Party Planning Next Steps

Hi Everyone Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

I hope all your Thanksgiving events were well. We are all blessed to have such great families to celebrate with. Now, with that being said let's talk about Christmas!

Thank you to Bobbie for putting the plans together. I love that we have a family planner. :) Mom and I were discussing meal planning for the Christmas gathering. From what I have heard most of us will be arriving on Wednesday or Thursday, which means that is quite a few days of us eating and drinking together. (YEAH!!) We decided to make a high level list of things that will be needed to help get us covered over that period of time, plus for the big gathering. Please review and let us know where you would like to help out. If there are other things we missed that you would like to add to the list please feel free to do so.

Drinks: Soda (Dt. and Regular), Milk, Chocolate Milk, Juice, Beer, Wine, Coffee Creamer. Mom said they have the whiskey and coffee to cover, but if you have a particular flavor bring it.

Paper Products: Plates and Napkins (mom has plenty of silverware and cups)

Snacks: Chips, crackers, nuts, meat and cheese tray, etc

Desserts: Cookies, pies, bars, etc.

Salads: any kind sweet or salty

Relish Tray: Veggies, pickles, dips. Adding Fruit to this section as well.

Breakfast Meats

Mom will cover meat and potato for the big event. Mom also said she will pickup whatever is not selected from the above items.

Sleeping Arrangements: There are 22 people in our family now. We will need to figure out sleeping arrangments for 15 of us. Mom said they are planning on opening up Vince's house and the camper for anyone who would like to accept the offer. Also, if we all want to be cozy bring your blowup beds and we can all squeeze in. :) (my preference, i love the family togetherness!)

Talk to everyone soon, I am very excited for all of us to get together.

Party Planning!

Hello everyone. I hope this finds you doing well. As we get close to Thanksgiving next week, I just wanted to tell you I am thankful for each and every one of you!

After having some discussion with everyone, it appears that the weekend between Christmas and New Years will work for the Christmas gathering! Yea! I am guessing we will have the party on that Saturday, but we will iron those details out as it gets closer. The main thing is that we have a weekend that seems to work for all.

I have been asked to complete the kids' drawing of names so that everyone knows who they have prior to Black Friday. This year we have seven kids, with the addition of Katelyn, and six families. So, my suggestion is that we each can buy something for little Katelyn...that's the benefit of being the youngest! Here is how the drawing worked out:

Mom and Dad - Addy
Dave and Melissa - Emma
Bobbie and Kevin - Alex
Terry and Tammy - Jacob
Jill and David - Bella
Jeannie and Jason - Kade

I make this a legitimate drawing and this is how it worked out, but you are welcome to switch if you want to.

We will probably do a White Elephant again, unless someone has a new bright idea! Always open to suggestions.

Love you all bunches!

--bobbie

Meet Socks...we are missing her, dad and mom already!!

Christmas party planning and Oldies but Goodies!

Hi All!

I thought I would post a couple of these fun Christmas photos from past years. I have sent everyone emails asking about the Christmas get-together schedule. Get back to me! Hopefully we can find a way to make it work for everyone. Wonder if we'll have snow this year? Last year we played football outside without coats. I think I'll take the snow instead!

Congratulations Mom!!

Our mom rocks! She was 1 of 10 nurses in the whole Avera system who won the distinguised "Avera Nursing Excellence Award". Mom's workplace wanted to nominate her for her hard work, and how exciting that she was one of the chosen out of all nominated in a their multi-state region.

We are proud of you mom, you are well deserving of such a great honor. Congrats!

Here she is...

the newest addition to the Kriz Fam!! She was the quietest, but the first one to greet Darc and I with special puppy kisses and the white tipped tail wagging. Marsha said too this is the one she would have chosen... especially for helping out on the farm and for being a great family pet. 

 

Can't wait for you to meet her. She is the runt of the litter with the kindest soul!! Marsha said they tell people that get their pups to put an old piece of clothing that has the owners scent on it for them to sleep with...that this breed will come to know this scent and always be there to help and protect!!

Closeup of me....

Full view...u can even see the white tip on my tail..aren't I cute?!

My Siblings Scarfing Down all the Food

Me and My Mom...finally get the leftovers!

Can't wait to meet Dad & Mom and the rest of the Kriz Fam Zoo!!

