The Toney Family

Lately

2010-03-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Some fun treasures from the past few weeks:

today at naptime:
me: "Isaiah, what do you want to thank God for when we pray?"
isaiah: "chips"

today at bedtime:
me: "Isaiah, what do you want to thank God for when we pray?"
Isaiah: "chips"
me: "ok, we'll pray for chips. Anything else you want to thank God for?"
Isaiah: "a dog"

A few days ago, he got an invitation in the mail for a friend's Disney princess birthday party. I jokingly asked him what princess he wanted to be. He replied, "buzz lightyear".

When he wants to keep doing something, he says one more. For instance: "one more play" (when he doesn't want to stop playing) "one more Disneyland" (as we are leaving Disneyland). It usually involves him putting his finger in the air as well. (It sounds like "mon more" though)

He sings all.the.time. Usually Yo Gabba Gabba songs or any song having to do with a choo choo. Or the Veggie Tales theme song. He sang it literally 80% of the day today. He also starting singing "life is a highway" from Cars the other day. Don't know how cool I am with my 2 year old singing "all night long". Let's keep working on "Jesus loves me", shall we?

Speaking of singing, when he says goodbye to someone, it is usually followed by the goodbye song from Yo Gabba Gabba. It's precious. "goodbye goodbye goodbye goodbye. goodbye see you later, don't be sad"

He's been really cuddly and really into giving kisses lately. Which we are 110% okay with. He'll start giving David little kisses on his arms, or on my knees. So cute!

During the Olympics, he learned how to play Curling- with his little toy broom. Does that tell you how often David was watching curling matches?

On a not so fun note, he had his first nightmare last week and now seems to be a little afraid of the dark. It's fun to see his imagination grow, but now we know the downside of that. We got him a rocketship nightlight and he is good to go though. Everytime he goes to bed he makes sure that he points out rocket.

I have not downloaded many recent pictures because my computer is out of space, but here are a few that I have:

Playing rockband with his buddy Will:

Look out world.

Hugging his future wife:

Reading stories with his cousin Mandy (or eenee, as he says):

Oh, yes- and he is still taking his pajamas off before he falls asleep. At least 2 nights a week.

And don't worry- he has had a haircut since these photos were taken :)

Yes, I am actually writing a blog

2010-02-06T00:37:00.000-08:00

We have completely ignored this blog. So sorry blog.

It has been a crazy few months, but I want to make sure I am better at capturing moments of our lives: things Isaiah does, the silly things he says, what we do as a family outside of my work or David's work. I am realizing more and more how quickly time goes by, how easily I forgot things and how incredibly important family is.

I have been heartbroken after reading stories of a couple of sweet baby boys who have had to fight for their lives recently. One, the son of a wedding photographer, was taken home to be with God. The other is still fighting and I am praying. The crazy blog world brings peoples stories closer to you than you ever before and I am so thankful to have found these two families. So that I can be praying for them and also as a reminder of what is important. I want to hug Isaiah tighter, be more careful, spend more time and energy on those I love and make smart decisions for our little family.

I also want to capture as much of Isaiah as possible. After two year, we have become lazy with the video camera. We take 1/100th of the photos we took his first couple months of life. I need to keep chronicling. Remembering.

So, tonight, I am capturing some of my favorite recent Isaiah moments.

*Tonight, after reading about the little guy who is battling for every breath, I snuck into Isaiah's room to give him a kiss (I normally just make sure he has his blanket on). Tonight, there he was- completely naked except for his diaper. He took off his footie pjs for the first time. A tender moment- I love my little stinker.

*While he is still in love with trains, cars have made a move into his life. Not just any cars- the characters from the movie "Cars". I never thought I would know all about Mator and Lighting McQueen (which Isaiah calls "A Peep") and I can even quote you most of the movie. He discovered cars fruit snacks at the market the other day and now he asks for them about 20 times a day (don't worry- he only gets them once!)

*In addition to "chars snacks", he continually asks for yogurt, apple sauce and berries. He loves his veggies though too- we often have to tell him he has to finish his meat or bread before he can have more green beans or broccoli. He would eat fruit all day if you let him.

*He has been a really great eater- until this week. Now all of a sudden, he won't eat dinner and we spend our whole meal trying to get him to eat his chicken or pasta. I had just thought to myself "We have not hit the terrible two's yet". I think I spoke too soon.

*He enjoys coloring, lining toys up (he is an organizer), dancing around the house (which mainly consists of jumping and running while flailing his arms about), reading "tories", playing with balls (playing often= throwing them off of our back porch down to the backyard and then saying "oh no!"), spreading his choo choo stickers all over the floor, singing and looking at pictures (on our computer and actual pictures).

*He is a rockstar with his ABC's. He can sing it (which he does multiple times per day) and also can identify every letter- both uppercase and lowercase. It is really cute. Our favorite letter he says is W.

*Right now, no matter how many of anything he actually has or sees, he says that there are 3. He loves that number.

*He says "No, shanks" to everything.

me: "Isaiah, it's time to take a splash splash"
I: "no shanks".

me: "Isaiah, you need to eat your dinner right now"
I: "no shanks".

me: "Say hi to grandma"
I: "no shanks".

And it is always in the cutest, most innocent way. He knows it is funny though.

*He really loves sneezing. He pretends to do it all the time and always jumps at a chance to say bless you. Even if we cough. Or yawn.

*He also really loves praying. It is adorable. After we pray before his nap or bedtime, he always asks for "more pray".

*We are fortunate to have good friends live right across the street from us. There is no place Isaiah would rather be than playing with the boys at their house. He asks to go to "shae house" at least once an hour. Thankfully, she is a wonderful host and loves to let him come play cars and choo choos with her sons.

*Even though that really is his favorite place to go, he told me last week that church was his favorite place. Score! Probably has something to do with the drums, rows of chairs to run around, Veggie Tales, and goldfish. Hopefully some Jesus too. He cheers when we take the freeway exit that leads to our church.

*He also knows all about our computers. He tries to close my laptop while I am working on it and then sneaks in and tries to get on it when I am not looking. He also knows how a Cricut and Xyron (crafting tools) work and he tries to take over while I am using them. Pretty soon he will be making banners for me :)

*When we are looking for something and I ask him where it is, he pretty much always replies, "up high". We have no idea where he got that.

*He is busy busy busy but also has become more lovey with time. There is not much better than an unexpected kiss from his sweet little face.

I am going to post more. Just you wait and see :)

Isaiah's Second Birthday

2009-11-06T23:49:00.000-08:00

**reposted from my work blog**

My son is in love with choo choos- any shape, any size, and color. He just goes nuts! So, for his second birthday party, there was no other option for a theme. I had so much fun creating this party and, more importantly, my son absolutely loved every minute of it! Be warned- this is a long post.

We had the party at Old Poway Park- a community park in San Diego that has trains and a great rustic feel. It was perfect!

My mom and I made the bunting banner at 11:00 the night before the party. So glad we did because it really made the space!

My favorite part of the decor was the dessert table- I used an heirloom tablecloth from my husband's grandma, turned an old crate upside down, taped on a vintage flashcard (purchased on etsy) and put my cake stand on top. I got ambitious and made the cake and cookies (using this recipe) and- thank goodness- everything turned out cute and delicious!

For the kids tables, I got low children's tables and chairs from Classic Party Rentals. I just love them! I covered the tables in packing paper and striped runners that we made.

On one table, I used a retro train toy borrowed from a friend (I actually used to have this toy!) and children's books about trains from the 50's and 60's, purchased on etsy.

