Welcome Back

This 18+ inch scratch was the first thing we saw when our shuttle bus deposited us at our van. Steam. Blew. From. My. Ears. We stayed at a hotel the night before we flew out which had a Park Sleep Fly option. Either someone keyed the van, or to me, it looks like someone propped a suitcase up against it and a zipper scratched it as it fell down. Either way, no note - nothing. With a scratch this size, someone had to know what they did. I'm not a confrontational person, but let me tell you, I've played out an imaginary scene in my mind many times of what I would say if I were to see the person. Arg!

Happy Birthday, Ross!

My baby boy turned 9 last week while we were on vacation (not too many kids get to spend their birthday in Orlando - Drew has already requested to go there for his)! Where does the time go?!? What a joy it was to welcome Ross into our life. He was born the summer before my last year of college. Thanks to the help of our amazing family and friends (Ross' aunts Jan Ellen and Katie, uncles Aaron and Mike, cousins Katie and Laura, and friend Briana - did I miss anyone?), I was able to carry a 12 hour load that first semester after he arrived, and I did my student teaching that second semester. While I enjoyed my students, it was torture to know I couldn't be with my baby all day! Graduation couldn't come soon enough so I could finally begin my career as a full-time Mommy!

9 Fun Facts About Ross

1. He is a MONKEY BOY!!!! He could climb before he could walk. I don't think there isn't anything that boy can't climb! As a baby, he tried to scale my parents' fireplace. He tried sinking his toes between the bricks. And monkeys are his favorite animal. He loves them.

2. He loves sports - wrestling, baseball, soccer! His favorite sport is whatever he is involved in at the time. And, he is a great sportsman. He always congratulates his opponents in wrestling.
When he plays catcher, he always picks up the bat for the boy from the other team. Etc.

3. He is my best eater. I can honestly say I can never remember him complaining about something I've made for dinner. Not a feat I can say about Elizabeth and Drew, that's for sure!

4. He is very confident about himself ;) - I think that might be the trait of a first born!

5. He is so gentle with babies. Not too many boys are interested in babies, but he is so sweet with them. He is often the first one that asks to hold a newborn (he gets that after his Momma).

6. He is absolutely AMAZING with numbers (he definitely gets that from his Daddy).

7. He has quite a memory. He can remember every little detail. I don't know why I ever question him about past events. He usually is right.

8. Girls are still taboo to him (YES!).

9. He is very easy to laugh (again, he gets that from me). When he gets very tickled (which is often) his rapid-fire laugh brings a smile to anyone who can hear him.

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Happy Birthdays!

Yesterday we celebrated my Mom's and Ross' birthdays. As my Aunt Cathy says, my Mom turned "plenty-nine" and also celebrated her 35th wedding anniversary on June 18th. She got to spend her very special day at Girls Camp with the teenage girls from church.

Ross turns 9 on Saturday. He's one lucky kid to spend his birthday in Orlando! I asked him if he wanted me to pack his gift for him to open on his actual birthday or open it before we leave. Of course he said he wants to open it before we leave!

I'm lucky to have these two awesome people in my life!

Feeling crafty

It's not often that I take time anymore to sew/craft etc. I've rediscovered my abilities after I recently went into a children's boutique, and upon seeing way too big of price tags, determined I could make just as cute of outfits for the kids for way less money.

Mallory was given a darling onesie when she was born from our dear Cousin Carrie. It is monogrammed with an "M" and has cute little pink rhinestones. I couldn't bear to pack this one up after she has outgrown it, so I was able to re-purpose it into a cute little dress. I am mostly pleased with how it turned out!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about some darling hairbows I found online and wanted to try to make. Here is my attempt:

Universal Studios, here we come!

We are starting to get organized and pack up for our trip to Orlando next week. Edward qualified for this trip at work (American Family Insurance). Since we just went to Disney World about a year and a half ago, we don't plan to go all out for this vacation. We plan on going to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure for several days. Other than that, we'll be hanging out at our resort. It looks like we'll have plenty to do there. We're pretty excited.

I hope none of our days at the parks turn out like this:

Funny Videos
This picture reminds me of our first trip to Disney World when Ross was 4, Elizabeth was 2, and I was 5 months pregnant with Drew. I was excited to take everyone on Splash Mountain.

