Rex said it best in his prayer Sunday night, a few minutes after we heard President Hinckley had passed away:

"Please bless President Hinckley. And don' forget to see him when he comes up to be with you. And thank you for the gospel."

I love this time of year. Not because of the dirty brown snow, the severe coldness , or the gloomy clouds over head, but because I love Early Spring Fashion! Today, Lucy and I went shopping to do a few overdue Christmas returns, and we had oh so much fun seeing all the new clothes brought in for spring. Seriously, put out some navy blue and white, maybe throw in a yellow and you can get Macy Pew to buy anything (I say Macy Pew because Macy Bell has more of a budget). Make it polka dot, and well you have me at hello. I really should be living in Annapolis!




And another thing. Can I tell you just how much I love this book! I keep it on my coffee table or sometimes in the bathroom just so I can read an excerpt from it as often as possible. But you must read it cover to cover. And it isn't what you are thinking, it is not a LDS/deseret book type. Katrina Kenison is a mother and a writer in Boston. Anyway, it always puts things into perspective, and reminds me to slow down and enjoy being a mother just a little bit more. It is such a peaceful book. You will love it!

Lucy appears to have a gift for neologisms that far surpasses her dad's when he was a kid. She makes up words and phrases with creativity, perceptiveness, and most importantly, supreme confidence. It's the confidence that makes a new word go over really smooth, and may even give it sticking power. And this girl . . . has GOT it.

A partial list (and remember to insert a hard lisp on anything approaching an 's'):

Santa's little helper is an "elb." "Mom, look, there's Santa, and there are his elbs. I lub elbs."

Lucy loves to watch Leinsteins. That means she loves to watch a show called "Little Einsteins." She's just smart enough to know that some of those syllables in the title are superfluous.

Tonight Lucy asked if we wanted to play Vaminos. She was pointing to a box of dominoes, but also alluding implicitly to a favorite phrase of Dora the Explorer's- "vamo-nos." So in our house, we play Vaminos now. Pretty much the same as dominoes, but with a bit of Spanish flair. Much more fun.

Lucy is also very supportive of our new year's resolution to read the Book of Morning nightly as a family. It's odd that we do it at night, but being a part of this family conditions one early to live with contradiction.

She also has a designated hidingsinkout. A hidingsinkout is the hideout one uses while playing hidingsink. And hers is a good one. It's behind a floor lamp. A very good hidingsinkout.

And my personal favorite. When a sporting event of some sort is on the TV, Lucy usually doesn't pay attention (it's a boy show!). But there's one thing that can make her perk up and follow closely: "Cherlers! Dad, did you see the cherlers! I lub cherlers!" Given that her mom was a cherler in high school, I suppose it's a natural affinity.

Lucy heard me laughing when Macy told me another of her Lucisms the other day. She stood up on the couch and grabbed my face with her two hands and smiled and said "Dad, do you laugh about me?" And it's true- we're not laughing at her, we're laughing about her!

Tonight Macy was teaching a lesson and she pointed to a picture of President Monson and asked the kids who it was. Rex thought for a minute and said "Joseph Smith, when he was older?"

We laughed and Mom said "No, that's President Monson. He is one of the Church leaders and he works right beside the prophet."

Rex shrugged and said "Oh. The only ones I know are President Hinckley, Mitt Romney, and . . . Prophet Bush, whoever that is."

Glad to have ya back, buddy.









P.S. Last week, Rex was reporting to Macy that Dad said "Mitt" had lost something. Macy sort of doubted that Rex knew who "Mitt" was, so she asked him "Mitt who?" Rex said: "You know, Dad's friend."

Via a visit to my extended family's website, I just discovered a nice group of photos of our family that I had never seen before, some of them really cute. These were taken last summer, so they're sort of old, but all new to me.

I especially loved this one for what's going on in the bottom right corner:

(actually, I have to say that I really love the repeated theme of people hugging each other in this picture. It's such a sweet pose for a family at the funeral of a loved-one. Not sure if it was intentional, but I love how Ange and her kids, Brennan and Nate, Rex and Lucy, and Giant Kook-Monster with everyone else all share that posture)

That was the one I wanted to feature, but here are a few others:

If there are any Bells reading this that haven't checked out that site's photo collection, you should- there are lots more like this.

http://thebackrowpew.blogspot.com/

Look at these darling silhouettes my cousins Maeve and Brad did for me of Rex and Lucy!! I am so happy with them. Don't you think they need to start a business???