Birthday Week! (LONG POST)

So in Brent's post of 23 reasons why he loved me he did get right when he said I get excited for my Birthday week. That is right I like to take the week to celebrate my birthday! Lets face it one day a year just doesn't feel like enough! This birthday week seemed pretty tame in comparison to past years. This time I worked a normal for the first part of the week and besides getting my way from Brent all week nothing felt very different. UNTIL May 26th at 3:00 pm when I got the phone call that my sister (Audrey) was FINALLY IN LABOR!!! She was due on the 22nd but it just didn't happen so I was pretty excited. Well of course I never thought that I would ACTUALLY be sharing my birthday but of course I get a picture message from Toren at 3:00 am of my newest little nephew and Birthday mate!

The next day at school was torture! All I wanted all day was to see little Austin and finally after work I was actually able go and visit! He is so tiny! I wish I had gotten a picture of Brent holding Austin because he looked so natural! He is going to be a REALLY attractive dad one day!

This is the Happy Little Family! Audrey looks amazing for just having a baby and I love that she was really willing to talk to me about how labor really feels! I am still pretty terrified but she still makes it sound like it is totally worth it!
I continued to check on Austin everyday. On Friday at my weekly preschool meeting it was both Tammy (the other schools teacher) birthday on the 24th and mine of the 27th. So our wonderful Boss (Mom) gave us both $25 gift certificates to Barnes and Noble. So I finally got the book "The Uglies". I have been looking for this book forever but now thanks to my mommy/boss I was able to get it and now I am over half way done with it!

Saturday morning The family decided to go to the famous Portland Saturday Market! It is a bunch of Artisans booths!

Kalen was looking at some very cool hair pins with glass beads. I really liked the bracelets, which Kalen took to heart.

Brent found a ton of amazing looking stuff. Including the Japanese booth. They were gorgeous and if we had a home or money I am sure we would have been way more tempted to purchase things!

This little dragon is a whistle. It was so cool and my mom bought them for her school! The three note whistle is perfect for preschoolers and I pretty much mastered Hot Cross Buns!

This is something really neat. It is a BIRD FEEDER! I feel like I could make something like this but it wouldn't really look as professionally done. I still think it would be an amazing task to try!

The Saturday market is set up right against the river which is gorgeous!

There is also fountains all over. I love watching kids playing in the fountain even though is was drizzling the entire day!

Plus another fountain... The max train separated two parts of the market. There was a Soap Boxer. I am not exactly sure what his message was but it was interesting to watch him so committed to his cause.

Afterward Brent and I felt like eating out so we went to the local Buffet (We both just felt like eating ALOT of FOOD!!!) It was okay, not what I remember it being but the remodel made it look really really good!

Today we had the official Birthday Dinner. I chose Lemon chicken with rice and peas. I have been feeling pretty off this entire week so I was only able to handle one piece of my delicious triple chocolate and creme cake. It is pretty much a Forsberg Tradition and I bet Brent and Audrey think my mom only knows how to make one type of cake.

After Dinner I finally chose to open my presents. Brent was pretty impressed that I was able to wait 3 days past my actual Birthday. It was pretty easy for me!

The first present I opened was from Blair. Despite being on a mission he still remembered and gave me a loving Gift. He wrote me a letter and bought me a spoon from Pensacola, a shell he got at the gulf coast, a Hungarian translation sheet, and candy! The letter was by far the best!

My Mom got me this great talking card! Take a Listen it is super funny! I had to listen to it 3-4 times! My mom knows me pretty well!

Along with that they gave me two tickets to Broadway's "THE LION KING!" It is for July 3rd. I am going with Toren, Audrey, Blake, Maren and if Brent is lucky I will be nice enough to take him!

Brent's Mom went above and beyond! She gave me $50.00 for a new swim suit (WHICH I HAVE BEEN SO WANTING TO GET ONE FOR EUROPE!) along with mineral make up, and some air freshners to make our trip to Europe even better!

Kalen gave me one of the bracelets I was admiring at Saturday Market. Brent got me a new pair of jeans (which I need to trade for a different size) and a pedicure! Of course I feel bad because he hinted that I could get one tomorrow and I chewed him out that we couldn't afford. Well he really showed me!

Of course my best present was my new little nephew! I seriously can not get enough of this kid!

It was a really good Birthday week. I love being in my EARLY-20's despite what Brent says. I am so happy to be sharing my birthday with such a sweet little guy and really appreciate all the love I am getting from my family and friends! I am so lucky to be able to have a family (and especially a husband) who will put up with a whole week of Birthday excitement! Brent also has a Birthday Date planned. Since the weather has been so crummy we weren't able to do it but I will make sure to post pictures when we do! Thank you to everyone! HonestlyI really feel like 23 is going to be a really difficult year but that I am going to have more adventures than anything else I have ever experienced! Hopefully I will make the Best of EVERYTHING!

