Singing PM: 'Fats' Putin over the top of 'Blueberry Hill' with piano solo

Vika & Fletcher go to the eye DR..

Friday... Vika had a follow up for her cross eye. The Dr said things were looking good and we should continue our eye drop. Amy is going to wait until after we return from our Christmas trip to begin using them again. Fletcher the Frog made a trip to the eye DR also...

We have a house guest..

Vika is now taking care of Fletcher the Frog.. Vika calls him Mrs. Fletcher.. not understanding that its only Fletcher..

Mama is amazing...

As we draw closer to The Four Frids leaving for Christmas it seems to get busier and busier..

Vika had a bit of a cold yesterday... thanks to Aunt Rita she stayed home from school. The DR.. gave her an anitbiotic to clear up her nose..

Amy and her staff yesterday held a collection for Toys for Tots with the Marines.. Great turn out! Thank you for anyone who helped or donated. Next year will be even bigger!

Vika spot..

Vika decided not to take a nap at school again the yesterday...

What happened when we got home???

She pushed her pizza aside and slept at the table... :-)

Cold weather is here..

No real snow yet.. but temps are a bit chilly. Next week lows in the teens... ugh!

Vika is doing great. Getting ready for "Mickey's boat" the Disney cruise at Christmas.

Justin is doing well, 5th grade homework is still a learning experience or growing up experience.

Amy & I have found a new love.... Yoga We do it once a week and love it..

Vika came home yesterday from school without taking a nap... well guess who fell asleep by 530 in the car. :-)

Super Thanksgiving / Christmas

This year we tried something new. We celebrated Christmas with mom on Thanksgiving. Our Disney Christmas cruise is a long cruise this year and leaves a week before Christmas. So we followed an Engelage tradition and celebrated Christmas with family on Thanksgiving. Worked our pretty well. Mom came up and we watched it sleet and rain all morning while eating.. :-)



Amy went out with Aunt Mel and shopped at midnight. They really went out just to have fun, nothing really either one needed. Although they did get great buys and saw lots of friends out in Wentzville.



Phil came out and moved the last leaves off the yard. Yard looks outstanding.. Dad would be happy with it.



Vika got to see Santa for the first time. She thought it was fun.

Justin had a couple friends spend the night for an early bday party.

We are almost packed for the cruise.

Great weekend...

Worked around the house... we cleaned the basement!!! Wow.. what a job... ugh

Vika's favorite movies are the Toy Story series.. she will not watch TV but if Buzz Lightyear is on she is there. :-) I uploaded Toy Story 3 to my iphone and it started playing on the computer.. Vika went and got her chair and sat down to watch.. too cute.

Vika and Justin got Thanksgiving Day cards from Gma Fridley. Vika got "moneys" Doesn't really understand it yet... but knows we use them to "pay".

We are a little more then 3 weeks til we do our annual Christmas Cruise with Mickey Mouse.. cant wait!! We got out our stocking for the cruise and added Vika's name... Yeah!

One year ago today... we were in Moscow!!

Wow... talk about a long time ago... geeesh..

http://fridleysjourney.blogspot.com/2009/11/having-pepsi-light-cheese-pizza-in.html

Had a great weekend. Worked around the house all weekend. Got the leaves blown over the hill and worked more on the lil shed.

Packing is under way BIG time for Mickey Cruise at Christmas. We are at 6 suitcases... UGH!!

Justin & I went flying... Went down to Jefferson City for the heck of it... Beautiful Day. Bumped into these nice fellas flying a Cessna CJ2...

Some WDW pics...

Leaving STL via SWA.... mommy & Vika... notice the matching flip flops via Aunt KK..

At our home away from home.. The Grand Floridian.. I wish I could just bottle the smell of the lobby. This is the platform the monorail stops at on the second floor of the hotel. Lesson for all the WDW travelers out there. Never stay at a Disney Property without having a monorail stop.

Gma even made the trip with us... In the early morning.. the ducks were taking a swim. They swam right up to Vika.. Not sure if she had ever been that close to a duck...

Yes.. that is my 4yo drving... Im pretty sure,, she could see where she was going..

Big brother.. enough said..

