Oh, to be a baby

Welcome back to the work week!

Another weekend is in the books for the 4 Webbs and we made the most of our time together. Being around Easton and Layla and Kendra is the highlight of every day for me. In many ways I'm jealous of our babies. They are completely innocent even though they are mischievous. They are aware of their surrounding, but not affected by them. Today was a hard day at work for me and apparently long and tiring for Kendra. The stock market is going down like the Hindenburg and global economies are slowing. BUT, when I get home for that hour before their bedtime, none of that matters.

The simplicity of life for them is so refreshing and I'm jolted back to reality on a daily basis back to what matters. Oh, what I wouldn't give for a day of ignorance! I'd love to find utter delight from 5 raisins on a plate or big belly laughs from a round of peek-a-boo with Kendra or the silliness of a finger puppet. I've discovered the joy of parenthood isn't from watching them grow up. The joy is from watching them live in each moment with no pretense, no prejudice, and no expectation. Kendra frequently says how much she wishes this time in their lives would last longer and go by slower.

Normally a 33 year old man can't get away with lying on the floor playing with a plastic egg, but if you add a baby in the mix... Viola! I can be as goofy and kid-like as I want.


He kinda looks like me, huh... The only thing cuter than a baby in a bathtub is TWO babies in a bathtub. Lately Easton is the constant splasher and Layla is more interested in studying the rubber bath toys.



Here are pictures of the twins individually for those of you who aren't able see the video. Easton can't get enough of the water. He'd probably stay there way past the point of pruney fingers if we let him...


and Layla has those big, intense eyes squarely focused on mommy as she chews on the killer whale bath toy.


Layla continues to reach milestones first and here is the typical commando crawler, Easton and upright Layla. Easton finally pulled himself up onto his hands and knees today, which is a big step in the right direction (no pun intended) for him to progress through the stages to the eventual end goal of walking. Commando crawling only qualifies him for one job in life: The US Army! That reminds me... Back when my brother and I used to play with little, green, plastic army troops I always wanted the commando crawling ones because they were much harder to turn them over on the battle field of the kitchen floor.


Anyway, back to the twins... The two of them are having frequent, loud conversations with each other and the two of us are completely entertained when the twins get going. Their vocabulary has grown from just "Da Da Da" to many indescribable sounds and shrieks. Especially when we play "get your sister" with them. Kendra swings Easton back and forth slowly and the closer the twins' faces get to one another, the more wildly they babble and shriek. Exhibit A:


Only 10 more days until my Ma and Pa arrive! The twins were only a few days old the last time Pa saw them and only 3 months old the last time Ma saw them. Since they change daily (from our point of view) it will be interesting to hear their impressions as they get to know Easton and Layla as 9-month old babies. We're really excited to have them here with the 4 Webbs so we can squeeze in as much family time as possible.

I'm getting a cold or some sickness so there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that i'll probably miss work, be a burden for Kendra, and feel like a bowl of Jello dropped on the floor... The good news is I'll have more time to post to the blog more regularly than the past week. :)

Have a great week and check back again soon for a video of Easton's latest trick.

Lunch Party!

(Kendra's blog post)

Good Morning Everyone,

Friday was a wonderful day! The Twins and I had our normal morning, full of playing and laughing. Easton and Layla roamed all over as usual and found there way to the toy box. Layla was pulling herself up and Easton was reaping the fruits of her labor. She would pull a toy out and he would grab it and happily play with whatever came out.


After their morning nap we had lunch plans with my friends from ERAC (Enterprise Rent a Car). I had so much fun seeing everyone. There was about 20 people who showed up and we all sat together. The twins had a blast staring at everyone whom I worked with, smiling and laughing.


Easton and Layla and me sat at the end of the table near Esther and Rob. Layla was in love with Esther, and I cannot blame her. Layla would half talk/half yell to Esther and Esther would respond,with Oh, really, okay! Here is a clip of them having a conversation.



Since I was only on one side of the table, I took Layla with me and went to visit with my old boss, Frank (Go Frank!), and my coworkers Troy and Todd. I gave Layla to Todd and he held her like a champ. Todd you did great, she liked you!


Well that's enough about work. Hope you all have a great Saturday! My parents are in LA about the watch the USC football game, thanks to Scott and Marisue! GO USC!

sleep, eat, play, repeat

Good day friends and family,

Another day, another dollar for the 4 Webbs and things are moving right along. The routine is starting to set in, for better and worse, and we are just working through the week waiting for my Ma and Pa to get here on the 22nd. I call them Ma and Pa because I'm from the mid-west and it differentiates them from Kendra's parents who we call Mom and Dad. We've called each other's parents by these names since the day we were married and it's nice to have two sets of great parents that we love so much.

