Oops. I missed Friday. Happy Monday! Linking up photos from my past 1.5 weeks with Jeannett at Life Rearranged.

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We leave in 3 WEEKS FOR ITALY!!!! I’m so excited. We are staying in Grosetto and taking trips to Rome, Siena, Florence and Cinque Terra. Any recs on places to eat, things to see and kid friendly activities? Isaiah is coming with us but we are leaving Hudson with my parents (nervous already to be apart from him that long!). Since he just turned two, it would have been over $1000 to take him on a trip that he would not remember, so we made the tough decision to leave him here. I know it will be better in the long run, but I am going to miss that curly haired character!

Thanks to my friend Jenetta for the fun vintage italy book :)

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Last weekend we had friends over and Daveed taught Holly how to make pasta from scratch.

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Little bits of Spring around the house:

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Last week was spring break for Isaiah. We started it off with a 3 hour park playdate with a ton of friends from church. The boys had SO much fun!

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Later that day, we met up with Daveed at Sea World for a few hours. The boys favorite exhibit lately has been the arctic. Hudson loved watching the walrus and polar bears swim.

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Isaiah had been asking to make a star wars terrarium (daygoba) for a long time. We finally ran to Home Depot and whipped it up.

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He had a tough star to the week with listening. As a result, he ended up loosing all of his star wars stuff. Shirts, books, toys, everything. He still found a way to “play” star wars :)

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When we were visiting my family this weekend, my mom pulled out my old lite brite. I spent so many hours on that thing as a kid. Isaiah loved it! I wish that the new ones were even half as good as the old ones.

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Date #11 out of 50: A hike at Torrey Pines. One of my favorite spots in San Diego and it was such a nice time to connect and enjoy nature. (if you are new to my blog, you can find out more about our 50 dates project here.)

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Saturday was a great day to fly a kite at the park with good friends.

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Since we were going to stay down in San Diego for Easter, we spent some time with my family in Orange County on Saturday decorating eggs. You can bet there were a few star wars ones.

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One of my least favorite things on holidays? Trying to get a good family picture. I’m know that my boys are little, wiggly and full of energy (especially with lots of holiday sugar) but, nonetheless, I still always fight to get a quality picture. At first, I thought that this was the best one we got yesterday, my eyes almost closed and all:

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Then, as I was looking through the photos on my camera, I came across this gem and realized that I like it even better. We are not perfectly posed, but that is real life. This captures my boys personalities and I love it.

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Hudson was much more into our neighbor’s dogs than finding eggs:

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Cookie decorating (the tongue is always out when he is super focused):

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My husband was inspired by a dish he saw Mario Batali make on Iron Chef and he decided to recreate it yesterday. It was his first attempt at homemade ravioli and it was delicious! They were egg-shaped with goat cheese, sage and an egg yolk inside. He cooked them perfectly- when you cut into them, a bit of the yoke ran to mix with the butter & parmesan to create a sauce. I was highly impressed!

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Happy April everyone!

I’ve often heard couples talk about how they have a date night every week. I’ve seen it recommended in books on marriage and have always thought “how is that possible with kids?”. The cost of babysitting weekly is beyond our budget to start with, let alone finding the time every week for it.

Then, for Christmas, my husband gave me 50 dates in 2013. So awesome. It works out to roughly one date per week, with a couple of mulligans.

Yes, our schedules are crazy, but we make it work. Prioritizing intentional time to hang out together weekly has been SO good!

Yes, our budget is super tight right now- but we make it work. One way we do that is having some at home dates- having a late dinner with just the two of us and an activity after we put the kids down. While it is not ideal, it works for this stage of life. While we have paid for babysitting a couple of times for these dates, we’ve been able to work out most when we have grandparents visiting :)

It has been such a great way to start out the year. Every week, we look at our calendar and figure out a time we can either get away or have a date at home. If there isn’t an open night, we move things around to make one. I am so thankful for this thoughtful gift from my husband- it has forced us to get into a routine with dates and I love it! Also a big thank you to my friend Jessi who did this with her husband last year, which inspired Daveed :)

We’ve had 10 dates so far. I have shared some in my instafriday posts, but thought I would do a little recap here.

