Happy Thanksgiving To Everyone!

I know that its customary to discuss all that we're grateful for on a post like this and while I am grateful for so many things my list of gratitude is relatively simple and straightforward.

I am grateful for a home full of laughing, learning, silly, happy children.  Never thought I would be that girl who was so enamored by her own kids that she's massively biased all the time, but guess what?  I am!  Ok, so I'm not massively biased all the time (mom's are VERY aware of our kids not so great characteristics), but I am totally enamored of my little ones.  I have these moments where I realize they are just so cute or so good or so, just well, mine!  And I feel so blessed.  It doesn't happen all the time, but often enough I've decided to keep all five.

I am grateful for my amazing husband who regularly puts the welfare of others ahead of himself.  He chose the military because he wanted to do something special with his life.  He chose the LDS church because he wanted to be someone special in this life.  He is amazing and I'm so glad he chose me because now we get to be something special together.

I am grateful for my faith that has both saved my life physically and my life in a spiritual manner.  I could not survive the weaknesses of mortality or the sadness or the frustration on my own.  I could not recognized the joy in sorrow, the light in darkness, or the hope in despair without my faith in a plan and person so loving in charge of that plan.  How much I love my Father in Heaven.

Now you know my gratitude list for this year!

You also know how much fun I had making my first real turkey!  Oh, you don't?  Whoops!  Here you go!

And this is what a happy Thanksgiving looks like in our house!  

Loves to all!

Goodness Gracious! 11 Years!

I know, I can't believe it either!  It has gone by so quickly in some ways and in others I feel like we have earned each year we celebrated last night!

we so love fancy drinks!

We usually have been celebrating big for our anniversary in the summer, like August.  But this year we spent August in a hotel room, not being very happy.  So this year for our anniversary, we went on a great date in downtown Waikiki!  Chris loves it down there and there is so much to do because it's such a touristy kind of place.  I didn't know at all what he had planned seeing as I was still focused on getting settled and being a new mom for the fifth time.  But he got us a babysitter and had me dress up and drove us downtown in the icky traffic.  I was so excited!  I love surprises from Chris, most of the time.

He parked and walked us directly to a restaurant called "The Top of Waikiki".  It's a tall tower with a spinning restaurant at the top.  The best time to go is just before sunset.  Let me just tell you!  It was amazing.  The dinner was so yummy and reminded me very much of a dinner we'd had on our honeymoon in Canada.  The best part was that I got to see my very first Hawaiian sunset!  It was gorgeous!  The company was good, the food was good, and the view was amazing!  What a fun night.

So I don't want to be super mushy - not really my style - but I do want to share how much I love my husband.  Twelve years seems like a lifetime in today's world since so many people never even get married in their relationships, but it seems like such a short amount of time to have done all that we have.  We have both earned our Bachelor's degrees, we've both begun careers (though mine is on hold for the time being), we have five beautiful and healthy children, we love the Lord and work hard to invite him into our home and our marriage, and we are finally beginning to get on top of our finances!  What more could a woman want?  Chris has helped me reach so many goals and made so many of my dream opportunities happen that I'm constantly trying to figure out what else I might want to do.  I'm not being "dreamy" or silly, I really have had my needs and wants taken care of with my best friend.  He loves me and our kids.  He loves his country.  He loves our God.  He is a good man and I am so honored to be his friend and wife.  I'm so glad he was patient enough to wait until I was ready before he asked me to be his wife.  Should have known then it was going to be an adventurous ride!

Love my husband!  Happy 11th Anniversary husband of mine!

All Five!

You know as you have kids you start to realize how very different each one is.  What works for one kid most likely doesn't work for their sibling.  It gets to a point when you wonder why that child didn't come with an instruction manual since you obviously have no experience with a person like this. And then something amazing happens!  That little person shows you exactly why he or she was placed in your family.  It may be a look or a dimple that is consistent across the family or it could be something more…how should I say this?  It could be something more unique or quirky that seems to just proclaim "I HEREBY ANNOUNCE THAT I AM A MEMBER OF THE CHRISTOPHER FOSBURG FAMILY!"  You know, something just like this...

I know it's silly.  I know it's a little odd to have an infant/toddler grooving to Metallica or Phantom of the Opera or whatever new pop song it happens to be.  But that is our family.  Music gets us moving!

It's so cute.  All my kids begin dancing before they can crawl.  A lot of people think this is just the kids getting ready to crawl, but experience has shown four times now, that the beat lives on as they get older.  Just check out dinner time at my house!  Love my kids!  So glad Vaughn came so we could all move to the music together.  What a special family I get to have.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Well after all the moving and hotels and new baby brother and new house and new town, it was so nice to do something we always do.

Halloween this year fell on a Wednesday, so we got to have two Halloweens!  We had the regular one in our neighborhood and the one with our friends at church!

Our wonderful Halawa Ward here in Honolulu had the Trunk or Treat in our church parking lot.  It was so nice to do it this way.  It is safe and fun and relatively short.  This year the young men and young women were so amazing and put together a whole bunch of games where my little kids could earn treats.  It was so fun.  My favorite game was where Evie and Lizzy raced to eat a doughnuts off a string held high above them as they knelt with their hands behind their back.  Evie won, but just barely.  Even Ally had a game at her level!  Afterwards we had a great dinner that was provided by potluck.  I love to bring desserts so that was our contribution.  Then came the best part of the night:  candy from our friend's decorated trunks!  The kids had a blast and I loved taking them around.

My kids were so adorable this year.  Take a look!

Vaughn this year is just too little for a regular costume, plus he's my last 1st Halloween baby.  We just put a cute orange "1st Halloween" cap and sleeper suit with black stripes.  He was so so adorable and totally lived up to the LAST BABY situation.  Thank you Vaughn!  He did a great job even though it was way past his bed time.  What a great baby he is.

Ally chose to be a pink fairy this year.  She wanted to be like Evie, but was no where near ready to give up the pink!  Ally was so adorable.  The wings were just velcroed on her back and were a little big for my little girl so I had to watch them quite a bit.  She kept dancing around to see the wings fly.  I loved seeing her get so excited. 

 Evie chose to be a night fairy this year.  We had a great time getting her all ready.  I didn't realize how much she looked more like a teen goth fairy instead of a night fairy.  Thank goodness she got her face painted so she could look like my 6 year old again!

 Joe of course, was Jake from "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" on Disney channel.  He was super cute and got the sword painted on his face to match.

 My little Lizzy was a beautiful Cinderella this year.  She got a matching butterfly on her cheek.  The funny thing about her costume though was that her first crown just wouldn't stay on and then the second one hurt her head.  So we found the jeweled headband in our Halloween bucket and grabbed the two inch hem I took off her dress (she's so little!) and tied it to her ponytail.  It turned out great.  She especially loved the bow.

my adorable children!

Now we are not pictured, but I was a night fairy with Evie to help her be more comfortable.  And I got to wear my awesome black pleather boots that I bought last year.  I wore my boots, black dress, and a pair of little blue wings.  Not my best costume I admit, but it was the motherly thing to do and I'm proud of that.  Chris didn't dress up this year as anything but a very busy, tired, and happy father of five!

Apparently our new neighborhood, Onizuka, is crazy about Halloween.  There were so many people out walking around and so many houses decorated.  Most of the houses were just a lot of fun, but some were pretty scary.  My kids just got tons of candy this year because of the double holiday.  We had such a blast and Chris got all excited to really go all out for the next year!  Wish him luck!  All of a sudden I remember the light up black cat we got for our wedding in '01.  Darn we don't have that cat anymore.  Chris is going to be upset!

We had a great Halloween.  Hope you did too!