Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve Everyone!

Darcy Got Engaged - Last night to Rick Sanow!!

We will need to get Rick back to SD for a farm visit, we have told him so much about all of you. She is on cloud nine and sounds like an October 22, 2011 wedding is the date!

Thought we would share her happy news!!

How's everyone's plant doing? Have only one blooming and that is one I bought, not one of those from the garden. Nice to see a little plant color in the kitchen.

When is every one coming this week? Mom

Snowing up there???

Talk about looking like winter! It's been blowing here all day, although only about an inch of snow has fallen (it's hard to tell because of the wind). What about everyone else?

At least maybe the boys with the snowmobiles up north might be able to use them!

Stay warm everybody!

ps...amaryllis update....ours took a little spill last night, but seems to have come out of things OK. The shoots aren't growing too fast. We need some SUN.

Great Amaryllis Growoff

Hi everyone,

This year Rach and I decided to offer the grandkids the chance to grow their own amaryllis and win a prize or two as well. I planted a number of bulbs one the same day, and have gotten a potted bulb to all the kids who wanted one. The rules are simple:

Grow your plant (no direct sunlight, but a nice bright place), Measure the size of your plant each week and post on the blog. Pictures are fine too. Prizes will be given for tallest plant, first blossom, biggest blossom and most blossoms. I don't know if this will get done before Christmas, but whenever your plant is done blooming will be fine. Rachael, Taylor, Isabella and Kade all have plants. Sorry, Emma, you have to grow a little more before this works for you.

I am excited to see how you all do! I'm not competing, but if I have good luck with mine and can figure out the picture thing I may add a picture. I hope you have fun. Maybe this can be an annual thing??? An adult division next year?? We'll see how this goes! Love, Grandma

ps....A picture of kade's amaryllis is attached. You can see a little tiny shoot just starting!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We are very thankful for all of you! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone. :-)

Mr Blog Commissioner? Time for a new Background!! :)

A Christmas Note - update

Hi all. Well, the first snow came on Friday night, so I guess it's official....Christmas is in the air! With the help of my trusty elf, Kade, the drawing for names for the kids' gift exchange is complete. Jeannie offered to take two this year, since her family has three in the drawing. I kept Taylor and Rachael both in the White Elephant, since that is what they wanted to do last year. I hope that is OK. So, here is who has whom:
Emma - me!; Bella - Terry and fam; Alex - Dave and fam; Addie - Jill and fam; Kade and Jacob - both to Jeannie. No rigging it....this is how it turned out.

If anyone has questions or concerns with this line-up, let me know ASAP!

Otherwise, start collecting those White Elephants! :-) Stay warm and have a great week.

A Christmas Note

Since I don't want to bury Jill's new post, I'll make this short. It looks like we are planning the Christmas party at the farm for early afternoon on Sunday, Dec. 26. Please check your calendars and see if that will work for your families, and then post a note on here! I'll post the rest of my message this weekend, including the names for the kids' drawing.

Ho, ho, ho!!

Walking and Talking

more pics

Missouri trip

Hi guys,

I will try to share a few pics from our trip to Missouri. The fall colors were glorious! Mornings were a bit brisk, but rest of the day you could ride in a sweatshirt or in shirt sleeves. There wasn't a huge crowd there, about 300 riders, but you really hardly ever met anyone on the trail. The river crossings are still my favorite part of this place. It's a slow moving, lazy river and you can cross at many places, some of which were chest deep on the horses.

The only challenging part was the return trip through Kansas City, we missed a turnoff on the multiple stacked interchange and had to turn around and find the way back. Of course we were on the lowest side of empty on fuel. This meant we got to fill at a station in the African American area of town, with bars on all windows and the clerks locked into their cubicles. (no trip is complete without this experience). Dad found his way out however-- me, I would be still sitting on a corner somewhere!

Got home in time for a little of Melissa"s pumpkin carving. Am still resting up!

Uncle Dave and Jacob did a great job with chores, and I am still selling a back log of eggs.

Yesterday I finished cleaning garden, planted the rest of my 120 tulip bulbs and tried to kill the horseradish and varigated grass that is trying to overtake the bottom of my garden (roundup).

Today we are cleaning chicken house and hopefully will shut chickens tonight. I know you all will be feeling bad you are missing this!

Take care, enjoy the fall weather. Love, Mom

Belated B-day Wishes to Jason!

I think it was your b-day recently. I just remember the end of October but I'm sorry I can't remember the date! Hope you had a great one! And if I'm totally off and it wasn't your b-day, then OOPS!

