I'm well on my way to being...

SHREDDED Jillian Michaels

Ok, day 1 of back on the fitness wagon. I love Jillian's workouts because, a. they're free On Demand, 2. they're quick: 20-25 minutes, or 45 min. Third-they work. I'm always sore after the first few days of it, and when I get used to the "level 1 and level 2 30-day-shred," I move on to the longer/harder workouts. It's a great way to workout at home when you're a busy SAHM and don't have a gym membership, like me!

http://www.jillianmichaels.com/

Redecorating The Boys' Bedroom on a Budget: Superheroes! BAM!

The boys' room has had many transformations. First it was a "vintage cowboy" nursery for Johnny. Jake's nursery was a color theme of stripes and gingham in baby blue, baby green, khaki, and white. When John outgrew his vintage cowboy crib, I used some of Mike's old Oregon Ducks Football memorabilia to make a sort-of football theme. It was a mess: the bedding was blue-camouflage and there were remnants of cowboy decorations. It bothered me how miss-match the decor was...a little cowboy, a little camo, a little football, a little superman...not ok!

Now that Jake and John officially share a bedroom, I decided on a Superhero theme because that is the shared obsession between the boys. When John first got his twin bed a couple years ago, I ordered the cutest Superman sheets and pillow sham from Pottery Barn Kids. At the time, Superman was John's big obsession; he carried a small Superman action figure around with him at all times. This was the obsession that broke the "Cars" obsession for Johnny: the discovery of Superman!

The oh-s0-cute Superman Bedding! I only purchased sheets and a sham. I used an inexpensive Target comforter for the bedspread.

When it came time to attempt to put Jake in his own twin bed at night, I ordered Spiderman bedding for John (his current obsession) and the Superman bed became Jake's bed. Poor Jakey, he will forever get Johnny's hand-me-downs. Although, even when the Superman bed was John's, Jake would tell me it was, "MY bed." So it all worked out in the end.

The oh-s0-COOL Spiderman Bedding!

I already had this picture frame, so I filled it with vintage Marvel comic book postcards: Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Hulk, X-Men and Iron Man.

We purchased Malm twin beds from IKEA in black. Also from IKEA, I bought $2 frames in red, blue, and black. Over John's bed, I filled the frames with recently taken b&w's of the boys. I also bought 'J' magnets from dollar spot at Target for 25 cents! I posted them on blue and gray card stock and framed them.

The boys still need new black Malm dressers from IKEA-to match their twin beds. I would also like a tall book shelf to organize their millions of books.

On the other gigantic plain wall in their room, I have a couple posters...Iron Man 2 and a group picture of the 100s of Marvel Superheroes. These are cheapy posters and are tacked into the wall low so the boys can admire them at eye-level. This is the tackiest part of the room decor, and also the boys' favorite part-of course.

John's Dreams

This one's a doozy...

Poor John and his dreams and nightmares. It's been this way since I can remember. He talks in his sleep nearly every night. i.e. suddenly sitting up and shouting, "Where's Daniel?!" (Dan is our neighbor and John's good buddy.) Or, "Ester! Stop!" (Ester is our neighbor as well, but not so much a buddy but more like a bossy big sister.) Another one recently was, "Poo-poo diaper baby!" This is "potty-talk" while sleeping.

Last night, John had a really bad dream about bees and bugs. He woke up shouting that the "bees are getting me!" I tried reassuring him 100 times that he was just dreaming, there are no bugs, there are no bees, everything is fine, mommy is here, it's ok, lay down, go to sleep, bugs are outside, not in our house, and on and on and on and on for what seemed like forever. Then things got worse...

John started dodging invisible flying bugs and crying in terror. He hid under the covers and cried out that the bees were going to sting him. I kept trying to comfort him, to wake him, to reassure him that what he was seeing wasn't real. He begged me to hide with him and cried, "why are they doing this to me?" It broke my heart to see him so frightened. It seemed like he was wide awake and hallucinating. But I have to assume he was in a deep dream state. It was disturbing to watch him dodge flying bugs and cry and scream in terror.

