Girls Only

Lindsay had her friend McKenzie over for a play date this afternoon. The girls immediately locked themselves in their room and posted this sign on the door. Too cute! Here is a close up view:

Halloween 2008

Yes, it has been almost 2 months since my last post. Let's just pick up at current events...maybe I'll get around to filling in the gaps someday. Just not today. I'm having a hard time typing (more on that in the next paragraph).

Friday night was Halloween. Brandon dressed up as Indiana Jones and Lindsay was a cheerleader. The scariest part of the night was when I cut off the tip of my finger. While attempting to poke a hole in Brandon's belt, the scissors slipped and cut off the tip of my left pointer finger. Moral of the story: margaritas + sharp instruments = trouble.

Here are some pictures of the trick-or-treaters:

Brandon (Indiana Jones) and Lindsay (cheerleader)

Sam (ninja), Lindsay, Brandon, Thomas (burglar) and Charlie (football player)

Saturday Brandon's baseball team won their baseball game. They are currently in 2nd place in their division and on quite a winning streak. Brandon went 2 for 3 at the plate and caught a pop fly at 2nd base. I have been taking a lot of pictures of his team to make an album for the coach as an end of the season gift. Here are some pictures from Saturday's game:

Jeff goes to Orlando today for a week long conference and is leaving me here to deal with election day on my own. Why do I have such a bad feeling about Tuesday???

Roots and Wings

On September 16, 2002 we were given the gift of a sweet baby girl.Six short years later, our baby girl started her first day of kindergarten. Today she packed up a pink leopard backpack and walked hand-in-hand with her brother into elementary school.

I hope that in those six short years we have loved her enough, taught her enough and savored every moment. I hope that we have given her roots. And now as I sit here in an empty house, I hope that we have given her wings and she will have a great first year of "real school".

Breaking News!

Cheese!
On the phone with Grandma and Grandpa

Lindsay lost her first tooth!!!

After it being so wiggly and loose for weeks, it finally came out tonight. She is so excited about the Tooth Fairy coming for a visit. After brushing her teeth, she asked Jeff if he would pull it. It took Jeff a couple of tugs and it fell right out. Way less drama than Brandon's first tooth. She was more excited than scared and more happy than freaked when it finally came out. We are so happy for her! What a big step for our new kindergartener. And what a fun show and tell for the first day of school on Monday.

Breaking News!

Lindsay has her first loose tooth! It's the front right lower tooth - probably the first tooth that came in as a baby. The kids have a dentist appointment on Thursday, so we'll see if Dr. Andersen yanks it out. It's hanging by a couple of threads! Ick!

Triplets Turn Three!

David as Jack Sparrow!
Lindsay and Garrett played giant tic-tac-toe

Lindsay with the giant chess set

Garrett playing chess

Dylan and Lindsay in the pit

Lindsay and Caroline on the play mats

Wow - how time flies! The Babb triplets are now three years old. They had a pirate/princess themed birthday party on Saturday at the children's museum. Lindsay had a great time (Brandon was at baseball practice with Jeff - little league tryouts and draft are in a couple of weeks).
I helped carry all of the gifts out to their car after the party and I can't imagine how long it will take the trips to open all of their gifts. If you imagine that at a normal birthday party for a three year old, 20 guests = 20 presents. Well, 20 guests at the triplets' party = 60 presents. It was amazing how many bags, boxes and packages were shoved in their SUV! Jen said they would pace themselves and let them open a couple at a time or else they will get totally overwhelmed and overstimulated. I can't only imagine there will be some re-gifting going on with some of the presents. :)

Back from camp

Brandon came home from camp last Friday. It was SO good to see him! He was very tired and wanted some peace & quiet. I'm sure two bus rides and a week with 220 other kids was loud and crazy. The funniest comment he made was about the fact that he ended up on an upper bunk.
He and his bunkmate, Will, played rock-paper-scissors to see who would get the bottom bunk. I said, "Why did you do that?" and he said that both Will's mom and I had told their sons to take the bottom bunk. I thought it was so funny that we were still being overprotective moms even when our boys were at camp! Brandon lost rock-paper-scissors and ended up on an upper bunk.
The night he came home we grilled out burgers and hotdogs with our neighbors and swam in the backyard. We watched the opening games of the Olympics and I did Brandon's camp laundry. It wasn't too much laundry considering that none of his towels made it home! Who knows what happened to them, but I made sure I sent stuff to camp that I wouldn't care to lose. I am very proud of the fact that it looked like Brandon changed his clothes/underwear at least once a day.

