IN PICTURES: JANUARY

The month began with us taking a little road trip to the Columbia RIver Gorge area. (More photos in a later post)

After we attended a Kindergarten informational for our school district, it hit me that we just have a few months left where Anya gets to spend most of her day with me. And I have been capturing our afternoons and evenings a lot more and also trying to spend some quality time with her.

I took her along with me to see this Pakistani movie that was playing and it reminded her of her fascination with ‘shadi’ and one day I got I got to do shadi with Ugly Doll. Yay. More about watching Ho Mann Jahaan here.

Surprised my girl with a net canopy over her bed to find when she comes back from school one day.

Trying to capture more of the imperfect pieces of our lives. Came back one morning after dropping Anya and took these to show how not-perfect my house looks many days!

With Bilal working from home a lot too with his new job I miss my alone time at home and really cherish the one day I get most weeks! Also love watching ‘The View’, these ladies and their discussions remind me of my main girls and our discussions. lol. // And dreamy views on the way back from dropping Anya many days. // Making lists as I enjoy my guilty pleasure Coke one day when I reached early at pick up time.

NOTHING LIKE GIRLFRIENDS : An evening with these same main girls as we got together to celebrate a friend’s baby who arrives this spring inshaAllah. Here is what our version of a baby shower looks like, a cozy night-in with a potluck dinner, chai and lots of gupshup. // Also got to meet the amazing mom behind UrduMom when she was in town. Bonding over chai discussions as our girls played around. How fun. // And happy mail when you find a card from the first ever friend I made online. Love her.

Bilal playing his cricket and making me watch the replays and we’re not as excited as we were about the return of X-Files but watching it brings back so many memories.

WEEKEND Evenings // Her sweet message to me before I left for a shoot,  Sunday evening walks, Skype with her taya. And finally we can do family movie nights (Though finding a movie is hard with her)

We introduced her to our KInect finally and she has spent many afternoons playing Dance Central since then.

WEEKENDS out when we go to our favorite park specially when its sunny

NIGHT TIMES in our house: Finishing up dinner as she dances along before Bilal gets home // Random hanging out in the hallway one day as he was on the phone with customer service for our Internet Provider and Anya brought us a picnic // Finishing up some crafting one night

NIGHTTIMES when I enjoy my chai and reading before bedtime in her room as she plays with her doll house More here.  // I put a note my dad wrote in a frame on my nightstand and love having it there

HER ARTWORK: Her artwork, sigh. I can’t keep them all and its so hard to decide. One day she won’t write us all these love letters and I cherish them because of that!

She has started to read and that has been so exciting Alhamdullilah

And the countdown to turning 5 which she has been waiting for the past whole year, has finally begun! You might remember this from here too.

My husband has finally mastered his Kashmiri chai after diligently getting after it for days.

REMEMBERING MY DADDY He passed away on 17th January four years ago and I thought of him a lot this month. More about the memory journal here.

Loving my Quran classes on Tuesday and trying to do a Quran time with Anya on Fridays.

These little moments of me-time that help me stay sane.

Previous Months-in-photos here.

Thanks for stopping by. Lots of love.

(Except for the first few photos from my DSLR the remaining were all taken on my cellphone using this app.)