Team Allison's Next Chapter

A New Adventure~ A new journey for us Allison's! I feel like it's time to tell friends and family that we are moving to Washington this summer. After 8 years in Gresham/Portland we are onto the next chapter. We are very excited and of course it's a bitter sweet move... It's bitter in that we will be a 6+ hour drive from Eugene -my forever home, and to John and Jake it's "our-gene." ( Side story- Jake told me the other day that there are 2 "You-Genes" he said, one at Grammy's and one at Megan's. See, to him Eugene is not the name of a city, it's the name of his 2 favorite homes away from home:) -And 3+ hour drive from Portland: our 2nd home. It will make visits with beloved family and friends less frequent; but I believe more special and for longer time spent, and if it's possible- more fun! It's already a party every time we are in Eugene because it's just how the Wilson's do it...but now we can party for longer!  And it's always a party at our family  in Gresham (Noyes') home...so now we will have to have more sleep-overs and stay-cations and maybe we can meet in the middle at Great Wolf Lodge for family fun!!!  This will be the first time I (and my boys) will live in a different state. It'll be strange to raise our kids in Washington and not Oregon?? What?? It's weird! They will grow up as Washonians. Is that what they're called? At least we will remain in the Northwest. I never thought I would head north to more rain and snow and gray skies. However, if we moved somewhere hot and sunny, it would be too far away from the ones we love. Here's the deal-Michael was hired as a coach for a fabulous institution. He loves his co-workers and has many good friends in Washington. He's having a blast and I'm thrilled for his new career move. I love to see him happy and in his element. He deserves it so much.  If you know us well, you know what we've been through the last 3 years. It's been a long and winding road full of pot holes and speed bumps. Mike has remained positive and full of grace and forgiveness and his strong faith in God the entire time. I, however, have been psycho and pessimistic and depressed. Not the entire 3+ years...but I've had my many crazy-feel-sorry-for-us-moments. I don't know how he continues to rise above and display massive integrity and strength. He is the epitome of an honorable man. His first priority is his faith in God. Then me and our boys. He is so in love with all of us. He has taught me how to focus on all we are blessed with. It's easy to feel down-and-out when your financial situation and the lifestyle you are used to takes a 180 turn. But we have amazing friends and family and children. We have our health and a home and freedom. Wow I sound so cliche and cheesy. But it's true! My cup runneth over.  Now, bear with me this will sound like an acceptance speech. It must be said. Out loud. First, thank you Jesus. The dog days are over. The dog days are done. Can you hear the horses? Cause here they come! Amen. I want to say thanks to my parents for the unconditional support and love. You're always there for us. There are hardly words to express how grateful we are for your love, help, support, advice, and listening ears. Get ready to drive to Everett a few times a year!  Thank you to Mike's Dad and Carol who have kept us afloat for 3 years. Your generosity is mind boggling.  Thank you to my grandparents who have shown amazing support to us in several ways. They surprised us many times with their love and support; it usually came after another horrible hardship and a night of prayer. Mike would say "See, Hun, God is on our side." They always made us feel thought of and prayed for. We admire you and love you both immensely.  My whole family has been a source of comfort and support. I have the best family ever! Shout out to my siblings.  My friends are crazy awesome. It's during the tough times you find out who your true friends are. When you're climbing a mountain, some folks just can't make the climb with you. And that's ok. But it sure makes you appreciate the ones who love you for who you really are. Linda Noyes-I'm talking to you. Your love and generosity and Team Allison mentality has been a savior in my life. Your family is the best and we love you guys immensely. Not only did you bring us what we needed, you never doubted the truth. You became our best friends. All the days and nights of making memories with wine and beers and BBQs and decks and patios and fires and dinner theme nights and birthday celebrations and queen for a day and stay-cations and laughter and listening to me complain and just being you being a good friend to me. You really have taught me what a good true friend is. You and Dan and Grandma and Laurie and Kyle too. We love you all dearly. We will miss you. I'm going to make you visit me. :) LYLAS.  And lastly, thank you to my boys Johnny and Jakey for staying strong. You're the best kids ever! The lights in my life. I hope you love our new home and don't worry we will ALWAYS remain loyal Duck Fans. (That's their biggest concern...not switching schools or being far away from family, it's that we aren't supposed to live where Washington college teams do:)   

Cuddle Bear

My Sweet Boy
Asked me to give him a back scratch before he falls asleep. His feet are so sweet.

