January in Review

January flew by! These first few pictures were taken at the Long Beach Aquarium. A nice neighbor down the road gave us 4 free tickets, so we enjoyed Martin Luther King Day out (I will always think of the free Mondays in January with the Hardins at the zoo in OKC on MLK day!)

I was quite concerned about this bird decorating Brian, but he was lucky...

The girls enjoyed feeding the birds!


The sea turtle also made a big impression.

We had two days of fever for Evelyn, and the sisters had some sympathetic snuggles one morning last week. Evelyn quickly felt better, and it was actually a blessing to spend two solid days at home! Potty training for Marianne was begun, and the girls thrived on being home and playing together.


Both girls have learned to anticipate the sunset every evening. And it is usually quite beautiful, especially as we sometimes pick Brian up after his later class or as in this picture, when we were waiting on dinner (except they were about 20 minutes early in looking on this occasion.) Marianne will name all the colors she sees in the sky as the sun goes down, and exclaim, "Oh how beautiful!" It is sweet, and their appreciation of God's beauty makes my heart sing!


Evelyn found these fabric scraps from some baby blankets when I was looking for a quilt pattern today. They quickly became shawls, for "Mary" and her cousin "Elizabeth." (I did have the nativity out today before I put it up). Evelyn is sleeping with hers tonight (not around her neck, we talked about that), and Marianne's shawl is covering up "Baby Dear."

This picture is a record of personal victory and endurance. Many thanks to Corleen, who inspired and helped me to sew this nativity set. Just completed and packed away today, it will be fun for the girls to play with NEXT Christmas....In case you think the eyes look funny, well, they do, but that is the way they are supposed to look. Those are eyelashes, cast down in prayer.