Soaking up the family

Happy weekend everyone,

I have just a few short minutes to sandwich a blog between family leaving, ready to start packing, and one last evening with Oma, Opa, GG, and whoever else decides to come by for one last chance to see us and the perma-grin twins. We've been accused of taping their mouths in a smiley face position because they are both so continually happy looking and pleasant.

Some people ask, "how do you have time to blog with twins and all that life requires?" The answer is: Kendra takes care of everything so well and runs such a "tight ship" that she gives me this time to blog. Almost like a gift... the gift of time. :)

I won't spend too much time philosophizing about marital relationships, but we are both figuring out an important concept. Just because something isn't important to me, doesn't mean it is not important to Kendra and vice versa. We prioritize our time and efforts according to what is important to us as individuals, but the reality is we are doing much better by considering both of priorities at the same time. I know, I know... that requires communication and talking, which isn't a forte for some people. However, we're finding that by considering what is important to the other person even though it is might seem meaningless or outright stupid to us, that the effort of consideration means so much. It is a good feeling when although she doesn't value whatever I see as a need or desire, she treats it as important solely because it is important to me.

Anyway, back to the daily life and the grand finally of our month-long trip here. Yesterday we went over to Oma and Opa's for grilled burgers and dinner on their back porch overlooking the pond, the golf course, and the hills behind them. Logan and his girlfriend, Brie, along with GG spent the evening hanging out with all of us. Logan and his girlfriend, Bree, along with GG spent the evening hanging out with all of us.


It's hard to see there in that picture, but somewhere along the way Easton lost his pants and Layla lost her shirt... I think this was one way Kendra tried to keep them cool from the afternoon heat. This next picture is a good one of Oma and Opa holding the twins up by their arms. It's probably not the last time Easton and Layla will stand on the table though. that seems to be more and more of a common thing to happen lately.

After a full day we kicked back with the same group of people and watched a little of the WNBA gold medal game. Apparently yesterday was just a little more than Layla and I could handle because neither of us made it to bed time. I guess she was comfortable laying on me and she felt like a little, warm, cuddly baby to me.

Today we had almost all of Kendra's cousins and their kids (from her mom's side of the family) over to GG's house. I'm not used to being around that many children at one time so the experience was much different from my perspective compared to everyone else there who do that on a daily basis. The energy being exerted by all those kids running around screaming and playing was a spectacular thing to witness. It reminded me of walking into a room with normal lighting and someone slides the dimmer switch from somewhere in the middle to "all the way up"! After hanging out with all of them for a few hours I was tired and it wasn't even me being treated as a jungle gym like Kendra's cousins were! Everyone settled down just long enough to take a picture:

Also during our time of playing out in the yard, I caught a picture of the twins with GG, Aunt Susie, and Aunt Mary as they all made silly faces at each other (aunts and babies alike).


I'll have to come back some time and point out who is who in the picture, but one of the stars of the day was Hercules, uncle Steve's Chihuahua. Alyssa is holding mighty Hercules (on the far left). Here is a close up picture of the stallion himself. The monstrous things to the right of him are a small pair of size 6 feet so you get a good perspective of his stature. Talk about a funny dog... He could have his own reality TV show.

It's hard to believe our time here is already gone, but we'll be on the road to the central coast early tomorrow morning. Time to pack and have one last chance for Opa to play peek-a-boo with Easton and Layla!

Bye bye

2 ring circus

Hi folks,

It's Friday night and the 4 Webbs are together again! I flew in this morning to reunite with the babies and Kendra. This picture is from the Morgan Hill wedding for her cousin a couple of weeks ago, but it shows how Kendra probably felt without me around for the last few days.



I also started my official vacation from work for the next 10 days (yea for me). My short trip home was fast paced and I'm seriously tired. Our two kitties were very happy to see me and they spent every minute of my home time purring and hoping for my attention.

