Now that's an outfit...

Seriously this is the most awesomest outfit ever. Each piece has a story of its own, right down to the ball in his hand. Let's start at the BabyLegs, I ordered them, thinking the purple was blue, so he has never worn them out of the house, then we go to the diaper cover and lap tee, tie-dyed by my bestest friend Kristy, underneath the diaper cover we have a "Day at the Zoo" Fuzzi Bunz diaper, then onto the ball, a Fisher Price Roll-a-Round ball to be exact, these are Dillon's security, he actually wouldn't leave the nursery at Church without taking one with him. (I think I know what we are getting him for Christmas, lol)

And did you notice....he is standing.

Life has been busy, a good busy. We are really getting back into the groove of things in Eureka. Aidan is enjoying going to school so much, Coda is enjoying the time he gets to be the "big" brother, Téadora is potty training herself and Dillon, well Dillon is no longer a tiny baby.

We are enjoying preparing ourselves for the birth of Jesus!! Aidan and Coda are really getting into the Spirit of Christmas, they are excited to bake a birthday cake for Jesus and are even more excited that they get to eat it, :)

This weekend Nick and I get to go see Sara Bareilles in concert. Nick went to highschool with Sara and now she is a big-time musician, she is so AWESOME!! We love her music. Nick's sister Anika, her husband Bob and their kids are coming up from Santa Barbara for the weekend, it will be fun to all be together, we haven't seen them since July.

Oh and Dillon got his first pair of *real* shoes, I am in love. See Kai Run - Noah. Nick actually picked them out, boy, my husband makes me proud! Well, that was a random post. Hope it wasn't too boring...

What to do?

I have three articles of clothing that do not fit me, yet as hard as I try I cannot get rid of them.  One is a beautiful skirt that I got at GAP when Aidan was a baby, it is a Size 0 (no I didn't forget the 1 in front of the 0, I was that SMALL, actually freakishly skinny), one is a cute sun dress that I wore to Nick's brother's wedding, but I can't wear dresses, I am constantly nursing someone and the third is a beautiful Hawaiian sarong, and I just don't wear sarongs.

So what can I do with these?  I have a few ideas, but I am not fully decided.  For the dress, I want to cut it at the waist-ish area and make it into a skirt and for the sarong I want to put it in the "play-room" above Téa's little reading chair, but maybe not.

Any ideas?

Questioning Consumption.

We've moved, we've downsized, I've donated, sold, traded.  I am happy with what we have.  But I constantly want MORE...NEW...BETTER.  Why?  If I showed you pictures of my children's closet and dressers you might faint, but yet I still find new that I have to have for them.  I see things and I want them.  Not because I need them, but purely desiring to have them.  Anything from a new Gymboree outfit for Téa, to new cloth diapers, to a new shirt/shoes/pants for me, or what about a new candle or frame or gadget.

The concept of living on THE COMPACT came to my attention for the first time about 6 or so months ago.   According to http://sfcompact.blogspot.com/, THE COMPACT, is to 1) to go beyond recycling in trying to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of U.S. consumer culture, to resist global corporatism, and to support local businesses, farms, etc; 2) to reduce clutter and waste in our homes (as in trash Compact-er); 3) to simplify our lives (as in Calm-pact).

I was intrigued, intrigued enough to go out to the garage where my husband was playing music and tell him of my new plan.  He laughed.  Maybe I didn't explain it good enough, maybe he knew how much I liked going shopping, maybe he didn't want to give up buying new things for himself, maybe he just thought I was NUTS.  Well I didn't go on THE COMPACT that day, nor the next, but I did stop shopping at WalMart for a month or so.

But while I was walking through Target the other day, my baby attached to me in the Ergo, I found myself, saying OOOHH, AAAHHH, I need, I want, that would be great for... Then remembering I had just downsized my family of six and our belongings to fit into our 1000sq ft house.  (Not a simple task, but doable!)  I think how much simpler life would be if I didn't even give myself the option to buy new.  Then I think about Christmas, what would we give, would our family and friends be angry that they didn't receive the item or items they desired because we weren't buying NEW?  Should I care?

