Frost Family Faces

I've been waiting for Ethan to say something extremely memorable and today he did!

He put the construction worker in time-out.

We were on our walk and there was a man washing out his cement truck. Ethan loves water, so he wanted it. Here's what he said as we walked by and up to the top of the hill:

Ethan: "Come here! Come here! Water! Come here. 1...2...3... ok, time-out."

Hmmm...I wonder if you can tell what happens before he get's a time-out.

Over memorial day weekend my family hosted the Arnell Reunion. (mom's side of the family) My mom has 10 brothers and sisters, and EVERYONE came! I think that's a first. Needless to say it was very crowded, but a ton of fun. The weather cooperated very nicely, so we were able to spend most of the time in the backyard, which is much more spacious than the house. My mom fed 75-100 people for three days. Way to go mom! (she had help though) It was a lot of fun seeing everyone and spending time.
Here are some pictures of the reunion. These are not in any particular order.


The Arnells are acrobats. Every reunion, someone, or many people have to do something daring. The top picture are my three cousins. The bottom, a very large human pyramid. Count the bottom!





Ella is starting to be daring. She started standing up by herself during the reunion.



The partriarch of the gang, my Grandpa Arnell.
Everyone that came. Think we have a huge fam? And there are still a lot of cousins missing


The original 10 Siblings in order from bottom to top.

My family, waiting for the big group shot to be taken

Aunt Laura and Grandpa

Ethan at the splash pad. That kid loves water!

And more actrobatics. This is my Aunt Corrine and my brother Daniel. I won't tell you how old she is, but it's over 50 and look what she can do!

And this!
And this!

Jaci chowing down on watermelon

Triplets! Aren't they so adorable!





And here is a video of Ella standing. When she get's up, she just stands there becuase she doesn't know quite what to do yet...

I still can't believe it's been a year! I'm still reeling. I keep looking at Ella and remembering when she was so tiny. Now look at her! She's so big! Trying to walk, standing on her own, crawling everywhere, getting into everything, finding new and improved ways to drive her brother crazy! It's so fun. I sometimes talk to some of the elderly people at church. Every one of them comment on how fast it all goes and that you need to take the time to appreciate and savor every day. There are days that I wish would pass quickly, but I think I've wished that too much becuase time has gone too fast. So, I guess they're right. I do need to slow down and enjoy every moment because before I know it, they'll be grown.
Ok, enough sentiments, check out these cute pictures of her birthday!

We started out the day by going swimming with Dustin and Charity, but I didn't get any pictures of that so...

We decided to go to McDonald's to celebrate. Here is grandma Gough teaching her to drink from a straw. and she did it! Guess what was in the cup, a chocolate milk shake!




Mommy's creative genius at work here, and those are the key words "at work". I ran out of cake space before ideas. I had a few more things I wanted to do. Oh well, I think it still turned out pretty cute!



The day of Ella's birthday was the day we started our very huge Arnell reunion. We thought it was very kind of everyone to come such long distances just for Ella's birthday ;) This is at my mom's house in the back yard. When Ella saw the candle, at first, she backed away, but then she started lunging for the flame! She acutally almost got her fingers in the flame a few times.


Ella doesn't do well with food. She has to explore it completly before she sticks it in her mouth. It took her a long time to finally taste it. This is the look she has on her face when I put anything on her tray.


Ok, she's finally tasting it and...that's about how much she ate, just a few finger fulls...

She spent the rest of the time picking it apart. She did please mommy a little by smearing a little in her hair and on her face.

Hi, I'm Ella and it's my birthday! Mommy keeps saying, "I can't believe you're one year old" but I can! Mommy is letting me write this time, because it's my birthday! Well, it was actually two days ago, but we have a lot of people at Grandma's house for what mommy calls a reunion, so we've been over there a lot playing. Boy are those people loud! But everyone says how cute I am, so it must be true.
I'm getting to be a big girl now. I can walk along furniture, stand by myself and stand up by myself (as in, getting to a standing position from sitting without any help), but getting my feet to move without something to hold on to is really scary, and I don't want to try yet!
Mommy keeps putting this stuff on my tray called "food". I only like some things, but I still like Mommy best, and won't give her up for a while. My big brother Ethan likes to play with me. Sometimes he plays too hard, so I yell REALLY loud and mommy comes and rescues me. Brother usually ends up in "time-out" at those times. Lately, I put things in boxes and take them out again. Boy is that fun!
On my birthday, Mommy took me to McDonald's and I ate a lot of french fries. Grandma was there with this thing called a chocolate shake, and I learned to suck that yummy stuff right out of the straw. What can I say, when it comes to getting chocolate, I'm a fast learner.
Later that night, mommy lit a candle and everyone sang "happy birthday". I tried to grab that cool bouncing thing on the end of the candle (brother calls it fire). I almost got it a couple of times, but Daddy kept pulling me back. The cake was sure good!
Mommy says she'll put a lot of pictures on later. And boy will there be a lot.
Bye bye for now!

