Happy Birthday Sis!

Happy 4th birthday to Miss Kalin Dawn! She brought in her birthday with a bang and kept rockin' all day, until I forced her to take a short rest. We geared up and went to Story Time at the library then lunched with special friends at our house. Our gourmet meal consisted of chicken nuggets with macaroni & cheese followed by a delicious cupcake.

Our evening was the favorite dinner chosen by the birthday girl (spaghetti) followed by cake and homemade M&M ice cream (thanks for the M&M's GB!).

By this time the Birthday Girl was over the top excited about presents and sugared up beyond containment. The cat and her baby cousin Coleman got the end of that stick.

So as the evening wore on and it became jammie time, we ended the night on this note:

Sassy! I think her day was happy and memorable.

On the Snowy Tundra

Kiley has this thing about doing headstands.....

She's really good at it, and as you can see, does them just about anywhere!

(FYI- it was 12 degrees Fahrenheit when this was taken on the snowy tundra behind our house.)

iPhone.....

Jon and I surprised each other this year at Christmas with some new Smart phones- the new iPhone 4S. I finally know what all the hoopla is about this phone- it is really amazing with all it can do, and you can even call & talk to people on it! The kids think our phones are pretty cool too and I've made the mistake of letting them play games on it-- so now it is hard to get the point across that my phone IS.NOT.A.TOY!

The camera on the iPhone is top notch and takes amazing pictures and videos. It is so handy to just whip out, and snap a picture or take a little movie. It is always with me- well most of the time anyway- which makes easy access.

My sweet, darling, little three year old also loves the iPhone and suckers me into letting her "take pictures." Mostly she will ask to take pictures of Kolbi and Coleman.... because she knows I can't say no. I recently found about 35-40 pictures like the ones above and below on my iPhone. She's three, I would like to remind you. She can text, take pictures, find the games she likes and oh, of course call people...... Three year olds these days! So techie!

EEEEEE!

Kolbi Paige~ 6 Weeks Old!

It is hard to believe that Miss Kolbi Paige is already 6 weeks old- but she is! What can she do now you ask? How has she changed? Well her sisters have taught her to say a few words, her ABC's and 1-2-3's..... no not really. She is, however, smiling. Kolbi has smiled quite a few times for Mom and let's see... once for Daddy :). Haha, not that I am keeping track or anything.

I am back to work this week, which is a big adjustment for everyone~ but we seem to be making it work. Kolbi gets to come to work with me and I think it is going to take a few days to really get into a routine, but so far so good. Kiley is back to First grade and Kalin gets to go and play with her friend Aimee every day (hog heaven).

Some moments are better than others. Sometimes Kolbi gets a little impatient with me and tired of being at work and does this....

But most days she looks a lot like this:

No matter her state, I am just happy that we can be together. Even if it has to be at work.... :)

Happy Beaver Round Up 2012

She used to be scared of all the horns and whistles, not anymore!

Every year Dillingham hoots it up with a local festival called "Beaver Round-Up"- which is the traditional time for trappers from the region to come to Dillingham to sell their (beaver) furs. The 44th annual Beaver Round-Up officially started on Wednesday with a local parade.

Kiley got enough candy from the parade so that it rivaled her loot from Halloween!

In more modern times (now) we celebrate Beaver Round Up by viewing dog mushing races (just 16 miles, not nearly at the level of the Iditarod!), going to the "Little Miss Beaver Round Up" pageant, chili cook off contests, local craft bazaars, Family Olympics, and because Dillingham is so rural we don't have any fast food restaurants, so food from Subway and KFC has been flown in from Anchorage! So much is happening this week, its hard to keep it all straight, but those are some of our family faves.

The fastest musher today ran the 16 mile course in 58 minutes and 50 seconds.

The weather has been fantastic- gorgeous with blue skies and lots of snow. A perfect, perfect spring break! Tonight we are supposed to have the best views of the Northern Lights- so the Clouses will be out observing the night sky. So this is what we are doing for spring break this year- what about you?

Skiing

It seems like I have been wanting to get skis for Kiley and Kalin forever! Well, we all finally have a pair. Yeah!

The few times we have been out have been fun... but the girls need more practice. We went out with some friends yesterday and Kiley convinced herself that skiing was "too hard", which broke my heart. Her friends have been skiing since they were 3 or 4, so I should have waited to take her out until she had more practice under her belt. Whether she likes it or not, she shall try and try again!
I finally got out and went for a ski, my first this winter! It was cold- hovering around 5 degrees- but I stayed toasty and got to take in the gorgeous sunset. I was grumpy so it was just what the Dr. ordered- a nice little break for everyone! Little bouts of exercise sure help cure the winter blues, especially when it looks like this outside.