Really this BLOG is my mind talking, racing actually.  Thanks for listening.

Happy Halloween!

This year Fall has flown into action, really without me knowing it. Right as Fall began we made the decision to move, so Fall decorations were put on hold. There has been no smell of Yankee Candles "Pumpkin Pie", no harvest-y colors filling the house, no pumpkins and no trips to the pumpkin patch, that was until Monday. Monday we were able to truly begin Fall. The SIX of us took a trip to the pumpkin patch and it being #1 two days before Halloween and #2 ABSOLUTELY FREEZING, we were the only ones there, it was AMAZING. This year we opted to paint out pumpkins, WOW, I must say it is way less mess, but not quite as rewarding. We have read The Pumpkin Gospel a trazillion times this week and the smell of Pumpkin Pie candles is filling my house. Halloween was fun, we attended a Harvest Party at Church the morning of and then hung out at Nick's aunt and uncles in the evening, they live in a high traffic neighborhood and we handed out candy to over 400 trick or treaters.

Two favorites!

#1

I absolutely adore Gymboree! But just recently I discovered their Hair Curlies, I am in love! And for what it's worth, I only shop sale, I can honestly say I have NEVER bought a full priced item from Gymboree!

#2School in our jammies!
Some wonder how on earth do I homeschool with four kids 5 and under. This is how...we do it in our jammies :) We have been homeschooling for six weeks and it is going awesome. I know that we are truly doing what the Lord had planned for us...each day it just feels so right to be home together.

6 weeks down...

 

how many to go?

Homeschooling is going great. We are falling into a good routine. Aidan is loving school, Coda and Téadora are loving their version of school. I am as excited about the curriculum as the day I picked it out. Let me tell you there is so much out there, do not, do not let it overwhelm you. Easier said than done, I know.

We have been using Sing, Spell, Read and Write for our Phonics/Language Arts and Saxon Homeschool for Math. Each day we do SSR&W and Saxon, along with our Calendar, Daily Bible Lesson (usually something in their AWANA books) and reading time. Most days we also find time for a craft and an outside activity.

 

 

While sister is napping....

the brothers will have a photo shoot with mom :)

Dark-eyed Brothers

One of Mommy's tie dye creations

Huh?!

one step forward....two steps back

Over the past week we have decluttered a lot of stuff; 5 - 33 gallon bags of clothing, HUGE box of shoes, toys, misc. housewares, 1 - 33 gallon bag of toys (the boys chose the toys to give to other kids that didn't have any, and they did this without a fuss :)
It feels good to declutter, it was needed obviously, but the more I declutter the more I realize how much JUNK, excess stuff, whatever you want to call it that WE have. I have my reasons for keeping some of the stuff; another child will wear it down the road, when Téa and Dillon are older they will use the two extra beds we have. However, there is some stuff that there is absolutely no need for...I do not need 5 30gallon plastic containers full of Christmas decorations, I do not need pictures frames that I have no room on the wall for, I do not need stuff in a filing cabinet that I haven't looked at in atleast 2 years, I do not need a lot of the stuff that I have.
We are moving to a much smaller house, even though it is suspose to just be temporary, we do not have a specific length of time we will be living there. I feel like the Lord is challenging us to live simpler, to not just accumulate stuff because we CAN. The Lord has called us to move back to Eureka, to live in a small home and to make good use out of what we have. I mean what is the point of saving all of this stuff, just for the *day* that we *might* be able to use it. I mean who needs 4 Pyrex cake pans, plus two metal ones, who needs 12 coffee/tea mugs that match our dishes, plus 10 or so others that don't match.
I feel motivated to continue decluttering, to live a simpler life...I guess I fear one day I will regret giving away something, silly, silly.