On the other table, I borrowed old train prints and placed them on the table along with more books.

The favors were the little bandana knapsacks. They included a train whistle, a conductors hat, a wooden train (a score from the Target $1 section) and "train fare" (coins so that they could ride the train at the park). I made the tags by tea staining and stamping them.

For food, I wanted to go simple- sandwiches and snacks. For the kiddos, I cut PB&J's with a train cookie cutter. I found fun choo choo animal crackers at a local train toy shop. I used enamelware, crates and a milk carrier for presentation of the food.

For drinks, I set up a little station with old school sodas and milk and chocolate milk.

One of the best parts about having it at Old Poway Park is that I did not have to really plan activities- other than the kids playing with their favors and the centerpieces, our main event was all riding the train around the park together. Isaiah loved it!

One thing that most of you readers will appreciate: weddings can be held at the park and there just happened to be a wedding ceremony starting as we were all boarding the train. Nothing like hearing an old man shout about keeping arms and legs inside of a train while the bride is walking down the aisle. Everyone looked at me, knowing I would be horrified. They knew what they were signing up though, having it at a public park :)

A few more moments of the kids and our big 2 year old:

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T15:33:00.000-08:00

For Halloween this year, Isaiah was an old man. He was so cute! He- amazingly- kept his glasses almost the entire time we were trick or treating and held onto his pipe most of that time as well. (Fun side note: his pipe is one that his great grandfather used to use!) We did not, however, have as much luck with the mustache.

happy birthday isaiah. you rule.

2009-10-19T21:30:00.001-07:00

Summer Party: Friends

2009-07-27T13:29:00.001-07:00

To follow up on my post of details from our Summer Party, I thought I would share some photos of our guests enjoying the party:

1...

2...

3!!!

Our Summer Party

2009-07-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we had our fourth Seasonal Season Party, celebrating what we love about Summer. If you are new to the blog, I'd love to introduce you to our little Toney family tradition: Last fall, we decided to have a party at the beginning of each season, inspired by our favorite things of that season. We select a decor theme, discuss what foods remind us of that season, my husband picks out a playlist of the perfect seasonal songs and we get together with our friends and enjoy it all! You can take a look at Fall, Winter and Spring.

For summer, I wanted something laid back and easy (and not just because we were moving the next week!). We had a pool party complete with BBQ (hamburgers & hotdogs), otter pops & ice cream sandwiches and lawn games. It was so fun to just relax with our friends enjoying the beautiful weather.

Friend of ours graciously offered a family home that has an amazing backyard which overlooks a local lake:

Here is a look at our decor (my favorite part!):

For tablecloths for the food tables, I used cheap towels that coordinated with our color scheme:

I made two different styles of paper pinwheels and stuck them into sand pails filled with sand:

I also utilized the sand pails (from the Target $1 section!) to hold the plastic utensils (just stuck upright in sand):

I 100% stole this next idea from little tags I saw at a scrapbooking store:

I reworded them a bit to my liking :)

Mason jars for drinks (frozen margaritas, horchata and lemonade):

One of our good friends works for an up-and-coming upscale water company, Kiawii, and they graciously offered to sponsor our party:

It is really great water... and I'm not just saying that because we got it for free! And... get this- it even matched our decor!!!

Plates and napkins were all from Target:

I made these fruit kebob sticks by cutting out small circles with my cricut and taping them to the end of bamboo skewers. Not only was it cute, but it made a great holding spot.

Lots of delicious summer junk food:

And, finally, a cute frozen margarita (with umbrellas that I found on clearance at Pier One in december!):

All photos were taken by my good friend, Jenetta Penner Photography. Thanks so much Jenetta for always working a bit while attending our parties!

So, my question for you: now that you have seen all four seasons, which seasonal party was your favorite?

summer

2009-07-09T23:07:00.000-07:00

father's day

2009-06-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

i love isaiah.

and he love's me.

amazing.

he is a gift. a sweet. sweet. gift.

courtney made such a special day for us.

and he was so affectionate and told me he loved me several times.

what a cool thing.

Lately

2009-05-29T23:53:00.000-07:00

Yep, our last post was Easter. Bad Toneys. Here is a quick catch up on the happenings of Mr. Isaiah:

A deep love and excitement for all things "ball":

Getting very skilled at building lego towers:

Blowing lots of bubbles:

Disneyland:

Giving mommy lots of love for mother's day:

Being over all cute:

Our newest addition has been a train table (thanks nonna!) and a huge train collection (thanks carrie, cathie & boys!). He plays with his "choos-choos" all day long. I'll post some pictures soon.

We had our longest time spent away from last week when we went to Hawaii for a wedding. We had a great time enjoying Honolulu and celebrating Brittany and Josh and Isaiah had a blast with Nonna, GG and grandma & grandpa. He recognized our voices right away on the phone and got better at talking on it when someone is actually talking back :) However, we were more than ready to be back together.

He has also become very good at singing melodies. "Jingle Bells", "Happy Birthday" and "The ABCs" are his current favorites. It just makes my day to be driving along and hear his sweet little songs from the back seat.

Overall, things have been wonderful and we are so enjoying seeing our little baby grow into a little boy.

happy easter!

2009-04-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

from us to you.

12-18 months

2009-04-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

uploaded some albums from the past 6 months including a picture summary of isaiah's 3rd half-year.
click on the picture link to the right ----->

here's a teaser:

Isaiah loves Disneyland

2009-04-05T11:05:00.000-07:00

So, I am going to make an effort to backtrack and blog some of our adventures from the past couple of months.

In the beginning of February, we took a little day trip to Disneyland and it was the first time that Isaiah really knew what was going on. He had a blast!

A Bugs land:

Yummy tortilla:

Before taking off on Dumbo:

After taking off on Dumbo:

He also really loved Buzz Lightyear. We went on it twice!

So much fun. We are excited to go again soon. Anyone in?

An Emergency?

2009-04-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

Scene: Isaiah playing with the house phone while David sits nearby. (This is extremely common- the kid loves phones).

He presses buttons. Babbles for a white like he is talking to someone (also very common. He is a chatterbox these days).

David hangs up the phone having seen that Isaiah had turned it on.

A minute later, the phone rings.

Isaiah pressed the right button to pick it up. He babbles and David cracks up thinking, "Oh, how cute- he's talking to someone on the phone. They are probably loving it".

After letting him talk for a minute, David takes the phone and says, "Hello, who is this"?

Answer: "the cops"

Thinking that someone was joking, David said, "C'mon. Who is it really?"

Answer: "The emergency system."

Yes. Our little Isaiah called 911 and chatted them up a bit. Oops.

Meet Abby & Friends

2009-03-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

Meet Abby:

Abby is the daughter of our friends Nikki and Robbie. She is also Isaiah's future wife. It was arranging before her birth.

She recently had her first birthday party (with a super cute Dr. Suess theme), where Isaiah discovered his new love of balloons and tried to eat Abby's cake with her.

Isaiah was very happy that his buddy Austin was back from Texas. However, we felt a little bad for him because Isaiah was chasing him around, trying to get the balloon that was tied to his foot.

Two weekends ago, Abby was dedicated at church. We decided to try to get a few pictures of the three kiddos and this is what happened:

Stage 1: All are finally sitting on the stage. Now to get them to all look up at the same time.

Stage 2: Isaiah decides to take his shoe off.

At the same time, Austin decided to make a move on Abby. Isaiah played it cooling, knowing that he holds Abby's heart.

Stage 3: Austin takes off to go play the drums. Cute picture of all three smiling not achieved.

