Sad Goodbyes, and Daddy's homecoming!

Friday afternoon J.David and I said goodbye or "so long" (b/c they will be back to visit) to our friends Kara and Maren. They are moving next week. Kara and I met when we were around 5 months pregnant with the babies. I was working at the Closet Factory at the time and in the process of designing her closet when we discovered we had the same due date! Maren was actually born 3 weeks before J.David, but we thought it was a pretty wierd coincidence. It has been such a blessing to have them in our lives over this last year+ and we are really going to miss them! Here are some pics from our last playdate with them living here.

Grace, Asher, Maren, J.David, and Grady

Asher and J.David. (i think we have one of them exactly like this at 4 months!)

On to more positive news. Morgan is FINALLY home!! I am not allowed to post when he is out of town so now that he is back i can share. He has been gone since what feels like since the beginning of November. Between the trip to Egypt and this recent project it has been nearly 5-6 weeks that he has been gone. Tonight he came home for 2 weeks of vacation and we couldn't be more excited!! Although he would get to come home most weekends, it was obvious how much J.David missed him daily. We are so thankful to have him home for the holidays! We love you Morgan!!

Pics!

Here are my WAY over due pics. The first ones are of the day we worked on the tree and mantle.

This was J.David all weekend at Breakfast with Santa and the family reunion. ALL OVER!! he really enjoyed the santa breakfast b/c he had nearly an entire cafeteria to walk around. He loved it!!

This was at dinner with my Dad on Friday for our annual holiday shopping/dinner. The past two years we have gone to CPK, there's nothing like finishing off a pizza all by yourself!

Family reunion on Sunday. And Santa came....ha ha ha. I think our Santa weekend is going to need a post of its own so i will save those pics for later this week.
This is my fave!! The weekend after Thanksgiving we played Rock Band at my parents' house. J.David watched and quickly learned how to use a microphone. Today he found this princess flashlight of mine and thought it was a microphone. It was sooo cute!! He can't sing of course, but he says "Go, Go, Go" and holds the "O" part for just a second longer than normal. So we think he believes that he is singing. I love it!!

Update now with pics to come....

Ok, what a crazy last few weeks we have had!! Morgan has been in and out town since early November (gone during the week home for most weekends) and we sure do miss him. He is coming home tonight and we are ready for some good quality Daddy time! I don't realize how much I count on him in the evenings until he leaves again. He is such a great dad!
In addition to that were able to go to Morgan cousin's wedding last weekend in AR and see almost the entire Morgan side of the family!! It was such a special weekend since it is so rare that we are all in one place at one time. Sadly i didn't get any photos! I am really mad at myself for this one b/c there were so many kiddos there and they were so cute playing together. j.david even got tackled for the very first time by his cousin 4 months older!! I realized quickly that JD will probably be more of a baseball player like his daddy and will not be joining Houston on the football field! he proved to not be quite as tough as I gave him credit for. ha ha ha. I know Leslie felt badly about in the incident, but I thought it was quite funny. ha ha ha. The only negative of the entire weekend was coming home with colds. J.David and i both came home with nice little colds that have seemed to linger throughout the week. I just hope they go away before Christmas and don't turn into anything more.
J.David is officially walking...EVERYWHERE!! we called it official the day he turned 13 months and he is so funny to watch. I need to post some video, i know. He is also trying to mimic everything i do and it is so cute!! (i have to keep blowing my nose, so he grabs the tissues and wipes his nose and then throws the tissue in the kitchen through the gate. so funny). I will post some pics this weekend. We are going to enjoy a day of shopping with Pap-pa (my dad)today so i better get ready! Have a great weekend!!

Where Business will take You!

As some of you may know recently I made a few business trips to Puerto Rico and Cairo, Egypt. I spent 2 weeks in Puerto Rico in September and then 8 days in Cairo, Egypt during November. They were both great trips. In Puerto Rico I had to stay the weekend, the resort I was staying at had a very nice 27-hole golf course. We got out and played Saturday. On Sunday we drove from Ponce, where we stayed the first week, to San Juan. We toured "Old San Juan" on Sunday. It was a pretty neat area.

Old San Juan Fort Cemetery
Fort in San Juan

Golf Course in Ponce, Puerto Rico

On the golf course

Me and a Colleague from L.A.

