Aunt Jess and Uncle Josh

I've been a bad blogger lately. I also didn't take any pictures of my kids at Christmas this year. Yeah, I know that's bad. I have a good reason though, I'll explain later. So, for now if you want to see what the kids have been up to check this out. There is the first post, but also another one that is from Christmas with a funny video of Sunny Bunny doing High School Musical. Thanks J & J for being the best aunt and uncle ever.

Almost Christmas

We hope everyone has a great Christmas. We have been very fortunate and blessed the last couple of years. Christmas time has reminded us of the things we are thankful to have. Thanks to everyone who has been so kind to us. If anyone needs a good read, check out Glenn Beck's new book, The Christmas Sweater.

Merry Christmas,

The Blairs

Sunday Morning - Dec. 21st

What a morning!!!!!!!!

We have to be at church by 9:00 and today we woke up at 8:30. Why the late start you might wonder??? Well, last night we had Christmas at Mimi's and opened presents. The kids had a ball with their new toys. In fact, they enjoyed them so much that they woke up around 4ish to play with them (just the big two, not the baby). So, we pretty much didn't sleep all morning, and when we finally did, we didn't wake up until Lila did at 8:30. But, we made it to church, just a couple minutes late, and all is well that ends well.

I wasn't going to miss my photo shoot even though we were late, so I plopped the kids down and this is what I got. Pardon Lila's bad attitude. She is sick (again) poor baby.

Random Pictures

Lila got this musical caterpillar for Christmas from Mok and Pok. She loves it.

Sunny's new paper dolls (also from Mok and Pok).

Lila spitting. She loves to spit. Food, milk, anything really. Seriously, she won't stop. She'll spit right in your face and laugh. I think we are encouraging b/c we laugh so hard when she does it, but I can't help it. She's a stinker.

9 Months Big

Today Lila had her 9 month check-up. Could I have picked a worse day? I had to drag all three out in the snow to be there by 9:00. Then we had to park way far away and walk over. The kids loved it. Me, not so much. Anyway, Lila did great as usual.

weight - 16 lbs 14 ozs
height - 27 1/2 inches
head - tiny (I can't remember)

The computers weren't working at the office today so I don't know the percentiles. I'd imagine around the 5 -10th % for weight. Maybe 60th% or so for height, and I have no idea for head, but it was in the 5th% last time and it is still tiny :)

I can't believe how big she is getting. Here she is modeling her Christmas jammies from Mimi.

I tried to get her to stand still for a picture, but she kept taking steps and then falling down. I think that is the story of my life. When she was little and I tried to take a picture she would crawl away, now it is walking. Why doesn't she want her picture taken??

A smile, though not at the camera :)

I have no idea what was up with her hair today. I think it is because she had a hood on and it got her hair full of static. Who knows. She has crazy hair anyway, but today was above and beyond. Light socket anyone??

Snow Day

Sunny snowboarding

&

Jackson hiding himself in the snow

Both of them hiding themselves. Jackson taught her how to do it. Basically you stick your face into the snow until your nose is about to freeze off. Gee, sounds great.

Sunny doing what she does best. Eating snow!

Lila's New Toy

I saw this online today and just had to get it for Lila. It is on sale at Target for $19.00. I already have her Christmas shopping done, so I thought about saving it for her birthday in March, but you know me. I can't wait for presents and surprises, so I let her have it today. She loves it.

Look at that happy face.

As close to a smile as I could get.

She keeps flipping the page over and over again to hear the music.

Still more flipping the page.

Hopefully this will keep her attention for while and I can catch up on some much needed house cleaning around here.

Blast from the Past

Today we had my Dad's birthday dinner at my parent's house. Some friends from waaayyy back in the day were there. I'll try to explain who they are, but it might come across kinda jumbled. When we lived in Crestview there was a family who also lived there in our ward name the Stapletons. They had 6 (I think) kids. The second to youngest was my age. Anyway, they eventually moved away right before I graduated high school. So, the oldest daughter who is married and lived in Tennessee, just moved to Utah, and she came with her husband and two kids. It's a little strange because I know who she is, but not really because she's a bit older than me -- clear as mud, right?

So, we had the best time. She and her husband were so great, but the best part was their kids. They have a boy who is 4 months older than Jax, and a girl who is 4 months older than Sunny. They were great kids, and hit it off right away with our kids.. I don't think I've ever heard so much laughter. They played together the entire time. Swords, trucks, hide and seek, and the watched the Grinch movie. We will definitely have to do a play date in the future! What a great night.

Sunday Mornings and Santa

We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday. Santa is our Bishop's dad. Isn't he awesome!!! I was pleasantly surprised that all the kids sat on his lap and no one cried. It was a success.

