I stole this idea from a TON of mommy bloggers out there, but with such a big year can you blame me?! I tried really hard not to use pictures I've put on the blog before...and really hard only to include a few for each month, I could have added about 20 for every DAY they have been alive!!!

January 2008: Our first cold, the first family 'vacation' to Virginia, new big kid car seats, a trip to St. Louis, and new found love of the Johnny-Jump-Up...





February 2008: Dueling walkers, sitting up for the first time, sippy cups, the first bath in the big tub...


March 2008: Match Day! Learning the future of our next four years, a mustache and some killer shades!



April 2008: Personalities start coming out...lots of laughter!



May 2008: A HUGE month...Brian graduates from medical school, we sell our condo, buy our very first house, and the babes get mobile- the army crawl!


June 2008: We are vagrants- living between Brian's parents' house, my parent's house, and visiting the construction zone of our 'new' very old house...oh, we also start crawling on all fours (FINALLY!).



July 2008: We start walking and move into the new house...this month officially begins the B*U*S*Y!


August 2008: We turn ONE!



September 2008: The end of our daily pool outings and the beginning of all kinds of new motor skills...ride on toys, jumping, dancing...



October 2008: The beginnings of love...of each other, of the outdoors, and of the dreaded television.




November 2008: Little people...mastering the up and down of stairs and giving hugs and kisses on command.


December 2008: Yes, this is a TERRIBLE photo, however, it sums up perfectly what it's like to be a mommy of twin toddlers. Someone grumpy, someone restless and mom smiling through it all...

After a whirlwind Christmas and an ENTIRE house full of toys THIS is what was most entertaining to my son...the toilet paper holder. He played with it all afternoon and refused to give it up. A full on fit resulted when I wouldn't let him nap with it. Why do we buy toys again?!

First the hugs, then the kisses, now the hand holding... I LOVE their LOVE for one another!

The babes were waaaaay too tired to do any sort of package opening on Christmas evening so we had three days of presents instead! What better way to wake up on your birthday (mine) than babies and Big Wheels! Uncle K and Uncle J spent all night putting them together and the babes are totally into them!

Santa Claus and brunch at our house...




Napping on the looong ride to Indy...


Looking a little rough with PJs and shoes at Hardee's for Christmas lunch...

FINALLY! We arrive at L and B's just in time for Christmas dinner!

Funny how I managed to take NO pictures of our first Christmas last year and once again managed to somehow capture none of the cuteness this year either...I always thought holidays were supposed to be a relaxing, pajama wearing, family fun time. I'm not quite sure where I managed to come up with this fantasy and thus far our holidays with children have been anything but. We started out our Christmas Eve with a visit to Santa Claus. Something we had been putting off. I thought we would be in and out- who visits Santa on Christmas Eve, right?! Well apparently the whole frickin' world wants to get in a quick visit before he makes his way to their house that evening because we waited for over an hour to get in on the action!

Two toddlers + no stroller + looong line + strange man in velvet with a whole lot of facial hair=


I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a disaster, but pretty close. This should have been a forewarning of the events to come!

Now, I've always been a SERIOUS stickler to tradition. We just don't go bending these things on a whim. There is a certain way of doing things on holidays that I just don't like changed...it makes me grumpy. We eat dinner, we open presents from family members (Santa comes in the morning)- youngest to oldest, we visit my aunt for pre-mass cocktails (we're Catholic, drinking and worshiping go hand in hand), and we attend 10p mass. That's how it works. Dinner was to be at 5pm. I arranged naps and snacks accordingly. When my brother walked in at 5:30p announcing that he had to shower to be with his girlfriend's family by 6:30p for dinner downtown I was not so happy. Bring on the grump. If having twin toddler has taught me nothing, however, it is to be flexible. So dinner without my only sibling and presents without the once youngest it was. The babes went home early with B and after an hour of unanswered calls we had to skip my aunt's house. At ten to ten we decided to also skip church...As we get older and Brother's have girlfriends, and Aunt's have large families, I suppose Christmas will begin to change...What happened to the pajamas?!

Waiting, and waiting, and well, waiting some more...

Fin would not leave the bow on for anything!

The only family pic of the evening- right before my brother took off! At least my Dad is honoring the PJ tradition!

We LOVE our new chairs...so much so that I couldn't get a decent picture- too much moving!

Today marks the day of the beginning of a whole lot of crazy...Magic House this morning, cleaned the house during nap, grocery store before dinner, laundry and lots of thank you notes after tucking the babes in, packed our bags for the trip to Indy, tomorrow morning going to see Santa, in the afternoon to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas dinner and presents, then to my Aunt's for an after dinner cocktail, midnight mass at 10p, hosting brunch at our house on Christmas morning, then loading the car up for the drive to Indianapolis, Christmas dinner at an Aunt and Uncle's house, then on to Mimi and Pop's for more presents...whew, I'm kind of exhausted just typing it!

Here are some pictures from the Magic House this morning...hopefully I'll be around a computer in the next week or so to post Christmas pictures (and knowing our family a few good stories too!). Love you all! Hope you have a marvelous (and safe) holiday season!

Waking Mom up from an afternoon nap...

Looking down at Dad and Parker...Fin was fearless! She ran through the see through tunnels and over the balance beam and down the huge twisty slide...all a floor above where her brother played...



Does it get any cuter?!