We're Famous...Kind of

About a month ago, I submitted Nathan and my financial story to Dave Ramsey's website, never really expecting it to be used.

A couple of days ago, a neighbor of ours who is also on the "Dave Ramsey Plan" sent me an email with the following link:

http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/newsletters/company/092509.cfm?ectid=cnlsignup_1

Go about halfway down the newsletter, to the "We Did It!" section.

I have to say that I'm pretty excited...and a teeny bit proud. But I am also more than aware that it is all in God's hands and that it was through His grace that we have come this far.

Mmmm...Tea

I love tea, especially peppermint tea. Especially peppermint tea if I have a sore throat and/or a cough. It's my go-to stuff, chosen over even cough drops or cough medicine.

No, I don't have a cold. *knock on wood* I'm just waxing philosophical about peppermint tea.

Because that's what I happen to be drinking right now. I'm groovin' on peppermint tea and Biggest Loser. I'm almost three weeks behind on this show and I'm finally taking some 'me' time to catch up...at almost 1 am. Don't look at me like that, I got off work at 11 pm, spent some time with Nathan, worked out on the Wii Fit, and sent Nathan to bed. Nathan has been monopolizing the computer for the past few days in order to edit the photos he shot of our friend, James. I'm not complaining, it's given me an excellent excuse to do nothing but hang out with my boy-o's.

I admit it, I'm just rambling at this point.

Life has been a little rough lately, mostly just in my corner. I get frustrated with the new job because I feel like I should know how to do it, considering the fact that I DID this job for two years. I keep having to remind myself that I'm having to un-learn a ton of stuff and then re-learn it all again. Poor Nathan has to help pick up the pieces when I come home at the end of a tough shift. It doesn't help that my current schedule is keeping me from both Young Life and the phenomenal bible study we became a part of. Just about the time I was starting to really invest in our bible study, I can't go anymore. So if you could be praying for all of us on that front, we'd really appreciate it.

In other news, a bunch of us (Nathan's family and my family) are going to OSU's homecoming football game against UCLA on Halloween. SOOOOOOO EXCITED! Nathan's dad got tickets for the 6th & 7th row in the alumni section and we are going to be rockin' the orange & black! Nathan's mom was kind enough to offer to watch the boys for us so we can just enjoy the day. Thanks Jan!

One final thought: I can't believe it's almost NOVEMBER!

Getting There!!!

You may or may not know that I'm doing Weight Watchers again. I say 'again', because I was on my 5th week of WW when I found out I was pregnant with the boys. Since doctors kind of frown on losing weight while pregnant, I had to put WW on hold until after the boys were born.

Well, "until after the boys are born" turned into "after they get out of the NICU". Which turned into "after I'm done nursing". Which then morphed into "after I find a new job/we move across the state/we get settled".

Finally, 8 weeks ago both my mom and I signed up for the local WW meetings and have been going ever since. Both of us have been steadily losing weight, which is totally exciting! I've been losing an average of 2.2 lbs per week, which is about as much weight as you want to lose each week.

Besides the satisfaction of seeing the number on the scale get lower, WW also has a ton of little awards to mark your progress. When you return for your second meeting, you get a "you survived your first week" book mark. Each time you lose 5 lbs, you get a small star sticker with a 5 on it to put on the aforementioned book mark. When you lose 5% of your starting weight, you get a big sticker with a 5% on it. I never thought I'd be so excited to get stickers, for goodness sakes.

When you reach your 10% goal (meaning you've lost 10% of your starting weight) you get a nifty bronze colored key ring in the shape of a 10. I've had my eye on that key ring for weeks now, and on Saturday I finally earned it!

I've officially lost 17.6 lbs in the past 8 weeks. Even more exciting, I'm only 4.8 lbs away from my weight on the day I found out I was pregnant! For some reason, reaching that number will feel like a huge accomplishment...like I'm no longer backtracking over my weight loss prior to being pregnant. That's over 20 lbs of backtracking, and I'm ready to be out from under that and breaking new ground!

Wish me luck! Only another 36.8 lbs to go until I reach my goal weight...I'm a third of the way there!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE FALL!

As I was driving down to OSU this afternoon to shoot some engagement photos for my college bestie, Dani, and her fiance Tyrell (check out our photo blog for a sneak peak!) I saw these grave vines and couldn't resist stopping. Oh the color!

Sometimes I take for granted just how beautiful of an area we live in. Yes, it's not Baker Valley, but it has a different kind of beauty that I can totally appreciate.

I <3 Maternity Shoots

I finished up my friend Lisa's maternity shoot editing and am pretty happy with how they look! Go to our photo blog and check a few of them out!

