Laura's Mommy Journal

The much delayed Phoenix photo post

2012-02-01T08:41:00.004-05:00

In Phoenix, we spent a lot of time outside. There was a food truck event at a spring training baseball stadium:

They had tons of activities for kids, including rides, bounce houses, and sidewalk chalk.

We also went to this really gorgeous park with an incredible playground.

It had a train running through the park and all 9 of us crammed into the caboose together.

Alex was mostly happy to go desert "hiking" which included climbing on rocks.

While there, I also did family photos for my sister.

Highlights of those photos will be on my photography blog today, but I did want to say that this trip really inspired me to travel to take photos. So if you've been thinking about wanting me to shoot your family but you don't live in the Triangle area, 2012 might be your year!

January round up

2012-01-31T09:46:00.005-05:00

During 2010 Best Year Ever, at the end of each month I did a summary of how we were making that year awesome. I decided to do it again this year!

In the month of January:

We visited Irene and family in Charlotte
Grandma Roxane visited and got to be the first guest ever at a Gingerbread House Smash
I bought a full frame camera and fell IN LOVE
We visited my sister and family in Phoenix
We started hiking as a family
I ran 73 miles
I read 9 books and picked up 9 more that I didn't finish

What I didn't do: I never posted the rest of the Phoenix photos. I needed some time with Photoshop to get to know my new RAW files. They're coming, tomorrow. Thank you for your:

The winter that never came

2012-01-30T08:17:00.003-05:00

This winter has been unseasonably warm and it has made such a difference in my energy levels and attitude. I haven't gotten any January doldrums because I've been able to be outside a lot (in shorts!) soaking up vitamin D and getting tons of fresh air. The days are already getting longer, so Friday after school we took the boys "hiking."

Since Jon and I met, we have always gone on long walks together, talking. If we call it hiking, it sounds a lot fancier right? We went to a nearby neighborhood with a big lake and a walking trail and let the kids run like crazy. A highlight includes Nate getting a glimpse of the lake and shouting, "I AM GOING TO CHECK OUT ALL THIS NATURE!!!!!!!!!" It was a perfect start to a beautiful weekend that also included a couple of hours at a local lake beach soaking up more rays.

Tanika recently commented asking how we decide which photos go on the walls of our house. It's hard to explain the decision making process but when I see the photo, I KNOW when it has to go on our walls. This one from the hike? It will be on our walls.

Project 365 drop out. Again. Yes, again.

2012-01-27T10:39:00.003-05:00

I've had it on my Mondo list to complete a Project 365 (take one photo a day for a year). 27 days into my fourth attempt, I am calling it quits and saying good-bye to this goal for awhile. Maybe forever.

I mostly wanted to do this because I thought this would help improve my photography. Starting my business pushed my photography more in every aspect than I ever imagined. It improved everything - my workflow, my speed, my interaction with people, my understanding of light, and creating my vision. During Project 365, I found myself taking a photo just to get it done. Those are not the kinds of photos I want.

I also had grand plans to complete an album at the end of the year. To me, it is completely unrealistic to pick just one photo a day for an album. With two kids, sometimes I can not pare it down to one. And sometimes, it takes more than one photo to tell the story I want to tell.

I wanted to show an example of what I mean, so here are some extra photos I took the day of our holiday card shoot. I'm going to just post the photos without captions to see if the photos can tell the story for me. Could you imaging picking just one of these?

Sometimes to get farther in our dreams, we have to say good bye to old dreams that don't fit us. Good bye Project 365, another time. Maybe.

Kids are dumb

2012-01-26T09:45:00.003-05:00

This is the first week back at school after 5 weeks off for the boys. Alex has noticeably more energy every day with so little activity during the day, so we've been taking him out for morning walks before school. This morning I took him to our neighborhood playground.

Laura: Check the slides to see if they're wet before you go down them.
Alex: They are wet!

He then proceeded to slide down, head first,on his belly, completely drenching his winter coat and the entire front of his pants.

I like big prints and I can not lie

2012-01-25T09:21:00.005-05:00

Oh Pinterest, you devil.

I've started to only check Pinterest once a week or so. After returning from Phoenix I was excited to see a new craft. A craft I could do. A craft right up my alley. Turning your photos into 3 foot tall prints. (Here's the tutorial.)

YES.

Jon set off on this adventure with me last night, sans kids. First up - a huge print. Apparently you can go to any OfficeMax or print shop and ask for an engineer's print. For $4, I got a 36"x24" print on paper (NOT photo paper).

The OfficeMax guy said I had a nice camera to take photos like that
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we were to head to a hardware store to get foam board. Guess what? Not 1, not 2, not 3 but FIVE employees told us the wrong location of foam board. And it would have been so helpful to know that foamboard is THIS BIG (Jon is 6'4"):

Jon: "This will never fit in the car."
Laura: "Oh it will fit. It MUST fit."
At the car
Laura: "This doesn't even come close to fitting in the car."
Jon: "Yep."

So we broke it in half and squeezed it into the back seat. How has Jon not tired of my antics after the last 12 years? I don't know.

Then I huffed some spray glue in the garage and made these:

I still need to trim the edges and paint them. I thought I might use them in my office. BUT? These prints are TOO SMALL.

These will go on the third floor and I'm back to the drawing board with what to do with that office wall. Maybe I will get inspired if I huff some more spray glue and troll Pinterest.

Anddddddddddddddd........ now I'm totally screwed

2012-01-24T09:43:00.002-05:00

The master bedroom and my office are two of the last rooms in the house to get decorated. There is a LOT of wall space in both rooms, so I scoured Pinterest for some ideas on frame groupings. After much deliberation, I put together this arrangement and asked Jon to hang it for me in our bedroom:

The plan was to do something similar in my office with dark wood frames, light blue matting, and all black and white photos. It was going to look AH-mazing.

However. Getting the frames up on the wall in that exact pattern took Jon HOURS. Now I either need to figure out Plan B for my office or suck it up and hang the frames myself instead of getting my super organized uber detailed husband to do it for me.

In the meantime that bedroom wall looks exactly perfect to me!

A confession

2012-01-23T08:59:00.003-05:00

I've always had an iron stomach when it comes to the boys doing physical things. Jump from a rock as an early toddler? No problem. Jump into 10 feet of water at the age of 3? Bring it. But this thing.... it scares the pee right out of me:

It shouldn't scare me. Their adept little hands and feet are safe climbing up there and back down. There's practically no way to fall to the ground without being stopped by wires. But when they're completely above my head, climbing higher and higher, I can help but feel the fear rise up in my throat and panic about MY BABIES!!!

But oh how they love it.

They are so happy and so proud doing this, and that's why I know I have to back off. Not show my panic. Let them be free and grow and spread their wings and try new things. It is one of the hardest parts of parenting, to let them get into situations where they might get hurt, even though I know sometimes the greatest risks bring the greatest rewards.

This parenting thing is tough, yo. What scares you?

Need to get this off my chest

2012-01-20T09:06:00.004-05:00

We watched the Golden Globes at my sister's house. I love me some Angelina (here's my letter to her) but if one more person raves about her dress or how great she looked, I am going to scream at them. Or maybe junk punch them.

LOOK AT THOSE SKELETON ARMS. That is a person who is not eating. I've been very open here talking about how I used to have anorexia, and those arms? She is sick, people. I literally wanted to puke when she presented her award because you could see the bones inside her elbow.

But she was not the only offender of the night. Modern Family is one of my favorite shows but seriously, someone needs to get Julie Bowen some help. She is literally wasting away in front of our eyes, skinnier every week.

And do not get me started on the plastic surgery. So many faces were jacked up this year. Michelle Pfeiffer. Madonna. Even Helen Mirren appeared to have a facelift since the last awards shows.

What really really really makes me angry is how we, as a culture, worship this. Is this what we want for our daughters? Is this what we want to consider normal?

I sure as hell DO NOT want my sons to think the above photos are attractive. I want them to look at those photos and worry. I want them to see those women and get them help. I want them to think that women can age gracefully without having to go under the knife. I want them to think that HEALTHY is beautiful.

Who's with me?

What????????????

2012-01-19T08:17:00.003-05:00

You don't have ninja fashion shows at your house?

Too bad because wearing jewelry is awesome. (Like blue much, Laura?)

We're still working on the "less is more" concept but we'll get there.

I am combining two protests into one

2012-01-18T10:10:00.006-05:00

If you're connected to the internet today, you know people are protesting SOPA and PIPA. Here is the best explanation of these in a short summary. Technically I am supposed to black out my blog to protest but I am protesting in a different way.

The Stirrup Queen recommended an alternative - to share the best advice you have to show the GOOD in the internet. I am going to share two pieces of advice, one related to SOPA and the other my BEST ADVICE EVER.

Advice on SOPA:
All the protest websites have information on how to email your representatives to tell them you are against these bills. My advice - pick up the phone and call them. It is so easy and fast to email that most reps just log the number of emails for and against a bill. A phone call gets logged as MUCH MORE important because it takes time.

BEST ADVICE EVER:
Get a family photo. It doesn't have to be with a custom portrait photographer, just get one. Don't wait until you lose weight or until your life is less busy. Go get it done now. The kids don't even have to be smiling with real smiles and you don't have to be dressed up. Here's us a few weeks ago:

A week ago, one of my friends in Raleigh (M), her 2 year old son got diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer. In one day, every single thing in their life changed. I immediately offered to do photos, any time, any place, and found them someone who could do photos this weekend while I was in Phoenix before he started treatment. Prayers and good thoughts are appreciated (his biopsy yesterday was successful, they will soon know the details on chemo and radiation, etc).

So for my friend, go NOW and get a family photo.

You should have extra time on your hands since so much of the internet is blacked out, so you may as well do it today!

Oh hai, I did it again

2012-01-17T08:46:00.004-05:00

(aka Year of Connection, part four)

With the boys still tracked out, we went to Phoenix for a long weekend to visit my sister and her family. We got back late last night so we're not unpacked and things are hectic so I will just leave you with some pretty pictures for today then tomorrow tell you more about it, okay?

(the cousins had a blast together)

(They had so much fun Nate did a LOT of crying on the way home and this morning because apparently he wants to live in Phoenix.)

(I took my new camera with me despite not having practiced with it yet. I've got a LOT of editing learning to do with this baby but HELLO uberphotogenic sister!

(you know I took it for a test drive for family photos)

(love this)

More to come tomorrow!

A new and exciting phase!!!

2012-01-12T10:05:00.005-05:00

When the boys were newborns and toddlers, it was all - check out this new phase! Look at this new phase! They're doing this awesome new thing in this new phase! Now it's all - guess what, they're still in kindergarten.

So I am happy to report the boys are in a new phase!!! It is amazing! They can not keep their hands off each other!!

You will be so impressed by all the different ways in which they can not keep their hands (and feet) off each other!

They are so incredibly creative, using literally every part of their bodies to bother each other. *Sigh* These milestones are amazing to watch.

Sometimes when they are not pestering each other, they also do awesome things like pretend to threaten to punch each other. I honestly can not believe how versatile they can be with this skill. They are GENIUSES at bothering each other! My babies, GENIUSES!!

I can't really do this post justice without showing you their most impressive skill - tackling each other. I want to die from the sweetness of this!

I swear the most amazing part of motherhood is watching these skills unfold before your eyes.

This shot makes me so sad. They were cooperating and didn't touch each other??? I guess it's the same as most skills - two steps forward, one step back.

So never fear parents, as your children age, you will never lose that sense of wonder as your children display new and improved skills.

(200+ shots of them while lens testing and this is the only semi-normal one of them together.)

I could go on and on

2012-01-11T06:45:00.001-05:00

After all that research testing lenses, I decided my best option was to move to a full frame camera. Last night I took some test shots inside my house at night with no flash.

I AM IN LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you read The Bloggess, I think of this camera as my Red Dress. I had a tough time pulling the trigger because I felt like I didn't deserve it. Jon can tell you I agonized over this decision for months. Finally I did it because I use my camera every day. Life is too short not to capture photos exactly as I want them to be.

Life is too short not to do nice things for myself.

Now... I am not advocating that everyone run out and buy a pro camera. We can afford it and I paid for it with my business. I spent years learning photography with my Rebel and then my 50D. But sometimes, you have to say YES to a dream.

