four eyes (are better than two)

we found out a few weeks ago that our little dude needs glasses. he was having problems with one of his eyes crossing when he tried to focus on things. well, we went to pick them up today and i have to say, he's pretty darned handsome! (i may be partial though) it's tough finding cute kids glasses, especially kids glasses for a 2 year old. many of them were too big for him. anyway, we found some super cute ones that are a steel grey and copper. i secretly want a pair for myself. here are a few pictures with his new eyes.

my hero

it's a little blurry, but i had to share this photo of our little superhero before trick or treating! he was just a little excited. he had so much fun and caught on pretty quick. he kept saying: "let's find another light!" because he knew the houses with lights were the ones we were allowed to stop at! too funny!



and a picture of mommy with her hero. since i'm always the one taking the photos, i don't have any photos with my boys, so i made the hubby take a quick shot for me.

my little butterball

rowan is now 2 months old. he's quite the little butterball compared to his brother. i was used to having a skinny little baby, now i have one with rolls and rolls on his chubby little thighs! here's a picture from our 2 month photo shoot.



this is a picture of the little dude and rowan at approximately the same age. pretty crazy how much they look alike! they could be twins. rowan just has a little more hair than the little dude did.

invites

new invites i did for the boys. rowan is being baptized on the little dude's birthday so that the hubby's family only has to make one trip down here......and we only have to have one party! i think these were the quickest invite design ever. 5 minutes and i was done. efficiency at it's best with a new baby!

8 weeks

adorable | sweet | precious | still trying to sleep more than 2 hours at night | no schedule | cuddle bug | my love

green

i was tagged quite a while back by dawn over at anna•bella stationery to list three easy ways that i've been living and staying green. since i've been a little sidetracked by baby love, it's taken me a while to get around to listing my answers.

so here they are.....three easy ways i've been living and staying green:

1. as our lightbulbs burn out in our home we've been replacing them with compact florescents. if we were really green, we'd just go out and buy them all and replace them all at once, but in this case we're trying to keep a little extra "green" in pockets. so for us, it's one at a time! at least we're trying!

2. we recycle.....not only the usual things that our recycling man comes and picks up once a week, but also things like taking all of our plastic bags back to large discount chains and putting them in their recycling bins. as well as all of our batteries.

3. about 95% of my products at marzipan inc. are printed on environmentally friendly paper. it's partially made from eucalyptus which is extremely sustainable. considering how much paper we print on each year, this makes me feel good about helping our environment, even just a little bit!

rockin' out the school photos

as i've mentioned before, the little dude starts pre-school in december when he turns 3. although he hasn't attended yet, they let him join in on school picture day! we got them last week and i've got to say i'm pretty impressed. considering the goofy-photo-face phase we're going through, i thought these were pretty rockin'!

plus, they let you add siblings to the photo if you want! sweet! so we have one of them together and then one of rowan by himself. they were taken when he was about 2 1/2 weeks old.

sweetest gift

the hubby got the sweetest baby gift from a lady he works with last week. i just had to share.

this is one of my baby designs....


and this is what she made......


isn't that the sweetest thing ever??

jmkac birthday weekend

this past weekend we enjoyed a bunch of time at the john michael kohler arts center. (the same place where the hubby and i were married) they were celebrating their 40th anniversary with a HUGE birthday bash. they had 40 straight hours of entertainment, fun, and excitement planned. movies in the middle of the night, yoga at dawn, and fun stuff for kids and families all day long.

we were even interviewed for our local paper. here's a link to the online article.

and a few pictures of our fun:


the little dude enjoyed some hot apple cider out of his first real "to-go" coffee cup. he drank the whole darn thing in a matter of minutes! i love how he dragged a second chair over as his "ottoman".


the little dude making his funny picture face next to the community project they had set up all weekend....a full size cement bear that people were able to add mosaic piece to.


here's the little dude rolling out some clay into a tile mold which they then took out and smoothed out.


and here's the final "painted" tile, and the little dude with another one of his great picture faces. (gotta love this phase!) the tile was left behind and will be fired. we get to pick it up in a couple weeks.


finally, here's a picture of the little dude and daddy doing some sidewalk chalk.

we also decorated a birthday t-shirt when we got there, but forgot to take a photo of it. it was such a fun time at our favorite place in town. we're so lucky to have such a great place in such a small town.

