getting settled

Whitney was congested last night, so after I had been up with her for three hours, Jim took over and this is how I found them this morning. So adorable!! Jim said he was dreaming about how he was dreaming about taking care of Whitney. The background is our driveway.
I think Tucker likes music. The only time that he will play by himself on the floor this week for longer than 5 minutes is when I'm playing the piano. Whitney likes to bang on the piano and be up off the floor where Tucker can't crawl over her or take over her mommy.



So. I have absolutely no idea what happened in church today. It's the beginning of the end, I guess. Now that they no longer nap in public places and skipped morning nap, plus they both know how to crawl and want to feed themselves solid food, it was insane keeping them entertained, but not so entertained that they were getting into everyone else's stuff. How do people do it when they have more kids? Or older kids? No idea, but I guess I'll find out.

This week was wonderful. Lots of wonderful things happened. Like the washer got fixed on Thursday and my neighbor let me borrow her vacuum, even though we have dogs and lots of bark in the house from the movers. It was soooo awesome to have a cleaner floor. It was getting pretty bad. At least the babies "swifter" the place on a daily basis, but I was getting so grossed out with the clumps of dog hair all over their bellies whenever I picked them up. Which increased the amount of clothing that was dirty. Couldn't do much about that for awhile, but on Thursday I could finally do all the loads. The washer had a break down, literally, with all that washing, but at least I got all my loads in before it broke. Now I can go another 10 days, no problem. And it will be better. The floor is better and Whitney keeps getting better at crawling on her hands and knees, so she spends less time swiftering the place.

I also have almost everything put away. That was another great thing about this week. I could actually clean because everything was put away. And I wasn't spending every minute working on things to get settled. So we went sunbathing for 1/2 hours every day. The amount of time that the sun shines on our deck where the babies can crawl. This week has also been mostly sunny, which has helped my mood considerably. I can't believe how much missing the month of August of all things, has affected me. I feel like winter set in too soon. I have always hated the month of August because of the intense heat, but since I missed that intense heat, I guess I didn't get all the vitamin D. That's what all the women around here blame their health problems on, is the lack of vitamin D. Good idea. Don't worry. Maybe I will go on that trip down south to visit Sue and Stefanie like I had planned before we knew we were moving.

Anyway. Most of the time the babies were being cute was on the deck, and I can't leave them and go get the camera, so there aren't many new pics. You'll have to review last weeks. Mostly I'm really excited because I feel like a normal routine can return (except for Sundays of course!) and anyone can come visit now!! We'd love to have you and have the space for just about anyone.

We have also gotten to know our next door neighbor who has been awesome!! She absolutely loves the babies and even got them each a toy as a house warming gift!! She is grandma-age, so it is working out really well. I also found out how close the parks, library and shopping all are. It's getting to start to be a little like home. I found the pictures this week and was looking at the past couple of years. I never thought I'd say it, but I found myself missing Utah. We grew a lot as a couple and went through a lot of things, plus have some great friends there. And I will miss having snow at Christmas, but I'm sure it will work out for us this year as we do things to make it feel like home.

For baby news, Whitney loves to pull to stand and Tucker likes to push and pull drawers open. I guess the high chair and dog dishes were a preview. Whitney had her first taste of a pinecone. She made a face, but didn't spit it out, whatever that means. Their doctor visit went well. Tucker is 28.5" and Whitney is 27.5". The nurse says Tucker weighs 21 pounds and Whitney weighs 19 pounds but I didn't believe it. I went home and weighed them again. According to our scale, Whitney weighs 19 pounds and Tucker weighs 23 pounds. That makes way more sense. I feel like my arm is going to break off whenever I carry Tucker (which is a lot lately as they are going through an "I only want mommy" phase). It also makes sense because Tucker just fits his size 4 diapers and 12 month clothes, most of which say 20-24 pounds. So I'm right because moms are always right. The babies had egg the first time this week. Typical reaction. Whitney devoured it as soon as she knew it was food and Tucker made a face and chewed slowly until he decided it was good, then opened his mouth for more and more and more.

I'll try to get more pics this week. It should be easier because Grandma Kim is coming Friday and Halloween is next week!! So fun!

tada!

