tale of two monkeys

Hi friends,

It's been a late night for me so i'll have to post more details tomorrow, but everything is going well. One short story to show a difference between our twins is how they react to a monkey. We had lunch with aunt Mary at her place yesterday and she has a rather large stuffed animal monkey that makes monkey noises when he is moved around. We sat Easton and Layla in front of the monkey and shook him a bit to instigate the noises. Layla was amazed and immediately lunged forward grabbing a hand-full of stuffed monkey fur before we could pry her away from it. Easton sat there, stunned, and went from quivering bottom lip to full-on crying within just a couple of seconds. I hope we didn't give Easton a monkey-phobia... Here's Layla moments later after we moved the monkey on the other side of the rocking horse, she began to navigate her way through to play with the stuffed animal.

After things calmed down, they were watching their Baby Einstein movie so we could have a peaceful lunch with Mary. We have fun just watching them sit upright and get excited about the movie. You can see the kid on TV chewing the corn while Layla and Easton both chew on their toys.

We've discovered Layla and Easton have hazel eyes and that's probably how they will stay. I'm not sure what age eye color becomes more permanent, but I'm sure the answer is the same as every other baby question: "It depends on the baby".

Another entertaining scene was giving Easton and Layla an entire cracker (as opposed to little crumbly pieces) and watching them figure out how to eat it. They both knew to use their mouth to break the cracker, but as you can see in this picture below, Easton was baffled by the whole idea. We ended up with half of the cracker on the floor, as you might expect.

A few other stories come to mind, but i'll have to save them for tomorrow afternoon when i get a chance to blog again. :) have a great day!

Healthy babies with Band-Aids

Hello, hello!

Here's a good picture from yesterday to get things started for this blog. Kendra is standing behind Layla as she stands up and walk a few steps with assistance from mommy. Her smiles get bigger every day!




Then we caught Layla climbing OVER Easton a short while later. She seems to think Easton is her own personal jungle gym. He wasn't happy about it and at least made some noise as if to say, "stop climbing on me!" They play really well together and are starting to talk TO each other instead of just making random noises when something isn't right. The pediatrician said our babies may lag behind a little in verbal communication because they develop their own "baby language" between the two of them long before speaking English (and hopefully Spanish) to the rest of us humans.

They are really hitting the milestones lately and the biggie yesterday was dueling high chairs! We put one together and it seemed to work out so I screwed the other one together and now we have two. The bumbos just weren't cutting it any more. Now we have half of our front room lined with chairs and papa sans and seats that the babies no longer need because we've traded up to the bigger sizes. I'll have to provide a more detailed review of this model of high chair once we have a few miles under our belt.

This morning started out a little rough since Easton decided to wake up before the chickens. He's still pushing up those two bottom front teeth so he doesn't sleep quite as soundly or as long as normal. Kendra was relieved for me to come home a little early on Friday afternoon. I gave her a break from entertaining the babies all day and the 4 Webbs went together to the pediatrician for their checkup.

After a successful trip to the pediatrician, we were assured Easton and Layla are as happy and healthy as we thought. Easton weighs 16 lbs. and is 26 inches long. Layla weighs 15 lbs. and is 25.5 inches long. They are both very close to the 50% mark on their measurements and the pediatrician said that is exactly where they should be. I can't remember the circumference of their head, but does that really matter??? I mean, as long as they are both close to average and don't have a huge melon, then all is well, right?

Babies getting immunization shots are about as sad of an event as a mother can handle in the normal course of raising a child. I was the unlucky one to hold their little arms as the nurse poked them 4 times. Seeing their expressions go sour and the tears stream down their face is heartbreaking, but at least that round is over! Easton and Layla are both running a little temperature and their smiles are a slightly more subdued, but other than that they are both doing great. When we arrived home I took these two pictures. Here is Layla with her Tasmanian Devil band-aids as she waited to get suited up in pajamas for the evening.

She has the prettiest eyes even when they are a little puffy from crying... And here's Easton sporting the same band-aids as Layla. You could say the picture was a failure because his eyes were closed, but I think it shows how extraordinarily long they are and how much of a cute baby he really is.