Date #1: Dinner at one of our favorite San Diego restaurants: BO-Beau (thanks to a giftcard from a generous member of our church!). SO GOOD! I cannot even tell you.

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Date #2: We got to get away to the mountains for a night with another couple and went snowboarding together (my Christmas gift to him). So much fun!

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Date #3: Delicious candlelight dinner made by the hubs after the kiddos were in bed.

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Date #4: Dessert & drinks at a car dealership. Yep. Our local Lexus dealership has a nice restaurant on the roof.

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Date #5: Daveed made pasta from scratch (delicious!) and we watched the Grammy’s- complete with lots of hilarious commentary between the two of us.

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Date #6:  Valentine’s Day. We had a night away up in Santa Barbara while visiting Daveed’s grandma and had a delicious brunch, followed by a walk and some window shopping on State Street.

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Date #7: We used up an old gift card at Cheesecake Factory. Banana creme Cheesecake with a side of hot fudge. The best.

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Date #8: Breakfast at our favorite coffee shop, surfing, reading & a beach walk.

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Date #9: Homemade pizzas (prosciutto & arugula, tomato basil and prosciutto & caramelized onions) and watched Argo.

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Date #10: Picnic dinner at Balboa Park, followed by a long walk and dessert & tea at Extraordinary Desserts.

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I cannot wait for the next 40!!

It feels like the first Friday of summer. It’s really the first Friday of March. Gotta love Southern CA!

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I’m linking up again with Jeannett at Life Rearranged to share moments from my week, captured on my phone. Speaking of phone photos, the great people behind TotallyRad! just released an iphone app called PicTapGo- it’s awesome! I highly recommend it. I used it on the picture above and the last photo in this post.

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Last Friday, I shared a couple of photos from our trip to Lake Arrowhead. I then filled up Instagram with a ton more (sorry friends who follow me!). Here are some more glimpses at our weekend away with my family and Hudson’s 2nd birthday:

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These boys know that Grandpa is always good for a treat:

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We didn’t do a real party for Hudson’s birthday- just family dinner. Isaiah would not have it. He demanded that the dinner have a theme. So Hudson had a mini mickey mouse party :) Cupcakes by the wonderful Cupcake Friday Girl and I whipped up a quick banner that looked much cuter in person- with the lighting in this pic, you can barely see the letters.

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I still can’t believe my sweet little guy is 2! (He says he is 3 when you ask him- slow down buddy, slow down!)

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We had so much fun sledding on a little hill on the side of the road.

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Isaiah was so stoked to make a little snowman and do snow angels.

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Sister time!

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Within a couple hours of leaving the mountains, we were here. We are so spoiled in San Diego!

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Starting him early:

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I had a really really hard day with the boys earlier this week. In the middle of the day, my sweet hubby sent me this:

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I didn’t know whether to laugh or be encouraged.

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Last night, we went on date #7 out of 50. We had an old gift card to Cheesecake factory- banana cheesecake with a side of hot fudge. Try it.

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Notice how handsome my cleanly shaven husband looks. Much better than his passport photo last week, right? :)

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Then we got up today and headed out for date #8! (thank goodness for grandmas!) We had coffee at our favorite coffee shop then headed down to the beach for some surfing, reading and walking. It was a PERFECT morning!

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This weekend is our first real weekend as baseball parents. A scrimmage today and opening day and photos tomorrow. Here we go!

I know I say this a lot, but I cannot believe that it is Friday again! This week has been fun but crazy (just ask the half painted bookshelf that has been hanging out in my garage since last Saturday…)

On Fridays, I share my instagram photos from the week both to recap life (a little scrapbook of sorts) and to link up with Jeannett at Life Rearranged.

