Straw and Nursery Success

This past week we have been having all sorts of fun internet problems: hacking, connection time-outs, and lost, saved items. But we're back on track (hopefully) and are excited to be able to report what we've all been up to.

Dean has had two major successes this week: drinking from a straw, and going to all two hours of nursery today at church (and it was his first time)! We went to the store at the beginning of the month to stock up on diapers, etc. for Dean and decided to get him some new sippy-cups since his old ones were needing replacements. We got him the kind with straws, thinking maybe this would help him learn, since he's tried several times and had no continued success. Sure enough we got him home, put some water in it and he had it figured out instantly! So funny! Guess he was finally ready.

And as for nursery, I'm pretty sure us parents were more nervous than Dean was. He was so excited to play with other kids, have snack, and draw without being told "no," "don't," "come back," and "shush" that he took to it like a pro. All the leaders kept telling us how wonderful he did. We're not even sure he realized we weren't there from the looks of things. What a blessing nursery is; especially now that we're so close to adding a Riley Mae into the mix really soon! We're so happy that he did well today, and hope he continues to do as well in the future.

In other news, Dean has really been enjoying being able to spend more time outdoors recently as the weather has been in the 40s! Yay! And he has recently learned how to spin. We've inserted a couple short videos for you to enjoy.

Brittany's 8 month mark is this upcoming Tuesday (the 15th) and she is doing well despite lower back pains induced by bending and twisting with all the new weight she has to carry.

James' semester is coming to a close rapidly and all the excitement is getting funneled into plans for his next and, if-all-goes-well, FINAL semester--yahoo!! This semester ends on April 9th and the next one begins on the 21st. Not very much room to breathe, especially considering that Riley could be coming anytime now. We're secretly hoping for sometime inbetween semesters, but we really, ultimately, just want her to come when it's time no matter what else is going on.

Our favorite activity this week was definitely Family Home Evening. We had a short planning lesson where we decided to do a service FHE, a preparedness FHE, an Ensign FHE, and a Proclamation to the Family FHE each Monday night, respectively, each month. Then we initiated that plan by baking some St. Patrick's Day cookies (we let Dean help us put the sprinkles on) and putting a little surprise together for our friends to drop off on their doorstep. We love doing things like that as a family!

Final Note: The scrapblog program that Brittany was previously using to post pictures has been deleted, so no more fun photos like that to share, unfortunately. However, she is almost done with a full book of Dean's First Year, which we will be dedicating a page of the blog to in the near future. Be looking for that post to come.

Love,

The James Anderson Family