Epic battles

I live in a house of all boys, so there is some major play fighting that happens around there. I usually just stand aside and watching, trying not to get plowed over. Anthony has a major love of Star Wars so it's really not uncommon for a lightsaber battle to break out in the front yard. What? Your family doesn't fight with lightsabers? You're missin out.

Darth Vader V.S Daddy Maul





In the end, Daddy Maul was defeated.


I know, I know. In the movies Darth Maul and Darth Vader didn't even exist at the same time. But they do in our house and apparently, they are foes.

Noah had fun watching!

Have a good weekend, friends!

Incognito

Anthony, my three year old, loves costumes. I mean he loves them in a way that he spends more time at home in costume than he does in regular clothes. We've collected a nice little arsenal of alias' for him now. Batman, Spiderman, Capitain Amierca, and of course, Darth Vader. He also has pajamas that look like Woody and Buzz Lightyear, but those aren't technically costumes, even if he does wear them as such. Target the day after Halloween is a costume lovers best friend. Please excuse the quality of the pictures, most of them are cell phone pictures





The cutest Spiderman ever!

Why, yes. That IS Batman riding a quad.

Sometimes Capitain America needs to take a break and drive like everyone else.

Darth Vader, using the force!

What a tough life this kid leads. He has no idea how much we spoil him, and for right now, im totally okay with that. This kid came in to my life a giant, unexpected whirlwind and turned me into someone that the me four years ago would never recognize. And he has made my life inexplainably, exponentially better. The least I can do is buy the kid a few Halloween costumes to play in. I think I enjoy him playing in them almost as much as he does.  

Cry it out!

When your kid is sick you want to do nothing but cuddle and love them and give them anything they could possibly want or need and then some. I may go a little overboard when my kids are sick. Possibly. Maybe. Allegedly. Since last week when Noah was sick I've been getting up with him 6 million times a night, giving him breathing treatments and tylenol, cuddling him, and giving him a bottle to get him back to sleep. Well wouldn't you know it, the little guy got a tad bit accustomed.

Prior to this we had him sleeping almost perfectly. We'd have the occasional bad night but for the most part he would go down at 8pm and stay down until usually around 5am. I'd give him a bottle at 5 and put him back down where he'd stay asleep until usually around 7. Dream baby.

Since starting his breathing treatments on Tuesday Noah has improved impressively. We had a little tiny regression on Friday morning but by that evening he was back on track. His breathing has improved to the point where we're using his inhaler on an "as-needed" basis, rather than the original every four hours. He even only needed one treatment yesterday! So now that his health seems to be back on track, aside from the occasional snot rocket of a sneeze, we decided it's time to get his sleeping back on track. Waking up so much every night was starting to have a serious toll on both parents.

We come from the "cry it out" camp. I know its controversial and you could tell me 16421782 reasons why its bad for my kids, but it works for us. I did it with my oldest son and he's not serial killing yet so I think he turned out okay. In fact, he's a happy, well adjusted toddler who sleeps in his own bed, in his own room, all night every night.  So last night was our first night crying it out with Noah. He miraculously slept until 3:30am, which is good as of late! So at 3:30 I tried to get him to go back to sleep on his own. I swaddled him (ugh yes, he's 7 months old and still loves being swaddled), gave him his paci, turned on some water sounds for him and walked out. Napes. He wanted his cuddles and bottle he had become accustomed to. So I put him in his swing, maybe swinging would put him back to sleep? Napes. So I decided okay, its time to cry then. And cry he did. Then some more. And more. And a little bit more. Until 5am. I resolved at 4:45 to go make his bottle because he clearly wasn't going back to sleep and of course, he fell asleep while I was making his bottle.

So needless to say our first night of crying it out was a bit rough. I've been up since 3:30 and probably wont get to bed until 10-11 tonight. It's gunna be a long day. We made a new rule that his bottle time will be 3:30 instead of 5. If he wakes up around 3:30 he can have a bottle and we'll work our way back out to 5. But if he's up before 3:30(ish) then hes gotta re-learn to put himself back to sleep. Ugh.

Look at that face! It's nearly impossible to resist cuddles from that.

Hunger Games -- The review!

I didn't even last until Sunday, I ended up going to a Saturday morning showing of Hunger Games. I was a giddy little girl, standing in line to get my popcorn and cheese, anxiously waiting to take in my favorite book on screen!

*WARNING! SPOILERS!!*

The movie was... good for the most part. There definitely were some parts that did not hold true to the book and that kind of bothered me. Especially when its something SO small like them changing the color of the cat... how difficult would it have been to get an orange cat?? Oh well. They completely wrote out Madge, they made Katniss buy the mockingjay pin from the hob and give it to Prim instead. I felt like they kind of downplayed the love story between Peeta and Katniss. I know there isn't a ton in the first book, but I felt like there was more than was portrayed. They did bring some parts of the second book into the movie, but I understand that was for set up for the second movie.

