I am running around like crazy trying to get everything for Italy, but wanted to sneak in a recap of my past week, linking up with InstaFriday on Life Rearranged.

.

Last week, I joined a bunch of friends to hike Iron Mountain. It was so fun!

.

I’m selling a bunch of my scrapbook paper supply. If you are interested in purchasing all of this for cheap, let me know :)

.

On Sunday, Isaiah invited Uncle Ryan over for lunch and to play Star Wars Monopoly- without asking us. How could we say no to that? :)

.

In the middle of church on Sunday, Hudson’s nose started running. We all got the cold in some form this week and are still trying to kick it out of our house. Hopefully we will all be back to 100% by Monday! Here is the little guy all cuddled up with his Mickeys on the couch while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. So sweet!

.

I finished this book this and LOVED it! Best book on motherhood I’ve ever read. I think I am going to have to read it annually.

.

Date #13 out of 50 for the year: A delicious late-night dinner followed by game night. Simple, cheap and a lot of fun! We even got dressed up like we were going out on a hot date :)

.

I got to sneak away and get my hair done for the first time in almost a year! (thanks Katie!)

.

A little evening kite run:

.

Doing some research for our trip at bedtime:

.

Where I was at 9:00 on a Friday night:

.

Having a cold and sinus stuff going on has made me & my doctor a bit nervous that my ear drum may rupture again while on the flight to Italy. I have intense pain on flights anyway, so flying a month after it burst may not be the most fun thing ever. I’m all stocked up with medicine to battle this thing to make sure any infection does not get to my ear and that- if it does- I don’t have to try to spend time in an Italian urgent care.

.

Speaking of Italian urgent care, it is unlikely that I will post much while we are on our trip, so see you all in May!

.

I cannot believe that we leave in less than 2 days! Ah! I better start packing :) Don’t worry- Isaiah had me look up how to say Star Wars in Italian, so we are all prepared. (In case you are wondering, they say…. Star Wars.)

.

Caio!

Friday again! That means I’m linking up with Jeannett at Life Rearranged, sharing moments I’ve captured on my phone throughout the week. I’m @courttoney on instagram if you would like to follow along day to day.

.

Flags flags flags! I’ve had 12 custom flags ship over the past week, so it’s been flag land over here. I loved these four pretties:

.

In the middle of a crazy week, the Inspired By This girls made my day when they told me I had won ice cream from Sweet Lucie’s! I’m so excited- this stuff is delicious! Isaiah had his mind blown when I told him we would be getting ice cream in the mail :)

.

There is not much cuter than a 5 year old in catcher’s gear. People agree- this is my most liked photo ever on instagram & facebook.

.

This big ugly contraption is not my favorite. It takes up a bunch of space in our small back yard. Did I mention it is ugly and huge? However- I put it up with it because my husband makes some delicious food in there. Last weekend, he made pulled pork and it was super yummy. (It’s a smoker if you are wondering. And, not only do we have this huge contraption, but also a big BBQ. And my husband wanted a charcoal grill back there too…)

.

My husband had never seen The Sound of Music. Crazy, right? Like he had no idea what it was about. He kept picturing Heidi :)  So, for date #12 out of 50 (more info on our date plan here) we watched it! Along with homemade ice cream sandwiches.

.

The verdict: he liked it! Way more than he thought he would like an old musical :)

.

The countdown to Italy is on! 10 rings left on Isaiah’s countdown chain:

.

Isaiah loves Star Wars. Isaiah loves drawing and painting. Put them together: Isaiah’s newest art installment:

.

We finally took Isaiah’s training wheels off yesterday. Up until 6 months ago, we lived on a super hilly street with no sidewalk. Nowhere to ride a bike except in circles on our back porch. We would take him to the park occasionally, but he really did not have that much opportunity to ride his bike. When we moved to our new opportunity, we were all stoked that there is tons of room for him to ride his bike and he has been loving it. He was really nervous about taking the training wheels off though, until he watched a special agent oso episode where they taught a boy to ride without them. Then he had to take them off that. very. minute.

.

He did pretty good! I’m thankful my husband is so patient and such a great teacher.

.

Happy weekend! I’m off to attempt to get all of our orders done so I can focus on getting ready for Italy next week!

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

.

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 :)

.

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

.

Little bits of Spring around the house:

.

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!

.

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.

.

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.

.

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 :)

.

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.

.

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.)

.

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

.

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.

.

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:

.

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.

.

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

.

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

.

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!

.

Happy April everyone!

Friday again! That means I’m linking up with Jeannett to recap some moments from my week, captured on my phone. If you would like to follow me on instagram, I’m @courttoney.

.

We started last weekend off with an awesome date night at Balboa Park. Yesterday, I shared a recap of the first 10 dates out of 50 in 2013, if you would like to find out more :)

.

At his second baseball game, Isaiah was given a player of the game award for sportsmanship. Made this mama so proud!

.

On St. Patrick’s Day, I let the boys have Lucky Charms. Definitely the only time they are allowed to have that sugary of a cereal (and the only day of the year that we have green milk!). They loved it!

.

Green juice balances out the sugar, right? Isaiah called it leprechaun juice.

.

At another baseball game, Isaiah was given the game ball. I am so thankful that his coaches let us know a few minutes ahead of time so that we could catch his sweet reaction on camera and film.

.

He was a little excited about it :)

.

Sometimes, when you’re a mom, you wing it and throw some torn up dino chicken nuggets on a salad and call it dinner. Fancy.

.

A pretty little flag that we shipped out to a bride this week:

.

