Alexandra Gets Stuck

Ok so maybe not the nicest thing to post - she'll kill me when she gets big, but I laughed so hard when this happened!  It's okay for you to laugh too.  She'll find it funny later, like when her kids get stuck in funny places.

Cute Kid Moments

One of the things I love the most about posting on this blog is that I can post things that are really important like birthdays and major milestones in the lives of my family members, but also that I can post random funny things that happen to me just because I happen to be the mom of some very silly children.  What an adventure this has already been and my oldest is only 5.  

So this is one of those posts that just reminds me why my kids are mine - they make me giggle like no one else can!

 though Ally is cute, it's daddy's smile that caught my heart in this one

I'm sure someone noticed that Ally's birthday post was missing the Nana/Papa gift.  Well, it came a day or so later.  This little fuzzy bear has become a staple in the crib and has since lost his cute party hat.  Ally chewed on it so much it fell off and had to be tossed.  At least we know she loves it!

 This is that little birthday cake by Leap Frog that she got.  She loves this thing!

Ally is such a Fosburg, she's great!  Only my kid would be completely happy drinking a bottle hanging upside down.  I just came around a corner and found her hanging this way with no apparent reason for the position.  Such odd ducks are my children.

This was a great little science lesson we did.  They learned about plants, roots, leaves, and soil.  They enjoyed it so much.  A bit later when the seeds sprouted they got really excited and then frustrated when they didn't do much after that.  Eventually, Joe accidently knocked his over and we had to throw it out and Evie over watered hers while trying to be a big girl and do it without mom's permission...

 ...we still enjoyed the project though!

 Here they drew a picture of what they thought the flowers were going to look like.  It was a way of continuing the science lesson by practicing the predicting skill of the scientific method.  They did a great job.

 can you see the little plants?

Random sleeping picture of Joseph.  We have come to realize that he and daddy are very similar.  They can both sleep anywhere at anytime.  He can also fall asleep in less than five minutes or stay awake hours upon hours if he really wants to.  Sleep seems to be one of those "crosses" he just has to bear in mortal life.  Apparently it is an inconvenient necessity.  So funny.

This is a picture of Evie after a play date with her friend Isabella from ballet class.  We had to send her with a note to give to her friend after class to invite them to our home.  I felt like I had stepped back in time with the process since it's been so long since I've heard of it being done that way.  Anyway, Isabella came over and then Evie was invited to Isabella's house the next week.  It's been a good friendship for her.

And this is what Joe does when Evie is not at home.  He plays with her stuff very happily.  Chris really thought it was cute what he had done with the doll house.  He apparently turned it into a parking garage or something - oftentimes he uses the cars the way Eve uses dolls.  They have teeth brushed, get in time outs, and talk.  So funny.

Evie, Joe, and Liz on a walk with daddy.  I love Evie's pose-my drama queen, Joe's hat-actually daddy's, and Lizzy's little "I'm here" grin.  

Chris and I often find it amusing to notice how Joe seems to organize his toys.  They all end up in rows, lines, and specific groups.  It's kind of funny, but one of those Joe personality traits we noticed.

Ally says hello to the camera!

Aren't my kids silly?  I so get a kick out of having cameras on our phones and a nice one in my home.  It makes capturing these funny moments of the kids growing up so easy and fun to look at.

Lots of Learning

I am so excited to write this post.  When I returned home to Spokane, WA at Thanksgiving I discovered that my nephew was learning to memorize the Articles of Faith.  I was astounded at how my little 6 yr old nephew could learn something that seemed so difficult to me.


So I decided if my sister could do it with her kid, then I could do it with mine.  So along with school, we began to memorize the AoF.  I then heard a talk by one of the general authorities that specifically mentioned the memorization of scriptures and other gospel materials.  With both of those experiences I became more determined to be successful.


Well, the first thing I did was create a poster with Evie and Joe's names, and then both Chris and mine.  Then along the side are the numbers for each Article.  Finally we just began to memorize them with the fun moments along the way.  Once the kids had memorized the first 1-6 Articles, they were rewarded with their favorite thing.  


This favorite thing could be anything they wanted: a book, treat, event, etc.  So Evie was the first to meet the requirement for this first reward.  Then a bit later Joe got his reward.  What did they pick?  An ice cream date w/ Mommy!  I was so surprised.  I thought for sure that they would want to go out with daddy if they chose to go out at all.  

isn't she so cute?!

my beautiful oldest little girl!  I'm so proud!

So Evie chose to go out for ice cream and we went to mommy's favorite place: Baskin Robins!  I love this place and Evie really wanted to see all 31 kinds.  As you can see we had so much fun.  I told her I was really surprised that she wanted to go out with me.  I asked her why since she sees me all the time. Then she looked me right in the eye with that cute little grin of hers and said the best thing: "but mom I never get to see you all by myself."  I realized that she feels the same way I do.  I want to spend time with each kid and its hard with so many little ones who are so needing me.  It was probably more fun for me to go on this date than it was for her, but I am so glad she wanted to be with me.  


Who would've thought I would have such a fantastic self-esteem moment because I had a great daughter?  Thanks Evelynn - I love you too!


Then a bit later, not because he completed his so much later, but because the timing was always bad.  We finally got to do Joe's favorite thing.  Guess what?  He picked the same thing!  I don't know if it had anything to do with being together, the two of us, or the fact that it was what his big sister chose to do.  I honestly didn't care.  The opportunity to be with my boy all by myself was so great!

