More Kids In The Clouse House?

These pictures are from Shaylee's birthday a month ago. Since Caleb is now 5 & Shaylee is officially a "big girl" at 3, we have decided to move forward with the Foster Care Program. We met with Kimberly yesterday, and she did an interview with us to see if we are candidates. I told the kids to be on their best behavior, and no "booty dancing", which my kids do all the time. It's so embarassing, they look like they belong in a strip joint or something! Well, of course right when she got here, there they go!! They like to show off, which I understand, but the dancing has to stop:) So I'm sure that made a great first impression. But hopefully we will be starting the classes in August to get certified. I'm really excited to be doing this, it is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Everyone wish us luck with the entire process, I'm sure we'll need it!!!!!

The kids love sugar...I have no idea where they get that from?! A couple months ago I was wondering why their little bellies were getting so pudgy - I'm quite strict with junk & I feed them really healthy stuff. THEN, I found out they had been climbing up my pantry shelves & hiding chocolate in their rooms. Caleb's stash was under his dresser, & Shaylee's was everywhere throughout her room. Sneaky little things:) I must admit they did a super good job at hiding the evidence!

Bear Hunting Trip in Northern AZ

Kyle is very proud of his bear. Before we were married, we had a deep discussion about how I do not want any dead animals in our house. BUT, somehow, this bear, which Kyle made into a full body mount, wound up in our den...it looks at me down the hall! How did I lose this battle??? We both agreed to put it at his office in Mesa - am I a pushover or what:) Not that I'm not happy that Kyle got his bear, & it is a beautiful animal, but in my house?! Man, I am a GREAT wife:)

The picture to the right is Kyle with his guide Vernel.

Father's Day 2008

For Father's Day we had to wake up early for church, so Kyle had to wait to open up his presents. Shaylee made this tie card in nursery... we were laughing so hard, this is her silly smile. And the tool card, Caleb helped make. They of course had many, many other crafts to give him, & I gave him two books and a DVD. Tonight we are going over to Melissa's house for a fish fry. Shane & their boys went fishing last weekend & caught 50 fish, mmmmm yummy:)

I am so grateful that Kyle is such a wonderful daddy - what would we do without him?!?!

P.S. Happy Father's Day to our Dads & Grandpas!!!!!

Playing in the Irrigation

Caleb & Shaylee love it when we irrigate our backyard, it's like a huge swimming pool. I tell them how gross the water is, but of course they could care less. I guess I did the same thing growing up in Delta (ditches & the rez - yuck!).

Swimming Lessons Begin!

This picture cracks me up... they are so entertaining:) They just started swim lessons last week. The past two years I have been taking them to the pool at the middle school, where there were six kids to one instructor. They didn't pick it up at all & were both terrified of the water. But this year, our neighbor two houses down decided to do private swimming lessons again after a two year break (yeah!!!!). After just two lessons, they are doing great! I'm sure that by the end of this month they will be little fish, which makes my anxiety much lower. Just about every single house in our neighborhood has a pool, and as a mother, it scares me to death. So, I am very relieved that they will finally learn how to swim, along with survival skills in the pool.

Ward Exodus...to the Promised Land!

Last Monday morning we woke up bright & early at 3:30 a.m. to get to the bus for the ride to the "Exodus". It took us 2 1/2 hrs. to get to Forest Lakes, where the handcarts awaited us. We unloaded our 5 gallon buckets, sleeping bags, & tents, and loaded them onto our handcarts...away we went. Kyle & I were the Ima and Abba (Ma & Pa) for our "family" of 9 kids. The picture at the top has Kyle pulling one of the carts with our three boys at the front and the girls pushing from behind. Our ward had 4 families, and there were a total of 350 kids that went on this trek from our stake. When the Bishop called us to do this, I thought, "how hard can it be, if teenagers can do it, so can I". But wow, it was soooooooo hard! We pulled & pushed a total of 15 miles (11 miles the first day, classes & activities the 2nd to give us a rest, & another 4 the last day). The carts were very heavy and we were on rocky terrain pretty much the entire time. The first night was freezing cold, at 30 degrees, but we survived:) Even though it was super tough, I loved getting to know all of the kids in our ward. I am amazed at how respectful, hard-working, fun, & inclusive these kids were. And all of the classes and lessons we had on Moses and the Bible were great, I learned so much. We had a lot of fun and this experience made us extremely grateful for running toilets, our bed, chairs, and best of all...a shower!! It was a wonderful three days & we were glad to be part of this experience with our kids.