a family photo shoot

I am just the luckiest lady to have a sister-in-law who is also a photographer who generously agrees to take photos of me and mine year after year. The. Luckiest. And as always I just loooove the way they turn out! Even the ones where Dom is being well, Dom. It's just who he is at this stage in life.  I waited way too long to ask her to take these and between our crazy schedules and the weather we were able to find a day that worked... even if the sun was being shy and stayed behind the clouds. 

Thanks so much Ashley! If you're local definitely check her out! I know I'm biased but I mean... the proof is in the pudding. As they say....

a morning in antietam

We had underestimated the amount of time needed to explore Harper's Ferry and so decided to search for something else to do with our Sunday. Lots of options were discussed, Washington D.C., going to visit my brother at the fire house, heading home, etc. We decided to check out Antietam. You know, the whole bloodiest day in American history battlefield. Cheerful stuff for our Veteran's Day. I went once as a kid and I remember intensely hating it. Probably because I was a kid and well, annoyed at my brother. He always convinced my parents to take us to these Civil War things and that can be quite boring for a sister. I wonder if he would have been okay with a visit to say, The American Girl Doll store? Only fair...

some favorites on a friday...

It's Friday, it's Friday woo hoo! And I'm here sharing with you some of my favorite things as of late!  That are not Christmas related! The shocker! This post could also be entitled: Laurie is trying really hard to not be a frumpy mom and potentially embarrass her kids. That.

an afternoon in harper's ferry

We went away! Again! For the third time in something like five weeks? I don't know why we do this to ourselves. But we continue to. Over the summer I was chatting with a friend about small weekend getaways and she mentioned Harper's Ferry. Sure, I vaguely remember hearing about it in history class (re: it's mentioned in an Outlander book, I'm fairly certain). So I took to researching this cute little town (not a park, don't you dare call it a National Park) less than two hours to our southwest.

the kid’s fall parties

Let me tell you it will be a sad sad day in my world when I don't have the opportunity to go to one of my kid's class parties. I may cry. I haven't missed one yet! Here's to keeping that streak up!

First up was David's. They made cute little turkey pumpkins, played a few games, and had snacks. Really all that class parties are made of! And I'm no longer the room mom! I said I would for David's class this year... just to be fair to him. And he has the same teacher... so I thought, easy peasy! But they had someone else and hey, I'm not complaining! I got to just sit back and just help!