We had a great and relaxing weekend!

Friday while I was in the shower Bennett came to tell me that Buck was stuck under the chair.

I wasn't sure he was telling the truth since Buck hasn't started crawling yet, but I quickly finished up and ran out into the living room. Sure enough he had somehow managed to scoot under the chair all the way from the cube toy. I'm not ready for two mobile boys yet!

(Bennett was showing Buck some brotherly love by sitting on him) 

After we all got ready, we went to Costco for groceries.

This was Buck's first time sitting in the cart:

(he loved it for half of the time then became whiney and tired for the rest of the ride)

Saturday night the boys stayed with Chris' parents and we went out for date night with Craig and Lauren. We went to Dick's Kitchen which was pretty good. I don't think I'd get the large kale salad again...I loved the topping combo (blue cheese/cranberries/hazlenuts) but it was a TON of kale!

I also got a Coconut Bliss chocolate malt which was SO good.

Chris got a burger and some yam not-fries(weird name... they are baked and not fried). 

I tasted both and they were really good.

My mound of kale:

After dinner we hung out and chatted at our house without having to worry about waking up the boys, so nice:

Sunday morning Chris and I slept in (hello 9:45!), ran a ton of errands then

we had brunch at Por Que No. Their brunch is so good!

Before we picked up the boys, we stopped at IKEA to price out cabinets for our bathroom remodel!

We are pretty giddy to even be considering a big change like this, which is much needed.

Chris made a mock up of our plans with Google Sketchup:

Such a nice weekend!

Happy Wednesday Friends!

It was so cold over the weekend. 

It got down to 19 degrees one morning, and Chris went for a run in Forest Park Saturday morning while it was 27 degrees. He's crazy and I let him know that fact.

Even though there was frost on the ground Friday, we had to get out of the house for a bit so I took the boys up to one of the parks in our neighborhood. 

We didn't stay long, but they got a chance to ride in the airplane.

Buck's first ride:

and of course the swings:

(Bennett just wanted me to keep pushing and Buck thought swinging was pretty much the best thing ever.)

Either Chris wore the same thing all weekend, or we didn't do anything picture-worthy on Saturday.

I can't remember, but I think this was Sunday...Buck started rolling up onto his feet to reach things.
He really, really wanted that monkey:

Horrible picture but I love how intense his face looks:

Sunday morning we went out on a spontaneous family date.

We went down to The Ace for our bi-annual photo booth trip.

(Scroll down if you must see our pictures righthissecond.)

We still had time left on our parking so we decided to walk up to Blue Star Donuts:

(supposedly donuts are the new macarons/cakepops/cupcakes)

Years ago Chris and I swore off donuts (not like we had them very often) and haven't had any since...until Sunday! I had heard about Blue Star and their crazy donuts (and how they are cooked in rice oil, are made from scratch and use mostly local, organic ingredients) and thought that maybe we should check it out. 

So we did:

Trying to decide what kind we want:

Bennett waiting patiently:

We got our donuts to go so we could eat them at home.

They were SO good:

(we got the almond with chocolate ganache and the horchata glazed donuts)

Sunday after nap the boys played at Chris' parents house while we had a belated date night. 

We saw Le Miserables and it was really good!

A pretty fun weekend, and I especialy love that Buck is getting to be more interactive and can actually experience these things with us instead of watching from the stroller/car seat. Oh and I must say that we have a fully potty trained little man! Bennett has been wearing pullups only at night for a couple of months and has been keeping them dry for the last month so we decided to take it away over the weekend and he is rocking it!

Happy Thursday Friends!

Buck turned 8 months:

(so crazy!)

Friday was grocery shopping day:

Chris and I grabbed food at New Seasons for date night:

(I could probably eat there every night.)

After dinner we went to Washington Square to spend some giftcards from Christmas.

(How romantic of us.)

Saturday morning Bennett woke up with awesome bed head and a 103 fever:

We took it easy all day and watched a family movie after dinner:

(bro time)

I tore out our hydrangea:

(The first of our landscaping adventures. We are hoping to put in an awesome new gate this spring.)

Sunday these guys were being cute at breakfast:

We went to the toy store with a Chinook Book coupon, which I set in the car seat with my phone for a couple minutes while I decided what to get. 

Then Buckley ate it:

(I had to pull it out his mouth. He had eaten all of the vital information out of the center of it. Luckily, they still took it.)

Sunday morning we all got our hair done by our friend Lindsey and we took a silly mustache picture:

This clearly wasnt part of last weekend, but last night I made fettuccine alfredo, except the sauce is mostly made with veggie or chicken broth and pureed cauliflower. 