Yep.. thats papa & Vika.. playing a little Foreigner - Juke Box Hero... gotta love the classic rosk! The Contemporary has a huge aracade compared to the Grand Floridain.... so we travel there for food & fun sometimes..

Daddy's princess...

The princess and prince charming.

All the cast members were SUPER... Vika"s english is not quite up to par yet... and she LOVES to ask questions... It is all so new to her... and she loves everything. At least I didn't cry while taking pictures... :-)

Cast members with masks... were a little scarry.... but we did the Fab 5 ( Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, & Pluto). Again all the cast members were awesome..

Perfect weather...

A huge learning experience for for mom & dad... (first time with two children)...

All in all.. Vika LOVED it...

Vika's first visit to Walt Disney World..

More pics to come..

Vika's pics from singing in church..

We hired Jen Peterson to shoot pics at church for us. She did awesome. She also did our pics when we cam home from the airport.

The warm weather is about to end here in STL, it has been awesome. Rain tomorrow.. ugh!

Justin's fouth flying lesson KSET N35079

Great weekend..

Got lots completed around the house. The little shed is coming right along. Hope to have it under roof this coming weekend. YEAH

Justin had a great football game with one interception and a touchdown.

Happy Birthday to Miss Caroline.. turned 11 Sunday. Vika, Justin & I atteneded the party while Dr. Amy did some packing and had girl time.

Vika went with Aunt Mel & the girls to a volleyball game

First Caroline and the ILS Eagles won!!!

Justin had a make up football game and we had to find something fun for Vika to do. So she went with Aunt Mel..

A plug for Justin's favorite vacation...

Disney Cruise Line

They were just awarded #1. That’s right, No. 1! Disney Cruise Line was named the top cruise line by the readers of Condé Nast Traveler magazine last night at the 2010 Readers’ Choice Awards ceremony in New York City. Samantha Brown, renowned travel expert and television host on The Travel Channel, presented the award to Disney Cruise Line President Karl Holz at the gala.

7 month anniversary to Gotcha Day..

Can you believe it has been 7 months!!

Wow.. We are blessed!

Vika Gotcha Day

Vika adjusting well...

People are always curious if Vika is adjusting well..

With God's grace and lots of love from family and friends..

I can say yes she is...

Vika Gotcha Trip Part 1

These qlips are are from the last CD I shot while living in the Holiday Inn Moscow. The place was HUGE!!! It was a convention center. I guess the funniest convention that was there while we were was the Mary Kay cosmetic. The woman were a military type uniform with skirt bottom and super HIGH heels. There had to be at least 500 women easily. Across the street was a mall that was anchored on the lower floor with a grocery store. THANK GOD We were able to go buy food and juice to keep our sanity. Across the other street was a McDonalds.. it was fine dining for us. Although Vika didn't think to much of it.

It was everything we could do to keep our sanity. FLAT OUT it was a rough time. Emotional overload with the joy of our little girl. The location of being so far from home. It was freaking COLD! We were living in a 200sq ft room for 10 days..

The flight home was HORRIBLE... It was packed full. There were tons of drunks everywhere. The United flight attendants could not control the crowd. When we hit the ground in Washington DC I could have kissed the ground. We had a layover which allowed us to get some Ameerican junk food before our quick flight home.

We landed in St. Louis after 20 hours of travel. No sleep... But we were home. About 30 people meet us at the airport. Talk about an emaotional time..

Vika Gotcha Trip Part 2

Vika Gotcha Trip Part 3

Vika Trip 3 Gotcha Day Part 1

Vika Trip 3 Gotcha Day Part 2

Vika Trip 3 Gotcha Day Part 3

Vika Trip 3 Gotcha Day Part 4

Vika Second Trip Day 2 Part 1

Our second trip to see Vika took place in February of 2010. This trip was all about court. We had to see Vika twice before court. Like we were going to change our mind or something... LOL. Durring this trip the jet lag bug hit Amy hard... The first trip it was me. Thank God it was the week of the Winter Olympics. We would watch them all night long live from Canada when we couldn't sleep. I don't think I have ever watched that much figure skating EVER! LOL

Our court appt was a Thursday and went very quick.. I was the only male in the room. The judge and all of her staff were female. I did get asked most of the questions pretty basic questions. The big favorite of the proceeding was the huge book of pics I brought along from the first trip that we took of Vika. They passed it from person to person; starting with the judge.

