A Great Family Saturday

Today, we went out and finished our Christmas shopping for the kids. As usual, we got way too much, and they will be spoiled! We are very excited for them to open the gifts. Brent has to start his Christmas shopping now. He has the entire family to buy for.

This evening we went to the mall and had pictues with Santa. This is the Deuel tradition. After pictures, the kids play in the play area, and we go watch the skateboarders. The kids love doing this. On the way home we drive through a couple of neighborhoods to look at the lights.

Ryann has many questions about Santa that she is going to ask this year: how old are you, when is your birthday, and a few others. We are all waiting to see if he answers them.

Hope you and your family are having a great holiday season!

Growing Up

Hope is now officially crawling! Needless to say, she thinks that she is "hot stuff". She is constantly clapping for herself and loves it when we clap for her as well. Because she is now crawling, Hope manages to get into everything. This doesn't always go over very well with her brother and sister. Hope's favorite things to grab are Ryann's books and bookmarks. I think Brent is a little worried that Hope will turn out like her mom and big sister. He likes to refer to us as "nerds" because we both love to read. So far Hope seems headed in that same direction. Hope is also starting to eat a lot of table foods. Her favorites include fruit (bananas and mandarin oranges), Cheerios, macaroni and cheese, and any kind of bread. After trying these different table foods, she really doesn't want too much to do with baby food. I guess she feels that she is too grown up to eat it. Our house is decorated for Christmas now, and so far Hope has done a great job leaving the Christmas tree and decorations alone. She does seem to like the bows on the presents and would really love to play with them if we would let her.

It is amazing to think that Hope is almost 11 months old. Our love for her grows more and more each day, and her presence in our lives always brings smiles to our faces.