Isaiah sees him take off and decides that he wants to go play the drums too. Abby was left looking pretty by herself.

Dear Abby: Hello. Love Isaiah.

An update: Finally!

2009-03-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are alive :)

It has been over a month since we moved and we are settling in well. There are definitely good things about our move as well as bad things and we are working on managing the two. The drive has not been too bad and we are enjoying getting to spend time with family and friends both in Orange County and San Diego.

This week, Isaiah will be a year and a half! Crazy! Here is an update on our little man:

*He is talking up a storm. Most of it, we can't understand, but here are some things that he says in English: mama, daddy, hi, hello, go!, thank you, cheese, ball and he tries to say hobie (my parent's dog's name). He also still uses his sign language, especially more, all done and please.

*He loves giving high 5's and knuckles. He will turn to a stranger in the grocery store and put out his fist to try to give them knuckles. Last week, at my nieces 16th birthday party, he wanted to go around the entire circle of 20 teenagers, giving them all high 5's and knuckles over and over.

*His favorite foods are still bananas, cheese and blueberries, but he also loves avocados, strawberries, oranges, cucumber, peas, sweet potatoes and chicken. One of his cousins snuck him some ice cream behind my back last week and he really liked that :)

*He loves having a park right across the street. He has mastered the playground and goes down the big slide by himself. He only likes to swing for about 20 seconds and then he wants to get out and push the swing himself. If there are any bigger kids playing, whether it is basketball, soccer or with toys in the sand, he immediately wants to join in. It is fun to watch him try to be social.

*He also loves reading books, playing the piano, playing with his big cars and automatic train, throwing balls on the ground (he's also quite good at throwing food on the ground), playing his guitar with daddy, dancing, building and unbuilding his blocks, running around, playing catch with the dog, playing with water in the sink and organizing things (spices from the pantry, tupperware, my wallet). He also LOVES playing in the nursery at church and also the childcare center at the gym.

*He loves to brush his teeth and clean the floors. I hope that these things continue into his teenage years.

*He picks up bags, throws them over his shoulder and then walks to the door waving and blowing kisses.

*He has figured out how to turn the lights off in the kitchen and thinks that he is hot stuff. He'll turn them off and on for 20 minutes at a time.

*If you tell him to say cheese when you have the camera out, this is what happens:

*He is getting more cuddly, which we love. The cuddles and hugs don't last very long before he is off exploring again, but we love them when we get them! He has also become very good at giving kisses :)

*Lately, when he wakes up in the morning, he runs from side to side in his crib and then shakes the sides. I, on the other hand, do not have nearly as much energy at 6:30 or 7:00.

*He is still a great napper and sleeper- praise the Lord!

*He has four molars and is getting two more, but still doesn't have one of his front teeth. It is pretty cute when he smiles and you just see three teeth on the bottom.

*He has gotten a few time outs as he is testing the waters of how much he can press us. We are learning how to discipline. Any tips?

We have so much fun with him and love seeing him develop. We'll post some more pictures soon, we promise!

Tomorrow it ends...

2009-01-30T20:25:00.001-08:00

As I am sitting here on the floor, looking around at an empty dining and living room, I cannot believe it is real. We are moving again. Tomorrow, we'll pack up our cars and head to Orange County for the next six months. It has been a painful decision process, but we are wholeheartedly following God's lead and trusting that what he has next is even better for us.

We have loved this house. We have watched Isaiah grow from a little peanut who couldn't do much besides cry, sleep and smile into a spunky, adorable active little boy. All of his big milestones happened in our open downstairs area or in our much loved upstairs rooms. From his first birthday to a fun Christmas and his first little slide in the yard, we will greatly treasure our memories from Cedar Glen.

Since we are moving, I thought it would be a good idea to finally post pictures of his bedroom :)

I loved how it turned out:

I loved the bright celadon green! David and I painstakingly hand painted these circles for four hours one night. I loved them.

I then took letters from Paper Source, painted them and covered them with paper that matched his bedding.

Isaiah, checking out his letters:

My mom and I made all of his bedding, except for the crib sheet.

I had a hard time finding fabric that I liked, but I eventually came across Caden Lane' s line of crib bedding. I did not like all of it, but loved a couple of prints. I decided it was worth the hefty price and we mixed it with solid fabrics and a striped fabric that was actually a set of sheets we found at TJ Maxx.

My sister-in-law, Lindsey (aka quilt designer extraordinaire), helped us with ideas for the layout of the quilt.

It is backed in solid brown.

All of his furniture, except for the Pottery Barn crib, were hand me downs that we repainted and fixed up (score!).
I bought the matching crib sheet & changing pad cover by Caden Lane from Giggle Brush Designs .

I think the thing that I will miss most about his room is this piece of bliss above. His changing table is next to a window that looks out over our backyard into our neighbor's yard, which has a huge bamboo plant, windmills and orange trees. Isaiah and I loved to watch the wind move through the trees and the windmills spin.

My sweet friends Carolyn and Julianne made this for Isaiah's room before he was born, and before they even saw the fabric I had chosen! It matches perfectly.

A couple of cute pics of the little guy in our last few days here:

Eating pasta like a champ:

Goodbye house.

Isaiah's new favorite activity

2009-01-16T11:50:00.000-08:00

Isaiah's favorite thing to do right now is watching cars and truck and waving at them while saying "hi". It is so cute! If he hears a trash truck while we are in the house, he gets all excited and goes to the door and points outside until I take him out to see it.

We were at the park the other day, and he noticed a construction truck working close by. It is all he had eyes for. We walked over and watched it for a good 5 minutes. He just sat there in awe, waving every once in a while.

Yesterday, we both were getting a little stir crazy and decided to go outside for a bit. We literally just stood on the corner of our street watching the cards go by for about 10 minutes. He loved it! He was just waving and saying hi the entire time. So funny!

This is what happens when a boy with long hair goes down a slide on a day when the Santa Ana's are kickin:

I know we have been MIA from this blog, but we have had a lot going on recently. More on that in another post. We'll try to be better :)

Maybe he is trying to tell me something...

2009-01-02T21:38:00.000-08:00

It was cute at first.

I normally don't let Isaiah play with my iPhone, but he was just so dang cute walking around holding it up to his ear and babbling away. For a good 5-10 minutes, he paced around our downstairs pretending to talk on the phone. It cracked me up.

He came and sat next to me, sat my phone down and started playing with some times. Next thing I knew, he was racing up the stairs, which happens about 200 each day. He usually goes right to his toys and books in my office/loft, so I gave him about 30 seconds before I went up after him.

I got to the top of the stairs and hear a strange sound. "Bloop". Oh no- Isaiah had gotten into the bathroom, lifted up the toilet seat and was playing with the water. I rushed in. What I did not expect was to see my iPhone floating in the toilet. Shocked, I watched as the cute picture of Isaiah that is normally my background flashed to black before I could get to it.

Isaiah stood next to the toilet with a proud grin on his face.

I told David that maybe he was trying to tell me something. That maybe I should not spend so much time on my phone or rely on it so much.

Goodbye iPhone. Goodbye $200 to replace iPhone. Goodbye letting Isaiah touch my phone. But, he is still so dang cute when he pretends to talk on the phone.

Happy New Year Everyone! New year, new phone! And, a plus: it is a newer version of the iPhone so it is faster and more stylish. Thanks Isaiah *kind of*

A Christmas post will be coming once I can find my camera battery charger. Not the best week for electronics in my world.