Our free time today was spent researching, documenting, and driving around to see houses for sale. I love research and I love shopping so finding a house is one of the most fun things I can do with my infinitesimal amount of free time. We found a few we really like and will do a formal walkthrough of some early next week just to get a feel for how these houses look on the inside.

Anyway, while we were out and about we decided to have some breakfast / lunch at "the good egg", which is a really good breakfast spot. Kendra decided instead of turning the wooden high chairs upside down and placing the twins' car seat in them, we would use them as designed and depend on Easton and Layla to sit upright. Well, it worked fine and here's their first moments sitting up in public like a big girl and big boy.

Layla has her trusty spoon to bite on and talk to. Easton was banging on the table saying, "where's the flapjacks, lady?" Between the time we ordered and when the food arrived the waitress brought some cheerios and fresh pineapple. Layla's face really shows her dislike of the bitter sweet, mushy substance:

In person it was even more humorous because you could see her mind going back and forth between: "That tastes horrible!" to "Let me try that again!" What a funny girl... I'll leave you with a short video clip of Layla's latest trick of: (drumroll) Feeding herself and using her finger and thumb to grab! Tadaaaaa... Here is Layla with her Pinchers of Power:

The twins are sleeping soundly as of 8:30 PM on Saturday night. More importatly, Kendra is drifting off to sleep as we speak. I'm always relieved when she gets to sleep early because if Mommy is happy, everyone is happy... I learned that a long, long time ago from my own mom. :)

Have a super weekend!

The big day at the doctors

Hi folks,

Happy Friday to you! Sorry for no pictures or movies. I know that's what you really come here for. :) I'll do my best to catch some of the babies at their doctor appointment to commemorate the moments.

Friday is the big day for Easton and Layla to have their belated 6 month check up... now that they are almost 8 months! They'll be getting a few shots, but we're debating how many to give them and which ones. There is much debate over which shots are really necessary and which ones are just an extra pain in their legs. Also we've heard that 6 shots in one day (that's what the pediatrician said to do) is too many and overloads the poor babies systems. There is so much information and data out there that I'm sure we could find a research paper or some quack doctor who has "scientific research" that proves whatever slant on the debate that we are looking for.

We thought it was time to move Easton and Layla up to size 4 diapers, but found out the hard way they are still a size 3. luckily we have tile floors so it was easy to clean up, but you get the point. accidents DO happen, but apparently they happen more often when the diapers are too big. The other end of the spectrum is that the size 3 diapers make Easton look like he has a huge belly that overlaps his diaper waist band. He's chunky, but it just looks painful and uncomfortable.

The good news of the day is: Easton's #2 tooth poked through yesterday! We can officially see both of his teeth sticking up through his gums and can certainly feel them when we put a finger in his mouth. Hopefully he'll fuss less now that he isn't dealing with that pain.

Meanwhile, Layla Rae is drooling like a faucet and it appears her top teeth may be coming in soon. We all know how much this is like the boy who cried wolf though. I've learned that babies just drool sometimes for no reason!

OK, enough rambling tonight. look for some pictures and updated statistics from the pediatrician on Friday evening or Saturday morning.

high chair is kinda big

Good evening!

It's your friendly baby blogger taking time out of my sleep schedule to fill you in on the latest with the 4 Webbs and hopefully get a smile or two from your face. It's been quite an emotional ride lately here with all of the changes in life. For starters, Wei Wei is going bye bye. That is his full name by the way... Wei Wei... He's been one of my best friends for the past several years. He's been a great mountain biking buddy, work out partner, and friend among other such associations. Here's a picture from our trip to Flagstaff last month where we camped out and celebrated his bachelor party.

Wei is the Chinese dude I have my arm around. See that valley faaaaaaarrrrr down to the left? Yep, we started there and hiked our skinny legs up to 12,500 ft. Anyways, we gave Wei the nickname "twinkie" because he's yellow on the outside (chinese) and white on the inside (american). We've shared many adventures and I'll miss him very much. He's taking a position within our company that requires him to move to Shanghai, China. He just got married two weeks ago, so he's got a lot of change coming his way in a short period of time. Kendra and I can certainly relate to that since our marriage started the same way!

