Maggie's Dance Recital

For the past four years, Maggie's dance class has done a Christmas recital as a fundraiser for Toys for Tots. This year, the class presented their numbers for the residents at the Missouri Veterans Home in Cameron.

She is not yawning....she is feigning surprise for the camera!!

The beginning of her jazz number.

The freestyle dance part of her gymnastics number.....she's in the middle.

Christmas Cookies

It has been a few years since I have made cut out sugar cookies, but I was in the mood to make and decorate them this year and thought that the kids would enjoy the project as well!

Maggie helping me get the dough ready to roll out.

Morgan with his cookies.

Morgan decorating his cookies.

Cheesy grin Marshall!!

Hard at work decorating his cookies!

The finished product!!

Using the icing for the first time!!

Gingerbread House

This year, the kids and I tackled making a gingerbread house. I had never done one before but bought a kit and I think it turned out pretty good!! We had lots of fun making it, so I'm sure it will be a repeat project next year!!

The back of the finished product.

The front.

The kids adding candy to the house.

All assembled and waiting to dry so that we can decorate it!

I'm piping in icing to hold in the sleigh.

Christmas

Santa was good to the Farrell children this year.....although I have a few issues with him!! We celebrated our first Christmas in our basement this year since it was finished. As I have mentioned before, the kids wanted to have our Christmas down there, so two trees went up this year!! However, apparently Santa didn't get the 411 on the change in locations and missed out on his cookies and milk!! He left the kids' presents by the upstairs tree with a note asking about his goodies!?! We have decided next year we will either leave the milk and cookies upstairs or leave the big guy a note directing him to them!!

We celebrated Christmas with my dad and his wife on the Sunday before Christmas and had a very relaxed and enjoyable afternoon. The kids got to run around and play with their cousins for a few hours and we had a good food and a great visit. I even learned how to play Bunko with my nieces and nephew!!

Christmas Eve we were at my mom's house with more good food and company. We ate until we were miserable!! We had fun opening our presents and then after a small bit of karaoke, we headed to church for a candlelight service that was wonderful!! After that, it was back to Granny's to change into our new Christmas jammies and then home to go to bed!!

My pictures are in reverse order, but as you can tell the kids were happy with what Santa brought them. Morgan got a new Harry Potter wand. Maggie got a mini Miche bag and Marshall got a .22 rifle (Santa---a gun!?!)

We spent all day at home with most of it in the basement playing with our new toys and spending time together!!

We will celebrate our Christmas with the Pollard and Farrells this weekend. We can't wait to visit with everyone!!

Getting ready to rip into the presents.!!

Mags with her mini Miche bag!

Marshall with his .22 rifle!

Morgan and his new wand!

Look what Santa brought!! Guess we were good this year!!

Winter Update

Alas, I have no pictures to post at this moment, but I do need to update everyone on what is going on in our lives!

Morgan has completed his first-ever junior high basketball season. I'm not sure what the team's record was, but I think they probably broke even on wins/losses. Some of the boys on the team have played together for several years, but were playing with different kids this time and in different positions! They had a great season and lots of opportunities to learn! Morgan did a really good job and had a great time! I am very pleased to say that he has a good attitude and takes it in stride when the team loses as well as wins! He begins a league with a "travel" team tonight in St. Joe for the next several Wednesday nights. I am sure that he will enjoy it as well. He seems to be getting settled in to junior high very well. During the first week of November, he was very sick and missed 3 1/2 days plus a day the week before, but he got caught up in his classes and is working very hard! Last night, at the Winter Concert, the high school band played and they sounded great! I know that he enjoys being in the band and works hard at learning the songs!

Maggie had her Christmas dance recital last weekend and did an outstanding job in both her jazz and gymnastic numbers! She was joined on stage by her dad for a special number! I will post pictures later! He was wearing a tutu over his jeans and white top with a snowflake pinned to his shirt and a snowflake tiara! There were almost 20 dads up on the stage with their daughters! It was a sight to behold! If I can figure out how to load video, I may post it as well!! School is going great for Maggie! However, as usual, her favorite part of most days is spent at the daycare helping take care of the kids. We have a 5-month old that she LOVES to hold and love on! Last night at the Winter concert, she did a great job on the trumpet!!