Then, on November 7th I left for Cairo, Egypt. Their work week is Sunday - Thursday. So I worked Sunday - Thursday and stayed the day on Friday to do some sight seeing. During the week a few of the people I was working with from the client took us out on the town. It was a lot of fun.

Authentic Egyptian Restaurant

Enjoying a tea after dinner (the musician played 1 "American" song.....She'll be coming around the mountain)

Fresh Fish Restaurant

You walk in select from all the fish, fresh from the Red Sea. Once you select your fish, shrimp, etc, you go upstairs to a table and in 20 - 30 minutes they brought the fish cooked in 6 different Egyptian styles. It was really good.

Enjoying a coffee on the Nile River

Standing at the bottom of a Pyramid

Touching the top of a Pyramid

I definitely missed my family during these trips but technology is amazing these days to keep everyone in touch.

Tough Guy!!

When J.David was born they told us he was tongue tied (meaning his tongue was attached very close to the front of his mouth). Since he was such a champion nurser from the beginning we were told to wait it out before making any decisions. Right after he turned a year we went to see an ENT for a consult, and were advised to go ahead and have it clipped. That is what we did today. My sweet little boy had to have his first dose of anesthesia and have a 10 min. procedure done to clip his tongue. It is so amazing what kind of technology they have now! He left with no stitches or limitations from the procedure, his only side effects were from the drugs. He still hasn't learned that he can stick his tongue out, but I'm sure after a good night's rest it won't take him long tomorrow.

Today i realized how lucky we are to have such a healthy baby. Watching him taken away, knowing i would be getting back a healthy boy in minutes, was still so hard and scary. It made me so thankful but also so sad because I could not stop thinking about the families who watch their babies live in hospitals daily, not knowing what tomorrow holds. My heart went out to those families more than ever today. In a way I almost felt guilty for being so scared to watch my baby being carried away for something so minor. I am so thankful for the gift of prayer so that we can pray for these families, and also to thank God for our blessings each day.

Now i am rambling, sorry, it was quite an emotional day all around! But J.David did amazing!! He is such a little champ! God has truly blessed us with a joyful child! The nurses loved him and he is already showing little signs of being back to his mischievous self. UH-OH!!

This is J.David right after we checked in...it was early and he was still SLEEPY!!

Is the sedative starting to kick in??

Of course not!! The sedative before the anesthsia worked oposite for JD. Instead of making him sleepy, it made him kind of drunkish and hyper! It was so funny watching him do laps in this bed. Then he would stand at the end facing the door shaking the bed and waving to people outside. Super Cute!!

My Baby's got more teeth, Say what?!?

J.David has officially cut his Left and Right top Molars this week!! That means my 12 month old has TEN teeth!! I knew they were coming b/c he gets the same clingy behavior with all his teething, and Morgan is out of town. J.David has cut ALL of his teeth when Morgan is out of town! Not joking, it has become quite the joke. Just wanted to share yet another milestone! Hope everyone is having a GREAT week!

Here is J.David being silly on election night wearing his "Grandma for President" T-shirt.

Monsters, Inc.

This is J.David's new favorite!! He is so active that we quickly learned that the only way to get him to finish a whole bottle was to start watching a cartoon or movie. Toon Disney plays movies during the weekdays and I try to DVR the good ones. The most recent being Monsters Inc. J.D. LOVES it!! He will yell at it, laugh at it, and actually watch it! it is hilarious!! we get through most of the movie at least once a day depending on if we are home for all three bottles or not and how he does on his naps. Today we came home from a crazy day and we sat down to get a little R&R. I am starting to get sick of this movie personally so I thought i would try a recorded Backyardigans (one of my faves!), but he was still fussing...so then i tried finding Nemo....still fussing!! So as a last resort for the tired boy that got another shot today I turned on Monsters...and instant quiet! I love that he is really starting to show his likes and dislikes and really becoming this "little person"!! He is just so much fun to be around!! I LOVE IT!!

Happy Halloween!!

He's got monkey fingers, monkey toes, monkey hair and a monkey nose...he's a moooooonkey!! ha ha. That line of lyrics is a Dave C. original. My Dad would sing an entire song like this to my sisters and me growing up. We were his little monkey girls and with that came fabricated stories about why we didn't have tails (it was b/c of the secret "de-monkey" shots he gave us in our sleep), funny songs, and great memories! All this to explain why I could not pass up the ADORABLE monkey costume for J.David this year! Pottery Barn Kids had the cutest costumes this year and with that employee discount my budget was doomed!