The other change going on with us is that we've decided to give away our two kitties... :( It'll take us a few days to figure out exactly what to do, but the bottom line is that they have to go. My allergies are getting worse by the day almost and the allergy tests I went through confirm that I'm highly allergic to cats. Kendra is completely broken up about having to give them away, but she's supportive of my need to breathe and stop my nose from dripping like a faucet. Give Kendra a hug when you see her or at least a phone call if you're too far away because she's going to need some support dealing with the loss of the kitties. Here's a picture of Kobe, our 21 pound boy cat.


OK, enough of the sad news, now for some happy stuff. The babies had a great day today and were treated with a special visit from our neighbor, Marsha.


Easton and Layla and Kendra all three enjoyed her company and help. Kendra always looks forward to her coming over every week on Tuesday because they have such a fun time talking and playing.

Here's a couple of pictures of play time this evening as we waited for the magic 6 o'clock hour where the babies take their bottle and then go to sleep. I did a little self-portrait of the three of us as Layla was rocking back and forth and playing with her sippy cup.


Then I turned the camera and caught a good picture of Easton showing his super-advanced skills of sitting up well, grasping and holding the two plastic doughnuts, and looking intently at them as he ponders the chemical makeup of plastic. OK, maybe he was really thinking, "how can I fit both of these in my mouth at the same time?"


And finally, as the 4 Webbs were communicating with Oma through Skype, I caught a good video of Layla riding the jumperoo like a bucking bronco and me narrating with my best "Okie from Muskogee" accent.



We finally gave in and accepted the fact that our babies are outgrowing the bumbo with the tray. So I pulled out the screw driver and instruction manual and successfully put together one of the high chairs. Apparently Easton and Layla are at some in-between stage where they are too big for the bumbo, but too small for the high chair. That thing looks HUGE compared to Easton!


Have a great Wednesday and we'll see you again soon!

The profile photos

Greetings baby fans,

All is well in the Webb house and we're taking full advantage of family time together over the weekend. Easton's tooth is officially poking through and it's like a razor! I'll have to nickname him "the shark" until those teeth level off.

Easton and Layla are both able to sit up and play now so that introduces several new variables into our lives. One unintended consequence of their new found ability is that Layla steals Easton's toys. Now that her arms and hands are available instead of being used to support her body when she used to lie on her stomach, she is free to reach over and whatever Easton has. Whatever he holds is the ONE toy she wants. doesn't matter if it makes noise, lights up, or is just a fruit rollup wrapper; She'll take whatever he has and play with it. I already have to tell Layla to share and Easton to stand up for himself. I'm guessing this will be an ongoing opportunity for character development over the next few years.

As the two of them were munching on their fruit net things (pictured below), Layla reached over and grabbed Easton's because apparently the one he had was more appetizing even though the objects and fruit contents were identical! I'm really looking forward to our twins talking, but not so much hearing Layla once she learns the word, "mine".


I was relieved to get a clear picture of the profile for Easton and Layla because as you know they have the propensity to stop what they are doing and stare directly into the camera as soon as it is pointed in their direction. You can see more clearly the differences between them and those differences are becoming more pronounced the older they get!



If you look hard you can see the flattened side of Layla's ear, which is exactly like Kendras. :) Like mother, like daughter...


You may be asking, "how did he get a picture of the babies from the side when they are notoriously staring blankly into the camera"? Well, I sat them in their bumbos in the living room and turned on their favorite kid movie. It looked something like this from their perspective:


They watch intently as some other baby on TV plays with toys they don't have. Easton and Layla absolutely love it! We limit their TV/movie time to only the baby DVDs and up to 30 minutes per day. No spongebob for our babies, yet... Here's one final picture of Layla showing the drool literally dripping off her chin as she played in her activity center (a.k.a. exersaucer):

I've overcome the yuk factor of drool and now I don't mind the babies slobbering on me and my clothes. Spit-up is a different story... That still grosses me out and I'll never get used to it (yuck). That'll be one of the first questions I ask God after death is: "Why did you create babies with the design of spitting up so much, so often, and for so many months?" There may be a medical answer for that, but whatever it is won't suffice.

