I came home from running on Sunday morning to find Stephen working in the front yard and crappy Irish music blaring from the computer. I could hear the boys playing outside the kitchen window so I hollered out to them,

Hey knackers - what ya doing?

Mom! We've got a hammer and a catapult!

And boy howdy - they did have a hammer and a catapult! Isn't Stephen the best dad ever? Thankfully, I don't know even half of what he let's them get up to when I am not around. I don't think I'd be able to leave the house each morning if I did!




Looks like fun doesn't it! At least they were cooperating and working together to accomplish their shared goal of flying pine cones through the air. That's what I like to see.





PS. I made the animated photos at picasion.com. They're definitely not as cool as the ones I've seen created in Photoshop. But alas, I don't have Photoshop so this will have to do. Enjoy!

So you probably would have noticed without me pointing it out, but I changed up my blog a bit! They're minimal changes. Except I am super excited about them and  I need to toot my own horn for a minute. Because while the changes might look minimal (and simple), it took like fours weeks to do this! Mind you it was an hour here and an hour there over the course of four weeks. But still, it was a lot of work researching and much more time spent on trial and error.

I hacked my code. I wrote some code. I played with photo editing software. And I am really pleased with myself. It's always rewarding to take on a new skill and figure it out. Not to say that I now have web design down. I don't. I think I may have used a lot of shortcuts and quick fixes to transform my blog. But that's okay. It only makes me want to keep researching and improve my skills (and maybe switch back over to WordPress, eh Wes). So I am probably not done making changes but I couldn't wait any longer to make some of the changes you do see.

For instance, I added some social media buttons. You can follow me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, and TWITTER.

Does anyone else have a Twitter account? I am new to Twitter. I have two followers. I think they are spam. So you should follow me and I will follow you. And it will be fun! Right now, I only tweet my blog posts because I don't have a Smart phone or whatever. Twitter is a big phone thing, right? But some day I will have a fancy phone and I will tweet all kinds of silly, crazy shit. Just you wait! In the mean time, you should still follow me on Twitter.

I've had a Facebook fan page for my blog since October. However, no one uses to find my blog posts. I'd really like to keep my personal Facebook page separate from my fan page. Most of my traffic comes from Facebook and I'd hate to lose those readers if I were to stop posting blog links on my personal page. So, if you use Facebook to stay in the twinskin loop, please like my Facebook fan page. That way you can still be updated about new posts when I stop posting the links on my personal page.

I've also added links to my various pages. The links used to be at the top of my blog but you should see them on the right hand side now. I've updated my ABOUT page and my LINKS page. The links page is actually messed up right now. I'll fix it on Monday when I am at work - during my lunch break, of course! Although the problem is most likely user error, I am blaming it on OpenOffice, our free office software. Once it's fixed, you should check it out because I added a ton of blogs and organized them all so that they are easier to search.

And if you've never read my FAQ page, you should. I think it's really funny. Probably some of my best writing.

I also created a new link for my TWIN TUESDAYS series. It's just a running list of each post. I would love to start a dialogue about parenting twins. If you have twins (or even if you don't), please feel free to participate and leave comments on my blog about your experiences raising twins. I am honestly curious.

And there is one last new link about OUR HOUSE. However, that page is still under construction. I imagine I will add before and after pictures from some of our projects as well as links to each post about our house.

There's some new pictures, too. And that about wraps up the big changes. Like I said, there will probably be more. You may or may not notice. If there is anything else you'd like to see, just let me know. I've got a new link for contacting me, too. I make it easy. I am just cool like that.

If anyone is interested, I found helpful tips, tricks, and tutorials from the blogs below. You can also find links to these blogs on my updated links page. 

• carrie loves
• code it pretty
• berries and cream
• her new leaf
• just jamie
• makin' cute blogs
• pixlr
• puglypixel
• today's fabulous finds

And if you made to the end of this very long post, thanks for reading! Don't forget to subscribe to my posts HERE. Happy Friday!

Despite the clever title, twinskin isn't really about twins.

And while we're on the topic of my blog title, I had better confess that I didn't come up with the phrase. I stole it from a friend's two older sisters. They both have twins - I know! One of them even has two sets of twins (gasp)! And they told me about the twin skin. Or more accurately, they gave me a name for what has become my stomach while I was lamenting about it at a baby shower.

So given that twinskin is really a reference to my disfigured body, I think it is fair to say that this blog is about me. But it's also about Stephen and Henry and Wyatt. It's about our lives told through my lens.

Obviously, I have twins and it comes up in my stories, but until now, I have deliberately avoided twin topics. I try very hard to see my children as independent of each other. To see them as any other siblings. I don't want them to be compared to each other as they grow and move through life. I imagine that everyone they meet will do that, which seems likes an extra burden to bear. So I try really hard not to do that at home.

But I do. I do it every single day. And rather than pretend that I don't, I've decided to talk about it. Weekly. That's right, I'm starting a weekly series to talk about raising twins. But not this week. This week I am just telling you about it.

