Alexandra: My Growing Girl

I can't believe I am writing this post.  It seems like just a few months ago and my sweet Ally - who I totally adore - was born.  She was so cute.  I can't say little because after three small kids, Ally at 9lbs was just not small to me.  


Anyway, I'm super happy to write this post since it shows how far my "little" girl has come in just a short time.  The month of April was a great time for Alexandra.  Besides celebrating her second Easter, which was way more fun for her this year, she also had her first dentist appt, she finally began walking (yeah!), and then began to feed herself with a spoon!  It was a great month for her.

Evie is such a good big sister - 

got Ally all settled before I even signed in

Ally's first dentist appointment seemed to be going well for a little bit.  Unfortunately, the dentist saw the other three kids first for the check ups so by the time we got to Ally she was tired and cranky.  I think the next appt will be more successful.  She did get a good thumbs up though!

you can even see several of the many teeth she has

I am really happy to show everyone now that Ally is totally walking.  In February, right after her 1st birthday, Ally took her first steps.  She totally surprised her daddy and me since it came out of nowhere.  Then of course, I was all excited for a while, but she decided it was a one time deal for a long while.  Then all of a sudden the walking became a regular occurrence.  Who knew?  Isn't it great?

I think I am super excited about the walking for a couple reasons: one, I like the fact that she is a bit more self-portable and a bit more independent and two, I'm really happy it happened before we left Sumter.


I am also excited for Ally to begin feeding herself all on her own.  When the new baby comes I'm going to be a bit more occupied that I won't be able to help her eat.  Chris does a lot anyway, but I help often enough that I think the loss of my help won't be noticed as much.

 wow, that's some crazy hair

 she was very proud of herself, as were we!

Ally is certainly becoming more of a toddler and less of an infant.  I miss that part a bit, but I am so proud of her wonderful progress.  Loves for my newest TODDLER!

We're Moving!!!

So sometime around the end of February/early March we found out that we're moving this summer.  We were really excited to find out that we were going, but way more excited about where we are going.  

Within a few weeks we found out that our new duty station will be Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.  We are so thrilled.  Originally, Chris asked for some specifics on where I wanted to go so he could put it in his list.  Well, then I just got specific, you know, since he asked.  

We discovered that I basically want to live overseas, but I don't!  I want the fun of living far away, but the benefits of stateside assignments.  How is that possible, you ask?  Well, it's really not.  I wanted the medical system, the cost of living, the familiar language, but I like the extra pay, new adventures, and living on base too.  So guess where Heavenly Father sends us?  The ONLY location on the planet that qualifies as both stateside and over seas at the same time: Hawaii.  Isn't that crazy?

I was floored.  We have the benefits of the familiar language, medical, and familiar territory, plus easier family visiting for sure.  We also have the living allowance (COLA) and housing situation of over seas, which is really good.  Have you seen how much it costs to buy milk or find a house for 7 PEOPLE!  Sheesh!

So we are very excited, though I was quite nervous when we first got the official orders.  We were supposed to fly out around the 15th of June.  No problem right?  Uh, no, huge problem!  Baby Vaughn is due the 30th of May.  If you're doing your math, that means the week after I have a baby, I'm supposed to pack and leave the states.  Big no, no.


So after some investigation we were relieved to discover that this kind of thing has happened before.  We put in for a change of date - we are allowed up to 6 weeks after the baby comes to report to our next duty station.  We decided we didn't actually need the whole six weeks.  After some consultation with my doctor she gave me permission to fly no earlier than the 22nd of June.  So we put that as our date of leaving South Carolina.  Now, we have another opportunity!


We asked for a unique kind of flight to Hawaii.  The first, and for me, most important fact was cleared up pretty quickly.  If I'm flying that far so quickly after the baby, I refuse to fly with a kid in my lap.  I'm gonna be lucky to make it the whole flight in general.  So we have all seven of us set to have our own seats.  Whew!  The second unique characteristic of our flight to Hawaii, is that it flies out of the west coast, either Washington state or California.  We asked if we could fly out of Washington's McChord AFB in Seattle.  For those of you who haven't been following: both of our families live about 6 hrs from Seattle!  So when we get to Seattle, we are going to get a place for the night and rent a car.  Then we're going to drive the few hours to Spokane to visit our family for about 10 days.  Then we'll drive back to Seattle, stay a night, and fly out to our new duty station.  We are super excited: I think partly because it was a long shot idea to get to see our families in this way at all.  Now we're planning birthdays, the Fourth of July, and lots of other things.  


I am mostly excited to get to introduce all my loved ones to the last two of my kids: Alexandra and Vaughn.  It will be a great chance for us all to reconnect.  We've been home a bit, but we see each other in year increments at this point.  Maybe with the flights from our base to Seattle, we can see each other more often.  Who knows?  


We've even had some laughs about how everyone now wants to spend Christmas with us instead of us with them.  Who wouldn't want to be in Hawaii during a Spokane winter?  BRRRRRR!  I love warm! (that was another desire on my list - see how much the Lord loves my family?)


So, now everyone knows why my stress level is even higher than normal.  I have four little kids already, a fifth on the way, and a very large and unfamiliar move to make, plus a little mini vacation to plan.  Wow - just writing it down it seems crazy - even for me!  Good thing Chris is here. We have been using our calendars, and budgets, and prayers, and everything else to get this all organized, and do-able.  He is the only person I would actually believe when he says he's got everything covered.  We have a simple understanding at this point: I'm usually in charge of all the little details about doing such big things with our family.  Since having a baby is pretty much going to reduce my ability to do anything, Chris is in charge of EVERYTHING, but he will do fine.  I get to mention details I've thought of and he gets to tell me he's got it covered, or he's got to take care of it.  It's lucky for me I have a patient and understanding spouse.  I think he's really excited to take charge of all this.  I'm excited, but real nervous too.  I am not the kind of girl who is sidelined easily, even for a baby.