Camp Good News Update

Brandon left on a giant bus for church camp on Monday. And by Tuesday morning we had a message from the camp director that he was homesick. I think because it is raining so much (thanks, Edouard) the kids had a lot of downtime today. Downtime = too much thinking time for Brandon. Hopefully it will be sunny tomorrow and he'll be too busy swimming and playing on the blob to miss home.

Summer Updates

The majority of summer activities are coming to a close here at Casa Lemmons. Next week is our last big planned activity - Brandon goes to church camp for a week!! More on that later...

Lindsay finished her last tumbling class at Woodlands Elite Cheer Company last Thursday. She will start her fall class on August 7th. She has learned SO much and has really developed her tumbling skills this summer. She took a year of gymnastics at Flips and didn't learn a thing. After 8 weeks of Woodlands Elite, she can do a backbend walkover, a handstand to a forward roll and is mastering her right and left cartwheel. The other interesting thing is that she is now constantly practicing her tumbling skills: outside on the lawn, inside on the stairs, upstairs in the gameroom. You can find Lindsay doing handstands and backbends anytime and anywhere. We are very proud of her progress!

Last week the kids completed another week of golf camp at The Woodlands Country Club. Thanks to Grandpa for carting the kids to and from camp, as well as feeding them lunch and entertaining them while I went to work and the chiropractor.

Yes, I've been spending quite a bit of time at the chiropractor. The lower back pain I've experienced since I was 15 years old has flared up again. Now it is so bad that when I sneeze or cough, sharp pain shoots down the back of my legs. After a full series of spine x-rays, my doctor determined that I have a compressed disc in my lower back (L5 maybe?). An MRI would show which way it's bulging, if it's herniated and which nerves are involved. I haven't gotten the MRI yet, but that is probably the next step. I have been taking Celebrex and getting chiropractic treatment and I feel a little better. I'm staying optimistic.

On Saturday night we tuned in to the Disney Channel to watch the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds concert movie in 3D. How cute are the kids in their 3D glasses???

My sister, Gwen, sent me a cute garden flag with fleur de lis (my favorite) and our family initial (L) on it. Note Bella the Chihuahua in the picture. Bella is doing great and brings joy and happiness to our family every day.

Next week Brandon leaves for overnight church camp for a week (!), so stayed tuned for Mommy's lonely, tear-filled posts.

Updating the blog...finally

A couple of weeks ago the kids attended golf camp at The Woodlands Country Club. It was Lindsay's first year to be old enough to go to camp. She learned a lot and had a great time. Her team finished in 3rd place at the end of the week and she received a bronze medal. Brandon's team finished in 1st place and he received a gold medal. He is getting really good at golf and Grandpa says he enjoys being out on the course with him. Here are a couple of pictures from golf camp.

Brandon & Lindsay before golf camp

Grandpa, Brandon, Lindsay & Bella the Chihuahua

The 4th of July was very laid back this year. The four of us went to one of the awesome neighborhood pools in the morning. Since we have a pool in our backyard, we don't buy pool passes for the summer anymore. On 4th of July, The Woodlands opens up the community pools to all residents - even those without a pool pass. One new thing going on at the pools is that they sell Chick-fil-A! So, we ate lunch and swam and played for a couple of hours.

That afternoon our friends Jen and David came over with the triplets and we swam in our pool and ate dinner. Then we loaded everyone up and went to the mall to park and watch the big fireworks show. It was the triplets' first fireworks show and they loved it! They were in a surprisingly good mood for being awake until after 11pm. They sat in my van and watched a movie while we waited for the show to start and it ended up running down my car battery. So, of course, after the fireworks show we tried to leave and my car wouldn't start. The traffic getting out of the mall parking lot is so bad that we had plenty of time to find jumper cables and get my car started. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from 4th of July.