Santa Party 2008

2008-12-22T20:57:00.000-08:00

2007 (2 months old), trying to nurse on Santa:

2008 (14 months old) Not quite sure what he thinks:

All of us:

My aunt has such a fun tradition: she hosts a santa party for all of the kids the weekend before Christmas. Cookie decorating, singing, Christmas book reading & visits with Santa. Thanks Aunt Lois- it is always so much fun and is such a great memory! Lots of pictures and no captions, sorry!

Our Christmas cards

2008-12-22T20:56:00.000-08:00

I love paper. I love crafting with paper. Not scrapbooking (maybe if I had more time), but just creating things with paper. At Christmastime, I get so much joy out of creating my own Christmas Cards. Now, it is almost always a bad idea. Making 100 Christmas cards in the midst of the crazy season usually leads to stress, lack of time and sleep and many "why am I doing this" comments. However, when I am in the moment crafting and when I look at the finished product, I love that I handcraft them.

I tried to simplify this year: no eyelets, stamps, brads or sewing. Just paper, tape, glue and a few embellishments. And, of course, a super cute picture of my little man taken by the lovely Jenetta Penner .

They all were a little bit different, so I took a picture of a few different options:

When I ran out of paper, I came up with another quick design, using my Cricut.

We added in our CD, stuck in the envelope, and off it went.

The cute address labels were a free download from Chewing the Cud . They are actually gift tags, so you can use them for wrapping your presents!

I also participated in a Holiday Card Swap, for which I made 5 fun cards. Here is what I came up with:

I had so much fun making these and also receiving a few cards from random people around the word. That being said, I am glad that I am done making cards. Now on to gift wrap!

I would love to hear which design you like the best!

Christmas with the Toneys 08

2008-12-17T08:16:00.001-08:00

So, Christmas is almost here, but we finally finished our 08 project.
1. Go Tell it
(on the Mountain)
2. We've Heard
(a musical interlude on the chord-organ that draws much inspiration from "Untitled 3" from Sigur Ros' () album)
3. Rock of Ages (Maoz Tzur)
(a Hanukkah song that has some great lyrics)
4. Bright Bright Bright
(this year's original song: it combines sadness, melancholy, cynicism, longing, and hope)

You can listen to the right ->

You can check out a little more info about it at www.davidtoneymusic.com

-david

Life will never be the same

2008-12-14T21:36:00.000-08:00

Today, it finally clicked and Isaiah has officially become a toddler!

He has been working on his walking skills for a month or so now, taking a few steps from the coffee table to the couch. Today, in a matter of minutes, it all came together, and off he went. Literally, in between 4:00 and 7:30, he went from taking 5 or 6 steps back and forth from David to me to walking on his own from room to room. It was so crazy to see! He gets so excited. We got some great video last night that we will post soon.

I tried to get a good picture of him standing in front of the Christmas tree, but it was not very successful a) because he kept wanting to walk to me b) because it was night and my flash was stinking c) it was past his bedtime and he was a little out of it and just wanted to play with the camera. Here is what I've got for you:

I am more sad than I expected to be. Don't get me wrong, I am very excited and I love seeing him waddle around. Yet, at the same time, I feel like this is one of the first big steps in his independence and I feel like it was just yesterday that he was swaddled and lying in my arms. I hear from many moms that this is how most milestones in kids development are- exciting and fun, but at the same time a little bittersweet because your baby is growing up.

I have a feeling he will be running tomorrow. Watch out world!

And, yes, I know he needs a haircut :) He was called a girl 3 times this week by strangers. It was nice.

And, since I am posting, I thought I would throw in a few more from the weekend:
Drumming with his daddy after church:

Dad cuddle time:

Two of my closest friends from Orange County came down to celebrate my birthday yesterday and it was such a sweet time. Lunch, drinks, watching a movie while Julianne highlighted my hair- I was definitely spoiled for a few hours. Love you girls!

I love my hubby

2008-12-12T14:47:00.000-08:00

He knows me well.

Christmas Music!

2008-12-09T12:13:00.000-08:00

I posted this on my work blog , but I thought I would put it up on here as well.

In our house, Christmas music can be heard playing the day after Thanksgiving. We eagerly await the first play. Music is a huge part of my life and Christmas music, whether it is old classics or new originals, really brings the season to life for me.

The past few years, our most played Christmas album is by Sufjan Stevens , one of our favorite artists. It is actually a collection of 5 short albums- he records one each year and released these as a set. I could listen to them over and over. Quirky, creative and entertaining. I highly suggest checking it out. Click here to listen to it on iTunes. If you can, I would suggesting buying the actual collection, rather than buying it digitally, because it comes with a great booklet, a funny poster and stickers.

The second Christmas that gets a lot of play around here is The O.C. Mix: Have a Very Merry Christmukkah. It is super random because I did not even watch the show, but just happened upon it a few years ago. I love the unique songs. I skip "Christmas is Going to the Dogs", but other than that, it is a really cool album. I especially love "Rock of Ages" and "Christmas".

One of my new finds this year is The Hotel Cafe presents Winter Songs. I love it! One of my favorite singers, Sara Bareilles , who just got nominated for 2 Grammys! and who I also happened to go to college with, sings the opening song with Ingrid Michaelson and it is all good news from there. The Hotel Cafe is a small venue up in LA that we used to go to during our time at UCLA. The album has some more well known ladies, such as Fiona Apple, Colbie Caillat and KT Tunstall, mixed in with some great newer artists. Some beautiful stuff. Even better: some proceeds from the album will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Along side those are classics such as A Charlie Brown Christmas, which my husband and I danced to last night once we had decorated our tree :)

Here is a list of some of my other Christmas favorites (in no particular order):

1. Coldplay: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

2. Ben Harper: "Silent Night"

3. Death Cab for Cutie: "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"

4. Norah Jones: "Peace"

5. Sarah McLachlan: "The River" (Rachel Yamagata's version is also beautiful)

6. Harry Connick Jr.: "I Come with Love"

7. Ella Fitzgerald: "What are you Doing New Years Eve"

8. Mariah Carey: "All I Want for Christmas is You" (gotta love it, right?)

9. Sarah McLachlan: "The First Noel/Mary Mary"

10. The Darkness: "Christmastime (Don't let the Bells End)"

11. Kristin Chenoweth: "The Christmas Waltz"

12. Mick Jagger & Joss Stone "Lonely This Christmas"

13. Louis Armstrong: "Christmas in New Orleans"

14. Sarah McLachlan: "Song for a Winters Night"

15. Billie Holiday: "I've Got my Love to Keep me Warm"

16. Band Aid 20: "Do They Know its Christmastime at All?" (Bono, Chris Martin, Dido, Joss Stone, The Darkness, Keane and others)

17. Remy Zero: "Someday at Christmas time"

18. Tyler Hilton: "Merry Little Christmas"

19. Otis Redding: "Merry Christmas Baby"

20. Paul McCartney: "Wonderful Christmastime"

21. Kingston Trio: "Last Month of the Year"

22. David Toney (my hubby) & I: "Feed Trough" (You can listen to it here . #11. #11-#14 were from our Christmas single album last year. We record one every year to send out with our Christmas cards!)

What are your favorite Christmas songs/albums/artists? I'd love to hear!

We love San Diego

2008-12-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

This weekend, we officially felt like San Diegans. We went to the big holiday event at Balboa Park with our good friends Jon and Jenetta . David's mom and Grandma came down to visit and got to spend some time with us there as well. It was so fun! I cannot believe that 300 thousand people go to this over two days. Crazy!

The organ pavilion was beautiful! We watched a cheesy choir performance while eating our crepes and french onion soup from the French tent.

