So Long to Cali

This is our last night in California and it's time to head back home to AZ. Oma and Opa should get matching T-shirts that say, "I survived 30 days with the 4 Webbs!" I'm amazed how quickly these weeks of vacation and time with family and friends has gone by. This picture sums up how much we enjoyed our time.


We tried for the past two days for Layla to take a few steps with the video camera rolling, but we had no such luck. Maybe tomorrow during the day we'll try again? A while ago Kendra's grandparents came over for dinner and we had a great time catching up with them and playing with the twins. Easton and Layla have their sleeping gear on and are holding their Nunu. :) Somehow the picture didn't make it on my computer from the camera so i had to wait until today to post it.


Tomorrow we'll spend the last few hours letting the twins climb up the stairs and laughing with Oma and Opa and whoever else decides to stop by. The current plan is for them to come visit us for the twins' birthday in February along with my parents. We're expecting a fun time and I guarantee there will be lots of pictures. I'm sure Easton and Layla will miss playing with GG!



I'll catch up with you all tomorrow or possibly after our trip home depending on what we decide to do with our last day in town. Bye bye and happy new year!

Diswasher Magnents

Hello all,

We're still hanging out in Cali with family and they haven't kicked us out yet! The weather here has been chilly, but sunny. I can see my breath when walking outside during the day if that gives you any idea of what we call winter. For some reason as soon as the dishwasher door is opened the twins hear or see it and come scrambling towards it. We've baby proofed the rest of the kitchen, but there's no way to block them from grabbing for silverware and bowls other than to kick them out of the kitchen completely. They look like kids in a candy store, don't they...


The list of tricks Easton and Layla can do is growing quickly. At some point the list will be so big I can't keep up, but for now it's short and funny.

Layla:

When asked, "what does a tiger say?" she makes a growling noise with a wide open mouth

She can walk! she takes two shaky steps with one stiff leg. She looks a little like a drunk pirate with a peg leg trying walk across the deck of a ship as it's being tossed back and forth in the ocean.

She claps on command. We thought this day would never come since she normally has fists clinched. that doesn't lend itself to clapping, but shes getting better at spreading her fingers out.

I'm not sure the One-Legged Prairie Dog stance counts for much now that she's walking, but I still think it's adorable.

She waves. I guess you call it waving. She turns the palm of her hand towards herself, makes a fist and then spreads her fingers out wide. repeat that several times and I suppose that's considered waving, right?

She knows sign language! After 6 months of us trying to teach the sign for "more", Layla finally gets it and shows the sign at the appropriate time.

She stomps her feet. As she is sitting upright if you say, "Stomp your feet!" she'll move her legs in and out and stomp her feet on the floor.

Easton:

We call him "the light man" because he randomly looks (and sometimes points) up at the lights and says, "ight! ight!"

He walks with the walker. although he's not walking unassisted yet, this is a big accomplishment. He gets a huge grin and chuckles as he pushes the walker thing around the house.

He follows instructions to put things into containers. When I say, "put the ball in the container" he places the ball in and lets go. He also does "on top of" where he stacks objects. Easton is definitely more constructive and tactile than Layla.

He responds when we say, "No!" All we have to do is say, "Easton! No." and he responds correctly. Layla? not so much. We're working on her. My sister describes it as having a "happy heart" and that's the concept we are instilling into Layla.

I wish I could take credit for this next picture by saying Easton purposefully expresses his "GQ" look, but it's all complete coincidence. He still looks cool though!



One last bit of humor for the day is my haircut story. sometimes Kendra wants me to have long, wavy hair and sometimes she likes it to be shaved off. Sometimes she like my goatee and sometimes she wants a clean-shaven face. Since I don't have to look at myself, what do I care??? So... a few days ago Kendra said, "I think you should cut your hair". The next words out of my mouth were, "Mom? Get the trimmers!" I sat down in the kitchen and let my mother-in-law loose with trimmers and sharp scissors. Now THAT is truly trusting you in-laws.


She did a good job and now I don't wake up every morning looking like Kramer (from the TV show friends). I also shaved my goatee for unknown reasons. When people ask why I do these things (shave my head and goatee) I tell them it's all part of the Witness Protection Program. Of course, I'm just joking,

That's all for now, but I promise to upload a video of Layla's first steps in the next day or so.

Happy New Year!