Whitney first learning obstacles. She is excited about it, but it looks uncomfortable. Aug 2010
Whitney really learning how to crawl. She had this day where chasing a toy on the smooth floor was fun, but it kept getting stuck behind the toilet. Sept 2010
Whitney playing in the morning.
Whitney and Tucker playing in the morning She rules the toys. Sept 2010
Tucker playing in the morning
Tucker learns to pull himself on the toys. Whitney no longer reigns. Sept 2010
Whitney at the Sculpture park. Sept 2010
Tucker learns to stand at the window. Sept 2010. Whitney looks on. big deal. She already knows that trick.
Whitney and Tucker at the park. Sept 2010
Double babies.
Babies in the swing.
hey aunti jill! Recognize these? This was the last night they could fit in these pjs at the same time. Sept 2010
Rocky has been ousted. Aug 2010
Tucker christens kitchen with the first diaper change. 10/11/10
Whitney checking out the new window. This shirt glows in the dark, by the way. 10/11/10
Who's having more fun playing? 10/14/10
Whitney is not so sure about this new weather. Aug 2010
View from the duck tour 8/10
Overlooking Puget sound. The sculpture park. I spent a lot of time there enjoying the view. 8/10

The babies at the Sculpture park with the space needle in the background 8/10
All of us on the duck ride 8/10

Tucker and Whitney playing in the window the first time in Seattle. 8/10
The babies at the Sculpture park 8/10
Our first dinner in Seattle. Jim made awesome seafood, of course. 8/10

Sammy traveling to Seattle 8/10
Rocky traveling to seattle 8/10


Tada! We moved in. I guess I forgot to blog last week. I think I started it, but then my brother called, so that ended that. This week was quite the adventure moving. I would have to say having someone move you definitely is worth it. The advantages for someone moving you outweigh the disadvantages, although other things happen that wouldn't happen if you moved yourself. Like possibly getting someone else's stuff. The truck showed up Tuesday to deliver our stuff. It was supposed to come last Friday, but that was due to an underwriter at the bank that caused that. We closed on Friday morning and it was recorded at the courthouse at 4:30 pm. 30 min before closing time for a three day weekend due to Columbus Day. Perfect. Because we camped in our house on Monday night, something we wouldn't have been able to do until the house was officially ours.

So back to things that happen when someone else moves you. I didn't realize the process, otherwise I would have made Jim stay home from work on Tuesday. As the movers pulled stuff off the truck, you are supposed to check off the numbered item on this list so they know we have it. Then you tell them where to put it. Which is awesome when you are not trying to entertain or feed crying babies that are clingy due to all the changes in the past few days. Most of the time the babies were good or it was during a nap time, but there were some crazy hours to hold two babies and hold them outside. Thank heavens it wasn't raining, a real miracle here. So they started pulling things off the truck, after the guy double checked we were the correct Andersons. A few items into pulling stuff off the truck, several bed items came off that I didn't recognize. They stopped unloading the truck and everything was double checked again, when I suddenly remembered that we had packed Noelle's stuff, including her daybed, which is the stuff I didn't recognize. Opps. The driver said, "Mandy! You scared me!!!" I might have stressed him out. Well, as much as you can stress out an Islander.

Then I discovered the vacuum was present but is missing the top. The part that keeps the dirt in. Rats!! It was the last off the truck, so I think it fell when they opened the truck and didn't find all the parts when they put it together, or it got moved around in the warehouse here. I guess our stuff was in a sort of cubby for 2 months. The dogs tracked in all sorts of bark and pine needles and Whitney is having a grand old time vacuuming without a vacuum. For some reason it is very fascinating to pick up scraps of bark and eat them before Mommy notices.

Then the third party crating guy shows up. He was asking the moving guys (who were at this time unpacking all of my boxes, so there was paper, boxes and loose stuff everywhere on any flat surface) where different things were for the baby cribs, the washer and dryer, and the TV. I think he was irritated. I guess the third party crater on the other end didn't leave instructions on how to put the crib together. The guy here had to guess and ended up putting it together 3 times. Then the washer hose was broken in the move, but he didn't notice it, so there was water all over the place when he went to check that it was in good working order. At least he checked before I did. Then the movers thought at first that they had to put together the tv, so they had started opening the crate a little, so the third party guy was looking for parts, walking around asking the mover guys where a box was and they said it was unpacked... and so on. It was a zoo. All during this time there are 4 other guys plus two babies and me all making lots of noise.