I still never caught up blogging about the adventures from earlier this week. We took Monday evening to visit some more friends and family. After I finished work for the day we went straight over to the Cassani's mansion (ok, it's not a mansion, but still a gargantuan house) and were able to catch up with Jennifer, Jesse, and Brandon. The last time we saw them was on our wedding day 6 years ago! Jesse was our ring bearer and Kendra still has a special place in her heart for those two guys. We forgot our camera, but Brandon took a few pics so i'm hoping he'll send them to me in email. :)

After that we went down the street for dinner with our friends Craig and Angie. Coincidently, (speaking of members of our wedding party) Craig was one the groomsmen in my wedding and has been a good friend for a lot of years. They have two youngsters of their own so they were well prepared with swings, play mats, and seats for Easton and Layla to entertain them while we enjoyed conversation. Of all the friends I've had in Sacramento over the years, Craig is the one I've kept in contact with the most so it was fun to see him and his family.

While I was away Jenny and Neill (see previous posts on July 16) returned to California and spent an evening at GG's house with Kendra and the babies. Here's a picture of "Goma" (Jenny) along with her grandbabies, TJ and Aimee, as they played with Easton and Layla:



we've been singing the "peanut" song on a daily basis to the babies ever since Goma introduced it to us during our time together in AZ.

I know accomplishments and measures of success for someone's child is completely subjective, but Layla is now officially a rocker and we are very proud of her. :) It's not quite the same feeling as Michael Phelp's mother must have for her son to win 8 gold medals, but probably very close...




I was incredibly relieved and glad to be back together with Kendra and the twins. I just had to take a self portrait with lovely Layla when I realized we both had on green shirts and hazel eyes. It is odd to look into her eyes and see myself more all the time. One big noticeable difference between us is she took three naps and slept for 10 hours last night whereas I slept all of three hours last night before getting on the plane this morning.



and now... introducing... Opa Burgess and the talented balancing twins! First, here is Easton looking indifferent as he commonly does, but still performing the feat of balancing with ease.


and here's Layla clinching her muscles tightly to stay upright as Opa moves her around:

And here is Opa with Easton in one hand and Layla in the other while balancing BOTH babies at the same time! OK, just kidding... We'd never do anything that dangerous with our bundles of joy.

Our time here at GG's house is almost over and we'll be around through Monday morning when we take our trip to visit Robin and Gordon for a few days on the central coast as a detour on our way home. I'm really looking forward to those few days with them and can't wait to be on the beach as the 4 Webbs.

Catch you later!

separation anxiety

Hi again friends and family!

I'm sitting in AZ without Kendra and the babies while they play and laugh and grow there in California... I'll only be here for 3 days, but it's a new feeling to be away from my family. It's kind of odd to be here in our house alone while they are away.

Anyway, things are going great for me and them based on the phone calls i've had with Kendra. I'll pick up in this blog where I left from the last one since I didn't finish my thoughts and posting around the excitement of the past weekend. While we were hanging out with the Burgess clan and cousins, we thought it would be funny to try and fit Landon in our bumbo. keep in mind that Landon is 7 weeks YOUNGER than our babies. He is so big the circulation to his monster legs would have been cut off if we left him there longer!

Here's Dustin's blog for their little guy in case you haven't seen it in previous posts and they've done a great job of blogging the adventures of child rearing.

After talking over various methods and practices and books it was great to hear some real life measures of how other babies are developing, sleeping, and eating. We drove from Jill's house over to Kendra's friend Megan's house for dinner and conversation. The plan was to put the babies to sleep at her house along with their little sweet baby, Isabella, and then we could watch the olympics and spend the evening chatting. However, as we've learned, when babies have another agenda ours changes right along with it. Easton and Layla were too excited about being in a strange, new place that they didn't sleep a wink. We all took care of the babies and held on as long as we could because it was so much fun to be with Megan and Santiago that we didn't want to go home. In the end Isabella napped here and there and I was able to capture a quick pic of one such moment. notice her cute, little hand sticking up from the burrito wrap she's in. And that is their dog, Sophie, who is a gentle Chihuahua. She sniffed our babies and if Easton could talk he would have said, "I want the doggie! I want the doggie!" Luckily he can't crawl or Sophie would have been in trouble.

Santiago grilled up a dinner worthy of his own reality show on food TV network! I learned a lot just by watching him cook and apparently I need a lot more tools because he was using things I didn't even recognize. :)

That evening before bed time Opa helped get things ready. While we were in between diaper changes, pajamas, feeding, and everything else that happens around 6:30 PM i caught this picture of Easton hanging on to Opa as he balanced himself.

i don't know if you can see the resemblance in the picture, but Easton's body type looks EXACTLY like Michael Phelps. Strong muscles, long torso, a look of determination, and big feet. OK, maybe Easton has a little higher body fat, but other than that he's got a great swimmer's body!