Vika Second Trip Day 2 Part 2

Vika Second Trip Day 2 Part 3

Vika Second Trip Day 1 Part 1

This was our second trip in February of 2010. This trip was alot of paper once we got to Moscow. We landed on a Friday morning and hit the ground running. We had to go sign papers for Vika at the passport office. The bummer part of the trip was we did not get to see her until Tuesday. Monday was a holiday and no visits are allowed over the weeekend.

This trip we stayed at the Sheraton. Thanks to Amys cousin we had vouchers for free meals. Which was a HUGE help, becuase it was very common for meals to be $100. Thankfully the hotel had a excercise facility, so we would spend hours there working out. The 2010 Winter Olympics were also on. That was a huge help. Amy had the jet lag this time. We would fall asleep about 6pm and wake up around 1am. The Olympics were on live from Canada which helped out a bunch though. Durring this trip, Russia had the most snow they ever recieved at one time, it was almost 27 inches. It didn't faze them a bit.

Vika Second Trip Day 1 Part 1

Vika Second Trip Day 1 Part 2

Vika Second Trip Day 1 Part 3

Vika air guitar

Nothing like a little air guitar before bed!!

Amy got Justin the new Trans Siberian Orchestra CD.. Vika thought it rocked!

October weekend...

Wow was it chilly over the weekend! UGH.. I miss summer!

Justin lost the football game. Darn!! But he and I got in some great fly time on Sunday morning. Had the airport to ourselves. Did some touch goes in the Daimond.


Got all of the walls built on the new little shed. Hope to have it up complete this weekend.

Another busy week. Lord give us strength.

:-)

Vika First Trip Third Day Part 1

This was our third visit on our first trip to see Vika. Just some things that I remember... We had to pay extra for our thrid visit. IT WAS SO WORTH IT. The 3rd day everything clicked! Praise God. We were coming off a kinda so so visit with Vika on day 2. Still to this day Vika needs a nap. She naps for roughly an hour and a half each day. So in day 2 visit with her being hungry and needing a nap wow.. we were lucky she was functional. LOL As you will see from the video Vika played and played with Amy. They were momma and daughter.

I still can't watch these videos.. Not sure why... Oh well my daughter is home. On a funny note. This was a Thursday. On Friday we were supposed to leave to come home. Friday morning we loaded up on our 767 to fly home and it broke. Flight canceled. UGH United put us up in a CRAPPY Moscow hotel next to the airport. Amy & I sat up al night and txt'd people via Facebook. What a night.

Vika First Trip Third Day Part 2

Vika First Trip Third Day Part 3

Today in 1971

The Frids favorite place...The Happiest Place on Earth

Vika first trip Second day part 1

This was the second visit we ever had with Vika.

It was not too good. Vika had just finished a muscial - fall festival party and was missing a snack with her friends if I remember correctly. I have said it many times and will say it again. We owe so much t Vika's music teacher. Vika had run out of the room. The director of the orphanage's #2 person came in and said Vika was not happy and the visit was over. UGH! The music teacher then stepped in, went and got Vika and calmed Vika down. All in all the visit was ok. The third visit which I will post Monday was wonderful.

Keep in mind this entire time we were trying to communicate with a western trained DR about Vika's health, emotions were on overload.

Olga our translator is the lady in the video that is talking with Vika... BTW.. Vika does not speak any Russian anymore. This was NOT something we tried to do. She basically little by little refused to speak it anymore. I still try to speak it with her but she looks at me like what are you talking about Pappa.. LOL From what wee have heard this is not so uncommon. Who knows, maybe when she is older she will study it.

This weekend.. Justin has a football game on Saturday. Him and I are flying Sunday in the Diamond Star. Amy has DR meetings today. All is well the weather was beautiful all week. Cooling off, even down to 40's over night this weekend.

Thx for listening...

Vika first trip Second day part 2

Vika first trip Second day part 3

Videos - Vika first trip First day part 1

Over the last few days I have been editing the videos we shot while visiting Vika last November, again in February of this year and then Gotch Day in March. I must say that the emotion I have viewing these videos are unexplainable. Joy, sadness, pain, shock and many more. I so love my daughter. I am blessed to have such a great family.

