Happy Birthday Eli

This isn't a great scan of this picture because I cropped it to fit in a scrapbook. You'll have to click on it to make it bigger, but I couldn't refuse to post this of Eli. I took it at Myrtle Beach the summer of 2004 when we met the Farcin clan for vacation. I was scrapbooking these pictures yesterday - I'm a little behind - and this was my favorite. So, happy birthday Eli. I love this picture of you sitting in your own little "pool" at the beach. I'm sure you are over your fear of the waves now!

Belated Christmas Pics

Life is hectic but I'm sure you are tired of hearing that from the Trout's. I am just now getting to post our Christmas pictures. We are definitely on-the-go more than ever. The opening to our new building this past weekend was - to quote Dana Carvey in "The Benchwarmers" (I'm not exactly proud to say we saw that movie but there were a couple of funny lines) - ama-za-zing! I'll post those pictures soon. I took dozens so I'll need to weed through them. God is at work in our church and the atmosphere in worship was incredible. Please come and see us soon because the pictures will not do it justice. Anyway, more of that later. Here are some snapshots of our celebration over the Christmas season. Our annual in front of the tree shot. Dan can now officially join us in family pictures.
Save August 29th at 7:30pm for the wedding of Dan and Lauren.
More info for that special
event will follow. Micah was in the Muse Machine production of "Me and My Girl." It was really funny. As always, he did a great job and we are proud of him. He works hard, makes good grades, and sings A LOT! On my birthday, we had to go to Sam's after dinner and these characters tried out the furniture. This is Karley (I think I spelled her name right). This is Chris and Marissa's little girl. I actually got a picture of her being still. You sure can't tell she was a premature baby! Colton is the youngest Clarke. He was tired by the end of our visit. Karley could bounce all over the house on her princess hoppity thing (I can't remember what it's called:) Karley and Colton were engrossed with Barney on TV. I love this picture. At first Colton thought this was funny, but that was short lived. He wanted down. Philip was with Nanna and Pappa when we went to Huntington. He warmed up to us pretty quickly. I think he looks a lot like Kiera in this picture. We went to spend some time with Timothy while he was having part of his treatment in the hospital. Can you tell he hasn't bothered shaving for awhile:) What a cute couple! Kiera, we enjoyed playing with Philip. What a cutie! Here is the Collier clan - at least part of them. My purse is almost as big as Philip. He was so proud of himself when he "played" a song. Philip enjoys everything immensely. Two baby's of the family - can you tell who is who? Greg can make anybody laugh. I had two really cute videos of Greg teaching Philip things that Kiera probably would sigh about! I'm trying to upload them but so far I haven't had any success. Keep watching for them. Greg got batman pj's for Christmas. He may be 46, but he loves his super hero. Jenny, Ben will never outgrow that obsession if he takes after his uncle Greg. Lauren, Dan, and Micah on Christmas morning Kim and Nathaniel on Christmas morning. Nathaniel didn't have to go to work until midnight so they got to spend the day with us. Nathaniel is an expert at Guitar Hero. All toys came out on Christmas! We had several funny things happen this Christmas. We got Dan his shirt, Kim and Nathaniel got Greg his - notice they are the same! We got Kim a Sam's membership, but she already got one and she used it to get Dan's shirt. Life is funny! I think I got the videos to work. In the first one, Philip is blowing out the "hot decorations". At least that's what he was told so he wouldn't touch them. In the second one, Uncle Greg is teaching him the "proper" way to drink.

She's Engaged!

It's official. Lauren and Dan are engaged. We are very excited for them. I knew from the start that they were going to get serious and I tried to prepare Greg along the way. Dan approached Greg last week about his intentions. He answered the hard questions and said all the right things. Greg gave our blessing and Saturday evening Dan proposed much to Lauren's surprise. One of her first questions was, "Did you ask my Dad?!" Dan and Lauren are both sincere about their walk with God, their commitments, and their future. Dan fits into our family as does Lauren with his. We know his family well and he comes from a great Christian heritage. What more could parents ask for their only daughter. Details will be forthcoming - we'll keep in touch.

A Week in the Life of the Trout's

Yes, Micah passed the test and got his temps on Friday. Needless to say, he was excited. We are now entering into one of the final phases of independence. In a few more months, he won't need me to be his chauffer. I'm not too sad about that part. I do spend a lot of my time in the car taking him to all of his practices and social engagements. He does more than Lauren and Nathaniel ever thought to do!