Today Kendra wheeled Easton and Layla over to the living room where the computer is so Oma could watch them eat and sing to them over Skype. For some unknown reason, "biter biscuits" exist and i'm certain whoever invented them did so as a practical joke on mothers. In case you're not familiar, biter biscuits are a self-described finger food that are supposed to be big enough that babies can get their hands around them and tasty enough for them to eat without being actual cookies. When baby drool touches these biscuits a chemical reaction takes place and the whole thing turns to sticky mush. The inventors must have sat around and said, "what is the messiest food ever created by man and how can we make it sticky and crusty as it dries?" Here is Easton and Layla with their first attempt at biting the biter biscuits:


You can see Easton got the hang of it pretty quick. Somehow he was able to keep it out of his hair.


Not that keeping it out of their hair made a difference. Once they were done smearing it on their arms and face we took them out of the high chairs and straight to the tub for washing and splashing! Bath time is always fun for them and now we have a bathmat that sits in the tub and keeps their tiny butts from sliding around all over the place.

Layla crawled from the living room through the kitchen and into the front room all by herself! I think that was her longest distance of crawling so far. Good thing I was by the front door to stop her otherwise she would have continued crawling around the neighborhood until she found Mommy, who was out jogging. Easton has a little blister on the top of his foot from crawling. He's really getting used to the idea of being mobile.

Taking a picture is getting trickier now because as soon as the camera comes out and I move into position, Layla gets curious and starts charging towards the camera with the bright lights and dangling strap.


The two of them were at about the same distance from me when I started to take the picture, but by the time it finally took, Layla was already charging me like a wild animal. What you see here is typical of how they spend their time. Easton doing the army crawl and Layla up on all fours doing the bear crawl.

The rest of the time we find Layla propping herself up using Easton as a stepping stone like this next picture where she climbs up over him and rocks back and forth.


That about does it for current progress of what the twins are up to lately. The 4 Webbs are going to "Kid to Kid" on Friday so we can barter. We have two gigantic plastic tubs full of clothes and are hoping to trade them up in size for some other clothes that actually fit since they have outgrown most of what we received from the extremely generous showers and gifts.

I'll finish the blog today with a clip of Easton and Layla laughing... at Kendra... Now you can see what she does with her day while I'm away at work! It may appear she's borderline crazy, but you would be absolutely amazed at the lengths we go through for a few laughs from the twins. Kendra's cinematography gets better during the second half of the short clip. :)

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

34 weeks old

Greetings baby fans,

Easton and Layla are 34 weeks old (8.5 months) so that means they've spent almost as much time lying on top of Kendra's belly as they did inside it. Technically she made it to 37 and a half weeks being pregnant. I can't decide whether pregnancy seemed longer than the time since they were born. When Kendra was pregnant we spent every day wishing time would hurry up as we looked forward to the delivery with anticipation. Now we spend our time loving the moments with our twins and wishing the clock would slow down.

It's been a long, fun weekend for the 4 Webbs and I've taken about 40 pictures in the past few days. Most of them are duplicates because I have to shoot 3 or 4 shots of the same event or moment just to get one where everyone cooperates! Here are Easton and Layla after dinner and hanging out at aunt Mary's tonight:


We adopted and agreed on the new nickname for Mary as "GAM", which stands for Great Aunt Mary. As you can see, the babies were worn out after spending their last bit of energy scooting around her floors. We put their pajamas on over there and between GAM's house and ours (about 90 seconds of driving) they were completely asleep when we arrived home!

Layla is getting smarter and more curious by the day. After I walked over and put one of her toys away, she decided she wanted to play with it more. So she convinced Easton to crawl over to the toy crate with her and she pulled herself up and found the toy! Doesn't Easton look so much older? He has a very stout body and is more handsome all the time.


Kendra and I were at Costco buying mayo in a 5 gallon bucket and chocolate chips that came in a package the size of a charcoal bag. They have this small, round vacuum called a Roomba or something and it's a robot vacuum that runs around the floor picking up dirt with no human interaction. I thought, "why do we need one of those? We have an Easton!" Roomba, meet your match:


He crawls around commando style and covers almost every square in of our tile floor as he uses his shirt to clean up the dirty floor... and he doesn't require batteries...

I caught a good picture of Easton and Layla as they were playing with their new toys. Layla has her first flip phone. God help me if we still have to pay for cell phone usage by the minute when she starts talking on a real one!

and here is Easton showing how THRILLED he is to hear "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" for the 4,000th time. He's such a happy guy and content with the little things in life.

For example... An empty plastic bottle:


Or a Dryer Max Anti-Static Dryer Ball! Seriously. Hours of fun for our little guy.


Or here you can see him face down, gnawing on a package of baby wipes. OK, you get the idea...


