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!