Yes, it’s true . . . the infamous duo are turning TWO! It’s so hard to believe how fast the time goes by, especially when I’m trying to stay involved with Devyn’s school, chase after two toddlers, run my business, and somehow keep everyone fed and in clean clothes (minor miracles!). It seems like I just get everyone bathed and to bed and I sit down to relax and I realize another month has passed! Wasn’t it just Christmas???

But it’s so good and it’s so fun. We got news that Tyler’s renal reflux is GONE. The surgery appears to have done everything that it was supposed to do, so we are so grateful. Dr. Kaplan and Children’s Hospital are just absolutely wonderful. It’s been a long 20-month process from her very first kidney infection, but it looks like it is probably gone for good. Next year, they will do an ultrasound of her kidneys to make sure everything is growing as it’s supposed to, but if she doesn’t have any infections, she’ll never have to undergo that testing again. Yay!

Christmas this year with Devyn and the twins was a blast. Tyler and Jordyn HATED Santa. Scared them to death! But Devyn, of course, just got so excited about seeing Santa and learning about Jesus and the real meaning of Christmas. It was so much fun. This past month, we’ve been doing some fun things, despite this crazy weather (is it freezing? is it 80? no one knows!). We spent one day out at the desert with my sister and her family, and Devyn got to ride on her cousin’s old quad all by herself. That was cool. Jordyn loved my sister’s golf cart, and Tyler loved going in and out of the motor home. Oh, and my husband loved the carne asada taco stand — haha! It was so fun!

We also went to Sea World as a family, and I took Devyn to Disneyland with my sister and my nephew just for fun (not for anyone’s birthday or anything). I’ve been trying to do some fun things with the kids while my portrait sessions are low, but I usually spend my days designing albums.

As far as the twins go, it’s been kind of a rough month. They haven’t been sleeping well. They are still in speech because they are behind in speaking. But this month they did learn to say water (wa-wa) and they will ask for it spontaneously (not just mimic what I say). They are also quite proficient at saying no. “Tyler, do you want to go night-night?” ” NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOO!” Yeah . . . she doesn’t like to sleep! Jordyn is getting really good at learning everyone’s names. She loves to look at the photographs I have around the house and point to everyone in the pictures. She’s TOTALLY my little photographer. If she’s not looking at pictures, she’s trying to get a hold of my camera to TAKE the pictures. It’s really funny.

Well . . . two years ago, this is what was going on in our lives. Tyler was born first:

A couple of minutes later, Jordyn arrived:

While we were at the hospital, my friend and fabulous photographer John Riedy (www.johnriedy.com), came and took pictures of us with the new babies. This is Ty:

This is Jords:

Jordyn again (by John):

Ty again (by John):

Devyn toes and baby toes (by John):

The new Family of 5 (by John):

Tyler when she got home from the hospital:

Jordyn when she got home from the hospital:

I can’t believe they used to sleep next to each other in that little bassinette!

Just a funny one of Ty being silly.

Just a cute one of J being serious:

Skipping ahead to Jordyn on her first birthday (she wasn’t that into the whole cake experience):

Talk about different personalities, Tyler dove into that cake with both fists!

And here is a funny one of my little klutz Jordyn at the desert:

My most recent picture of Jordyn (at Sea World)

Jordyn loves to point to all of her body parts when you ask her to. She knows her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, button, hair, big ole foot, and my favorite, “Jordyn, show mommy your big ole tongue!” She sticks it out and rolls it, and here I caught her trying to look at it. Too funny!

Here is my pretty Tyler at the desert. She’s munching on graham crackers. The child pretty much only eats carbs. It’s terrible. But I love her big eyes in this one:

VERY excited about running around at the desert:

And the last one, where she was having a ball in the play area at Sea World. Ty loves to jump and play.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Tyler and Jordyn. We love you!

I just wanted to share that Devyn is producing some pretty fantastic art in her Kindergarten class. This first one is crayon and marker on posterboard, and the last two are “watercolor reliefs:” crayon drawings with a watercolor wash. She used salt on the wet watercolor paint to make extra bubbles and texture in the water. Mommy’s so proud of her achievements so far this year . . . in art, reading, math . . . pretty much everything. I knew she was going to love school, and I’m so glad. Yay!

I can’t believe that Carter is turning 5 this year! I’ve been photographing him since he was just about 8 weeks old, if I my mind can think back that far! He is turning into such a handsome little man. Not to be upstaged of course by his cousin, Brady. This was my first time photographing Brady and with the 2 of these wild boys together, it was quite an adventure. Brady didn’t quite think the chair was for sitting, and Carter wasn’t all that interested in hanging with his little cousin when there was a huge field of grass to run in! But boys will be boys and we march on.

I am so blessed to have such gorgeous children to photograph all the time. Not to mention gorgeous parents, too! My photographs of Natasha and Carter have always been some of my favorites because you can just get a sense of how much love they have for each other and the bond they have as mother and son. Simply beautiful.

Enjoy!

I had such a great time meeting Natalie and her mom and dad for portraits before Christmas. Natalie’s parents are so incredibly nice (and aren’t they gorgeous people??!!), and you can just tell how in love they are with their daughter. Despite the fact that Natalie was cold (we were all cold!), she did SO well in front of my camera. She liked to talk to me about her favorite princesses, so we got some winning smiles discussing Sleeping Beauty! Love it!

Enjoy!