Our little blessings under the tree

This year brought us another Christmas where the best gifts under the tree for Phil and me were our beautiful Kate and Lily. (Kate on left)
....more about our Christmas to come...once I recover. :)




















Last year's picture under the tree. (Lily on left)

In memory of my dear friend, Rhonda

One of my oldest friends (since preschool) died last night. Here she is with her husband and kids at Thanksgiving. She fought an enormous battle against cancer and survived 3 bone marrow transplants over the last 9 months. Lily and Kate have been praying for her everyday. Every night when Phil and I ask them if they want to pray, they say often say, "Rhonda" spontaneously. Please pray for her family this Christmas.

Our special dresses

One of my dear friends, Piti, from Chile came to visit us this summer and brought her whole family (seven all total)! It was such a special time for us to have them in our home and for them to meet Phil, Kate and Lily. They brought us these dresses that were handmade in Chile. I wanted to preserve them in some way so we went and had the girls picture made in them. I'll always cheerish these!














Kate on left




















Kate




















Lily




















Lily




















Kate

Pictures with Santa

Since Santa has no significance yet to Lily and Kate other than being "that huge man in the crazy red get up with monster fur on his face who wants to take me away from my mommy and possibly eat me alive," we decided to put some distance between him and them this year in the photo. Here is Kate on the left, Lily right and Santa behind where they cannot see him.



















Here is last year's picture with Lily on left, Kate right...both stunned.




















This year we went with our twin friends, Ella and Emma, to take our picture with Santa. While we were there, I snapped this photo of our little angels around the baby Jesus. So sweet, I could just sop 'em up with a biscuit!

Lily and Kate learn Chambers' traditions

Phil and I have a tradition of making and eating chocolate chip cookies during times of extreme emotion - happy or sad. Here is Daddy teaching the proper technique of licking the beaters.















For Thanksgiving we went to hang out with the Chambers clan in Georgia where Kate and Lily learned more about making sweets in Grammies' candy making assembly line. Here they are with their cousins Marissa and Megan. Ahh, yes, we mustn't leave out the fact that this is Uncle Lee's hand at the bottom right of the picture feeding them candy as quickly as they desire!

Sweet smiles

Kate is on the right. I like this one below because it is so typical of their personalities. 50% of the day, Kate is looking to Lily to see, "What's next, Sis?"
BTW...Phil finally taught them to say, "I love you" this week. He's been working on this one for about 9 months. Talk about gratification! It makes every muscle in my tired mommy body relax and smile.

Musical chairs and box sledding

Happy Halloween!

Kate and Lily dress up with Ella and Emma
(from left- Emma, Lily, Kate and Ella)













Lily on left practicing saying "Trick or Treat" which comes out "Tic o Teet."














Lily, the Bumble Bee














Kate, the Ladybug

Kate and Lily's new baby cousin!

Rachael Elizabeth was born on Oct 18. She is the first girl for my sister after two boys. She's a cutie! I got to be in on the C-section. It was wonderful to see her being born.




















Doting parents














Doting grandparents













Doting 1st cousins














Dotee

Lily and Kate's 2 yo birthday party

For Kate and Lily's birthday, Phil and I planned a pony ride/petting zoo event in their own backyard. We called it Elmo's Wild, Wild West Party (the name of their favorite video). Attending the event were 2 ponies, a donkey, a sheep, 2 baby ducks, 2 chickens, a goat, a bunny rabbit, family and neighbors.















Our neighbor, Don, photographed the event so Phil and I could be a part! Thanks, Don! Kate on left.

















Lily hanging onto Kate.



















Lily's pretty party smile.














Kate on right while blowing out the candles.










Our neighbor, Julie, made the cake!














Granddaddy with Lily on left














Daddy, Lily and the donkey (you decide who's who).














Kate was slow to warm up. Here she is drinking and driving.















Here she is all warmed up with Mammaw.




















Lily, after the party, eating all the cake she wants and declaring her new age!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

October is Chamber's family birthday month. Grandpa's (Phil's dad) birthday is today. Grammie's (Phil's mom) birthday is the 4th, Lily and Kate's is the 5th and Phil's is the 6th and his sister's is the 20th. So we've done a lot of celebrating lately!! First we went to the Old Baker's Farm.




















Kate "helps" Grandpa around the farm.














Grammie with Kate on left and Lily on right














Phil and the girls "rollin' in high cotton."














Kate at the wheel.














Lily (right) and Kate taking in the sites.

Well...it's been a year.

Last week marked our one year anniversary of becoming a family. Has it really been a year? It definitely feels like a FULL year of sleepless nights, but it is hard to imagine our first year of loving our our girls has already gone by. Even though it seems as though we have loved them forever, there is still so much to know and so many things still feel new.
We celebrated our "Gotcha Day" by spending it together spoiling the girls. First, IHOP for breakfast followed by Oak Mountain's Petting Zoo. Then the MacWane Center and on to the Red Pearl for some Chinese food. Of course, on the way home we had to get ice cream just to make the day last longer!
(Lily on left above)















Kate, our pokey eater, takes her time over a bowl of Hot-n-sour soup.




















Lily can do some damage to a bowl of noodles.














Chik-fil-a ice cream with Kate on left.

Our first pony ride

First...thanks for voting for Kate. I'm not sure who won yet, but I was so amazed by all the people who told me that they had voted for her! We feel very loved.

Lily and Kate rode their first ponies! I have been anxiously awaiting this moment and didn't know if they would like it or not. They LOVED it!

































Here they are both signing and saying "Again, again!!"



























It was one of the best $6.00 I ever spent seeing these smiles and the excitement on their faces.

















As you can see, it was so sad to leave. Here is Lily saying goodbye to the pony. Maybe we will see him again soon... (hint, hint, Granddaddy!)

Vote for Kate's photo

Ok, I'm being a sappy mom, but entered one of Kate's photos in a contest where you win $10,000 for college if you get the most votes. You can vote everyday for 12 more days if you click on the below link. The baby with the most votes goes to the finals. So vote everyday unless you want me to homeschool her through college. :) She promises to split her earnings with Lily since they are identical twins.

http://www.evenflo.com/Homepage/BYAS/tabid/210/photoType/ViewPhoto/PhotoID/9607/ContestID/5/Default.aspx

"Hug 'til you hit the rug" is the name of this game.

Man, I just love that top picture. It perfectly captures the sweet friendship that Kate and Lily have as twins. Moments like these make me truly laugh. I mean TRULY laugh. The most surprising thing to me about being a twin toddler mom is the fact that I can vascilate between sheer exhaustion and frustration to utter happiness and amazement within the same hour. The girls are drawing near to the "terrible twos" where they can completely destroy a room in 15 minutes flat. We're talking complete destruction... from finding any stray knives left on the counter, to sucking the toothpaste straight from the tube, to mixing the cats food and water together, to shaking all the coke cans so they are ready to fizz, to putting all "trash"(ie their toothbrushes and other useful items) in the kitchen trash can, to finding and eating yesterdays green beans from behind the highchair, and jumping as high as they can off the couch. And then, in the middle of the craziness...they start doing something as captivating as this awesome hug...and somehow they are the sweetest angels God ever made...and I am the most blessed woman on earth!