 Joe's big thing was that whatever he got had to have "a cherry up the top"

 my cute "big" boy

We went to the store to grab something for daddy that night after our "date."  But the soda daddy wanted was way too far and high for me to get it.  So I helped Joe reach it.  He was my hero for that night.  See?

ta-ta-ta-da - HeMan with the power of Grayskull!

Aren't my kids great?  We are continuing to work on our Articles of Faith.  We are currently on #11 and working fast toward our ultimate reward - a trip to Chuck E. Cheese!  They are so excited and so is mom and dad!  Go EVE and JOE.

Alexandra's 1st Birthday!

Ally loves to be outside with the BIG kids!

I can not believe I'm already posting about my youngest child's 1st birthday!  It feels like she was just born and then I look back at all the posts since she's been born and I remember - it's definitely been a whole year.

She is such a wonderful addition to our family - so needed.  Our older three are so different in personality, but all the same in energy level (110% all the time).  It has been so nice to have a child that just loves to be.  She smiles, and coos, and giggles, and loves to cuddle.  I thought originally that she would be like the other kids, but she really likes to cuddle even now that she can move about on her own.  The others only want to do that some of the time, but Ally seems to be a cuddler by nature.

she also loves to be with daddy - he loves his little toys

I'm also totally in love with her personality.  Whereas Evie is super smart and curious, Joe is funny and independent, and Liz is rough and tumble princess, Ally is enjoy what's around me, figure it out by myself, and oh look, there's mom, let's go be with her.  Ally is such a go-with-the-flow kind of person.  I often wonder if it's really a part of her personality or if she is just filling a need for mom at the moment.  Whatever it is, I am grateful for her relaxed and enjoyable self as long as she's that way.


Ok, now that my homage to my littlest Fosburg is complete, let's get to the fun of having her first birthday.  Get ready for some great pictures!

We decided to do something we hadn't done for a long time: we had a big old BBQ.  I know - in FEBRUARY?  Yep, that's South Carolina for you!  It turned out to be one of the most beautiful days.

so many kids were able to join us for Ally's special day

Anyway, so because Chris is the Elder's Quorum President, our free time, which is usually when people have a social life, is dedicated to having new members, investigators, and missionaries over for FHE's, date nights, and dinner on any night of the week.  For this BBQ event I really wanted to just have families over that we enjoy, but don't get to see often.  Therefore, we invited some friends of ours and their whole families which gave us quite a group.  

We only invited a couple of families: the Putnams (Barry, Michelle, Lizzy, Liam), the Taylors (Troy, Mariah, Graden, Max), and the Perkins (Michael, Diantha, Lexi, Colleen, Savannah, Jr.), but with all their kids it was so fun!  It reminded me of the BBQ's we used to have back in Moscow.  I remember Eve's third birthday and most of the houseful of people were our immediate family.  With family far away having a large group like this was a lot of fun.

Ally had a great time with dinner, all the attention, gifts, and of course the cake!  (Walmart did a cute little one for free for the first birthday)  She was one of the cleanest little birthday cake eaters.  As you can see from each progressive video, she got a bit dirtier each time - it just took FOREVER!  As slow as Liz is at gifts, Ally is at cake.  She loved the cake, she just really enjoyed each bite, I guess.

 I really had so much fun taking all these cake pix.  I can't get enough of my kids when they're having a great time!


As the BBQ was mostly a great reason to have some fun, I hadn't really expected my friends to bring presents, but being friends, they did.  I was very grateful - especially because buying things for a small child can be tricky, but for one with three older siblings, two being girls, can make it even harder.  

 Grama and Grampa Fosburg got her this adorable Leap Frog cake.  It sings the "Happy Birthday" song and even has little squishy candles that light up and flicker.  Then it waits for you to blow them out.  They actually go out when you blow over the little holes in the top.  I never thought she'd be able to do the blowing out part, but apparently Joseph taught her at some point and now she's very good at it.  Sooooo cute!

 this is a dress and a short/shirt set

 Ally was blessed with some really cute new outfits too.  She obviously liked the tags, but like any girl I know, enjoyed the clothes as well.

new jammies which she has sadly outgrown already!

new long sleeve outfit

super cute outfit that she was ready to wear right away!

This next item was so funny!  She got so excited.  Apparently, Miss Diantha (my friend and often reliable babysitter) had noticed that Ally didn't really like many toys at her house when she came to play.  So when they looked for her gift she said she tried to find something super soft and as colorful as possible (the opposite of her stuff, she said).

 

Ally LOVED it - and still does!

 After the initial excitement she immediately initiated it into her possession by giving at a good head bonk.  That's something that Chris does with the kids.  He slowly moved in and then lightly presses his forehead to theirs.  Ally giggles every time.  Apparently she now does it to her favorite animals.  She's a bit more rough than daddy though.

 Then we posed for a little second for daddy to take a cute picture.  I don't get many of these.  I'm usually the one behind the camera.  I'm so glad Chris was willing to be the camera guy for this part of the party.  Way to go daddy!

Al had a great time with all the little kids.  This picture includes the Perkins girls lavishing her with attention.  I think that's why she REALLY liked to go to their house.

Now you know.  My kids are adorable.  I love them to pieces.  Alexandra Hope is officially into the toddler years.  Thank goodness I get one more to enjoy the baby stage. Yay Ally!