Handsome Kids!

These are the outfits that my three will be wearing to Heather's wedding. I would show you a picture of Lauren in her dress, but I am not allowed to take pictures until the wedding. This was the best I could do. But just imagine how cute she will be! I am having a hard time with how grown up they are. They are really turning out to be fantastic kids.

Yes, it does snow in Texas!

This was Christmas Eve in Texas!! I know... it looks like a postcard. We were so excited! I don't have any pictures of us playing in the snow because I was playing as well. It actually lasted for a couple of days. It was amazing to wake up Christmas morning and see the snow. It snowed again today. I know some of you are sick of the snow where you live and say "so what?" But this just shows that it is your perspective on things that shape your attitudes. Here in Texas, snow is a rare, let alone on Christmas. The last time it snowed on Christmas was in the 1980's. Those of you up north will laugh when I tell you that when Clark went to the grocery store to pick up some last minute things for the house, he saw people double parked on the curb. People were freaking out trying to get water and stuff to wait out the snowstorm! (It lasted overnight!) The roads were slowed to practically a stop because we had no idea how to drive on this stuff! Clark, coming from Tennessee, was just shaking his head at the craziness. In the meantime, while here in Texas we are stressing over an inch on snow, Clark's mom still cannot get out of her driveway in North Carolina. Perspective, again.

Sorry, forgot the picture!

The Bad Parent Book

Every parent has faced this at least once during their children's lives. You know, the times when you have to tell them no or make them do something they don't want to do....like homework, baths, eating all their dinner, come in from the freezing weather, stay out of the mud...that sort of thing. Apparently, it is Clark's turn today. Alex is working on some sight words for school. He REALLY does not want to. When Clark told him that he had to, Alex pitched a huge fit and ran into his room yelling " You are a hateful parent. Find another kid!" Right now he is sitting in his desk with his arms crossed and the grumpiest look on his face. See the picture above. We tried to explain to him that he could have been done by now. Clark was told to go to Canada, I'm not sure why Alex picked Canada. Am I a bad parent if I had to hide my laughter? I really feel for him. He had a hard couple of weeks. The week of Thanksgiving we heard that my Grandfather had passed away. We spent last week in St. Louis at the viewing and the funeral. Alex did NOT have a good week at all. He even missed out on making gingerbread houses with his class. This week is great at school and hard at home. Right now, he is asleep, under his bed, grumpy and sad. I think I will leave him there with his pillow and blanket. I guess that DOES make me a bad parent. GREAT, back to the beginning!

Lauren

Is seems that someone has figured out how to take pictures with my phone. I found several shots of this little guy. It was actually one of those kid's meals toys that they were playing with. Pretty neat, huh?

Alex

This one of those times that it is better that you do not ask. He found a strip of ribbon and somehow thought tying himself up was a good idea. The look of surprise on his face when I asked what he was doing was priceless. Was there supposed to be a reason? He couldn't tell me why because he never actually was thinking about it. I can't wait until he gets older and I can say things like " What were you thinking" and realize that he was, in fact, NOT thinking at all. When he shrugs his shoulders, it means he really does not know what he was thinking. At first I was thinking stuntman, now I am thinking either magician or escape artist. God love him! He just makes me shake my head. This is a prime example of why you need to keep an eye on little boys because you just don't know what they will get into on their own.

This is his practice shirt. I think it actually glows in the dark. I guess this way you can see the team when they run in the morning. This was a good learning year for Aaron. He now knows what to expect for next year and he will be ready for the summer runs. He has decided to not run track but has been running in baseball. In fact, we think he is the rabbit for the rest of the team. The goal is to beat Aaron in the one mile before practice. So far, no one has been able to do it. He thinks it is funny!

This is why I love Cross Country! What you are looking at is NOT a tan line. It is a MUD line. He did not place well in this particular meet but he did say it was the most fun he ever had. Luckily his shorts were black but his meet shirt was muddy all up the back and he even had mud in his hair! His shoes had to dry and then be banged off to try and loosen all the mud. Yes, we did have to wash them. We also had to wash the meet outfit for the next day to turn back in. Why, you ask. I'm not sure. Knowing what I know now, I am hoping Aaron grows so much that next year he has to get a new one and not reuse someone else's...yuck!!