I know I already posted on picture of Easton with my hat on, but this was one of those rare occasions where multiple pictures turned out from a single event. His expression here just makes me laugh every time i see it.

OK, enough for tonight. Have a great week and call Kendra to cheer her up because she says she misses me.

Catching up

Good evening folks,

We've been so busy making memories that I've hardly had time to write and share about them. The 4webbs definitely need a vacation from this vacation, but we're loving every minute of it here. Guess we need to start all the way back at last Saturday! Kendra went with her mom, her friend Megan, and Megan's mom along with the babies for coffee and visiting.

That left GG and I the chance to take a walk to the local Starbucks and spend some leisurely time talking and taking the chance to stop and smell the roses. I thought it was fun to see GG in her natural environment of a Starbucks and out around town where every knows her and talks to her. :)

Saturday afternoon brought Kendra's uncle Steve and his family by to say, "hello". That was the first time I had the chance to meet Gabe and Ryan ever so it was great to get to know more of Kendra's family. They brought their teacup chihuahua, named Hercules who was fully grown and about half the size of your average sewer rat. very cool dog though... can't believe i didn't get any pictures of him!

After that we went downtown for some pizza where Layla found the joys of banging silverware on the table. The babies were so well behaved we received a few compliments before leaving the restaurant from impressed patrons who noticed our happy babies. It's taken Layla many months more than Easton to find her thumb because her fists are always too clinched to get that little piggy out there to be sucked on. She's a busy bee so any moments like this must be captured quickly, which I did. Luckily i caught her in the act with her thumb in her mouth because 1 second after this picture and she was back to whapping and making noises.

At the same place I captured a great picture that shows Layla's cute outfit and her intent look as Opa holds her up!

Sunday was the busiest day i've had in months. We woke up and went for a walk to get some doughnuts. then as we were getting the babies ready for nap time Easton grabbed my hat off my head. I decided to put it on him and he got a real kick out of wearing my hat. He looks like one of the 7 dwarfs, but I'm not sure which one...

He is such a happy guy and has a funny, manly giggle. He also has the hugest behind crack of any baby Kendra and have ever seen.

I no connoisseur of cracks, but holy cow man. Have you ever seen anything like that??? He could easily go straight into the plumbing profession and fit right in! After those pictures and nap time we had a good church time with the Thomas family and we've really enjoyed them each Sunday during our visit. Then we went over to Jill's house (Kendra's cousin) where we finally caught up with Jill's family, Dustin's family, and the Burgess grandparents all in the same house! It was craziness with all those kiddos around, but a very special time because of it. That's the first time all of the Burgess' great grandchildren were under one roof. Never a dull moment, that's for sure. I thought it was hard to get TWO babies to smile at the same time for a good photo. It was darn near impossible to get SIX to behave long enough, but we managed to get a few good ones.

All boys and one girl, our lovely Layla. I'm sure it'll be easier to take a good picture in December when we come back because all of them should be able to sit up on their own with pillow propping...

Here's Landon (Dustin's boy who is 7 weeks younger than our babies) and Easton as they laid on the blanket together. Landon's a good looking kid and he's huge! He didn't even fit in our bumbo without cutting off circulation to his toes... no joking...

I've got a few more pictures to go along with the rest of our Sunday, but I'm just too tired to do it justice so i'll say goodnight for now and finish posting the marathon Sunday of fun tomorrow!

bye bye

Layla meets Layla

Hello folks,

It's finally the weekend again and we're looking forward to doing absolutely nothing. The state fair is kicking off, but we won't be anywhere near that part of town. The twins still have a 3.5 hour cycle so their awake time between naps would give us about enough time to drive there, park, and get into the front gate before turning around and heading home. So we'll wait for another year or two... at least until they're old enough to eat some funnel cake or fried twinkies.

