The Forrester Family

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly...the move

2012-02-10T20:35:00.005-06:00

I think that I am just now processing...

The Good

1) A neighborhood full of children
2) A Mother's Morning Out program that is ABSOLUTELY amazing!
3) A Sunday school that when Ethan leaves he says "Can we go to more church?"
4) Being able to see our family regularly
5) A house that feels warm and cozy
6) Having a basement!!!

The Bad

1) Spending extreme $$ replacing sewer lines the week after we bought the house
2) Having hay for a front yard due to said sewer lines
3) Ethan asking to go see his Texas friends, then stopping to say "no, they are too far away"
4) Missing our Texas family
5) Mommy and Daddy not loving the new church quite as much as our old church

The Ugly
Not figuring out a schedule that is conducive to working out!

Naptime Shenanigans

2012-02-08T18:46:00.002-06:00

My apologies for the poor picture quality, but this was too cute!

I had just put Ethan down for his nap this afternoon and was about to put Caden down when I realized that Ethan had gotten out of his bed and was laying on the floor behind his door. Caden crawled straight to his door and sat in front of it "talking" to him. If you look carefully, you can see Ethan's hand just barely showing under the door. I'm so disappointed that I didn't catch the picture of Caden touching his hand, but it was precious to watch them.

...until Caden noticed Mommy taking pictures and became more interested in what I was doing. I absolutely adore this precious boy!!!

January Gingerbread

2012-01-29T14:52:00.005-06:00

Who said Gingerbread houses were only for the Christmas season? With potty-training going on, we have been trying to stay active at home. And since Christmas was so hectic with moving and getting settled, we never got around to putting ours together. It looked quite interesting by the time we were finished. Ethan kept trying to lick everything before he stuck it on the gingerbread house even though I tried to explain that it would not stick after he had licked it. At least it provided some entertainment for a short time :-)

While we were working on the gingerbread house, brother was doing a little exploring. He found Lucy's water bowl and it is now the first place that he goes whenever he's put down. Considering that his favorite thing to do is splash in the bathtub, he's absolutely fascinated with this mini- bathtub.

Atlanta Children's Museum

2012-01-29T14:36:00.007-06:00

While Mommy and Caden had a relaxing Saturday at home, Daddy and Ethan made the trip down to the Atlanta Children's Museum. Since Ethan has been potty-training, I truly thought that they would only be gone for a few hours but they spent the entire day downtown! They ventured over to Centennial Park to hear the trombones play and had lunch at the CNN Center, too. Daddy wore him out and they made the most of this no nap day!

Extra, Extra! Read All About It

2012-01-22T22:10:00.003-06:00

I have finally caught up! 8 new posts on the blog today documenting the last couple of months of craziness! Whew!!! Hopefully life will be published a little more regularly now.

Potty Training in Progress

2012-01-22T21:47:00.004-06:00

So, here's our big boy in his big boy underwear. He have been in our house for a month now and I have put off the inevitable for as long as I can. I really feel like he has been ready for quite some time but with the move, finding a house, and the chaos of life, I have been delaying this until things have settled down. Well, Mimi came into town this weekend and we had our Potty Party! He wasn't into helping potty train Bear, so we went straight into our big boy underwear. Although he didn't want to put them on to begin with, Mimi was able to make it happen. Once he got into his Thomas undies, he had no problem going pee-pee on the potty! We had a couple of accidents, but ended the day celebrating with dinner at the Mall and a ride on the carousel with Mimi. By the way, this boy loves juice and Skittles...2 things that he NEVER gets.

Unfortunately, Mommy was trying to get our table for dinner so I didn't get a picture of the ride with Mimi on the carousel but this is one that we took with Daddy a few nights earlier.

Our New House

2012-01-22T20:49:00.008-06:00

December 17th was moving day and since then we have been busily making this house our home. I truly underestimated the amount of time I thought it was going to take to get settled into our new house. Christmas and 2 little ones definitely slowed things down, but it now has turned into a comfortable, cozy home to raise our family in. I'm not sure why, but this house feels more like home than any other house we have ever lived. It's most certainly not as big or as nice as our house in Texas was, but there's a comfort in this house that I have never felt before.

One of our first priorities was to remove the dead trees in the backyard. It was amazing watching this guy climb to the top of the 80 foot trees, cut, and drop the pieces to the team on the ground below. Both Ben and my brother kept repeating, "That's a real man."

This is where Ethan and Caden hung out with Aunt Lynn during moving day. Unfortunately, SpongeBob happened to be on and that is not something that we would normally watch.

And here's the house...

We have some clean-up and landscaping to do outside and lots of projects that we would like to do on the inside. Eventually, they will all get done but the night that we moved in the commode in the powder room overflowed and we discovered that there was a blockage in the sewer line on the outside of the house. So, Merry Christmas to us, we bought new sewer lines!! JOY JOY JOY. I HAD NO IDEA HOW EXPENSIVE THEY ARE! Needless to say, many of our projects are on hold now.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-22T19:58:00.024-06:00

Moving day was December 17th and Christmas was right around the corner. Needless to say we were still moving in and getting settled, but thanks to Nana Lynda, we had a Christmas tree waiting for Santa! Here's the loot before the munchkins came downstairs in OUR NEW HOME!

His reaction was priceless! Notice the random plant stand and rugs sitting in the picture...proof that we were still not settled.

Love his excitement!

Even Daddy was excited!

Look at this little one's excitement, too!