Catch Up

I know it has been a while since I have updated, so this will be a LOONG one.

Heather: Getting married! Yes, Heather will be getting marries to Lee on January 9th, 2010. It is short notice, but it works with both their work and school schedules. I feel for her because she is trying to do so much at once. I am afraid they will spend their honeymoon wiped out! I will let you know more as I find out.

Aaron: Cross Country is over and now we are getting ready for spring baseball. He is studying and getting good grades. I just think that he is not finding high school as easy as middle school. He is working out after school and trying to bilk up more. At least he won't look like we starve him!

Lauren: School is great! She loves the new program and she and Clark are working well together. Girl Scouts is going well. Cookie season is coming up!! Starts in January. Be ready!

Alex: He still loves school. He is just having a hard time with spelling tests and stuff. He has several loose teeth and I can't wait to see the holiday pictures!

Clark: He has had several promising interviews, so we are still praying. He is working out with Aaron and trying to keep up.

Me: I am looking for full time work to try and help make the bills. We have the house up for sale and hope to be able to stay until after the holidays. I have gotten over a case of strep throat. I always though that was a sickness for kids. Guess not!

We are all still happy and together but please, keep us in your prayers!

Hopefully I will be posting pictures soon!

Talk to you later!

Aaron

This is one of Aaron's knees. The scrape is not why I am showing this picture. We have become a Band aid commercial. " I am stuck on Band aid so dirt's not stuck on me!" The discoloration is from the dirt that he has accumulated over the day. He got the scrape at school this morning AFTER baseball!

Boys, you gotta love them!

We had a visitor last night for the second time in the last two weeks. Alex has now lost a bottom tooth as well as a top tooth, on the same side, giving him the slight jack-o-lantern look you see here. By the way, the other top tooth is loose! Do you think he will let me make him a pumpkin for Halloween? Lauren could be a black cat and Aaron could be a teenager. All three of which are VERY scary!

KABLOOIE

My computer has crashed. Gone, wiped clean, back to basics. No file, no pictures, nothing. I am sending out this plea that if I have ever sent you pictures of my family or if you have ever sent me any, could you please resend them? Of course I had no back ups, no thumb drives, nothing. I have really cried. I know in the grand scheme of things, this is really small potatoes, but it is one more straw on my back. This camel is coming close to breaking! The only pictures I have are the ones on this site. Lauren's big concern was of Elvis, our Dane. Luckily, I did post some here. Some of the older pictures are still on disc, but the latest ones were directly downloaded from the camera and then erased. No graduations, award ceremonies, etc. I really cannot list anymore because I am about to cry again. I will never forget to back up again. Everything will be in more than one place.

Lauren's life

This is how Lauren is spending her day today. She was very sad that her brothers would not play with her any more. So she decided to play by herself. I am not sure why she picked the box. I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Alex's first day

This is really the first day of school picture that we took on the actual first day. He is so excited. It is quite pitiful. I have been trying to recreate it to get a better picture, but ultimately I thought this one would really tell his true feelings. He feels a little happier about going now. His teacher has been wonderful so far. All she says is that he is very wiggly. By the way, she is pregnant. This makes two years in a row that he will have a teacher that will be out on maternity leave. He has several friends that he knows in his class and he making more. It seems like a great fit for him.

Just look at how sad he was on the first day, though.

Aaron and Cross Country

Aaron had his first high school meet on Friday. He ran with the junior varsity and placed 6th for his school. Pretty good for his first one. He's been running in the afternoon with the other kids that play more than one sport. He finally beat the one boy that was in his head all of last year. Aaron just couldn't beat him. Not any more! Aaron was at the school at 5:15 Friday morning. Yes, he was up at 4am. He was VERY cranky when he came home after school. He was a major grumpus Saturday as well. Apparently he has had enough sleep because today he is back to his silly self. I think he is beginning to enjoy running now. Baseball is still his first love, though. We will see what happens, but it looks like he is going to do both. That, combined with his course load and KYA baseball will make for a very busy freshman. He is determined to do it, though.

We are actually very proud of him for his drive.

