Hair Update/ Blackmail for later in life

The frohawk. Mr. T originated it . . .

. . . and Anna rocks it!

The Nativity Story at OUR House

Oh, no! There's been an accident at the stable! Baby Jesus is missing! The livestock have been overturned! The Holy Family and friends are nowhere to been found!

Never fear! Baby Jesus has been reunited with his loved ones at his new, improved lodgings. There's nothing like a miniature Fisher Price barn to shelter the beloved Christ Child.

Update

We enjoyed Thanksgiving in Leavenworth with family. It felt so great to get away and relax with our loved ones.

The whole family after decorating the Christmas tree. We were clever this year and didn't put up any breakable ornaments. Anna has no interest in the tree whatsoever.

Ernie loves decorating!

Anna loves carrying around ornament boxes!

Yesterday was a day we won't soon forget. Even before we got out to the snow, Anna managed to get herself in trouble. Brian and I realized at one point that it was very, very quiet in our house. That's always a bad sign. B and I quickly checked around, but didn't see Anna. I then checked behind closed doors, and found Anna in the downstairs bathroom, having a grand time splashing in the toilet. I won't tell you the details, I'm sure you can imagine the lovely scene. Anna got a bath before heading outside with us.

Ernie really loved the snow. We went to the park to sled and now that he is such a big boy, he got to ride down the hill by himself. One time he almost ran into the metal post for the basketball hoop, but was blissfully oblivious (that's our boy!). Brian instructed him that next time if we was close to running into the pole, to just roll off the side of the sled. On his next run, he got to the bottom of the hill, slowly continued across the basketball court on the sled (it seemed like in slow motion, but was probably about a walking pace) when suddenly I hear a high pitched shriek and see Ernie slowly rolling off the side of his sled. I love the drama that unfolds in his imagination. His sled didn't even make it to the pole, probably because it was about 20 feet away when he rolled off, and it wasn't pointing at the pole anyway. If you ever need a laugh, just have children. Our house certainly has more than our share of cereal bars ground into the carpet, but we also have more laughter than we could ever hope for.

Anna didn't like the snow any more than she liked sitting in the wet sand at the beach. In fact, she refused to move or take any steps in the snow. She looked like this the whole time we were outside.

Art time!

Glitter glue is 3 dimensional in our house- how about yours?

Christmas Cards that make a difference!

Here's a great idea! You are going to buy Christmas cards anyways, so why not support Ethiopian women that would otherwise have a difficult time taking care of their families. This project provides the women with a living wage and you with beautiful, handcrafted Christmas cards. What a wonderful way for you to honor Anna and her homeland this year! Check out Jimma Banana Art for more info.

On another note:

Thanksgiving is coming up. What were you doing last year? We had a great time joining in the huge festivities at Aunt Traci and Uncle Tyler's house. We found out late that day that Anna's first court date was not successful. We waited a few weeks to find out that her second court date was a success. By December 16th, we were on the plane, traveling over 30 hours to meet her. We feel so blessed this year to celebrate Thanksgiving with her in our arms, along with Ernie and our extended families. We've so much to be thankful for!

The biggest thank you

We feel so fortunate to have had such a smooth road to Anna's adoption, and owe so much of it to those who supported us. Thank you again to all who gave emotional support, wrote references, babysat Ernie, gifted baby items, prayed, painted, decorated, and in so many other ways made our journey such a blessed one.

The support and love did not end with Anna's arrival. Our most recent blessing has been that stemming from the website Celebrating Adoption. Through this service for recent adoptive families, we found an amazing photographer Cindy Yen, who donated her time and beautiful photographs to our family. There are so many great things I could say about the experience, but just take a look at these pictures to see what happened.

So today we just want to thank Cindy for these beautiful photographs. If you are an adoptive family, rush to the Celebrating Adoption website. Many professionals are waiting to photograph your wonderful family. And if you have kids, check out Cindy's website. We absolutely love the pictures and can't wait to get them framed up on the wall!

Final note: Anna's re-adoption was finalized on Friday! Hooray!

Warning- Bragging Mama Ahead

Hey, everyone. I just wanted to share what a brilliant boy we have! Ernie is learning to read and loves to spell things out. We've been forced to abandon our super sneeky method of spelling out words we don't want Ernie to hear. We're on to spelling backwards. Can anybody say M A E R C E C I ? He's only four, folks. What happens when he's twelve?

Anyways, here's a pic of Ernie in the bath the other night. He wanted to write the word "water", and this is what he came up with.

He's our little smarty pants.

Pumpkins

If you know me, you know I love anything to do with pumpkins. Here's a retrospective of our little pumpkins at the patch.

Ernie visits the giant pumpkins at the fair when he is 2 months old.

This is the first of four consecutive years Ernie has visited the pumpkin patch with Haeli. They are 1 year old.

Ernie searches for the perfect pumpkin at 2 years old.

This year Haeli brought along her little sisters Tori and Lily(not pictured). Ernie brought along Anna. This is the same face I got at the beach when Anna was sitting in the wet sand. Haeli and Ernie are four years old now!

Sweet brother and sister

Laundry

Here's the laundry list of Frick life.

*Brian got a new job. This is the big happening I alluded to in our last post. He'll be commuting down to Tacoma, making his day a little shorter. Of course there is good and bad with every decision (he'll be doing "exciting" actuary things, he'll be traveling a little more), but overall we're very happy with the new changes to come.

