Wow, I didn't realize that I haven't posted for a year now. Crazy! So
much has gone on, where do I start? Let's start one by one with each
family member and some pictures.
Littlest first. Kyle, mostly known as Kyky in Thailand. After turning
2yrs last September, he started climbing, running, and becoming the best
escape artist. Let's just say that the housing board took my advance to
put a gate on the pool across from our house after I found Kyle and
Emma in there swimming without me. Scared me to death! The gate is
installed but no one every locks it. Now our house is locked like Fort
Knox during a training drill. :-)
After our trip to Ireland last spring (which was really cold. I will talk about later in another post), Josh and I decided that Kyle needed some socializing with other kids his age. So we enrolled him 3x a week in the same school as Emma. He is loving it. He comes home singing his ABCs, twinkle little star, and counting to 8. He is also wais now to everyone (the hello and goodbye greeting with your hands and bowing) and speaks a little Thai. I'm so proud of him.
Kyle is starting to grow into his own character which is super cute most of the time. He calls me out on my bluffs, teases his siblings, jokes around, and smiles all the time. Who couldn't love that? I can't believe that this little dinosaur is 3yrs old! He was barely 1-1/2yrs when we moved to Thailand.
Our princess ... half of the time :-) Emma is doing great in school. She started kindergarten a couple months ahead of the normal English schools because of her Thai/English school being on Thai schedule. It's like being in year round school with breaks here and there. She is doing very well writing her name in Thai and learning everything a kindergartner needs to know. Emma has her own character and shows it any time we forget. I blame my Irish/Scottish heritage for her red-headed temper. She does love to draw and can sit for hours making us pictures on her chalkboard. This is the one area that she focuses the most on.
Last year Emma had a pool party for her birthday that was themed towards her favorite animal: the elephant! She had a blast. This year she turned 5yr old and mentioned more than once her need to have a fairy birthday party in the garden (our yard). I agreed but glad I (mostly) had a back-up plan since it poured most of the day. :-)
Did I forget to mention that she was a model for an ad for a local international kids club "Leo Club"? She also got to be in her first runway children's fashion show. She loved it and all the attention she got. Ky was also asked to be in the fashion show but woke up in a bad mood and didn't like the attention with all the strangers, so he opted out. You can see him screaming in the background of one of the photos. 
Our growing boy ... Cameron. Last year Cameron was in 1st grade. He has made lots of new friends over this year and learned to accept everyone. That's just in his nature. He will make any one smile if they are having a bad day and is willing to help out in the kitchen. He will tell you that he is "a game junky" and we will agree. He will help more around the house if he can add more game time to his day. Sometimes this is great, other times ... well, let's just say that we are working on a new routine for game time. (No games on Sundays, no games before breakfast, no games before homework, and no games after dinner time.)
Cameron started school again on the 3rd floor of his school as a 2nd grader. Most of the kids in his last class are together with him. They started off the year writing stories and reading books right away. I can't wait to see what the new (and very young) teachers have in store for them.I'm excited to say that my little man will be turned 8yr old last week. This was a special year for our family because Cameron decided to become a member of our church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has voiced his decision more than once that he wanted to get baptized. We are so proud of him.Our whole church came to his baptism to see the glow on his face when he came out of the water (3x dunking!). After the confirmation, Cameron stood on a chair and bore his testimony to everyone. Very touching!
Josh. Where do I begin? Well, he finished his Thai language class last year and has been practicing every day with the local Thai Navy which he works with. He tested for the next rank, MSgt and found out last spring that he made it! He has worked so hard. I'm so glad he made it. There were some changes at the station which included Josh becoming the new DET chief and "promoting" a couple people to new positions. We are excited for this new experience. I can't believe that we only have 1-1/2yrs left at this post. Time flies when you are having fun.
Me. We don't need to hear about me ... but if you insist. :-) I have been trying to keep myself busy. I've made lots of new friends in and out of the consulate community. We do lunches, pedicures, massages once a week, and shopping trips. A group of us girls decided to take a last minute shopping trip to Hong Kong last year. We had a blast! Life in Thailand is so hard. Come visit and I will show you. You might never leave.
With the kids being in school and me having free time (for the first time in about 9yrs!), I decided to help Thai kids learn English through cooking. I was excited at first to teach what I love to do. But after a couple classes with 6-8 children ranging from 2yr-5yr, I've noticed that I need to have more patience and learn to go with the flow. Everything doesn't need to be perfect, especially when children are helping in the kitchen. My patience was also tested this summer when I ran a summer camp at the new children's club for the whole month of July with 10 children, 5yr-10yr by myself! Cameron was there to experience the camp with me. We had a blast but I don't see myself doing that again any time soon. :-)
I believe this is all my page can handle at the moment. My timer is going off to take the chocolate-banana cupcakes out of the oven. So I will say "Sawatdee Kaa" for now and will post when I can.
Miss and love everyone back in the States. Hope you come to visit soon. We have free rooms and a wonderful tour guide (me).
