Family Vacation

Kevin, Ethan and Hannah took off for Florida yesterday with my parents, Carter and I are stuck in Ohio in the snow until Wednesday when we fly down to meet them.... they took the camera so I hope they are taking lots of great pictures and enjoying the SUN- something we haven't seen here in Ohio in a long time! Cruise on over to grandma & grandpa's blog for photos!! Happy New Year's to all!

Hannah and Ethan's Party

Daddy trying to talk Hannah into blowing out her candles- it didn't work, she just sat there and watched them burn!
Ethan on the other hand had no problem blowing out his 5 candles- I can't believe another year has gone by!!

Here is Ethan's dinosaur train cake- his new favorite show on PBS- he can tell you so much about dinosaurs now- buddy and tiny pictures are in the first car and Mr Conducter is on the back...

Hannah got an elmo cake (we found a mold at a garage sale this summer, so not
quite as impressive, but still a great cake for my 2 year old!!)

Carter's 2 months old!

Wearing Hannah's elmo slippers and playing under his bug, happy as can be!!

Ethan's Christmas Play

Hannah kept herself entertained by eating Grandpa's Candy cane
He's sitting down on the left side watching the choir sing

Ethan's the kid in the middle sitting by the campfire

Ethan was a shepard for the Christmas play at CCD this year (yes, preschool starts CCD at our church- Ethan really seems to like it). Here he is in the middle sitting around the fire watching his sheep.

Carter's getting so big (and cuddly)

Ethan loves playing Nintendo and has no clue there are newer and better game systems out there... yet that is

Hannah posing with our kitty who is no more... good thing we don't name our cats, they disappear too quickly. We're pretty sure this one ended up on the road over by our neighbors, he really was a nice kitty and the kids will miss him as he's on "vacation". Hopefully a new kitty will show up in the spring for them!

Carter Baptism

Dacon Klear with Carter
Four Generations of Fritz Men
Great Grandpa Theodore, Grandpa Norbert, Daddy, Ethan, and Carter.

My Godparents

Brandon and Tiffany Baker

Getting blessed

3 Holidays and OSU

For a short time we were all decorated for 3 Holidays- Hannah won't put away her dragon Halloween costume, if you look closely we have leaves on the fireplace and the Christmas tree is set up on the other side of the picture. After being home the long weekend and cleaning the house, we mostly just have Christmas decortations up.
Hannha in her OSU cheerleading outfit for the OSU/ Michigan game. It wasn't even the usual OSU is going to blow it, sitting at the edge of your seat game, we felt pretty confident the whole game about the outcome for once, maybe Hannah and Carter dressed up were their good luck charm...

Carter in his OSU onesie cheering for the Buckeyes... After we saw snow flying Friday morning on the way home from shopping, we're thinking of buying our vacation home in Buckeye Arizona and retire early..

Last week at home

Hannah was nicely coloring at her little table in the sunroom- when I went in to check on her, I understood why- she was coloring with markers all over the wall and her books and table. good thing all we have is washable marker in the house.....
I babysat Micah, Ruth and Sarah last week- having 6 kids 5 and under makes me sure I never want 6 kids, nor do I ever want to run a daycare, but they were all very good and played together well

And Carter is starting to smile and be awake a little more now too

Uncle Mark

Then all the niece and nephews got in a picture... we really hope you put this as your background on your new computer Uncle Mark... a sure way to pick up girls is to surround yourself with cute kids.... great seeing you Uncle Mark and you offered your free COSI tickets so we're all planning the weekend to come down invade your place (ok so we might get a hotel and spare you the crying kids all night)

Then Hannah jumped in the picture to sit with her favorite Uncle Mark

Uncle Mark came home this weekend to meet Carter... Mark wanted to make sure his photo appeared on the blog, so he held Carter first.... Carter's head is not really attached to his body in this photo

Kid train

The kids were having a great time playing in the baskets the other night so we made a train of kids, especially since Ethan is so into Dinosaur train on PBS right now, everything is dinosaurs and trains :)

Ethan's Rocket

The rocket shooting crew... ready to shoot it off again!!
Chasing after the rocket as it gets closer to the road

See the smoke trail as the rocket blasts off... Ethan is very disappointed I didn't get a video of the rocket that he can watch over and over. I promised him next time we shoot it off I will videotape the whole thing!

Hannah checking out the launch site

Micah and Ethan checking out the rocket and getting it all ready for launching. We bought the rocket at the Neil Armstrong Museum in Wapa when we went there back in July. Ethan and Daddy have been waiting for the perfect day and for the beans to come off the field around our house so we could shoot it off. Sunday proved to be the perfect day for the launch!

Our week

Carter hanging out on the floor... only lasted a minute before Ethan tried to put a blanket on him and buried him and then Hannah stepped on him and he started screaming.... eventually the newness of having a little brother will wear off and they will ignore him, right?
3 happy kids.. Happy Halloween!!

Visited Great Grandpa Theodore last weekend and Carter slept the whole time. Grandpa and Carter will get along well!

Our second cousin Meridith also came over with her Grandma, Aunt Barb. The kids had a great time showing Meredith all their toys and playing with her!

Finishing up lunch- trying to be cute!!

1 week old

Carter's usual state- either sound asleep or just looking around... amazing how things change in a week- before he was born I always wanted to know what Hannah was doing and getting into, now when she's not in the room I'm enjoying the quiet and just glad she isn't trying to pick up the baby and more importantly trying to think if I can make it to the bathroom and back before she realizes I'm gone and pounces on the poor kid. He's had his head banged more this week than either of the other 2 did in their whole first year.... poor third child

3 happy kids

Awake state- he really seems to like the swing (at lease more than Ethan who screamed when you put him in the swing so we didn't even try with Hannah)

Ethan really likes his baby brother and actually asks to hold him (unlike when Hannah was born he just ignored her) amazing what a difference a few years makes

Welcome Carter Thomas

Carter Thomas born October 11 at 3:42pm, weighs 6#13oz (right in between Ethan and Hannah's weights), 20 inches long....
Daddy with the screaming kid right after delivery :)

All 3 kids- Ethan really likes his baby brother, we don't think Hannah realizes what's going to happen when baby comes home... but all are doing well and we plan on going home later today!

Pictures for Grandma

No big news to report... no baby yet and I really need to get through the weekend and next week in the office, so hopefully anytime after next week we will have a baby :)

Here is Hannah sitting on our new mudroom lockers- we finally got moulding and the cabinets for the sunroom and mudroom, so that room is officially finished
Both kids playing dress-up with their winter hats- we finally had to break down and turn on the heat last night when it got to 59 in the house!

Hannah eating all the jello as soon as I snapped the first picture!

I happened to talk to Grandma on the way to Walmart today and she gave me a good idea to make "pumpkins" out of oranges and then fill them with jello, so we did that as soon as we got home, here are the finished products, pretty cute and the kids loved them

Last weekend we babysat Miguel and Alex, but only took pictures at the end of the night right before the kids fell asleep- they were all really good and were asleep by 10 (amazing, that rarely happens on a normal night around here!)