They've arrived

Fashion, colours, trends and styles of 2008 have come and gone, but one of the hottest looks of year remained constant throughout — the baby bump. In 2008, it seemed the hottest celebrity trend (apart from the ever-present Birkin bag, of course) was to sport a bump or carry a new little bundle of joy around town.

A molehill or Mount Kilimanjaro — it didn't matter, as long as you had one. Kelly Crane takes a look back and celebrates the celebs who traded the red carpet for the delivery room this year.

Brangelina's halfway to their soccer team

And now for the one everyone was talking about — Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt: With the birth of their twins, Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon, on July 12, the couple are now the parents of six little ones. The newest additions to the clan join siblings Maddox, Zahara, Pax, and Shiloh. Brad and Angelina hit a new record payday selling their baby photos to People magazine and the British tabloid Hello! for a whopping $14 million (Dh51 million) in a joint deal to publish the first shots of the Jolie-Pitt clan with the twins. As is their custom, Jolie and Pitt traded media access for a donation to charity.

Baby x 2 = Dh22 million for J-Lo

Double trouble was the order of the day as Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony welcomed fraternal twins Max and Emme on February 22. Lopez, a first-time mum, was given bundles of support from her husband, who is already a father-of-three to Arianna, Cristian Anthony and Ryan Anthony. The married pair of performers waited only weeks before flogging the photos of the twins for the cover of People magazine – a move which reportedly burned a $6 million (Dh22 million) hole in the editor's pocket.

It's an Honor

One of the world's sexiest women is all set for a spot on a list of the world's yummiest mummies after giving birth to daughter, Honor Marie on June 7. Jessica Alba and her husband, Cash Warren, were said to be overjoyed.

The fertility miracle

Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban welcomed their first child together, daughter Sunday Rose, on July 7 adding to Kidman's adopted children Isabella and Connor, from her first marriage to actor Tom Cruise. Sunday Rose came two years after tying the knot and the 41-year-old called Sunday "a miracle baby", crediting an unexpected fertility source in the waterfalls of the Australian Outback. According to Kidman, she and six other women who took a dip in the waters of a small town during production of the epic romance Australia became pregnant. Pictures of the girls on their bicycles were snapped just weeks after the birth.

Prize for most random name

It's another boy for Australian actress Cate Blanchett and her screenwriter husband, Andrew Upton, as Ignatius Martin joined big brothers Dashiell and Roman on April 13.

She finally popped!

One to add to the list of unusual baby names has to be Zuma Nesta Rock who made his debut on August 21.
Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale welcomed Zuma who joins big brother, Kingston.

The give-Britney-a-break baby

It was a baby having a baby when Jamie Lynn gave birth to her daughter Maddie Briann in June 19 and being a typical Spears, she sold the photo rights to OK! magazine for a reported $1 million (Dh3.67 million). The Zoey 101 star and her fiance, Casey Aldridge, announced her pregnancy last December and the 17-year-old sister to Britney swiftly became engaged to the pipe layer from Liberty, Mississippi.

Fresh off the baby conveyor belt

Kicking off a blitz of celebrity births, reality star Nicole Ritchie and her fiance, punk rocker Joel Madden, welcomed baby girl Harlow Winter Kate on January 11.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in LA was kept busy as Nicole recovered and Christina Aguilera came in. The pint-sized diva and her hubby Jordan Bratman welcomed the birth of son, Max Liron, on January 12.

Surprise…

Mini Driver had a big surprise in an LA hospital when her little bundle of joy came out and was not the sex she was set on. The Riches star was convinced she was having a girl, but her delivery room surprise turned out to be a boy.

Still waiting…

After a moody performance at this year's Dubai International Film Festival, Ben Affleck is still waiting for the arrival of his second with wife actress Jennifer Garner. The newbie, who is due any day now will join daughter, Violet, who was born in 2005.

Carry on delivering…

The Cedars Sinai Medical Centre had more celebrities than Mr Chow in January. Harlow Madden soon had celebrity baby company in the nursery as Courtney Thorne-Smith and Christina Aguilera delivered in the same hospital over the next 24 hours. Courtney Thorne-Smith, the According To Jim star, and her husband and Roger Fishman had time to change a tyre or two due to an extra long wait to meet son Jacob Emerson who arrived two weeks after his due date. Refusing to be induced, Thorne-Smith eventually went into labour on her own and baby Jacob arrived on January 11.

Babies born

Jan 18: Sex and the City's "Mr Big" Chris Noth and Tara Wilson
- son, Orion Christopher

Jan 31: Julianna Margulies and Keith Lieberthal
- son, Kieran Lindsey

Feb 2: Scrubs star John C. McGinley and wife Nichole McGinley
– daughter, Billie Grace

Mar 5: Brooke Burke and husband, former Baywatch hunk David Charvet
– Shaya

Mar 12: The Teenage Witch is all grown up Melissa Joan Hart and Mark Wilkerson
– son, Mason

May 23: Funnyman Jack Black and Tanya Haden
– son, Thomas

May 27: Youngest member of Hanson, Zac and his wife Kate Hanson
- son, John Ira

Jun 9: Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott
- daughter, Stella Doreen

Jun 18: Fred Savage and Jennifer Stone Savage
- son, Oliver Philip

Jul 1: Issac and Nicole Hanson
– son, James Monroe

Jul 18: Ethan Hawke and Ryan Shawhughes
- daughter, Clementine

Jul 25: Actor Kyle MacLachlan and Project Runway star Desiree Gruber
- son, Callum Lyon

Aug 8: American Idol runner up, Clay Aiken and Jaymes Foster
- son, Parker

Aug 20: Luciana and Matt Damon
– daughter, Gia Zavala

Sep 5: Minnie Driver
– son, Henry Story Driver

Oct 7: Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Lockwood
- twin girls, Finley and Harper

Oct 15: X Files actress Gillian Anderson and Mark Griffiths
- son, Felix

Oct 25: Saturday Night Live alum, Amy Poehler and Will Arnett - son, Archibald William Emerson Arnett

Nov 2: Adam Sandler and Jackie Titone Sandler
– daughter, Sunny Madeline

Nov 20: Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and Pete Wentz
– son, Bronx Mowgli

Departed

Jan 11: Mountain climber Sir Edmund Hillary was the first white man to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, with the help of Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay.

Jan 22: Heath Ledger, the acclaimed Australian actor was found dead at his Manhattan apartment. Ledger had recently finished filming The Dark Knight.

Apr 5: Actor Charlton Heston, most famous for roles in Ben Hur, Planet of the Apes and Touch of Evil.

Apr 14: The last surviving "Disney's old man", animator Ollie Johnston who created the golden age of the Disney animation from the '30s to the '70s.

Jun 1: Designer Yves Saint-Laurent who popularised suits for women and haute couture.

Jun 15: Special effects master Stan Winston won Oscars for Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park.

Jun 18: Writer and artist Tasha Tudor illustrated classic children's books like The Secret Garden.

Jul 4: Evelyn Keyes, actress and author of Scarlet O'Hara's Younger Sister, was married to the much-wed Artie Shaw from 1957 until his death.

Sep 26: Philanthropist, actor, race car driver and salad dressing supremo Paul Newman.

Oct 17: The lead singer of The Four Tops Levi Stubbs, probably best-known for their song Baby, I Need Your Lovin'.

Nov 4: Michael Crichton, writer of Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park and creator of the popular TV series ER.

Dec 24: Nobel Prize-winning British playwright Harold Pinter, one of theatre's biggest names for nearly half a century, died aged 78 on Christmas Eve.

Dec 25: Eartha Kitt, who ironically popularised the famous song Santa Baby.