Twist and Shout

On Wednesday night @ 10:33pm Elijah Joseph was born and I there. My best friend Kristy was so amazingly strong during the whole labor and birth. I am so blessed to have been able to be there from start to finish, only sneaking away a few times to nurse Dillon. Thank you Kristy and Greg for allowing me to be a part of Elijah’s birth

We have been strong these days, here are a few things we have done in the past few weeks:

-Dillon and I went to Santa Rosa for my best friend Kristy’s baby shower, Nick stayed home with the other three

-Soaked up the nearly 70degree weather in Humboldt County

-Planted seeds indoors

-Spent many hours “spring cleaning” the yard, still in process

-Rearranged the living room

-Spent time dreaming of adding onto this tiny house

-Found out that two family-ish members are pregnant, both have had losses, so lots of prayers going their way

-Dillon started walking, YIPEE!

-Aidan can read pretty much anything that is 6 letters or less, it is kind of crazy

-Téadora is compleltly day time potty trained

-Aidan is completely diaper free, he was day time potty trained at 2 1/2 but has worn a diaper to bed for until now

-We are still COMPACTING and going strong

Alright, I promise I am going to be better about blogging

Today he turns four. Weird though, he doesn’t seem four, I mean he acts four, does things a four year old would do, but then he looks at me and he is a baby in my arms. Only its better now, he doesn’t scream all the time.

Coda loves being outdoors, loves digging, hammering (he can hammer a nail in better than I can), is obsessed with tools and I mean OBSESSED. He does not love sitting still, reading, watching tv, however his attention span is lengthening. Coda has the most amazing dimples and smile, he has a passion for life and when something doesn’t go his way he will let you know.

For his birthday he wanted to go to the beach and fly kites. So we did. He was interested in flying kites on his birthday for FOUR months leading up to the day, the 10 minute drive to the beach and about .2 seconds once we arrived, then he was on to something else…finding rocks and throwing them in the ocean and digging.

After the beach we came home and had a family party. Coda is on a gluten-free, casein-free diet, so everything at the party followed his diet, even the cake and frosting. It was mighty yummy indeed.

What a wonderful and beautiful day. The kids were amazing, considering they were going, going, going for the entire day. Our day began with a Brunch @ Church, then Church, then an Easter Egg Hunt at the Ingomar Club, then a quick drive to pass some time, then an afternoon meal at the Ingomar Club, then to the cemetery to lay flowers on Grandpa Caroll’s, Grandma Oma’s and Ricky’s (Nick best friend who died @ age 15) graves, then back to Nick’s parents to open Easter presents from Grandma Lende to the kids. Oh and in there while the adults and the babies were still at the Ingomar, Aunt Nonie (Nick’s aunt) took the bigger kids on yet another Easter Egg hunt. And we continued the festivities tonight with a big family dinner, ANOTHER Easter Egg hunt and opening of Easter presents from Nick’s parents to the kids.

Sunday morning was beautiful, sunny and bright, just as I imagine it was on that first Easter Sunday. I am so thankful for our Lord, Jesus Christ for coming and dying and rising again so that we may LIVE.

I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full. John 10:10b

Atleast they are all sitting on the same couch, right?!

The sun was bright!

Just the 10 of us! (Easter 200

Today Yesterday I made a quick stop at St. Vinny’s for a few things. I was looking for some small bowls for the kids, we use to have a bunch, I think they eat them :), a travel coffee mug for Nick, he loses them frequently and a hair dryer, mine is on the outs!