For those of you who have not figured out yet that you can click on the pictures to see full sized versions of them, I'll post this close up of Layla with her big, green eyes and angelic face:


Layla is able to pull herself up on anything stable enough for her to hang on to. We put Easton in the Exersaucer and Layla crawled over, pulled herself up, and took the toy Easton was playing with out of his hands. Hmmm... Apparently we'll need to increase the lessons about sharing.


Kendra took the twins to the Mommy and Me class and all three of them loved it! Kendra had a chance to engage in adult conversation with women she can relate to directly. Easton played with a bunch of new toys and Layla made a new friend, Daniel. You can see the back of Layla's head:


Remember my Pastor and his wife who came over to our house for dinner and fellowship? Well, that's their grandson who is both enormous for his age and a really nice boy. Kendra has agreed to write her own post to the blog some time this coming week and she'll have more to say about the Mommy and Me and how great it was.

We went out last night for a "date night" and that was the first time in months where we were able to hang out with some of my close friends and couples we know. Kendra dressed up and looked great with her hair and nails done. We were out until around midnight and today we walked around like zombies because our bodies are used to a 10:00 PM (or earlier) bed time.

Whew! thank goodness I get to go back to work tomorrow and slow down! I could use a break from these crazy busy weekends with Kendra and twins. :) Honestly, I'll miss them very much and it's difficult to leave them knowing i'll be gone all day and only get to spend an hour at night between the time i get home and time they go to bed. I'm looking forward to my parent's arrival in two short weeks because they will be here and I get to take a few vacation days to hang out!

Have a shoooper week (inside joke with Oma)

Stay-at-home mom

Happy Thursday everyone,

Given the lack of blog posts over the past couple of days you can probably guess things have been busy with the 4 Webbs. The twins continue to change and grow as expected. However, just when we think we have them figured out and can rest on the plateau, they completely change the rules and we have to re-figure them out. One example is Easton's shift from breast feeding and bottle feeding to food and water only. He's been happily chugging formula at 6:00 PM every day from the same bottle for 8 long months now, but last week he suddenly changed. He does this drink, stop, play-with-the-rubber-nipple routine that led to feeding taking 2 or 3 times longer than it should. Then this week he wakes up starving as usual, but uninterested in breast feeding. He's still eating like a champ, but now it's oatmeal and apple sauce or we have one unhappy boy on our hands.


I think Kendra said that she talked to her mom about the new pattern of Easton and her mom said Kendra's brother did the same thing at 8 months where he stopped bottle/breast feeding. Yes, yes, i know... Every baby is different! :) If that were really true then wouldn't be an entire section of books at Border's about how to care for children.

Anyway, Easton and Layla are crawling faster and becoming more adventurous by the day. There are no more "turtle races" where I put the twins side-by-side and place a toy several feet away to see who crawls there first. They are more like wind up hot wheels now where you pull them back into starting position (with that "click, click, click" noise) and they race off at a measured pace towards the toy. Here's a video clip of the babies crawling around:



Kendra calls them "Lewis and Clark" comparing them to the duo of explorers famous for the transcontinental crossing of North America. When we hear crying or odd noises if we walk out of the living room for a few seconds She says, "Can you go find out what Lewis and Clark have discovered now?" Based on this picture, it's easy to see who is the manipulative instigator (Layla) and who is the perpetrator (Easton). If I were a baby language translator, the caption of this picture would be, "Go ahead, Easton, touch the shiny black buttons and lights on the black box!"


I'm already mourning the day I will find a pancake in the Blu-ray DVD player.

Easton and Layla require more and more interaction and fun each day and that's wearing Kendra and I out like you wouldn't believe. I remember when they used to just lay there in their papasan chairs for 30 minutes at a time with nothing but a a bell attached to plastic toy. Those days are over and now even the exersaucer isn't fun enough as they'd rather be crawling around it and through it like a play ground. Here's Easton who is now crawling around everywhere that Layla is able to go. He just gets there "commando" style as opposed to Layla who bear crawls. Go, babies, go!


That's it for now. I'm hoping Kendra took some pics at her "Mommy and me" adventures today. We're looking forward to my Ma and Pa (a.k.a. Nana and Papa) visiting in THREE weeks! The weather should be about perfect and we'll do something special for Nana's birthday, which will happen while she is out here visiting. See you all again soon.

First time for everything

Greetings friends and family,

What an exciting weekend for the 4 Webbs! We packed our free time with food, fun, and fellowship so it turned out just as we'd hoped. I'll jump right into the list of "Firsts" because it could take all of my blog time just for these events...

First fruits and foods for Easton and Layla: Kendra is introducing new foods for the twins every day; Green beans, pasta, maple syrup, etc. So far no allergies have surfaced and we are breathing a sigh of relief that they can eat so many different foods. Aunt Mary was planning to come over for dinner the other night, but Kendra was gone longer than I expected so I asked her to come over early so she could help me juggle the twins. You'll notice her hand is there in the picture... If I didn't crop her out, she'd be very upset because she wasn't able to get herself "ready" for blog-worthy pictures. Anyway, here is Easton and Layla eating kiwi for the first time. It's green... it's mushy... it's tasty. Go babies!