When I'm sad...
Jake tries to make me laugh by being silly.
John expresses his love for me.
I'm very lucky

Cartoons are to blame

Jakes been naughty today. John said that the "cartoons have got to stop! because they're making jake act that way and rotting his brain out!"

Mighty prizes for mighty sleeping

Mighty Beanz Challenge Success!
Jake has made it 21 full nights in his own bed! He got his beloved Woody doll for his big prize. I'm so proud of him!
John made it 7 full nights in his bed! He got Buzz Lightyear for his big prize. They play with these guys for hours. They act out the movie lines together. So cute.
We've kept the challenge going. John told me that Jake doesn't want a prize unless John is getting a prize too. Haha. Good one Johnny. :)

Beanz are the trick

Mighty Beanz Challenge-day 6
It's going great. Both boys stayed in their beds all night again. So proud of my good sleepers!!

Sleep is good!

Mighty Beanz Challenge Update
It's working!
Last night--after the revision of John's rules--both boys stayed in bed til 9am.
AND! They Did not come and get me up. Instead, John went into Jakes room and woke him up and went to living room and played!! They love each other in the morning. Best friends reunited from 12 hrs of sleep:)

Choose another lane, honey!

Just want to give props to the KRAZY COUPON LADY for helping me to save over 50 bucks on my last two grocery trips! Imma krazy coupon clipping machine! It's actually fun now that I'm better at it. Krazy Lady helped inform me of little tips and advice, etc. Plus I love her blog because she has huge list of links to print coupons for 100s of brands! Hey, times are tough right now for us and saving a little money here and there is so helpful.

Here's my advice to fellow coupon clippers...

1. Plan meals

2. Eat before grocery shopping

3. Costco is a rip-off (yes I love it there, but I spend waaaay too much money in that evil place!)

4. Don't buy it just because you have a coupon for it.

5. I don't have a whole lot of brand loyalty. In fact, I LOVE generics :) I know, I'm weird. So, I print coupons online for generics at Target like Market Pantry and Up & Up...etc. You get the point.

6. Get over yourself and shop and the cheap places. Like the dreaded W's--WinCo and Wal-mart. Wal-mart will price match so if it's cheaper at Safeway (which is rare)--show them the add and you get the price and use a coupon and you've saved even more krazy lady.

Last night I saved 35 bucks in coupons at Albertsons! My shopping trip went from ~$85 to $50! I was so proud of myself :)


http://thekrazycouponlady.com/

The Mighty Beanz Challenge

HISTORY:
If you know us well, you know sleep has ALWAYS been an issue in our house. Our biggest issue. Johnny has been "co-sleeping" (I hate that term--co-sleeping--makes it sound so technical) Anyways, he's been sleeping in my bed since he was born. We had a few months here or there over the years where he has slept in his crib as a baby, and in his bed as a toddler...for a while he slept with Mike while I was nursing Jake...and yada yada yada yackidy shmackity. Jake always was a better sleeper than John, but it's not like he was sleeping through the night...ever.

PRESENT:
John and Jake are almost 5 1/2 and almost 4 years old and they are finally sleeping in their own beds! They've been doing this for a few months but it is still an on-going struggle for them to stay in their beds for the whole night. So, I decided to use the prize method once again, because it has worked so well in the past.

THE CHALLENGE:
This time it's "The Mighty Beanz Challenge" The boys received Mighty Beanz for Christmas from Santa as well as the cases to store them in. The beans are these little jumping beans to collect and trade. There are themes so of course John has a Darth Vader case, and Jake has the Iron Man case. They have Marvel heroes beans, Star Wars beans, regular funny guy Mighty Beanz, and so on. If they spend the entire night in their own bed, in the morning they choose a Mighty Bean for their case. When the case is 1/2 full (21 beans) they get to take a trip to the toy store to buy a new toy! They are sooo excited to do this! Other than super special occasions, like holidays, the boys don't get squat, so they are ready for retail therapy as much as I am!!

