The Trotter Family: Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is the day that a lot of people honor/cherish a loved one. We, the Trotter family, have really never made this day a HUGE deal. We do a few little things for the kids, but not a lot. I'm not into fighting the crowds to get the best restaurant or see how many flowers my hubby can buy me. It's just another day to me, with a little extra trinket for the babies and little extra loving for my husband to let him know how much he means to me. For those of you who LOVE this day, I truly hope you enjoy it and have the best Valentine's Day ever! :) Lots of love from the Trotter bunch!

Catch up time:

I am trying to think of all the things that I need to say, but it's been so long that it would take forever to catch up to all. So...I'll just hit the most current highlights! :)

It's been basketball season! I do love some basketball, but find my time strained to get to watch all I would like! Jake has been playing for the MS. Doesn't play a whole lot, but does some great stuff when he is out there. He made a 3 pointer a couple of games ago and almost made another! Very exciting! Yes, I'm the loud mom in the stains cheering everyone on and mouthing the refs for bad calls...well, usually yelling because they miss so MUCH! I sometimes wonder WHERE the refs come from! haha!

My favorite thing this basketball season is THE DALLAS MAVERICKS!!! This season we invested along with some friends into season tickets! We have a friend that is in a group that has 3 seats on the 10th row, next to the Mavericks bench. We have sat in these seats many times, but have never "purchased" season tickets. The Thompson's and The Trotter's decided to go in with the group and purchase 1 seat of the 4. Which basically means, we get to go to every 4th home game! Now betweent the 2 families, we had to split those games also!) Over all we get to go to about 11-12 games and IT'S BEEN ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!! I just love to be in that type of atmosphere! We go with the Thompson's to 3 of the games. We've taken Hayley, Jake, and Carson too. We had one special game...

On January 17th, we took Carson to the Mav's game for his 7th birthday. He wanted an autograph from Dirk. So...being the mom that I am, we made a sign that said "It's my 7th birthday. CAn I have an autograph?" He decorated it with basketballs and spelled out Dirk's name. It was on a posterboard! At the beginning of the game (yes, we got there early) and he went down and stood behind the Mavericks bench as they were warming up. Sadly, they were on the opposite end of the court. As a mom, one of our biggest fears is for our kids to be disappointed. It was a huge gamble to do this on his birthday, seeing that he could EASILY NOT get an autograph...but who am I to discourage a determined 7 yo. haha! When the game was about to start, the aisle guard (that's what I call them), told him he had to go back to his seat, but to come back at Half time. So we enjoyed the rest of the first half, made a trip to the Pro Shop and purchased him a Mavs basketball outfit and Jake a basketball. We enjoyed the halftime show and about 6 minutes of the half time show, Carson took his sign and went back down to his spot! The fans in our area were cheering him on...it was so cute!!!

Carson stood down there in his Mavs jersey, Mavs Hat (thanks Jen!) and held his sign up above his head for the whole 5 minutes! I don't know how he did it! Actually, he turned around and started up the steps, but I urged him to stay. When he turned around, he missed JET walking by right where he had been..urgh!!!! Since he was only 10 rows away, I didn't feel the urge to protectively watch him with my eagle eye. Robbie and I were talking about the night and laughing at how determined Carson was to get this autograph. I turned around and looked at Carson....and there was MARK CUBAN talking to my son! (of course, I don't think he realized WHO that was at that point!) I grabbed my camera and took a snap shot of Mark giving Carson a "high five" and saying "Happy Birrhday Man!" THAT WAS SO AWESOME!!! Carson came back up to the seat with several rows around us, cheering him on!!!! haha!! It was so cool!!! We were elated and cheering the Mavs on again. This guy in a business suit approached us about 4 minutes later...he asked if he could take Carson's sign, get it signed by Dirk and mail it back to us. He gave us his business card and took Robbie's phone number and said he would call tomorrow and get our address. He looked me right in the eye and said, "I promise to take care of this for you!" We graciously thanked him and I think our smiles were so HUGE! Carson was excited and disappointed...he wanted his jersey signed, not his poster! We told him we would frame the poster for him!

On to Cheering on the Mavs...needless to say, we were on cloud 9 and having an amazing time. 4th quarter was starting and Carson and I needed some munchies. We go get some popcorn. We had just returned to our seats and the "suit guy" returned with our sign. We were a little confused, thinking they were going to mail it, but anxiously waited to see what he had to say. He said, "I'm sorry, but I didn't get the sign, signed...but I think I have something better." He pulls out an autographed basketball signed by Dirk!!! He said, "Happy Birthday from the Mavericks! We hope you have enjoyed it tonight!" IT WAS AMAZING!!!

Jake busted Carson's bubble, by immediately saying, "you know you can't play with that ball, don't you". Carson said, "Why not? " and we all started laughing and then the mommy roll had to kick in and explain that one! haha!