Blahness

We are not feeling well here at the Welborn house. I am hoping it is just allergies for most of us. Clark is having problems with his gout in his knee and with the wet weather it is really hurting him. Aaron has pulled something in his hip. Lauren has the sneaky sneezes. Alex's face is puffy and he is really weepy. I sound like a boy. Please come visit and join in our misery. Of course it has been raining for the last couple of days which does not help at all. We are having a very quiet afternoon to say the least, which is why I am getting to update the blog! Hurray!

Fish

Well, it has happened! Aaron became a Freshman

and became goofy. Here is his student ID he had made at Fish Camp. He has since had another one made that is MUCH better, but I could not resist posting this one. He has

become very silly and such a goober that he is now acting like Alex. I guess they start their maturity over every time they start a new decade. The two of them go running through the house and making noises and Clark and I just look at each other and say "huh?" As a parent, you just hope he is acting normal at school and saves the weirdness for home but something tells me that is not how this works.

As far as school goes, he is in baseball in the morning, goes to class and is off at 2:30. He then goes back for cross country at 3:45. I have been forced to do my favorite past time(laundry) more than ever just to keep up with his clothes. Heaven knows you cannot keep them around until the next day! He now changes more times than Lauren in a single day. He has gotten several compliments from the cross country coach and is actually enjoying it! He did not make the fall baseball team, but the coaches are working with the guys so they can try out for the spring team. He has a nice imprint of the stitching of the ball on his knee to show for it! Thank goodness baseball is a non-contact sport. (HA!)

As far as actual academics, he is taking pre-engineering, pre-AP geography, pre-AP geometry, pre-AP biology, Spanish, and English. He seems to be doing well. He has homework every night but since his classes are staggered, he is not overwhelmed....yet. He is also in a local rec baseball league that Clark coaches. It seems like a lot, but he seems to handling it well.

He has also begun the teenage multiple personality fun. Last night he was very silly and tonight he is MEGA touchy. AH, hormones! My Mom was saying that this would get me experience for when Lauren and Alex reach teenage years, but I think that each of them will have their own individual fun with me. I am just glad Aaron is not a twin!! (Leslie) I am never really sure who will walk through my door on a given day: the silly freshman or the hormonal teenager. Pray for me!

SCHOOL!!!!

I love school. Yesterday was the first day of school for Aaron and Alex. This was hard for me because Aaron is now a freshman. Alex is also in "real" school (first grade). Lauren was set to start today but we are still waiting to get on.

Aaron is having a few problems with his courses. The school says that they never received his course schedule at all. We find it a little hard to believe because he got all his academics just not his athletics. We know they had his courses at one time because I don't know many freshmen who automatically get a pre-engineering class. Clark has been speaking with the coaches and we hope to have this taken care of by today! Aaron wants to run cross country and play baseball. He has try-outs for baseball tonight, so we will see what happens.

Alex's teacher this year is pregnant, again. His teacher last year was pregnant as well. The ongoing joke is to have Alex assigned to the class of whoever wants to get pregnant! My little fertility god! He seems to like his teacher but the getting up in the morning is hard for him! He tried to take a nap yesterday, but we managed to keep him awake!!

Lauren just actually said to me..."Can I start school yet?" I thought that I would never hear those words from her mouth!

Husbands!

It is hard being a mother of four these days. Yes, I said four and I am not including Heather in that count!
Last night I made some brownies. I told the little guys that they could not have any last night because it was too late (8:45) but that after breakfast and a shower the nest day (today) they could have one. Clark and Aaron came home after midnight and I had already gone to bed. This morning when I woke up, surprise, there were brownies missing! As I was making breakfast, Clark comes in and eats another one. Of course I hear, "That's not fair!!!! I had to yell at him and explain to the kids that Daddy was in trouble. GRRR! Why does he not think of these things! To say to them "I am a grownup" does not work for me. After he left and I had to calm Lauren and Alex down, they finally ate breakfast and took their showers. Then I was happy to give them their brownies. Clark, however, will not get any more brownies until after dinner! If he is going to act like a little guy, then he will have the same consequences.

The Cool girl

Lauren has now found a fashion hero! Her favorite is Selena Gomez from the Disney Channel. Here is why I am o.k. with that. Selena wears ALL of her clothes!! She is also a tomboy!! (which is o.k. with Lauren) Here are Lauren's new shoes!! They are really cool, huh?! She even went
to the girl department at Kohl's to get new shirts!! I think that she is s l o w l y becoming a girl and doesn't even know it!!

