It feels SOOOO good to be back home in Seattle after so long. It's raining outside as usual but I have never in my life been so happy to see cloudy gray skies as I am now!! I love the feeling of coming home at last, I just wish I didn't have to leave.

Yesterday we visited with Brandon's grandparents from Oregon and today we're heading down to FW to spend some time with friends. Can't wait to see all of you! We've been taking pictures left and right, I'll post a whole bunch more later :-)

Generations

Four generations: Brandon's Grandma Whitaker, his mom Sari, Brandon and the boys

The boys with their Great-grandma Whit

Our First Day in Washington

Uncle Scott loves his nephews!

Cullen

So does Auntie Rachel :-)

Jack

Jack

Cullen

Jack

Jack

Cullen

Jack and Grampa

Cullen and Auntie Rachel

Jack

Jack and Uncle Scott

Jack hanging out on Daddy's lap

Cullen

Jack with Great-grandma Whitaker

Cullen

Smiles!

Last weekend we discovered that the boys are learning to smile. You have to really work hard to get a smile out of them though. We get in their faces and smile reeaally big for a few minutes and they usually respond. It's hit and miss, though, sometimes they just frown or look away. Brandon seems skeptical that they're actually smiling at us and not just moving their faces around. I got really excited but every time I would try to get them to smile for Brandon, they wouldn't really do it.

Today though, I swear Cullen smiled at me twice. I coaxed it out of him by running out of his line of sight and then jumping in and smiling and talking to him. Just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I tried it again and he smiled both times! By next week, it will be unmistakable - they'll be smiling all over the place! It's hard to get it on camera, but I will try to capture one of them smiling soon.

Here's something that makes mommy smile: I had a doctor's appointment the other day and found out that I have lost a whopping 38 pounds already! Wow, I guess that weight loss routine of eating whatever I want and sitting on my butt breastfeeding 6-7 hours a day really works! I now have a renewed resolve to keep with it! Just about 10 more pounds to go until I hit my pre-pregnancy weight... and then another 5 that I was in the process of trying to lose before I got pregnant in the first place. These last 15 might be pretty hard to shed though. But at the new apartment it will be much easier to get out and go for a walk or run and there's even a fitness center in the building! I just have to motivate myself to actually use it.

My wedding ring finally fits again! I haven't been able to wear it since September!

Our family with Dr. Piness, the doctor who delivered the boys. I absolutely LOVED her!

And this is just us in the doctor's office, but both boys have their eyes open and are (sort of) looking at the camera. They're also wearing their twin shirts that Anna gave them :-)

Dr. Piness gave the boys these cute hats too

The Picture of the Week

And some other really cute pictures