Last week, we woke up to a yard full of turkeys - I guess to celebrate the holiday! It was really cute. We have been forked, TP'd numerous times, Saran wrapped, flamingoed, but this was a first for turkeys in our yard. I know our neighbors think we have weird friends!
This post is a long one simply because I took pictures last week! Our life has always been busy but this past year takes the cake. With Greg's new position comes tons more responsibility and that translates into a lot of work. All these pictures happened in just one week. This by no means shows what all we did because I didn't take pictures of everything. Our calendars are full from morning till night and I just don't have time to update the blog as much as I would like. We love what we do but we are rarely home and when we are, we are catching up on what didn't get done because we weren't home:) This next week, for example, we have to paint our kitchen and family room, finish the cabinets, clean house, cook for 35 people on Sunday, take Micah to all of his practices (every evening this week, all day Saturday, and Sunday afternoon), decorate the church for Christmas before Sunday, go grocery shopping, and decorate our house for Christmas before company comes on Sunday! Next week is worse but I won't bore you with the details!!!! What I wouldn't give for a week at the beach right now. Someday.
This was our 2nd Annual PK Christmas party. From left to right we have Eli, Alanna, Abbi, Jenna, Kenzie, Jessica, and Robby. We had so much fun with them even though our house got a tad messy. Maybe I shouldn't make things in the kitchen with them, but they love it and they think our house is so much fun.
Greg helped Jessica make her snowman ornament. We used paint, sharpies, glass bulbs and a lot of different interpretations of what a snowman looked like! They were hilarious. Have you ever seen a snowman with red cheeks and hair?!
Eli is VERY consciencious. He is the most analytical thinker I know and he doesn't like to get messy or have things out of order. He was born on Greg's birthday.
Abbi looked so cute with her toothless smile. She started kindergarten this year and has grown up so much!
Alanna is learning to read, draw really well, and be the life of the party.
Robby is the oldest at 11 and he is very helpful with the little ones. It is hard to find activities that 6 kids ages 7 and under will want to do that an 11 year old will think is fun but Robby is a good sport. We made chocolate (brown, white, red, and green) covered pretzels decorated with all kinds of sprinkles and candy. Needless to say, some of the candy went into little mouths instead of on the pretzels and some landed on the floor. Okay, maybe more than some! But the creations were yummy.
Kim helped the girls make necklaces. We had beads EVERYWHERE but the girls looked so glamorous!
"Pastor Gweg" helped the little ones a lot while I kept the activities going and the food coming. For little kids, they sure did eat a lot of snacks.
Jessica is a budding 2nd grade artist who loves anything creative and she loves to write stories. She was my helper for the day.
This is Lauren and some co-workers on "Black Friday". They had to be at work sooo early. Alex, the one with the tie, is the owner's son who pitched in and was a big help.
This is Dan's grandfather. We went to the Hergenrather's for Thanksgiving this year since we couldn't travel. It was also Jack's 79th birthday. They have faithfully served Faircreek Church for many years. They make sure we have coffee, doughnuts, and bagels with cream cheese every Sunday morning.
Jack had to show us his one man band instrument and the other man in the picture is Dan's dad, Steve. He was the official emcee for the day. We played games all afternoon and had a blast.
This, of course, is Micah and Dan's mom, Terry. We played Catch Phrase, Trivial Pursuit and Taboo. His family is fun to be with and there was a ton of food to eat. They even fried a turkey just like Marvin!
I kind of got these pictures out of sequence. This is the Chick-fil-A crowd on Thanksgiving Day. They went in for 3 hours to get everything ready for shoppers on Friday. They snuck down to Santa's chair at the mall and took pictures. They were the only ones there so they took advantage of the photo op.
Lauren and Micah still have to break the wishbone from the turkey. Lauren won but she won't tell us what her wish was.
We had Thanksgiving with Kim and Nathaniel on Saturday. They are first time home owners now. They will be moving within the next month. I'll take pictures when we go to paint and help them move in. Nathaniel loves his job and Kim now works at Huntington Bank. Their house is halfway between both jobs and about 25 minutes from here.
The kids dragged out the Foos (not sure of the spelling?!) Ball table from the garage and played it all weekend. Lauren and Micah are the champs. It seems that no one can beat them or wants to try anymore!
Greg and Dan tried, but they lost. Well, this wraps up our latest news. Sorry it was so long, but hopefully it wasn't boring. I really will try to be more faithful with new posts. At least it hasn't been as long as Stacie's last post - hint, hint!

A Lauren and Micah Update

So I'm a little late in posting Lauren's 19th birthday. We celebrated with a cookout at home with everyone in attendance but Nathaniel. He had to work and keep the streets of Lebanon safe. Lauren loves cupcakes. These are homemade red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
We had a great time eating, playing ladder ball, having a fire in the fire pit
while we played Catch Phrase - our favorite family game.
Lauren and Dan at Faith Day at the Great American Ballpark. 300 of our closest friends from church went to the Reds game and then stayed for a concert by Mercyme.

A couple of weeks ago, we all went to a wedding in Detroit. Here are Lauren and Dan at the reception. Dan is not used to wearing ties so we had to get a picture! He cleans up really well.
And now to Micah's update. Last weekend was Homecoming and here is his group of friends. They are all into singing and acting. Most of them went as friends and had a great time.
Here is Micah with Rachel. Not only was she his date, she was his chauffer.
She has her license and is a Senior! Micah reaches high!

They had a great time eating and then at the dance. I can't believe my baby is a sophomore.