THE STATS:
So far, Jake has stayed in his bed for 4 nights in a row!!! And for about 12 hours each time! This is big news at our house.
...John on the other hand, has 2/4 nights. This morning he was so disappointed that he didn't make it the whole night so we made a new deal...
JOHN'S REVISED CHALLENGE:
If John stays in his bed until 5am, he will receive a Mighty Bean.

Feeling Grateful

By the way.
My husband is the best man on Earth. He is a great father. All he wants to do is praise his sons and tell them how precious they are. He plays with them whenever he has opportunity.
He is an amazing role model. He rises up through the dust and shines. He never gives up. His faith is unparalleled. He is an inspiration.

what the??

it's odd to me, that in the several weeks before Santa's comin' to town the boys have been naughtier than ever. every two seconds someone is screaming, yelling, fighting, running and chasing, wrestling, jumping off furniture, jumping on the bed, climbing up the walls, throwing food on the floor, splashing water all over the bathroom, trashing their rooms, taking all their clothes out of the closet, whining, crying, tantrums, ripping pages out of books...

and the potty talk.

oh my good lord the potty talk is so so so frustrating. when they think i'm not listening/watching it's-- 'my wiener this and my butt that. look at my butt hole. kiss my butt. i'm gonna pee on you. listen to my fart.'

'i'm gonna pee on you?' really? the sad thing is, when they were in the tub, i think they did. pee on each other. (insert gag reflex here)

another bad one is when one of them comes running from the other room as fast as they can just to stick their bum in my face and let out a fart. this infuriates me. they run away laughing hysterically. this is what my life has come to. cleaning pee off the toilet, listening to wiener talk, and getting farted on.

all day long i have to remind them that Santa is watching them, he knows when they're bad and good. he knows when they're lying. they shape up for a few minutes and then it's back to driving mom insane. the other night, i put them in their room for timeout and i didn't go back to get them. i just let them fall asleep in there. is that bad? i just couldn't deal anymore.

i can yell and scream, send them to their rooms, threaten no Christmas, no prizes, no juice, no candy, no nothing. and yes even spank their little fart butts. do u think any of this works? no. we are now trying out push ups as a punishment. they seem to like doing them. not much of a punishment.

as i write this, the boys are in their room in timeout for potty talking up a storm in the bathtub. i took them out of the bath and made them sit in there naked...your cold? well get dressed in your jammies by yourself little hellions.
just a moment ago john is telling to Jake come out and "tell mommy we're sorry." Jake ventures out only to see the scowl on my face and he ran like the wind back to his room. still naked. then john yells through the door, "mom we love your heart and we're sorry for potty talking. all day. and we forgive you, mom."

ok. start the clock. how long til the next battle? i'm guessing at least one more before they pass out.

The Year of the Slip n' Slide

Here he goes...

woohooo!

sliding with style

this is how jake "slides"

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.

In The Bedroom

i have to complain....must...get...energy...to...complain...must...get....energy...to...blog...

RE: raising my men-
the sleep thing is our biggest issue. i always thought that if john and jake slept through the night, or were "good sleepers" we would have no problems. sleep is huge. sleep is everything. even if the boys don't nap-which they don't- i'd be ok with that because they sleep at night. not so...

