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!