Christmas is less than a week away!!!!

With that in mind and since I find it terribly hard to sit down and post, this is going to be my December blitz post! You get it all in one big shebang   We, like most of you, have had a crazy busy month.  Thankfully, most of what has made it busy has been of our own choosing and are fun things for us to do in celebration of the joy of Christmas.

First, every Saturday following Thanksgiving, we go out for the big tree hunt!  And since we now live close to our family, that means that Aunts, Uncles, cousins and Nanas, join in the fun and come tromp through trees with us.

Then this year, Brandon and I, were able to attend his work "Holiday" (yes, I am rolling my eyes a little) party at the Lowes Vanderbilt Hotel in downtown Nashville.  The night out, with an excuse to get dressed up, was great.  I don't think we have done anything like that since Addie has been born!

Night out on the town!

Next we had our 2nd Annual Cookie Night!  My sister and her family and Brandon's sister and her family, all descend upon our house one afternoon and the cookie chaos begins.  We decorate cookies, eat them, have soup and salad, eat cookies, kids play, we eat cookies, watch a Christmas movie, the adults decorate cookies, we eat them, we go look at Christmas lights and we eat cookies.  Notice a theme?!

Then this past Sunday, Brandon took Addie and Elle to see the Nutcracker at TPAC.  This is the 4th year that he has done this and it has become a much beloved special Daddy Daughter date.  They dress up, eat a meal out, meet some of the ballerinas and come home with visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in their heads.

I leave you with this, our Christmas Card to you all.  May you be filled with the everlasting joy that only Christ our Savior can give, we pray that you know His peace and lean on His wisdom as a new year begins. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from the Blair's! 

Family Pictures 2012 ....

Only once a year do I torture the kids and Brandon with my request for family pictures.  I don't think that is too bad, right?  When Brandon says that, "He would rather go shopping than do pictures."  I remind him that I could be much more intense about it than I am!  (Geeze... you know it is bad if he says that.)  But nonetheless he puts on a smile, wears what I tell him to, wrangles Ian and hands me the checkbook. What a guy!  So because of his patience and Lindsay Gross's awesome talent with a camera, I present you with a few of my favorites.

Knight in Shining Armor....

Last night was a treat for this Mommy's heart.  I was able to take my knight in training on a Mommy Son Date "Knight" at Chickfila. There Ian was able to work on his sword fighting techniques, learn more about chivalry and hone his armor.
All day long Ian kept asking if it was time for his "Mommy date"  and when the time finally arrived to head out, he jumped into my arms, squeezed my neck and giggled with excitement.  We could have ended the date right then and there and I would have been a happy camper! But more fun was to be had at the restaurant .. they had a balloon artist making swords, a craft where you could decorate your own shield,  a "real live knight" and of course, the obligatory Cow.  What is it that so captivates a child by seeing an over-sized,  mute, fake animal on two legs?  But then the real fun was yet to come, because when you put a bunch of 3-8 year old boys in a play room with swords and shields what do you think is going to happen... why they fight, of course! ;-)
I love Chickfila!  Not just for the obvious reason (their chicken is amazing!), but because I feel that they really do go out of their way to make your visit pleasurable, they do things that encourage parents to be active in kids lives and they strive to stand firm on their core Christian values.
Truly, we had a great time and I would have more pictures to share if my camera had decided not to act up.  But I owe a "Thank you" to the patient man in the Cow costume and to Chickfila of Coolsprings for a wonderful evening.

We are still here, I promise! :-)

