Friday! Friday!

My week:

Happy 70th birthday Dad!

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We gave up hope of sticking to our cleanse diet while at Claim Jumper. One cheat isn’t so bad, right? :)

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I got to sing with my husband while he lead worship at a conference at Biola University. So fun! This was taken during sound check.

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My sweet friend Michelle (buddies since 5th grade) works at Biola and came to the conference to see us. She then treated us to dinner at the Biola cafeteria. I am at the stage where I am starting feel old around college students. Yikes!

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Mother’s Day was great. The first thing Isaiah did when he woke up was get out his paints and make me a card. So sweet!

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He then wanted to have a dance party. He requested that I pick out a Mother’s Day record, so I picked the bright pink one. Of course :)

Btw- the record is Of Monsters & Men. I highly recommend it!

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We had a casual lunch at Nordstrom Cafe & grabbed Mexican food to go and had a picnic at the beach for dinner. Such a sweet day with my little fam. I absolutely love being a mom- it is the best thing ever!

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More healthy eating for our cleanse. One of my favorite meals was blackened chicken with Mango Quinoa. Even better? Leftovers for lunch the next day- taco style:

I know I said I was going to post this week about the cleanse, but I ended up being slammed with work. I promise a blog post next week :)

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We did a little science experiment I had seen on pinterest using baking soda and colored vinegar. He loved it!

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Popsicle on a hot day. He asked me to take a picture of him. I love my funny little dude.

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Today, I went to the Wild Animal Park with my little wild animal and some friends.

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His favorite animal? The geese. Elephants and tigers up close? He was not impressed. But he followed those two geese around a planter for a good 15 minutes.

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Have a good weekend!

Over the next couple of months, I am going to share a few of my favorite crafting tools for What I Love Wednesdays. First up, the fanciest hole puncher you’ve ever seen:

Whenever anyone sees me bust this guy out, they give me a confused look usually followed by a “what the heck is that thing?”.

It is a crop-a-dile.

What does this contraption do, you ask? It is a handy multi-use tool. It has two different sizes of hole punches and multiple settings to use for brads and eyelets. It is my go-to hole puncher. I don’t use it very often for eyelets because I just don’t use them very often, but it works great when I do.

The hole punches cut through super thick materials- I’ve used it on thin wood sheets, fabric mounted onto card stock, plastic and for over 10 sheets of card stock at once. It is easy to use and really well made- that thing is solid. I’ve had mine for over 6 years (big shout out to my sis Heather who gave it to me as a birthday present), use it multiple times a week and it is still in perfect condition.

 
I highly recommend it if you punch a lot of holes :)   You can buy it on Amazon or at craft or scrapbooking stores.

Every time we have been to Napa, we have taken a picture of me in front of this barn door at a winery. The first was when I was 7 months pregnant with my first, Isaiah (which was 5 years ago). It is so fun to look back at the different seasons through such a simple and concise way!

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A snapshot of what my life is like right now :)

It’s Friday again, so I’m linking up with Jeanett at LifeRearranged for InstaFriday. Sharing moments from my week, captured on my phone through Instagram. I am CourtToney on instagram if you would like to follow me :)

On Saturday, one of my good friends from high school got married. It was such a fun wedding and Clarissa was an absolutely stunning bride!

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Me & my hot date:

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With the beautiful bride. How gorgeous is her dress?

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This is me & my friend Bre. Bre is the lovely lady who bought my company and it was so fun to see her and her team in action. They coordinated the wedding beautifully & made me so proud :)

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Clarissa & Paul met in an 80′s cover band, Neon Nation. So not only did they have a killer live jazz band, but their band got up and did a set and it was so awesome. Definitely the most fun I’ve had at a reception.

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An cotton candy. And a cigar bar. Tasty food. And good friends. Made for a happy Courtney.

 (clarification: cigar bar=happy husband. Not happy Courtney)

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There was a couple hour break in between the ceremony and reception, so the hubs and I got to have a little date. Since it was cinco de mayo, we grabbed some delicious tacos for half off and enjoyed someone asking us if we were going to prom :)

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After all off that good eating, we started this on Monday:

I said adios to carbs, dairy, sugar and red meat for two weeks. Eating healthy, cleansing the body. So far so good. More info on it next week.

