Fun on the Bluff- Fall Festival

Our last Saturday in Michigan before we head to Brazil we enjoyed a beautiful fall day downtown. They had a Fall Festival on the Bluff. The highlight of the event was the petting zoo. It was a big hit with everyone including Carli. She just LOVES animals. Then ended up putting the chicks back in their cage for a while to give them a rest from all of the kids. The bunnies were also really fun. 

It was a beautiful day!

EP Clarke Tailgate party

The PTO sponsered a Tailgate party for EP Clarke before one of the High School Football games. We had a great time attending. The ladies in charge this year did a great job and it was fun to see all the kids friends and their families too. Gretta and Eliza enjoyed playing with friends, getting their hair spray painted, getting temporary tattoos, having the cheerleaders sign the back of their shirts, eating dinner and most of all running around with their friends. Eliza got a new bear paw tattoo. (We will see how long this one lasts. The one from back to school night made it more than 3 weeks. I finally had to use some rubbing alcohol to get it off before school pictures.)

It was a beautiful fall evening and fun was had by all!

Eliza, Cameron, and Gretta

And so it begins...

After months of waiting on our visa we are finally headed to Sao Paulo this Thursday night. We have known since March that we would be going, so it's been been a long 7 months of waiting. It's kind of strange after all of this waiting that the time has finally come. We are making final preparations to week and are looking forward for this big adventure to start. 

Going to Brazil is Eric's third rotation in his FLDP(Finance Leadership Development Program) for Whirlpools. The original assignment was for us to come to Brazil from July to Dec for him to work on a special project. Due to our visa delay they said we could stay for 6 months once we arrived, but some other news has changed those plans to! I am pregnant with TWINS and due March 27th. I wasn't worried about having a baby in Brazil. Everyone I know who has had a baby in São Paulo raves about what a great experience they had, but TWINS is a bit of a different story. So our plan was once again revised and right now the plan is to stay in Brazil until the end of Jan and fly home when I am 32 weeks pregnant. 

Being pregnant is also going to decrease the amount of travel we do while here. We had wanted to go to Chile at Christmas, but now I am not sure that is going to happen. I do really want to go to Rio and to Iguazu Falls. Manaus is also high on the list, but I think we are going to be lucky to check out SP and Rio. 

Hopefully this blog will help everyone catch a glimpse of our adventure.

Enjoy!

Gretchen

Eliza's School Picture

Kindergarten

Miss Erin Etter's Class

Gretta's School Picture

2nd Grade 

Ms. Julia Adams Class

TWINS!!!!

Eric went with me to my first OB appointment on 8/23 at 10 weeks. 

We were just talking with the OB about moving to Brazil and where we were going to have the baby and then she got this smile on her face and said, "Well maybe this changes things, because there are two. " 

We were in shock!!! 

I never expected to be pregnant with TWINS!!! We were going to have two nice sets of two kids, and now we are going to have 5 kids!!! 

Even as shocking and slightly over whelming as it is we are super excited. The girls, well Gretta & Eliza, are SUPER excited too. They are excited to both have a baby to hold. 

So far the pregnancy has gone well. I have had more morning sickness in the afternoon and night this pregnancy that with my last 3. I still feel sick in the middle of the night from about 4am to 6am. Zofran has really helped!!! 

Since school started I have been taking a nap every afternoon while Carli naps which has really caused a problem in my productivity, but I am just SO TIRED in the afternoon. 

I didn't really start to show until about 13 weeks, but now I do really look pregnant. 

Eric went with me to the specialist in Grand Rapids and so far everything looks good. 

Say Hi to baby A and baby B!!! 

Due 3/27/14

Chocolate faces

I am pretty sure all Fors love Chocolate. Linda sent me this picture of Gretta with her Chocolate face about the same age as Carli. 

Aunt Brittany Visits Michigan

Aunt Brittany used her first weekend of Stand by flights on Southwest to fly to Chicago to visit us. Flying stand by wasn't easy for Brittany. We really appreciate her coming especially because it took her a whole day to get her and a whole day to get home. I am just glad that she made it home Sunday night and was able to get to work today. 

