White Christmas

We had a very white Christmas in Fargo this year, however it was still a wonderful weekend. We had all the Fried's together for the weekend. With the blizzard we stayed pretty shut in, but there was plenty of good food, fun games and nice company to enjoy. Aunt Kristen taught Adam how to shake his presents and guess what they were. According to Adam, if his predictions were correct, he would have received a puppy and a bumble bee this year. Even though his predictions did not pan out, he still received a lot of very nice toys, books and clothes.

Now that everyone has left, a quiet has come over our house, and Adam has finally come down from his Christmas high. Here are some pictures from our great holiday weekend.

Adam decorating himself for Christmas.

He thought Great Grandma Fried needed some decorating as well.
Adam's posing in front of the tree.

Everyone ready for Christmas Eve dinner.

Great Grandma helping Adam open his gifts.

Adam was pretty excited about the new train set he got from Grandma and Grandpa Fried.

Here is a rare shot of Adam giving me his grumpy face. I usually get this look when I make him do something he doesn't want to do. In this instance, I got it for taking the camera away from him.

Robin Fried, MT, MBA

Its done, its over, and it was time to celebrate. I finally finished my Master's degree! I can't believe it is finally over. These past 18 months have flown by. To celebrate, we had a big party for family and friends. Erika graduated as well, so there was a lot to celebrate and many people who came to show support and celebrate with us. Thank you to everyone!


This weekend was filled with other activities as well. We took Adam to Santa's Village to visit Santa. He seemed pretty excited, but as soon as we got to the big guy he froze and would not let go of mom. Oh well, maybe next year he'll be more brave. He still had fun with the other activities they had for kids.

Our little Adam Elf.

Grandma Sonya brought back some of Ryan's old childhood toys this weekend. It was hard to tell who had more fun Adam or Daddy. Ryan took a trip down memory lane and starting teaching Adam all of the finer point of He-Man and baseball cards.

Happy Anniversaries!

I want to say Happy Anniversary to two of my favorite couples. I look forward to seeing you all for a fun weekend.

Mom and Dad (Glen and Cathy) - married 32 years!

Erika and Joel - married 4 years!

Almost done!

I have decided to take a break from my last homework assignment to update. Tomorrow night I can officially say that I am done with my Master's work!

We had a fairly busy weekend. We spent Friday night babysitting Greyson, so Matt and Tara could have a night out. He was such good boy and it was fun watching he and Adam interact. Adam kept trying to get Greyson to chase him, and Greyson would just look at us with an expression that said "Who is this loud kid and why does he want me to chase him?" Greyson is about 14 months younger than Adam. You can really see the size difference between the two.
Most of Saturday was spent finishing our Christmas shopping and baking cookies. Adam was a really good helper, when he wasn't trying to eat all of the cookie dough. Like father, like son.

" Maybe I could sneak some more dough without getting caught."

Toddler in a basket!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

The snow has started to fall, and we have started to really get into the Christmas spirit at our house. We took out the tree yesterday, and Adam had all sorts of fun decorating it. While we were taking out more Christmas decorations, Adam found (much to his father's dismay) this old Minnesota Vikings Santa hat. He put in on all by himself and ran around, so maybe there is still hope for him.

We have gotten a good amount of snow in the past couple days. After church today, Ryan went out the clear off the drive way and Adam thought he would test out his new snow boots and help.

Having fun in the snow!

A little video of Adam decorating the tree.

Give Thanks

What I am thankful for...

I am thankful for my beautiful son and wonderful husband!

I am thankful for my loving, supportive, and crazy family!

I am thankful for the strong, beautiful women in my family!

And I am thankful to be able to add one more! (my new sister-in-law Liz)

I am thankful that she makes my brother so happy!

Congratulations to my big brother Dan and his new wife Liz, who are celebrating their 1 week anniversary tomorrow. Ryan, Adam and I were so happy to be apart of their special day, and wish them every happiness. I hope everyone had a good holiday!

The Happiest Place on Earth

I just recently returned from a wonderful (but quick) California vacation with my best friends. Erika was there for a conference, so I decided to take advantage of a free room and cheap air fare and have some fun in the warm weather. It was very relaxing. I spend most of my time lying by the pool. We ate a some great restaurants and (because we were staying right across the street) had a night of fun at Disneyland.