My First Christmas

Greetings,

We're still celebrating Christmas here on the blog because this batch of pictures and stories may well be the highlight of the 4 Webb's blog thus far. I can't remember the last time I had this many days of vacation in a row and the time off has been wonderfully relaxing. It's hard to imagine my state of total exhaustion from keeping up with the twins and at the same time feeling de-stressed from being away from work.

Anyway, enough about me... This may be the cutest picture of Easton and Layla I've ever seen. I'll title this picture: "Look what gifts we received this year!"



I don't know what else to say. Oh, who am I kidding? I have plenty to say! The title of this post is based on the stitched words on Easton's Santa outfit that say, "My First Christmas". Easton and Layla were a huge hit at the family gathering. They are amazing babies and seeing them in their Christmas outfits puts the biggest, proud smile on my face you can imagine. Layla is on her tippy toes with her legs crossed like a little ballerina. and don't forget her signature "power to the peanuts" fist in the air move. Easton looks calm and cool with his toothy grin. How could I possibly get any luckier than to have two happy, healthy babies? the Christmas tree in the background is from our visit to Kendra's aunt and uncles house. One other sweet picture I can't resist posting is this one:


Oma and Opa bought a walker that transforms into a rider thingy and the twins love it. Easton likes to ride the car and Layla loves to push it around as a walker. She went from crawling to RUNNING. She skipped the whole walking behind the walker stage. She stands up on her own, purses her lips and starts running across the floor. Easton tries to keep up now that he's crawling on hands and knees, but he's no match for speedy Gonzales.


When Easton has his turn riding on the car Layla is more than happy to give him a push in the right direction.


The Christmas lunch/dinner with such a large group of Kendra's family turned out to be a lot of fun and extremely rowdy since there were so many cousin kids running around. Easton found a reprieve from the overload of exciting people by sitting with GG for a while. Don't they look so festive?


The other big news for today is that Layla took her first steps! Nope, I wasn't there to see it, I just heard about it from Kendra. She took the twins to hang out with her best friends, Megan, Laura, and Dee. While they were all hanging out Layla decided to take her first steps towards Dee as she beckoned Layla over. It seems like Easton and Layla do more new things every single day, but that's what watching babies grow is all about.

See you again soon

The Three Little Bears

Greetings friends and family,

Even during the cool, rainy weather in Nor Cal the 4 Webbs find ways to be adventurous. Staying at home by the fire has been such a treat and very relaxing, but we love to take spontaneous opportunities that give our twins new experiences. During a break in the rain we traveled to the local zoo. My expectation was to find a few chickens, a dog with antlers tied to its head, and a cat painted with raccoon stripes. Well, I was partly right:


Kendra took that picture, so all the credit goes to her for taking such a great picture. There were tons of chickens walking around. Easton was speechless as one of the roosters strutted only a couple of feet away and crowed loudly. Opa and I held the twins up as they poked their tiny heads through the wooden, painted photo opportunity.


The fluffy bear ears don't really match the lions in that picture, but they work out really well for this next one. Here are the three little bears: Easton, Layla, and that big, brown thing in the background above Kendra's head is a REAL bear!


OK, so there are only two little bears and one HUGE bear in the enclosure behind us. This next picture is of a curiously friendly deer that stood up on it's hind legs against the fence and poked his head over to get the grass I was holding up for him. Easton is that white blur between me and the deer. He was facing forward in the Bjorn baby holder. I can't believe how close the deer was to us! Easton loved seeing the animals in 3D up close as opposed to how they look in the baby movies on TV.


After wondering around the zoo for a while we stopped by the park and stuffed our twins in the kiddie swings for some smiles and fun. Opa was having as much fun as Layla as you can see here:

Kendra's parents and her Grandmother (GG) took the 4 Webbs across town to a festive neighborhood called "Dovewood Court". It's just an average street of houses, but every single house goes all out for Christmas lights and decorations. you can kind of see a small sample of the display behind us.


As some of you may know from previous posts, Easton's first (and only word thus far) is "light". I carried Easton in the Bjorn in front of me during this outing just like at the zoo and expected him to use his new-found word non-stop during our walk through the neighborhood. Oddly enough, he didn't make a single peep the whole time! However, as we all walked together to our car parked a few streets away, Easton piped up and said with a very calm and quiet voice, "ights". We all had a good laugh and figured the experience was so overwhelming that he just needed a few quiet moments to collect himself before speaking his mind.

