December Pix

Merry Christmas from the Trout family! I'm posting this blog on January 1st - I'm a little late because of Greg's unexpected surgery. The entry is long but I think I'm finally caught up. I promise not to wait so long between posts! Anyway, our prayer for all of you is that 2008 brings about a lot of chances to share the light of Christ. Greg has been encouraging our congregation to be looking for opportunities to make a difference in someone's life, so we hope you will also have those opportunities.
Greg makes breakfast on Christmas morning - his famous French toast. This year we finally got an electric griddle which cut his cooking time down considerably. Incidentally, I believe this is the last picture of Greg where he still has his gall bladder. The very next day he had his attack - I'm thinking his French toast put him over the edge!
Micah got an I-home for his I-pod which comes with an alarm. I sure hope this works for getting him up in the morning. Nothing else seems to make him want to move.
He's worse than Nathaniel.
On Christmas Eve we open one present. I got to go before the kids this year! (I really just put this picture in because I wanted you to see my new blouse! Isn't it pretty?)
I think Kim was worried about Nathaniel's ability to buy the right presents. After she had opened a couple of boxes she said, "Nathaniel, you really do listen!" It was pretty funny. In this picture, he had wrapped up a pair of boots in separate boxes. He wanted her to think she got a lot of loot!
Greg got a Marshall helmet for his desk in his office. His office is becoming quite
the showplace for Marshall paraphernalia!
Lauren's favorite present - the complete set of Harry Potter DVD's. She would have
been very disappointed if Santa hadn't come through on that.
Micah and I both got each other the books we wanted. Greg wouldn't buy it for me because of the title. He didn't want to take the chance that I would ever use that against him!
Micah is ready to go out on the town to the Winter Dance for Muse Machine (the organization that is producing "Peter Pan") Excuse his red eyes - my fault.
The following pix are from our staff/elder Christmas party. We had loads of fun eating, playing reverse charades, and even cleaning up. Yes, guys can wash dishes! We serve with a great group of people. We are blessed at FairCreek and can't wait to see what God is going to do in 2008.
Sandy (the one standing) was my marathon walking partner. Her husband, Matt,
serves on the Finance and Building Teams as well as being a former elder.

Clint is our youth pastor.

Steve and Colleen Thorsen - Steve has a great cancer survivor testimony.
They are fun to be around.
Mark and Paula Kordic are such a sweet couple. Mark also has a great
cancer survivor testimony.
Pastor, Clown, Santa - Greg wears a lot of different hats! I think this one is my favorite.
Merry Christmas from the "Little FairCreek PK's"!!
We made a mess baking, but it was fun! It's been awhile since I had little kids in my
kitchen and now I remember why! I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Lauren is great with the kids. She fixed her work schedule so she could bake with them.
They all run up to her at church - it's really cute.
Kenzie couldn't wait for her turn!
Eli was our only boy baker. He did a great job!
Jessica may be the youngest, but she was not about to be left out. Miss Lauren - her teacher - helped her.
Abbi, Alanna, and Jenna were taking turns rolling out the dough for gingerbread men.
Our December was quite busy - hence the reason for so long of an update. We started with the PK's coming over to bake cookies! We had so much fun. I think they ate as much as they decorated, but there were no reports of any tummy aches - amazing! We love you guys. Can't wait to do it again.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from Ohio! We hope everyone has had a blessed year. We have seen a lot of blessings - Nathaniel's home from Iraq, Greg is now senior pastor of FairCreek Church, Lauren is now a college freshman and is doing very well, Micah has adjusted to high school with flying colors (he made straight A's his first nine weeks!) and I am subbing in the libraries and teacher's assistants positions in Beavercreek Schools. God has been good to us and this Thanksgiving we are truly grateful for all of His provisions for our family.

Filling up plates! We had the traditional Thanksgiving feast including 3 kinds of potatoes. Apparently, no one is on the Atkins diet because there were carbs galore and not a whole lot of protein.

Thanksgiving at the Trout's - we stayed home this year because Lauren went in to work this morning at 8am to get ready for the mad rush tomorrow. We missed eating with the Rutherford clan but it was nice not to travel. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A trout carving a turkey - how cool is that!

After dinner, we loaded up the car and went for a photo shoot. Thanks, fam, for indulging my camera habit. We went to the Greene and even got a passerby to take pictures of us all together. We'll share them soon. Kim's really happy to have Nathaniel home this Thanksgiving -
everyone is!

What can I say - 24 years and he's still knocking me off my feet!!

Lauren finally has another female in the family to help counteract the effects of two brothers.

Getting everyone to cooperate is quite a feat.

I wonder what secrets Lauren has that she's telling the elephant - probably that she can't believe her brothers are so crazy!