Marshall is doing well with school and is getting involved in 4-H. In fact, he has his Christmas party tonight! We haven't gotten hogs yet, but will be sometime in the near future! He is very excited to get to show them this summer! He is busy going to open gym and "Rowdies" during the morning before school and hanging with his best friends! At the Winter concert, he did a great job singing his class's songs! He claimed he was so nervous that his palms were "all sweaty", but you couldn't tell it by looking at him. He smiled the entire time!

We have almost completed the basement. All that's left to do is "finish" work: hanging the pocket doors on the stairwell, the baseboard in most of the rooms, and wrapping one of the exposed columns! Greg has done a terrific job and we have a cozy place to hang out. Of course, we had to put two Christmas trees up.....one upstairs and one downstairs. Marshall wanted to know if that meant Santa would leave presents under both trees.....UUUUHHHH NO!

We hosted two Thanksgiving dinners this year. Thursday with some of my side and Saturday with Greg's side. It was a very fun time (but hectic). I think I will be taking next year off and letting someone else host! I enjoyed having everyone at the house, but the preparation wore me out!!

I will try to post some pictures at a later date! See ya later!

Family Photos

We recently had our family photos taken by our pastor's wife who does an outstanding job and is very budget friendly!! Below are just a few of the many shots she took! Thanks LK!!

Sock Hop

The last Friday in September, the Elementary StuCo at our school put on a Sock Hop for the elementary students.

Maggie in her poodle skirt.....that is a coffee filter colored black with the center cut out of it.....desperate times call for desperate measures.....she had a felt record from a dance recital, but we couldn't find it!!

Marshall as a greaser......

Aren't they cute!!??!!

Hayride!!

A few weeks ago, some of our friends had a hog roast and hayride at their house! It was a beautiful fall evening and our family had a terrific time. Of course, Marshall rode in the tractor with the driver rather than on the hay wagon. Maggie, Morgan and I sang songs and visited along with the other people in the wagon. We had a fun time. It reminded me of the times when I was a kid and we used to have hay rides!! Fun, fun!!

Marshall in the tractor cab with Melvin and Zac......those who know all three of these realize that this is SCARY!!! LOL!

Maggie and Morgan......can you tell it is dark outside, but Mo has on sunglasses!?! hehehe

Halloween 2010

Halloween 2010 proved to be very interesting! As usual, Halloween turned into a several day celebration.....I have noticed that when you have kids this happens.....every holiday/birthday turns into a multi-day celebration!! Oh well.....they are only little once.....and mine are just about not that little anymore!! :( We started our pre-Halloween celebration on the Thursday before the actual holiday with a Trunk or Treat at our school sponsored by the CharacterPLUS committee. The school board members served a freewill donation chili supper while local organizations and businesses sponsored a Trunk or Treat in the gym. The varsity girls' basketball team set up a haunted stage for kids to go through! It was a fun evening!!

However, the holiday got hijacked later on that evening when Morgan and Marshall began vomitting at 10:45 and 11:30. The boys and I spent most of the night up and down vomitting while I tried to figure out a way to handle the situation. Sick kids in the middle of the night was not going to go well with getting up and being at work at 6:00 a.m. in the morning. My mom wasn't available, so I closed the daycare.....which really spoiled the plans for our Halloween party.....but what can you do....sick kids need their mommy!!

Maggie was fortunate enough to be well, so she got to go to school Friday and celebrate with her classroom party!! Last year, she dressed up as Mommy for Halloween so this year, she decided to go as Daddy! She looked really cute in her carpenter garb!!

By Saturday morning, the boys were doing better and Morgan went deer hunting for the first time ever!! However, he had a crummy weekend and didn't get a deer, but he is waiting for the regular season so that he can try his hand again!! Say a prayer that he gets a deer.....he is really excited!!

Sunday evening, we headed to my brother's family's house for our annual Trick or Treating frolic. We have been trick or treating with them since Morgan was little. We gather at their house and eat supper (usually pizza) and then trick or treat their street and the next street over! The kids have a super time!

Below are some pictures of the kids and one crazy lady in costumes!

Oh look!!! It's Aunt Andi with Alli's stem on her head.....isn't she cute!?!?

Marshall as a Kansas City Royal.

By Sunday night, Maggie had tired of wearing the carpenter's tool belt and was ready to dress up like Mommy again.....

Morgan wasn't feeling well on Sunday night and instead of wearing his Percy Jackson costume which granny worked really hard on for 10 minutes to make he borrowed this Yoda mask to make trick or treating with Alli more fun!!!

