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 :(

She doesn't terrorize him.

I was told many negative things about having my kids so close together. Sometimes I got hurt feelings, sometimes I laughed and sometimes I wanted to scream at the person. Téa loves Dillon, Dillon loves Téa. I really don't think an explanation is needed, the pictures tell it all. I am not saying it is always like this, there are crazy moments. I mean come on I have four kids ranging from 4 1/2 to 4months...how could it not be crazy, at least sometimes.

Through all the chaos, there is a calm. A calm brought to our family by our Lord. He is the one who gave us our children, the children that are "so close together". He is the one that entrusted us with their lives, He is the one that gave us the joy of raising them, He is the one that allows me to be kissed and hugged by them each day and He is the one that gives us the strength when we think we can't go on. He is the ONE.

More Tie Dye!

Yipee!

I went out on a limb today. And surprisingly enough the limb didn't break.

I am a regular at DiaperSwappers. More often than not I have been frequenting the forums to add to my stash of cloth diapers and various accessories :) A few times I have sold some diapers that we no longer used or didn't work for us. But today I tried something new. I decided to put some of my Tie Dye up for sale in the WAHM (Work at Home Mom) Wares forum. Holy Moly! I have gotten such an awesome response. So far I have sold NINE shirts! I am so excited. I am selling the shirts for not a large profit, because more than anything I just want to make enough money to buy the shirts and supplies and then I get to Tie Dye at someone else's expense. As I continue to perfect my designs, I hope to be able to charge a little more...a girl can always use some extra money!

So thank you to the mama's who liked my Tie Dye enough to buy it. I can't wait to see those shirts on all your little ones!

Possibly addicted...

to tie-dyeing. It is therapeutic. It allows me to complete something other than dishes and laundry. And tie-dyeing is awesome because there is a something to show for what I have done...a finished product.

When Kristy first taught me how to tie dye it was hard.  Not the actual tying or dyeing, but the fact that no matter how hard you tried, you really didn't *know* exactly how the shirt was going to turn out.  If you know me and my ways, that was hard for me!

 I get all my tie dye supplies from Dharma Trading.  They have everything you could possibly need.  Plain white clothes, dyes, squirt bottles, syringes and on and on.

 

 

 

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 :)

So cool.

For Nick's birthday he got something he has been wanting...well pretty much forever. It is essentially a mini-recording studio. So for the past few weeks I see very little of Nick in the evenings. Last night he came inside with a few songs on a CD. I went to work and created him a Myspace page. It is totally still in the works. But I had to share.
The songs are available to be your profile songs. And ask Nick to be your friend...it would make his day, hehehe.

~Nick Lende Music~

Decluttering...

a ton of my clothes that don't fit anymore. Plus, I am trying to make some money to buy this. Check back later for purses and different size "bags" that I will be selling, I have to purge FIVE in order to buy my new bag :)

~All clothes are in EUC (Excellent Used Condition), some NWT (New With Tags).
~Shipping is in addition to prices, I will find cheapest shipping for what you purchase
~Purchase 7 items or more and receive FREE SHIPPING
~Please email lendefamily@gmail.com for more information, pictures or to make offers
~Clothes are all clean, although some have been in plastic bins for storage

Pants~Capris~Skirts~Dresses

Shirts~Long Sleeve~Short Sleeve~Tank

Sweaters~Jackets~Scarf

Thank you for looking :)
If you know anyone who might have interest in these items, you can refer them to my blog.

Changing slowly.

For the past six months or so I have been on a mission to simplify mine and my families life and strive to attain a healthier family. My main task in simplifying has been decluttering - still have tons of junk, but less than we use to. To become healthier, I have been doing a lot of research and reading, one book imparticular has been Nourishing Traditions. As we run out of something, we are examining whether there is a better/healthier alternative. First we started using Whole Organic Cane Sugar, instead of white sugar, brown sugar or any other sweetener. We have also switched from using antiperspirant deodorant to using Burt's Bees Herbal Deodorant.

Although these changes are coming along slowly, I believe it is for the best. We are consciously making the decisions after a lot of research, guidance, thought and prayer. Making the changes slowly will hopefully inhibit the burnout factor. You all know what I am talking about...you jump into something full-force, it sounds neat, it is exciting and then you burn out. I am trying to avoid that :)

Bon Voyage

I have one sister. Samantha Marlene Rehe. She was born August 6, 1986. Honestly she bugged me while I was growing up...honestly she is my best friend now. Samantha has had and still has many names - here are a few, Sam-Bo, 'E', Sammie, Seester, Sam-wham-callahan, Chubby Cheeks.

'E' is growing up. Last Friday 'E' and Sergio were engaged (finally!) CONGRATS, HUGE CONGRATS. This Friday I said good-bye to my Seester. 'E' is going to Ghana for SEVEN weeks. She is studying at a University there. I look up to 'E', she has taken life on and she is winning. She is double - majoring in International Studies w/ a Focus on Africa and the Middle East AND English AND she is minoring in French. I mean seriously, who does that?!

So Seester, have fun, enjoy every minute, we will all be waiting for you to return, but please embrace your journey with and open mind and open arms. We love our 'E'!

P.S. Remember your mission :)