So, I forgot our family picture in front of the tree this morning, and even if I had remembered we were running too late to take the time to do it. This will have to do for this week.

The girls sporting their matching polka dot dresses from Aunt Jess and Uncle Josh (thanks guys!). This was before the party.

This is Lila's official picture face. She is so smiley, but when the camera comes out she does this blank stare. Hopefully she'll catch on to the whole posing thing sooner rather than later.

Today she is up to 4 steps at a time.

It is so funny to watch. I remember with my older kids that they were excited to learn to walk b/c it was something they wanted to do, like they realized it would be cool and they could reach more things. They were 12 and 13 months, btw. With Lila, she is walking and grinning and has a look on her face like "What the heck am I doing and why are they clapping for me!?!?!"

First Steps

Lila took a step all by herself today. She 'll be 9 months on Sunday. She is pretty good at balancing, but usually she'll just stand there for a minute and then sit down and crawl. I guess because she knows it is faster. Today I was helping her walk by holding one hand and I let go and she stood there for a minute and then took one step forward before she fell. I tried again and she did it one more time. Yea! She has been walking holding onto furniture for awhile now, but I don't think she says any benefit in walking alone yet. She still thinks crawling is much faster. Either way she is really cute, but a terror!

-An old but cute picture-
(Funny how much longer her hair has gotten. I think this was in Sept.)

Sunday Mornings in December --Dec. 7th

I've decided to take a family picture in front of the tree each Sunday morning in December. Just because, no special reason. (Assuming we are ready early enough to have time to take a picture. So far , so good.)

This is the picture I wanted to use, but it turned out blurry. I have no idea why. We set the camera up and turned on the timer, just like with the other picture and this is how it turned out. Oh well, I just liked how we were sitting better and how it was a little closer.

So, here we are in focus, and just slightly off center. That's what you get with the camera on the piano bench, and 2 minutes to get a picture of 5 people.

Nana

We've had Nana over for dinner a couple of times in the past month. (She's redoing her kitchen and adding a family room on to her house, and it is a huge project with a lot of mess involved). Anyway, the kids have been so excited. They love spending time with her. My kids are 3 of 13 1/2 grand kids on Ryan's side of the family, and it can be hard to get alone time with her with that many cousins around. They love having her over b/c they get her all to themselves.

Playing swords with swords and geo-trax tracks.

Ring Around the Rosie (the extra super fast version)

Sunny and Nana Blair

Christmas Decorating

These are their "excited" faces!

Funny story about our tree. We bought it when we lived in a small duplex. It seemed so huge back then. When we pulled it out last year we were amazed at how small it was in our living room. We jokingly called it our Charlie Brown tree. Well, amazingly enough, it has managed to shrink yet again. It still looks really small in our bay window underneath the vaulted ceilings, but what's even more disturbing is that Jackson can almost reach the top.

The kids busy decorating.

Because they love to pose.

Jackson was in charge of setting up the decorations on the table. He did a great job. The snowman is the kids favorite decoration. He dances and sings songs. Aunt Terry gave him to us a couple years ago.

Can you see how all the ornaments are on the bottom third of the tree? Too cute. I told them they could spread them out and they wanted it like this. Looks good to me!

Bonding Over The Playstation

Jackson and Lila started out Thanksgiving Day with a good ole' game of PlayStation football. They were both so into it. Jax was in a NO PICTURE mode , if you couldn't tell.

I know I'm biased, but she is so darn cute. Love my feet in the picture :(

Look at the Mohawk on that kid. He's usually not allowed to wear it like that since it is so long, but since it was a holiday we let him.

"Do I want to play with it, or eat it???"

More Turkey Day pics to come. They are on my Dad's computer and I haven't gotten them yet, but we had the best day. We played Thanksgiving Bingo, complete with awesome prizes (thanks Mimi), and then we learned how to jump rope with our own ropes made by Bear. Finally we played some hopscotch and drew a giant caterpillar on the sidewalk. So fun.

Serious Bragging Ahead!!!

Okay, since you've been warned, here it goes...


Jackson got his first report card today. I expected it would be great, and it is.

Here is the way they grade them:

Y= Yes, mastery

P= Partial mastery

N= Needs Support

The categories are: Reading, Learning Habits, Math, Writing, & Content. There are 31 different areas in these categories. Jackson got a Y in every one!!!

Mrs. Chapman wrote "Jackson is such a hard worker! He has made great improvements in both reading and writing since the beginning of the year. He is working on becoming a confident reader! I am so happy to have him in my class."