Happy day after Valentine’s Day!

Last Saturday, we had dinner with friends and ended the night making ice cream with liquid nitrogen (thanks to my friend’s husband). It was really cool- definitely the first time I can say that dessert came from a science experiment :)

They approve of the ice cream:

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I don’t have a picture of this, but my husband preached on Sunday at our church. It was awesome! If you want to hear his sermon, you can hear it here.

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That night, my husband and I had date #5 out of 50 (our goal is 50 dates in 2013!). My husband, who is an incredible cook, made my favorite pasta from scratch. Here he is teaching Isaiah how to make the pasta dough:

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Side note: Daveed had always wanted to learn to make his own pasta. For Christmas 2 years ago, I signed him up for a class at Sur La Table. He loved it and has been making me fresh pasta ever since. The gift that keeps giving back to me :)

It takes a looooong time, so we fed the kids and then had our own dinner after the kids were asleep. He also made us tasty drinks and artichokes and we watched the Grammys while enjoying our amazing meal. Thanks babe for being awesome!

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Isaiah watched Mary Poppins for the first time (one of my childhood favorites!) and when the song “Step in Time” came on, he couldn’t help but get up and dance all over the house. It was hilarious!

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He found this book at the library and is so stoked to get crafting:

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The first line of the book is “may the glue gun be with you”.   :)

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Living in San Diego is great. It was 75 and beautiful today. I thought about going to the beach. In February. Also, there are so many cool things for kids to do here. All of the kindergarteners from Isaiah’s school got to go to Sea World this week for a field trip. He talked about it for weeks leading up to it and I am sure we will be hearing about it for weeks to come.

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I am so glad that I got to go with him. He held my hand often and wasn’t embarrassed in front of his friends. I know that is going to change some day, so I fully enjoyed his excitement over me being there.

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Isaiah’s valentines:

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I call this giving the kid what he wants while still making it crafty and homemade. I saw the idea on the blog Inchmark and he loved it, only to find (2 days before valentine’s day) that there was no downloadable template. Enter superdad and his photoshop skills.

At first, the perfectionist in me cringed a bit when Isaiah wanted to color all over them. I loved his sweet little hearts though. Makes star wars a bit cuter :)

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Valentine’s Week breakfast:

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The day before Valentine’s Day, we headed up to Santa Barbara to visit my husband’s grandma. She’s been sick and Valentine’s Day was her 85th birthday, so it was really special to be able to see her and share some love. The boys love their GG.

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When I married my husband, it was a great added plus that I got a grandma. I grew up without any grandparents, so it has been really special to get a grandma in my 20′s. She is wonderful and treats me as her own. We love you grandma!

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Thanks to my wonderful mother in law, we got to sneak away for the night and had brunch for our Valentine’s date (also date #6 of 50). Breakfast was delicious and we even had enough time to walk around State Street and shop a bit.

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I am so thankful for my man.

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It was a whirlwind trip, as we were back home less than 36 hours from when we left. Fun and good, but I am glad to be back at home, ready for a mellow weekend.

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I hope the love of Valentine’s Day spills over into the weekend for you friends!

I’m glad it’s Friday today. I’m not going to lie, this week wasn’t my favorite. It wasn’t terrible, but we had some rough days. I am very much looking forward to the rainy day today and the weekend.

And I’m excited that it’s friday because it means I get to link with Jeannett at Life Rearranged for InstaFriday! I didn’t post that many pictures on instagram this week- not because there were not lots of sweet and fun moment this week because there were (dinner with friends, including Hudson discovering barbies, superbowl with more friends, visits from both of the boys grandmas, going to an Andrew Peterson concert) but because I just didn’t take many pictures :)

Here are the moments I did capture:

Date night #4/50: For our 4th date of the year, my husband took me out for dessert and drinks. At a car dealership. Yep. Our local Lexus dealership is huge, shiny and new and has a really nice restaurant on the roof. Definitely on the random side, but it was tasty & comfy by the fire pits :)

On saturday, our 5 year old started tee ball. We are officially baseball parents. Crazy. He absolutely loves it!