First time in the church nursery: It was bound to happen sooner or later and we decided this past Sunday the twins were no longer quiet enough to sit through church on our laps. Easton and Layla stayed in the church nursery during the entire service! We experienced similar feelings to someone sending a kid off for the first day of kindergarten... At least, that's what I guess it will feel like... The nursery and staff there are incredible and we weren't nervous or worried about them at all. The twins played and smiled the whole time (from what the staff said). Everyone enjoyed them as much as they enjoyed being in the new environment and playing with new toys. We just had to accept that our babies are growing up and are no longer new borns that we will hold in our arms. Here they are in the nursery as we said, "good bye!" before service.


Don't they look sweet in their matching red outfits? We were a little worried about Easton because he gets "stranger danger" sometimes. If a stranger holds him, once in a while he starts crying and becomes fearful even if one of us is standing right next to him. So leaving him with a bunch of strangers was a concern, but things worked out very well.

First time having our Pastor and his wife in our house for dinner. We had a great time sharing lunch and conversation with Pastor Phil and his wife, Pam. They were kind enough to take a sunday afternoon and spend their valuable time hanging out with the 4 Webbs. I took the following picture as soon as they came in and sat down. Mostly because we planned to eat ribs for lunch and there was a high probability someone was going to get their clothes messed up from the BBQ sauce.


Easton was captivated by Pastor Phil and his voice. Layla was excited because her outfit matched Pam's so well. Good color coordination! Christ Life Church means so much to us and we are looking forward to getting more involved now that the twins are not quite so demanding with feedings every two hours.

First time Layla crawled towards me: While I was sitting on the ground playing with Easton and Layla I called Layla over to me and after a few times she headed my direction. It was the first time she crawled towards me without me holding a toy to convince her. It was just me smiling with my arms out and she chose to leave her toy and head in my direction. Kendra's huge nursing pillow was between us, but you know how extraordinarily strong willed she is. She shifted into 4 wheel drive and crawled right over the pillow to me!


That's all for now... I need to go peek at my 401k and see how many more years i'll need to work before retiring after this bloodbath on Wall Street.

A post about Easton

This post is dedicated to our baby boy, Easton Troy. He's the mellow, relaxed one of our twins and luckily he balances out Layla who is intense and ready to go, Go, GO! This picture is of Easton lying next to me when he was just 5 days old. I'm amazed to see how tiny his head is against my hand.

Kendra and I both truly felt we didn't care how many or what sex the babies were once we found out she was pregnant. Although I will say that in my dreams over the months and years before she was pregnant I clearly saw a boy and a girl as our two kids. I told Kendra about the dreams every morning when I could recall them. The troublesome part of my dreams was I could never figure out which one was the "older" sibling. As it turns out, that was all part of the plan and I never considered the possibility of twins. And just like that we were blessed with twins. Here's Easton from today as he tries to get more chicken rice soup in his mouth than on his face. I'd call this marginally successful. :)

Here's Easton's list of personal information:

Age: 8 months and 1 week

Favorite toy: He plays with almost anything that makes noise and even more so if he can put all or some part of the toy in his mouth. He usually will grab the plastic, colored doughnuts and chase them around the room in circles.

Favorite bed time comforts: The blue Nunu blanket and his thumb. He's developed a conditioned response where as soon as we lay him in the crib and give him the blue Nunu, he pops his thumb in his mouth and it's off to sleepy town he goes.

Favorite food: I'd say crackers if I have to single out a specific food. However, most of the time he's like a human garbage disposal vacuuming in everything edible and chugging bottles of formula. That explains why he's been exactly 1 pound heavier than Layla since they were born.

Favorite time of day: Early, early morning. Between the time he wakes up and when he sees Kendra or I and realizes his breakfast is just seconds away - that's when he's all smiles all the time.

Favorite book: Touch and Feel Farm (he likes to feel the fake dog hair)

Favorite Movie: Fisher Price puppet thingy. i'll have to get the name of it, but it has three puppets mixed in with kids dancing around. Easton watches TV no matter what movie is on... Even the "direcTV" logo as a screen saver slowly moving across the screen is enough to keep his attention for hours.

What people say when meeting him for the first time: "He's smiling at ME!" Little do they know he smiles at everyone... He doesn't just glance at each person and go back to staring at his toy... He really loves people watching and stares as he smiles.

Favorite noise to make: While eating he sounds like an Ewok from Star Wars. He goes on and on during the entire meal.

Favorite face to make: His "flirty face" where he smiles at someone enough to show his bottom teeth, but not so much his eyes are squeezed shut. He regularly uses this cute face to get the attention of anyone within seeing distance.