Something else that always happens is that not all the stuff comes off the truck. Parts of shipments often get left in the warehouse. Once the truck was unloaded and all the numbers were checked off, I went through all the items that were not received (about 20), most of which were all Jim's. I thought it was funny, but he didn't. Half of his desk didn't show up. His Ikea TV stand and chair weren't there. His desk bookshelf was there, but not the bookcase it goes to. So all of his office gadgets and books were strewn all over the floor, but nothing to put them in. Like I say, I thought it was funny, but he didn't. Oh yeah. His grill didn't make it the first trip, either. Or his bike. It ended up coming the next day, though. I didn't notice anything missing. Until yesterday. I can't find my piano music. There is one box that I packed (possibly my piano music) and one box they packed of clothes that never got checked off, but then there are a ton of boxes in the garage, so maybe it's there. I really need to find my box of sponges and cleaning rags, too, but I'm not ready to tackle the garage. I have to say, next time someone moves in, I know exactly what helps them unpack. Pulling everything out. Even though it was a huge mess and I had to barricade the babies to a certain part of the house, at least I could see everything and all I had to do was put everything away. It saved a ton of time to not deal with the boxes and paper all over the place.

Anyway, we are really enjoying our new house. I love all the trees I can see and we've been lucky with the weather so far. There has been sunshine during part of the day every day this week.

For baby news, Whitney is getting to be a real speed crawler. She crawls on her hands and knees most of the time, instead of military crawling and is really good at feeding herself. She really loves chasing balls and is having a blast with all of her "new" toys that I pulled out of storage. She pulls to stand on this mini table/toy thing and has a great time banging on it and singing about it, too. And she hates the vacuum cleaner. Every time I tried to make it run (at the apartment last week) she chases it like she wants to kill it. Smart girl.

They often play together, chasing balls, fighting over the frisbee and crawling around following the dogs. Tucker finally grasped the concept of feeding himself small bits of food this week, too, and has long mastered holding the bottle. He is really talking up a storm and smiling at anyone that looks his way. I trimmed up his hairline again, but that's as far as I got. He is a lot more wiggly. This may be a two person job for a little while. He continues to spit and growl lots too. He also hammed it up at the title company and loved sitting in the big chair.

Something I got a big kick out of is when Jim was playing with the babies. They were playing with a toy that sings a song. The song was playing when the babies hit it and stopped the song. Jim said "Oh! I like that song".

Lots of the pictures were of the first part of seattle, since I didn't have this computer to get the pictures off, so enjoy! The videos are of the babies chasing balls, eating, and Tucker likes to push things back and forth. Like the dog dishes. And high chairs.

life in Seattle

Whitney playing her favorite game, Slap-the-coffee-table

Early morning snuggles in bed

"Look Ma! One hand!"
Daddy had a lot of fun taking pictures of Tucker in this monster outfit. It's too small now, so it won't make it to Halloween. No worries. We have a good surprise up our sleeves for costumes. He loves playing with the plastic kitchen spoons.

Tucker ready to take the dogs out in the morning.

Tucker on his tummy just plain cute.

Both babies playing in their pjs in the morning.

The awesome doorstop. This provides hours of entertainment. See video below for more doorstop fun.


Whitney loves to pull herself to standing at the window and look out. The ledge is a great height to help her pull to stand. She is very impressed with herself.
This file cabinet is also at a great height to practice pulling to stand. And to bang on, both very impressive baby skills.
Whitney taking a break from all of her play. She doesn't have her jeans on anymore because she crawled out of them. Oh well. Resting is very serious business.


This week hasn't been terribly exciting. Probably a good thing the week before we move, to have a calm week. Most of it has been watching the babies really learn to move. Tucker finally has grasped crawling. Rocky was his motivator. Rocky was Tucker's body length away. Apparently it was a distance that wasn't too intimidating. Especially if moving that far would be rewarded by being able to touch Rocky's paws (which he hates, by the way). So that's what Tucker did. He rapidly military crawled to Rocky. Poor Rocky. He didn't know what hit him. Previous to that moment, that baby wasn't a threat. Only Whitney. Now Rocky knows. And much to Rocky's dismay, Whitney also crawls over obstacles, something that Rocky is very good at being. Rocky hates being crawled over.

