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!