Fish Camp

Contrary to first impressions, this is NOT to learn about sea going creatures. This is for those students who are about to enter...gasp....groan.... freshman year in high school! This is really hard for me to type. I really remember Aaron just starting kindergarten with Mrs. Robertson and it doesn't seem that long ago. Of course it helps that Alex (mini-Aaron) was just there himself.



Aaron has his own phone now and has been getting around on his bike to his friends' houses. I am really trying to give him his own space, but I need more work. He has been to the convenience store down the street on his own with a friend. (I actually cheated on this one. I could look over the fence and watched him the whole way.)



He is too young to go to high school!! By the way, he is now officially 6ft tall and 14 years old. You know it is sad when the little guys are calling him for help with their fans and lights.

We went to register for the camp and I almost cried.. He is really growing up fast!

Girl Scout Camp

Lauren and I spent a week recently at the local Girl Scout camp. It was a twilight camp which means that you only came in the afternoon to early evening. We had a great time! Lauren actually was able to learn archery this year, which she LOVED! I was with a group of the younger ones and Lauren was in her group. Things tend to work better this way for us. We ate lunch together, though. This was really the only camp that she wanted to go to this year, so the rest of her Cookie Bucks will go towards a special something at the Girl Scout shop. Cookie bucks are received based on how many cookies the scout sold in January. This year, it was the only way she was able to go to camp. Camp can run from $20.00 up to hundreds depending on the duration and location.

We came home dirty, sweaty and smelling of bug spray. Just a bit of a hint....have someone else put on the spray. When you do it yourself you tend to leave areas uncovered. You find these areas later by the number of bites that show up. It seems that my upper calves are a great feeding ground if you are a mosquito or two or million.

The guys had guy nights and if I am not mistaken, they ate take out every night! Alex still got his shower, and read his book, so life did continue somewhat normally.

As soon as Lauren and I got home, we showered and scraped off the gunk. But it was a fabulous time!

Summer Fun

Summer here has been sooo much fun! It is HOT, HOT, HOT, just like a lot of places. However, ask my children it does not mean that you cannot go outside. I mean, really, just because it is 104 and an orange ozone alert day. Here's where my title of meanest mommy comes in. So I decided to let them go out. Alex never made it, he couldn't find his shoes (you don't love me! They are not my shoes, Alex. They should be in the shoe closet. You don't even care about me.....) Lauren was out for about 10 minutes (Why aren't you outside? Its too hot...). Aaron stayed out the longest, but even he was in several times for a drink. But you can't wimp out when your friends are down and you are playing a wiffleball game.

I have invested in Dixie cups. My new favorite. I even have names on them for the guys in the neighborhood. At one point I had to run the dishwasher with JUST cups! I had none!! Just because your cup had koolaid in it before does not mean that you cannot rinse it out to put water in it!

I just know I have earned the meanest mommy title so many times, Leslie. Last night was the latest when I made Alex clean his room. I actually had two trash bags full of toys that he refused to clean up. Lauren even got in on it and told me that she was going to help him clean up. It finally got done around 7:30. I decided that I was too worn out to cook and we had pizza. Oh I still had the title because I made them go to bed around 9:30 (Mommy, its summer, we get to stay up late! Honey, this is late.) Imagine, if you will, all the people in China looking up at the loud stompings as they headed to their room. I am surprised that it did not register on the Richter scale. We tried to make cookies as well, but when you don't have chocolate chips, you just have cookie dough. ( No, you cannot just eat the dough.) The ensuing fit is what prompted the 9:30 bedtime... and the sky quake in China. I am about to earn another notch in my crown by making them clean up the mess they made this morning in that room. I saw the floor for only one night!

Aaron has a friend spending the night tonight, maybe. It's hard, he has such a social calender. NEWSFLASH!!! We have begun to notice girls with a vengence. We went to a Fourth of July pool party, and there were two girls there and they were all trhee getting along VERY well. I found out the the girls were 16 and going to be juniors. One was valedictorian, they were both in art and honors classes. One was blond and one was brunette and they were both in bikinis. When I asked if Aaron had asked for their numbers, he said that they were older and he didn't know if he should. The girls were really responding to him. There was a lot of mutual splashing and teasing going on. I am so trying to be enlightened and allow him to walk free in the world without blinders. I think that locking him in his room for the next 10 years would be great, but for some reason, Clark has an issue with that...go figure!

