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?

Attn: Single Ladies

It's started already!

I remember way back in the day when you talk about "One day when I have kids..." Well, I would always say I wanted to have a boy first so that he would protect his younger siblings and be intimidating to any boys that came around. Well I got my boy and now I have my girl. Micah didn't seem to care for her too much at the beginning, but suddenly he is starting to show me signs that he really is looking out for her. Here are some of the things he has said that just melts my heart. We were getting ready to leave and he turns to me and says, "Mommy, get Bwookwin!" I guess he didn't want me to forget. In the car he noticed she didn't have a top on and said "Bwookwin needs a shirt." It has just gotten better from there. Yesterday in the car, he said between giggles, "Mommy, she loves me." I looked back to see him laying his head in her lap as she was pulling on his hair. Today as we were leaving he said to me very seriously, "Mommy, I fink Bwookwin is my best friend." Just a minute later he says, "Bwookwin is a lil bit sweet." Oh I love this little boy of mine. Believe me, he can be the biggest pain in the butt, but he is also so sweet and loves to be loved and give it too!

P.S. Chad is trying to convince me not to go private, but rather to restrict comments. I might take that route for now. If I have another problem with negative comments, then I will go private. Who needs more negativity in their lives, right?

Going private

OK, I have decided to go private. I thought having my blog public would be fine. I hoped maybe someone out there could relate to me or get a laugh out of my blog, but I just received a comment from an anonymous reader that made me boil over. This person decided to tell me off on my last blog. It was something along the lines of how selfish I am to want my body back and I should always put the kids first. He or she finished with telling me to stop having kids. Needless to say, I am seeing red! It is obvious to me that this person doesn't have kids or the thought wouldn't even come to mind. Yes, I realize I should be the bigger person and let it side off my back, but it hurts, I won't lie. I have enough issues as it is being a busy parent to two tiny kids, overcoming the baby blues and just managing life in general. I didn't need this to bring me down. Well, I have deleted the comment, but have decided to go private to prevent this from happening in the future. If you would like to continue reading my blog, please send me your e-mail address and I will make sure that you will be able to get on and read it. If this anonymous reader is reading right now, I want you to know that having children is very hard and all of your preconceived notions go out the window when they actually come. All the parenting advice in the world won't make you parent of the year. Yes, the children always come first, but it is important to take care of yourself in order to take care of others. If you always put yourself last, it will take a toll. As for not having more kids, I wasn't planning on it, I don't need more stress or the judgment of people like yourself looming over me. I am not perfect and I never will be, but I do have feelings and you hurt me deeply by accusing me of being a selfish parent when I feel like parenting is my life and I want to succeed at it so badly. Good luck to you when you have your own children. You will need it in the crazy world and don't feel like you are being selfish when you take a vacation away from the kids or choose to spend some money getting yourself something nice. With all the hard work you will be putting into taking care of your kids, you will have earned it!

I think the time has come!

It must be time to wean this little girl of mine. I have done a pretty good job, but now that she has teeth, I have nicknamed her Jaws. She is a biter! The worst part is that she thinks it is funny. I start to scream and she gets this big grin in her face. I have tried flicking her cheek when she does it to get her to stop, but it doesn't phase her. One time I did it pretty hard and she started to cry, so I just felt like crap. Nothing like making a baby cry to boost the self-esteem right? So I have conflicting feelings about it. I will be happy to have my body back to myself again and let these things shrink a bit. They are heavy and hurting my back. I am not looking forward to spending money on formula. It is so expensive! I am excited that this opens me up to being away from her a little more though. I can have a girls day out without kids! I was even thinking about taking a part-time job to do something fun for me. Making a little extra cash on the side would be so helpful. On the other hand, I remember what it was like to wean Micah and he wasn't really a nursing baby the way she is. I don't know how it will go as far as my body goes (clogged ducts or mastitis) or how she will take it. She enjoys a bottle, but she will let me know that she wants to nurse too, so we will have to take this step by step!

P.S. I had a picture of a real shark on here earlier, but it was freaking me out, so I switched to a cartoon. I think it is a little friendlier looking!