The camera died!

Our old faithful camera has bit the dust. Luckily, it happened the day AFTER Christmas. Can you imagine a Christmas without taking pictures of the kids? Anyways, thanks to Ellen for providing us with a gift card to Sears. We went out yesterday and bought this bad boy:


We debated back and forth over whether we should get an SLR or not and decided against it. I am glad we did because we already feel like we have a million buttons and whatnot to figure out on this one. I don't think we would be able to figure out the lenses and settings for an SLR. Maybe later on down the road when it is made for the less-than-tech-savvy type like me! If anyone has any advice on setting or operating this thing, let us know. We don't have the card reader we need to transfer the picture to the computer, but we will soon, so look forward to some (hopefully) cool pictures to come!

Beginnig to unwind...

What busy Christmas we had! I tried to keep it simple and I think I did pretty good. We did do some fun extras leading up to the day though. Shelby and I made a gingerbread house.


Micah licked it.

Then on Christmas Eve, we went to Tawnya's house for dinner and exchanging presents. We had a lot of fun and Tawnya is great at picking out gifts. Actually, she got me one of my favorite gifts. It is a cute silver charm bracelet from Brighton with the kids initials on it. I am such a sucker for my kids! Brooklyn was great at helping to open up some of her presents. Her less than gentle nature comes in handy once in a while.


Micah was thrilled with all his gifts. He is so fun to give gifts to because his reaction is the best. He will usually say something like "whoa, das so cool!" or "oh my goodness!" It make it worth every penny!
Christmas morning was wet and cold for the first time in a long time. Micah woke up around 7:30 and we had to wake up Brooklyn. I went and got Brooklyn pajamas that looked like a Micah's so they would sort of match. They were so cute! Micah loved his stocking.


Brooklyn liked hers too!


Micah spotted the pickle first, so he got to open the first present. It might be a while before Brooklyn spots it first.

Right after our Christmas, we packed up the kids in pajamas and all and headed over to my parents house. Once we got there, we found out that they had decided to wait until 10 am to have everyone over. I wish I had gotten the memo, so for time being, I had to keep Micah from attacking the presents, help make breakfast and wrap the remaining presents. I even wrapped up one of my own! Finally, everyone came over and the kids were spoiled once again. Micah got SO many things.


Brooklyn did too, but I was the one opening it all. She just crawled around the wrapping paper and loved it.


By the end of it, she was pooped.

Later that night, we came back over for a great Christmas dinner and dessert with more family over. It was a great Christmas and we were all VERY spoiled. It took us a couple hours just to put things away and find places for them to go. Most importantly though, we got to spend time with family and reflect on the season itself. We are all very blessed and were thankful to be with each other and think of each other in the hustle and bustle of it all. I hope your Christmas was wonderful as well!

#4

I got a blog tag. I am supposed to open the fourth picture folder and post the fourth picture with a short explanation. So here we go:

This is a picture of Micah around nine months or so. He was crawling around the room and found the baby powder and squeezed it into his face. He thought it was pretty funny!

Now to tag others. I think these people take pretty amazing pictures, so Amy, Ashley, Ali and Kristyn. Merry Christmas guys!

My stress-free go-green Christmas!

I was going to send out cute Christmas card to everyone. I even had all these cute pictures taken of the kids just for it, but time is ticking down. Rather than stressing myself over addresses and stamps, I am saving the planet and doing it blog style! So to all my friends and family near and far:

"His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

Merry Christmas from Chad, Rachel, Micah and Brooklyn Trotter

Just when I thought...

...things were getting easier, she does this!


Yes, she pulled herself up in her crib. I guess the timing is right, Micah did the same thing at her age. Here is a picture of him at the same age!


Wow, I have two totally different looking children. I always knew they looked different, but it wasn't until just now that I can see how different looking they are. Micah was bald bald bald for the longest time. Brooklyn is super blond and look at the difference in those eyes. We have chocolate brown and baby blues. I think they are both just adorable, but I am bias! Anyways, with her latest antics, we had to lower the crib. I couldn't lower it myself, so I had to take the risk and put her down for her nap with it still up before Chad would get home to lower it. She napped fine and Chad came home and lowered it, so I thought we were out of the woods. Well, this morning after she woke up (she slept through the night!) I brought her into our bed to nurse her (I am down to twice a day now) and she fell back asleep right after. I got up and started getting Micah breakfast and doing little chores when all of a sudden I hear a scream. I go running to see her on the floor next to the bed! She was fast asleep in the middle of the bed when I left. I guess when she woke up she didn't make a noise and just started rolling. She usually wakes up crying, so I never thought she would have the chance to fall off the bed. Needless to say, I felt terrible, but she is absolutely fine. She was just scared. My bed is on the low side, so it wasn't much of a fall, but she won't be in my bed alone again! I hate when things like that happen and make you feel like the worst parent in the world. Anyone else have an experience like that?

