Foster Care

Well, we have been going through the process of adoption with LDS Family Services for a year and a half (no leads there), so last May we decided to start the foster care licensing process to see about growing our family that way. There is always a lot of paper work involved and interviews, home checks, special rules, etc. We got locks on everything that could possibly hurt anyone and even some locks on things we don't think could hurt anyone, but by law still have to lock up (ever heard of anyone having problems with laundry detergent?). We met a really great case worker through a series of events that could not have been a coincidence, and got licensed a couple of months ago. We just met a great girl on Monday and she is visiting with us to see if we would be a good fit for her. When children are older, they get to be in on the process to help them have a better experience. The state wants the kids to stay in one home and avoid disruption (which means they move to a different foster home) and this is one way to do that. We feel really great about her and get to meet with her again next week. It's so great to think we might soon be having another person in our family. She's older and it might not lead to adoption, but we have so much to give a child and it seems such a waste to not share it. It is very exciting for us and we pray for the Lord's hand to guide those involved, even if they are unaware they are being guided.
We look forward to seeing what happens in the next weeks and months and will keep you updated!

For Thanksgiving we are having our great niece Katie here, Megan another great girl and BYU student and our dear friend Steph. We love having the girls here and will miss our niece Jill who is off with a girlfriend for the holiday. Ellie loves having the girls here and has been waiting all week for them to come (which is a long time for a 3 year old!) She tells me they take too long. Katie came yesterday and it's already a party! I love to entertain and have good food, games and fun with my family. Thanks for coming girls! Doug is off for 5 days and it's awesome! Life is good. We are happy and trying to find ways to make others happy too.

Summer Fun

Wow! We have traveled so much this summer! We are back again from another vacation. My sister Jamie just finalized her adoption to her daughter Norah. It was so great and I am so glad I was there. As long as we were going to Minnesota we decided to stay a couple weeks. It was a long time away from Doug, but we really enjoyed seeing so much family! It was awesome! We saw Doug's sister Ann and her family, Doug's brother Tom and his family, my parents, sister and her husband and Norah, my aunt and uncle, cousin and husband to be, grandma, great uncle Billy and his granddaughter Danielle and my sister's brother and sister in law and daughter, and mom/dad in law. Whew! It was a blast. We went to mall of America, Como Zoo, Oxbow Park, played with friends, court date for finalization, games, and lots of fun. It was definitely time to come home, but we miss everyone already. We love MINNESOTA! We look forward to our time there as a whole family at Christmas.

We have more fun coming up as we plan for our trip to North Carolina and Washington D.C.


Norah! So stinking cute! She is a messy eater though! She is so happy all the time. Sweet baby girl. We love baby Norah. I just want to kiss her every time I see her! Love those cheeks!
This is Ellie and her friend Isabelle walking in a park. We love Belle!



Grandma and Grandpa Arlander at the zoo with El.

Como Zoo was beautiful. Ellie wasn't too interested that day, but we still had fun.


Ellie loves cotton candy!

Rochester Fair on the rides!

Mall of America with Grandma Dawn, Aunt Diane, Ellie and Carson
Jimette and I took a self portrait. It was so great to visit.

Schoonies

I normally don't blog to just one family or person, but Ashlie, I didn't get your email and I don't know how to get on your blog... so here's my newest email, which you might not have! theforsgrenfam@gmail.com
Look forward to seeing all that's going on. I wish I'd gotten it sooner!

Good News!?!

I don't know what this means yet, but I think it might be good news! I check our profile on LDS family services web site for birth moms to view every so often. I just like to see if someone could find us with specific criteria or how many people have viewed us to see if we are ever looked at. Tonight I was frustrated because I typed in criteria that should have brought us up for people to see. But no matter what I put in (eventually I just put our names) there was no profile to view. A light clicked, "hey maybe we're on a soft hold!" That just means some one is considering us and so they don't want someone else to pick us so two girls don't choose the same family. We might not be choosen, so it's just a soft hold. A hard hold is that we are choosen and when that happens they call. No call, so I am thinking maybe it's a soft hold! It's encouraging just to know people are considering us. I don't know if the reason we are not able to see our profile is because of this or not (when they did hard copies of profiles in the office they only let one birth mother look at you at a time so that's why I am guessing its the same on-line. Of course, it could be technical difficulties or whatever, so I called and left a message! We'll see:)

Blogs

I know I don't have everyone's blogs! If you don't see yours on my list on the right then let me know! I need Nicole's and Ashlie's for sure... Ryan I need yours too. And several others! Send me your link or email me, especially if you have a password or something in order to view it! Thanks everyone! I love keeping up with blogs!

New Discovery

So, I miss living close to my family, but the longer I live in Utah the more things I discover that are AWESOME and help me deal with being so far away. Of course, hiking and camping, mission friends/college friends, food storage supplies, church stuff I need 2 miles away, and now.... A PRODUCE CO-OP! I got all this for $15. Greatest thing of my life!

My Veggies...


My fruit...
For an extra $7.50, an Italian package...

egg plant, fresh herbs, mushrooms, onions, zucchini squash, garlic! awesome!
We eat like Kings! I have to decide what to cook after I see what's in my basket and it's fun to plan a menu like that. If you live in Utah, check out bountifulbaskets.org. You can order every other week and it's on line. You can only order the wednesday before pick up. That will be the 27th for the next one. You pay on line and pick up at the closest location near you. Mine happens to be up the street about 3 minutes. Good Stuff!

Let the Summer Fun Begin!

We took our first camping trip of the year and it was so great! Just the three of us. We all love the water, eating outside and setting up camp.






Funny Story...