We're gearing up for the pediatrician appointment this Friday for their big checkup and next round of shots. We're both hoping for good reports and happy babies over the weekend!

Have a great week and check back soon!

What's the time?

Happy weekend to you!

Glad you could join us for another post of pictures, videos, and comments about life with twins. This is the story of the tale of two days. Two days that showcase the speed and intensity of the inevitable aspect of life known as "change".

Thursday: Imagine a green pasture with bunnies and a soft slow flute playing a medley of calm tunes. That was yesterday. Yesterday the babies slept in until 6:30 AM, took full 90 minute naps on schedule, and smiled and laughed at every noise and silly face. Layla picked up a piece of baby cereal from her bumbo tray and put it in her mouth without any help from mommy or daddy! What an accomplishment... The babies played together for long periods of time on the floor and mommy dressed them like a couple of packs of Fruit Stripes bubble gum.

Kendra took them shopping in the mall and they behaved like peaceful angels. Then in the evening we gave them their dinner in a bottle as always. Easton and Layla barely made it through half of their formula before dozing off to sleep in our arms. Kendra was cherishing the time of Easton lying like a sack of potatoes on her lap.

We put them to bed and without a peep they drifted off to happy, dream land for 12 full hours of sleep! Then... (queue the jaws theme music) Friday happened.

Friday: Easton and Layla decided that today would be different. Both of them are teething more than normal, even though Kendra says they've been teething for the past 5 months. They both drooled their way through the day with a little fussing here and there. Kendra took them out for errands and had to skip the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th stop on her list because the twins just weren't excited to be out around town like they usually are.

They are BOTH sitting up on their own and Layla is even pushing herself up from the floor into the sitting position and that is real progress! The twins are 7 months and two weeks old today in case you're wondering. :) Even though they are still SOOOO cute and cuddly (especially in their matching pink and blue outfits) you can see they just are quite their normal selves.

Anyway, Kendra was talking with her good friend Amy who stopped by to see her and the babies. As they were chatting I took over baby duties so they could have their conversation. I did my best to brighten up the little chaps, but my usual tricks of peek-a-boo and tickling weren't working. I had to resort to drastic measures! Layla reached up for the watch on my wrist and grabbed hold with both hands. There was nothing left in my bag of tricks so I reluctantly unhooked the watch and let her have it! There she sat with my fairly expensive Movado watch, chewing on it like a shark eating a turkey. Can you see the drool dripping off her chin???

She has the Clint Eastwood look and is probably thinking, "You want to try and take this watch from me?? Huh? Do you feel lucky, punk?" Desperate times call for desperate measures... I let her continue munching on the watch until she lost interest. Here's a short video clip of the twins as Layla plays with the watch.



I was just happy to have Layla preoccupied and intrigued with the "shiny metal thing" so I could focus on entertaining Easton. You can see the indifference in his eyes as I tried to cheer him up:

The silver lining to the cloud is that Easton has his first tooth showing! Hooray for tooth number 1. He's so mellow and easy going. Today was not nearly as dramatic as it sounds, but the difference in their demeanor is absolutely noticeable. We are very thankful both our babies are easy to care for.

We made it through another exciting day and Kendra still has the time and desire to bake a cake for tomorrow evening's get together. :) What a wife!

sand in my shoes

Good evening friends and family!

The 4 Webbs are doing great and we are just settling back into a routine. Kendra stayed home with the babies all day long for FIRST time in months. Every day for as long as I can remember we have always taken the babies out for a walk or shopping or errands or church at least once per day and sometime 5 or 6 times. In the car seat, then out of the car seat... They are very used to that routine. Layla usually has these loooong, continuous moans as she studies the tag for washing instructions hanging off her blanket. That can go on for sometime 30 seconds at a time! Easton falls asleep within the first 5 minutes of any given car ride and his head slumps forward regularly.