We were thinking about have Lauren test out of third grade, but have rethought it due to the pressure it seems to be putting on her. We are looking for new schools for her or just homeschooling her. Her options at her school are not good at all! We are looking into evaluating her for a sensory issue to see if perhaps that is why she has breakdowns so easily. They are getting better now that summer is here and she does not have school throwing stuff at her. Its not the education, it seems to be the social and administration expectations. She is far and away above her peers academically and has been bored to tears for most of the year, hence the misbehaviors.

Alex has had a friend over several times this summer. At the end of the year, we handed out him number to all of his friends. He has had two call him. That is okay with him. As long as someone comes over to play. We are practising walking this summer. You would not think that would be a problem, as he started walking at a normal age. However, he has skipped walking and gone to running everywhere. He has been rewalking his running paths three times each. For example, he runs from the living room to the kitchen (I know they are next to each other, but he still runs). He then has to walk back and forth three times. He has not been happy. (mean mommy crown) .

We have been doing the library, park, sprinkle pad, backyard sprinkler, etc. Lauren has girl Scout camp next week (in the evening), Alex has reading camp(in the mornings), and Aaron has sleeping late.

Aaron turned 14 on the 7th and family and friends got together and we had a baseball game at the local major league's youth ballpark. He was so surprised! It was great. We had an announcer and concession stand and everything. Afterwards, we had a tailgate party. Thank you to everyone who pitched in. We could not have done it without you!

Heather has a pretty serious boyfriend and is doing great on her own! She has been around a few times to play with the little guys and to visit. She is still working and has taken the summer off from school.

Clark is still looking for a job and has had a couple of promising interviews. Please keep us in your prayers as things are getting really serious around here. I am going to try to get a full time job myself to get some money in. When school starts, I will be working at the school, maybe. If we are not homeschooling Lauren.


I think that is it. Is this enough, Leslie?

Oops!

Well, I know I said that I was not feeling well, but...... Just as I was beginning to feel better, I made a visit to Lowe's. I was supposed to pick up some flowers that they were donating to my daughter's Girl Scout troop. As I was walking up to the Outdoor half of the building, I tripped over the tongue of a trailer that they had chained to a lamp. The trailer was for sale and the tongue was sticking out in front of the lamp itself while the rest of the trailer was behind the post. I never saw the tongue and tripped right over it. I tried to save myself and stumbled several steps. I then promply took a face plant. I banged up my nose, teeth, lip, chin and knee. I actually had my first nosebleed. Granted, it wasn't very big, but to have my face dripping blood really made me shake. A customer gave me some wipes and got the manager for me. We are waiting to see what Lowe's claim department has to say, but in the meantime I have been to the doctor and at this time nothing seems to be broken. We are waiting to see the results of my nose x-ray. I am aching so bad that I can barely move my arm and my knee is giving me some problems. I have to be really careful about eating as well because my front teeth hurt. "Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?" Is anyone else wondering what else can go wrong?

Blech!

I am really feeling sick. My allergies are having fun with my body. Welcome to cottonwood season. I may not be posting for a while. Coming up we have awards for all three kids as well as end of the year events. I'll let you know later how things later. moan, sniff, cough

Mother's Day

My husband rocks in so many ways.

This is what my family gave me for Mother's Day. These are the shoes from each of my children. Clark spray painted them and put their names by each one and mounted them on a plaque to put on the wall. I almost cried! I really think that it wasn't that long ago that they were this small. They are, in order, from left to right....Aaron, Lauren, Alex.

My morning really started at 5ish when Lauren woke me up with.."I think I'm going to throw up!" We spent some time on the potty and then I set up the "sick couch" for her. She never did throw up but she did not improve. As a matter of fact, she got worse. Her head began to hurt and then her body. All along she had been complaining of her throat hurting. By about 5 pm she was running a fever. So we went to the doctor today and, yes Virginia, we have strep....again. She is sleeping now and has been all afternoon. I need to give her the antibiotic, but I do not want to wake her up. She will be out until Wednesday and we had to get a note from the doctor saying what she had so she can get back into school. Let's pray nobody else gets it.

