Happy New Year!

Christmas Day

We hope that everybody out there had a great Christmas holiday. I know that we had a great time here in Eagle River. It was great to be together and celebrate the best time of year with each other; of course we also missed those who were not with us this year, best rest assured you were all in our thoughts. We had a great Christmas day-we arose about 8:00 or so to two very, very excited children who proceeded to shred the wrapping on everything they could get their hands on. The only downside to the whole day was that Jessica had a touch of the flu that was going around, but she still was able to keep the Christmas spirit and felt great the next day.

Well, on to the pictures.

Santa replaced Kierin and Connor's old stockings with brand new Star Wars ones. As many of you know, Kierin tends to go from obsession to obsession-his current favorite thing ever is Star Wars. Its kind of funny, though, because when I think of Star Wars, I think of the original trilogy-Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, etc. Kierin thinks of the new trilogy-Anakin, Obi Won, the godawful Clone Wars movie. Its weird-Kierin views Anakin as a hero; I view him as the guy who will become Darth Vader, the ultimate bad guy in the universe! Anyway, back to the stockings-as you can see, Kierin is holding his Clone Trooper stocking. Connor received a stocking with HIS favorite Star Wars guy, Master Yoda. BTW, that is what Connor always calls him-Master Yoda, never just Yoda.


Connor also got a present that was almost as big as he is. Here Connor is opening his new Elmo kitchen. The boys have a kitchen over at Meemaw and Peepaw's house that they love to play with, so Santa brought Connor an Elmo Kitchen (Elmo is Connor's obsession and the word he says the most is Elmo. Its kind of like touretts-out of nowhere, he'll just say "Elmo." Weird.). They love it though. Connor and Kierin probably played with it for an hour and a half on Christmas day. Connor played with it for about 45 minutes on Sunday, as he kept bringing me "food."


My best present from Jessica was the Guitar Hero game. Jessica is obsessed with it also. We have played it quite a bit as we attempt to master the two songs Dream Police and I Hate Myself For Loving You. I am actually getting pretty sick of those songs. Still, we also discovered that not only is Guitar Hero very fun and addictive to play, it also makes an awesome bench to sit on while you read about lightsabers.


Here are Meemaw and Peepaw on Christmas day. We went over to their house for dinner. We gave them a picture of their beautiful grandsons with handprints. They loved it, of course!


Finally, Nudgey was a good dog this year too! He also got a visit from Santa Paws!

'Twas The Night Before Christmas...

...and not a creature was stirring except for the Frick Jrs. Of course, we will post some pictures of our wonderful Christmas day, but I wanted you all to know that we were enjoying the Holiday Season already. Jessica and I have been off since last Friday and we are loving being at home with each other and with our boys.

We are keeping busy, of course. We had an early Christmas celebration with Kathryn, Jessica's friend, who had to leave Alaska before Christmas. She brought the boys some presents, including a "dinosaur dig" for Kierin. It was messy, but fun for kids both big and little.


Some other fun things that we have done this week was dress up like cowboys. Well, actually, just Connor dressed up like a cowboy. He is really into cowboys lately. He carries around little plastic cowboys that I used to have when I was little. He carries three or four at a time, however many he can stuff into his little paws.


We killed a little time this morning and early afternoon by going sledding at Kincaid Park. We had a really fun time-it had snowed last night, so the hill was all powder that sprayed up as we shot down the hill and it wasn't too cold at all-probably about 20 degrees or so. Kierin actually went down the hill all by himself.


Finally, we came home and did the best possible thing you can do at Christmastime: snuggle with your family.

Happy Holidays!

It's The Holiday Season!

Hello everyone! We are all looking forward to Christmas, especially the 2 weeks off for Jessica & I. We have lots of good fun stuff planned for our time together with the kids. Kierin and Connor are starting to get really excited that Santa is coming soon. We haven't had a chance to get the boys pictures taken with the jolly elf yet, but Kierin is working on a letter to send to Santa.

We are already enjoying the winter holiday season. There is a nice sledding hill nearby. We took Connor down the hill for the first time. He was not real sure about it-I think the speed made him a little nervous and, of course, since he was in the front of the sled, he tended to catch a lot of the snow that was kicked up going down the hill right in the kisser. He likes going outside and making "noballs," but he doesn't like getting what is known in Alaska as a "white wash."


