We're going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

 Remember ribbon twirlers? Lots of fun.

Evren is sitting on my lap now, I will let him narrate. For this picture he says "me, ball, hold it"

 "Sisters, outside"

 "Sisters, Kagin (Katelyn), zoo"

"Monkey, face". Evren managed to kick his shoe into the sea lion pool by accident and the trainer doing the show had the sea lion retrieve it for us!

Evren is 2!

 Little Miss Katelyn. She will be 2 soon!

 Patrick and Grandma

 Grandma and Papa came to visit for a week! At this point the kids call both sets of grandparents Grandma and Papa. They distinguish between them by saying "from the farm" or "from ohio".

 Evren's presents are so much fun!

 They had some trouble with the spelling, 

but we had a fun March birthday party for Evren, Salena, and I.

 The balloons were a major hit.

 They found a basket of clothes and decided to fold everything.

They love little orphan Annie. Even Evren. He likes the dog.

Maven gives clear direction and Evren plays along well. At the end he says "five".

February

They've got the letter M down. M is for Maren and Maven. Other letters they like are P for princess and S for Scooby Doo. E is supposed to be for Evren, but it is usually for "brother".

 We went to Corpus Christi for a wonderful weekend with Larry, Judy, Gary, and Anita. 

We had a great time, too short!

 Trying to repair our hair. 

 It has very high porosity and doesn't retain moisture due to mishandling by 

she-who-shall-not-be-named. Said person has been educated and improvement has been noted. 

Special meeting rounds. Lanell was so much fun, the kids were enthralled with her stories and songs. 

January is gone already...

Maven

 Maren.

 Evren. We have started potty training and he is doing very well while also adding new words to his vocabulary such as "wear" for underwear, "potty", "marsh" for the marshmallow treat he gets with success. 

 

 New kitchen toy or maybe we should call it a new place to store all of our stuff. 

They make pretend meals, but mostly try to get every single toy they own into it. 

 So, I finally realized that the girls and I have wavy hair (not straight frizzy hair) and if I learn to care for it correctly the waves will stay in when it is dry. 

 It is amazing what cutting out brushes and shampoos, and using a lot more conditioner will do for their hair! We are still in the trial-and-error phases of the transition to wavy hair. It has given me a new appreciation for anyone with curly hair. It is so high maintenance!

Surprises

This boy is talking so much! He surprised me with this today.

We cut his hair. None of us enjoyed it, but we got it done.

 I was also surprised this morning that the girls had made their beds so precisely. 

They do it the exact way we do it, I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was.

Christmas in Ohio

We got to spend a few weeks in Ohio! This was baby Brendan's winter hat. It's too cute.

 The weather wasn't much different than Texas except for a few days when we got to wear our winter coats. It really wasn't the temperature that was cold so much as the wind.

 Aubrey is headed to Wright State this year! I can't believe she is going to graduate soon.

 Doug and Evren were best buddies.

 I wanted to get a picture of how the girl's dressed up their pajamas. 

They showed me how they felt about that.

 This tree came really close to hitting our fence when it fell into the ravine behind our house.

 This is a shot from further back. None of those trees had fallen in last time we went back there. 

Maren's fake smile, Maven's real smile. Very similar.

Thanksgiving

Evren thought it was so funny to wear the girls clothes. 

He looks like my cousin Brandon's girl, Dixie.

I can make messes too. 

 Thanksgiving with the family

 These girls....

 Karin, Patrick, and Katelyn

At least we have one kid that doesn't mind having his picture taken.