First for everything...

I went in to get Téa up from her nap today, only to find a not so exciting suprise. SHe had pooped. She was playing with it. Poop was everywhere. It is my fault, she usually wears these diapers, but today I put her in a prefold and cover. So instead of snaps holding it on, there was velcro. Never again.
I picked her up under her arms and carried her to the bath. On went the water, in went the soap and she was scrubbed head to toe. After she was clean I turned the washer on HOT and went to retrive the POOP covered blankets, sheets, baby doll and smoochie. I sprayed everything down and still the smell of poop is mixing with the smell of dinner. EWWWW!
But honestly after all that how could you stay irritated with this sweetheart for long?!

It's more than possible.

Camping with little ones that is. This past weekend we spent camping for 3 nights at Standish Hickey State Park. We had a blast. The trip consisted of 11 people, our family of six, plus my mom (Diane), my step-dad-to-be Mike, my step-brother-to-be Tyler, my Sister and my brother-in-law-to-be Sergio.
My family slept in the tent pictured above. The tent was recently purchased at Target. It was one of the best $120 we have spent. It is a two room tent, plus a screened front area. One side of the tent fit our Queen Size Air Mattress, which was for Nick, Dillon and I. The other side fit a make-shift bed for Aidan and Coda and Téa's Pack and Play. The screened front area housed our luggage and was a perfect spot for Dillon to hang out with a barrier between he and the bugs.

Some pointers for camping with little ones...
~Bring special 'camping' toys to keep them occupied and in the campsite during set-up/take-down time, meal preparation and down time. The Stomp Rocket was a hit with my kids. We got it from Costco.
~Before you leave realize that your kids will most likely abandon any type of 'schedule' they have while camping. ie. my kids goto be at 7pm and wake up at 6:30am, while camping they went to bed a tad later and got up at 5:30am since the sun was bright and shiny :)
~Pre-plan meals, it takes a lot of the guess work out of what everyone is going to eat and when, more time to have fun
~Check with the campground to find out if it is child-friendly. Is it a strenuous hike to the river? Are there areas of the campground or specific sites that are unsafe for children? If you are visiting a state park, the rangers are usually more than helpful and in the off chance you get a ranger that is a stinker, call again a few days later, you are likely to get someone else.

If you have any questions or comments about camping with little ones please ask/comment away :)

Here are some pictures of our trip and almost more importantly all the shirts I tie-dyed :)

Eating Organic Lollypops (thank you E and Serio)

Saturday @ the beach
Dillon chillin' on the beach

Sunday @ the beach Kristy, Greg, Luke and Peter came up to spend the day with us!

I can take credit for Nick's shirt, but not for Kristy's sweatshirt

E in her tie-dye

'E' and Sergio

Aidan "fishing"

Téa digging into a huge bag of chips

And the face we have all been trying to get on camera...

STARE

I have so much to do...laundry, clean, take a shower, pack for our four day camping trip. Yet all I want to do is STARE. Stare at Dillon while he is sleeping, he precious little face, the way he suckles on his paci in his sleep and then the paci falls out and he is smiling, all the while fast asleep. Stare at Aidan and Coda spinning a marble around and around in laundry basket. (Quietly) Stare at Téadora taking her morning nap, that girl likes to sleep, probably the only thing that resembles me.

Life is so short. They will be grown before I know it. They will never be this small again. So for today I will take a little extra time to just STARE.

I am 25?!?!?!?!

Yes, I am twenty-five.

In honor of my 25th Birthday I am going to give you 25 facts about me and my life :)

1~I was born at 11:45am, May 14, 1982

2~My mom was 22 when she had me

3~I was 20 when I had Aidan, 21 when I had Coda, 23 when I had Téa and 24 when I had Dillon

4~I have one sister, Samantha, I only call her that when I am mad, usually I call her 'E'

5~'E' is going to Africa for 7 weeks, I don't think she knows how much I will miss her

6~We live in Crescent City, CA, only 20 minutes from the Oregon border

7~I am a Grey's Anatomy fan

8~I miss seeing the sun everyday and sometimes I dream about living in Sonoma County again

9~Aidan will be 5 in July, he starts Kindergarten in September, he will goto this school, it is 1/2 at school, 1/2 homeschool
10~I am a Christian

11~My best friend is Kristy, we live six hours apart, yet somehow are joined at the hip

12~I was spoiled for Mother's Day and my birthday this year

13~I talk to my mom ATLEAST once a day

14~I do about 14 loads of laundry a week

15~I think we have outgrown our mini-van

16~Coda has a broken arm, hopefully he gets his cast off on Friday

17~I love my children more than life!

18~My husband works harder than anyone I know

19~He informed me that he has to drive a 'lift' across town to return it to where he rented it from, across town means driving on Hwy 101 in a lift, I think it looks something like this, but with an engine and steering capacities attached to it

20~For some reason I think it would be funny to see him driving this across town, I can't help but laugh

21~I am making Tomato Basil Tart for dinner tonight

22~I seriously need to go fold diapers/clothes

23~I want to tie dye tonight

24~I use cloth diapers on my kids

25~I think I almost peed my pants when 'E' asked me what I was doing and I answered 'washing the diapers in the dishwasher'. Funny part of it is, I was totally SERIOUS!

