Slushies in all kinds of weather

We suck down slushies, summer, fall, winter or spring. If you aren't sure what a slushie is, I'll tell you. Basically they are crushed up ice with super sweet flavorings poured on top. Kids love them, my kids love them.

In these particular sets of pictures, taken by my dear friend Robyn, it was about -20 outside. Cold, very, very cold. They are used to the cold, it doesn't seem to bother them that much. But my girls wanted slushies.

We love them, "we" meaning Kiley and Kalin.

Especially Kalin. I think her tongue grew an extra five inches just to suck up the last remaining drops of this blue "slush."

Precious, isn't she?

Kiley Racing at Beaver Round-Up

Here she is sporting her new helmet and racing during Beaver Round Up. She did pretty well and we are so proud of her!

Just a glimpse at Sis....

Well it has been crazy around here and I need to sit down and do a few posts. We just finished up a week of Beaver Round-Up, the local spring festival here in Dillingham. Kiley raced her snow-machine in the kid drag races, Jon caught it on video. I was in Anchorage for the Alaska Library Conference where the Iditarod took place. It was my first time seeing the ceremonial start, quite the experience. So it has been busy around the Clouse House.

Jon put together this compilation of Sis video clips. She is quite the character this one! You can see her jumping off the couch, torturing the cat, and wearing her big sister's helmet.

The New 120....

Breathe GB, BREATHE!

She does not have a helmet on, we realize that. We will be fixing that shortly.

But the excitement was too great to be contained.

Kiley finally got her "very own snow-go", and it is just about the coolest thing ever. I think she would sleep with it if she could. Every second of the day is consumed with "riding."

Unfortunately, Aunt Stephanie, it is not the 4-legged grass loving variety but the gas powered snow loving type. A Polaris 120, to be exact.

Here she is, most likely making her debut at the 2010 Dillingham Beaver Round Up Snow-machine races!

The new sled at our favorite spot....

Sledding in 2010 has never been better! Papa Paul and GB gave K girls a very very awesome sled for Christmas this year. We all love it, as you will see in the picture Dad even loves it! We've made it to our favorite sledding spot quite a few times so far this year, here's a short clip of one of our adventures.

Happy Boootaay to Meee

Twenty-Nine plus, not bad. 2010 is a good year to be my age!

I had a great week in Anchorage and my sister took me out on the town the Friday before my big day. I got to go and have a fab dinner with my cousin Karen, sister and a friend and then drinks and a lot of fun! I won't bore you with the details, but I didn't get home until 3:00 am, yeah. I brought the birthday in with a bang.

I finally made it home the evening of my birthday and got to eat cake and pie with my family! I am such a lucky girl. My Mom made my favorite peanut butter pie (out of this world!), an apple pie, a cherry pie and a chocolate cake! Holy cow! To say the least everyone left very satisfied. Kiley and Kalin had lots of cousin interaction and we had fun hanging out and being with the fam.

My Dad was in Kotzebue at a tournament, just like he was the day I was born! He actually went out to breakfast with the man that drove him to the airport to meet my mom while I was being born.

Photo Fun

Kiley has become quite the amateur photographer lately. I always find the most interesting pictures on the camera these days. Max and Camryn stopped by the house last night and Jon found these pictures after they left.

"Sisisms"

Here are some of the much spoken "Sisisms" at our house. Sis is talking all the time now, and we have fun interpreting what she has to say. Some words are easier than others. See if you can figure them out:

"gle gle"

No clue? The toughest one first.

Popsicle silly!

"pease!"

That's an easy one. Please! She tried this one on her Dad the other day for some type of goody- he melted, almost immediately.

"Ditder"

Not sure? Sister!

"Oker"

This is one of Sis's first words- Oscar, the beloved monster dog that torments her with his tongue and tail.

"Shnax"

Tried to give you a hint by capitalizing that one. That's Max, as in Uncle Max.

A recent one, with a little twist on a favorite "Kileyism" would be

"dippa"

Hmmm, tricky. I wouldn't have been too clear on this one if I wasn't there talking about it with her. It's "lippa!" as in anything you put on your lips with a little flavor and/ or color.

and last but not least...

"Nam"

Of course this makes Gram the proudest, its "Gram!"

The Giant

Kiley and Jon were talking about my birthday today. Kiley was giving her Dad some ideas on what to get me, she's thoughtful like that. I guess she came up with some pretty good ideas, like gloves.

She must have also thought of clothes because they got onto the subject of size. So Jon was asking her what size she thought I was, and like a smart 5 year old she said, "medium".

Smart kid.

She decided that Sis was, "baby" and she was, "little."

Well Jon was on a roll and asked her what size she thought he was, she thought a bit and said, "giant."

Such an insightful child, that is why we love her so much!

Sis

Wow our baby is really starting to grow up. Really.

She talks, or at least tries to all the time. I will call home and right away I hear, "MOM, hi mom. MOM MOM, hi mom!" I'll answer and say, "Hi Sis, what are you doing?" and she answers, "Hi Mom".......ahh she tries.

Kalin is getting closer to 2 every day. Her favorite word is,"no", not," NO" but, "noooooo". Which is of course, much cuter. But it gets less and less cute every day when it is the only answer she gives to every question!


Sis likes to tattle, she uses words and waves her arms around a lot to let us know what she is talking about. She'll run into the bathroom, "Mom! Mom! Ditder..." (pointing to her sister) "Mom, Ditder....." Point, sad face, point, wave arms. I get the picture and try to solve the problem.

Kalin also likes to talk about the "kitty kitty" and the "dawgs". I think they might be two of her favorite subjects actually. She let's them know how much she loves them by petting (pounding) and of course screaming KITTY KITTY and DAWG whenever they are near.

Sis is also growing hair, enough for me to give her much deserved horns!

Happy New Year

We brought in the new year with a bang, wow 2010! Jon and I went to the 2nd Annual Mushers Ball with my sister Jeanette. We had a fabulous dinner and got to listen to a fun live band, quite the evening in Dillingham! The girls got to spend the night with Papa and Gram and of course be spoiled rotten. Kiley even went back to spend the night again a few nights later! Our girl is starting to grow up!

Here's hoping 2010 is even better than 2009!!

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.

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? :)