We kicked off the year wrapping up a 10-day Danube cruise with our dear friend, Lynn, exploring the European Christmas markets and New Year festivities in 5 countries. We made it home in time for an annual deep-winter trip to Chicago, including the wedding of our wonderful friends, Alejandro & Katie, and seeing some of our favorite Angelenos, Puanani & David.

We hosted our third-annual Chinese New Year celebration—and welcomed the Year of the Dragon—in Atlanta with Christopher’s mom and bother, Xixi & Alex, our dear friends, Sarah & Jeremy, and so many others. We then headed to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for Zach & Chrisy’s spectacular wedding weekend. We rounded out the month with Kaitlyn & Garrett’s always incredible Oysterfest. 

We were left with heavy hearts in March as we mourned the passing of Christopher’s stepmother, Shirley, and celebrated a wonderful life lived. Amidst these somber moments with family, we quietly made a first ultrasound appointment in CDMX (Mexico City) to hear the twins’ tiny heartbeats and reveled in the city’s amazing food scene with our “local” friends, Sal & Nick.  

After two months of lessons at clay shooting ranges in North Georgia, our friends Scott, Tom, and Alejandra joined us in Buenos Aires to embark on an incredible week of Argentinian dove hunting in the rural countryside. We made it home just in time for Garrett’s bachelor weekend in Scottsdale, at quite possibly the world’s greatest Airbnb.

Following a whirlwind week of ultrasound appointments in CDMX and work conferences from L.A. to Miami, we came home for a weekend at the lake and were finally ready to announce the twins’ upcoming arrival. We headed next to Chicago—having had a month to recover—for Kaitlyn’s own bachelorette weekend including the Braves at Wrigley Field, a yacht on Lake Michigan, and the city’s best sights.  

We continued our regular visits to CDMX for ultrasound appointments with the twins and after Christian returned from various speaking engagements on the west coast, KP&G threw us the most incredible baby shower: TWINBLEDON. Complete with Christopher’s epic merch tent and “Centre Court,” it only took two attempts before the reveal covered the court in blue and pink dust: it’s a boy, and a girl! 

We started the month knowing our life as a family of two (plus Benz) would be shortlived and set sail for a weeklong Babymoon voyage—from Croatia to Montenegro, Albania, and Greece. We made one final visit to CDMX for our annual Pepperdine Trip with Lynn and Bobby, and came home to a house without a roof. Our renovation to add a second floor was in full swing when we got the call that Bella and CJ would be born on the 22nd, nearly 7 weeks early!  

We spent the month adapting to Dad life in CDMX as Bella was released from the NICU and CJ remained in intensive care. This meant twice-daily trips to the hospital to see CJ and meet with doctors and a tiny 4lb Bella at home. By the 17th, CJ’s condition had worsened so severely that he was transferred to the British-American hospital by ambulance and underwent emergency open-heart surgery two days later.

As CJ continued to recover from his major operation, and our twice-daily hospital visits continued, we welcomed the greatest gift of a visit from Sarah & Jeremy with their son and daughter. They will never know the joy this brought us in the hardest weeks of our family’s lives. That visit must have been good luck, because CJ was finally released and we enjoyed a magical few final weeks together in CDMX, including a visit from Bobby & Eunice.

We moved home from CDMX to a half-finished house, welcomed Iona, our au pair, and just a few days later left for a week in England—first to celebrate KP&G's wedding, then to celebrate the twins’ christening at Hever Castle. After a long and scary start for the twins, the visit with family and our closest friends will live on in our memories forever. From dinner at Christian’s grandparents’ village pub, to an evening at the winery, and a weekend together at Hever Castle, the twins truly kicked things off in style.   

Our new family of five spent the Thanksgiving week at home in Atlanta for the first time in over a decade with our wonderful au pair, Iona, Christopher’s father, Bob, and Christian’s parents, Kim & Michael. The twins also made their first weekend trips to their Dads’ favorite place—Lake Burton—where Benz showed them the best spots for a cozy autumn nap.  

We kicked off December with our annual Crowder-Bromley holiday party🔗 to celebrate the twins and our newly completed renovation project—upstairs nursery included. After a Christmas at home with Christian’s cousin, Vanessa, and aunt, Jackie, from England, we are all off to Shanghai for the twins’ first trip to China with Christopher’s mom and bother to welcome the new year, 2025.