It's amazing how liberating it is to do something like this.

NO NO NO I will not be getting that lens!

2012-01-10T09:08:00.002-05:00

A little backstory: Alex and Nate were born at 36w3d, just preemie enough to have softer heads. Alex was Baby A (the first baby out of the chute) and he was head down most of my pregnancy. He had his entire weight and Nate's entire weight pressing on his head and neck. As a result, he developed torticollis (jacked up neck) and ended up in a helmet for his plagiocephaly (jacked up head).

At the time, it was SUPER EMOTIONAL for us for him to get a helmet, wear a helmet, and go to physical therapy. Plus we had that other super cranky baby with reflux who vomited all the time. At age 5, I never think about the helmet. It seems so far away and Alex has a PERFECT head. I only remember how cute he looked in it:

I need to be able to take slightly wider angle photos for my photography business (and inside my own home) so this weekend I rented the Canon 24mm 1.4 and the Canon 35mm 1.4. The 24mm was immediately out because it distorts people even when far away, even on a 1.6x body. And when I saw this close up of Alex, which is weird distortion because his head is turned slightly one direction, it took my breath away. THIS is what Alex would have looked like without a helmet.

Freaky right?????

Even though I'm never ever buying that lens for portrait photography, I did play around with the distortion a bit before returning it. And I can't leave you with a photo like of my baby so please see this:

Year of Connection, part three

2012-01-09T09:22:00.002-05:00

With the boys tracked out, it was the perfect time for the boys to skip Y camp and hang out with grandma Roxane. She was pretty excited to fly in from Fargo to some 70 degree weather.

Roxane got to witness the 9th Annual Gingerbread House smashing. We had planned to do it over NYE weekend but Jon and I were too sick.

(My timing is getting better and better each year. SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

The 9th Annual Smash brought the first injury. After the smash, Alex grabbed the rubber mallet from Nate's hands and hit Nate in the mouth. There was blood. It was not pretty. It sucks having two kids who are afraid of blood, because then we have to lie to them and tell them there is no blood or else they FREAK OUT.

Roxane watched the kids so we could go out and took them to a museum and helped them paint and put them to bed and took them to Krispy Kreme and bought them gifts. Basically again making us wish she lived closer. Thanks again for another fantastic visit Roxane!

The Year of Connection, part one and part two

2012-01-06T07:19:00.001-05:00

Over New Year's Eve weekend, we packed up for a quick jaunt to Charlotte to visit Irene and family. It's pretty rad we live so close, but with 5 boys 5 and under... and jobs and traveling husbands and outside interests... sometimes it's hard to get time together.

The trip was great - lots of park time for the kids, lots of time to chat. Since our boys are old enough to play unsupervised, it left four adults to supervise the two 18 month olds (dare I say it? The twins.)

Unfortunately Matt got what he thought was food poisoning. It turned out to be a 24 hour stomach virus. That I got when we got home. Then Jon got it. And then later this week, I upgraded my iphone to the latest operating system and it wiped everything. Restore failed. I had to re-type every single phone number back into my phone.

Here's the thing. Before The Year of Connection, I would have let these things put me in a bad mood. However, re-typing numbers back into my phone made me really consider who was in there, and who was missing. It was an excellent exercise in the Year of Connection.

And spending all day in bed feeling like I was going to puke? Totally worth it for a chance to see Irene's family in person and hang out with them.

I'm liking you, 2012.

The smartest thing Nate has ever said

2012-01-05T08:32:00.002-05:00

Laura: "Alex, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
Alex: " I want to be a football player for the Carolina Panthers. I want to be #28."

Laura: "Nate, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
Nate: "I don't know all the different things you can be. I'll keep hearing about all the different things you can be and when I go to college, I will pick what I want to be."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, another project 365

2012-01-04T08:58:00.003-05:00

Every year I say THIS is going to be the year I complete a Project 365, where you take a photo a day for a year. Three times I have started the project and abandoned it. A rational, sane person would say, "Maybe this thing doesn't work for me" but instead I decided I would finally complete it in 2012. When there are 366 days, of course.

Things I am doing differently this time:

I am not going to share it here. The pressure actually made it harder for me.
I am going to use instagram like no one's business.
Much fewer posed photos, many more "lifestyle" photos. Like yesterday's photo.

I'm going to use this year to experiment with different camera techniques I have been wanting to try. This morning I wanted to take a quick shot of the toothpaste Alex had smeared all over his face but he mostly got it off by the time I got the camera. My camera was already set to f1.8 so I kept it there for a quick shot. MISTAKE.

Doesn't this look like some terrible school picture gone horribly wrong?
On the upside, I totally nailed the focus at f1.8 while standing super close to him.

Vacation hangover

2012-01-03T10:39:00.003-05:00

Today I am back to work after two full weeks off. I haven't had two weeks off since maternity leave, which, with twins, does not count EVEN THE TINIEST BIT as vacation. We didn't travel, we didn't have any house guests, we didn't do anything from our to do list.

A lot of people have asked what we did. The answer - nothing. It's been glorious, just hanging out at our house with our little family, not doing much. The other 50 weeks of the year is always go go go do do do. Sometimes I felt cranky, not sure how to just BE. I spent a lot of time thinking, reflecting, and mentally planning.

By the end of the time, I realized I need to figure out how to bring this feeling to every week of the year. Where just hanging out, watching TV together, is enough.

Favorite photos of 2011

2012-01-02T08:50:00.005-05:00

Originally I thought I'd do some kind of 2011 wrap up post, detailing what we did and what we learned.

BUT

I already wrote 5 days a week, every week, about our life. Blah blah blah. Instead I want to take a look back at my favorite personal photos that I took in 2011. I can't wait to see where my photography goes in 2012!

JANUARY:
I need to get this one hanging in the house:

I usually take happy photos but this one showed me I need to work on my unhappy photos.

I want to go back here this winter!

FEBRUARY:
Experimenting with lots of backlight:

MARCH:
So many favorites from the beach. Fitting since the beach is my happy place.

APRIL:
Playing around with my mock studio in my home office:

Checking out Duke gardens:

MAY:
This lot is still empty and I'm hoping we can go back this May.

JUNE:
Sentimental favorite. I can't wait to see the comparison on their high school graduation and college graduation days.

JULY:
I don't know why I love this photo, perhaps the joy?

I love how timeless this photo is, cousins together:

This one punches me right in the stomach every time I see it:

Y'all knew this would be in the favorites.

AUGUST:
Another punch in the gut. First day of kindergarten.

Still love this.

Leisure dive!

SEPTEMBER:
More and more beach photos.

Poor kid, scared of bees.

OCTOBER:
First trip to the mountains.

NOVEMBER:
Even wearing masks, they were not cooperative with photos.

Those eyelashes. Sigh.

DECEMBER:
The card. THE CARD!

2011 book list

2012-01-01T16:04:00.002-05:00

I finished 60 books in 2011, the most I've read in a year since the boys have been alive. I attribute this to being able to read while they play independently.

5 stars - loved them:

Hunger Games (re-read)
Packing for Mars (PLEASE someone read this book so we can discuss!!)
The Passage
Divergent
Immediate Family (photography)
Agile Data Warehousing (for work)

4 stars - really liked them:

Catching Fire, Mockingjay
How She Really Does It - AWESOME working mom book
Zeitoun
Wench
Accidental Billionaires
Catcher in the Rye (re-read)
What the Dog Saw
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Your Five Year Old
This Is Where I Leave You
By The Time You'll Read This I'll Be Dead
Theory of Light and Matter (best short story collection I've read in years)
My Year with Eleanor
Time Traveler's Wife (re-read)
Cinderella Ate My Daughter
The Digital Asset Management Book (photography)
Thirteen Reasons Why
The Borrower (NOT The BorrowerS)
Ape House
Mudbound
Your Six Year Old
Language of Flowers
Midwife's Confession

3 stars - liked them but wouldn't rave about them:

Living Dead in Dallas
Full Dark No Stars (Stephen King's darkest EVER)
Unbearable Lightness
Room (giving it 3 is a stretch)
Unhealthy Truth
Beauty of Different
Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Lunchbox
Hothouse Flower
Managing Software Debt
Sing You Home
Just Let Me Lie Down
Bossypants
Forest of Hands and Teeth
Wild Child (sad that TC Boyle is a 3 star this year, but true)
Bedwetter
Sex on the Moon
The Neighbors are Watching
Moonlight Mile
House on Fortune Street (would have gotten a better rating if first section was better)
My Lobotomy
Matched (yet I will read the sequels)
Eclipse

Only 7 books fell in the 1 and 2 star categories, meaning I put down a LOT of books this year. I started at least 60 more and did not finish them (Night Circus comes immediately to mind).

And do you like how I threw the VERY LAST BOOK in there? ECLIPSE. I listened to the first three Twilight books on audio this year, after hating hating hating the books so much. The writing is still terrible, Bella is still horribly weak and meek and everything I hate in anti-feminist women, but I want to know how it ends after the Breaking Dawn onslaught this year. And I had a lot of driving time to and from photography sessions to fill this year!

What books are not on my list that I need to read?

Totally doing this backward

2011-12-30T09:25:00.004-05:00

How I want to blog these posts:

1. Do a 2011 book wrap up (I will end the year having finished 60 books)
2. Do a 2011 Year in Review with photos
2. Announce the 2012 theme

But we're ending the year with a trip so instead I'm going to announce the 2012 theme with the wrap ups coming next week.

A little history here... I declared 2010 The Best Year Ever. AND IT WAS. But it was crazy and exhausting and overwhelming and too much. Best Year Ever is not a sustainable pace.

I slowed it down in 2011, declaring it The Year of More. Oh and was it ever more. More success at Jon's job than we ever imagined. More success in my photography business than we ever imagined. But it came with a downside as well. More difficult terrible things happened to loved ones this year than ever before. Both Jon and I gained weight, ending the year with MORE.

I had to think long and hard about the 2012 theme. I'm trying not to focus on what could be the potential downside of this but 2012 will be

The Year of Connection

In this crazy busy fun life, I feel like I've lost a lot of time with my friends and loved ones. I'd like to change that in 2012. Call my sister more. Spend more time laughing with friends on the phone. Walk away from the computer.

And with that, I am walking away from the computer to go visit Irene and family. 5 boys 5 and under, SEND HELP AND WINE.

Happy new year, everyone.

Fun! with paper!

2011-12-29T13:58:00.003-05:00

It's been very weird the last few days going out and about in public. The first question everyone asks is what we got the kids for Christmas. I feel slightly grinchy when I say we got them remote controlled cars and a few other small gifts. We didn't go crazy with Christmas because they have a lot of loving family members who sent them gifts so they had a TON of gifts.

Yesterday I took down the 9 ft tall roll of paper we used as a backdrop for our holiday card, seen here:

What I did not think about was that it is stiff, seamless paper. When I pulled it down, it folded over and created the world's most awesome cave. There are twin five year old boys under there:

I am not kidding when I say the boys played in it for hours. They said they wanted to live there forever. It had to leave my office so Jon and I moved it to Alex's room. They piled toys and art supplies in there:

A house full of brand new toys and the boys play with a PIECE OF PAPER. And that is why I don't truly feel grinchy.

Be still my heart

2011-12-28T11:37:00.002-05:00

After carefully considering options, as one of our holiday charities we chose to fund a project through Donors Choose. We discussed it with the boys and decided to help a low poverty school in our area buy a ton of science books.

As we were on the website, Jon and I asked the boys how much they wanted to individually contribute to the project. They emptied their entire wallets while saying, "Now they will get a LOT of books!"

Most days 5 year olds are (developmentally appropriate) selfish jerks but man, that one made me bust out the kleenex.

Christmas 2011 overload post

2011-12-26T13:34:00.002-05:00

I am so glad I took a week off blogging! I am back and ready to snark on the daily life of raising children! First however, let's catch up on the last week.

One night last week, we went to a holiday party where Santa arrived to deliver an early present. Nate got a lego boat and Alex got a Panthers jersey. Alex wanted to sleep in that thing multiple days.

Christmas Eve we let the boys pick 3 presents to open. One boy was VERY cooperative for photos and one was not.

Obligatory shot under the Christmas tree. Yes, this was the best one.