We had a great day on Saturday. The girls had so much fun with Brittany in the morning while Eric and I worked on our final preparations for Brazil. 

Saturday night we went to Silver Beach Pizza, the carousel and also to Yo Bubba's (the new yogurt place in town.)

We love you Brittany. We are so proud of you too. You are such a great example for the girls.  Thanks for coming to visit!!! We hope the rest of your stand by travel goes much smoother:) 

Enjoying the Pier

We tried to squeeze the last bit of summer out of Michigan before we left. It was beautiful day at the beach. 

Walking Pro

I had to go pick up some compression stockings at the Medical Supply Store and they had this child size walker on display. Carli sure enjoyed pushing it around the store, but aren't we sure glad she doesn't really need it. I couldn't get a better picture because she was moving to fast!!!! 

Indian Summer

School may have started, but we are still enjoying some warm sunny days here in Michigan. Warm enough the girls wanted to put their swim suits on and fill up the wading pool with water. 

Anna in Chicago

Anna's Annual  Rochester Girls Trip was in Chicago this last weekend. I went over on Thursday night and had dinner with a few of them who flew in a day early. I am sad I didn't take a picture of us at Cafe Lux. We had a great table in the rotunda over looking Michigan Ave. I had a great time. 

One of Anna's friends, Arianne Dansie, was my EFY roommate at BYU when I was 14 and she was 18. It was fun to see her again. I don't think I have seen her in over 20 years!!! Isn't that crazy. Because of Anna we have stayed in better touch. We still exchange Christmas cards, and it was fun to see her in person. 

Since I didn't have a picture of me with her at dinner here are some of her pictures with her friends. 

It's hard to believe Lindsay has stage 4 colon cancer. Doesn't she look great! 

Happy Birthday LaReine

My visiting teaching companion and good friend LaReine's 65th birthday is at the end of this month. Due to her going on Vacation and the uncertainly of our departure I threw her a little birthday party a few days early. I am sad I didn't get any pictures of the party guest too. 

Amy Barfuss was kind enough to make gluten free, dairy free, soy free cupcakes for LaReine. 

We had a fun time celebrating. 

Nana Carolyn Comes to Visit

We had a great time with Nana Carolyn. I am sad I didn't take more pictures of all of the fun things we did together. It was especially fun to see Carli get so excited to see her when she arrived because I wasn't sure Carli would remember her.  Everyone was excited to see Nana. The girls were begging to wake her up on Friday morning before school and then Nana took them to the bus. Friday she hung out with Carli and me at home and then she watched Carli Friday night so we could go to the Football game. Saturday she played with the girls while Eric and I did some house projects to get the house all ready for Brazil. They did hair and had a great time playing in the basement. Saturday night we went to Silver Beach Pizza and rode the carousel. Always a favorite. 

Sunday we celebrated her birthday early. She helped the girls make a cake. Carli especially enjoyed the Chocolate Cake!!!

The big miracle of her trip was that she tried to book her ticket from Boise to South Bend, but it was $200 dollars more than either coming to Grand Rapids or to Chicago. So she decided to fly in and out of Grand Rapids. Its so much easier to get to for us than Chicago. She was suppose to arrive at 10:00 on Thursday night and I was going to drive up and get her. I was worried about a late night. When she checked in at the Boise Airport she found out that the Grand Rapids flight was over sold and she asked about the South Bend Flight. It had 6 extra seats on it. The gate agent in Boise wasn't able to help her but when she got to MSP since the flight to Grand Rapids was oversold they switched her ticket and flew her into South Bend instead. Yeah!!! Plus the Grand Rapids flight left late, so it would have been an even later night. 

It worked out well for her to leave out of Grand Rapids because I had a Dr appt already scheduled for Grand Rapids on Monday so Eric was able to drive up with us and we went to Costco before she left. 

Thanks Nana for coming!!!