Isaiah had his class easter party & easter egg hunt today. He was particularly stoked on his bunny hat.

.

I hung out with my other kid this week too. I know you wouldn’t know it by my pictures, but I promise we spent some good time together :)

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.

 .

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!

.

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

.

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

.

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.

.

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.

.

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

.

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

.

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

.

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

.

.

I cannot wait for the next 40!!

At the beginning of the year, I made a commitment to myself to finish 12 books in 2013. Giving myself this goal has made me allocate time for reading, whereas, before, I would say I didn’t have time to read. Now, I spend less time on social media and pinterest and more time in a book. I am loving it! For years I ignored reading unless it was required for bible study or the like and now I can say that I am a reader again :)

I wanted to update my progress- I am 9 books in!!!!! I am about done with book 10, so I think I’ll make my goal :)

Here is what I have read so far this year:

1: 1,000 gifts (This book affected my life and how I see my days profoundly. I highly, highly recommend it)

2,3,4: The Hunger Games Trilogy (loved them. Will probably read through them again before the 2nd movie comes out next fall)

5: Gone Girl (captivating- not my favorite because I didn’t love the ending, but I enjoyed it)

6: Gilead  (much slower to get through than the others, but was full of philosophy and theology and made me think)

7. The 19th Wife (Really, really interesting)

8. Divergent

9. Insurgent (LOVED these two! I read them in a couple of days while I was out of commission with my ear. I can’t wait for the 3rd one to come out next fall. If you are looking for a fun, quick read, I highly recommend them)

Right now, I’m reading Real Marriage by Mark Driscoll and am really enjoying it. If you are looking for a good Christian book on marriage, check it out.

With a trip to Italy coming up next month, I am sure I will hit 12 with all of that traveling time. It makes me excited to see what my total number will end up being.

I missed a week, so I’m recapping the past two weeks in one instafriday post, linking up with Jeannett.

We had a couple of weeks full of 1st’s and one big 2nd for me.

Isaiah had his first opening day for baseball- it was so cute!

.

A week and half later, after rain delays, he finally had his first game. He loved it and was so adorable to watch. This is his first at bat ever:

 .

Put me in coach!

.

Another first: Hudson stuck a piece of carrot up his nose. And it got stuck. After 10 minutes of the doctor trying, with 3 of us holding him down, he thankfully got it out. Fun times in motherhood. This was when we got back home. Life is much better without a carrot in your nose, right buddy?

.

My little skater boy:

.

Isaiah decided that there should be a Star Wars Day and that it should be a national holiday. He picked a day and declared it, always and forever to be, Star Wars Day. What happens on Star Wars Day, you ask? We watched episode 4, had light saber fights, played with star wars legos and painted rocks:

.

For dinner, we had HANburgers, boba fruit and millenium falCORN. Guess what happened while Isaiah bit into that HANburger? Another first: he lost a tooth!

.

Custom owl-themed banners and cupcake toppers for a sweet client:

.

A friend gave me her old bookshelf, which was a blessing, as I had been needing one for a while. I decided to give it a quick little makeover. The entire project cost me less than $15!

.

Two treats in one day: lollipops and a visit from Aunt Heather!

.

And, now, the big 2nd for me: my ear drum ruptured again. It happened 2 years ago, just days before Hudson was born. Then, suddenly, last Saturday, with little notice, I had extreme ear pain and was off to the ER since it was late in the evening. During the night, it ruptured again, keeping me up all night in pain. No fun. Apparently, this is something I am susceptible to now. I am much better now, just can’t hear much out of that ear and it is a bit uncomfortable. For a while there, my body was pretty wiped as at fought the infection and I dealt with having my equilibrium off a bit and some pain. Thankfully, my husband is an amazing gift to me and convinced me to rest and take it easy (which goes against my push through it & keep going nature).

.

He took care of the boys while I was able to catch up on sleep, read and recuperate for a couple of days. It was SO needed and SO nice! I even read two books during those few days :)  (more on that coming next week- an update on my reading list for the year)

.

 I am so thankful for that man of mine!

.

We got a couple of dates in during these two weeks as well, but I am going to save that for next week as well. We’ve hit 10 out of 50 dates! Yay!

.

I am hoping for a no-carrot-in-the-nose and no-ear-drum-bursting kind of weekend. I wish you the same :)

Today my baby turns 2! It’s hard to believe.

Happy birthday sweet boy! You bring us so much joy, such sweet cuddles and a whole bunch of entertainment daily. We love you.

We are up in Lake Arrowhead with my family for the weekend, so the boys had fun adventuring in the snow in their PJ’s this morning. Isaiah was just a little bit excited:

.

This week’s instafriday post is super short- another week that I didn’t make pictures. I am still linking up with Jeannett anyway though :)

.

I started watching Friday Night Lights- I am loving it! A did a little baby shower crafting while cuddled up in my bed with Coach Taylor…errrr…. my computer.

.

We got Isaiah his passport this week- Italy here we come! Hudson decided he should get in the picture too :)

 .

I learned the hard this week that I cannot trust my husband with the job of passport photos.

 .

Yes, that is him, not a man off of the street and, yes, he messed up Isaiah’s hair on purpose. Notice that they have the same exact half smile. Aye. Security gates here we come :/

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:

.

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.

.

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:

.

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!

.

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!

.

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

.

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

.

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.

.

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.

.

Isaiah’s valentines:

.

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 :)

.

Valentine’s Week breakfast:

.

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.

.

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!

.

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.

.

I am so thankful for my man.

.

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.

.

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!