Happy Birthday Mallory!

Today is my wonderful wife's 23rd birthday!!! In honor of her hitting her MID-Twenties, I thought I would say happy birthday with 23 reasons she is special!


1. Mallory introduced herself to me via a handwritten note ala 7th grade style

2. Mallory is the hardest working girl I've ever met, and it has helped make life so much easier

3. I think Mallory gets more excited for her birthday "week" than most kids do

4. Mallory is an expert at baby talk--maybe because she uses it so much

5. Mallory loves to call me a "sickness-stealer" anytime i have a headache within 1 day of her being sick

6. Mallory is a very giving person. On our honeymoon, I couldn't get her to buy anything for herself, but she couldn't stop shopping for everyone else.
7. Mallory Loves to travel and has made it a goal to visit all 7 continents, yes even antartica....she can do that alone I think

8.Mallory is the only girl I know that has a picture of her dad on the dash of her car

9. Mallory gets worked up over the smallest of injuries and will make me tape her fingers together for almost no reason


10. Mallory is a very good momma to her kitty, and insisted that counted for mother's day

11. Mallory, who hates watching baseball, has almost single-handedly made going to a mariners game an annual tradition

12. I make Mallory put up with more than anyone should have to, but she still supports all my stupid hobbies

13. Mallory gets legitimately upset if I make a funny face during pictures


14. Mallory is very easy to cheer up, all you have to know is a few tricks, like cake or french fries or to make fun of her until she gets so mad she laughs--warning, this last one can seriously backfire if not performed flawlessly

15. Although Mallory gets bored very easily, she is easy to entertain, as long as you don't try to make her choose

16. Mallory knows when she is being a brat, will admit it, then keep it up

17. Mallory would sleep for 20 hours a day if she had time, but she still waits up for me if I am working late....which means I never pulled any late studying nights

18. When Mallory finds a good book, Mallshe will finish it in 24 hours...when she finds a good movie, she will watch it four times in one week, and when she finds a good cd, she will listen to that one song for a week

19. Mallory's idea of packing me lunch is buying a box of easy mac and one of jello cups, but if that's not enough she encourages me to go out for lunch as well

20. Mallory is willing to do things she hates just to make me happy, i.e. shopping for books, or spending time in the cold
21. One time I referred to a big river as a lake, and it made her happier each time she told the story for the next year

22. Mallory loves just about everything to do with animals, and would cuddle with just about any willing animal



23. Mallory is such a fun girl, she is always up for anything!


Happy birthday Mallory! I love you, and hope you have an awesome birthday week!

Only Oregon City Day

For those of you who don't know, I am not a naturally calm person. I usually have a lot of energy and wasting time is not something I enjoy. So this past Saturday Brent and I decided that we wanted to go out but didn't want to go far away, thus we decided to have an ONLY OREGON CITY DAY! Now my home town has about 30,000 people in it and is a good size but there is not a lot of thrilling activity and it really has a good small town feel... really the movie theater is all teens can do without hitting the freeway. Well since it was Saturday, this little town has a two row farmers market! There were gorgeous bouquets of flowers for only $7.00. Brent said he would have gotten me some if I weren't standing right there and also because he knows I find flowers terribly sleep but also a waste of money after the initial surprise! He is kinda sweet and considerate when he wants to be!

We saw this sign! It reminded me of something really corny I would do with customers at enterprise... I would say "no smoking and no pets, and for sure no smoking pets" I didn't do it with everyone but old men always thought I was so witty and laughed really hard... I maintain it was worth it!
This was a REALLY small farmers market and we would have gotten a better picture but there was no where that we really felt comfortable, so this is just right before we left!
Then we hit the local paperback exchange. You can turn in your old paperbacks and get new ones. I didn't have any to turn is so we just went shopping. This is the book wicked (like the play) and I thought it was pretty neat that the binding was Green! (okay maybe not as excited as I look!)
Out in front there is a bin that is 3 books for $1.00. Brent went through and picked out books for me. This was one of them... could my 26 year old husband be getting a little baby hungry? Maybe... If baby Austin would just show up it may be a different story!!!

Right around the corner from the paper back exchange is the local pet store! Look at the cute little bunny! There were also some really cute dogs and a kitten that looked just like my baby girl Caliah!
So you may be wondering why there are so many pictures of me and none of Brent. Well here was his attitude of picture taking... this was at a bookstore downtown with an art exhibit on the other side!

