2014 Spring Break: Staycation

This is a month late but it's been busy around here. The way I figure it, one month behind is not actually that bad. I debated whether or not to put these on here or not. It was a lot of pictures to go thru that's why I didn't want to do it. But in the end I decided that I did want it documented.

 

This year for their spring break I had asked Danny to take it off as well. We didn't have money to go anywhere so we decided to stay home and do things here. There are just so many things to go see and visit out here and we never tend to do it. So, thus we ended up with our "staycation." And let me tell you that it was just as tiring as going on a real vacation somewhere. I had come up with a list of things that I thought the kids would like to do and go see. They were things that were free or reasonable. Then we discussed it as a family and made our list and scheduled our week. Here are a few select pictures from our week of activities.

 

GLADSTONE BOWLING ALLEY

Our first day of spring break was spent bowling.

The kids had a blast! Every time we pass the bowling alley, which is infrequent because of it's location to us, Audrey will point it out. She makes sure to remind me that we went there one time. They all would love to do it again.

 

AUDREY'S BIRTHDAY

The next day we spend celebrating this special girls birthday. She had such a fun day. Lots of fun presents from family and friends. She was a spoiled princess. (I loved her expression in this photo. She l-o-v-e-d her cake, she couldn't stop giggling.)

 

THE MONEY MUSEUM

Colton and Audrey pose for pictures. This place was free  in the downtown area. It's a small little museum. It's somewhere that we suggest going if you need something to just do one day.

Nathan and Josh's faces on money. Although, it was a quick tour, there were a few things for kids to do. And at the end of the tour they give everyone a bag of shredded money. Kind of a cool souvenir. But not so cool when it gets popped open on a child's rug, black rug, nonetheless.

Look at all that money! Who wouldn't love just one single row of some of that. I'm not even saying a section. But rather one small row would make me very happy.

LEGOLAND

Now let me just preface this with by saying this was not free nor cheap. But this was our big ticket item for the week. The kids were ecstatic when we threw this out as a option. This picture of the boys is at the end of the day so we didn't get Audrey in there because she was tired and grouchy.

Colton was very pleased with his airplane that we created. He had a lot of fun. He jumps up and down when he's excited. And he did that a lot this day.

Oh, Joshy! He is absolutely thrilled with his creation. He made this wheeled Lego then he was able to put it to the test and race others down different ramps. They spent a long while there.

They had various Lego pits all over. So the kids would jump in and just enjoy themselves. Nate is making some type of long boat or something. And well, Audrey started collecting those little green trees. She was hording them. Her pile became ginormous. It was funny because kids would find one and started handing them over to her.

Audrey is at the girl Lego's are. I think it was called Lego friends but don't quote me on that. She liked it there but didn't end up staying there for long.

Nate enjoyed burying himself in the Lego's. Danny and I don't know how they handled being in those pits. They were required to remove their shoes so they were barefoot. And if anyone has ever stepped on a Lego barefoot then you know the pain I'm talking about.

We do recommend going to LEGOLAND at least once for everyone. It's not necessarily cheap. We had a coupon that we got three of us in for free but to use it we had to wait in a "standby" line. The other option is to buy them online for a slightly discounted price but then you are assigned a time to arrive. Well, we wanted to use our coupon and got there just prior to opening. The line was actually already a good size. No big deal right? Wrong! It took an 1 1/2 to get in. They took everyone in first that had advanced tickets and would slowly let the standby line in. And let's not forget that it was cold that day too. We didn't bring jackets for us because we figured we'd get right in. So, we all, minus Danny or course, were freezing our woohoo's off. Luckily, Audrey had a small jacket in the truck. But it really was rather frigid that day. It was huge lines due to being spring break but I just didn't expect the wait times to be so crazy. The one bonus to all the long waiting is that I learned that our children are so NOT ready to go to Disneyland and wait in the long lines. They were so whinny and impatient and to think that I was pushing for a Disneyland trip for our family-I think we will now wait for several more years.

JESSE JAME PARK

Audrey and Nate having a marshmallow fight.

Colton and Josh getting ready for their battle.

We bought some cheap kites and had fun flying them at the park. They flew really well with all the wind we had.

Our picnic lunch at the park. Notice the boy in the back? He photo bombed my kids pictures

Daddy and Audrey having some lunch.

 Jesse James park in Kearney is one of our favorite parks. It's a 20 min ride north of us. We don't make it here often but when we do the kids are in heaven. Their slides are amazing! They have a fun spider web net that kids can climb on. The merry-go-round is one of Josh's favorite things to do while we are there. This is where we spend our 4th of July nights, that's how we found this place.

MOON MARBLE COMPANY

Everyone is getting ready for the demonstration on marble making. Not really sure what Colton is doing with his foot, silly boy. And Audrey's smirk is just hilarious!

