Snow

After spending time with my family, we headed up to Vancouver for a few days to spend time with Forrest's family. It started snowing as we were leaving my mom's house and by late afternoon there was quite a bit of snow at Frank and Lona's.
Ephraim got all bundled up and had a blast. Wallis loves snow too, and would chomp every snowman that Lona tried to build Ephraim.
This might be my favorite picture of Ephraim that day - he is trying to throw a snowball, but released it behind him.
Grandpa got in on the fun too.
Ephraim didn't have any gloves on (I could only find one) so we had to end our playtime early.

Side by Side

It has been a lot of fun being pregnant at the same time as Colleen. We are due two weeks apart (her March 4, me March 19). At Christmas we decided we should take a belly picture together since we probably won't see each other until after we both have our little ones.
Colleen is 30 weeks in this picture and I am 28 weeks.

Family Photo

Forrest and I gave everyone the same stocking stuffer this year - tshirts that say "Team Doc" on the front and "Forbes 32" on the back. They are very similar to the t-shirts that my dad's softball teammates wore to a tournament in July 08. We have been wanting to have them made for awhile, and Christmas seemed like the perfect time.

Pregnant Twister

I never knew until this year that Twister was a full contact sport. After a nice brisk dunk in the Willamette, my family brought out Twister. It was hilarious. Forrest and Erik were attempting to knock each other over.
Ephraim liked to "break dance" on the Twister mat.
Michelle, Kimi and Joelle were laughing too hard for it to be a serious game.
Dennis and Mindy
For laughs, Colleen and I were somehow convinced that Pregnant Twister would be a good idea. Notice how were are staying far apart from each other - just trying to stay up.
Pregnant twister ended when my stomach would no longer stay in that position and I fell over.

Polar Bear Swim 2009

Last year some crazy people decided to jump into the Willamette on Christmas day. This year they waited until December 26. The jumping crowd was slightly larger than last year. It included - Michelle, Forrest, Erik, Kimi, and my cousin Dennis (his family showed up just in time). Ryan said he was going to jump (see him next to Michelle's head) but....
as they all jumped in together...

(the one diving in head first would be my husband)...
Ryan faked them out and ran up the stairs back to the house - safe and dry.

Christmas at the Forbes

Christmas was a blast this year. We got down to my mom's house late on Wednesday the 23rd. We were woken up bright and early by the arrival of the Wachob's! They had driven all night to get there. Ephraim loved playing with his cousins - and spent a lot of time trying to tackle Sadie (see below). My aunt Peggy, Charles, and their two kids - Christina and Kimi were there as well as my grandpa Jack. It was a full house.
Christmas morning was spent opening presents and eating poteka (Christmas bread). Forrest got a OSU snuggie in his stocking and proudly displayed his school spirit the rest of the morning.
Our cousin Alie made the two girls these adorable tutus that were an absolute hit.
Ephraim was given a Little People airport that had a ramp and he loved it.
We headed up to the Arnold's for Christmas afternoon - dinner, but I didn't take any pictures while we were there. We came back that night so that we could take advantage of the time the Wachob's were in Oregon

Helping Daddy

One of the Christmas presents we bought Ephraim was a little kitchen, since he loves to help me cook. It arrived before Christmas so he got to open it early. Ephraim had to "help" Daddy put it together.
Ephraim kept stealing Forrest's screwdriver so he got one for himself.

Ephraim would try to tighten the screws for Forrest.
Putting one of the doors together.

Roofing Project Day 3

Day 3 began with Ephraim and Wallis watching the new roof go on out of Ephraim's window.
They quickly put on the new shingles and fascia boards.

We are very happy with our new roof - the only problem is they didn't replace the skylights (we have two) because they didn't have them in the truck. They have now come back twice to replace them with skylights that are too small. We also had new gutters put on, but it was pouring down rain both days they put the gutters on so I don't have any pictures.

Roofing Project Day 2

On day 2 the roofers came and tore off the old roof. I believe at one time there were 8 guys on the roof.
This is how they protected my garden...it makes me glad that we replaced the roof now and not in the middle of the summer.
We had all of the outside plywood replaced. It was a little crazy to go into the attic and see sky.
They ended the day by covering the roof with new tar paper.

Roofing Project Day 1

Forrest and I have known for awhile that we needed to replace our roof. When we bought our house 3 years ago, we were told we probably had 5 years left on it. After getting several quotes we chose a company and the fun began.

Ephraim spent a lot of time at his bedroom window watching what was going on. On the first day a truck came to deliver the supplies.
Ephraim and I went outside to check things out. He thought the truck was really cool.

Our roof is quite steep (the main reason we chose not to replace the roof ourselves) and the guys had to nail boards to the roof to keep the shingles from sliding down. The guy who was unloading the shingles from the boom onto the roof did not want to go up there, and even called his boss who came to check out the roof for himself.
Ephraim decided it would be fun to see if he could climb in the truck.

Christmas Tree 09

We finally got our Christmas tree. We went all the way to Home Depot to get it. Those of you who live in Oregon don't understand how lucky you are...the past few years we have gone to several different Christmas trees and have paid between 60-75 dollars for our tree - and we don't even look at the expensive Nobles.
The afternoon we got our tree also happened to be the same day it snowed and stuck for the first time.

Ephraim loved being out on the deck with his dad, while I drank hot chocolate and supervised from inside.

Visiting the Brownlee Ladies

Merrick unexpectedly had to go to France for a week in the beginning of December. That meant that Ephraim and I got to travel to Oregon to hang out with the lovely Brownlee girls. Ephraim and I left right after MOPS on Tuesday and got there by 3:30. Ephraim was very excited to see Gracie.

On Wednesday morning Ephraim was up bright and early and ran to the door of the room he knew Gracie was in and started knocking. We let them sleep in peace for a little bit longer. At breakfast Ephraim decided that they needed to be sitting in the same chair. For the rest of our time there he tried to eat every meal with Grace.
The Coleman's came over Wednesday afternoon and we went out to dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory (which has now become a craving... thank you very much)
On Thursday morning, I took Grace and Ephraim to my mom's house. The kids had fun sweeping the kitchen after lunch.

It was pretty impressive that both kids took naps. Hannah arrived with Claire in the middle of nap time and when they both got up we made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers.

Hannah and I had a little bet about which kiddo would taste the frosting first. Grace won, but Ephraim was not far behind her.

Ephraim was eating m&m's faster than I could put them on the roof.
The finished house.
Ephraim loved baby Claire while we were there and constantly wanted to be holding her.

Ephraim and I left Friday afternoon (after a trip to Taco Bell of course) and were home by 7PM.