Of course, Micah was fascinated with the electrical outlet in the elephant's behind!

October Activities

Micah's acting resume is getting pretty lengthy. He is Lieutenant Wright in the Fall Musical "The Secret Garden." They have done 6 performances. He also got chosen out of students from all over the Miami Valley to be in The Muse Machine production of "Peter Pan". He is John - the oldest boy in the family. They will be performing at the Victoria Theater in downtown Dayton, January 9-13. This is an incredible production and he is excited. We can get discounted tickets this weekend for friends and family if you want to come. I think they will be around $20 but I'm not sure. I'll send details via email. He even gets to fly!

Aaron doesn't have the monopoly on cute outfits anymore! Uncle Greg has the coolest costume ever. He had to dress up for our Harvest Party at church and he really got into his character - not that we didn't already know he was a clown. He thinks this is his new calling. We had over 700 people for the party. It was a great outreach event. By the way, I made the costume. The pattern said it would take 2 hours - 7 hours later I finished it just in time!!

This is Nathaniel's pride and joy - besides Kim! We're pretty sure he loves Kim more than his truck but he really does love his truck. I guess you could say that we all paid for it with our taxes because he laid down cash from his earnings in Iraq. There were a few advantages to living there for a year. Since there was no place to shop, eat out, movies to see, or anywhere to spend money, Nathaniel saved his and this is his reward. It's a black Ford Ranger with a lot of bells and whistles. He even let me drive it once even though it's a stick shift.

Last but not least, here is Lauren getting in her car - the oil has just been changed! How cool is that! She is so busy with college and work that we see her briefly when she's home. She has adjusted to Wright State and has been promoted to Team Leader at Chick-fil-A. She hates her picture taken so this was a surprise.

Columbus Marathon

I'll have more official pictures soon but I couldn't wait to show you my latest accomplishment. This picture was taken today at 6am right before Sandy and I walked the Columbus 1/2 Marathon in record time for us. We have been training since August. I finally have an athletic medal just like the rest of my family! We decided that we wanted to lose weight and be healthier so we started walking. Sandy is definitely the motivator. She and her family are members at our church, but we've known them for many years. We walked 13.1 miles and we're very proud of ourselves. That's not bad for two forty something West Virginia girls!! Of course, we didn't take a camera with us or I would have better pictures, but they took pictures along the race route. When I get those I will have official proof that we really walked! We got official shirts, bib numbers, and we even got to drink Gatorade and water and throw our cups on the road just like in the Olympics!! How's that for cool?!

This is my good friend, Sandy Sheers. She and I have been friends for a long time. Sandy pushed us to train and get ready. What a farm girl!

We finished and had a personal best time! We still can't believe we did it - although our knees tell us we did. This is our medal we received at the finish line.

PK Outing

Since we don't live close to our great nieces and nephews, we decided to borrow the pk's for an outing. I guess we had forgotten how much energy it takes to chase after kids for an afternoon! I needed an excuse to go to a pumpkin farm and my kids weren't excited to do that - can you believe it?! Our whole family went and we had a great time. We went to Young's Dairy, John Bryan State Park, and Burger King. We had a ten year old, a six year old, a five year old, a four year old, two three year olds, and a one year old (and a partridge in a pear tree!!) Were we nuts or what?! They were all well behaved and full of energy. You guys are doing a great job as parents. We love you and we're glad you're on our team!

"I tired." Greg was ready to empathize!

"We're going to wait awhile for kids!"

We're pretty sure Lauren was over the height limit for the play area at Burger King!

Jessica was following Eli and doing everything he did. It was too cute.

Faster, Mr. Greg!

Robby and Micah went in the corn maze while the little ones rode the barrel train. They got a little lost but they made it through!

Abbi liked the orange cupcakes even though "lellow" is her favorite color.

For future reference, markers will draw on pumpkins, but will also rub off on little hands and won't come off even if the package says they are washable! Next time we'll use paint!

Mr. Micah got into the fun of the day.

Okay, this was the most challenging picture I took all day. Do you know how hard it is to get 7 kids to look at the camera at the same time and hold their pumpkins? Bribes were even used!!

I think Robby thought I wouldn't take his picture, but I made him pose just like everyone else. He doesn't know how serious I am with a camera!

Two farm girls - Jessica and Kim - checking out the goats.

Lauren and Eli were checking out the baby pigs.

Jenna was intrigued with the baby cow even though the barn stunk!

Greg and Kenzie checking out the milking cows.

Jessica liked the animals. She definitely has farming in her genes!

The girls are getting food for the goats. Alanna wanted to pet them. They immediately wanted to wash their hands.

This is Eli and Nathaniel feeding a goat. Eli was born on Greg's birthday and Greg tried to convince him that they were the same age because they share a birthday. Three year olds will believe anything!