Some things that makes Whitney laugh or smile is looking at herself in a mirror and digging into Mommy or Daddy's mouth, like she's about to do a root canal on wisdom teeth or something. The hair on their Thing one and Thing two dolls makes her laugh. If we tickle her face with their hair, she will laugh. She loves materials. She hates being on her back for a diaper change, so if I give her something with a material to feel, she will be still long enough to change her diaper. She especially loves the feel of her hair bows and her tights.

Now that Tucker can move himself around, I can get other things done, like dishes and laundry, when they are awake because he can entertain himself better. I love that. Perfect timing that they are mobile, but not very mobile yet where not having baby locks is an issue.

We tried to go to the art museum this week, but went to the library instead because it was closed. Oops! Oh well. I got a great idea from the Taiwan mom about putting the babies back to back in a baby swing that day, so the walk to a closed museum was worth it. Which worked out great because on Thursday afternoon, there was not a cloud in the sky, so we went to the park and I did just that with them. Put them in the swing back to back on the playground. And realized I left the camera at home. We had a great time enjoying the sun. Spending time at the library was also nice because they have a table that is low that has toys attached to it. Whitney learned to stand up and sit back down on that table.

Anyway, we will be moving out of this apartment this week, so I will be doing my last Seattle things while we are still downtown. Enjoy the pics!

BLUE SKIES!!!!! AND PICS?!

Daddy and Whitney at beach
Tucker is zonked!
Whitney happy in carseat
Whitney watching the cruise ship leave
Whitney rules the toys
The babies going for a walk
Whitney at the dog park with Daddy
Whitney snuggling with mommy
The babies breakfast time
Bath time!!
Whitney in her "fort"
Tucker so happy


The title of this blog truly is amazing. Yesterday was the first day that there was not a cloud in the sky since we moved here. It was an awesome day!!! It was about 75 degrees or so, too, so a great day to be outside. We went to the river. Tucker, Whitney and I sat on the shore and played in the sand (well, they ate sand and I played in it with them) while Jim went steelhead fishing. He fought with a "big one" for an hour and a half, but it "got away" He was pretty bummed about it, but overall it was such a relaxing day. It was awesome to get out of the city. And we learned something. We had no idea how close Mount Rainier is to Seattle. It's very close. And very beautiful. And very hidden by clouds most days, apparently. And to end my perfect day, I went to the broadcast, which had a great message about how we need to be examples of and teach our kids about praying, reading scriptures, being obedient to God's commandments and serving others. It was an awesome talk. And not to worry, still working on it. I tell people about how someone else (not me) can do it. My old roommate reads scriptures with her family, her 2 year old jumping on the bed (and anything else in the room) while he repeats word by word one verse of scripture as his Dad reads it to him. I think that is awesome!! That is one skilled set of parents.

Good news. I think I should be able to post pictures of the babies this week. I hope it works. I'm downloading them from an email Jim sends me to the computer and hopefully it will upload well. We'll see.

Tucker has been super cute this week. Whitney continues to be mommy needy, so Tucker has been playing well on his own. He spends more time on his tummy and has really started talking. Whitney usually talks loud and repeats a single syllable over and over and over. Jim pointed out to me that Tucker talks with two syllables and adds voice flucuation. He does!! I don't know how to imitate him. He still continues to laugh and smile a lot, which makes us laugh. He had his first real cold this week and has been trying lots of food. He prefers rice cakes to wheat bagels and really likes cheese and yogurt. They both get the chills when I feed them plain yogurt. I think it might be a little strong and a sour taste compared to flavored yogurt. Whitney really wants to feed herself and doesn't eat much, except a bottle, of anything that I try to feed her. They love cantelope, avocado, pears and fresh apple juice. Whitney loves plain chicken. She begged for more of that stuff!!

Whitney has been cuddling with "Egg". She loves this yellow plastic Easter egg and carries it around with her, even to bed when Daddy put her down last night. She has been hitting a bunch of stuff with it.

