All grown up!

 

Téa is almost 11 months old and each day she seems more and more grown up, I think one day very soon she will be bossing these boys around. 

Brothers

*Somehow I posted this and it got lost, so here I try again* Aidan and Coda are at such a neat age together. They actually enjoy playing with eachother, share a lot of the same hobbies (ie building forts, eating snacks, destroying their room, playing cars, etc) and most of the time they treat eachother pretty well! They get on eachothers nerves and need their own space, but for the most part they are like two peas in a pod! The thing that amazes me the most about them is Aidan's care for Coda. Aidan goes to preschool and when we drop him off he tells Coda, "you be a minding boy all day Coda, and you play nice with Sissy and HAVE FUN." Coda says, "ok". Then when we pick Aidan up he always asks me, "did Coda mind? did you have fun? was he nice to sissy?" The truly funniest part about this is Aidan goes to school from 11:30am until 2:45pm, during which time Coda eats lunch and naps. So he really doesn't have any "minding" to do or fun to have, but it is Aidan's care for him that truly melts my heart.

New Hair-Do

 

It was in her eyes, clips don't work (seriously I tried 5 different kinds), headbands get pulled off, so this is what we resorted to. I mean you have to admit it is cute, but I am sure when she is thirteen and looks back at pictures she will be SO mad at me. Just like when I see pictures of me at four years old, way too mcuh feathering action mom! 

Missing Our "E"

November 2004 - Aidan (2years4months) and Coda (7months) talk to their "E" while she is away at college. -I just came across this video and couldn't help but post it :)

The past few days....

have been busy!
It all started on Saturday, Aidan "watched" Téa in his room while Nick and I got ready.

Then Aidan had his last soccer game. He refused to play the first 10 minutes (out of a 30minute game) but then ran around growling at the other players for the next 20minutes, classic Aidan.

Aidan and Coda had spent the previous weekend with Grandma Diane and Mike and had already gone to a pumpkin patch, but I hadn't and Téa hadn't...so we went. We ventured to Brookings to Flora Pacifica, definately not near as big as we are use to, but it did the job.

Sunday Nick's parents came up to visit for the day. Papa Kent got the honors of feeding Téa her first bite of icecream, I think she had more like 20!! And she would have had more.

And then it was Tuesday, I love when Monday's pass me by, because they are my least favorite day! The boys were ready to go in their costumes before it was even 4pm. But they had to wait patiently for the sun to go down and their baby sister to wake up from her nap. They passed the time by watching "Incredibles" and acting out all the parts.

We went to a trick-or-treating at a few houses in our neighborhood and then went to a Halloween party at our friend's church...we had a blast and ate FAR too much candy, but that is what Halloween is for right!

Kicked out

After the kids are in bed Nick and I usually sit down to watch something on DVD, lately it has been Grey's Anatomy. We make a "bed" with our couch and ottoman. Last night we were all ready to sit down when we realized that Aidan and Loralei (our cat) we passed out in our spots. We were kicked out, but not for long, Nick hoisted Aidan up into his top bunk bed and Loralei was moved to the other end of the couch. And then Nick and I sat down to watch the Season 2 Finale of Grey's Anatomy. 

Long time coming...

a blog that is. It has been forever. These pictures are from my moms last trip here, we went to Trees of Mystery. We had a great time, just what we needed before we had to move again. Long story made short, our house was infested with cockroaches, we moved, we are happy that we moved, the end. But still, moving two times in three months, with three kids and pregnant = NOT FUN!

Grandma Diane with Téadora

The view from the "Sky Trail", and they wondered why I was scared, we were only suspended hundreds of feet in the air with four glass walls around us...Aidan thought it would be funny to knock on the glass, I almost lost it!

Brotherly love :)

Family Day at the Beach

First off I have to tell you a story...you all know I have been in need of a camera, well I told my friends online. Well yesterday I went to my mailbox and there was a package. I didn't recogonize the return name nor address. But it was addressed to me, so I opened and inside was a DIGITAL CAMERA. I was in awe, I read the note and it all came clear. My friend Jen in Oregon told her mom in Arizona that I was in need and her mom and dad sent me their not-in-use-anymore camera. How amazing, I am so thankful for my friends. THANK YOU JEN AND JEN'S MOM AND DAD!!! So back into the world of me taking pictures everywhere we go...

Nick building a bench?

The Boys Sitting on the Sand Bench

Ummmmm, beautiful!

Téa and Mommy

P.S. Don't mind the wrong date, I was so anxious to use the camera I didn't do the set-up!