So I didn’t find any bowls or a hair dryer, but I did find a travel coffee mug for Nick, a brand new Starbucks Travel Mug for 89cents! And then the Lord truly blessed me. I found a milk crate full of cigarette-lighter adapters, like for to charge your cell phone in your car or plug in your Travel DVD player. We have been without a plug-in for awhile now, even our last trip to Santa Rosa (4 hours away) we went with no DVD player, because we are Compacting and we couldn’t buy one new.  So I ran out to the car got my DVD player, brought it into the Thrift Store and started trying different ones, after about 12 tries I found one that fit for $1.99.  (And yes it works, DVD’s now play in the car again.)  Then I was walking to the register because I had overdone my “just 5 minutes” by like 15 (Nick was in the car with the 4) and I saw a handheld shower head.  I needed it.  It was 99cents and made me so excited.  See our shower is not really a shower it is a bath with a handheld shower head taking water from the bath faucet and bringing it up to shower height.  Ours was broken, not so broken that we couldn’t shower, but broken enough that water sprayed EVERYWHERE!

So for $4.15 Nick has a brand new travel coffee mug, the kids can watch DVD’s on long drives (I will be sane-ish-er on our next out of town trip) and we have a amazing new shower head.  Thank you all you Eureka-ians for your donations to the thrift store.

and we are still on THE COMPACT. I haven’t been to Target in over a month and the last time I went it literally made me feel sick, all that stuff, it was just too overwhelming. We have made some amazing purchases at Lots for Tots PLUS The Clothing Closet, here in Eureka. Cool thing is you take clothing and toys and stuff there, they go through it, tell you what they want or don’t want, then you get credit to their store, wooohooo! Also, for Dillon’s Birthday, he got a $20 Gift Certificate to Lots For Tots, thank you friends who are support out Compacting.

We are what 13 ish weeks in (out of 52) and already our mindset is changing. Something so cool happened just the other day; Aidan and I were having a conversation about him not wearing diapers to bed anymore (yes, he is 5 1/2, we have wetting the bed issues in this family, I was a bedwetter, Nick was a bedwetter, our children are DOOMED!), I asked him what he thought he would deserve if he didn’t pee in his bed one night, two nights, forever, he replied “how about a toy at the $ store (for one night), no wait I want a toy from that place I found the Knight toy.” That place he found the Knight toy is the St. Vincents Thrift Store. So with two nights of not wetting the bed we are off to St. Vinny’s today for Aidan to rummage through the 25cent donated toys, YES! The things that make a Compacting mom’s heart melt.

I am so darn excited (an nervous, yes definitely nervous), the MOPS group of Eureka, has asked me to speak about The Compact, about my journey and about how others can benefit and join in.  So I have been researching how The Compact has affected others that have participated and I found an awesome article by Environment Reporter, Catherine Porter, about compacting and consumption, a great read, Catherine also has a blog, The Green Life.  She writes about a one week Compacting Challenge in this blog, check it out.

Welcome to Twist and Shout! Come join in all the fun! Head over to 5 Minutes for Mom and find out all of the great prizes you can win over the next week!

I am Stephanie, mom of Aidan (5 1/2), Coda (almost 4), Téadora (2) and Dillon (1), wife of Nick and child of God. I am SAHM who loves to be crafty in my free time (what’s that?)! I love tie dyeing, hair bow making and digital scrapbooking. I spend my days cloth diapering, making homemade laundry soap, babywearing, sneaking healthy foods into my children, blogging and reading pretty much anything pertaining to babies, birth, breastfeeding, homeschooling and parenting. We are a family that loves to recycle, spend time out doors and eat green smoothies. In January we embarked on a year long journey of COMPACTING!

I am giving away a Custom Tie Dyed Layette Set, here is an example. It is #27 on The Ultimate Blog Party 2008 Prize Page.

If you want to see more of my Twist and Shout Tie Dyed Creations, check this out, to see what I currently have available for purchase look here and to see what I have available to custom tie dye look here.

Thanks for stopping by!

There are so many amazing prizes being given away, I would love any of them.  But I have a few favorites.

1. Noah’s ABC Stacking Blocks (#85)

2. A Blog Makeover (#67)

3. 3 Tier DiaperCake (not for me, for my BF Kristy) (#6)

Really, though, I just like winning, so any prize will do, hehe!