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.

Sweet and Sassy

Lindsay got her hair cut at Sweet and Sassy today. I had no idea what kind of production we were about to experience, but it turned out to be very fun and cute. After a shampoo and conditioning (strawberry scented, of course), they cut her hair. When I thought we were all done, the stylist pulled out a menu of hair options and Lindsay picked a fancy up-do. The next thing I know, Lindsay is sparkly and her hair is all pinned up in a fancy bun. They sprayed glitter spray on her hair and then put glitter stars on her face. It was topped off with scent spray on her hair that smells like cake. WOW. Lindsay was quite a sight at the Kindergarten Teddy Bear Tea at Buckalew today!

(Once again I forgot my camera, so photos are from my cell phone)

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. :)

Astros Game

Friday night we took the kids to watch the Astros and the Arizona Diamondbacks play baseball. The Astros lost by a big margin, but we still had a great time. It had rained all day, so the roof of Minute Maid Park was closed. After every Friday night home game, they have a fireworks show. So, while the roof was slowly opening for the fireworks, they had a Guitar Hero contest down on the field. It reminded me of our Dance Dance Revolution contests at the beach house in Alabama with the cousins!!

The fireworks were great - way better than we all expected. I forgot my camera, but took pictures with my phone:

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.

Trip to the Capitol City

After Brandon left for camp, Jeff, Lindsay and I drove to Austin. Jeff had a state tax conference and Lindsay and I had shopping to do! We spent the majority of our time at the outlet mall in San Marcos. Here are pictures of Jeff and Lindsay at Outback Steakhouse Monday night (photos taken with my cell phone). Lindsay LOVED the attention that comes with being the only child.

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

Last Day of Dance Camp

Lindsay finished her week of dance camp with a catered etiquette luncheon. The girls put facial masks on and then applied makeup, did they hair and put on gowns. Here is Lindsay in her before and after pictures. What a lovely princess!!

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!).

Vacation Bible School 2008

This week the kids are attending Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our church. The theme this year is "Waves of Truth - Get on Board" and it's a whole beach party theme.

On the first day of VBS Brandon got an eye injury. The kids wear laminated nametags around their neck and he was flipping his up in the air. It hit him in the eye and left a red mark. We watched him overnight and it got better, so there was no trip to the doctor needed.

Today Brandon made the sweetest craft. The kids made prayer buckets and then wrote names of people to pray for on popsicle sticks. They are supposed to take out a stick with someone's name on it and pray for that person. Brandon made a stick for everyone in our family. Then I noticed he made one more - for Baby Luke Haberman. As an update, Baby Luke is my friend Bernie's 5 week old son that died of a rare congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. I posted earlier about him when he was undergoing his first surgery and we were all optimistic about his recovery. Tragically, he died on April 18th. I cried when I saw the prayer stick Brandon made for him. I'm not sure there will ever be a day when I don't cry about him. You can visit his Caring Bridge website here:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lukehaberman