Sat PM - It's been quite a few days, culminating with this afternoon's birthday bash. I can't say that every person near and dear to us was there, because they weren't. I can say that every person who was there is very near and dear to us, and words are inadequate to describe how great it was to have everyone celebrate the twins' first year. It's very difficult to spend quality time with those who come to a party when you're the party giver. We wish we could have spent hours with everyone, but that wasn't possible. Just know that we deeply appreciate the love and support that you showed just by coming.

It will likely take few days to get all the pictures from all of our great photographers, but I hope to set up a separate "1st Birthday" folder on the Dropshots web site. Keep checking by after a few days from now. If you want, ignore the pictures of the paleskin guy holding Grant on the slip-n-slide. It's been many years since he's seen the sun for an extended period, and it will probably be several more.

Again, our love and thanks to each and everyone.

Fri AM - I'm sure that I've lost most, if not all, of my readers by this time. So this could be considered a "putting-on-hold" post to the boys' blog. They are doing so well that I literally don't have time to post their progress. I consider this a good thing, as trying to keep pace with a couple of soon-to-be 1 year-old boys shouldn't allow time for much of anything else. I'm not going to say this is the end of the blog, but the posts will be in frequencies of months rather than days or weeks.

Adam has made progress that has exceeded all of our hopes and expectations. He can sit up on his own and can even stand for a few minutes if he's holding onto something that interests him. He babbles and interacts with us, although he is primarily a momma's boy. This week we had another good visit with his cardiologist, and he's doing quite well in that department. If he continues to progress, there is a chance he may be taken off his heart medicine at the first of 2008. There's still some time to go, but we are very hopeful. His big issue now is eating. He doesn't like solid food and getting him to take a bottle is a production. We have to distract him with a TV show like Barney or one of the other PBS kids' shows. That being said, he weighs 15 lbs. and is doing OK with his growth. We would like to see him grow faster, but we'll take what we can get.

Grant is now officially mobile. He crawls all over the house and pulls himself up on whatever will support him. He also babbles and tries to talk with us, and he's a daddy's boy, which makes things quite convenient when they both need TLC. Actually Grant is becoming more independent and is fairly fearless when it comes to exploring the house. He likes the cats, but only Luby (our older cat) is allowed to be near him as she can handle more abuse without counter-attacking. Unlike his brother, Grant eats most anything put in front of him. He tries to feed himself, but most ends up on him, in the chair, or on the floor. When we feed him, he can put a lot of food away, as you can see from the pics and videos. He now weighs 25 lbs.

August 25th is their first birthday, and it's been quite a year for us all. As we look at them each day, and at the past photos and videos, we can't believe how they have grown and are becoming little people with their own personalities. Our lives have been made better, and we can't imagine being without either of them.

Keep checking Dropshots for our updates there, and every few months or so here. Our thanks to all of our friends and family for your love, prayers, and support which have brought us so very far.