As you can see, Elizabeth LOVED it, riding down the 10-story drop with her arms in the air. Ross had the living daylights scared out of him. My wonderful husband is NOT a roller coaster rider but was a good sport nonetheless. Edward kept his lips tightly shut so as not to 1.) scream like a 6 year old girl and 2.) toss his cookies.

Believe it or not, I talked Edward and Ross into going back on Splash Mountain when we went three years later. This time, I had a new victim, er, I mean participant in Drew. As you can see, he has the Grip of Death on me. Ross seemed to enjoy himself a little more this time, and Edward appeared to have fun. I think that smile isn't so genuine, but at least he rode it again. Elizabeth still had a blast, as did my neice Mary Catherine in the back. My Dad had to ride in the front in order to get the best view of everyone.
Stay tuned to see what rides I drag everyone on this time!

Happy Father's Day!

Put your hands in the air, and step away from the M&Ms

These are my new obsession. They are insane. I heard about how tasty these little green treasures are, so I had to give it a go. I bought a bag tonight, and I entered into a state of bliss. Think Girl-Scout-Thin-Mint-Cookie-Goodness. H.E.A.V.E.N.

NATURE IS SO COOL!

One day last week, I noticed several cars stopping at the end of our driveway. My first thought was, "Oh no. What have the kids done to our yard?" The two older ones were at summer school, so I figured it must not have been them. After a while I stepped out there to take some trash out, and I noticed a HUGE red tailed hawk. That thing was a monster. It had killed a rabbit (the same rabbit that has been destroying our new garden - we weren't too heartbroken). Our treetops were filled with other birds, chirping and screeching trying to scare it off. You'll notice in the video clip several of those birds were dive bombing the hawk, trying to get it out of the yard. It was very stoic and calm as it munched on its meal. It let me get pretty close. Drew and I watched it for about 10 minutes (along with many passerby that stopped to watch). Drew finally had to run and scare it off. What little boy could resist? It was quite awesome to watch it pick up the shredded meat and fly across our large lot to the trees at the back of our property. I felt like I was in the middle of a National Geographic program. Very cool!

Should I Join Bloggers Annonymous?

65%  

Lets101 - Free Online Dating

I took a survey like this about a year ago, and I was only 34% addicted to blogging. Oops!

Parading Around

This weekend was our community's annual celebration/carnival/festival. Let me tell you, it is a BIG EVENT in "this here neck of the woods." There are carnival rides, concerts, and a parade. Because of the, um how shall I say it, icky people that come out of the woodwork for this celebration, we told the kids we would only be attending the parade. We explained that since we are taking not one, but two big vacations this summer, we would forgo the amusement rides and save our money for our vacations (that and because of all of the dandy's that flock to our city).

The parade was LONG!!! We met my parents there, along with my Aunt Cathy, Uncle Steve, and cousins Katie, Jason, and their darling little Ellie. We always choose the shady spot at the beginning of the parade route. We do this for two reasons: 1. The wonderful shade from the June sun and 2. The parade participants load the kids up with their full bags of candy. It's a win-win!
These are a couple of the sights in the parade. Note the red utility truck below. It's contribution as far as decorations go is a lone yellow balloon duct taped to it's side. Way to go all out, fellas!

Batman & Robin

Best buddies/cousins/super heroes crusading to save the planet from evil!

"It's a small world, afterall..."

This is what I did last night after everyone had gone to bed:

Teenage Stephanie (It's actually pretty accurate, except I wasn't quite as freckly, and I didn't have such bags under my eyes *sigh*.)


Asian Stephanie


Black Stephanie









Asian Edward (Still very handsome!)

Black Edward (not so handsome, but scary!)

Old Edward (remind me to make him use sunscreen.)

Black Ross (hahahahah!)

Asian Ross

Grandpa Ross

Young Man Ross (looks like somebody needs some eye brow waxing!)

Black Elizabeth (cute!)

Grandma Elizabeth

Young lady

Asian Elizabeth (cute!)

Black Drew (with blond hair and blond eyebrows)

Asian Drew (looks like somebody needs some FOREHEAD waxing! Yikes!)

Teenage Drew (I hope he loses those baby teeth before then!)

Black baby Mallory

Asian Baby Mallory

Grandma Mallory

*I found this site at http://morph.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/transformer

Laughter is the best medicine!

Want a good dose? Go to www.manbabies.com .