one step forward, two steps back

Over the past week we have decluttered a lot of stuff; 5 - 33 gallon bags of clothing, HUGE box of shoes, toys, misc. housewares, 1 - 33 gallon bag of toys (the boys chose the toys to give to other kids that didn't have any, and they did this without a fuss :)
It feels good to declutter, it was needed obviously, but the more I declutter the more I realize how much JUNK, excess stuff, whatever you want to call it that WE have. I have my reasons for keeping some of the stuff; another child will wear it down the road, when Téa and Dillon are older they will use the two extra beds we have. However, there is some stuff that there is absolutely no need for...I do not need 5 30gallon plastic containers full of Christmas decorations, I do not need pictures frames that I have no room on the wall for, I do not need stuff in a filing cabinet that I haven't looked at in atleast 2 years, I do not need a lot of the stuff that I have.
We are moving to a much smaller house, even though it is suspose to just be temporary, we do not have a specific length of time we will be living there. I feel like the Lord is challenging us to live simpler, to not just accumulate stuff because we CAN. The Lord has called us to move back to Eureka, to live in a small home and to make good use out of what we have. I mean what is the point of saving all of this stuff, just for the *day* that we *might* be able to use it. I mean who needs 4 Pyrex cake pans, plus two metal ones, who needs 12 coffee/tea mugs that match our dishes, plus 10 or so others that don't match.
I feel motivated to continue decluttering, to live a simpler life...I guess I fear one day I will regret giving away something, silly, silly.

Fun with Yoghurt and Playsilks

Breakfast youghurt, more fun that could be imagined :)

I had to show of Téa dressing up in her playsilks. These playsilks were hand-dyed by yours-truly. Playsilks are awesome, they can be used to make pretend dresses, capes, wings, used as blankets, smoochies, danced with, snuggled with, wrapped up with, the list goes on and on.

Busy life, constant changes

Life has been busy lately. I mean we are always *really* busy, we have a family with 4 kids five and under. But lately life has been even busier. Aidan is in Kindergarten, so in September we added daily homeschool time to our schedule, he plays soccer and Aidan and Coda are both involved in AWANA. On top of that we have been praying about making some major life changes. So here it goes, at the end of the month we will be moving back to Eureka. Nick is leaving his job with Advanced Security and will be working part time subcontracting for a communications company and the other time he will be studying like crazy for his C-7 Low Voltage Electrical License. After he obtains his license, which takes about three months, he will be completely self-employed. For the time being we will be living in Nick's grandmas house (she passed away about 3 years ago), it will be quite a challenge as it is quite small, but I look forward to meeting this challenge. We will also get to go back to our "home" Church, Eureka Nazarene and Nick will be leading worship there! All and all we are very excited about this next step in our lives.

Please keep us in your prayers!
P.S. We are still working on a business name and a few other details, when we have more info we will let everyone know. Who knows Nick might be able to fulfill your video surveillance or access control or communication needs!

Wordless Wednesday

Seven Months

Dillon is seven months old, seven months old, really?! YEP. He is sitting up all on his own, army crawling his way through the house and even eating a little something other than Mommy's Milk. Last week he ate boiled egg yolk mixed with a little Earth's Best baby cereal and loved it, he has continued to eat it daily. He is by far our longest and skinniest baby, he is about 17lbs and 27inches.

Were you...

Aidan has been constantly leaving the door open when he goes out to play. So yesterday I thought I would talk to him about it.

Me: Were you born in a barn?
Aidan: Jesus was.
Me: Ok? But were you born in a barn?
Aidan: Jesus was born in a barn, Dillon was born in the car. How come I wasn't born in a cool place?

I should, he should

I should be folding laundry and he should be napping. But instead he is building with blocks and I am taking pictures of him. Well, this is more fun anyway.

seven hours.

done. finished. whew. it fit.

I thought when the process was over I would be thinking, I will NEVER do this again. But I wasn't, actually I was thinking, yeah, I could do this once a month. The day was nice, Téa was my side-kick, played with her baby and the potty on the kitchen floor, had her first experience with Playdough and took two naps (which is odd for her), Dillon napped, nursed and hung out, either in his saucer or the Ergo, and the boys were in heaven, I let them play in the dirt and ride bikes all day long. And guess what, I finished, I made twenty dinners in one day, I started at 11am and ended at 6pm. So seven hours, not bad, since I was caring for four children and cooking 20 meals. On a normal night one dinner takes me close to an hour, so hey I am up 14 hours already!