Here the boys are posing for a winter picture where we went sledding. Connor liked this action a lot more than the sledding, but Kierin couldn't wait to get back on the hills. Its tough, because for a couple years, he was my sledding buddy and now he only wants to go by himself. I kind of feel sad, because he's getting so darn big, and I used him as an excuse to sled-a 35 year old isn't supposed to love sledding, too.


Here is a picture of the dudes in Eagle River Town Square by the community Christmas tree. We missed the lighting ceremony because we've been sick, but I wanted a picture of the two guys in front of it because it was just so darn Christmasy. The town square is kind of special to me, because waaaaayy back in high school, I helped plant the tree and lay down tile as a community service project for the Chugiak High School JROTC.


Even Nudgey is getting into the Holiday spirit. I had another picture of him that I was going to post, but Nudge looks like he wants to murder me in that picture. Dogs don't like hats, I guess, even Holiday ones. Still, I thought he was pretty cute with it on!

Holiday Weekend

Hello everyone! I trust that you all had a nice Thanksgiving holiday yesterday. The Frick Jrs had a pretty good time-we went out about 45 minutes up the road to a family friend's house, the Kenneys. It was great fun as Kierin and Connor had some nice kids to play with and we had some nice people to spend the evening with. In addition, all of the food was very delicious-especially the blackberry cobbler!

We didn't take very many pictures last night, but here is one of Kierin showing off his new Thanksgiving sweater. How handsome!


We are really enjoying the long weekend. Kierin had a sleep over at Meemaw's house last night, but after we picked him up we went for a little walk down to Thunderbird Falls, which is close to the Frick Srs. The kids and Jessica really enjoy being outside. You'll notice that it has snowed several inches lately. Connor enjoys riding in the sled that he got for Christmas from Grandma Kathy last year. However, Jessica is not so sure about pushing it up this big hill. I ended it up pushing it the most, but thats OK since we had a really good time. The falls were not that impressive-its frozen and covered in snow-you wouldn't know that there were falls there if you didn't know (if you know what I mean...).


In this picture, the boys pose at the end of the boardwalk by the falls. They agreed to pose for a minute for me to get this picture of them in the snow, but they were desperate to start making snowballs and have a snowball fight.


Connor really loves being outside. He definitely caught the worst end of the snowball fight with Kierin, but loved every second of it. Connor had two of his favorite things-he was outside and he got to be wild!


We hope you all enjoy your long weekend! You all were in our Thanksgiving prayers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Holidays Are Coming!

As we are getting closer to the Holiday Season, the Frick Jrs are starting to get ready. We are looking forward to the annual Thanksgiving feast and we are also beginning to prepare for Christmas. Meemaw and I took Connor out shopping to get presents for the boys and Jessica yesterday. Kierin has also started preparing to send his Christmas wish list to Santa Claus. One thing about Kierin-he thinks big!

Before we take a look at how we are looking forward to the Holidays, I wanted to share with everyone that Connor has found his brother's old Thomas the Tank Engine sticker book. However, Connor is not satisfied with just putting stickers in the book; oh no, I made the mistake of putting a sticker on his forehead. I think I started a new Connor obsession...


On to the Holidays! Kierin's preschool had a Thanksgiving feast on Thursday. They all made either pilgrim or indian costumes, as you can see. Kierin loves dressing up-clone trooper, pirate, pilgrim-it doesn't matter. However, they were talking about how the first Thanksgiving came about and how the Indians helped the Pilgrims when they arrived here in the New World.


I also recently bought Connor a Santa hat since Kierin has a Santa hat that he usually starts wearing non-stop this time of year. As you can see, Connor loves his new Santa hat. Connor actually does love to wear hats and the Santa hat has quickly become one of his favorites.


Finally, he is a picture of Jessica and the boys celebrating the Holiday season.

