Bringing Up Forstroms

Where Does the TIme Go?

2014-09-19T12:49:00.000-04:00

As I look at this blog it makes me sad to think that for the past 5 years or so I have not been keeping a record of all the fun and great times we are having as a family. I am not even sure where to start so I guess I will start with a picture and what it means to me

. We have started telling stories to our boys- especially Trenton, he loves them, and I realize that I do not remember things that I am sure were super cool. The boys have been having a blast looking at pictures and watching old videos. Here is my resolve to get back on track with keeping family records. My boys are pretty much awesome and I need to remember all the cool things they do. Here goes....

Built On The Rock

2014-05-10T12:58:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had experience that changed your life? Built on the Rock was our Youth Conference for Gavin and Caleb this year. They spent every other Sunday night and some Saturdays rehearsing for this amazing show. It is all about the Bok of Mormon. It takes these 4 teenagers on a walk and they talk about the things they are learning in Seminary and how the Book of Mormon applies to their life. Gavin had the role of Alma the Younger. Gavin was AMAZING at the part. It was one of those moments of a mom that you are SO PROUD. Beyond words, He spoke his parts with o much felling at heart. He talks to his son Helamen about how he was a wicked man but changed and followed God. Hello perfect story for kids. Its about building a testimony and know that you can always turn to the Lord. I think Gavins testimony grew from this experience.

Caleb played a wicked Priest with King Noah. He was FBULOUS as well. He only had one line but he rocked it. "We preach the law of Moses"- In his scene Alma- (Alma the Youngers father) is converted by Abinidi. Awesome scene. I can only HOPE AND PRAY that each of my boys will become converted to the gospel. Although we raise them in the church, I hope they have moments in their life when they know without a doubt the gospel is true and restored to the earth once more through the prophet Joseph Smith.

The show was powerful! The spirit was SO strong. We had friends and neighbors join us. Katie and her family, The Astorga and my whole family. It was a special time. Dave helped out a lot as he is in the Stake YMs presidency , He is awesome as usual. I love the Book of Mormon. I know it is true and powerful.

"Oh God, I believe him. I hear his words and I know"

Have you received a Mighty Change in your Heart?

Seek this Jesus, Come to the light

Never A Dull Moment

2011-06-13T12:19:00.003-04:00

No rest as of yet. With baseball season over for one day, (regular season that is- All stars starts tomorrow) it was time to register for football. CRAZY! Saturday we picked up gear for three boys to start football in August. This is Breckins first year. He finally has enough age points between age and weight to play rookies. Caleb will play cubs and Gavin is within 2 pounds of either sophomores or JV. They are excited to play especially these two. Trenton also loves to put the gear on and run around. GOOD TIMES in this house.

Whew!

2011-06-12T23:50:00.001-04:00

After a blog updating marathon I am exhausted.

Caleb Blue Jays

2011-06-11T16:00:00.004-04:00

Caleb played Coast Blue Jays. He had a great season. He is a force at the plate, behind the plate and on the mound.

Breckin Blue Jays

2011-06-11T15:52:00.003-04:00

Breckin played AAA Blue Jays. He had a great season. Their team finished first in season play. He is a great pitcher, catcher and hitter. Love to watch him play. He is so spunky.

Coach DAVE

2011-06-11T15:50:00.002-04:00

Dave managed the Mets this year. He is pretty much amazing. He LOVED every minute of coaching. Ok maybe not every minute but he has such passion for the game and the kids.

It's not always easy to coach your son. Dave manages Gavin well. I love that he wants to play with the boys all the time. :)

Gavin METS

2011-06-11T15:06:00.004-04:00

This year Gav played on the Mets. They won the regular season. Gavin was amazing on the mound. He was 8 for 8 pitching. His on base percentage is great. He gets on base, he scores.
In 3 straight games he was hit by pitch a total of 5 times. I love that I caught this one. He has quite a bruise collection.

Gluten Free Roller Coaster

2011-06-09T17:58:00.004-04:00

Since January we have been on a Gluten Free (GF) roller coaster. At a routine check up with Calebs endocrinologist, they did a Celiac screening. The lab results were positive. This started us on a path with GI. It took about 7 weeks to be seen there. Once we were seen we scheduled his trip into the hospital for an upper endoscopy. While waiting for his appointments, I decided to have a blood test done. The day after returning from Maui, my Dr. confirmed my blood test as positive. I was not really surprised. I had an endoscopy as well and my biopsy results were positive for Celiac. After Calebs procedure, we hit another bump. His biopsy was not confirmed. Dr. said to wait on GF diet until we did another blood test. In the meantime, I had the other boys tested and Gavins results were positive. After the second run of tests were positive, we were told to start a GF diet for both boys. (I started a month prior). Here is what I think. THIS STINKS! Ok so it is manageable. Just not fun. We buy special food that costs a small fortune, we have to always be prepared with what we can eat, fast food is not really an option, I have to pack lunches and the list goes on. I have been struggling a little bit with making healthy food choices. Just because something is GF doesn't mean it is healthy. Lots of candy is GF (not licorice, bummer) I love candy and when I am not sure what to eat, I think Chocolate will make it better. :) It has only been 5 weeks for the boys and 9 for me. We will get this all figured out. We are lucky to live where we do. There are a lot of GF options. I am grateful as well for good insurance. On a side note- we have had lots of weird family medical things. In the first 5 months of this year, our EOB's have totaled over $20,000. CRAZY! Thank You Insurance.
My favorite lunch in the whole world is Jimmy Johns. We have broken up and I am sad!
Caleb will miss his burgers (with buns) from Jaks.
People have been kind to us. Helping us find the best products.
Who knew there were so many types of flour.
Caleb loves the hospital like me.

Because You Are A Forstrom

2011-06-04T17:03:00.002-04:00

One day when heading to the ball field Keaton asked me, " Mom, why does everyone know my name?" I replied, "Because you are a Forstrom." We love the ball field. We love all our friends there. We are there everyday. :) A few pictures of the messy faces loving the game.

love the little hanging on our legs

5th Grade Field Trip

2011-05-27T16:59:00.002-04:00

A 90 minute bus ride with 5th graders. What could be more fun? Caleb and TY. We went to Olympia. It was a fun field trip. I enjoyed being with Caleb. The kids loved being away from school.

an IDAHO getaway

2011-05-10T17:13:00.002-04:00

I went to Boise fore one very big reason. This cute girl is having a baby. Can you believe my baby sister has a baby? I got there 2 days before her due date. Well, I was planning to stay about a week but after a week there was still no baby. Cassi was a week overdue and went in to be induced. While waiting for the baby to come, we cleaned Crystals new house, went to Wicked and had fun hanging out.
I LOVE this scene. I love being with my sisters for their deliveries. I LOVE the hospital. I pretty much think I could be a labor and delivery nurse tomorrow. I love labor, I love delivery. I love that this baby is not coming home with me but that I can snuggle on her.
Sweet baby Tes was born purple with lungs full of fluid. She was in the NICU for 5 days before coming home. Unfortunately for me, I had to get home and get Keaton back to school. I had the 4 little ones with me. Tes was hooked up to many cords. I never got to spend lots of time with her. SAD
We took all the kids to meet their new cousin.

KEATON turned 6 on our trip.
for his birthday we went to Monkey Business to play. It was super fun.

Keaton is a fun kid. (most of the time) When he wants to interact with you he is enjoyable. If not, stay back. He likes to do his own thing. He like to play with his brothers. He is always buggin on Canon. He love Roblox on the computer. He is awesome at Dance Central on the XBOX. So fun to watch. He is doing great in school. He still wants me to walk him to class everyday. He HATES having his ears cleaned out. He likes listening to music. He only wears boxers. He is a funny kid.

Great grandpa Max gave him 6$. Keaton loves money and the possibilities of buying something.
We loved the possibilities of a sunburn. A few days were warm enough to play in the pool.

I loved being with ALL my family. My brother Jake is a goof. He is all graduated from HS now. While I was there we got to answer his MORP proposal. This boy can be such a pain but we LOVE him.
Cascade needed to get a tooth fixed at the dentist so I went with her. She was afraid. I think this was the 3rd trip in. We bribed her with lots of goodies to be brave. She was great.

I had so much fun attending lots of events for my nieces and nephews. A and A had a piano recital. These boys are amazing on the piano like their sister.
I got to watch Ash run in her track meets.

Austin play Lacrosse
The little ones got to go fishing with Uncle David. This was a highlight for sure.

Cascade had the big catch.
I loved being with my grandpa. Since my grandma passed away, he has moved into my parents house. He was entertained daily by all the little ones running around. This time when I saw him he said to me first thing, "I am the lucky one." He is in such great spirits. He misses grandma but knows she is happy and he still has things to enjoy. We celebrated is 99th birthday while there.

I Love Boise. I loved getting away from home. It was fun to do little kids things. I got to have lunch with Susy and see my Sara. I got to help Crystal decorate her new beautiful house. I got to see my cousins and Uncles. I love being with family. Driving 500 miles by myself, not so fun but totally worth it.

Little League Day at Safeco

2011-05-07T20:10:00.003-04:00

While walking around the field in the"parade", Caleb and Breckin were on the jumbo screen

This year we went to the the Mariners game on Little League day. We've never been before since it is usually on Sunday. The kids had fun being there with their friends. I left the little guys home with a sitter so I had fun being there too.

POOL Party

2011-05-06T20:03:00.003-04:00

For Breckin and Keatons birthday we had a party at the Hotel down the street. We had lots of friends come to swim. We had a great time. The Hotel staff didn't have as much fun as we did. The older boys stayed the night at the Hotel with dad.

It's Official AGAIN

2011-05-06T19:58:00.001-04:00

The paper chase is over and we have officially adopted E and C again. We went downtown to the courthouse with the whole family. My favorite comment was made by the judge. She said, "you two are either crazy, gluttons for punishment or know what you are doing." We choose to believe the latter. So happy this is over and official. We now have new birth certificates for them.
LOVE MY BOYS!

The Big 9

2011-05-01T16:13:00.001-04:00

B is 9. He is a little guy. Same size as my friend Keri's 6 year old. :) You can see that he loves the camera. He now will strike several poses when you ask to take his picture.
He is REALLY into music. He loves singing and listening. He loves his ipod. He really wanted a ZUNE HD but we steered clear and settled for this PINK shuffle. His favorite color is pink. Funny but fine.
all things abercrombie and pink are AWESOME!

Breckin is pretty easy going. He loves sports. He is great at piano. When he gets tierd he is super sensitive. He gets along well with the brothers but you can tell he like to dish out a little of what he gets from the big boys to the little ones. He likes to change his clothes several times a day. He loves new clothes. Even if they are new used. The kids at school call him little JB. The 6th grade girls love him. I love him the most.

TIME OUT For Women

2011-04-30T16:17:00.003-04:00

This year TOFW was in Seattle. I had the privilege of being on the staff. It was fun to be involved with promoting the event, the scholarship program and the event itself. The best part however was the special STAFF reserved seating. :) Who doesn't love a great seat without having to be there WAY early to get it.
For the night we stayed in Seattle on a Yacht on Lake Union. I think it sounds better than it was. Pretty much felt like a motor home on the water.
The company was fun too. Angela, Michele and Amy. For lunch we went to Pikes Place. Hard for a Celiac to find something. I cheated and ate at Beechers. LOVE! (paid for it that night) :)
As I sat through all the great talks and music I tried to figure out what I needed to hear. This winter has been particularly hard for me. The theme was Choose to Become. The main thing that stuck out to me was- Become a daughter of God who his willing to follow what she is asked by HIM to do. Get yourself out of the way. Seek your own happiness by serving others. Forget your woes and serve.
Mercy River was the music presentation and I loved them. Cute moms for starters, great voices and lyrics!

Sunshine and Scouts

2011-04-26T17:08:00.002-04:00

The grass is dry and the sun peaked out.

Breckin earned is Wolf badge
Caleb cheers really loud. I was trying to shush him while Kathy awarded Breckin.
Caleb is seriously a silly boy. You can see we are all amused. A side note to this. Calebs school awards praise notes for kids who are kind. Caleb has come home with about 10 of them in the last few weeks. They say, "I praise Caleb for- always making me laugh, being funny, working hard but also being funny, picking up my pencil, entertaining us. His teacher let me know that he "pretty much runs the 5th grade."
Caleb earned is Webelos badge

Easter

2011-04-24T16:24:00.005-04:00

The best part of this years Eater egg hunt was...the SUN! The egg hunt itself was frustrating. Here is my rant about it. When you send your kids out to go trick or treating and they come home with opened candy, what do you do with it? Most likely you throw it away. RIGHT? This year we took over 100 eggs to the egg hunt filled with wrapped good candy and we brought home about 30 eggs filled with raisins, goldfish, carrots and jellybeans. GROSS. I am probably being a little crazy but seriously. This is kind of like a community event so we don't know all the people there. I was annoyed and now I am writing about it. Am I crazy? When you attend something like this, I expect to at least get a few eggs for each kid and something they can enjoy. OK, that's enough.

Keaton took a fall to the pavement on his scooter.

Easter morning the kids all were excited to look for baskets.
All except Canon. He was grumpy.
Fun Lego books for these 3 guys.

itunes cards and cash for these 3

peeps for everyone

off to church

Talent Show

2011-04-21T16:39:00.001-04:00

Breckin and Caleb sang JB in the talent show again this year. The recording is not that great. They love performing in this show. Caleb is such an entertainer. I love that they don't even got nervous to do this. :)

3rd Grade Swim Lessons

2011-04-16T15:24:00.003-04:00

One of the coolest things our PTA does is 2 weeks of swim lessons for all 3rd graders. Breckin was in the Shark group. This is for the kids who are the best swimmers. They learn new strokes and get to be in the deep end. He loved it.

Jr High Rec Ball

2011-04-13T14:48:00.003-04:00

This year Gavin played Rec Ball. You can see from picture one we are LOVING our new Jr High attitude. This is Jake. He and Gavin are the best of friends. I love seasons like this that are super low key. One game a week and one practice a week. Good times.

Spring Break

2011-04-09T15:15:00.003-04:00

The only thing lacking from Spring Break is the SUN. I flew my brother out from Idaho to play with us. He ended up babysitting as we had lots of doctor appointments. It was super helpful.
For one outing we took Eli and Canon to get "real" haircuts. They were super cute. The blend on Canon was so cute. Not sure how many times I will pay $50 for 2 haircuts. Before and After

Before During and After
Canon was not too happy but he sat still.

Caleb gets the best haircut of all. The free one I do at home. :)

Reading books and bowling with Jake.

Swimming fun

Breckins Basketball 2011

2011-04-01T14:17:00.001-04:00

This year Breckin tore it up on the court playing with the Fire Phoenix. His favorite thing about the season was scoring. It's fun to see his skills improve.

Trenton is 4

2011-03-28T14:44:00.003-04:00

Trenton was SO excited for his birthday. I am excited for my new home made white board to write birthday wishes on.

For the next 4 months these 2 will not be the same age.

For his birthday he wanted to go swimming. Lucky for us a friend invited us to come swim at a hotel they were staying at. Perfect timing. Trenton got a few dollars in the mail. His favorite thing was his new "dad" suit. We went to Red Robin for birthday dinner and a sundae.
Trenton melts my heart. He is my first baby. (before Canon joined our family) He gets into his own mischief like he owns the house. He is super easy going and super happy. He only like to eat what he feels like. He wants to go with me every time I leave the house no matter where I am going. He LOVES to play baseball. He loves o dress like a baseball player. He changes his clothes several times a day. (annoying)