All the produce cut up, this was the first step!

YAY! One down, 19 to go.

And I am done!

I wanted to tell everyone that I do not have an extra freezer or even a really big freezer. I have a normal size freezer and I had some stuff already in it, some frozen juice, two loaves of bread, frozen chicken breasts, Eggo waffles and a few other things. My freezer is filled to the brim, but in about 30 days it will be ready to be filled again.

Happy Half Year....

DILLON!

We are so blessed to have you be a part of our family. Each day you bring joy to our lives. Your smile is contagious, you strength surpasses your age and you have the wondrous ability to warm each of our hearts!
I told Nick just last night that I don't want Dillon to get bigger, I want him to stay a baby forever. But then in the same breath, I told him how it will be so neat when all our four are riding bikes or playing soccer together.

Lord, I thank you for Dillon. I thank you for entrusting him to us. His smile warms my heart, his smell melts me, I love him more and more each day. I pray that you watch over him, I pray that he comes to know you at an early age. Lord, be with him wherever he goes, AMEN.

Meal planning squared.

Meal planning to the next level or crazy as my step-dad said. Tomorrow I am embarking on a new journey, an in-home, labor intensive journey. I will be assembling twenty freezer meals, yes TWENTY. For a long while I have wanted to take meal planning to the next level, but never did and it was for good reason. Our family is primarily vegetarian and all the freezer meal menus were for meat-eating families. So I bugged and bugged and poked and prodded the ladies at Saving Dinner and viola, TWENTY VEGETARIAN DINNERS, complete with start to finish instructions, shopping lists and recipes. Hooray!

So today I went to three stores to get all that I needed, such are the joys of living in a small area, not one store has everything you need. The kids were wonderfully behaved, they toughed through almost two hours at Fred Meyer. Then I did the next two store while everyone was asleep. I am wiped out and the preparing hasn't even begun. Cool thing... I got everything I need for about $125.

Well I am off to bed. Please say a prayer for well-behaved children tomorrow, so I can complete this task without wanting to rip out my hair, haha.

Fun at the fair.

Mommy and Dillon


So the boys wanted to go on a ride with Dad, so with Dillon already on my front, we added Téa to the back, boy did I get some funny looks!

Love the face Aidan!

We went to Santa Rosa for a week. We had a blast, the boys went to Dino Camp, Kristy and I tie dyed, we welcomed E home from Africa and had a great time with Grandma, Grandpa, Tyler and Sergio. However, like always I did not get done near what I wanted to while down there, I think it is a combination of having four kids, it taking an hour to drive anywhere and just having tons on my t0-do list.
We went to the county fair, which isn't too small for where we live and there was an awesome Rodeo. The boys enjoyed going on some rides. Dillon slept almost the whole time in the Ergo and Téa enjoyed pulling Daddy's hair from the backpack. It was a nice family day!

Splurge.

I, ummm, well, yes, sort of, well ok, it was me, I SPLURGED! I have had so many in my five years of being a mom. I have a few that serve some sort of purpose, but none that would serve my needs now. It's perfect, expensive, but perfect.

It is made by Skip*Hop. I had decided awhile back that I really wanted it, it was definitely not a need, but a want. So Nick and I came up with a plan, I get rid of FIVE bags or purses that I don't use AND I make the money myself and I can buy the $80-or so diaper bag. I met all my requirements, so while visiting Sonoma County this past week I bought it. I have yet to put it to use, but once I do I will surely post action pictures.

He's Five!

