2015 Word For The Year

Take Action

Okay, so that was two words...but you get the idea.

I absolutely love this quote!  

Last year we focused as a family on kindness.  We spent a lot of time helping the kids recognize opportunities to show kindness.  In doing that we saw a lot of sad things.  The kids were exposed to sad situations and the unfairness that exists in the world.  Particularly with the way we live, versus the homeless, and the orphan, and those that are weak, or sick, or discriminated against live.  We learned we could show kindness to everyone in simple ways.

While we focused on kindness, Ryan and I noticed a problem with our word.  While we were teaching the kids to recognize an issue we realized we wanted to spend a year teaching them how to act on what they saw.  What good is recognizing and issue if you don't take action on it.  It is great to have sympathy for others, or to pray for others, but we want more.  We want children who become the "doers" in the world.  As a family we want to make a difference in the lives of others human beings all around us.

From that thought came the words for the year, Take Action!

On Sunny's Les Miserables DVD, there is a preview for Schindler's List.  The kids asked what that was about and I very briefly gave them an overview.  It became such an amazing conversation.  We talked about how sitting by and watching evil happen is wrong and it is never okay.  We have to be brave, and willing to speak up and take risks.  The world need more people who are willing to risk it all in defending other people and in defending what is right.  I want my family to be those people!

It is pretty easy to look around the world and see sorrow and suffering and hatred, and a number of other sad things.  Our goal this year is to do our part to shine a light into the life of others.  To be kind, to be loving, to be helpful, and to be an example of Christ to all those we come across.

I don't know where this will take us, but I have some great idea.  We are going to work hard in all that we do this year and I know we will grow from the challenge.

2014 Word of the Year Wrap-Up

Last year, as a family, we chose the word, "kindness" to focus on for the whole year. I blogged about it here:

Kindness

I have to say, we did a great job this year...if I do say so myself.  Thoughts of this blog and the quotes that I had found were never far from my mind, and greatly influenced me throughout the year.  I found I was able to be more understanding of people and their situations.  I also found I was able to love others more easily.  

One of my favorite parts of the year was watching my children focus on being kind to others.  Sunny has had a couple of situations this year where she was really frustrated with a few different people and we were able to talk about what she should do.  How she should treat them, even though she was upset, and how she could help them, despite the issues that were going on.  Watching her rise about her own frustrations and show love and kindness to others was amazing.

We have also focused a lot on kindness to those that are in much less fortunate circumstances than we are around the world.  We continued our tradition of donating money to Reece's Rainbows, which helps with the adoptions of special needs children in Eastern Europe and China.  We spent hours pouring over the pictures on the website and talking about the children as we picked the ones we wanted to help.

2014 was a great year and I am excited to continue in the New Year to teach my children (and myself) about what really matters in life and how to recognize that while all the distractions in life would have us focus on ourselves.

Lots More Les Mis

Sorry for the Les Mis overload, but I want to get everything for the year done by tomorrow. So, you get to enjoy more of this.

This first video up above is my favorite of all the ones she has done.  She really loves this song and I just think it is beautiful.

These two duets were pretty funny to do.  She loves the songs and usually I play the piano and sing the boy part, but I didn't want to sing on the blog, so we looked online until we found versions of the songs with the male only part.  She felt a little weird singing with some random guy, and we giggled and giggled.  The two duets were also filmed the first time she tried to sing along with the recording.  So there are lots of mistakes, but we don't care.  I think they are great.

Dance Off With Dad

How often do you have a dance off with your Dad?  My girls are pretty lucky to have such a fun Dad.  I have to say, Ryan's dance moves are pretty fabulous!

December 2014

Sometimes I'm not sure that she is 10.  She seems much more like 13.  She is the queen of selfies!

Cameron with his Batman figures from Mok and Pok.  They were tied with his Batman cape for his favorite gift of the year.

Here is the cape Nana made him.

Mimi and Bear got the kids the Jungle Jumparoo from Shark Tank.  It is a huge hit.  It looks kind of weird, but trust me, they have not stopped jumping since they first saw it.  All their friends love it too.

I got a new tree this year since our old 4 foot special from our early married days died.  It is 7 foot pencil tree and I love it.  I love that it just tucks into the corner and doesn't take up a ton of room.

Lila was in the first grade Christmas program.  She did a great job.

Told ya!

It snowed on Christmas and the kids had a ball playing in it.

More jumping

More tree

We went to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point again this year.  It is a fun and easy tradition

Lila in her program

She never gets tired of taking pictures and playing with my phone and making videos.

More snow.

Griffin with his cape from Nana.

And a Ninja Turtle

The kids made so many beautiful art projects at school during the Christmas season and they were piling up on the counter.  I finally decided to hang them all in the front window.  They made a beautiful display and were my favorite decorations this year.

Sunny with her BFF Lexi at the Christmas choir concert

Lila at the Blair Family Christmas Party

  

Cam and his Ninja Turtle

Lila got her own cd player and she was thrilled

Christmas Sunday before church

More from the Christmas concert.  That is Lexi on the left and Rakel on the far right

I love our door of Christmas cards.  Send me more people, send me more!

More jumping

This boy was thrilled with Christmas this year.  We nailed it!

Griffin's Christmas list from Preschool.  I love his handwriting!

Les Mis

In November my Mom and I took the girls to see Les Mis at Mom's High School.  I was familiar with the musical and the songs, but I had never actually seen it before.

Turns out, it is my favorite EVER!  I am in love with all of it and so are my girls.  I bought piano music books for me and Sunny and she has not stopped playing and singing the songs for over a month.

I also bought the movie for Sunny and we have watched it probably 15 times in December.  She knows the whole thing word for word.  Actually all the kids really like it.  I was very surprised that Griffin loved it, but he does.  I was also surprised by the interesting conversations we have had about life because of the movie.  Sunny is truly wise beyond her years.

Here is Sunny singing "I Dreamed a Dream"

Wait, did you miss that?  Need to see it again?  Oh, okay, here is an identical video.

Tired of that song?  Here is Lila with, "A Little Fall of Rain."

Oh you want more?  Well here is Sunny again with ,"On My Own."

And if you still need more Les Mis, cause let's face it, you want to feel like you live in my house and this is what we do all day, here is "Master of the House" on piano

And I've got lots more where those came from.  Sunny absolutely loves to play and sing and we have so much fun making videos all the time.

Fishing With Mimi and Bear

The boys went fishing and Mimi wanted Griffin to get a little to close to the fish he caught.