Been co-sleeping with john for nearly 4 1/2 yrs, with jake for nearly 3 yrs.
john had colic/acid refulx for many months and i could only comfort him by him sleeping on my chest, then next to me all cuddled up. i let him nurse in then night til he was freakin 2 years old. omg. that sounds crazy. when i was pregnant with jake, i was co-sleeping and nursing john. then nursing both boys at the same time, and co-sleeping with both boys. lord have mercy.

it seems like in the blink of an eye johnny is 4 and here we are still co-sleeping. enough is enough. i am so tired. i can count on 1 hand how many times i have slept 6 hrs straight in 4 yrs. i always have a crink in my neck. i wake up several times a night to comfort someone. so they finally got twin beds (they were sleeping in a full bed together.) now it's time to do the work. it is so hard.

last night i was up the entire night. i mean, what is this? a night with newborn twins?? this is ridiculous. jake wakes up, needs a cuddle, falls asleep. then john has a bad dream, needs a cuddle, then jake, then john...and on and on. then of course at 630am they're up and at 'em and i feel like i was asleep for maybe 7 min at a time.

it's all my fault. i hate saying that. i should have tackled this issue 3 years ago. what's done is done. movin forward.

tonight is a new night. *yawn*

Operation Skinny Bitch (OSB)

I must talk about this. Please don't judge me. I should state that this "skinny bitch" diet/lifestyle is sugar-free, vegan, organic. Whoa.
It's day 16 on OSB. So far so good? I think so.

I need to state that this diet/lifestyle switch-a-roo is not about becomming skinny or being a skinny bitch. I am a petite person--hello? I'm 5 foot 1/4 inch tall. Therefore every 1/2 lb I gain is noticeable-very annoying. But as with all women, I have my problem areas. My biggest problem area is not my belly or hips or thighs but rather my bad habits.

I eat too much crap and I drink waaaay too much wine. I was feeling tired and unhealthy and I wanted to try to eat foods that would help me feel better about me, inside and out. Plus I'm super grossed-out by our country's meat industry. Just watch Food, Inc. http://www.foodincmovie.com/

OSB is just a new thing to try. I love all food. I love junk food. I love fast food. I love high calorie fattening food. I love healthy food too. I hate working out. I'll do it religiously for 6 weeks, then I quit completely. I know I need to exercise in order to stay healthy. That is my next big challenge--to exercise regularly. So maybe OSB will end the same as my my exercise routines and pretty soon I will resume my old disgusting ways of eating and drinking. Quick prayer: I hope not. I hope not. I hope not. I hope not!
It's not too difficult to stop eating meat or cheese and all the other obvious dairy products. But seriously, dairy is in almost everything! And sugar (The Devil) and all it's evil siblings are in just about all processed foods too.

As if it's not hard enough to only eat foods w/ zero sugar (even all the fake sugars, i.e. aspartame,) It's even more daunting to only choose truly organic foods and non-gmo and all that confusing stuff. It's even harder to cook and then watch my family enjoy steaks and juicy burgers and tacos and burritos and fajitas, meatballs, fried chicken, and cheesey creamy pastas. I could go on and on. My mouth is watering.

I've messed up a few times. Just with the sugar thing: I had wine a few times. Like last night watching The Oscars, I had like 3 glass, whoops! That's a lot of sugar. Oh well. Back on the wagon today.

I have lost a little weight, which is a huge motivator to keep it up. Please wish me luck because I need it badly.

http://www.skinnybitch.net/

I'm blogging!

Well, here it goes. I have a lot to say, good and bad. To read my blog you definitely need to bear with me through thick and thin, very thin, like so thin it's see-through. k? k.
I stay home to raise my little men and sometimes I get so wrapped up in the daily routine, struggles, and fun stuff, that I become isolated with toddlers. I've sort of given up my "grown- up" life, meaning I don't really have the social life that used to fulfill me. I miss that life. Dearly. Yet at the very same time, I don't miss it. Confusing, I know. So, day to day I struggle to stay in the moment and truly cherish and enjoy this time with my little guys, all the while trying to keep it cool, stay patient, and get all my duties done. I consider myself extremely lucky to stay at home to raise them. It is not done without huge monetary and social sacrifice. Until you stay home 24/7 with your kids, you probably can't fully appreciate the go-to-work-grown-up-socializing-seeing other adults day to day-life. Some days-the grass is greener on the other side. But most of the time, I'd say my grass is rainbow green! I love being a mom to John and Jake. They are funny lil guys with a lot a lot a lot of energy. This my S.A.H.M. life!