I was so excited that Isaiah could wear his new cute little pea coat!

tired & overstimulated Isaiah:

Finishing off the night with gingerbread men and hot chocolate- one of my favorite parts of the night!

It definitely helped get us in the Christmas mood. I am sure we will make it a yearly tradition!

Speaking of Christmas, I recently started a series on my Joyful Weddings and Events blog highlighting some fun Christmas ideas and finds. Be sure to check it out!

Happy Christmas season!

Walking and Talking

2008-12-03T15:14:00.000-08:00

Okay, so more like walking and signing.

He has started to walk- a little bit at a time. The most we have had at once is 6 steps. It is fun to see his confidence grow daily! He took his first few steps at Aunt Heather's house because he really wanted some of my niece Taylor's cupcake. Just like his mom. Dangle some good dessert in front of me and I will do anything I can to get it! :)

Also, he has mastered some sign language. "More" and "all done" are his favorites. He is getting the hang of "milk" and "hungry". He loves showing off his newly found communication.

No pictures or videos of these things, but we will definitely post them once we have them.

More to come soon, I promise!

Confession and update

2008-11-23T10:55:00.000-08:00

confession: I have been eating peppermint ice cream for over a month now (my favorite. ever.) and yesterday I broke our family's "no christmas music until the day after thanksgiving" rule. I had to confess to David. He was disappointed in me. I just couldn't resist! I am getting so excited!

On the agenda:
*Today: thanksgiving soup dinner at our home church with the fam after practice with some cute kiddos for our church's women's Christmas tea.
*Tomorrow: work and then two meetings for the Christmas tea.
*Tuesday: It's someone's birthday ;)
*Wednesday: Heading up to orange county for birthday party with my family, spending the night for:
*Thursday: Turkey day! I even get to visit with one of my bf's from college, Brittany :)
*Friday: Shopping I have my last wedding of the year. It will be really cool & unique. We even get to put out a Christmas Tree during the reception. yay!
*The next week: Christmas tree luncheon & Christmas tea!

And then it's full blast Christmas time! Yipee! I have so many fun projects and ideas in my head. I am over halfway done with my shopping (I cannot believe this!), so hopefully that will make it a less stressful and more enjoyable Christmas season.

Enough about Christmas, on to health: I'm doing well finally! Praise the Lord, Isaiah did not catch the flu from us. He did, however, wake up with a stuffy nose today, so we'll see how that goes. I realize that I never posted a 1 year update on him. We'll do that this week.

Happy sunday everyone!

being sick is no fun

2008-11-19T13:51:00.000-08:00

David had the flu last week.

I came down with it yesterday.

So far, Isaiah hasn't gotten it bad. Lord, please keep him healthy! I cannot imagine how sad it would be for him to feel like I have felt the past day. Just in case he does, do you have any tips for comforting a baby with the flu? Specifically, how do you handle the throwing up?

Cute, happy Isaiah:

Running around the house with no pants on one sock:

Stay happy and healthy little man!

The proper way to eat chipotle

2008-11-16T13:02:00.000-08:00

Make a big mess! Preferrably make a beard out of black beans and cover the floor with rice.

2008-11-12T20:20:00.000-08:00

Our friend Jenetta came over last week to get some 1 year photos of our little guy. Here are a few of my favorites:

So sweet & happy:

The Rockstar:

"Hi, my name is Isaiah and I am Trouble"

"...and I know exactly how to melt my mom's heart"

My favorite hat:

Not his though.

Struttin' his stuff:

I just love him.

There are a few more photos up on Jenetta's blog, if you would like to check them out.

Happy wednesday!

~Courtney

pumkin patch

2008-11-09T20:30:00.000-08:00

beautiful pumkins
beautiful isaiah

check out the photos link for the full gallery.

Halloween

2008-11-03T13:49:00.000-08:00

Isaiah was the cutest monkey ever!

Remember the Star Wars gang from last year? Here they are in their jungle finest:

It was fun to have two new little guys with us!

Fun during the photo session:

Meet Liam-the lion-Maroney:

He was born the day before Isaiah's birthday. It was so crazy to hold and realized that Isaiah was that size exactly a year ago.

After the photo shoot, we had fun hanging out at grandma's with his cousins:

Isaiah even went trick or treating to a few of the neighbors' houses ...read: my mom made me use my cute kid to get candy :)

After that, we headed over to Grace Church to see The El Ninos (david's kids worship band) play.

Excuse the terrible photos. It was dark.

Peacock Eva and Elephant Ethan were great dancers.

Isaiah was really excited to get to join the fun:

Ethan showing off his mad muscles:

Cute family pic... What is david? I have no idea. Was it past Isaiah's bed time? you bet.

Me and darce. Cute.

Isaiah's first time in a bouce house. He loved crawling around while Eva and Charis jumped.

A little more trick or treating:

Fun friends:

Mandy sorting her candy, which resulted in us stealing her candy:

Isaiah really enjoyed playing with his candy the next day. He still has not figured out that it is edible. (thankfully!)

More details from Isaiah's party--

2008-10-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some more fun moments from Isaiah's first birthday:

Eating his favorite lunch: mac & cheese and berries:

On to the party:

The food:

My funniest purchase was that Elvis guitar. It is full of popcorn. I thought it was hilarious. No one ate it. It is now in the trash.

PB&J sandwiches cut out with a star cookie cutter:

Drumsticks (get how it goes with the theme?) & chicken stars:

*We tried to find chicken stars all over but no grocery stores sold them. So, we had to get some from good ol Carl.

Mmm.. watermelon rind:

Isaiah's future wife, Abby:

Simple centerpieces:

The big kids banging away:

And the little kids doing the same:

Cake time:

Yum! He didn't even make that big of a mess (much to David's dismay)

More fun:

Isaiah was so excited with all of his presents that he started clapping and cheering.

It was so stinkin cute!

Believe it or not, this is not the end. I still have to post a pics of the favors and the invite CD and I have a few more of our fun guests. Hopefully I will get them posted tomorrow, because I am sure you are tired of hearing about his birthday party :)

Happy november!

Isaiah's first birthday party

2008-10-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

Last saturday, our little guy turned one. Can you believe it? I cannot understand how a year has already gone by- it is crazy! If you want to take a glimpse back at his first year of life, you can check out this post.

He loves anything and everything having to do with music, so we threw him a music/rock band party. Here is a sneak peak into the party, with pictures by the wonderful Jenetta . (we will be posting more soon)

The invite:

The main part of the invitation is not actually shown- we included a CD of all of Isaiah's favorite songs. I'll take a photo of it and post it soon with the track listing. Because of the CD, I had to come up with a cute way to make a CD holder. For more details on how I made the invitation and other decor elements, you can check out this post on my work blog.

I also made Isaiah a party hat out of the paper:

It was one of my favorite details of the party- isn't it cute? It is way cuter on him though!

He was not as into it as I was- it only lasted a couple of minutes.

Friends of ours from church graciously allowed us to have the party in their park... I mean, backyard. It is gorgeous and huge!

A couple of shots of the cake and gift area.

I made a fun banner that said "happy 1st birthday isaiah".

Yum!

The guitar cake was my biggest undertaking for the party. I love to bake, but usually stick to round or square types. Luckily, Wilton makes a guitar cake pan, purchased at Michaels. I was nervous the cake would stick to the pan when I tried to get it out, but some shortening and flour took care of that. I am pretty proud of how it turned out :)

Isaiah ate it very politely :) Pictures of that still to come. My sweet friend Shae baked some delicious coconut and vanilla-almond mini cupcakes. I frosted them with either cream cheese or butter cream frosting and topped them off with a fondant star.

