Tamera Mowry-Housley and her husband, Adam Housley, share two kids

Photo: Tamera Mowry Instagram

Tamera Mowry-Housley famously acted alongside her twin sister on television, but at home, she is just “mom.”

The Sister, Sister star and former co-host of The Real shares son Aden, 12, and daughter Ariah, 9, with her husband, Adam Housley, whom she married in 2011.

Who Is Tamera Mowry’s Husband? All About Adam Housley

Motherhood has given the actress and talk show host a newfound appreciation of the little things. “They have taught me to be present and enjoy the most simple things in life,” Mowry-Housley told PEOPLE of her 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren in 2016. “It gives me so much joy, especially as a busy mom, just giving them a bath, reading them a book, brushing our teeth together. They taught me how to have fun in the most simple moments.”

In a 2022 episode of The Ellen Show‘s YouTube series “Mom Diaries,” Mowry-Housley got emotional while talking about her 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren. “They literally are the love of my life. I’m proud of the little people that they are becoming,” she said with tears in her eyes. “You can tell that they were raised in a home full of love. You want that for every 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥.”

The mom of two frequently shares glimpses into her family life on Instagram, her blog and their family YouTube channel, The Housley Life.

Here is everything to know about Tamera Mowry-Housley’s two kids.

Aden John Tanner Housley, 12Tamera Mowry Instagram

After hoping for a boy, the actress got her wish with the 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 of her son, Aden John Tanner Housley, on Nov. 12, 2012. He was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

“Adam and I feel very blessed to finally be holding our son,” Mowry-Housley said at the time. “He is a beautiful miracle, and our hearts are overflowing with love. Thank you to everyone for your love and support. It means so much to our family.”

As for the meaning behind his name, his father explained in a tweet, “He has two middle names. A for me. T for Tamera and John..our fathers middle names.”

Aden, who said “mama” before “dada,” was already a talker at a young age. When her son was 20 months old, Mowry-Housley told PEOPLE, “Having a mother as a talk show host and a father as a news correspondent, that boy can talk.”

Tamera Mowry Instagram

In 2015, Aden became a big brother. While he had some difficulty adjusting to his 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 sister at first, he and Ariah are now very close.

“At first he was a little jealous,” Mowry-Housley told PEOPLE just after the 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 of her daughter. “For a year-and-a-half he had all the attention and here is this other little 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 that comes in and now she’s getting most of the attention. I nursed for about eight months so it was her and me for a very long time.”

The mom of two continued, “That was a little bit of an interesting transition, but now he absolutely loves his sister. He’s an amazing help.”

Tamera Mowry Instagram

In 2016, Aden caught the attention of former First Lady Michelle Obama during a visit to the White House. Recalling the trip, Mowry-Housley told PEOPLE, “I don’t know what he had for breakfast that morning … I thought he didn’t have sugar, but it looked like he did.”

At the time she thought, “Oh my gosh, he’s acting like this. ‘This is, like, the White House. This is Michelle. Don’t you know this, Aden?’ ” She continued, “She [Obama] was just like, ‘Aden, give me a high five.’ She got his attention.”

In an Instagram post to mark Aden’s 9th 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day in 2021, Mowry-Housley shared that her first𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 “loves soccer, baseball, your family, and on most days your sister.”

Aden seems to have inherited his love for baseball from his dad, who is a former professional baseball player. Alongside an Instagram picture of her son sporting a baseball helmet in 2021, Mowry-Housley wrote, “I love seeing how much Aden adores playing baseball. He’s more and more like his dad @adamhousley every day. I’m one #proudmomma 😍 #mylittleman.”

He and his father also share a love of cooking. “The boy loves to be in the kitchen just like his dad,” the proud mom captioned a video of her “master Aden” making hotdogs in 2021. In another post of Aden cooking, Mowry-Housley wrote, “My mom taught me how to cook around the same age as my 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren💕 Start em young. So proud of my babies.”

Ariah Talea Housley, 9Tamera Mowry Instagram

In January 2015, Mowry-Housley announced that she and her husband were expecting their second 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 together. “Ever since being blessed with Aden we have known that we would eventually want to expand our family,” she wrote on her website at the time.

Ariah Talea Housley was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 on July 1, 2015. “We are beyond overjoyed and blessed with our beautiful 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 girl. Aden already made a welcome video for her,” the proud parents told PEOPLE after their daughter’s arrival.

When it came to naming their 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 girl, Mowry-Housley wanted both her 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren’s names to start with the same letter. On her website, The Santa Stakeout actress revealed that she and Housley came across a shop named Araya before they were married. “I stopped and immediately told him I loved the name and wanted that to be my future daughter’s name. It was and is such a beautiful name,” she wrote. “The only catch was that I wanted to spell her name phonetically, so people wouldn’t mess it up and call her a-RAY-ya.”

Meanwhile, “Talea” was a name Mowry-Housley “adored for some time” and was also going to be the name of a character inspired by her in a friend’s future book.

“It wasn’t until after we had decided on Ariah Talea Housley that Adam and I learned the origin and meaning of both names — they couldn’t be more appropriate for a family like ours whose faith is so very strong,” the actress explained. “Both Hebrew names, Ariah means Lion of God and Talea means one who resembles the morning dew of Heaven. We couldn’t have found names with a better meaning if we had tried.”

Tamara Mowry Instagram

As a 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦, Ariah was her mother’s lookalike. “She’s my mini-me,” Mowry-Housley told PEOPLE of her then-8-week-old daughter. “She looks so much like me as a 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦, it’s scary! She has my eyes and my cheeks — I had the droopy little cheeks.”

Aside from looks, Ariah’s demeanor is also similar to her mother’s. “We’re both calm,” the actress shared with PEOPLE. “She’s a mellow 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦, and the coolest thing is [my then-2½-year-old son] Aden is high-energy and [my husband] Adam is high-energy, so I think we’re balanced now.”

Mowry-Housley has described her little girl as “kindness and empathy personified.” In a sweet 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day tribute on Ariah’s 7th 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day, she wrote, “If sunshine were a person it would be you! Your laughter, empathy, hugs, kindness are just a few things that make momma so proud and grateful to be your momma. We love you Miss Ariah Talea Housley.”

Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

In 2022, Mowry-Housley opened up about how Ariah cares for her younger cousin Cairo, who is her twin sister Tia Mowry’s daughter.

“My daughter is such a caretaker, another characteristic of a Cancer,” Mowry-Housley told PEOPLE. “She just literally will just take care of Cairo and they will go off in a corner and have fun while [Tia’s son] Cree and [Aden] do the same, and Tia and I would do that too.”

While talking to PEOPLE again in March 2024, Mowry-Housley shared the importance of Ariah seeing her “gorgeous brown skin” represented in the media.

“Being a young girl in Hollywood, and unfortunately the covers of Teen, the covers of Seventeen didn’t always have faces that looked like mine,” she said. “When you see yourself and you see yourself in someone else that may look like you. It’s empowering.”