Honey Harvest 2011

We finally got to taste the fruit of our labor for this year. We harvested honey this weekend!
Here are a three videos documenting the process. This is the last big bee event of the year. You might say it was bitter sweet since our friends and partners are moving away next week.

You might notice that our bee wardrobe has been significantly upgraded. This is complements of our neighbors who are looking out for us in their absence.

Here is our preparation for the harvest. It includes installing the bee escape (device used to move bees out of the honey super), and generally checking on things.


Here is the main harvest stuff. It includes robbing the comb, decapping, and extracting.


Here is the final installment. It includes reconfiguring the hive, straining the honey, and letting the bees clean things up for us. The bees seemed to like this part best.

Highlights for October

Lauren the lady bug two years ago.

(October 2009)
Look at me now! (Same costume...) (October 2011)

Andrew got more teeth!


Lauren and Mommy had a slumber party in the sleep lab at Memorial Hermann. They did a sleep study for Lauren, it was quite an ordeal. She had over 20 wires attached all over her head and monitoring all sorts of things. We have decided Daddy should come up with a wireless system for this type of thing! Lauren got about 4 hours of sleep. Mommy got about 30 minutes of sleep. She was a trooper so we celebrated with waffles the next morning!

Andrew was our little bumble bee this year. He won a ribbon at the neighborhood trick or treat street party. He was pretty stinkin' cute!

Andrew and Lauren both still love school. Lauren has learned her colors and how to count to 3. We had her public school evaluation for the Preschool Pprogram for Children with Disabilities (PPCD) and she did fantastic. She will go to Glenloch Elementary two days a week starting in January.

Andrew loved his first trip to the zoo! The gorillas were his favorite! Lauren enjoyed watching the elephants get a bath and brush their teeth!

Lauren and Andrew are the same size now, so people think they are twins!

Look out Michael Jordan... Andrew Trott is in the house! We had fun playing basketball at the YMCA for a friend's birthday party.

Lauren, Andrew and Daddy got to sit in a firetruck at a neighborhood night out. The kids also enjoyed a small ferris wheel. Andrew was shaking the cage for more so the operator let him go around several times before he had to get out! He was very pleased.

Potty Training is not going very well. Lauren will sit on the potty for a good 15 minutes reading books, however no luck going potty. But as you can see we can put pull-ups on our feet!

We have had a great fall so far. The heat wave is gone, and we are having the longest run of good health we have had all year. Good times for the Trott Tribe!

September in a nutshell...

Lauren and Andrew doing a duet on the piano.

Andrew on the first day of school.

Lauren reading a big book in the reading center.


Lauren building with blocks.

Lauren playing jingle bells in music class.

Lauren "Picasso" Trott is painting in the background.

Playing in a tunnel.

September Highlights...

- My sweet brother and sister-in-love gave Aaron and I a weekend away in the Hill Country. They watched Lauren and Andrew all weekend. We went to the same Bed and Breakfast we went to on our honeymoon. It was awesome. We caught up on lots of rest and had such a refreshing time!

-Andrew got a haircut!

-The kids started school and mom started work (just one day a week).

We have had a good September to spite a stomach bug and Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease both kids caught. We are looking forward to fall and cooler weather!!!

Checkin' on the Bees

This weekend, we had some good friends come into town. In addition to good conversation and good coffee, we had a good time checking on the bees. Here are a few pics of what we found when we checked on them.

Another busy day at the bee hive.

They have made some progress with honey in the past few weeks. The rain we had last weekend likely provided a little bit of nectar for them.

Here's the other side of that frame. Not much, but it's a start.

Here's a close-up of the capped honey.

Here's a look as we're putting it back in. The bees were calm today!

Here's a frame without full foundation... They essentially need to make all the comb from scratch instead of using the template we provide. Notice that there a little starter strip at the top, but rest of the comb is all them.

Here's a vew of the honey super (behind) and the top brood hive body (foreground). Notice the honey in the two frames that are closest to the camera. :)

Andrew's First birthday

Andrew turned one! He had a "Tiger Party". AS you can tell he enjoyed his cupcake and wanted more! He is officially walking and running. He has no fear. He loves sticks and rocks and all things "boy". He says "dadda", "mama", "lala" ( lauren), "milk", night night, bye-bye, and all done. His favorite thing to do right now is mow the carpet with his new bubble lawn mower and engineer a way to open the child proof locks with Gran-D's walking cane..... he keeps us on our toes, but his laugh is worth every minute of it!!!

Tiger Boy Turns One!

On June 16th our tiger boy turned 1! We celebrated at the pool with friends and fun jungle cupcakes! As you can see A enjoyed every last crumb! He continues to amaze us with his adventurous spirit and contagious laugh! We can't wait to see all that God has in store for this little guy!

Visit to Granny O and Big Grandaddy's House

Lauren and Andrew had a blast visiting their great-grandparents! Lauren played dress up with Granny O and Andrew explored and tried to climb into everything. We all enjoyed Granny O's yummy cooking!!

More Bees

Yesterday, we performed the three-week check on the bee hive. Things are looking good. We added a second hive body, so we now have a two-story hive. You can see the queen in the bottom left-hand corner of the second frame that we inspect. She has a white dot on her to aid in identification.

Busy Bees!