My new crafting obsession

I used to craft a lot - before I had four children! I still enjoy seeing other peoples' creations, I just don't have the time for it. I can sew, but my attempts are quite mediocre. I've been quite inspired by other peoples' crafting blogs lately (my friend, Emily's -www.creativechicksatplay.blogspot.com and another lady's I've happened upon - www.theskyispink.blogspot.com). While I'm no where near their caliber, I've decided I want to get going on some projects of my own. I also recently went into a children's boutique and determined I could make some of the darling outfits I saw and get by without paying the $50 to $100 price tags. I'm driven by bargains!

I make hair bows for my girls and for gifts for others. That's the extent of my crafting these days. I have come upon quite possibly the cutest hair clips ever! They are technically called "ribbon sculptures." Take a peek:

http://punkynmunky.blogspot.com/2008/05/for-your-summer-vacation.html

and

http://punkynmunky.blogspot.com/2008/02/look-at-my-ribbon-sculptures.html

How amazing are these!!!! My goal is to get these made before our trip to Orlando in three weeks. While technically we won't be going to Disney World ( I found a t00-good-to-pass-up-deal through Universal Studios - we'll be going there!) we have several parties/dinners to go to, and I hope to have them done so the girls can wear them there. I bought the ribbons today, so stay tuned for pictures of my attempts!

"Great" clips

My brother-in-law, Nick, inspired this post. Thanks, Nick!

Last weekend, when the Great Felker Migration took place for Mary Caroline's wedding, Nick showed us his new haircut. He revealed it to me inside the temple, right before the ceremony. Because we want to be reverent inside the temple, I had to muster every ounce of self-control I had not to yell/laugh hysterically. When I get tickled about something, it is very hard for me to laugh quietly.

This is what he showed me:

BWAHAAHAA!!!

It was all I could do to keep from bustin' a gut and rolling on the floor! I asked him not to sit in front of me during the wedding ceremony because I wouldn't have been able to control myself.

Apparently, he had asked my sister-in-law, Colton, to give him a haircut. She forgot to put the guard on, and this is what ensued.

Nick was SUCH a good sport about all the laughter at his expense. In fact, he waited to show his hair to us before going to have it taken care of professionally. Between the wedding and the reception, he got a haircut and the problem was solved.

Oh, thanks for the laughter, Nick!!!! It brought back an infamous memory in our family.

I have always been Edward's personal barber. Since we've been married, he has never been to the barber shop. In fact, he brought along his clippers to our honeymoon, and asked me to cut his hair. I was SCARED TO DEATH. I had never done it before. He certainly put a lot of faith in his new bride! All went well...that time.

Fast forward about a year-and-a-half later. It was Christmas time, and we were visiting at my parents' house. I was just barely pregnant with Ross and feeling quite green. Edward asked me for a haircut, and I told him I would right after I took a nap. He had everything all set up for me when I awoke a while later. I stumbled into the kitchen, apparently still half-asleep. I turned on the clippers and took a swipe right up the middle. I suddenly turned off the clippers, my eyes wide. I gasped loudly and covered my mouth. Edward very calmly said, "You forgot to put the guard on, didn't you." I immediately began crying (and I'm not a crier) because I felt so horrible. It was pretty bad. My dad had been sitting watching the whole chaotic scene unfold. He had to run out of the room so he didn't burst into laughter.

The next thing I know family members are assembling to assess the damage as my skunk-headed husband is trying to comfort me. Man, he's an amazing guy! The rest of the family were gawking in stunned silence, trying not to make the situation worse.

Edward just kept saying, "It's only hair. It will grow back." How many of us could say that?! Not many. We finally were able to laugh about it. In all my life, I've never seen my dad laugh so hard, and that is not an exaggeration. For the rest of our visit, which was several days longer, my dad couldn't look at Edward without laughing.

For about a week or two, I colored Edward's bald strip in each day with my eye-liner. In fact, the day that it happened we were headed over to my Great Grandma's for Christmas Eve. We joked that he had to remember not to put his head back on her couch, or she would have a brown strip.

When we left to go visit his family a few days later, he had me write "Merry Christmas" in red and green marker in his bald strip. Mary Caroline was about 10 years old at the time. When she saw it, she said with a straight face, "Mom's gonna kill you."

And now, without further ado:

This photo has not been doctored at all!

*After a couple of my recent posts, either you will see what a kind soul Edward is, or you will think I'm one cruel lady for the things I laugh at my husband about!

Barf-O-Rama

*WARNING* PERSONS WITH WEAK CONSTITUTIONS PROBABLY DO NOT WANT TO READ THIS!!!!