What makes him cry: When more than 10 seconds go by without a parent picking him up once one of us goes into their room after nap time.

Nicknames: Monkers, Buddy, Hot Rod, E.T., Monkey 2 (he was born after Layla by a few minutes)

Here is a picture of Easton and I as he intently watches his Fisher Price movie and I do my best to look as interested as he is.

Easton is without a doubt the happiest baby I've ever seen and other people tell us the same thing about him. He's content just to sit and play with a block on the floor for long periods of time and that makes things easier on Mommy when she needs to give extra attention to Layla. Here's one final picture of Easton that I cherish. My dad (Papa) holding my son on the day he was born:

Who knows what he'll turn out to do with his life, but it's exciting for me as a father to see him daily growing into a wonderful boy. Kendra and I are incredibly grateful for two happy, healthy babies.

A post about Layla

Congratulations to the 4Webb's blog and "Thank You" to everyone who stops by to see it! There have been 2500 unique visits since I started keeping count 3 months ago. We're averaging about 165 different visitors per week and I think that is VERY cool!

Today's post will be all about Layla Rae and the interesting aspects of our little peanut. I bet you can guess what tomorrow's post will be about, right??? Not everything is equal in the Webb house, but we try hard to keep it close because we love them equally. :)


This is one of my all time favorite pictures because you can see how small and cute Layla was even when she was only 2 days old:



She is growing up so fast that every day feels like a giant step closer to becoming a little kid instead of a baby. Here she was today crawling around on her hands and knees beneath the exersaucer she normally sits in.

She's looking more like mommy every day... Here is a picture of Kendra when she was about the same age as Layla is now:


Looks pretty darn close, huh?! Layla is very curious about every little detail of her surroundings and whatever she can grab. Here is what we know about Layla so far in life:

Age: 8 months and 1 week
Favorite toy: Whatever Easton is holding, which could be something as simple as a bottle of nasal spray or a fruit rollup wrapper
Favorite food: butternut squash
Favorite bed time comforts: the pink Nunu, the GlowWorm, and her pacifier
Favorite time of day: The first 5 minutes after being fed throughout the day. She has such a peaceful demeanor and look on her face
Favorite book: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear"
Favorite movie: Baby Einstein on the farm (yeeeehaw!)
What people say when meeting her for the first time: "What a beautiful baby... she is really trying to figure me out, huh!"
Favorite noise to make: She sounds like a zombie from a 1950's horror flick as she moans for minutes at a time only stopping long enough to take a breath, while she stares intently at washing instruction tags on various items
Favorite face to make: Often times she will open her mouth with a huge smile that shows her teeth as she closes her eyes and rapidly breathes in and out through her nose. That's when we know she's really having fun.
What makes her cry: not getting the toy she wants, Easton gnawing on her foot when she puts it too close to his mouth, and being really tired.
Nicknames: Peanut, Lovely Layla, Sweetie P, Little Princess

I may add to this list some more this weekend, but that's a good start at getting to know Layla. :)
Have a happy Friday!

new clothes

Good morning everyone,

Today I learned that putting a tube of super glue in your pants pocket is a poor decision. Yep, when God was handing out common sense I was staring at the sky and Kendra took mine. For unknown reasons I placed the superglue carefully in my front pocket expecting to use it on my headphones at work. I spent the rest of the afternoon standing up and sitting down at my desk like a Catholic Mass.

On my way to the car after a long day of work I reached into my pocket searching for car keys and grabbed a squishy wad of keys, cloth material lining my pocket, and superglue. I spent a few minutes outside the car literally ripping the pocket material out of my pants. Then freeing the keys from my fingers enough to get my car started... I shamefully drove home with my hand stuck to the keys and had to explain to Kendra why my pocket looked like it was attacked by a badger and why I still had the keys in my hand. We had a good laugh and luckily skin grows back.

I saw Kendra and the twins chatting with Oma and Opa on Skype. They turned to see me and I gave my standard greeting with a huge goofy smile and said, "Hiiiiiiiiii Baaaaaaaabies!" Easton and Layla showed me their bottom teeth with equally goofy grins. I noticed Kendra dressed up Layla in a dress she's had for a while and was finally big enough to wear. Guess who picked the dress out??? That's right... me. I knew she'd look like a perfect little doll.


Both of the twins had a sleepless day today so bed time came really early tonight. Kendra pulled out some new pajamas now that Easton and Layla are growing into some of them. They looked so cute listening to mommy read "Brown Bear" for the bazillionth time as if it were the first time they'd ever seen the book.


The highlight of the day for Kendra was spending time with our neighbor and friend, Marsha, out shopping and inside playing. The highlight for me was dinner with Aunt Mary at On the Border. We had a lot of laughs between us and also with our favorite waitress who's been there for 11 years. I'll have to add more detail for that experience some other time because right now I'm still working through my thoughts about taking such a brave step, but talking with Mary for a few hours definitely helped. One year ago today was the last time Uncle Dave was healthy enough to go out for "Tuesday Tacos" so mourning the loss of Dave and our ritualistic fun is difficult.