Now on to the big things that bugged me. When Katniss goes to the cornucopia to get the medicine for Peeta she takes a knife to head. In the book, it nearly kills her. She bleeds out intensely and is so injured she barely makes it back to the cave in time to inject Peeta with the medicine then passes out. She wakes up to him cleaning and bandaging her. -A good example of part of the loveyness they wrote out- In the movie, she takes the knife to the head and miraculously, gets just a scratch. Peeta rubs some cream on her and its gone. Not quite the tender, loving act that was in the book. In the book, at the end where its just Katniss, Peeta and Cato and the mutts arrive, the mutts attack Peetas leg as he's climbing onto the cornucopia and he starts bleeding out. Katniss makes a tourniquet for him to stop the bleeding. After Cato is killed and they announce that only one person can win, Peeta unties his tourniquet saying he's going to die from blood loss anyway, so she may as well kill him and win. They then proceed to pretend to eat the nightlock and they both win. Now in the movie, the mutts attack Peeta on his way up but again he miraculously comes away uninjured. In the end of the book Peeta loses the bottom half of his leg due to his injuries, and in the movie, he clearly did not. I think Peeta losing his frickin leg is a big thing to write out!!

Aside from a few small general things, the movie held pretty true to the book until the end. Even with all of the changes in the end, it still told the complete story. A bit of disappointment aside, I'll definitely be geeking out in line to see part two next November when it's released.

Hunger Games

I will admit it, I love Hunger Games. Im the Hunger Games equivilent of a twi-hard. I'm obsessed. I read all three books in 6 days total. (Did I mention I have a full time job, school, two children and a husband??) Then proceeded to endlessly harass everyone around me to read them so I could talk about them. I usually have a rule, after I read a book I will never go see the movie. Movies are notorious for ruining a great book, so i've always kept my distance. But i'm breaking my rule this weekend for HG. I seriously considered going to the midnight showing last night, but I get up at 4:45am for work every day so by the time the movie was over and I got home and got to sleep I'd end up with about two hours of sleep. And that's just not happening, i'm a bear when I don't get enough sleep. So I will wait. I'm not going to dare to go tonight or tomorrow. I don't want to risk my precious movie being ruined by some crappy little teenagers. No, i'm going to a Sunday morning viewing. The time that only old people go to the movies, to ensure that I'll be able to fully enjoy myself. I'm counting down the minutes until I can see my boyfriend Peeta on the big screen.

Pinterest

Are you on pinterest yet? Well, you should be. It's quite addictive, it's internet crack. I like to spend slow afternoons at work on there, dreaming about all the things I'm going to I wish I could do. There are a handful of things I actually have done, but let me tell you... if I had the time or money to do what I wanted, my house would be a craft temple. A TEMPLE I TELL YOU. Probably with more hanging lanterns than would ever be deemed appropriate. When I was on maternity leave I spent more time in Michaels than I had in my entire life leading up to that time. I yearn for those days. Days filled with framing pretty scrapbook paper, filling hurricane vases, decorating for the holidays, and baking treats just because. Along side hours of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, dirty diapers, and tantrums, of course. Until that time, I lust over my DIY board. I imagine myself staining wood, hot glueing, modge podging, and hanging lanterns. Let's take a stroll through my imaginary home, eh?

White strings of lights and sheer curtains 

How gorgeous is that? If I had a big window or sliding glass door in my room bet your buckets that would be how it would be decorated.

It's not a DIY, but this chair is beyond amazing. Too bad I don't have $700 lying around to buy it.

A family tree wall

I have a wall in my house that would be perfect for this, but I have neither the artistic ability to paint the tree nor the means to obtain pictures of my grandparents and such. Or the time, oh yeah...that elusive thing.

Hanging mason jars with tealight candles inside

One of the few things I actually have gotten done. Figures, its' hanging lanterns. I used twine instead of wire, I dont like the rust from the wire and I have no sand in mine. Just the jar and the candle.

A corkboard with a fabric covering and furniture tacks

I'm going to attempt this one this weekend. I'm in desperate need for some organization for my necklaces. I have them hanging from a hanger right now. No, I really do.

Lyrics to your first dance song written around a photo of your dance

I'm going to do this for our anniversary, coming up in May. I just love it. I'm still so in love with our first dance song. It very, very rarely comes on the radio but when it does I blast it.

We have a sick little guy on our hands

My poor little Noah is sick. It started last Friday when he seemed to have caught the cold that Anthony had been fighting but its since lingered, and turned into a nasty cough. That nasty cough then turned into a rattly chest and wheezing. I fought with myself all night last night about waiting until morning to take him to the dr appointment I had scheduled or taking him into urgent care right then, after he had eaten nothing but two bottles and one jar of food all day and cried for a large majority of the day. When he wasn't crying, he was wimpering. I finally decided at that point it would be better for him to get rest in the comfort of his own home instead of being kept awake all night being poked and proded. When he woke up this morning he was significantly less cranky, even gave us some smiles, but the wheezing, coughing, and rattly breathing remained so we went to the doctors appointment as scheduled. It turns out my poor little man has bronchiolitis, which is an upper respritory infection. They gave him a breathing treatment there in the dr's office and sent us home armed with an inhaler to use 4-5 times a day and a long list of things to watch for. 

