Easter in the Arctic

As you can see Easter at our house this year was a little chilly. We had our Easter egg hunt on Saturday and the kids got to put on all of their snow apparel to find them. Mayson thought it was great fun, she just kind of had a hard time picking up the eggs with her gloves on.
Easter of course was right after our return from Utah and our coats were still not here. They were in the box that was somewhere between Utah and Ohio. So, Kaleb was reduced to wearing the Harley jacket, because that was the next warmest thing. It was not only snowy, it was really cold. As you can tell though, to a six year old boy candy is much more important than the temperature.
We have so many friends on the street with small kids that the Easter egg hunt has become kind of a big thing. Even with the bad weather, we still had a pretty good turn out. The thing that was nice is that it didn't take much to hide the eggs. All you had to do is take a handful and throw them into the middle of the yard....the snow did the rest. There were a quite a few though that we officially hid.

Easter day brought about another 18" of snow. We had to haul the snow blower out to get out of the driveway, and then brave the blizzard to get to church. For an Easter Sunday it was pretty sparse! Our girls sure looked cute though, traipsing through the snow in their springy Easter dresses.

Mayson's Preschool Beach Party

Mayson's preschool had a beach party in March. There were prizes to be won (purple sunglasses included) and games to be played. There was one game where the kids would stomp on one end of a board and the other end would shoot a stuffed animal that was sitting on it up in the air. Mayson had a blast doing this and kept doing it for a while, but on one instance she was leaning forward looking at the stuffed animal sitting there while she was jumping on the bpard. Let me tell you, not a good plan. The other end of the boad came up and whacked her in the forehead. This picture was obviously taken before the incident, because as you can see she doesn't have a big red line accross her forehead yet!
Kaleb had a fun evening too. He kept trying to haul these palm trees around the gym, or taking the big sand bags off the bottom of them so they would fall over. As you can see, he's looking a little guilty in this picture so my guess is he was planning on doing it again when I caught him for the picture. That's okay, I guess you have to expect it from our rambunctious little boy!







All in all, it was a fun family event. Even Larry got a pretty green lei. Besides, how can you complain when they are serving you free dinner?

Larry Goes to Scotland

In March Larry went to Scotland for three weeks for the International College of Dentistry's student exchange program. While there, he stayed with Eileen and her family, and had a great time.
Eileen is a dental student at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. This is the front of the school. In Scotland students are picked out of high school to go straight into dental school. Then, a residency is required after they complete the initial dental school portion.
This is a walkway that runs between the quads at the dental school. The architecture in Scotland is beautiful, with a lot of the old stone buildings we don't see much here.

This is Larry sitting in his big throne in the Cathedral of Glasgow. Glasgow is full of beautiful old cathedrals with stained glass windows.




Larry has had a fascination with William Wallace ever since he saw the movie Braveheart. Of course while in Scotland he had to go and see the Wallace Monument. There are hundreds of steps to climb to get to the top of the monument, and while up there you have a wonderful view of Sterling.







Here is Larry standing by William Wallace's sword. Larry was feeling a little "sword envy" I think. This is quite the sword to have to haul out into battle!!











This picture is looking out across Sterling where the William Wallace monument is. Scotland is a beautiful country, but definitely not big like we are used to. You can drive across the entire country in a few hours.










Here is Larry in Oban, another city in Scotland. Out behind him you see the Atlantic Ocean. Pretty much wichever way you head in Scotland you will run into the ocean pretty soon. We have hundreds of pictures Larry brought back with him. If anyone is interested let us know & we'll get them to you to look at.

Our Utah Trip

In March while Larry was in Scotland, Misty and the kids went to Utah to visit family. We had a fun time and really enjoyed getting to see everyone. The only hard part about being where we are is that we don't see everyone as much as we would like to. We figured while we were there we had better take advantage of the opportunity and get a four generation picture taken.

Dental Formal

In March, Larry and Misty got to attend the Dental Formal that Case puts on every year. We got to get all dolled up and go out for an evening on the town with no children.
We had a bunch of friends we were sitting with, and we ate food, danced, and just had a fun evening!

Freestyle Motorcross

Mayson got Princess on Ice tickets for Christmas, and Kaleb got some to the Motorcross. He was so excited to go see the motorcycles doing all of the tricks. It was all he talked about for the week leading up to it. Kaleb came home telling me about the jumps, and the guys who went upside down, and of course the person who got shot out of the canon. He definitely had fun.

All's fair at the Kalke house. Misty got to go with Mayson to Princesses on Ice, so Larry got to have fun at the motorcross with Kaleb. We have decided that giving tickets to events like this as one of their presents is going to be a new tradition at the Kalke house. It was a really fun experience for all!!

Kaleb's Winter Concert

Kaleb had his winter concert in January at his school. He and the other first graders sang a few songs, and the other grades did their thing. It was fun, not the most technically sound performance I have been to, but definitely entertaining. Its fun to watch as Kaleb grows and participates in all the different school stuff.

Lacey & Urs Visit

While Larry was in the Dominican Republic, Lacey and Urs came to visit us. Lacey was excited to see all the kids and it was fun to have her here.



Urs was here too, and she has become quite comfortable here after her many visits this last year. We are always happy to see her, and as you can see the kids love to have Grandma around for things like reading stories!