My Sister Rocks

My sister rocks cause she is the coolest. She created this Smilebox video of Lauren's First Communion and even convinced Lauren to allow people to see it. It was so neat. At the reception, Leslie worked very hard to make sure that everything went perfect. I owe her a lot of thanks!!!

Lauren's Day

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Blogger Challenged

It seems that I am bloggerly challenged today. The text actually reads :" Here's a bigger picture. It looks like she fell asleep petting him. It also shows you how big my cats are." But have fun deciphering it if you like!!

Here's a bigger picture. It looks like she fell asleep petting him. It also shows you how big my cats are.

Very sad :(

When you are sick, its nice to have someone to cuddle with and Simba is always up for some loving. When they are still, that is. He stayed on the couch with her all afternoon while she took that nap she wasn't tired for.

Welcome to stomach bug central

Yes, we have germs!! The last week or so, we have been battling a stomach bug around the house. I started it mid week last week and it has travelled the family. Lauren had it on Sunday and had to miss the Girl Scout Day at the ballpark. The whole troop went and got to walk the bases. We gave our tickets to a few boys from Aaron's ball team so they did have fun with them. This friendly little bug only seems to last a day so she was good to go for Monday. Monday night, Alex started getting sick so we were up all night with him. We have a "sick" couch that we use because it is so much easier to clean up hardwood floors than carpet. Tuesday, we had planned for Alex to stay home, but Lauren began with the loose bowels and so did I (again). In the meantime, Aaron is still going to school fighting it and Clark is as well. So, don't come to visit!! Stay away, far away!! But we love you!

Over due

And no, Leslie, I am not talking library books!!

As some of you know, Lauren has been having a really hard time in school recently. Her grades are excellent, she has just been having some behavior issues. We are trying several things both at home as well as at school. We went to a two day evaluation at UNT that really gave us some great information as well as a few strategies to help. At school, she is on a behavior chart where she gets a mark for each time she has trouble with her four goals. It has been going really well the last several days, and then Monday we had a setback. It may have been all the stimulation from Easter, etc. I am hoping that the school takes into consideration all her good days when deciding on a consequence. We have been butting heads with the administration over some issues and hope that things will go well. There does seems to be a disparity with consequences. But, through it all, Lauren's teacher has been great with working with us. We LOVE her!

The boys have started baseball. Alex is in t-ball and Aaron is in city ball. He is too old for Little League. Alex has had two games and there is nothing funnier than t-ball, unless it is peewee soccer. We have one little girl on our team that just bypasses home plate. She rounds third and goes straight into the dugout! I mean really, it IS on the way. Why have to backtrack? Alex is the best dirt digger on the team. There is not a pile of dirt out there that he has not dug at! He has made a couple of great stops, but it is so much faster to run the ball in rather than throw.

Aaron has hurt his knee. We are not sure if it is from baseball or from track. He has been wearing a brace to help. The Dr. took an x-ray and did not see anything, but we are being careful anyway. He is now 5' 11" tall and is still only about 110 lbs. We really do feed him, a lot! He likes being able to almost put his chin on top of my head. There are several young ladies who think he is cute, but he has very little interest in any kind of romance. Which, as a mom, I am o.k. with! One brave young thing actually asked him out yesterday. Well sort of!! She asked his friend to ask Aaron if he (Aaron) wanted to go out with her. Aaron, being the kind of guy he is, just said no. Now the young lady in question is not speaking to him and won't even give him a chance to explain that he only likes her as a friend. This poses a problem because she comes to my house for after school care. I stepped in and told him to talk to her the next time she was at the house and if she did not want to listen, then I would step in. She then came by the house later that afternoon and I spoke with her then. She said she was upset because she had never been rejected before. I felt like telling her "you are only 13. Get a grip" But I refrained. Aaron is still going to talk to her and we will see what happens. I think this is a great learning opportunity for him. He already knows that he does not want to date her because she has a new boyfriend almost every week. He also knows that he does not want a girlfriend who is all "prissy" or into makeup and hair and "stuff". He knows that he wants to be friends more than girlfriend, which as I have said before, is o.k. with me! He has plans for MIT. Lets hope he stays focused.