Old Threshers

OK....so here's how I end up doing things. I take, take, take pictures, and then I finally upload everything at one time.....so here is post number one!! Back in September, we headed to Greg's parents' house to attend Old Threshers in Shelbina. Marshall was super excited to go since it involved farming and old tractors! Below are a few pictures of the weekend. As a bonus, we got to see all of Greg's immediate family except for one of his brothers and his wife and oldest son!! That doesn't happen very often since we all live so far apart and have very busy lives!!

Marshall during the pedal tractor pull.....this was his first one ever. He ended up getting upset because he thought he was treated unfairly....he wasn't.....HE just thought he was!!! Typical Marshall.....God love him!

Prior to the pedal tractor pull, they had games for the kids. Here is Marshall in the hay scramble!!! He sneezed lots later on!

They also have rides for the kids. Marshall is here with his cousin Bridgit on a train made of barrells that are painted to look like tractors.....imagine that he is in a John Deere green one!!

Here is little miss Maggie in the tractor barrell ride!!

Daddy and the boys!!

Fall, fall, fall

Well, it is officially fall in Northwest Missouri! The trees are all turning beautiful shades of orange, yellow, and red! Now, if it would just freeze so that allergies would go away!!

The first quarter at school is over and the kids have had a great start to the school year so far! Morgan is adjusting fairly well to junior high, though I think he still is working out some of the kinks! Maggie is loving fifth grade, and Marshall is enjoying being in the second grade! They each have great teachers and are enjoying the school year!

Morgan has started junior high basketball. So far, his team is 2-2. We had our annual junior high tournament at Winston last week and the boys finished fourth. The girls' team received second place. Morgan is doing great so far and has had 7 points in each of 2 of the games! I think he may have already tied my points scored throughout my entire high school career!! (hehehehe!!)

This past Saturday night, Maggie's girl scout troop attended a Vampire Scavenger Hunt! She got to wear her costume (construction worker like Daddy!!!.....last year she was a mommy!!) and then they broke up into groups and had a scavenger hunt around Cameron. Instead of finding items, they had to go to certain places and take pictures on a digital camera....I thought that was pretty neat! She had a blast!!

Marshall has quit Cub Scouts, but is now a 4-H-er. He visited his uncle in Indiana this past summer and has become very interested in showing animals! He has always said that he wants to have a farm when he grows up, so I'm not surprised by this turn of events! He is the child in our house who spends a great deal of time playing with his dad's old farm toys. He has a very precise way that he lines everything up and plays with it. So, Marshall joined 4-H and has picked Swine, Woodworking, and Gardening as his projects for this year. I am not that familiar with 4-H, so I'm sure this is going to be an education for me.....but as long as Marshall enjoys it, I'm all in!

Well, that is all for now! We'll catch you next time!!

School and all the craziness that goes along with it!

Well, the kids have been back in school now for almost a month! This year, I have a "high schooler"--Morgan. In our small school, the 7th graders are in the high school! It is hard to believe that the little boy I took to preschool 8 years ago is already in the 7th grade! I can't believe that time goes as fast as it does! Maggie is in the 5th grade and is loving her teacher. Her class is back down to 8 students.....big huh? Marshall is in the 2nd grade and has the teacher that Morgan had last year! We're excited to have her again, and I'm sure she is going to see that there are lots of differences in the two Farrell boys!!

Things have been very hectic since the kids went back to school. The boys spent one weekend at Camp Gieger with the Boy Scouts at their 100th anniversary Camporall. Marshall got to go along too and thought that he was big stuff!

We spent Labor Day weekend divided up in about three different directions! Friday night, the kids spent the night at Papaw's house with my nieces and then Saturday we all headed out on the Lake in the boat! It was cool out, but the kids had a blast tubing, swimming in the lake, and "driving" Papaw's boat! Friday night, I met up with my best friend from high school and we visited for about 6 hours! It was 1 a.m. when I got home! I don't think I have stayed up that late in quite a while! Sunday, we headed to Shelbina to Greg's parents for a family reunion on the Farrell side of the family! We had a great time eating and visiting with family that we don't get to see often enough! On Monday, we made our way back home with some very tired children and unpacked ourselves so that we could get ready for the week ahead!

I have pictures of the kids from the first day of school and will try to get them posted sometime soon! Until then, see ya!