Erika, Michelle and I all dolled up for a night out

Adam has had a pirate fascination as of late. He love Captain Feather Sword from the Wiggles, and his favorite book is the pirate book his Grandma Sonya got for him. Here is Adam sporting his pirate look also given to him by Grandma Sonya (and Grandpa Warren).

When I was in Disney, I could not resist getting him his own personalized pirate hat.

Happy Belated Halloween!

This year, Halloween was a giant candy exchange. Ryan and I bought a bunch of candy to give out to trick-or-treaters only to have our son get loaded up with even more candy to bring home. As Ryan and I do not give Adam many sweets, guess who winds up eating a majority of it. If I make it through the holiday season only gaining 10 pounds I will consider it a success.

Adam was a Monkey for Halloween (he picked the costume out all by himself). He did have fun getting candy while trick-or-treating, but had even more fun helping mom pass out candy to the kids that came to our door. He did get a little freaked out when a mummy came to the door, so I had to pass out the candy on my own for that one.

Our little monkey getting ready for trick-or-treating!

A happy, dancing monkey!

Trick or Treat!

Baa baa black sheep

When we were in Duluth last weekend Adam thought the old spinning wheel at Granny and Papa's was pretty cool. Most kids would play with it as a ship's wheel, but not our boy. He stepped right up and started singing his heart out like it was a microphone. Baa Baa Black sheep was his big number.

Baa baa black sheep have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

One for the master, one for the dame

One for the little boy who lives down the lane...(you get the picture)

Tonight Adam and Daddy were getting in the spirit of Halloween and got their pumpkin carved.

Icky insides!

The small pumpkin was the one Adam painted at preschool, the big one is the one he carved with daddy.

Cash for clunkers! For those who know the story, we finally got our car (and a years worth of free oil changes for all the crap we had to put up with)!

Proofs

Ryan and I had a very fun weekend in Duluth. I have some fun pictures that I will post soon. For now, I wanted to leave you all with a link to Adam's two year proofs. We are having trouble narrowing it down to our favorites.

www.classic-photography.net

Click on proofs and type in FRIED as the password. Enjoy.

Lights, Camera, Action Wiggles!

I think this is the longest I have gone between posts. I am sorry to all our faithful viewers. Life as you can imagine has been pretty busy. However, the countdown is on! I have nine weeks of school left until I am Robin Fried, MT MBA. WOOT!

To catch you up all up on the goings on. Adam is a huge ball of energy. There is no off switch on that boy. I am so thankful for our nighttime routine. After bath he knows it is time to calm down, and has been such a good boy with sleeping in his big boy bed.

Yesterday we had quite an adventure. For an early Christmas present, we decided to take Adam to a Wiggle's concert in Minneapolis. For those of you who do not know who the Wiggles are, they are 4 Australian men who run around, dress up, and sing silly songs, and kids love them. Adam loves their songs. We have downloaded a lot of their music to play for him and he has seen a couple of their videos. He is hooked.

The adventure actually started about a half hour out of town. I heard a gaging sound. I looked back and saw my son gaging himself and then promptly throwing up all over. Since we were only going down for a day trip, we were not prepared for this to happen. We pulled off at the nearest exit and navigated our way (through thick fog) to a K-Mart. Poor Adam got stripped down in parking lot and wrapped in his blanket. I them carried my barf covered baby through the store to the bathroom. I then gave Adam a bath right there in the bathroom sink, while Ryan ran around the store buying new clothes and supplies to clean up the car. Oh the joy of parenting. Adam was a good sport. He sat very well while we searched for a store and did not cry at all. We got everything cleaned up and got back on the road.

We still got to the concert with time to spare. Adam had a good time (and so did mom and dad). The show was more than just singing, there was acrobats, dancing and games. Adam was a little overwhelmed at first, but by the end he was dancing along with all the other kids. He talked about the Wiggles the entire way home, and wanted to watch more.

To make up for our absence, I have a bunch of new pictures for you!

The Wiggles in their famous Big Red Car

Go Wiggles!

Adam's favorite! Captain Feather Sword

Adam dancing at the concert

All tuckered out after a Wiggely day.

Our family at the NDSU homecoming parade. Adam made quite a hauling with the candy!

Adam and Mom goofing around the the camera.

Adam and his new cowboy had from grandma. Ride um cowboy!

Adam loves his bed time stories!