Today Tommy held up the basketball toy we have. It held it up high and looked at Emily and I and said, "Ball!"

What a cutie. And he loves that basketball!

The girls got beautiful Father's Blessings today for before school starts. We had a little lesson discussion about Father's blessings. We watched a video from lds.org about blessings - and asked and talked about questions. The spirit was amazing as we talked about it and amazing as the girls received their blessings! Blessings do come from our loving Heavenly Father,

Carolyn

• Blessings come from your Heavenly Father
• Come to your parents often for your guidance and counsel -when upset and when you have work – they will help you feel better
• When those times come, Pray – in the middle of lunch, class, etc – say a prayer in your heart
• Pray and Heavenly Father will guide you and bless you
• He will help you be strong in temptation
• Popularity and being in cool groups is not important
• You can be a light to many by opening your heart
• Seek ways to lead
• Be a leader
• Be a friend to those who are stuggling
• Learn a lot this year
• Grow in your education
• As you stay close to the gospel, your education will flow in your heart and mind. The gospel will help you do well.
• You will do great things. You will be a leader in the church. Your choices now will effect that. Always improve yourself.

Angela

• Blessed you to know your home is a safe place where you will be protected from the world. Bless you to feel safe and happy in your home. Your family are your biggest cheerleaders. Your family cares more about your happiness than even you.
• Your family is not at school. You can feel your Heavenly Father there. When you feel bad about yourself, PRAY
• You will have the special ability to smile and be happy in school. As you do this, people will be happy, too.
• People in school will see your light and want to be close to you.
• You will have fun
• You will have a special ability to connect with your teacher
• All things you need to know to progress, you will learn
• Desire to be the best you can be and you'll be happy with being the best you can
• God is always with you and He loves you

Emily

• Know how much your Heavenly Father loves you and is so happy you are going to school
• Know there are always things to learn – open your heart and think of how you can help others learn
• Happiness comes in this life by helping others to progress
• Happy for school
• Bless with a love to learn, play and listen
• Make lots of friends – learn from your friends
• Find way to help friends be happy
• Mom and Dad you sisters can help you
• Ask for help, don't figure it out on your own
• Heavenly Father loves you
• Jesus loves you

We had a late night with friends before school starts!! Tommy came and played. Madeline and Addie and CaLee came to play!

Tommy Tommy!

We love our Tommy!! I thought taking care of him would get old, but it still hasn't gotten old for the girls. They take turns getting him out of his crib when he wakes up; the girls rotate in the car as of who gets to sit by him and take care of him during car rides (each month, the girls switch spots so they can each have a turn by him every 3 month)...etc etc. We love our Tommy!

Here are some ADORABLE things he is doing that makes us want to squish him every day:

- He is an AWESOME sign languager!! His favorite sign is still "bird." He also signs "milk" when he wants his baba. He does this adorable thing that when he wants you to hold him, he holds out one arm and clasps his hand. It's REALLY REALLY cute. The other day at the pool (on Saturday), he would do this when he wanted me to walk him to something (so when he wanted me to bring him to a fountain, he would do this with his arm until I could bring him to what he wanted). Let's just say the pool was so fun with him. It's so fun he can tell me what he wants now :)

- He does this CUTE thing with his tongue. He opens his mouth a bit and then sticks out his tongue and moves it back and forth. Too cute. He does it ALL of the time! Maybe on Sunday, I will ask one of the girls to capture this on video. Good family history work, right :)

- He LOVES watching cars go back and forth outside. One night it was only thing I could do to cheer him up.

- He is really good at getting around. Last week he started crawling up the stairs. He like to go our fireplace a lot and climb up on the brick ledge and then crawl down it again. Pretty cute.

- We love our Tommy Tom!