Guess who was cooperative again?

We also continued the tradition of baking cookies for Santa and leaving out reindeer food. We also tracked Santa's activity on NORAD and got to see Santa deliver presents to London!

Christmas morning the boys SLEPT IN. Jon and I woke up early, anticipating an early morning. Elfie covered the boys' doors with crepe paper to make sure no one snuck out early!

We told the boys we would all go downstairs together. Nate ran down the stairs, ran to the tree, and ripped open a present screaming "SANTA BROUGHT MY REMOTE CONTROL CAR!" before Jon and I even realized what was happening. Christmas is the freaking BEST as a kid.

And all Alex wanted was a football.

We had a very blessed Christmas with some beautiful warm weather.
Now if you'll excuse me, I am off to ice skate with the kids!

Last day of school!

2011-12-20T08:15:00.002-05:00

Today is the boys' last day of school before Christmas break. They'll be off for two weeks then they will also be tracked out for three weeks in January. Since this is the second quarter they've completed, it also means they are half done with kindergarten. Yes, I am in shock at how fast it's gone!

Posting will be sparse around here until the new year. I'll post when I feel like it but honestly, I'm looking forward to a break to get my blogging mojo back.

Elfie drew on pictures of the boys.... but more importantly, check out the lights in the background! Sweet. If you have an SLR, here is a tutorial to do it yourself.

Baby it's cold outside. And inside people's hearts. Stupid Grinches.

2011-12-19T10:42:00.004-05:00

We had another awesome, jam-packed weekend at Casa Case. It included quite possibly the best party we've attended since the boys were born - there were babysitters at the party to watch the kids in a separate part of the house. Kids had fun, adults had fun, plenty of booze and desserts. WIN WIN.

I also decided I was done with the white paper in my office and let the boys go to town on it. (You MUST download Camera+ ! Best iphone photo editor EVER.)

The only thing marring my weekend was how many people sent me this article from People I Want to Punch in the Face. With a disclaimer, OF COURSE, that they don't mean me, they mean other people who do the Elf thing. Seriously, I got this from at least 20 people last week.

From the very start of this holiday season, I have very publicly declared our focus was on experiences. I doubt my children will grow up remembering the things they received but they will remember the time we spent with them. They will remember what it was like to wake up with a little bit of magic in their house.

This season, I have spent about 1% of my mental energy on presents and gifts and what I can BUY and instead thought about how I can make MEMORIES.

And for that, I am proud.

Sunday Elfie got into the chocolate covered peanuts that were delivered this weekend.

This morning Nate and Alex couldn't find Elfie for a good 15 minutes. Elfie picked a really great hiding spot.

Our favorite tradition

2011-12-17T11:58:00.004-05:00

Elfie is SUPER SAD he will be at the North Pole when we have the 9th Annual Case Family Gingerbread House Smash. He tried to get a jump start on the activity but his tiny arms were too puny for the mallet.

(For those new here, here's a photo from 2 years ago of our tradition)

Sorry, this year's Santa picture is the most boringest ever

2011-12-16T10:00:00.005-05:00

This is the first year since Alex was a baby that he wasn't afraid of Santa. He marched right up, told Santa what he wanted, and smiled big for the camera. (Santa looks like he is growling, huh?)

I much prefer the Santa picture from when they were one. INSTANT CLASSIC.

It makes me a teeny tiny bit sad we'll never have another Santa crying photo.

And look! Elfie is loving visiting a Unitarian household. He taught everyone the dreidel song.

I blame you ALL (if you have kids older than mine)

2011-12-15T08:10:00.004-05:00

How many times do I have to say that the hardest part of being first time parents to twins is that we are perpetual rookies? And that we have to learn lessons the hard way... times two?

We didn't really let the boys use pencils much before they started kindergarten. Do you have two boys? Then you know why we made that wise decision. Kindergarten rang in the era of pencils to our house. Jon and I are not dumb enough to manually sharpen pencils for two boys so we bought an electric pencil sharpener. In our genius first time parent way, we left the pencil sharpener out for the boys to use whenever they NEED.

Did we consider they would use it ALL THE TIME? No. Did y'all warn me? NO.

Basically every pencil in our house has been sharpened down to a nub. A very sharp nub. Elfie got in on the action, and sharpened two pencils the way Nate and Alex sharpen pencils.

(Sorry I went crazy with the holiday light bokeh in the background. Best use of 1.2 lens ever.)

I have the sense of humor of a 14 year old boy and I am okay with it

2011-12-14T09:13:00.005-05:00

Alex went to Target with me last night. Every time we take one of the kids to Target, they are obsessed with the nutcrackers. Alex asked if we could get it and I said no. He said, "I will pay for it with my own money." and so he did. I bought some peanuts in the shell for cracking.

(I'm 100% fine being *that mom* who makes their 5 year old buy something in Target if they want it.)

The boys were OBSESSED with cracking nuts last night and this morning. I could not help but giggle at these quotes:

"I want Alex to eat my nuts."
"Can I put my nuts in there?"
"I love eating nuts!"

If I had known it would make me giggle so much, I would have bought it a lot time ago.

(Fortunately Elfie put his arm in the nutcracker instead of his nuts.)

A new series: "After the Shot"

2011-12-12T21:24:00.007-05:00

If you know me, you know when I did the sled pictures, I didn't *just* take sled photos. We took some fun shots after we were done.

Insert "mom is making us take pictures again" cheeseface:

Like I've said over and over, I'm done trying to get them to take "good" pictures. That's not what our life looks like. Our life looks much more like this:

The boys decided they wanted jumping shots. People asked why Nate was Rudolph... because Alex doesn't like to take direction. He just wants to jump however he wants to jump...

while Nate can do just about any pose in the air.

I'm loving this new zen attitude with photos of my boys. They (both the photos and the boys) may not be perfect but they're my crazy boys.

PS. I was out last night and Jon said the boys were AMAZINGLY GOOD all night. Crazy how Elfie works, huh? Last night Elfie decided to make his own star for the tree.

Christmas is so much better as a kid

2011-12-12T09:15:00.004-05:00

Christmas exploded at our house this weekend. Friday night we went to the Pullen Park Christmas celebration. This was our FAVORITE holiday activity two years ago (adorable photo and write up here) so we were sad when Pullen Park was closed last year. Never fear: it opened bigger and more awesome than before. We used the same strategy of getting there as soon as it opened and riding the train before the lines got too long.

This was the longest we have ever stayed at Pullen - three hours. We rode the train, rode the carousel, did Christmas crafts, but the overwhelming favorite was the new awesome playgrounds. The only way we got the boys to leave was to promise to bring them back over holiday break.

We ate dinner to some awesome drumming from a local magnet high school.

And... at age 37, I learned a valuable style lesson. A cute hat goes a long way toward covering up a bad hair day.

Saturday afternoon we had to skip the Cary Christmas parade because two boys were SO BAD. Saturday night we had a family baking night which included gingerbread men, buckeyes, oreo balls, and gingerbread houses. Alex might be kicked out of the Verhoff family as he declared oreo balls better than buckeyes. The rest of us love both.

What did Elfie do this morning? NOTHING. Nate and Alex were again VERY BAD on Sunday morning so Santa told Elfie to not do anything fun and not bring any treats for the advent calendar. Sometimes it sucks being the parent at Christmas, but I'm thinking a valuable lesson was learned this morning.

Remind me next year

2011-12-11T11:41:00.001-05:00

That Elfie shouldn't come visit until December 1.

An Elfie confession

2011-12-10T11:29:00.002-05:00

The majority of Elfie's antics are antics that I gleaned from Pinterest. Some of them have been our own creation (Jon's At At inspiration) but for the most part, these are ideas we got from other people.

Elfie made a zipline last night.

If you'd like to see some inappropriate Elf antics, head on over to Baby Rabies for the Inappropriate Elf Contest. My personal favorite is Dexter elf.

The crazies kind of won a little bit

2011-12-09T08:57:00.005-05:00

First order of business: Elfie was playing with the At At last night. Because who has seen Empire Strikes Back and not dreamed of doing this?!

Second order of business: yesterday I posted the full story of our holiday card on my photography blog. For those that haven't seen it, I am SUPER PROUD of this card:

Third order of business: photo stealing. In the last week, I got two more emails about stolen photos. One was super crazy - a guy used Nate and Alex's baby and toddler photos for a year to court a 15 year old girl. The other was run-of-the-mill fake Facebook page with the boys' photos.

ALL of my photos that have been stolen have been stolen from Picasa. When you upload your photos to Blogger, Google creates a Picasa web album for you. In the past, people could only see those photos if they navigated to your blog OR if they had the direct link for the album. They did NOT show up in Google image searches. If you sign up for Google+, they import ALL of your Picasa web albums into your PUBLIC profile (you can not have a private Google+ profile). Ever since I signed up for Google+, more and more of my photos were stolen.

Frankly I don't have time to deal with this over and over. To deal with the issue, I:

deleted my Google+ profile
sent extremely ranty emails to Google+ about their photo privacy issues. This is why Facebook is going to win this race peoples - privacy.
I made ALL of my Picasa pictures private. That means 1400 (!!!) photos are now missing from the first few years of this blog.

All of the baby pictures, all of the toddler pictures - POOF. Gone from the blog. And I have to accept I will never have time to move all 1400 pictures over to Flickr and replace the links.

I can't end this blog post on a negative note though because then the crazies really win. I've said it before and I'll say it again - this blog is my baby book. And even though I don't have their baby photos on the actual blog anymore, I will always have the blogbooks. And the blogbooks are AWESOME.

The one where I get all Pinteresty on you

2011-12-08T11:34:00.004-05:00

This morning Elfie was on the third floor reading books to Nate and Alex's animals in THE READING NOOK:

What is the reading nook? When we bought the new house, the builder put in a window seat on the third floor. It's a small window seat but still a window seat. As soon as we saw it finished, I said to Jon, "READING NOOK!" And I finished most of it last night:

I didn't want it to be overly cluttered and with the crazy storage area on one wall, it was never going to look like Pottery Barn. The colors were decided for me when I was out shopping one day and found this painting. The first time Nate and Alex saw it, they said, "Is that us?" YEP.

One part that is not quite complete is this bad boy:

Why yes! I did print some Instagram photos! I used an awesome app called PostalPix. You order the photos directly from your phone. Be still my heart... take a picture with your phone, use free app Instagram to edit, then use PostalPix to order prints delivered to your house... this nerd LOVES. I have some more prints coming and then it will be done.

I also used Pinterest to learn how to make signs like this. Printed up two quotes on reading and voila:

The best part? That window overlooks our whole neighborhood and the woods in the distance.

Seriously peoples... HAPPY PLACE.

Our no-waste lunch

2011-12-07T09:03:00.003-05:00

I've gotten a ton of questions about packing for school lunches, so I thought I'd do a write up now that we have a solid system. While we loved the Go Green Lunchbox Gillian suggested, the boys could not put on the lid by themselves so that was a deal breaker. Before school started, we took them to Pottery Barn Kids to try out their lunch systems in person.

We love love love LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE the PBKids bento:

The bento has 5 "slots" for meals. We always pack a fruit and a vegetable in two of the slots, leaving room for a main course and two sides. This may look like a lot of food but my boys eat almost every bite every day! Both of them fit in the top rack of the dishwasher along with our other dishes. And only $14! And BPA free!

Our goal was to have everything else waste free as well. Here is what our daily packing looks like for lunch and two snacks (one at school, one at YMCA after school):

Cloth napkins from wherever you buy kids' cloth napkins (we have some from PBK)
Lunchbox also from PBK.
To keep things cold, some ice packs from PBK.
Water bottles from Target. Orbit labels on water bottles from Inchbug.
Reusable snack containers from The Umbrella Girl on Etsy. She is real life friends with Lindsay. I LOVE that they have tags on top to make them easy to open. We also have extras from WasteNot Sacks on Etsy that we use for the car or when these are being washed.
Reusable applesauce containers from Sili Squeeze. Not going to lie, these do leak occasionally so we send them in a plastic bag that we reuse. But SO MUCH BETTER and cheaper than individual applesauce squeezers every day!

Please note: I did not receive any compensation or free products. We bought all of these with our money and have tested them for 5 months with two 5 year old boys.

