My Baby is One!

Wow, I cannot believe that Nate is a year old! He was born a year ago on May 30, a whopping 9 pounds 2 oz. He has continued to grow so fast this year, it is hard to remember him ever being small. At his one year check-up, he was 24 pounds, 2 ounces (65 percentile) and 31 inches tall (75 percentile). If I don't watch out, I am sure I will blink twice and he will be all grown up!
He is such a joy to us! I really have enjoyed having this baby and I can honestly say I have enjoyed all of the little moments with him! He is generally a happy baby, but he is also so loving and sweet that we just love picking him up and squeezing us to him!

This past month he has really started to prepare to walk. He isn't there yet, but he will stand up in the middle of the room ALL of the time. If I stand him up next to me he will take a few steps, up to 5 of them, but I have only see him take steps on his own a few other times.

He's very expressive. He says Ellie- "Eh-E!", Daddy- "Daa!", Adam- "Ada", more- "mo", this (which means a lot of things) - "Dis", and Mommy- "mama" (usually really sad). I can't recognize what he says for Michael yet, but I'm sure that is forthcoming. He loves to blow us kisses, if we kiss him, he immediately breaks into the kiss blowing.

He is very curious and independent. He will go off to explore and play independently for several minutes at a time. In fact, I often have to find him or get one of the kids to find him to make sure he is not in trouble. He loves the sandbox and will crawl out and play in it with or without his siblings there. He has started climbing UP the slide, which is frightening to me, but he loves to slide back down on his tummy. He has learned to go up and down stairs perfectly, the only time he has ever fallen, Ellie had something to do with it. (But I don't think she pushed, just messed up his rhythm). He is also very proficient at emptying the contents of cupboards, just like a little tornado moving through the house.

He really likes to climb on whatever he can find. This motorcycle was no good for pictures because he kept climbing up on the seat and dangling precariously from the top....no sitting for him.

Today, we had cake and ice cream for him! He thought the candle was something you stick your finger on, and got burned. But then, he really enjoyed his cake. After he stuck his fingers in for a couple of seconds, he kept leaning over and sticking his face right in the cake so that he could get more. Unfortunately, my camera has a delay so I couldn't catch it on film.

By the end, he had eaten a lot of the cake and was ready to throw it on the floor (to see how gravity works).He also really enjoyed his presents! We had a hard time pulling him away from one present so he could look at the next one. He got some fun toys (most of which had been pulled out of storage from when the older boys outgrew them)!

Happy Birthday Nate! We really love you!

Our Sweet Ellie D.

Ellie is now 3 1/2 years old. Its funny because it seems like she has always been part of our family. She really adds a lot to it, and its not all just pink. She is a cuddle bug and will regularly come crawl into our laps and curl up with us so that she can be close to us. She likes to have her fingernails and toes painted, and to have you play with her hair, but not to brush her hair. She loves to smile and will melt your heart when she does. She still loves her dolls and carries them around with her, talking to them as she does so. Her favorite colors are pink and orange, but mostly just pink....in our house that means that its hers. She loves to dress up like a princess, especially on Sunday and will now wear dresses, but still refuses to wear skirts. We just love having her in our family.

Adam and Michael's Soccer

This spring, we took the boys out of jiu-jitsu and let them play soccer. We found a small league that practiced and played at a subdivision near us. We got both boys on the same team, with their friend Jack. This league was very disorganized, in fact we didn't meet our coach or have enough players to play for the first couple of games. Once we did get it more organized, it was nice though. The boys really did learn a lot about soccer and we were allowed to coach and cheer for them from the sidelines.
Adam was really good at looking at where the ball was going and being there to meet it. He really improved in his soccer playing a lot. He did get tired of it, by the end of the season he was saying that he liked t-ball better (which is not actually true).

Michael was good at kicking the ball when it came his way. This was his first try at soccer and he also learned a lot.

Joe even helped coach a couple of times (when the real coach was absent!)

Great job boys!