Oh Fudge!

Yesterday I gathered the kids and headed over to my parents house to pick up my mom for a shopping trip. Well, when we got there, my mom wasn't home yet, so we were looking for something to kill time. Lucky for us, my dad had just made some fresh fudge the night before that was calling our name. Eating fudge before noon is fine, right? Well, here is the conversation we had as I went to cut the fudge:
Me: Micah, you want a bite of fudge?
Micah: Um, no.
Me: Micah, fudge is chocolate.
Micah: Oh, fudge is chocwit? OK.
Me: It kind of looks like poop, huh?
Micah: Oh yeah.
(I go to take a bite)
Micah: Mommy, you eat poop?

You gotta love that kid! I told Chad that story later that night and now he is afraid that Micah will start picking up poop to eat!

Quick stuff

1. Brooklyn was 7 Months on Sunday, but I just didn't get around to posting about it. Sorry baby girl! She is getting so big. She had a growth spurt just recently and so she is outgrowing all of her clothes. She doesn't fit any of her shoes now either! She is starting to pull herself up on things and loves getting kisses. She giggles like crazy when you give her a big one! She is adorable, but watch out she isn't gentle at all. She will pull your hair and scratch your face. For some reason she thinks it is funny. Hopefully, she will become sugar ans spice and everything nice in time!

2. The wrapping party is on, but let's not call it that. Because these times are so stressful, I want to think of it as a casual get together. Wednesday night at 6 pm if you want to come by and hang out then send me an e-mail. I will have hot cocoa ready and Christmas movies going. You can your wrapping supplies and presents to wrap or you can just hang out!

Little Victories

I thought it would never happen, but lo and behold, Micah is potty trained! I had tried so many times before and would get so frustrated. Everyone told me not to rush it and that boys do it in their own time. They were right! We just decided we would give it another shot and he took to it. He is a potty champ! In fact, he will go on the potty every 5 minutes (literally). Each time he goes he gets chocolate chips and a potty dance. Now that he is pretty consistent, we are trying to do away with those. We have only had two accidents in a week and he even wakes up dry from his naps and overnight!

He spend so much time in the bathroom now. I was walking by as he was in there and he was knocking on the lid. He opened it up and started shouting "Pwankton, are you there?" I think he watches too much Spongebob!

Last night we had our ward Christmas party. It was Christmas Around the World, so there was food from several different countries. The primary put on a cute nativity story. Micah decided to put on an impromptu concert by jumping on the stage and singing into the microphone he had. Whoops, sorry! Well, after that, Santa came in the room. My brave little boy freaked out. He hid behind me and would not go near Santa. Well, Brooklyn is too young to care, so I sat her on him and she tugged away at his beard!

She looks like she is trying to bail!

By the way, Brooklyn is doing great with being weaned. I only feed her twice a day now and she gets formula and solids the rest of the day. I think I might keep it that way for a while. It gives us both a lot more freedom. Also, she is so close to crawling. She will scoot a bit and then gets frustrated. She tries to pull herself up on furniture already, so she might just try the walking part first!

Ducks and Ellen

We have had a very busy couple of days and we don't see an end in sight for right now. Wednesday we did our normal thing and then got a call from my dad telling me that his friend had some extra tickets to the Ducks game that he was giving away. We thought we would be spontaneous and go. Well, we picked up the tickets which we were told were box seats and headed up to Anaheim. We got lost! Chad and I were so mad and so of course we just get mean with each other even though it was stupid Google maps that took us in the wrong direction! Anyways, we get there and the seat weren't box seat, which was fine, but I had really forgotten that I don't like hockey. Reason number one being that the only part people are interested in is the fights. Literally, the entire crowd would stand when a fight broke out, but the rest of the game that actually took skill, everyone just sat back. Reason number two that I don't like hockey: the crowd it attracts. I think my three year old was exposed to more profanity in that hour than in the rest of his life combined. Luckily, he didn't seem to catch and enjoyed the game!

Brooklyn had fun too. She sat there perfectly the whole time!

Yesterday, my mom and I had a girls day away. We left early and headed up to LA.

Where we went to attend the Ellen Show!
We had some time to kill so we decided to drive around. Guess who pulls up next to us at a light? Marcia Gay Harden! I kept looking over at her over and over again knowing I knew her face. It took me forever to think of her name! By the way, she drives a Prius.

