Family of Three

Well this is my second attempt at this post after it getting deleted. Gotta love that.

I realized that we barely have any photos of the three of us so I tried my hand at setting up the camera for a lil photo session. Do I wish that I wasn't so cheap and would get professional pinteresty pictures taken? Yeah, sometimes. But these will do for now. I'm really itching for a new lens. I think that's going to be the one thing I'm going to ask for Christmas. Oh and in case you were wondering, Christmas is only 4 months and 12 days away! This makes me oh so very happy. I can just smell the pine and cinnamon.

These were taken with my fancy tripod and remote, both gifts that I got last Christmas. And needless to say, I'm pretty thankful for these two boys in my life.

Sweet cheeks...

The downside to using a tripod? Tops of heads can get cut off. But oh well, cute pictures can still be produced...

We're kinda liking this kid... ;)

Love to you all, from this family of three. Well if I'm being nice I'll say 3.5 to include Jack.

lol ;)

7 Months!

A new month for our sweet baby boy.

It's just getting more and more fun watching him discover new things. And there's nothing that can quite melt us like hearing his giggle or getting that huge smile to greet you when you come home.

The series of these pics crack me up...

He's really fallen into a great schedule with 2-3 good naps during the day and sleeping through the night for about 12 hours. Yeah, I actually found myself jokingly wishing he'd wake up in the night because when I lay him down at night, I don't get to see him till I get home from work. It's a long time for me, but I'm thankful he's sleeping so well.

Likes:

• To pull himself up and stand in his crib
• To pull off everything that's stacked on top of a storage basket in his room...it's so stinkin cute watching him do this
• Our iPhones and remote controls, and yes when he gets a hold of them they go right into his mouth
• Bananas!
• Tags
• Jack...yeah he's fascinated by him, especially when he chases his tail
• Getting tickled
• Music and playing piano
• When mommy and daddy are home together with him...with our work schedules we're not home together a lot at the same time with him, so when we are he'll sometimes look back and forth at each of us and smile. I think he likes it when we're all together. (I do too) :)

Dislikes:

• Getting his diaper changed, he pretty much just doesn't like to lay on his back anymore...Rob has to use his legs sometimes to keep him gently pinned on his back, it's quite hilarious
• Peas! (I'm not giving up though, will introduce again someday!)

I know that these posts are more for myself to be able to go back and reminisce. Things keep changing quick and we're trying to soak it all up. He's changed our lives in a beautiful way and we just hope and pray to be the best parents we can be.

Happy seven months sweet boy!

Sweet Moments

I'm a working mom. I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me sad sometimes...okay, a lot of times if I think hard about it, but I'm trying to soak up the hours we get to spend together in the evenings after work. I realized that I haven't taken as many pics with my camera lately, so I took some tonight. Here's a few shots I took of the sweet boy. Just hangin in his pack and play while mommy scarfed down dinner real quick.

His looks are changing so much...his blond hair is growing...and that smile and hazel eyes. Melt me.

This past weekend Rob came up with a pretty funny invention. Finn crawled from his room to our guest room where I was wrapping presents and I saw he was dragging a little something...

It's pretty genius...his toys are accessible wherever he goes!

Soaking up the sweet moments around here.

Love to you all!

Light for the Day and Mexico Memories

It's actually been a while since I've visited this site, so I thought I'd share a few that I came upon that were some beautiful photos paired with some good words.

Rob and I had a date night last night and found ourselves reflecting on a mission's trip we took with our youth to Mexico many years ago. We teamed up with a youth group and church down there and found some of our greatest memories ministering alongside them. For Rob he would admit that it took a bit for him to connect with the trip, but all it took was some male bonding (aka playful wrestling) on a bus ride with our new friends and Rob's sock thrown out the window...and then it started to click.

We visited various churches, towns and a school or two. The people were overwhelmingly kind. Rob ended up being some sort of a rock star to the girls at the school. It was so sweet and funny how the girls flocked to him but in such a respectful way. At that time he and I were dating, and I recall a group of girls asking me if it was okay that they took a picture with him. I remember someone even giving me their lip gloss in a way of saying thanks.

We reflected on the growth that came out of the trip. And talked about how when your sole focus is on God and serving and ministering, so much growth occurs within you spiritually. It's just bound to happen. It was a good reminder for us both.

The last part of the trip we reflected on were our visits to some of the poorest areas around the city. During this part of the trip, Rob met a little boy. He came up in our conversation last night. Rob couldn't remember his name, but it was Spanish for "little fish". He was named this because he was found by his adoptive parents in a barrel with some water in it.