Anyway, today Kendra just chose to stay home and focus on the babies. They are sitting up all by themselves now for a few seconds at a time before flopping over to one side or the other. Easton looks like a little weeblewobble just before he loses balance and falls over...

Bath time is always fun for the twins because Kendra and I pretend to be really excited about the whole idea. Normally, at home, Kendra gets into the bathtub and then she scrubs the babies down with soap. Since this is a G-rated blog, I can't post THOSE pictures now can I... So I'll settle for these from GGs sink that we took last week. You can see Easton's extremely long eyelashes (he gets that from me)

Layla's picture was when she was very first placed into the sink. I know this because she is still dry... it takes her about 30 seconds to figure out she's in water and then she splashes around like a dolphin and laughs hysterically.

I'm wearing my sneakers today, which are the same ones in the picture below. After wearing them every day since we were on the beach, somehow i STILL have sand in between my toes even as I write this blog. You can click the link to see the music video of Dido (my favorite female artist) singing "Sand in my shoes". Every time I put my sneakers on I sing this song in my head now...

Not that I'm complaining! The gritty feeling is a nice reminder of the fun times we had on the beach and certainly no justification for whining about it. I wish I could have sand in my toes every day. Yes, I know... I live in the desert... but that's not the kind of sand I'm talking about. :) Kendra and I both love the beach and ocean so much. We'll definitely buy a beach house later in life after I make my first $5 million. Not sure exactly how to make that yet, but I'm open to ideas if you have any. We thought it would be fun to get a picture of all 8 of our feet in one picture. Sorry about the wedgies, babies... We had to hold you up somehow!

As for the housing post, I've decided against it. My opinions and years of research on the subject of real estate and housing don't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. Besides, it has nothing to do with Easton or Layla and that's what this blog is really about. :) Just know that we are slowly searching for the right time and opportunity to buy a house, whenever the right time is. Have you EVER heard a real estate agent say anything other than, "now is a great time to buy"? That's what I thought... Me neither.

If anyone really wants to hear our housing story of what we did, where we are now, and what we are looking for, then give me a call or let me know somehow. Otherwise i'll just continue to post about the most important things in our lives: Easton and Layla.

Thanks for the comment and following along with the blog, Dee! Kendra says, "Hello" and even though the twins have matching outfits proclaiming they rock, Easton and Layla say: YOU ROCK!

Bye bye

dogpile on Easton

Greetings,

Do you have a question you'd like to ask or a comment? I've removed the hassle of posting comments now so you should be able to do it "anonymously" without having to register. I also removed the other step where you have to type the "anti-spam word", so it is VERY easy to do now. I really enjoy comments because it lets me know people are enjoying the blog and still interested in what's going on with the 4 Webbs! I'm sure some of you have questions about Easton and Layla or us or anything to do with our life, so feel free to post them as a comment and I'll be happy to address them!

It's back to work for daddy and back to solo mommy duties for Kendra. This is the first day in 10 weeks where Kendra has had no family around. Feel free to give her a call and provide some grown-up conversation to her day because Easton and Layla still aren't much company for her in the way of conversation. The long weekend proved to be a busier than expected, but only because we packed in so much and did it to ourselves.

Saturday was clean-the-house day so we did a full day of clean, the feed and play with babies for 2 hours, then repeat the cycle several times. Lately Easton and Layla are staying awake from 2:30 to 6:30 in the afternoon, which is good. We need to stretch out their awake times a little longer and eventually drop one of their naps. You'll have to ask the master scheduler (Kendra) about the details. I just do what I'm told... Frequently I ask her, "what time are the babies supposed to go to sleep?" or "What time are the babies supposed to eat?" and then take those as marching orders. Anyway, Saturday evening we invited Aunt Mary over to dinner at our place. She arrived in time to play with the babies for little while and then get them ready for bed. As Layla was winding down and getting sleepy, she sat on Mary's lap and listened intently as Mary read her two favorite books: "B is for Bear" and the one in this picture "Brown Bear".