Well, we still had a little time before check-in, so we headed over to an LA institution. Bob's Big Boy. I had never been and honestly, it is more about the history. The food is just food, but it was fun to hear my mom talk about how my aunts works there and how they would cruise back in the day and stop in for the car hop service.

Finally, after hours of waiting, we went to the Ellen Show and we were part of her 12 Days of Giveaways! They took us inside and we were sat in the very FRONT row. Hopefully you can see me on TV today. She comes right in front of me to dance. The show was fun. It had Amanda Pete, John Hamm and (the one my mom was so excited for) Barry Manilowe. I am sure I misspelled his name, sorry to all his fans! We got some really cool things and she even bought everyone in the audience each a lotto ticket. We got a $500 gift card to Sears, a Bulova watch, tool set, food processor, clothes, and a blue ray player. Here is mom with her new watch!
After the show was over, they had the employee store open, so we got on the tram and went to the store. As we jumped back on the tram we went by the ER set which was filming and saw one of the nurses. Of course mom yells out "I know her" and waves. She waved back! Well, it was fun and I am hoping to take it easy today!

Christmas Prep

Sunday night we decided it was time to get some Christmas decorations up. Chad assembled the tree and so it was time to get the ornaments on. I started getting them out and on the tree. I noticed I didn't have anyone helping me. Maybe they were a little tied up!

Brooklyn loved the ornaments. I am glad they make them shatter proof nowadays!

She was better at supervising than helping!

Micah loves the Christmas tree. He has to plug it in every time he sees it.

Well, the Christmas tree is finished now and we should work on outdoor lights. Micah loves Christmas lights and told me as we were looking at them, "we gotta put Christmas up on the house. Chad's gotta take a hammer and put Christmas up on the house." I will have to see if Chad is up for it!

A recent discovery in our house is the attic. If you open up the front closet there is an attic that is finished (carpet, drywall and AC). My niece and her friend always want to come over and hang out up there to do homework. Micah isn't one to be left out, so I see him going up and down when they are around. The problem is, he thinks he is big enough to be up there alone. Wrong! By the way, look at that mop of hair. He looks like a Beatle! OK Ringo, I think it might be time for a cut!

Some updates...

I figured some of you near and far could use a quick update on the family. First off, Brooklyn is a hand full. She is so stinkin' cute. Her colic is rare nowadays, but not yet gone. She has discovered her tongue and loves to make funny noises with her tongue stuck as far out as possible. She is also quite the gassy girl. She will let them rip without even flinching. It can be pretty embarrassing in public. I am sure some people are thinking we are just blaming it on her! She is also growing so much. She is a big eater and so she has thighs that are huge and a chubby tummy. I don't have small kids! Brooklyn is also very social. She loves to be out and about and meet new people to flirt with. She hates to be left alone or to play by herself. Basically, if she is awake, she needs attention!

Micah is as cute as they come. I love and loathe the age of three. With this fun amazing personality comes the independent spirit. He is always saying the funniest things. I should really write them down as he says them to post on here. The other day as we were driving to a park he said to me "Ok stop here, Ok stop here." When I finally pulled over to park he enthusiastically said "good boy!" I was cracking up! Anyways, I was putting some real effort into potty training last week. He did pretty good. He had a few accidents, but used the potty too. I was thinking we were making great progress, but he wasn't having it. He insisted on wearing diapers the other day. We said we wouldn't put them on him because he was too big. Well, being the determined kid he is, he got one out of his drawer and spent the next 15 minutes putting them on himself and he then proudly strutted around the house. You think he is anything like his dad?

Chad is still working at TechSpace. He loves it there. He loves what he does and he is really good at working with people. Usually the IT guy is condescending or just incapable of interacting with normal people. Chad is great at being the normal guy that can tell you what is wrong with your computer and leave your dignity intact. At home, he is the softie. I have to be the mean one and the kids know that dad will give in. In fact, Micah has made it habit when he gets an answer from me that he doesn't like, to quickly ask dad. Chad is happy to feed them whatever they want or let them stay up later or cuddle them until they fall asleep. I swear that Brooklyn puts up a fuss when he is home because she knows he will cuddle her if she is loud enough. I have proof:

He is definitely a great father and an amazing support for me!

As for me, well I have been pretty reflective the past few days. I realized that I am totally unforgiving of myself. I am quick to forgive others, but not myself. I don't know why. As a result I was feeling pretty crappy about myself. So what did I do? I overcompensated in other areas of my life to try to be the perfect mom, wife, daughter, etc. I was feeling bad about myself and then stressing myself out daily trying to do it all and be it all.

