13 Years and Counting

June 27, 1998

Dear Monty, I'm really glad that we are both forgetful about our wedding anniversary - at least this year we remembered the day before instead of the day of!  You are the Butter on my Movie Theater Popcorn (and that's serious stuff)!

Love,
Your Hot Mama

Unicorn Girls

Dear girls, I hope its a long, long time before you get too old to play with stuffed animals.

I Want A Time Out

Dear Kayla, today I put you in your room twice - once for pushing Joey off the computer chair and once for shoving Jaida in the back as hard as you could.
Dear Joey, you also spent some time in your room today. This morning you threw four cars at Jaida's face. You also peed outside in the grass, peed your pants twice and pooped on the floor in your room - I guess it will take a few years for you to understand how disgusting it is to clean all that up!
Dear Jaida, you have got to understand that you are the cause of most of the fights and that sometimes I just want to say, "You deserved it". After warning you that if you made one more person cry you would be sent to your room, you were as good as gold. You even made your own dinner.
Dear Kylan, LingLing does not like it when you sit on her, lay on her, poke at her eyes, hit her in the face or pick her up.  But other than that you two get along great.

I Will Laugh...Later

Dear Joey, the other night at Jaida's softball game you gave me one of the worst embarrassing moments. Ever!
After discovering that you had pooped your pants, I took you to the bathroom to clean up. However, on the way there you started running away from me and jumping around. To my horror a piece of poop came bouncing down your leg and rolling a ways off.  There were FOUR games going on and people everywhere! I ran you to the bathroom, but there was nothing to clean up (thank goodness). So I gave you a bunch of toilet paper and went out to clean up your mess.  You knew exactly what you were doing because you took me to FOUR DIFFERENT SPOTS!!!  By the drinking fountain, gross, behind the bleachers, gross, by the light pole, gross, in front of a group of people, mortifying...  Joey, just wait 'til you get older...karma.

Dear Kayla, at your softball game you were so thirsty that you took your water bottle with you to bat.  You set it right next to the Tee Ball holder and after you hit the ball you carefully bent over, grabbed your water bottle and ran to first base.  You are one-of-a-kind and we love you for it!

I Used To Have Twins

Dear Jaida and Joey, you two used to look JUST alike! But the older you get you don't look as much alike. However your personalities? Cloned! I'm just gonna say three words: stubborn, snotty and bathroom.

Oh The Mischief...

Oh the mischief...

Dear Joey, don't even think about it! (but we'll laugh so hard if you do)
You have become so mischievous these days and also, your favorite word is poop.  I'm pretty sure you get that from Dad, and it makes us laugh every time you say it.
p.s. I think this is my new favorite pic.

The New Dog, Ling-Ling

Meet Ling-Ling, the family's newest pet.  Just so everyone knows, I am STILL against this!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day from all of us!

Glenwood Flood 2011

I took some really pretty pictures of the Glenwood flood last weekend. I know it's tragic, and there were lots of homes we passed that had been flooded but I couldn't help but think how pretty some of it was...

Everyone Watch Jaida Eat

Dear Jaida, I know this is a totally lame picture, but you eating a meal served somewhere other than our house is rare - just look at all that ham on your plate!  Did you eat everything?  I never checked back...

Dear Kayla, we will never let you forget yesterday when you killed all but three of dad's fish. I know we talked about it a million times, but I hope you learned your lesson and will always come and tell us when you think you did something wrong - then we can hopefully correct it quickly. 16 very large fish dead...and a TON of work cleaning out all the fish food you dumped in.

Dear Kylan you are such a cutie! You will sit and stare at me and talk and talk and talk - I just smile and play along because I have no idea what you are saying but it is so cute I don't want you to stop. :)
Dear Monty, leaving a puppy in a box on the doorstep and ringing the doorbell at 10pm last night was not as funny as you'd hoped it would be. It must have been your strategy to leave her with us all night and all day. I do not want another dog and will gladly give her to another home. The kids will cry for a few weeks but I can handle that.
p.s. you were so hoarse today - was that from yelling at Kayla for killing all the fish, from your cold or maybe another strategy for not talking about the dog and keeping her around longer??