Yesterday I spent some time at home taking care of the babies and Kendra as she did some more recovering. As Layla sat in the exersaucer she figured out that since she's finally big enough to lean over and see the little mirror. Once she leaned over and saw her own pretty face in the mirror she spent the next several minutes smiling and talking to herself! Layla reached a whole new level of enlightenment and self-awareness. :) I took about 10 pictures trying to get a good angle and lighting to capture the moment and how amazed she is to see herself. This one turned out about as well as I could hope:

The twins are still able to fit their chubby legs into the bumbo so twice every day we give them mashed up spoon-fulls of peas, asparagus, squash, and several other tasty veggies. They both always look cuter in their pajamas. Easton has puppies and Layla has kitties... and of course they are blue and pink. :) This picture reminds of looking down into a nest of little birdies when the mommy bird is leaning over with a worm in her mouth. I can almost hear the chirp, chirp noises coming from Easton here:

and we're very grateful GG was able to help out so much over the past few days especially. She's been right in the middle of feeding, burping, and singing to Easton and Layla. Here's Easton saying, "thank you, GG"! What a good looking boy, huh.

Kendra is doing much better and she should be able to go for a good walk in the morning after the babies eat and before it gets too hot. Our weekend will be filled with seeing friends and family since our time here will soon be up. Time flies when you're... so busy you don't know what day it is.

Catch you later this weekend!

Stop by the beach?

Happy hump day to you,

The 4 Webbs are hoping to stop by for a visit with Kendra's aunt and uncle on our way back to AZ in a couple of weeks. Robin and Gordon live close to the beach on the central coast of Cali and we are planning a few days of a detour on our way home! We took a trip last year to visit them for our anniversary before we were the "4 webbs". We loved their hospitality and willingness to show us around town and include us in the family events. An expectation of our time there is to get Easton and Layla out to the beach for their first time ever. One of my favorite pictures of all times is below, which shows me and my nephew, Eli, looking out over the ocean in L.A. when Joanie and John lived close to the beach.

I'm taking the entire week off work for vacation so we'll take our time leisurely driving back to AZ. After all, it's still 82 degrees for the night time LOWS so what's the hurry to get back?

Last night we drove up to Grandma and Grandpa Burgess' house for a great dinner and special time together. We were honored to have them all to ourselves for the evening! During the past few gatherings there were many other family members around. Don't get me wrong, it's always fun to have lots of family together, but it was extra special to have their full attention and time with Easton and Layla. Grandma made her famous lasagna and it sounds like that is something reserved for special occasions and often requested from those who've tasted her secret recipe.

Logan and his girlfriend, Bree came by tonight along with Oma and Opa Burgess so it was an unplanned family reunion here at GGs! The big occasion??? Kendra had "minor surgery" today so everyone came by to help out with babies, have dinner, and make sure Kendra was doing well. It's no big deal and she's been through it before so it just means a couple of days to heal and she'll be back to normal. OK, so back to the topic of Bree being here... She took a few short video clips last week and posted them to you tube! I forget which one, but Layla takes the opportunity to spit-up on me right on queue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl9hMXXGlKg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2yyIifcyPs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuCAffdXJB4

This afternoon I was doing my best to entertain Easton and Layla at the same time and happened to catch both of them with great, big, happy faces! Unfortunately, it wasn't in the SAME photo, but what can I do... Here's Easton's big open-mouth laughter pose. Layla was chuckling here too, but you can't tell because her latest move is to shove her whole hand in her mouth.

and this picture of Layla will probably end up in her senior year book if I have anything to do with it. :) I really like her little summer outfit with the pink shorts that have a frilly butt.

We had a fun time today while Kendra went to the doctor and some good bonding, although I feel so bad because Kendra is in quite a bit of pain. On a happier note, I heard from Joanie and baby Daphne is doing much better now that she's hydrated and on a strict diet. Not sure if she's home yet, but it looks like she'll be ready soon if not there already.

Time to go catch up on the olympics.

Easton's turn to laugh

Good evening folks,


We've captured many great videos showing Layla's happy personality, but Easton took more time to develop into the interactive boy he is today. This evening Oma was here along with her friend, June, who has her own grandma experience to draw from. She had Easton giggling like a comedy hour!




Having these two fun grandmas around Easton and Layla was entertaining for us to watch. Even after experiencing play time with the twins over the past few months I'm still amazed at how many hours a group of us can sit around and just watch the two of them play. You can see from the next picture exactly how huge the smiles were for everyone this evening:

After emailing with my aunt Sheri I was happy to hear she reads the blog and enjoys the pictures as well as my haphazard musing. :) She also mentioned my cousin, Trent, loves to see the videos so hopefully he gets a good laugh from this one with Easton. Here's an extremely old picture of Trent giving me a drink of something while my other cousin, Bud, talks on the fake telephone. I have lots of great memories with Trent from years of family gatherings and childhood of when we lived close by...