Captian Aidan that is! Each year I am in awe of how fast time goes by. Five years ago I became a mom, five years ago God entrusted this little baby to me (and Nick :0), five years ago my life began to mean something and five years ago I fell in love in a way that I never thought possible.
Aidan is wonderful kid, he is full of life, he is a clown, he likes to make people laugh, but he is not made of steel, he melts with a mean-look, he loves to snuggle, he love to hug, kiss and take care of his littler brothers and sister. He loves to pretend, one day he is Captain Jack, then the Red Power Ranger, a tiger (which according to him could never be related to a cat!), a T-Rex dinosaur...and the best part is, we all get to play along in his pretending.
We let Aidan pick where we are going to go to dinner tonight and I was shocked (NOT) when he said McDonald's! The Close's are joining us for our gourmet meal at the Crescent City McDonald's.
On Saturday we had a HUGE party for Aidan (which my camera broke 1/4 of the way through)! We all had a blast, Nick built a "pirate ship" in the front yard, the kids all had eye patches, they ran around with plastic swords and pirate bubbles. We opened presents, ate our "treasure chest" cake and demolished the pinata. All in all it was an awesome day, pictures to come!

*Aidan's shirt was painted by a WAHM (work at home mom), she is amazingly talented, if you want her info let me know!

Drama "cough".

Baby Dedication

On Sunday, July 15th, Dillon was dedicated Dillon. For those of you who do not know what a Baby Dedication is, I found this description:
Christian parents who dedicate a child are making a promise to the Lord to do everything within their power to raise the child in a godly way, prayerfully until he or she can make a decision on his or her own to follow God. Parents who make this vow of commitment are instructed to raise the child in the ways of God, and not according to their own ways. Some of the responsibilities include teaching and training the child in God's Word, demonstrating an example of godliness, disciplining according to God's ways, and praying earnestly for the child.
-taken from About.com

The dedication was bittersweet. Dillon is the first of our children to not be dedicated in the Eureka Nazarene Church and the first to have only his parents and Church family present for his dedication. However we are so blessed to have found such a wonderful Church family, we honestly feel like family. God has truly blessed us through this past year...moving to a new place, removed from friends and family has not been near as hard as we thought it was going to be.

Dillon, I will take this time to share how much of a blessing you are in our lives. I cannot imagine my days without you. You are growing so fast, already you are rolling over, sitting up like a monkey, and your trademark is your smile. Everywhere we go, everyone we see comments on your smile. It is truly amazing, it spans from ear to ear. You are a happy, calm, lovable little man.

Relate?

"Sometimes I secrectly let the milk run out so that I have to make late-night grocery run -- all by myself.  I drive slowly, put the windows down, and enjoy a tin ypiece of solitude."

-------from I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids: Reinventing Modern Motherhood, by Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile

Family Camp

I love that my kids are growing up camping. Aidan went camping for the first time when he was 4 weeks old, how cool! Each of the kids has gone camping before they were six months old and then yearly after that. I am so excited to start this tradition, well actually I am continuing my mommy's tradition.

The past weekend we went to Blue Slide Camp, which is about 40 miles East-ish of Eureka. Eureka Nazarene Church owns the camp and holds Family Camp there every year. I love family camp. What's not to like about someone else cooking, warm weather, tons of kids to occupy my kids, tons of parents to watch everyones kids, campfires, smores, fireworks and always a good message by whomever is the speaker. Also, this year Nick was the Worship leader, he did a great job! I can't wait for more camping adventures, I think we have atleast one more planned for this summer!

Three things.

#1 Aidan had a consultation with a surgeon for the repair of his hernia. We had been praying for healing and as of now, it looks like it is on its way to being healed. Please continue to pray for continued healing. We will go back in a few weeks to check the status.

#2 My sister is in Ghana, having a good time. She is half way through her study abroad. Yesterday I missed her so much, I actually called her cell phone (her US one) just to listen to her voice. Then I stayed up until 12:30am to call her on her African cell phone. It was good to laugh with her.

#3 We had a great time at Blue Slide Family Camp. Nick was the worship leader. We ate food cooked by someone else, swam in the river, basked in the sun, roasted marshmallows, watched fireworks and had a great time with friends from our Church in Eureka. (pictures to come)

Who knew...

