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!

A view into the future??

Precious playmates

These are Lily and Kate's first girlfriends. Ella and Emma are twins adopted the month after them. Laura Joy was adopted the month before. Their mommies and I all walked through this adoption journey together swapping prayers and dreams and stories. Now we are walking through "how to be a mommy" together as we settle into our new families. It is so amazing to see our beautiful girls playing together. I hope they will always be close.













from left - Emma, Lily, Kate, Laura Joy, Ella















Laura Joy, Kate, Lily (Laura Joy is 5 days younger)













Lily, Emma, Kate, Ella (Ella and Emma are 4 months younger)

Triplets??

Which one of these is not like the other?

Today is our referral day anniversary!

This is the second picture we saw of Kate (on left in all of these pictures) and Lily. An ocean of words couldn't describe the emotions of that day. Falling in love with someone through a picture in a matter of minutes is not something you can begin to expect others to understand unless they, too, have done it. Since adoption was a choice and not a necessity for Phil and I, many people ask us if we ever wish we had "our own" child. Lily and Kate are the miracles that we struggle to grasp the magnitude of our in lives. It is as if they are asking, "Don't you wish you had a different unbelievable miracle?" Now that is a bit of a crazy question, but I wouldn't have this prospective either without having experienced it. I can't blame them for being curious, it is just frustrating to not be able to put your boundless love for your child into 5 minutes of "general summary" words. I do try, but the words coming out of my mouth are immediately deemed inadequate by my heart.
Alas, what's a hoplessly in love adoptive mother to do...but, of course...BLOG to show them off!! Hee-hee! Here are the Chinese American princesses sporting their country pride!

Rainy day family fun

Lily, as usual, focused on the task at hand.




















Kate, as usual, just trying to have some fun!

Sneaky sisters

Lily: "Whooaa! There she is...we're busted, Sis. Ok, we give! Yes, we've been eating a few Cheetos!"













"No, my lips are sealed...I can't tell you what we did with Kate's diaper."

How do you tell them apart?

Lily's face is a little rounder than Kate's. She is almost a pound heavier. From the back, Lily is also a little bowlegged. Kate is not. But mostly, you can tell them apart by the way they act. Also, their smiles are different. Both have a dimple in their left cheek beside their nose; you can always see it on Kate when she smiles, but not very often on Lily.

Can you tell who's who?

If not, don't feel so bad...we just got back their DNA tests...MONOZYGOTIC (identical twins)! Of course, we had a few clues...























































































On left above - Lily, Kate, Lily, Lily, Kate, Kate
Sarah took the last two photos today. It is hard to catch them making the same expression at the same time on camera.

Yeah! First bows that we'll actually wear! Thanks, Aunt Karen.

Lily (top) and Kate (bottom)

The second, and happier, half of our first family vacation!

Lily on left in above 3 pics




















Kate














Lily














Kate and Daddy














Kate and Mommy














Lily on left














Kate in front














Lily in front

The first half of our first family vacation...

The morning after we arrived...fever and mouth ulcers. The girls got a virus that made them not eat for 4 days. Here they are being good sports as I try to salvage a day at the beach. You can see that it isn't working.













This is how we got liquid into them to make it through. They couldn't sleep and wanted to be held 100% of the time. We were EXHAUSTED! The girls are still not back sleeping through the night since then (6 weeks later). It was the most difficult month so far.

Don't mess with us...

Granddaddy comes to visit.
(Lily in blue)

Best friends

Seen on left in above photos: Lily, Kate, Kate, Lily, Kate, Kate