"Busy"

I don't think "busy" is descriptive enough for our lives.  Hectic, chaotic... no those don't do it either.  I just sat back in my chair, put my hands on my head and tried to create a word that describes our lives in a nutshell.  My next thought was  - "stop wasting silence, you have work to do".  So there, I don't even have time to make up fake words.  My life is so hard. 
Yes, I do have time to blog though.  Because I love to blog.  It's therapeutic to me, and I think for the most part, you all enjoy our stories. 

Each day, I have a short amount of silent time while the kids are napping.  Ok, to be fair that happens Mon, Wed and Fri when I am at home with the kids.  But during these times of silence, I am cramming in phone calls to golf courses.  Because M-Friday, regardless of whether I'm at home with the kids or I'm in the office, I am also a full time account manager for Active Golf.  I picked up a new job doing chair massage at the home Chargers games, which is pretty cool!  I basically work for tips, but I work on season ticket holders, so they generally are people who have a few bucks to spare. 


Additionally, I am on the board of directors for a new non-profit that a friend of mine from grad school founded.  It is called UnseenXS and is based in Stockton, CA.  Kristen and her husband Alonzo saw the need in their community to help an underserved population, so they founded UnseenXS to help fill a void.  The overall goal is to empower low income or homeless folks by helping them gain access to necessary resources.  We have two main projects that we are trying to get off the ground.  One is still much in the works, but the other is a memorial project that has been built out and is ready to take off.  This is for low income people who lose a loved one and cannot afford funeral or burial services.  We will be providing financial help for basic burial costs and grief counseling services as needed. 


Being on the board of directors is such an exciting opportunity!  We will be preparing grant proposals to fund the non-profit and each member of the board is required to write two articles per year for publication.  Not being able to jump into my post grad counseling internship was a hard pill for me to swallow.  Being part of this non-profit is allowing me to continue using and building on skills I learned, and I feel like I am taking part in something huge that will make lives better for so many people. 


Ok, moving on. 
Wyatt and Olivia had their 12 month check up the other day!  Evan came with to the appointment, which was awesome.  Now that the kids are walking, we're into a whole different level of "wait" "stop" "don't eat that" "come back" and my personal favorite,  "don't, you'll electrocute yourself".  So the 1:1 ratio of adults to toddlers is super helpful.  Everyone is growing as they should be and doing the right things for their stages of development.  No one told me to watch for whether or not the kids point at things with one finger or with their whole hand, so we're not sure if they have reached the very important "finger pointing" development stage yet, but I don't think that will hold them back from the pre-Harvard-baby-genius pre-school that we want to enroll them in. 
Kidding, that doesn't exist.  Or it might, but we wont be enrolling them.  We're public school kind of people.
Both kids are walking and being really cute, and saying mamamamadadadadada.  Doing all the right stuff basically. 

Their first birthday was a success.  Except for the part where the birthday song scared Olivia and she cried. Overall it was a fun "under the sea" spectacle.  the kids loved having guests and when they went to bed, mommy and daddy celebrated getting through our first year as parents of twins.

Birthday babies and their birthday balloons

Under the sea themed foods

How old are you now Wyatt?

"Crab sandwiches"

Olivia's party dress

"Octopus"

Wyatt's party shirt

Under the sea first birthday cake

 Evan and I have been attending to our sanity by getting out with the kids so they can burn as much energy as possible.  We take them swimming at the YMCA, or at a friends house.  We take them to the park and let them run, or we play chase around the apartment, and take them for walks.  Evan has been to a few baseball games.  He has taken a couple of trips up to LA to see the Dodgers or Angels.  We visited Evan's brother Aaron and his family in Phoenix when Evan's parents were also visiting earlier in August.  It was about the temperature of the sun, but we had a great time.  We also took a day vacation up at my friends house in Temecula.  Being at their house is like being at a bed and breakfast in Spain.  (or what I imagine a BNB in Spain would look like).  Pretty much a utopia.





Oh and in case you are wondering, a few of the kids newest antics and favorite things are:
Dancing, Thomas the tank engine, playing with the football or soccer ball, dancing, listening to music, eating all kinds of foods, dancing, swimming and going all the way under the water!  They love instruments they can play, theme songs from Thomas the tank engine and the Hot dog song from Mickey's playhouse.  Hair pulling and biting are also two of their favorite past times.  Going along with that, we are learning the word "gentle". 

Wyatt holding my toe in excitement over watching 101 dalmations

And a couple more

She can almost reach!

Love you all,
Until next time.....