I’m not doing another 365 project this year, but I thought it would be fun to collect my favorite Instagram pics from each month and post them together here.

Just a few favorite photos from our Christmas festivities with Nana and Granddad and Grandma and Grandpa and aunts and uncles and cousins and everybody.

Zoey and Oliver with my mom and dad. (Nana and Granddad)

It actually snowed on Christmas morning! In Texas!

O, Z, and Q with Justin's parents (Grandma and Grandpa).

Our Christmas gift to the babies’ (ok fine, toddlers…kids…I know they’re not babies anymore) grandparents and great grandmothers was a pen pal project. We gave them each a box to hold monthly letters that we will write to them with the highlights from each month of the year, plus questions for them to answer and a photo of the three of them together taken that month. We’re starting out with me writing them, and as the kids get older they will take over writing their own letters. The grandparents and greats will write letters back answering their questions and we’ll keep those in boxes for each of the kids to have as they get old enough to read them. I’m so excited about this and how special these letters will be to our whole family. And, since I’m writing out details from each month now anyway, I’m hoping it will help me get back into updating this blog more frequently!

Here’s some of our January letter:

Some of our other favorite things this month were climbing anything and everything (but especially into and out of our cribs), pretending to go night-night when its not even close to night-night time (and when it is close to night-night time asking to read all of the books we own until Mommy and Daddy finally say no more books), coloring and stickers, sorting the mail for Mommy, petting Ozzie, helping Mommy clean up, stealing Mommy and Daddy’s phones to make very important business calls, bath time, Curious George, playing “gonna get you!” with Daddy, and going to the park!

Probably the most exciting thing that happened in all of January was when we went to the Stock Show with Grandma and Grandpa while Mommy and Daddy were in New York City. We saw duckies going down a slide! For weeks after Mommy and Daddy got home they asked us what we saw and we said, “Duckies! Slide! Boom!”

We also went to the Dallas Zoo in January and saw giraffes so close we touched them, and also lions, cheetahs, elephants, and monkeys, but not close enough to touch them, thank goodness. We also saw bears, even though Mommy didn’t believe us.

Mommy and Daddy laugh a lot at us these days, even when we’re not trying to be funny! Here are some silly things we did this month:

Oliver tried to pull his ears off of his head until Mommy explained that ears stay on forever, unless you’re Vincent van Gogh (and its really good that you’re not Vincent van Gogh).
Zoey sat on Daddy’s lap and called him a couch.
Quinn, after many weeks of practicing asking for things politely, very sweetly said, “Peas?!” after Mommy told her to stop pushing Zoey.

Mommy asked us what we dreamed about when we were sleeping.
Zoey said, “Duckies!”
Quinn said, “Boom!”
Oliver said, “Baby Jesus!”

We’ve also been learning a whole lot! We practice saying words like Tomorrow, and Ballerina, and Avocado. We can all name all the colors of the rainbow almost every time we try. Sometimes red and purple look almost the same, but most of the time we get it right! Oliver’s favorite color is red, Zoey’s is purple, and Quinn seems to like them all the same. We also know a lot of shapes! We even learned to say “octagon” and point it out on our shape cards. Zoey especially loves circles, Oliver is a big fan of stars, and Quinn likes triangles. We’ve learned some of our numbers, too. Our favorite number is two and we like having at least two of something in our hands at all times, especially if its crackers. When Mommy starts counting “1, 2, 3…” we say “9, 10!” Zoey also likes to count piles of shoes like this, “1, 2, 5, 5, 5, 9, 10!”

Mommy and Daddy have also taught us to say “Please” when we want something, like a cracker, or our milk, or if we want to take our toys back that our brother or sister started using without our permission (so rude). We also say “Thank you” when we get what we want and Mommy and Daddy give us lots of hugs and kisses when we’re polite, so its fun! We love hugs and kisses.