I came across this on Lay Baby Lay (which is an awesome nursery style blog!) and it was such a good reminder for me today:
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With Isaiah in school now and Hudson becoming a full on toddler, I am more aware than ever of the craziness of them growing up quickly. Even on the hard days, I try to remind myself to enjoy every little moment I have with my two little blessings.
I’m going to warn you up front: this instafriday post has a lot of pictures. It was a good week full of great moments, all captured on my phone :) Like I do every Friday, I am linking up with the lovely Jeannett at LifeRearranged.
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We celebrated my husband’s birthday and our anniversary all weekend- SO fun! On saturday, Daveed’s parents came down and we hit up the farmer’s market. Every saturday, my husband drools over all of the fresh sushi-grade fish and dreams about making his own sushi. He finally got to make that happen- he & his mom cooked up a storm!
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Even some octopus made it into our kitchen (along with oysters & lobster tails too!):
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Isaiah got his wooden sushi set out to pretend to eat along with his dad:
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That night, we saw a concert and film premiere by Josh Garrels & Mason Jar Music. More about it on next wednesday’s What I Love Wednesday, but it was awesome!
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The next day was our 7th Anniversary. I am suck a lucky woman and our marriage gets better & better every year. I love you babe!
For some reason, I couldn’t get the instagram pic off of instagram, so here is the original pic from our wedding day:
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We started off our anniversary by doing what we have done together since Jr High: leading worship at church :)
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And, no, I don’t really play the banjo.
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We got to have a little getaway, thanks to my wonderful mother in law. We headed downtown, ate yummy food and hung out at the beach and pool. It was SO needed & so great! 24 hours full of amazing food: lunch at Con Pane (my favorite sandwich shop), dinner at Beau Bo (amazing!), & an after dinner stop at Craft & Commerce. Yum!
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The views from our hotel room. I love where we live!
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The next day was Daveed’s birthday and we celebrated with a super tasty breakfast at Snooze. Then on to some record shops, the pool & the beach. So fun! We finished the day by meeting his mom & our kiddos for dinner at Urge (best burgers in North County).
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My boys think lunch is SO much cooler when it is served in muffin tins:
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I use our blender a lot. We have smoothies multiple days a week. This week, it died. Sad day.
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Some eyelet & stripe banners I made this week for one of my favorite clients:
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They say LOVE & love is sweet :)
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Last night, Hudson grabbed a lemon that had been cut in half. He licked it, made a really funny face, the preceeded to walk around the house licking it for 10 minutes and saying “whoa!” over and over. Such an entertaining kid!
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Boo. Where, o where, is the fall?
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Speaking of the 100+ degree heat, our air conditioning decided to break last night. Fun times over here friends. When I put Hudson down for this nap today, this was the temp in his room:
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When I got him up, it was up to 92. Peace out house. We are headed to the pool!
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We had a lot to celebrate this weekend: this past sunday was our 7th anniversary & monday was my husband’s birthday! We got to get away for a night thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law and it was so nice! Lots of eating, pool and beach time and time to connect without stepping on cars and being interrupted by whining and tantrums. (more on that on friday!)
We don’t normally give gifts on our anniversary, just handmade items, but, this year, my husband gave me the sweetest print for our new bedroom:
Isn’t it the cutest? It even looks like us :) (especially me- little ponytail, glasses and all!)
It is from etsy seller Genevieve Santos and I absolutely love it! Thanks babe!
InstaFriday time again! Linking up with Jeannett at Life Rearranged.
Friends joined us in our Saturday routine of the farmer’s market & train rides. Here is Isaiah riding the train with his future wife, Abby :)
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Backyard popsicles on a hot day:
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This little dude loves his books:
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We had friends from our homegroup at church over for labor day. We swam & had a BBQ. So much fun, even with 14 kids running around our little house :)
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Our little rascal after a swim:
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Promises that fall is coming:
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Isaiah had his first day of soccer. He didn’t like it at all :)
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Naptime:
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It is really cool that I can listen to my husband’s album on vinyl:
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Hip hip hooray! A fun custom banner that shipped out this week:
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The best gift I ever gave my husband was signing him up for a pasta making class. (the gift that keeps on giving to me!) He makes fresh pasta often and it’s so delicious! I’m a lucky girl :) Also, his hat hair is pretty sweet…
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A rite of passage into boyhood: Isaiah got to watch Star Wars for the first time today:
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We’ve got a really exciting weekend coming up: it is our anniversary and my husband’s birthday on monday! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend as well!
I have always been a paper lover- from the time I was 7 and would love stopping at the paper outlet on our way to the desert, I have always found joy in scouring shelves of beautifully designed paper.
