Naomi's Birthday

Someone turned 5 on April 5th!

It's crazy that our daughter is now 5 years old. This means we have been parents for a while, and we graduated from high school a long time ago! Nothing quite ages you like kids do. We had a wonderful day celebrating God's precious gift to us. She enjoyed opening presents in the morning and then we headed to the Wild Animal Park, which is about 1/2 hour from our home. It was a beautiful day and the kids all did a great job. We returned for late naps and then had a fancy dinner of hotdogs (at her request). The evening ended by having our neighbors over and enjoying cake together.

Our good friend, Aimee, and I made this cake together for Naomi. She helped me make a cake for Naomi on her 3rd birthday, and we think this should be an annual thing since we have so much fun (and we think they turn our ok as well!)


This is in front of the lion exibit at the Wild Animal Park. There is a lion on top of the vehicle in the background. One of the coolest things we've ever seen at the Park was 6 sleeping cubs and their mama right in front of the glass display. They were literally a foot away, if the glass wasn't there. The cubs were so cute, but the lioness was truly frightening. Look at the size of her paws.

We rode on a vehicle that took us to look at more animals. It really gives you the feeling that you are on a safari since you can see a lot of different animals roaming together in a vast area. Here are some rhinos just trotting along.
My conversation with our 5 year old:

"Mom I was thinking. You know how I'm getting bigger and stuff. I think I'd like a phone for my birthday. You know, like a real one." Surprised that she just asked me for her own cell phone, I asked her, "Who do you know that is your age that is getting a cell phone?" Naomi replies, "Well, ok, maybe not a real one, but just something cool like that." Whew! I can wait a few more years!

6 Months!

Our little Jordan Kate is 1/2 a year old already!

Below you can see some of her activities...
She loves to be on her belly and just look around at all that is happening, which is normally a lot.

She can sit up, but she's not very steady, so we usually put a pillow behind her. She always looks shocked when she tumbles to the side! On her back is fun, too.

Jordan has started eating cereal. In these pictures she looks terrified, but she actually loves the cereal! She gets so excited she makes a weird growling sound in between bites to let you know that she is ready for more.

She is a very content little one. Unlike her siblings, she is pretty happy to stay on her back most of the day, kick her feet, play with toys, eat and sleep. (I guess it helps to have some entertainment with Isaiah and Naomi around.) She's not too interested in wanting to crawl or even flip much. She can flip, but chooses not to. She is behind the first two in terms of her activity-Isaiah was crawling well at 5 months and Naomi at 6. My first thought is, "Let's get going, Jordan." Then I remember that I should be thinking, "Stay immobile for as long as you want! PLEASE!" :) (The third time around you realize that they will eventually walk, so let's not rush things.)

Jordan's also pretty social. She absolutely loves interacting with people. She watches what's going on around her constantly. Naomi will make her laugh from across the room. The other morning, I knew Naomi was up, and then I heard Jordan making sounds. Two girls awake. The next thing I heard was Naomi making totally crazy sounds and Jordan responding in laughter. I went to check it out and found Naomi in bed with Jordan. It was so cute!

We love this girly and are so glad she's a part of our family.

Valentine's Day

Our Cuties on Valentine's Day...

For her preschool class, Naomi made her own Valentine's cards. I was so impressed at the precision in which she made them. Each was unique and each was beautiful. She made 35 of these! I helped her some, such as gluing, but she was sure to tell me exactly where to put each heart on the paper.

Jordan...all dressed up cute for her first Valentine's Day.
Isaiah is quite serious about all this lovin'.
Naomi is all dressed in her outfit for a fun day at preschool where they shared a fruit salad, exchanged cards, etc.

I kept it low-key and gave the kids cards and these fun mini M&M guys. They loved them.

Each day after Isaiah goes down for a nap, Naomi and I spend some 'special time' together. This is time for the 2 of us to do fun things, without a lot of interuption. We often play games, draw, make cookies or muffins, paint her toe nails, etc. Today she asked me if we could curl her hair. I thought this would be fun on this special day, so I took the time to do it. She was happy with the results, though I was scared to see her look so grown-up!

Jordan definitely loves Daddy already. (Let's be honest, this smile melts Danny, too!)

Danny taught Modern Hebrew for his night class, so we didn't get a date until the next day. I decided to make dinner special, though and I bought Danny some shrimp. (One of his favorite things.) He put together shrimp scampi while I cooked pasta, sausage & chicken. We threw it all together and it turned out to be a fantastic meal that we all enjoyed. What a true blessing to have such a wonderful family that is full of love because of God's love for us. We can celebrate this every day.

February--Five Months

Here's our little Jordan Kate getting bigger! She's 5 months old now. She weighs 15 1bs. 12 oz. and is 24 1/4 inches long. (Translation: she has good chub rolls and is tall like her dad.) She is flipping over from her back to her belly, and also belly to her back. She is a people person, perking up when talked to, and laughs very easily.

I thought I'd document a rare sighting...Isaiah sitting down! He doesn't do this much. He is normally seen, from behind, as he's running through the house. Or you hear a huge thud from somewhere, and it was him jumping off of something...anything, really! His latest stunt was jumping out of his bedroom window while he was supposed to be taking a nap. I heard a knock at the door, and I opened it to see my neighbor holding Isaiah. She said she found him by her porch and he told her he jumped out of the window. I definitely felt like the A+ mom with total control of my children after that! I had a huge list to go through with him to explain why this was a bad idea. I started with the fact that he might get hurt. He said, "It was fun." What did you land on? "The sticks." (He was barefoot...because he was supposed to be taking a nap.) He had pushed the screen out, crawled through the closed blinds and made a giant leap over 4 feet high! At this point I tried to explain that it is scary for him to be outside alone. His grin from pure joy at showing me where he jumped was so big that I realized I was getting nowhere with this talk, so I stopped. Oh, the joys of having 2.5 year old boy! It should be noted that he already wants to pole vault like his Daddy did! (I can't wait!)
Here are the 'big' kids playing together: Looking at a bug book, and playing with dinosaurs.
We look happy! We are in front of Hume Lake, enjoying the cold, snow, fresh smell of pines, quiet cabin & the kids with grandparents! We got to get away for a night at the end of Dec.

Here's an example of a deep conversation that I had with the two big kids the other day:

Isaiah: Mom, why is God in charge of us?
Mom: God's in charge because he made us.
Isaiah: We made God?
Naomi: Nobody made God. He made his self.
Isaiah: Jesus made God's self?

Lots to learn...

Christmas 2007

Christmas Celebration!

Some of the participants:

Danny
Laurie
Grandpa Frese

Grandma Frese

Josh (Danny's younger brother) & Kelley

Emily (Josh & Kelley's girl)

Isaiah & Laurie (wrestling)

Naomi

(Other participants included: Jonah (Josh & Kelley's son), Natalie (Danny's younger sister) & Cam & their kids, Drew & Allie. It was a full house with 7 kids that are 4.5 years & under.

There was so much going on that we didn't notice that Allie's diaper had come completely off! Oops!

Isaiah said this was the coolest soccer ball in the whole world.

Isaiah loved his spider man bike. (We still have to work with him to learn how to ride it fast!)

Naomi was excited about her princess bike. These super long sidewalks were great!

Kelley adjusts Emily's helmet so she can ride her princess bike, too.

Grandma and Jonah.

It was decided that Jordan's hair was getting way too 'patchy' all over, so...Dad and Grandpa took care of it. She difinitely has a 'clean slate' to start her new hair growth!

Here she is with her new bald head getting comfort from her aunt Natalie.