Hello, no wonder I was unhappy. Here is my strategy: 1. The Zoloft is a thing of the past. It made me queasy, lightheaded and on edge. 2. I am going to talk to a therapist this week as a present to myself. It is an expensive gift for me! 3. I am going to find a hobby for me. Something that I can get excited about! It is important to have some me time. 4. I have to make sure to keep up the prayers and faith. I know when all else fails, God is always reliable! I know he answers prayers and sometimes it is through friends (thanks Kristyn!) 5. I need to drop the perfection and learn how to deal with things as they are.

Christmas is coming up quickly and so tonight we are putting the Christmas tree together. Yes, its fake. I can't imagine getting a real one until the kids are much older. Micah is obsessed with the Christmas tree and I am impressed he hasn't unwrapped any presents. We also have a lot of things going on this week. What I am most excited about...I'm going to the Ellen Show with my mom! We are going Thursday and spending most of the day up in LA having some girl time. It should be a blast and a much needed break for me! We also have the RS Christmas Enrichment, the ward Christmas party and Sing Noel this week. Yikes! I am glad almost all of our Christmas shopping is done. Just a few here and there left to pick up. I am also still planning on having a little wrapping party probably around the end of next week. Hopefully it will work out and I can see some of you before the holidays!

P.S. I was looking up an image of wrapping presents and this one came up. Please come more appropriately dressed to my wrapping party or be very careful with your scissors! http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2407/2134468812_83d00dedd8_o.jpg

Everyone here likes Mario Kart right?

I know sometimes people use their blogs as an outlet of their feelings. I really haven't too much. I try to only put things on here that I think people would want to see or hear. You know, all the happy fun things. Truth is, I have been really struggling to be happy lately. I couldn't pinpoint one thing or another, but I think a few things have really been getting me down. I know the whole perfection thing gets to me. I have a hard time forgiving myself for the mistakes I have made. I feel easily overwhelmed by life in general and motherhood can be scary for me. I always feel like I am screwing up. I never take time for myself and a lot of that has to do with me feeling like it is a selfish thing and I don't deserve it. I think post partem depression plays a part as well. I also have the strangest and often very scary nightmares that I can't seem to shake. They follow me throughout the day. I know logically that this all sounds dumb, but I think I think it over so much that my body's reaction to it all has taken over. The feeling of stress, anxiety and/or sadness can be too much for me. I find myself upset a lot. A lot of tears have been shed and Micah now will randomly pretend to cry. I hope this hasn't affected him negatively. Today, I went from taking a nice nap today to waking up and feeling like I had a stress level of 11! I don't know why, but I do. I finally gave in. After months and months of dealing with this and thinking I could get over it on my own, I went in to see a doctor and get anti-depressants. I got the lowest does possible and took my first dose about a half hour ago. I am hoping this puts life back into perspective. I feel like things are just out of whack. I have never been the type to blow things out of proportion, but everything has been difficult for me. I want to be able to feel like the strong, confident, easy-going person I used to be. I am hoping that it is my body's chemistry that is off after having two kids and can be straightened out. I don't want this to be something that follows me any longer. What scares me most is putting Chad through this. He has been my biggest supporter by far. Comforting me many many nights and talling me how much he loves me. I know this is me blowing things out of proportion again, but I fear that one day he will just say he has had enough and it isn't worth it and pick up and leave. I know he wouldn't, but the thought scares me enough to swallow that pill and make an appointment with a counselor to work on getting me back to the person I used to know. To all my friends, you are all wonderful and I am sorry if I have put on a front and made you think things are just hunky dory. Don't feel sorry for me. I think these things just happen sometimes. Everyone has to experience trials in their lives, right? I really haven't had any before this, so I guess it was just my time. I will make it through this and hopefully be much stronger for it. Maybe more compassionate, gentler, more patient too. We will just have to wait and see. In the mean time, I have to find me again. I need to find a hobby to raise my seretonin level!

