Merry Christmas

Mia's Birthday

This weekend was Natalie's sister, Mia's birthday. I won't tell you her age since she didn't sign my waver but Mia and I graduated the same year from high school. Natalie's parents came down and we had a fun weekend. Friday night we went to Benihana and had some amazing food. Then Saturday, Natalie went to work for half the day and we went shopping. Then Saturday night we went to El Torito Grill. It was a fun weekend with family and here are some shots from Friday night.

New Wheels!

Natalie and I traded in my truck and bought a 2006 Jeep Commander. We are pretty excited about it. Here are a couple pictures of it.

Christmas Decorating

Here are some pictures of our house this Christmas. We finally put up some lights outside for the first time ever. We would have shown pictures of the inflatable nativity and the giant snow globe with 47 elves but we never bought them because we really don't like those things.
(Sorry to anyone who has those in their yard and is offended.)

Living Room

Entryway

Dining Room

Dining Room

Rathskeller & Rob Bell

Last night we got invited to go to dinner at the Rathskeller downtown and then go see Rob Bell speak at the Murat. We were invited by Jeff Krajewski who is our neighbor and our pastor at Common Ground Church here in Indy. We went with 10 of our neighbors here on our street so it was fun to hang out and with and have such cool neighbors. We were surprised when we got the the Murat that we had front row seats in the Great Hall that seats about 2500 people. Rob Bell came in and spoke for about 2 hours with no notes or anything. He is a captivating speaker who uses his incredible historical knowledge to help people understand our role as followers of Christ. His spoke about gods throughout human history and how people try to please their gods through rituals such as sacrifices at alters. He tied it to how we are not so different in that we get caught up with rituals and how things are supposed to be and a lot of time miss that our God is different and is a God of love. That's my short summary and he could explain it extremely better than I just did!

Eye level with the stage

Front and center

Great Hall at Murat

Rob Bell on the alter

Philly & Cape Cod

At the end of October, Natalie, Eric and myself set off to Philadelphia to visit with Natalie's sister Lisa and brother-in-law Andrew. We were there for about 5 days and had a great time.

Andrew & Lisa Gaub

Eric, Nat, Matt

Andrew

Shopping in Ardmore, PA

Geno's Steaks

Pat's Steaks

So different but so much alike!

Formerly known as Richards Sisters

Last night in town

After 5 days of wearing out our welcome in Philly with Andrew and Lisa we knew it was time to leave. OK so we really had to get to Newark, NJ airport to pick up Mom & Dad Troyer on our way to Cape Cod for the family vacation. We stayed in Cape Cod for a long weekend while my brother-in-law Jon and his friend Dave ran the Cape Cod marathon. I'm sure most of you have seen a lot of pictures from this weekend on a couple other blogs so we will do a brief highlight.

BODYSLAM!

Pre-marathon

Cheering section

The Bohm Family

The runners

I don't wanna be a chicken. I don't wanna be a duck. Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!

Tia & Chicken

Unkie Matt & Chicken

Mom & Dad Troyer

Nat & Kelly

Fall Camping Trip

I'm sure by now you all are excited to see a new post from the Troyer's! Back in October, we went with a group of friends on a camping trip. The first night it was just the guys and then Saturday night the girls showed up. We had a great time and great weather and here is a photo summary of the weekend. Enjoy!


Jeremy The Firestarter


Team Matt






Breakfast Time


A deer named Anthony. Jeff Gordon was the mean one.


Anthony liked my Mountain Dew




No one saw Tim take this picture.


Stupid human tricks!


Finally the girls are here! Time for some sanity!

One Year Down

Well today was our 1st Anniversary! For our anniversary we went to the Cubs vs. Reds in Cincinatti yesterday with Mia and Tim. It was fun even though the Cubs already clenched the National League Central Division on Friday so neither team played their starters to save them from getting injured.

Today we woke slept in and walked with Nevada to have brunch at Taste, a small cafe about a mile from our house. Then we went to Walmart to get some items (I know its an exciting day), then we came home and swapped presents. Since the 1st anniversary is supposed to be paper gifts, I got Natalie a single flower and a subscription to Better Homes & Gardens. Natalie was going to get me a tree but got a cactus instead because she was afraid I wouldn't take care of an indoor tree and it would die. We just didn't want to deal with that symbolyzm so hopefully I won't kill the cactus.

Then we watched the Colts kick Denvers butts and Natalie made Chicken Taco Bake (an old favorite my mom used to make us kids) and had the bottle of wine that Kelly & Jon got us. Then we ate our cake we saved from the wedding last year. It was really good but there was so much we decided to cut it up and take it to our neighbors. They were appreciative but we also made sure they didn't know it was a year old even though it was very good and moist even after a year.

Here are some photos from yesterday at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinatti.