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Samuel R Berky

After a scary start, Samuel R Berky was born into our family on January 13, 2006 – a Friday the 13th, no less. We were expecting to have a caesarean delivery (due to placenta previa) and had it scheduled for a few days later, when Sam decided to arrive early. We had a 3am, 100 mph rush to the hospital and went directly into the operating room. They prepped LaReita and Julles made it in time to watch along with David. Dave later said, it was just like M*A*S*H. Samuel was born at 4:36am and weighed in at 6lbs 7oz.

First picture, mom and Sam
Mom meets Sam
Looks like they both need some more sleep.
First bath in the NICU
Hanging out with mom in the NICU
Welcome home! Our growing family – Edible arrangement courtesy of Liz Covert (Rogers)
Ben getting some mom time with his new brother
Getting some rest
Taking a hit of oxygen, had to have him on it for a few hours a day for about a month
Anthony took this saying, “Mom, make a funny face.”
Mom get’s back to business as usual, with one minor change
After blessing – April 9th, 2006
The whole family – James, LaReita, Sam, Benjamin, David, Anthony – Sam’s blessing day April 9, 2006
Smilin’ Sam – sporting a new bib from Aunt Julles

Life

(If viewing extract, click on the “Read more about…” link below to see the pictures.)

September 2004 – Life



James’ Kindergarten class went on their first field trip today (Sept 17, 2004) to Spring Lake. Just about 20 minutes from Spanish Fork. Everyone went fishing and everyone caught a fish! He was so excited! And I was excited that they gutted the fish for me so I didn’t have to! We’re going to cook it up tomorrow night. I think it’s a Rainbow Trout. Should be pretty yummy. We’ll roast it over our fire.



I had just finished feeding Benjamin his cereal, when I heard James calling me from the other room. I went to see what he wanted, then when I came back in the kitchen to a very funny sight. Anthony had dumped rice cereal flakes into the bowl (it was overflowing) and was feeding it to Benjamin. Benjamin kept smacking his lips to get some moisture on the dry flakes. When Anthony saw me come in he got a nervous look in his eyes as I said, “Oh Anthony!” But I reassured him that I wasn’t mad at him, and thanked him for wanting to be a good helper. (It’s something we’ve been working on with Anthony…giving him more positive reinforcement…basically trying to catch and praise him for doing something good.)



Benjamin smacking his lips from the dry rice cereal.



The week after our cruise, Benjamin started pulling himself up. Here you see how happy he is with his accomplishment! Hard to believe that he’s almost 8 months.

LaReita’s Birthday

(If viewing extract, click on the “Read more about…” link below to see the pictures.)

September 3rd, 2004 – LaReita’s Birthday



For my birthday I just wanted to be with my kids and family. Especially since James went off to Kindergarten for the first time today! On my birthday!!! Good thing it wasn’t my 30th birthday or it might have been harder than it already was! Julles orchestrated getting the evening party put together. Meika made dinner, Lynette brought side dishes. Julles and Meika made Chocolate cupcakes (what were they thinking?…they know I can’t have chocolate in large quantities because of Benjamin!). So I pulled out a Schwan’s pie to defrost and in comes Lynette with some of her famous Key Lime Pie (just as good, if not better, as the real stuff we had a couple weeks earlier). Julles said to me, “You were worried for a minute there weren’t you? You don’t think we would be that cruel do you?!” I should have known better.



Dave decided to carry on a Leavitt family birthday tradition. Grandpa bought a piece of farm equipment for Grandma’s birthday, so she bought him a sewing machine for his birthday! So this year Dave bought me a firepit. He’s been wanting one all summer long. We were going to do a fancy cement firepit like at the campsites, and also cement in our side driveway. But I decided to spend it on a cruise instead! So Dave decided to go ahead and get that darn firepit he’s been wanting all summer. I must say that the enormous box that appeared on our front door step on my birthday was quite a shocker. I really had no idea what it could be. And I certainly didn’t expect a firepit for my birthday! But I do like it. We had smores, and a few other friends over including the Lewis’s. After the kids were in bed we had lots of fun burning…..stuff. 🙂 Those that were there, you know what I’m talking about….



Amanda Lewis, Karalyn Lewis, Anthony notice he has no shoes? The boy refuses to wear shoes even in 60 degree weather!, James, Brynn Lewis



Benjamin looks so little in this picture, but he really is BIG!

Anthony Age 2 3/4

Kiku – cookie

Bang-bang – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – loves to watch

Nilk – milk – likes it so much that some days that is all we can get him to eat.

Juice-pop-milk – soda or milk

Sometimes wakes up in the morning and wants pop corn for breakfast or a corn dog.

Likes to take apart the laundry basket and make piles of dirty laundry to pay in with James.

Yells louder and louder as he tells you he want something, his voice and demeanor get more and more serious as he repeats his request/demand.

Always liked reading the book “The Way I Feel” would want you to read it 5-7 times in a row.

Called Julles “doowie”

Called Meika “beika”

Says “thankucome” for “Thank You” and “You’re Welcome”

Falls asleep anywhere.

Likes to watch Care Bares videos.

Feet are as big as James’ feet wears same shoes.

Knows how to play on the pbskids.org website.

Always wants to watch “TB” when we get in the van. Pushes button to drop down the screen when he gets into the van. When mom closes the screen he says “NO, Anthony wants to watch TB!”

Often refers to himself in the third person.

In gymnastics class, the teacher calls him “strong boy”.

He can hold onto a bar suspended for 15-20 seconds.

