Prize time

First off, let me apologize for the last post. I had a horrible sinus infection last week which gave me the worst headache I have ever had. I was trying to keep myself busy by blogging, but looking back on it, I can see I was just rambling on and on. Sorry! At least the video was cute, right?

Well, I decided it is time for a giveaway! Some of my other friends have done it and almost all the other blogs I read do it time to time. The problem is, I NEVER win, so instead of losing yet another contest, I thought I would hold one myself. It is also a great way to find out who is reading my blog. Here is what you are playing for...


All you need to do is leave a comment by Wednesday night and I will draw a name at random to win. Then you will get your pick of one of the items above and I will ship it to you (or drop it by your house if you are local). The first is the Liberty bow and it is perfect for the Fourth! The second one is the Dotty mini bow. It is about two and half inches across for those of you who like little bows for their babies. The third option is a Fairy Flower. This is cute on mommy or baby! The last option is the Fairy Flower snaps (the others are all on alligator clips). These are on mini snap clips so even a baby with very little hair can wear them. If you don't have girls, or you don't have girly girls, you can always give it as a gift and if your baby is still little, the alligator clips fit right into interchangable and woven headbands. Good luck!

Out of the mouths of babes...

I have to admit that I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with age three. There are those days when the independent streak is going strong and a bit of a sassy mouth can surface. Then there are those days when they say the sweetest things that melt your heart or have you peeing your pants. I love how unfiltered my little boy can be. He will tell you what he is thinking without pausing to rephrase. He is such a crack up! Here are a few of my favorite things that he does or says at this time.

From the time we brought Brooklyn home, we have always "spoken" for her. I am sure we aren't the only ones. When Micah would do something sweet, we would say something like "She says I love you." Well, even though Brooklyn is starting to say a few words here and there, he still asks us what she says. he does something funny or dances for her, he will run up to me and say "What does she says?"

This was one of my favorite conversations for a couple weeks ago:
Micah: Where is everyone?
Me: They're all at work.
Micah: Oh.
Me: Do you think mommy should work too?
Micah: You are already at work.
Me: I am?
Micah: Yes, you work at home.
Me: I do, that's a lot of work, huh?
Micah: Yep!

He still calls McDonald's "Old McDonald's" and Panda Express is "Panda Spress" (we go tothe mall a lot), he sings all the time, he will sing "hush girl, hush your lips, do the Hellen Keller and talk with your hips," he will flex his muscles and say "firepower," after seeing Up, he told Chad "that was a special movie," he asks me to take him to the mall and to play video games, he is so much fun. Oh, and did you know he is involved in a love triangle? One of his friends at church calls him stinky Micah because his girlfriend Ellie decided she was going to marry Micah. He was not happy about that. I asked Micah if he was going to marry her and he said no. I asked him who would and said "Um, Zale is." Looks like this triangle turned into a square. I just adore him!

As for my little girl, she just got some new shoes. I dare you to watch this and not smile!

After a slow start...

...I am up and running...sort of. I just listed a few of my flowers and bows on eBay and I will have to wait and see what the response is like. If they sell, then I will keep it up, if not, it will just become a hobby for me and make good b-day presents! If you are interested, you can look us up under chadtrotter. If you want to buy one, I will deliver it to you since shipping within the area is dumb. I guess in the next few days I will see if I have myself a side business!

Happy Father's Day Chad

A message from Brooklyn: Daddy you make me smile!

A message from Micah: One day I want to be as big and strong as my dad!


A message from Me: Thanks for giving me these two and being such a great daddy! I love to see you dote over them, spoil them and cuddle with them. They just adore you and I know you do too! I appreciate how hard you work to provide for us and make it possible for me to stay at home to raise them. I'm so glad that I get to raise these two munchkins with you!

We have had a super busy week and hardly had a chance to rest this week. It's only Thursday! Monday we went with my mom's group to the Santa Ana Zoo. The kids had so much fun. I was lame and forgot the stroller and only had one baby wipe packed, but we managed. My friend Jenny is a photographer and took great pictures of the kids. My pictures are a little more amateur, but still cute, right?