Now, I have way too much of it. Boxes and boxes of scrapbook paper. Good thing I use it as part of my job :)
Today, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite online resources for buying scrapbook paper. As much as I love spending an hour browsing the aisles in a specialty paper store, the reality of that happening in this stage of life with two little boys is very slim.
Paper Source is one of my favorite stores in the world. However, they have a larger supply of scrapbook paper in their stores than they do online. However, they are my go to source for solid color card stock for my products. I love their color options and it makes it easy that I know what will be in stock and what to expect.
In searching for great patterned paper over the years, I have happened upon Two Peas in a Bucket and A Cherry on Top. Both have a great selection of crafty goodness. Lots of patterns to choose from and both ship very quickly.
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Locally in San Diego, Paper Tales in Point Loma is awesome and Cool Scrapbook Stuff in Poway has a pretty good selection.
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Do you have any other favorite online paper shops?
At the beginning of the summer, Isaiah and I made a list of all of the fun things we wanted to do this summer. He was way more into it than I thought he would be- making sure we did everything and that we checked off each activity immediately after completing it.
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A list-maker by nature, I loved how it helped me be strategic and purposeful with our days and weeks. I am looking forward to continuing this tradition year after year!
Here is our list:
1. Go to the Lake
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2. Join & complete the library’s kids summer book club
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3. Go to the beach
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4. Make glow in the dark bubbles (attempted twice… not very successful)
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5. Swim in the pool (a whole bunch!)
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6. Walk to get ice cream
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7. Go camping
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8. Sea World
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9. Make cookies for a friend
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10. Attend Vacation Bible School at church
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11. Have a slumber party with a friend
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12. Watch fireworks
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13. Go on a hike
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14. Make our own ice cream
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15. Go to a museum
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16. Sidewalk chalk
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17. Have a picnic
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18. Go to the movies
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19. Play tag
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20. Beach bonfire
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21. Play with water balloons
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22. Go to a Padres game
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23. Have a science experiment day
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24. Go to the Orange County Fair
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25. Have a movie festival (Isaiah added this one- it consisted of watching Peter Pan and making popcorn :) )
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26. Slip n slide in the front yard
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27. Make milk shakes (also added by the ice cream loving 4 year old)
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28. Have smores in the backyard
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29. Swim lessons
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30. Go to the park
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31. Ride on a boat
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32. Ride a train
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What a wonderful summer it was! We are so blessed and I am thankful for the opportunities we had to make these memories.
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Now, bring on the fall!
Friday! Linking up with Life Rearranged’s InstaFriday.
My week started off with strep throat. Not fun. Moms aren’t supposed to get sick, right?
While I was napping, Isaiah drew me a picture and hid it next to my bed so it would cheer me up. I love that kiddo!
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I didn’t mind the trip to urgent care too much- it meant I got to lay down in silence for about an hour and read magazines. A sick mama’s spa day :)
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After a shot in the booty and lots of help and care from my awesome husband, I was on the mend by the end of the weekend. Adios strep!
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I was so happy to feel well enough to get off the couch and play with my boys. Isaiah and I made a rocket ship craft and we went out to the field by our house to fly it around.
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I made simple & delicious little peach crisps for the hubby & I to have after we put the kids to bed. So tasty!
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We had friends over for a BBQ and Star Wars soundtrack listening party. Our friend has this original soundtrack vinyl and they wanted their kids to hear because they are headed to the Hollywood bowl today to hear it live! (Awesome!) Hudson was SO into it! He is saying “whoa!” in this picture :)
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Every once in a while, I find an absolute gem in the Target $1 section. This week, it was these darling polka dot gable boxes. I love them!
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After the sick part of the week, our days got super fun! School, visits from both grandmas, Princess Bride movie night at Stone Brewery, back to school night and, yesterday, we went to the races!
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It was more fun than I thought it would be. Living so close to Del Mar, it made me feel like a real San Diegan :)
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Of course we had to wear some big hats. Holly borrowed hers from her son’s orthodontist (ha!) and it was all sorts of awesome.
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Happy weekend!
Hey Cricut users! Did you know that you can use the Cricut Cake cartridges with any Cricut machine?
What makes this so awesome?
Martha.
I could pretty much guarantee that I would love just about anything with the Martha Stewart logo on it. Not that I am obsessed with the woman herself, but the style that goes along with her brand is just so me. No matter what the product, the style is always great: simple, elegant and crafty.