Getting bigger

Well they all are, but Téa is just growing before our eyes! She is the cutest darn thing and just goes along with anything. This past weekend she attended her second concert and she is not even 8 months old. She is so special to us, to her brothers. But it is sad, she seems to be growing up too fast, already sitting on her own (for awhile now), almost crawling, loving to stand and eating big girl food. Whats next a boyfriend? Yeah right, with Nick for a dad and Aidan and Coda for big brothers, we joke and say she is going to marry one of their best friends, because she won't get close enough to any other guy. LOL!

Ummmm, yes mom, you wanted something?

It's School Time

Last week we started school at the Lende home. Most of you know prior to having kids I was in college to become a teacher, so it is probably not a surprise that I (well we) are homeschooling the kids. This is the first year we have really had a curriculum and an actual school-time each day. Aidan and Coda are thriving. We are using the alphabet as a basis to our school time. Each week we study another letter and intergrate all subjects. Coda actually sits, listens and participates, his favorite part is that he has his OWN school supply box, equipped with a box of crayons, scissors, glue and a pencil! Aidan is working on not only our letter of the week studies, but also tracing letters and matching letter sounds to objects.

This week we are on the letter "A" with the short vowel sound. We have learned "The Ants Go Marching" song, adding with Animal Crackers (Aidan can add all the way up to 9+1), Adam and Eve, Antelopes, Johnny Appleseed, we are going to make Animal puppets tomorrow and on Friday we are making homemade applesauce. We have learned that apple, astronaut, ambulance, alphabet and alligator all start with the letter A and the short a sound. Aidan also realized with the help of Grandma Diane, that Aidan starts with the letter A. He got off the phone and told me, "Mom I already knew that, my name is Aidan, A-I-D-A-N" Wow he can spell his name!

I would post pictures but my loaner digital camera (I had it for almost 2 years) has been reclaimed, so we are on a hunt for a new one. Maybe Christmas, wink, wink.

Notice any changes?

Look up. Figure it out? We are adding another to the family. Baby Lende #4 is due to arrive in March 2007. A boy, a girl, any guesses? I have to tell you, it is ok if you are in shock, we were too! Then it sunk in, another blessing from God, another baby to hold, another brother or sister for the kids and now we are excited, insanly excited that is for sure. You can call us crazy, we don't care, LOL!

On another note, I cannot believe it has been almost 3 weeks since the last blog, I apologize for depriving you.

YAY NICK!

Today this article was in our local newspaper "The Daily Triplicate". I am SO proud of Nick and all of the hard work he is putting into this new position. He is such an amazing dad/husband/employee. This morning he fed Téa a bottle, got up, got himself ready, fed the boys breakfast and still got to his office by 7am. (Ok so it sounds like I don't so anything :), I promise I do!) It helps that we have early rising kids around this house. And if tonight is like last night, he will try his hardest to be home by 5pm, but his work is not over, after kids goto bed and usually me too, he stays awake doing estimates and researching security products. Last night he showed me a camera that is in a "screw", literally a pin-hole camera in a screw, or a air purifier that doubles as a camera, or a smoke alarm, the sky is the limit. Nick is almost as in love with security products as he is with music gear, LOL!

Happy Birthday!!

Today is Aidan's 4th birthday. Daddy called and asked Aidan where he wanted to go to lunch for his special day. 'Dad, it's not my special day, it's my birffday...I wanna go to Old McDonalds' (That is McDonalds in Aidan language.) So off we went to Old McDonalds...and low and behold the toys in the Happy Meal were from Pirates (he will not see it, but he is in love with everything Pirates). He got a Treasure Chest with a key and Coda got a Telescope with light up red eyes...that must have been what I paid $3 each for, since the food is never anything to speak of.

This is a picture of Aidan when he was about a week old. Oh how they grow. While the boys were playing at McDonalds, Nick and I were reminicing about Aidan's birth. It seems like just yesterday. Sitting in the stands at the Crab's baseball game, rocking during each contraction, eating Nachos, stopping in the middle of the road on the way back to the car and making the ultimate decision, THIS IS IT!!! Spending 8 hours in labor, knowing I was going to have a c-section (he was breech) and LOVING every minute of it, yes I am nuts and no I did not have any pain medication. At one point I kicked Nick out of the room, because he fell asleep, poor guy! Seeing Nick in those purple scrubs, oh the sight. And seeing my baby boy for the first time, so small and so precious. Looking into Nicks eyes and knowing that this was 'our' son, forever. It was that day 4 years ago that we became a family. Our lives changed forever with his birth, Thank you Aidan! 