Thanksgiving!

Hi All-
I have been stuck at home for the past couple of days with sick twins, and I am finally catching up on all the things I have been meaning to do for a while. (Jill-Emma's present is FINALLY in the mail.)

Other than the flu things have been pretty good here. Bella wrapped up her soccer season a couple weekends ago, so we were finally able to get out weekends back. We ended up going to the zoo in Sioux Falls last weekend which was pretty fun.

Okay, I will stop rambling. We don't know what everyone's Thanksgiving plans are, but we would like to invite one and all to our house. Anyone is welcome to stay with us as well. It will be cozy, but we have a bed, couches and I can even scare up some blow-up beds if necessary. Anyone who would like to go "Black Friday" shopping let me know.

I hope all is well with everyone. We miss everyone and can't wait to get together. Who is going to make it to pumpkin carving? We should be there on Friday night.

Talk to you all soon. Jeannie

Fall Leaves

Hi everyone! Just thought we could use something new on the blog. This was our first weekend of what ends up being a routine weekend chore of leaves-pickup. 17 bags, and we've a whole month of the trees shedding yet. Not an issue on the farm, in Vegas, or in new subdivisions, I suppose!

Hope everyone is having a great fall. The weather sure has been great here. In fact, it was hot enough for our relay race last weekend, that I had to go get ice from the med tent so I wouldn't faint after my second leg of the race!

Anyway....miss you all and hope you are well!

Marshall Flooding

Hey - I know this is a week old now, but I thought I would share a few pictures of the flooding in Marshall. Although Marshall did not get hit as bad as other towns there was still a lot of water around and basements flooded.

Taylor on the right posing in front of the river behind our house.

This is Skunk Hallow Road right next to the river. It was about 3 feet deep further down running over the road.

Here is a picture of our backyard. Good thing the bike path was here as our yard would have been a river like the rest of the meadow behind us.

Happy Belated Birthday Jilly Bean!

I hope you had a wonderful day!!

Emma's 1st Birthday

Hello Kriz Family! We have survived the baby birthday party! It was a good time! Luckily we decided to have it at David's property. We have been in the 100s again so the cool water in the pool was refreshing. Emma did so well, she took a long late morning nap and talked and played all afternoon. She took about 3 steps on her own after indulging in her cake, but of course, no one had their cameras ready! Enjoy the few pics and the video, sorry I don't know how to rotate the video. Just lay on a pillow or turn the monitor sideways!

Happy Happy Birthday Bobbie!!

Hope your boy's treat you to a

very special Day!

Love,

Terry, Tammy & Taylor

Happy 1st Birthday Emma!

Happy Anniversary Dad and Mom!!

Hope you have a wonderful day and

get to do something special.

Wish we could be at the farm to

help you celebrate!

 We Love You!

Terry, Tammy & Taylor

Jacob at the State Pedal Pull (photography by Dave)

Jacob did well, 8th out of 18.

New Varsity Cheerleader!!

Something new on the blog!

It was great to see (almost!) everyone this weekend. We missed you, Tammy and Dave! Thanks for hosting us, Mom and Dad, and Dave and Melissa.

It's Someone's Anniversay Today!!

Happy Anniversary!

VD & Jilly Bean!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM KRIZ!!

Make that Hubby of your's treat you special today :)

We love you!

The Bricks Band!

Just wanted to share a picture, and a short video, of The Bricks Band debut. They played Bob's Tavern Friday and Saturday. You can see Kevin second from the left in this picture.

Please note the poor quality of the video is no fault of the band, but rather the person holding the camera. I was trying to be inconspicuous. And yes, the video is sideways, the result of a few too many refreshments by the end of the evening. They sounded great, and we had a fun time!

Hey Everyone!

I know it has been a REALLY long time since I have been on here but... I am selling pizzas to raise money to pay off my $490 cheer leading uniform and I was hoping you guys wanted to help!
I have 6 different kinds of pizzas:
Breakfast Pizza
Four Cheese
Pepperoni
Supreme
Sausage/Pepperoni
BBQ Chicken
They each cost $8
We should get them in on about the first week of September or sooner if all of the girls get a lot of orders! My mom says we can keep them in our freezer until you can pick them up if you do order though!
If you want to order email my mom or send me an email on Facebook... I will probably send everyone an email on there too!
Thank you everyone!
Love, Rachael

Bella's Birthday Bash

Hello All-

I can't believe my baby is already 5. It doesn't seem right, but I have to say it is so much fun!