Since we've been back from our whirlwind adventures in graduations, we've still had some whirlwind adventures. Tuesday, the Tuesday after we got back, Ella came down with the same flu that Ethan had up in Sandy. Poor baby! She couldn't keep anything, including breast milk down. But, it only lasted for 24 hrs, and she's perfectly healthy now. During the duration, we kept her in a long-sleeved onesie becuase she kept throwing up on herself. Between throw-ups though, she was happy and playing. Then, Charles got it the next day. He was able to keep everything down, but he had to stay in bed curled in a ball. Poor guy. He took the day off of work on Wednesday, and because of that, he was behind the rest of the week. Then, of course I couldn't miss out, and I got it yesterday, but it was only for a few hours. I wasn't about to complain about that, especially because in the process Ethan potty trained himself!

Here's how that worked. Saturday, Ethan took his diaper off and wouldn't put it back on. So, it seemed to be a good time to start. He stayed dry all day, except for a "poop" accident. That night, we put him in a pull-up (no plastic sheet yet). The next day, Sunday, went to church. He went twice in the potty there, came home took a nap. Had his first accident in the kitchen. He cleaned it up. Went well the rest of the day. He did tell me he needed to go, and I watched him go, but he still wasn't going completely by himself, and he still hadn't pooped in the potty. He did finally poop in the potty that night for Charles, but it took him 45 min.! I was at a meeting. Monday, same thing as Sunday, but I had to keep asking and taking him. Then, I got sick and couldn't get up. I know he had one accident, but he cleaned it up by himself (that's what we taught him after his first accident). Next thing I know, a little while later, he comes to me and says "Mommy! Poo-poo and Pee-pee!". I drag myself up, and go and check, and he had gone by himself!!! I thought I would cry! He's been going by himself ever since. There are some draw backs though. He get's out of bed and "go's". After he go's, we put him back in bed, and he says he needs to go again. Just excuses for getting out of bed. But, I'm certainly not going to stop him from going! I guess that's the tricky part.
Anyway, it's been an eventful week. But the good news is, ETHAN IS POTTY TRAINED!!!!




This is on the day that Ella was sick. See, she's perfectly happy, she just would throw-up every time she ate
Then, Monday, while I was helping Ethan go potty, I thought it was strange that Ella was so quiet. I came out and found her like this, fast asleep between the couches.

So, to end our fun and exciting week, we booked it back to St. George Saturday night for the Brian Reagan concert at Tuacahn. Wow! It was amazing! Becky and Anita also made one more trip down so they could go as well. Can I just say IT WAS AWESOME!!!



This guy, Kermit Apeo (sp?) opened for Brian. He had me laughing so hard that my chest hurt. I thought I would die. Then...

... out comes Brian Reagan. Saying he was funny would be an understatement. He is an awesome performer and the best part is, he's clean! Very fun and enjoyable to listen to. They both gave an amazing performance. If I ever have the chance to see him again, I'm soooo there!

Interestingly enough, Charity, Dustin, Travis and Cynthia were also there, so we all went to Denny's after and got ice cream. We didn't get home until 12:30. So, 9 am church the next morning was experienced in mostly a dreamlike state. We all sure had a lot of fun though!

And last but certainly not least, and after ... who knows how many years of school, Becky (Charles' older sister) has graduated!!
I didn't get to go to this one, Ethan came down with the 24 hr. flu the night before, so I stayed home with him.


Wahoo!! way to go Becky!


A very happy graduate!


The proud parents, for the third time!



Of course, we had to get all three again.



Now, with all of them in their gowns. What a good looking bunch.





I think this picture really shows the mature character of our graduates, using their diplomas for what they were meant to be used for.