Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Monday, December 29, 2008

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!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

'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!

Monday, December 8, 2008

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!