Love, Love, Love that Caden was old enough to get into the spirit of Christmas and got a kick out of tearing the paper!

Love this boy!

Ethan's "Cheese" face

Two peas in a pod

After Christmas at our house and naps, we headed to Alabama for Christmas in Guntersville with Mimi, Maw-Maw, Uncle Chad and Aunt Ashley. It was so awesome to be close enough to just hop in the car and drive a few hours to get to family and not have a long drive through the night.

A couple of days later, everyone trooped back over to our house for Christmas with Grandad. Ethan couldn't get enough of Grandad's boots.

Uncle Chad and Aunt Ashley showing off one of Ethan's new toys.

Both boys are sooooo into cars and trucks right now!

This little guy got a ride-on Mater

Christmas Party and Program at School

2012-01-22T19:31:00.011-06:00

We LOVE LOVE LOVE our school. Miss Connie and Miss Traci are the absolute best and Ethan gets so excited when he knows that he is going to get to see them! Here's a couple of pictures from the Christmas party and his Christmas program.

Look at this face..."Really Mommy, I have a cupcake to eat. I don't have time for a picture." By the way, we closed on our house the same day as the party and there were 4 contractors at our house while Caden and I were at Ethan's party. No kidding, my phone rang 12 times in an hour...every one of them was something about the house!

Then there was the Christmas program. Ethan was such a card! When I dropped him off at school the day they returned after the program, the first thing that was said when he got out of the car was, "There's the star of the show!" Let's just say that everyone at Shadowbrook knows him and he cracks up Connie and Traci every day!

He spent his entire time on stage waving, laughing, dancing around, and yelling "Hey Mama." Traci did her best to contain him! I have a longer video but here's the abbreviated version. Ben said Ethan's dance skills in this video remind him of a scene from the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou"

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

2012-01-22T19:19:00.008-06:00

We started getting in the Christmas spirit this year by helping Aunt Wanda put up the Christmas tree. Ethan was really into it and super excited to help!

Excuse the poor picture quality, but I thought that this one of Wanda holding him while he wears the antlers was too cute not to post.

Then we went and had our Christmas pictures made for the Christmas cards that Mommy went ahead and ordered with our new address on them before we even closed on the house. Let's just say that Mommy was ready!

And among other undocumented Christmas crafts and activities, we made it out to Lake Lanier Islands to see the Magical Night of Lights. We put the boys in their PJ's, got some dinner to eat while we looked, and got some "covers" for the ride through the park. Ethan LOVED looking at all of the lights and characters and Caden thought that it was just as fascinating. I thought that he would fall asleep, but he stayed awake the entire time looking at everything as we passed it. Unfortunately it was dark in the car and this was the only picture that even halfway turned out.

Caden Updates

2012-01-22T19:04:00.009-06:00

This little boy is pure joy and almost always smiling!

He is finally beginning to venture out and try new foods. He no longer fits in the Bumbo and it has been put away since he has started sitting up and crawling.

He loves to see what's going on around him

He has figured out what has brother so entertained in the car and is making the best of his rear-facing car seat

He absolutely loves playing at bathtime and has outgrown the baby bathtub

Aunt Wanda

2012-01-22T18:56:00.004-06:00

This is our Aunt Wanda. Without her, our transition and homelessness would have been extremely stressful. She absolutely adores these boys and would do anything for them! We love her so much and are so thankful for her generosity during our house hunt.

We even got to go visit her at work one day. Ethan was enthralled and completely made himself at home in her office. By the end of the visit, he had found his new favorite thing...the paper shredder.

The Transition

2012-01-22T18:32:00.012-06:00

While we were in transition from Texas to Georgia, we tried our best to stay busy and entertain the boys. We took advantage of our time outside while the weather was nice.

Piedmont Park

Dunwoody Park

Spending the day in Helen

And of course, there was always Mickey Mouse mornings. We don't usually sit on top of the bar.

And we can't forget about playing next door with Drew and all of the cool big boy toys

Little Turkeys

2011-11-23T12:21:00.009-06:00

We are thankful for our little turkeys this Thanksgiving. Last week, Ethan had his Thanksgiving Feast at his new school. They worked so hard to get him ready for it and he stood up on stage with all of the other boys and girls and danced along to the songs just like they did! Mommy had tears in her eyes watching her big boy!

After the program, he was way too cool to look at the camera for Mommy...

but decided that brother would look better wearing his turkey hat.

We had such a wonderful time at his school and absolutely loved that Mimi was able to share the experience with us. It is times like these that make me realize exactly why we left Texas and returned to our family. We miss our far away family, but sharing these moments with aunts, uncles, and grandparents are priceless!

Here is a 1 minute video of our little turkey singing and dancing to the J-O-Y song. About 30 seconds into the video, the little guy beside him blocks his view and Ethan let him know that he didn't like it one bit! I am so thankful for his new school and Ms. Connie and Ms. Traci. He loves them so much that he even asks to go to school now!! ( I have tried to upload it for a week now without any luck, but I will keep trying!)

It's Pickin' Time

2011-11-09T20:34:00.007-06:00

"Our" backyard is an oasis. Ethan and Lucy cannot get enough of it! There are tons of plants, flowers, and fountains for Ethan to play in and with and an abundant number of birds and squirrels that drive Lucy crazy. The other day Ethan went on a hunt to pick one of every color of flower in the front and back yard.

While brother was busy picking flowers, this little guy was happy as a clam following after him in Mommy's arms.