seminary blessings

Kim started teaching early morning seminary recently, as the scripture mastery teacher who teaches on Fridays. He loves it, which is great. But what has me excited are the "seminary blessings" our stake high councilman and our ward's former seminary teachers keep telling us about. The blessings are different for everyone, they've explained, and they're very real.

I wasn't so sure this morning when Kim accidentally woke up the girls while getting ready to leave and I found them awake with their bedroom light on at 6 a.m. I told them they could either go back to bed, read, or play quietly until 7, when I would be getting up.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up later to see Audrey at my bedside, completely dressed for preschool with her hair done. Curious, I walked downstairs to find Ella and Lauren both dressed and ready for school, and apparently working together to put things away in the kitchen. "We did our assigned reading for school. And then we had breakfast," Ella told me. "And scripture study. And I packed the lunches."

I told them how amazing they were, how much I appreciated them, and how happy they'd made me, and then I hugged and kissed them until I was certain they'd had enough. "It was fun, actually," Ella beamed. "We're just practicing for when the baby comes."

Seminary blessings, indeed.

book deal

Today I offered the girls an opportunity to make some extra money. If they organized all of the children's books (which had been crammed into our bookshelves in every possible direction) I would pay them $2 each. Lauren was thrilled. "I'll do it!" she shouted and went right to work. Ella was more reluctant, but joined in as we emptied and organized the shelves.

As we worked, Lauren kept commenting, saying things like, "I'm making so much money right now!" and, "Wow, I'm going to have so much money." Finally, Ella said,

"Lauren, $2 isn't that much money."

"But Ella," Lauren reminded her, "Mom said $2 each. And there are a lot of books."

I clarified my offer and, bless her heart, she had a good, hard laugh at herself.

first day

Audrey started preschool! I don't know what excited her more -- going to school or taking her new lunch box. She kept saying, "It's a puppy, a lunch box AND a purse!" What could be better? Nothing, that's what.

stocks

We found these in "London" during our super fun day at Busch Gardens. Perfection.

she nailed it

For her birthday, Lauren requested a real manicure. When we arrived at the nail salon she couldn't decide between the pink or the purple. I mean, it was such a huge decision! And she loved them both. So, I asked the technician if she could polish one nail in each color to help her choose. The woman just smiled at me and in broken English said, "It her bir-day, ri?"

"Yes," I told her.

She winked at me, painted two nails in alternating colors and then just kept going. I'm not sure I've ever seen Lauren with a bigger smile on her face. As she finished the second coat she asked Lauren, "You wan spawkas?"

Alternating pink and purple polish with SPARKLES? It was like a dream come true. A very, very happy birthday dream.

Happy birthday, Lauren!

stick it to me

We'd barely finished breakfast when Audrey came to me with a snack in her hand. "Can I eat this cheese stick?"

I gave her a skeptical look as I wondered to myself if she could really be hungry.

She responded with a coy look of her own and the perfect justification: "It was just . . . sitting in the refigerato . . .waiting fo me to eat it."

baby girl

We saw Baby Girl's sweet face today! The technician commented on her thick eyelashes (which apparently aren't normally visible with ultrasound) and, no surprise, all of that hair!

I haven't had an ultrasound at 36 weeks before, and it was really fun to catch a glimpse of what she looks like. We're so excited for her to arrive!

Isabella Moore

Over the summer Ella announced that when school started she wanted to be called Isabella. I told her I was all for it, but asked her to really think about it to be sure.

As we walked into her classroom on the first day of school I asked her, "Are you sure you want to be Isabella?" She smiled.

"Yes."

So, I introduced her to her teacher as "Isabella Moore" and explained the change. It was no problem for her teacher, but something tells me it still may take awhile . . .

i vant my polo

After spending a day at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg waiting for the Outer Banks to recover from Irene, our group of three families was finally heading for the beach. Kim emerged from our hotel room wearing his pink polo with a popped collar. It didn't look bad, but I couldn't resist teasing him a little, so I asked, "Did you mean to pop your collar this morning?" He smiled and shot me a look. As we climbed into the car where the girls had been waiting Lauren said,

"Dad, you look like a pink dracula." It was so unprovoked and so perfect. We shared one of those big, family laughs that happen so rarely and are so much fun.

Before we left the parking lot we let all the kids draw on our row of minivans with window markers. Ours was covered with big yellow suns, and the words, "Yay!" and "We're going to the beach!" Ella wrote, "Sun and Fun are the only rules!" I added the customary, "OBX or BUST." And right there on Kim's driver side window, in Lauren's handwriting, pink letters spelled out: "Our dad is a pnk dracule."

The girls had the giggles for miles.