Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Fat-n-Happy

We just love this picture of Naomi holding Joel. She and Isaiah ask to hold him pretty regularly.

Isaiah is the cutest with Joel. He's always talking to him, explaining stuff to him, telling him what they're going to do together when they get older, etc. Here, Isaiah decided on his own that Joel needed to have a book read to him.

...even though Joel is fast asleep.


Below is the justification for the title of this post. I think these pictures make Joel look chubbier than he really is, but there's definitely some serious growth happening. He has the classic baby chub on his cheeks.






We're working on snagging a picture when he's smiling (his smile is adorable!), but for now this will have to do.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

First Month with 4 Kids



Our first weeks with 4 kids in our house have been a whirlwind. Here are some pics of our daily life: reading books, spending time outside, etc.

Jordan decided that the doll carriage would be a nice place to sit and read. We're not exactly sure how she got in there on her own.


Yes, Isaiah is actually asleep in this picture. Yes, he's defying the laws of physics.

Isaiah's new favorite activity is cutting out cool animals from our Zoo magazines. He's really learning to use the scissors well. He insists that we have to keep every cut-out in a huge envelope, hidden in the closet - so no one can get them.

5 kids watching Bear Grylls.

Jordan continues to love to read books and say all the words she knows.

Devouring ice-cream sandwiches at our new kid table on the porch.


Isaiah's way of getting on a swing.

Jordan loves to just relax in the swing. (I love her there since it's one less kid to watch constantly. Sometimes I forget to push her, though.)

Our climber. (He still has his helmet on from riding his bike to the park.)




Naomi's been a great help in our household. She will often clean all the things off the floor in one room, just to help out. On Mother's day she did all her responsibilities quickly without me asking her anything. Then she made scrambled eggs for me for breakfast. She came up with the idea and was so proud that she could do it. God knows that I need her!

An Isaiah conversation: "Mom, do you know if there is any place on the earth where there are NO animals?" I reply half-heartedly, "I don't think so." He quickly responds, "YEAAAH. The Dead Sea!" "You're right Isaiah." Yeah, my not-quite 4 year old son showed me up. Pretty bad since I lived there and he's only seen pictures.

Jordan is becoming quite a handful lately--but a super cute handful. Sometimes it seems like she just looks for things to destroy--food, Naomi's art, Isaiah's magazine clippings and Joel's face. She is talking constantly. She's getting pretty good at saying, "Uhh Uhh" (=No) and/or shaking her head. She calls buckles (on car seats, etc.) 'buckies' and loves to click them together. Her favorite toys are dolls and strollers.

Joel is doing fine. He's getting a little bit of fluff on him, though he still has chicken legs (have you seen Danny?). Isaiah recently pointed out that Joel already knows how to eat, poop, pee, spit up, cry and sleep. So there you go.

Cinco de Mayo

Party!

Naomi's entire elementary school had a party celebrating Cinco de Mayo. We gathered in the evening to see all the kindergartners perform a dance. I think there were about 120 of them. They danced for 2 songs that were totally choreographed. They had worked on this for weeks, and Naomi practiced at home many nights. They did great!

It was pretty funny to see the thousands of dollars worth of hardware materialize when the dancing kids showed up. Totally cliche.

They looked beautiful when they were all twirling.


That's one pretty senorita.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Joel. Is. Here.


Joel has finally arrived, and the Frese kid factory has officially closed shop and boarded up the windows. (Danny will soon make an appointment to set the building on fire.)

We thank God for many mercies during the pregnancy and birth. For those interested, here is a short version of the birth story:
  • March 30th - false alarm and trip to the birth center in the evening. Laurie was only 2-3 centimeters dilated.
  • March 31 - warm-up contractions all day
  • April 1st, midnight - sporadic harder contractions
  • 1:00 am - consistent hard contractions
  • 2:00 - leave for birthing center
  • 2:40 - Laurie is checked by the midwife; she's 8cm dilated (yesss!)
  • 4:07 - Joel is delivered (Yes, on April Fools' Day)
  • 11:30 - Head home with our fourth baby
Stats: Joel was 5lbs, 14oz (the same as Isaiah), and 20" long. In case you don't know what that means, he's tiny, and a bit on the long side. The pictures, even with other objects for scale, don't really convey how small he is.

Most of the pictures below are self-explanatory. Here's Laurie about 5 days beforehand:










"No, you are NOT going to rough-house with the baby."

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Update...



Our new baby is coming soon....

I'm 37.5 weeks, which is considered full-term. I've given birth from 10-13 days early with our other kids, so I expect to be delivering soon. For those of you who pray...now's the time!





Jordan is excited and ready to call all of you when her brother arrives!



Our two girlies...



Isaiah said the other day (while giggling) "I just want to see him, because I haven't seen him yet."



We are proud to say that Naomi was given a Superstar Award for the month in her kindergarten class. We went to an assembly in her (and all the other superstars') honor. Her teacher, and the laminated certificate we got, said " Naomi is an excellent student who is self-motivated and always enthusiastic about learning new things. She is an amazing artist and has become a great reader and writer. Naomi is a hard worker who always does her best. It is a pleasure to have her in our class."

Here she is on the stage at the assembly:

Friday, February 27, 2009

The Beach in January!

We got to enjoy the beach last week. This still blows us away, since it only takes us 10 min to get there from our apt. The weather was in the 80's for a couple weeks. Why not enjoy it while we can?






When Dad gets involved, Jordan gets buried. It's fun to be the smallest!


Thursday, February 26, 2009

Random Update


Above is a picture of us at the Torrey Pines park, about 10 min from our apartment. Great hiking, even if its a very small "nature" area.

Random happenings:

Jordan has taken up the custom of bending over in half while standing, so her head hits the floor and her bottom is in the air. This is for the purpose of showing us her 'bootie'...nice, right? Should she know this before she is 18 months?

To Isaiah, all of life consists of handholds and footholds for him to use in climbing. Naomi draws everything she sees and then makes it into a card for a friend. Jordan tries to move anything that she can and drop it somewhere different.

I'm almost 32 weeks pregnant with #4. I'm feeling ok, considering. Energy level is not at its highest. We are all getting ready to meet this little boy in the beginning of April.

Some Frese family quotes:

Naomi asked, "Can we make a phone call to people in heaven - or maybe send them an e-mail?" Danny answered, "What do you think?" She smiled and said, "No." Isaiah pipes up, "Well, we could throw the phone up to them."

"Mom, are there bathrooms or toilets in heaven?" Isaiah asked me one day. "I don't know if we'll need to go to the bathroom in heaven," I responded. Isaiah concluded "Well, then if there aren't any bathrooms or toilets, we'll just have to go in the bushes."