Merry Christmas!

Last night we went to the candle service at the Moravian church as a family, what a wonderful time. Every year I say that we need to start going to church as a family and I hope this is the year I stick to it. We had a wonderful time, it was a wonderful time from start to finish.

What a fabulous day! I hope you had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did, we couldn't have asked for a better day. The girls slept in a bit and didn't wake up until about 8:00 a.m. Kiley was so excited when she hopped out of bed and grabbed her stocking. She did such a good job handing out presents and not going hog wild (Jon and I made a pact that we would slow things down this year!). My parents showed up around 8:30 and we all opened presents together.

Gearing Up....

Kiley has been counting down the days.... two more sleeps until Christmas! Sis could care less, she has been a little curious about the wrapping paper but that is about the extent of it. Kiley on the other hand is beside herself and she
can
NOT
wait!!

Christmas day is going to be a lot of fun, we are all getting pretty excited!

Dillingham Dancing Queens

Here are my girls busting some crazy moves!

Buried alive!

We have gotten so much snow in the past few days! Last night we had a winter storm advisory and we got dumped on again. Now it is about 32 degrees, clear and so warm!

The girls, of course, had fun playing in the snow once we coaxed them outside. Camryn and Kiley enjoyed being buried in snow by Jon..... kind of like being at the beach and buried in sand, but the sand is wet, cold and heavy!

November and Thanksgiving

(Shannon in this one)

(Mom in this one)

We hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!!

What a whirlwind of 4 days! We were so lucky that Camryn and Auntie Jeanette got to come home for Thanksgiving, meaning that our entire family was here for turkey day. It seems like most of us were sick at one time of another with sniffles, fevers or stomachaches. That didn't stop us from having a good time though! We did a lot of eating, talking and playing games. It wasn't warm enough outside to do a whole lot, but we still got out a bit.

More pictures to follow....

It's cold

It is about -4 at my house right now, and chances are it will dip to about -10. It feels much, much colder.
I really don't want to think about it.

I counted today to figure out how many more months until we can go outside without our coats on, have flowers, see green again, and feel warm sunshine..... I counted five. F I V E (5) cinco months. That is a long time. But it will go by fast right? Right?

I miss my deck and my flowers

Sis misses me slathering sunscreen on her bald head, ask her. She'll say "Dah" (yeah)

Kiley misses water, because inside she is really a mermaid

JC misses this smokin' hot Adidas outfit he likes to wear in the summer

Walking in Winter

She was carrying her gloves around like they were her babies

Oh man what a gorgeous weekend! In the teens with nothin' but blue skies! We had to take advantage. So we got all decked out and went walkin', or sledding, whichever way you want to look at it. We walked as far as we could and then decided to be at home and start the bonfire. We finished the day with a nice, hot steam. Can you get any better than that?
Kalin doesn't think so....

Happy Halloween 2009!

What a crazy, insane day! The Clouses were so busy with the Wolverine Classic (Jon, wrestling), the Halloween Carnival (Shannon, Kiley & Kalin) and of course Trick or Treating. It ended up being a long, fun day!

Kiley and I hit the Neqleq neighborhood with our next door neighhbors while Jon and Kalin were at the Classic (Kalin ended up taking a late nap). We enjoyed being able to walk around and Trick or Treat without trudging through snow... although we did get cold towards the end! Brrrrrr, my toes were cold and Kiley's legs were chilled, we ran home.

We got home, gathered the troops and hit our friends and families up for some (I really mean a ton) of candy. We went to Umma Bossy's house and as soon as Sis hit the door she took off her hat and coat, so we stayed a while to visit. What a fun night, but the whole family was pooped by the time the day was done!

The New Pit

Fire pit that is. We broke ground in September and broke it in in October. A little late, but it was better late than never. Uncle Max came over and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. What fun! Kiley actually ate a marshmallow she roasted, she didn't like it but at least she tried it!

We knew it was just a hole unless we prettied it up a bit. So we went to the beach and found some great rocks to make our pit into a fancy fire pit. Jon and Kiley stacked and styled the rocks so now our fire pit looks rreeeeeaaaaaallllllll fancy.

Check it out, makes you want to come over and cook some dogs, doesn't it?

What happens at the Clouse House......

of course goes on the blog!

The Clouses like to dance, we like to get down and boogie, bust a few moves here and there! Um, some of us like to do the "robot", some better than others.

Some of us like to record family members while they are doing the above stated without their knowledge.

Some of us get a very big kick out of doing things like this, the results are below.

Costume Party!

The girls and I got dressed up to go to a Costume Party on Saturday. We had so much fun, and the girls looked so cute! We went with a cat theme... even though I think my costume makes me look a little more like a mouse than a cat. I swear Kalin will not sit still long enough to take a picture- I must have snapped more than a dozen of her and this was as good as it got.

Kalin loves Pringles... can you tell? :)

Post 2-2-2 dedicated to Miss Kalin

This is my 222 blog post! Wow!!! That means I have blogged a total of two hundred and twenty-two times! Dang, that is good work on my part. I really enjoy blogging, it has been fun to look back on our archives and to remember what we have done. Blogging is great digital journal.

