Neill and Jenny are here!

Greeting friends and family,

The weekend is over, but guess who is taking vacation days this week? Me! Our friends from South Africa, Neill and Jenny, are staying with us this week and I am taking a couple of days off from work so I don't miss a thing. We are extremely blessed to have them all to ourselves for a few days as they relax in between ministry opportunities here in AZ. Everyone else, including Kendra's parents, have to share them with a classroom or church-full of people. However, the 4 Webbs get great one on one time to fellowship and converse.

After church this morning and baby nap time we drove out East to Joes Farm Grill out in Gilbert, which was featured on Food Network's TV show with Guy Fieri called Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. The unique thing about Joes Farm Grill is they get all of the produce fresh from their backyard (literally) and everything is home made from scratch. Two thumbs up from the 4 Webbs. We saw our friends Preston and Sarah along with their two kiddos who also ate there for lunch. Here are Neill and Jenny standing by the entrance walk way


Easton and Layla walked around on the grassy slopes to work off those french fried. You can see Easton doing his best to stand up straight on the steep little hill while Layla is in the background doing laps up and down the hill.


She walked up and down at least 20 times and never grew tired of the exercise. We had to physically pick her up and head out to the car because she was so intent to wonder around in the grassy knoll.


Easton and Layla are both developing the constructive and destructive motor skills relatively well. I have no idea what "normal" is, but we all clapped and cheered when Easton and Layla created a stack 6 blocks high. Easton destroyed the tower and I was only able to convince them of a 5 block high tower after I found the camera, but it still deserved some verbal praise and a good hand clap.


and one other good, clear picture of Layla giving daddy a block.


I'll continue the WFMW (Works For Me Wednesday) where I share the most crucial consumer purchases and wisdom. However, this is the exact opposite where I'm telling you of our experience to help you AVOID the same mistakes we did. Maybe this will be a new section called "Do as I say, not as I do". This weeks product to avoid is magnetic letters from Wal-mart. Notice anything odd about the back of the "B"?


Hint: these are MAGNETIC letters to stick on your fridge.

Give up? OK, notice there is NO magnet in the back of the letter "B". We bought this package of A-Z magnetic letters from Wal-mart for 88 cents. That should be your first red flag and trigger some caution. We brought them home and found the magnet on the back was so wimpy they wouldn't even stay on the fridge (red flag number 2)! After a couple of drops to the floor we could tell the magnets were coming unglued from the plastic letters (red flag number 3), but we didn't get rid of them. Until... Today Layla picked something up from the kitchen floor and began chewing on it in a way that obviously showed she was not successfully breaking it down to eventually swallow. Kendra ran over to her and did the motherly finger-in-the-mouth to clear out whatever she was munching on. Yes, it was a magnet. I'm not sure what health damage eating a magnet could do, but we certainly don't want to find out! All the letters went directly to the trash and there goes a waste of 88 cents. So there you have it... don't buy cheap toys with magnets especially the 88 cent letters from Wal-mart.

As you can see from this picture, Layla survived just fine and although she has a magnetic personality that draws the attention of everyone around her, she didn't swallow any magnets (at least any we know of).


Easton learned the word uh-oh and "all done". When anything falls to the floor he looks up and says, "uh-oh!" and repeats the word until someone acknowledges his alert to let us know something hit the floor.


Layla resorts to shaking her head back and forth to say "no", which means she's finished eating. Easton makes a good effort to do the sign language and at the same time announces "all done!" The communication between us parents and our twins is making life MUCH easier. They can actually tell us what they want and what's wrong. The still have the basic needs of food, sleep, and diaper changes, but at least they are giving us queues as to what they want. Hooray for another milestone.

Have a great week!

Early Easter and cacti gone wild

TGIF friends and family,

Friday morning I have my annual review at work and after previewing my "pay" letter... I am certain I still have a job. That makes the 4 Webbs very grateful and pleased. I don't know why they call it a pay letter when no one in the company is getting a raise this year? Oh well... just one of those rhetorical questions.

