4th Grade Program

I transferred a bunch of pictures from my camera today and then deleted them.  Apparently I lost a bunch of them.  Sad.  Really sad.  This is the only picture I have left from Sunny's program.  

She is a pioneer and her best friend Rakel is an indian (of course).

It is hard to see her, but she is in the blue dress with the blonde braids right in the middle.

Choir 2014

Sunny joined the school choir this year for the first time.  It is for 4-6th graders.  She really loved it.  Their choir is the best in the district and they work really hard.  They did several concerts this year.  This is her with her friend M, posing before the last concert.

A super-short clip of one of my favorite songs they did this year.

My other favorite song was Bruno Mars, "Count on Me."  You all know little Miss Sunny LOVED that one.  She is a huge Bruno Mars fan.

I absolutely love this song called, "Why We Sing."  This was from a performance at the high school.  It was 2 elementary choirs, a couple of middle school choirs, and a couple of high school choirs.  They whole night was great and at the very end they all took the stage together for this number.  You can't see her, but Sunny in the very middle in about the second row.

Hopefully I will be able to get all my other videos off my old phone, because there are some really cute ones on there.  

Easter 2014

Easter morning was a little sad this year at our house.  The kids were still pretty upset that B.J. had just left.  We did manage to get a few pictures before church, minus Jackson, who had gone to church early to make sure we got a seat. 

We took a few more after, but people were already half undressed and sloppy looking, so I wasn't thrilled.  But, at least it was documented and the kids did look adorable in their new clothes.

Uncle B.J.'s Visit 2014

 As usual, we had a fabulous, if not too quick, 2 weeks with Uncle B.J.  The kids look forward to this all year and they are never disappointed.  We spent the week playing video games, watching movies, eating treats, playing with chalk, and singing "Let It Go" from Frozen.

My pictures are all in random order, but at least they are here!

B.J. has such a huge talent with kids.  He understands each of mine so well and has so much patience with them.  We always joke that he needs to take a week vacation when he gets home because he has got to be exhausted.  I swear he didn't sleep the whole time he was here and he always had several children climbing all over him.

B.J. gave Cameron the nickname of "MR. Mo Mo" and Cameron loved it.  He snuggled up next to B.J. and kept saying, "B.J. calls me MoMo!"  He obviously didn't remember B.J. from last year, but I guess we have talked about him enough that when B.J. got out of the truck for the first time, Cam sprinted out of the house, across the yard, and jumped into his arms. I loved it.

He also loved for B.J. to push him in the swing.  He would say, "Higher, higher, higher, B.J.  Okay, dat good B.J."

Another favorite was, "Come outside me B.J., and Watch me B.J."

Griffin was in video game Heaven!  While the big kids were at school, he and B.J. played tons of games and Griffin was able to actually beat a few of them.  If there is such a thing as being talented at video game playing, Griffin certainly is.

We spent a day at the new aquarium with B.J., Mimi, and Josh and Jess

Sunny loves her Uncle so much.  She just always wanted to be with him and snuggled up right next to him.

B.J. with 6 of his 7 nieces and nephews.  Jackson was at a party.

Love this one!  You don't often see a normal picture of B.J. where he is not covering his face.

We all watched Flight of the Navigator one night.  Sweet Griffin tried so hard to stay awake, but he just couldn't do it.

Jack and B.J. of course, played tons of video games.  Jackson had just gotten 2 new games for his birthday and they were able to beat the first one and Jack is almost done with the second game.  It is a pretty hard one, and was pretty cool to watch.

I just realized I don't have any good pictures of Lila with B.J.  Well, they spent lots of time singing.  She showed him all her favorite songs and videos.  She also loved drawing with chalk and learning how to do the monkey bars with B.J.

Thanks Uncle B.J..  We love you and can't wait until you can come again.  It really is the best time of the year around our house!

Basement

Work got started on our basement on March 8th.  We are so excited.  We have really outgrown our house and we need the extra space pretty badly.  We are going to have a new family room, 2 bedrooms, and a bathroom.

Things were moving pretty quickly until we got to the drywall.  The guys were supposed to come on a Wed morning, but didn't end up getting to our project until Friday.  That slowed us down a little bit, but overall things are going really well.

This is Jackson's room

Today and Wed. we have guys here doing the mudding and taping.  I think all that is left after that is finish carpentry, paint, and carpet.

Sunny's room

This is the window well outside of Jackson's new room.  It is in the back of the house.  The other two windows are on the sides of the house.

Jackson's window from the inside.  It was hard to take pictures because it is a little dark down there.  There are no lights hooked up right now.

Sunny's window.  She has a ladder in her window well, and we will probably get one for Jackson's room too.

Happy Birthday to Lila

Sweet little LuLu turned six back on March 14th.  She had a wonderful birthday and I have lots of pictures to post.  For now, these will have to do.

I have been trying to get Lila to cut her hair for a few months  She always said, "NO WAY."  She loved her long hair.  I did too, but it was just getting so hard to take care of.  Finally she agreed to trim it and then today at the salon, she decided to just go for it and chop most of it off.

We love it!  IT is so light and I think it will be much easier to take care of.  I think she looks so grown up.  

2014 Word For The Year

A couple of years ago, a good friend of mine told me that she doesn't do New Years resolutions, she does a word for the year. Like a family theme of sorts.  I thought that was a fabulous idea and so last year I chose a word for our family....and promptly forgot all about it and and never did anything about it, and now I can't even tell you what the word was...FAIL on my part.

This year I decided to put a little more effort into choosing a word that would be meaningful to our family, a word that would allow us opportunities to grow, and a word that would be allow us to spend more time thinking about the people around us and learning to serve them.  Then I decided I would blog about it because I think writing it down will help keep my accountable and make sure we stay focused for the year.  

So, the word for the Blair Family for 2014 is:

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,

 even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.

Ephesians 4:32

I am so excited for this new year.  I have so many great things going on in my head that I want to do with my little family.  I hope that over the course of the year we can grow closer together, love one another more, and learn to see people as Christ sees them.

A few of the quotes that I am feeling inspired by this year:

"I suppose the thing I most would have liked to have known or been reassured about is that in the world, what counts more than talent, what counts more than energy or concentration or commitment, or anything else - is kindness. And the more in the world that you encounter kindness and cheerfulness - which is its kind of amiable uncle or aunt - the better the world always is. And all the big words: virtue, justice, truth - are dwarfed by the greatness of kindness." ~ Stephen Fry

Kindness in thought leads to wisdom,

Kindness in speech leads to eloquence,

Kindness in action leads to love.

-Lao Tsu