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!