We spent Halloween night out at my parents' house. We started off with a fun hayride followed by a little trick-or-treating and then some chili dinner. It was a blast!! J.David loved every minute of it. He is such a trooper! Here are some pics from tonight and I threw in just a few from Sunday night's Trunk-or-treat. I would have done a blog on that but he wouldn't let me get a good one of his face. He kept leaning into his banana treat bag to see all his goodies. Tonight i was smarter and took pics before the treats were handed out.

Mr. Monkey and his daddy

again

All smiles while gathering the goods

Hay Ride!! J.David was just soaking it up....

hmmm...what is in this banana bag that I can eat??

Winding down in my PJ's
One of the best shots he would give us for trunk-or-treat
Almost all the small group at trunk-or-treat

Check out our professional pics at LPhotographie . She gave us a sneak preview of the pics from earlier this week. We can't wait to see the rest!..ENJOY!!

Cutting Back....

Seems to be the theme right now with everyone you meet and everywhere you go. I decided to take this term literally and well....chop off my hair!! I am still unsure of how I feel about it but at least it is a "do". ha ha ha. I don't think I have posted anything about my hair issues from the beginning of pregnancy, but it has been CRAZY!! From going straight to falling out, and now coming back even curlier than before this cut was my last hope! ha ha. Have a great week and we will post pics soon of Halloween! We had trunk or treat on Sunday but J.David was so into his treat bag that we could barely get a good shot. Friday will be a different story.

p.s. these are end of the day pics and j.david is fresh from his high chair after dinner (note the peas on his face!) so be kind!!

Happy Birthday James David Trotter!!

Happy Birthday, J.David, Happy Birthday to you!!

I can't believe that one year ago today we welcomed J.David into this world. What a year it has been! Full of joy, love, laughter, challenge, and most of all thanks. We are so thankful to God for granting us the privilege of getting to be J.David's parents and to watch him grow and develop each day. Thankful that he is healthy, loving, and full of life. His little body houses this amazingly huge personality that is made up of a tender heart, lots of love, joy, endless energy, a great sense of humor and determination. I go to bed each night sad another day with him is over and excited for what tomorrow holds. He seems to be learning something new each day and surprising us with how quickly he can catch on and mimic what we are doing. Did i mention that part also scares us?! ha ha!

We had a FABULOUS barnyard birthday party on Saturday. J.David was soooo cute in his farmer attire. He went nearly napless all day and never stopped!! He was so good all day constantly smiling for the camera and soaking up all the attention of the day. We felt so blessed to have such a great turn out to the party! Thank you to all who came to celebrate the first birthday of our baby boy!

Some of J.David's favorites and at one:

*Green Beans

*music (he LOVES to dance!! and it is amazing how on the beat he is, not kidding!!)

*Dogs (he pants like a dog whenever he sees or hears one)

*rolling the dough (in pat-a-cake)

*buttons, especially any buttons that play music

*cell phones (i found an old one of mine a few weeks ago and even charged it up for him...it was quite a hit! then i didn't have to worry about him calling anyone.)

*vanilla wafers

*His new wagon

*all his new toys from his birthday! He can't seem to decide what to play with so he just jumps from one thing to the other.

*his friends! He is really starting to recognize his friends, it is so cute to watch them interact and smile at each other when we get together.

*crawling...after a few steps here and there, even a series of about 7 steps to daddy, he has absolutely no desire to walk at all!!

*being naked...he fights me everyday to put on clothes!! such a boy!!

Here are some pics of his birthday bash, ENJOY!! Thanks to Aunt Lindsay for taking all the pics! There are more to come this is just from the first CD.

Family Photos Pre-party

Playing in the wagon with Asher!My sweet niece Eden laughing at the puppet

The Farm cake, bib my mom made, and the gorgeous cookies that my sister Natalie made. She is sooo talented!! They were as yummy as they were beautiful!
Time for a cow print smash cake!! (notice the pig and chick place mats in the background. They represent pulled pork and pulled chicken. ha ha)
he is sooo clean! two little bites so far. we had to cut a piece before he would touch it!!
I'm ONE!!