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.

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!

China Cap Excursion

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.

The big question is will we make it before the next snowy day?

First Day of Preschool

Kalin had her first day of Summer Preschool yesterday! Look at our big, big girl!~ I think she was ready... but not so ready that she wanted me to leave her "all by herself." Mommy & Kiley had to stay at Preschool with her the whole time.
Once we got there and she got into the groove of "school" I think she would of been more comfortable with me leaving. That was about 30 minutes before school was out so I didn't get to test my theory.
This morning is day 2 of school and she has already told us that she thinks she is going to puke.... how many more years of this do I have to look forward to?

Pull Up Head Strikes Again!

Kalin showing us her crazy moves when she was two, which really wasn't that long ago!

Look at her moves, she doesn't "think" she can dance, she knows it!

Visitors

Look who came back for a visit this spring. Our old friends the moose. They are a mama cow and her calve, respectively. This must be the same cow that has visited us for the past couple of years, I hope she isn't offended that we can't tell (they all do look alike you know). We must have some tasty trees.
They came to visit right about the time Kiley was going to be walking home from school, of course Sis was still sleeping so I had Blake go and pick her up. That night at dinner I was asking Kiley what she would do if she "ran into" a moose on her way home from school. Before she could say anything Sis said, "SHOOT IT!"
Now there is an Alaskan girl!

The best day ever.....

Our baby is THREE! (she wore her birthday dress for three days in a row... thanks Gram!)

She will remember this as the birthday that went on and on and on! Birthday packages with candy, money and lots of cool things. She is so spoiled :)

We had a "Super Why" party for her this year-- she also wanted "Scoobie Doo" and "Tom & Jerry" too. "Super Why" won out.


It was supposed to be a simple little party.... then it turned out to be a beautiful day and I had to make everyone go sledding.

And when you end up with this many kids at a party, it is never that simple. Fun, but not simple. It was such a fun day..... perfect for our three year old!

Introducing.....

The 2011 winner of the Beaver Round-Up Baby Walk!

I thought this was going to be just one of those events where I got to dress up Sis and let her do her thing, just for the fun of it. We found out that there were prizes involved once we got there, whoohoo!

Sis was so excited about doing the "baby walk".... mainly because we promised her Gobstoppers if she did it. She was so excited to get out on the stage, and walked out waving and smiling. Then, as I was talking to someone back stage she decided she wanted to go back out so she ran back on to the stage (when it was another baby's turn) to wave and smile some more. Geez :)

So to make a long story short miss Kalin won in the 23-36 month division- she got a prize and was disappointed when going through her loot that there weren't any Gobstoppers in her bag. Her Dad made sure to get her Gobstoppers on the way home :).

The Box

A while back Jon brought home a box.

Not just any box, but a big box. The kind of box that kids love. The kind they can't get enough of. The kind they make into forts, get to color on and hide in.

Do you know what I am talking about?

The kind of box that if you were to get something big in it for Christmas or your birthday and you were about 2 you would probably play with the box rather than the "something."

Kalin loved it, loved hiding in it, hiding her "stuff" in it and she really liked drawing on it.

One day she decided that she would stick her hand out of the box and wave at me. See that cute little hand there? I wish I had an arrow to point to it.

"Hi MOM!" she said. "Guess where I am?"

Very soon her excitement turned into tears, then screams for, "MOM MOM MOM!!!"

Please. Don't. Judge. Me.

You know you would do the same thing. I got the camera before I helped get her unstuck. This picture is priceless.

Feeding the Chickens

In honor of Thanksgiving, I shall blog about one of our favorite past times of late- feeding the chickens. I'm not sure why I am thinking it is in "honor" of Thanksgiving, but it has something to do with the fact that we eat a bird on turkey day and chickens are in fact, a bird.

Sis loves chickens, just like her Momma. So on a regular basis she asks to "go feed the chickens." Luckily one of my friends' daughters has chickens... so we save our food scraps and once the bucket is full off we go. They are enclosed in a fence and housed in a really nice coop.

These chickens are very well taken care of-- their owner, Alethia, is quite the chicken keeper. Her parents call her the "Chicken Whisperer." She's got a knack, a special way with them. Sis got her to pick them up a few times, so she could "pet" the chickens.
I know Bonnie will just get a kick out of watching her, and most likely the chickens strutting around in the snow.

