Frost Family Faces

Sunday we went to the temple grounds. It was a nice day, was very enjoyable and a wonderful way to spend Father's day. Going there with my kids brought back a lot of memories of when I went as a kid with my brothers. We went in the visitor's center and the Sister Missionaries gave Ethan a picture of Jesus. He loved it! He also enjoyed pushing the buttons on the different displays. He was enthralled by the Christus and kept looking at the "owies" in Jesus' hands (I hope that doesn't sound sacreligous or anything)



After, we went over to my mom's to celebrate Father's day with my dad. (yay me, I didn't get any pictures of my dad. He even had a cool father's day crown! and I didn't get a picture!) For some reason, Ella really wanted to chew on her cousin Mya.

Those of you who know me know that I'm not a great pianist, but I've always wanted a piano in my home. Well...we struck gold a couple weeks ago. A lady my mom knows was selling her piano for super cheap, so we bought it! It's old (1947) and was in really bad need of a tuning, but it sounds great now, and the kids love it, as you can see by the picture.

Ella has discovered that there are more rooms in the house than just the front room and kitchen...and that she can get there!
One of her favorite new discoveries is the bathroom. Considering she's becoming Ethan's little shadow, this isn't surprising becuase he now goes in there a lot. We discovered her trying to dispose of her diapers the other day...




And she even tried to flush it too...
(I'm in soooo much trouble!)


...Both of them!
We gave he a very good scrub-down bath right after ;)

So for the past couple of days I've been trying to teach Ethan to answer the question "What's your name?". He won't answer it. I didn't realize this was an issue until he was playing outside and a little boy from up the street stopped his bike and asked his name. Ethan (who was playing in the rocks) said "Rock!". The little boy said "No, what's your name?" to which Ethan replied "Rock!". After a few more tries, the little boy gave up and rode away. Now, Ethan can answer the question "How old are you?" with a resounding THREE!! while holding up three fingers, he can also answer questions like "what do you want for lunch?" or "What cereal do you want?" but this name thing is completely escaping him. Here is how it usually goes.

Mom: What's your name?
Ethan: Car! (or whatever toy he's playing with)
Mom: Ethan
Ethan: WHAT!?!
Mom: No, Ethan, what's your name?
Ethan: Bath!
Mom: Ethan
Ethan: WHAT!?! (now with more frustration)

It reminds me of the "Who's On First" scene.

Anyway, I think one day he'll get it, but for right now, I just laugh when he says "What!?!" to me.

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.