Meredith's art

Meredith made this picture of Abraham Lincoln's birthplace. Pretzels for the logs. It made it into the art gallery at home:


She also created this terrific 3-D map of Missouri:

Big happenins in Lamar

The tallest horse in the world came to the Orshelin's in Lamar early this month. His name is Radar, and here he is:

Radar stands 19 Hands 3 1/2 Inches (6' 7 1/2" at the withers) and weighs over 2,400 lbs. He eats 18 lbs. of grain, 40 lbs. of hay, and drinks 20 gallons of water each day. A gelding, he was born in 1998 in Iowa. Doug took the kids over to eyeball him.

Okay, well, that's all I really have to say about that.

New Haircuts

Sophia has new stylin' glasses and a new haircut:


I got a new haircut at the same time, but something happened to it overnight.

Gargantuan catfish

Cute furry animals were not the only ones we encountered on our spring break. Slimey, scaley ones made for the most excitement.

You all know that we have a little pond across the street, and it is stocked with fish. In nice weather, folks often stop by for a little fishin.' Some friends of Jacob's came to the park, and Jacob ended up fishing much of his spring break. Up until this point, he'd never caught much over there but tiny minnows, and certainly didn't expect anything other than smallish fish.

To his utter surprise, while Jacob was after some minnows, the line he'd left dangling in the water was taken and his entire fishing pole was suddenly pulled into the water! When it floated up to the surface, a fisherman nearby used his pole to pull it back to the shore. As Jacob reeled in the line, it broke and his fish nearly got free. So Jacob jumped in the water, grabbed the fish in his arms, and hurled it onto the shore! The fisherman grabbed it in a net.

It was a 20" catfish!




We called Doug and he drove the 4 miles home from work to see the big catch. He noticed that its belly was swollen with eggs, so the decision was made to toss it back in.


One of Jacob's friends caught another big one later in the day! The next weekend, the boys were back at it. Their plans to sleep in a tent at the park were foiled when Doug and I suggested that 1) this was probably illegal, and 2) it was going to rain cats and dogs anyway. They still fished in the rain! But they came inside to sleep. Five wet, fishy, muddy boys in our basement. Hmm. (It was not as bad as you might think.)

Animals for the weekend

Several weekends ago was spring break, and I'm just now getting the shots up. Unlike Easter weekend, we had george-ous weather for the long weekend that comprised spring break here.

Abbra, one of the young women from our branch, got to stay with us while the rest of her family went to the temple (she had to stay home to work). Why I didn't get a shot of her I don't know, but there was hairdos, manicures, and an elaborate fort she and the kids built in the basement. It involved sheets hanging from the ceiling fan, every spare blanket in the house, and the complete rearranging of all the basement furniture. Abbra was an excellent sport and slept in the fort with the girls that night. It was big for a fort, but rather smallish for three sleepers! She also took us to her home to help her feed the rabbits, and the kids got to hold them and pet them.



The weather was so fabulous that I ventured further on my walks than before. I discovered the most beautiful Missouri farm not too far away:


After an evening fireside, we stopped by to visit the goats and llamas that live on this farm. Here's Aidan and Sophia trying to entice the goats with a carrot:





The goats would have no part of our carrots. However, we did have some excitement when one of them did get stuck in the fence:


Doug and Meredith rescued him, Sophia doing her part by offering a silent prayer. (He was saved).


Llama pajamas:



What is this face? I think this is such a funny picture:


He's just so dang good-lookin':

O'Sullivan to close Lamar plant

This is the headline of the Joplin Globe today.

If you remember, Doug works for O'Sullivan in Lamar. So it seems that we have big changes in the near future. Of course, we have known this was coming, and we have been making preparations. We feel at peace and are confident that Doug will be able to find employment elsewhere. We have received many blessings and have no reason to worry. Our hearts go out to the 700 other employees whose roots go deep in this area and may have a more difficult time finding a new job. They are in our prayers.

Moon shinin' o'er Lamar

The 12-year-old in our family has been up to no good. I was enjoying a peaceful Sunday conference morning when some commotion and hilarity broke out in the front room. Meredith came running in to tell me that she and Sophia were being mooned by the boys! Pretty soon Aidan was sportin' a smiley face on his bum. Here's Jacob and his protege:


It was all in good fun, but I do worry about what would happen if Aidan were to bring this game to preschool with him. I had a talk with Jacob about that!

Easter in Topeka

For Easter this year, the Lamar Von Feldts travelled up to Topeka to be with Grandma and Grandpa and also the Olathe VonFeldts. We all stayed overnight at Grandma and Grandpa's house. As always, it was soooo fun!

Grandma was not quite as concerned about bedtime as the moms usually are. No surprise there. Little girls were dying eggs at 9:00 pm, and aftwerward Haley and Jacob and Grandma went shopping for Haley's birthday present (an iPod)! But no harm done. The girls were still up at 3:00 am the next morning, excited to see what the Easter Bunny had brought.

The cousins enjoyed an Easter egg hunt together on Easter morning. This was the first year that the Easter Bunny did not visit Jacob, presumably because he has gotten too big. Instead, Jacob's job was to help his little brother Aidan battle the crowds and get to some of the eggs. Actually, all of the siblings and cousins made sure the littlest one got to enjoy the wonder and fun of discovering eggs throughout Grandma and Grandpa's back yard.

The major obstacle was the cold. It was 20 degrees outside Sunday morning! Brrrrr. Teeth chattered. Fingers froze. But it was nice and warm inside, where everyone dumped out their eggs, took inventory, and bargained and traded.


Later, we had a spectacular Kansas Easter dinner. Here is Grandma with all the food:



For more shots of the fun and the food, click below:

2007-04 Easter