Lost

Today I lost Coda. He is two and I loose him a lot, especially with this new house...there are so many closets, corners and rooms to hide in. Usually when he is quiet and hiding I will find him with something he is not suspose to have, my lipgloss, a nightlight, Téa's bottle, something from my purse. But today was different. The house was quiet, I looked in the living room and Aidan was watching 'Diego'. "Where is Coda," I asked. "I dunno." So I kept looking, calling his name, checking the doors, they were locked, under the beds, in the closets. OK WHERE ARE YOU CODA?? And then I heard "Momma"..."Momma." It was Coda, his voice was coming from sisters room...I looked in the closet, no, not there..."Momma." I peaked over the side of the crib to find this...

Coda was laying in Téa's crib. Well his crib only decorated for a girl now. It wasn't long ago he was sleeping in it...actually it was less than 2 months ago. He had his 'pappy' (pacifier) and his 'smoochi' (his go-everywhere blanket) and he had himself snuggled in tight.

So he wasn't off destroying something or getting into something he wasn't suspose to. Is today the changing point in the life of Coda...will he no longer be the boy who is into everything? We can only hope!

How could I forget?

The answer is yes! We fit it all. It was an adventure to say the least, but it all fit. And the first 3/4's of the truck was packed in about 1 1/2 hours. Then our "extra" help had to leave, so that left Nick, his dad and his brother. Those boys, I mean men can not make a decison to save their life. The next 3 hours was spent finishing the last 1/4 of the truck! But they got it done, and nobody was hurt, so I guess that is all that matters.

I want to say a special thank you to all that helped with this move...family, friends and new friends. Also a thank you for all the prayers, I know that some of you had to have been praying your head off, because the move when so smooth!!

Our new home.

Almost a week after moving and this new house is starting to feel like home. It is definately quite a job to move with three young ones. Just taking care of them is a days work and then add to that unpacking, unpacking and more unpacking. I'm tired! Our home is absolutely amazing. And this is the first time I have been able to say this, since the day we moved in was the first time I had seen it. Nick had seen it, approved of it and signed the contract all without me seeing it...boy what if I hadn't liked it. We are all settling in well, the boys love their HUGE yard, Téa enjoys listening to the birds, Nick is one his last day of his first week, and I am loving having more space for all of our stuff!

This is our home from one side

My favorite view from the house...
this is from our living room looking into "our forest" as Aidan calls it.

Just had to add a picture of Aidan and Téa.
Aidan is watching TV and Téa loves to lay with him. Hasn't she gotten chubby!!

I am not so sure.

We are packing the moving truck today...starting in about 4 hours. YIKES!!! For the past week I have thought, "I am almost done". Yeah right. We have so much stuff, but as Nick would say, I would rather have so much, then nothing. True statement. I have vowed, that the next time we move (hopefully into a home we own) I am including in the price of the house for professional movers to move us. How nice would that be. Leave for a vacation, come home, to a new house, all your stuff is there and yo ujust had to pay a few thousand dollars! (I am somewhat being sarcastic, I cannot handle spending large amounts of money on something I can do myself.)

So I am not so sure that we are going to fit everything into the moving truck. We have rented the 26' truck, the largest they rent, it says it holds a 4-5 bedroom house, we only have 3, but I am no so sure. Mind you we have already taken a truckload and trailer full of boxes and stuff up there. But last night I packed six boxes of food, yes six! I could open a grocery store. (Just for reference, these boxes are not huge, there are about 12"high, 24"long and 20"wide. They work great. Sergio, Sam's boyfriend works in the meat department at Winco, so each day he brings us "chicken boxes", they hold some 80lbs of chicken and they have handles and they stack so nicely.)

So any guesses, will it all fit? We do have some spillover room...the back of my van, Nick's dads truck, the Saturn and Nick's work truck. But still, will we have enough room? I guess we'll see

TO BE CONTINUED...

It's My Job

Yesterday, Aidan came to me and said "Mom, it's my job to protect you and Téa when Daddy's not home." Just at that moment Coda chimed in "Me, Me". Which in Coda language means he too is suspose to protect me and Téa when Daddy isn't home. I just love my boys. They are so loving and in the same sentence they are so "boy"! I still haven't asked Nick if he told Aidan that, I am sure he did, because I am not sure where Aidan would have gotten it otherwise. And by the way, Papa Kent we no longer need a dog, I have two toddlers protecting me!

