Happy SIXTH Birthday Emma

Happy SIXTH Birthday to the most amazing little girl we know and love.  Words can not begin to describe the overwhelming proudness we feel to call you our daughter.  

You are simply amazing, loving, precious, outgoing, have a servant's heart, Jesus junkie, swimmer, school lovin', devoted to family, graceful dancer, animal infatuated, friend to all, hysterical, compassionate, giving, dreamer, best big sister, blessed, grateful, sweet cousin, affectionate, honest with your words, always happy, over achiever, wise beyond your years, beautiful on the inside and out, want to be involved in everything and a lover of life.  There is not a single thing we would change about your precious soul Emma Caroline and we pray daily that we are raising you to honor and serve God. 

Thank you so much for teaching us to be parents and for reminding us when we skip a beat, your boldness is admired and appreciated.

Today, you will dance in your 3rd recital, we will sing Happy Birthday to you while you blow out SIX candles on a cupcake, we will gather our bags and head to the airport for our family vacation.  You and your brother have no idea where we are headed, but it will be a week filled with fun, adventure and family time.  I am confident when we get to the airport and you read the state we are traveling to that you and your brother will scream with excitement, hug, jump up for joy and celebrate the way best friends do.

Emma Caroline, today is your day.  I hope you always know and feel the unconditional love we have for you in this life. What an amazing journey it has been the last six years and one that I am so incredibly thankful to be a part of with you. 

We are a team, we are family, we are The Frazier Four! We look forward to celebrating many more birthdays and life with you sweet girl. 

Happy 6th Birthday to you Emma Lou!

Emma's 6th Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Emma's SIXTH birthday with 20 of her little friends and 3 cousins.  All of the kids had a blast and enjoyed the party. 

My kids love to challenge me when it comes to party themes and this year was no exception.  Emma decided in January when American Girl released the girl of the year Saige, that she would be having an American Girl Saige Art Party. 

Emma has become a great reader this year and we have read many large books together.  Saige is one of them and needless to say we learned more than we needed to know about Saige Copeland from Albuquerque.  Saige is a lover of art and her school lost the funding for its Art program, so she went on a campaign to save the program.  Of course she had the help of her Dad, whom was a Hot Air Balloon Pilot, her Mimi (an artist) and Picasso (her Mimi's horse that Saige loved).  From there, Emma's 6th birthday came to life.

 

We decided to have the party in the art lab at my high school and it was the perfect space and place.  Emma is a social butterfly and wanted to invite 40+ friends, but she was forced to narrow her list down this year to her favorite friends and a few cousins.

Each child got to paint a 16 x 24 canvas of a hot air balloon and they were all so creative.  My art teacher graciously walked the kids through an art lesson and the process.  I was so proud of how intently they listened.  

The goody buckets were paint cans filled with an art palette cookie, American Girl Magazine, candy, Saige bookmark and Icee pops.

The paint can up close and tag that said, "I hope you had a Sweet time at my party". 

Emma chose the cupcakes and colors for this party, it was a hodge podge but looked so cute mixed together.  The world of art is very colorful, so it was perfect.

We had this little table sat up as a colorful candy bar where the little artist filled their paint cans up at the end.

Colors, colors and more colors!  Believe it or not the kids were so neat and clean with their canvases.  Each of them were provided an apron to keep their clothes clean and I also came armed with Dreft stain spray.

The room was set up when they arrived and they were all so excited to be in a High School, it was cute.

This little cabinet was set up with Emma's AG Dolls, pennants, gift bags and pizza.

I can not believe that this little girl will be SIX years old in a few more days.  She is so super excited about going to 1st grade next year.

Another little display filled with cookies and American Girl catalogs for the little girls to take home.

Sweet Gracie and Hannah Claire have been Emma's special friends since she was 15 months old in MDO.  I hope these 3 always stay connected.

Ava and Delilah are Emma's sweet friends from the Dance studio.

Hannah Claire, you are a special little girl and Emma loves you as much as you love her. 

Ally was so excited to paint and did such a great job.

Emma's sweet little brother could hardly wait to get started and he did a great job.  Way to go Gavin, you kept us laughing (thinking he likes abstract art).

Lauren and Emma are in summer swim, dance and year around swim together.  They are the best of friends and are SUPER silly when they are together.

Our sweet cousin Peyton.  So glad they are here for the summer from Colorado and could join us.  Peyton has some talent when it comes to expressing herself with a paintbrush.

Happy Birthday to you Emma, so hard for me to believe that I had to push 6 candles down in that cake this year.  Seems like yesterday when we were helping you blow out your candles sweet girl.

Lily, Laney, Melinda and Stephanie all enjoyed their lesson and were such great students. These sweet girls are great friends to Emma.

Macey and Isabella are 2 of Emma's friends from Kindergarten this year.  We missed Kate and Ellie (her best friend at school this year) but hope to have a play date with them soon. I wish I could have gotten a picture of everyone, but we stayed busy helping everyone and refilling paint.

It was hard to get all the kiddos together at the end, but we managed to get this shot.  It was so fun to see how different everyone did their canvas and how cute they all turned out, they were so proud of their hard work. We were thankful for all of those who joined us and missed those that could not make it to celebrate with us.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to

remain an artist once we grow up.

~ Pablo Picasso

So many...

For all the things that are WRONG in this world...

 

There are so many things that are RIGHT!

Steamboat ~ Heaven on Earth

We were blessed to spend a week in Steamboat, Colorado with family this Spring Break.  It was hard to leave this place once we finally got there and got settled in for the week.  I think God gave us a glimpse of what heaven is going to be like.