Here are Lacey and Kaleb in the Egyptian Sands exibit at the Children's Museum. You could get in the sand and build your own pyramids.













Mayson and Lacey had fun playing in the grocery store at the Children's Museum. This is by far Mayson's favorite thing to do here. When she gets a little bigger maybe I can put her in charge of the grocery shopping?










Here's Kaleb being the "Post Man" while we were at the Children's Museum. I thought he made a pretty cute mail man!













And then it was time for everyone to go home. Here is Misty and Lacey at the airport as Lacey was leaving. Too bad her "airplane pirate" doesn't show up in the picture. He was pretty cute!

Larry's Trip to the Dominican Republic

Larry went to the Dominican Republic in January on a service mission to do dental work on the people there who don't have it available to them. This is a picture of the clinic they set up when they got there.


Here is Larry with a few of the children they were working on. The children were so happy and excited to have the American dentists there.


This is the line of people that started first thing in the morning everyday they were doing dental work. There were so many people who would come that the line would wrap around the block. Talk about a need!!


These were the sleeping arrangements while they were there at the clinic. Not the Hilton...that's for sure. Larry and JJ got to be good friends for the week.

Don't let Larry convince you that it was all work. The last few days they were there was spent at an all inclusive resort. Larry went deep sea fishing, and here is the Mahi Mahi he caught. The hotel wouldn't cook the fish for them, so he had to sell his catch on the beach for a measly $10.00. That's oaky, at least he got the pictures to show that this big one didn't get away!

Princesses On Ice

Mayson got tickets to the Disney Princesses on Ice for Christmas, and let me tell you...she was excited!! She got dressed up like her favorite princess, Ariel, and was ready to go. After dinner at McDonalds, it was off to the show!









We had seats right on the front row, and Mayson got a close up view of all the princesses. The first half of the show I heard nothing but "Mom, when's Ariel coming out?" Then, her wish came true. Ariel was right there in front of us!




Here is a picture of mom and Mayson. We had such a good time. It is always fun when the kids get so excited about something like this!

Mayson's New Bed

Mayson got kicked out of her bed after Rhyan came along and is now in the orange room with Kaleb. She has been in there since the beginning of October, and she wanted everyone to see her new bed.

Bubble Bath

Our kids love bubble baths. It's always a time for mom to get to mop up water off the floor. By the time the picture got taken the bubbles were history. This was Rhyan's first time to get to join the other two kids.

Our Matching Girls

Mayson and Rhyan got matching outfits for Christmas this year. Mayson thought that was pretty cool. Don't they look cute!

Christmas 2006

Christmas was a lot of fun at the Kalke house. First we got to decorate our beautiful tree. It was so cold the night we went to pick it out that we took home the first tree we picked out of the pile. No one wanted to stay and look around more. Luckily it ended up being a nice looking tree.

Thanks to all the grandparents, some friends and other family, we had lots of fun stuff under the tree to tempt the kids until Christmas got here. For about a week prior to Christmas, all I heard was, "when's Christmas going to be here?" and "but I just can't wait!" Aren't kids great...Christmas is so much more fun with them around.

The kids must have been good at least some of the time this year. Santa didn't leave anybody coal. Kaleb got a Superman Laptop that has learning games to play. Mayson got a doll house with some furniture and a family. Rhyan got a Little People barn and animals. The kids were very excited, except Rhyan's barn seems to have been taken over by the older kids for the time being.

We all had fun opening presents, but the kids sometimes had a hard time putting down what they were playing with to open something new!





Mayson felt it was her job to make sure everyone else's present got opened okay!

I Have Feet!

Rhyan has discovered she has feet. She tries to eat them, she pulls on them, and she thinks it's awfully funny when you smell them & say "stinky feet." She is getting much more mobile, as she is now rolling around. It is just a matter of time, and she will be terrorizing the house!

Kaleb's Dance

Kaleb's school had a "Teddy Bear Drive" this December to raise bears for children living in a home for abused children. For everyone who brought in a bear, they got to attend the "Beary Special Holiday Dance." It was really fun to watch all the little kids dancing. They had two disco balls up, and the DJ knew more line dances for them to do than I have ever heard of. It was a lot of fun. The kids loved it, and they raised over 500 teddy bears!

Mayson's Christmas Concert

Mayson had a Christmas concert at her preschool. Her class sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and A Funny Little Snowman. It was really cute. Mayson, being character that she is, was loud enough you could hear her over everyone else! She had a lot of fun and keeps asking us when her next concert is.

Peas

Rhyan is discovering the wonderful world of food! She loves to eat, and will eat the whole jar of veggies with some rice cereal mixed in. It's no wonder she has such chubby cheeks!

Visit to Santa

December is not complete without a visit to Santa. Kaleb and Mayson visited with him, but Rhyan was asleep & didn't seem too worried about Santa.



The next time we were at the mall, Mayson felt she needed to speak with Santa again, so this time Rhyan got to be part of it. Rhyan's only concern was how fun it was to pull on Santa's beard.

Trip to the DC Temple

We spent the first weekend in December in Washington DC with our friends, Ben & Candace Dalton. While there, Larry & Misty went to the temple, and then the whole family went back to see the lights & Christmas decorations. The kids thought the best part of the trip was playing in the hotel swimming pool with Zoa and Drake. It was short, but a fun trip for us all.