BIRTHDAY BOY

It is hard to believe a whole year has past since Harrison entered our family. He is such a sweet boy and we are all loving him lots. He is taking those tentative first steps on his own and will be running soon. He loves to check out everything and the girls are learning to close their door to keep him out. We had our 1 year check up today and Harrison's weighs 21 lbs 4 oz. in the 26% and is 29 1/2" long 40% and his head is in the 80%!! I personally thought he was closer to 25 lbs because he is such a solid weight to carry. He is not a feather weight like his sisters. He is wearing a 12-18 months clothes depending how they fit. His bladder reflex has corrected and he is no longer on medication for it either. We are very happy to have a healthy happy little guy!!!!

Hair Repair

After getting some advice from "the peas" I realized there was a 3rd option of doing a short bob that the short hair would "blend" into better. I was able to get an appointment in the afternoon and took Claire to have her hair fixed. The stylist also parted her hair on the other side to "cover" the shorter area. It does cover it but I am not sure if it will stay because she has a stuboorn calick (not sure how to spell that) that wants to part the other way. I do think the hair cut turned out cute. Emily and Abby are now asking to get their hair the same way!!!! I told Claire if she cut it herself again she is getting it cut like Harrison. I hope she learned her lesson and I am looking for a lock box for all my scissors!!!

Claire is bringing back the mullet!!!!

Monday Claire was making cards for her brother's birthday and his friend Toby. A little bit later when I was making lunch for her I noticed she looked different so I got down by her and noticed her hair had been cut. When I asked her if she cut her hair she told me she did it on Saturday. It got me thinking "Did I reallly not notice this for two days?" then I remembered doing her hair for church Sunday and it was all there. So I asked her "where did you put the hair?" She told me the garbage can but Sunday night I empty all the trash for trash day on Monday and I didn't see any hair when I did that so then I had her show me where she threw it away and sure enough the hall bathroom garbage had a big pile of her hair in it. I was not happy and she got punished. We recently cut her hair about 8" to clean up the ends and get it similar to her sister's, Abby like she wanted it. She is known to "take matters into her own hands" so I thought doing this would prevent her from cutting her own hair. I tell my kids all the time we only cut paper. I am not sure why this child has decided to do this TWICE. I now have to decide do I leave it goofy looking as it grows out or do I get her a short hair cut??? It is pretty short by her ear so she would have really short hair to correct this. Any advice would be appreciated!!

Storms bring out the fire ants!!!!!

I noticed Sunday while cleaning there seemed to be lots of fire ant hills popping up after the storm. Monday while in Houston I accidently stood on one that was buried in the grass and got a couple bites. Wednesday while playing outside Claire stood on a hill and had ants crawling up her long pants. Abby and our neighbor tried to get the off her but she still had some on her when she came screaming in to the house. I stripped her down and got her in the tub but she still got over 50 bites. The bites swelled up fast. The next day they turn into white head looking things. Claire's poor foot looks so painful. It is best to "pop" them and get the white out so they heal faster but Claire won't let me touch them other than putting anti-itch cream on them. she is tough and doesn't complain unless I ask to "get the poison" out.

Unlucky Ike Victims in Nacogdoches

I drove around one of the harder hit neighborhoods on Thursday (6 days afterwards). They still had lots of clean up and repairs to do. Some people are going to take a little bit more to get back to normal. It really made me realize how blessed we were to only lose 1 tree and to have it fall away from the house. Sunday the day afterwards while everyone was cleaning up their yard we had people from all over the neighborhood coming to help each other and work together. We were even brought some Cajun food from a neighbor and I had Gumbo and a crawfish dish for the first time. They were a bit spicy for me but John really liked them. One thing I realized about "waiting out" a storm is: the storm itself can be handled, it is dealing with lose of power, businesses closed, resources not avaliable that make it so hard. You truly need to be self contained to be on your own for a few days.

Hurricane Ike

Here are some pictures of Ike and how it effected us. This first one is the trees in our backyard bending in the wind. I have heard we had 80-100 mile a hour winds in Nacogdoches. The girls went out a little in the beginning of the storm. We had one tree in our back yard fall down through 2 fences. Our neighbor across the street had a tree fall on her house. Luckily it was close to the house so it didn't cause any damage. John was able to get both trees cut down and clean them up the day after the storm. We all helped to pick up depris and clean the yard up. We were without power for 3 days which is lucky because some friends down the street went 6 days without power. We made the bestof it and set up a cooking kitchen in the garage. It was like camping but we did have more conveniences.

The girls at the park

At the Park

Saturday I took the kids to the park to play for a little while. They had been asking all week to go to the park. Harrison loved the swings and giggled lots while on them. He looked like such a big boy with his new hair cut so I took lots of pictures of him. It is hard to believe in less than 3 weeks he will be a year old. Time has flown by.

Family hair cuts

This week has turned out to be the week of family hair cuts. Abby has been literally begging to get her hair trimmed because she likes it shorter. I finally agreed to get it done Friday after school. When Claire heard Abby was getting it cut she kept asking to have her hair like Abby's. I like Claire's long hair but thought a change is fine with me also. We didn't quite go as short as Abby but they still cut about 8" off her lenght. Saturday John needed to go the to barber to get his hair cut so I asked to go with to see about having Harrison's hair cut. He was look very scruffy and I wanted it cleaned up for his first birthday party and pictures. Harrison sat on my lap and let the lady cut his hair without any problems. They even gave him a cut certificate for his first hair cut with a piece of his hair attached to it. I never got that with the girls so it was very cool. We are now looking good for a little while!!

Playing outside

I was playing outside with all the kids last weekend trying to get energy out. Emily put their helmet on Harrison. He looked like a little cutie but got mad when he couldn't pull it off. he had fun riding the bike with Emily. We just need to get something more manly than a princess bike!!

Saying goodbye

Here is a picture of the girls with Chloe the morning she went to leave with her brother. The girls enjoyed the last time with her. I got a little teary seeing the girls sad about her leaving but they have done really good. They have even starting playing in the back yard again!!!