Any awesome products I am missing? Any questions?

Last night Elfie took a marshmallow bubble bath with the Chewbaccas from the advent calendar:

Day 10

2011-12-06T08:21:00.002-05:00

This morning Elfie had written each boy a letter. Nate's letter said, "Look in the mirror." When the boys looked in the mirror, they didn't see anything. I had to point out that their noses were painted red like Rudolph. Alex's letter said, "Look at mommy's phone." When they turned on my phone, they found this:

Nate thought it was funny but Alex woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was NOT AMUSED. He wanted to wash it off so no one at school would laugh at him. It was the first time we've heard something like that (being laughed at) and a little heartbreaking.

I laughed quite a bit, so there's that.

I need to sit down and have a talk with Elfie. He had quite a number of antics planned that perhaps the boys are not going to find amusing.

I'm shooting baaaasssketballlllllllll

2011-12-05T06:10:00.002-05:00

This fall, the boys were in a basketball skills class at the YMCA. The class focused on the fundamentals and the last class, this past Saturday, was a full game.

After watching the skills class all fall, Jon and I were VERY skeptical of how the game would go. There was MUCH tomfoolery at every class. On game day, we were very shocked and delighted at how serious the boys were and how much their skills had improved. The Y rocks, again.

However, if you ever need a good laugh... I mean the kind where you are breathless and shaking and tears are streaming down your face ... you should watch 5 year olds play organized sports. I broke down laughing hysterically. Why? A picture does not do this justice and fortunately Jon was there to capture a video.

That's Nate with 26 seconds left, getting the rebound. Apparently dribbling and passing are for suckers. Bonus: you can hear Alex shouting "Nate! Nate!" over and over for Nate to pass it, and Nate never does.

Afterward they had a trophy ceremony in the racquetball court and the boys were so proud of themselves.

Elfie played with Alex's ipod overnight. I hope he doesn't beat me in Plants vs Zombies.

Day 8

2011-12-04T09:21:00.001-05:00

Elfie baked some gingerbread man cookies and snuggled with them all night. The boys were delighted.

Keepng it real about Elfie

2011-12-03T07:58:00.005-05:00

The boys have not been amused by some of Elfie's antics. Jon and I are firm about rules in our house and the boys have been upset Elfie is breaking rules. Nate was particularly pissed off about Elfie redecorating the tree. This is not really the reaction we were expecting!

I emailed Santa and he sent Elfie with a present for the boys. Elfie brought them a map of where he was in the house. When they arrived at their bathroom, they found Elfie had brought them window markers and written a message on their bathroom mirror.

The boys had a blast drawing on their mirror until Alex fell off the counter and cracked his head against a step stool. No concussion or bleeding, just a big goose egg.

ELFIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A mom's review of The Muppet Movie

2011-12-02T06:47:00.001-05:00

I took Nate and Alex to see The Muppet Movie this weekend. This is the first movie I've taken the boys to that I actually wanted to see, and it did not disappoint. It was AWESOME. Without spoiling anything, I cried during The Rainbow Connection. Kermit started singing and tears started streaming down my face.

It wasn't an ugly or sad cry, it was a happy cry. That song is an iconic song from my childhood. It made me remember sitting with my family, watching The Muppet Show and laughing. It brought me right back to the simple times of youth when a frog singing a song about dreamers was the most wondrous thing ever. It made me feel like a kid again.

It made me think about every positive memory we are creating with the kids, and how I hope they look back at these years with joy. Oh how I hope we are helping to create a happy childhood for them.

It was the happiest cry I've ever had in my life. Then I came home and added everything muppets to our Netflix queue. As should you.

Elfie TP'd the tree last night. Nate and Alex seem to think we should roll it back up to use it. Through Elfie, I'm learning a lot about the values we've instilled in the boys!

(YEAH we have a fake tree. Real Christmas trees are the achilles heel of Jon and my marriage. Wrote about it here last year.)

Taking the stuff out of Christmas

2011-12-01T08:35:00.014-05:00

Last night Elfie made a snow angel out of flour.

Elfie didn't really consider that Nate and Alex have grown up in a place where it snows very infrequently so they had no idea what a snow angel was.

Elfie is also responsible for the start of the Advent calendar. This morning he left a couple of M&Ms for the boys:

Before you think I'm some crazy nutjob who goes overboard at Christmas, let me set the record straight. Jon and I have always tried to keep the STUFF at Christmastime less of a priority for the boys than the EXPERIENCES. We want them to remember the holidays as a time we did things together as a family, rather than a time they got a lot of stuff.

To go with the boys' better understanding of the world, this year our Christmas Fun List includes a lot of giving to others as well as fun activities together as a family:

The one thing we did splurge on as a gift to the boys this year is a Lego Star Wars Advent calendar for each of them. Because a small Star Wars Lego every single day for 25 days in a row? FREAKING AWESOME. (I'm kind of sad I didn't buy one for myself.)

Summing it up, here is what we want Christmas to be about in our house:

Focus on time together, rather than stuff
Focus on helping other people in our full times as we may need help in our lean times
Focus on appreciating what we have
Give thoughtful gifts (It has Yoda dressed as Santa! I COVET.)

If anyone sees us violating these, call us out. In a nice way.

PS. Please note they each decided to wear a Star Wars shirt to open the first day. My work here is done.

A Christmas wish list conversation

2011-11-30T07:42:00.005-05:00

Laura: "What are you going to ask Santa to bring you for Christmas?"

Nate: "I'm going to ask for the Lego Death Star!"

Laura: "Nate, that is way too expensive for Santa to make. It is $400. If Santa has to pay $400 for his elves to build it, then he won't have enough money for other kids to get toys."

Nate: "Okay, instead I'll ask Santa for $1000. Then I could get two Death Stars, one for me and one for Alex, and still have money left to get toys for other kids."

Yay for allowance to help teach them the value of money, boo for maybe teaching them to dream a little too big.

(Elfie redecorated the entire tree to surround himself with ornaments!)

Well, that settles that

2011-11-29T08:49:00.004-05:00

We had a friend's boys over for dinner last night. Two observations:

Four boys 5 and under are not any louder and/or crazier than twin 5 year old boys
Jon and I are 100% done with two because we could NEVER afford to feed four boys

Elfie put Nate and Alex's underwear in the stockings today!

PS. For the photo enthusiasts reading... I bought VSCO film yesterday and played around with it last night. Jon is still confused as to why I would want to make my digital photos look like film. Because I want to be a hipster, Jon!

Another year where I am SUPER DUPER EXCITED about Christmas

2011-11-28T06:01:00.002-05:00

I had a burst of inspiration for our holiday card photo this year. With many days off work, I had time to execute it. I asked Jon to help me set up a backdrop in my office.

What, you don't have a 9 foot tall roll of white paper laying around and a 6'4" husband to secure it? You think that might be going a little too far for ONE holiday photo?

There was lots of twitter speculation over what the photo might be. I knew it would be hard to top last year's photo which was SADLY taken a few days after I had holiday cards printed.

Well speculators, it's not going to be Christmas lights wrapped around the boys. There is NO WAY that is happening this year. Too much tomfoolery. Way way way too much tomfoolery, even when threatened.

Please, no guesses. Or rather, no public guessing. Let your ideas be a surprise. I'm not really that creative so you would probably figure it out and ruin it for everyone. I can't wait for you all to see the cards. I feel like a kid at Christmas, wishing the cards would GET HERE ALREADY.

Overnight, apparently Elfie had an epic battle with the legos. The fundamental flaw of Elfie? Two excited boys shouting in our room every morning over the Elfie's antics. Okay fine, I won't call it a flaw. I will never stop loving having two boys excited to tell me everything as it's only a few more years until I'm not cool to them anymore.

PS. While I still have an entire wall covered in white paper, there are going to be pictures out the wazoo.

Elfie came to town

2011-11-27T09:02:00.003-05:00

We decorated the house for Christmas last night and Elfie was hiding in a box of decorations. Santa sent me an email letting me know Elfie might be a little naughty this year. The boys rushed downstairs to find Elfie enjoying himself:

Nate said, "I can't believe Elfie is being so naughty WASTING ELECTRICITY."

I wonder what else Elfie will get up in the upcoming month!

Giving thanks

2011-11-23T06:27:00.001-05:00

This was us, four years ago around Thanksgiving:

Each year I struggle with what to write at Thanksgiving. I have no idea where to start on all the things for which I am thankful. Each year I could write the same post as the year before because every year feels as sweet as it did in the photo above. I look at old posts and wonder how I will top the sentiments there.

(Crap, I should probably just recycle the posts!!! You guys would never know!!! Too late.)

2011 has been an AMAZEBALLS year. Good health. Stable jobs. Forever home. Great kids. Chasing dreams. Happy happy home. The only teeny tiny sad part is the boys are growing up way too fast. (photo by Natalie Jill Photography)

Again this year we are so blessed.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Time for you to have twin envy

2011-11-22T09:08:00.003-05:00

When the boys were newborns, I had a serious case of one-baby envy. Sorry peoples, but it just looked SO EASY with just one baby. I waited and waited and waited for the day it would be our turn.

That day was this weekend.

Sunday morning, we told the boys to go downstairs, watch tv, make their breakfast, and come get us if anyone choked. (I have this weird thing where I'm always worried the kids will choke if eating unattended. It's because Nate used to chimpmunk food, stuffing his cheeks until he choked and vomited.)

Jon and I slept until 9AM.

9AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Date morning

2011-11-21T09:13:00.002-05:00

Our life has been CRAZY TOWN lately. To help cope with the busy-ness, we have not been having one-on-one dates with the boys as much. This has been stressful for all of us.

Saturday morning we split up - Jon took Nate out while I stayed home with Alex. Alex and I had a blast, making banana bread and hummus and walking to the post office.

This crazy kid with his snow boots and using my reusable bag like a cape to be a super hero.... we needed some time together alone to recharge our relationship. It was a good reminder that we can give up a lot of things to save time but not these dates. We all need them.

Answers the photo quiz... but first one more question

2011-11-18T08:02:00.003-05:00

One more photo for the photo quiz.... was this taken with the big camera or little camera?

Do you have an answer? Good.

The answer is neither. The photo above was taken with my original iphone 1. As for the photo quiz, photos 2 and 3 were taken with the big camera. Really what I had hoped was to inspire people to think about the fact that you don't need a fancy camera to get good, meaningful photos of your kids. Keep snapping. Capture the moments like your kid's nose picking problem.

Being a long term blogger, I know blog comments are going to be light starting now until January. I'm planning some big photo projects around the house so I'll be documenting the ways in which I get the photos OFF THE COMPUTER and into our lives.

Why I buy more kleenex since becoming a mom

2011-11-17T08:35:00.002-05:00

Last night we discussed with the boys what we should do for our big family holiday donation. Should we help people who don't have food, help buy supplies for schools that don't have them, help kids who don't have parents?

Nate said: "Why don't we do all of it?"

More kleenex, please.

(And ideas on incorporating giving with children, please. We want to GO BIG this year.)

A ketchup post. Or catch up post, however you pronounce it

2011-11-16T09:31:00.004-05:00

The last two months have been crazy busy with my photography business which is AWESOME for two reasons. 1 - hello, dream coming true! 2 - Nate and Alex needed a break from my photography antics and I needed a break from them.

Since I am caught up on all clients, last night I decided to catch up on the last few months of personal photos and get them printed. My posts here have been light on photos recently so I thought I would share some ones that stood out to me. WITH TITLES PEOPLE, because I am a fancy pants professional now. Can you guess which are the fancy camera and which are the point and shoot?

1 - "I'm King of the Playground World!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

2 - "When does the gun phase end? Oh, NEVER???"

3 - "Boys will be boys"

4 - This meta photo will BLOW YOUR MIND. Me taking a picture of Nate who is looking at a picture he took of me. It is the matrix?

5 - And my personal favorite. Or rather, least favorite. "Why Laura has gotten so many colds this year, this is how germs are spread at Casa Case."

Only two of them were taken with the big camera, the rest with a point and shoot. Can you guess which ones?