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This would be the low of the week. When Hudson gets upset and throws a tantrum, he arches his back and whips he head backward. This particular day, it happened while I was trying to get him dress on his changing table. He decided he wanted nothing to do with it and backward head butted the window. He won. Window broken.

Thankfully, he was fine. After a half hour of checking every inch of his body and room for shards of glass, I was too.

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I got a bunch of really happy new paper in the mail this week. Cannot wait to craft some fun things with it!

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It’s been warm this week, so we headed down to the beach to play one morning. Not warm there. Freezing and windy. Can you spot Isaiah?

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These sweet boys really love each other. Caught this moment of Isaiah giving Hudson a kiss while playing. I hope & pray that they will be good friends growing up.

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I’ve actually had fun making super healthy food this week. This was last night’s dinner:

SO good!

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Birds are making a nest in the light on our back porch. It is really fascinating to me to watch and I hope it lasts so that I can see the baby birds :)

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Isaiah’s school had a mother’s day tea and performance today. It was so precious! I definitely teared up. I love that goofy kid.

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Happy Mother’s day weekend! And happy happy 70th birthday to my sweet Dad!!

**If you are my mother, don’t look at this post. Or just pretend to be surprised when you open your card this weekend :) **

I stumbled across a couple of super cute free downloadable Mother’s Day cards and wanted to share them.

This super cute card & tag is from my friend Lori at Paper & Thread.

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I love this simple watercolor card from How About Orange. So pretty!

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Now, back to figuring out what gift I am going to get for my mom…

As I mentioned a few weeks back, I am super sensitive to perfume. Strong perfume= headache. This makes candles tricky. If the scent is too strong, especially a florally scent, my head does not agree with my nose. So I have to be picky.

My picky-ness in candles has led me to this guy:

The Angel Food scented candle by Illume’s Boulangerie line from Anthropologie.

It is the best smelling candle I have ever smelt. Light enough to not bother my sensitive head, but lovely enough to fill my house with a sweet smell. It is like freshly baked sugar cookies. But not too sweet of a smell. Just right. And it looks cute on my shelf, which is a big plus.

They last pretty long too. The one I got for my birthday back in November just ran out last week. Which makes me sad. Which is why I chose it for this week’s post.

They have other scents that sound amazing too- Sweet Vanilla & Cinnamon, Whipped Cream & Pear & Coconut Macaroon.

If you are looking for a last minute mother’s day gift, I highly recommend this. That may or may not be a hint for those who are related to me :)

InstaFriday- and I made it on time this week! Hooray!

It was a mellow week- just trying to get the boys back to normal after a super crazy last week and a half.

Hudson loved his beans from Chipotle so much that he literally licked his highchair clean. Like father, like son :)

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We found a cute new Gelato place in town which is a good thing and also a bad thing. Good because: a) we love gelato. b) it’s only a 10  minute walk from our house. c) our downtown area really needs some new life and new cute places.  Bad because: a) we love gelato. b) it’s only a 2 minute drive from our house. c) we will go there all of the time.

I had strawberry basil, sour cream strawberry and salted caramel. All three were amazing! They have tasty grilled cheese sandwiches, paninis and salads too (I may have already gone back for a grilled cheese & another salted caramel…) & really good coffee & tea. They have a kids play room too- so awesome! If you are in North County San Diego, check it out. It is called EscoGelato and is on Kalmia & Grand.

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I went in to get Isaiah out of time out and found him like this:

Funny kid.

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New cheery spring packaging for our flags:

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During dinner last night, Hudson decided that it would be a good idea to use my drapes as a prop for peek a boo. He then decided that they would also make a good towel and preceded to wipe up the food off of his highchair. Thanks buddy :)

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Isaiah has been really into playing boardgames lately. Especially Candyland and Trouble. He’s super competitive and a bit of a sore looser, so we have been working with him on being a good sport. After we finished playing two rounds of Trouble, he wanted to keep playing by himself. I realized later that he was pretending to play with his invisible friends. He often pretends his real life best friends are here playing with him. So cute!

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In the middle of our busy day, my husband and I snuck away during naptime to lay in the sunshine for a few minutes. My view:

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A while ago, my sis-in-law, The Pleated Poppy, posted a challenge to mix two different prints in an outfit. This totally goes against my basic style, which I call simplistic (my mom calls it boring-ha!). So, months later, I decided to give it a shot. I kind of like it :)

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Have a wonderful weekend everyone! We are off to Orange County for the wedding of one of my best friends from high school. I am SO excited!

