Updated pics of Jordan (already!)

Jordan has gotten rid of the puffy eyebrow ridges and whatnot brought about by her grand entrance, so I thought I'd post a few more pics so you can see what she is starting to look like.





Just for laughs - some of Jordan's faces:




Meanwhile, our two other kids (!) are busy obsessing over the baby...




...and trying to get out of the house at least once a day. Nomi is riding her reeaally undersized two-wheel bike, and Zaiah is trying to keep up riding the neighbor's scooter. Wearing his rubber boots, of course.

Talk about being born yesterday...

She was.

Introducing: Jordan Kate Frese

Jordan arrived Monday Sept. 10, 2007 at 5:14 pm. She weighed 6 lbs. 13.5 oz. & was 20.5 inches long. She is healthy and Mom is doing great. Mom had a rough 2 hours of labor; Danny thought this was the easiest birth yet!

Below are some newly-arrived, goopy-haired photos of our newborn. Enjoy.

For comparison, here is Jordan (top) next to Naomi (bottom) when the latter was a couple of weeks old (?). It's hard to get a representative picture of a newborn, but we definitely see some similarities between the two.

Soon...

I'm 37 weeks pregnant and counting, so our little baby girl could be born at any time. (I delivered both Naomi & Isaiah at about 38.5 weeks, so it could be soon!) We are excited, yet unsure of all the details surrounding the birth, so are in much prayer!

Danny is home safely! He's been back for nearly a month, and what a great time we have had as a family since he's been back! He has returned to spending much time in the library or reading, as his 'student' status demands, but he's enjoying the cool library.

Though the library may be cool, it has been hot here...especially for La Jolla. We've had weather in the high 80's to 90's, with a lot of humidity, and of course, no AC. The heat hasn't seemed to bring on labor yet, so we'll just keep waiting.

Below are some pics from a birthday party we just went to.

Naomi is serious about getting some candy out of the shark.

I'm just trying to stay cool and hydrated.

Isaiah and his friend, Bjor, enjoy the cake.

Naomi & Eliyana are quite a pair.

Danny In Jordan

Above: Danny on his cell phone talking to me from the middle of the desert in Wadi Rum.

Danny is on an archaeology dig in Jordan for 5 weeks. He went with a group of about 20 students from UCSD, and is digging under the archaeology professor at the school. This fulfills part of the requirement for a minor field in archaeology, along with a huge research paper that he'll work on when he returns. He left CA on June 26th and was able to spend a few days in Israel, and met up with some friends of ours from San Diego, Josh and Heidi Van Ee. Josh is a couple years ahead of Danny in the same PhD program. (Heidi just went for a tour and a week of digging, but Josh will be with Danny the whole dig.) He'll return on August 6th. (We're counting the days!)
Above: Josh, Heidi, their taxi driver and Danny on their way to the dig site.

Above: This is the camp site where they are staying. The closest 'civilization' to them is a bedoin village.

Below: Josh tries to get some rest in the heat of the afternoon on his cot. Danny is sitting in the back of the tent.

Above: Danny and Josh relax under their tarp as a bedoin man tries to start a fire.


Above: This is the dig site. They are digging an ancient copper mine.

Above: The 'clean lab' where they work in the late afternoons cleaning pottery, recording finds in computers, taking pictures, etc.

Below: The computer lab, which is still over 100 degrees inside!

Above: Danny photographs some important artifact.

Above: The meal tent. (Notice this is covered but the dig site isn't. This doesn't make any sense to Danny.)

Below: The restroom facility, with the flush buckets waiting outside. Their showers are in this building as well.


Above: Josh and Danny return from a nice shower in the evening. Normally a breeze comes up just before bedtime, so that helps a bit, making it tolerable to sleep.
Above: A survey team uses a GPS device to record the exact location they have found an artifact. Danny has been doing this most days from about 5 am until after 12 noon. They take a jeep and travel about 45 min to a site and then hike around all day, going up and down hills trying to spot ancient remains. This makes the days go faster than digging in one spot, but he is extremely exhausted when he returns for lunch and an afternoon break.

Above: Danny, Josh and Heidi enjoyed a jeep tour in the Wadi Rum before joining the dig group. They had a bedoin guide and stayed in a bedoin tent.

Below: Eating a meal with the tour guide and his friends.

Above: Enjoying a nice meal at their hotel near the Red Sea, before the dig began.

Above: Sipping some coffee with a Jordanian man who sold Danny a sim card for his cell phone then envited them to his house for coffee.

Visalia June 29-July 3

More fun with cousins in Visalia...
We took the kids to a water park for the day. They all loved it, but we could have used a few more adults to supervise the craziness!

Isaac decided to try to sympathize with me.