Micah loved holding hands with all his friends. I love the one with him and Emilia and it is even better that her shirt says "This is serious!"

Brooklyn loved Jenny and smiled her face off for the camera. I love this picture!

The monkeys staring at the monkey. I don't know who was entertained more...

Micah enjoying the maze.

You wouldn't believe the size of the frogs at this zoo!

Brooklyn and her turtle. She enjoyed not having a stroller and wanted to do as much walking on her own as possible. I was pleasantly surprised at how well she stayed with us.

Big surprise...Micah loved the Jeep!

If you look in the background, that red spot in the middle is a bird. There is a really neat aviary in the middle with birds just walking around. They also have huge peacocks running around the grounds uncaged, which was a little weird. What happens when they try to lave through the front gate?

Anyways, Tuesday was a Disneyland day for us since it was the last day for a long time that we had access to the park. It was really crowded, so we went to CA Adventures because it is always less crowded that Disneyland. We always go with our friends the Didlakes. Our kids are the same age and they entertain each other well. I can't wait until September when it is quiet again!

Wednesday was fun and crazy too. I made it to 5:30 am boot camp again. Yet again, I am so sore! I can't squat or sneeze today without pain. I quickly canceled out that workout with a trip to Krispy Kreme with the kids to meet up with friends. They got to watch the donuts being made, got a free donut and a hat to wear. After that we headed home for showers and naps. Off we went again to meet up with friends at the park. We did a Father's Day craft and played and played. We went home to pick up Chad and then we were off again to Abagail's 1st b-day party! I can't believe she is one already! Well, again we ate, we played and ate some more. It was a long fun day and we were all spent!

Today I was hoping to just lay around in pajamas, but really we just do better out, so we headed out to the mall today to do some shopping. I hope Chad likes what we got him. I guess we will wait and see! Now the kids are down and I should be sleeping too, but instead I am blogging. Oh well! I think that moms just don't get a full nights rest ever. Right?

Palm Springs in photos

Over the last weekend we went out to Palm Springs with my parents. I hadn't been in years and so we just played it by ear. We stayed in La Quinta and the weather was perfect! It was about 85 and sunny. We shopped at the outlets, played in the pool and ate at some great restaurants. The kids did great both traveling and adapting to new surroundings. We hope that they can eventually handle longer car rides and we can do more traveling with them soon!

Our helpful bellhop! He loved riding in this thing, especially when there wasn't any luggage on it

Brooklyn in her new outfit since she... blew through... her original outfit for the day.

Brooklyn and Papa feeding each other. It's her new favorite thing to do, she'll put food in your mouth while saying "Ahhhhhhh"

Look at that big booty! Not as much of it is diaper as you think!

Papa playing rocket with Micah, which, as you can see, Micah absolutely loved. He basically just got chucked from one end of the pool to the other.

At Jackalope Ranch. Yummy BBQ!

Brooklyn was pooped before we even hit Palm Springs!

Well you don't see these every day, now do you? No idea what it was doing, but it was pretty cool to see! Anyone in the market for a Boatswagen?

Playing Catch-up

Chad just bought us a new Mac so now I might be able to stay on top of my blogging! Here are the pictures I promised. Enjoy!

We've been playing at the park and Brooklyn loves the sand. She doesn't mind eating it either!

Micah doesn't stay still long enough to catch a picture, but this action shot turned out pretty well!

Micah wearing my marathon number from the Memorial Day race. Now whenever I get in my running clothes he asks if I'm going to be "fifteen sixty one." It amazes me that he still remembers that number!

We found a great duck park in Lake Forest. We were able to get rid of a ton of stale hot dog buns and attracted probably five different types of birds! Micah LOVED it!

Sunday naps are the best!

The kids in their element, Brooklyn looks like she's trying to pull a Jackie-O. As you might have noticed, a recurring theme is Micah in his underwear (if that!)

Brooklyn loves being in boxes, baskets and bins! She'll play that way for hours!

Love those blue eyes!

My handsome boy!

More to come... We have pictures from our weekend in Palm Springs. I also have been working on bows, I'll post some pictures on here in case anyone wants some (and I'll be putting them on eBay as well).