And proof that I was on this vacation with my family. I loved this shot because everyone of the kids are looking in different places. What a perfect shot of reality.

Nate forced us all to get pictures in front of the sign. Here is Josh and Audrey.

Nate and Colton

Mom and Dad

 We totally recommend this place too. It's free and has lot of cool things to see in it's store. It has a lot of various toys and of course marbles. Lots and lots of marbles. We did let the kids all load up with a jar of marbles. I have to admit that I was also kind of into the different marbles they offered. It was kind of fun to pick them out. Nate chose a marble necklace that you can change out for different big marbles. It was a cool souvenir.


Friday night, after the marble store, we decided to end our week with a hot dog roast. We all roasted our own hot dogs and  had the usual kids picnic consisting of mac n cheese, chips, fruit from a can and juice. What a cuisine! Then of course we roasted marshmallows. We spent the rest of the night outside. Danny and I sat by the coals while the kids played, wrestled, played, wrestled and wrestled some more with each other. It was rather hilarious watching Colton and Josh wrestle each other to the ground. We had to coach Colton along several times but Josh could prove himself to be a very good wrestler one day.  Besides it being a little on the cool side, it was  a really fun way to end our staycation!

I loved how Josh is ready to shove his face with a marshmallow and Nate is trying to drop one in the coals to see what it does.

Half the family sitting around the coals.

Having Danny take a picture so that I have some evidence of being around.

Not sure what she's up too besides looking cold.

Oh Mr. Colton is up to something. But who knows what. He has something on his mind too.

Happy Birthday Josh-Josh!!

I uncovered this pictures in my files and it's one of my favorites of little Joshy. Look at those cheeks and his little grin. Seems like forever ago since he was that age.

Now my Josh is a big tough 8 year old. He's ready for his baptism.

The following pictures are of him and his personality from the year.

He is just being silly and goofing off with his crazy little grin.

He enjoyed learning baseball and playing all summer.

And this boy is in a music program right here. But he refused to do any of the dancing nor singing. And the worst part was he was on the front row. He is so stubborn-he just stands up there. And this has happened a few years in a row.

Josh loves the outdoors. He will spend hours outside. He loves to go out and explore and find things. Often he'll spend long periods of time outdoors.

He is a protector. He really watches out for Audrey and takes care of her. He is the one I tend to go to when it comes to helping me take care of Audrey. If at the park, I can put him in charge of her and he'll follow her everywhere and keep her safe. He is very dependable that way.

He enjoys building things and making legos. This was a lego car that he built. He spends a lot of time playing with his legos in his room. Too much time playing because he builds stuff when he is suppose to be reading books for bedtime.

This may not depict it well, but he loves to torment his younger brother. He is giving him bunny ears and being silly. He likes to wrestle Colton to the ground. And I have to say he's pretty good because Colton cannot take him down. His small wiry build comes in handy for wrestling.

Josh is a messy eater.And obviously marshmallows are a messy food. But he sure can do a number with food.

I also found this cute picture of Josh when he was a baby. I almost miss those baby years-almost. He was a relatively happy baby.

This is one of my favorites. I had gone downstairs and locked the baby gate. Well when I came back up this is what I saw. How cute is that! I couldn't resist a picture. And I think I spent a good few minutes playing with him there.

This was more evidence of him being a messy eater. It began from the very beginning. He honestly had to be naked for every meal. I actually came across many other pictures of him in the highchair covered in food. I've finally come to accept it from him. It's one of those things that  makes him unique.

 Well, that's our Joshy in a few pictures and words. He's a pretty good kid. He does like to torment his siblings but what kid doesn't. He can also be rather loud. You'd never know that if you know him at church or school but get him home and watch out. He has one of the loudest voices out there. It must come from his dad. The older he gets that more traits he has of Danny's. It's rather scary.  He's still pretty short. Danny was almost in high school before he had a growth spurt and I think he will be too. I went to lunch with him at school and noticed that a lot of the kids had grown significantly and he hadn't. But oh well, just means I can cuddle him longer. He is typically very easy going. It actually makes shopping for gifts kind of hard. He can be happy with anything which is great but on the other hand, it can make it hard to get him a great gift. His gift lists are usually very short and simple. Although, he's the 2nd kid, he tends to get overlooked. He's in the middle of 3 boys so he's kind of the middle child, maybe that's why he's so loud. He's a fun kid. We're glad that we have him. We are excited that he's chosen to get baptized in a few weeks. Can't believe that it's already coming up.Hopefully they don't fill it too high or he'll drowned! J/K, It's been an adventure with him over the last 8 years. Who knows what the next 8 years have in store for us with this kid. I can only hope that they continue to be as smooth as they have been thus far. We love you Josh!