But I'll leave you with this:

I have twins and I am in awe of them. How about you? Do you have twins or singletons? And regardless, did you want twins? I meet so many people who tell me they wished for twins, which is just crazy talk! Twins weren't even on my accidental radar.

In the week between Christmas and New Year's, Henry and Wyatt attended theater camp. It was Grandma who discovered the camp and offered to spend a week in Ketchum with the boys so they could participate. We originally declined because getting the boys to Ketchum required them to leave for Twin Falls on Christmas Day, which somehow seemed wrong to us. And then we realized what four nights and five days alone might look like. Fools.

So two days later we made some frantic phone calls to Stephanie hoping the offer still stood. It did. And on Christmas Day I pretty much packed up their entire wardrobe and we sent them on down the road. Wyatt was concerned he might miss us and requested that I also pack a family photo. I happily obliged, being that this was the most precious thing I had heard all day.



And then they were gone. It was awesome.

Stephen and I headed up to Ketchum a day earlier than planned. Being alone was awesome but we still missed those babies. Once there, we asked lots of questions about their week at camp. They were full of stories and adventures. It was apparently the time of their lives. We asked them to sing some of the songs they learned for the recital the following day and were shocked to hear Henry bust out the chorus to the Time Warp! Shocked!

For those of you who don't know, the Time Warp is a song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show--which is one of my all time (all time) favorite movies and has been since the eighth grade. I love this movie so much I own it on VHS. I love this movie so much that I forced the guests at my last official sleepover/birthday party to watch it. I say forced because most of the junior high girls in attendance didn't share my appreciation for this cross-dressing cult classic. Probably why it was my last sleepover.

Obviously, it is an understatement to say that I was more than elated to learn that my babies would be performing the Time Warp. So without further ado, here are Henry and Wyatt doing the time warp twist!



And here they are singing it once again as part of the finale.



Isn't that just the cutest thing you've ever seen!?!



I don't know if they've decided to dedicate their lives to the theater but they definitely want to go again next year. Thanks Grandma!

We had a wonderful New Year’s celebration in Condo Town over the weekend. It was the third time we’ve rung in the New Year at the condo and it just gets more enjoyable each time. I have a handful of funny stories and photos to share from our trip, but first I want to revisit the gingerbread house we made this year.



At some point while building and decorating the house, it was decided that the boys would be allowed to blow it up after the holidays. There was some discussion about putting it in the microwave but that plan fell through. We don’t actually have a microwave and I made it very clear that we would not be buying some thrift store reject for the sole purpose of blowing up food items with our five-year-olds.

After we arrived at the condo, there was also a short-lived plan that Dylan would swing by our place, pick up the gingerbread house, gather up some fireworks and bring it all to Ketchum with him on New Year's Eve. I was not overly enthusiastic about this plan either. I found the possibility of damaging property while in Condo Town concerning and was thankful when Dylan decided to forgo his plan after spending too much of his afternoon at Costco.

But alas, I could not prevent the eventual demolition of the gingerbread house and on Monday night Jack and Dylan showed up with the fireworks. Much to the delight of all the boys, big and small, that gingerbread house didn't stand a chance!

First, Stephen crafted an opening for the fireworks and then he and Dylan loaded it up with lots of things that made noise.



Second, we blew it up. And because blowing stuff up is such fun, there was much turn-taking and reloading of the gingerbread house with more fireworks (Henry and Wyatt excluded, of course).



I was expecting some crazy explosion and was happy to be disappointed by the show (although Henry and Wyatt were thrilled). These types of activities are a challenge for me as a mother. I worry too much about...umm...everything.



Even though I was hesitant about blasting the gingerbread house to smithereens, I have to admit it was fun. And I can't think of a better way to symbolize out with the old and in with the new than blowing some shit up!

Hello 2012!

As I mentioned last week, we had four jammed packed days of Christmas cheer. We celebrated with our families. We visited with old friends and met some new ones. We ate, a lot, although sadly there were no big chunks of meat this go round. Meat or not, it was a lovely series of Christmas gatherings and I have the pictures to prove it! However, rather than offer you a play-by-play of every last detail, I thought I'd share some of my highlights...

The scavenger hunt Jack created to top his Christmas pinata from last year, which it totally did.




Tamales and Corona bottles that no one could keep straight:



Christmas hugs and thank yous shared by brothers:



Inappropriate jokes shared between my husband and grandmother about this lovely black denim apron:



Botched family photos. Sorry Mom, they all pretty much look like this:



Creamy potato soup and opening up our home to new friends:



Christmas morning in my own home with my own family of four...this one's gonna have to be added to the tradition list.



Henry telling me that this Christmas was different from last year in a way he hadn't expected.

How's that Henry?

Well, we didn't get as many presents!

Nope, you didn't.




Hope your Christmas was just as merry as ours!