A public service announcement

2011-11-15T09:09:00.002-05:00

I learned last night the Ames' 5 year old development book only covers age 5 to 5.5. The Ames' 6 year old development book covers age 5.5 to 7. Title? "Your 6 Year Old: Loving and Defiant"

Some excerpts that apply to our household:

dawdle and fuss throughout each meal, spoiling the whole meal situation for everyone else at the table
fights and fusses with playmates, seeming quite incapable for playing peaceably
nightmares bother them so much
crying about almost everything

I feel so much less crazy every time I read one of these books. Less like I am failing as a parent.

The church post. One I never thought I'd write

2011-11-14T08:50:00.004-05:00

I didn't attend church for 20 years so it comes as a big surprise to say my family has been regularly attending church for almost the last two years.

Right around the time my boys starting asking questions about religion, I made a new friend Katie. Religion frequently comes up in the south and as I had coffee with Katie one evening, she talked about how she loved that her church was a mix of everyone - Christians, Jews, gays, buddhists, agnostics, atheists.

I believe the look on my face was WHAT WHAT WHAT???? And that is how I started to learn more about Unitarian Universalism (UU).

I love that America is one big melting pot of cultures and religions. I also love that America is a place where you are free to express your opinions and pursue your own religious beliefs without persecution. And that is why I think being a UU is one of the most American things I can do. Two of the seven principles of UU are:

* Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth
* A free and responsible search for truth and meaning

For the first time in my life, I understand why people go to church. Every week I walk out inspired to be a better person. We have found a community of like-minded people. We have learned how hard it is to TRULY accept everyone, even those who disagree with you.

Yesterday our family proudly stood on stage to light the chalice at the beginning of service at UUFR. It's a place I NEVER imagined I would be with my family but I am proud we have found a spiritual home. A place where the boys can openly search for their own religious truth, even if it differs from my and Jon's beliefs. A place where they learn about every religion. A place where they learn the inherent dignity and worth of every person.

I promise not to go all crazy posting religious posts, but you will see more and more of UUFR here. Fall/winter season is particularly busy with Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, winter solstice, and Kwanzaa celebrations. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love my crazy hippie church.

I'm gunning for most un-fun parent ever. Get it? GUNNING

2011-11-11T11:44:00.006-05:00

The boys are off school for Veteran's Day so this morning we went for a round of dentist visits, hair cuts, and errands. Exactly what every kid wants on a holiday! And exactly what I imagine every working parent is doing with this day.

This was the first time Alex didn't cry and scream at the dentist so they were both given the privilege of picking any toy from the treasure chest. After talking to the dentist, I went around a corner to find Nate proudly holding a toy dart gun.

I made Nate pick a different toy. The hygenist asked what was wrong and I said we don't treat guns as toys in our house. And that they could not choose any other kind of weapon from the prize box either. It was a super awkward moment where I knew I was being silently judged but I was standing my ground.

I don't really care if I win lame parent award on this one. It seems completely crazy to me that you can't get CANDY at the dentist but you can walk out with a toy gun. I mean, what if they shot each other in the teeth?

(In other news, we could see the grown up teeth on the x-rays pushing up their front bottom baby teeth. )
(Now I'm off to have fun with the boys the rest of the day.)

Kids are 100% random

2011-11-10T09:07:00.003-05:00

The first time I volunteered in one of the boys' classrooms, the first thing I noticed was that about half the kids were missing at least one tooth. I realized we needed to get some tooth fairy pillows quickly. The current trend is monster tooth fairy pillows (tooth fairy puts the money in the monster's mouth) and a crafty friend offered to make them for Nate and Alex.

I pulled up etsy to show Nate and Alex examples and they said they did not want monster pillows. I asked what they wanted and Nate yelled, "I want a turtle tooth fairy pillow!" Alex wanted his to be exactly the same as Nate's.

100% random.

A quick etsy search and we now own these:

100% random.

A conversation about the death penalty

2011-11-09T09:15:00.003-05:00

This conversation was inspired by a religious education lesson the boys received at UUFR, when Jon was out of town for work one weekend.

Laura: How was church?

Nate: It was really, really bad. They told a story about a man whose family needed food. He stole a loaf of bread and they wanted to kill him! You shouldn't kill someone if they steal bread!

Laura: When do you think it is right to kill someone?

Alex: You should only kill someone if they kill someone else. If someone tried to kill me, I would kill them.

Laura: Some people like me think we should not kill people. Being in jail forever is a very bad punishment because they do not get to see their families or celebrate Halloween or have Thanksgiving dinner or have a birthday party.

Alex: What if someone tries to kill you?

Laura: If someone tries to kill you, punch them in the throat. Then they will fall to the ground and you can run to get the police.

Alex: I will punch them in the throat two times. (makes air punches)

Laura: The first time you punch them in the throat, they will fall on the ground because it hurts so bad. You should NOT punch them in the throat again while they are lying on the ground.

Nate: Maybe we could share our bread with people who don't have bread and then no one needs to steal or be killed.

I AM FINALLY GETTING THROUGH TO MY LITTLE REPUBLICAN!

The Ikea bed that would not die

2011-11-08T07:59:00.004-05:00

Jon and I sometimes get mocked because we spend a lot of time researching purchases before buying anything big. It is all because of the Ikea bed that would not die.

When I moved from San Francisco to Chicago in 2000, I had nothing to furnish an apartment. Being a relatively poor, single 25 year old, I went to Ikea and bought EVERYTHING to furnish an entire apartment.

When Jon and I moved in together, my Ikea bed was supposed to be our guest room bed. Jon's queen bed wouldn't fit up the stairs of the coachhouse so the Ikea bed became our bed.

We moved the bed to our Raleigh apartment as a guest room bed, fully intending to get rid of it when we bought a house. We bought our house and found out we were having TWO babies, so we moved the Ikea bed into our first house with a plan to replace it.

Then we found out how expensive it is to have two babies at once. 4.5 years later, it remained our guest room bed. We said when we move, it is NOT moving with us.

Then we moved to the new house, our existing house, which is 5 bedrooms. When we moved, we had day care payments and two mortgages and 5 bedrooms to furnish, so that bed remained Nate's bed.

Our big anniversary present to ourselves this year was to say good-bye to that Ikea bed. I can tell you definitively Ikea beds are not designed to be moved multiple times nor are they designed to last as long as this one did. Nate's new bedroom furniture arrived this weekend. Do you think he likes it?

7 year itch? Nope.

2011-11-07T09:28:00.003-05:00

Yesterday Jon and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary. Sometimes it feels odd to celebrate this arbitrary date as we were best friends for four years before our wedding. At the same time, I love to celebrate this date because it is the day we stood in front of our friends and family and pledged to live out the rest of our lives together.

At dinner last night, Jon and I reflected over the last eleven years. Trips to Europe and Hawaii. Back surgery. Hearing surgery. Move to Raleigh. Dream house. This little surprise:

The way we summed it up is that on our wedding day, we were so full of hope and anticipation of this life we would create together. Seven years later, so many of our dreams have come true. Living in a place we love in a home we love with two amazing children - we are so blessed. Not every day in our marriage is perfect, but we are certainly better together than we ever were apart.

Everything you see here, everything I write about, is only possible because of Jon. He cares for the kids, does stuff for the house, supports me in this crazy photography dream, and works super hard at his job. It's why I married him and why I had kids with him. We make each other better and we are a freaking great team.

We have to be a good team to deal with this duo:

Here's to 70 more years together.

On craziness

2011-11-04T08:16:00.003-04:00

I got an email via my photography blog that again, my photos have been stolen and used by someone on a personal Facebook account. Here's the thing. I can watermark them. I can make this blog private. I can refuse to post pictures of my children. I can use fake names.

BUT THEN THE CRAZY PEOPLE WIN.

I refuse to let one rotten apple spoil the whole bunch.
I refuse to let one crazy person who wants to pretend my adorable children are theirs ruin what I've built here.
I refuse to let the hard times ruin what is an amazing experience, raising these little babies into boys into men.

I took this photo of Nate last night to remind me they're still so little.

I also took it to remind me the crazy people can post these photos on Facebook all they want, they will never have what I have here. I feel sad for them, longing for a better life instead of getting out there and LIVING IT.

Crazy people, stealing my photos will never find you happiness.

And then there's this

2011-11-03T08:56:00.002-04:00

I never want to make it sound like an age is ALL bad. It is never all bad. These letters came home from school yesterday:

Top from Alex:
"Dear Mom, I miss you. Me and dad have pizza for dinner."

Bottom from Nate, when asked by his teacher to write what would make his life better:
"I wouldn't be bad anymore."

And then I died from cuteness.

Do I have to be the first to say it?

2011-11-02T08:38:00.004-04:00

I am not a fan of the 5.5 year old disequilibrium stage. In fact, this might be one of my least favorite ages.

Back me up May06 Babycenter mamas!

I think the politically correct way to say it is that I am not well-suited to deal with the difficulties of this age. The most negative attributes of this age are my biggest button pushers:

Defiance. OH MY. This is my #1 button pusher.
Arguing/back talking/sassing. Whatever you want to call it. It makes me want to scream.
Not listening. I mean REALLY not listening.
Twin escalation syndrome. This is perhaps the worst age for TES we've experienced. More on that below.

Individually, the boys are delightful, rational, and calm. When we get them together.... I truly feel like I am going crazy. They can not keep their hands off each other. And the bickering. THE BICKERING. I have recently taken to turning off my hearing aid when I'm on my own with them.

I keep reminding myself we are at the heart of age 5.5 and that this particular phase is needed for emotional growth. Joanna (who has recently started watching two 5.5 year olds after school each day) has been amazing at telling me that YES this age with two is really that hard.

Obviously there is unbelievable awesomeness is the craziness. And obviously I love my children and shower them with love, affection, and attention. And then there's this (prepare to die):

But I'm ready for a couple of calm, quiet days.

And yes I know I'll need to wait another 13 years for those days.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T08:26:00.006-04:00

It had to happen. After FIVE Halloweens in a row where the weather was sunny and in the 70s, we finally got a rainy, windy, cold Halloween. We weren't going to let that stop us. Oh no, I was going to stand in the rain and make sure my boys got to trick or treat until they dropped.

You would never know Jon held an umbrella over me while we stood in the rain to get these photos.

Because of the cold and rain, we got a lot of early trick or treaters. I mean, people rang our doorbell at 5:30 while we were eating dinner. This led to the boys wanting to head out early, which led to crankiness because we didn't want to ring the doorbells while other people were eating dinner.

(This picture pretty much sums up life with twin 5.5 year old boys.)

We did go out and they were COLD. Jon did one loop, they came back to warm up and refuel with candy, and I went out for another loop. I think we hit five houses before they both complained they were too cold and wanted to stop.

After the boys went to bed, I told Jon that not every Halloween can be THE BEST HALLOWEEN EVER. What matters is that we're out there every year, trying to make memories, and keeping a positive attitude. From their perspective, they still got to decorate the house, dress up in costume, and get tons of candy.

And from my perspective, I want every photo of my children to be in masks. No need to look at the camera, no need to smile, everyone wins. Well, except for me and Jon who stood in pouring rain to take photos.

A Halloween packed weekend

2011-10-31T09:04:00.002-04:00

Friday I was a chaperone for the kindergarten field trip to Ganyard Farm. Thursday was 78 and sunny, so warm that I had to wear a sundress to an evening event. Friday it was 50, windy, and overcast, just in time for the field. This didn't make a dent in the enthusiasm of 120 kindergarteners (6 classes). (Pics of my kids only)

We've been to Ganyard multiple years in the past but with a pumpkin farm trip in Chicago, a YMCA field trip to another pumpkin farm, and the kindergarten field trip, we decided to skip it. I will be honest, I haven't felt as Halloweeny this season since our family didn't have one big trip close to Halloween.

As a first time chaperone, I was worried how it would go but I only had to chaperone two kids. Since I HAVE two kindergarteners, this was a cake walk for me! We met up with some other friends to enjoy the trip.

Saturday was packed with basketball, a birthday party, and a Halloween party. Sunday we finished up Halloween decorations, watched Halloween shows, and the boys enjoyed the Carolina-Vikings game (Jon rooting for Vikings, Nate and Alex rooting for Carolina).

I do love fall and all it brings, but sometimes it feels like a crazy non-stop action ride!

