So many FIRST moments!

On 22 May 12 we got to take my last little one home from the hospital.  I was a bit scared, a bit excited, and super ready to get back to my house and the rest of my babies.  (Isn't that funny? I am gone from my four kids to have another kid and all I can do is miss my kids!  Wow, I have so changed!)  Anyway, so here is my adorable little one coming home from the hospital.

Then, just a little later, we went out for the first time with FIVE children under 7 in tow!  Holy cow!  That was quite a trip. I honestly don't remember where we went or why, but I do remember feeling a bit like a pariah of sorts.  I knew from previous experience that I would get some looks, but I wasn't prepared for all the smiles.  Usually I get a look or two of disapproval or disbelief (I do have a number of very little children), but I got a lot of "god bless you"s and "how wonderful"s.  I was so happy to be out with my whole family and overly grateful to get such positive boosters to my self esteem.

 it was almost impossible to fit all three carseats in the back!

 Then this moment; which happens to be one of my favorites of each kid's life.  This is V's fist bath at home.  It's always in a sink and with the "correct" baby items like the official baby towel, baby soap, baby washcloth, etc.  After the first I just use whatever I can find for the bath like regular kids.  Anyway, here is my adorable cute little boy!  He's so handsome!

 Ohhh, how I love my babies!

Vaughn Madsen Fosburg

He is here!  He is here!  He is here!

I am so excited to announce to the whole world the birth of my second son, Vaughn, or V for short.

He was born exactly 11 days after Evie's birthday on Sunday night, the 20th of May 2012.

That evening was the same as all the rest, though I was a bit uncomfortable.  But, hey, I was pregnant, when wasn't I uncomfortable?  Anyway, I apparently had real contractions beginning by 6pm, they stopped at 8 until 9pm, and by 10pm we were in the hospital.  By 10:30pm I was told I couldn't have my epidural.  I was not happy, but it was a little late to be complaining because by 10:57pm my little boy was finally here!

he is such a cutie - actually that applies to both my boys!

 ohhhh, how she loves "our" baby - see the little giggle?

 she's still getting used to the idea that she's NOT the baby anymore

At 7lbs. 11oz. and 20 1/2 in long, with lots of soft black hair, and beautiful blue eyes.  He is so sweet and such a good baby.  He is already sleeping up to 5hrs at a time and gained a pound and an inch or so.  So he is growing well.

so handsome - love the dark hair - hope it stays!

The kids have enjoyed him as an addition to our family.  Evie loves everything baby anyway.  Joseph LOVES having a brother and I have to admit, I like having another boy in the house too.  Lizzy is so cute and really owning the big sister title this time around.  Ally is the one that I was a bit worried about since she's been the baby for the last year.  She had a hard time at the beginning trying to understand what she could touch and where she could sit.  She has done an amazing job!  She touches V with such tenderness and in such a sweet way that I think she has accepted our littlest one.

So world, welcome the last of the kids to our family!  We love you Vaughn!

Grampa Clint

Having my dad come visit was so fantastic.  I was a little nervous just because as his daughter I wanted to make a good impression.  He hadn't met my two youngest yet or seen me since Chris graduated WSU and commissioned in the military.  I wanted him to see my life and be proud of what I had accomplished.  This, of course, caused a certain amount of stress, that I discovered was completely ridiculous.

My dad is my dad.  He was gracious with the accommodations, the small and big events of my family, and the help that I was needing.  He helped clean and often watched the kids.  The best part of his visit was when he watched the kids so Chris and I could go to the temple.  I was pretty sure it was going to be my last time at the Columbia, SC temple before we left for Hawaii so it was extra special.

Anyway, as I was hoping, my kids loved my dad.  They had so much fun with him.  Chris had a great time discussing all his many deep topics.  And me?  I just enjoyed having my dad enjoy my family.  He was smitten with my children as a good Grampa should be.  He appreciated my husband and reminded  me how great my husband truly is.  And he gave some great words of encouragement and compliments which every mother and daughter wants to hear.

Thanks dad for coming to Sumter!  Love you!

Our Performer

So the 18th of May was Evelynn's last performance with Miss Libby's Dance Company.  She was so beautiful and so cute.

The performance had Evie being a Hawaiian girl.  No, I'm serious.  Her last choreographed dance piece made her a little Hawaiian dancer.  We found out later that we would be moving to Hawaii.  Isn't that great?  She got some practice before she became a real Hawaiian girl.

I wasn't sure how late this night was going to be.  The last one had us out at almost 10pm and it was just too late for our littler ones.  This time I was going to let Chris take them home and I would wait for Eve.  Due to the unknown we took our family pictures beforehand, just in case.

The first two videos are first, the tap and then the ballet performance.

The girls did such a great job and it was so fun to watch.  It was a much more pleasant experience this time around!  

These next two videos are from sitting through the other performances that night.  Lizzy just watched so carefully that some of her moves were actually just mimicking those on stage.  Blew me away.

Then, of course, there's Joe's fantastic interpretation of dance.  He's wonderful, isn't he?

Evie was so excited to get this little trophy.  

She'd been waiting all year!

So many of the girls got flowers after their performances, but they were just too pricey for us at the dance hall.  Chris was such a sucker though for our beautiful dancer, that on his way home (Evie came with me) he stopped by and got her some anyway.  What a great daddy!