We are a Cloth Diapering family. We have exclusively cloth diapered since Téadora was about 2 months old. When Dillon was born I had three in diapers. Whew! That makes for a lot of diapers to wash every other day. Now I am down to two in diapers full-time and Aidan and Coda just wear diapers at night. Poor boys, they inherited their mothers inability to wake up to pee.

I am always asked questions about cloth diapering. I am assuming this is because it is out of the ordinary. Disposable diapers are so easy to come by these days and honestly they aren't THAT expensive. So why do we use cloth diapers?

My short answer is this: for health, economical and environmental reasons. My detailed answer starts here and will be continued later...

Cloth saves us money, cloth makes for almost ZERO diaper rash, cloth allows me to not use diapers with chemical and fragrances in them, cloth helps decrease the amount of garbage my family produces, cloth is cute on my babies booties :)

Here are some pictures and links of cloth diapers we use.

Fuzzi Bunz

bumGenius One-Size 2.0

gDiaper Cover w/ a Infant Prefold inside

I really think cloth diapering is making a come back, atleast I hope so. It is an awesome way to protect our children, to be good stewards of our finances and contribute to making our world a better (or not worse) place to live. That being said cloth diapering is not for everyone. This is a decision we have made for our family and I do not think any less of you if you don't cloth diaper, I promise.

Have any questions about your choices when it comes to diapering your child, lets chat! I don't claim to be an expert, but I love to talk about the different options that we as mothers have. I like to call them our mOPTIONS :)

How big is Dillon?

WAY TOO BIG!

Rolling over, loving his Bumbo, sitting up like a monkey, laughing all the time, being ticklish. Dillon has brought such joy to our lives. He is honestly the coolest kid, he loves being home, he loves being at the beach, at the park, in the car, I mean what kid likes all of that?! He falls asleep in between Mommy and Daddy in seconds. But nope, he is 4 months old and still not sleeping through the night. And do I care, nope! He sleeps a good chunk and then nurses on and off the rest of the night. It works for me, it works for him, I guess that is all that matters :)

Please join me

in welcoming Sookie to our family!

Sookie is a 9 week old kitten that was abandoned with her brother and sister on the harbor at 2 days old. Our new-found friend Chris bottle-fed Sookie since that day. We brought her home on Tuesday and she has been such a good girl. She has a completely different personality than Max, Aidan was the first to pick up on that. We are stilling missing Max, but having Sookie helps with the sadness.

Promised

ERGO pictures!

Nick was my trusty model last night.  Actually he loves the ERGO, he packs Téa around in it all the time.

    

       

Disclaimer: Dillon doesn't ride around on the back yet, he fits, but we just like to have him in front until he gets a little bigger.

Loving it.

My ERGO that is. I love it, Téa loves it, Nick loves it! Téa weighs in at about 23 pounds and 17 months and honestly she is almost weightless in the ERGO. The story of me and the ERGO is not a short one. I put up a fight. I mean, honestly, how much better could it be? Could a baby carrier really be worth a hundred bucks. I am hear to say, YES IT IS! I broke down and bought an ERGO almost a month ago and seriously everyday I have kicked myself for not buying one sooner. And one of the coolest things is the ERGO is totally Daddy friendly. Pictures of Téa in her ERGO are soon to come.

We will miss you...

Max!

Max was born on March 3, 2007 and went to Heaven on June 17, 2007. Max was an awesome kitten, he was bottlefed from shortly after birth and came to live with us at 6weeks old. Although Max was only in our lives a short time, he will be greatly missed.

We struggled with what to tell the boys, do we lie, do we tell the truth. Honestly I wanted to lie, I wanted to protect them from the pain of loosing their animal, I wanted to say he went away to live with his friends or something like that. However, I was convicted to tell them the truth...so we did. They cried, we looked at pictures of Max, they both carry a picture of him in their pocket. And the are mad at the "scary wolf dog" that hurt their kitten so bad that he died. (I am mad at the dog too, for what its worth.) After we told them, we prayed, asking God to keep Max safe and happy and to help each of us feel better and not be sad. I am still sad :(