Newsletter 2008

My apologies to the lateness of the latest news from the Frier clan. Let’s just say life is moving at neck breaking speed!
Jodi is now 2 ½. Her little, I mean BIG, personality is completely taking off. We call her many loving names. 1) The Little Monkey: If she can swing, climb, or jump from it Jodi finds a way. Her latest feat is climbing the back of the bunk bed- no ladder of course. 2) The Little Singer: Jodi finds anything to make a stage from. She leads the choir or music in church. She has to sing whenever I am playing the piano. Dancing is a bonus! 3) The Little Parrot: I am so glad that no one else is in my van to hear my road rage vocabulary repeated by the innocent 2 year old in the back seat!
Daniel is now 4 an a very typical 4 year old boy. He refuses to eat dinner, but throw a cookie in front of him and he is suddenly fully capable of eating! Daniel loves to torment his siblings- just today he said, “It’s fun being mean!” Daniel started preschool this year for speech development. He is loving it! He is so proud of the projects he brings home. Daniel’s other love in life are Transformers. Daniel’s hugs are amazing. He can be quite the teddy bear when he wants to be!
Noah is almost 6 (come Feb.). Noah entered full day Kindergarten this year. It was a rocky start, but now his teacher thinks the world of Noah. Noah is too smart for his own good. He is like a sponge- he doesn’t forget a thing he has been taught. Reading, P.E., and the playground seem to be his favorite things in school. Outside of school, Noah is totally into all the boy stuff- Army guys, Star Wars, animals… He is also my little helper and truly the peacemaker of our home.
Dustin has now been working at Scottsdale Healthcare Hospital for 3 years. He has now also completed 2 out of 4 semesters in the Scottsdale Community College Nursing program. Half way through- Hooray!!! Dustin keep s busy with work, school, wrestling with the kids, and helping me whenever he can. He is an amazing Dad and Husband (of 11 years now!)
I am plugging along. I have some good days among all the bad. I would never be able to get through them without Jodi’s independence, Daniel’s smiles and hugs, Noah’s loving need to help me, and Dustin sacrificing study time to cook or do the laundry. I love our family! I am still the children’s chorister for our church and love teaching the children music. I have so much fun and love seeing their faces as they sing. I also joined a flute society and flute choir. It’s fun to get together with other musicians! I am also now a “Twilight” fan (shh, don’t tell anyone!) Books and music- I love it!
We hope this finds you happy and merry during the holidays! Be sure to check out our blog at http://frierfamily.blogspot.com/

Love, The Frier Family

Back to Blogging

Wow, I can't believe I have neglected the Frier Fan Club for so long! My apologies to those that have checked in to see some interesting story from the Friers and have been disappointed in the results. However, I am back and with some wonderful stories and pics to share- even if they are only interesting and wonderful to me!!

I finally got Jodi to the portrait studio to get her pictures done. The last protraits we did of her was when she was 6 weeks old, so these are way over due. She was SO good with the photographer. She did every pose they asked and was happy through out and the pics were abundant. It was super hard trying to decide which ones to go with. So here they are:




















As you can tell we are mighty proud of our little girl. She is so sweet and adorable. I could just squeeze her all day- if only she would let me!!

The boys are doing well. Noah has quite the big boy attitude and truly thinks he is "all that" and then some. I hate being the one who has to put him in his place, but it must be done!!! He doesn't think it is so fair that Daniel and Jodi have all day to play and he only has a couple hours a day to play. Homework day is not fun at all. He is a super reader and getting better every day. He devours the books and loves to read. We read the 1st "Harry Potter" book together. he would sit and color pictures about what I read. He is begging me to read him more books. It was an excuse for him to stay up later than Daniel and he got some much needed Mommy time.

Daniel is doing really well in Preschool. He loves his teacher and is learning so much. His speech is slowly getting better too. He is also slowly learning how to play with Jodi. In fact, Jodi is learning to accept Daniel as a friend as well. We went out last night and ordered 2 shakes to split between the kids. Jodi pretty much had one to herself. At the end of dinner Daniel asked Jodi if he could have some of her shake and she gladly and WILLINGLY shared it with Daniel. Then Noah asked for some and Jodi flatly refused!!! So, Daniel and Jodi are FINALLY becoming buddies. We still have our daily fights with Daniel, but he is slowly getting easier to manage. Yes. He still makes me laugh so hard when I get the maddest at him. It's a good thing- I 'll leave it at that. So here are some more pics of the kids!

Fun at the Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo when they had their fall break from school on the 9th. It was a beautiful morning to go. They had fun doing the Animal Talk experience and almost getting poked by the Indian Porcupine. They are really big animals! They had to bring a board out to keep the kids from getting poked. They loved seeing the King Vulture swoop down. We had to go say hi to the bald eagles, of course. Noah has been wanting an eagle stuffed animal ever since he went to the zoo in March with his cousins. His older cousin, Gavin, got a tube of Rain Forest animals. Noah had to be just like Gavin and put the eagle down and got the tube instead. But he has wanted the eagle ever since. Maybe Santa will grant his wish!

