TO MY FAVORITE LITTLE SISTER

Dear Kimberly,

Happy Birthday!!!!

I wish I could be there to celebrate with you.

We (especially me) miss having you around.

I hope you are having a wonderful day.

Cheers to this next year being fabulous!

Kiss, hug, hug, Kiss, hug, Kiss, Kiss!

And 23 spankings from each of us (Me, Kurt, and Brooklyn)! That's right! Go spank yourself 69 times!!!

And a pinch to grow and inch.

I love, love, love you!

Sincerely, Lori

ONE ARMED BANDIT

Dear Brooklyn,

How did you manage to get one arm out of you pj's?

Silly girl.

Sincerely, Lori

CHASING SLEEP

EATING A BOWL OF CEREAL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Dear Kurt,

Hours after we climbed into bed I was still lying in bed with my eyes wide open, nowhere near sleep.

I couldn't shut my brain off. I needed a mindless distraction. I decided to count to a billion.

Yes. One billion. I had to fall asleep before a billion, right? right!

When I got in the hundreds my mindless distraction became anything but. Do people usually say one hundred AND thirty or just one hundred thirty? If I leave out the and's then I'll get to a billion a lot faster. Maybe I can just count to one hundred over and over a million times. That would equal a billion, right? No.... let's see... one billion... take away two zeros... stupid math. Never mind, I hate counting. No more counting.

Ok then. How about abc's. Singing the abc's could definitely be mindless. I made it through a few times.... This is boring. But that is suppose to be the point. Maybe I could mix it up a bit. A... A,B... A,B,C... A,B,C,D... but now I had to use my brain to remember what letter I left off on. Ditch that idea.

Maybe if I think of falling down an endless black hole. Yes. This will do. *slurp*. I started drooling. I'm not even asleep yet! It's because I'm sick and can't breathe properly through my nose... But the drooling is distracting my falling down my deep dark hole into sleep and now have to turn my pillow over. I will try breathing through my one working nostril. Okay... I'm falling again. *sniff*. Dang. Now my nose is leaking.

I give up.

I wake you up and ask if you want to go watch some tv with me. You don't. So off I go to the living room all by my lonesome. Nothing could work better then some stupid infomercials to lull me to sleep. But I never did finish watching Lie To Me.... Maybe that could get me to sleep.

I wish.

What else could I do? Sometimes after I eat a lot I get sleepy. Or maybe that is only on Thanksgiving?? I can't be sure. It's worth a try so I gobble down a huge bowl (or two) of cheerios while I watch Cal Lightman get himself locked into a metal institution. Yum! (the cheerios, not Lightman.)

Then Brooklyn wakes up. Did she hear the tv? crap. So I put Brooklyn back down.

Now I am sitting in a quiet living room with your laptop on my lap. If I can't sleep I might as well write about not sleeping. I hate not sleeping. But I love writing.

Hey this is working. I'm getting a little sleepy. I guess I'll go snuggle up to you in bed and hope for the best.

Wish me luck.

Sincerely, Lori

THE ONE DAY I LEAVE MY BEDROOM DOOR OPEN

Dear Brooklyn,

I was sitting on the couch reading when I realized you were being way too quiet.

Oh boy.

I mentally scanned the house.

Office door open, you could be unplugging the computer along with who knows what else but you have never unplugged anything before and there isn't anything else to bother in there.

Your bedroom door open. Not much to harm in there, but I made a mental note that if I can't find something then I will look in your favorite hiding spot: in the drawer under your crib.

Hall bathroom door closed. Thank goodness.

My bedroom door open. Now that would be a playing ground for a mischievous little girl. A half full cup of orange juice on my night stand and a laptop on the floor next to that were my main concern

Your father would kill me.

Luckily you passed up the cup of orange juice and went for the cough drops that were also on the night stand.

Well no harm done.

I closed my bedroom door and let you keep the bag of cough drops to play with. Which was my second mistake of the morning.

You decided you were going to taste test all the cough drops. I found several of them all wet and slimy on the carpet.

It didn't even help your cough.

From now on I will be extra careful about keeping my bedroom door closed and about what I let you play with.

And I will need to go the store and buy more cough drops.

Sincerely, Lori

SLEDDING IN SWAN VALLEY

Dear Kurt,

We spent most of the afternoon in Swan Valley.

You rode a snow mobile and went sledding.

Brooklyn was dragged around on a sled most of the time and got mad when we tried to bring her in the shelter to get warm by the fire.

I was the opposite.

I stayed in by the fire most of the time. It didn't make much sense to get cold and wet since I am sick.

There wasn't a ton of snow up there but still you and Cody built a jump and you all took turns sledding down the hill and off the jump while Brooklyn and I sat and watched.

We will have to go back after a big storm and I am better. Then we can make a sweet course down the hill and I can take the snow mobile for a spin.

I love you.

Sincerely, Lori

BACK TO SCHOOL

Dear Kurt,

Another semester has begun.

Last night before you went to sleep you told me that you will probably be waking up all night thinking it is time to get ready for school.

That didn't end up being the problem.

You didn't get much sleep for a couple other reasons.

First I tossed and turned for a while trying to get to sleep. This is normal and you usually sleep right through this but for some reason it made you toss and turn as well.

Next, was my coughing fit that wouldn't stop. You got me some cough drops and water but I it only helped a little.

