Celebrating Birthdays (and Last Days) at School

Jackson and Peyton are turning 5 in 5 days! Since today was the last real day of school, it worked perfectly to celebrate their birthday with their friends at Harold Keller
as close to their birthday as possible before the school year ends.
Jackson took Spiderman cupcakes and Peyton took princess cupcakes for their classes. Both Pre-k classes got together to celebrate our twins. Everyone loved the rings on the cupcakes and they were delicious too!

Peyton is a girl after my own heart. She wanted pink cupcakes, but didn't want to give up chocolate frosting altogether.

We talked Jackson into the same thing. He had half blue frosting and half chocolate.
He also wore Mardi Gras beads since it was a special occasion.
Partying means beads around here!

Happy, frosting covered faces.

Good Friends

Miss Jaime has been a perfect fit for Jackson this year. He loves her and I could always tell the feeling was mutual. Miss Nancy is missing in this photo, but she is wonderful as well. She welcomed the kids to school from carpool every morning and brightened our day. Thank goodness for excellent teachers who care! We'll miss Harold Keller Elementary School.

Peyton's teachers Miss Tina and Miss Bonnie worked well with Peyton. She loved going to school and even missed it over weekends! What does that say about how much she loves being home?......I'm not sure.

Happy Upcoming 5th Birthday Jackson and Peyton!! I'm so glad we got to celebrate with your friends and teachers at school.

So Blessed!

Today was Luke's blessing day. Mark gave him a wonderful father's blessing. It was sweet to share it with some family members and our ward family.
Luke looked adorable in his blessing outfit that nearly all of his brothers have worn as well (with the exception of Carston). My mom did a wonderful job designing and sewing it. It is one of our treasures. The outfit was at full capacity since Luke is already four months old. We wanted to wait to bless him until some of our family would be in town. Luckily, it still fit.

Luke is the real blessing! Heaven radiates from him. He gives me knowing looks as if he understands and appreciates what I do for him. He smiles, a lot! Luke is refreshingly and deeply happy and kind.

Congratulations Dr. Calder!!

The kids and I have been excited for Mark to graduate from medical school and receive his Masters of Public Heath! Today was the big day.

This morning, before Mark left for Tulane's unified commencement sporting his regalia, the boys thought he looked like a witch. I thought he looked handsome and felt so proud of him that tears welled up in my eyes. Way to go Mark!! You are a great example to me. You have gone for your dreams and never given up, regardless of setbacks! Congratulations on this wonderful accomplishment. Congratulations to me too, I landed myself a doctor....... wink, wink!

We were so glad to have some of our family come to celebrate Mark's graduation day with us!!

Mark and I are so grateful for their support. We couldn't have made it through the past five years without our families. We love you!

Congratulations to John, Alex and Ben (Dr. Bush, Dr. Newsome and Dr. Thompson) as well!
They are good friends and we will miss them.

Today has been one of those pay off days.
I love you, Dr. Calder!

Playing Catch Up!

Just a warning to everyone: I am playing major catch up with events that happened during November and December. So, you may see a lot of old posts over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully, I will get all caught up quickly.

Innsbruck

Innsbruck is cold this time of year, really cold and really beautiful. Here is Mark standing in the city square in downtown Innsbruck below the Goldenes Dachl, the most characteristic landmark in the city. Tirol is so picturesque all year round and it felt like coming home to spend an afternoon wandering its familiar streets. It was so cold, we had to duck into every tourist trap imaginable but it was fun to look at the trinkets there too. We ate a hearty meal at the Goldenes Dachl Cafe (sounds pretty Austrian doesn't it, wink, wink). There aren't many traditional Austrian restaurants open on a Sunday evening.

When we were nearly frozen, we decided to make our way back to the quiet town of Absam where we stayed overnight at the Landgasthof Bogner. We stayed at the same hotel when we visited Austria a few years ago, so it was fun to be back. The views from the gasthof are spectacular and the town is quaint, situated up in the alps.
We enjoyed every moment in Absam and were sorry to have to leave the next morning, but were excited to head back to Vienna.