We closed the night out with the "Four B's" as always and GG gladly took time to complete the third "B", Book. Easton and Layla recognize GG as familiar and comforting so reading time was especially soothing.


These days of quality family bonding time are even more fulfilling than I'd hoped. Kendra and Oma spent many hours preparing the big Christmas dinner and their efforts were much appreciated by the rest of us who joined in eating ourselves into a coma. Made-from-scratch dinner rolls, oven cooked turkey, and homemade mashed potatoes were my personal favorites. In this picture (from left to right and based on how the twins are related to them) we have GG, uncle Logan, Oma, uncle Casey, Opa, Mom, Layla and Easton.


Daddy isn't in the picture because I forgot my tripod... Better luck next year. The other pictures under the christmas tree turned out incredibly well and I'm sorting through them tomorrow to figure out which ones to post. :)

Merry Christmas to YOU!

Christmas Card

Merry Christmas from the 4 Webbs! What an amazing and joyous year we experienced. May God continue to bless our friends and family as much as he has blessed us. Thank you for visiting the blog often and sharing in our adventures.

Christmas is coming

Merry Christmas!

Today we are celebrating Christmas at Oma and Opa's house because Kendra's brother, Logan, is only able to be in town until tomorrow. He moved to So Cal last summer and has to head back for work. He's a master of Rock Band and Guitar Hero although having a baby or two tugging on your back pocket makes it more difficult to concentrate. it's obvious Easton looks up to Uncle Logan already.


and of course Layla jumped in on the action as well by whapping Logan's leg as he drummed to the beat.


Now that Easton and Layla are wondering around the house at will we are much more careful as we walk in and out of the rooms so as not to step on anyone. If you stand around long enough in the same room as the babies, you're bound to feel their little hands tugging on your pants or legs as they pull themselves up. Looking down at her cute face and hearing her "goo, goo, gah, gah" noises would bring a smile to even the scroogiest person.


Days off work seem to disappear with every blink of my eye. it should be the opposite where vacation days filled with doing absolutely nothing except playing with babies and eating should drag on endlessly while work days should fly by quick. i'm doing my best to make the most of the time babies are awake. I sat on the floor with a baby in each arm as they watched their video for the day. unfortunately the video was much more interesting than Logan trying to take the picture so Easton and Layla are looking around him at the video.


They are still right on schedule sleeping from 7:00 to 7:00 with two naps during the day. No complaints from us! Yesterday we gave Easton his first matchbox car. He was mildly interested in the wheels going around, but as with everything else at this stage he just checked it over a few times and stuck it in his mouth.


There was nothing symbolic about the type of car, but it's a Bentley in case you are wondering. This will be the only time in his life that a Bentley costs as much as a Camero so I may as well pick the superior car, right? We also bought Layla a dolly, but that wasn't much of a success. Kendra showed her how to rock the dolly, feed the dolly, and kiss the dolly. However, Layla immediately tried to bite the dolly's face so we have some serious work to do there.

See you again soon with holiday pictures from our Christmas dinner and games.

sky high

Hello friends and family,

We've had a fun-filled past few days and it looks like the party is just getting started. No more work for me until a few days into the new year, so it's time for the 4 Webbs to do some serious hanging out. First we had to do a little more child proofing at Oma and Opa's house because everything off limits was on the top of their list. We plugged all of the electrical sockets and gated the stairs since the twins would head over to the stairs every few minutes and we' have to retrieve them back to the play area. Now they stand at the gate and shake it back and forth like prisoners.


Bath time is always exciting and joyous. Nothing smells better than a freshly washed baby (or two). After strategically placing arms and hands, here's Kendra with Easton and Oma with Layla getting them ready for bed.


Opa is getting some good laughs and play time from both babies. They are really starting to interact and respond to the silly faces, dancing, and games.


One of Layla's new things is the "bob and weave" move where she dips her head down and around. It's a variation of the groovin' move and Opa taught her how to use it as a wrestling headlock kind of thing. You can also hear the full range of her extraordinary voice and a few of the many sounds she comes up with.



Kendra's brother, Logan, invited us to join him and his friends for a night out. Being the adventurous ones we agreed. The place we went was called Sky High and it's a recreational indoor facility with huge rooms of trampolines covering the floor and the walls. If either of our babies ever say mom and dad are no fun, i'll just show them this picture as proof we ARE!


and one other humorous one of Logan and I where he's showing me his skills.