Little Bugger

Last night, about 3:00 a.m., when I was in the middle of a vivid dream (although thankfully it wasn't one I particularly cared for) I heard a little buzzing noise near my ear. It then registered that my wrist was itching pretty bad. Crap, that means there is a mosquito in my room, near my head. As I'm laying there thinking of what to do, I feel it attempt to bite inside my eyelid, and then my cheek. What do I do...I can turn the light on, waking up Joe and try to kill the thing, I can turn the fan up higher, hoping the increased breeze will discourage it from flying near me, I can cover up with the sheet or I can get up and spray myself with bug spray and then attempt to go back to sleep even though I am covered with a less than pleasant smell. I chose the cover up with the sheet. Problem was, now my brain is fully on listening and feeling for that mosquito in case it lands I can attempt to smash it. An hour and a half later, when I am just falling into a deeper sleep again, I hear it buzz by my ear again. This time I decide to turn the fan up and that sleep is more important than a few bug bites. A hour later, I hear it buzz by again, this time I can feel it has bit me on my head and my elbow. This last time I opted for sleeping on the couch....the mosquito wouldn't follow me there.
This morning I am very tired, but I only have 3 bites. Joe, who was sleeping right next to me has 0 bites. Why is that? O blood type? Pheromones? I have thinnner skin?
See, the one thing I don't like about Houston is the mosquitos!

A little Post For Michael

We got some cute pictures of Michael done today. He is 5 1/2 years old. He is in pre-K this year, although anyone that knows him thinks that he must at least be in kindergarten, he's pretty precocious. He is a fun boy! He totally gets humor and likes to make jokes. He will exhaust you with his telling and changing and retelling of knock-knock jokes. Sometimes the new ones are actually quite funny.
He is very ready to begin school- he reads anything he sees, many times guessing at words that are quite complex. He gets bored at home during the day, constantly begging to play the computer, watch a movie or play the wii. We try to keep him otherwise occupied. He plays really well with Ellie now, they play a lot of games together and for the most part get along really well.
He is still my squeaky wheel. If something slightly hurts him, he yells out at the top of his lungs like he is dying. People think I am a mean Mom when I don't drop everything and assess his needs...but believe me, I can tell he is fine.

He got his glasses about 1 1/2 years ago and it has made a big difference for him. He is extremely far sighted (everything close up is blurry) and one of his eyes started to cross so we had him checked. He can see a lot more things now that he has glasses. They must really make a big difference for him because he is religious about wearing them, of which we are quite grateful.

He loves to play with friends. He is always asking to have friends over and often tries to get in the middle of playing with Adam and his friends. I try to accomodate him, but I get busy and so many times he has to make do with Ellie.

One day, his sunday school teacher said that if you watch him during class, he seems to be distracted and not paying attention. If you ask him a question, however, he can perfectly recite back to you what you have been teaching, demonstrating that he was in fact listening.

He sure is a sweet boy, and we are so excited to have him in our family.

(Obviously, he's in the fake smile for the camera stage...hopefully this passes soon).

Austin's Graduation

Austin graduated on Saturday from Law School. It was a nice ceremony, held in Iowa at the Marriott. We were able to go up to see it, and most of his family met there too, so we had a family reunion.
Austin, Koni, Emma and Lily

Steve, Joe, Austin, Mom

Joe and Austin, the lawyers

We stayed at a hotel nearby that had a "waterpark" in it. The kids really enjoyed it. It was nice to be able to take the kids to the pool anytime that we were at the hotel. Michael especially enjoyed the waterslides (there were two). He would ride them down and then run up to the top as fast as he could to ride them again. He would do that for about an hour straight. They had a small round pool where the water rushed in circles, Adam liked to swim in there. Ellie had a life vest on and she floated most of the time. She liked to float wherever Lily was.

The last morning, before everyone left, we took some pictures. Here is all of the Frosts (minus the spouses...somehow we lucked out and weren't in the pictures),

(left Michael, Joe, Ellie, Adam, Lucy0-with Nate, Lily, Megan, Dad, Jayne with Tyler, Austin, Mom with William, Emma, Steve, Kayti with Ben)


Just the kids:

left- Ellie, Michael (refusing to look at the camera on purpose), Adam with Nate, Lily, Megan, Tyler, Emma, William and sad Ben (do you blame him, that's a lot of kids he doesn't know too well?)

While we were there, we saw some of the Amish folks, here is an Amish farm. They take such great care of their farms, you cannot easily tell that they are Amish, except if you look close, you see the horse and buggy by the stable.

