Sailing, Sailing...

Drew took Mallory on a high sea adventure a couple of weeks ago. They were dodging evil pirates & hot lava left and right!
They are reading the treasure map (a.k.a. Candyland game board).

Pumpkin Carving

Usually, we let the kids paint their pumpkins. They pick a favorite image from the computer, I trace it onto the pumpkin, and they paint it. Unfortunately, my craft paints are still tucked away in a yet-to-be-unpacked box in the yet-to-be-organized basement. Bummer. There was much disappointment in the disturbance of routine. Drew would have NOTHING to do with touching the pumpkin "guts."

The boys wanted a little help with their designs, while Elizabeth is crafty enough to do her own.

Be cool about fire safety!

To celebrate "Fire Safety Week" Drew's preschool took a field trip to our fire station. He was excited to climb into the big fire truck.

Mallory is always swarmed by the little girls. She's usually a pretty good sport. For those of you that went to school with me, the little girl in the leopard headband is Heather Matthews Millers little girl, Morgan. She is such a funny, spunky little thing!

Drew was all smiles as he climbed aboard!

Drew and his best friend, Cade. Now, he's no Sterling, but Cade is a pretty good substitute when Sterling isn't around. Drew calls Cade his cousin, and Cade calls Drew his brother. Whatever the relationship, they are good buddies. Their big brothers have been classmates for the last three years also.

Gross

If you have a weak constitution don't read this blog entry!

Yesterday I was driving myself crazy trying to finish up Halloween costumes. I was on the floor really concentrating on my stitching while Drew and Mallory were sitting beside me playing. I looked up at Mallory and noticed she was chewing on something. I made a comment about her tasting something, and Drew told me, "She's just chewing on her spit-up." That's gross enough, but no, he was fibbing. Upon closer inspection, she had a giant Drew-sized booger on her lip. That's right. He was sharing his "treasure" with her. Poor baby.

FHS Homecoming

Here are some shots of the kids enjoying the homecoming parade. They brought their bags to catch the loads of candy being tossed from the procession. Who needs Halloween?

Playing dress-up

No, it's not the little girls who are dressing up Mallory. It's the boys! Grant, Harrison, & Ross found My Buddy and introduced him to Mal.

They determined they probably wore the same size clothes.
It was a tight fit, but they sure got a kick out of Miss Mallory!

Grammy & Grandad

I love, love, love this picture of Mallory and her Grandad! It really captures the fascination they both have with each other.


Grandad doing one of his most favorite things in the world - holding his grandchild.

Grammy & Mallory











For those of you who know my dad, you'll notice he is sans mustache. This is only the second time in my life I've seen him without it. He kept it off for one week about eleven years ago. He's decided to go without it for a while. He keeps getting comments that he looks younger. He says if he'd known that he would have done it years ago.

Morning time fun (Isn't that an oxymoron?!)

Last Sunday, I enjoyed sleeping in later (don't I always?) because we got to watch the General Conference Broadcast from Salt Lake City, and it didn't start until 11:00 a.m. Yay! No rushing around getting dressed in our Sunday best, brushing bed-heads, finding lost church shoes, etc. We got to take our time doing those things instead.

Our little early bird, Elizabeth, was up quietly playing in her room at about 7:30 a.m. when she heard Mallory wake. She got her out of bed and brought her back into her room to play for a while before going in to wake up her brothers. Now, normally we would have been awakened by howls and yells of protest from Drew at being awakened so early, but Mallory has this magic little aura about her that makes her siblings wake up pleasantly. The fantastic four then went to get the camera to capture their early morning bonding. This is a self-portrait taken by Elizabeth of the four of them. Not bad!

Muddin'

This is the result of me telling the kids to go find something to do while I did yard work. Actually Elizabeth asked me if she could get her swimsuit on and play with the hose. Because it is 85 degrees here I told her, "Sure! Go have fun!" And they did!

Another fun Felker family get-together

We travelled to northwest Missouri this weekend for baby Cora's blessing. She is the newest baby born this year. She is the daughter of Edward's sister, Colton, and her husband Nick. It was fun, as always, to see everyone. We were able to see four of Edward's siblings and their families, but we certainly wish the other two could have been there too. It's hard when everyone is so spread out.

Yummy!

Mallory got her first taste of peas. She wasn't so impressed.

Felker Family Work Day

Yes, we're STILL working on the upper deck! It's getting close to being finished, thank goodness. We've only been working on it since March. Saturday we spent the day getting most of the railing up. It makes a big difference.

Elizabeth's perm

Elizabeth has been asking for a perm for a long time. So, I attempted to give it a shot. Here she is before...

The pain! The horror! Our little drama queen hated the smell of the chemicals. Of course she was quite exaggerated in showing her displeasure.

... and after. The stinkin' thing didn't work! All that trouble for nothing! Someone told me that it can sometimes take a couple of times for the perm to take. I guess we'll try it again in December.

Family Reunion

This is my Aunt Susie & Uncle Butch (actually, it's Darrell, but he's Butch to me and the rest of the family). Butch is my mom's twin brother. He is retired from the Navy, and he and Susie travel the country full-time in their fifth-wheel trailer. It's their home. They make their rounds to this part of the country every September, so it's always a fun visit.

Darrell (he'll always be "Bud" to me!) and cutie-patootie Nolan. Bud is Uncle Butch & Aunt Susie's son. He and his wife, Jen and kids Nolan and Olivia live at Fort Leonard Wood. He is in the army and has served a tour of duty in Iraq.

Here we go again!

I bought this cape for part of Ross' totally rad Halloween costume. Just wait for pictures! I'm pretty lucky that I can still pretty much talk my kids into something I want them to be for Halloween. It was fun dressing our little toy up for our entertainment again.

Yes, that's me under the cape. And yes, I'm a dork. Drew and I turned off the lights, put it on, and waited quietly to try to scare the big kids tonight when they got home from soccer. Ross stopped for a minute, and then came over and pulled the hood down. Elizabeth stopped for a minute and said, "MOOOOOM! What are you doing?" She asked me where I got it and I told her I got it because I wanted a cape of my own so I could play superheros with them. She thought I was quite a weirdo before I told her it was for Ross' costume.

Watch out for Mallory - the Grim Reaper.

Our fun grandparents!

Jani, Papa Otto, & only about 1/4 of their grandkids. Aren't big families great?!

Papa Otto & Jani

Elizabeth is pretending she is Jani's baby. Jani was a pretty good sport to play along.

Grandad, Grammy, and half of their rowdies

I'm noticing a pattern. Could the grandparents be signing "PEACE" in hopes of getting a little?

Baby food

Mallory has started eating baby cereal. The kids are infatuated with the fact that she knows how to eat something other than milk. From her first bite she has loved it. She gets her love of food from her mom!

I think it's impossible to feed a baby while you keep your mouth closed. I always open and close my mouth when I feed my babies.

She started lurching forward for each bite when I wasn't going fast enough.

By the end of the meal she began "washing down" each bite with her fingers. She's still a paci girl, but she also sucks her thumb on her left hand and sucks any combination of fingers on her right hand. It's usually her middle two or her first two, but occasionally she'll get three or even four fingers in at a time. I often find her sucking her thumb when I check on her in the night. She's a multi-talented girl!

Our little rock star!

Mallory is our little toy. She's so patient with us as we humor ourselves with her cuteness.

We're a perfect match!

Slide.com has this really fun feature where you can add stickers to your photos. The kids and I have been getting some good laughs out of it. Edward just shakes his head at our silliness!