Fishing

Grandpa Mike and Daddy took the boys fishing in Windsor, when we were all down visiting. We will all be going camping over Memorial Day weekend, so they had to get some practice in.

Good Friends, Good Love, Good Wine

For my birthday I had two wishes, #1 Go wine tasting and #2 Be with my best friend Kristy. So the weekend prior to my birthday we made the 6+ hour drive to Santa Rosa (mind you we didn't leave until 7:30pm) to spend the weekend in Santa Rosa. My two wishes came true, all to my awesome planning skills :)

On Saturday we went to Hopland and went wine tasting. Greg and Kristy brought their youngest son Peter and we brought Dillon, so essentially we were child-free, four parents + two kids (when usually their are six) = the most child-free we will be for awhile. We had a blast! Awesome food, awesome wine, cool people-watching, sun, perfect babies and husbands.

*Special thanks to my mom and Mike who had Aidan, Coda and Téadora plus Luke for 1/2 the day, you guys are the best!

See.

See my broken arm?! On Easter Coda broke his arm. He knew it, but we didn't :( All the kids went to the park with the adults (minus Nick and I), we stayed behind at Nick's parents to pack up our car. Coda was chasing Aidan and tripped, Auntie Jess got him up and appeared to be fine. Later that night he complained about his arm hurting, we figured he just slept on it wrong or something. But then the next morning he wasn't using his left arm and when I went to put on his shirt he cried, hysterically. Coda is not a crier, so I knew something was wrong, really wrong. Off to the ER we went. We waited and waited and waited, five hours of waiting. The outcome, a broken arm! Good thing I listened to my "mommy instinct"!

We went back a few days later to have the Ortho Specialist (from San Francisco) look at his arm. He doesn't need surgery, but he will have the cast on until atleast May 18th. We are praying he gets it off that day, because we are leaving the next Friday for a camping trip. Cast + Camping = not very much fun for Coda.

This experience has been trying, Coda is usually laid back, but not lately. He has been quite hard to deal with actually, whiny, fussy, and just downright crabby. Hopefully it is just a phase and it will go as quick as it came...maybe with the removal of the cast :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

The Lende Family has been on the go, go, go. We spent weekend before last in Eureka. Our old Church gave Dillon and I a baby shower, it was so nice to see friends, family. We were completely loved on that day. Thank you all!! Then Monday morning I, with four kids intow, ventured on down to Santa Rosa where we spent 6 days. It was a wonderful trip, filled with sunshine, good food, great friends (my best actually) and lots of time spent with my Mommy, Mike and Tyler. Kristy taught me how to tie dye...I am addicted.

Then we went back to Eureka for Easter. We had a wonderful time. My mother-in-law cooked a great meal, like always and the kids ran around like crazy.

My four boys waiting for the girls to finish getting ready...

See all that time getting ready paid off!

Our Little Princess

Our Littlest Prince

All ten, from left to right, Jyden, Coda, Aidan, Dillon, Sadie, Logan, Madison, Trenton, Hannah and Téadora!

Soon I will post about the unhappy ending to our time away from home, Coda broke his arm!

Am I Dreaming?

That is the question I asked myself when I woke up this morning. 10:00. 10:00?? It can't be. I look outside...daylight. 10:02. What? Dillon is snuggled up beside me. The house is quiet. Ten am, Ten am. Huh?

I wasn't dreaming. I had slept until 10am. It was amazing, purely amazing. How was I able to sleep until 10am you ask...here is your answer. Nick left last evening with Aidan and Coda. Nick was on his way to Las Vegas for work for this conference. And the boys are spending a few days in Eureka with Nick's parents and my sister and Sergio. So I am home, home with ONLY two kids and we slept until 10am!

I am energized and good thing, I have a list about a mile long of things to accomplish before Friday morning. So far I have accomplished one thing on the list, YIPEE! I need to get to work. I have organzizing to do, presents to put away, thank-you's to write, birth announcements to address, diaper to wash/dry/put-away, errands to run. And the big question of the day, what will I have for dinner?

ETA (Edited-To-Add) - I do love and miss my three boys very much!

Couldn't have asked...

for better weather, yesterday that is. It was so nice here. After Church we were able to go to the park and play. The kids had a blast. As we were leaving the park, Aidan begged to go to the beach and good ol' daddy gave in. So still in our Church clothes we went to the beach, again a blast. Just what our little family needed, some good fun times outstide!

And here are some of Dillon at three weeks old

Now it is back to the grind, we have a busy next few weeks. Well Nick has a busy next few weeks which means he will hardly be home, therefore I will be busier too!

Let's go back in time...

to Téadora's First Birthday!

And yes, she is the cutest princess in the world!

What am I supose to do with this?

Daddy and brothers give her a lesson in "cake eating"

Ok, now I get it!

My neice Sadie, striking a pose.