We went to the library for the first time this week, so they have been having fun with some board books, one of which is titled "Urban Babies Wear Black" I had a good laugh over that book. We also went to a really cool playground on Monday and the babies had a great time swinging in the baby swings and watching other kids run around.

I've decided that being the Seattle weatherman is a pretty cush job. This is how most weather reports go: cloudy with a chance of rain and a chance of sun. All on the same day. I guess they figure if they predict rain and it happens to turn a little sunny later in the day, everyone is extremely happy. But heaven forbid that you predict sun and it doesn't happen. So full sun without clouds or rain is rarely predicted unless it is a 99% chance.

I guess the best news is that I finally have a functioning cell phone. I think I mostly have it because everyone was very inconvienced by me not having a cell phone, Jim most especially. It happened as such. My pre-paid phone ran out of battery. The battery was no longer accepting a charge, even when it was plugged in, so it completely died. I had no one's numbers. So Jim went down to the AT&T store to get a battery and came back with a new phone that was added to his plan. Apparently they don't sell batteries, so he asked for a cheap phone, which they had, but wouldn't work with my pre-paid plan unless you went through some complicated thing, so he got a normal phone by adding me to his plan. Something I was loathe to do after all my run around with AT&T. And I'm still a little bitter because now I can't use the rest of my pre-paid minutes. I should have just called everyone like crazy this past month to use them up. Whatever. But now you can call me again. And I can call out!! It has been more convienent, I must admit.

Anyway, hopefully you enjoy the pics. I'm going to download them as soon as the babies go to bed.

a fun week!!

Last week I met a mom at a park. She is from Taiwan and has lived in the states for 5 years. Before I talked to her, I was really nervous that anyone around me while I was walking in this city would do something to my kids. Irrational, I know, but it was how I felt. I was always looking around my surroundings, behind me, etc to see who was around. Walking with a double stroller with two babies and then two old dogs on a leash doesn't make for a very fast getaway vehicle, so I was (well, still am, but not as bad) wary. But now I know normal people can live in a city and it's ok to talk to them.

The other interesting thing about this mom is that her husband and mine work on the same floor. I met her by her son crawling over (he was sitting playing with grass nearby when he suddenly decided to speed crawl over to the babies) and sitting between the babies. So we started talking. I asked her if she was visiting the area, and we got to talking and found out the above information. They even work on the same stuff. But they've never met. Her and her husband are living in corporate housing 2 blocks down from us and will be here the same about of time. I guess her baby was listening to Heavenly Father that we could be friends for this short time. I have a feeling she has been feeling very lonely, as she is very social and seems to miss her mom group from home very much. She reached out to me and gave me her phone number and suggested we meet for breakfast that weekend with our hubbies. Pretty wild. At first I wasn't too excited about making friends with someone for a few weeks with someone I met on the street, but Jim pointed out to me that I would have zero friends if I didn't have church. Good point. I'm blessed beyond my wildest dreams with a lot of stuff, and I didn't even want to share something as simple as a mom network. Something I get automatically around the world as soon as I go to church. So we've been hanging out. She has been very interesting to get to know. We'll see how long we stay in touch after we both move in two weeks. It might be longer than I think.

Last week I didn't mention why Tucker was working on eating. He finally figured out how to get the bottle nipple to his mouth. He doesn't hold it long, but we're one step closer to them feeding themselves. Whitney hasn't figured out how to bring the bottle to her mouth yet. She has, however, figured out that if she drops her cracker, half the time it is caught in her bib and she can fish it out to continue working on it.

This week I got a pretty good scare. Whitney was sitting on the floor by the coffee table, a safe position before that day. I walked out of the room to get Tucker out of his crib and walked back in to find her standing at the coffee table. It startled me because she was falling quite a bit when she was standing, but after I caught my breath, I figured if she got there herself, her body probably has enough reflex so that she pulls her head up so it doesn't hit the floor as hard if she falls. And I won't leave her sitting near low surfaces. My days of finding them where I left them are drawing to a close.