Fist of all, she would like to say thank you for all the birthday wishes and presents. She said this was the best birthday ever, and asked me if I would put her picture on the blog. So, I will not keep you in suspense any longer.

We had a pretty big bash this year. In order for us to avoid going to Wild Water West with 15 little kids, plus the twins, we opted to rent a 18 foot inflatable water slide. We were the talk of the whole neighborhood. I don't know who had more fun, the adults or the kids. We even had one lady go down during the pinata action and break her ankle. (Ouch!)

Hope everyone is doing well. We miss you and love you all. Hope we can get together again soon!

Happy

July

4th !!

Kriz Fam!!

Happy Birthday Tammy!!!

Sorry this is one day late! Hope it was a special day for you.

Here are some pictures of Duke Unv. We went into Cameron Indoor Stadium - even played b-ball on the court!! Zach and I loved it.

The extra 625 miles out of the way was worth it!! We had a few 14 hour days in the car, thank goodness for DVD players.

The wedding was fun, too. Good to have a mini family reunion. Very hot down south, we were glad to return to SD. Total of 3300 miles in 6 days.

Happy Birthday Jeannie!!!!!

Welcome to your 30s! Hope you had a special day!

It was wet, but fun!

I've got more photos, but will have to put them on Snapfish for everyone. Hope you are all well!

Dance Recital

Isabella had a pretty big weekend this last weekend. She got to spend all day with Grandma and grandpa on Friday. (Thank you so much!!)

During her time with them she lost her first tooth. The tooth is still missing, but we did write the tooth fairy a note, and she seemed to understand. Bella told our neighbor she got $30 from the tooth fairy. It was actually 30 cents.

Then that night it was her very first dance recital. It was so cute!

Kevin, we were sure thinking about you as there was a one lone boy dancing with a group of little girls during a tap song. I have to admit it was pretty cute.

Anyway, here is some footage and picture of the big night. The footage is a little shaky as Alexandra was helping me record, but you get the idea.

June 12-15 plans

Hi everyone! I just wanted to drop a quick note......sounds like almost all of us are invading the Geddes area during the timeframe outlined above!

Jill and Emma arrive on Friday; sounds like they, Jeannie and crew and Kade and I will be at the farm sometime on Saturday. Terry and Taylor may not come until Monday (maybe Sunday night?).

Jeannie and I have discussed taking the kids to (tent) camp down at North Point, either Sunday night, or Monday night, or both....depends on the weather and our patience (not necessarily in that order). I just looked up campsites and it appears there are plenty open (suppose the Sunday/Monday thing helps). We plan to not plan in order to keep our options open. So, heads up on that if anyone else is interested. If camping ends up looking too complicated, or the weather doesn't look good, we'll just play it by ear. :0)

Jill, I'll bring an umbrella to keep the sun off Emma when we are in the water......ah...first time parents...talk about overkill.....what was I thinking! Ha.

That's all for now! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

A random observation by Kade at bedtime

Kade: Mom, you know that song, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun?"
Me: Yes. What about it?
Kade: I don't think it's fair.
Me: What do you mean?
Kade: 'Cause boys want to have fun too. So, it's not fair that she says "girls just want to have fun."


The ongoing fight for equal opportunity........

A few things.....

Happy Anniversary, Dave and Melissa! And Happy Belated Birthday to Melissa!

Thanks to Terry and Tammy, and Mom and Dad and Jacob for dropping by Lincoln for the weekend. We loved having you here! Hope you had a good time; we sure did. Sorry about the air conditioning, though. We've got freon now!

Have a great rest of the week, everyone.

coming home...

Hi all! I have booked a flight home for June 11. That's a Friday and we are scheduled to land in Sioux Falls around 1:30 p.m. David will hopefully be joining us until the next week; we haven't booked his yet since he doesn't have confirmation on his vacation time. Emma and I wanted to get home to see Dave, Melissa, and family before they left for the BIG roadtrip to GA. I'm not sure when we're coming back, I'm hoping for prices to drop around June 25th. So, Emma and I will probably be home for about 2 weeks, David will be off for about 1 week. I hope we get to see all of you at some point during that time. We can't wait! I am soooo ready for vacation - I know I'm spoiled! I have accepted a new position at my school for the next year. The official title is Intervention Specialist. I will be working with 2nd-5th graders who are struggling with reading. I know I will be sad when the year starts and I don't have my own class, but I'm so burnt out right now and need something new. It's only for a year so we'll see what happens. I have to pack up and move again at the end of the year, but I do get a small classroom to myself so that makes up for the move. Take care, we love you all!

