First Week Of School

We have lived in Birmingham, Alabama for just over a month now. The beginning of school really snuck up on me. I was LOVING spending my days with these darling girls. We discovered the local movie theatre does a $5 Tuesday event during the summer when we only had two weeks until school. So we went. Twice.

Chiara said, "A movie AND popcorn??? This is the best day of my life!!!" I'd even smuggled in some candy and water in the diaper bag, so it was truly a feast. We saw the new Ice Age movie, and my favorite part was hearing my kids giggling in the darkness. Although I have to admit, there were a couple times I was laughing the hardest in the theatre. I'm such a child. The parents around me snickered every time I had to remind Eve to be quiet and she would yell, "Okay, Mom, I be so QUIET!!!!!"

The other favorite activity over here is the cool park that does a fair kind of thing every Friday night. Eldon took the big girls (I stayed home with Brooke) the first time, not knowing about the activities there, and the girls came back with balloons, candy, and face paint.

Our last Saturday before school started we went to Walmart for a few last minute things. I let them dress themselves, and they looked like total street urchins. But as we crossed the street they all just kind of came together and joined hands ... It looked so sweet I had to document it. So I stood in the middle of the street and took a picture.

I love spontaneous sister love. We actually have a big mason jar I let the girls put orbeez in when I catch them being sweet to each other. As a mother, I just feel that if I can teach them to be KIND, over and above everything else, they will be okay. In the April 2012 Conference Elder Holland said something that has become our family motto:

I love this so, so much. When the girls get out of the car in the morning I tell them I love them and remind them to be kind. That's it. I hope I can be an example of kindness in my own walk before God.

Whoa, don't fall over!! :)

I love these little women so much. I love raising a little gaggle of girls. This morning my brother and sister-in-law welcomed a baby boy into their family. Bennett was born so early I didn't see the texts until we were in church, and I thought, "I wonder what it would be like to love a little boy the way I love my little girls." Sometimes it twinges my heart just a little that I don't know what that feels like. 

But then one of my girls will pop through my thought bubble and into my real face, and I think, "Nope ... I'm good." :)