Eden is pulling herself up at 7 months!

 Wesley and James

 Just got home from a camp out.

While riding home from church Brad noticed that Wesley had a wet diaper around his ankle.  His church pants were still on and nothing was out of place.  We were confused.  How did he get someones diaper on his foot?  So then Brad checked under his pants and his bum was bare!  We are not sure how it happened, but we all busted out laughing.  How long was it there?  We threw it away when we rolled into the garage.  Then we kind of forgot until there was a very large puddle under his stool at lunch.  Again, we were a bit baffled that he was sitting in the stool and yet the pee puddle was directly under the stool.  He's like the Houdini of pee.
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Brad was given a really nice ipod full of music from one of the teachers at school.  He has really enjoyed it!  Sadly, the ipod did not work with our computer.  So Brad decided to fix that.  Before he did, he loaded all the music on the computer.  Then he formatted the ipod.  Well, the ipod did not work after that.  He messed and messed with it.  He was pretty down about it.  I asked him, "Did you pray about it?"
"No.  I will if this doesn't work."  he said as he tried another thing.
I thought to myself that I would pray for it.  It may seem silly, but I don't think it is silly to pray for things that we need help with.  Especially when we have spent a lot of time worrying and trying to fix it.  So I prayed in my head over and over that it would work.
"It works!!  But is says, 'Anjanell's ipod.'"  he said.
"Do you know why it says that?  Because I prayed for it to work!  ha!"  I said laughing.  We all thought that was pretty funny.
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James gave his first talk in Primary today and did a great job!  A lady in the room that heard his talk used to be in the nursery with James and stopped me when I was leaving, "James is talking so well!!"  She told me in the hall to how she was so impressed with how far he has come.  I was so happy.  What a big deal this is.  I was so worried for him and now he can give a talk and be understood!

Eden says Mama at 7 months

That is not Mickey Mouse talking to Eden.  It is Brad in his baby-talk voice.  ha ha  She just figured out how to say mama today.  When I would set her down, she would turn back to me and pull at me while saying, "mama, mama."  So cute!!  And then she said if for Brad.  She is so much fun.

Wesley Loves Puzzles!

(sorry about the poor quality.  Wish I had noticed before I videoed that  I had it on low resolution.)

Wesley really likes puzzles.  He does them over and over.  If you touch it or help him, then he takes out the piece you put in and does it himself.  "Don't touch my puzzle!"  He gets very protective.  He is very smart.  He knows just about all the abc's.  I'm very impressed with all he can do.

James Graduated From Speech!

(Sorry for the poor video quality)

James Graduated from Speech Preschool!  Woo HOO!  He worked very hard and we are so proud of him.  He is where he should be for his stage of development.  In the speech preschool he is in, they do not work on /th/ and /r/ except for at the beginning of words, which James can do.  He is where he needs to be.  He still needs to learn to use the /r/ sound throughout words and the /th/ sound.  Right now it usually sounds like an /f/.  I know he will figure it out and we will continue to work on these things at home.

Today with Teacher Sarah
I wish I had a picture of him with Teacher Jami who was honestly, the biggest blessing ever in James' speech development.

He is such a bright, hard working boy.  He is always willing and wanting to help me.  At the store today he was telling me how good he was as he walked along with me.  "...and I like to make my bed, and I like to make your bed, and I like to make everyone's bed!..."  The gal standing next to me giggled at all the nice things he had to say about himself.  He really is a good boy.  He LOVES to help me in the kitchen.  He is always so sweet with Eden.  Last night he went with Brian and I to fill up the van with gas.  He had all kinds of questions about it (Where the gas was, how it got in the van, where it would stay in the van, etc) so we finally got him out and showed him how to pump the gas and let him do it.  He loved it.  He loves to write me cards with random letters written on them.  He also likes to draw "treasure maps" and go on treasure hunts.  He has such a big imagination.

Today he said to me, "Mom, did you know that all kids love Jesus?"
"True." I said.  Then I wondered out loud why all grown ups don't love Jesus.
He responded, "Will you come with me to my class on Sunday and hear the songs we sing?  They all sing about Jesus."

For Family Home Evening last night we had a party for James.  He walked with my graduation cap and received a diploma.  We listened to his favorite songs and played a game he picked out (bingo!).  He loved it!

HERE IS A LINK to me talking about James' speech about 6 months ago.

I ordered some stuff for Aubryn for Christmas and it still hasn't come.  I ordered it in November.  I am starting to think it is not coming.  I went to get the mail tonight and there was a small package!  Woo hoo!  It was dark and so I hurried home to open the mail.  I looked at the package and it was addressed to Mr. Brad Hawks.  "Woo Hoo!" Said Brad as I handed it to him.  He was happy that some coins he ordered had come!  I gave him a hard time and told him how I still didn't understand why he pays money that he can use to buy things, for money that he cannot use to buy things.  I was teasing him a bit and he was just so excited about his coins that he was grinning and admiring his new coins.  They are not in circulation!  They have never been touched by human hands!  Then he said, "And look!  I got a picture books of coins to look at!"
I said, "They are called catalogs and they are to make you want to buy more coins."
He said, "I know.  I just didn't want you to know that."
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When I picked up Reagan from basketball practice he jumped into the van and said, "I'm starving!  That is why I couldn't make any scores.  My tummy was so hungry!"
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When I went into the school gym to get Reagan from practice there was a coach with a team of 6 year olds practicing.  The couch hollered at a boy who froze with the football in his hands.  "Where are you going!?  We aren't playing defense!  Why are you going that way?  We are all at this end playing offense!  Why are you going that way?!"
The little boy stood there with big eyes holding the ball.  Poor kid.
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Rylan had his first basketball game yesterday.  He is really good at keeping his hands up. All the time.  He shuffles his feet back and forth.  All the time.  He also hangs out at the 3 point line.  All the time.  There were two times that the ball was passed to him.  The first time he tossed it right back to the kid like it was a hot potato and resumed his original routine.  The second time he held it for a bit longer while shuffling his feet back and forth.  The officials were nice to not call a travel.  Then he finally threw it to someone.  It was cute to watch him.  He was nervous to participate, so I was glad he got out there!
After the game he was getting a drink at the drinking fountain when his coach walked by.  I said, "Thanks for coaching!"
He asked, pointing at Rylan, "Is he yours?"
"Yes."
"Oh, he'll get better."
Nice.  Thanks for that.