So this blog post is dedicated to Miss Kalin Clouse, aka Sis. She has been feeling a little neglected since the last few posts have been all about her big sister and Whiskers.

You ask what has Kalin been up to these days? Well, let's see here, our 18 month old has been a busy girl!

• Kalin can jump- she jumps on the trampoline, on the floor, the table, mom, dad, Kiley.....
  
• Kalin can poop in the potty! She has done her business about half a dozen times in the appropriate place. Now she has also pooped on the living room floor, in my hand (not on purpose), on Kiley's floor, in the tub, in the steam and most recently on the kitchen chair.
• Kalin can dance, and sing (we think she will be the next Kareokee Queen)
  
• Kalin can follow directions; "Sis throw this away" "Sis Mommy said get OFF the table!" "Sis go get a blanket for your baby" etc, etc.
• Kalin can say, "Dada", "Mama" ,"Ditder", "Conk-Conk" (big truck), "More", "Papa" and she screams like no ones business!
• Kalin thinks Kami, Oscar and Whisker's food is yummy.......
  
• Miss Kalin is so cute she just about melts your heart!

We marvel every day at how different our two girls are. Kiley has always been the Drama Queen- everything 120% and at full speed. Kalin is laid back, but not afraid to tell you NO, MINE, a watcher but still quite charming and energetic. We can't wait until she really starts talking, but then again we are a little nervous to find out what she will say!

Whiskers, Up Close and Personal

She just wouldn't sit still....

She doesn't seem to like to pose for pictures. I tried to command her to "sit", it didn't work. I also tried calling her name and doing what I do to the dogs to get their picture..... um, she isn't a dog. So finally Kiley grabbed her so we could get a close up.

The newest member of our family....

We were missing Matthew so much we had to do SOMETHING. Not that a cat can replace him or anything..... hmmm Anyway, :0 Glad he doesn't read this.

So for about two months all Kiley wanted to do was pretend to be our kitty- a kitty named Whiskers. That's it, every night. It would go something like this, "Mom, let's pretend I'm a kitty. I'm your kitty. My name is Whiskers. Ok Mom?"

And we heard at least 4 times a week, "I want a kitty for my birthday, a REAL LIVE kitty." (just so we wouldn't try to trick her with a fake one of course) So we came to the conclusion it was her heart's desire to have a cat.

We caved. I fortunately found a kitten waiting to be adopted. I am not a cat person, neither is Jon. So this is a big step for the family. Jon and I surprised Kiley on her birthday with a kitten. She named her Whiskers (in case you didn't catch the name) We told Kiley that she is responsible for scooping poop, and making sure that Whiskers has food and water. So far she has been doing a great job.

We are so impressed with this cat too- Sis carries her around by the neck and also by the butt and she hasn't been scratched once! Kiley, on the other hand has been scratched quite a bit. She tries to love her like a baby and Whiskers just doesn't go for that.

Our FIVE year old.....

Kiley had her big 5th birthday extravaganza on Saturday. We kind of had a lot of kids at our house... um, 17 little ones I think. It was a little crazy but we managed well; no crying until the very end of the party, honest.

We had the kiddos decorating felt bags for their pinata goodies, a very cool marble art project, pin the tail on the donkey, a parachute and then a pinata for the finale... phew! I'm tired just writing this... 5 year old parties are a lot of work!

It was absolutely gorgeous outside so the kids were stoked about playing outside. We had a lot of very happy preschoolers and most importantly Miss Kiley was very, very happy.

Kiley's First Day of School!

Kiley's first day of Pre-School! I think she will be very ready to go to Kindergarten after this year. She is one of the oldest kids in the program, I think she will turn 5 first. Her first day was fun and she made one new friend (even though she couldn't remember her name). Look at how big my first born looks in her snazzy new first day of school clothes! :)

The Toenail Fairy

Yes, you read that right. That's what I did. What did you say?

So Kiley and I were at the Dentist the other day, and she is strangely excited. Well maybe strangely isn't the best word. Ever since her first dental experience in which she screamed like a Banchee the entire time the Dentist looked in her mouth (so loudly the put a "note" in her chart to warn the others of this behavior) she has been quite taken to the whole experience. She gets excited about brushing her teeth, getting a new tooth brush and especially about getting a toy from the Treasure Chest.

She has her exam and our new dentist tells her how beautiful her teeth are, etc. and she has no cavities! Yeah! While we are waiting to get our green light to leave she leans over and whispers, "Mom the Toenail Fairly didn't come last night!"

Ummm, what did you say?

"Last night my Dad was cutting my toenails and he cut a REALLY big nail! So I took it and put it under my pillow for the Toenail Fairy!"

So I was about speechless, but I thought this was just about the cutest thing to come out of her mouth in quite a while. So I had to share it with one of my friends, which Kiley overheard.

"MOM! You aren't supposed to TELL anyone!"

Right, because we really don't want this one getting popular and catching on..... could you imagine?

Bubbles!!

The girls have been having so much taking baths with lots and lots of bubbles!!