Likes to play with mom’s hair as he goes to sleep. Has to play with hair when he drinks milk.

At night he prefers to be with dad and have dad read him stories as he falls asleep in mom & dads bed.

Will take items away from younger brother Benjamin and say “No baby, dangerous!” Watches out for his baby brother.

When mom has her cello, says, “No mom ?adfadfdf? down” if mom doesn’t put cello down he climbs up on her lap to make it harder for her to play.

Always has to shower with whoever is showering. Plays with cars in the shower.

Still gets very excited to go on a car ride.

Even though he may fall asleep between 10 and 11pm he is still up between 6:30 and 7am. Must have D Henry’s farmer genes.

Need to put kid DVDs on a higher shelf or he opens them up and plays with them and they get scratched.

Can work the DVD player and the VCR even though they are both over his head on a shelf – stands on his tippy-toes.

Likes to play games on the computer and watch James play games.

Sings “Oh where is my hairbrush” song from VeggiTales.

Calls Banjamin “banamin” or “baby ben”.

James’ 5th Birthday & St. George Easter Trip

(If viewing extract, click on the “Read more about…” link below to see the pictures.)

James’s 5th Birthday




We decided for James’s Birthday cake to do brownies so he and the other kids would actually eat the “cake”, not just the frosting. Everyone loved it! (And Julles loved not having to make a fancy/special cake…)

2004 Easter in St. George




James doing an Easter Egg Hunt in the desert of St. George on the Staheli “farm”. Pictured with cousin Charise Staheli (2 yrs old).




Anthony missed out on the egg hunt, but got a most-needed nap.




James excitedly talking about the Indian house they found on the other side of the mountain.




LaReita and her Benjamin.




Anthony and Benjamin talking and smiling at each other while driving on our way back.

Notes about the trip by David:

St. George was cold. We arrived about 6:00 and had some Chinese food. LaReita took off for her rehearsal and the rest of us played and watched a movie.

Saturday morning the kids played, Wyn and I talked business. Then we went to Paul’s parents house and had an outdoor picnic with 4-wheeler and horse rides. We got pictures of the boys. I will post them on the family website later this week. The adults hid the eggs and the kids found them. James got quite a few (they let him and the other little kids go first).

Anthony fell asleep just before the egg hunt, but he awoke in time for the candy gorging. James and the other kids shared their candy and Anthony helped himself when they weren’t looking.

I taught Jared some HTML and we spent all the rest of the day making a Pokemon and Hillary Duff website. LaReita went to another rehearsal that night. We watched Catch Me If You Can when she got back around 9:30pm.

Sunday we got ready for church and went at 11am. Stayed for the block. James went with Auria to her class. I went with Anthony into the nursery and had Cheeze-Wiz and crackers.

We had lasagna for lunch/dinner and took turns taking naps. LaReita and Wyn went to her performance and didn’t get back until 10:30. Anthony had a cup of milk (not a sippy-cup), forgot it wasn’t a sippy-cup and cried when he dumped it on himself. I cleaned him up and he cried himself to sleep.

Played a race car game on their X-box with James and Anthony, gathered our crap and stuffed it into the car. Drove to Beaver, ate lunch at a pretty good restaurant and drove home.

Ben was a good traveler and seems to be feeling better.

Notes about the trip by LaReita:

Yeah, it was cold and rainy. Thinking that it was going to be warm, all I packed for Benjamin was summer outfits aside from his PJ’s and his Sunday outfit that had pants.

It was fun to see James and his cousins play together. I’m glad I went just for that. Also I’m glad to have gone to see my Aunt Dawna and Uncle Kerry at the performance. They just kept hugging me over and over. Makes me realize how much I’ve missed them. It’s sad to see her in a wheelchair and getting old. But it sure was sweet to see Uncle Kerry take care of her by pushing her around….well in the good sense of that term 🙂 He would actually laugh at that. He’s a pretty funny guy.

While he was playing outside Anthony got stuck in the barbed wire (not cut fortunately) and his pants got all muddy. Seems like I hardly saw James because he was off playing so much with his cousins. On Saturday he was playing on the Xbox (Attack of the Clones) until about noon. When I told him that everyone was going down to the “park” he didn’t want to go. Complained that he was too tired to go…his legs were too tired. (when he really just wanted to stay and play the Xbox some more.)

Anthony was more than excited to go for a walk and play on the swings at the Staheli Compound Park. In fact, he liked the park so much that on Monday when we were packing up the car, he got his shoes on and took off walking (nearly running) by himself down to the park. Dave and I took turns watching him walk/run down. When he started playing on the tire swing and I got my keys and drove down to get him. Anthony has definitely got the middle child syndrome. Just takes off without telling anyone. (But I guess that could also be a “last child” syndrome too…)

At the family picnic/egg hunt, James had a fun time hiking the “mountain” with Auria – Wyn went too. He came back so excited to tell us about the Indian house they found. (It is an old abandoned house built with rock.) James also gave the prayer on the food. I was in the car nursing Benjamin (because it was so cold) so I didn’t get to hear him pray. But when he said “amen” everyone was smiling. I never did ask what he said to warrant so many smiles by the adults. But James was also just beaming when he finished.

Right now (as I write this) James is showing Anthony all the different planets in his room and telling him, “That’s Mars. Anthony say Mars.” “mars” “Good Boy! Anthony, that’s Jupiter. it’s so big.” Anthony responds, “yeah, Biiig Juper”

Benjamin just turned over onto his tummy in the crib and James is so excited!