Christmas Morning

Santa came to the Kalke house and the kids were spoiled, as usual. He must not have checked that list twice this year... I didn't see any coal! Kaleb got the Star Wars Clone Wars Wii game with light saber controllers, Mayson got the Barbie Diamond Castle, Rhyan got a Dora the Explorer Backpack, Dora, Boots and Swiper dolls (for anyone with kids you should know what all that means), and Asher got a dump truck that flips up to turn into a walker or a ride on. Larry got RockBand for his Wii, and Misty got some new boots and tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld in January! We also got a digital picture frame for the family which everyone is very excited about. The kids love to sit at look at all the pictures of themselves! We spent all day hanging out doing nothing... it was awesome. For the most part we spent the day in our pajamas, and had yummy ham and funeral potatoes for dinner. We miss seeing everyone for Christmas, but all in all it was a great day!

The Christmas Story

Every Christmas Eve our night centers around the Christmas story and putting together our nativities. Every year since we have been here we have had the missionaries join us for dinner and the telling of Christ's birth, but this year we got a call midday telling us that they had the flu and weren't coming. So, this year we were by ourselves, but it was fun and it's a great reminder for the kids of the true meaning of the season.

Asher's First Present

This is Asher's first attempt at opening a present. He couldn't decide if he want to eat it or shake it around, but he actually did a pretty good job of tearing the end of it open. Either way he was very excited about it and it was funny to watch!

Christmas Eve PJ's

Every Christmas Eve the kids get to open one gift before bed... and it never fails, it's always pajamas. The kids looked cute in their matching pajamas, and Larry and I each got new pajamas this year. I love mine, but I'm not sure their quite as cool as Larry's. I could tell you about them, but a pictures worth a thousand words!

The Christmas Story House

We decided that since we have been here for four and a half years now and still hadn't gone to see the Christmas Story House, it was about time we went. So, on Christmas Eve we decided to go see it. It was fun for Larry and I, but I don't think that the kids appreciated it as much as we did. They had lots of fun memorabilia from the movie, like the original leg lamp and pink bunny pajamas. Every year we get a new ornament for each of the kids, so this year their ornament was an official leg lamp. Larry and I think they will realize how cool that really is once they get a little older. That... and our family has officially left their mark on the Christmas Story house. So, most of you know that Rhyan has had her elbow dislocated a couple of times. After the first time, the doctor said that in a lot of kids it will happen again, and he's right. Anyway, so we are upstairs in the Christmas Story house and Rhyan has decided she has had enough of being there and wants to leave. She wanted to go down the stairs, and I was holding her hand and wasn't moving so she wasn't making much progress. So Rhyan does the go limp and become dead weight to try and get down the stairs, and as she drops and her arm yanks I feel the dreaded pop! So, Rhyan is screaming because her elbow is out of joint, but luckily the doctors taught us how to reduce it ourselves so we don't have to take her to the emergency room. Well, we're standing at the top of the stairs in the house, Larry rotates her arm to get it back in socket, and my guess is the pain was a little too much for my child who had already told me two times that she needed to go potty. Anyway, the arms is back in and she's not crying anymore, but then she says, "potty mommy." When I said, "okay, we'll go," she says "already." Sure enough, at the top of the stairs in this classic house is a puddle, which promtly gets walked through and spread all over the floor by the new group of people who are coming up the stairs. Needless to say, the Kalke family left a special mark on the Christmas Story House!

Lacey's Wedding

Thanks to Urs, I was lucky enough to be able to join Lacey on her special day. It was a very short trip... Sunday night to late Monday night, but it was definitely worth it! Lacey was gorgeous, Jared seems very nice, and it was great to see the family. Asher was awesome on the plane. He was awake almost the whole time on the way out, and thought everyone wanted to talk to him! On the way home, he slept the entire way, on both flights. What more can you ask for... he is such a good little guy!

The Stand-Off

You may think you are bigger than me, but I'm not scared of you. Okay... if I stare you down I will intimidate you! Wait a minute, something's not right here... are you for real??
Hey mom, he's not scary... he's just a stuffed animal!

The Bear Dance

The kids school collected bears again to give to the children at Providence house for Christmas. Our neighbor collects bears and gave the kids a couple bags of beanie baby bears to take. Each of them got to take 42 bears to donate and were very excited about it. Rhyan, Asher and I went to watch one of the dance and the kids were having a great time. You can see Rhyan was enjoying herself at the dance too!! Kaleb insisted he wear his suit to school for the dance, and Mayson settled for a skirt... they both looked very cute!

The Goat

This video of Rhyan is from about a month ago, but I couldn't ever get it to load. I thought it was pretty funny how she was chasing it around in her zombie stance though, so I thought I'd put it up.

Asher's Six Month Pictures

We went and got Asher's six month pictures done today and I think he is just too cute! He was so smiley and easy, we were done in about ten minutes flat. If only all the kids were so easy!

Six months old

Asher was six months old on the 7th. He went to the doctor on Thursday, and he is now weighing in at 19 pounds. He is such a chub! He is eating solid foods now, is sitting up by himself and has two teeth. He is rolling around all over, and he loves to be on his stomach so he can look at things. He is grabbing everything, and of course everything he gets a hold of he tries to eat. He is growing so fast and he is so dang cute. He is such a sweet, happy baby and I don't know what we would do without him!

Bunko Night

Once a month there are twelve of us that get together and have bunko night. We eat lots of goodies, play bunko, talk a lot and everyone gets to pick a prize at the end. It's a lot of fun, and this month it was at my house. We had pumpkin cheesecake, banana bread, chocolate dipped pretzels and fudge. It's Christmas... we had to have all the Christmas goodies! For our prizes we did a white elephant, and everyone got to pick a "present" from under the tree. Tia won this time with four bunkos! For anyone who plays bunko, you know that is pretty impressive, and as you can see Tia was pretty pleased with herself. It was a lot of fun, and now we're all waiting for next month.

Country Lights

Out at Lake Farm Park every year they have Country Lights around Christmas time. They have horse drawn wagon rides and horse shows. THey have Santa's workshop where the kids can pick out a toy and build it with the help of the elves, they have electric train displays, food and of course, Santa is there. We decided to go this year and everyone had a good time. Here are all the kids with Santa. To Larry's and my amazement Rhyan went right up and climbed on Santa's lap. She didn't say much to him, but she was smiling and happy! For anyone who knows how Rhyan is with people she doesn't know... this is amazing!
These next pictures are of us waiting to go on the wagon ride. Luckily, it was about 45º that night so it really wasn't too bad. We all bundled up and did just fine. They have the whole farm decorated with Christmas lights and nursery rhyme displays, and the horses take you around to see it all.


This picture is while we were all waiting in line to go into Sant's workshop. The kids all got to pick their toy, build it and then paint it.
And here you see Larry contemplating life standing next to his inspiration to become a dentist. He decided he had to have a picture with the dentist elf!
Here are the kids building their toys. Kaleb built an airplane, Mayson built a castle, and Rhyan built a rocking horse. It was a really fun evening for all, and if we're here next year we'll definitely have to do it again.