A Pumpkin Party at the Nelsons

Last weekend the kids were invited to Mr. and Mrs. Nelson's house for their annual pumpkin party. The kids had a ball! They ate lots of yummy treats, chose pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, went on a hayride and just had fun playing with all of the kids that were there. Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson spoiled them, and they each received a Halloween bag filled with treats to take home. Ryann and Camden have both decided to be baseball players for Halloween this year, and Hope will carry on the tradition of being a pumpkin by wearing the same pumpkin costume that Ryann and Camden wore when they were babies. Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Nelson for a great time!

We're Back!!!

We're finally back in "blog world". I'm sorry that we have not updated in such a long time. I guess that after being home for almost 8 months, it was a little bit of a shock to my system to be back at work and as a result, updating the blog was kind of forgotten. We will definitely try to update more frequently (I think I've said this before. This time we'll try to follow through a little better.).

Things here in the Deuel household are going well. We are having a busy fall as Ryann is in the middle of her basketball season, and Brent is in the middle of his football season. Of course, we've also spent a lot of time at Rockford Ram games and watching the Detroit Tigers. It has been so much fun for Brent to see his loyalty to the Tigers finally pay off. He is enjoying all of the games that he is attending, and is anxiously anticipating going to the World Series next weekend.

Ryann is off to a great 3rd grade year. She is enjoying her teacher Mrs. Taylor and is experiencing the MEAP test for the first time. Camden has Mrs. Annette again this year and is really having fun being back in school. The highlight for him has been riding the bus from school to Barbie's house. He thinks he is such a big guy! Hope continues to thrive. She has made the transition to mom working pretty easily. She seems to really love being at Barbies and watching the kids play all around her. It is hard to believe that Hope will be 9 months old on Friday. Wow - how time flies!

Thanks for continuing to check on us. It means the world to us!

Summer Fun

We continue to enjoy all that the summer has to offer. Ryann and Camden love to spend time riding their bikes or scooters or rollerblading. They also spend a majority of their time each day in the pool. Hope went swimming for the first time yesterday. She loved kicking her feet in the water and relaxing in the neat new float from the Larson family.

Hope's 6th Month Doctor's Appointment

Hope had her 6th month doctor's appointment today (she turned 6 months last Thursday), and boy has she grown! She currently weighs 16 pounds 3 and a half ounces and is 25 inches long. That puts her in about the 50th percentile for weight and the 25th percentile for height as compared to other 6 month olds. Looking at Hope today, you would never know that she was 2 months early or less than 5 pounds at birth.

She is now eating oatmeal each day and has also tried peas once. She is working really hard at sitting up and loves to stand on her legs and show off her muscles. Hope is able to roll from her back to her front, but hasn't yet tried to roll from her front to her back. Her arm muscles aren't quite as strong as her leg muscles, so she needs to use them more in order to build up her arm strength. Hope has taken her first boat ride this summer and has also had her first taste of ice cream. Thanks for checking in on us! We hope you are all enjoying your summer as much as we are!!!

Fun in the Water

After learning to kneeboard on Sunday, Ryann and Camden decided that Monday would be a great day to try waterskiing. This time Grandpa Deuel had a camera ready for us to use. We hope you enjoy these pictures of our two oldest water lovers.

Another Great Day at the Lake

We spent some time at Clifford Lake again this weekend. With temperatures in the 90 degree range, the water felt great! We played a lot of water volleyball, did a lot of swimming, and the Deuel kids experienced some "firsts". Camden and Ryann both learned to kneeboard this weekend and did a great job. They were both exhausted after their trips around the lake, but are both looking forward to the next time they go. Hope took her first ride on the pontoon and really enjoyed hanging out with her Aunt Jody during the ride. I wish we had pictures of these big events to show you, but Brent' s camera is in Africa on a hunting safari with his brother Brian and our nephew Kyle. Brent is definitely suffering camera withdrawal and is already planning on making up for lost time when he gets his camera back later this week. We hope that all of you had a great weekend!

4th of July Weekend

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend at Clifford Lake with Brent's family. We always have a lot of fun at the lake, especially during 4th of July weekend. Our 5 days there were filled with hanging out in the sun, swimming in the lake, tubing, playing cards and other games, eating (way too much!), fishing (Ryann's most favorite thing to do at the lake!) hot tubbing (Camden's favorite lake activity), bonfires (with s'mores) and lots of fireworks (great firework display dad and Uncle Randy!)! We also participated in the annual pontoon parade. This year's theme was "Children's Books". Ryann came up with the idea to use Clifford the big red dog and create "Clifford and Friends Visit Clifford Lake". We ended up taking 3rd place in the competition, and we had a lot of fun working together to transform the pontoon into a children's book.