bliss

This was a couple of days ago. I love how they love each other and play well together {most of the time, at least. Sharing is sometimes a sticky situation}.The tackling cracks me up.
Our friend Verietta, who we met almost immediately when we moved to NC, was in CA over the weekend and stopped by for dinner on Monday. Benjamin thought she was hilarious!

lately

Wow, I guess things have been busy since my last post. Tim has been to San Francisco and back for a conference, I escaped to the J's house with the boys, photographed and edited this wedding,saw one of my best friends and her family (at the same wedding),played outside with some very cute little boys,
went to a birthday party for one of benjamin's preschool friends,watched noah feed himself cottage cheese,and had the pleasure of meeting and photographing this cutie pie.

I think that about covers it for now!

a year in photos

My favorites from '09. (Just slightly more than 12 photos from the year.)
January. (How I love these faces. This is my favorite photo of the boys that I've taken.)February. (Noah and I at Duke)March. (Benjamin's third birthday party)April. ("I would like to ride that big Thomas!")May. (Argentina sunset)June. (Santa Monica Pier, one of our favorite family places.)July. (Meeting Sadie)August. (I couldn't choose just one. Our family at Mount St. Helens, meeting Alyssa, and meeting Micah.)September. (Again, I had trouble choosing. These are from Noah's first birthday and our first trip to Disneyland)October. (Photographing the birth of Thomas at 2am, and the pajama day for my kids that followed since I was up for far too much of the night.)November. (They're just so cute when they play together.) December. (This was Christmas morning, and it just cracks me up that they couldn't be less interested in having their picture taken.)

a decade, remembered

I've been thinking back over this past decade (like everyone else). These past ten years were so full, I can barely get my head around them

In 2000, we graduated from college, got married three weeks later, and two months after that moved across the country to start our new life together.us, june 10, 2000.

I worked at Duke for a year, a small private school teaching middle and high school science, and then Duke again. This made me a very definite Duke basketball fan, even though I couldn't have pointed to Durham on a map before moving there. I got a new camera (film!), and took pictures all the time.

Then I went to UNC for graduate school for a year, earning my MAT in secondary science in 2004. I proceeded to teach high school for two years - biology and AP environmental science. In the summer of 2005, we found out we were expecting our first baby and we bought our first home. Benjamin was born in February of 2006, Tim finished his Ph.D. that summer, and I started my new career of stay-at-home-mom. I got another new camera, digital this time, and fell in love. And another career was born as well, since friends kept asking me to photograph their families/weddings/kids/etc. Now I proudly call myself a photographer and love it! (But I love most that it still allows me to stay at home with my sweet boys all day!)

In 2007 Tim decided to start looking for a permanent, tenure-track job after working as a post doc for two years. In 2008 we found out we were expecting our second baby, Tim was hired at a great school, and we moved back to California. Noah was born in September. We started looking for a house and bought a wonderful townhome in July of 2009.We have celebrated weddings, births, deaths, and have been so blessed in great and hard times over these ten years. We have gone on some fantastic trips to Seattle, the Caribbean, Florida, Washington, D.C., New York, and South Carolina, and we're planning our tenth anniversary Alaska cruise for this summer! We are so excited to see the next ten years. Happy new year!!

In Memoriam

Yesterday was a magical day in so very many ways. Disneyland, family, laughter, love.

We got home to the news that a friend of ours from North Carolina had passed away yesterday.Jana had been sick, well, her entire life with an extremely rare disease called lymphangiomatosis. So rare that she knew more about it than the majority (or probably all) of her doctors. She was blessed to have a lung transplant several years ago, but lost her fight.Jesus has called her home.I can't say I blame Him - this woman was an absolute angel on earth - calling her friends "honey," doing all she could for anyone, never complaining, always smiling, faithful, loving, giving, serving. Jana, Alisa, me, Danielle, cooking breakfast/getting faces painted at the Ronald McDonald House

I spoke to a friend today, and we agreed that this is so very sad, but also not. Jana had been suffering, and to want her to live in such a state would only be selfish. I so regret not keeping in better touch with Jana after we moved - and I am thankful for learning this lesson now so I can remedy it for the future. Jana with Laura and Benjamin, 2008

Jana, rest well. Run fast, and feel breath fill your healed lungs. Sing loud, and know we can't wait to see you again one day. Thank you for always being amazing, sweet, giving and loving.

Happy new year!!

We started out the new year with a visit to Disneyland today. The weather was gorgeous (sorry, friends in cold weather!), the kids were happy (99% of the day, really), and I had a vanilla latte to start the morning, so mama was happy. Grandma and Grandpa J came with us, since they were free.

The six of us started our day in the California Adventure, riding the Toy Story Midway Mania ride. Benjamin loves it, Noah could care less, and the rest of us thought they were cute. Tim, Benjamin and I went on that ride again while Grandma and Grandpa took Noah on the carousel and to visit Jessie, who he wasn't sure about. She was alright as long as Grandma was there.

After that, Benjamin got to say hi to Woody, then he, Noah and the J's went on the carousel again and Tim and I got to go on a ride together. We spent a lot of time in the Bug's Life area, riding on balloons and bumper cars. We had lunch, some of us rode the Tower of Terror, Benjamin played in the adventure area and was able to talk to Crush (from "Finding Nemo") at the Turtle Talk show, while Noah napped happily in his stroller.

Then we walked over to Disneyland, where Grandma and Benjamin went on "It's a Small World," which is still decked out in holiday decorations and sings "Jingle Bells," which is Benjamin's current bedtime song choice. :) We played in toontown for awhile, where Noah couldn't decide whether or not Pluto was his friend. Benjamin went on some rides with dad and Grandma, we all went on the Casey Jr. Train, and wrapped up the night with a final carousel ride for Benjamin and mama. It was a great day, even though poor Noah threw up (sorry, Heimlich!) - but really, this was the only bad thing that happened all day!