I let the kids play at the tree house there at the zoo. The next thing I see is Jodi screaming and blood dripping from her mouth. She fell and tore open her lip. It looked horrible. They had to take us to the ranger station, get ice and get her cleaned up. She just wanted to go play more! She was mad at me trying to keep ice on her lip- she just wanted to get back to the tree house! Needless to say I was pretty done by the time lunch rolled around. We had fun, though, and the kids had fun getting out of the apartment for awhile. It left Dustin plenty of time to study which paid off on his test where he only missed 1! Yeah!! He is doing so good this semester. I am really proud at how well he is dealing with the pressure.

Happy 4th Birthday, Daniel!

We celebrated Daniel's birthday Conference weekend at the beginning of the month. Dustin had taken work off Saturday so he could go to the Priesthood session. It was his only free day until Thanksgiving. Daniel was so excited knowing it was his special day. He kept saying he wanted a Transformer cake and was super- surprised when he got a Scooby Doo cake instead. He is really into Scooby Doo lately so he was more than thrilled. He got a wonderful Dinosaur game and Batman backpack from Grandma and Grandpa. Noah has enjoyed the game more than Daniel, but it won't take Daniel long to get into it. Daniel has taken his backpack with him to bed and everwhere he goes. It is now Black Bear's new home! Noah got him a tiny baby white tiger figurine that Daniel loves. We got him another Transformer and a Spider Man scooter. He parks his scooter in the scooter garage at night= his closet. He had a great birthday.

The folowing week I took Daniel to get ice cream, just the 2 of us. We have started back with an incentive chart and he did really good last week. He earned that ice cream and had so much fun with just me. He is working on earning more stickers for another ice cream date. The stickers seem to help as he is now able to tell me what he did wrong. I can actually talk to my son and he understands me now. We have hard days, but they are definitely getting less frequent.

Daniel seems to have grown up so much in the last 2 weeks. It surely is amazing what a special day/birthday can do for a child's maturity!

Spotlight on Noah

I know it has been forever and I have many posts I need to add so I am doing them all at once, but will post them staggered. Here is our BIG Noah!






Noah is having so much fun in Kindergarten. His teacher adores him. She says he is one of the smartest kids she has come across. We had parent teacher conferences this week. She said he is doing very well. All the kids love Noah. It's fun to drop hom off at school and see all the girls come and give Noah a big "hello" hug. He is making lots of friends. He is now a reader. We love reading books together. Noah and Mommy just finished reading the 1st "Harry Potter" together. Noah would stay up late drawing pictures of what we read. Then he got to watch the movie, but only after we read the book. He is such a big helper with Jodi. They seem to be the best of friends. I had to take a nap yesterday after I picked Noah up from school. Daniel and I laid down together and Noah played with Jodi the entire time. When I woke, Noah had Jodi giggling so hard. It was hard not to ruin the moment by peeking. Noah is amazing and he fills my life and home with such a special, calming spirit. He is really getting excited for Halloween and Christmas. The wish list has already begun- an aircraft carrier, a stuffed Bald Eagle, more Star Wars stuff...

Spotlight on Daniel

Our little Daniel has become quite a terror- teaming up with Jodi to carry out his dasterdly deeds. He finds himself in a heap of trouble and in time-out nearly every day. We went through a month of some pretty poor behavior. He is trying hard to be good, but he just can't control his little body. He gets so excited and distracted all at once.

Daniel loves pre-school. He would love it more if he could sit on the big carpet with everyone else! His teacher, Mrs. Norgren, has found Daniel easier to manage when he is seperated from the group. Daniel asks everyday if he can sit with his friends. He just is unable to at this point. Maybe someday he'll get the hang of things. Dustin's mom says this was exactly how Dustin was growing up. Daniel's pictures and Dustin's pictures are almost identical at this age.

We take it day by day. I sure do love the times when he is so lovey-dovey. He is like a great big teddy bear. I love it when he asks me to be his buddy or when he comes up to me and says, "I love you," out of the blue. It melts my heart and makes the bad days seem not so bad. Who could resist that beautiful smile of his. I find myself laughing when I am so mad and I look into his eyes that are so full of joy- even when he is getting yelled at. I think his smile keeps me from really wanting to hurt him- he can sure push my buttons. I love him- even when he can't listen to me!

A Spotlight On Jodi

Ok, so I have tons of pictures of my cute, little curly girl. I am going to post some pictures of Jodi for a few days and hopefully do the same for Noah and Daniel. Jodi has become quite good friends with Daniel since Noah started school. This just means that Jodi and Daniel get into SUPER BIG TROUBLE TOGETHER!!!! SO, many of the dasterdly deeds you see were orchestrated with Daniel's clever and intriguing help! I think they work as a team to throw me off the scent so no one gets punished- so they hope!