Christmas

It's hard to believe another Christmas has come and gone. We had a wonderful day with family and hopefully the true meaning didn't escape us amongst all the trappings and toys. I really love having everyone home and we've all been enjoying being together. Brooke and Dallin especially are savoring every moment away from the world of academia for a little while, although Brooke has been writing essays for various college scholarships. I can't believe she's only got one more Christmas with us before she heads off to college! It seems as though time has sped up these last few years. Before long we'll have more teenaged kids than not. Weird!

Building Memories and Remembering

The month of November has positively flown by! I can't believe Thanksgiving is over and the rush of Christmas has begun. We've not started our holiday decorating, but the boys have been busy building a fort in the back yard. And really, what better way to start the season than spending time together building something--that experience in itself will hold a lot of good memories..not to mention the good times they'll remember spending in the finished building. To me, that's what the holidays are all about--remembering. Remembering family and friends, remembering good times, and most of all remembering the reason for the season--the birth of a baby destined to become the most important person ever to walk the face of the earth. What a wonderful time of year this is!

Happy Halloween!

Here are the Taylor kids (plus a friend) in their costumes--can you tell what everyone is? We've got a hobo, Dr. Phil, a three-hole-punched paper, Robin Hood (Kevin, the friend), a dementor (from Harry Potter), and a ninja. The kids had a fun time trick-or-treating (yes, even the high school kids!), and we had fun scaring people who came to our door with fog, a strobe light, a scary looking guy, jack-o-lanterns, and a fortune telling head in a glass ball. And believe it or not, they didn't go into candy overload! They all had fun bartering and trading favorite candies around, and now they're set for candy until Christmas!

Homeschool Adventures

We went to the Discovery Science Center in Orange County recently and had a great time! Jared and Noah learned about mummies, weather, and dinosaurs the day we visited, and that didn't begin to cover all the other exhibits they have. We got a family membership, so we'll definitely be going back again. Oh, and Noah had a great time scaling the climbing wall from one side to the other--it's pretty tricky, but he's pretty strong and doesn't give up. The hole in the back yard is also getting a lot deeper, little by little. We have the easy up over it so that on hot days, some digging can still get done. I wonder what we'll do with all the rocks we're digging up? Hmmmm. . . . .

The Last 6 Weeks. . .

Sorry it has been so long since the last post. The last month and a half has just flown by, as we've all been busy with life. Brooke's been to the homecoming dance, Dallin's been marching every day of the week except Thursday and Sunday, John's been playing tenor sax instead of alto in jazz band and concert band, Chris has been learning guitar so he can then pass on his knowlege to the guitar class he has this year, and Staci, Jared, and Noah have been having a blast seeing some cool buildings in downtown LA. We also had our family picture (see to the right under our profile) taken by our favorite photographer who is so patient with all of us. It was quite an amusing experience not only taking our family picture, but individual shots and "just kid" shots. The funniest was probably the "just mom and dad" pictures, though, because Chris was really making Staci laugh!! Life is good.

First Week of School

The first week of school has come and gone without too much drama. Mornings are much earllier, but I don't have to drive in the morning! Brooke and Dallin leave with Chris at around 6:20, and John leaves with our neighbor at 7:15.
Jared and Noah and I are still making adjustments to our homeschool schedule, but it's coming along. I'm sure these first few weeks and maybe even months will require much flexibility in working out what works for us. Both boys have enjoyed more freedom to explore and discover things on their own, as evidenced by the accompanying photos. They decided they wanted to build a fort, so instead of building a tall one, this one will have a basement. Chris has helped them with measurements and other technical details, but they have done a lot of the digging themselves. Upland is built on rocks, so it's not really digging, but more like picking dirt from between the rocks, and then pulling the rocks out of the ground. The other photos show a cool discovery they made while hanging out in the front yard--a praying mantis enjoying its lizard dinner.
Chris starts school Tuesday, but it's been a little chaotic because they've been doing modernization construction at Serrano, and his classroom is not really ready for students. He doesn't have much choice, though, so they will just have to work around the clutter until it can be put back together. It's really quite ridiculous that the contractors have such poor timing as to not have things put back in time for school to begin without messes everywhere. Hopefully his week won't be too bad, in spite of things being out of place.

Captions

(Top to Bottom)
1.Stephen was my plane pal on the long flight.
2.My favorite cathedral was in Bologna.
3.This guy in Pisa did amazing pictures with just spray paint.
4.The view from the top of the trolley in Montecatini Alto was pretty amazing.
5.We got bored in the airport.
6.My friend Crystal and me just outside the square in Pisa
7. Cliffs just before the beach
8.My roomate Kiwi and me in front of our window at the hotel in Lovere
9."Dante" and me in Verona
10.Feeding the pigeons in St. Marks Sqare in Venice
11.Florence at night
12.The Breakfast Group in Venice
13.The Leaning Tower of Pisa
14.My favorite thing - Gelato!
15.View from 700 year old bell tower in Lovere
16.The same, just a different window
17.Cathedral in Florence
18.The Mediterranean Sea

Pictures from Italy

Hi From the Taylor Family!

Hello to all our family and friends! We have decided to try blogging just for fun and we figure it's a great way to keep in touch with everyone.

We've had a very busy but very fun summer so far! Brooke went to Italy with UHS Choir, John and Dallin have been to Scout camp and river rafting, Chris and Brooke went to girls' camp (Chris as a cook and priesthood holder), Staci, Noah and Jared went to Cedar City to visit Oma and Opa, and we've seen the Tucker family from North Carolina (Nicole was Staci's roomie at BYU). Dallin is currently experiencing his first year in marching band with practices Monday through Friday from 1pm to 10pm. We also hope to go camping for a day with Chris's familly sometime this week. School starts in three weeks, and we can hardly believe that summer is almost at an end. We will definitely make the most of the weeks ahead!