One day...

...when or if I am lucky enough to have one whole room to do crafts in, I will steal this idea! It is so cute!

OK, I have a ton of cute pictures of the kids that I have to blog soon and I will. Again, I have very little time to spend on the computer since this is far from the child safe house. To mention a few things, there are three flights of wooden stairs, one of which is slats that open to below, there is pool with no alarm or net, there are sewing supplies sitting out in the open, an entire cupboard at child level with medicines and cleaners and so on. Even with an eagle eye on them, they still get hurt. In fact, I was going to take pictures of the mark across Brooklyn's face from her tumble down the stairs. There were only four stairs and she fell backwards! Add to this, that the little stinker learned how to open up doors today and it spells disaster. This explains why my blogging is lagging. Anyways, I will also have to fill you on on the many many funny things Micah has been saying. As I sit here, I can hear him downstairs saying "I have to pee!" Chad said go ahead and he says "But there is a fan in there!" Oh no, not the bathroom fan! He is so funny. He also told me earlier that vacuuming is "not such a good idea" because he is scared of it. Yesterday he called Chad a snot and me a sassy pants. Oh three. What a fun age!

Runner or not, here I come!

So Memorial Day was memorable for me. I ran my first 5K! Val really wanted to do it and I wanted to give it a shot, so we signed up for the Laguna Hills Memorial Day Run and Val bought us the coolest bright pink argyle socks. We were both saying how unprepared we were for the race. I hadn't been running with the move and Brooklyn's b-day and life in general. She said she hadn't either, but I think she was lying to me! As our race started, Val took of like a bat out of hell! I thought we were going to jog, but no...we were weaving in and out of the crowd. All the while Val is saying things like "come on Rach, we can do this" and "make Coach Almond proud!" Whatever. I was trying, but I was telling the truth when I said I hadn't been running and this flat out sprint was killing me! Lucky for me as we headed into Leisure World, my shoe came untied and I needed to stop and fix it. Ten seconds of rest and then off we go again. Finally as my lungs began to cramp and my peripheral vision started to become psychdelic, I decided it was time to walk. My sides cramped and my lungs ached. Yes, I am horribly out of shape! Val took off and I am glad she did. I didn't want to hold her back and I didn't want to pass out trying to keep up with her! Well, after about a half mile of walking and intermittened jogging, I finally was able to start my run again. This time it was at my pace. I was able to jog the last mile and a half and did OK. I won't tell you my time because it is pretty sad. Let's just say it is a starting point! Val did great and I still think she was secretly running at home. It's OK Val, you can tell me you have been running and you are going to smoke my slow butt. I can take it! Anyways, it was fun and it makes me want to get back into running. I want to be able to feel like I can conquer it in a faster time and run the whole thing. Oh, and seeing the other avid runners bodies is motivational also! So we are supposed to be doing the Irvine mud run in July. Still haven't been consistently running, but I think I will still do it. I will keep doing 5Ks for a while until I feel like I can handle a 10K. Again, I don't want to lose a lung or suffer the embarrassment of passing out among thousands of athletes!

On a side note, our house hunt has been wild. I would go into details, but then this post would go on forever. As of right now, we are waiting to hear back on one house. It is actually a condo, but it is 2000 square feet and four bedroom, so it is the largest of all the places we have looked at. It needs work. The people before came in and I think they were trying to flip it and ran out of money. So things like the kitchen are all done, but lack appliances. A bathroom has no sink, the tub has no shower head, etc. The price is good though since it is the bank that is trying to sell it, but we have run into a few bumps on the way. We had people promising us things that they are suddenly forgetting about. They just wanted our business. Anyways, I hope we get it, if not, it will be back to square one yet again!

One more thing, I know I have been so bad about blogging and worse about commenting. I do read all your blogs, but don't have much time to sit and comment because I can't let my kids wander in the house like I could before. My parents house has a ton of stairs and just a lot of stuff for them to get into, so I am constantly on my toes trying to keep them out of trouble. Hopefully, we will have our own home soon and I will get back on top of my blogging and commenting.