Check It Out!

Ever since Nathan and I met, we've shared our love for photography. About the same time we knew we wanted to get married, we also started talking about working together as a husband/wife photography team...that was about 4 years ago. We're not sure what did it, but something finally kicked our butts into gear, and we are underway with Labunski Photography!

Nathan has been slaving away in front of the computer designing our website (from scratch, might I add!) and I had my first real photo shoot yesterday.

So check us out!

Labunski Photography

Labunski Photography - The Blog

If anyone needs any sort of photography done, anything from wedding to newborn, give us a call!

A Reminder

I stumbled across this photo while looking through some files on the computer and it took my breath away. It was taken only 19 days after the boys were born, and was the first time we'd ever held them side by side. Asher is on the left, Levi on the right. Those are Nathan's hands holding their tiny little heads.

And now?


















Lord have mercy, I just subjected you to WAAAAY too many photos of my sons. But I just couldn't stop! Levi's in the brown, Asher's in the blue. Nathan took these photos and didn't even show me...can you believe that man?! Not that I've been home to show them to, considering the fact that I've worked 10 of the last 12 days.

My point is, we are so incredibly blessed that these two babies came into the world as early as they did and yet are perfectly healthy and happy babies.

Fall Is In The Air

There's a nip in the air. My car had frost on it the other morning. No, it didn't snow here like it did in Baker the other day, but the nights are definitely chillier than they were just a week ago.

Last Sunday, my parents were kind enough to watch the boys after church so Nathan and I could have some time together without being on baby duty. After 9 holes of golf up in Cornelius, we had some time to kill before dinner so we went to the pumpkin patch.

What a zoo! The first one was in North Plains, and you had to pay $4 per person to ride the train down to the pumpkin field and back. So instead of doing that, we bought some gourds and indian corn, then headed to the Roloff Farm in Hillsboro. Have you ever seen/heard of the show "Little People, Big World" on TLC? Yeah, it's that farm. Nathan did a family photo shoot for some friends on the farm a few years ago, back before we even know about that show. Anyway, that place was a zoo as well...tons of people, lots of hype. Not nearly as low key as I remembered it being. But we got two little pumpkins for the boys and one big one for us.

After a relaxed dinner at Red Robin, we headed home. Nothing too spectacular, but it was just what we needed.

And, of course, I had to take a few photos of the pumpkins, in honor of fall!


How about a little more spook factor?

A Banner Day In The Labunski Household

First of all, I have to thank God for the WIC program. For those of you who don't know what WIC is, it's a program that help women and children by giving vouchers for things like food, baby cereal, and most importantly (for a family with twins), formula! With their help, we were able to save over $300 per month because they gave us almost all of our formula each month.

But now they can give those vouchers to someone else who needs them because the boys are official weaned off of formula!!!

Levi and Asher had their 1-year well baby appointment just over a week ago. Granted, it wasn't really a "well" baby appointment because they were both sick with colds, but oh well. Asher weighed in at 19.5 lbs, which Levi weighed in at 18.5 lbs. Along with getting four immunizations, including flu shots, the doctor gave us the a-ok to gradually wean the boys off of their formula and on to whole milk. As of their final bottle last night, there was no formula in the mix! 100% milk!

It was nice to finally meet with a real pediatrician for the first time and get some answers to our major questions. Dr. Harbor told us that we really don't have to think about the boys' adjusted age anymore. Yay! They are kind of small for their birth age, but nothing to be concerned about and definitely not surprising considering that they were born 2.4 months early. Dr. Harbor gave us great pointers on what and how much the boys should be eating now, which is something we've been kind of flying blindly on for the past few months. It was hard to move and not have an established doctor, so having the boys established with someone again is a HUGE relief.

Life is good. And I'm so excited to not have to smell soy formula anymore!


P.S. Anyone have any tips on how to transport milk while traveling? I have to admit, traveling with formula is MUCH easier.

I Go Out Walkin' In The Moonlight

Last night's and tonight's skies were graced by big, beautiful harvest moon. I've never had the chance to do night photography before so I jumped on the opportunity the full moon presented.

Night photography is...HARD!

It takes forever to find the right exposure. And once you finally find it, it's next to impossible to get a good focus on the subject because, well, you can't SEE it! Because it's DARK!

But once you get it right (or as close to right as you can get it) it's breathtaking. Try to believe me that these were taken at 10 pm, with no flash, simply a camera and a tripod. And a reeeeeeally long exposure.






Yep, that's the big dipper in the first photo. Let me tell you, I was ridiculously giddy when I saw that it showed up in the photo!