Pirates & Hockey Players

Things have been going pretty good here in Alaska. Its starting to get colder-its been in the low 20s, high teens, but its been sunny, so it has actually been pretty nice as long as you are looking at it from inside. We have been keeping pretty busy, so I thought I would drop a quick blog to let everyone know how much fun we're having.

To begin with, Kierin seems to be on a pirate kick. He likes a Scooby Doo episode that has pirates and he plays a lot with the pirate playset that Meemaw got him for his birthday. He also got a pirate costume from an older kid of one of Jessica's friends and Kierin really loves the eyepatch. So much that he sleeps in it!


Kierin has also started up hockey again. He enjoys getting out there with the other kids and skating around. He is doing so great-he is such a good little skater and he is getting more comfortable out there with his teammates. He even scored two goals in practice this morning!


Speaking of hockey, we went to see the UAA Seawolves choke up a two goal lead to lose 5-3 to the Minnesota-Mankato Mavericks. It was still a good time as you can see-one of the WCHA officials gave saw Kierin standing along the glass and gave him one of the actual pucks that was used during the 1st period. It was a treasure!


Connor also enjoyed the game, too. He liked to stand right by the glass and watch the "doalie" and the "Boni" go by. He got to touch an actual "Boni" today at Kierin's hockey practice. He likes hockey and will probably be out there on skates in the next year or two.

Don't Forget To Vote!

Today is Election Day and we have the opportunity to make history with our vote. Whichever candidate you support, please take the time to cast your ballot and participate in our democratic process.

This looks to be a close election and every vote will count.

Thank you.

Happy Halloween!

Tonight was Halloween and the Frick Jrs had a great time! I took Kierin and Connor around our new neighborhood with Peepaw's help. It was great fun to go to all of neighbor's houses and say "Trick Or Treat!" We have been meeting several of our neighbors lately and it was pretty great to see everyone out and about. We have a couple of neighbors right across the street from us who really, really enjoy Halloween and got totally decked out in costume with lots and lots of decorations.

Last night, Kierin and I carved the traditional Halloween pumpkin. Kierin was pretty excited, even if he didn't really want to stick his hand into the pumpkin guts. It was actually a weird pumpkin in that there wasn't very many seed and the inside was real stringy. Weird, but Kierin and I did a great job with our carving.


And, of course, anything that big brother does, little brother has to get in there and do it too. So Connor had to get up on my lap and stick his hand in the pumpkin. Connor, by the way, was much more willing to stick his hand into the "guts" than Kierin was. They are so different some times-some times its hard to believe they came from the same place.


Here are Kierin and Connor posing with the results of our labor. I don't know-I used a kit that I bought at Fred Meyer and it doesn't look too great like this.


However, when the pumpkin has a candle burning inside-it looks GREAT! (if I do say so myself!) I think it looks much more interesting than the traditional Jack O Lantern smiley face. Plus, it looks really cool.


Finally, the boys were ready to go out and Trick Or Treat! They got a ton of candy. Connor's Elmo bucket got too heavy for him to carry. Good job, boys!

What Have We Been Up To?

Hello everyone! We are having a great time up here in Alaska. I finally reached my goal of cleaning out the garage and moving the cars into the garage. Its great timing because it has been getting cold up here-it was under 20 degrees all day today. We went into Anchorage today and it was nice to get into a nice warm car-especially after years and years of going out, starting the car, scraping windows, etc. We have also been getting ready for Halloween-perfecting costumes, going to Fall Carnivals, buying candy and we got our pumpkin today.

Anyway, I realized today that I had not written anything for awhile, so I thought I would some pictures up and tell you all what exactly the Frick Jrs have been up to in the last few days.

Connor and I found that there are many videos of hockey on youtube, so, of course, we spent many hours in front of my computer checking out "hottee" videos. Connor loves hockey-I cannot wait to get him on skates-but he is probably a couple years away from that. I hope that he keeps his love of it.


Jessica, Kierin and Connor spent the weekend going to Fall Carnivals at nearby schools. On Friday night, they went to the Fall Carnival at Firelake, where Jessica teaches. On Saturday night, Jessica and her friend Katherine took the kids to the Fall Carnival at Ravenwood, where Jessica used to teach. The kids had great times each night. I, unfortunately, stayed at home and worked on cleaning out the garage all weekend. Still, I love the pictures-here Kierin finds himself in "jail" at Firelake.


