We always end the holidays and start the new year with several birthdays!

We celebrated Blake’s 60th and also Kamryn and Aspen’s birthday during our family day lunch on a Sunday after church.

We really laughed at Kayla’s creative gift!

My poor hubby has lots going on with his teeth right now, and is wearing an appliance to cover some teeth that had to be removed.

We thought Kayla’s case for his appliance was adorable!!

We enjoy celebrating birthdays!!

Sundays are our all time favorite day of the week when we can set aside the time to just be all together.

Brings such a big smile to my face as I look back on these photos.

Aspen got to have a sleep over at NaiNai’s house for her birthday too and I cannot wait to continue that tradition throughout the rest of this year!

We ate a lot of food in January.

I spend A LOT of time in the kitchen!

I still have a dinner party of six every evening for dinner and we are up to twenty-two of us on Sundays!!

I LOVE cooking and baking!

I LOVE tending to my kitchen!!

I just don’t love the grocery shopping.

That’s ok though because we buy in bulk with anything that we can!

Sometimes I have a plan for all of this food preparation.

But then sometimes I say to myself, “Just make ANYTHING!”

They eat it all no matter what, ha, ha!

When we have afternoon activities, I do try to plan ahead so that when we finally walk back in the door dinner is ready to bake!

Family Sundays are the biggest meal I prepare each week.

Winter is easiest, honestly, because soup is in season, in one pot, and delicious!

We also have some form of tacos often on family day!

If anyone is even reading this besides us, you know there are a lot of predictable things here at Twin Oaks for me.

My morning quiet time, my love for coffee with frothed coconut milk and for chunky monkey, my love of Pilates and meeting with my trainer twice a week, my love for the kitchen, my love for our pups….

I like routine, what can I say?

I LOVE my birds!

We have a feeder on the corner of our deck all winter long, and it brings us SO much joy!

This winter there were 23 red cardinals visiting here AT ONE TIME.

It was majestic!!

God is so kind!!

I enjoy the views and sunshine off of our deck all winter long.

We are thankful for how many big windows we have here at Twin Oaks!

Of course the children have their own interests too!

I do not think there is anything better than watching them pursue the things they are interested in!

I am in less of a hand holding season these days, and in more of cheerleading season!

It is FUN!

And they all are SO talented at so many things!

Speaking of those kiddos…Tate got a new job in January and got glasses!

He took Lane’s spot at the library and currently works there two afternoons a week.

He loves it!

And now he can SEE!

That stinker – the eye doctor could not believe how bad his eyes were!

He had never said anything to us.

The eye doctor said to me, “Well, you think his teacher would have noticed!”

To which I said, “Yes, you would think SO!!”

SIGH.

Aren’t his glasses cute though??

Addie and Scottie went to Florida in January.

When they dropped their dog off to us, I pretended I was packed and ready to go with them!

SO RUDE – they did not take me!!!!

Kayla sent me a photo later that day showing me that the kiddos were praying for me, because I had my tongue tie released that afternoon.

I had my first early graduate in December!!

Lane Stevan has an amazing job currently, and we are enjoying watching the Lord work out his next steps!!

He is our giant – even taller than Chad now!

Blake had the second of several more surgeries on his mouth in January.

This one really had him down for several days – it was ROUGH.

It wasn’t long until he was back doing all the things though.

He is our resident kombucha maker, and fixer of all things!

His wife gave him a new Keurig coffee machine for his 60th birthday that has a water line that runs to it!!!!!

I promise I was thinking of him when I bought it, ha, ha!

He had that coffee maker hooked up quick and efficiently and we ALL love it!

No more filling the Keurig with water all day long!

We put up so much from our gardens last fall.

You can read about it all here.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how long the things we preserved in the refrigerator downstairs lasted!

We had leeks and cabbage just bagged up and stored in the fridge and they were fresh all winter long!!

How’s that for keeping some memories from January?

My little scrapbook here is a joy for us to look back on!!

And I would like to say that I have a girlfriend who will be thrilled that I finally figured out how to collage my photos!

It’s a labor of love, friends!

Lots has changed around here this last month – so here is hoping I will be able to meet this goal I have about this lil’ ole blog of mine.

I miss keeping our memories here!

If you are out there and reading along – until next time!!

February memories coming up next!!