On our way out of town, we recognized a familiar set of headlights and, star stricken, had to follow Herbie to get a picture so we could prove that we had seen him to our boys. Apparently, the Love Bug has officially retired to Absam in Tirol, not a bad choice if I do say so myself.

Sweet baby Luke loved the Alps! He thought the air was fresher, the milk tasted better (thanks to delicious Austrian food) and the sleeping was more peaceful snuggled against his dad's chest for warmth. He looked out the window as we drove back through Germany to reach Vienna.

Valentine's Day in Salzburg

I dream of Salzburg! I can close my eyes and see the clear water of the Salzach river as it rushes underneath bridges and reflects the picturesque beauty of the Festung on the rocky hilltop of hohe Salzburg and the majesty of cathedral spires reaching upward from below. Salzburg is the the city where "the hills are alive with the sound of music", a city full of romance and history, the city where I fell in love with Austria,......the city where I spent Valentine's Day with my sweetheart this year.

It snowed almost all day and dressed Salzburg's loveliness in thick white. Mark spent most of the day with little Luke tucked underneath his coat to keep him toasty warm.

I bundled up and remembered the cold that inevitably froze me to painful partial numbness as a missionary.

We sought refuge from the frosty cold in one of my favorite places in Salzburg.

Demel offers all kinds of chocolates, confections and cakes.
This cake is an example of their expertise.

If you ever want to taste sweet perfection, order the susser genuss.

Mark and I have established that he always orders better than I do. It was also true this time, although my Sacher Torte was delicious as well.

MMMMMMMMM! Satisfaction....

After enjoying Demel on Mozartplatz, we window shopped on Getreidegasse.

We investigated several charming alcoves and hidden courtyards.

This small courtyard was my favorite.

How lucky are we to be walking the streets of romantic Salzburg on Valentine's Day!?

Get your fresh Krapfen here! (Signs like this used to make young missionaries laugh.)

Mozart is all over the souvenirs in the shops on Getreidegasse. Mozart was kind enough to pose with Mark and then allowed us to buy some of his delicious Mozart Kugeln, delicious balls of chocolate filled with hazelnut and marzipan.

Mozart's Geburthaus

We stayed in Schloss Arenberg, a former palace, owned by the American Austria Foundation and the Salzburg Stiftung. It is the home of Salzburg Medical Seminars International and is found on the right bank of the Salzach river across from hohe Salzburg. They were kind enough to allow us to rent a room for the weekend since Mark is a Max Kade Fellow.

The grounds were also impressive, although we didn't explore too much because it was covered in deep snow.

The snowfall was impressive that night.

Luckily, our little monkey was snug in his warm coat and covered in blankets for the evening. He slept all during our Valentine's dinner.

We lucked out in our choice of restaurant. The "Pitter Keller" was down in the basement of a building on a remote street near Mozart's Wohnhaus. It was decorated like a traditional beer garden, filled with charm, and we even sat in non-smoking. (Austria is really growing up.)

After enjoying wurst, sauerkraut, Wiener schnitzel and petersilerdapfeln, we had apfelstrudel mit vanillesauce for dessert. The waitress brought me a rose after dinner.

The schloss was filled with tulips for Valentine's Day. Tulips are my favorite flower. It was a perfect day. Thank you, Mark, for being my Valentine and making the day extraordinary. The best part about Valentine's Day was spending it with you. I love you!

Little Luke (3 weeks and a half weeks old)!

I promised Mark that I would try to update our blog while he is away this month on another rotation. This time he is taking in the sights of beloved Vienna, Austria (where we both served our missions) and working at a hospital there in his "spare" time. He has now been gone for just over a week and I haven't taken any pictures documenting Luke's growth since he left, because I am too busy surviving. I decided this needed to be remedied immediately, so here are the most recent pictures of our beautiful baby boy.