6 weeks

rowan turned 6 weeks old last thursday. i'm a little late on the photos, but i challenge you to tell me that you don't want to just eat him up! how cute are those cheeks of his?

first project.....finished!

so i've been hinting around about these huge projects i have going for a children's hospital. i'm so excited to say that the first one shipped out of the office today! they're heading off to st. jude children's research hospital in tennessee.

here are some photos of just how large of a project it was for us!


here's one box filled with the finished product. there are 150 boxed sets in each one of the larger boxes.


and here are all 10 boxes filled with the finished boxed sets. (that's 1500 boxed sets total)


and here's the whole bunch waiting for the ups guy to come pick them up.


and inside each boxed set, you will find these 4 cards. (you can click on it to see a larger image) they're based on children's artwork from the hospital. (so i didn't draw the pictures, but just designed the product and produced it) they're lightly embellished with glitter and have matching envelopes. you get 8 cards per box, 2 of each design. they should be available on the st. jude website sometime soon. they also ordered individual cards (that i forgot to take pictures of before i sealed the boxes) which will be available in their gift shop. i'll try to post here when they're available online and hopefully you'll visit and purchase some to support the hospital. it's such a good cause and i'm super proud to be helping them raise money to keep their hospital running and continue saving lives.

autumn celebrations

the hubby's boss has an octoberfest party every year out at his farm. although it was 90º out, (what the heck is up with that?) we went to enjoy the day. they had a bouncy house (pictured above), clown, magician, music, wagon rides, horse riding, and lots and lots of free food and drinks. the little dude enjoyed himself thoroughly and we had to peel him out of the bouncy house.


here's the little dude on the wagon getting ready to go.


after the party, we went to pick up some pumpkins. the next day the little dude and the hubby carved a magnificent jack-o-lantern. the little dude said he wanted a "scary face rraaaarrrrrrr!" so that's what he got! he was so proud of it. too cute!


and a photo out front with it lit up at night.

there's a whole other story about the jack-o-lantern that i'll have to tell some other day when i have more time.

1 month

rowan turned 1 month old this past weekend. while i took some photos, it's been the week from hell and i haven't had a chance to post them. so here's one from our quick shoot. he has the deer-in-the-headlight look, but i guess you can't expect that much out of a 4 week old baby!

here are a few more recent ones that i like.

a post about feet

so yesterday the little dude wakes up from his nap and the hubby goes upstairs to get him. he notices that the little dude only has one sock on. so the following conversation takes place:

daddy: where's your other sock?
little dude: (pointing to his foot) right here daddy.
daddy: no, your other sock.
little dude: (pointing to his foot again) right here daddy.

upon further inspection, the little dude had taken his sock off of one foot and put it perfectly on top of the other one so that you couldn't even tell!! he had to come down and show me. and i of course had to take a picture.*

he did the same thing last night when we put him to bed for the night. i guess no more socks for the little dude!


and because we're talking feet, here's a photo of the little dude's new shoes. he's so excited about them and he calls them his new "cool shoes".....he also says they're pretty "shnazy"!