I have been eating the left overs all week... Always a fan of lanterns:

For the kiddos, we set up play areas on the lawn. We made 4 different sections: the guitar section, the piano section, drum section and the "noise" section. Each had a big blanket and lots of fun toys and instruments to play with.

The signs were not staying in the ground well, so we got resourceful and grabbed some potted plants.

We hung some pots & pans and let the kids bang away with wooden spoons. It was funny, but the kids that played with it the most were the big kids (the 8-12 year olds!)

Favor bags:

I made tags with each child's name on them, using my cricut. I don't have pictures of the actual favors yet, so you will just have to check back next week to see what they were!

Isaiah loved playing the bum floor tom drum and his little red piano. He even wanted to stop eating his cake so he could keep playing the piano.

More to come (food and other details).

Happy birthday sweet one year old!

We love you!

park day

2008-10-20T08:59:00.000-07:00

we'll do a post from his birthday party very soon, but until then...

here are some pics from a fun park day last week. he went down the slide for the first time and had lots of fun on the swings. he loves the park.

happy first birthday, isaiah

2008-10-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

Almost exactly one year ago, Isaiah John Toney entered the world. What an incredible year it has been! It was a rough beginning- lots of challenges, lots of adjustment and not much sleep, but month by month, we have fallen more and more in love with him: his sweet smile, his curiousness, his happy little personality. The way he dances with both hands in the air anytime music comes on. His voracious appetite. The way he lights up when we enter the room. The quiet moments with him in our arms. The way he used to clap with one hand in a fist. All of his funny expressions and cute little babbles. And the joy he has exploring life.

What an amazing gift God has given us.
We love you sweet buddy. Thanks for making our life so entertaining.

A few (okay, maybe more like 27) of our favorite Isaiah moments:

One year ago...

2008-10-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

At this time last year, I was having breakfast with a friend , when something did not feel right...

Isaiah + music= BFF

2008-10-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

I don't think that Isaiah likes music at all, do you?

Fun with friends!

2008-10-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

So, this post is long overdue, but oh well. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends and we have had many opportunities to do some fun things in the past couple of months.

Holly and I had fun at the Counting Crows & Maroon 5 concert:

I snuck away for a weekend for our church's women's retreat. So fun! Shae & I highlighting the local attractions in Idyllwild.

cute.

My sweet friends Julianne, Caitlyn & Bree came down from Orange County to visit. I showed them the highlights of Escondido: Lourdes & Dippin Dots :) Come on down to Escondido, we'll show you a good time!

I miss my girls, so it is fun to get a night with them!

David and I decided last minute to go to the Switchfoot concert (Jars of Clay and Third Day were there too, but we missed Jars of Clay & left early in Third Day's set). They are one of our favorite bands and we have never seen them, so it was really fun.

We met up with my sis for a bit:

It has been a month of great concerts! We don't have pictures from these, but David got to go see Radiohead (his favorite band. I opted out because they were pit tickets, and being 5 feet tall, I would not have seen anything all night) & we went with our friends Jon & Jenetta to see Sigur Ros . It was one of the best concerts we have ever seen. They are incredible- definitely check them out!

One of the highlights of the past month was a mini-reunion with some of my high school friends at our beloved Gypsy Den . So fun!

Lots of love for the little guy:

Sweet michelle & Jonathan:

We got an extra special treat this week when Michelle came and stayed with us while working down here in San Diego. She and Isaiah are officially buds:

Isaiah has been getting some fun time with friends too:

Flirting with his wife :)

Stealing Samuel's juice:

Samuel trying to steal Isaiah's juice:

We are so thankful for our friends and the fun beginning of Fall we have been given!

Word #3

2008-10-07T00:19:00.000-07:00

Isaiah has just started saying his first word beside dada or mama:

Hello!

He is super cute: he puts a phone or anything that resembles a phone up to his face and says "huh-woh".

Do we have another interpersonal communications major? I think so :)

I don't have a picture or video of it yet, but I can't leave you without a couple cute ones of him:

Our First Seasonal Season Party: Fall!

2008-09-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

We decided to start the tradition of throwing a party on the first day of each new season. We love the change that the start of a new season brings: the freshness, the excitement, the inspiration. Although we do not really experience season changes much in Southern California, we still get excited for the things that each new season brings.

We kicked off our new tradition on September 21st: the first day of fall. My job was decor, favors & other fun touches; David's job was the food, drinks and music. There are specific things that we connect to fall: foods, colors & songs.

Here are a few photos by my good friend, Jenetta . For more photos and to see details about everything, hop on over to my work blog: www.joyfulweddingsandevents.blogspot.com

Isaiah had a great time at his first fall party!

He got to flirt with his future wife:

And play with his buddies:

Isn't his bride to be cute?

Some more moments from the party:

This is our friend Rachel. You may recognize her from a ford commercial :)

David, cooking away:

Some more friend pictures. Terrible quality, taken with my point & shoot that was having flash issues that night:

Happy Fall everyone! Be sure to look at my blog for more fall goodness.

Me & Daddy

2008-09-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

buds.

These are a few of his favorite things

2008-09-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

*Opening and closing anything. Doors. The gate to the stairs. Drawers.

*Giving great hugs while saying "ahhhhhhhhhh". So sweet & funny!

*Eating. Especially Mac & Cheese & bananas. (I don't think this one will ever leave his list!) By the way, in case you were wondering what the proper way to eat a tortilla is, here you go:

*Sneaking into the bathroom and unrolling the toilet paper, then tearing it up to pieces.

*Sneaking into the pantry and pulling down anything he can reach. We perpetually have tea cans, plastic spoons and formula cans on the floor.

*Climbing up the stairs the second the gate is off.

*"Helping" me put away clothes. This usually means taking things out of drawers and messing up my neatly organized piles of clothes. He also likes to help unload the dishwasher. Spoons all over the place!

*Babbling non-stop.

*Making "vroom" sounds while playing with his car or plane toys.

*Jumping up and down in his crib when he wakes up from his nap and turns on his aquarium thing.

*Trying to bite my leg. Specifically my knee. Did anyone else's babies ever try to do this?

*Being with people. He loves the nursery at church. All of the nursery helpers always comment on how happy and fun he is :)

*Dancing. The second music comes on- he starts bouncing and puts one arm in the air and starts waving it.

*Clapping with both hands open. This is new as of the past two days. He used to clap with one hand closed in a fist. Somehow, he finally figured it out this week.

*Starting to realized that he can stand on his own. He gets a little nervous and then bends his knees and goes back to crawling. I'm fine with that :) He can take his time getting to walking.

*Chasing his daddy around the house. They love playing together.

We are having so much fun with him. David says, "he is rocking life right now". He is super happy all the time and keeps us entertained. He is getting big- we love his chubby cheeks. He got his 3rd tooth a few weeks back and is working on #4 & #5.

I love this picture of him! It was taken by the lovely Jenetta at our fall party (a post soon to come!)

UCLA fight fight fight!

2008-09-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

Isaiah got to go to his first UCLA game on labor day (yep, we are crazy like that and drove straight from Bass Lake to the game). What an exciting first game for him- we won in overtime (very much unlike last week's game. We're not going to talk about that one). He loved taking everything in, although he really wanted to crawl down the stairs onto the field.

clapping and cheering the team on!

He then fell asleep in the 3rd quarter. He slept through most of the exciting, loud parts

But, he woke up in time to see the exciting end of the 4th quarter and overtime

That one is my favorite!