Sunday started with a walk around the neighborhood. It didn't last long since the babies were already expecting to go to sleep in their nice, comfy beds at that time according to the schedule they've been on. After their nap we sat them in the bumbos for the twice-daily "people food" feedings. They are eating all kinds of breads and fruits and veggies with no problems. With the tray attachment on the front of the bumbo, the babies can sit and play with toys and food a lot longer. I gave Layla one of her teething rings and she immediately turned in the mad whapper. Flailing her arms and showing that intense, serious look on her face. I caught several funny pics of her beating the teething ring on her tray top and this one really shows the strength and focus she has. She's lightening fast too! I'm not sure there is an olympic event that requires this kind of motion, but maybe she'll win a gold medal in whapping some day if becomes popular enough.

The 4 Webbs spent Monday doing some serious research and running around town. We have our 60" Sony SXRD TV that produces a stunning 1080p picture. However, nothing creates that high of a resolution except Blu-Ray. Even our DirecTV picture, which is incredible already, doesn't send a full 1080p signal. Soooo.... When we went to Best Buy to get $10 worth of ink for our printer, we ended up leaving with a Sony Blu-Ray player. I've been researching these for several months waiting for the prices to come down. While we were in the store they made me an offer I couldn't refuse! We watched National Treasure 2 and we were both blown away by the clarity and perfection of the picture quality. That's way off topic, but if you have any HD questions, feel free to call me because (as usual) I did WAY more research than necessary on the topic...

The other thing we accomplished on Monday was house shopping, reseaching houses, and soul searching to figure out what we want to do. That's right, we're in the market for a house! My next blog will be all about housing and our situation, so stay tuned for a highly data driven and heavily opinionated post on real estate...

Easton is up on his hands and knees now so he'll be crawling soon and able to keep up a little better with Layla. while we were playing on the floor yesterday Layla was crawling around and ended up practically on top of Easton. She had her mouth on his forehead and was puching him in the back for no apparent reason. I caught her climbing on top of him here as she moved into position to take whatever toy he was playing with. Although her intention was to steal a toy, I'd label this picture, "dogpile on Easton"! I gotta figure out that red-eye reduction thingy on my camera.


Have a great week and stop by again soon!

two toothed Layla

Happy holiday weekend,

The 4 Webbs are back safe and sound in our humble abode. We arrived yesterday at 4:00 AM after driving through the night and everything went smooth. Nothing like In-N-Out burger at midnight to get us through the last few hours of driving. There were massive lightening storms off in the distance as we drove, but by the time we arrived in Phoenix it was calm and dry.

We spent the last afternoon with Robin and Gordon enjoying the dense fog and cool temperatures. They apologized for the "bad weather", but Kendra and I were soaking it in like a sponge and loving every minute of it. We have plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures here in AZ so the dramatically opposite weather was absolutely perfect. We often stood out on their patio with the twins overlooking the hills and neighborhoods just absorbing the serenity and clean air. Robin and Gordon were amazing hosts and we hope to visit them once a year if we have the opportunity. One humorous note for this picture is that you can see Easton has roughly the same expression as Gordon... Sans the teeth, of course.


Easton and Layla have made some serious progress on milestones lately and I've done my best to capture them with the camera. You know how I'm always opining on how great it would be if I could catch get a picture of Layla's two little teeth, but can't seem to have the camera ready? Well, I finally caught one of her "shooting star" smiles before her facial expression turned back into the studious intense look she normally wears. Her teeth came in about 5 weeks ago, but this is the first good closeup picture of them. Here's Layla and her two lower teeth:


And now for Easton's big accomplishment: He holds his own bottle now! He has really strong muscles and arms that he uses now to prop up his own bottle during his evening feeding. Now I can play Xbox while he's taking the bottle without having to hold it up with my chin. Just KIDDING! I don't even have an Xbox, but I have a friend who used to pretzel his way into a position that allowed him to use both hands to play Xbox while giving his kid the bottle. Anyway, here's Easton clearly doing me a favor by holding his own bottle:


Laying Easton and Layla side by side on the play mat with a toy just out of arms reach and saying, "on your mark... get set... GO!" is one of my favorite games to play. It's like watching a turtle race, but much less graceful. She rocks and he rolls and neither one of them move at more than a glacial pace towards the toy. Sadly enough, Easton never gets the toy because he hasn't made much progress in crawling yet. Can you see the determination in Layla's eyes??? Other than the drool on her chin she looks like the definition of intelligence. The bib she has on is my favorite. :)


Easton and Layla tried a new food today: fruit! Noting mashed up from a plastic container either. I mean real, straight-from-the-cutting-board fruit. My sister, Joanie, sent us these plastic rings with a mesh net attached and they work great! you open the top, put some fruit or other mushy goodness inside, and let the babies gnaw on it to their hearts content. I think they were munching on nectarines in these pictures... They also tried some butternut squash Kendra cooked up last night and that was a big hit also. NO allergies to any foods so far! We are thrilled to discover our babies don't have food allergies. Easton is such a handsome boy...

and Layla Rae has the prettiest eyes! I can't wait to see what color they will be. Every day I look into her eyes and see if I can notice the changes and figure out what color they are starting to show. From what I can tell they are hazel, which makes sense considering Kendra and I both have hazel eyes. Her hair is staying very dark also even though there isn't much there yet!

Time for their late night feeding so I'm off to go fetch the babies one at a time for their last meal before the full night's sleep. Rest well yourselves and have a great weekend and day off work.

Wet suits are required

Good morning!

The 4 Webbs are wrapping up our last day of this extended journey today. Our plans are to spend one final day here and then drive through the night back to our home in AZ. The time here with Robin and Gordon has gone by way too fast and we could easily enjoy another week because of their hospitality, spaceous home, and great surrounding close to the beach. Yesterday as an added bonus Gordon took me for a ride around town in his Corvette. I've never had 400 horsepower between me and the pavement... It was exhilirating to say the least! If I own one of these beasts I'll have to put marshmellows between my feet and the gass pedal otherwise I could get into a lot of trouble.

Even with my help and Robin and Gordon around with arms wide open, there are still occasions where Kendra has to hold both babies at once. Seeing all three of their happy faces made me want to take a picture and it turned out to be a good one that shows how their expressions are becoming more and more meaningful.





By the way, I found out last night that a setting on my camera was changed from auto to some manual thing about a month ago. Apparently some stranger who took a picture of Kendra and her parents decided to force a setting on my camera and it was never reset properly. We'll see if that really changes the quality of my photos or not, but it can't hurt!

Layla's smiles that are big enough to show her two bottom teeth are too fast to capture on film. Her smiles are like shooting stars in a meteor shower; Extremely bright and exciting, but so fast that you have to really have to quick to catch it. She has two bottom teeth and Easton has no teeth. Every few days when he has a little bit of fusiness, Kendra says he's teething, but I treat it like the boy who cried wolf now because it's been two months and still no teeth. I know having teeth early or late doesn't prove anything one way or another so we're not worried about it.

We have the 6 month pediatrician appointment set for two weeks from now. It's really late considering they will be 7 months old by then, but because we were out of town it made sense to push it out until after we return.

Anyway, yesterday Robin graceously agreed to watch the twins while Kendra and I played at the beach! We had a blast bodyboarding and laying in the sand. The weather was cold and cloudy, but we didn't care. The locals were in sweaters and scarfs! We rented the boogie boards and wet suits and spent a couple of hours catching good sized waves.

We were worn out physically and I felt great after having some cardi activity for a change. My work out schedule has been less than stellar over the past few weeks with all of the traveling so doing something active was just what the doctor ordered. Kendra and I did a lot of laughing and playing out there in waves so making time for "alone time" was very worthwhile.

Oddly enough, when we returned back to Robin and Gordon's we found out that both our babies were sitting up on their own! It's crazy! We've been waiting for them to sit up on their own and become strong enough for that. We leave for two hours and viola! they sit up while we are away...

Robin was kind enough to take a picture for us and I knew they truly hit the milestone when Easton and Layla were able to duplicate the feat-of-strength after we returned.

