Our new swingset

Our swingset was delivered 10/16. It's a shame that we have had so much rain and the kids haven't got to play on it too much, but when its nice, we try to get out there as much as possible! They love it! And its nice and sturdy so Jim and I can play on it with them also.
My Big Guy :)
Jenna loves the big girl swing
Alli posing (like always!). She was getting so mad b/c she wanted a cute picture and Jimmy kept kicking and pushing her b/c he wanted to go down the slide.
Cassie on the glider
Alli posing again!

We also had neighborhood kids coming out of the wood work that day!!!
Michael (I don't have any pictures of the other 3 boys!)

Happy 4th Birthday Allison!!!!!!

My baby girl turned 4 today. I can't believe she is such a big girl! Alli got sick last week and tested positive for influenza A. She only had a high fever one day, but she seems fine since then. Although, she does have a cough so she has been doing breathing treatments. But, we had to cancel her b-day party we were going to have yesterday. We celebrated tonight with just us, but we are going to have another party for her next Sunday with all of her cousins and family, whoever wants to come.

She got sooo many presents already...its hard not to buy a lot for her b/c she likes everything! But she got a bike, Moxie dolls, Taylor Swift CD, a movie, some clothes, paint, baby doll, etc, etc, etc! She picked McDonald's for her b-day dinner and then we sang Happy Birthday and ate cake. I think she had a really good birthday!

Cassie

Jenna trying on Alli's new rainboots

Crazy Kids!

Alli insisted I take a picture of all of them....Cassie wasn't too happy about it :)

Fun stuff at the Clauser house....

We are already bored here this fall/winter.....this was about 3 weeks ago...now we are getting outside a bit more with our new swingset (pics to come in the future). Anyway, this is what the kids do for entertainment!

More Bathtime

The tub is a little crowded...and see all that water splashing?? That's one of the reason I dread giving baths.....I get soaked!!!

Alli kicking Dad's butt on the Wii

I think it might be time for us to get another Wii. We had one a few years ago, but we didn't play it much. But now Alli really got into it. I love her song at the end :)

Story of our Life! Busy, Busy!!!

Let's see....the past few weeks. I went to the Lake of the Ozarks with some of my girlfriends at the end of September. Jim stayed home with the kids. It was so good to get out and I had a lot of fun...although, I'm getting pretty old...it was hard for me to go out drinking two nights in a row. And I lost my voice, so that was no good. We went to a bar on the lake called Dog Days the first night. That was fun and I love outside bars with music....just really laid back. The next day, we went shopping all day at the outlet mall and then out to lunch. That night we went to a Pecker's (a piano bar). I love piano bars.....good, fun music. OH, forgot to mention we hit up a tattoo parlor the first night....that was a first for me. And NOOOOO, no tattoos for me!!!! Although 4 of the 6 of us got tattoos---ICK ;) I came back early on Sunday afternoon. Jim did get to go out to dinner and the City Museum for his friend's b-day celebration, so I don't think it was too hard for him.

Kari, Tracie, Toni, Riki, Me, Sheila

Kari and I

Having such a hard decision picking out which tattoo to get

Falling asleep/Passing out after 3 LONG hours at the tattoo parlor....at least the couch was comfy!

Toni and I shopping at the outlet mall. I had to BEG Toni not to buy that shirt!

Toni, our sober driver :) Poor girl had to drink lots of water, but she was a good sport :)

Me and Riki

Cheers!

Me and Sheila, the birthday cougar ;0)

Me and Tracie

Pecker Girls

The next weekend, we went to the Cardinal game and it was such a great game....until the end...gosh, did it suck! I haven't been to many winning games this year. Actually, tonight we got swept by the Dodgers in the NLDS. I'm glad I wasn't there for it....Jim's friend Chris is in town for the football game tomorrow (which I'm sure the Rams will lose too:)), so I let him use my ticket for the Cardinal game. Jim's family came down to hang out on Saturday. A few of us did some shopping, but mainly we just hung out and all the cousins got to play together. Kristen and Jason spent the night, so we drank a beer with them. It was actually a pretty relaxing weekend.

Our last regular season Cardinal game

Me and Ann

Makenzie and Alli hanging out

This weekend...well, we were pretty busy! Starting with Thurs, we had John and Kate's rehearsal dinner. Jim used to work with John and he asked Jim to be one of his groomsmen. It was really nice. Friday, my cousin Jenny got married to Jason. They looked soooo happy. The wedding was beautiful and everyone had so much fun at the reception. And the food was awesome! I would have had more fun if Jim could have been with there too though. He was at his friends wedding. What are the chances of a two Friday night weddings on the same date? They aren't very common. Wish they would have been on different days so we could have both went to both of them. I for sure wasn't missing my cousin's though and he was in the other one.

Jenny and Jason saying their vows

Mr. and Mrs. Jason Probst

Uncle John and Aunt Kathy
Jeffrey and Johnny
Me, Jenny, and Ann - Jennifer looked soooo beautiful!