The 3 video clips that are post are the very first day we meet Vika. This was at her orphanage in Moscow. The video starts in the orphanage directors office and then we move up to the activity room where we would meet her most of the time.

On a different note.. Huge THANKS to Mrs. Fletcher!! She is Vika's preschool teacher and helped get a great preschool picture. Thanks!

Justin's football is going great!

Last day of Sept.. ugh... let fall begin. :-)

Vika first trip First day part 2

Vika first trip First day part 3

A wow from Disney...

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/live-happily-ever-after-with-a-disney-inspired-wedding-gown-2395365/

Pretty cool for the lady Disney fans..

Moscow News...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100928/ts_nm/us_russia_moscow_mayorVi

The photos from Vika's party will be up this week.

Haircuts...

Thursday night was haircuts for 3 of the 4 Frids..

Vika loves it.. There is always so much activity at the hair cut place... LOL

She had a cut, blow dry and even had some flip put in her hair with the curling iron.

TGIF .. enjoy the weekend... Fall weather is here.

Mommy is home...

Dr. Amy & Staff made it home from KC.

Welcome home ladies..

Friday night we went to Brook's softball game... Vika played with friends... Everyone came over for some fun after the game.. Amy has the best shoes!

Justin won his football game Saturday morning. Yeah!

Vika had to make an emergency bathroom run.. so off to Schnucks we went.. They had a great playground at the football field.

Taste of Wentzville 2010

Taste of Wentzville

Last night we visited the Taste of Wentzville.. They had a bounce house that Vika LOVED!

The Phins Band was playing and they were awesome..

Dr. Amy is off to KC this weekend, learn lots!

6 months...

6 months ago today Amy and I landed in Moscow after 20 hours of travel to get our little girl.. We went straight from the airport to a road side flower stand... grabbed $80 worth of flowers for the director and went to get Vika..


It seems like decades ago... Without family, friends and the Grace of God... we would not have our little girl...

http://fridleysjourney.blogspot.com/2010/03/we-would-like-you-to-meet.html

Mani - Pedi

Papa is so in trouble...

September = Football...

Justin had his first football practice last night.

Thats him in the back ground .. jumping out stretched for the ball.. Nice try !!

Vika is back at gymnastics after a Labor Day break. Yeah Vika...

God Mother Melanie's B-day is today!! Happy Birthday!

Happy Labor Day...belated..

Was a great weekend..

Didn't do much... worked around the house. Trying to get the grass back up and growing again. Had the sprinkler system revamped last week. So we aerated and over seeded Sat. Went to church Sat night and then out to a friends for the evening.

Sun, Amy & I went to Fast Eddies with some friends. That place is amazing...

Mon we worked at Amy's office.. Don't forget to visit www.drfridley.com :-)

Vika no spot at school... LOL

Vika is in 4yo preschool class. They have the option to nap or not to nap. My beautiful daughter has decided that she doesn't need to nap at school. Not for sure if there is just too much fun going on or what. So yesterday we pulled out of the parking lot of school, literally drove 1 mile and she was asleep. Too funny..

Happy Birthday to me...

I just finished reading my post from last year.. Wow, things have so changed. Vika is home and doing super. We are well into the school year and both Vika and Justin are doing well. Last year this time I was still painting her room and we were doing court paper work. UGH! I do NOT miss that..

Nothing much too excitng taking place today. Had a great work out, and now work. Tonight going to go out with family and friends for a quick dinner.

Labor Day weekend is approaching, plan on getting lots completed around the house.

Our first dentist visit.

Vika went with Justin to the dentist on Friday. She did really well for her first time. She does have a slight cavity but the Dr said it was not too urgent. It would require just a little polishing to reapir. Yeah..

Saturday we visited the flight school that Justin & I fly out of. They were having an open house to promote the schools new location at KSET.

Saturday night... Dr. Amy & I went out for a super night.. just her and I enjoying some dancing.

A quick story..

Last night as we were putting the kids to bed... Vika gave me the biggest hug and kiss she has ever given me at bed time.. Little girl's kisses can melt you heart..

We are so blessed.