Deep thoughts on Pinterest

2011-10-27T06:25:00.002-04:00

Last week I went on a little twitter rant about Pinterest. It all started because everyone was pinning this bathroom.

Do I think this is an amazing bathroom? YES. Would I ever be able to afford this bathroom in a million years? NO.

And then there's stuff like this. I'm pretty sure this was in an episode of MTV Cribs. I don't even have one chandelier in my house and this closet has at least 11!

I joked about making Pinterest boards with snarky titles, like "Homes You Will Never Own" "Crafts You Will Never Do" "Places You Will Never Visit" but really what it came down to is this:

Is Pinterest a to-do list or a dream list?

Y'all know I'm an engineer so I see Pinterest as a to-do list. I've done a lot of things because of Pinterest.

I bought these cupcake designs (don't buy them, only the Star Wars one is reliable for more than one cupcake):

I bought this sign for a reading nook I am creating on the third floor (in blue, turns out this etsy seller lives in Raleigh!):

I bought this print for my office. I also found my office desk on Pinterest.

I gave the boys glow sticks at bathtime (ended in someone getting a glowstick to the eye). I made a vodka slush drink. I make multiple batches of peach sangria. In fact, I have an entire Pinterest Board dedicated to projects I have completed.

I want to dream, I really do. In fact, I took an online course on dreaming and rave about it all.the.time. But with such busy lives, how much time do we want to spend DREAMING and how much time do we want to spend DOING?

Of course Julie at Joy's Hope has a great post on this (her print):

When Brandy asked me to sit down and write a snarky post about Pinterest (she has a great post up today!), I had grand plans to write about EVERYTHING in a jar, and KEEP CALM posters, and neatly arranged children's bookshelves (FANTASY). Instead I couldn't help but bring it all back to the fundamental question I ask myself each day:

Which direction am I moving today toward my dreams?

Dream big people, but do something about it.
What step are you taking today toward your dreams?

A comparison

2011-10-26T08:25:00.002-04:00

An awesome awesome quote from the fiasco of Monday night:

Laura: "I don't care if you fight. I just don't want to hear it while I'm cooking dinner. If you want to fight, go to the second or third floor and fight there."

Nate: "Come on, Alex. Let's go to the second floor in case we need to fight."

Tuesday night:
I ordered a pizza online (so I didn't even have to talk to someone) and we walked to the playground directly behind our house. This is part of our neighborhood - we can see the playground from our bedroom windows. I got totally creamed in freeze tag. That Alex is a speedy gonzalez.

One of those days

2011-10-25T06:13:00.001-04:00

First day back to school after track out.
Arguing over what to wear as soon I open my eyes.
Jon out of town.
Being up early but rushing rushing rushing to get everyone out the door on time.
Work work work for 8 hours, crazy busy at work.

Pick up boys. Cook dinner. Eat. Clean up dinner. Realize there's homework.

Homework includes the usual practice pages and reading. AND a special "go for a walk and collect leaves to bring in tomorrow." It's not even leaf drop here yet. No leaves in our neighborhood. Also we have a Fall Fun List and have been saving this to do with Jon. Who is out of town.

Drive to the greenway. Kids bicker over the leaves. I pull leaves off the trees and suck up as much of a positive attitude as I can. (iphone pictures with PicFrame uploaded to Instagram):

Trip out of the house means we have to rush homework. Rush bathtime. Rush reading time. Rush bedtime. Lots of yelling. Starting the day rushing, ending the day rushing, with a mile-long to-do list after they go to bed.

Laundry. More dishes. Pick up the house and find this among the homework pages and artwork:

Laugh my butt off. Realize life will never slow down so I should find my zen in the chaos.

Glass of red wine, Trader Joe's chocolate covered potato chips, Good Wife.

ZEN.

My least favorite thing about fall and spring

2011-10-24T09:43:00.002-04:00

We had another completely full fall weekend filled with trips to the park, photo sessions, time with my favorite peeps from fellowship, and crossing items off our Fall Fun List. But seriously peoples, I am about to LOSE IT over the daily bickering about the weather.

The boys are obsessed with the weather. They check my weather app every morning and report on what the day will be like. Today! 75! Sunny! That means shorts mommy!

It was 45 when we headed to the outdoor bus stop. I spent about 15 minutes arguing about wearing pants, short sleeved shirt, sweatshirt, and coat. At day care, this was a non-issue as everything got jammed in their cubby. At elementary school, this is a much bigger issue as sometimes things don't make their way home and never make their way to Lost and Found.

The argument ended when I said, "FINE. Freeze outside, I don't care. But don't complain to me when you are cold and you will be very very cold because it is 45."

I feel like 90% of the conversations with two 5.5 year olds in the house end in "FINE!"

Stella and Dot party!

2011-10-21T06:40:00.000-04:00

I got a lot of emails about my outfit from our family shoot, in particular my necklace. Here is a closer photo of it (photo by Natalie Jill Photography):

The necklace is by Stella and Dot. I borrowed it from my friend Kim who is a stylist for them. It also comes in a brown bead style, which I bought for myself in my effort to de-slobify. It sounds crazy but it's only recently that I've discovered how much a necklace can dress up a simple outfit.

I had no idea a jewelry party would be so much fun. Having ZERO fashion sense, it was great to try things on and get objective advice on how things looked.

For the next week, I am hosting an online trunk show. If you'd like to check out their items (hello Christmas/Hannukah/winter solstice presents!) here is my online trunk show. When you check out, just choose my name!

Volunteering

2011-10-20T10:31:00.002-04:00

As we get close to the end of the boys' first track out, the volunteer sign up emails for second quarter have come out. Here are the different ways I will be volunteering this quarter:

Chaperone field trip to a pumpkin farm.
Collect and organize items for the school-wide food drive
Shelve books in the library (MY FAVE)
Literacy centers in the boys' classrooms (reading to them, listening to them read, playing reading games)
Mystery reader in the boys' classrooms - we submit clues about our child ahead of time and the kids get to guess whose parent is coming to read

And the most intriguing volunteer assignment... character lessons. North Carolina requires monthly kindergarten lessons on different positive character traits. I will present in one classroom about Kindness. Reading books about kindness, discussing the importance of kindness, talking about examples of kindness. Super psyched about this.

I will say it again.... I am so glad Nate and Alex attend such an amazing public elementary school, and even more glad I have a flexible work schedule so I can help volunteer at the school.

How we go to the state fair with young kids

2011-10-19T08:39:00.005-04:00

We have been taking the boys to the North Carolina state fair since they were 2. Over the last few years, we have learned some lessons and I thought I would share them so you too can enjoy the fair with children!

First we buy tickets during the pre-sale. Children 5 and under get free admission but ride tickets add up quickly when parents have to ride with kids. Ride tickets are half price if you buy them during the pre-sale.

Because Jon and I hate crowds AND we are wrangling two small children, we always take a day off work and go on senior citizen day. It is the least busy day of the fair and Kiddie Land is generally quiet in the morning.

The gates open at 8 and we generally arrive around 9AM. This gives an hour to check out all the non-ride attractions (such as the animals and petting zoo) before the rides start at 10AM. This was the first year Alex was brave enough to hold the baby poultry (Nate always has).

At 10, we head immediately to Kiddie Land to get on rides. The ferris wheel has one of the longest waits so we hit that first this year with no wait right at 10!. Alex and Jon are afraid of heights so they sat this out.

This was the first year the boys were tall enough to ride almost every ride by themselves, and they were even tall enough to go to the big kid section of the fair. Due to this, we bought just 5 sheets of tickets during the pre-sale. Because we had such short wait times, we honestly could have bought twice that amount and continued to ride.

HOWEVER... we like to leave the fair on a high note with kids, generally leaving somewhere after lunch. It is a LOT of walking for young children, and this year it was hot and sunny. (Btw, they chose to wearing matching outfit. SIGH.)

There are also a lot of one-off games they can play. I would not recommend this one. Alex was super scared and even Nate got tired of it. Next year, we'll stick to rides.

And of course... FOOD! You can bring outside food and drinks into the fair. We bring healthy snacks for the kids so we are not waiting in a long line at a booth with two cranky hungry children. There is also a state fair iphone app, which we used to plan out our lunches and snacks.

While we do love to indulge in some sweets, we also want to get something hearty in everyone's stomachs. This year Jon and I hit the Cattleman's Association booth for steak sandwiches while the boys ate belgian waffles from next door. And of course roasted corn.

We did sample both fried oreos (YUM) and fried brownies (so so). What could be wrong with oreo filled doughnuts?

To stop the constant "I want to play that game!!!" requests, before we go, we explain we will play one game on the way out to the car. Then when they ask for a game, we tell them if we play the game we have to leave. Problem solved. They love this fishing game in kiddie land so we hit that as a last stop before heading home to rest in the afternoon.

The state fair is one of our favorite family activities every year and I would highly encourage everyone to give it a chance.

And PS, the lady at the child ID tag booth gets serious kudos for suggesting she take a family photo for us AND for taking a great one!

(All photos Canon G12 point and shoot.)

A game for you!

2011-10-18T06:37:00.001-04:00

We're at the state fair today so I've left a game for you. Name five things wrong in the following photo. Look closely then scroll down for the answers.

Are you ready?

NO CHEATING.

Okay here you go:

1. It's October 17 and the ice cream truck is still coming around our house. SIX MONTHS of always saying yes to the ice cream truck. Stupid Laura Case Life Rules.

2. Is Alex color blind or did he inherit his fashion sense from me and Jon? Everyone knows Spider-man doesn't go with Star Wars!

3. OMG. Nate is wearing something tie-dyed. From YMCA camp, not us.

4. Nate ate the strawberry part of the neopolitan ice cream sandwich first. STRAWBERRY, the most inferior of ice cream flavors. (Unless it is homemade.)

5. Does that bomb pop look ridiculously large to you? Look again:

Let me note for the record the blue coming out of Alex's nose is NOT Bomb Pop, it is blue marker from camp. It is unknown whether the marker was in his nose or the marker was on a finger which was in his nose.

Did you find anything else wrong with the photo? (Joanna?????)

Yes, I am alive!

2011-10-17T12:14:00.003-04:00

Super busy at work + super busy with photography + best month of the year = very little personal computer time. Let me catch you up on the last week. We went to Chicago for two reasons: to visit Jon's sister and family before they move to England in January and I needed to visit work.

As you might imagine, when you get three cousins five and under together, there is a ton of fun. The weather was gorgeous when we were in Chicago so we did a lot of stoop sitting while the kids ran around and played. We also managed to hit a pumpkin farm that was HUGE.

They had a petting zoo that was a huge hit with the kids.

And of course, the enormous corn pit was the favorite. Don't ask what Alex is doing, I don't understand it either.

We also hit the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is a free zoo in the city.

Do you see the short sleeved shirts in Chicago in October? It was glorious.

(I can't really let a photo post go by without some "real" photos... this was Nate's face in 99% of the photos.)

Jon's mom Roxane was also in town for the weekend, adding to the fun.

While we were there, I also did a quick shoot for Jon's sister and family. I'm not sharing their family pictures since I think they'll be used for holiday cards but I can post this as a thank you to Liz and Andy for hosting us yet again!

Oh Laura! What else did you do in Chicago? My Mondo friend Natalie met us to do our family photo shoot. Upon returning home with hundreds of photos from Chicago with NONE of me and Jon, I realized I needed to post something to remind us that we were in Chicago too. And this is an inside joke between me and Jon, because photographers always ask us to gaze longingly at each other and we just laugh. And hate our profiles.

Chicago was a siren that week. The gorgeous weather could make you forget that it will soon be -40 and windy as hell. I commuted each day downtown from the North side and this was my morning commute view:

I also had dinner with a good friend Julie and surprised her with a photo shoot. Her kids... ADORABLE!

I came back from Chicago to gorgeous weather here. Weekend highlights included: boys' starting basketball, trip to Marbles museum, lots of fall planting and yard work, and a trip to their favorite park, KidsTowne.

I also spent a good bit of time testing out a lens I am not going to buy. Saved myself $$$!

The rest of this month promises to be INSANE. Somewhere in my brain I have a post mulling around about how thankful I am I launched my photography business, and how grateful I am for my clients who believe in me. It seemed like a pipe dream 18 months ago and the reality is AMAZING.