Jackie, Kelly, Kelly, and Katie

Aunt Margie and Mom

Me and Ann

Katie and Cory

Me, Jimmy, Ann

Mom with her two favorites...Janie and Me :)
Ann, Johnny, Julie, Brian, Me, Gina

Saturday, Alli and I met my Mom and Jackie's family at Henke's for lunch before Jim went to the losing Cardinal playoff game. Here is a pic of Jackie and Bill and most of his family.
Chris, Jim, and Jon at the Rams/Vikings game. Can you guess who won???

Happy 2nd Birthday Sully!!! Tomorrow we are celebrating at Brian and Gina's house for his b-day party and baby Sam is getting Baptized

Newest addition

See.....way back there in the background of all the pics? We finally have a new fence. Its been up for about 2 weeks now. I love letting the kids run around without having to chase them too far. Next on the list is the swingset b/c they are getting pretty big for this swing. And there is only one, so lots of fighting over it. These pictures are from last Thurs (9/17) just playing out in the yard.

Alli LOVES pictures, loves being the center of attention, and pretty much just loves life. She is such a good girl and is so much fun. She's my little best friend. We like to go to Bread Co together, and shopping too. She is such a good helper too. Last week, I was downstairs and I heard Jimmy just screaming upstairs. When I came up, I saw Jimmy sitting in the Elmo chair. I said, "Alli, why is Jimmy crying? What is wrong with him?" She said, "Well, he is crying b/c I put him in time out and made him sit on the Elmo chair." I said, "Why?" Her reply...."well, he was being bad...he got into your purse and was taking stuff out, he got into my markers in the kitchen....." Too funny! I told her that Mommy would take care of him, but thanks for helping me out.

Here she is posing by the tree

In this picture, she really wanted me to take a picture of the back of her. She is so crazy!!!

Jenna loves the swing. She doesn't like to get out. All of the kids just started shaking their head "no" when they mean it. Helps us out when we ask a question, at least we are communicating a bit. Jenna always shakes her head "no" when asked if she's ready to get out. She also lets us know when she likes something....after she takes a drink or a bite of something, she says "um, that's good!" I call her the leader of the pack. She is always climbing first, showing the others how to do it. She seems to talk the most out of the 3. Still very much a mommy's girl, but she doesn't cry cry/whine as much as she used to. But she still is very clingy to me. She has the cutest little curls in back too!

So pretty!

Alli wanted me to take this picture too....she thought she was funny. I think she is :)

My Jimmy!! Poor guy is always getting into trouble....he is all boy! Maybe I'm not used to it, but I don't feel like the girls get into as much stuff. I guess he is just curious and wanting to learn. He has the cutest smile and laugh, but he would not look at me for a picture in the swing. He loves it. I think he was trying to be silly though. Him and Jenna love to climb in the play house, climb out the window, onto the arm of the chair, and then flip/jump off.

I caught him smiling here....slamming a door...he loves doing that!

And Cassie...still my funny baby. She is very reserved around people and takes a while to open up. She is always the last one to try something and is just sort of scared to try stuff. She can be stubborn and does not like the word NO. She runs away and gets on the floor and pouts. Sometimes its hard to get a smile out of her...she just gives you that look, like, yeah...whatever...not going to give you the satisfaction. Not even sure why she is so funny...she just makes Jim and I laugh all the time. This past Saturday, she didn't go to sleep with Jenna and Jimmy, so I got her back out of bed and we hung out and had some quality time together. She snuggled and was so sweet.

Slacking on posts and pictures

Sorry for the delay on updates...I haven't been taking too many pictures and I know that is what everyone wants to see :) So, lets see...the triplets are finally starting to watch TV. It stinks that their two favorite shows are Yo Gabba Gabba and Teletubbies, but they at least sit in front of the TV for 10 mins. Here they are enjoying their suckers and they love to sit on a blanket with big sister.

Here they are in their strollers.....they weren't happy with the ONE doll stroller we have, so I brought in their strollers. Well, they still fight over who gets which one....I don't even think they care, they just like to annoy each other :)

Alli really wanted her picture taken with her laying on the couch with her bear, her baby, and Barney.
This is long overdue, but our friend Carmen (that sits behind us in our bleacher seats) made Alli the cutest little tutu when she started dance class. I took pictures of Alli in it right away, but didn't have my memory card in the camera. Sooooo, I finally caught her dancing around in it and snapped some pics.

Then of course, my naked girl wanted to only wear the tutu. She was almost crying when I told her that she had to at least wear underwear (so she does have them on). I swear, she's going to live in a nudist colony!!!

Lets see...we attempted another baseball game. I thought it might be better b/c almost my whole family was there, but the kids still won't leave my side (or Jim's). They were better than the one over the summer though. I guess they just still aren't ready for the game yet. I think we made it 3 innings. Maybe next year. I wanted to get some cute pics, but had a kid on each leg, so couldn't even get my camera out. But thanks Jane for getting all the tickets for everyone :) Alli really had a great time!

Here is Cassie when she actually got off me for about 5 mins.