Our we *heart* winter party was featured on Hostess with the Mostess this week. So fun!

On tuesday, both boys had a hard day. Meaning: they made the day hard for me. It started with this little curly haired guy deciding that I should not take a shower. He threw a tantrum the whole time I was in there- opening the shower curtain, resulting in a soaking wet hudson and a soaking wet bathroom. After my cold shower, he then decided that he did not like the fact that I needed to get ready or dry my hair either. It was not a quiet hour in my house.

But he’s just so cute. Even in the midst of his whining and crying.

I have had a few customers order custom  mini banners for their banner stands they purchased at the Queen Bee Market, which is so fun! (I do have a couple available in my etsy shop and can make any custom banner for these).

Hudson & I snuck outside to play a bit before the rain came this morning:

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

There are still two hours left of Friday, so I am sneaking in an InstaFriday post just in time :)  Linking up with the lovely Jeannett at Life Rearranged to record some of my favorite moments from the past week (errr… two weeks… because I missed last Friday…)

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So, after the washing machine breaking, the shower shattering and my whole family having strep throat, I was ready for a break. Thanks to my parents and my wonderful neices, the hubs and I got to sneak away for two nights to Big Bear with one of  my husband’s best friends and his wife. It was my big gift to my husband for Christmas and was SUCH a needed break- we had so much fun! Snowboarding together also counted as date #2 out of 50 in 2013 (for more info on that, check out my last instafriday post).

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After a great day snowboarding, resting & reading, we had a tasty dinner to celebrate Sean’s 30th birthday

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Back home, our house decided to kick us down again. Plumbing issues. Like water coming from the ceilings in the bathroom and no toilets flushing issues. When my husband was out of town. And I was supposed to leave for the weekend in an hour. 9 hours later… the plumbers were gone, everything was fixed, and I was scrubbing crap off the walls with a toothbrush. Literally. So I definitely deserved these before falling into bed:

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These two sweet faces were so good that day- which helped me retain the ounce of sanity I had left.

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My husband is the sweetest and left me this note the other day:

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And after finishing reading Gone Girl today, I am extra thankful for my amazing husband. And that I’m not crazy. All good things.

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This kid got his first loose tooth last week. I got tears.

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We had our winter party last weekend. I’ll post more photos and details on Monday, but here is a sneak peak for now:

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Father-son carrom game. Melts me. And, yes, that is Isaiah’s favorite new shirt. (thanks grandma!)

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I got to recreate the suite from Hudson’s first birthday party for two customers. Such a fun set of banners, mini banners & cupcake toppers. One of the birthday boys even had the same name as my hudson! So random.

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Date #3/50 in 2013: a mellow, at home dinner after the kids were asleep (mainly due to the fact that my husband now had major bronchitis. a week after having strep throat. fun times). My hubby is an incredible cook- he can throw together a pasta like no one else I know. This was a bolognese sauce he made from scratch, including bacon, caramelized onions and aged balsamic. It was so good! After we had dinner, we sat around talking for the rest of the evening. Such a sweet quiet night together!

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I made the largest happy birthday banner I’ve ever made: over 18 feet long! It was a special order for the OC  mart mix’s anniversary celebration.

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Hey dude- no drinking & driving.

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Any time it rains, Isaiah requests hot chocolate. Even if it’s 80 degrees and just barely sprinkling. At his request, my husband made the best hot chocolate and whipped cream from scratch last night. Seriously the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. Apparently, I should have just titled this post “let me tell you how rad my husband is”.

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And- with that- I’m off to bed. Trying to fight off the bronchitis mr amazing husband passed on to me :)

Happy weekend!