That black thing on my waist is my cell phone. We wanted to make sure Oma and Opa could reach us if the babies woke up or if anything happened. There's nothing I can think of they couldn't handle, but we're still paranoid first-time parents so it was more of a security blanket for us than anything. I used to do front flips and back flips with no fear in my friend's backyard when I was a kid, but something is very different now. my equilibrium and balance was way off and I had a hard time getting up the courage to try even the easiest flips. Must be getting old, huh...

Just after these pictures some random guy landed wrong and broke both of his legs! i mean compound fracture through both bones and they were sticking out of his skin. That was without a doubt the most disturbing thing i've ever seen in real life.

I get the creepy shakes just thinking about it... Anyway, we walked to breakfast yesterday morning just for something to do since it was sunny, but still really cold. Plus we feel less guilty for drowning waffles in syrup if we walk to and from the restaurant. :) When we arrived home we stood on Oma and Opa's back porch pointing out ducks and water and trees for the twins. They did their best to communicate back with all kinds of noises. The only recognizable word was still "light" from Easton. They're trying though and that's the important part!


Another adventure was attending Kendra's friend's baby dedication and party. We've come to expect exceptional gatherings since they are always such great hosts. Easton and Layla came with us and we ended up quarantining off the living room as a coral of sorts to keep the twins from roaming around under everyone's feet. Several of the younger attendees of the party came over and played with us. As it turned out, Easton was a ladies man surrounded by all the girls who thought his toothy smile was adorable.

\
Easton is growing a sweet natural mullet and Momma threatens to give him a hair cut every day. :) Meanwhile, Layla was having an intense conversation with this boy using dragon voices.
She would wave her arms around in circles and make her loud noise then the boy would imitate her noises and motions.


That's about it for the exciting parts of the last few days. Watching TV and rain on the windows while sitting by the fireplace has been wonderfully relaxing. That's goooooood use of my time right now.

Home Sweet Home

Good Day Everyone!

I am so happy today. The babies are feeling better, woohoo, no more snotty noses. This morning Bronson was so great and let me sleep in. He did it all changed them, feed them and played with them. Uncle Logan was around to help out too.

After we woke up Uncle Logan, Bronson, the kids and me all went X-Mas shopping for my Dad and a baby gate. The twins are obsessed with the stairs. But before we started we had to get a Jamba Juice, I mean what are we thinking? It is 47 degrees outside. Oh well! It was sure tasty and the babies love it!

I love coming back home during this time. It is jacket and scarf weather. It is a nice break from always sunny and warm. When I come home I always have to stop by my favorite eats. I mean doesn't everyone do that. For me, it is Big Dip with their awesome fries and frosties. For my husband it is Andy's Famous Frozen Custard in Springfield Mo. I am sure that everyone has their home town fav's.

Below is a picture last Sunday of my BFF Megan and I at Fat's Chinese Restaurant. We had fun without the bambino's and hubby. Just us girls! Eating, laughing and talking.


Well it is time for me to take care of the babies. Love and Miss you all!

Kendra

Fears of the Father

Howdy folks,

I'll consider this "Confessional Wednesday" to get you in the right mindset for my post today. No one has ever asked me, "what is your greatest fear as a new father?", but after many months of avoiding posting my feelings about this question I thought today was as good of a day as any to write my thoughts. That was a really long run-on sentence...

Anyway, based on my knowledge of good and evil I know worry and anxiety and fear are not from God. I've gone back and forth in my head whether I even whisper the words to describe the fear in my head. I wonder if it is more wrong for me to have this fear and keep it from Kendra and the world or is it more wrong to speak the words and go against my core philosophy of "speaking life" into my children?

Obviously if i'm writing about this then i've decided sharing is a less egregious sin than the alternative. My biggest fear is losing one of my babies. I don't obsess about it all the time or have ulcers from the thought, but it IS there and it does cause my heart to race occasionally. Since these are my first (and only expected) babies, I don't have that "old hat" mentality someone with 5 kids has. So where did this start and what are the realities of my world? It started back when Kendra was still pregnant and I was doing lots of reading in preparation for the birth of the twins. I ran across SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and the idea has perplexed me ever since. How can something so prevalent and devastating have NO answer as to the cause? sleeping on their stomach or too many blankets resulting in suffocation are a few of the unfounded causes, but how can I avoid such a disaster when no one knows what causes it? My concern heightened when one of my not-so-close friends lost his 5 month old boy to "SIDS", which is codeword for: no one knows the real cause of death. That's real. that's scary. Sadly enough, hitting so close to home in my personal circle of friends increased my fear.