Consider yourselves warned!

Why do kids put gross things in their mouths? At Ross' baseball game Friday night, I think three little girls came up to me at three different times to tell me Drew was eating dirt. For Pete's Sake, why?! I'm sure dirt doesn't taste good! The crazy little guy had a thin blackish/brown ring around his mouth for the rest of the evening.

Later, just before it was time to leave, Drew was playing underneath the bleachers. I noticed he was stooped down and still. We parents know to check on our children when it is too quiet. Upon further inspection, he was eating ABC sunflower seeds. For those of you not in the know ABC stands for ALREADY BEEN CHEWED!!!!!! UGH! He was eating other peoples' spat-out sunflower seeds. What's even worse, when I calmly (okay, okay - hysterically) told him to get those out of his mouth and explained what they were, he just giggled and CONTINUED eating them. YUCK!!!!

Later when we discussed this, the big kids wanted to know what the grossest things were they've had in their mouths as babies. For a one year-old Ross, it was a cigarette butt I fished from his mouth while we were swimming at a public pool. For Mallory, it was the time I found her chewing on Drew's booger that he fed her when she was about 6 months old.
Elizabeth's was by far the worst. I still get a little throw-up in my mouth when I think of it. While shopping in a thrift store when she was one, I pulled out of her mouth a used band-aid. OHHHH!!!!

Why, oh, why people!?!

Mary & Tyson's Wedding

We had a wonderful weekend of fun & family for Mary Caroline's wedding. We started off with a week of excitement when the Sanders from Florida made a pit stop at our place on their way to Columbia/Jefferson City to help with the festivities. We got to have Sterling with us from Wednesday morning until Saturday morning when we met up for the wedding.
Then Friday night, the Realls from Chicago got to see Ross' baseball game and spent the night with us. We all met up at the St. Louis temple where Mary and Tyson got married. It was a beautiful, sweet, simple ceremony. The nieces and nephews were so excited to see "Princess Mary" and to see each other. After a big, noisy lunch at the Spaghetti Factory we caravaned to Columbia for the fun reception. It was a night of lots of dancing, visiting, and laughter at the great party.
Sunday morning, the majority of us converged on an unsuspecting church. Imagine the surprise of about 30 new faces in the congregation! Luckily for them, we didn't stay and send our children to their Primary (children's church service)!
After church, Andrew and Sarah were gracious to host a lunch at their cute house.
We left Sunday evening, with the Sanders following us for another pit stop before heading back home to Florida Monday morning.
We love our time with our family! Because we are all so spread out and our visits are so few and far between, we have such joyous reunions! This must be what heaven will be like!

P.S. There are LOTS of pictures here! You can speed it up or slow it down in the lower left hand corner. Also, if you hold the cursor over the photo, you can stop the photo and read a little caption.

Charlie bit me

I have to pass this video along after discovering it on Jennifer's blog. My family and I have watched this over and over and over. I laugh until I cry EVERY time!!!! This is hysterical!!!!! Bwahaaahaaa!!!!

A Day at the Zoo

We spent a perfect day at the St. Louis Zoo on Saturday. It was about 68 degrees while we were there. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

Amazing Flowers

We stopped by our temple Saturday after a morning at the zoo. I had to get up close to take some pictures of their amazing flowers! Gorgeous!
I don't know what these are called, but they were so thick and luscious! I just wanted to get up there and lay on them, kind of like I do clouds when I'm in an airplane.

Aren't Big Brothers' Great?

When Edward changed Mallory's clothes last week, he noticed mysterious scribbles on Mallory's back and, sadly, rear end. Obviously this wasn't a feat that our little genius could master herself. Big brother Drew was happy to take credit for this one. He was pretty proud of his masterpiece.

Small World

I got a kick out of a story my sister-in-law Jessica told me this weekend. She said she had been talking to a friend from Sikeston that told her she was needing to replace some springs on her kids' trampoline. She was browsing the Internet looking for a deal. When she googled "trampoline springs" guess what popped up? My entry about Edward's trampoline incident! That is hilarious!

My Turn

After contemplating a shorter, angled haircut for some time I finally decided to take the plunge. I've admired this style for a long time, but I've felt that my face wasn't thin enough to pull it off. I've now come to accept the fact that my hair isn't what will make my face look thin. It's having a thin face that will make my face look thin, and that whole process isn't so fun. Anyway, I love how it turned out. I may even go a tiny bit shorter the next time.