Lillianna, Ty, Isabella, and James: endings and beginnings...

What a fantastic, long, hard, wonderful, joyous, crazy, inspiring, tiring and amazing year it has been! 2008 has been full of blessings--the miracle of pregnancy times two! As we emerged from the newborn fog and quit watching "Deadliest Catch" marathons through the middle of the night, we truly began to enjoy the journey that is twins. James and Isabella are now almost crawling and they each have two teeth. They are eating like horses and like to sample grown-up fare--graham crackers, banana chunks, etc. Isabella can say, "mama, dada, nana (banana)" an she tries to say "zuzu." She is also waving and laughing almost constantly. She loves music and will try to dance whenever she hears any. James is going to be my climber and mischievous one--he has already learned how to open the drawers and doors on our entertainment center and I constantly find him about 30 feet from where I placed him--my little explorer! He also blows raspberries all the time and is finally sleeping through the night consistently--HALLELUJAH!! His new thing is squealing with delight quite loudly many many times during the day! They are a constant source of amusement for me, even though they are also a constant source of work and needs...but what kid isn't? As for Lily and Ty, they are just continuing to grow like crazy. We began potty training with Ty the day after Christmas since Santa brought big-boy-underwear, which he LOVES!!! He has been doing really well--hardly any pee-pee accidents! The pooping thing may take a little longer, but I am just enjoying the ride--no stress this time around. I about went insane trying to potty train Lily and then after all my efforts she basically potty trained herself. With Ty and all subsequent children, I decided not to stress about it. But Ty is doing really well and likes that he's a big boy now. Lily is just blossoming daily--we love to hear what comes out of her mouth (most of the time) because she always surprises us with what she knows! We are all looking forward to 2009--may you all have a very blessed New Year celebration! Here are some pix from the the past two weeks--enjoy!

Uncle John's 35th birthday cake from me--too bad she isn't life-sized! She's a hula girl in case you couldn't tell :)

The Christmas morning mayhem...the babies enjoyed sampling the wrapping paper and packaging from all the new toys!

Uncle John was Ty's present opening buddy--the two of them had a ball opening and playing with each gift!

drowsy Mommy with Isabella...

Lily and her new boots...

This is my grandmother and grandfather, Aida and Jack, during WWII. She had this little telescope thing with this teeny picture inside and I managed to snap a photo of it--a handsome couple, don't you think?

And these are my great-grandparents, Louise and Joe, also during WWII...

Christmas Eve means matching PJs for everyone--but we couldn't get a good cooperative photo!

of course my girls were cooperating beautifully...put them in pink and they'll pose forever!

Lily opening her jammies...

our fam after church on Christmas Eve--no I'm not pregnant, but thanks for asking

Christmas Eve picnic with Lisa and Wy, Adrian, Jonathan, and Trevor at the park...

a night of rolling around in the twins' room...

Lily and Ty meeting Buffett at Mote Marine Aquarium in Sarasota...he likes to bump his nose into the glass! He actually did it two years ago when we took Lily for the first time and she still remembers it...