The other root of my concern I identified is Kendra's false motherly insticts. Any time I come to bed late and accidently wake her up as I climb into bed or if she wakes in the middle of the night, she frantically asks, "where is Easton?" She tears the covers off the bed and tosses pillows around searching with her hands. Apparently she thinks he is in bed with us and he has rolled off the bed or worse, she's lying on him. Nothing has ever happened to cause this kind of reaction and I assure her every time he's safe in his crib. I can't tell if my fears have bled over into her subconscience or if her montherly instincts are affecting me? Either way, it's something I'll eventually get through because our babies are over 10 months old now and won't be considered "infants" much longer.

That's all I can think of to write about those feelings for now. I'm sure other fathers felt the same way occasionally. I just love my babies so much that I can't imagine anything like that happening to them. The "power of positive thinking" part of me continually prays against those thoughts and I speak words of life over them daily, but I won't lie... the fear of losing a baby is there. Part of the reason I am excited for them to turn 1 is because that is supposedly a milestone where I don't have to worry about SIDS any more. I know, I KNOW! I can't avoid them ever getting hurt. I'm not THAT naive to think I am "in control" and can keep them 100% pain free. They will scuff their little knees and bonk their noggins, but I'm ok with the accidental bumps and bruises. Every morning I walk in and find Layla jumping up and down while Easton rubs his eyes and squints up at me. That's the happiest part of my day... knowing they made it safely through another night and are ready to play the day away.

OK, back to the happy side of life and babies. We discovered a cute way to convey what happens every night between 6-7 PM for Easton and Layla. We say, "it's time for the 4 Webbs to have the four "B"s: The four B's are (in order) Bath, Books, Boobs, and Bed. The same routine every single night and it seems to work well for us all.

We went down town tonight for pizza and window shopping with Oma, Opa, and uncle Casey. Layla is continually intrigued by Casey's beard even though he chopped it down and shaved yesterday. I forgot he had dimples...


Even in the pizza parlor we had the obligatory anonymous smiley mom stop by and say, "Are they twins??? They are SOOO cute. I have twins also!" After dinner we walked the streets and kendra kept the babies laughing with her antics of singing and dancing. Here's a picture I'll call: Happy Bears (thanks, mom, for the laughs)


We are on to the second DVD in the "Your Baby Can Read" series and the twins love it. Layla learned a new skill of stomping her feet appropriately timed with the song, "When you're happy and you know it stomp your feet (stomp, stomp)..." She's got great balance and coordination for sure!



last night i captured another pic of Layla doing her stand up, sit down routine although once she stood upright she turned decidedly unhappy before sitting back down. The last one of her in the tub doesn't show her face because she had arms flailing around. Still a cute, funny picture even though I feel bad when she has her pouty lip...


OK, that's enough for me tonight. kendra still suggests she'll chime in for her own blog soon, but tomorrow night we are hosting dinner with kendra's grandparents so her free time may be limited.

Time for bed! Bye bye for now.

Let There Be ight

Greetings from Cali once again,

The 4 Webbs are together and I was counting the minutes until I could get my arms around them this morning. I took the day off work and spent the whole day watching the babies and the recent accomplishments I've missed while away.

Easton frequently looks up at the lights, points, and says, "ight! ight!" I was fortunate enough to catch his random occurence of the new word as the twins were taking their nightly bath:



Layla climbs the stairs! Unfortunately she hasn't learned to come back down the stairs, but she's completely fearless with her lack of respect for gravity. Luckily we are right behind her with our arms as she turns to face the downward direction of the stairs and virtually stage dives into our arms. Here she is making the turn at the midpoint of the stair case. Wow, she's fast!


Layla's other new trick is to move from the crawling position, to prairie dog, to standing up right! Then after 10 seconds or so she realizes she can't walk yet and gets back down gracefully to crawl wherever it is she wants to go. While in the bath tub she let go from the edge and stood upright long enough to wave her toy around frantically, which gave me time to get this picture


I know... you can't see her face. sorry about that, but her arms flailing around made it difficult to capture her smiling face. better luck tomorrow i guess. Another bath-time photo we laughed about was this next jewel of a beauty showing how their extraordinarily long cracks prove they are twins.


