One Happy Girl

After Hank chewed the foot off of Amanda's doll, she had to be shipped to the Doll Hospital. She has worried every day about when she would be home. What a blessing it was to see the UPS man show up today with her package. 'Sarah' came home in a hospital gown and a certificate of good health. Can you tell Amanda is a 'little' happy to have her home?

Andrew's Recital

Andrew had his first piano recital last night. He played 'Twelve Days of Christmas" He did such a great job - we are so proud of him. (Maybe next time I will figure out how to tape it and put it online.)

More Traditions..

For every Christmas since we have had children, we have always visited with Santa at our neighborhood firestation. It has been the same Santa & Mrs. Santa Claus for that entire time.

Merry CHRISTmas!!

This is an annual tradition - 13 years of Santa photos. They are so fun to look at and see how the Clan has changed. Amanda was the only one that was ever a screamer : ) I have always told the kids that they will always be required to have family Santa photos made every year - even when they are 40.

(I didnt notice until I got home that the photo says 'Happy Holidays' - I should have skipped that border.)

Elf On A Shelf

My grandma gave the kids an Elf On A Shelf set last year. They love it!! The girls have been asking for 2 months when the Elf would come down out of the attic.



Every night the Elf flies to a different hiding place in the house. The girls (and boys) race around the house looking for it every morning. It is so fun to see the joy they have from him. They also love him because they know he came from their Great-Grandma Nell.

Boys ARE NOT bothered by a little mud or rain...

All the boys and Dad went camping last week with some friends. They were up near Bryan on about 100 acres. It rained the entire first 24 hours they were there. They went thru 3 sets of clothes, flooded their tent and soaked their sleeping bags. It was about 45 degrees at night and just a little warmer during the day. Luckly - they are boys and they never mind mud.

This is neat little waterfall they found.


They were able to get some fish caught just in time for dinner.


This pic just sums up BOYS. Adam is hold down 2 fish so they dont get away. BUT the funny part of the pic is that he is barefoot and muddy. That boy does not like shoes - even in the cold.

This one is great too - Dustin is showing Adam how to scale the fish so they can fry them. One of the first things he told me when he got home was that he ate fried fish tails and they tasted like chips.



Who can have a weekend like that without wrapping it up with shooting big guns. The other family was deer hunting but our guys just shot 'stuff'.


This guy with any kind of gun scares me - HA HA

If you can't tell from the photos - they did have a great time!!

Flounder - Its Whats For Dinner!!

The Poppa Bear got to fish near Galveston this week. Unfortunetly, for the month of November, you are only allowed to bring 2 flounders home. AND of course, the flounder were biting well!! Maybe next month when the limit goes up to 5, they will still be as easy to catch.

Awanas Grand Prix 2009

Sunday night was Awanas Grand Prix. 3rd - 6th graders make cars to race similiar to the Boy Scouts races. Adam and Andrew were our only guys racing this year and as usual it was a great night of racing.

Andrew made his into an ice cream sandwich. He used this cool paint stuff call Snow-Tex and it made it look like a real ice cream sandwich. He named it the Dream Machine


Adam's is called the Hornet. He worked really hard on his car and made it very cool looking!!

Wings Over Houston 2009 - Doolittle Raiders

Today the Kuritza and Frye men spent the day at the 25th Wings Over Houston Airshow. We had the honor of meeting many heros that fought for our country. The gentleman in the blue sweater is Lt. Richard Cole. Lt. Cole was Col. James Doolittles co-pilot when they were the first of 16 B-25 Mitchells that took off from the USS Hornet to bomb Japan. None of the 16 planes made it back. Lt. Cole bailed out of the B-25 with the rest of the flight crew above China at 9000 feet after the fuel indicator lights came on. They suspected in advance they would not have enough fuel to make it to the intended friendly Chinese airfield. The man in the yellow sweater is Tom Griffin. Mr. Griffin was also a Doolittle Raider. He was navigator on plan #10 "The Whirling Dervish" that flew off the Hornet that day. He also bailed out over China. He also spent some time as a B-25 navigator in North Africa where he was shot down and captured by the Germans and spent 22 months as a POW.

and no - those are not feathers sticking out of my hat....

Fort Worth Zoo

2001 vs 2008 - Things have changed a little : )

This pic was in 2001 with Raymond, Rob, Andrew, Adam & Sara.

This was in October 2008 - We are missing Rob and Sara but have added Amanda & Alyssa.

Next trip there we will have to have everyone there so we can somehow stuff them on top of the dragon - ha ha!

Awanas Crazy Hair Night

Crazy Hair Night at Awanas gets the kids really excited every year.

This year I was out of town on that day. Raymond was in charge of all the hair. He did such a bang-up job - he spent several hours just on the girls hair alone. (Of course i spent several hours late that night cutting out rubber bands - ha ha) They even decided to spray their ears - there is still green and blue paint inside their ears. Looks 'real' nice!!

Stinky Memories

My kiddos changed the screensaver on the computer to pull random pics - this was the best thing they have ever done to my computer. We all have had so much fun looking at pics from the past 10 years. How could they have grown up so fast???

This one is from 1999. Raymond is 2 and Andrew is 1. I wish it was showing their tails. This pic reminds me of my MIL - she always talked about seeing the boys walk up to her front door with their big tails dragging behind them. It was one of her favorite memories of them.

