Merry Christmas from the House of Clouse!

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!

It was -15 at our house this morning and warmed up to about -5, and about 5 hours of daylight.. I am hoping that this time next year we wake up to 75+, lots of sun and warm sand.

Merry Christmas!

A few days late but we have been enjoying our time at home so much it has been hard to get on the computer and post pictures! We have been sleeping late, eating our weight in holiday food (mostly junk food) and just enjoying all our new toys. Our girls are so lucky to be loved (spoiled rotten!) by so many people- we are so very thankful.

The temps have been really cold here during these last few weeks in December- I think the lowest was -5, but mostly hovering around 0. That hasn't stopped us from getting outside though! These two girls go bonkers if they don't get out at least once a day. We've been going for walks, snowmachine rides and we broke in the new "snow-go" sleds from Papa and Gram (I'll post about that tomorrow).

Ho! Ho! Ho!

It's been a busy week... wait, a busy month! Bazaars, meetings, Christmas Programs, caroling.... it is just busy busy with so many things to do!

This week we had Kiley's first Christmas program to attend. I asked her what her class was singing and she said, "Um, I don't know... something about a rooftop." I bet you can figure out what song it is, we'll have a clip and pictures for the program later.

I got this picture by telling them I would let them have more candy canes... bribery always works with these two!

We went to our district staff party earlier this week and the girls got to see Santa, and Kiley sat on his lap. Not Sis..... she loves Santa until she actually sees him, then it is another story. As soon as she knows he's at least 10 miles away from her she starts screaming, "I want to sit on SANTA's LAP!!" She's a smart one, that Sis. Kiley doesn't think so though- "Kalin how is Santa going to know what to BRING you? You have to TELL him!"

She's got it all figured out, that Kiley.

More Christmas pictures

Woot! A new game for the Wii!

Kalin was very interested in the cookies that Santa didn't have room for.....

Sis could barely sit still for a picture.....

Christmas day was soooo wonderful! Jon surprised us with a family gift (hah hah, really its all for me.....) of a new computer! I rearranged my living room with the help of my sister and mom to accommodate the computer desk and computer in the living room. Jon hooked it up and rewired the Sunday after Christmas day.

Ahhhh, I have been in heaven surfing and playing with iPhoto, iTunes and Pages (oh and a little Facebook and email are also thrown in there.....). Kiley got a Webkin kitty cat she named Lola, and got online to name it and feed it and do whatever else needed to be done. Jon down loaded a few baby games for Kalin so she can pound on the key board and not hurt anything. We are all getting our fair share of the new awesome computer!

So here are a few more pictures from Christmas day and Christmas Eve. We also had a wonderful Christmas Eve with the entire family going to the Candle Service at the Moravian Church.

New pictures from 2010 to follow......

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.

Christmas at the Clouse House

Kalin on Christmas morning in her new rocking chair

The girls on Christmas morningOur new dining set!~ seats 8Out for a winter walk~ all bundled up!

Camryn and Kiley on the Go-Go! Ready for a ride!

Jon and Kiley on our Snow-Go ride Christmas Day

We had a great Christmas Eve and Day this year. Jon, Kiley and I went to the Candlelight Service at the Moravian Church, which was a new experience for Kiley and myself. Kiley enjoyed the singing and when it came to lighting the candle she did ok until a little wax burnt her and she threw the candle........ Luckily she didn't catch anything on fire and everyone was singing so her wails weren't too loud! I can chuckle about it now, but it was a bit mortifying when it first happened. We went and said Merry Christmas to Papa and Gram, Uncle Max, Camryn and Auntie Angie and then went back to our house to get ready for Santa Claus. Miss Kalin took a long evening nap with Auntie Net, and she woke up just before we got home.

Christmas Day was a whirlwind with opening presents and breakfast, snow-going and then Christmas dinner. Kiley was in hog heaven (of course) and absolutely reveled in opening all her presents and the attention she got. I am guessing her favorrite present is the Leapster (if you have a four year old, this is a great investment!) and her new clothe, and of course all her new Lippa. Kalin was a bit overwhelmed, but she did ok. She got some great new toys, and was loving her new doll and rocking chair. Luckily Camryn came over when she was done opening her presents at her house and helped Kalin finish up opening her presents.

As a family we would like to say a very big thank you to all our friends and family for thinking of us and giving us many wonderful gifts. One very special thank you to GB and Papa Paul for our new dining set, it looks f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s in our new kitchen!

And speaking of our friends and family- many of you have made comments about how you love to read our blog..... yet I only have three followers. ?? What is up with that? Please get a Google account and start leaving me some comments for crying out loud! It really isn't that hard, you can do it! Make it one of your New Year's resolutions!

Messing with Big Sis

This is movie week! Jon finally got some time to make clips from movies we have been taking at home, and here is another one of Kalin crawling. This time she is messing with her big sister when she is trying to play her "game".

Kalin is cruising all over the place, she is getting faster every day! I think she is going to be an early walker like Kiley was. She is just tickled pink when she can pull herself up onto something or discovers a new area in our house or Uncle Max's house she hasn't found before.

This has been a crazy week with traveling to Anchorage, Christmas shopping, State Wrestling at Bartlett High School (screaming, sitting, watching), Chuck E. Cheese, swimming, new "hair-do's"..... ahhhh it was good to finally get home. We had a great time seeing people we haven't seen in a long while and catching up with them. I got told a lot how much Kalin and Kiley look like me, and even had a few people call Kiley my "Mini-Me".

Kiley l-o-v-e-d swimming at the pool and asked NON STOP to PLEASE go to the "ho-tel" to swim. She is part fish, I swear. Another highlight was the "alligator" aka the escalator. Yes, up and down and up and down. Very fun. Kiley was done with the gym after the second day and instead got to go and spend the day with Rikki and Olivia. They got to go and watch "Bolt" (her new favorite), go watch her best teenage friends Mindy, Rachel and Ginny get third place at state in Volleyball, and just play, play and play some more. I think that was the best time ever.

I will post some pictures of Matthew wrestling when I finally get a chance to upload the pictures from our trip.