It looks like Easton is doing his best to keep up with Layla's skills because he's trying more and more to crawl on his hands and knees (as opposed to commando) and he's holding himself up on objects with one hand.

Kendra managed to take one lone picture during the 5 days I was gone. I'm not too hurt though since I know she had her hands full. Even her mom, Oma, said her body is sore for keeping up with the twins (lifting, playing, helping, etc.). Kendra bundled up Easton and Layla for a walk outside and used their bear zip-up outfits for the first time. they are flannel feeling on the inside and like a lamb on the outside. very toasty, from what I can tell!

I'm very grateful Kendra and her parents gave me a few days without babies. I did absolutely nothing and it was everything I'd hoped it would be. Seriously, I slept in for the first time in 10 months. I stayed in my bath robe for almost 48 hours straight. I even finished reading a book, which is a rare occurence at any time in my life since the third grade. Every day I battled with the difficult emotions of missing the other 3 Webbs terribly, but enjoying the quiet and relaxation. I'll try to get Kendra a similar "time out" from the babies during the beginning of next year sometime.

Unfortunately, both babies still have a runny nose and a slight temperature. One of the crucial items I had to bring with me from home in AZ was... the snot sucker! apparently the specific kind we have is hard to come by. :)

Have a good evening and Kendra suggested she might make a guest appearance on the blog tomorrow so stop by again soon. No promises, but a boy can hope...

signs of intelligence

Hello friends and family,

We're starting to see many signs of intelligence from our twins. After 10 months of life. As much as Easton and Layla babble on endlessly with each other, there hasn't been much English spoken. They both do "mmmmmma ma ma ma" when they need anything and occasionally I've convinced myself they say "dada", but that's just wishful thinking. However, Easton is progressing along with two important milestones. He points to a light and says, "ight". Pointing is a good measure of progress and saying something resembling "light" is a big step in the right direction. Of all the things I thought would be Easton's first official word, I am not surprised it is "light" because he is endlessly entertained by looking up at ceiling fans and lights no matter what house or restaurant or building we take him.

Layla is taking a different route to show her intelligence. After 1 month of watching the Your Baby Can Read video almost every single day Layla knows what "Arms UP" means! Now she does it on command almost as a pavlovian response. Anyone within earshot of Layla can say, "Arms UP" and her arms will spring to life as she sticks them up over her head. She also does the sign language for "more". She does this only because it allows her to get her way (more food) faster. :)

So there you have it... words, motions, signs; it's all coming together and I started thinking how odd it's going to be when they actually DO something I tell them to. Prior to our latest breakthrough I considered the twins as just off in their own world with no ability to communicate between us. They cry... kendra fixes whatever the problem is (hungry, poopy, tired) and all was well in the universe. I didn't feel much bonding or that I was adding anything to their lives other than fetching balls that roll away or holding down their little head while Kendra sucks snot from their nose.

Layla is standing on her own now! I know this is true because I saw it on Skype just today. :) I couldn't believe my eyes, but there she was like a drunken sailor standing up for a few seconds all by herself.

I'm really looking forward to the interaction part of having kids. I know this next statement will come back to haunt with a vengeance, but: I can't wait for them to ask questions and learn from our conversations. My sisters boys, Eli and Silas, were sharing their latest vocabulary words over Skype and I was amazed how smart they are and how much they know. I'll be learning just as much as my twins will if they follow the same pattern of smarts as Eli and Silas.

Kendra collected pictures and videos over the past few days of these exciting events, but can't quite get them posted within the blog. I'll take care of that tomorrow when the 4 Webbs get back together in Cali!

Bye bye.

Blue cheese

Howdy,

I'm back in AZ alone now for a weekend of events and I haven't seen Kendra or the twins in almost 24 hours. The house is quiet and empty. I don't mean that not a comforting way either, but a sad, lonely one. Yes, I did sleep in (without waking up even once) all the way to 8:45 this morning! That's the only silver lining though. Other than that, I'm already fiercely missing the other 3 Webbs. :(

I miss waking up with Easton and Layla's voices running through scales of tones and sounds as they babble back and forth to each other. It's very similar to hearing an orchestra warm up as they individually tune their instruments prior to an event... well, kind of. Anyway, walking into their room every morning to see two sleepy eyed grins and Layla bouncing up and down as if she's riding a galloping horse is always a highlight of my day. I pretend they are excited to see me, but I'm just the "milk man" who immediately walks them over to Kendra who is waiting to provide their morning meal. By the way, our double blessings nursing pillow is the single most vital item in our house. I have no idea how mothers of twins survive without one. I'm not sure who recommended we get one of those even before the babies were born, but that thing is worth it's weight in gold.