Jessica & Jennifer (photo by Brandon) in the mall parking lot

Caroline, Dylan & Garrett in my van watching a movie

Brandon & Lindsay waiting for the fireworks to start in the mall parking lot

Last week the kids attended Wonders of the Woodlands Science Camp. Jeff was out of town last week and it was a little crazy around here, so I forgot to take pictures of them in their shirts. This year's camp theme was physics, so the kids learned all about simple machines, levers, gravity, etc.

One interesting this that happened last week was that Lindsay finally made it through the night without wearing a pull-up or wetting her bed. I'm sure she will KILL me someday for posting this! It happened completely by accident and was a total cold turkey method. One night after baths around 8:30pm, I realized that we were out of pullups. Since Jeff was out of town, there was no way I could go buy her more pullups. So, I explained the situation to Lindsay and she felt confident that she could stay dry all night. And she did. And she has. For 7 nights now. So, I guess the cold turkey, do-or-die method was what she needed. We promised her something so super-cool that she would be motivated to keep wearing panties to bed at night. That super-cool thing was a "mini-pedi" at a place called Sweet & Sassy. Sweet & Sassy is this new girls store and salon that has actual miniature pedicure chairs for little girls. They have tons of other servies, too, such as manicures, haircuts, ear piercing, and all the girly merchandise you can think of. Also, there is a big, pink Sweet & Sassy limo that will pick up your birthday party guests and drive them to the store for your spa party. Very exciting! Anyway, on Sunday after church we took Lindsay to Sweet & Sassy for her very first official pedicure.

Lindsay's first pedicure (picture from my cell phone)

Brandon makes news!

The fishing charter we took in Alabama put Brandon on their website! Click on the link and scroll down until you see Brandon in his camo hat holding up his Red Snapper. The caption is "Nice Red Snapper Caught by This Young Angler".

http://www.getawaygulffishing.com/alabama_deep_sea_fishing_reports

I need a vacation to recover from my vacation

This week Team Lemmons is back at it.

Brandon started a week of baseball camp at The Woodlands High School. It's called Field of Dreams Baseball Camp and is run by the varsity baseball coach named Ron Eastman. It's held at Scotland Yard (TWHS baseball field - named high school field of the year by High School Baseball Coaches Association). Every day from 9am-12pm they work on fielding, throwing, hitting and baserunning. They also cover physical & mental approaches to the game.
The first day Coach Eastman shared one of his mental approaches to baseball and also revealed why his program is always so successful. He said that baseball is a game of failure. He will sometimes put a toy toilet in the dugout and tell the guys that if they have a bad play, they should come in the dugout and flush it away. Only if you start over every inning will you be successful. I thought that was awesome and that Jeff's little league team in the fall should be introduced to the dugout toilet.

Lindsay started a week of performing arts workshops at Boni's (the dance studio where she takes classes). Their activities include everything from jazz/hip-hop to tumbling/cheerleading, karate (that's "Kara-tay" for those of you that watch Spongebob), modeling, hair & make-up and social graces. She will end the week with a catered etiquette luncheon. How cute!

Needless to say, the kids are wiped out by the end of each day.

Gulf Shores Trip 2008

We just got back from our week long vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I will update the site later (after I finish unpacking and laundry!).

Golf With Your Friends

Brandon had his 8th birthday party on Thursday night. We had it at an indoor blacklight miniature golf place called Shankz. The boys had a great time and Brandon received some fun presents! This picture of some of the boys and their putters reminded me of that Three Stooges poster "Golf with Your Friends".

Here is a link to a Kodak album of all the pictures from the party. You should not need an account to view the slideshow.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=eyttu1b.2ajfwz37&x=0&y=-sgo378&localeid=en_US

I love this picture of Lindsay's face when she realizes that Brandon got a Wii for his birthday (from Mom & Dad).

I made party favor bags with Crazy 8 ball themed items in them (for the 8th birthday). Here is a picture Lindsay took of me assembling the party favor bags. A little out of focus and not centered, but I thought she did a good job holding my heavy Nikon camera!
The party was a success and the Wii is providing hours of entertainment for the kids. I also have to say that 8 year old boys are too cute for words (even if they can be so wild that our party hostess at Shankz said they were the most obnoxious party she ever had.....and that's when she lost her tip).

