A boy and his orange...

  This boy can eat an entire cutie orange, peel and everything.

There is no stopping him while doing so.

Pictures do a great job showing how much he loved it.

(picture taken December 8th, 2013)

Our new little Sunbeam..

He is really a Sunbeam.

Boy how the time has flown by.

His first day of Sunbeams was on January 5th and he did AWESOME.

He wasn't worried one single bit. His teachers are Brother and Sister Morten who were Emma's CTR 5 teachers last year and they are wonderful.

I love his bright and shiny smile. I'm especially grateful to serve in primary so I can see him in Primary each Sunday. 

We love you sweet Thomas boy!

Happy New Year 2014

 Our New Year's Eve!

Cousin Finn came over for a sleepover on the night before New Year's eve and it was a BLAST! We LOVE when Finn is in town. Thomas and Finn are the best of friends and it's SO cute seeing them play so well together.

On New Year's Eve morning, they made some crowns for celebration of the New Year. 

 They watched some classic Winnie the Pooh!

 That evening, our family made some rain sticks. They ended up taking quite a bit of time hammering each nail into the tubes, but it was fun once they were completed. They turned out awesome.

 

 Joseph wanted nothing to do with his crown.

 The kids were really looking forward to the "special sparkling drink" we get to drink on New Years. It was ginger ale and fruit punch mixed together. :) And some Martinellis.

 They got bubbles in their bath.

 Joseph wondering what all the excitement is about.

 Thomas waiting for the popcorn machine to start popping the kernels. Then he realized they actually weren't loud at all. :)

 One big happy family with our rats. Yep, I said rats.

 This was our goofy photo and one of the rats was crawling on my neck....

 ....and on Joseph's head. 

We're crazy!

A few minutes before 10pm (New Year's in New York), we watched Daddy light off fireworks outside of Emma and Thomas' bedroom. Jo-Jo went to bed already.

 Emma had her princess dress on ALL night, along with her crown, my necklace, and her great Grandmother's earrings. She told us she was the "New Year's Queen." After the New Year rang in, she did a little dance with her new rain stick she made. Thomas later joined her. 

I sure love them.

Santa's letters

Here are the letters Emma and Thomas wrote to Santa Claus.
Emma wrote her letter in school. It reads....
Dear Santa, 
How did Mr. Elf come to my house?
You are smart and loving.
Thank you for the presents you gave to me last year. I please like me for Christmas and ice skates please. 
Thank you.
Love, Emma Frazier

I was so proud of Thomas for writing his first Santa letter. It reads....
Dear Santa
Dinosaur.
Love,
Thomas

(and those are some red hearts drawn in there. :)

 Here is Thomas dropping his Santa off in the mail box.

Christmas festivities...

Okay, I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything ready for this Sunday and Christmas in 5 DAYS!! I feel like Derek and I are running like chickens with our heads cut off. We have also had wonderful experiences with our little family this Christmas season. I'm trying to soak it all in, even in the stress of other preparations :) So, I needed to post. 

POLAR EXPRESS 

On Thursday morning, December 5th we surprised the children with some new Christmas jammies. We told them we have tickets to the Heber Valley Polar Express. They were very excited!

"All Aboard!"

 It was FREEZING but we all bundled up and snuggled lots.

This is the first time Joseph has kept a hat on. I think he sensed how truly cold it was.

 Happy and cheesy grins all around.

 We even met Mrs. Claus. She brought us some yummy chocolate chip cookies. The elves also brought us some hot cocoa. The kids were most excited for the yummy goodness.

 We were told to look out our windows to look for Santa at the North Pole. It was SO fun once we got there, to see Santa out the window greeting us. SO COOL!

 We even had a visit from Santa. Thomas asked for a dinosaur and Emma asked for ice skates.

 And Joseph...well, he just wondered what in the world was going on. :)

What a fun adventure we had. We love making the memories as a family!

Christmas crafts...

 I feel like this time in life is going by too quickly. I wish it could just slow down but I know it won't. I have been trying to capture these wonderful memories of our little family. 

This month is so busy with primary calling, Derek's calling, dance recital, gymnastics, school Christmas performances, and just the everyday. 

We were excited to have Emma's friend, Reagan come over to do a craft with us. 

The three of them made these felt snow men. They stitched and stuffed the snowmen and added buttons, eyes, carrot nose, and stick arms. It took quite some time to get all the stitching done, but WE DID IT! 

I think they turned out cute.

 (photo taken on December 2, 2013)

 

Can you handle the cuteness? The older kids and Daddy cut out snow flakes. We didn't cut out nearly as many as we did last year but they did a great job. I was proud how quickly Thomas and Emma caught on to cutting them this year. 

(Photo taken December 8th, 2013)

 Still cutting

For Emma's first grade class, they were assigned to be a Secret Elf to someone in class. Emma had a boy named Mckai. She made him an ornament with lots of glitter, colored picture, pom poms, feathers, etc... I forgot to take the final picture of her ornament before giving it to him, but it was adorable. 

(Photo taken December 11, 2013)

 The next morning, Thomas wanted in on the ornament making so he made himself one. 

We ended up having so much fun making them that they ended up making them for some other friends and Grandmas' and Grandpas'.