From our house to yours, hoping you had a safe and fabulous day filled with fun, family and lots of laughter. Our house was filled with all of these, and more!
Family picture #1
Family picture #2
and....Family picture #3
Kiley told after we told her Santa was watching her, "Santa never brings me what I want anyway."
Let's just say that Santa is going to rock her world this year. How do we know? We're the parents, we know everything. Anddon'tyouforgetit.
Blaker even got excited about his present from Santa....
No matter how good the pine smells, don't try to smell it! Ouch!
Cookie making and tasting
I have never seen Kiley so excited for a program before. I hit a home run with her "Christmas Outfit"-- lots of sparkles, black pants and NO dress in sight. That might have been a part of it. I think a big part of it was the fact that Papa, Gram, Coleman, Kalin, Amma Bossy, and Mom and Dad were there to see her sing her little heart out.
We have been hearing her sing the assigned first grade songs since about the beginning of November- "All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" as well as "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." The latter she liked to sing directly to me, got a kick out of it, she actually told me, "Mom I know you wouldn't do that!" I didn't have the heart to tell her Santa was her Daddy.... we'll wait a year or two for that revelation. It was so cute to hear all the first graders singing together. Pretty soon Sis is going to be up on that stage!
The obligatory Sister picture, love it every year.
Our wrestler finished up his last week of wrestling last weekend. He finished his first and last season of Wolverine Wrestling fifth in the region in the 182 pound class. It was a grueling weekend chocked full of wrestling match after wrestling match! Jon and I both took the day off to watch, and for Jon to volunteer. The girls and I didn't leave the gym Friday night until after 11:00 p.m.!
I wish my camera took better picture- but these are the best I could do.
We are super proud of Blake for joining and finishing wrestling this year, it was a great learning experience for him.
We have had the weirdest weather here in SW Alaska.... well I guess its only been atypical for the last week or so. Dillingham got a ton of snow and then some seriously cold temperatures fast this year. Over Thanksgiving break we had temps down to -20, this week we have had temps in the mid + 30's, and RAIN! That is weird, and I don't like it very much. Both extremes make it hard to get out and about... especially for this pregnant Mama. My winter clothes are getting awfully tight and the rain gear has been packed away, for a while now.
Can you guess which one? :) We had to coerce Sis into posing with us... she wasn't in the best of moods. I love the picture of Kiley and I posing together when Sis was inside, priceless. Clouse Baby #3 will love this picture too.
I've been altering between this type of a mood (see above) and this....
We don't have much longer to wait.... so I hope everyone is patient with me, and my moods swings!
We have so much to be thankful for this year. Our health, happy family, extended family, great jobs, good friends and so much more. We were missing my sister and Matthew this year, but our niece Camryn got to be here from Anchorage, if only for a short time. What a wonderful day- full of great food, family and laughter. What more could you ask for?
We have one more thing to be thankful for. Our nephew Coleman Cael, celebrated his first Thanksgiving today. Next year at this time we are going to have a little girl crawling around at just about his age, celebrating her first Thanksgiving!
Hope yours was as happy as ours!
The tundra wasn't as frozen as I thought it was going to be, which meant lots of crunching through the snow for this pregnant mama. Unfortunately the waterfall isn't close to being a waterfall, we need a few more weeks of cold weather for that to happen.
We got out, and we had fun. You can't ask for much more than that!
and the cutest little witch.... (doesn't she look like Wendy from the Archie comics?)
More pictures of a pregnant witch and Angry Bird to follow.
The Clouses had a visitor, my nephew Coleman Cael! His dad was coaching in Kotzebue for a wrestling tournament so we got to keep the most handsome little man at our house for the whole weekend.
We took baths at 7:00 a.m., trying to keep the house quiet for at least a little while. It didn't work very well.
Coleman is a terror on hands and knees.... fast and into everything! But he also likes to be held. We like to accommodate that.
The girls had fun wrapping him up in blankets, whether he liked it or not. I think he liked it most of the time. What a fun weekend, I miss the little man already!
Every year we order a large amount of food from a company out of Seattle, Span Alaska, who then put our groceries on a barge headed for Alaska. We buy a large assortment of bulk "goods" that are too expensive to buy here, or just weigh a lot and are too bulky to deal with sending out of Anchorage. Things like dog food, cat food, rice, cake mixes, cans of soup, chips, pop.... canned veggies and fruit. Just to name a few.
So far all looks well. Baby Girl Clouse #3 is healthy, and very, very active! In one picture I swear she is about to do a somersault.... which would match perfectly with her two very active sisters! They are estimating her due date somewhere between January 30th and February 2nd. 
Jon took the girls and dogs on a climbing expedition to "China Cap." Is it a mountain? Or a hill? I don't know, but it is just a hop, skip and a jump from our house and the family loves to go there. What a gorgeous fall day to be out hiking and soaking up some fall sunshine, just look at that view!
I heard all about the fun they had- rolling and running and picking berries when they got back home, but after seeing these gorgeous pictures I wish I could have gone! I think our next sunny day we are heading here to take our next family picture.
and sunny faces.
As well as monkey bars.
And favorite cousins on the trampoline.