Anyway, my photography skills are so awesome I was asked to take pictures for the next feature film called,"Cacti Gone Wild: Spring Break edition". Here is the cover photo


---> The truth: Our good friends and neighbors Mike and Marsha are the unfortunate recipients of their neighbor's dying cactus falling the wrong direction... into their back yard. The twisted metal thing under the huge cactus arms used to be a brand new yard swing with a shade on top.



That is one of the saddest, coolest thing I’ve ever seen! It busted through their cinder block wall like a Mac truck and mangled the swing as if it were caught up in a tornado. I feel so bad, but they have such great attitudes that it didn’t seem to upset them much. That was an exciting part of our evening. The clean up effort will be very interesting though. How do you get something like this out your pool?


Enough show and tell for today. Let's talk about our twins! Kendra took the twins to her Mommy and Me group and they put together an Easter egg hunt. The eggs were filled with goldfish and marshmallows and raisins. The twins had an excellent time finding the eggs. Sarah was kind enough to take and forward to us a semi-pro picture from her semi-pro camera. It’s obvious she has a good eye for photography.


I’m sure it helps for the subjects in the picture to be our handsome Prince, Easton, and the beautiful princess, Layla, but I’m probably just biased as the proud father!

Layla chased the ducks and I jokingly said it’s because she thinks the eggs are hidden in the ducks… um… you know. Good thing they can waddle faster than Layla can walk or this situation could have turned ugly for the ducks. Guess we won’t be singing the song anymore that says, “The chickens give us eggs, the chickens give us eggs, hi ho the dairy-o the chickens give us eggs.”


Easton does a great job of figuring things out. Once he discovered how to break the eggs open and reap the rewards of yummy treats inside, he was off to the races.


Layla is perfect for playing dress up. She stays still long enough to take pictures! I found the big bunny ears in their basket-o-toys and she was such a sport to put them on and stand still so I could capture her cuteness and the moment.


Layla communicates mostly through sign language and Easton through spoken words. However, lately the lines starting to cross. Easton showed us the sign for bath and Layla says hat, hi, uh-oh, and bye-bye. They are both on their way to being great communicators. Layla even sings once in a while. :)

I'll spend the day Friday working and the evening playing with babies while Kendra goes to craft-night with her girlfriends. Then on Saturday we'll spend the morning getting ready for Neill and Jenny who should arrive in the afternoon and stay for a week. We are so excited to have them stay with us and are already planning adventures during their visit.

See you soon!

Pop rocks

Howdy folks,

It finally happened this week! The moment I've been waiting for since we first found out Kendra was pregnant with twins. After arriving home from work I flung open the door to the house and did the same thing I do every day. I say, "Hi baaaaabies! Daddy's home!" with my eyebrows raised, a goofy smile on my face, and my arms open wide.

Yesterday was different though. Easton and Layla both stopped what they were doing and came running to see me while saying, "dada dada dada" over and over. As I bent down to give them hugs Layla buried her head in my shoulder leaving a big slobber mark on my shirt. Easton held his arms in the air and repeatedly said, "up, up, up" until I picked him up and pumped him into the air over my head. That moment where the twins were excited about me coming home and call me Dada as they come over to show me love was everything I hoped it would be and then some.

Don't get the impression the 4 Webbs are a "Leave it to Beaver" perfect family. We have our good days and bad just like any other couple or parent. However, that moment was superb. Whatever happened at work yesterday didn't matter. Whatever argument Kendra and I had about trust and spiritual leadership and insecurity didn't matter. Whatever needed to be done around the house and decision that needed to be made didn't matter. I'm amazed how something so simple and insignificant can mean so much to me as a father. Many times I build up expectations and hype around certain events or special moments only to be let down or unfulfilled (like the Suns not making the playoffs even with Shaq). Not this time. It was unconditional love given in a way that can't be bought or manufactured or deserved.

OK, enough about me. Let's see some POPS and babies. Easton has popsicle all over his face and body. Layla has the popsicle crammed in her mouth and only wearing one shoe. What a sight.


Kendra made some home made popsicles out of yogurt and strawberries and some other healthy stuff. This was the first frozen thing the twins have eaten so it took a little while for them to get used to the coldness in their mouth. Once Kendra broke off a small piece and fed it to them so they could get the taste instead of just the coldness, they really liked it.

Here's a closer picture of Layla's beautiful face as she gnaws away at the popsicle.