After we finished at the downtown bookstore we found this... A masonic temple! I couldn't believe it! I must have driven past this a million times and never noticed it!
It doesn't really fit with the rest of the block either huh!
While downtown we passed the elevator. If used to be hydro powered. It was raining really hard so we decided to stay undercover and pass on the ride to the top. We have done it before!
It was a really fun outing. Nothing amazing happened but we were just excited to get out and about. Oregon City may not be thrilling but there was enough to keep us entertained for a few hours before I went home to read and Brent went to the movie Robin Hood with the rest of the family. Does anyone have any good ideas for what to do for our next outing?

Preschool Story

So while we are in Oregon I am teaching at my Mom's preschool. Kids are so funny so I thought this would be good to keep some record of funny thing kids do and say so here is my first story...

We didn't tell the kids that she was my mom but because kids are wicked smart they all figured it out within the first day. They still call me Teacher Mallory and Her Teacher Cheryl and I call her Cheryl when we are in front of the kids. Well the first week I was just observing Cheryl teach and figuring out how the day goes and each of the kids names.

One day when the kids went into the sand box my mom let them take off their shoes! The kids loved it but it was a nightmare. None of the kids knew how to put their shoes back on and it tracked in more sand than anything! So the next week one of the little boys asked "Teacher Mallory, can we take off our shoes?" I said "No, we aren't going to take off our shoes this time."

That is when a little girl named Dalyah came up to me and with the more attitude than most teenagers said "Your MOM said we can take off our shoes!"

It was so funny! I don't even remember what I said but it was obvious she just pulled out a "Your Mom" Statement without even knowing out! It was amazing!

Progressive Dinner

So since we have been in Portland I have been having a really hard time making new friends. It is weird but for living here all growing up I find myself friendless, and that makes me pretty miserable. So I have decided to not wallow but to actually become more active in things. Tonight I started with a Progressive Dinner that the Oregon City 5th ward was hosting. We were in charge of bread and all met at the church for appetizers and conversation, then drew names and met at a host house for the rest of the meal. We went to the Mikkelsen's, who I knew because they have kids my age.
The evening started with everyone becoming their alter ego, so in attendance was Mitsy, Steve, Alli, Immanuel, Felix, and Vivian, Bridgette and Tad. (any guess on my alter ego for the night? I will say at the end) We had ravioli, salad, rolls (which we provided), and this amazing desert! It was this amazing trifle. It had vanilla pudding, fresh blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, cool whip and a white cake all layered. It was so amazing. Seriously. I think I would also like to try it with a chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding because I think that would be so great! We talked about everything including jobs, travel, funny stories and more!
Overall it was a really good time. I think I made some good contacts at church so Sunday's will continue to be a good time! I am glad I went and am hoping to have more opportunity to makes friends so I can feel more comfortable here!

Okay do you have your guess of which name was my alter ego?!?! Here are your choices again: Mitsy, Tad, Bridgette, Steve, Immanuel, Alli, Daisy, Vivian, and Felix. You should probably get an answer in mind... you should probably tell me which one you thought it was in a comment on this post... any ideas? okay here it is...

My alter ego was... Bridgette!
Brent was Felix!

Post who you thought I was!

A Portland Weekend

So far week have been in Oregon for about two weeks. The first one doesn't count because we did take a trip up to Seattle so this was our first full week and here is how we are feeling...

Okay not really! Both our jobs are going great and we are starting to get the hang of living somewhere new... Again. There is one thing that is drastically different... WE HAVE NO FRIENDS HERE!!! So here is how we spent our weekend went.

Friday night we went to go shopping with my dad! He is pretty into saving money, so we went to three different stores to buy three or four things. it was pretty fun actually!

On Saturday we went our to buffalo Wild Wings with Toren and Audrey. Audrey still looks amazing despite being at 9 months! This means I should have a new nephew this week! YEAH! Iron Man 2 followed the lunch and it was a really enjoyable time! The story was pretty legit and the action wasn't overwhelming. I would recommend it!

On Sunday I got called to be a Primary worker and after church we went on a bike ride! Brent is getting the bike ready. All the tires were flat! Action Shot! I am still not that comfortable on the Bike. I can't even ride with one hand! Brent and I really enjoyed this so I think we will be riding a lot more!

It was a pretty fun week! We were busy but I would still like to be more busy and have more to do for next weekend!

I love all the green in Oregon! It is really great and so far the sun has been out a lot!!!

Last Day in Seattle and MOTHER'S DAY

So on our last day in Seattle we just relaxed. Brent went on a bike ride with his brother Sean. I guess they had a few different encounters with some cows down by the river-way they were following.