Possible New Arrival

This is the Mother of the pups.  No, not me, the dog!  :)

Tammy's Favorite

This is the Father to the pups.

This one has a white Tip on her Tail.

 

Dad - Here are the pictures that we took a few weeks ago. Tammy will get some more this weekend and re-post.  Hopefully you can see these better then when we sent them over email.

Old King Zach came back to give up his crown.   Rachael was the MC for the ceremonies.

Beijing, China and Other Random Shots

Hi all. I hope you are all doing well this fall-like day. It was in the high 40s here this morning. It felt great! A couple of you asked about China pictures, so I thought I would post some to prove I was there. I probably should post a couple of me working to prove I did that as well, but those are on my work computer, so you are just going to have to trust me that I really did work very hard while I was there. However, I was able to see a couple of the sites when I wasn't working. I had a few hours in the middle of the day on Thursday, which is when I saw The Great Wall and the Olympic Stadium.

This is the inside of the Bird's Nest, where the track and field, opening and closing ceremonies, and other activities were held for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. It was quite an architectural feat, I must say. I really wanted to get on the track, but as you can see behind me, they were setting up for a rock concert.

I was able to make a quick trip to The Great Wall, thanks to Kevin's brother Mark, who found us a driver for the day. It was massive, absolutely amazing, and very, very crowded with Chinese tourists.

Mark and I at the wall.

The Great Wall - there were so many people there that it was actually kind of hard to walk it. But, even if no one would have been there, it would have been a workout. It was very steep.

This is a garden at Tieneman Square, and you can see The Forbidden City across the street in the background. This is actually at about 6 a.m. I was able to visit these places by running to them from my hotel in the early mornings before work. Turns out that is when ALOT of Chinese tourists visit as well because they do a flag raising ceremony at sunrise. It was pretty cool to see, but very crowded, as was everything in Beijing, a city of 22 million people.

 

I have a few more, but perhaps I can share them at Christmas or something.

I really hope everyone is doing well. I don't know about you, but I am ready for fall!

Thurston Family Summer

Wow has it been a crazy summer so far. It feels like we have been on the go all summer long. I know it has been a while since I posted anything, so I thought I would share some pictures of what we have been doing this summer. Thanks to everyone in the family who was a part of our very fun summer. We had a great time and hope that the Fall and Winter are just as fun. We love you all very much.

Just a few pics from our second round of Kriz visitors. There are more pics on my phone but haven't figured out how to upload them yet!

Happy Birthday, Grandma from the Hurleys!

Happy Fourth of July!!

Hi Everyone! Just a quick note to wish everyone a Happy 4th! I hope you are all enjoying the fireworks. We shot ours last night as I have an early morning for work tomorrow. Kade, however, is at a party, so at least one member of our family is cool.

I am attaching a picture of Kade and his baseball team. The team finished sixth out of 12 at State Tournament last weekend. They won two of five, but all the games were really close (except for the one we won by 10-running the other team). Kade was excited to be a part of a play that won the second game for us and kept us in the tournament for another game. He hit a perfect bunt, which ended up scoring the two runs we needed to win. He was a pretty excited ball player. He's back row on the right.

Other than finishing baseball and blowing some stuff up, we haven't been up to much. How about all of you?

Well, I am going to try and sleep, although it sounds like a war zone outside. You are all going to laugh, but for work tomorrow I have to help make omelets for 850 people...which should be interesting since I have made like two omelets in my life. I guess 40 is a good age to learn how to do it.

Here's wishing you all some rain!

--bobbie

Katelyn!

Hi All. Hope summer is treating everyone well!

Sorry, Zach, that State Track didn't go as well as it could have. We are still very, very proud of you for making it there! I do hope it was a fun experience, even if there wasn't a medal.

On another note, since Jill and David are busy being a new Mom and Dad, I thought I would post a couple pictures of Katelyn, taken during my quick trip to Vegas last weekend. It was a fun time seeing the family and meeting new Katelyn.

Emma and I went to the park on Saturday. We had a great time.
 Katelyn kept pursing her lips, and it was just the cutest thing, so I had to get a picture.
This last pic is an example of the stellar meal David cooked for us. I know I was supposed to be the one helping out, but he insisted on cooking, and it was great! Seriously, look at those grill marks!
Thanks for hosting me during such a busy time, Hurleys!