We even saw a horse an buggy on the road:

It sure was great to see everyone. Overall,the trip was pretty anticlimatic...which is exactly how you want a family reunion to be!!!

Road trip to Iowa

We left last Wednesday night to go to Iowa, to see Austin graduate from law school! It was quite a trip. We drove until 1:30 Wednesday night and got to Muskagee, OK. Then we slept for a few hours and drove through small town Missouri until arrive in Nauvoo, IL. There was some very pretty scenery on that trip. I found a new fun vacation spot...Lake of the Ozarks (who knew such a trendy place existed in Missouri?) Nauvoo was just grogeous when we got there. We met Joe's dad and stepmom there. We walked around the visitors center and let the kids run around and play until it was time to settle down and go to bed.

At the statue garden near the visitors center.


The kids did pretty well on the trip. That was probably due to the fact that there was a DVD player we jimmy-rigged in the car.

Nate had a little more of a struggle. He was awake at all the times he normally slept and kept waking up after short naps....but overall he was a good baby.

And very cute in his purple princess glasses.

We stayed in the Hotel Nauvoo. It was this cute old house up on the hill near the temple in Nauvoo. The room we stayed in had 4 queen beds. The boys were excited because they each got their own bed, but Ellie was disappointed because she didn't get to share her bed.

Sometime in the night, a huge storm came in and it was pouring rain by the time we got up. We tried to see some of Nauvoo in the rain, but it was pretty difficult. We saw this in the post office:

We also went to the family living center where we got to make rope and learn how they made bread, candles and barrels.

We were also able to go to the brickyard....then it really started pouring so we went over to Iowa where we met the rest of Joe's family for Austin's graduation.

Bee stings

Joe decided to mow the lawn near the beehive on Saturday. The bees didn't particularly like that. Unfortunately he wasn't wearing any protective clothing. He only got 4 bee stings, but they did a number on him.

He even went to Urgent Care on Sunday morning because his face was swelling so bad. They gave him a steroid shot, but the swelling didn't go down until Monday night.

He got stung once on the back of each arm. My husband has large biceps, but not THAT large!

Happy Mother's Day

These are my sweet children, all ready for church this afternoon on Mother's Day! They were feeling silly hence the funny faces.

Each of my children is so different, and I have such different feelings toward each of them. I love them each so much, but they enrich my life in such different ways.

Nate is pure joy at this age. He is so loving, and I love how when I enter the room, his face lights up because it is ME, his mom. His smile is so contagious it makes me happy. He loves to crawl up to me and have me pick him up, and give me loves. He loves to be in the middle of whatever I am doing, if I'm typing- he wants to type, if I'm reading he wants to play with the book. He is very busy, but I love to watch him discover all of the things around him.

Michael is my sweet boy. When we were taking pictures, he is the child that curled up most to me and put his head up to me to be close. He is a funny kid, always amazing me with the brillant things that he comes up with. He doesn't want to be left out, and is good at making sure that I don't forget about him.

Adam is my sweet example. He is a great peacemaker for our family, he has such a good heart and he is always looking for things to do to make other people happy. He often gives up what he wants if it will make someone else not be sad. If everyone opts to go with daddy or ride with daddy in the truck, he often chooses to stay behind with me so that I won't feel bad. He is tender and will come up and rub on me when I am feeling tired or sad.

Ellie is just a great girl. She definitely likes her own attention, and if she doesn't get it, then she finds way of demanding it. She will crawl right into my lap, or like this morning, lay right on top of me so that she can make sure that I am giving her the attention she needs. She loves to have her hair stroked, and loves to have her nails painted. She really doesn't like to have her hair done though, because that might hurt and often takes her away from cartoons. She likes to watch what I do and then I can see her playing mommy later and I can tell that she will be a great loving mommy.

And this is my mom. She doesn't like her picture taken, she would much rather be on the other side of the camera. She is probably my best friend, and I am so glad that I have her, and that she and I get along. It is nice to be able to talk to her whenever- she retired this year, and I am so glad because now I can call her during the day. She is also a peacemaker in our family, and I have really noticed that with her lately. I really am so grateful that I had her as a mom, I love you mom!