A very tech savvy friend of mine told me about Chatbooks a couple years ago and I am so thankful for her because it has been such a fun way to capture moments as a family. I have quite a few now and we love looking through them.

Chatbooks is an app that takes your Instagram photos and puts them into mini books of 60 photos for $8 (soft cover). You can create a series like I have done, and once you hit 60 photos, Chatbooks will notify you that a book is complete and ship it to you automatically (don't worry you have a couple days to make edits). You can also use different hashtags to create different series. For instance, I use the hashtags #sammycreates and #jjcreates to make separate books of their artwork. It is super easy to set up -- trust me, if I can do it, you can too. Technology and I do not get along. You can have multiple contributors as well, if you want other friends/family contributing to a book or a series.

Another helpful tip (also from said tech savvy friend) is to create a private Instagram account that is linked to your primary account, and use the private account to generate your books. This way your friends are not inundated by photos of your kid's art projects that you think are amazing, but in reality is just a bunch of scribbles that your kid says is a giraffe. If you link the two accounts you can easily toggle between the two.

The Chatbooks website has loads of information and tutorials. If you are interested let me know! I can send you an invitation and you will get your first book of a series for free.

Hello again!

My friend told me about this great ministry and I wanted to pass along the info to others local to the Fairfax/Centreville/Clifton area. Gracing Spaces, a ministry run by Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Clifton furnishes homes for those in need in the area. The team at Gracing Spaces is looking for household items, and can always use baby items. For parents out there who are drowning in baby/kid stuff like we are, please consider donating here.

For more information check out their website, or their Facebook page for photos of projects they are working on.

Hi friends!

While I am on maternity leave and in the thick of raising three little ones, I thought I would share some mom/parent related information for anyone who is interested. It has been ages since I have used this thing and I am a bit rusty (like how to I change my header image? no clue...), but here goes.

For parents out there who are looking for play mats that are not covered by our favorite spectacled penguin, here are two lovely options that friends have recommended to me. They are not cheap, but made in the US, and started by moms, how can you not love that?! FYI - No, I do not own either of these, I still insist on swearing under my breath as I pick out play doh, rice and what I am hoping is chocolate out of my cheap Target rug I adore, but maybe one day...

That's all for today, friends. 💕

AN UPDATE: Little Nomad is offering a $10 discount, use MIN10 at checkout. 😊

wow - has it been two years since our last update? we are so sorry! with Facebook and Instagram and what not, it feels like so much of our life is already "out there". nonetheless, a short update for those of you still following along.

family:

obviously the big news is that another little one has joined our ranks! baby ellie was born on april 6th, one day before her due date. it was definitely the most challenging pregnancy and the second-most difficult labor for min, but she was a champ and nearly one month into it, everyone is doing great. we are thrilled for the birth of a daughter and are excited for life with three kids.

JJ's personality has really started to blossom. we love this age - even though 2 can be challenging, it is also full of so much joy and laughter. he is starting to ride his balance bike, loves reading peppa pig stories and basically copies everything his big brother does. here's our little guy's preschool portrait:



sammy is turning 5 in a few weeks and will be in kindergarten this september! early childhood really does blow by! he is such student of life and every time he learns something new, he obsesses about it for weeks. i guess this is pretty normal for kids his age, but we really get a kick out of it. recently he's been into the solar system, the water cycle, the life of plants, soccer and yes, even the bible. ha ha! a pastor's kid he truly is.


church plant:

we are now in the 2nd year of our church plant. it's slow-going but we're actually we're thrilled at how our little community is becoming a family and people are gradually living into their giftings and callings. since our last blog post, i (mike) got ordained, we hired an associate pastor (joe riffe) and a pastoral intern (david tassell), and our services moved from bi-weekly to weekly. we recently celebrated a wedding, a baptism, a fantastic easter lunch and an entire sunday devoted to serving our community. if you ever want to follow along, you can always visit our website:  www.tablecov.org

hello friends and family,

we are so sorry, but we haven't posted here in almost a year! clearly it's been a busy year. well, we won't overwhelm you with info, but here are a few quick hits:

1. baby JJ!

obviously, the first reason it's been such a busy year is because of the birth of our wonderful second son, JJ. his full name is joshua jihoon han, but we affectionately call him, "JJ".

since it's almost been a year, here's a collection of his monthly photos. as you can see, he's a pretty active kid.