A Chance Meeting

Well....he is home!!! After 13 loooooong days, my son is finally back in the company of our family! He had a great time and has all kinds of stories, but he is glad to be home and we are glad to have him here!

His troop flew into and out of Baltimore airport and on the day that he was flying home, my brother, his family, and my mother were heading to Niagara Falls via Baltimore for vacation and they happened to be in the same airport, flying on the same airline at the same time as Morgan! They got to surprise him as he was coming through security! My brother said his face got bright red and my niece Allison gave him about a hundred hugs!

I was very happy to hear that Morgan got to see some familiar faces before heading home! We had just realized the previous night that they were going to be in the same place at the same time! God engineers the greatest coincidences!

Thirteen Days is FOREVER!!!!

Today is Day 11 of Morgan's trip! It seems like ages ago that we left him at the airport to head to D.C. However, he will be home in about 49 hours!! WOOHOO!! Momma is happy about that!

I have talked to him about once daily since he left except for a couple of days when I didn't get a phone call!! That has been VERY hard! I sent a cell phone with him and imagined that I could just call him a few times a day to check out what was going on and to make sure that he wasn't getting homesick (not that I could do anything about that, but hey, moms just need to know this stuff!). However, I didn't realize that once he got to Jamboree, he wouldn't have cell signal!!!!! Therefore, we have had to rely on him using other people's phones! Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful that he has had a wonderful tentmate and scoutmaster who have let him use their phones, but I thought I would be able to talk to him at will!! Guess I was wrong. What a lesson in self control I have learned!! AND, believe it or not, he has been FINE without me calling to check on him periodically throughout the day!! I know, I'm shocked too, but I guess he is growing up and is more independent than I realized!

He had a wonderful time in D.C., and has been having great experiences at the Jamboree. Every night he tells me of the different activities that he has participated in for the day. I know the memories he makes on this trip will last him a lifetime! I also know that when he gets home, he will probably talk nonstop for about 2 weeks.....wonder where he gets that? Today is the last full day at Jamboree. They will pack up and load the trailer tonight and then just use their cots and sleeping bags tonight! Then, tomorrow they will head back to D.C. for a few more tourist stops and the night and then Thursday, HE WILL BE HOME!!

Maggie REALLY misses her big brother and I'm sure Marshall does too, but not in the same way. One night last week, when Maggie got home from Bible school and found out that Morgan had called, she got upset because she hadn't gotten a chance to talk to him. That's when I tracked down the cell number to his tent mate and called so that she could talk to him!

I asked Marshall last night if he missed Mo, and he said "I guess so." I know he does because he wants to go everywhere and do everything that Morgan does, but he just isn't going to show that type of emotion.....he is a man after all!

Well, I'm sure I will post more about his trip later. One of his scoutmasters has been keeping a blog, (it hasn't been updated in a few days), but you can see posts for their first six days. The address is: jamboreetroop1122.blogspot.com

Talk to you later!

Morgan's Trip to National Jamboree

Morgan left early yesterday morning for the first leg of his trip to the 2010 Boy Scout National Jamboree. The Jamboree is actually at Fort A.P. Hill in Bowling Green, VA, but the troop that he went with is spending the first two days in Washington D.C. touring our national treasures. On July 26, they will head to Virginia for the 10 days of the Jamboree. At the conclusion of the Jamboree, the boys will head back to Washington for another night and then they will fly back home on August 5! The troop that he went to Jamboree with has spent over a year preparing for this event. It will be a fantastic trip for him that will carry a lifetime of memories!

The troop is keeping a blog of their daily activities. You can check out the site at: jamboreetroop1122.blogspot.com.

Finishing the Basement

We are working hard to get our basement finished so that we can have more space to spread out in the house! Here are some pictures of Morgan helping with he wiring. I was anxious when I first discovered that he was helping out with this, but of course, his dad was perfectly capable of keeping him safe while teaching him the art of wiring! He also helped drop in ceiling tile. Maggie is Greg's constant companion in the basement. She is always down there watching what he is doing!

Morgan's Room!

We have lived in our house for almost 6 years now, and during the entire time, finishing the basement has been in the back of our minds.....well, now it is getting completed. Morgan's room is the first finished room in our basement and he is finally able to have his own space! Below are pictures of his room from each of the angles! He is very excited to have his own room. I wondered initially if he would be uncomfortable sleeping in the basement all by himself, but he loves it. The first night I felt like I was abandoning him when I told him good night and then went back upstairs, but he is fine with it!