My nephews, Benny & DJ got to come with us which was super fun! It was Ben's first real football game.

DJ got really excited at the end. So much, that he just couldn't keep his shirt on anymore :)

First of many family UCLA pics to come:

You might be wondering why I am wearing a black MVHS sweatshirt. Isaiah decided he was so excited to be there, that he spat up all over me. Three times. He hardly even spits up anymore, but of course, when we are out in public when I don't have another shirt, it all came out. Thanks DJ for letting me borrow your sweatshirt!

On a similar note, we have extra tickets for the UCLA v Arizona game tomorrow. I'm heading out to our women's retreat and David isn't feeling well, so they are up for grabs. They are $17/piece. They are great seats- right by the field. Let me know if you want them!

Go bruins!

Labor Day Weekend: Bass Lake Extravaganza

2008-09-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

Finally! Here it is!

David will post a full album of pictures in our My Photos section, but, for now, here is a recap of Isaiah's first labor day weekend: *warning: a long post. lots of pictures. probably only interesting to family*

We went up to Bass Lake with my brother & his family, my parents, my sister Shannon & her kiddos & some family friends, the Theules & the Damatos. At one point, we had 30 people staying in the house! Heather & Donald couldn't make it, so we let her boys tag along with us. They were great babysitters on the long drive up.

My sister in law, Lindsey, grew up in this house. It is incredible- 3 stories, right on the water. What a gift it is when we get to go relax and play in the water.

Gracie steering Mr. Crab:

Isaiah is quite the fish- he loves swimming!

Grandma & Lily floating away to the Island:

Captain Isaiah: *my favorite pic of the whole trip:

Boat time! Lots of boat cuddles:

Lily was so excited, she fell asleep:

Isaiah loved the boat. He was not so sure about the life jacket at first, he really wanted to get out of it. But once the boat got going, he couldn't contain himself. He was jumping up and down, shouting and smiling as the wind hit his face. It was so adorable!

Grandpa taught him how to drive the boat:

Water fun:

I wish this picture was clearer, because it is hilarious. Every time Tyler signaled faster, Gracie immediately signaled lower.

Then they got brave:

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of us wakeboarding. David did a great job on the first day- I'll have to find those pics and post them. I however, did not do so well and actually hurt my back that first day on the lake. Not fun. Especially since I had to walk up and down stairs the rest of the weekend. So, my water fun was limited to swimming and tubing super slowly with my niece, Lily. The back is all better now thought :)

Here is a hunky pic of my hubby, with my nephew Andrew wakeboarding in the background:

Aside from the water, we had fun lounging around, helping Lindsey make some of her cute products, eating and playing games.

Me & my big sister, Shan:

This little island is out in the middle of their cove. On sunday & monday, it was like Havasu! Party central.

David's favorite picture of the Theule's little guy, Brady:

Isaiah got a lot of lovin from his cousins:

I can't believe that I did not get any pics of Isaiah & Silas. They loved playing together. Silas would run over and give Isaiah big bear hugs. It was so sweet! Linds or Shan- did you get any of the two of them?

Silly Isaiah, you are supposed to swat flys, not Aunts! (*my niece Amber has decided that she is Isaiah's auntie amber, not a cousin!)

Yummy shakes:

Isaiah & uncle sean:

What's wrong Amber? Too early? :)

Me & my gracie-o:

Some sweet family time:

We are missing a bunch of pictures, specifically from our hike up to bass lake falls. To see some of those, you can check out Lindsey or Shannon's blogs on the trip. I might post more once I get them from everyone.

We had such a great time- I wish I could go back right now! Lindsey & Jones': thank you for giving us the opportunity to get away and make so many great memories!

Happy birthday David!

2008-09-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

Today is David's birthday! Yes, it is quite the week for us: back to back celebrations.

I am so excited to celebrate the love of my life. He is such an incredible man (see yesterday's post for some more info on that!). As one of his gifts, I am going to be giving him a note every day for the next year, listing a reason why I love him. I'll post them every once in a while.

Reason #1: I love the joy & excitement he gets over the smallest things. It is contagious. Anyone who knows this and has ever heard him talk about, well, anything that he is excited about knows what I mean (chipotle, a new album, a good cup of coffee, etc).

my fork is dirty. happy birthday babe!

3 years

2008-09-09T21:58:00.000-07:00

**Note: this was written yesterday (9.9) but wasn't posted until today due to internet issues.**

Three years ago today, we celebrated our love & commitment with our closest family and friends- 400 of them!

I love my hubby and am so blessed to be able to be his wife! He is incredibly compassionate, funny, humble, authentic, intelligent, loving, goofy, passionate and entertaining. It feels like we have been married for way more than three years and I cannot wait to see what God has planned for our family in the future. I always tell my newly engaged friends that "marriage is the best thing ever". It honestly is- we have loved every minute of it. It has been fun, challenging, encouraging, growing & so reflective of the relationship we are designed to have with the Lord. What an incredible gift God has given us! And now that our family has grown to 3, we have even more to celebrate & be thankful for. Seeing each other learn how to be a parent has been so amazing!

Here are a few photos from our wedding day, by Docuvitae:

Happy anniversary babe! I love you!

Cha-Ching!

2008-09-05T22:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so still no labor day weekend pics... I'll get around to it soon. Well, maybe not so soon. Wedding tomorrow. Worship team retreat sunday. Working monday. Leaving tuesday for anniversary/birthday getaway with David. Meetings & Sara B/Maroon5/Counting Crows concert thursday. Meetings and photo shoot with J* friday. Meetings in the morning saturday and then... what? Some free time- amazing!

and I had been telling people that things would slow down after this weekend.

Anyway, the point of this picture-less post is to share my joy with finding some great deals today. I ran errands for about two hours and in that time the following happened:

*Isaiah and I were on a date at the mall. I went to get some dinner in the food court. Ordered my pizza, salad & diet coke, only to find out that I only had $5 cash on me and my total was $7 (Oh ya, my wallet got thrown away last week. That is another story for another day). I ask the cashier if I could pay with a check, explained what happened. After telling me that they do not take checks, he presses buttons on the cash register for a good 30 seconds then smiles and says "That will be $3.65". How awesome is that? It made my sub-par pizza and flat diet coke taste incredible because of his unnecessary generosity.

*Found a black dress I loved at Macys. Yes, black. As if I need another black article of clothing. But it was on sale and I decided I really would wear it a lot. So, I take it up to purchase it- even cheaper than it was marked. A super cute black Hurley dress for $14. I'll take it!

*My purpose in going to Macys was to find David a pair of jeans. *note- this is extremely necessary. He has 1 pair and it has a large hole in the knee. He thinks it's cool. I think he is retreating back to the 90's. I did not have much luck, then decided to go into American Eagle for one last chance (NOTE: I have not been in American Eagle since my freshman year of college. What lured me in? The big sign that said "free movie tickets if you buy any pair of jeans. I figured it was worth a shot). Found a pair in his size that are somewhat stylish for $14.95. Plus a free movie ticket. That makes them about $5 :)

*I then later realize that I have to run to Target because we are out of diapers. I also find out that I have to pick something up for my wedding tomorrow. As I was rushing through the baby section grabbing diapers (rushing because our wonderful friend Jon graciously offered to stay at my house with sleeping isaiah so that I could get these things done while David had a concert), I saw a cute pair of jammies, which Isaiah really needs. $6, not too bad. When the cashier rings them up, it is not reading it. So, she does what all lovely Target employees do in this situation, manually enters in that the cost of the pjs is $2.99. Score!