As I mentioned earlier, Kendra and the twins were happy to have Marsha hang out. Especially Layla who discovered her bracelets and decided that biting them is as fun as wearing them on her wrist. :)


See you soon! Keep your superglue in the utility drawer...

where's this coming from?

I'm sitting at work on my lunch break and wanted to take a few minutes to share what's going on with me today. I am completely overwhelmed with feelings of thankfulness and love. That must be the cheesiest thing I've ever written in this blog, but it is what it is.

I've spent the day listening to various ballads and love songs? My ipod has a whole play list of nothing but songs from Sade, Joshua Kadison, Brian McKnight, and other similar artists. I even have the occasional Aerosmith ballad and they collectively are putting me in an emotional state that lends itself to these love-blog soliloquies.

I'm thankful for Kendra even more today than normal. I've been hearing about and helping with marital problems of some friends over the past few days. I'm incredibly thankful Kendra and I have such a strong relationship and are still in love the way we are. There isn't another woman on the planet who could love me as much as she does. I never want to take that for granted.

I miss my kitties who have been a part of every day of my life for the past 5 years. Some people can disconnect from pets easily and move on without grieving the loss. Part of the difficulty for Kendra and I is the change-averse nature of our personalities. I'd probably grieve the loss of a tooth brush if I had one for 5 years... That's just exaggerating, but part is truthful about how deeply attached we sometimes get to things of lower importance than human life.

The pain of missing Uncle Dave and the healing of my relationship with Aunt Mary puts things in perspective regarding what is important. We all make mistakes and none of us are perfect so I'm thankful for forgiveness and willingness to communicate. Tonight Mary and I are going to dinner together at "On the Border", the mexican restaurant Dave and I frequented every Tuesday for 5 years. This will be the first time I've been there since a year ago when Dave last felt healthy enough to get out of the house for our weekly fiesta.

Maybe it is my growing desire to just be home with Kendra and Easton and Layla. I miss them every minute I'm at work and wish the weekends were longer so we could have more time together. Hmmm... 4 day work weeks are starting to look really appealing to me! Last night Layla was having trouble falling asleep so I cuddled with her against me on the couch. She was facing outward with her fists clinched as always. when she finally had enough and couldn't keep her eyes open another second, she rolled towards me with her cheek against my chest and let out a big sigh of comfort. That was one of those moments I wish could happen to me every day for the rest of my life. However, I know she's growing up quick and those opportunities won't present themselves indefinitely.

Senator Dodd commented about the US economy: The chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee said “we’re literally days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system... " Whether you agree with the $800B tax payer financed bailout or not, we are where we are and that scares the begeezus out of me. Everything will most likely work out great and the US economy will find it's footing again, but the thought of "hard times" causes my brain to quickly figure out what's really important to me.

I'm sure it is a combination of all these unrelated aspects of my life, but one thing is clear: Being a parent and all that goes along with the responsibility reveals things about yourself that you never knew. I've known myself for 33 years, but new feelings pop up daily that never surfaced BC (before children).

Enough deep thoughts for today! i'll post the latest pictures and comments of Easton and Layla later tonight.

Bye bye

Best friends

Hi friends,

The weekend is already gone and I have mixed feelings about Monday morning. I'll miss spending solid hours at a time with Kendra and the babies as I head off to earn my paycheck at the salt mine. However, I'm looking forward to a break and a slower pace of life during the work week. I have no idea how Kendra manages the twins and the house and life so well by herself, but she does a great job. It's evident to me when I do my best to cover for her while she goes to the store or her soccer game or anywhere outside of the house for more than a few minutes. I think I'm getting the hang of it though.

Kendra went in to the babies room and found Layla is pulling herself up to the standing position in her crib on a regular basis. The picture is great, yet SO disheartening to see my lovely Layla looking sad with her eyes glazed and red from crying.


Doesn't she look like such a big girl?! Please pray for me to be strong when she's 3 years old and I need to tell her "no" for some reason. If she pulls this kind of stunt with the sniffling and pouty lip I'll need some strength to get through it and stand firm. :)

Today we decided to get in the pool to cool down and have some splashing fun. Layla and Easton laughed louder and longer and more intensely than ever before! Kendra and I held the twins facing outward from us and then faced each other so the babies were looking right at each other. They were fully aware of the other baby and splashed around for several minutes while pausing only long enough to catch their breath and then were at it again. They truly are becoming best friends... We moved the exersaucers together so the babies can swivel and talk to each other. They smile and make all kinds of crazy noises. My guess is they are currently formulating their own language and figuring out each other. Similar to "Close Encounter of the 3rd Kind" where the humans are playing tones and showing lights to the aliens and discovering common ways to communicate. Do DO do do DOOOooooo


We're in the process of shifting nap times now so the twins are awake longer each time. The idea is for their naps to last longer since we are cutting the frequency from 3 to 2 per day. We'll see how well this goes, but at almost 8 months old they should graduate to the next level of life without any issues.