That is why I was so excited to figure out that I could use the Martha Stewart Cricut Cake cartridges with my normal cricut! The cartridges are awesome- they all have great shapes, borders and fonts included and I think that they are cuter than most of the normal cricut cartridges (not so scrapbook-y). I’ve used them a bunch for everything from a lacy border used as a napkin wrap for an event, mini pennants for a banner, to balloons used for a million things for Hudson’s birthday and holiday shapes used for Christmas cards and halloween banners.
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And because the cake cartridges are less popular than the normal ones, they are cheaper- hooray! In fact, I just saw that on cricut.com the seasonal cartridge (which I love) is only $14.99 right now!
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**This post is not sponsored by Martha Stewart or Cricut- just me talking about something I love. Although, if Martha ever wants to send anything my way, I’m in :)
I do not blog as much as I would like, but even on crazy weeks, I always make sure to post my instagram pics from that week (& link up with Life Rearranged). It gives me a way to recap every week and have a little online scrapbook of the days of our little fam.
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This week was a BIG week for our family: Isaiah started elementary school! Ahh! I cannot believe I have an elementary schooler- wasn’t he just learning to walk? As I was signing up for the PTA, I thought to myself, “wait- this isn’t right. Am I really this old?” :)
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On the last couple of days before school started, we tried to squeeze in some more summer fun. Swimming, a little beach time and finishing off our summer list. One of the last things on our list was to have a science day. Isaiah loved doing the experiments. I learned that if you do experiments that involve food coloring with toddlers and a 4 1/2 year old, you will end up with blue fingers for days:
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I didn’t get any good pics of the actual experiments because my hands were busy the whole time, but here is a list of the fun things we did:
*Exploding Elephant Toothpaste (similar to volcano experiments)
*Magical Plastic Bag Experiment
*Flour & Salt paint that puffs up in the microwave
*Colored water traveling up a paper towel
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There were many more that we had on our list but didn’t have time for, so I am sure we will have another science day in our future.
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Another remaining activity on our summer list was going on a hike. As a family, we hiked torrey pines and it was gorgeous! The kids did pretty good- Isaiah had some dramatic “I’m tired” moments where he spread himself out laying down on the path and Hudson wasn’t so sure about the backpack carrier, but they enjoyed it most of the time.
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Hey there, Huds. Did you hear a choo-choo?
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And then, the big day came. Isaiah’s first day of school!
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We love his school! It was made to fit into the area (Old Poway) and was styled after a barn. So cute!
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Isaiah is in the PEPP kindergarten class, which is for kids who are on the younger side for normal kindergarten (june-december birthdays). He makes the normal kindergarten cut off date by 2 weeks, but, after months of pray and talking to our teacher friends, we decided it would only help him in the long run to do the PEPP program. He will do half days this year, and then he will be in full-day kindergarten next year.
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He was so excited! It has warmed my heart to see how much he has loved school so far.
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Then I walked home with only one little guy in our stroller. Our lives are forever changed- just me & Huds in the mornings now. He’s loving it so far :)
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After his first day, we went to the Padres game to finish off his Summer List. Both boys did great- it was a lot of fun (& the padres even won!)!
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And then I got sick that night. And have been on the couch or in bed ever since. Boo. Hoping to kick it out by tomorrow for some weekend fun!
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Happy Friday everyone!
Every season, my husband and I throw a party to celebrate what we love about that time of year. We started our tradition 4 years ago and you can see past parties here, here and here.
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When the time came for this year’s summer party, we had just moved two weeks prior. I still had not found my tablecloths (in a box somewhere in the garage), had no idea where our good camera was, and had not touched my boxes of vases and decor. We wanted to still have the party, just in a more low-key way with minimal pressure on myself to make it creative and cute :)
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It turned out being super fun and relaxing. We decided to make it a housewarming party as well and had friends over for a BBQ at our new place. I didn’t take many pictures, but grabbed a couple with my phone.
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We had a hamburger bar, with caramelized onions, an amazing avocado and goat cheese spread my husband makes, heirloom tomatoes, along with the normal fixings. I made my family’s famous cheesy potatoes (my favorite side dish) and our friends brought some amazing side dishes and salads- all with a summery theme. We made frozen margaritas, mango sun tea and a refreshing watermelon cucumber cooler. I didn’t want to water the watermelon drink down, so I had the idea to freeze cubes of watermelon to put in. It worked great!
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For dessert, our friends brought mini fruit tarts, frozen chocolate coffee cheesecake bars and I made vanilla and pina colada sorbe (using this recipe). It was all delicious!
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This is a tradition my husband and I hope to continue for decades. It is such a highlight of every season for us. We already cannot wait for our fall party!