I'm happy things are insane. I'm happy I followed my dreams. Happy happy just busy.

Remember that time?

2011-10-13T13:02:00.002-04:00

I went to Chicago for a week and didn't tell anyone ahead of time and didn't write on my blog for a week?

(Why haven't you downloaded Instagram yet? I am LauraCase there.)

That's not entirely true. I did tell work people because I worked from the office for a few days. And I did tweet about my misadventures riding the El. (Those who don't know, I will always have a burning hatred for CTA because I was in a train wreck on the El. Hundreds of people hurt. I got a concussion.)

Oh yeah, and Jon's family knew because we got to see Jon's mom, and sister and her family. The cousins had a BLAST. More on that later.

Sixth blogiversary winner!

2011-10-06T08:22:00.010-04:00

Oh.my.gosh. I love you guys! The comments from yesterday were some of my favorites. Some of YOUR favorite posts were:

The time I screamed the F bomb in Nate's face when he was 3. So many great things happen when I single mom it.
Nate's diarrhea incident (in underwear) at Target. On date night.
Alex sharting into a little potty. And other adventures when Jon travels.
The time toddler Nate got away from me in a dark parking lot while toddler Alex had a tantrum. In the parking lot. AGAIN while Jon was traveling.
The time the ice cream truck bypassed our house and both boys cried and screamed. For ice cream!
My letters to twin parents. You can click link after link for these!

Do you notice a trend? Besides poop? While people also did mention some good highlights (moving into our new house, vacation photos, birthday letters), the posts that sprung to mind are the ones where I kept it real about parenting AND kept a sense of humor about it. And that my friends, is what I try to accomplish here. Sharing our life, the ups and downs, while making it clear that our life is good. So so lucky to have it so good.

I hope one day when you are standing in a Target bathroom with a half naked kid covered in diarrhea who won't stop talking about diarrhea and no idea what to do, you remember me and my little blog. What a proud, proud legacy.

Random.org picked:
Commenter #24 was Julie! My girl crush from our Vegas trip on my 5th blogiversary! Mom to the only kid (Lana) who might out-talk Nate! Who ironically lives in Seattle and can get much better coffee than Starbucks!

Happy 6th blogiversary to me!

2011-10-05T06:03:00.003-04:00

Today marks my 6 year blogging anniversary. Writing for 6 years every Monday through Friday = 1639 posts about our life. Kind of insane but also EPIC.

I started this blog the day I found out I was pregnant because I suck at keeping secrets. To celebrate, I thought I would post a picture from each October I've been blogging.

Year 0:

I was 4 weeks pregnant in this picture and didn't know it yet. In the foreground: my favorite mug. In the background: a lamp Alex broke as an early walker.

Bonus Year 0 picture! Here I am 36 weeks pregnant, just 3 days before the boys were born. In only 32 weeks I grew from the picture above to the picture below. No stretch marks and everything on my body bounced back. I consider it fair compensation for the FOURTEEN weeks on bed rest.

Year 1:

SURPRISE SURPRISE. We had two five month olds! And they were/are so so so so different you would never consider them two peas in a pod.

Year 2:

Also known as The Year They Never Looked At The Camera At The Same Time. Also known as the year with two one year olds. Also known as the year more destruction occurred in our home than will ever happen again.

Year 3:

Cutest.Pirates.Ever!

Year 4:

Another reason to love NC: 75 on Halloween day.

Year 5:

Judge if you will but they were SO HAPPY we dressed up.

Year 6:

Who knew this blog would still be going? When I sat down to create a little online journal about my pregnancy for my family and friends, I never imagined I would still be going strong six years later. Or that I would learn so much. Or that I would make so many friends. Or that I would get so much great advice. Or that I would still be on a blogspot domain.

Thank you to everyone reading. In ways I can never explain, this blog brings so much into our lives.

And if you've read this far, SCORE. I'm giving away a $25 Starbucks gift card from my own pocket to say thank you to my readers. Comment here (one per person) and you're entered. Winner announced tomorrow. Style points if you answer the question: what is your favorite post I've written?

My favorites:

It's a BOY.... and another BOY! (That is how we broke the news to everyone when we made the calls.)
My letter to Alex the day he got his helmet. Might be my all-time favorite.
2010: Best Year Ever
All the birthday posts. I work on those a month ahead of time. Age 1. Age 2. Age 3. Age 4. Age 5.

SIX YEARS?!

One teeny tiny shred of guilt, just one

2011-10-04T08:48:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was the boys' first day at Track Out camp and they LOVED it. They got to play tons of sports and games and do new things they've never done before (archery, freeze tag). They'll also get to go on field trips like a corn maze and the state fair. It's awesome...... but

but but but but but

there is a teeny tiny shred of nagging guilt in the back of my brain that feels a TINY bit guilty they will never get to experience the complete freedom of doing nothing for weeks at home when they are out of school. I never ever doubt our decision to be a two income family, but things like this make me feel that tiny glimmer of "would they be happier if one of us stayed home?"

In my heart, I know the answer is NO. At camp, people play with them all day. If they were home with us, it would not even be close to that experience. I think what made it hard was looking out my office window yesterday and seeing their school friends run around outside playing together. That tiny part comes from not wanting them to miss anything.

Talk to me about this peoples. Anyone else completely happy with their work/home arrangements but still feel slight guilt sometimes?

Now THIS is how you start Track Out

2011-10-03T06:45:00.002-04:00

Friday Nate and Alex finished their first quarter of kindergarten. They will be "Tracked Out" (on vacation) for the next three weeks, attending YMCA day camp. To celebrate their first quarter, we went on a family camping trip. Through friends, we learned there are two NC state parks where you can rent heated cabins with kitchens and one... Hanging Rock... is only two hours from our house.

SWEEEEEEETTTT!

There was ZERO cell phone reception. No tv, no internet, no phone. It was glorious. We spent mucho quality time together as a family and did tons of hiking. (Nate is saying, "Hold my hand mommy!")

The boys got to see their very first waterfalls.

They got to have their first real campfire. See thousands and thousands of stars for the first time. First sighting of the Milky Way. First live bluegrass music.

First canoe ride.

When Jon and I moved to North Carolina, these are the kinds of things we had hoped to do with the boys. There are just no words to describe how beautiful North Carolina is to me. The beauty makes Alex dance for no reason.

We went into the weekend with low expectations and our expectations were wildly exceeded. While both boys loved hiking, Alex was apparently born to hike. He was fearless and didn't complain a single time about the cold, the distance, the steepness, or anything. He just ran and ran and ran. He wanted to climb to many (dangerous scary) places.

(In the distance you can see the Blue Ridge Mountains!)

Nate said Saturday was his best day of his entire life. Alex just smiled and smiled and hugged us tightly. Jon said he couldn't believe we had such a great first camping trip. And I feel like someone needs to pinch me. I can't believe we were at the beach four weeks ago and this weekend we were here. North Carolina is pretty freaking spectacular.

Too bad the neighbors are quiet

2011-09-30T07:45:00.003-04:00

One of our must-haves when looking for our new house was a backyard where we could supervise the boys from inside. Our new backyard is flat and with windows across the back of the house, we can see most of it. We had no idea that when the boys started kindergarten, we would NEED the backyard so much. After a whole day cooped up inside (except for snack and short recess), the boys need to run and run and scream and shout.

There have been some EPIC fights in the backyard since kindergarten started but all that time alone together has led them to come with some amazing games. This is the latest, hockey ball. Here they are having a quick face off.

They each got one of these enormous balls as part of their Fun Run fundraiser. The other one is already super deflated from being whacked by hockey sticks. And to keep it 100% real, this fun game was full of giggles until someone broke a rule and then there was insane shouting and screaming at each other.

No worries though, they were back to laughing when I played the next game with them, which involved throwing the frisbee super fast to hit the fence without nailing a kid in the face.

(Mis)Adventures in photography

2011-09-29T08:33:00.004-04:00

I was on a run the other day when I stumbled upon this sea of fall wildflowers:

I knew I had to come back with the boys for photos. Tuesday we decided to split up for a date night with the boys, so I took Alex to the library and we stopped by here quickly for some photos. Alex was really excited about our nature hike and really excited about the photos until he saw the SEA OF BEES on all these flowers.

Alex + bees = INSANE FEAR.

As I carried him through the flowers, he clung to me, shaking. There was no way I could put him down so he stood in front of the flowers/bees. And hid from them.

We tried to go to an area with a few less flowers and he was still having none of it. Then I got bit by a fire ant and he was done done done.

We still had a great time at the library and had a nice nature walk. And now I know to look more closely for bees whenever I see that many flowers in one place.

I'm turning into that kind of mom

2011-09-28T08:06:00.003-04:00

Age 5 has brought a new level of questions to our house, where answering a why question is no longer enough. Nate, particularly, will push and push for an answer that is "acceptable" to him. Last night the boys were setting the table while I cooked dinner and this conversation took place.

Nate: Can I touch that blue stuff? [The gas flame!]

Laura: You can touch it, but it would burn you really badly. The bluer a flame is, the hotter it is. This is hotter than a wood fire. [Engineering degree, holla!]

Nate: Can I just touch it for a second? Before it burned me?

Laura: It is so hot, it would burn all your skin off. The burn might be so bad, they would have to cut off your finger. Then how would you use a pencil? How would you pick your nose? [Nate has a nose picking problem we are trying to fix.]

Alex: hahahahahahahahaha

Nate: I don't use that finger to write with a pencil.

Laura: Then go ahead and touch it and burn off your finger.

More on the kindergarten transition

2011-09-27T08:22:00.003-04:00

One thing you may have noticed missing from all the kindergarten transition posts is talk about our jobs. Jon and I have a VERY FIRM rule about not discussing our jobs "publicly" because we want to keep those jobs. We both work in software, from home. And for the last year, I've worked Monday-Thursday, with Fridays off to run errands and/or work on my photography business.

Now my Fridays consist of volunteering in the boys' classrooms and in the library as well as errands. Nothing has made me feel better about my boys' school than being in the classroom every week (that Type A thing again).

And depending on our daily schedules, one of us gets to see this sight every day:

Oh, fall

2011-09-26T06:05:00.001-04:00

First, thank you everyone for the kind thoughts and donations on Friday!

I have a love/hate relationship with fall. The end of September marks the most beautiful time in this part of North Carolina, with lack of humidity and perfect (75) temperatures. All of mother nature explodes in color here. The mornings feel crisp and there is so much to do in fall.

But... I can always feel winter coming. I can feel summer winding down. The sun starts to set earlier. I often have cranky moments when I realize the weather is going to be bad on the weekend. As much as I enjoy fall, I also feel this sense of urgency to suck every last minute of enjoyment out before winter comes.

This weekend was full of last-minute summer activities. An amazing evening with my church ladies' group, laughing and chatting with the windows open. A playdate for Nate and Alex that included coloring on the porch. An evening with friends, sitting on their porch with cocktails. Sports in the backyard.

I've given a lot of thought into how I can avoid the crankies of fall and I've decided to start a 365 Project - one photo a day for a year. I started on Friday, the first day of fall. In the past I failed because I started in winter (hate winter), and I tried to take all my photos with the big camera. This time I'm being gentle with myself.... and others.

The first step in this process is to STOP asking the boys to "be good" for the camera. I wrote more about this on my photography blog. If they are in pictures, I am going to let them be themselves. Two minutes with a camera letting them act however they wanted led me to this:

We'll see how the year goes.

PS. After almost 6 years blogging, I finally hit it big time (sarcastic) as someone stole my photos and pretended they were theirs. Unfortunately that means all the photos posted here will have watermarks going forward.

Time to party

2011-09-23T08:05:00.002-04:00

I don't pimp my blog out for much. Long time readers may remember a couple of years ago when I wrote about Love, another blogger who was adopting a son from Africa. Two years later, Clay has been a source of so much joy in their lives. Since then, I have learned so much from her blog about different conditions in Ugand a - good and bad.

Earlier this year, she wrote about child prisons there and the work non-profits are doing to help the situation. I read her post and literally sobbed. I've become a softie since becoming a mom and I could not stop crying, thinking about children the same age as Nate and Alex in prison. Children age 6 getting just one meal a day, if that. (If you read that post I just linked, you should know Love was able to raise money to bring clean water to that prison.)