Twice Thankful

This year we had two Thanksgivings! The first was with my family on Thanksgiving day. There was a lot of great food and company, but we were so busy there, I forgot to take pictures! Hopefully Tanya will put some up. I know she took a few. We wish we could have stayed a while longer to enjoy everyone's company, but there was no time to waste as Chad's side of the family was coming in. We left my parents house and got to have Tory, Jon and their two cute girls stay at our house. The next morning we all went down to Laguna Niguel Regional Park to take family pictures. They are all over those things. My side hasn't taken a family picture since I was in 8th grade! Anyways, when we were done went straight for urgent care with Brooklyn, who was feeling pretty nasty. She ended up having bronciolitis. Poor baby! After the doctor, we headed right to Tawnya's house and arrived to see this:


Best idea ever! Chad's side has a lot of young kids. I think we had about ten kids between 6 months and 14 years. I think Tawnya just used that as an excuse though. We had to justify getting a big toys for the grown ups to play in!

*Tawnya vs. Scott (Seh won, but Trevor pinning Scott down might explain it)


*Cute Emma...she would get to the end and say "we're all winners!"

*Brooklyn grabbing the camera and being pretty content for being sick.

*Micah lived in the bounce house and was dripping with sweat!

*Shelby was an honorary Trotter for the day. Chad was a one of the fastest in the course. Now he is sore!


We had races galore and I even joined in on the action. Wayne decided he wanted to race me. I thought I would show this 12 year old that I was still pretty agile. The race started and I dove through the hole. Well, my arms dove, my head hit a bar and snapped my neck back. I am still sore! Yes, I lost.

*Me throwing my beaten body down the slide.

*Tory eating it down the slide. I love this picture!

*An action shot of the boys!


We had a great dinner with a ton of food and when we decided to go home, the party wasn't over. We had some of the family come by and play Rock Band and hang out. It was so fun. I think the best part was that a few unnamed relatives had had a few too many. Can we say tequila? I was told how awesome I was over and over again. It was hilarious!

Tory and Jon hung out with us another day and we went out to play at the Spectrum. Brooklyn was pooped after all that fun!

*Did you know they make you sit your baby down next to you on the ferris wheel? I was trying to keep her up right the whole time!

We will miss you all. Thanks for such a great time!

Ever wonder what it would be like to see an ancient prophet mocked and rejected?

I think it might have looked something like this. I don't mean to blaspheme by relating an economic analyst to someone chosen by God to call the masses to repentance, but as I watched this video I couldn't help but be struck by the insane parallels between this guy's astounding accuracy and his listeners' laughter and scorn. He warned them! Explicitly! Specifically! Repeatedly! They did not listen. And look what happened!

"Oh Lot, it's not that bad."

"Lehi, you must be a laugh riot at a party."

"Noah, you don't know what you're talking about."

Bonus points for the dude at the 8:30 mark for a straight up B-I-N-G-O of horrible predictions and recommendations. Charles Payne, redeem your prize at the door!

Lots of little things

First off, Happy Birthday to me! Thanks to everyone who called or texted me. That was sweet of you to think of me! I celebrated on Saturday with a sushi lunch with the parents (Chad can't stand it) and then met up with the rest of the family at the Cheesecake Factory for dessert that night. It was a long wait and this is what the kids were doing to kill time:

Micah chose to hide amongst the chairs...

...while Brooklyn used them as teethers!
Anyways, we had fun, too bad I forgot to take pictures of the actual party. I guess it is a sign that we had a good time! I was spoiled with all my nice presents. My mom has ruined me for life by buying me Hudson jeans. Now I will have an expensive habit I can't afford, but I love them! I am glad I celebrated Saturday because Sunday was crazy. I decided to sleep in. I handed the kids off to Chad and tried to sleep only to end up having nightmares. I awoke to Brooklyn screaming at around 8:30 and tried to tune it out. No go, I got a phone call from my sister-in-law with some sort of urgency (I still have no clue what happened). I start to worry about that, since I am great at worrying. As I get off the phone, Chad informs me that BOTH of our sweet kids celebrated my birthday with their own fireworks AKA blown out diapers. So within 20 minutes of waking up I was rinsing poop out of pajamas and stressed. No worries, it all got better from there, but man, of all days!
Speaking of poop, (how sad is it that I can start a conversation like that?) Micah used the potty and went number two for the very first time! We have had a race car sitting up on the light fixture in the bathroom for about two months now as a prize to get him to use the potty. He finally did it! He loves the car and I hope this is the beginning of the end of diapers for Micah. We will have to wait and see. I think I will give underwear a shot tomorrow and see how it goes. If you need me I will be at home!

I am happy to announce that Christmas shopping for the kids is done. We did a very thorough shopping trip at Target tonight while my mom watched the kids. We got some really neat things for them that I think they will like and my stress level is going down as a result, which brings me to my next idea....who is up for a wrapping party? I was thinking we could get together wrap presents, have hot cocoa, listen to Christmas music or put on a Christmas movie. It's not all about the kids, right?