The sad news for the 4 Webbs is our cats are gone. Sugar was accepted by the rescue we originally bought her from and Kobe is on display at petco waiting to be adopted. The rescue lady said he should have no problem being adopted because he's declawed, neutered, current on shots, and very mellow. If things don't work out, we may need to take him back into our house through the work week and then search for a family to adopt him over the weekends. Kendra has been depressed a little over the past week so I'm working on becoming more understanding of her during this time. I'm sure everything will work out fine, but it's just like any other change and loss that it takes time...

I'll leave you with a picture of Easton and Layla playing together where you can see Easton's two teeth as he smiles from ear to ear. Layla is drooling like crazy, but i'm sure it's hard to get past her big, mesmerizing eyes to notice. :)


Cheers to you for making it through another weekend and I hope you have a wonderful week!

sleeping - the mystery unveiled

Hello friends and family,

An unbelievable thing happened this glorious weekend. Friday night after our couple get-together we came home with two tired babies. Easton and Layla were asleep by 8:30 and the two of us were in bed by 9:00. But wait! there's more! Saturday morning... I heard the pool pump outside our window start it's daily cleaning routine, but no other sounds. I woke up naturally with the sun shining in through the window and looked over to find Kendra still in a deep sleep. At first I thought it was a dream because I haven't had the privilege of waking up whenever I wanted to. For the past 8 months my wake ups have been more like firedrills as the dueling alarm clocks sprang to life right on schedule at 6:00 AM. Then I thought something might be wrong so my adrenaline kicked in and I walked briskly into the babies' room. Luckily I found sweet little peanut sitting up in bed with her pacifier halfway hanging out of her mouth as she smiled really big. Easton was rubbing his eyes as he was in the process of waking up also. Both babies were fine and we were able to sleep in like a couple of hibernating bears all the way to 7:00 AM!

I'm not sure where Easton learned his sleeping positions from, but face down in his Nunu and butt up with legs crossed is probably not recommended. However, we're ecstatic he sleeps as much as he does so we don't care what position he chooses.



So now I can unveil the mystery of sleeping once kids are introduced into a household. Those people who would go on and on with there diatribes about how "babies sleep ALL the time" were not liars. I apologize to those of you who i've called liars when it comes to how much and how long babies sleep. The caveat everyone seems to have left out is this: At what age do babies sleep so much that generalizations and stereotypes have developed? The answer: after 6 months. THAT is the part all of my friends and family who talked to me about sleeping babies left out. When I give advice to couples expecting or those with new borns I will definitely start the conversation with a disclaimer. It will go something like this: "Oh you're expecting? Great! You'll love parenthood, but let me tell you when you can expect to really sleep again... After 6 month. 0-6 is a guaranteed trial of enduring insomnia, but it DOES get better and you'll catch up on the days of sleep you missed over the past months."

On Thursday of this week I earned my next level of Tae Kwon Do. The instructor uses my existing green belt and wraps tape around it to create the blue stripe. You might think that is a ton of work for a little piece of tape on a belt, and you're right! I've worked very hard to get this far and I plan to continue for as long as I'm able to pursue martial arts. I'm half way to my black belt now... Here's a picture of the instructor after my testing and presentation to the class as he explained what will be expected of me in the future now that I've reached this level.


Skype has proven to be great way to keep in touch with our family and we really look forward to seeing and talking with people in our lives. Let us know if YOU have Skype and we'd love to chat with you also! I installed it on my aunt Mary's computer and since i have Skype at home and at work it's turning out to be a good way for us to communicate about dinners and errands and general info. We chat with Kendra's parents almost every day and now my sister's family is starting to catch up with us from time to time. Unfortunately, my mom and dad's computer is not cooperating so Skype isn't an option even after several troubleshooting steps and reinstalls.

Anyway, Layla is able to pull herself up to the standing position in her crib! That is a big accomplishment and doing so a week before their 8 months old shows how advanced she is. Easton is crawling commando style and seems to be very content now that he can move across the floor at about the same speed as Layla. Placing a toy a few feet away and watching them crawl towards it is no longer similar to a turtle race. If we walk out of the living room and back, it is very likely both of them are already on the tile somewhere playing with something they shouldn't.

We found a new toy in our house... A fruit-roll-up wrapper. The twins are amazed by how it feels and the noises it makes. Here's Layla happily crinkling the wrapper and moaning as she studies it.