Me on the other hand I just stayed home and relaxed. I decided to take a picture of the view from Sean's living room. It is on a huge hill and so it overlooks everything. At night the place just lights up and the Sunset is pretty incredible.
Sean also has a cat that is half cat and half African Serval. It is a pretty majestic animal, and luckily he just recently had all his claws taken out, so the one time he did try to swipe at he he was unsuccessful.
Here is a picture of Brent's Dad and the Kitty (Maximus) just relaxing in the sun... what a cool cat!

TODAY IS MOTHERS DAY! SO HERE IS THE WOMAN RESPONSIBLE FOR IT ALL! This is my mommy!
My dad planned a great dinner with steak, potatoes, corn and finishing with strawberry short cake... except he forgot to buy the shortcake part. Luckily Audrey and I were able to figure out a better solution! Yeah for Bisquick!

One of the fun things about this Mother's Day is we had a missionary out so my mom got to hear from Blair for the first time in about two months! It was fun and we all had a chance to talk to him and see how he was doing. I guess he just recently got in a car accident... he is okay but it would have been better had he not been in an accident at all!
While my mom was talking we were all busy cutting up strawberries for dinner! I love Strawberry shortcake ( I like it with angel food better but short cake is still pretty good)
Yeah for dinner time! We ate outside today and notice the phone in Toren's hand? That is Blair. We made him smile and everything!
Here is me trying to get a good picture with Brent... anyone else find it difficult to be married to a 5 year old?!?!
It was a really good day! It was fun having Toren and Audrey over and actually being in town for my mom to celebrate how wonderful of a mother she is... 5 kids and we are all still alive and happy!

Oh, here is the strawberry short cake... yum! How was everyone Else's mothers day?

Seattle Trip Day Two!

After the Mariners game on Thursday Brent and I were excited to go out and see a little bit of the city. We thought the whole family would join but Brent's Mom was really sick so everyone was in more of a relaxing mood, so Brent and I were able to go out on a fun day date!

Whenever we are in Seattle Brent always wants some good Teriyaki. We had no idea where to go so we decided to just head out our destination and my great eyes spotted this!

since I have been trying to watch my portion intake we decided to share a Beef and Chicken Teriyaki plate. The salad was a lot better than I expected so I ate most of that and Brent ate most of the beef and chicken teriyaki.

Once we were done with lunch we headed out to the Mukilteo (Muck-ill-t-o) ferry. It went out to Whidbey Island, which was a lot bigger than we expected. Look at gorgeous that skyline is.

On the Boat Brent found the steering wheel. I am so proud that we only hit one or two other boats while he was directing!

Once we were on the island we were really surprised that it was 38 miles across. We couldn't believe it. We went to the town of Langley. We went down the main little downtown area and it was really cute. Here is a chair outside of a wood and rug shop. We also found a really nice solid wood arm chair that was really pretty!

All Along the coast line there were these Totem poles. I am not sure if they were original or not but they were very cool and obviously very tall! I still can't get over how gorgeous the Northwest is!

Brent loves taking pictures of different churches. Brent didn't think this picture turned out well but I think it looks really really nice, but with so much greenery it is hard for not everything to be gorgeous~

While walking along the street we found this guy... I tried asking if he could take a picture of us and he didn't even look at me or respond! He is not a very responsible pet owner either because I totally sat on his dog and he didn't even look at me once!Brent posed this picture, and I think it turned out really cute! He is so much more artistic than me it is crazy! You also get a really good idea of how the downtown looks.

Another posed picture. The old street sign wasn't accurate but it is pretty cool when in contrast with the trees and coastline!

As we headed back on the ferry we wanted to visit this cute little lighthouse but unfortunately it was all fenced off because of construction, you think that they would leave at least the beach open for you could get closer to it.

So instead of going to the lighthouse we just went to the public beach with some ice creams from Ivar's. It was pretty cold and windy so we didn't stay to long at all!

The rest of the night we just relaxed at home. Sean made some amazing steaks and salmon while Melanie made great baked potatoes, salad and cheesy bread. I felt a bad allergic reaction coming on so I took some medicine which put me to sleep around 8:00 pm. I did wake up briefly to go get ice cream float fixings for the family. They were delicious but then I was out before I could even manage to think about to much else!

It was so much fun getting to spend some time with just Brent and me. When you are dating you think that all the time you have will be spent together, but with work, school, church, family, and other responsibilities Brent and I are lucky to get a couple hours a week where we can just be together and by then we are usually tired enough to just relax at home not really exploring the fun things around us! This day was really fun to just spend together wandering the, playing on the boat and have some fun before we truly buckle down for summer!

I have decided that I need to make a better effort to plan one day a month where we can do fun things!