The other thing she can do is crawl really fast to the dog water dish. It is rather uncanny how she seems to have a video camera trained on that thing. Every time it is down on the floor she goes toward it. She loves to splash the water, just like in the bath. I have enough time to be one step ahead of her to lift it up. Rocky is getting trained to drink water during baby naptime only. The dogs are going to have to learn to be camels when it comes to baby naptime only once a day. Whitney crawls fast enough to chase Sammy. Sammy has figured that out and nips at her to herd her and to try to get her to play with him. No worries. Sammy nips at her ruffles only.

Tucker is getting much better at being on his stomach. He has been playing on his stomach 10 minutes about three times a day, often when he falls over while trying to overextend his reach for a toy when sitting. He also has been amazing, playing by himself (not Whitney or I around to entertain him) up to 30 minutes at a time, often 2x a day. Which is awesome, because Whitney has started the clingy mommy thing and a little bit of stranger danger stuff. Sometimes she cries and cries if Jim tries to put her to bed. That was very nice of the babies to trade off being demanding.

If anyone has any doubts that boys are boys and girls are girls can talk to any mom with a set of boy/girl twins. It is already so apparent. Like Whitney babbles and Tucker makes noises. Whitney does a lot of singing and ba-ba-ba stuff. Tucker grrrs like a monster (with a huge smile on his face) every time he pulls to stand (with assist from us so far). He also barks like a harbor seal at random. I think these are the consonants he is working on for his speech. And they are the same age and so young. It is so fun to have the differences at the same time, though.

This week was extra nice because I had two nights out. Once to go to the Bellevue temple for the first time and once to get my hair chopped off. Going to the temple was very relaxing and a spiritual renewal. I guess my haircut was a scalp renewal, not as relaxing as the temple, but a night out anyway. This place sets appointments at 8 pm on Friday nights, and I took it!! After baby bathtime/bedtime!! I've never had a male hairdresser. He combed and scrubbed my hair more than I've ever had it. And I thought Anne was rough. But the cut is good, so I can't complain. And this place does a free trim within 4 weeks of your appointment to help the cut last longer. Awesome!! Sign me up!

The most exciting bit of news I have for this week is that I am going to visit my aunt and her family. I can't remember when I last saw them for sure, but I think it was at my great Grandma's funeral. My mom had this great idea to come visit me to help me unpack and all at the end of October. And I've been thinking of how I want to visit my aunt before the babies turn two. I was looking online at plane fares for my mom flying up here. I looked, just to see, how much it would be to visit my aunt during the week my mom is supposed to be here. The week my mom is here is off season and during the week, so I called my aunt to make sure it was ok and booked the flight. My thought was to fly with the babies by myself, but I found you can't do that with twins, I'd have to pay for two tickets no matter what (one in arms and one in seat). Since my mom already had time off, I could go with help and for the same price without having to use Jim's time off (we want to go home for Christmas). I'm sooooooo excited!!!! Oh well if I'm not unpacked. The house will always be there, but the babies will not always be under two (free to fly in arms), so we're going!!

Anyways, a note to Sue. Today I just figured out that you have posted comments on almost all the blogs since you came to visit us this summer. So I had a great time reading them. Miss you a ton, too. And now I'm going to have figure out how to post on your blog. Be looking for it!!

3 more weeks and the pictures of the babies will be back. Awesome. That means 3 more weeks until we have a dog door. Hopefully we have less rain than this rainy week, but I think I'm dreaming.

whitney is moving, tucker is eating

The biggest excitement in this house is how much Whitney is moving. This week she figured out how to pull herself from sit to stand. In the bathtub of all places. Apparently the tub side is the perfect height for her. She also is able to do the same feat in the church pew, so she practiced that plenty today, instead of taking a nap. She has two bottom teeth now, also. She did something else amazing. She sat still and watched me cut her toenails and fingernails. I had tried to catch her sleeping to do it, but they were getting so long, that I tried doing it right before nap. She sat perfectly still while I cut them, as if she knew she needed her nails done. What baby does that? A girl baby, apparently. She also really likes to talk. She is on syllables like ma-ma, ba-ba, da-da and spitting. Tucker thinks spitting is so funny. He stops eating to peer around his highchair side to watch her and laugh.