Jim looking very happy to be there :)

Brian and Gina, Sam and Sully - First Cardinal game for the boys

Family pics leaving the stadium and in front of the All-Star Arch.

Welcome to the World, Daniel Joseph and Christopher James

Ann and Tim had their babies yesterday! Twin boys (AGAIN!). Daniel Joseph weighing in at 7lbs even and Christopher James weighing in at 7lbs 110z! Them some BIG babies!!!!!! Everyone is healthy and doing great. Matt and Mike now have two little brothers to pick on. So, everyone who reads this has probably already seen the pictures of them either on Ann's blog or on Facebook, but here is a picture of ME (their favorite aunt!) holding them.

Daniel and Christopher

All about Alli

Monday was Alli's first dance recital. She performed "Twinkle, Twinkle". She was so excited and so darn cute. I know Mommy and the two Grandmas were crying. Not sure about Dad. We had to be at rehearsal at 5:30 and they ran through it twice, and she did great. When it came time for the show, she froze up a little, but she still did really good. Since it was summer session and not real formal, they let us take pictures and video and the costumes were very basic....they just got to wear PJs. She got to watch all the older dancers perform and now she can't wait to be able to dance like them. She is going back for the fall session next week and they are introducing tap along with the ballet she has been doing. Alli before the recital

Making her entrance on the stage

Her twinklers...Twinkle Twinkle Little Star


Echappe [ay-sha-PAY] Taking her bow

Right after the show...she really enjoyed it and Nana brought her flowers (Grandma gave her some book activity set too)

Our Tiny Dancer

Alli with her two Grandmas

Alli started preschool on Tuesday. She has been excited about it for months. Here she is eating breakfast.

Getting ready to leave for school

Her cool new Princess bookbag

She loved it! She goes on Tue/Thurs for 3 hrs in the morning. I miss her a little bit b/c she is such a helper, but it wasn't too bad b/c the first day Jim took a half day and then the second day, I had a speech therapist here to evaluate the babies (through First Steps).

The therapist did recommend speech therapy for the triplets. She said by age 2 (they are 21 mos) they should have a vocabulary of about 250 words. I think mine might have 30-40 words, and usually it is just repeating. She doesn't think they are just late talkers, b/c they make noises a lot, sort of whining, like 'eh eh eh' when they want something. She says they are trying to communicate, just don't know how to do it yet. So, although we know our children are very normal, we figured if they could use the help and its free, might as well take it. We feel it would make our lives a little easier if they could talk to us and tell us what they want rather than cry and scream all the time :) So, it will be 1.5 hrs a week (or 30mins a kid).

Here are a few more pics of all of the kids (oh, and Jim too ;)

Alli and Jim camping out watching Kung Fu Panda and eating popcorn in their tents

Playing in the house...they love this thing, but they fight over it all the time! Their latest is to crawl out the window on the right where Cassie and do a flip over the arm of the chair.

Eating on their new table....trying to get them out of their high chairs soon. They try to climb out of them all the time and they take up so much room in the kitchen.

Playing in the tent

She was so proud of her little fort she built around her :)

I thought this was funny....Alli was rocking the girls and they all looked so cute, so I wanted to take a picture. I was obviously in Jenna and Cassie's way while they were trying to watch TV.

Good Weekend!

I usually base how good my weekend was on how good the kids behave :) This weekend was great! We weren't crazy busy like usual and the kids were VERY good.

Friday night, we went to Trailhead to celebrate our friend Danielle's b-day. After dinner and a few drinks, me, Danielle, and Ann all went to Kohl's. I think we were there about 2 hrs! We all got lots of stuff though and we all got to use my 30% off coupon :)

Oh, earlier that day, I was working and very jealous of all my friends going to the pool, so I took a half vacation day and joined them! I love summer and its almost over :(

Saturday, we went to Pawnee to see Jim's family. The kids were all good the whole ride out there and also while we were there and on the ride home! It was a great trip! First time I could say that since we've brought all the kids out there. Its usually pretty hectic and either the ride there or back is bad. Papa and Daddy took Alli fishing. She was supposed to go out on her first boat ride, but the rope broke on the motor, so she just had to fish from the dock. But, she caught her first fish! She was sort of excited, but she had a lot more fun playing with the worms.
Today was Sneak and Peek at school. Alli got to meet her new preschool teacher and got to play in her classroom. (The triplets were good too!). We stayed probably about 45 mins. She is so excited to go to school. I know she is going to love it! Only one more week. The rest of the day, we didn't really do much. Just hung out at home and played with the kids. Jim cleaned some of the outside toys and brought them inside the living room to play. They all had a lot of fun with them. Oh, and we got 3 trees cut down in our backyard. Our fence plans were approved by our association, so I'm hoping I can get the permit tomorrow and get the fence up in the next week or two. And then comes the new swingset! We are getting there :)

Jim said maybe this house is too small for 4 kids!
Lined up for the slide....Jimmy and Jenna use the steps usually...Cassie just climbs it
They are fighting in the house. Jimmy likes to yell.

Fighting over the door.