And a close up of Easton doing the same thing: Getting extremely messy and loving the tasty pops!


I am proud of Kendra for setting up such a humorous picture-worthy activity and taking pictures of it for me. I ask almost every morning as I go to work for her to take pictures of the fun I miss while I'm at work. Many times she does and I'm glad she did this time as well.

One final picture of Easton in the backyard where he is more interested in his popsicle than in the rocks. This one hit me like Deja Vu. I looked at the picture and said, "where have I seen that pose and look before?"


Nice Crocs, Easton. Then it hit me! I dug around in the archives and found this one of Layla. You see the similarities? They must be brother and sister!


Every day I see ways the twins are carbon copies of each other and other ways they are complete opposites. They both love to wrestle and play after bath time. We just have to be there to referee. By referee I mean keep the two of them from biting each other. The cage match lives on! Layla tackled Easton as the two of them giggled and rolled around.


Thanks for stopping by and keeping up with the 4 Webbs. See you again soon.

teamwork and subwoofer

Every morning after the twins eat breakfast Kendra turns on their favorite (and only) TV show, The Wonder Pets . They sing the same songs every single episode and one part says:

Linny: "Linny,"
Tuck: "Tuck,"
Ming-Ming: "And Ming-Ming, too."
All: "We're Wonder Pets and we'll help you!"
Linny: "What's gonna work?"
Tuck and Ming-Ming or All: "Teamwork!"
Linny: "What's gonna work?"
Tuck and Ming-Ming or All: "Teamwork!"

This little jingle stays in my head ALL day long and I end up humming it at work or adding the teamwork theme into my corporate presentations. Click on this link if you want to see some pictures and hear how ridiculously humorous they sound. As you can tell, my blog post title came from that theme song too. And here is another source of teamwork:


Apparently, the idea Easton and Layla must be within touching distance of each other extends to the backyard. Easton was just picking up rocks and throwing them, which became the antithesis of Layla as she attempted to stack them.

Great Aunt Mary spent the evening with the three of us since Kendra played an early soccer game tonight. We went outside to play in the grass and rocks. At first both babies stayed within the bounds of the yard because the brick barrier was like the Grand Canyon to them.However, once Layla figured out how to step over it, she was "off-roading".


Saturday night we proved we are still spontaneous! We are NOT an old, washed-up married couple who have succumbed to the rut of the daily grind. Great Aunt Mary agreed to come over and keep watch for a few hours so we could get out by ourselves after the babies went to sleep.

I checked online to see what events were happening and BAM! there on the home page was a concert notice of Brett Dennen playing in town. I listen to him on my iPod frequently so I played a few songs for Kendra to hear what he sounded like. She agreed to go see him perform so we headed out the door with no tickets and no guarantees. We showed up before the concert start time and bought our tickets. We had a bite to eat at a restaurant next door and then had a blast listening to the live music and holding each other close.


We were literly a few feet in front of him as they performed. This is not a zoomed in picture! We were right there.


Hooray for staying young and having a good "couple" time together. Thanks to Mary for allowing us the luxury to get out! Anyway, back to the babies...

We went shopping today and since it is already a spectacle where people stop and talk to us about the twins, we decided to have a little fun with it. We raced past the Easter section, but Kendra stopped to play with the bunny ears. We put the ears on Easton and Layla and they loved wearing it.


I was excited the ears came in pink and blue. :) Then once we arrived with the groceries back at home, Layla decided to try and fit the entire cantaloupe in her mouth!


Let me assure you, there is no amount of teamwork that will make that attempted feat successful. I'm proud of her for trying though. She is fearless... Easton and Layla both say the word "hat" frequently and I decided to bring out a few of ours to play dress-up and kill some time. Layla is the most beautifully entertaining baby girl I could ever hope for.


Easton was more into reading his book than playing with hats so by the time I put the hat on Easton and took the picture, he was already trying to take the hat off and get back to his reading. :)


I dressed the twins today and noticed they both had green shirts and jean skirt/shorts. Being the cheesy father I am, I pulled out my green shirt from the closet and we were the green Webbs today.


Don't worry, I didn't wear my cowboy hat to the grocery store... that would be silly.