Tucker is working hard on eating. He has his 6 teeth and inhales his food. Someone asked me this week what they like to eat. I didn't know about Tucker. He inhales it all. Whitney definitely has a preference for fruits. She does a "yummy" sound when she eats them. But he doesn't differentiate. He needs to practice eating crackers, though. He inhales them, too. It didn't work in his favor one day. He ended up gagging himself by having a whole cracker in his mouth that he wouldn't give it up and lost half of his food from the meal. Whatever.

Some of the pictures this week I will try to describe to you. Tucker is practicing his beauty contest wave. It cracks me up!! He has been very fascinated with his hands. He has gone to reach for a toy and stops short to watch his hand move. Pronate, supinate, pronate, supinate, pronate, supinate. In other words "Wow! The back of my hand, the front of my hand, the back of my hand, the front of my hand. that is so cool!!" Another fun picture is of Whitney giving Sammy a hug. It looks like Sammy has his head on her lap. There is a picture of Whitney in her "fort". She loves to crawl over things right now. She loves to crawl in the bottom part of the exersaucer and spends a lot of time there hitting toys on the plastic floor and grabbing Tucker's feet. Tucker has a lot of pictures of him smiling. He is pretty happy and has figured out how to smile on cue to other people and the camera. He and Whitney are still sharing a lot of "jokes" this week. They laugh at each other a lot. I think he is a lot happier because he hasn't been cutting teeth this week, just eating, and I was able to get them on a fairly regular schedule for sleeping. Life is pretty fun right now. Another favorite picture of mine is when Whitney crawled in Rocky's bed. He didn't like that as much.

We've been spending time enjoying each other's company this week. Yesterday morning and this afternoon we walked around as a family, including the dogs. Jim went looking for shoes yesterday and today we watched the cruise ships leave the Sound. We've had some people over for dinner this week and I met another mom at the park, so socializing has helped me feel less alone in this crazy big city. In general we are enjoying life together before real life really hits again with church callings and being in a place that we will be staying in for awhile, instead of living more like a long term vacation.

This week the history channel had a review of main events surrounding 9-11-01. At the time, 9-11 was a foreign event for me. I was serving a mission in Argentina at the time, and the rule for missionaries is to not watch TV in order to focus on serving others and teaching about Jesus Christ and His gospel. I was in a hardware store in Argentina buying nails for an object lesson with the scriptures when I heard over the radio "Los estados unidos..... los estados unidos....(the US...the US)". I thought to myself, "oh great. The US did something else with their economic policy that is going to tick everyone off again." I didn't understand the rest of the radio because I had only been in the country for 5 months and didn't understand radio spanish yet. We went to a copy shop after that for some handouts and the guy behind the counter stared at us like we were crazy and just pointed to the screen (all shops have a TV in them for the most part). My companion and I turned around in reaction and I saw the image of the twin towers burning, smoke coming out of both of them and a helicopter flying around. I remembered that I wasn't supposed to be watching TV and turned away. That is the only live image I saw.

As the day went on, many strangers in the street stopped to ask us if our families were ok. This was quite a day for us. Most the time people on the street avoid talking to missionaries. We heard bits and pieces of what was happening through the people on the street and the ward members. I remember wondering if I was going to finish my mission if the US was at war. Our mission president told us that night through the telephone tree, the basics of what happened that day, and that we would continue working as usual the next day. I was overwhelmed with the kindness of the Argentines and the compassion they had for a foreign event. It made me wonder at myself of how often I even pay attention to wars or calamaties in other nations, let alone stop to talk to someone from that country to see how they are feeling about it.

Not all the experiences were completely positive at first. One guy that we stopped to talk to about the gospel asked us how we could even believe in God after what had happened in our country the day before. Then he told us to go home so that we could actually do some good where good was needed, not in Argentina because they were doing just fine. He walked off before we could respond to him. His accusations of us being in the wrong place at the wrong time made me think. If I could have responded back, I would have told him that I was doing exactly what needed to be done to help a situation like that. Teaching people about Christ and His atonement that allows us to be forgiven, so in turn we can be forgiving of others because we have felt what it is like to be forgiven.