Fun Fun Fun at the Farm

The rain only added to our weekend fun at the farm. We are having a good ole time. There are baby chicks, sheep, goats, cows and even kitties. My kids have been in seventh heaven. The added bonus was the huge mud puddle by the chicken house. I actually dumped out about an inch of water out of Adelyn's boots.

Thanks to everyone for helping us have a wonderful weekend. I am sure I will have to hear, "When can we go back to the farm?" from now until we come back. That is okay, I kind of feel the same way, but since I am an adult I am not supposed to ask all the time. It makes Jason upset. :)

Okay, I will quit rambling on. Here are some awesome pics from the weekend.

Hello - great to hear you are coming to SD, Jill. We are planning a trip to Georgia in June. We have a wedding on Saturday the 19th. We are driving so we probably would leave on Wed?
It is busy around here. Zach is doing well in track. He threw a 117' 8" in discus (3rd place) and a 37' 6" in shot put (5th place) and ran the weight man 4 x 100 (he started the race and was in first at his handoff) and their team placed 8th. His track coach was amazed he could run that well!! Prom was on Friday night. He went with Lauren Millar (Bill and Lisa) and they had alot of fun. I'll try to download some pictures.
Rachael is busy with vocal and music contests, was doing shot and discus in track till she twisted her knee last week. We aren't sure if she will need surgery, yet. She sees the ortho dr. on Tuesday. She wants to be ready for volleyball and cheerleading.
Jacob is busy with driving the new Rhino (ATV) around the farm. He is getting ready for baseball. He will play pee-wee's (which Zach and a friend will be coaching this summer). He also had state BB gun competition for 4-H yesterday in Ft. Pierre. He did good after Dave promised Jacob he could have nachos if he shot 5 bullseye's (which he did). Oh, the power of food!! Zach shot archery, which Dave coaches. He did well for having prom till 4:30am the night before!!
Enough rambling, we will be anxious to see everyone in June. Melissa

Summer...

Hi to Bobbie and anyone else who reads this!! David has been told that there will be no vacation time approved this summer, but his boss just told him she will allow an early June vacation. We looked at flights and found a pretty good ticket for June 11-18. We haven't booked anything yet because we wanted to know if any of you will be around during that time??? Please let me know ASAP!
Hope you are all well!
Jill

Bike riding and flower planting

Hello everyone ( I say "everyone" lightly because I am beginning to wonder if any of you are still interested in the family blog! Jill gets credit though for the Easter pics!) Anyway, I hope you are all doing well and have been able to experience some wonderful spring weather. As I type, I am on the front steps, watching Kade ride his bike in a nice light spring rain. It's kind of pretty.

Yes, I said riding his bike. That is our new "news." Here is the video to prove it!

Also, I have attached a picture as Kade and I need advice from the Master Gardener. Help! Believe it or not, we thinned these pots out some. I still think we might be in trouble though. Who knew the seeds would actually sprout so well!

Peter Cottontail Stopped By...

Happy Easter to the Kriz Family Zoo-members! Emma celebrated so hard this morning that she actually took a 2 1/2 hour nap this afternoon! For those of you who don't know, that is unheard of for her! She usually naps for 20-30 min. She must have been worn out from fighting with me to wear that darn dress, hairband, and leggings! I have a feeling she will remember those leggings and her revenge will come in her adolescent years! The Easter Bunny did stop by our house and left peanut butter eggs (no willpower!!!) and lots of books for Emma (the Easter Bunny got her Master's degree in Literacy so she can't help it!)

All is going fairly well here. I had Spring Break last week and now am counting down to summer vacation! I am greedy! Emma had her 6 month check up and is in the 90th percentile for her height and weight! :) She is still taking allergy medicine every night, still has a runny nose and sneezing fits once in a while. She must be getting new teeth because she is gnawing/gumming everything in sight and reach! She is also grumpy! Hopefully they will break through SOON! We had her 6 month pics taken and she was not a happy camper! We got one smile and it was the last picture she took! They were still adorable pics and we ordered some for everyone. Sorry they didn't get done in time to send out for Easter.

Hope all is going well and everyone is having a great Spring and Easter weekend!

Lots of love,

Jill and family

Happy Easter Everyone!

Hope you are all having a nice holiday. We miss everybody!

Post some pictures of your own so we can "see" you all. ;0)

--Love ya, bobbie