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY 8 BIRTHDAY JOSH!!!!

The girl is 4!!!!

 

 Happy Birthday to my little sweet girl. Look at this sweet picture of Mrs Audrey. Those big blue eyes, chunky cheeks and happy smile. Who would've ever guessed that this innocent and pure girl would turn into this sassy, independent 4 year old. This look is  called: 'I'm looking at you!!!' She pulls this look all the time! So if she pulls this look on you then it means that she likes you and is comfortable with you.

 

I chose a variety of pictures that I think best illustrate her personality. I chose pictures from the last year of her little life. 

I chose this one because #1: it shows off her hair. This is kind of tame compared to most mornings. And #2  if she needs something fixed she goes to her daddy to help her get it fixed.

This is her friend Hazel and this is one of the many ways that they interact. They can be best friends or well, you  get the picture. They were having fun making jeweled flower sticks. Audrey loves things that sparkle and are girly.

She loves to dress up. She loves pink and princess stuff.

She is full of spunk and mischief.

Audrey is very possessive of her mommy. She doesn't like to share her mommy with anyone. She loves to spend her time with mommy, literally morning, noon and night.

She got all dressed up and came out telling me she was ready for church. She managed to paint her own nails (scary but it was clear gloss at least), has a necklace on,  a headband and  even has church shoes on possible lip gloss too. However this is one of her dress up dresses.

She's my little fashionista.

She smiles big and crazy when she's wearing her zebra hat. It really is one of her favorite things.

She entertains herself when she gets bored at church functions.

This is a look that says, "I'm cute and spoiled and I have you wrapped around my little finger."

Another good shot of her hair. Also she has her little kitty. She also has a dog too. She would give anything if we'd get her a real animal. A cat or dog would satisfy her.

I was taking some pictures on my belly. Well, she saw her mother and had to be on her. She really is attached at the hip to her mom.

Audrey loves being outdoors. She is in heaven being outside playing and exploring in the woods. Can you tell by the dirt on her knees.

This is her friend Sydney. She can't pronounce it right so it always comes out as Cindy. They are having some fun together at the ward camp out

 This just sums up Audrey in a few pictures. I had some fun pictures of her on my phone and really wish that I could have got them to download to the computer but it wouldn't happen for me. But there were more that really displayed her personality. She is full of life and energy. She can be downright crazy at one moment, giggly and silly the next and then pure rotten the next. She has a sense of how she wants to do things and she is not easily swayed. She likes to dress herself and usually it turns out ok and I let her but on occasion I do have to intervene. Audrey is something else. We like to joke that she is odd and to prove it we just mention the first half of her name "Aud"-rey literally is pronounced as odd. But we love our little odd girl. She brings a  lot of noise, I mean joy, to our house. She is the baby sister to all her brothers. She is mommy's best friend.  She is Daddy's little princess. Happy Birthday Audrey!

Our Temple

I took this picture of our temple just after Christmas.If we head out for a drive this is usually where we end up going for our drive.  We love driving by the temple and waiting for one of the kids to yell out that they  see it first.  It helps remind the kids of the primary song, "I love to see the temple, I'm going there someday..."

2014 New Years

 New Year's eve was another relaxing holiday for us. We began by being lazy and getting KFC take out. Their mac n cheese is one of the kids' favorite dishes. We allowed them to eat in the family room while we watched movies. We got a lot of movies for Christmas and then I bought a bunch just for New Years Eve. I think I totaled  that we got like 16 movies for the holidays.

So, after dinner I got my foot soaker out and gave myself a pedicure. Well, Audrey and Colton were mesmerized by it.  After I was done I dumped out the dirty water and refilled it with warm, clean water. Then allowed them each to soak their feet in it. They each had to have a turn. And not just one turn, several turns. The water turned cold before they wanted to be done.

Then we had milk shakes. They were delicious. I had bought a few different candies to add into the ice cream and they turned out so well. I love my ninja blender. The shakes were also serving as a double reward. We had committed to reading the Book of Mormon for the year of 2013. We read it from cover to cover so our reward was milkshakes. We read almost every night. We did miss on occasion. And then we would read extra the next time to make sure we were on schedule. And it was worth all the hard work. There were nights when I'm sure nothing got thru to them because they were goofing around too much or being cranky or even falling asleep. But we persevered and did it. This year we are reading the Doctrine and Covenant as a family now. Wish us luck!

 We all made it to midnight. Nothing to fancy when it rang midnight. We wished everyone a Happy New Year then we went to bed. Kids were allowed to sleep in the family room that night. And mom and dad  went to bed. We had a good time together. Hope you all did too!

 The rest of the night was spent like this watching movies:

Colton loves to cuddle with his mom whenever he can get it when Audrey isn't already there.