Long story short, I didn't know what was happening minute by minute like everyone else that was in the US did, so I didn't have the anxiety of the day etched in me. I found out the basic details over time and heard more details when I got back, but I already knew the end results. This week when I watched the history channel special, I got a small sense of what all of you must have felt, not knowing what was coming next. I finally saw parts of the live footage. It stressed me out for the two hours the special was on, and I even stayed up an extra hour to watch the whole thing. After that, I was all worked up and couldn't sleep until midnight. (And all you moms know how precious your sleep is.) I can't even imagine what it was like for everyone else that day.

Which brings me to what our city did this weekend. They sponsored a Day of Service at a park and planted trees, as well as clean up the park (things have to be cut back from growing here, as opposed to coaxing plants to grow like in Utah) a bit in commemoration of 9-11. I guess the terrorists goals were not all completely met. Now it is a day that brings us together as a nation, instead of being divided, as long as continue to participate in things like this. Anyway. It's getting late.

Until next week....

really, no pics

I had a moment this week when I went to take a video of the babies and the camera wouldn't turn on. The battery went dead and I had forgotten to save out the battery charger for the camera. It's packed somewhere in storage. But then I remembered that they wouldn't pack cameras, so I was forced to take the other camera with us. Good thing. I thought I wasn't going to have any pictures of the babies for a whole month! Heaven forbid! I hear with the next kid, we won't even take pictures of our baby (hopefully it is just one next time) for months on end. And Jim takes pictures of the babies on his phone, we just can't figure out how to get those pictures off the phone. Either way, we will have pictures of the babies during 8 months old.

This week Whitney got her first tooth!! Finally! Self defense in case Tucker starts biting. He hasn't yet, although I think he accidently bit his thumb. The bib must have slipped out of place during naptime. He woke up one day with a boo-boo the size of a tooth on his thumb. I think Whitney's self defense so far is being able to move more than Tucker. That was what I was trying to get video of. I sat them on the bathroom floor (since that is the biggest non-carpheted surface) and watched them play. Whitney loves hard floors. She loves to bang on them. Apparently they make cool noises. This time she was chasing a tupperware container around the bathroom. As soon as she would touch the container, it would slide across the floor about 6 inches and she would have to military crawl to get it. The most frustrating part for her was when it would slid behind the toilet to the other side of the toilet and she couldn't crawl behind the toilet to get it. She would scream instead. I put Tucker on his stomach to see if it was easier for him to scoot himself around. All he did was stay in the same place and watch Whitney.

It's interesting to me that, even though Tucker has 6 teeth, Whitney has figured out how to eat a cracker much better. At least with less choking. Maybe Tucker thinks his way is better, I don't know. Whitney bites off little pieces and gums them up, while Tucker stuffs as much as the cracker in as will fit. If the cracker falls into his bib, he cries for another one. Whitney has figured out that the cracker pieces fall into her bib. When she runs out of cracker, she reaches in her bib to get more. A lady we met in the store that also has twins was talking to us about how different her two twin boys are. She says the smaller one has figured out how to move sooner. It's fun to watch our babies learn different things at different times due to their personality.

We've been hanging out at a park this week that overlooks the sound. The view is great and the babies love to play with leaves, grass, and just generally look around. Every time I put Whitney in the front of the stroller I get comments about how cute the babies are. When I put Tucker in the front, lots of people smile. I think he grins at everyone that walks by. I had a lady say that I had a "beautiful child" when Tucker was in front. It is so fun when other people think your kids are cute because we sure think they are cute and fun.

Whitney is having lots of fun holding herself up to stand. She laughs hysterically and bangs on the coffee table when we hold her in standing. She will want to cruise soon.

We think the house hunting thing is over. It will be nice to put the babies on a consistent bedtime routine. They haven't really been on a routine for about a month. It will be nice for them to have their bath, last meal and play time around the same time and in the same order. They've been pretty good about the switch up almost every night so far.

This week we were invited over to Jim's co-worker's house for games. It was really fun! I also finished two letters of recommendation and got a bunch of scrapbooking done during baby naptimes this week. We also walked along the waterfront a little bit yesterday when the clouds cleared. It was really strange for me to see salt water that was calm and ended against cement, not a beach, but the waterfront was much cleaner than I thought it would be. It was relaxing and a nice end to the week.