You'll notice Easton is wearing socks that are 10 times too big... That's a result of runnin low on clean clothes as we finish out the last leg of our travels. We are all enjoying the cold and fog immensely, but that means we have to bundle up their little tootsies constantly. The 4 Webbs have plenty of sun and heat waiting for us back in AZ, so we really are loving the coolness.

Last night we all celebrated Gordon's birthday over excellent home grilled steaks. Kendra's other aunt and uncle, Cindy and Terry, spent the evening with us. They live about 15 minutes away and get together with Robin and Gordon often. One of our hopes for visiting here was to see Cindy and Terry so the evening worked out well.


Well, it's time to repack the Pilot and hopefully we won't have pillows and suitcases squirting out the window. The next blog will be from my old, comfy office and since i have the next few days off for vacation I'm sure there will be time to blog!

bye bye for now.

rock and roll

Greetings folks!

It was a bitter sweet day yesterday as we said, "good bye" to all of the NorCal family and safely journeyed down to Pismo Beach where we are spending a few days vacationing by spending time with kendra's aunt Robin and uncle Gordon.

We are very grateful to GG for opening her house for us to completely take over and turn into baby-land for so many weeks. She helped more than I can even attempt to write about here in the blog. Layla and Easton loved seeing her cheery smile every day and hearing her never ending collection of favorite songs as she sang to them. Kendra picked up a few songs along the way so now she's building her own hit list of songs the babies enjoy. Even thought the babies won't remember the trip and time we spent there, I know the experience was very positive for them and pictures like this one below show what Great Grandma is all about.

Last night Oma and Opa came over to spend one last evening together and Opa appears happy in this next picture as he played one last round of "peek-a-boo" with the laughing twins. However, after spending almost 10 weeks straight (6 weeks in AZ and 4 weeks in CA) he was sad to spend the next few months away from the 4 Webbs.


Yesterday morning we packed up early and were ready for the long drive South. We loaded up the twins with one last feeding of mashed-up veggies. I wanted to get one last picture of GG and uncle Casey with the twins before leaving.

After watching the babies play around on the floor together it is obvious at this point in their life that Layla is rock and Easton is roll. Layla gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth with such energy while Easton rolls around from toy to toy. It'll be impossible to get a single video with the rocker and roller both doing what they do best, so I decided this picture is sufficient to show how Layla is merrily crawling around into and onto whatever she likes.



The drive was safe and uneventful so thank you to everyone who prayed for our traveling and let us know you are thinking of us. Last night we did absolutely nothing and it was everything I hoped it would be. Talking with Robin and Gordon over an awesome home cooked dinner while overlooking the ocean was exactly what we had in mind for our first evening there. Not to make anyone jealous, but here's the view from their deck. You can see the long blue line across the middle that goes all the way from one side of the view to the other... Yeah, that's the ocean...

I never claimed to be a great photographer so you're wasting time if you try to tell me about the land-to-water ratio. some people use the limitations of their camera as and excuse for why a certain picture didn't turn out right. I, on the other hand, give all the credit to my little point and shoot Canon for whatever good comes from the blog photos. :) Which brings me to my "deep thoughts moment" of the day. Can you remember when someone asked a photographer how a picture turned out and they responded with: "Who knows??? I'll let you know it TWO WEEKS (or whenever the roll of film is fully used) after they get developed!" God, I don't miss 35 mm film... may it rest in peace forever.

Anyway, we woke up this morning and it was all I could do to keep Kendra in the house and away from the beach through breakfast. After everyone was well fed and napped and dressed and packed (2 hours later), we made it to the beach. Ahhhhh, the most favorite of favorite places for Kendra and I.... the beach!

Easton and Layla had on little jumpsuits to keep them warm because there was a slight breeze and a good layer of fog. We were able to test the Chariot jogger's abilities by pushing it along the path down to the edge of the ocean and then along the hard-packed sand.


I'm not sure what adventures the next few days have in store, but rest assured i'll do my best to capture them with pictures and share the excitement.

Take care and have a great evening!