Heather has apparently been in China where there are no phones. She has moved out and is still going to school and working. We have seen her once, maybe twice to pick up her mail. I imagine if she was missing we would hear from someone. We know her phone is still working, because we call her regularly. She just must be so deep into the mountains that she does not get the messages! While I am glad that she is doing so well on her own, a middle ground would be nice.

I am listening to my cat snore next to me and I have to get ready for work, so that is all for now!
XXOO

Hidden treasures

You never know what you will find in my house.....

This happens to be the biggest LEGO in the world!

Princess Lauren

here are some great pictures of Lauren taken this past week. There is hope yet of a little girl!

I know that it has been a while since I have posted anything, but we are in the middle of something and I promise to catch you all up soon.XXOO

Dad got me, again!

Here is another little something from my dad. It is really fantastic!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNK6h1dfy2o

A two kleenex!

Milestone

We have reached a HUGE milestone here at the Welborn house. Lauren has sucked her thumb since about two weeks old. She never wanted a pacifier and would only suck her thumb. We knew this would be an issue when she grew older as far as quitting, but as we all know, Lauren is VERY strong-willed (even as an infant).

Well, we told her that when she was eight, she would have to stop. We even gave her the option to cut down at the time (about 4 months ago) or quit "cold turkey" on the day of her birthday. She chose the night of her birthday. That night we started with "Thum" which is a solution to coat her thumbnail. It is spicy and does not taste good at all. She did NOT like it. She even tried to snow Clark into painting the wrong thumb. (It only worked once!)

Lauren actually accused Clark of painting her tongue at one point. We tried really hard not to laugh at her. She was serious. We would catch her running to the nearest sink, followed by the sound of rapid spitting. Woe to anything that may have been in said sink at the time.

Tonight, however, we have reached the end. She has not tried to suck her thumb for several days and had not realized that we had not painted her thumb for several days as well. She is not feeling well and asked if she could suck her thumb just for tonight. I told her to give it a try and see how it felt. (with ulterior motives, knowing what would happen) She tried and took it out and tried again. It got really quiet and here's what happened:

Me: What's the matter?
Lauren: It does feel right.
Me: You don't want to suck it?
Lauren's Thumb: But I want her to suck me.
Lauren (through tears): It doesn't work anymore. I want to suck it, but my mouth has grown up but my thumb has grown down.
Me: I guess you don't need it anymore.
Lauren: Why didn't you put me on a pacifier or stop me earlier. This way I wouldn't remember it.

It was really hard not to feel sad with her at this point. We snuggled a bit and she ultimately did go to sleep.

Sometimes its hard to grow up and be a bigger guy..

The Cave

Now that Heather has moved out, Alex has gotten his room back. Clark and Aaron built a bed to end all beds. It is tall enough for Alex to sit under it and not hit his head. There is a nightlight under there so they can play. The entrance to the "Cave" is made form two pillowcases hung on end. Lauren and Alex play under there and sleep under there. Today, Lauren had two friends over and the next thing I know they are telling ghost stories under the bed. My nephew was here earlier and the three of them were very funny. One of them was under the bed, eating the others (pulling them under the bed). The ones being "eaten" were being VERY dramatic, yelling and moaning. It was hilarious. The only incident so far was the leaping from the LEGO box to the bed and not making it. There was some pain involved then so maybe a lesson was learned. (I can hope, can't I?). We need to make one addition. We need to get stairs so Alex does not have to leap in, though I do think he likes that part!

Fire

So, I am not able to use my oven yet. Several days ago, we had tacos (homemade) and my husband decided to heat up the crunchy shells in the oven on the racks. It seems that the bottom rack was too close to the burner. When we saw the flames, we became concerned. We, of course had an extinguisher and were able to put it out without any damage. However, it has taken us several days to get all the extinguisher residue out of the oven. I am not comfortable with cooking in there while there is even the chance of something being left. All our meals have been on the top of the stove or bought. What fun. I am not griping, but my husband is home. He is not working. He could be taking care of this stuff. I am working, part-time mind you. Then, picking up carpool kids and snacking them, separating them, homework, etc. Keeping up with the laundry, dishes, and on and on and on. GRRRRR! Oh, well...deep breath and back to the business of life.
XXOO