At that point you went to sleep on the couch.

Next Brooklyn woke up crying. I looked at your empty side of the bed and remembering that you hadn't kissed me goodbye yet I figured you must be up getting ready and that you would get her back to bed.

The crying didn't stop. It woke me up enough to realize that you had gone to sleep on the couch because of my coughing. I finally looked at the clock and realized it was 2 am. Oops. Sorry.

I put Brooklyn down and 20 minutes later she woke back up. I put her back down but she had other ideas. She cried for a while. Not the sleepy, whimpering cry, but the "there is no way in heck I'm going back to sleep" cry.

Just great...

I finally realized she wasn't kidding and took her out to the living room and sent you back to our bed. I thought a little cuddling would get her to sleep. She thought differently.

She spent the next hour showing me her belly button, ears, hair and nose. Then she got down to play. That is when I thought, "Oh no. This is not becoming a habit. Night time is for sleeping!"

Finally I got her back to bed and crawled back into bed with you.

After about an hour of tossing and turning myself and therefore keeping you up, it was 4:30.

Which left you 2 hours of sleep.

That's enough to think straight on your first day back to school, right?

I guess we will see.

Just in case you forgot (I know how grumpy you get in the middle of the night) I still love you. A lot.

Sincerely, Lori

JUST CHILLIN'

Dear Brooklyn,

Today we are just chillin'

You slept till 10:30.

We ate breakfast.

We sat on the couch and watched tv.

You colored.

I sang, you danced.

I put your clothes away.

You got stuck behind your crib.

I played a game on my phone.

You put puzzle pieces in a bag and then pulled them out.... about 20 times.

I laid on the ground. You sat on my head.

Now you are taking a nap.

I am writing you a letter and thinking about how I should get something done.

Sincerely, Lori

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT IS 2011

OUR FIRST PICTURE OF 2011

Dear Kurt,

Holy cow. It it 2011.

That is a little strange to me. Time flies.

2010 was good to us. Favorite parts include:

January: Building our snowman

February: Brooklyn saying Dada

March: Brooklyn's first Easter egg hunt

April: Warm weather and cute hats

May: Camping

June: Trips with our besties

July: Christina, Fourth of July, Paintball

August: Lots of birthdays

September: Brooklyn walks

October: My mom, dad and sister visit. plus Halloween.

November: Celebrating three years in California.

December: And, of course, Christmas

I hope 2011 will be just as great.

Sincerely, Lori

A GOOD DAY WITH A SCARY ENDING

Dear Kurt,

Today started off pretty normal.

You went to work.

Brooklyn and I hung out and played.

We met your family for dinner for one last get together before your uncle and aunt went back to Nebraska.

After some yummy frozen yogurt and Orange Leaf we went home.

That is when things got scary.

Your dad called and briefly told you that he was involved in a shooting at work and he couldn't get a hold of your mom and that we needed to call and tell everyone that he was okay.

And that was it.

No other information.

We spent the rest of the night watching the news and calling close relatives and passing the time with your brother and sisters playing Monopoly.

We are on our way to bed now with no other information other than that we won't be getting any more information for several days until they finish a protocol investigation.

Our imaginations are running wild and the whole situation is a bit scary.

Hopefully everything will be fine.

Sincerely, Lori

POSSIBLY NOT A PROFESSIONAL, BUT NOT A BAD START

I WILL BE SORE TOMORROW.

Dear Kurt,

Tonight you taught me how to snowboard.

You convinced me to skip the bunny hill and go straight for the mountain.

Okay, mountain might be a slight exaggeration but when you have to pass the bunny hill, which is on about a 5 degree angle, to get to where we were snowboarding, I think mountain is as good of a description as any.

The first time on the ski lift was a little terrifying. There was nothing holding us in! And it was pretty high up and windy! Needless to say, I held on for dear life the whole way up.

After we got me strapped to my board we attempted to make our way down the mountain. I'm pretty sure I fell at least 20 times just in the first 20 yards or so.

The next 20 yards weren't so bad. I think I only fell about 10 times. I was quite proud of myself until I asked you if I was doing pretty good... You responded "No. You are horrible. I've never seen somebody so bad!"

Humph!

Well, turns out that was your bad.

You told me yesterday when I was asking how to snowboard that I shouldn't lean back on my heels. Well..... turns out that was dead wrong. When learning you should almost always be on your heels!

Once I got that figured out I was amazing, right!?! (Don't answer that.)

The second time down I didn't fall even once!!! Woo hoo! I'm going pro now!

The third time down I fell a lot... on purpose. No really. I had to stop a lot because my legs were burning! Holly cow, I think I should take up P90X or something before we go again because my weak little legs were dying!

After that I forced myself the learn the zig-zag thing. What was the called again? because then I wasn't using my leg muscles as much.

But I was using my tail bone and face a little more. The zig-zag thing makes you go fast and that resulted in a little more falling than not.

LORI, SHANIA, AND KURT, TRYING TO GET WARM IN THE TRUCK

By the end of the night, I was beat. And so were you after you left me for a while to take on the actual mountain with your Uncle Jeff.

It was super fun. I would like to go again soon. After the whole P90x thing, of course.

Thanks so much for teaching me. And like I said when we finally made it down the mountain the first time "sorry I was wanted to kill you up there."

I love you so much.

Sincerely, Lori