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!!