Tag, I'm it

8 TV shows i watch
1. House
2.In Plain Sight
3.The Today Show
4.Phineas and Ferb

5. Hallmark Movies
6. Lifetime channel

7. Do I have time to watch?
8. I don't have TIVO
8 favorite restaurants
1.sushi

2. hibachi
3 .Abuelo's
4. On the Border
5. Chili's
6 .Taco Bueno
7 . Arby's
8. Braum's
8 things that happen to me today
1. See previous blog

2. Scheduled a 504 meeting for tomorrow
3. Went to work at the school
4. got homework for Valentine's party
5. blogged the tape story
6. printed off some colorblind info
7. picked up carpool kids
8 . sent my husband out for dinner. (see next blog)
8 things i look forward to
1. bedtime
2. my husband getting a job
3. spring break
4. being able to take my little guys to Disney
5. things to slow down
6. the end of girl scout cookies
7. baseball season to start
8. my laundry to be ALL done
8 things i wish for
1. full time school
2. patience
3. a stress- free house
4. my children's happiness
5. enough money to retire
6. Lauren to find her way (in life)
7. Alex to be safe (from everything)
8. Aaron to get through teenage years with as little angst as possible
8 people i tag
1. Leslie ( who already tagged me)
2. Renee (who won't blog anymore)
3. I
4. don't
5. know
6.anyone
7. else
8. to tag

If you want to answer back, blog, or email, or respond to this and copy, paste

Question of the Day

So I look up and ask: "Lauren, why do you have a ball of blue tape?"

Answer: "I had to take it off Alex."

LOONG pause.

Big sigh...Shake of the head

Background: When Heather moved out, we decided to move Alex back into his room. Aaron is VERY excited!! It seemed to be a perfect time to paint the walls now that the room was empty. Clark is in the middle of painting, so there is blue painter tape laying around.

Back to the fun....

It seemed that Alex thought it might be fun to tape himself up. It was him... he did admit it. When asked why on earth you would want to tape yourself up, he just shrugged his shoulders.

I don't think that he taped himself to anything, but Lauren did have to peel tape off of him. Now, to be honest, I am sure that she had a certain amount of fun peeling him.

Why do I think that this will not be the last time that something strange like this happens in my house??

Hey, you wanna buy some cookies?

We got a bunch of different kinds.... Just let me know and they ship well. Lauren is trying to sell 2000 boxes. The troop wants to go to Sea World with the money we earn. I'll let you know how close we get.

Here we are at Grandmommy's house. Lauren, Alex and Bryson are all playing Kirby on Lauren's new DS lite. It was very cute to see the serious faces as Lauren explained how to play. Grandmommy did not seem to care that she had no idea what they were talking about, but she seemed to enjoy herself.

Catch-Up

It has been a while since I have been able to blog, so let's play catch-up:

Christmas was great. Nobody was sick and Heather even made it to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner with the family. The kids received what they wanted from family and Santa and even Mom and Dad each surprised each other with a special gift. Some tension at G'ma's and G'pa's but we moved on. New Year's was spent quietly with just us. Right after, we went to Grandmommy's and had a good visit with her. Clark's brother and his family were also there and after a few minutes of typical working things out, the cousins were great friends. I hope to post pictures at some point.

My birthday was fantastic. Santa had brought a fondue set for me and Clark and Aaron went out and got a whole lot of stuff for dinner. Lauren and I went to a Girl Scout meeting that night and the girls made cards for Mom and I and the troop got us both gift cards. It was very sweet. When we got home, we all had cheese fondue and then seafood, beef, and chicken with stuffed mushrooms. Clark made several different sauces and dips and it was FANTASTIC!! He is amazing. As if that was not enough, the following Saturday, he sent my mother, sister, sis-in-law and I to a spa for a haircut, manicure and pedicure. It was sooo nice.

Also in January, we started selling Girl Scout Cookies...... want to buy some?? I am also planning a Star Wars Clone Wars birthday party for Alex, a Webkinz party for Lauren and coming up is First Confession and First Communion for Lauren. So as you can see, I may not be one much during the next several weeks. I promise pictures at some point. Until then, XXOO