Today on the blog, I'm excited to share some behind the scenes images from this year. The following are a collection of personal memories and work-related images, most of which were captured with my trusty iPhone. Enjoy!

Our vacation was a healthy mix of quality time, rest and making sure the Thomas Twins didn't eat seashells or sand. After a week of restful bliss followed by a week of hard work and catching up, I'm finally getting around to posting some images from our time away. Enjoy! 

Today, I'm taking the day off to celebrate two very important birthdays...

**PLEASE NOTE** 

Our automatic email responders have been set but we've received a few messages via Facebook and Text message (to which there are no automatic responders) so I wanted to address those here. We are out of town this week for my daughter's surgery and I will be taking a break from responding to most email, voicemail and social media messages and posts. Instead, I will be focusing on attending to my daughter for her surgery and recovery while also taking care of my wife my son.

And to those of you who know about our situation and have responded so warmly, thank you again for all the thoughtful and heartfelt responses of love, prayer, and support. We truly appreciate it. 

3 weeks into the new year, we made a very BOLD STATEMENT. And while we knew we were going to become parents in 2014, it was only the day before we made that bold statement that we found out we were actually going to be the parents of twins. Things got even crazier around Father's Day when while we were out of town shooting weddings, we had to rush to the hospital after Kristen's water broke prematurely. After 10 days in the hospital, The Thomas Twins arrived and since then, our lives have been all kinds of crazy and awesome. For all of you wondering how we are handling life with two kiddos, here's a little update as well as some of our favorite images and videos of The Thomas Twins from the year.

There's a lot I could say in a Thanksgiving Day blog post. But I know there's food to eat, football to watch and hopefully, good weather to enjoy wherever you are so I'll keep this short...

Yesterday, August 18th, was the official due date for #thethomastwins. When we found out that we were having two babies instead of one, the doctor told us that they would probably come early, just not 2 months early. But such is life and these kids came when they did and we have a whole fiasco of a story to tell them about their entrance into this world when they're old enough to appreciate it. I thought it appropriate to take a blog post to bring all our wonderful readers, followers and fans up to date on what has happened and how things are going with our family. Here we go.  

An update on our life-in-limbo: Summer's out of the hospital, Weston's still in the hospital and we're still here in Fort Smith...

As many of you know, we are currently living a life-in-limbo. For the past few weeks, we have called Fort Smith Arkansas and the Mercy Hospital here, home. We've slept on hospital cots, hospital beds, a few different hotel beds and finally, a more permanent (and comfortable) bed at the Candlewood Suites. Our hotel is about a 2 minute drive from the hospital where our kiddos are currently living. We have settled into a bit of a daily routine and today by way of images, we thought it appropriate to walk you through a typical day and also, give you an update. Off we go. 

Say hello to the Thomas Twins. Pictured up top is Summer Joy Thomas and below, Weston Michael Thomas. We are so grateful for these two and for their (somewhat) smooth arrival into the world. The events leading up to their arrival however, have been less than smooth and at times, downright crazy. It's been a very stressful couple of weeks away from home but early Wednesday morning, the twins decided that it was time to enter the world and that was that. 

Having spent a little over a week figuring how to do life in limbo and wondering if the kids were going to be born while I was away, I was anxious to...

To say that the last week has been crazy would be a drastic understatement. And yet, here we are with both babies still intact and growing in their womb. This past week, we managed to fit in a...

Say hello to Kristen Thomas. Many of you know her beautiful face from weddings over the years, where she would help photograph and also assist me. And if you’ve spent any time at all with her, you also know her sweet spirit, her contagious laugh and her absolute love for children. It’s probably good that she loves kids so much because she’s got two of them.

If you’ve been following our story at all, you know that last weekend, I rushed her to the hospital in the middle of the night because her water had broken prematurely. Right now, she’s on permanent bed rest until the twins get here. I’m so thankful we took a day last week to venture out into the great Arkansas outdoors and create some maternity photographs of her. She was a trooper the whole time and often ventured around against my wishes (typical).

Here are a few images from our treasured time together. Thank you again for all the love, the prayers and the support you have shown the two of us and our two kiddos. Pretty soon, they’ll be here! 

Father’s day 2014 has turned out to be one that we will long remember. At approximately 12:45am, Kristen’s water broke while she was sleeping. We happened to be staying at a small motel in a remote part of Arkansas when it happened and we managed to cram a 2 hour drive into much less time and make it safely to Mercy Hospital in Ft. Smith.

We checked in immediately and she was started on medications to stop labor or slow it down as long as possible. We have no idea how long that will last and so, we wait. Right now, Kristen is 31 weeks pregnant and the twins are weighing in between 3 and 4 pounds each. Chances are good that they will be healthy and safe if they decide to grace us with their presence in the next couple days. We are however, confined to the hospital in Ft. Smith as a transfer would be risky at this point.

We are in good spirits, very tired, a little (or a lot) freaked out and also, very excited to be on this journey together. And of course, we are deeply moved that so many of you have responded with words of encouragement, love, prayers and support. Thank you and we will keep you updated.

P & K + 2

Last week, we made a very bold statement and that statement was followed by a video that helped us make a big announcement. For the last 8 years Novo Studio has been made up of myself (Philip) and at weddings or crunching numbers, my wife (Kristen). Unless you count our bulldog (affectionately known as "the bosco"), it's just been the two of us. That number changed a few weeks before Christmas when we found out that we were going to have a baby. And then, it changed again the day before this video went live, when we found out that we were actually having two babies. We are still reeling with excitement and fear from this news but after 10 years of marriage, we couldn't be more ready to start a family with two little ones. I made the video as a simple way to announce our news to our family and friends, many of whom are also colleagues and clients. However, I didn't anticipate the overwhelming response. Our phones buzzed and rang with congratulations and well-wishes, tips on raising twins and a few wisecracks telling us to "brace ourselves". And we just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to you all. It's truly a blessing to be able to share this part of our lives with you. I'm no Ann Geddes, but I do believe I'll be posting a few more baby pictures in the future :)

Cheers.

We're only 3 weeks into the new year and already, we're positive that nothing else we post this year will even come CLOSE to what's in this blog post. Bold statement? You betcha. But it's true and this video will prove it. Enjoy.