I was busy wallowing, feeling upset that my poor baby had to use breathing treatments when I saw them. The paramedics. And their patient was a tiny little 6 week old baby wearing a tiny little oxygyn mask. This baby was also having respritory issues, clearly much more intense than Noah's. I had to stop in my tracks and thank God right then and there because i'll take at home breathing treatments all day every day over being rushed to the hospital. Even in times when we feel like things are bad, God reminds us that it could be worse.



My Nono, falling asleep during his breathing treatment in the dr's office.

My boys

There's something about being a mom of boys. I am severely outnumbered at home, even the pets are boys, but I don't mind. It isn't unheard of for my son to be found in the yard with a superhero costume on. In fact, it's quite common. Being in a house now and having a yard has been valuable beyond measure. We spend so much time out there, stealing vitamin D,  just playing, running, jumping, chasing, laughing. Boys need a yard! And I need my boys.



Epic basketball battle between daddy and Super Anthony



Stupid auto-focus. I really wish It would have focused on him instead of the wall. Either way, I love this picture.



This was actually taken at the zoo, not in the yard. But I love it either way.

These pictures were taken with a Sony A200, shot in aperture mode, f/3.5, ISO 800 I believe? They look a little grainy to me, im not sure why. Maybe I have my ISO too high? I really want to get a lens with a higher aperture, I found one for a really good price but, despite the great price I just can't bring myself to spend that much! For now, I oogle it. Wanna oogle too? http://www.amazon.com/Sony-50mm-Alpha-Digital-Cameras/dp/B0029U0X24/ref=lh_ni_t

Rainy days

I love weekends like this one we just had. Rain, wind, rain, and some more rain. We live in an area called Eucalyptyus Hills so as you can guess, there are a lot of eucalyptus trees around, and boy were those tall guys swaying in the wind.

This weekend also happened to be St. Patricks day. Let me tell you, we are party animals. I had some festivities planned for Anthony but the rain had other plans. One plan I was still able to pull off was our leprechaun invasion. The point was for the leprechaun to come in, trash the place looking for his gold then leave a few gold nuggets for the mess. It was so fun for Anthony and really easy to do. All I did was get some green, washable finger paint, made my hand into a fist and blotted the outside of my fist into the paint, blotted that painted fist onto the ground then usd my fingers for the toes and TA-DA! Tiny feet!

 



First, he came in through the bathroom window and made a mess of the bath toys

Then he used the facilities

Then ran into the living room...

And trashed the place!

Then, ran into the dining room, making a mess along the way

Then into the kitchen

Then right out the back door

But not before leaving us some gold for our troubles.

It was a bit of a mess but Anthony got a kick out of it and had fun so it was worth it. :)

I love rainy days and I love rainy day food. To me, cold rainy days equal warm comfort food. On Saturday I made a giant crockpot of slow cooked turkey chili. My turkey chili is no different than reguar chili, it just simply with turkey meat instead of beef. There are few rainy day meals better than slow cooked chili with cornbread. Since i'll be stuck at work all day today I decided to throw some food in the crockpot again so we can have something warm and delicious when we get home. On todays menu- onion garlic pork roast with potatoes and carrots.

mmmmmmmm

Yes, that would be a dirty wine glass from the night before behind my crock pot.... don't judge me! :)

Construction

In January we moved into my dads old house, and when I say old, I mean old. My dad had been living in this four bedroom house alone for many many years and a large majority of the house went untouched. It was in desperate need of some lovins. Brandon and I decided to come in and take over the place, we completely gutted and remodeled the bathroom. Despite the contractor from hell it got done on time and looks pretty good. We stripped 20 year old wall paper off the walls, primed and painted. We spent a good two months dumping our entire weekends into this house but it was worth it to have the rooms cleaner, updated, and more liveable for us and our boys. There's still much...much work to be done, but right now the bank account begs to differ. Until we can do the rest, I just have to revel in the work we've done so far.




Anthony's room -before. aka: wall paper hell. See all those little evil pink hearts??



In progress. That wall paper was resilient! It put up a good fight!





Anthony's room, after! So much better! (it wont rotate :/ )




Noah's room- before. Hello yellow. Oh, hey orange carpet.





Noah's room - after! Normal colors!





I didn't get much of a "before" but here is the bathroom, gutted





Floor stripped





After! (I dont know why all the after's are uploading sideways!)



Oh yeah, I forgot about you!

Im gunna be honest here, after I made this blog I sort of forgot about it. We were moving and so much was happening it just got lost in the shuffle. I promise to make a real effort at this thing! More to come!