Ok, all done with Tamy reveals.  Welcome to the craziness that is our current life now!  We just cleared the medical board and should have our new official orders by next week.  We are super excited.  Once we get those dates for sure, we get to move things along with housing (on base, we hope) and flights (like we're wanting, we hope) and telling our landlord (getting our deposit back, we hope).  See, lots of we hopes and not enough all dones.  Wish us luck and we'll keep you posted.  


*this moving and baby having is also one of the main reasons why I've been going overboard on the posting catch ups!  Thx for being patient!

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!

Welcome the Fosburgs to 2012!

So we finally made it to the New Year!  It's been such a great one so far.


With our family as young and constantly changing as it is, every day and every week there is something new going on.  This post is all about some of the random great things we've been doing.  Here we GO!!!

For some reason I found Lizzy under here this day.  Still haven't got a clue as to why.  Any takers?  It was so funny to come into the bedroom, knowing Lizzy was napping, but not being able to find her.  Cracked me up.  She is such a sound sleeper sometimes!

Then there's this adorable video.  The whole family was being so loud I couldn't figure out what was going on.  Then I grabbed my camera as quickly as possible.  See if you can figure it out!

You guessed it!  The whole family is cheering for Ally as she practices walking.  Isn't that wonderful?  She will never remember this, but she'll always know how loved she is!

Then there's the advent of the BEDS!  For Christmas Nana and Papa helped us get new bed sets for our kids.  Evie got princess, of course, Joe got Spider man, Liz got Tinkerbell for her toddler bed, and Ally got a new Winnie the Pooh pac n' play so V could have the crib.  I was so excited to get these big kid beds finally.  We used our tax return which I was able to get done so much earlier this year.  The bunk beds will not stay like this (we hope) forever, but for now they help us with our serious space issue.

 We had so much fun 'giving' them this surprise.  It took us almost a full week to purchase, get home, and put together.  So glad they liked it after all that work!  Now they build forts off the top (thanks to mom!) and have their own personal space to be in a room that they are currently sharing.  Both kids HAVE to ask permission to be on each other's beds.  It's been a good thing for Evie's independence and Joe's growing into a big kid.  


I'm so proud of all of my kids as they get bigger.  I originally thought Lizzy would have a hard time moving to the toddler bed, but unlike both Eve and Joe, she was so ready it was like that's where she'd been the whole time.  She's amazing.  I personally felt a lot better when Ally moved into her new bed.  She was beginning to climb out of the crib and for some reason, the older kids kept climbing in to get to her.  Not a good thing!  So now Ally can't climb out and the kids respect where she is - to a point.


These next pictures are of something we do every now and then.  With Chris and I loving video games the way we do (often our date nites are spent playing together) we often find games the kids might enjoy as free downloads.  This one is a carnival game with the PS3 move controller.  The kids love to participate and do a great job taking turns.  Normally, I'm not a fan of introducing our young children to electronics, but we do this as a family activity and it only lasts about 45 min.  The kids are also learning that these are things we do all together.  They rarely see daddy play video games alone, and he never plays inappropriate games (violence, language, etc) when the kids are around or awake to know.  He's a great dad who appreciates my sensitivity to their viewing habits.

 Eve is by far more capable with this than I imagined!

 Joe has been learning great hand-eye coordination in a fun way

Lizzy is just learning how the controller in her hand connects with the actions on the screen

It's amazing to see their learning curves!

 Even Ally participates - but mostly by clapping for the older kids and playing quietly with whatever they toss her way.

Later in the new year we got a great box from Aunt Katie with our family Christmas presents.  For those who are thinking, how shameful, just take a look at the amazing gifts!  

 the girls (all three) got these beautiful skirts - which Eve wears to ballet class every Monday...

 and Joe will hardly let his superhero blanket go for a few minutes so I can wash it!

Doesn't he look so cute?

At the beginning of February, my sweet Aunt Terry passed away.  She's my father's little sister.  His family was so kind and flew me, my sister, and my big brother out to Las Vegas to be there for him.  I was very grateful and for the second time in the same year, I travelled alone.  While I was gone, my great husband, being the awesome daddy that he is, kept me in touch with my adorable little ones.

this is Eve bearing her testimony during an FHE.  Isn't she so cute?

Chris and the kids always crack me up and I love seeing the fun things he does with them when I'm not around.  We do things differently, and while sometimes that's frustrating, in cases like these, it's invaluable.  Way to go Chris!!!

Then, we finally made it to Valentine's Day which is usually pretty low key for our family in general.  The kids were learning about the letter 'I' this day in school so we let Joseph write it on daddy's card.  Isn't it so great?

 daddy of course is always the perfect gift receiver!

 Once I got home I quickly helped daddy schedule his first ever BOYS DAY!  I found that Columbia was hosting a monster truck mash up at the local arena and that it was something we could totally afford.  I encouraged Chris to go with just Joseph, though I'm sure Eve would've liked it too.  Anyway, they both loved it!  Joe had so much fun he still includes the event in his prayers reminding Heavenly Father of the truck that rolled over and caught on fire.  Apparently it made a big impression on him.  I got a great picture out of it and Joe got a plastic purple mug shaped like a skull.  What a boy!

Aren't little boys great!?

So that was the beginning of our new year.  My kids are great!  I did some new things and some great things personally.  And my family benefited from a happy, relaxed, and enjoying life kind of mommy at this point!  Good for all of us and way to go daddy for being a great example of fatherhood and a supportive, loving husband!