Audrey was Nate's little buddy tonight.

Mr. Josh loves to wrap up in his snowman blanket and this is how you can find him almost every single morning or night.

Christmas 2013

I figured that it's better late than never to post something from Christmas. And I felt like this video best depicted out Christmas day. The kids loved their gifts. They had fun playing with their stuff and playing with each others gifts. It was a very nice, relaxing Christmas day. Actually all season was rather enjoyable. I had all my shopping done before Halloween. I knew what I wanted to get them and went shopping on Amazon. Gotta love that place. Came delivered right to me and I didn't even have to leave my house. Totally doing that again this year.

Our Holiday Greetings 2013

Merry Christmas from our little crazy ones. Audrey, Nate, Josh, Colton

We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

We did not get any cards out this season so I am doing things the easy way. If you read this blog then this is for you. We want you to know that we are thinking of you and wishing you a great Christmas! Stay safe and warm and remember the true reason for the season, Jesus Christ.

Love 

The Fritz's

 

Mid December in MO and he has no coat on. These pictures were taken at Crown Center in downtown Kansas City.

Thanksgiving 2013

This year for Thanksgiving it was just our little family. We did a ham dinner instead of the turkey. We had a small Thanksgiving dinner while my parents were here so we decided to not do it for Thanksgiving. They came in and surprised us. And it was a HUGE surprise! It was just about 11:30pm when they showed up at our door-and well, I had to get Danny up. Cause nothing good is knocking at your door at that time. So he jumped out of bed, grabbed pants and loaded his pistol. He yelled out asking who it was, and well, the reply we got was "It's a stranger." At this time I was standing in the hallway with Audrey when I slowly thought that I recognized the voice. It finally dawned on me that it was my dad's voice. I was actually on the phone with my mom while this was all transpiring. So, the funny thing is that they got a shocking welcome as much as it shocked us to have them just show up. But we have surprised them a few times as well so it's all fair. This was what the kids spent their time doing-hanging all over Grandma and Grandpa.

Anyways, back to Thanksgiving. We kept things small and simple. We did go see the new Disney movie Frozen. I thought it was really cute. I really liked the music, it seemed to be more heartfelt music to me and more of it. And consequently, it didn't appeal to Danny. But the rest of us enjoyed the show and totally enjoyed in. We came home and got our ham in the  oven and got the food all prepared. As we waited we just relaxed. It was a very yummy ham and trimmings.

We only had 2 pies since there is only 6 of us. I made some homemade mini smores pies. They were really delicious. We each got one of our own. Of course I found the recipe on pinterest. The other pie was a frozen Marie Calendars peanut butter cream pie. It was good too.

I thought I'd do something different this year. I am going to have each  of the family members write their own little paragraph about what they are grateful for.

Nathan
I am grateful for technology and entertainment, I like them because technology make our lives easier and better and entertainment keeps us from being bored all the time. I'm also grateful for family and the gospel because we get to go and do things with family and I'm thankful for the gospel because we learn about how we were created and what will happen through life and death.

Joshua
I'm    thankful   for    friends     family            toys        cousins         clothes     book    of     Mormon           church       houses     cups     forks       pens     pencils    tape     balls .

Colton
I am thankful for Mom, Dad, cars, couches, pillows, blankets, windows, and dogs. Thanksgiving means we eat turkey and pies and spend time as a family.

Audrey
I like my turtle. I like playing with my dolls and the box to hold them in. I like playing with my bean bag that mom made. I am thankful for my legos. I am thank you for my books. I am thank you for my friends and Jesus and Grandma and Grandpa.

Dan
Thanksgiving means to me a time to kick back, relax, and eat good food. It also is a brief period of time in our life where we are forced to reflect on the things in and aspects of our lives for which we are grateful. The things for which I am most grateful are my family and friends. These are the things in my life which remain the most constant and are with me regardless of what else is going on in my life.

Jen
Thanksgiving to me means a celebration with family and loved ones. A time when we can relax and think about our bounteous blessing. I know I am truly grateful for the people and  the things in my life. I have been given more than I need. I don't want for much. I am grateful for a warm home, a soft bed to sleep in, shoes on my feet from the cold ground, a car to travel in, food on my table everyday. The free country that we live in to worship as we'd like is a great blessing. A knowledge of the Plan of Salvation has been a tender mercy to me in times of hardships and trial. I always like to think of one of my favorite hymns on page 219, "Because I have been given much." In it my favorite phrase is: because I have been given much; I too must give. I try to live by that mantra in my life. I try to give back in any way that I am capable. I hope to teach that to my children as well by seeing my example. For my Heavenly Father has blessed my with more than I can ever repay Him thus I try to thank Him by acknowledging His hand in my life
 and obeying His commandments.