Yes, it really has been a month and a half since my last post.  I have thought often of sitting down and writing something, but then I find it near impossible to find the time to do it.  Once I do get a few quiet moments the last thing I honestly want to do is be on the computer.  But alas, we are all still here and doing fine.  Home school has been going well and I can already see great improvement in Addie and her skills, which is encouraging because I don't think there has been any improvement in my teaching skills!
October has flown by and I can hardly believe that we are just a month away from Thanksgiving.  (Yes, I really just said that out loud!)  The fall colors have been surprisingly radiant, considering the lack of rain that we had through the summer and we have been enjoying the weather and the activities as much as possible, until winter chases us back inside for 3 months.
Addie has big news for a little kid!  (This is actually what has prompted me to sit down and write)  She learned to ride her bike yesterday!!!! I am sure that most of you can remember what a big day that was, when you finally accomplished the skill of balance.  She was beaming head to pedal and cruising all on her own up and down our street.  I am thankful that I put down the lap top and postponed ordering that printer ink that we are in need of and said, "Yes" to helping her for just a few minutes.  Those few minutes ended up being very special, as I was the one who got to help her take her first training wheel free ride!  Yesterday, reminded me that I need to say, "Yes" more instead of, "Wait just a minute" or "Not right now."  All too soon, they won't be asking for me to stop and watch and participate in every little detail of their lives.  But for now, she is not shy of the camera and does not think that Mommy and Daddy are embarrassing, so I have included a video of Addie's first solo ride for you all. :-)

The Beach or Bust...

Last week we had the priviledge of spending the week at the beach with Brandon's family for Christmas.  Yes, you heard me correctly, for Christmas!  This year there was a joint decision to spend time together and make memories in lieu of giving gifts.  Let me tell you, we LOVED the idea and loved even more getting to spend quality time with family.
At first it seemed that this was going to be a sequel to National Lampoon's Vacation.  As we were all headed south, Mark and Lindsey's transmission decided to die in their newly acquired Honda Oddyssey, leaving them stranded in Birmingham.  Fortunately, thinking quick on their feet, they rented a car and left their van to be repaired for the week.
Next, we receive the news that hurricane Isaac is threatening to ruin us with flooding and evacuation. The surf rose, it got a little windy, we filled the fridge with water and bought batteries, but amazingly we only had one afternoon of rain!  Every other day we were out combing the beach for the flood of seashells that were washed in.  We discovered that Ian is our shell connoisseur!  I think he collected 10lbs of "special" shells and then slept with them every night.  (Not sure he slept comfortably, but he would not relinquish them for the world.)
Before we left for the beach, Brandon surprised me with an afternoon of scuba diving for our anniversary.  As you can imagine with a hurricane in the Gulf, it was postponed and rescheduled 3 times.  Then as we made our way out to the beach with our classroom training finished and gear in tow, thinking this is actually going to happen, it was cancelled once and for all because you could not see your feet in the water! Ughh... Anniversary FAIL.  But wait... we did managed to sneak in a romantic breakfast of McDonald's coffee and oatmeal.  I know you are all jealous of that one.
So the last day at the beach and plans have changed.  No fun Gulf adventures for us, now we were just soaking up the last rays and waiting for the evening to fall so we can have one last walk along the beach together.  But it was not to be.  That afternoon Brandon began to feel ill and bunked up for the evening nursing a fever.  We just can't catch a break!  So my mommy's heart "settled" for a quiet morning walk along the beach with my favorite boy in the whole world!!  I must admit... that last morning hunt for seashells with Ian made my week.    :-)
In all honesty, we had an amazing time and enjoyed every minute of our chaotic vacation.  God gave us beautiful weather despite the forecast and we made memories that will last forever.  Can't wait to see what the Christmas vacations in the future will hold for us all!!!

Happy Birthday, Addie!

Yes, it is hard to believe, but Addie is 6yrs old today!!! We have moved up to two hands!  Don't you remember when that was such a big deal?  Personally, I think the bigger deal is that she has ignored our express desire for her to STOP growing.  We are constantly calling Anna, "Addison," because it is so hard to believe that Addie is no longer our sweet baby girl, but our sweet big girl now.  She was such a little pip-squeak at 1lb 14oz, but her fiestyness has brought her a long way....  Happy 6th Birthday, sweet girl!

Addie's first picture.

Here she is today on her 6th Birthday.  We went horse back riding!! 

School is in session...

The lunch bag is packed, water bottle filled, new clothes laid out, hair washed and kids in bed early!  Why??? Because tomorrow is Addie's first day of school!! Not sure that she will sleep much tonight, but I promise I will post a picture of our big girl with her big grin and new clothes tomorrow! ;-)


UPDATE:

So here she is! Bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go! She was SO excited and so independent.  When I asked her if she would rather be dropped off at the front or have me walk her to her room, she said "Just drop me at the front, Mom."  Geeze.... it starts so early!  But she did not get her wish, I walked her to her room anyways. ;-)