Ally's Birthday

Today is Ally's birthday and I can hardly believe it.  My little girl - adorable, cuddly,little girl - turns 2 today.  I am a bit surprised by how fast this last year has gone.  I still remember her last birthday in Sumter with all of our friends there.  And now we're here in Hawaii with a whole different set of friends.  It's so strange.  The really crazy part is how fast her little life has gone already.

She is still one of the most unique kids in our family and while her relaxed go with the flow temperment still holds true, it's now punctuated with her characteristic smile and giggle as she says, "no".  Even good kids are not exempt from the traditional terrible two's.  Her "terrible" is quite a bit more mild than some others, but hers is very annoying nonetheless.  Running away when in need of a diaper change, hitting, biting (a little), and ripping off her own diapers whenever she feels like it all fit into the mold of a two-year old.

We are so glad she came to our home.  What cracks me up is to look back at when she was first born and to see how the dynamic with each kid has changed.  Evie, of course, still adores Ally (except when she is chasing Al around the house trying to get a toy back).  Joe and Al LOVE to be together all the time.  They just really seem to get along well (except when Ally hits him for no reason).  Liz and Al get along really well at this point, but being the closest in age to Al they disagree and scream the most.  What's great is that since Al's last birthday, she is no longer the baby in the house.  She LOVES Vaughn and neither one sleeps very well without the other in the room.  They giggle and laugh and talk to each other now that he can peek over the railing of his crib.  It's super cute and reminds me that five really is a good number.

Happy Birthday my little Alexandra!

A Fosburg Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!  I hope you had as great a day as we did.

Chris did a great job.  On Monday for FHE (family home evening) we watched a little video on mormon.org about loving and showing love.  He asked a couple questions that got some great answers.

Chris: so what is something that you saw in the video?
Joe: the dad and the brother were playing together.
Eve: the people were being nice.
Liz: playing!

Then Chris talked about Valentine's day and the kids said that the day is all about showing love.  It was a great conversation and I was so pleased to hear how well my kids understood the purpose of Valentine's day and being kind to each other.

By the time Valentine's had come the kids had been practicing showing love all week.  They had done some great things for each other and for mom and dad.

We had some fun activities planned for the day for school.  We began by coloring some great Valentine's day pictures.  After each child presented their picture they got a little heart treat.  Next we played a game of CandyLand.  The kids had a great time and were super silly.  Each kid practiced several skills like counting, colors, taking turns, sharing, and being good sports - both as the winner and loser of the game.  Of course, all of those skills required more heart treats.  Then we played a rousing game of "Mommy says..." which then needed some awesome treats...more candy hearts!

So as the kids were munching the hearts we had a moment of real school lesson and we discussed the invention of Valentine's day.  We talked about how it used to be a religious day to remember certain people (like St. Valentine) who were kind and good and obedient to God's commandment to "love one another."  Then I introduced them to Geoffrey Chaucer and how he wrote a story that changed Valentine's day into a day to "show love" to those around us.  We talked about how Chaucer helped add the idea of hearts, candy, roses and cupid to Valentine's day.  Then we reviewed what activities we had done so far.  We colored pictures with hearts in them.  We had eaten a lot of candy as rewards.

The next activity included an art project.  We made heart mobiles with lots of decorations and nice sayings on them.  Just before we finished daddy surprised us with an amazing bouquet of red roses, red carnations, and tiger lilies.  It was so beautiful and reinforced our earlier point about the flowers as part of the special day.

After lunch and daddy went back to work, the kids ran outside to trade Valentine's treats with their friends.  It was so cute.  To finish off our day of "showing love" we helped out a military/LDS family who's moving have a romantic evening by watching their three adorable kids.  Our kids had a great holiday and we enjoyed serving someone together as a family.

When everyone went home and the kids went to bed, Chris was ready to hang out and I was ready to sleep for an eternity.  Thankfully, my wonderful husband was kind enough to let me move our fun to the next night which is date night anyway.  We are going to watch the new "Total Recall" (his pick) and just hang out.  Can't wait.

Hope you all had as great a day as we did!  Loves to you all!  And don't forget, it doesn't need to be Valentine's day for you to "show love"!

Merry Christmas!

I didn't take a ton of pictures because it's Christmas and I have been a bit busy.  I'm sure I could've taken more, I just don't know where they are.  I'll update when/if I find them!

Santa was awfully good to our kids this year and mommy and daddy certainly didn't hold back either!  Just take a look!

The kids all got the blocks for the holiday from Santa.  They play with them all the time!  Sometimes it's a castle and sometimes it's a road track and sometimes it's a pit for monsters to hide from the heroes!

Joe got the Hot Wheels of course!  He loves the monster trucks still.  Ever since he and daddy went to a monster truck event in Columbia SC.  Crazy!

 Evie is so into Brave.  Chris took her and the other older kids to see the movie and it's been a favorite ever since.  Good thing Santa pays attention!

Santa brought the puzzle for Ally.  The other gifts were all so beautifully wrapped.

 Santa remembered our little V too!  He got these great animal puppets.  They are some of Vaughn's favorite things to play with.

 Lizzy and Ally also received the adorable Dora the Explorer backpack and then Ally got the Weebles tree house!  You should've seen they're faces!

 Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!  We were so blessed this year!

A couple days later we received a great package from Grama and Grampa Fosburg!  Aren't they so cute?  I used to laugh at families that had all their kids looking the same and now I totally understand the appeal!  What a cute group.