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Thanks Jeannett for hosting the link-up!

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Photographer: Carlie of Gabriel Ryan Photographers

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Cake & Desserts: Sweet and Saucy Shop

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When my boys were newborns, they both ruled at spitting up. In the worst way possible. They both had bad reflux and massive spit up was expected after each feeding. Because of this, we went through bibs and burp clothes like water. We are talking a full load of them in the wash every week. Because of this, I accumulated a big supply of cute cloth bibs. I had etsy seller Apericots make some custom ones and they were awesome!

Once my boys moved on to finger foods though, those cute cloth bibs got left in the dust for these guys:

The best bibs ever.

Baby Bjorn makes them, randomly. They are rubber and have a big lip that catches 99% of my son’s dropped food. The little flimsy plastic ones that have a pocket? They hardly ever catch anything. These guys are big & sturdy enough to fill the space in between the high chair and my baby but also comfortable enough that my son doesn’t mind having it on him. When he’s done eating, I can rinse it off in the sink in a second. They don’t stain and last incredible well. I bought both of mine with my first son, 4 years ago, he used them for years and they are still in perfect condition after 6 months of use with my second.

They are $9.95 at Land of Nod- a great price especially because they last for so long. Amazon sells them too, but for a couple of dollars more.

Happy Wednesday!

InstaMonday this week. We were on the road all day Friday and unpacking and getting back to life this weekend. So, I’m linking up with Jeannett a bit late, but better late than never, right? :)

What a week! I spent the first part of the weekend at our church’s womens retreat down on the bay. Some friends and I grabbed some Mexican food and had a picnic on the beach for dinner. Not a bad view…

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My friend Holly & I showed up wearing coordinating outfits. We didn’t plan it- I promise!

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Then, on Sunday, we packed up and headed up the coast right after church. Our little mini-tour for my husband’s album was so much fun! The first show was in Camarillo for a group of around 100 college students and it was awesome! We had the full band with us and had so much fun. This was my little station:

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The band:

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The next day, we drove north to San Luis Obispo for another show and to hang out with my brother, sister-in-law and their kiddos. The cousins had such a great time together:

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I found a banner-making assistant :)

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Then we landed in the Napa area for a few days. It was such a nice little vacation for our family. My husband’s parents were with us and the boys loved it. We swam, visited wineries, ate good food and relaxed. So needed for us. The boys were troopers with all of the travel.

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Daveed and I got to sneak away for a date night, which called for my sassy shoes. We went to dinner and visited Russian River Brewery.

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We happened upon Truett Hurst because it was one of the only wineries that was open before 11. It ended up being perfect for us- great wine, beautiful property and it was right on a creek. Isaiah explored and threw rocks into the creek for over an hour.

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Beauty:

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They gave him special glasses to help spot the salmon in the creek :)

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My favorite part about visiting vineyards is touring their grounds and gardens. This would be a gorgeous spot for a wedding!

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We found this little birds nest in a bush right outside of the tasting room. So perfect- it looked fake!

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They have chairs all along the creek to sit and take it in. This picture totally melts my heart. That look on Hudson’s face… oh my. Never mind the fact that he doesn’t fit in the bjorn or moby anymore- we make it work when we have to :)

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Healdsburg is such a cute town. We loved walking around and exploring.

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I have seen weddings at Barndiva featured on blogs a bunch of times, so it was fun to check it out in person. It is such a cool spot! We had dinner there and it was amazing. The outdoor event spaces are really really cool.

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We stopped in Napa for a few hours on our way back to the bay area. A little more wine tasting and garden viewing.

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Picnic lunch at one of my favorite markets ever. If I am in New York or Napa, I always stop at Dean & Deluca. It all started with Felicity. Now, I’m hooked. We grab some fresh baguettes, interesting meat and amazing cheese, and plop down on the grass right next to the parking lot. SO good!

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Good boys on long drives get cupcakes:

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We finished up the tour with a homeshow in the bay area and a concert at David’s grandma’s retirement community (so funny!). After the homeshow, David gave our friend (& sweet host) Emily a harmonium lesson:

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We did a terrible job of taking pictures of the actual shows. Emily grabbed this one on her phone during the homeshow:

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It was so much fun, but we are happy to be home :)