Christmas Day

Carter got a toy camera. It makes noise. He's happy! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, it's back to work for us tomorrow!!

Hannah patiently waiting to open her presents- guess what? She got another Dora doll from uncle Mark- I think that makes a grand total of 4 big Dora dolls we have now, plus the Baby Alive doll grandma gave her that bounces. That's a lot of dolls.

After opening Santa presents christmas day we made our way over to Grandma far Away to eat lunch and then open more presents- the kids did a good job of sorting everything into piles. here is Ethan with his pile of presents

Fritz Family Christmas

2 very silly and very loud little girls- watch out Holgate for these 2!!

Carter the Ham for Aunt Kim

Today was the Fritz family party- all the kids were very good a patient to eat first and then divide the presents and then open them one at a time- here's a shot of all the grandkids with Grandma and Grandpa

The Best Present

Ethan also showing off his "dino dan" vest

and so far all the kids have enjoyed playing in the car; luckily it only came with 15 balls so it's not too much of a mess

Carter loves the Cozy coup- so much we found a second one at a garage sale this summer for Grandma by the shop's house. He also LOVES balls. So when I found the inflatable Cozy Coup full of balls at Walmart.com, we knew this would be a hit. Little did we know it would make the kids' hair look like we were at Cosi

Christmas at Home

Hannah showing off another new dora doll

Carter sitting next to the new pedal tractor santa brought

Carter showing off the new small soccer ball and his new rainboots- he's now ready to go out in the snow with the other two!

Ethan showing off his Super Mario for the Wii- truly the only thing he wanted, although he really doesn't fight us when we say turn it off- he just plays with the 100 other new toys in the house this week.

Birthday Parties

Hannah got princess dress up outfit from Aunt Alison- and had to model it for everyone. Both kids got so much stuff we didn't really want to have christmas this week, but I guess that's our fault for having 2 kids the last 11 days of december

Ethan got a Dinosaur train cake this year- the train cars were a little smaller this year and a little different.

We started the party week last weekend for both Ethan and Hannah's birthday parties- Hannah got a Fairy Cake this year- she put all the sprinkles on herself

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all!!

Snow, snow, snow

It started snowing last evening and is still coming down. Pretty sure school will be cancelled tomorrow. We went out to shovel the cement... not sure why, it was recovered with snow when the wind picked up.... oh to have a tractor that actually starts in the winter
Hannah and Ethan enjoyed throwing snow at each other

And laying in the snow

Ethan was also Joseph in the church play last Sunday

Talking to Santa

We went to St Augustine's tonight to see Santa- Ethan wanted "Super Mario Bros" and Hannah wants another Dora doll. Neither one wanted anything more, even when Santa said they could ask for more than one present.
they even told Santa Carter could play with the paper and boxes, he didn't need a present. Christmas will be an easy stop at the Fritz house this year!! As you can see, Carter REALLY wanted nothing to do with Santa.... no way I'm getting near you!!

Santa's reindeer was even outside- Carter still not a fan

The other 2 thought he was pretty neat. We were leaving just as they were loading the reindeer in the trailer to take home and Ethan was really questioning why they had to DRIVE him home when he could FLY.... need to save up energy to bring you Super Mario dude, stop asking questions :)

Goodbye from Florida

We had a great week and are headed home this morning. See you back in Ohio!!!

Carter

He's back to his playful fun self the last few days. Crawling everywhere and getting into everything. Maybe he will like staying in Florida. Hannah is ok with staying but Ethan says he will miss his house and friends in Holgate so we have to go home. darn,

We love to see Carter smiling and laughing again!!!

Edison/ Ford House

Inside the house

Big tree

Front porch view

The view from their dock

Kevin and I did sneak out and leave Carter with whoever was nice enough to try to consoul him Wednesday afternoon to see the Edison/ Ford house- it was much better with no kids :)

Dolphin tour

Sunset on the boat- if you look close, there is a dolphin

2 cute kids watching the dolphins

Nice family, except Carter still not happy and Hannah mad because Uncle Mark JUST took her picture so why does she need it taken again?? :)

Hannah got pop on the boat (and Carter back to his old self wanting the can). Tuesday we took a boat ride to see dolphins- very nice and we got the late boat so also got to see the sunset. Kids had fun. We did bring Carter with us on this vacation, but he hasn't gotten many pictures taken. He was sick the first 2 days and has wanted nothing but mom the rest of the time. Seriously, this kid is clingy, worse than usual. If I set him down or give him to anyone else, he screams and cries. Finally on Tuesday night/ Wednesday AM he's feeling a little better and actually cracked a smile once or twice, and would play at my feet for about 2 minutes before wanting to be held.... poor kid, he falls asleep as soon as he goes to the beach or to grandma's pool (what kid falls asleep while swimming??)- I think he's trying to avoid all fun and sun on this vacation. He will sit in the jogging stroller just fine (his nap machine, it's very familiar to him I think, so it hasn't been too bad)

Florida!!

View from the balcony onto the beach
Sunset from the balcony....

Here's a view of the house from the beach- 3 floors and our cars are parked underneath

Hannah playing on the beach

Ethan trying not to get his pants wet.... it didn't work

Drawing in the sand

Getting our feet wet

3 boy headed down to the beach the first day. They have had a great week so far in the midst of all the illness. Grandma and Hannah each carried their strain of illness down to Florida with them- it so far has passed from them to Carter, me, Miguel, Alex. Not fun but at least it doesn't seem to last long and inbetween the sickness, they are acting fine. We are still finding plenty to do and Ethan the fish is swimming a lot and everyone else is carrying their share of sand back into the house everyday!!