The Forrester Family

Our New House

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

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

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

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

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

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.