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.

Rhyan's First Invite

Rhyan got invited to her first official birthday party (that wasn't a go to the neighbors with the whole family type thing). She was so excited!. It was a princess party, so she got to put on all her princess stuff and go be girly. Mayson was at one of her friend's birthday parties, but Kaleb came with us and helped Rhyan with her crafts.

Cutting Down a Tree

Cutting down our own Christmas tree was such a hit with the kids, we decided to do it again this year. We all went out and braved the cold to find the perfect tree. The final decision when I had it narrowed down to the two options was which one was bigger. That was all the kids cared about. It is a beautiful tree, and everyone had fun decorating it. For some reason though, this tree had exceptionally sharp needles on it. Like it hurts if you touch it sharp needles on it. So, setting it up and decorating it was a little harder. Larry got poked in the eye while cutting it down and was complaining about it the whole afternoon. After trying to decorate it though, I had a little more sympathy for him! It is still dripping sap, but it smells awesome! I'm not sure Asher knows quite what to think of it, but the other day he some how got himself from the middle of the room under the side of the tree and was chewing on a present. Someone is getting something juicy!

Our Cute Kids

Our kids are such cuties. I try to remember that on the days they make me crazy. Her you see the two older ones being rock stars!
As you can see, Rhyan still loves to lick the beater. She sits in the kitchen and waits for me to get done so she can have it. This time was banana bread! And last but not least we have Asher. Mayson made this Christmas tree in art at school, and when she brought it home Rhyan decided it looked like a party hat. So, she puts it on Asher's head and sings over and over "Happy Birthday to Asher!"

Getting Ready for Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving we got out all the Christmas Decorations and got ready for Christmas. Everyone was excited, especially the kids. I love to get the house all decorated every year. It just makes it so warm and festive!

Isn't Asher a cutie!! He is so happy all the time. He truly is the best baby. Everyone around him comments on it, everywhere we go. He just happily hangs out whatever we are doing, and he is always so smiley! Doesn't hurt anything that he is also adorable!!
Below you can see him rethinking this whole santa hat thing...Wait a minute, what did they put on me?

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was a lot of fun. We have started a new tradition in the Kalke house... pie for breakfast. You are always so stuffed after Thanksgiving dinner that pie just isn't as good. So, we start the day off with the pie. The kids were so excited leading up to Thanksgiving about getting to eat pie in the morning. It's a fun way to add some excitement to their day. Besides, we had Apple Cranberry and Pumpkin... so really, we had fruit & squash for breakfast!We then went over to Julie and Aaron's house for dinner. There were seven families... a little over twenty people, all crowded in and it was a lot of fun. Julie moved all of the furniture out of her front room and set up tables so we would all fit. Here is a picture of the girls. The guys were up in the attic watching football after dinner, but hey, they had all the kids up there running around with them so it's all good. It gave us a chance to pick up & chat!
Now this is what happens when you eat too much turkey. The triptofan kicks in and you just pass out where ever you are. We came in from the kitchen and Rhyan was asleep like tis on the couch. Oh, to be two again and get to take a nap anytime, anywhere!

Kaleb's Piano Recital

Kaleb had his very first piano recital, and though I know her was nervous he did really well. He had all four of his songs memorized, and we were very proud of him.

Family Photos

We just got our new family pictures taken. We do them about this time every year... and this year we really needed one so that the picture on the wall would include Asher. We think they turned out pretty cute. About as good as we could expect at least when you're dealing with trying to get four kids to look at the camera and smile!

Rochester Trip

Larry had an interview in Rochester, NY for their pediatric program, and we decided to make it a family trip. We drove out on Saturday and stayed downtown. Not too far from our hotel was the waterfall on the river that runs trough town. This is the upper falls (one of three waterfalls) and its about 80 feet high. On Sunday we drove to Palmyra to see the Joseph Smith Farm and Sacred Grove again. It's only about a half hour from Rochester. On the way back we noticed this section of "Mason" stuff... road, hills, etc... Even though it is not spelled the same, Mayson thought it was cool so we stopped to take a picture of her next to one of the signs.