We flew into Hayden, Steamboat's local airport that only operates during ski season.  It was the tiniest airport I have ever seen, only 1 flight in and 1 flight out at a time (made it super convenient with the kiddos).  Aunt Debbie and Marla picked us up from the airport and we were so happy to see them both.

The picture above was our home away from home for the week and it was beautiful, cozy and filled with love.  This is our cousin's second home and I can understand why they struggle to leave it after ski season.   

Our view from the balcony all week long, imagine waking up to this everyday.  This piece of property originally belonged to an Olympic skier 50 years ago when Steamboat was established.  The city allowed him to pick any piece of property he wanted to build on and he chose this view of the mountain.  His original home is now the shell of one of Dwain and Marla's garages, so the history still exist on their property.  The location is perfect and allows you to walk many places, catch a bus to town or the ski base.  Steamboat is known for their hot air balloon festival in the summertime, we got to see one go right in front of the house while we were there.   

My two very favorite boys in Steamboat and all the world.   It actually snowed 4/7 days we were there and I was so excited the kids got to see the flakes falling.  Making our way to ride the Gondola to the top of this little ski town which is home to 10,000 people. 

Me and my girl.  I had no clue before we headed out how difficult it is to capture good pictures in the snow unless you really know what you are doing, unfortunately my self taught Mommy photo skills didn't pass the test (still so thankful for what we were able to capture).

The day we arrived we spent 4 hours at Gondola Square signing our waivers, getting enrolled in ski school, purchasing lift tickets and getting fitted for our gear.  I will admit after a long day traveling we had to do alot of bribing to get one little boy to cooperate, especially when he had to put the boots and helmet on.

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.

Don't walk behind me I may not lead.

 Just walk beside me and be my friend."

~Albert Camus~



I love these kiddos so much that it hurts, something only a Mommy can understand.   I love doing life with them and I love watching them experience so many new advenutres together.  These are the days and they are going by way too fast.  So thankful they are such troopers and great vacationers.

I could have sat and people watched all day long. I loved the shops, the skis outside every restaurant/store and the carefree life people were living. The base was filled with locals that ski daily, families that ski yearly and those that were experiencing a ski vacation for the first time (us!).

We had an amazing time in Steamboat, so much more to post.  We will always be thankful for our time with extended family playing, laughing, staying up late and making memories that will last a lifetime.



He is RISEN

Happy Resurrection Sunday from our family to yours!   We spent an amazing day at church, teaching Sunday school and enjoying the afternoon with family.    

 

 

Both of my kids have melted my heart this Easter with their knowledge of Jesus.  They have retold the story of his resurrection over and over, every detail.  

 

After Sunday school this morning I heard Emma asking her Daddy, "Dad was it appropriate that we watched a movie about Jesus being crucified in class?  I mean he was bleeding.  Was that appropriate for me to watch?"  We tenderly explained to her that it was okay because it was the story of Jesus.  Her precious heart was so concerned, but after she got our approval she seemed fine.  We pretty much stick to Disney around here.

 

Gavin did not do so well in worship this morning.  After praise and worship he was D.O.N.E!  When the preacher got up to start speaking he decided to shout out, "Blah, blah, blah, bl"!  The last blah was cut off because I was quick and got my hand up to his mouth before the last "ah" could escape.  I felt my entire body get hot, looked around and people were laughing.  My coworker who was an entire section over and about 6 rows back decided to come acknowledge that he heard Gavin's outburst.   Well, everyone thought it was funny EXCEPT me and his Daddy. 

 

Thankful for so many things this year, but especially BLESSED by his love.  So thankful that our household has chose to serve the Lord and have a personal relationship with Jesus.  Grateful for an amazing church home that values youth.   I hope that each of you have introduced your children to Christ, there is no greater gift we can give our children and it is never too late.

 

"Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old,

he will not depart from it."

(Proverbs 22:6)

Happy Easter 2013 ~ The Frazier Four

Spring Break 2013

We made it home injury free and Spring Break 2013 was a success.   Our plane landed about 3 hours ago, our bags are unpacked and the kiddos are tucked in bed.  Everyone of us loved our time in Steamboat Colorado and it was difficult to leave behind this morning.  That little ski town of 10,000 will make you rethink the way you are living life in the big city, for sure.

 

So much fun, many new experiences and lots of memories made.  We spent our week skiing, snow tubing, riding the gondola, snowmobiling, visiting the ice castle, eating great food, watching the parade/fireworks, watching it snow, enjoying extended family, staying up late, seeing hot air balloons, exploring the creeks, having snowball fights and simply taking in an amazing place we had never been before.

There is no place like home, we are glad to be back here BUT we will long for the day when we make our way back to Steamboat, no doubt!

Praise God ~ We are Off!

Spring Break 2013 is going to happen for The Frazier Four after all.  A horrible virus hit Casa de Frazier early Saturday morning and all of us got it.  When I say it was ugly, I mean ugly.  As of last night at 10:00 PM, we are all fever free.   Yesterday around noon I started calling to see what was refundable and lets just say we would have lost a ton of money had we not been able to go (never been a fan of trip insurance, but this has taught us a lesson).

 

 

These kiddos are excited and so are we.  Even in the midst of all the sickness, they both just kept asking if we would still be able to go on vacation.   We are still a little weak, but hopeful when we get some food in our system we will feel much better.  Thank God that Emma and Gavin are such troopers and wonderful little travelers.

 

We are excited to set out on a new adventure and experience things we have never experienced before as a family.  We will be back in 7 days, yep we are missing two days of school and I feel a little guilty.  Praying we have a safe trip, make memories that last a lifetime, Emma's asthma will be under control and that we all come back healthy/injury free.