A Brief History

A Brief History

20 years ago I was...........
1. Welcoming my baby sister into the World.
2. Losing my dog, Tasha, while my parents were in Tahiti
3. Falling off my bike and getting a good-sized pebble stuck in my forehead (again while my parents were in Tahiti)

10 Years ago
1. Dancing with the Santa Rosa High Dance Company and with Redwood Empire Ballet in the Nutcracker
2. Spending time with my boyfriend of the week
3. Living for summer camp at Westminster Woods
4. Meeting my Nick for the first time at summer camp, he let me wear his silk jacket, I let him wear my Mossimo baseball hat

5 Years ago
1. Attending Santa Rosa Junior College
2. Getting engaged in Bodega Bay on the beach
3. Working at Westminster Woods as a Lead Counselor of Sherwood Forest
4. Moving to Eureka for the first time

3 Years ago
1. Having Aidan's first birthday one week and finding out I was pregnant with Coda two weeks later
2. Living in Santa Rosa
3. Watching my Aidan walk for the first time
4. Eating tons, usually with my best friend Kristy

1 Year ago
1. Finding out I was pregnant with Téa and her twin (who we lost at 14 weeks)
2. Trying to figure out how I was going to do it with three
3. Enjoying spending tons of time with my sister "E"

So Far This Year I........
1. Welcomed Téa into our family and the world
2. Heard Coda talk for the first time, which has been a long time coming
3. Found out Nick got a promotion and we are moving...even further North

Yesterday I....
1. Didn't get to take a shower until 4pm
2. Went tanning, yes I Fake&Bake
3. Watched Alias on DVD
4. Helped Coda go potty on the big boy potty about a bazillion times
5. Did laundry and talked to Kristy

Today I...
1. Woke up and realized there were five of us in a queen size bed
2. Hung out with Kelly, Ammon and Cohen...which doesn't happen often enough
3. Spent time with my friends on CWFO, Hi Girls!
4. Fell asleep with Coda, accidentally
5. Need to figure out what we are having for dinner
6. Stressed out some more about our move and lack of a for-sure place to live
7. Will do and have done laundry and talked to Kristy

Tomorrow I will
1. Take the kids to the Discovery Museum
2. Try to pack some more
3. Do laundry and talk to Kristy(do you see a pattern)

In the next year I shall....
1. Move, hopefully only once
2. See Téa walk
3. Start Aidan in Kindergarten, not necessarily in a school
4. Turn 25 (wow I am getting old)
5. Go on my Honeymoon (only 5 years late)

Thanks Kelly for this post!

Love

Aidan is almost 4 and he has learned what it is to love! He and Coda were playing outside the other day, when he brought me two flowers, one for me and one for Téa. Him bringing me flowers is a regular occurance, but before this it was only me. When he hands me a flower I always tuck it behind me ear and he says, "Momma, you are pretty." So when he gave me my flower I tucked it behind my ear and laid Téa's flower next to her. He said, "Make her pretty like you Momma, put it in her hair." So I did. "Momma, she is so tute! We need to take a picture of her." Here is Téa with her first flower from a boy and sensing from Nick and the boys she won't be getting flowers from any other boy for a long, long, long, long, long time. FINE BY ME!!!

Scratch that!

We are not moving to Oregon. We ARE still taking the job promotion and we are still moving, but not to Oregon. It is a LONG LONG LONG story. But when it is all said and done it will definately be for the best. It is just really stressful at this point...still not knowing exactly what is happening, exactly where we will be living and when we will be moving. Please keep us in your prayers, we need them! :)

Brookings, Oregon it is.

Our new house, it is 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom,
HUGE, well I think it is, it's about 1800 sq. feet.
And it is about 4 blocks from this park



Our new address:
Lende Family
805 Pioneer Road #3
Brookings, OR 97415

 

It's official

In about a month our Lende Family Five will no longer be residents of Eureka. Nick was offered a major promotion within his company, Advanced Security Systems and we will be moving. We are not sure exactly where, but he will be working out of Crescent City, which is about 1 1/2 hours North of Eureka, and about 20 minutes South of the Oregon Border. We are heading up this weekend to try and secure a dwelling, but we did this last weekend and did not have much luck. So please keep us in your prayers.

I've been waiting...

for two things:
#1 My three to be ready and willing to take a picture together, AND
#2 for Coda James to actually say "cheese" when you ask him to.
Mission Accomplished x 2

More traumatic than childbirth...