We're going to print this picture to serve as a reminder of that trip and all the precious people we tried to serve who in turn served us as well. What's funny is those type of trips can be so hard in the midst of it, but in the end are so incredibly rewarding.

Yep, we were reminded that a part of our hearts were left in Mexico.

Happy new week everyone!

Tea Towels, Some Uncoventional Art

It all started with an Amazon gift card.

I knew I needed some art so somehow I found myself looking at tea towels. If you don't know already (cause I sure didn't) tea towels are thinner, not really super absorbent like a regular kitchen towel. And the best part is apparently there's some really cute designs out there.

So I landed on this one.

I purchased a frame from Ikea and after ironing the towel, I set out to put it in the frame. Well it didn't fit too well and looked kinda funky in the matting (the picture didn't really line up right) so I decided to just fold the edges of the towel to make it fit. It's still a little wonky on the bottom, but I'll fix that another day.

Right now it's leaning on the piano. I'm pretty sure I'll do a grouping of frames and possibly a wall lamp above the piano some day. Oh and one of these days I'll get this beautiful thing tuned. It doesn't stop me from playing it, but it will be more enjoyable when it sounds right. You know, it's the little things.

Here's some other cute tea towels I found on Amazon. Really an inexpensive way to get some art. I could see framing them or just hanging them on the wall.

Cute, right? I also found this Pinterest board that has a lot more if your tea towel interest has been piqued.

So what's on deck for the Dunkin house?

• A new light fixture that's going up in our hallway
• DIY paint swatch art for our bedroom
• Master bathroom upgrades (need to install new waffle weave shower curtain and new mirror cabinet)

It feels nice to finally have a little focus on our bedroom and master bath. It's been a really drab blank canvas and I'm ready to get some style in there. House to home. Slowly but surely. And then when it's all done, it'll be time to move again.

JUST kidding...hopefully. :)

6 months!

Yeah, I'm kinda late on posting this one. Here's our sweet boy's 6 month pic.

As soon as I get used to saying I have a 5 month old or 6 month old, a new month rolls along.

We tried laying him down again and he wasn't really feeling that...

We're so amazed by this kid. Love him so much.

Yard Makeovah

While the three of us were away on vacation, some sneakiness happened in our yard. Some very-much-appreciated-we-finally-have-some-plants-in-our-yard kind of sneakiness. After a long drive home from Destin and a very unhappy teething baby, we drove up to quite a surprise. I was even able to dig up some previous before pics to show the changes. So here we go.

Before...

After!

Plants! Plants! Plants! Finally in our little plant bed. I'm planning on getting some dark mulch to put around these sweet thangs.

Before... (cra-hay-zy!)

After! Farewell rickety picket fence. There's also a new plant back there.

Before...

After!

Yeah, this was probably the biggest surprise. I don't have a good before picture of this side of our yard but it was mainly a great. big. sand. pit. And I mean a sandy sandy sand pit. No grass. Nothing. When we first moved in, cats used to use it as their little box...thankfully that stopped once Jack ruled the yard. It be looking mighty fine now, miiighty fine.

Also, I'm finally finally finally trying to learn more about my camera. I have a Nikon DSLR D3100. I love my camera but I can't stand the fact that I don't know how to fully use it. I found a really helpful blog (manuals just don't do it for me) called Click It Up A Notch that's really getting me back into the basics about it. And I mean baby basics, like just getting an understanding of aperture and shutter speed, ISO. I finally discovered the white balance feature on my camera. (Sorry, you can just skip below if you don't wanna hear all this techy talk, lol)

So I'm giving myself the challenge to strictly shoot in manual. No more auto focus or settings. I'm going to learn these settings and get them to stay in my brain. It's due time. I do see myself looking to get a new lens in the future, because my basic lens that came with the camera has an auto feature even when shooting in manual. So one day, a new lens will be fun to play with. But for now...I'm just gonna experiment and learn.

Some little tootsies that belong to a little handsome boy. Oh and that water bottle? One of his favorite toys.

Teething cutie...still can't get over how he's just sitting up like he's been doing it forever.



So a huge thank you to our loved ones who surprised us with this beautiful yard makeover. I can only imagine the sore muscles, sweat, and possibly tears that went into this, and we seriously can't thank you enough. Slowly but surely our house is becoming our home.

I've got a DIY art piece on my mind for the area above our sectional. So seeing how things go this week, I may get started on that. It's should cost little to nothing which is even more enticing to get moving on it. I'll be sure to share.

Love to you all!