Sweet Tiny Baby Girls

These pics are of my tiny baby girls in 2003. This bear laying next to them is only 13" long. As I look at these pics now and then look at my big, strong, healthy girls - we know that we have been truly blessed.

This is Alyssa who was 3.8 #s

This is Amanda who was 4.2 #s

Rub A Dub Dub

Andrew is in the tub... Well its actually one of the plastic things you use to make a pond in your yard. Generally I dont think they are used on a pond but they kids thought it was great fun!!

Do 2 Halves Make A Whole??

Each girlie only is missing one front tooth so combined do they make a whole snaggle?? Both of the other teeth are loose and they love to chase me around house wiggling it -i dont like loose teeth. : )

Sure Dad, whatever You Say......

Looks like she is taking Dad 'real' serious - (Good thing they were kidding around.)

JOY

This pic just makes me smile : ) JOY is what I see in it.

Sunday Night Pics

We went to the kiddos fav restaurant Sunday night - Maggianos. The food is SO SO SO good!! Here are some pics from our night with Mrs Hogan and her sister, Aunt Donna. We all had such a great time!!

Alyssa's eyes ALWAYS light up at dessert time!

Here is Adam trying to take the whole plate of tiramisu as his own - he didn't win! Maggianos has some of the best tiramisu we have ever tasted.

Andrew trying to avoid the camera ..


Raymond caught in the act of stuffing his face!!


Amanda and Mrs. Hogan

Aunt Donna

Pop and his girls

There are 2 more pics that are my absolute favorites from the night but I'm saving them for a later post as these were really fun too!!

Special Friends

We have spent the last few days visiting with some very special friends. The weekend has been so enjoyable. I have more pics to post of us at dinner tonight that I will post later but I just love this photo.

SEVEN - 7 - VII

Can you say 'Seven'? Ands its not how old my baby girls are! Its the # of cavities that one of my sweet little girls has - YIKES!! Seven?? My kiddos don't have 7 cavities added all up together. Are you sure this particular girl has then and not her Sugar Loving Sweet Eating sister? They are all in between her teeth - poor thing. This is the kid who does not like sweet stuff - she prefers water to drink. She eats vegetables with gusto and brushes to no end. Dr said its probably hereditary....

School the way I like to see it..

You know... smiling, happy, smiling people. No messes, no fussing, everyone getting along....

Here is our lovely salt dough map of Europe before World War 1. Notice the nice colored Allies, Central Powers and the Battle Fronts. Oh happy happy school days...

Well reality always wins - paints everywhere, salt dough stuck to the doors and cabinets (thanks Dad for showing them that trick), someones cries because their country is smaller than the others - ain't life grand. And its our own personal Paradise. : )

This Kid Never STOPS Thinking...

After a cup spilled at the table, #3 asked his brothers if they thought Adam & Eve ever spilled their coconuts. Brother looks at him funny. His answer - well since cups probably weren't invented then, I thought they might use coconuts to drink out of. The kids brain NEVER EVER stops!! At least he keeps us on our toes!!

Forgot the camera...again...

DH was asked to be part of a new ad promo with his hospital. He just thought it was something in their local newsletter. Ends up he had to go to KPRC-Channel 2. So we all go along because hey - its a tv studio. They were filming interviews for upcoming ad campaigns. needless to say - he was sweating a little. We all got to sit on the side and watch - not to mention they fed the kids - HA. Then to add to this adventure - they got all of us up in front of the camera and made us talk and joke around while they filmed us as a 'family' - HA. I'm sure someone's fly was open or their was food in their teeth or something......

After all that - they did give us a tour of the tv station - it was really neat. AND if I had a camera, they would have taken our pics at the news desk where they film every day. Bummer. We saw all the camera rooms, editing rooms and the helicopter taking off. It was a good day!

OH - the almost worst part was when they were showing us how they watch all the other news stations to see what they are reporting... well some soap opera was on. Ummm... they have changed a little since I last saw them. This couple was making out big time. She was in her lingerie and he was in nothing. We were about to panic - thankfully the kids were looking at something else they were showing them. It was really bad.... I think the lady realized what was on and quickly turned it off - close one...

Will post the ad stuff if we make the cut - next week they are filming DH at work - YIKES!!

Back to School Shopping

Love the sales even though we really dont do back to school shopping. Each of the girls picked out a new outfit - Alyssa could not find a skirt at all - she was sad! I keep telling them to stop growing but they just won't.

Fiesta Texas

All 5 earned free tickets to Six Flags from their reading program. The tickets were about to expire so we decided on Fiesta Texas since they had never been there. It was a Friday and nice and humid (not to mention hot) but only a few hours were the miserable kind : )

We got there right at 10 and the boys started hitting all the big rides and roller coasters to avoid the lines. The girls rode anything they were tall enough for - can you say maniacs!!


The park itself wasnt crowded but the water park was packed - their lazy river was bumper to bumper tubes - we passed on that.

Mom made everyone take their pic with any thing in a costume - at least they were troopers for me - ha ha!

This is Scrappy!

Pepe Le Pew (Andrews Special Friend) and Yosimite Sam

Daffy and the entire Clan


And what would a trip to San Antionio be without a stop at the Alamo! So on the way home Saturday, we went.