So, I love a fire camping. It is camping. I love a big fire! I like to see flames. Doug thinks I'm a pyro, but it is so beautiful and they are just good memories. So, I start collecting a bunch of sticks from around the camp and I put them on the fire to make it have more flames. Even though I know they won't last I still do it because we don't have really in between sizes just twigs and BIG logs.


As I am doing this Doug says to me, "hey, save some for morning". I start laughing so hard! I could barely talk and I say to Doug, "are you serious? Look around camp. There couldn't be anymore wood!" I was laughing for at least a half an hour after that. I even took some pictures so everyone could see the "shortage".




We joked about it the whole trip. So funny. I love making memories. The next day we went hiking to the wind caves. Beautiful! You climb 900 feet in 2 miles, so it's intense, but great. I think we did pretty well for our first hike of the season. This is the last year Doug is carrying Ellie on his back. She's a big girl:) While we were hiking, I of course needed some breaks. I was behind Doug and El and called out to stop and when we were resting Ellie says to me, "mom, my arm's tired from hiking." Really? I feel bad for you kid. That must be a tough ride on dad's back! Ha!

Dress Up Queen

Ellie LOVES to dress up! She wears dress up clothes more than regular clothes! She loves to be a princess and wear dresses. She LOVES shoes, too. We have had to create some rules.
1. No dress up clothes outside to play (we did that once and they were soooo dirty!)
2. No dress clothes when we eat (we did that once and they got covered!)
3. No dress up clothes up stairs. She wants to wear then 24/7. Kills me:)

Seattle Trip

This is such a beautiful waterfall in Washington. It's not far from Mike and Jessica's place. Definately one of the highlights of the trip:)
On our ferry ride over to Vashon...
The LDS church owns property on Vashon Island called Morningside Farm... 110 acres of beautiful woods and grounds. You can camp and hold events there. There's hiking and a pond and a great play area. I really miss living here and could call it home forever.

Seattle Trip

We had a great time visiting Mike and Jessica in Seattle this last week for Spring break! We took a ferry over to Vashon Island to see where I worked for BYU Idaho on Morningside Farm. It was as beautiful as I remember and we loved it so much!
It was such a nice visit, just hanging out, seeing the sights and being with family! Thanks for taking such good care of us Mike and Jessica!
We loved meeting the boys... we hadn't met Aaron or Owen before and they are so fabulous!


Riding the ferry over to Vashon Island

Our sweet nephew Aaron....

Ellie loved the boat!

All the cousins having fun! The guy in the front is Owen, a bundle of fun. Like is the tallest one and we loved seeing him, too! Ellie was quite out numbered, but she fit right in the boys:)

Aprons

I love aprons! I have recently been making them and it is so fun. I love the process and the finished product that I can use every day. I like to match my apron to my clothes:) so I need a lot! I am trying new patterns and fabrics. I have a lot I want to make still. I think aprons are so useful and cute. People don't utilize them now a days like our grandmothers did. I am trying to bring them back! I use 30's prints to make them remind me of the olden days... it is great. I totally recommend an apron for your daily duties.



This pattern is called the church ladies apron. Love it!

Love this old fabric! So apronish... don't you think?!


P.S.
Take a look at Ellie's Birthday Pictures! She went with Saydee Lou, her little friend, and they had them taken together.

www.thesmilestation.com
Emily Forsgren
Access Code: LTTT0894111214TAR

Five Fun Treasures

My sister in law, Sonnet, posted an opportunity for 5 fabulous people to get a great surprise. I thought the idea was so fun I decided to do the same... Here's the basics of how to participate.

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It’ll be done this year. {translation: you may be waiting a little while}
4. You have no clue what it’s going to be … it may be an apron, a recipe book, a scarf, a poem, a bookmark, something yummy or a complete surprise to you (and me!) … who knows? not you, that’s for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

I can't wait to see who I will have the chance to make these gifts for! I love gifts, especially homemade ones:) Feel free to do the same on your blog- it's very fun!

Mandarin Oranges

Today Ellie ate Mandarin Oranges for lunch and ate, without too much trouble, a bite of a turkey wrap sandwich, too! Every little food she will try is a success worth writing about! We are so glad she is eating more food...

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Ellie turns 3! She had 3 birthday parties! I hope this isn't going to be a tradition... three birthday parties when you turn 3... four birthday parties when you turn 4...

She had so much fun and her friends were sooo nice to her! Thanks Sunni and Rochelle for the parties! This is Ellie with her cake that Rochelle made. It is fit for a princess:)

Ellie is potty trained now, thanks to Sunni and she is eating so much more variety and quantity too, also thanks to Sunni! We love the Ngo's! You can take Ellie for the weekend any time... next I would like you to teach her how to stop throwing fits.

Shop til you Drop

Bringing these girls up right! We hit the mall today and got some great treasures, including these fabulous sunglasses for the girls:)

Winter Fun

Girl friends
It's not yellow at least:)
Mylee and Halle
Mylee loves the camera!
Ellie and Saydee Lou

We love the snow! Ellie is happiest playing outside... we are so lucky to have so many friends so close who can play, too!

Saydee is 4!

We had Saydee's birthday party at our house with a bunch of friends! It was so fun!

Our Sweet Girl!

Ellie wears her glasses upside down. Cracks me up every time. I will be sad when she starts to wear them the right way:)




When she opened her cowboy hat at Christmas she did not like it! Ha! But, she loves it now!
Thanks grandma:)

FINISHED!

Ellie's room is painted and so cute with the blanket grandma made!
Ellie only sleeps in her tent now. It takes up most of her room and she is so happy!


Our basement is finished and looks so great! We use it everyday.