I turned on the light and said, "See, Johnny, there are no bugs in here," and he said, "I can see them mom! Right there! " as he pointed at them. And then he begged me to move to the living room with him.

We sat in the chair in the living room and cuddled for about 15 minutes while he looked around the room. He seemed scared and paranoid. I asked him if we could go back to bed. He took my hand, and in a completely different tone of voice, a calm voice said, "OK mom, we can go back to bed now. The bugs are all gone."

Whew.

Then of course I didn't sleep well the rest of the night. It took me a couple hours to fall back to sleep. And when John woke at 7am, the very first words out of his mouth were, "Mom! The bugs are gone!" with a huge smile on his face. *yawn*

Hanes Commercial (w/ the lil kids mean-muggin the non-eco-friendly boy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy7ZtDV0mO4
I just think this commercial is funny.

They Might Be Giants

My boys have loved these guys since forever. Google 'em.

http://www.theymightbegiants.com/

How To Train Your Dragon

I took the boys to the movie theatre to watch, "How To Train Your Dragon." I highly recommend this movie for little kids...well little kids that love lots of action and adventure. My kids loved it because there was a fight or an explosion or dragons every few minutes! It was super fun and cute.
We took a couple gift-cards to the theater--thank goodness because we cost 20-some bucks to get in and of course John wanted popcorn as soon as he smelled it. We also got a "small" soda--which is like 32 oz!

We took a bathroom break after about 40 minutes. This was so much work. I had to carry my purse, the boys' hoodies, and Jake if we want to get out of theater quitely. Then, after all that work of making it to the "ladies" room and back to the theater, we watched about 30 more minutes and John was ready to go. I don't know why because he loved the movie. He just gets antsy and needs to go run and shout somewhere. Overall: great kids flick, pretty good time, no tantrums! YAY!

Easter 2010

Easter Fun!

Johnny coloring eggs

Great Work!



Hulk Fingers!


Somehow, the superheroes always become apart of our holidays.



The Easter Bunny brought Johnny Anakin Skywalker!



Jake's Easter Basket, don't mind the undies on the floor in the background, lol!

Jake with his carrot bat and ball

John and his loot!

Star Wars!

Jake got Obi Wan Kenobi!

Chocolate Bunny! He ate the whole thing right away.

First taste of cotton candy!

Skywalker

This was a very special treat--after the boys finished rumaging through their Easter Baskets, they discovered this basket full of goodies on our front door step. There were pink paw prints leading up our walk to our door, and chocolate filled eggs hidden in our front yard!

Our neighborhood Easter Bunny is so sweet!

The boys' very first Legos. Star Wars of course!

2 Hungry Men

My sons eat as much as I do. Maybe more. It's amazing. Jake will eat anything and everything. He'll eat his own meal and then if I eat something he sits down next to me and makes me share.

This is a list of meals/food John ate just the other day---
(And, if this is what my 4 year old that weighs 28 lbs eats on a normal day, then what am I in for during the teenage years of the bottomless-pit-garbage-disposal-boy-stomach???)

BREAKFAST:
French Toast with cinnamon and sugar and syrup
2 scrambled eggs
4 sausage links
Milk
Apple juice

LUNCH:
A whole ham and cheese sandwich
AND a whole PB and J sandwich
Chips
YoKids Yogurt

Apple Juice

Milk

SNACKS:
goldfish crackers
chips
skittles

Juice
DINNER:
Veggies-a big bowl full
Meatballs-big huge ones, 4
Pasta w/ sauce
Milk
DESSERT-begs for it!

John's Dreams

John:

"Mom. We cannot let Jake go. We love him, right? We let him stay in the house. Right? Because we love him and we don't want to lose him. Remember when Jake took off his shirt and went up to the moon? Remember? We don't want him to take off his clothes and go to the moon. But then, I am spiderman and I stool my web and save him and bring him down from the moon. Remember?"