*Anna is walking! She started off slow with just a few steps for a few weeks. She's now thrown off the shackles of crawling and insists on walking everywhere. She walks around now just for the fun of it! Check her out:

*We spent the weekend in Seaside, OR. We had so much fun in the ocean and sand. Yes, I said ocean. For those of you out there with little boys, you know what I'm talking about. Yes, I said ocean. Yes, its October. Yes, it was 55 degrees. Here's the family on the way back from the beach: (Ernie immersed himself in the ocean from his neck to his toes. Mom rescued him and got wet up to her knees. Anna scoffed at the idea of entering the water. Dad skillfully avoided the cold water by tending to Anna.)

More pics of Seaside:

Ernie on the swings

This is Anna sitting on the wet sand. She is not happy. I took about 6 pictures of her looking anywhere but at me. She finally looks at me and this is the expression I get. She's getting pretty good at her withering look.

The kids are dry back in the room with Grandma and Grandpa.

Feeding Time

I just couldn't resist commenting on Anna's newest development, trying to feed herself. Ernie is now in on the action and loves to feed Anna from a spoon. The second pic here is Anna feeding herself. She wants to do it so bad that its difficult to get any food in her. So my newest trick is to let her hold a spoon while I'm feeding her. When she finally figures out how to get food on her spoon its going to be a big mess!

More to come: Pics from the pumpkin patch, update on Anna walking! and big changes for the Frick family

Anna at the Dinner Table

We get this almost every night. Check out the youtube link of Anna showcasing her evil genius laugh, her silliest faces and some of her best words.



Peace!

September?!

Here it is the middle of September, and I can hardly believe our summer has come and gone. August was pretty lazy about delivering our best month of sunny weather, so Septmeber actually made up for it last week. We celebrated the gorgeous weather at the new Tukwila spray park. Sadly, we're back to our traditional Fall drizzle today.

Anna really enjoyed the little jets of water spraying out of this hole.

Ernie ran around filling his Lightning McQueen shoe with water.

In a peaceful moment of sibling play, Ernie and Anna bear-walked around the park together.

My sweet kids.

Hair

Anna arrived into this world with a full head of straight hair

(Thanks Jenni and Jim for the photo)


Our little baldie in January



First ponytails in April

Big hair . . .

. . . by Ernie

More poof in the July ponytails

Anna's first single ponytail gone awry

Party Recipes

Here are a few recipes friends are asking for these days. We had the hamburgers at Anna's b-day party this year and have served the Black Bean Salad at previous gatherings.

Tropical Hamburgers, makes 4 patties
1 lb ground beef
4 oz crushed drained canned pineapple
3 oz medium cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp Yoshidas marinade
fresh ground pepper
1/2 C bread crumbs
1 egg lightly beaten
just enough chicken broth to make it mixable (about 1-2 Tbsp)
mix all ingredients together to make the patties

Black Bean and Cilantro Salad
3-15oz. cans black beans rinsed and drained
1 C fresh frozen or canned corn kernels
1/4 C fresh tomatoes diced
1/4 C red bell pepper diced
1/4 C green bell pepper diced
1/4 C red onion diced
1 tsp jalapeno pepper, minced
1/3 C olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice, about 1 lime
1/4 C fresh cilantro, minced
salt and pepper to taste
In a large bowl, mix black beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers and red onion. Drizzle with oil and lime juice: toss. Sprinkle with cilantro. Season to taste. Serve at room temperature.

"Car" Camping

I admit it. I love camping. And when I say "camping", I expect the whole world to know I'm talking about what others might refer to as "car camping." I've heard rumors about this so-called camping where you heft a backpack for miles, forego showering for days or weeks and cook all food over an open fire. Give me a Jeep stuffed full of camping stoves, bulky sleeping bags, gallons of milk, kites, air matresses, buckets of food and kids' bicycles. Give me a campground with groomed sites, a nice heavy picnic table, grimy coin-operated showers and toilets accessible round the clock. I am a happy car camper.

This past weekend we dragged our friends, the Johnson's, along for a wild, kid-infested weekend at Ocean Shores, a campground visited by both Brian and I as kids. Check out the Johnson's blog to follow their amazing journey to their adopted baby girl in China. Thank you, Samuel, for providing my favorite moment of the weekend. It wouldn't have been the same if you hadn't stood at the edge of our campsite holding a shovel in the air and growling at our neighbors.

Take note, readers. Today is the epic day I will attempt a Got Injera first: a slide show chronicling our sandy weekend.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A few thoughts about the weekend highlighted in the pictures:
* It took Ernie virtually no time to jump right into the ocean. He had this sort of innate drive to then roll in the sand on the way back to the campsite.
*Smores are yummy. Save the dark chocolate for the moms and dads.
*Digging a big hole in the sand equals hours of entertainment.
*Flexing your muscles does sometimes look like the chicken dance, if you do it like we do it in our house.
*Superhero underware substitutes nicely for pants.
*Camping in the rain is no fun. I highly recommend packing up BEFORE it starts raining.

Happy 1st!

The big day came and went so fast. It is hard to believe our little girl is one! Here are some pictures and a list of the amazing things Anna can do.

*Can moo when we ask her what a cow says. Sounds like "boo" when she says it

*Grunts in her interpretation of a dog barking when we ask her what a doggie says

*Dances when she hears music

*Knows how to get Mom and Dad's attention when Ernie is bothering her- often cries disproportionately loudly to the crime

*Has four teeth

*Just figured out how to grind said teeth against eachother

*Says "ma ma ma" when she's angry

*When asked to say "ma ma ma" smiles sweetly and says "da da da" then laughs

*Loves climbing the stairs, playing in water, reading books

*Eats almost anything, but has rejected mandarin oranges and yogurt consistently

*Lights up when Dada comes home from work

Birthday pictures: