The Forman Fam

Forman Family Blog...LOCATION CHANGE...

2010-03-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

After trying many different ways to find an application that was easy to blog with using my new computer, I've decided to switch our family blog off of blogger and made a new website for our family. If you'd like to see what's going on with us, and for all you grandparents and aunties out there, see pics of T, you can follow us at: http://web.me.com/theformanfam. It's a work in progress, but it's where I'll be posting all our adventures from now on. Once you get to the site, click on the blog tab at the top and it will take you to our new family blog.

Thanks!
Justin, Sharee and T

Mommy Date...

2010-02-25T20:00:00.001-08:00

So Justin and Kurt headed off to Waco last night to watch Baylor pull a victory over those Aggies in basketball, so T and I decided we needed to get out for some treats and playtime! Where else would a 16 month old think was the coolest? That's right folks...Micky D's!

I thought Tristan would get face first into that 99 cent ice cream cone, but my sweet polite little one wouldn't touch it. Mr. meticulous here wanted to use the straw like a spoon to get each and every bite...silly boy! I love learning all the funny little things about him that makes him Tristan.

Then we headed over the playzone, which was really too big for us, but there was this one little happy meal plaything he went crazy about. I love that it doesn't take a whole lot to totally make his day...or night. Could have stayed here for hours if I'd let him!

Although it would have been even more fun with daddy, I'm glad we got to have our little "night out" just the two of us!
Love you little man, hopefully the first of many Mommy Dates to come!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Surf's Up Dude!

2010-02-23T11:15:00.001-08:00

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Happy Birthday Coco!

2010-02-22T09:54:00.001-08:00

Tristan, Justin and I had a blast helping Aunt Courtney celebrate her 24th birthday last weekend! We started the day early with a special breakfast just for her! Tristan didn't mind having cinnamon rolls for breakfast either! :)

Then after Coco left for work, we got busy making her favorite cake: Confetti cake with Funfetti icing! Tristan was such a su-chef and helped whisk and stir.

Then after work, we all went out to dinner at El Norte, my new favorite Mexican food place, and came home for some gifts and birthday cake! Silly boy wouldn't even try a bite! Must have been oober tired, beccause the next day he ate it up.

We can't say enough how much we LOVE YOU Aunt Coco. You are a light in our life and such a blessing to us! We will always cherish these sweet months we got to have you right here in our family! XOXOXO and HAPPY BIRTHDAY you young thing! :)

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Happy Heart Day Shared with Friends!

2010-02-17T20:55:00.001-08:00

So last week we were supposed to have our big Valentine's Day blow-out with our playgroup buddies. But, since so many of us were SICK we had to wait a week to celebrate. I had planned and made this HUGE heart day breakfast last Wednesday for Tristan and Daddy as an early Valentine's gift. Pink heart shaped pancakes, strawberry milk, strawberries, whipped cream...the works.

Only to go in Tristan's room to wake him up and find he had thrown up all over his crib! Poor baby! Needless to say, he was NOT up for all my crazy heart day antics so we decided to scratch that and postpone our celebration a week.

So today was our makeup party and boy was it worth the wait! The boys had fun, and I know I had more fun just getting ready for it! Sadly, many of the boys were still out sick or had other things going since it was a rescheduled day, but those of us who were able to come still had a blast playing and eating together. We even added a couple of cutie-pie girls to the group! Fun to be able to frill it up a little and throw in some pink too! I'm so thankful for other momma's to share life with..."You'll never believe what Tristan did yesterday," "What do you do about this?" "Have you ever seen that?" God definitely put some sweet girls in my life to encourage me as a momma. And Tristan couldn't be happier for all his little buddies too. We treasure our fun days together..I wish we could do playgroup every day sometimes! So here's how the happy heart day went down...

Our group Pic...Note...see happy Caleb (2nd to the left) just sitting and smiling? Lesson learned, "If you give a kid a cookie.....he'll be happy and still for your photo shoot!" Cookies will now be a must have during all playgroups from here on out! Just look at these cutie pies! Six kids looking at the camera, all of them sitting down = SUCCESS!

Cool Kid Tattoos. I saw this idea online and thought ALL the boys needed their own I heart _____ tattoos. You just use a large bandaid and permanent markers to draw a design. The idea is that you put them on their skin and it blends to look like a tattoo. Only thing is it's winter so none of the boys had short sleeves, and ooouuuch would that hurt to try and take it off when we were done. So we sported these bad boys right on top of our clothes. You get the idea! Tristan's says "Momma's Boy" in true Tristan fashion. Wanted to get a group tough-boy pic with all their tattoos, but that was near impossible. Here are a few of the cutest I was able to catch with their cool kid tattoos!

On to the party! This was so much fun, their first Valentine's Party! They had decorated plates with their names on them, heart shaped sandwiches, fruit salad with heart shaped apple slices and confetti hearts thrown in, strawberry go-gurt and of course some yummy Valentine Cookies. Mmmm. Tristan also gave all his buddies some edible Koolaid Playdough to take home with them too. Tristan got some fun Valentine treats from his friends too....sweet treats and a new dinner plate! So fun!

And every party has to have a game. We sent these boys and girls on a HEART HUNT around the house! Wasn't sure how an "organized" game would go with ONE year olds, but they did GREAT! Walked all over pulling hearts of couches, chairs and walls! I think they would play this again and again if we let them. good hunting guys!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day...we had such a blast celebrating with you guys today! Thankful to God for blessing us with sweet friendships and fun days together!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

"We love because He first loved us" I John 4:19

2010-02-14T15:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Allen Americans

2010-02-12T07:59:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday we had a surprise family night at at the Allen Americans Hockey Game. Justin was supposed to go see it with his buddy Kurt, but sadly Kurt got sick so they gave both tickets to us. We were a little leary about taking Tristan out at his bedtime, but he was a champ. He loved seeing all the BIG hockey players, and well, ice cream never hurts when coaxing a child to stay up past his bedtime either! I'm so thankful to have a fun family place like this in Allen now. I'm sure Tristan and his buddies will love coming here for years to come.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

An Early Valentine’s Getaway

2010-02-02T08:41:00.001-08:00

So last week, after dinner one night, Justin asks Tristan if he’d given me the picture he made for me yet. I was smiling, wondering if Justin had done a craft with Tristan? Then, Justin brings out this cute little note written to me from “Tristan.” How cute is that?

I was blown away and so excited for our pre-Valentine’s weekend away. Justin had Grandpa come in town to help Aunt Co-Co with Tristan for a night and two days while we got to getaway and have some sweet couple time together. Believe it or not, we’d never taken a night away from our little man since he’d been born.

So we packed a small bag and left Saturday around lunch. We went shopping a little then had a nice lunch at LaMadeline! Justin would never usually break the doors of that place, so I was extra appreciative! Then we went to an afternoon showing of “Up in the Air.” Was a little disappointed in that movie, but still fun to get out and go to the movies together.

We checked into The Renaissance Hotel in downtown Dallas, and watched Baylor scrape by a win over UT in basketball. That was a great game. Then, the best part, we got all dressed up to go out to dinner. Justin got us reservations at The Captial Grille. It’s at the bottom of the Cresent downtown and by far the nicest restaurant I’ve ever been to. Everything was fancier than fancy and every bite we took just melted in our mouth. We soaked up every minute! It’s fun to play rich for a night every now and then. Here we are all dolled up before dinner.

We slept in until 9:30 the next morning which was a dream in itself! I’m so thankful to my wonderful hubby for making “us” time a priority and planning this special weekend just the two of us. I love you more than ever…Happy Un-Valentines Day Love!

January

2010-02-01T20:52:00.001-08:00

Instead of writing Tristan his monthly letters with all the things he had accomplished that month like I did during his first year of life, I was inspired this year by my friend Elizabeth to make a monthly page to hang on our refrigerator. Each month has a different cutsy little page and a marker hung on it. Then, whenever Tristan does something cute, silly, or just anything I want to remember he did this month, I jot a little note on the poster. Here’s the January poster I made, nothing too fancy…

At the end of the month, I have a whole page of quirky, fun little things our little man did that month. I’ll probably keep all the monthly pages and put them into a book at the end of the year. And I don’t have to worry about forgetting to blog about or document the little things he does. It’s fast and easy.

As I go, I’ll also transcribe all his new tricks and accomplishments here on the blog as well to give those grandparents an update on what’s latest in our little man’s life. And of course no post would be complete without a few pictures too, so I’ll throw in some fun ones of us from this month. (see below)… In many ways, we are not sad to say goodbye to the month of January at all, as it’s marked a month of sickness for our home. It started with a nasty stomach bug that made it’s way through Tristan, me then Justin in a matter of days. One week gone. House disinfected and cleaned. The next week a cold, which sounds mild, never underestimate a cold, wreaked it’s havoc on all of us as well and has seemed to linger longer than we’ve liked.

But, we also have TONS of things to be thankful for and smile about from this month as well…here are a few things about Tristan from the past month in no particular order…

found him a couple of times chewing off his sock in his car seat, usually when he’s ready to be OUT of the car seat!
Walked by himself around the kitchen bar. We’re proud he learned how to walk and turn. Good job T!
Always wanted to be picked up and see what’s on the counter. Says “dis?” as he points to objects on the counter.
Uses “please” sign all the time when he wants something. Signs it with a cute little “mmmmm” for emphasis.
He loves to flip light switches on and off.
Likes helping mommy put detergent in the washing machine and see the laundry going in. Also helps push the wet clothes into the dryer…what a helper!
Favorite new snack is craisins = thank you Grandma
Likes playing with pots and pans, especially while I’m cooking dinner
Started walking everywhere confidently, with a little wobble of course. Walking finally became his preferred method of transportation which has been so fun to watch!
Started signing ALOT, especially when he wants something. He uses signs for please, thank you, food, more and up.
Started to throw lots of things: balls, cell phones, anything he can hold. Does this with a hand cranked waaay back and a little “uhhh” when he throws. So cute.
He loves opening and shutting doors. Thinks its real funny when he shuts me in the closet while I’m putting away his clothes.
Spoke his first sentence. Said or rather yelled, “I wan my mamma!” to Aunt Co-Co several times while mom was away.
He LOVES sitting in the middle of Courtney’s bed, with her and Vegas, one remote in each hand.

And now the fun stuff…Random pics from January also in no particular order.

We don’t ever take life too seriously around here…

View Full Album

Tristan loves hangin’ on the couch with daddy, especially if he’s got the remote!

Our little COWBOY…

BUDDIES…playing with his buddy Caleb one afternoon, these pictures melt my heart!

Oh, and one day I looked out the back door to find THIS! Justin’s going to kill me for posting this. He had the incredible task of raking the leaves this month…something like 25+ bags of leaves in the FREEZING cold! Thank you babe for all your hard work, and doing it in style! :)

Snowman Day

2010-01-27T18:59:00.001-08:00

So my good friend Jessica started this really cool tradition last year of having a “Snowman Day” sometime in the month of January. It’s a fun random day in the middle of the month to bring a little spice in between Christmas and Valentines. Her hubby’s family has been doing it for years. My friend Brittney followed suit and did snowman day for her little man last year too. Both had so much fun, I had to try it for myself this year. Please know that ALL the ideas on here are purely copied from Jessica’s and Brittney’s fun snowmen days of the past! Thank you girls for your CREATIVE inspiration!

So we started the day off with a fun SNOWMAN waffle breakfast! Our breakfast man had a waffle body, craisin eyes, cereal bar hat, blueberry banana buttons, chocolate syrup smile, honey pretzel arms and marshmallows for snow! And it did rain a little syrup in the middle of breakfast too! I think the pictures can attest to the yumminess for Tristan. He LOVED it! All except for the snow, T’s takes after his mommy in his not liking marshmallows.

Notice you know who in the back there eyeing Tristan’s special breakfast…hmm, I think he wants his own snow-dog breakfast too!

Yummmm!

On top of our breakfast sugar high, we read a couple of fun snowman books which Tristan semi-listened to. And played with our snowman stacking blocks. The idea being to stuff them with cotton balls and stack them like a snowman. Tristan had other ideas. Like how fun it is to put them in his mouth or bang them on the floor and hear the cool noise! And to open and shut the lids again and again.

Then we brought out the winter dress-up tub filled with all kinds of winter hats, scarves and gloves. I thought Tristan would get a kick out of dressing up all crazy, and I also thought maybe we’d be able to dress up Vegas. Neither idea turned out quite like I’d hoped. Tristan did think it was funny when mom started throwing on the winter garb. That’s okay, I guess boy’s aren’t supposed to like dress up anyway right?

View Full Album

What in the world are you doing to me mom?Next, we headed to the study to watch a cute snowman cartoon on the computer. We got about 7 minutes of the 20 minute video before we were ready for our nap!

Little bit was off to dreamland while I got busy making our fun snowman lunch! We had a grilled ham and cheese body and hat, string cheese scarf, craisin eyes, carrot nose, grape buttons and some pretzel arms. Tristan wasn’t quite ready to eat again after he woke up from his nap, so we left snowman on the table while we went to play a little. When we came back ready to eat, this is what we found…

Dun, dun dun!

What happened? Who in the world might have eaten almost all of our snowman!?!

Vegas said he didn’t know, but he saw something running the other direction just as we walked up. But not to worry, after a little steam wore off, we were back to the skillet to make our snowman sandwich good as new…

Tristan agreed fresh and new snowman sandwich tasted better than ever! MMmmmm

Then, after our yummy lunch, we headed over to listen to another silly snowman story and played with our build-a-snowman felt center. This one will be perfect for next year we decided, but Tristan did love playing with the sticks and trying to stick the buttons in his mouth. We’ll try again next year!

After that very short-lived activity we stripped down to try our luck at some snowman painting. I will admit, I did not have high hopes for Tristan to actually do this activity, but thought I’d try it just to see what happened. And to my surprise, this was Tristan’s most favorite activity of the day. He did an INCREDIBLE job dipping the Q-tips in the paint and painting the snow scene all over the page. I was so proud. He was very meticulous about it and so proud of his finished product which is proudly hanging on the front of our fridge! Looks like we’ll be bringing on the paints again soon! Since T was having so much fun painting, we carried on the painting theme with our afternoon snack. A little Cool Whip painting that is. I made a little Cool Whip Snowman and let him paint/eat away. Of course he loved it! LOVED it! So much that when it was over he cried and cried and cried asking for “more please” with his signs. So bad that we took a detour trip to the park to take his mind off the Cool Whip!

View Full Album

And finally, after a fun, sugar-filled day of playing, stacking, building and eating, we ended Snowman Day with a Family Snowball Fight in the living room. Tristan just laughed and laughed while Justin pounded him with mounds of cotton balls. He even got pretty good at trying to “get us” with the cotton balls too. What a fun ending to a special day. Hopefully the first of many more to come!

If you look real close, you can see the drool dripping down his shirt as he waits in anticipation.

Do I have something on my head?

I’m gonna getcha dad!

Happy Snowman Day 2010!

Forman’s Christmas Vacation

2010-01-03T11:00:00.000-08:00

I’m sure most of you watched this at least once over Christmas Break. Some network was playing it non-stop it seemed so Justin made sure we took the opportunity to watch this SEVERAL times this Christmas break.It’s sad how funny it is because deep down we all can relate to the Griswolds in some way. Well this year marked our first annual Christmas Vacation for the Forman Fam of three.

Actually it felt more like National Lampoons Vacation and Christmas Vacation morphed together. Thankfully we did not have to make a cross country road trip in a station wagon, although Justin assures me one day this will probably happen (hopefully minus the wagon).

But we did get ten wonderful days in sunny Florida to relax and spend some good quality family time together. Highlights of the trip for us included: (you can click on the words in blue for more fun pics and a separate post)

Playing with Tristan in the baby pool
Beach volleyball and playing in the sand
Christmas Eve Service and annual Forman Family Beach Pictures
Waaaay too much good food
Beautiful watercolor paintings from Grandpa Chuck for each of his grandkids as Christmas gifts these year. Thank you so much Grandpa, these are amazing! He is a master artist as you can tell!
Several rounds of very amateur tennis (our cute little ball boy!)
Jesus’ Birthday party breakfast Christmas morning

Stockings on steroids from Grandma Jill…THANK YOU for all our fun new toys, clothes and goodies!
playing at the coolest park ever (again) with Grandpa and Dad
driving Uncle Tyler’s Truck and Grandpa’s car

Visiting the Navy Seal Museum

Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and Great Grandparents to hold and play with Tristan constantly! Yes, we did get a tad bit spoiled.

View Full Album
a very fun, and unexpected trip to Animal Kingdom
10 wonderful days doing nothing, relaxing with family

I must say we were sad to come back to reality. Florida was such a wonderful time for all of us to truly get away and be together. We look forward to many more years there celebrating Christmas’s to come.

Our Surprise Day at Disney!!!

2009-12-31T13:35:00.000-08:00

Several days into our trip Justin tells me he thinks a friend of his in Orlando may just be able to get us some free friend passes for Disney! Come to find out, we were able to get three adults into Animal Kingdom for free on New Year’s Eve. So Justin, Abbie, Tristan and I loaded up New Year’s Eve morning for a fun and full day at Disney. It truly is the happiest place on earth. We ALL had a great time riding rides, seeing all the characters, eating yummy funnel cake and seeing some amazing shows. I never thought I’d take Tristan there until he was older but he absolutely LOVED it all. Who wouldn’t? It’s all so nice and there is always so many cool things to look at no matter where in the park you are. So here’s how our day went down…

After grabbing some fast passes for some key rides and shows, we headed over to Dinoland for Tristan’s first amusement park ride! The Spinny Rhino ride. Being high up in the hair didn’t phase him at all, or going around and around, but the scary puffy noise the ride made was not his fave! It was so fun being able to actually take him on something though. We made sure to ride it a couple of times.

Who do you think is having more fun here? Tristan or Mom and Dad?

While we were in Dinoland we happened to pass by Goofy and Pluto taking pictures with kids. We had to get in line to get ours taken. We were actually AMAZED by how well Tristan acted around all the Disney characters. After our tear-filled Santa incident, I thought this would be a no-go for sure. But he didn’t seem to mind. Even gave Goofy a high-five and everything! Of course maybe it was that we stuffed him with snack while waiting and popped the paci in to ward off the tears this time.

Then it was off to use our first fast pass of the day. Got straight to the front of the line (twice) to ride Mt. Everest. I love this ride, just the perfect amount of scary! Oh, and for those who haven’t been, I won’t ruin it for you, but look at this mountain! That is the roller coaster! It’s so cool, it’s amazing how incredibly REAL this mountain looks right in the middle of the park.

That’s Abbie and I in the very last seat! Amazing to me that Justin was able to snap this picture of us! I look like I’m about to pass out scared too! So funny! We really did have a good time despite how our faces look!

After our adrenaline was pumping, we headed over to the Safari ride. On the way there, we looked down and saw this precious site…

Completely exhausted from all the excitement. He was a trooper though and took several little catnaps like this in his stroller throughout the day. And look at his little pudgy tummy sticking out of his shirt…priceless! Now that’s tired!

We took our napping boy and loaded onto our safari truck. This was also really cool. We got to see all kinds of cool African animals pretty close-up and learned lots of random trivia about the animals too.

After our safari, we headed off to look at some more animals. Fish, flamingoes, gorillas, you name it. Tristan was absolutely mesmerized by the fish!

We soon realized it was time to use our 2nd fast pass to go see Finding Nemo, the musical. It was really amazing! Huge characters, amazing costumes and effects. Enough to keep Tristan occupied and mostly entertained before lunch!

After some BBQ lunch, we walked around the park more to see what we could find. Ended up going on another safari and scuba diving!

We also found the “Tree of Life” and experienced a cool Bug’s Life 3D show underneath. Warning: if you go, do NOT take your one year old to this show. Poor guy screamed his little head off, so dad had to go escort him out!

Then, finally we ended the day with a visit to meet Mr. Mickey Mouse himself. Tristan did great yet again and gave Mickey some high five action too. I thought it was funny that Mickey was shorter than all of us! And a little weird that he was in a Christmas sweater while we were in shorts!

We topped off the day with a strawberry whipped cream funnel cake before heading back home. What a wonderfully fun day we had at Disney. Perfect for T’s first trip, and a really fun way to ring in the New Year. Thank you Rob for making it work to get us in, we appreciate it so much!

Can I have my license now Dad?

2009-12-30T13:48:00.000-08:00

Seriously, aren’t babies supposed to like to play with “age appropriate” toys? This little man wants nothing to do with such baby-ish things. I think we’ve have a thrill-seeker on our hands. He’s into everything adult: cell phones, laptops, car keys, and now put driving on the list? Don’t freak out, the car keys aren’t even in the ignition. But just look at the sheer joy on his face letting him think he’s driving! Only 15 more years to go little one.

“What are you waiting for guys? Hop in!”

Thanks Uncle Ty for letting us borrow your truck all week too!

I had lots of fun playing in it! Love, T

Playing with Grandpa and Daddy

2009-12-29T08:50:00.000-08:00

One day Grandpa came in and said there were Para sailors sailing on the ocean by our condo. So he kidnapped Tristan and Justin to go see. Even though they weren’t around for long, T had fun playing with Grandpa on the beach. T got quite attached to Grandpa over these ten days. So cute to see them together, Grandpa’s little buddy.

Then they took him back to the coolest park ever to slide and play a little bit.

Navy Seal Museum

2009-12-28T13:58:00.000-08:00

Justin had heard for years that there was a Navy Seal Museum close to where we stayed. We decided this trip to go check it out for ourselves. It was pretty cool. The very first Navy Seals trained on the beaches by the pier we also stay on. We learned a lot and Tristan loved looking at all the big boats and trucks.

Pooltime

2009-12-27T13:45:00.000-08:00

Do you see why I was sad to come home now? Most days in Florida involved at least one, if not more trips to the pool per day. Thankfully the pools are heated so it makes getting in even if it’s chilly not so bad. Tristan wouldn’t care how cold it is though, he just LOVES the water. Put him in = happy boy. He met lots of new friends and had a blast splashing and playing.

He started playing peek-a-boo with his aunties laying out by the pool. He thought he was so funny, going up and down. We thought it was pretty cute too.

PEEK-A …

BOO!

PEEK-A

BOO!

Justin and Grandpa were the faithful two to always play with Tristan in the pool, even if it was pretty cold outside!

We even caught T checking out some cute girls this time. It was so funny, he was playing in the baby pool when these really cute teenage girls come walking by. He literally stopped what he was doing, watched them walked by, then looked at us; smiled and laughed. So cute, little stinker. Don’t be getting any ideas just yet!

Fun at the Beach

2009-12-26T11:36:00.000-08:00

Even though it was a little chilly most of the time, we still had fun heading to the beach to play in the sand, watch and play some beach volleyball, and sometimes be brave enough to venture out in the water a little. Tristan LOVED playing in the sand this time and finding all kinds of seashells. He did not, on the other hand, love the ocean. It was very rough this time of year and a couple of times he got almost swooshed by those scary rushing waves.

Jesus’ Birthday

2009-12-25T09:04:00.000-08:00

We woke up Christmas morning to have a special birthday party breakfast for Jesus’ birthday. Complete with streamers, balloons, cupcakes, a new Little People nativity scene from Grandma Jill, and Justin’s special French toast. One little boy was especially excited about the French toast! :)

Tristan loved playing with Baby Jesus. It’s funny, every time he gives it to me I’d say a little prayer, “Thank you Jesus for _____.” and give baby Jesus back to Tristan. He thought this was funny and would keep giving baby Jesus back to me to see what I’d be thankful for next. Sweet boy. I pray now that you’re continually curious about God until you one day come to know Him yourself!

And Grandma Jill spoiled us all with some very crazy stockings. Tristan’s favorite of course was the animal crackers. My favorite were his new clothes! Thank you Grandma for all our fun goodies!

Christmas Eve and Forman Family Beach Pics

2009-12-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

Every year we go to Florida with Justin’s family, it’s tradition one night to head down to the beach to take some family pictures. I actually think Justin and I started this tradition since we’re the most psycho about pictures in the fam. But I’m glad the tradition stuck. Now this usually happens on one of our last days there when we’re all nice and tan. But since Christmas Eve was one of the only times we’d have EVERYONE there at the same time, and one of the only times all week we’d actually get dressed up, we decided to do it a little early.

Before the Christmas Eve service we went to at a local church, we headed down to the Pier to try and snap some family pictures. It was a little harder than normal with the insane wind blowing like crazy, a baby who doesn’t always smile for pictures, and tons of people, but nonetheless, we got a few family pics. We love you Forman Fam! Tristan misses ALL of you SO MUCH already!!!

Oh, and after church we came home for some yummy food, gifts and games. Tristan especially dug the lasagna and was in no need for attention from anyone!

View Full Album

What is it that makes Santa so scary?!

2009-12-22T07:02:00.001-08:00

I’m not sure if it’s the beard, or the hat or the all out presence of the big jolly man, but something about seeing Santa in person scares the heck out of most young children. My son is no exception to his phenomenon. We figured it would play out that way, but you always hope your child will sit right up there in Santa’s lap and smile! haha. No such luck. We went up to Watter’s Creek last night to meet Santa and have our picture taken with him. We loved it there, no line, a cozy fire, couldn’t get any better. That is, until Santa looked right at Tristan, smiled and motioned for him to come see him! No way, not gonna happen, Tristan burst right into the most hysterical cry clinging onto Daddy. I thought this picture might be as close as we’d be able to get.

We watched several other children march right up to Santa telling him what they wanted for Christmas, but every time we even moved that way, gut-wrenching crying ensued. This momma was not ready to give up, neither was the photographer. He was so good at trying some sneaky ways to get Santa in the picture without Tristan knowing it. For the picture we finally got, Justin stood behind us so T couldn’t see Santa. Then, just as Justin slipped out of the pic, Santa took his place. T didn’t even know he was there.

Right after the picture, T looks over his shoulder to see the scary Santa had snuck up behind him, and the crying, rather, the screaming continued. I’m sorry sweet boy for subjecting you to such torture. Are we going to do this every year? We went to the park and played to try and make it up to him!

Christmas in Abilene

2009-12-22T06:14:00.001-08:00

Justin, Tristan and I headed to Abilene this past weekend for a fun Christmas celebration. My mom outdid herself baking for days so we’d have plenty of yummy Christmas goodies to munch on all weekend, and a full-out traditional meal with my Aunt Jo’s famous turkey dressing! Mmmm. We had a great time relaxing, talking and playing, and I think Tristan might have had a little fun too! Gigi and Pop always have the coolest toys for the kids to play with.

We didn’t put up our big Christmas tree this year, just a smaller one that sits up on the countertop. So, Tristan really got into Gigi and Pop’s tree! He was fascinated by the ornaments and had a blast crawling under the tree to get things he’d thrown back there! So fun! Next year, guess we’ll be putting up the big one!

Present Time! This was so much fun! Last year T was only two months old at Christmas, so this year was his first year to really enjoy this part. I love this age! He was equally as stoked about a package of shakable malted milk balls as he was the big gifts! It was so fun to see the joy on his face!

Gigi and Pop brought the most joy to his face with this new, suped up fancy walker! From the minute dad put it together, he did not stop pushing that thing around and SMILING! So cute! Thank you Gigi and Pop for this super fun gift…as you can tell I think he loves it!!!

And a puppy dog of his very own! Now when I walk Vegas, he can walk puppy!

And a couple of pictures all dressed up before church to celebrate the REAL reason we do all this at Christmas, the birth of Jesus our Savior! Of course Tristan didn't agree that we were celebrating anything when we dropped him off at the nursery! He was ticked to say the least, and I'm not sure if he's forgiven us yet! haha.

Thank you Gigi and Pop for all you did to make it a special Christmas weekend for all of us! We love you so much!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

2009-12-21T14:08:00.001-08:00

Hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating the birth of Jesus this week, and great time with family too! Merry Christmas from the Forman Fam!

I also have to give a shout out to my friend Amber Lee who designed our cards this year. I’ve known Amber for several years now through our church, and she’s done an AMAZING job yet again on our cards! I would HIGHLY recommend her for YOUR Christmas cards next year, she is WONDERFUL!! All I told her was that I wanted something “beachy” sent her our pics and voila, she came up with this! Love it!!! Thank you Amber for putting so much thought and creativity to make it just perfect for us this year. You can check out her website at: www.amberleedesigns.com

Merry Christmas Chuck-E-Cheese

2009-12-16T06:45:00.001-08:00

This year for our Christmas celebration together, my brother’s family and us decided to mix it up a little and go have some fun together! So last Friday night we all headed to Chuck-E-Cheese’s for some pizza, presents and games! This was T’s first experience at Chucky’s and I must say think he’s a huge fan. The boy piled away some major food eating three pieces of pizza, a whole banana, sippy cup of milk and almost daddy’s whole cup of raspberry tea! Yikes, can you say football player? The boy likes to eat. We also had a blast playing lots of fun games with our favorite cousins! We love you guys, thanks for a fun-filled, clean-up free night!

Do you think he likes this place at all?

We decided to give each other’s kiddos gift of time this year. We gave Wylie Kate a teaparty slumber party, Wilson a Tennis Match slumber party, and Wesleigh an Artsy Craftsy slumber party! Tristan got a sweet children’s book about Jesus’ birth as well as a cousin slumber party at Shayne & Kim’s / Date night for mom and dad! Stay tuned for posts about all of the above next year!

Like I said at Thanksgiving, this Christmas what we’re so thankful for is sweet time together with family. Thank you Shayne & Kim and kiddos for a super fun-filled night together! And Merry Christmas Chuck-E-Cheese! :)

Plllleeeeeeaaase!

2009-12-16T06:18:00.000-08:00

I’ve been trying to teach Tristan certain polite “signs” for what seems like forever now. I had pretty much come to the conclusion that our baby would be able to talk and say the words before he ever conceded to signing them. He simply refused. We have had all out screamy-mimmy standoffs because of it. Amazing the will of a one year old. Until, a few days ago Aunt Courtney (seems like she gets him to do a lot of things these days) was offering him some bites of her yummy cereal. She simply asked him to say “please” and he immediately signed for it right away! We were all shocked, Justin, Co-Co and I sitting there at breakfast. We asked him before every bite to say it and he did it every time. Smart kiddo! We were so proud. Of course I can’t get him to do it again for the life of me! But at least now I have hope!

View Full Album

Christmas Party Playgroup!

2009-12-15T12:57:00.001-08:00

Our monthly boy playgroup got together today at our house for a little Christmas celebration! As always it was CRAZY and fun! Eight boys and six mommas running around the house, with a surprise guest visit via Skype from Jenny and Jack in Romania!!! Lots of action going on. We had lunch, lots of playing, a Reindeer/Santa photo shoot which is always classic and involving many tears, and a Christmas book gift exchange! Whew, I’m tired just blogging about it. We love these boys and are thankful for such good friendships even at the earliest age! Merry Christmas Guys!!!

Photo Shoot Christmas 2009

This absolutely cracks me up! Love the progression of smiley boys, crying boys, boys grabbing other boys’ antlers, etc…enjoy!

Fun Facts from Thirteen Months…

2009-12-11T21:29:00.000-08:00

Since I stopped doing Tristan’s monthly letters after he turned one, I’ve been bad about blogging the funny little things he’s started to do. Here is a catch-up of the latest new tricks and funnies from the past month (or two) in no particular order…

He acts shy around new people, especially pretty girls. Kind of ducks his head on my shoulder to the side.
Got some more teeth, think we’re up to five now. Two on bottom, three on top.
He loves to give kisses! When Justin or I say “MMMmmmm” he’ll lean in and give us a big smacker on the cheek. He’s such a sweet boy. He’ll do this out of the blue too just when he feels it. We love it! Such a sweet sweet cuddlebug. He’s also been giving away kisses to some friends recently, yikes! We’re working on who we can give kisses to! He’ll even kiss the cabinets sometimes, silly boy! Mommy’s thankful for your sweet heart!
He’s starting to talk a little more and calls everything “dis” (this). Right now he says “dis” alot when he’s pointing to the Christmas tree and ornaments. He also says “doos” (juice) to anything liquid in a cup, whether it’s milk or water or tea. And just yesterday I could have sworn he said, “dank you” after I told him thank you a jillion times. But he’s yet to say it since so not sure if that one was for real. Keep it up little chatterbox!
He’s learned to shake his head “NO.” At first we just thought he was being silly, but now we realize he knows what he’s doing? He’ll shake away when I ask him if he wants down or when we try to get him to practice walking! Funny boy!
He learned where his belly button is! This is my favorite right now, other than the kisses of course. We checked out a book from the library about belly buttons and he loves finding daddy’s belly button under his shirt. When you ask him where his belly button is, he’ll look down his shirt or pat his tummy!

That’s all for now, although I’m sure there are many more! Starting in January, I’m going to keep a different pretty piece of paper on my fridge each month to jot down all the funny, sweet, or quirky things he does and says. Got this idea from my friend Elizabeth! It’ll hopefully be a handy and fast way to get the fun facts written down. Then as each month passes, I’ll add them to the blog! Thanks for the great idea Elizabeth! (read her post about it here).

Ahhh-Choo

2009-12-10T21:12:00.000-08:00

So we were feeling a little under the weather last week with a yucky cold. Tristan got so sick of us trying to “get” his nose with the tissues…I mean you think we were doing something horrible just to wipe his nose the way he’d scream. So I tried giving him the Kleenex box one day and letting him blow. He thought that was the funniest thing. Even though he did try a sweet, tiny little blow, I think he had more fun playing with this fun fluffy white tissue!

Our Ford Park Christmas Party…

2009-12-07T18:55:00.000-08:00

was a little less crazy than normal this year. With the McDonnells in Romania, the Cordes starting their own lifegroup, the Faucetts at the hospital with baby AJ, and the Nunleys out sick with the flu, for the first time in many years our lifegroup Christmas Party was actually pretty subdued and quiet. But we still had a great time eating some yummy food and doing our annual white elephant gift exchange. And just for fun…annual Ford Park Christmas Party pics since 2006…crazy how we’ve grown and changed in just a few years. Have treasured more than I can say living life alongside you all these past four years!

2006 The “Kidless” Lifegroup

View Full Album

2007 - A couple of Buns in the Oven!

2008 – Biggest and Best ever with 4 baby boys and 2 on the way

2009 – And here we are today in 2009

Baby it’s COLD outside!

2009-12-04T21:05:00.000-08:00

Tristan loves to be outside. Ever since he was a little baby, he’s loved being outside. His first laugh happened outside, it just makes him so happy. And that hasn’t changed even though it’s stinkin’ COLD outside! The other day when it was freezing, he begged at the back door to go out when I let Vegas out. Soooo, we loaded up with some winter gear and headed outside. I just laugh…all boy goes straight for the old chair that’s filled with freezing cold water from the rain and starts splashing! Silly boy! I’m happy he’s an out-doorsy kind of guy. Now for just two more months of this COLD weather..ahhh! Here’s some cutie pics of my boy all bundled up for the cold.

We’ve created a MONSTER…

2009-12-04T20:52:00.000-08:00

A COOKIE MONSTER that is! This week my friend Rachel invited us over to her house to have a Christmas Cookie making and decorating afternoon! Oh my goodness, my little man loved this! He takes after his momma in his love for food, especially sweets. My nickname at home is Sweets and he’s following right in my footsteps. Here are tons of pics from our fun fun afternoon (thank you Rachel)… Didn’t take Tristan long to figure out this dough stuff tastes GOOD!

What?!? Do I have something on my face?

Mini Monet!

2009-12-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

This week I let Tristan start learning to color, or playing with crayons should I say? I got this cute nativity coloring page from a restaurant we recently went to, and I got excited about introducing T to crayons and markers! I think he had a lot of fun, of course would rather bang and throw the markers rather than color with them, but we’re working on it. Here’s his first artistic masterpiece, proudly displayed on the fridge of course.

THANKFUL…

2009-12-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving the Forman Fam packed up and headed out to Florida for a week of vacation and fun with Gigi and Pop. We all crammed into our one bedroom condo and had the best time playing, hanging out, eating, talking, and relaxing!

On Thanksgiving Day, we fixed an almost-traditional meal and did our first Forman Family craft to celebrate. Got this great idea from my creative friend Elizebeth’s blog, she does it with her lifegroup each year. Basically I just had everyone trace their hand on a piece of construction paper and write down things they were thankful for this year. We put all our “hands” together to make a 2009 Thankful Wreath. It was special to hear what everyone was most thankful for and a neat little keepsake for me to put out each November. Family and Jesus were big themes from our thankful hands this year. Oh, and our baby boy also loves to EAT! Here is the before/after picture from Thanksgiving. Before, very excited to get to eat, and in dad’s lap! After, crying because he wanted more ROLLS!!! What do you mean, all done?!

Plus, there are so many things we had to be thankful for from this week alone! Here are some of the things we were most THANKFUL for this week! Click the links below to see more about our Thanksgiving adventures in Florida this year.

Baby Steps to First Steps

2009-12-01T14:32:00.001-08:00

Our baby boy is walking!!! Well, more like wobbly stepping but that counts for me! I still can’t believe it and I’m probably way more proud than I should be! I think I’m just shocked that he finally got the gusto up to try it for himself! Tristan, Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you and the big boy you are becoming. Okay, so here’s how it all went down…

While we were in Florida vacationing with Gigi and Pop for thanksgiving we ALL kept trying to get this little man to walk. He loved walking with help and trying to get from the table to the couch by himself, but never would get the courage up to try walking. We tried everything to coach and entice, but nothing worked. So after dropping Gigi and Pop off at the airport on our last full day in Florida, we hopped back to the pool for one more splash. Well, Tristan decided that was the time, and took a good 3-4 steps in the baby pool as he was trying to reach the watering can he wanted. We were shocked and so proud!!! The pictures above are us trying to re-inact it! We were so happy that we could say T took his first steps in the baby pool in Florida. We know there will be many more great memories made there. Can you tell how proud Justin is?! :)

So then we came back home and Tristan didn’t really want to try anymore! That is, until Aunt Courtney came home. Last night at almost bedtime, she told T she wanted to see him walk. We got down on the kitchen floor, and away he went….8 steps right into Co-Co’s arms!!! The clapping and joyful screaming began! So we got T in his PJ’s and practiced using our new walking skill in his room where it’s nice and carpeted.

Walking to Aunt Co-Co

Walking to Dad

Walking to Mom

This picture says it all, I love it. The sheer joy on Justin’s face, Tristan happy and stickin’ that tongue out concentrating, and one excited laughing momma!

It’s THE CUTEST thing watching a baby learn to walk! The cutest! He was wobbly and so proud of himself! But no one could be prouder than mom and dad! Way to go Tristan, a whole new world is awaiting you now!

Baby Pools

2009-11-26T13:32:00.000-08:00

Who knew I’d ever be thankful to go spend some quality time at the BABY POOL! This was one of our favorite things to do this week. It’s easy, we all get sun minus all the gritty sand, and most of all, Tristan L-O-V-E-S it! No matter what the temperature is outside, he’s happy to jump in and play and splash. Just look how happy he is! He is for sure a water baby! Doesn’t mind going under and is very brave to try to crawl and walk and explore all over the pool. He played with all the water toys but mostly liked going on the water-coaster ride which is dad swooshing him around and throwing him up in the air. We also had lots of walking practice that seems to have paid off as well!

Time at the Beach

2009-11-25T13:14:00.000-08:00

…is not something I necessarily thought I’d be thankful for over the holidays, but this year we are! When it wasn’t raining, the weather was so pretty, not too hot, not too cold. Although the waves were a little big and the ocean a bit cold, we enjoyed most just laying out in the sun soaking up some rays. And Tristan loved his little blow up pool filled with sand, ocean water and toys. I can’t believe we only got the few pictures we did! As much as we love the beach, it’s messy and requires a lot of setup, hence the camera doesn’t get picked up as much as it probably should. What was actually the best part about the beach from this trip, was the sound of the ocean waves you can hear from our back porch! I could listen to that all day!

Relaxed Recreation

2009-11-24T08:11:00.000-08:00

Justin and I were so thankful this year for some fun, relaxed down time together as a family. With no chores or bills or emails to send, we were able to truly get away and play together as a family. It was wonderful! Justin and Pop golfed every day, we had a round of family tennis which Tristan really picked up on. It was crazy to watch him grab the racket and try to swing! And we even got Gigi and Pop to try our favorite game one night: Settlers of Catan. So many times holidays are filled with go-go-go, cooking, cleaning, so we were very much thankful for the time to relax and have fun playing together!

Putting Around

View Full Album

Game Night!!!

Going out to Eat for some good Seafood! Tristan even ate his first fish, baked Mahi-Mahi! Isn’t this the sweetest site of all the guys walking up to the restaurant?

Playing with Gigi and Pop! Gigi’s “getting him” with a little toy truck rolling on his back. He just cracked up with tickles and asked for more and more!

The Perfect Hiding Spot: Tristan had more fun exploring all the rooms in the condo! His favorite was this perfect little cubby for him in the hall closet. He had fun hiding away in there, poking his head in and out!

A Little Amateur Tennis

The Coolest Park Ever

2009-11-23T20:50:00.000-08:00

About five seconds from our condo, just down the road is the coolest park I’ve ever been to. This park has just about everything! It’s got HUGE tall twisty slides, splash park, baby park, picnic tables, swings, ride-on cars, right off the ocean, did I mention really cool big twisty slides?! I know Tristan’s going to LOVE coming here as he gets a little older. For now I think Justin and I had as much fun as anyone!

FAMILY

2009-11-22T20:09:00.000-08:00

The thing I think all of us in the Forman Fam are thankful for this year is FAMILY!!! God has blessed us abundantly this year by giving us Tristan, and we treasure the sweet times we have together as our little family of three. Tristan has brought more joy to our lives than we could have ever imagined. Justin and I say to each other all the time, “I love our little family.” It’s been a sweet spot for us this year.

We were even more thrilled to get to spend this sweet time with Gigi and Pop too! Tristan is one blessed little grandson to have them in his life and we are so THANKFUL for them and the time they were able to spend with us this week! We will always treasure these memories we made with you here this week!

Thirty (almost) going on Thirteen!

2009-11-21T15:24:00.000-08:00

That’s right, I have no qualms or shame by saying that I joined the hundreds of teen and pre-teenage girls for the premiere showing of NEW MOON! And baby it did not dissapoint! My lifegroup girls are just a phycho about it as I am so we all had a blast sporting our home-made Team Edward or Team Black shirts (glow in the dark I might add!). Team BLACK, as in Jacob Black, by the way! And Rachel who planned the best slumber party ever this summer, planned a whole night-o-fun for us Twilight Saga Fans.

We started the night with a little dinner at Pei Wei. As we ate, Rachel had trivia questions to answer from the book as well as a really cool New Moon Bingo where we had to guess which character said any given quote. So fun and definitely put us in the spirit! The waiter must have thought we were a little nuts but conceded and took our picture anyway!

After a quick run to Starbucks for some Venti Pumpkin Spice latte’s, we were off to wait in line to get the best seats for the midnight showing! This part was so fun! There were a jillion other teenage girls there sporting their own home-made shirts and we had fun cheering others on who were on our “team.” So funny! And as we anxiously awaited the movie to begin, Rachel had us all entertained by more fun New Moon games and prizes!

And to top it all off, our dear friend Jenny who is temporarily living in Romania at the time, sent us these way cool VAMPIRE gummy teeth for us to wear and enjoy at the premier! Aren’t we scary?!

What a F-U-N night to say the least! Didn’t get tired even once staying up till 3am! Now on to planning our next premiere….June 30th Eclipse!!!

Another One Bites the Dust…

2009-11-15T19:36:00.001-08:00

Dun, dun, dun, another one bites the dust,

And another one down, another one down,

Another one bites the dust…

That’s right, this is the year, the year we ALL turn THIRTY! Slowly one by one my friends have been “biting the dust” and crossing over to the other side! he he he. I can make fun now, I still have five more months of “youth.”

So my sweet friend Jessica had her 30th this past Sunday, and her hubby Scott and I got to go undercover and plan a little surprise birthday dinner for her! So fun! Luckily Scott is very good making up excuses to be late, to the party went off without a hitch!

It felt like a mini-Baylor Homecoming with all our Baylor buddies there to hang out and celebrate Jess! Crazy with all our kiddos in tow, but we had a fun time hanging out and catching up. Then, the girls let the hubbies take the kids home to bed while we went out for a WILD night on the town….errr, okay, so we went to a coffee shop and talked for a couple of hours! Geeesh, I told you we are getting old!

Love you Jess! So fun to get to celebrate YOU this weekend! I’m thankful for you and this friendship God has blessed us with! Here’s to five good month of making fun of my “older” but wiser friend! :)

Fun Day with Cousins

2009-11-15T19:20:00.001-08:00

So I’ve been hearing about this never ending playground project Shayne’s been working on for weeks, errr months now. This week we finally got to go over to “uncle Dub’s” to check it out for ourselves, as well as hang out all day with our favorite cousins! And I must say the playground did not disappoint. I call it a playground rather than a swing-set because this thing is loaded with woodchips, rock wall and twisty slide! A kid’s dreamland! I’m sure Tristan will be asking to go play at Aunt Kim and Uncle Dub’s house often as he gets older! Thanks Aunt Kim for watching T for me and for a fun day together!

Playin’ with Wes, Wilson, Wylie Kate and Wynne (aka Wynnie-Pooh)

Our little piece of fall…

2009-11-12T19:59:00.001-08:00

There are so many reasons why I love this season. But seeing it through the eyes of a child makes it even better! Our fun fall afternoon “playing” errr, raking the leaves in our front yard.

View Full Album

Gone Bananas!

2009-11-12T19:46:00.001-08:00

Boy oh boy to I have one banana lovin’ baby! This guy’s loved bananas from the first bite and eats one just about every day. Lately, for breakfast he’s been eating 1/2 a sliced banana and a cereal bar. Well, I was beginning to think our banana phase was over, as he didn’t really care about picking up those slimy things any more. Until this week, when he was motioning for my WHOLE banana! I gave it to him and don’t think he could have been much happier! So no more sliced bananas, this big boy goes bananas over the whole banana!

Happy Birthday Hayden Kate!

2009-11-12T19:30:00.001-08:00

T and I had the best time last week celebrating our sweet friend Hayden’s first birthday!!! These kiddos, I can’t believe they are already both ONE!!! It is truly amazing how fast a year can go. Doesn’t seem that long ago that Jess and I were commiserating through the sickness and joy that is pregnancy! Celebrating this sweet day makes me want to take a trip down memory lane…Tristan and Hayden’s first year-o-dates! :) Playdates that is!!!

First Date

Second Date

Third Date

Fourth Date

Fifth Date

Sixth Date

Seventh Date

Eighth Date

Ninth Date

Tenth Date: Tristan’s First Birthday Party

Eleventh Date: Hayden’s First Birthday!

Twelfth Date: Hayden’s First Birthday Party!

Sweet Hayden Kate, Happy Happy first birthday! It’s been so much fun celebrating all you and Tristan’s "firsts” this year, as they’ve gone almost hand in hand. You are such a dear friend to us, and by far the coolest girl we know! Now would you two stop growing up so fast!

Trick or Treat

2009-11-09T20:16:00.001-08:00

Although Justin and I aren’t big fans of Halloween, we were excited to get Tristan dressed up in his Michigan State football costume (aka…recycled birthday outfit) and let him have some fun in the front yard handing out candy.

We were bummed when only THREE trick-or-treaters came to our doorstep! I couldn’t believe it! We usually have tons of kids and teenagers stop by….and this year only three?! Which of course means we have a huge bowl full of candy leftover! Scary!

Here are some pics of our cutie playing in the front yard this Halloween night…

Only three trick-or-treaters?

Oh well, more candy for ME!!!

Shower for the Little Buckaroo!

2009-10-29T14:00:00.001-07:00

Our lifegroup girls had the privilage of hosting a baby shower for our sweet friend Alicen and her little baby boy to be! Since she’s using a cowboy theme for his nursery, we had the best time going country for our newest little cowboy! Yeee-haw, I love a reason to celebrate!

Come on in and take a look around….

And the proud mama to be! I LOVE throwing baby showers, I think mostly because of the sheer joy on the new momma’s face as she opens all the precious, tiny things for her little one!

We love you Alicen! I’m so excited to add BOY #7 to our group of little buddies! And if you’re reading this now, please pray for Alicen and sweet Baby Aaron. She’s in the hospital right now with a bit of high blood pressure. We’re praying God will keep and protect both her and Aaron until he’s perfectly ready to come meet us all! And hopefully keep him a-cookin’ a few more weeks! Love you guys!

More Captured Moments…

2009-10-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

So the second half of Courtney’s birthday present for Tristan was to have her friend Katy take pictures of Tristan’s party! This was the best gift ever and helped me enjoy this special day so much more, with loads of pressure off trying to capture every moment. Sooo, after much anticipation, here are some more of the sweet moments from T’s first birthday she was able to capture for us. Thank you Katy!!!

“Da Boys” Our little football team, I love these boys!!!

Sweet cousins

CAKE-TIME!!!

Now that’s ONE excited birthday boy!

Pumpkin Patch with our Boys

2009-10-25T20:39:00.001-07:00

So Tristan got to share his birthday with all his favorite boys (well, not quite all, we miss you Jack!!!) in our first venture to the pumpkin patch! We couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend the day! You should have seen us, a real sight to see. Six moms, seven boys and two on the way, five cameras, and two strollers going in every direction! I know we’re just going to laugh in the years to come when we look back and see how crazy life was with little ones. Sweet memories.

We started off our adventure by feeding the animals. We each got a cup of feed and got to show the boys the longhorn and goats.

The boys were pretty amazed by all the animals and probably would have been perfectly content here all day. But oh, no. What do mommies want? Cute pictures of course! And so began the madness in the hay and pumpkins!

First attempt at the all-boy pic! Makes me laugh now just thinking about it. You got Ryan saying “I’m outta here”, Parker’s crying because he’s bonked by Brayden, Brayden’s crying because he doesn’t want to sit, poor Caleb’s not even fitting in the picture and Tristan is crying probably because he wants his mommy! And Jacob, the oldest, is looking at all these babies like “yall are crazy!”

We quickly decided it would be much easier if the mom’s joined in on the picture! Great thinking Lindsay! Watch the progression of the pumpkin in Jacob’s lap!

Oh, and did you notice sweet, happy, smiley little Colby!? The youngest and most content, not phased by any of the other boys shananigans! Just as smiley and happy as ever! I cropped Tristan out of this pic with his frowny face because Colby’s smile was just too darn cute!

So after we got the boys all fussied up with our picture attempt, it was time to give them a treat with the fun hay ride through the farm! It was an absolutely beautiful day too, we couldn’t have asked for better weather!

And then the reason we came, we got to go out into the fields and pick our very own pumpkin to bring home! Of course we couldn’t let the moment pass without one more try at the all-boy pic too! Better than the first, the wagon helped contain a few of them at least! I love this picture of Megan taking pictures of Parker! Captures what all us moms were doing most of the time there!

Thanks boys for a fun day at the farm! I look forward to many more years worth of pumpkin patch trips with our boys!

Tristan’s Real Birthday

2009-10-25T19:35:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, October 20th our little Tristan Dean had his actual first birthday. After all the celebration the weekend before I’m sure he was part wondering, why are you still saying Happy Birthday and making such a fuss, and part just happy to still get to celebrate and do special things!

We couldn’t wait until Tuesday to let Tristan open his “big gift” from us, so we let him open it the night before. I think Justin and I were more excited about it than anyone. Tristan got a new basketball goal for his playroom. Justin had fun showing him how to slam dunk!

Then, Tuesday morning we woke Tristan up early for a special birthday breakfast before daddy headed off to work. You can tell he wasn’t too thrilled about being woken up at 7am, dressed and people singing at him so early! I think he was in a bit of shell shock. But he did love his birthday waffles! Yum.

Blowing out the birthday candle!

We also let him open up a couple more presents. He loved his V-tech laptop! He always wants to play with our computers, especially when we’re using them, so we figured we’d see if he liked his own “toddler friendly” version. I think it was a hit.

Then, quickly after, Tristan and I and our other six lifegroup boys and moms headed up to the pumpkin patch in Celina. I’ll do a whole separate post on our time there, but what a perfect way to spend Tristan’s birthday, with all his closest buddies! We had a great time! After a full couple of hours at the pumpkin patch, Tristan and I enjoyed a birthday lunch from Dickey’s with his favorite mac-n-cheese. And a little leftover birthday cake to top it off! Still just as good!

After a good, long nap, Tristan and I took a trip to play up at Celebration Park. We were sad our Rowe girl friends couldn’t join us because of stinkin’ fever! But we had a fun time anyway swinging, sliding and playing with the woodchips.

Justin and I had planned on taking him to Chik-fil-A for dinner, but at 5:30 Tristan was letting me know he didn’t care WHERE he ate, but that he was READY to eat. So we scrapped that plan and made T happy with an early dinner and some playtime at home with some of his new toys. Daddy’s pretty good with the new mega-blocks…our favorite was this mega block Vegas!

We love you sweet boy! It was so fun being able to celebrate your FIRST BIRTHDAY in so many fun ways!

U2 Concert!!!

2009-10-25T07:46:00.001-07:00

So before all this birthday madness began, Justin and I got to sneak away for the night to go to the U2 concert a couple of weeks ago! Marc McCartney, who Justin works with at Bluefish, bought tickets for their leadership team at Bluefish and the wives too! Thank you again Marc for such a fun treat!!! And even better, the concert was in the new Cowboys stadium which was fun to be able to see for the first time. We had a blast! The only down side to the whole night was the lady in front of us. You’ll see her below, we just had to take a picture of her intoxicated self standing up, yelling and dancing completely off-beat to every song, the entire concert! Made for some good stories anyway!

Thank you again Marc and Robin for such a fun night!

After Party Pics

2009-10-25T05:19:00.001-07:00

We were so blessed to be able to have both Tristan’s set of Grandparents come in to celebrate with us! From Abilene, to Austin, to Michigan, they all made the trek down here to love on our little guy. Thank you Gigi and Pop, and Grandma Jill and Grandad for coming to make T’s day even more special! We love you!!!

PARTY-TIME!!!

2009-10-24T21:23:00.001-07:00

So we really had a blast with Tristan’s first birthday party, and the best part is he did too! He handled all the craziness like a champ and loved playing with all his best friends. Our idea was to have a laid-back cookout with our lifegroup and family at our house, watch some college football, eat some cake, and just hangout. The funniest part was trying to corral all our seven lifegroup boys for a group “football player” picture in all their milk jug football helmets. Hilarious. I have a complete and total respect for people who can take good pictures of babies, especially more than one at a time! Everyone who was huddled around watching was laughing at all of us crazies trying to get some cute pics. It didn’t take long for the boys to tell us enough of this, let’s go play!

Time to Eat!!! Justin fired up the grill and we all enjoyed the gorgeous weather outside and watched the Texas/OU football game. Of course all the moms ended up with all the babies in the playroom in pure toddler mahem! I didn’t get near enough pictures of everyone else hanging out, I guess I was having too much fun just enjoying everyone!

Eating his birthday CAKE – Yum!

After lunch we gathered everyone around T’s special birthday chair and sang him a little Happy Birthday. I thought he’d be overwhelmed by this, but he proved me wrong! Must be like his momma and love the attention! Although he was a little shy with it at first, it didn’t take too long for Tristan to realize this was GOOD stuff!

Sic’ Em Bears?! Okay!

Here we go…

Mmmmm, can mommy have some too?!?

The party ended with a little more hang-out time outside, especially with our family. Wesleigh made Tristan look like a real football player with his tough-guy black lines under the eyes!

No wonder where he gets his loud mouth smile from! We couldn’t stop laughing because Tristan was getting such a kick out of Wes, she did a GREAT job!

Thank you to everyone who came and made Tristan’s First Birthday so special! What a great day Justin, I and Tristan will always treasure!

Pre-Game Photo Shoot

2009-10-24T20:27:00.001-07:00

Before all the players (T'ristan’s little guy friends) and cheerleaders (our few girl-friends and cousins), and fans (all our family) arrived, and the craziness that is a first year birthday party began, we were able to sneak outside and get a couple cute family pics with our sweet little ONE year old!

Let the P-A-R-T-Y begin!

The Gameday Party Decor…

2009-10-23T08:24:00.001-07:00

So I had SO MUCH FUN decorating for Tristan’s first birthday party! Out of control fun. I got some really great ideas from my friend Jessica , and we were also able to use a lot of really cool vintage Michigan State pictures, banners, and programs from old football games through his Grandpa Seibold who worked at Michigan State for 50 years. Honestly, I think I might like the party planning even better than the actual party! ha. Here are some pics of T’s special day…

We were able to use Tristan’s special truck he got from Great Grandma and Grandpa Forman last Christmas to welcome everyone to our tailgating party! Tristan says follow him and he’ll show you around inside!

The Welcome Table

So our friend Kurt gave us the hardest time making fun of us for putting up a sign that said “happiest birthday.” Couldn’t get much cheesier than that right? Just to clarify…the sign does say “Happy 1st Birthday!” I’m cheesy, but not THAT cheesy! And even if I was that cheesy, surely I’d know how to spell happiest right! :)

ESPN’s 12 Month Highlights of Tristan’s first year, one picture for every month. We chose pics that showed something important Tristan did or experienced that month.

We had some fun football tattoos and facepaint where the kids could come get some extra spirit!

And my favorite part of the decorations. So Aunt Courtney had her good friend Katy who’s in photography school right now take some pictures of Tristan in his Michigan State Jersey one night while she was babysitting for us. A few days before the party, I wake up to find this huge, beautiful framed picture of my baby in our kitchen!! I cried when I saw it. This was Tristan’s early birthday present from Aunt Co-Co. I told her she knew exactly what I wanted! I just can’t bring myself to take it down yet, it’s still up in our hall. One day it will find it’s home in Tristan’s room.

The Tailgating Food

Justin grilled out some yummy hotdogs and hambugers, and we had all the tailgating sides to go with from bakes beans to homemade mac-n-cheese. My favorite was this veggie tray with football toast!

And of course the cake. We saved the football cake for little man to smash, and everyone else got dirt dessert!

And last but not least, the party favors! I found this cute idea online to make football helmets out of milk jugs. After several not to realistic tries, and a little help from Grandad Forman, we ended up with some pretty authentic little helmets. My goal was to get a group pic of all the boys in their helmets…haha…you’ll see later how that went! Lots of tears and screaming! :) What we do to these boys in the name of a cute picture!

Coming up…Gameday pregame, fans and players, and afterparty!

Tristan’s First Birthday Party – pregame…

2009-10-21T20:20:00.001-07:00

So I told myself I would never be one of those moms who goes all out of control for her kid’s birthday party. I told myself I’d keep things under control, you know, keep things simple. I think it was midnight on the night before T’s party when I realized….I AM one of those moms! But your first born child only turns ONE once, right?!?

One of the most fun days I had getting ready for Tristan’s party was the CAKE making day! My sweet friend Rachel said she’d help me make Tristan’s cake. I was planning on attempting it on my own, which now knowing what it takes to make a cake, that would have been an absolute disaster!

So Tristan and I headed over to Rachel and Brayden’s house a couple days before his big “gameday.” Our friends Emily, Jacob and Ryan also came to play as we talked and baked. We had the best time, and Rachel did the BEST job making this perfect little football cake for T. I mean, really impressive! If you ever need a cake made, these are the girls to call! Thank you Rachel for helping make the cutest little cake for Tristan, there’s no way I could ever have done that without you! You’re the best!!!

View Full Album

And some fun play time for our boys…

View Full Album

How fast time flies…

2009-10-21T19:43:00.001-07:00

from baby to BIG BOY!

And here are your one year stats to prove it:

Weight: 23.6 pounds (58%ile)

Height: 30.5 inches (72%ile)

Head Circumference: 99th %ile for all those brains!

One Year Old!!!

2009-10-21T19:37:00.001-07:00

Little Lovebug-
Happy 1st Birthday little one! My goodness how did your first year fly by so fast? One year ago God changed our world by giving us the biggest gift we could ever have imagined with YOU sweet one! We love you more than you know and more than we can even say! What a joy and an honor it has been to watch you grow and change from a tiny little baby into a cute, toddling little boy!
Daddy and I are so proud of you too! This month you really have started acting like such a big boy! You switched from formula to milk, and from bottle to sippy cup! You got a tooth up top, which gives you a whopping total of three, but plenty to eat almost anything and everything we do. You’re the best little eater and rarely make too big of a mess because you’d rather EAT all your food than waste any!
You started walking all over the house with your walker, but still prefer to crawl to get to something super fast. You love to play outside in the sticks and rocks and dirt like such a little boy! I think you learned this best from Vegas. You also learned to clap and you do this when you’re excited to see someone or when you want more food! So cute. You say “da da” all the time and have been known to say it rather loudly. You sleep great and nap well and are just a happy little man as long as mommy is not too far away.
I’m sure there’s so much more, but I just want you to know most of all how much daddy and I love you and how proud we are to be your parents! God has given us a great blessing and responsibility in raising you. Daddy and I pray that you will grow up with a genuine love for God and life and others. That you will have Godly wisdom mixed with a joy and laughter no matter what life brings your way. That you will run and play and laugh and make the most of all God has given you.
We love you T! You make us laugh every day. We love every second we get to play and snuggle and be your parents. Happy, happy, happy birthday! We can’t wait to see what this next year holds for you.
All our love,
Mommy and Daddy

Your ONE YEAR stats:
Weight: 23 lbs: 58th %ile
Height: 30.5 inches: 72nd %ile
Head: Still 99th %ile for all those brains! :)

Bye-Bye first year…hello second!

And a glimpse at our other photo shoot. I found this super cute shirt from Gap a while back. I had been saving it for his one year pictures, and lo and behold when we put it on, of course it was a little snug! That’s what I get for waiting. I had a hard time deciding which set to use for this post, so I decided to use both!

Don’t know what this face is, but it sure is cute!

One year ago today…

2009-10-20T13:59:00.000-07:00

God gave us YOU! “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” James 1:17

Happy Birthday Tristan! We love you more and more!

Mommy and Daddy