The subwoofer - One final story for a humorous way to start your work week. I had a 12 year old subwoofer attached to my home theater and a week ago as the volume was turned up, I heard what sounded like a blown speaker. After walking around the living room I zeroed in on my subwoofer and as I put my ear on the side of the wooden case, I could hear the "rattle, rattle" noise suggesting it had finally blown out.


If you know me then you know how much I love to research and the subwoofer was no exception. I spent a few hours reading and shopping online and at Best Buy. I decided on a particular model and found it on Craigslist for about 30% of the price it sells for in stores. Easton went with me and we bought the used subwoofer that day.

After a few hours of taking care of other higher priorities I went over to unhook my old subwoofer and give it a proper burial in our garbage can. When I picked it up to go out to the trash I heard something rattling inside even though it was powered off! Take another look at the picture above and notice how the port hole is perfectly round. I put my hand in the port hole and pulled out a tennis ball and a plastic ball. We had a good laugh about it and I proceeded out to the trashcan to throw the old, broken subwoofer away. I plugged in the new one and it sounds incredible.

Here comes the irony... We were telling the story to Mary and Kendra stopped mid sentence. We both looked at each other as if we just found out we were Punk'd! (Punk'd means, "the recipients of a practical joke" for you old folks). The rattle I heard in the subwoofer was NOT a busted speaker. It was the balls bouncing up and down inside as the speaker played the music!

I ran back out to the trash, dug out the subwoofer, and now I have two subwoofers thanks to Easton and Layla shoving balls in the port hole. Too bad we decided to teach them how to put items "in the box". Anyone want to buy a used subwoofer that smells like banana peel and pasta sauce?

See you soon.

2 square feet

Hello friends and family,

The bad news is that Kendra already has to discipline the twins. I had hoped to make it all the way to two years, but apparently they are already making "choices" that have consequences. Layla purposefully smacked Easton today for the first time out of anger and mommy had to discipline. Yep, it's already time to start teaching right and wrong...

Other than that one downer and a little fever for Easton, everything is going very well. I've been chuckling about this picture for a couple of days so lets play a game of interpretation. Here's the picture:


There are several humorous aspects to the picture and I'll give my observation as the father of these two wonderful twins.

Let me dissect this picture for you... I notice how close they are to each other. We have a modest 1800 sq. ft. house, but for some reason Easton and Layla are ALWAYS right up against each other in the same 2 sq. ft. Why do we need a bigger house if they only occupy a small part of it at any given moment? The only time they are apart is in their cribs across the room from each other as they sleep.

Easton's smile is always contagious and every time he flashes his toothy grin I can't help but smile along with him. His laugh is usually more of a constrained chuckle and there's nothing that sets my mood straight faster than hearing him laugh.

Unfortunately, Kendra cut Easton's hair this week. I miss his mullet every time I see his bare neck. I liked his hair long! Oh well, lucky for me it'll grow back.

Layla has on a dress that is obviously too big and falling off her shoulder. Doesn't stop her one bit though! She could have her arms strapped down to her sides and still manage to get where she wants to go and have her way. Here's another picture of Layla wondering around in that dress. The pacifier has got to go by 18 months because you can't see her big smile behind that plastic thing!


The thing I like about this video clip is how it highlights Easton's funny constrained giggle. He holds his breath in and tries so hard not to laugh, but apparently the chicken is just too funny for him to resist.



and just for fun here's Layla in her new spring-friendly pajamas. They are thin, light weight and have snaps that keep the shirt tucked into the pants and hold her pants up because it's still quite a bit too big for her. :)



It's Friday once again so daddy can man the camera during our weekend adventures.

See you soon!

WFMW version 1.0

I found the idea on other blogs called "Works For Me Wednesday" and I'll attempt to do this as a weekly thing. Consider it as my feeble attempt to pass along wisdom the 4 Webbs have gained and actually used to raise our twins. I'll get back to that in a bit, but for now i'll continue sharing from our adventures over the past weekend.

Easton and Layla were dressed up in their church clothes on Sunday morning and they both look like little people instead of babies more every day. Don't bother asking when Layla will get her ears pierced... Daddy is absolutely not ready to even begin thinking about that.