While this was a nutty evening, I thoroughly enjoyed these little treasures. May you run across little bargain gifts in your shopping this week :)

high school english teachers of mine: please ignore the fact that I changed tenses frequently throughout my rambling. It's late and I'm the mom of a 10 month old during a wedding weekend. Grammar is forgivable at this point, I believe!

Big money, big money!

2008-09-03T22:09:00.001-07:00

My friend Jenetta has two fun blogs called Frugal, Sweeps & Deals & Frugal, Freebies & Deals. She lists sweepstakes, coupons, freebies and deals multiple times per week. If you are in to this, definitely check them out.

This logo button makes me laugh because we just spent the weekend up in Bass Lake with my family and some friends. My brother's business partner, Chad, frequently said that he was going to "get his ____ on" *enter anything in the blank. Common ones were "snack", "lake", etc.

Small history fact about me: In college, I often procrastinated by entering sweeps online. David would always make fun of me. I never won anything...
There have been a couple of nights in the past couple of months when I've been sucked back into my old habits *maybe I'll win one now!* Don't tell David though :)

Lots of pictures and updates coming this week, once I download pictures from our camera.

Is it really September already?

~Courtney

:)

2008-08-25T10:09:00.001-07:00

It's raining in San Diego! I love it! So refreshing!

**edited to add**
A half hour later, it was 90 degrees, sunny and clear. Gotta love Southern California.

Something else that made me smile today: Isaiah scurried quickly across the floor to come over to me, then he climbed into my lap, wrapped his arms around my neck and hugged me for a good minute. It was so sweet! He did this about 4 times today. Definitely made my day. More than the brief appearance of the rain.

On the up & up

2008-08-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

Isaiah woke up yesterday without a fever! Yay! I can tell he's still not feeling like him self (translation: he's grumpy), but he's definitely doing much better. We've had a couple of rough nights, but we are just so happy that his fever is down. On tuesday, he would not drink anything and did not eat much, which really worried me. Now he's back to his cheerio-throwing, banana-loving, food-guzzling self!

Poor Isaiah

2008-08-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

Our little guy is sick. He's had a high fever since early sunday morning- so sad for us! His fever finally got down under 100 for a while this afternoon, but we can tell he's still not feeling well. Something is definitely going around- 3 of my friends' sons have been sick this past week as well. Any tips for getting a baby to drink fluids when they don't really want to?

Good news though, when we took him to the doctor today, we found out that he's gained almost a pound in the past 2 1/2 weeks! Good 'ol formula. On the downside though, it would have been really nice to be able to nurse Isaiah the past couple of days. He has not gone for it except in the mornings when he is used to nursing.

Thankfully, David's mom happened to be down visiting this weekend, so she has been an amazing help for us-loving on Isaiah and helping out around the house. We even got to sneak away today for a little day-date. Thanks Nonna!

Oh, how I wish he could communicate with us and tell us how he is feeling...

Fingers crossed that he will sleep well tonight and wake up feeling better.

weekend of kids and pictures

2008-08-11T20:42:00.000-07:00

we had a great weekend in santa barbara visting my parents and in SLO for silas' 1st b-day party. here are my top ten pics from the weekend

so...my top ten has 12 photos.

-david

camera

2008-08-05T19:14:00.001-07:00

jon let me borrow his real camera. i'm having fun

and. isaiah needs a haircut.

-david

day of fun

2008-08-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

nothing precedes coffee like pie. and nothing preceds pie like juanitas california burrito. and nothing preceds that burrito like surfing. and nothing precedes surfing like reading. and nothing precedes reading like more surfing. and nothing precedes more surfing like more coffe. and nothing precedes more coffee like still more surfing.
it was a great day. two trips in the water with friends and one trip alone. one trip to pannikins with jon and one alone. a great book by francis chan, the bible, and God's creation.
the only bad things was when the reef sliced jon's foot open.

-david

adventures

2008-08-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

here are some pictures of his wanderings, be sure to check out the pictures link on the right for full galleries.

The Recent Adventures of Isaiah

2008-08-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

Hello long lost blog.

Not having our camera has significantly lowered our motivation for blogging. But- we get it back tomorrow! Yay! We had to send it to cannon, then we were gone when they tried to deliver it, then Fedex couldn’t find it in the system, then it got sent back to Canon. So frustrating! But, alas, we will finally have it again. We will call these past couple of months of Isaiah’s life the dark ages.

I have taken a few iPhone pics- they are posted in our gallery. Check them out & you can see all of the trouble Isaiah gets into on a daily basis.

Speaking of trouble, here is what he is up to:

*He’s all over the place. Speedy gonzales. Still putting everything he finds on the floor into his mouth. When it gets too quiet, I know he’s got something in there :)

*He inhales his food still. He cannot have just one piece of banana or one cheerio, no. He needs to put a full handful into his mouth at a time.

*Speaking of cheerios, I am officially a mom. I buy a box of cheerios every week. Wow.

*He absolutely loves music. This has been so fun for us to see develop. The second he hears any music he smiles and starts bouncing or waving his hands. When I take him into the sanctuary after church on sundays, he starts squeeling, flapping his hands up and down, dancing while I carry him and reaching for the stage. He loves watching David & the band play. He also loves playing (=banging) on the piano, playing with his dad’s guitar and playing the drums (both his toy one and the big ones at church). I cannot tell you how much joy this brings me & David.

*He needs a haircut. His 3rd.

*He is a fish. He loves swimming. Being outdoors in general. I love seeing how God instills a love for his creation at such an early age.

*He waves. Not when we want him to of course, but at strangers, birds, dogs, windmills.

*He has stood on his own for a few seconds at a time. To which I respond, “No! Not yet!”

The biggest change of all though, is the lack of change in his weight and what that has brought about. He is still tiny, so I took him to the doctor just to check on it and he is in the THIRD PERCENTILE for weight! 3rd! 10th for height. Yikes! However, it is all okay because his head is in the 90th percentile!! He’s all head! No wonder he wobbles when he tries to stand on his own!

The kid eats like crazy, so the doctor said that he is just not getting enough calories from my breastmilk. So sad for us! It’s amazing how prideful moms can be about something like this. I didn’t want to admit that what I was doing & giving him could not be enough for him. Of course I want all of his needs to be met and I thought that they were. Apparently, my body was just not giving him enough substance in the milk. So, to formula we go. I felt like they were giving me a certificate of failure when they handed me formula samples. Why does the mom culture promote this idea? It’s totally okay, especially at 9 1/2 months. I am still nursing him in the morning, but supplementing with formula throughout the rest of the day. He has taken to it pretty well, although he gets frustrated when I give him the bottle right before bedtime, as he knows that he used to be able to nurse then.

In my sadness, the doctor assured me that he is 100% healthy and is developmentally on track, if not ahead. So that was reassuring. He just needs to get a little bigger. So, here we are on a new adventure. A little sad, but we know it will be best for him. And that’s what matters. Not my boob pride.

What about us? I’ve been busy with weddings, but it has slowed down a bunch. I even had a full weekend off this past weekend! Wait till you see what I got done (a post to come later this week!). I am enjoying being able to hang out with Isaiah more and to be able to connect with my friends as well. To see some of my recent weddings, check out my other blog: www.joyfulweddingsandevents.blogspot.com.

David is loving surfing and work. The well project is going well- less than 100 to go. If you would still like to buy one, please do!

I promise we will get better at updating this so that you won’t have to read my essays.

Happy monday!

~courtney