good 8 hours total in there and still didn't get to look through all the booths. We got tons of free stuff too! (see picture below!) All those bags were given to us from booths. We got tons of food, bags, trinkets, etc. Lunch boxes, full boxes of cereal, mugs, personally signed diet books, one girl got a bag of whole wheat flour and another girl won a whole box of red wine vinegar! I think it was 8 jars! haha We have the BEST profession for an expo. Seriously, what better than a bunch of free food? We also never had to buy lunch because you could just snack your way through the booths and be stuffed in an hour!


While we weren't at the conference or on the bus (a total of 18+ hours when your 30 weeks prego isn't real fun...), we were out having fun! On Sunday we weren't able to go to church, so some of our professors gave us a devotional that night. A few of us took a taxi to the church and I practically taught the 1st discussion to the taxi driver (I was sitting in the front seat) He asked us where we were from and such and just kept asking us questions. It was great! Too bad we didn't have a pass along card for him. haha

We also went to see the broadway play, Wicked! Oh my goodness, it is SO SO good! I absolutely loved it and I'm not a Wizard of Oz fan at all. I would recommend seeing it if you ever get the chance. Seriously, really good music and really good plot. :)


Next things next,
Annual Student Dietetic Association (with the Food Science Club) Halloween Party!
Every year we have this party and invite the food science club to have boys there too since dietetics is predominantly women... It was great fun this year and we had some pretty good costumes!
These were a few of the seniors (my classmates) that came to the party. Aren't we so cute!


The three costume winners! Erica, the "bubble bath", I actually don't know who the pumpkin is..., and Steph the "Jelly fish" So creative!

and LASTLY, Dietetics baby shower! So, when we started up the school year in September, we very excitingly discovered that 4 girls were expecting (out of a total of 30 in the class)! Holy cow! We went from no one having any children to 4 at once! Anyway, it's been very exciting.
Esther actually went into labor at FNCE when she was only 32 weeks! She did make it home and was fine but had her sweet baby girl a few days later. She is still in the NICU. :( Christa actually had her baby yesterday! We haven't heard any news yet! Then there's me (hopefully 2 more months still!) and Sarah was due this Sunday, but still hasn't had her yet!
So, I'm left in the lonesome. By the end of the week, I will be the only prego left. Everyone else is lucky and have their little girls. and yes, they all are having/had girls. I am the only lonesome with a boy. But I guess that makes me a little special! Anyway, The baby shower was great fun!

So, thanks for sticking with me. I guess this was a long "quick post". haha
Other news,
We went to our first labor and delivery class at the hospital-- fun stuff! haha

I got to start parking in the garage! I love having a garage and getting to use it and I am SO excited to not have snow on my car and ice on my windows in the mornings ever again!!!! woohoo!! Best thing ever!