Layla is always excited to visit the church nursery. She wobbles over to the nursery ladies and makes friends with everyone around. However, Easton starts crying as soon as we walk into the church lobby. Then he continues to cry for the next hour through the service until we get our number flashing across the TV screens on the platform. During the last two weeks we figured out a strategy that seems to be working. We check-in Layla and keep Easton with us for the first 10-15 minutes of church. He digs the music... Once he gets a feel for the surroundings I go to the nursery and let him see inside where Layla is happily playing. Then i hand him over and he does fine for the whole morning! Some kids don't do well with transitions, but Easton appears to only have issues with going into the nursery. For all the other transitions throughout the week he does fine. Every day is new challenge so who knows what will be required next week?

Anyway, Sunday afternoon we were blessed to have our friend, Gene, spend a few hours with us. We went to Subway to eat and get duck bread. Then we took Gene out to our favorite park for another round of flying the kite, feeding the ducks, and swinging. Here's a picture of Gene hanging out with the twins as they snack on goldfish crackers:


When the 4 Webbs are together it is rare to have a third adult around to take a picture so I was thrilled to have Gene be the camera man for a moment. I'll have to dig through our pictures, but I can't remember the last time all 4 Webbs were in the same picture...


After feeding the ducks and doing our best to keep the twins from munching on the stale bread, we stopped by the swings for one last hoorah before heading home. I saw another picture somewhere with twins sitting back to back in a swing. If only I had a better camera or more skill to capture the moment with a clearer picture...


I'll try to fiddle with my camera and take this again next time because the picture that inspired this one turned out really well so I know it's possible.

OK, so now on to the new section called WFMW. One of the best purchases we made recently was the snack trap. You can see them in the picture above where the twins are sitting in front of Gene. Those plastic things they have are the snack holders. The top is a rubber trap that allows kids to put their hands into the cup and get snacks, but doesn't allow the contents to spill out if it is tipped over. The back seat of our car was covered with goldfish crackers and cheerios so Kendra hunted down these little jewels as a way to keep it clean.

What does it mean to be a stay-at-home mom? Having a child or two or more is something that can't be explained, it can only be experienced. However, one observation I have from watching Kendra is that "full time mom" is deceiving. There are part-time jobs, full-time jobs, and then there's being a stay-at-home mom. A part-time job is something you do on the side; A few hours here and there, maybe on the weekend. A full-time job is something you do 40 or 50 hours a week, but you still have certain hours you are on the clock and then when the whistle blows you can shut your brain off and concentrate on less important things like a favorite TV show or a hobby.

That is nothing like what I see Kendra doing. Her mind and focus is always on Easton and Layla. Every second of every day with no union breaks or paid vacation. Even at night she has some subconscious process running while she sleeps where her motherly radar actively listens for the slightest cough or cry coming from down the hall. I'm amazed at the sensitivity of her hearing. Almost daily she says, "did you hear that?" and my usual response is, "no, I have no idea what you're talking about". It turns out to be one of the twins moving or whimpering in their crib, but it certainly doesn't show up on my radar! This is why I'm more than happy for Kendra to play soccer or go shopping or see a movie. I'm looking forward to taking Kendra away for a day or even a few days so she can have some true down time. Since the time the twins were born until now (almost 14 months) she has never been away from them for more than a couple of hours. I call that more than a full-time job...

One of the many reasons I married Kendra is her mothering skills. I knew even back in our dating days she would be a great mom for our children. lucky me. :)

See you soon!

Outside entertainment

Hi everyone,

It's time once again for me to sort through a pile of pictures and memories. I'll do my best to piece together the past few days and our adventures, but no promises as to their chronological order.

We'll start back on Thursday when Kendra took the twins to the farm. Here they are in front of the donkey. You probably can't read the sign posted on the donkey stall next to Layla, but I thought it was referring to our twins. It says, "We are nice, but we can bite! Please be careful!"


and here's one other picture of Kendra feeding a big camel while the twins watch with amazement.


As you can see they had a blast with the other mommies and kids wondering through the farm. I hope that gives the "old MacDonald" song a new meaning for them.