Congrats Evie!  You're amazing!

Mother's Day

This year Mother's Day was pretty low key considering all the fun things we'd done earlier in the week.  My parents sent a beautiful bouquet of flowers as usual.  I love that tradition.

I was also blessed especially by my sweet children! He sang in Sacrament for the first time for mother's day this year.  I just about burst!  Evie of course, was wonderful as always.  My smiley little girl helped my very brave little boy to get up there all by themselves to sing.

And my great husband got me two books about being a mom, "Mothering with Spiritual Power," and "The Small Things."  Both have been wonderful in helping me to adjust my mothering perspective to a more humble and spiritual type of situation.

What a great family I have!

Evie's Birthday Pt. 2

After our party we dropped the littler girls off at a friend's house and the rest of us made our way to Myrtle Beach.  I had been keeping the secret of Evie's surprise forever!  I started planning several months ago, so we had a special "princess" dress for her, a new crown and scepter, and money saved to purchase the tickets, which was good because it was a bit pricey!  We went to a place called Medieval Times!  It was so much fun for everyone.

It's a castle with full costumes on every person.  The ticket people, the lady handing out crowns, Baxter, our server or as they called it, "our serf", all were in costume and called us lords and ladies the whole time.  I got a kick out of it and so did the kids.  Daddy and Grampa enjoyed it more because the kids were having so much fun.

When we were seated we found some great platters, mugs, and a bowl with a handle made to look like pewter (but much lighter plastic).  Then I had the pleasure of telling my cute 6 and 3 yr old that there was no silverware, they were to eat with their hands!  Joe gleefully enjoyed the idea, but Evie's reaction was a bit more like consternation.  I couldn't understand the problem until she looked at me very seriously and asked, "mom, how do I eat like a princess?"  I didn't understand until she followed the question with ,"I miss silverware."  I couldn't believe it.  Here my girl who can't keep her hands out of anything is missing her fork!

In Evie's world, princesses were very careful and polite which I agreed with, but she didn't understand how things actually were in the 11th century when there were real princesses.  So while Joe grabbed a huge handful of half a chicken, Evie carefully picked at her chicken taking small bites.  It was very cute.

While we ate and enjoyed our surroundings, the show began.  We were introduced to our particular knight.  We were wearing the yellow knight's colors and sitting in his section.  That meant that we cheered for our handsome yellow knight and boo-ed for everyone else, especially the green knight who was our visiting bad guy!

The show was an actual story about a kingdom whose king was trying to forge a treaty with a warring neighbor.  The prince and his man went out to offer the terms, but didn't come back, while the "bad guy", our green knight, swaggered into the court, yelling and defying everyone.  The king and the princess received him graciously and invited him to participate in the tournament, until the prince returned with the terms of the treaty.

 The green knight agreed and the tournament began.

We watched all the sword fighting - 

cheering for our yellow knight the whole time

The kids attention was glued to the events. I'm sure they ate something at some point, but I don't really remember focussing on that too much.  I was enjoying watching the tournament myself.

I was enjoying, but Evie was thrilled.  She LOVED the whole thing.  She loved the princess, the knights, the king, and all the fun things that came with the tickets.

We watched the parade of colors come in representing each knight.  We saw each knight compete using horses and lances, swords, maces, shields, etc.  It was so much fun.

Evie cheered with such enthusiasm!

Evie looked and acted just like a princess.  She talked between each event and gave her cute comments about them.  I loved sitting next to her to hear them all.

Isn't she so cute?

Everything was amazing.  After each event of the tournament, the herald would announce the top five winners, giving them each points.  After the points were awarded the princess would toss them a rose for each point.  Each knight then moved to their colored section of spectators and tossed them into the crowd.  Only to the ladies of course!  Evie so wanted one, but alas, she did not have arms long enough and we were not sitting close enough for him to see her.  She had a hard time with that for a few minutes.  

I LOVED the jousting!  It was so amazing to see something in real life that I only had read about in books.  It was like watching the Arthurian legends come to life.  Evie doesn't know all that, but I sure do.

Whenever the bad guy came out Joseph's face got all serious and upset.  It was great to see him get so involved in the performances.

The events weren't always with the knights.  One of the events in the tournament was the royal horse trainer.  It was a woman who did tricks on a beautiful horse.  Another event was the royal falconer who encouraged the falcon to fly all across the whole arena.  It was amazing to have the bird fly so close to our heads that we could see it's feathers.

After the regular events of the tournament, the "story" continued with the green knight.  Finally, the prince showed up!  He was embattled and angry.  He claimed that the green knight had tried to have him killed on the way back to the castle we were all sitting in.  That's when the real battle began.  Several knights came out to fight on behalf of the prince and it was an amazing show!

Joe was very excited when the prince overcame the green knight.  Yahoo!

I was just excited everyone else was excited and having fun.  For a mom who plans in advance, the culmination of the planning being a success is exactly what she wants.  Yeah for moms!

At the end, the kids wanted a picture with the knights out front.  After the tournament, we also grabbed cute little souveniers.  Evie got a cute little princess, and Joe got a knight with a lance.  They were relatively inexpensive and Chris loves to spoil.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my sweet EVELYNN!