Aaron has a new hobby. He and our neighbor Steven are now bee keepers! Steven started talking about it with Aaron last year. After several months of building the hive in spare moments here and there, they are off and running. Steven provides the brains behind the operation, but they both really enjoy learning more as they get farther into it. It has been a fun way to get to know our neighbors better, too! The world of bees is actually pretty amazing. God has designed some pretty cool creatures.

Here are several videos showing our progress over the last few weeks.

We installed the bees on April 30th. The method they used is called a 24 hour install because they leave the package of bees in the have for a day and then take the (hopefully empty) package out the next day.

Day 1 of the 24 hour bee installation




Day 2 of the 24 hour bee installation




Week 1 Hive Inspection
We need to make sure that the queen is out of her cage, has been accepted by the rest of the hive, and is busy doing her thing.




Rogue Comb Removal
The bees made a bunch of comb in a bad location because of the location of the queen cage. As painful as it was, we had to remove a bunch of the bees' hard work.




Week 2 Hive Inspection
Things are looking good! There are a bunch of baby bees in the making as well as honey and pollen.

Crazy April!

Our April started off with a weekend getaway to San Antonio. It was awesome. We met some of our friends- Tom and Janet Brooks. Their three girls took Lauren under their wing. They played house and went fishing. Andrew and Ethan enjoyed crawling around trying to unplug things. Overall it was a very relaxing weekend!!

Then on April 8th one of my best friends, Lisa Gassiott, went to be the Lord after a hard battle with cancer. Lisa was my roomate in both Dallas and Houston, and introduced me to Aaron. It was a bitter sweet day... excited she is now two-stepping with our Lord Jesus Christ and in no more pain, but extremely sad for us still on earth still missing her. She was an amazing women who kept the faith and finished the race well!



Updates on the kiddos---- they are so much fun! Lauren still loves horse back riding lessons and is becoming more and more independent. We went to a park last week with an awesome playscape designed for children with special needs. She just walked up the ramp, climbed the stairs and went down the slide over and over and loved every minute of it. She is using more and more words-- her newest word is "ice-cream"- she discovered this delicious treat at easter when Gran-D made homemade ice-cream.


Andrew is into EVERYTHING!! He is free standing on his own, so I suppose walking will be just around the corner. He and his sister love to laugh. Lauren makes silly faces or does something silly and he just tumbles over laughing. He is eating big boy food-- he LOVES meat ( just like his daddy) and drinking out of a big boy cup. He still loves animals of all kinds, and likes to chase Uncle Dave's dog the best.



Aaron has finished the beehive and goes with the neighbor on Saturday to pick up 10,000 bees. Yes everyone will be getting honey for Christmas. :) He also built the kids a really cool sandbox last weekend. Lauren and Andrew love playing outside these days.


Well that is a brief update from the Trott casa. Until next time!

My big girl!

Last Thursday was a big day... Lauren started her equine therapy. She LOVES riding the Pal the horse. We were afraid she would just scream, but she whimpered just a little bit getting on, then the next thing we know she was riding off into the sunset waving bye-bye to us. This is going to be a great way to build he core muscles and help with her balance for walking. The therapist said she did amazing- and is ready to train her to be a barrel racer. I am really thankful for Panther Creek Inspirational Ranch and their vision to help special needs kids! What a blessing! Nanny made Lauren a new dress. She loves being a "girly, girly", twirling around the living room! She is posing for her school picture. Lauren will start preschool next Fall. We got her all signed up, it is so hard to believe my baby girl will be going to school. Yet another door God opened up for us. I went on a tour of some preschools around in the area, and at this particular one the director called me into her office after the tour. We chatted for a while about their curriculum and how she loved having kids with special needs in her program! As a mom you love to hear those words. Later on that week, she called me and asked me if I would be interested in teaching at the school. So it all works out... Lauren will go to PPCD (Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities) in the public school system twice a week and then go to a private Christian school once a week. I will teach at the preschool once a week and Andrew gets to go too! It is a win- win situation.

Long time no blog! This scripture has been our promise we have been claiming over the last month. "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28 We have been sick for two months straight. Lauren had Rota virus for 18 days and then on day 19 caught the flu. Followed by a urinary tract infection caused by the 18 days of a "poo explosion". We go to run a ct-scan on Thursday to see if her kidneys are okay- the doctor thinks they are fine. Sick babies and hubby can be tough! I think we are all on the mend now!!Lauren's main form of mobility these days is walking! We are thrilled for this milestone. Her favorite words are "Dada", "no, no", "Eat Pleeeeeease", and "bath". She has been signing lots of new words and has mastered a few songs. Her favorite activities are playing with baby dolls, and making stuff out of play dough. She also enjoys playing dress up and bossing her little brother around!

Andrew (AKA- Dozer) is all boy! He loves climbing, pulling up, crawling, diving, banging and living on the edge!! As you can see he loves fire too! That picture was taken in February when we had Camp Trott in the living room to celebrate Aaron's birthday. The kids loved playing in the tent and eating smores! Andrew has started creeping along the couch, video coming soon. He also loves to say- "MAMAMAMA"- he is definitely a "mama's boy"! Today I hear his sister saying "no, no, bubbie, no, no"- when I finally find them they were half way up the stairs. Andrew holding on to the banister and Lauren pulling him up the stairs with the other hand. They are quite a mischievous team!

Andrew is Crawling!

Andrew started crawling this weekend. He has been thinking about it for a few weeks, and he finally put all of the pieces together. Now we get to keep an eye on two mobile munchkins!!!