Right now, Love is in Ugand a again, in the process of adopting two more boys, brothers. She is throwing a party for one of the children's prisons. To bring them food. I can't even write this post without crying! They ONLY need to raise $750 in the next 24 hours to bring 800 children food.

Love has thousands of readers, so I know it will happen. I want to be part of that. I want you to be part of that. If every one of my roughly 500 readers gave $1.50, it would be done.

CLICK HERE to read more and find a link where you can help.

Can you spare just $1 today? I know I can.

You say good-bye, I say hello

2011-09-22T08:31:00.002-04:00

One thing I've learned as a (forever rookie) parent is that when you say good-bye to something, you always say hello to something else.

Good-bye bottles! No more making and washing 16 bottles a day!
Um... hello, sippy cups.

Good-bye immobile babies crying because they are bored!
Um... hello, mobile toddlers into everything.

Good-bye diapers!
Um... hello, pee on my bathroom floor.

So I've learned this lesson right? I've learned it over and over in the last 5.5 years. So why what this a surprise to me:

Good-bye dressing kids now that they are old enough to consistently dress themselves to the correct temperature.
Um... hello, daily check to make sure they are not going to school COMMANDO.

Win-win situation

2011-09-21T08:51:00.002-04:00

Mom got a new office desk....

And the boys each got their own playhouse.

The boys worked on their houses the entire night while I cooked dinner, cleaned up from dinner, picked up the house, and assembled the desk. WIN.

Last day of the pool 2011

2011-09-20T09:09:00.009-04:00

With the weather cooling down, rain in the forecast, and Jon out of town, I decided last night would be the last day at the pool this year. Looks fun, huh?

Yeah, no. It was pretty much a fiasco. Here's Alex crying at the end of the slide because the water is too cold.

They sat on the same chair to eat dinner and did nothing but fight. I'm sure the neighbors whose windows are closest to this chair LOVED IT. You know the fighting is bad when I'm looking at them AND photographing them and they don't stop.

I asked them very nicely to please sit in the same chair for one picture so I would have a comparison picture to First Day of Pool Ever 2007. (Please go see those pictures, omg so little and so cute!) That was awesome. They let me take one shot.

So.... yeah it was one of THOSE nights. The thing about blogging is that I could have posted the picture below (they were pretending their rockets were pencils and were writing things in the water) and pretended it was a perfect night.

I hope as you go through your blogs and see amazing photos and beautiful children and super crafts and mind-blowing baking and moms who seem to "have it all" you think about this post. That you remember there's always more to the story. Generally I focus on the positive. Generally I focus on that last photo but that last photo comes with all the other insanity.

And the only thing I can say about how insane last night was is that I really enjoyed that glass of wine I had after the boys went to bed.

Good bye Summer 2011!

Yes, another girls' trip

2011-09-19T08:56:00.004-04:00

This winter, my friend Gillian and I watched Top Chef All-Stars together. While watching, we hatched a plan to take a weekend road trip to eat at some of the Top Chef restaurants. At the top of our list were Richard Blais' (liquid nitrogen fool) and Kevin Gillespie's (pig tattoo Kevin) restaurants. This past weekend both of our spouses were in town, all five of our kids were well, and our stomachs were ready for adventure so we road tripped it to deliciousness.

On the photography front, it was a big fat fail. I didn't take a single photo of the two of us together. On the food front, ZOMG AWESOME AMAZING. The meal at Kevin's restaurant was perfect. PERFECT. Every single item was executed flawlessly. It goes in my top 5 meals of all time.

I also stopped by to see a college friend Joe, who I haven't seen since my wedding. He had a 5 week old that slept on me for 90 minutes. Nice to see Joe? Yes. Baby sleeping on my chest? Heaven.

Even though the food was amazing, the best part of the trip was getting a chance to chat with Gillian completely uninterrupted. Thank you to both our husbands for making this trip possible!

Boooooo.

2011-09-16T12:37:00.002-04:00

Our high went from 87 yesterday to 60 today. It will be back up in the 80s again next week but the overnight lows mean the (outdoor unheated) pool is going to be FREEZING next week.

We've had so many great times at the pool this year but I still feel sad about saying good-bye to summer. My favorite season.

I can clearly picture this, can you?

2011-09-15T08:29:00.002-04:00

Nate and Alex have been very excited this week because their classroom schedules changed and they have recess at the same time. At dinner they were talking about some race that Alex wins or almost wins every day. There was a lot of convoluted conversation to understand why/how/when/where they were racing and here's the outcome.

Every day at recess, as soon as the outside doors open, a pack of boys from Alex's class busts out the door and runs an entire lap around the big field while the rest of the two classrooms cheer them on.

Can you just see that in your mind's eye? A wild pack of 5 year old boys running out the door like they're on fire while a crowd of 5 year olds scream their names?

I had the giggles all night over this mental image.

How you can judge me

2011-09-14T07:01:00.000-04:00

All I can say about the comments yesterday is STEVE HOLT! Love you guys.

I had grand plans to work on photo editing last night after the kids went to bed but instead, I had to spend my evening getting organized. FOR KINDERGARTEN. I pretty much blame every parent who reads this who has kids older than mine for not warning me HOW INSANE the paperwork for kindergarten is. Add in TWINS and things are even more insane.

(I filled out FOURTEEN field trip permission slips yesterday. And 8 field trip lunch order forms in duplicate.)

So I set up a little school organization system in our kitchen. I took crap pictures with my iphone because it's been that kind of week.

Up until now, we had been using a monthly calendar to manage things. But after a month of kindergarten, it was clear we needed a bigger calendar. So I switched us to a weekly calendar. Here's our next week, actually a pretty calm week.

I can not tell you how much better I feel after a night of getting things in order, with everything having a home and a system. Before this, our entire side counter would be covered with piles. Now it is back to exactly how I like it. Clean and organized.

And you can go ahead and judge my "sad empty" fridge doors... but the reason they are sad and empty is the two long drawers under that counter are junk drawers. #1 reason I love this house: INSANE STORAGE.

How I judge you

2011-09-13T09:55:00.007-04:00

I put people into three categories:

People who've seen and get Arrested Development (love them)
People who haven't seen Arrested Development (try to get them to watch)
People who've seen Arrested Development and don't get it (don't understand them)

The first day of vacation, I read Divergent by Veronica Roth. Best book I have read all year, and I finished it in one day. I recommend it to everyone. PLEASE READ.

The only problem is they named one of the characters Tobias. Tobias is a ruined name for me after AD. When I think "Tobias" I think "leather daddy" or "I blue myself."

After reading Divergent, AD was on my mind. The next night an old nasty sponge washed onshore so Jon and I decided to re-enact GOB throwing Michael's letter into the ocean. (Alex photobombed us!!)

Nate saw us laughing and wanted to get in on the action.

That thing would not stay out to sea! It was a perfect re-enactment!

So tell me, have you seen Arrested Development and what do you think of it?

The most overloadiest of all photo overload posts of all time

2011-09-12T06:35:00.002-04:00

Good morning! Hello Monday morning! I hope you are sitting down with a big cup of coffee to relax and enjoy this post because there are a LOT of pictures.

I am posting so many photos I am so insanely proud of this collection. This was THE BEST vacation we've had with the boys, and I feel like the photos captured the essence of our week at the beach. I feel like these pictures also best represent me and how I see the world, whether I took them with a big fancy camera or a little point and shoot.

And how I see the world is filled with joy.

****************
First up, the candids.

Again this year we stayed in a triplex right on the Atlantic Ocean in North Topsail Beach. Since all four of us love the beach, we tried to spend as much time there as possible while also being sun-smart. This meant lots of dinners eaten on the beach when the sun was not too strong (and early morning walks in PJs).

As predicted, Alex "aired out" quite a bit, running around. Throwing sand. Chasing birds. Screaming and yelling. Doing cartwheels while ALSO throwing sand.

The boys graduated to the big boogie boards this year, and a tropical storm provided some huge waves for boarding. (They also provided the road rash that is under Nate's band-aids on his chest.)

Nate slept in a few days. Not Alex, nope, not ever Alex. That kid wakes up early at 100% every day.

We collected a lot of shells and the tropical storm brought in tons of sea glass. Since sea glass is foreign to the Florida Gulf beaches where I grew up, I love love love collecting it. I just love that the sea turns trash into something so beautiful.

We also experienced some new things. I've seen TONS of dolphins in my lifetime but this trip, we saw an entire school jumping and jumping in the air. It was amazing.

What was not new: the boys fighting. The people down the beach really enjoyed watching this as their two completely calm granddaughters played quietly in the sand.

Because we are awesome parents we made a lot of sand castles and pools and buried the kids. Okay fine, we did it to stop the whining.

We had one day of crazy rain from the storm, so we headed out for a day trip for some time at the aquarium...

and a battleship. We learned our family will never cruise because all four of us were panicked inside the battleship, wanting to get out. The boys were OF COURSE most fascinated with the guns and pretending to shoot down helicopters. They were big guns. Really big guns.

There was also lots of general tomfoolery.

We took the ferry from the island for some ice cream (my baby is so big now!!).

And we got some fresh peel and eat shrimp and hush puppies. The boys stuffed themselves on hush puppies.

Now... for the portraits. I had this super amazing awesome kickass idea for a photo of Nate and Alex on the boardwalk that led to the beach from our beach house. They did not cooperate.

Nate did agree to take a photo of me and Jon...

if we would pretend to be robots first.

What can I say? The kid is obsessed with robots right now.

You may have noticed a theme, that Nate was not the least bit cooperative for photos. Alex, on the other hand, was super cooperative. He does a close mouthed smile, which I do not understand. Smile like your face hurts peoples!

If I only had one kid, this would have been perfect!

Fortunately the kids are almost always cooperative for photos with Jon.

Don't worry. I still managed to get the shots I wanted. Favorite picture of Nate. BOOM.

And... favorite picture of Alex. BOOM.

Fortunately despite the out takes from last week and the general craziness, I still got the perfect picture I wanted of Nate and Alex. The beach does that to them. Also threats and bribes. (This is definitely going on our walls.)

2011 beach trip vacation = BEST EVER. (Nate wrote the letters. Makes it perfect to me.)

#3 in a series, a diptych

2011-09-08T06:15:00.001-04:00

Subtitled: "Let me take one quick picture of you. A nice picture. No, not that face. A NICE picture. Never mind. TIMES TWO."

#2 in my future award winning series

2011-09-07T06:15:00.003-04:00

Subtitled: "My children do not appreciate good light"

A new photography series, by Laura Case

2011-09-06T06:13:00.000-04:00

I just know when I hit it big in the photography world, my premiere show in New York will be:

"WHY I CAN'T PHOTOGRAPH MY KIDS ANYMORE"

Photo 1, in a LONG series:

Just what the parents ordered

2011-09-02T07:06:00.000-04:00

This week we got the boys' daily schedule at Curriculum Night and learned recess is 35 minutes. That explains the crazy hyperactivity in our house. That is much less time outside than they had at day care. As my friend Joanna pointed out, "kids need to be aired out."

Because of their craziness, I've had NO HOPE of them cooperating for photos. Last night I decided to bust out my camera to record their antics for proof. For the record, no children were harmed during these antics.

I wonder why I feel more tired as the boys age? Oh right, because their antics just get crazier. (I swear we do laundry peoples, Alex is just a dirty dirty kid.)

Don't worry, Alex got his fair share of hurt in their play.

I think one of the hardest aspects of this as a parent is knowing when to let them play and knowing when it goes too far. At least on this night, fun was had by everyone. And yes, that is Alex's other dirty sock on Nate's hand.

We're heading out to the beach for a week. A week to play in the sand, listen to the waves crash, and let the boys get as much airing out as they need. I know Jon wants to rest. Nate and Alex want to play. And I want to top this shot, from last year's beach trip.

I might not top it but at least I'll be
at the beach (my favorite place)
with my family (my favorite people)
and enjoying Lindsay's margarita punch (my favorite summer cocktail).

Lindsay's Margarita Punch:
one can frozen limeade
fill empty can half full with tequila
fill empty can 1/4 full with triple sec
one Corona
one Sprite

Mix and enjoy. Makes 4 margaritas, or two very big ones for the beach.

Happy Labor Day everyone!