Yes, i know she is wearing the color green... I've slacked off my "pink and blue only" requirements especially when it comes to pajamas because no body has the chance to ask, "are they both boys or both girls?"

Another humorous and somewhat ironic discovery was made yesterday. Here's picture of Layla playing:


Notice anything odd? Look closer... You'll see Layla intently focused on the TAGS of the brown basket, not giving even a second look to the wealth of store-bought toys inside. She laid there for at least 10 minutes fiddling with the tags, trying to figure out what they were, and how to put them in her mouth.

I'll finish off the blog today with pictures of Easton and Layla playing in their exersaucers:



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

The expression lives on

Good morning everyone,

It's time once again to recap the highlights of the past few days, contemplate deep thoughts of parenthood, and do my best to crack a few smiles out there.

We'll start off with the deep thoughts of parenthood, which is more correctly described as advice and key learnings. Don't buy shoes for your babies. Today I want to tell you about the uselessness of baby shoes. First of all, we live in Arizona and it's blazing hot. It has been since the twins were 2 months old. That being said, they are now EIGHT months old and have never worn a pair of shoes... Ever. Maybe that's my back-woods, redneck past coming out? No, it's actually a conscious decision we've made not to bother because we have twins and no time to worry about details such as shoes. It's not as if they are walking around on the hot pavement and need protection on the bottoms of their feet, so why bother?

Maybe there is some psychological or physiological reason why babies should wear shoes, but I sure don't see it. Even Kendra and I don't wear shoes in our house. That's not some anal retentive Obsessive Compulsive Disorder either one of us enforce to keep the carpets clean, it's just nice not to wear shoes! Anyone coming to our house who has funky feet or an undesirable aroma can feel free to wear shoes without persecution. However, the only time any of the 4 Webbs wear shoes at home is when we're taking out the trash. I'm sure the day will come when Easton and Layla start walking around and will need shoes, but for now, we're putting our clothes money towards onesies and pajamas.

OK, so now I can share the fun, fun times we're all having together. Lest any of you think the twins somehow stole the magic from our romantical marriage, here are the highlights from our special evening and morning. We were BOTH in bed by 9:00 PM and stayed there until 6:00 AM this morning. That deserves a round of applause and a curtsy. It's been roughly 14 months since we slept that long at one time. Don't tell me you already forgot the "get up to go pee 5 times per night" routine for Kendra while she was pregnant...

Anyway, we watched the first half of the movie "The Notebook", which is one of our all time favorites. I'm not much for chick flicks, but that one really gets me all choked up thinking about how strong love can be between two people. Really puts things in perspective. We spent a few minutes talking and then had a full night's sleep. This morning Kendra woke up before the babies (make that another first for the 4 Webbs) and then we went for a stroll through our neighborhood to feel the crisp, cool 77 degree morning. I'm dead serious about 77 degrees being the night time low, but it's all relative.

Layla continues to find great joy from jumping around like a pogo stick in her bouncy seat. As Kendra was talking to Oma Burgess on Skype I snapped a few pictures and happened to catch this one:


Does this expression look familiar? As SOON as I saw this image I knew exactly where I remember seeing that before:


Is that awesome or what?! Kendra's expression moments after we committed our lives together in marriage is EXACTLY the same as the thrill Layla gets from bouncing in the bouncy seat. Kendra's facial expression from that day lives on... Gotta love the cycle of life, eh? When Layla asks us how she'll be certain she's found true love we'll say, "You know that feeling you get from jumping up and down intensely in your bouncy seat? It's like that." Seeing that picture of our wedding brings back great memories.

Tonight we had another milestone as the twins successfully bathed without mommy's assistance.

Until now I was unable to get good pictures posted to the blog showing Easton and Layla in the tub. Kendra always jumped in naked with them one at a time so she could hold them carefully while soaping their little bodies up, which never turned out as a G rated opportunity for pictures. I think she read in a book somewhere today that our babies are at the right age where they can sit up on their own in the tub. So there you have it. Easton and Layla begin their long road to independence one step at a time. All I was thinking during this elongated play time in the tub was, "Please, oh please... Don't poop in the tub."

Another cute picture from today was of twins sitting calmly watching their short video while Kendra and I ran around the house preparing for our neighbors to come over for dinner. Here you have a very common scene of Layla intensely studying the situation and Easton grinning without a care in the world.


The twins are communicating with each other more (and louder) every single day. They respond to each others moans and screetches with ever increasing volume of their own baby language and it sounds very similar to a prehistoric aviary. A blind person would swear a pterodactyl will fly through the room any minute.

And finally, we have the embarassing shot for the day. Kendra incorrectly thought she wasn't good enough for the camera, but I knew Easton would give me a sweet, happy face picture so I took this one. Kendra's covering her face and Easton is showing off his two front teeth on bottom.

Have a great Thursday and we'll catch up again over the weekend!