I'm here in AZ, but the camera is still with my family so that's why there are no pics with this post. I'm fully confident my wife is technologically savvy enough to TAKE a few pictures each day and SEND them to me over email. If she does that i'll be sure to post them.

In the mean time, here's one picture of Layla from last week I've been holding back. Looks like she's staring straight into your soul, huh?


Kendra figured out a good response to the most common question we get. At least once per store someone comes up says, "wow, what beautiful babies. Are they twins?" Kendra answers, "Yes". Then they say, "A boy and a girl?" Kendra answers, "Yes". Then about half of those people ask, "Are they identical? They look so much alike!" This is where we used to just say, "no they aren't identical" and leave it at that. However, now Kendra says, "Well, the plumbing is different, but they do look a lot alike." We KNOW they don't look alike, but it's just more polite than saying, "Are you kidding? They don't look anything alike and it's impossible to have boy/girl twins be identical." Kendra's mom said she's starting to feel like a semi-celebrity when she's out with the twins because of how almost every walking past smiles and points and talks about how cute they are.

A couple of days ago during a conversation about someone's choice of salad dressing Kendra said something that made us all laugh and I just had to write it down and share it as today's "Deep Thoughts -- by Kendra" Here's your moment of Zen for this week complements of Kendra:

Blue cheese isn’t moldy cheese. It’s cheesy mold.

See you soon!

family fun

Good morning everyone!

The last couple of days included an exciting new routine. We all wake up at 6:00 AM and I catch a ride with Oma and Opa to work since we all work so close to each other. It's so hard leaving Kendra home alone with the twins and even more so when the THREE of us have to leave with a barrage of hands waving, kisses, and "bye byes". Kendra is making the most of her days while we are at work by visiting Megan and Isabella as well as shopping and errands. The Oma and Opa taxi picks me up from work and we all ride home excited to see kendra and the twins. She has her hands full and here is a typical scene of Kendra holding both babies getting ready for going out into the cool Sacramento air:


Neither one of them dig hats much, but we did our best to keep their heads warm. Their little booties feel like a sheep on the outside and have rubber bumps on the bottom for when they start to walk at some point in the not-so-distant future.

Here's our latest purchase:


The Chariot CX-2 is the best thing we ever bought, but unfortunately it is too heavy and cumbersome for Kendra to take it in and out of the trunk when she goes by herself around town. We had the snap-n-go thing where we snapped in the car seats, but Easton and Layla are getting too old for that to be comfortable. So we searched for months on Craigslist in Arizona for the one stroller that met our needs, but never found even one. resigned to the fact we would have to pay retail (yuk) for it we decided to just buy one here in Sacramento. However, i did a quick search of this area and BINGO! We found a couple selling one about 20 minutes away so we drove over and bought it for about 40% of what it would have cost new. Hooray for technology. It's a Combi Savvy LX in case you are wondering. Our main criteria were independent shades that fold WAY down over the babies face so that it keeps the AZ sun off their cute faces.

Anyway, Easton and Layla are having loving this much attention and so many arms to hold them. Especially kisses from GG:


and story time with Opa is always a big hit:


I did my best to spontaneously corral everyone to get a picture of the FOUR generations of ladies, but it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted:


There is GG, Oma, Kendra, and Layla all four together. What a great family heritage and character to pass down through so many generations! I'll have to get a more formal one next week when I get back from my weekend back in AZ. I'm heading back home for a few days to take care of the house, do some work, and have some fun hanging out with my friends. It'll be weird to be away from kendra and the twins for that long though. I already miss them. :(

Oma has been showering the babies with "early christmas" gifts and these personalized pajamas are awesome:


They have a real button-open hatch in the back, but don't worry because they also have snaps along the inseam of the legs to change diapers. Easton and Layla are spoiled and we are lucky to have friends and family who love to spoil them. I know I never had outfits with MY name embroidered on them!

In other news... Layla found the stairs in Oma and Opa's house and of course she MUST conquer them.


She's already started climbing them a few times while Easton is literally one step behind. Time for a baby gate to block off the stairs!

Daddy says, "Goodnight"!