Kendra also had two of her best friends, Laura and Megan over to spend some time with her and the twins at GG's house. Easton was completely at ease with Laura and didn't have the "stranger danger" he sometimes gets when being held by an unfamiliar person.

Megan and Isabella were there also and I think having these friends and babies all together was exactly what Kendra was looking forward to here in California. This "hang out" time is one of the things she misses about living here so I am thrilled for her to have the time and availability to experience this. The past few pictures weren't "blog worthy" of Megan and Isabella because I wanted one that showed BOTH of their faces in the same photo. Luckily Kendra took a few shots and captured exactly what I was looking for. Here they are in their blogging debut:

There's also some good news and bad news... The bad news first: my sister's baby girl, Daphne, is back in the hospital as of Monday night because she's really sick and unable to keep nourishment down. This is the second time in a few weeks for her to be in the hospital. I'm not sure exactly what they have found, if anything, as the problem and I don't know what is being done such as IVs or medication. Please keep her in your prayers and thoughts though. I'm sure this is a stressful time for Daphne and her family...

The good news came in the form of a surprise meeting for me. As I ate lunch here at work in Cali, my very good friend of 10 years, Guillermo, walked by in the cafeteria during lunch! He's from Costa Rica and I'm from AZ and neither of us knew we were in California. Anyway, we went out to dinner last night and had an excellent time catching up joking around. I call him my "brother from another mother" because we have incredible similarities in hobbies, life, thoughts, etc.

Enough for now... I have to get some work done today so we can spend the evening with Kendra's grandparents across town!

6 years after "I do"

Happy anniversary to us!

Six years ago today Kendra and I were married only a few miles from where we are spending time right now. I'm sure every couple says, "I can't believe it's been that long" no matter which anniversary is celebrated. However, the significance and reflection this year is more extraordinary than all of the previous years combined. So much has changed in just one, short year that I can't even begin to put the details in a single blog. Here's our engagement photo as a starting point for comparisons sake of how we've "matured" over the course of the six year journey.


and here we are at Kendra's cousin's wedding over the weekend:


Easton and Layla made it through the first 4 minutes of the wedding and then had to be taken a few feet away because apparently they haven't figured out there is a volume control for voices. Luckily it was an outdoor wedding so Kendra and Oma took the twins a few feet away and were able to still watch the whole thing. The view was amazing and it was an outdoor wedding The babies were cute and cuddly as always, and we were able to get in one short swing dance before driving back home. Last night we went out on a date by ourselves (thanks to Oma and Opa and GG for watching our babies) to celebrate our anniversary. We started our date at Mikuni's sushi where I ate a boatload of raw tuna. The ironic part is that my dad hates tuna as much as I love it! Kendra had some deep fried shrimp rolls and we left contently full. After that we took a drive to downtown Sacramento where we spent a few hours walking around. We had plenty of odd, bizarre people to watch... after all, this is California!

On an interesting side note, as we walked past a newsstand of free stuff, i reached in and grabbed a copy of the "Sacramento Parent" magazine. Hey, it was free! I guess that's a real view into what's important to us right now. The oddest part about last night's "evening out" for us wasn't the freak show of dreadlocked urban hippies, but the fact that we were just a normal couple. No strangers stopped to comment on our babies or smiled at us or asked us the same routine questions about being parents of twins. We were just "us two" for a change and although I enjoyed having 100% of Kendra's attention for a change, it felt like a part of us was missing... two peices to be exact. :) After wondering around for a while we stopped by Rick's Dessert Diner where they have about 30 pies and cakes on display (no exaggeration) and you can buy individual slices of whatever you like. We ate ourselves into a state of chocolate sedation and then went home. On a side note, this diner is where her parents and my parents first spent time getting to know each other back when we were first dating:

People say marriage changes you and I agree it should. However, I'm proof that you can go a long time (stubbornly) without becoming what your wife needs. Our first few years would have been much more enjoyable and successful if I had done a better job of making the transition from single life to married life. I thought Kendra was the one who needed to change, but in retrospect it was me. I'm no marriage counselor, but either both people in a marriage figure that out and accept it or the marriage struggles. I'm very thankful Kendra was willing not only to stay with me, but help me figure that part out together.