Winter Walk

Winter is here-- we've got the snow and ice to prove it.

Kiley and Kalin were bouncing off each other and the walls this afternoon so we set off outside for a little walk down to the creek. It was a little colder than we thought it was, due to the wind, so we didn't stay as long as we had originally planned.

A nice walk that got the yah-yahs out, just what a winter walk needs to do.

Mom my head's hurtin'

The picture says it all... its one of those kinds of days.

Too much candy?!

I'm not sure what exactly who/what the culprit is, but poor Sis woke up with a 102 fever and the pukes. Candy hangover? The flu?

Yesterday she was bouncing around like a typical 2 year old, laid down for a great nap and slept for at least 2 hours. I had big plans for a walk out in the crisp (aka cold and windy) November weather as soon as Kiley got home, and she woke up.... unfortunately that didn't happen.

She woke up telling me her head was "hurtin'." After much cuddling and soothing I ended up screaming for a "puke bowl" to Kiley and Blake and scrambling for Ibuprofin.

Ahh, such is life.

Crazy hair....

So this morning Sis melted my heart, the little stinker. She grabbed my face with both of her hands and said, "Mom you are be u ti ful." Just as sincere as could be. Then she said, "But your hair is craaazy Mom." I don't care about the last part, it was.

So I posted this little comment on Facebook, and almost immediately after I did my Aunt Bossy called me. She was watching Kalin for the three days I was out of town this week. Come to find out Kalin said almost the exact thing to her on Friday! She was wondering where Kalin could have thought up telling us we were beautiful? Was Jon coaching her to tell her Mom she was beautiful? What goes through that little mind? We never can tell what is going to come out of that mouth! The bottom line was I didn't care I just going to go with it!

I don't have a picture of my crazy hair this morning, but I have a picture of Sis's crazy hair! So here's one for the records Sis, you beautiful talking little girl!

Horns!

Kalin has been wanting me to fix her "horns" lately. This has something to do with her being 2...

I jump at the chance to fix her hair. Horns or not. End of story.

Blast to the past....

I came across this video I took a while back of Kiley and Kalin playing "Puma." Basically a game Kiley started in which she pretended to be a Puma and scared Kalin into Daddy's arms. Just look how small they look- Kalin has no hair! Kiley still has all her teeth! They grow so fast....

Giggles

Our Budding Photographer

There is something about my camera that draws both the Clouse girls like a moth to a flame. We bought Kiley her own toddler camera a few years ago but for some reason it just doesn't float her boat like my camera does. Now Sis is in on it and likes to take pictures, of herself, the floor, dad, mom, Kiley....... the randomness is quite interesting. I think her portraits are really the best so far.

Check them out.

Self Portrait titled "Monster"

Portrait "Daddy Monster"

Portrait "Silly Mommy"

Portrait "Happy Ditder"

Bubbles!

It was a hectic last week of April, and it snowed the first three days of May. But bubbles seemed to make all the stress and sickness melt away.

Dad came home early from his trip to Anchorage (thank goodness) since poor Kalin was sick with a nasty virus and a high fever. Kiley also had her bout of being sick, but some medicine, jammies and a good night sleep seemed to do the trick for her.

Anyway, Jon came home with bubbles. Bubble "juice", a gun, wands.... you name it. The sun was out so we hit the deck to try those suckers out. You can just look at Kiley's face and know she was having a blast. Just about every day now Kalin wants to go out on the deck and do "bubbles."

Happy Birthday Sis!

Here was a conversation on Kalin's birthday:
Mom, "Hi Sis, Happy Birthday! How old are you today?"
Sis, "Good."
Mom, "No Sis, HOW OLD ARE YOU?""
Sis, "GOOD."
Ahhh, we practiced all day and the best we got was, "ONE." She's cute, but quite stubborn!

My baby is two, how did this happen? How time flies... we celebrated the birthday girls big day with an Elmo theme. Elmo cake and decorations. Kalin loves Elmo, but I think I love to hear her say "Elmo" more. It is the cutest, especially with that tongue hanging out! We kept it low key. Her favorite dinner "sgetti", lots of balloons, and Elmo. Of course aunties, uncles, and cousins had to come over too. What a fun day. I think she got that everyone was there for her by the time we were singing happy birthday :).