I didn't have very high expectations but it was so good:

(get the recipe here.)

Everyone is healthy and the sun is shining...

Happy Friday Friends!

Before Christmas gets too far in the distance I wanted to share the gifts I made for people.
This is the one time of year that I feel like I really get to be creative and do the projects that I've been wanting to do all year long. Crafting is quite a bit more difficult with two little guys and I was pretty much making everything after they went to bed, having to clean up everything before I could call it a night myself. Regardless, it's still a lot of fun and a major stress buster for me.

I love coming up with projects that suit each person and I like to think about each person using their gift while I craft the night away.

For the guys I made most of the treats that I mentioned in this post.
It sounded like they all loved them.

This year's wrapping:
(note to self: get a stamp made that says "{CB^3}")

Utensil crock and dipped spoons for my sister- in-law:

Chalkboard wine glasses for my sister:
(I thought these would be perfect for the wine parties they have quite often)

quick tip: use a pencil sharpener to give chalk a nice writing point!

A chalkboard hors d'oeuvres plate also for my sister:

A chalkboard for my mom:

Homemade granola for Chris' mom:
(I didn't get a picture of it all wrapped up, so this picture is an oldie but a goodie. To get my granola recipe click here.)
And I also made a few pom bookmarks for people.
They are so easy I thought that I'd post a little tutorial for you guys!
(get original tutorial here.)


*Grab sharp scissors and yarn.
-cut one 15 inch-long string
-cut one 10 inch-long string
(set the two strings aside for now)

1. Take the end of the yarn and wrap it around three fingers 90 times. You can do more if you want your pom super full. It doesn't need to be wrapped neatly, but just make sure it's not too tight or else you won't be able to take it off of your fingers.

4. Holding one side of your yarn ball, slide your scissors into the loops on the opposite side. Cut the loops over the garbage can, because it makes a huge mess. Make sure you get them all. Holding the tail, do the same to the other side and trim it up to make them all even, this is what really makes it into a ball. Be careful to not cut the long tail!

And there you have a super cute bookmark!

Did you guys make any gifts this year?
I've already started collecting ideas for next year!

Happy Weekend Friends!

This last weekend was pretty darn relaxing. 

Both boys were not sick for once, though Buck came down with a fever Sunday night and has been fighting it ever since. 

Poor guy can't catch a break!

...

Bennett really likes to look at pictures from when he was a baby.

He was showing Buckley pictures on Friday and told him "the pages are not for chewing":

Buck mastered getting his puffs from the tray and into his mouth:

Bennett spent a lot of time in the tent that his Papa made him:

Friday night for date night, Chris and I grabbed dinner at Native Foods Cafe and I got to do a little shopping at Anthropologie thanks to some giftcards! I didn't take any pictures but it was a fun night.

Saturday morning my mom came over and spent some time with the boys while Chris and I had a little extension of our date night...

We went to Ristretto and got our coffee in "for here" cups (kind of a big deal).

(That's Ben, he makes my mocha every Saturday morning. He's a good mocha-maker.) 

We got to walk around Schoolhouse Electric:

(That never happens with kids in tow)

We took a picture:

(I think it's becoming a tradition to take a picture in this mirror every time we go)

We got breakfast at Bob's Red Mill:

We stopped at the Pendleton Mill End Store to check out the scrap bins. Chris had never been there before so I wanted to show him how awesome it was. If you've never been there (or don't live in Portland) it's part retail store and part fabric store with bolts and bolts of Pendleton wool fabric. The best part (and probably the main reason people trek out to the store) is all of the by-the-pound bins. A truck delivers remnant pieces, selvage and blanket trimmings from the Pendleton mills each week and depending on what they have been making, you can find some pretty awesome stuff digging through those bins.

We ended up scoring a bunch of pretty big charcoal remnants that I'm going to make some pillows with, a huge piece of the coolest Pendleton fabric I've ever seen, and a strip of a sweet pattern that I want to use on a clutch or maybe a pillow. 

It's the same weight as our Glacier National Park blanket, which we love. Score!

I'm planning to finish the edges to make it look a little more, well, finished.

Our blanket is bigger than a throw and is perfect for getting comfy on the couch with:

I was curious what Pendleton was using this fabric for since it was so different from anything I had ever seen, so I googled it. It looks like it was made for a bedding collection at Room & Board: 

Ok back to our weekend...

Saturday night we went over to our friends house for dinner.

Buck and Chris lookin cute:

Sunday morning Chris made breakfast.

Bennett finger painted.

  (Thanks for the paints and puzzle Tana!)

And we went to church in the evening.

Overall a pretty good weekend.

Happy Wednesday Friends!