Just when I thought we turned the corner and had our marriage on the right path, Easton and Layla showed up! I've heard dozens of situations where having a baby tears apart a marriage and now that I'm in the middle of this thing called "married with children" it's easy see how a husband and wife relationship can disintegrate. Since I didn't do so well with the initial transition to husbandry maybe I'm overcompensating for my current transformation to husband and father? Only time will tell... I realized even before the twins were born that I don't have 5 years to figure this out and become what my family needs. Nobody's perfect, but Kendra and I are doing the best we possibly can.

Anyway, enough of my pondering and on to the excitement of the past few days. We packed the Honda Pilot with the 4 Webbs plus Oma Burgess and Casey and made the trip to Morgan Hill. Everything went well and introducing the twins to the Burgess side of the family was tons of fun. Kendra's grandma is recovering from hip surgery from a month earlier and we were relieved to see she was doing so well. We've been waiting for them to meet the twins and this was the first occasion to get everyone together. Here's Easton and Layla with their Great Grandparents from the Burgess side of the family:



Layla looks like a little princess and Easton looks like a miniature man (except his shirt is untucked and he has no shoes or socks on). Layla is officially crawling now! She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth feverishly. then she lunges forward like a frog and does it all over again. Here's a picture of her up on all fours as she moves glacially slow towards a dryer ball. Yep, we have 35 different toys on the ground and she fixes her sights on the dryer ball. Hey, whatever motivation works, right?



We dressed up the twins in their denim outfits for breakfast at the waffle barn (yes, that's the real name of the restaurant and it was surprisingly tasty). This was the first time we put Layla in her pants, but apparently that will be the last time also because we couldn't keep the top snap button together... and that was on the way INTO the waffle barn so you know she was too big to fit in those are nibbling on mommy's waffles. Anyhow, the pictures turned out well and shows Easton's ear folded forward as his head is raised up off of the head support thing. I merge the two separate pics together and it turned out like this:


Today has been an interesting day as our official anniversary filled with olympics, taking care of babies, and spending time with family. Tomorrow is back to work for me and Oma and Opa's official summer vacation from school is over. I keep asking Kendra every day how the trip is going and what her plans are for how long she wants to be here. So far our plans for staying the whole month are still on par because the weather is so awesome, time with family and friends is no where even close to getting boring and GG's house is more than accommodating for us.

Have a great start to your week!

ready for a wedding tomorrow!

Howdy folks,

So much is going on that I don't know where to start, but this will be a shorter than normal post because I have a rare opportunity to go to bed early. Oma, Kendra, myself and the twins went to the old town farmers market for an evening walk. They had about 40 hot rods on display and kettle corn. what more could we ask for? We ended up buying a costco size bag of kettle corn, but didn't shell out the cash for the 32 chop-top Ford for sale. oh well, those are the choices we make.

Anyhow, we were stopped every few feet by random people asking us all the standard questions: "Are they twins? Boys or girls? Oh, you have one of each, huh... are they identical? How old are they?" And the winning question of the night was: {drumroll} "Are those babies real??? they look like perfect little dolls!" We have a great time meeting people (including some canadians who took pictures of the twins for unknown reasons) and Easton loves to smile and giggle at those who stop to say hello.

We spent the rest of the evening at GGs with Oma Burgess. As the twins were playing happily on the floor I decided to get down to their level, literally, and as they were both practicing their strength move of getting up on their elbows we all held steady for a picture:

Those are some good looking babies, if I do say so myself. Wonder where they get those smiles from???

Tomorrow we are driving to the bay area to attend Kendra's cousin's wedding. This will be Easton and Layla's first wedding so I hope they behave. We have really cute clothes for their big debut and introduction to the Burgess side of the family. Tomorrow will be a long day and there is NO chance I'll be around to post to the blog, but the pictures and movies will show up here sometime over the weekend.

Have a great weekend yourself and I hope to hear from everyone soon!

burp cloth reuse

Hello, hello,

All is well here in Cali and we're 4 days away from our 6th wedding anniversary! I can't believe this much time has gone by. For our 6th anniversary we're supposed to get candy or iron according to wikipedia. Who thought up this schedule of what to give on which years? I'm happy to accept any candy, but we have so much wrought iron decor in our house that anything more will change it from "quaint" to "torture dungeon like". By the way, I like white chocolate and of course I'm still accepting gifts of Calvin Klein knit boxer briefs in size small. :) I'm only kidding... Just continue to enjoy our blog to watch Easton and Layla grow up and I'll be a happy camper.