Jessica told me that Connor was especially fond of the "duck Pond." In fact, he couldn't help himself-he had to climb in and play with the duckies.


Here are Jessica, Connor, Kierin, and Jessica's friend Katherine get ready to go to the Fall Carnival at Ravenwood.


This picture is from today. I guess Connor wanted to try out a different costume. As you can see, he went from being a "kitty cat" to being the cutest darn pirate that ever sailed the seven seas.


Usually, my school has a Fall Carnival, but this year they have it scheduled for October 31st. Unfortunately, I cannot be able to attend with Connor and Kierin because I will be taking them Trick Or Treating in our brand new neighborhood. I bet we get a lot of candy!

The Weekend

The Frick Jrs had a very busy weekend. There was a windstorm Thursday night that had something like 80 mph gusts that blew down fences, trees, and many shingles off of our roof. We woke up about 1 am listening to a banging on the roof. All I could think of as I lay there was "I am a homeowner now. How much is that banging to cost me?" Luckily, the damage was pretty minimal and with help from Frick Sr and our neighbor, who apparently is a roofer, the shingles were replaced in no time and our roof is as good as new. Other people in the neighborhood were not so lucky as Jessica and I counted something like 13 fences that were blown over.

Friday evening the boys and I spent some time outside playing in the leaf piles that were left by the wind. Connor loves being outside. He ran around the yard chasing Nudge and playing on his little slide. I was getting cold-it was mid 30's-but Connor could have played out there all night.


Even Nudge had a great time outside. He didn't like going out during the windstorm, but he sure loved running around in the leaves after it was all over. I wish I could find his tennis balls, because he loves playing catch more than many dogs I have ever met. He's a little dog, but we found some mini-tennis balls that are perfect for him. I guess I need to hit the pet store again and get him outside to play ball before it snows again and sticks this time.


Here is a sneak preview of Kierin's Halloween costume. He and Jessica had to take some pictures of his costume because Kierin will be Superkid this week at preschool and he wanted a picture of his costume on his Superkid poster. Isn't he just the cutest darn Clone Trooper you ever saw?


On Saturday, we took Kierin to a birthday party for McKenna, one of his friends from school. It was at the Dimond Skateland, which is this roller rink by the Dimond Center. When I first saw the invitation, I thought it was at the ice rink in the Dimond Center, but it was at this roller place instead. There was something like five other birthday parties going on at the same time, including one for this kid from my advisory at Polaris. I didn't think that roller skating was that popular, but, man, the kids that were there were having a great time.


Here's a picture of Kierin out on the roller rink. He had a great time, but I think he found roller skating a lot harder than ice skating. you'd think they would be similar, but different enough to give him a hard time at first. Still, even though he fell a lot at first, he hung in there and kept getting back up. He didn't want to leave when the party was over, but you could tell he was sooooo tired.

Winter Wonderland

Its hard to believe that its October already. It seems just yesterday that it was mid-August and we were heading back to school to begin a new year. Now it is October, the first quarter is winding down, and we are getting ready for Halloween. It blows my mind to think that Thanksgiving and (holy cow!) Christmas are just around the corner. We are also still breaking in our new house and trying to empty out the garage so that we can actually park our cars in the warmth and comfort of the garage instead of out in the driveway. A warm car on a winter morning? I can't wait!

Connor started on Halloween early by dressing up as Daddy. I wasn't there that morning, but Connor raided my closet-my T-shirts and hats are still in disarray. Thanks OK-he is already using his imagination! I guess I need to start closing my closet before all my stuff starts to disappear. Of course, if he looks like me in my clothes, then maybe he could go to work instead of me!


We have looking at many Halloween costumes for the kiddos. Kierin had a hard time picking out a costume until he finally settled on being a clone trooper (gold leader Commander Cody no less!). Connor didn't get as lucky since we are recycling a costume that Kierin wore a few years ago. As you can see, it is as cute on Connor as it was on Kier-Kier. In this picture, Connor and I are getting into the Halloween mood by reading Scooby-Doo.