Pink Teeth

Dear Kayla, I am not sure what you were thinking when you did this to your mouth and teeth.  I think you must have been watching Wild Kratts on the computer and just started playing with the marker.  You painted your lips and then colored all of your top teeth with a red maker!  It actually took a few days for all of it to fade... this picture just doesn't do it justice!

What Do They Look Like?

Dear Jaida, watching you trying to figure out a VCR is funny.  You kept pushing the rewind button thinking itit would rewind faster. ;)

Dear Kayla, you said the funniest thing today!  I was telling Dad, "My mom and dad will be here Friday."  You immediately said, "Oooh can I see them?  What do they look like?" Laughing, Jaida said, "Kayla, it's Grandma and Grandpa Sitthichai."  You spun around to look at me and yelled, "WHAT?!"

Dear Joey, I'm glad you've started giving me warnings. You will say, "Mom, don't cry. I'm going to say, 'I don't love you, just kidding I love you."  You'll repeat the phrase, I'll be sad then happy, and we do that multiple times a day. By the way, you are the first child to say, "I hate you." And you repeat it over and over and over.

Family Hiking Series

 This morning we went on a 2 mile hike with the monthly Family Hiking Series group. Last summer I was pretty disappointed in my kids' hiking ability, but today they made me proud!

Dear Jaida, you have got to start letting me take your picture, I can't get good pictures when I have to sneak them...although this backside picture of Monty isn't so bad. Ha! 
I will never actually say this to you (you'll have to read about it), but when that 12-year old girl stuck out her hand in front of you and said, "Umm excuse me, you need to stay on the trail and stay behind me so I can catch up to my mom," I rolled my eyes. You said something to me about it and I told  you that she was scared and that's why she said that. You said, "She is scared?! That is just weird!!" I guess I now know why I love my not-scared-of-anything kids...oh wait, you won't go downstairs by yourself. ;)

Who thinks this looks like me (Tanya) as a kid?

Dear Kayla, you'll never guess what you were saying before I took this picture... "This is sooo booooring!"  It took you almost the whole hike, but you eventually started having fun.

At least you'll still pose for pictures for me!

Dear Monty, in this pic you look like some awesome hiker man (that's just my perspective).

Dear Joey, you were pretty happy all day - only one tantrum that I can remember and it of course had to do with your sippy cup. You wanted the pink cup, but not the pink lid that went to it, you wanted the other pink lid that didn't fit and then argued with me when I SHOWED you that it didn't fit.

On My Mind

Dear Jaida, since it's been forever since I've blogged I just need to say a couple of things that have been on my mind. 1. Setting my alarm clock for 5am is just mean! Plus it woke up Kylan - I was not happy.  2. Listening to you tell me about every detail of your Hands-On-History Day 1, at the Frontier Museum was awesome, I'm so glad you loved it - especially since you have seven more weeks! 3. You being excited to go to a new school is something I did not expect, especially when you heard about the dress code.  We got into the van and you said, "Mom can we go to the store right now and buy me some collared shirts?" Love ya Miss J, now be NICE to your sister!

Dear Kayla, I know you don't want to learn to ride your bike without training wheels, but you'll do ANYTHING for a peanut butter cup. :)  Why is it that you are the only one that will eat?  Why do you come home from each softball game and say, "It was so booorring." All the girls came home from the Hands-On-History camp so excited and you said, "It was so booorring!"  I think that your idea of the perfect day is sitting in front of the TV.

Dear Joey, yes Dad was mean to make you think he was going to bike you off into the water, but it was funny at the same time.  By the way, you cried for an hour today because you wanted me to fold your blue and white striped blanket into a teeny tiny square and I wasn't able to.  Your tantrums are getting out of control - I think it might be funny to list them daily...
Tantrum 1: I wouldn't make popcorn or cookies for your breakfast.
Tantrum 2: I wouldn't get your milk cup for you.
Tantrum 3: You thought there was pee on the couch and wanted me to cover it with a teen tiny square blanket but I couldn't fold the blanket small enough.
Tantrum 4: I could NOT understand what you were saying so you cried and cried and cried...

Dear Kylan, Jenna loves taking care of you - you are so lucky! You are only 16 months and I put you in Joey's 3T outfit and it fit you just great.  I think you'll for sure be bigger than Joey. You are really starting to try and talk now and you love trying to keep up with the bigger kids and going everywhere they go.

Dear Monty, you are a great DAD!