I'm not sure if other couples have the "burp cloth reuse" discussion, but Kendra and I have a fundamental difference regarding how long a burp cloth can be used. If it were up to me i'd use one burp cloth per feeding per baby. however, since I'm not the one doing laundry it's easy for me to think like that. Kendra, on the other hand, could use the same one over and over again for a week and that's just gross to me. She tends to switch out between a few used and reused (and reused again) burp cloths by finding the one that is driest or has the least amount of yak. Good grief... this makes me gag just writing about it! I'm having those repeated heaving reflexes like a cat does just before it coughs up a fur ball.

That reminds me... I had to take our cat, Kobe, into the vet when I was home last weekend. Kendra and I call his recurring condition "gooky eye" because we could care less what the technical terminology is. All we know is that he needs medical attention every time so I went by to see the kitty clinic. While I was there the vet made a special point to tell me my cat was fat. Apparently Kobe tips the scale at TWENTY-ONE pounds! holy cow, batman. That's even more than I suspected. The vet gave me a measuring cup, a bag of diet cat food, and instructions to scale back the daily amount of chow he sucks down. He said Kobe should weigh 12 pounds. uhhhhhmmmm... yeah, i guess being almost twice your ideal weight is a problem. I've been telling kendra he's just "big boned" for years so she was happy to have someone side with her on the outrageous size of our cat.

Anyway, on to more pleasant topics... Kendra went to Megan's house and hung out with her and their 6 week old baby, Isabella. As a preamble for this next picture, I'm sitting here singing the Sesame Street song that goes, "one of these things is not like the other, Can you tell which thing is not like the others".

I have yet to meet her in person, but she seems like a sweet baby from what Kendra tells me and the pictures I've seen. This is the first time I've ever said, "Wow... look how big our babies are!" Little Isabella already has more hair and a better tan than our twins. :) Just for reference of size, that white thing at the top of the picture is Megan's tiny chihuahua.

We've been using GG's kitchen sink for bath time lately, which is a big change from Kendra filling the bathtub and playing around with them for several minutes after they are clean. Now it's more like a factory assembly line with baby, wash, dry, diaper, pajamas, and straight to bed!

Here's little Layla:


and Here's Easton with his usual open mouth grin:

I can't wait to bring out these pics when they start dating. :) Oh, the fun we'll have as parents showing off our little babies in the sink!

Have a great day, see you tomorrow...

Kendra's common sense

Good afternoon friends and family,

Anyone who has kids undoubtedly hopes the good genes get passed on and the bad ones are somehow filtered. That idea caused me to do a lot of evaluating of myself (and Kendra) because it's hard not to feel responsible for how they turn out. I know there is no magic formula to pass down only the good stuff, but it would be so much easier if there were one.

One of the most visibly opposite characteristics of Kendra and I is the area of common sense. She has a lot of it. Me? not so much... Hey, at least I know that about myself and admit it! Thought I'd share this lapse in common sense pictorially to show an example of something I would do that Kendra is smart enough to avoid:

Yes, that's a big raging fire pit and that's me jumping over it. Hey, I was dared to do it! It was for the honor of the Webb name. OK, it was just plain silly, but at least I ended up with a good picture of it, right? So what decides if Easton and/or Layla take after me or Kendra? There are so many aspects to a child's personality. One of the most amazing things about watching Easton and Layla is seeing their individuality and personality develop from absolutely nothing. Both of them are so unique... The way they laugh, what makes them laugh, how they respond to different noises and faces, all of their preferences in toys, food, and books. It's endless!

Tonight we went straight from my work over to Oma and Opa Burgess' for dinner. Since we've lived in AZ from the moment we were married, it felt good to drive over there and just hang out. That's what it would be like if we lived here in town...

Anyway, while we were there tonight I took a picture of Opa holding our sweet Layla. Then as we were sitting on the couch talking, Oma pulled out their box of old pictures and we found one of Kendra at 7 months. It sounds weird, but I took a picture of the picture because they don't have a scanner. It's not a great quality shot, but you can sure see the resemblance between the two of them:

Kendra at 7 months:


Layla at 6 months:


Not to leave out Monkers, here's a picture from over the weekend of Opa holding Easton in his cool cowboy hat. The twins are getting some wonderful quality time with Opa while he's on summer vacation and that means so much to Kendra and I.