2. church planting

3. sammy starts preschool

we are so grateful for all of you. though we have not done a very good job of keeping in touch, we hope this short little update gives you a glimpse of what's been happening this past year. it's been a full, good year and though it's been super-busy, we are really excited for the coming year.

love,

mike, min, sammy and JJ

Hello Friends!

It's been an eventful summer and we are off to a very exciting start to the fall. The theme of this season is BIRTH!

First, Baby Han is coming any day now. Min is in her 37th week and all signs point to an early arrival. Looks like both Mommy and Baby are ready to get on with the show! We are not positive about a name yet but we have a few front-runners. :)

A lot of the logistical stuff is done, but from what we've heard, the jump from one kid to two is a pretty big one. We're bracing ourselves, but we're very aware of the reality that we have many, many people supporting us and are ready to provide help and relief. We are so grateful for our communities both near and far.

Secondly, after a summer of discernment, we have committed to planting a church here in Fairfax, VA. We have been meeting with a dedicated launch team and are growing more and more excited at the prospect of seeing this dream become a reality. Here are a few details:

1. VISION:  though it is still very early and we we don't even have a name yet there is a strong sense of why we are going forward with this church plant. Though there are many fine and healthy churches in the area, we know that many people, particularly Asian-Americans are falling through the cracks and church plants have the unique opportunity to reach both the un-churched and de-churched. Also, no name yet. :)

since i got a few emails asking for sammy's party decor details, i thought i would include them on the blog. i would just like to note that many loving friends folded paper, glued countless beans, spent a frustrating evening hanging fans, and contributed their artistic and craft-tastic talents to make sammy's first birthday special.

tissue fans - recycled from a baby shower, originally purchased at paper tuesday. if you want more color choices you can also find them at sweet lulu.

paper fans - diy. made from wrapping paper and scrapbook paper following these tutorials (here and here).

table runner - diy. made using this fabric and this trim.

dohl towers - diy. my friend eunice and i made these towers following this tutorial. i made the simpler one using this template and eunice made the amazing dragon one using this template. since our babies are close in age we used the towers for each of our babies' dohls. it worked out great! she hot glued a red bow on the dragon to fit her party theme, and then i hot glued a ribbon bow tie fit mine.

wood letters - from joann's, but you can pretty much find them at any craft store.

cake - i purchased a simple white vanilla cake from indigo pineapple. it was soooo delicious! i wrapped the base with ribbon and topped it with diy pinwheels made by my lovely sister and my friend anna following this tutorial. instead of using one piece of scrapbook paper they used two pieces of scrapbook paper and glued them back to back to add more color. they also used leftover paper straws instead of dowels.

flowers - my super talented friend sophia did all the floral arrangements. she did such a lovely job. i saw this idea on pinterest. i thought it was a creative way to use old baby food jars.

table runner - diy. made using this fabric.

circle banner - diy. mike punched out a TON of circles (isn't he so great?) using a circle puncher and i sewed them together. super quick and easy.

balloons - from party city.

dohljabi sign & jars - my love, annie, who is a craft goddess made sammy's dohl sign and jar labels. the straws i bought from here. the straw labels i made using this free word template.

happy birthday banner - from minted.

sammy's cake smash bib - diy. made by my bff eunice. isn't it the cutest thing ever? i am not sure how she made it but i found this tutorial for a diy bib and one for a no-sew bow tie.

i hope you find this helpful!

this post is a month late, but our lil boy is one! i know every parent says this, but seriously, these lil ones grow up way too fast.