It snowed today. Thats right-snow on October 5th. I knew that it would be an early winter since we had such a cool, wet summer. I just hope that it doesn't snow as much as it rained this summer. Luckily, I took the opportunity to change our tires over Friday and yesterday, so we have our winter "studs" on our car. I always dread the snow because of how hard it makes it to get to work, but I remember how much I loved it as a kid. I try not to rain on Kierin and Connor's parade, because they enjoy the snow so much.


It didn't snow very long-probably about an hour and it will probably be melted by the time I go to work in the AM (although I'm sure that it will be icy!). Still, it is the first official accumulation of snow for the winter. Here we go!

Its Fall!

We were finally able to take a breather as a family and enjoy being together. That happened to coincide with a very beautiful sunny day after a summer of rainy weather, so we decided to take a ride up the road to the Eagle River Nature Center and take a short walk into the woods to look at how Mother Nature is beginning to transition from summer into winter.

First of all, take a look at this mountain. Yes, it is very pretty and you can see how sunny it is. But look at the top of the mountain. What is that? That is correct: it is snow. Here in Alaska we call this "Termination Dust." It is the first sign that summer is ending and that winter is just around the corner. It is has been a rainy, cool summer, so I am thinking that it will probably be a pretty early, snowy winter.


Connor absolutely loved beginning outside. This is all new to him of course, but he really seems to enjoy being outside and getting dirty and communing with nature. He just strolled along, picking up leaves and rocks, eating popcorn, and sometimes he would just stop and stare at the trees and the leaves that floated quietly to the ground. For a child who seems to live to make constant noise, he seems to enjoy the quiet movement of nature.


Jessica and the boys discovered this hollowed out tree along the trail. I guess that it reminds Jessica of a tree that she used to sleep in when she went camping in California as a child. I know that she and the dudes enjoyed climbing in and around the tree and coming up with theories as to how it was hollowed out.


This is just an awesome picture of the fellas as they found this seat to rest their weary little feet on.


Finally, once we returned to the Nature Center, Kierin really enjoyed looking through the telescope. He didn't discover any animals or anything on the mountains, but his imagination took over and he was looking for "stormtroopers" or Scooby Doo monsters...

Finally-An Update!

Sorry that it has taken so long-almost a whole month, but we have been caught up in the back to school routine. Well, not routine, more like a frantic, disjointed frenzy of throwing together lesson plans and trying to stay caught up on the grading. Still, I realized tonight that it was time for me to put everything school related on pause and share with those of you who read this what exactly the Frick Jrs have been up to since you heard from us last.

To start with, I know that I promised you a picture of the house. Our half of the house is on the left where the black and grey car are. We are slowly making it more and more our home-it still feels weird sometimes, like we are on vacation or housesitting. However, as more of our stuff is coming into the house from the garage, and we are hanging our stuff on the walls, it is slowly feeling more and more like home. Kierin still talks about his old house and old room, but I think even he is coming around as we walk on the trails right behind our house and play catch with Nudge in the backyard.


Look how freakin' big Kierin is getting. He is so tall and skinny-I don't where he gets it! It must be from the Johnson side. Connor is more Frickey shaped-short little legs and little pot belly. Anyway, what also makes him look so big is that he is holding a SKATEBOARD!! How big is that??


And, of course, what big brother does, little bro has to try too. He tried to ride that board, but kept falling off!


So, I was home alone with Connor as Jessica and Kierin were shopping at Fred Meyers. I heard some quiet noises from the landing where Nudgey's kennel is. I wondered what that silly dog was up to, so I went down to check. Lo and behold, it was a strange little puppy that was in the kennel! he played in there for quite a while until I finally had to drag him out. Don't worry-I had just cleaned it out.


Finally, my Aunt Rene and Uncle Ed have been at my folks for a few weeks now. Ed, his brother Jim and my dad went hunting a lot, but Rene stayed with my mom while they were away. The boys fell in love with Aunt Rene. They return to Pennsylvania tomorrow am, so the boys won't get a chance to see her again for awhile. They will really, really miss her a lot.


I hope you all enjoyed the quick update. I will try to get back to this sooner next time!