Happy trails to you, have a good Wednesday.

My Twin Did It

Finally I'm home! Some people say, "home is where the heart is", but for me home is where ever Kendra and the twins are sleeping. So GGs house is home for now. :) We're having a ton of fun in California and it looks like our plans are to stay here through August. Thank goodness for flexibility and all 4 Webbs seem to have that trait. I came home to find Layla sitting up on her hands and knees while Easton is rolling around like a log now. After a 4:30 AM wake up to catch the flight here I was so excited and relieved to see Kendra and my babies. How could you NOT love these faces???


Noticeable changes happen in just 5 days of being away and I hate to miss out on anything with Easton and Layla. Easton seems to be even more aware of his surrounding and you can see his brain working behind those eyes.


Anyway, here are a few pictures and descriptions of what I missed while I was away. We've been waiting for the twins to grow into these two outfits and it appears they are finally able to fill them out enough.



Is that awesome or what? Easton and Layla will have a guaranteed excuse forever by blaming the other one as soon as they figure that out. Those who have only one child don't really get the full parenting experience from what I can tell. You ALWAYS know who did it when things go wrong... with two or more kids there is that aspect of trying to figure out which one did it and I'm not looking forward to those times. Guess the twins will be experts at conflict resolution by the time we send them out into the world.

Kendra spent lots of time over the past few days with her friends and relatives. This is what the trip up here was all about. Here are the twins with her friend Dee (she was in our wedding and has been friends with kendra for years) and her sister. All four are smiling so well and the twins' outfits are among my favorites... they are matching, cute colors, and they say, "twins rock".




Kendra also took the twins to see her other friend Megan who has her own 5 week old baby. I didn't see a worthy picture of their get togethers, but I can tell you that she is loving the time of hanging out and sharing with her friends. i'll be in charge of pictures when they get together again and hopefully catch some blog-worthy ones.


Another of the many outings where kendra took the twins ended up at the Folsom city zoo. Yes, folsom has a zoo, which is just some guys back yard where he put antlers on his hound dog and spray painted his cat. OK, it's better than that, but the best part is actually the train. they have a real steam engine train that goes around the city park area and guess who went for a ride? everyone!




There is Oma, Opa, GG, Kendra, Alexa, Layla and Easton in his cowboy hat going for a ride! Opa said that Easton stared straight down into the floorboard as the slats of the railroad track passed by. Layla looked all around as usual and took in the sights and sounds. their personalities are developing by the day...

As Kendra and I spend more time together over the next few days I'll pick up a few more stories and events that I missed out on, but this post basically catches you up to as much as I know. now it's time for me to go to bed and head back to work tomorrow!

Later folks

I'm back! almost...

Good evening friends and family,

I survived an excellent campout weekend in Flagstaff and now I can check off "climb a mountain" from my bucket list. I had no internet, no phone, no work, and no electricity during the trip and I enjoyed every minute of being unplugged. I'll have more photos on Tuesday, but the basic accomplishment included starting at 8500 ft. elevation and hiking for 3 hours up to the peak of Mount Humphreys to 12,633 ft. Mount Humphreys is the tallest point in all of Arizona and for some reason the 6 of us guys thought it would be entertaining to hike 6 hours round-trip. It was without a doubt the longest hike i've ever done and I don't plan to ever do that again. Here's a couple of generic pictures of the amazing 360 degree views:

Mountain biking for 6 hours... yes I can do that. Hiking... no. I'm glad we did it and now I can move on to other accomplishments like getting back to California tomorrow to see my wife and babies!

These past few days have been relaxing (all except the 6 hours of hiking) and a welcomed break from work, life, family, etc. However, I've been missing Kendra and Easton and Layla like crazy. I'll be back together with them by lunch tomorrow and plan to spend the rest of the day making silly faces trying to get the babies to laugh and being close to Kendra. Also, i'll check through the pictures Kendra has been taking over the past few days and post them here to the blog so the rest of you can enjoy them too. :)

Next post will be Monday evening or Tuesday morning. Happy Monday!