We are so proud of our big boy. I think especially b/c he didn't even begin talking until he was three, and up until recently it was very hard to understand his speech. He has come so far in such a short time. He loves school and his friends and teachers so much. It has been such a wonderful experience for him.

p.s. Some of you might remember that I did not get a perfect kindergarten report card, and I still remember it to this day. I got a "U" (meaning, unsatisfactory) in cutting, and I'm still a bad cutter to this day! I think it has something to do with lack of patience :)

It Finally Happened

Long story short: My baby fell down the stairs.


Long story: I knew I was going to have problems with Lila and these stupid stairs. She's been going up them really well for about 2 weeks (we don't usually let her though), but has no concept of down yet. So today I was in her room changing her diaper and I needed to take it downstairs and rinse it out. Sunny was in there with her and was feeding her a bottle, so I pushed the door mostly shut and told Sunny to watch her and I'd be right back.

Next thing I hear is Lila yelling, not like she was hurt, just talking, but it sounded way to close for comfort. I ran out of the laundry room and up the first flight of stairs and there Lila is on the stairs. She had come down 5 of the 8 and was on her belly with her head facing down. I grabbed her and she was fine, actually she was happy because she likes to think she is such a big girl with those stairs.

I came up to find Sunny and she was in the kitchen. She just started crying and said she was sorry that she let Lila out. I told her it wasn't her fault. She isn't in charge of Lila, Mommy is, and I should have put a gate up in the hallway. It took her a minute to calm down, but she did b/c she could see Lila was fine.

In conclusion, I disliked the stairs yesterday, today I detest them. I've asked a couple people what to do, and it seems like most people don't use gates. I just can't figure this out. I feel like I can't leave her down stairs b/c she'll come up, and even if I do put the gate up on the first stair, she climbs up the gate and gets stuck. If I'm upstairs I have to put a gate in the hallway and shut all the doors of the rooms I don't want her in, and then she gets bored and cries after 5 minutes. Please tell me it gets easier soon. I'm afraid we're in for a long few months of this before she is able to go down safely.

Beautiful Weather

The weather has been so unbelievably beautiful lately. It's making me dread winter even more. We have been able to play outside everyday for the last week and I decided I needed some pictures to show to all of you far far away in the south.

All the kids on the street have been out playing in the cul-de-sac again, just like summer. Jax has had the opportunity to perfect his bike riding skills. His newest tricks are standing up and pedaling, riding with his eyes shut, and going off the curb. He also loves to "shoot hoops" with some of the bigger boys.

Sunny just loves being able to ride her princess bike and watch everything going on around her. Sweet Catey is obsessed with grass and leaves. I swear that child will eat anything.

Please win again BYU

I can't wait until 4:00 Saturday afternoon. For those who can't wait either, enjoy the videos. It still gives me chills. That may be weird to some people, but I know a few can understand.

Dear defense,
Please show up to play this week.

Thanks,
Ryan

Kinda Freaky

Saw this on someone else's blog and thought it was interesting. I only had one picture of Ryan and one of me on our computer and they were both horrible, but I had to use them. The freaky part is the kid actually looks a bit like Sunny. How did they know to make it have blonde hair. Mine is dark and Ryan is bald?

p.s. Ryan is working late tonight. Can you tell I'm bored???

8 Months Old

Lila turned 8 months old yesterday. I can't believe how time flies. Ryan put her in this big t.v. box and she loved it. It was pretty funny to watch. She didn't want to get out. Can you see the smile behind the pacifier?

In other news, I took her to the doctor yesterday to see if she had an ear infection. She had a cold for about two weeks and then I thought she was getting better, but her voice went really hoarse and she started pulling on her ear. She also wouldn't lay down to go to sleep well, and she was waking up twice every night (totally out of character for her). Turns out no ear infection, but a really red sore throat. I gave her Motrin last night to see if it would help and to my relief she was back to her regular 7p.m. to 7a.m. with no waking up in between. YES YES YES!!!!! Hopefully she'll be well soon. This sick stuff is no fun.

And finally
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She Weighs 16 Pounds!

She has been looking a little chunkier lately, so we were hoping she had gained some weight, and she has. She still has reflux pretty bad, but she loves regular food so I think it is helping her to gain. She loves avocados, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and bananas.

Everything else is good. I officially hate stairs. Lila can climb them in about .02 seconds, so we have to keep a gate at the bottom. Now she has started climbing up the gate. Great :( I'm trying to teach her how to go down safely, but for now it's not really happening.) She's crawling everywhere and walks all over while holding on to things.

Pretty much we just have a wonderful, happy little girl who we love dearly and we are so blessed by her in our lives.