Challenges and Blessings

I haven't updated in a long time... life has been strained a bit lately, but has calmed down since Thursday. We had a foster care placement at the beginning of February that was a challenge for us and took all my time and energy. She has gone back as a trial period with her mom and we hope all goes well for them. As of now, we have our life back to normal and there has been an instant change in the feeling at our home. It was a challenge for all of us, but especially hard for Ellorie.

I burned my hands (yes plural) on Mother's Day, a week before a Stake Women's Fair I was in charge of. It wasn't the first both hands had been unusable in my life:) My mom came to help me though and that was a life saver. It's hard to wash dishes, change diapers and do any tasks without hands! They healed quickly and I was blessed it wasn't worse than it was.
The Women's Fair was a great success! Check out all the info and recipes at... www.clearfieldstakewomensfair.blogspot.com

Our household had a lot of sickness during the month of May, too. Everyone, including my mom, was throwing up and other not so good effects of the stomach flu. Chloe and Ellorie got double ear infections and Chloe had to have steriods and breathing treatments for 10 days. She has asthma and is on them now for a while. But she is back to her happy, wonderful self:) We are blessed through her adoption to have medical coverage because of being born on meth.

We are back to normal around here and so happy about it. The girls and I are going to Minnesota for vacation while Doug has Youth Conference and Scout Camp. We are excited to see family!! Then we are home for a few days, then off to North Carolina to see my brother and his wife and then to a Forsgren reunion in Virginia! Great start to summer:) Ellie can't wait to see all her cousins! We just want the fun to start and can't wait either!

My garden is doing well, we have been eating the most delicious lettuce of my life from it this week! Its so fun to have a garden. I am especially excited for canning this year. I am out of a lot of goods, and Chloe doens't like store bought peaches:) Spoiled girl!

Check out the blog I posted... there are some amazing recipes, especiallyfor bread! We have been eating like Kings around here, we just bought half a beef and a pig and I have never had such amazing meat in my life. I can't wait for visitors and company for dinner later this summer!

Our Day in Court

Well, things didn't go quite as planned yesterday. After 6 months, the birth mother showed up in court with the supposed birth father. The case worker hadn't met her before (they looked for the mom but she made herself disappear that last half a year) and was surprised to see her there. It changed the plans, having her there. Jenny (our case worker) doesn't think it will change the eventual outcome, that we will adopt Khloie, but that it will make it a longer, more drawn out case. Awesome. The State has already set in motion their plan and recomendation to terminate the birth mom's rights and have us adopt Khloie and is still going forward with that plan. If the mom and her recently appointed public attorney want to state their case, they can do that. We have a pre-trial September 30th in the afternoon when the State will make their recommendations and if it is contested by the mom, we will set a trial date for both sides to present their case. I'm not sure what her's will be to be honest, but nonetheless, she can do it. She would have had a way better chance to have her daughter back if she would have actually showed up to visits, appointments, and her legal responsibilities in drug court. But she disappeared, so here we are. It's been a hard day... we are holding up though and praying a lot. Thanks for all your concern, love and prayers for our family. We will update after court the 30th...

Just a little longer...

Our beautiful girl is a little closer to being ours forever. We have a court date set for September 15th! The judge will terminate birth parent rights and set an adoption date at this hearing. We are looking at the end of December to finalize, if the courts agree... sometime around Christmas.We couldn't be happier!
Everyone who meets Khloie loves her:) She is a rollie pollie bug, going all over the place. She is starting the beginning phases of crawling and is trying to get up on her knees. She always has smiles and is so happy. She is wearing 12 month clothes and is growing every day. Her hair is getting lighter and she is a beautiful ray of sunshine in our lives. Ellie is a fantastic big sister and helps take good care of her baby sister. We couldn't be happier!
9 more days to go...

My Projects

I have become a big fan of sewing. I love it! I love to create treasures to use in my house, for my daughter and as gifts! I love to make aprons, decorate dish towels, make hair clips and bows, toys, scarves, bags, clothes and I am learning more all the time.

The greatest invention ever... the ruffle/gathering food. It does my ruffling in no time, looks great and is so easy (now that I have figured it out). I don't know how I lived without it! If I was to have a job and didn't have to worry about kids, I would sew and have a little shop of some kind. Until then, I will continue my work here, getting my 10-30 minutes to sew when I can.

Here's some of my work. If you know anyone who wants to order something from me, let me know! I love to sew and will give them a price quote.




Ellie's half apron, by request. She's already starting to tell me what she wants just like Jamie and I do to my mom! She cracks me up:) the ruffle is a nice deep pleat. Looks great, huh!

The Perfect Date

Doug and I had the best date for Valentines! We drove up to Logan and stayed in the Marriott Spring Hills Suite. It is such a great hotel. Doug had flowers delivered to the room before we got there and they are so beautiful! We went to dinner at Le Nonna's which is the best Italian restaurant here in Utah. The chef was born in Tuscany and is amazing! I had crab stuffed ravioli in a cream sauce. Yummy! My friend in Logan, Annette, had Ellie stay there and so everyone was happy. We went to the temple the next morning and ate a great breakfast at the hotel. It was the best date ever! Good job, Doug! He is my forever Valentine. I love you honey.

The New Year

We had a great vacation in Minnesota visiting both of our families. We always enjoy late nights with the big screen at Jamie and Ryan's and playing Wii at John and Ann's and the games we play with everyone. We received a new game from Ann's family called Split. If you like card games, this is a must have! It is so fun. We taught it to my family and they loved it too. Ellie was a trooper, as always, traveling so far. We drive straight through the night and she hardly slept, but when we got to grandpa and grandma's she was ready for a fun filled day. She really loves her family! We had a wonderful time and we are always sad to leave.

Now we are back in the swing of things, Doug had his first week back at school and starts more classes for his program at Utah State tomorrow. Agh, another crazy semester is about to begin, but next year this time we will be DONE! With EVERYTHING! Yeah! He is such a great man working so hard to get more education and training to provide for us. We never take that for granted.

We are still waiting to hear about adding someone to our family. The girl we talked about last month decided against us. We thought we'd have a foster child by now, but we haven't gotten any calls so we are just waiting on that. No calls from LDS Family Services either. We will let everyone know when we do, until then we just wait.

We are excited for a new year! Everything is pretty much the same in our lives except for our church responsibilities. I now serve with the children as the Primary President and Doug no longer serves as the Young Men's President, but now works in Cub Scouts. Ellie turns 4 March 2nd and that will be fun. We are giving her a birthday party and she is inviting some friends! We are really looking forward to summer and all the fun that comes with it!

Happy New Year Everyone!

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.