On Friday and Sunday night Great Aunt Mary (GAM) came over to hang out with the 4 Webbs. They are starting to get more used to her all the time and now when she comes in they smile and head for the front door to greet her. There are only a handful of folks in our life who get such a warm greeting from the twins so we are glad for them to get to that level of comfortability. Here they are before bed time smiling as usual.


Layla has her pink cat pajamas and Easton has his blue dog pajamas. Apparently somewhere it is a written rule that cats are for girls and dogs are for boys... I wonder where that came from?

We went to the park a couple of times because this weekend we finally had a breeze strong enough to keep our kite up in the air. As you can imagine, it flew much better when Layla wasn't sitting on it...


Once mommy had it airborne, Layla ran over to help hold the string.


Easton and I just hung out in the grass and watched Kendra run around trying to keep it airborne and Layla chasing her around.


I've tried to put my hat on Easton's head several times in the past, but it fell down over his face when he moved. My engineering mind thought of a solution... Why not use his hat to prop up mine? Viola! You can see his hat under mine and it made Easton feel like a big boy to wear daddy's hat.


Then we went to our friend's house for an evening BBQ with other couples with babies. Here is what dinner looks like when 4 families with babies get together. Our twins are the two on the far left:


Later that evening a child (who will remain nameless) found the pitcher of lemonade and dunked their whole arm into it. The mothers were inside so only the fathers witnessed the humorous scene. All of us just shrugged our shoulders and agreed it shouldn't be thrown out because we'll all still drink it! If someone who had never been a parent saw that, their reaction would have been very different. The 4 Webbs had an excellent time at the BBQ and I told Kendra I would happily do that EVERY Saturday night if it were possible.

Easton hugged the beach ball and tried to bite it a few times. Ignore the scratch on his forehead... Edward Scissorhands is at it again. Time to cut those finger nails.


Layla kicked the beach ball. She's getting really good at kicking a ball around and will do it on command. Kendra's starting early with her to be a great soccer player.


Have you ever heard of a "water table"? No, not the torturous water boarding... It's a plastic tub on stilts with water and squirt toys in it.


or as I call it, the "automatic kid washer". Easton was soaked to the bone after splashing around so we took his shirt off to dry and let him wonder around like a muscle man.


Easton is learning new words every week and never ceases to amaze us. At some point his vocabulary will be so large we can't keep up, but for now he has these words down:

cracker, light, apple, duck, car, clock, momma, dada, airplane, dog, up

I better stop here for the night so I have something to write about tomorrow. :) Today held it's own adventures of success at the church nursery and another trip to the park for more kite, duck, swing routine to wear them out.

See you soon!

WWF cage match

Good afternoon friends and family,

Sometimes after the nightly bath for the twins, Kendra puts both babies in one of the cribs just for fun. This experience is only something parents of multiples get to share in because a single baby doesn't have a built-in play partner like multiples do. The video clip is not extremely exciting, but gives a good view into how twins interact in such a playful manner. They wrestle in the crib like a WWF cage match where wrestlers are trapped in a fight for survival! The difference is, instead of screaming and beatings in WWF we get laughs and giggles at our house. Here are Easton and Layla in their version of such an event.



Kendra took the twins to a farm on Thursday along with her mommy friends. I'll upload some pictures of the event when we get them from Danielle, who took the pictures with her camera. I'll contact her to beg for pictures through email. :)

The reason Kendra didn't have the camera is because I took it with me to martial arts class. I tested for and earned my red belt! The next step is black belt (queue the cheesy kung-fu music). Oh yes... I will be a black belt. :) It's taken me 18 months and countless hours of training to reach this level and I'm looking forward to continuing the journey. The guy in the picture with me is my master instructor, Jeff, who I deeply admire and respect. We share the same beliefs and values and he challenges me spiritually as much as he does physically.


There is even a movie called red belt that came out last year and I watched it recently just for fun. It's not on my top 10 movies ever, but just shows how monumental the achievement is... It's important enough to make a movie about it. So what does that mean now that I'm a red belt? It means in any given situation, I know enough about fighting to get beat up!

The weekend is coming, so expect a new barrage of baby pics since I'll have the camera AND be hanging out with Easton and Layla much more than what happens during the week days.

Have a good weekend!