An actual post with pictures

The Frederick Five are all still alive... although Eli looks mad and Ryan looks half asleep in this picture. Eva is clearly very excited!

This was taken on Isaac's first birthday. I cannot believe that little boy will be 14 months old this week.

Some Isaac updates:

He started taking steps at around 10 1/2 months, which was a good 3 months earlier than Eva and Eli. The week of his birthday, he decided that crawling is for babies and he quit crawling and started walking everywhere. Now he is climbing and "baby running" and generally doing his best to keep up with his big brother and sister. Isaac is still his mommy's boy, but he is also pretty attached to that daddy, too. He gets SO excited when Ryan gets home from work every day. He starts saying, "Dada! Dada!". Very sweet. As I type this, Isaac and Eli are wrestling on the floor. And though Eli outweighs him by about 13+ lbs, Isaac does a really good job of holding his own. So much so that yesterday he bit Eli and Eli ended up crying. Not exactly how we want the wrestling sessions to end. :-/ Isaac is also our first baby to get attached to a pacifier. We still think it's cute and will worry about breaking the habit later. For now we'd do anything to get a full night of sleep. This little booger has only slept through the night 5 times in his whole entire life and this mama is T.I.R.E.D.! I'll give him anything that helps him sleep better. :)

This picture pretty much sums up life with Eli. :) Haha! He has knack for getting himself into interesting predicaments. He was quite determined to go downstairs and decided he could fit under the gate. He hasn't yet gotten the memo that he is bigger than the average 2 yr old. When I saw that he was stuck, I decided to grab my camera before rescuing him. Does that make me mean? ;) Eli continues to be our more challenging kid. And yet, he has the sweetest heart. I absolutely love that boy! It is so interesting that he is not easily bribed. When Eva was his age, I bribed her a little too much probably. Eli is not the least bit interested in getting stickers, toys, or treats for good behavior. It makes things challenging sometimes, but I honestly think it might be easier in the long run. He is learning obedience for the sake of obedience. Isn't that we all need? I certainly do. So, though, he is challenging at times, we absolutely love it and wouldn't trade one second of him. Eli does everything full force and I honestly pray all the time that he will follow Christ the same way. I think God has big plans for that little boy.

And also, the Bop-It game absolutely cracks him up. When you do the wrong thing and the game says something like "Oh man!" (or something) he falls to the floor laughing. It's so great! His laugh is absolutely 100% contagious!

Oh yeah! And Eli continues to make great progress with speech therapy! It is so exciting! Even his speech therapist was bragging on him this week. His newest phrase that made us laugh this week was, "Blanket! Where are you?" He absolutely loves his blanket and won't leave home without it. So cute!

This beautiful girl is getting way too close to 6 years old. She is maturing into such an amazing kid. She is so kind-hearted and continues to ask very deep theological questions. I think God has big plans for this one, too. It's fun to watch her grow. She is doing so well in Kindergarten making friends and learning to read. We still call her our little "Punky Brewster" because of the awesome outfits she comes up with. Her style is funky and fun! Love it and love her!

So those are our biggest updates as of right now. Nothing too exciting going on, which is good.

P.S. My fruit bowl still has only fruit in it! :)