Last night I encountered something that I will day was more traumatic than childbirth. However I was not the one in pain, it was my baby, Aidan. At about 7:15pm he and Coda were playing "tag". Nick and I were in our room, oogling over Téa. When all of a sudden we heard a scream, not a get-off-me-brother scream, but a real, my-heart-started-racing scream. I ran out to the living room to find Aidan on the floor bleeding from his eye area. Nick to say the least, was not at all calm. Coda was crying and I was trying to keep calm, praying that it was not his actual eye that the blood was coming from. I held Aidan, Nick called "E". By this time the bleeding had slowed and I was able to see that it was a cut next to his eye, Thank God! He told us that he had been playing tag with Coda and fell and hit his eye on the bottom corner of our leather ottoman. Sam "E" arrived about 3 minutes after we called and we were off to the Emergency Room, where we proceeded to wait almost 2 hours before being seen by a doctor. ARE YOU JOKING ME!!!

Aidan was in very good spirits, entertaining the fellow Emergency Room "waiters". Once seen by a doctor, he determined that it would be best if they could glue it shut. Well to say the least that did not work. So we were faced with stitching the cut. The nurses then put him in a papoose basically wrapped him tightly in blankets with his arms at his sides. He was not ok. The doctor assured me he was not in pain. He was in a panic, sweating, screaming. I was trying so hard to hold back the tears. It took Nick, me, 2 nurses, a paramedic to old him down, we were all sweating, we were using all of our strength just to hold him still. He has 5 stitches, it took about 15 minutes. The worst 15 minutes of my life. Aidan was beside himself. He is so expressive, he was able to communicate exactly what he was feeling and it was heartbreaking. "I want out of this, I am hot, Mommy, Daddy, take me home, please Papa, help me, just get me out of this place, I want to see my brother, I can't move, I am hot", all of this screaming. It went on and on and my heart broke. But once it was over he was fine, he was given a popsicle and stickers and off we went. If you talk about getting the stitches he will begin to cry, and then he'll say "the doctor said I was the bravest boy in the whole wide world". This morning he told me, "mama, 'member in the car on the way to the hopibal", yes Aidan I remember, "'member when you prayed to our God and Jesus in heaven," yes Aidan, "well God came withs us to the hopibal and made me all better." Out of the mouth of a child, he knows that God helps him, heals him and is with him everywhere.

It looks worse than it really is,
there is some left over glue mixed with blood still stuck on his face.

The doctor said, "in two months, there will be a pretty good scar, in 6 months, it will be fading, in a year you will hardly notice it AND by the time he is caring what girls think about him, you will have to show him a picture to remind him he once had a scar." I told the doctor, my baby will never care what girls think about him...YEAH RIGHT!

Nap Time

While I was pregnant with Téa I napped with the boys. Well not *with* them, but at the same time as them. Since Téa has been born, I have napped three times, accidentaly...you know the naps you weren't planning on, they just happen, then you wake up feeling anxious and worse then before you fell asleep. Well, today I will not be napping, not on purpose or accident, my sister Samantha(or "E" as they call her) is coming over and watching a movie with me. All three are napping, so I can watch a movie in peace!

My sister will probably get frusturated with me as I have some laundry to fold, ironing to catch up on and sewing to do, which I plan on doing while the movie is on. When did I become my mother?? When I was a kid, my sister and I woud get so *mad* at my mom, she could not just SIT and watch a movie, she was always doing something. I never realized that it was because she couldn't just SIT there, there was to much to be done. So now I too multi-task. A trait my husband said God forgot in him!

Our weekend in a nutshell...

On Saturday Night...

Nick and I went to "Casino Royale" a fundraiser for a local Alzheimers DayCare Center, Nick's parents invited us and we had a blast. There was tons of food, Blackjack, Poker, Roulette (for prizes not for money), but my favorite part was the 6 foot tall chocolate Fondue Fountain, to die for!!! And thank you to my mom who was up for the weekend and took care of our kids.

View from the Adorni Center, this is the Humboldt Bay and the Marina

Téa in the dress my sister ("E") bought the day we had our Ultrasound

On Mother's Day/My Birthday we went to Church and then went to Kent and Sue's (Nick's parents, well now they are mine too) for a BIG BBQ, the guys planned it all
The answer is "yes" I became #2 when this little girl was born

Yes, he is really holding her (and he is standing on cement), YIKES!

Nick's Aunt Jovoné with Téa (Téa is wearing a hat of Nick's dads when he was a child)

Téa laughing at her daddy, Nicks Uncle Jeff in the background

Aidan playing soccer, against himself!

Mommy and Baby

Mommy with Aidan
(and my two Mother's Day gifts, a necklace and a rose)

The water was just too hard to resist...

Aidan, Coda, and Jyden (my nephew) stripped down

Coda is just a little wet

I think the fun is over...

Somehow my mom is in none of these pics, well somehow she is rarely in pics, I will have to find some and post them later.