*pardon the illustrator outfit! i figured posting a picture of my kid in his bob the bu*lder tighty whities on the internet probably wasn't the most appropriate thing to do.

it's quite a change....

going from one kid to two. i am so completely exhausted. i forget just how rough the nights are with a newborn. baby r has decided that he doesn't like to sleep in his bassinet after about 3:00 a.m. the only way to get him to sleep is on my chest, in bed. needless to say, that doesn't lead to the best sleep for mommy.

plus, the little dude is sick. he's only had 1 cold in his nearly 3 years of life and of course he has to get one now.....with a 4 week old baby in the house! his little nose is just a faucet. i'm hoping that the worst is over and that the rest of us can escape without catching it. i can't imagine having a cold right now. i can hardly function as it is!

other than not sleeping, things are going well. baby r is a really good baby so far. he sleeps most of the day and doesn't really get fussy much. if he's awake he's usually pretty content.....as long as someone is holding him. he's no much for laying down on his own......much like his big brother used to be. hopefully that phase passes quickly.

business is super busy now. i'm working on those really, really, really huge custom projects i mentioned awhile ago. hopefully when they're finished i can post a link for all to see. i've had to hire on some additional help to get them all done. plus my contact at the children's hospital has been adding more and more projects to the list. i'm not complaining one bit. it's great money and a great cause that i'm happy to be supporting. i hope the relationship continues.

ok, off to get some work done so i can attempt to take a desperately needed nap today. it is so much harder getting one in with 2 kiddos! these are the times when i wish i had the luxury of maternity leave! (did i mention i did work from the hospital the day after giving birth? ah, yeah. fun times!)

2 weeks

our little munchkin is 2 weeks old today. we had our 2 week check-up today at which he weighed in at a hefty 8 pounds. that's 3 oz. more than his already impressive birth weight! everything else checked out ok and it looks like he's going to be one happy healthy little boy.

things are going well at home. he's a good eater and a decent sleeper. i wouldn't argue with being able to take a nap or two, but it's pretty tough with both boys and a business to run.

he looks very much like his big brother did.....just a little chubbier version, with more hair.

bestest big brother in the whole world

rowan has been with us for a week now and i have to boast about how great the little dude has been with him. i'm so proud of what a great big brother he's being. he's such a little helper.

he's super gentle with him and listens well when we tell him not to touch his eyes etc.

the first night in the hospital, just an hour or so after i had given birth, the little dude came to visit. all he said all night was "he's so cute!" "he's so cute!" "he's so cute!" it was the sweetest thing ever.

if he walks in the room and i'm not holding him, he says: "where's my baby brother at?" it's so funny.

he gives him hugs and kisses every night before bed.

he sings him "rock-a-bye-baby", "twinkle twinkle little star", and "you are my sunshine" when he's crying.

he helps change every diaper and throws them away for us.

he has to go "check him" whenever he cries in his cradle.

he goes to get his car seat whenever we're ready to go anywhere, and he puts it away when we get home.

after hearing so many horror stories about toddlers who rebel when their little siblings come home, i had prepared myself for some major temper tantrums/adjustment period. i have to say that we haven't had to deal with any of that. sure there have been a few breakdowns here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary for a 2 1/2 year old. he's been such a good boy and i'm such a proud mamma. it has made my own adjustment period that much easier.

i love you little dude. thanks for being the bestest big brother in the whole world! you're the best!!

welcoming baby!

hi everyone! just wanted to give you a quick update! baby boy #2 was welcomed into the world thursday night! here are the stats and a photo! enjoy!

rowan emerson dunbar
born: august 30, 2007
5:28 p.m.
7 lbs. 13 oz.
19 1/2 inches long

mommy, daddy, little dude and baby are all doing splendid! we came home yesterday and are trying to adjust to life as a family of 4!

my little "coffee" drinker

my little dude has taken to drinking "coffee". it's a special treat that he only gets when grandma comes to visit. it's actually hot chocolate, but he thinks that because it comes in a mug it's coffee. he has his own mug and a special slurping technique that he uses just for this special drink....taught to him by grandma. i think it might possibly be his most favorite thing in the whole world.

p.s. i know it's not like me, but i've updated my blog with 3 separate posts today, so be sure to scroll down so you don't miss the rest!

37 weeks

i thought i should take another photo of my hugeness for all the world to see! hopefully this will be the last one!