Lindsay's Recital

This year Lindsay took a combination ballet/tap class and for the final recital the class voted to perform a tap dance. They danced to the Jackson 5's "ABC". It was a cute dance and Lindsay did a great job! We are so proud of her!
Lindsay is third from the left.

Bella is here!

I haven't posted in a long time and a lot has happened at Casa Lemmons. We picked up our baby Chihuahua on May 17th and she has been making our lives sweeter ever since. Ooh and aah at the pictures of our tiny love muffin. She is a pound and a half of pure yumminess. And, yes, she is smaller than our Chihuahua Webkinz stuffed animal!

Lindsay is Ear-resistable!

Today is a big day for Lindsay. She got her ears pierced! Let May 8, 2008 be known as The Day My Little Girl Started Growing Up.

Jeff and I always agreed to let Lindsay get her ears pierced when she turned 5. We were all ready to go last year on her birthday and she chickened out. So, today after gymnastics Lindsay and I are at the mall eating lunch and running errands and out of nowhere she says, "Can I get my ears pierced?" I was all, "Sure, yeah - we said you could last year remember?" She says, "I want to get my ears pierced. Today." I looked at her and asked, "Now?" and she said, "Yes, NOW."

So, off we went. I wanted to find someplace that could pierce them both at the same time. First Claire's - no luck. Second Icing - no luck. Both places only had one angst-ridden teenager working there and no one else was coming in to work for quite some time. Our last hope was Libby Lu. We enter the store and I immediately notice only one employee. But this employee wasn't an angst-ridden teenager. It was a full-grown woman. A woman who looked capable of piercing both of Lindsay's ears individually and who could do a good job. A woman who could sweet talk Lindsay into enduring the pain of the second piercing while enduring the pain of knowing what was coming.

This woman delivered. She did a fantastic job! They are evenly spaced, centered and FABULOUS! Thank you, Casey, at Libby Lu at The Woodlands Mall! And congratulations to my Lindsay Fizzle. You were so brave and I am so proud of you!

Early Mother's Day Present

On Friday the kids went to parents' night out at the church and Jeff and I went on our monthly date night. We decided to have a wild -n- crazy night out and went shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond. We have been through a bunch of coffee makers during our 11 years of marriage and have yet to find one that we both like and that we don't break within a couple months of purchase.

We both fell in love with the Tassimo. It's a single serve coffee maker and is the only one of its kind that Starbucks makes discs for. We have been brewing ourselves into caffeinated wildness since Friday night. Even our neighbors came over and we brewed them lattes and coffees. We are loving our Tassimo! Happy (early) Mother's Day to me!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, I made Patsy's Chicken Enchiladas and Chico came over to play. You have to have a chihuahua in the house to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, right?

Speaking of chihuahuas, last weekend Team Lemmons loaded up and drove to a farm in Plantersville, Texas where we selected the newest memeber of our family. Her name is Bella and she is almost 6 weeks old. She is a beautiful little chihuahua puppy that will come home with us by the end of the month.

This decision has been a year in the making and has involved lots of discussion, research and begging by the kids. After the Great Yellow Lab Debaucle of 2005, our family realized that a big dog would not work for us. Our kids specifically requested a dog that was calm, small, sweet, small, calm and small. Oh, and sweet.

We are frequent puppysitters for Chico, my friend's mom's chihuhua, and the kids LOVE him. He is sweet and calm and small. The kids can easily control him and aren't scared of him in any way. He is so gentle with the kids and is a big snuggler. We are hoping that he rubs off on Bella. We are
scheduled to puppysit Chico for the last week of May and Bella may already be home. We will go from a no-dog-house to a two-dog-house in the blink of an eye. Aye carumba!

Arnold Palmer

So, my new obsession at Starbucks is the shaken lemonade iced tea. It's basically an Arnold Palmer (half lemonade/half iced tea). I got out the old Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker last night and also stirred up a pitcher of Country Time Lemonade, so I can indulge myself at home. It's the perfect drink now that the weather is getting warmer!