Datascaler--staying alive

Good news! Funding has come through! Enough so that the company can proceed as planned through the next year, maybe even longer. The goal is to have their product in the hands of 3 customers within 12 months. Derek is very grateful for the continued employment with Datascaler and is excited to help the company reach their goals. Yeah! Keep up the good work guys!

On a quest for height

Adam is on a quest to grow tall. And not just over time, but within 3 weeks! Next month he turns 10 years old. For a long time he has wanted to go ride Go Karts. He hasn't been able to thus far due to his age (not yet 10) or his height. We will be in Arizona for a week in April, and thought he would enjoy riding go karts on his birthday. Unfortunately, the go kart establishments in Arizona allow riders by height, not age. He needs to be 56' tall. He measures at 54". When we measured him with shoes, he was 55". With that knowledge, Adam has been determined to help himself grow the extra inch in just a few weeks. His "appetite" has increased greatly in the first week of attempting this. He figures eating lots and lots of food at each meal will help him grow. He may have a point. But hopefully the growth will be in the right direction. :)

Cousins, Cousins, Cousins!

We had a visit from Derek's sister, Anna, and her family for 5 days. The excitement for their visit had been building for weeks! We spent 5 days of play, with a house full of 12 children and 4 adults. Despite the great numbers of people in an average size house, things went very well. We were grateful we didn't have any rain, which made it easier to enjoy the yard space and parks as well. Some of the activities that some or all of us participated in were:

~Primary Activity--Scripture Olympics
~a birthday dinner for 1 year old LauraJo
~all day at the Tech Museum
~Morning hours at the Jungle Playland
~a girls beauty salon and movie
~Relief Society dinner
~bike riding at the BMX park
~playing at the parks and walks around the block
~watching movies

The follow pictures are a sampling from their visit. Thank you Phelps for making the time and effort to visit us! It was wonderful to see you!

Laurel playing in the ball pit at the Jungle

Samantha at the Jungle

Adam playing KNEX and LEGOs with cousin Hyrum

Jamie and Samantha playing games with cousin Lincoln

Hannah and Mackenzie playing games with cousin Mary


Mackenzie, Hannah, Mary and Hyrum at the park

I love to see the Temple

Our homeschool Co-Op, along with other LDS homeschoolers in the Bay Area, met at the Oakland temple for a few hours. We had done this about 5 months earlier. we all gathered in the temple lobby and sang a song for the temple President. He then spoke to the children. Then the older children went inside to do some baptisms. The rest of us went on some tours. We started on the veranda of the temple and enjoyed visiting and seeing the surrounding sights (see pictures). We then went to the Visitor Center and went on some tours there. After wards, we met with the older children and had a picnic lunch. It was a really nice day.

Laurel and Jamie at the Oakland Temple

Adam at the Oakland Temple

And baby makes 9

Well, the kids were right. This is an odd numbered year, so we are supposed to have another baby. Cathy thought it would be great to throw off the current pattern of every other year, but Heavenly Father always has a better plan. We excitedly announce that Cathy is pregnant and due October 2nd! As you can probably guess, another boy is in big demand this time. We should be able to find out what's in store in a couple of months. Until then, we are happy to know from the first ultrasound that there is indeed one little baby growing with a very healthy beating heart. (sorry Derek and Adam, no twins!)

Cathy is doing well, she has just been dealing with a bit of "morning sickness" throughout the whole month of February. Thankfully, it is not too severe, just plain uncomfortable. Hopefully the end is in sight in a couple more week. Morning sickness is really mislabeled. It should be something like "afternoon and evening sickness", or "sickness when you don't eat, or even when you do".

Scouting

This month has been filled with more scouting than usual. Adam is no longer the only one involved in this home. Derek has been asked to be the Varsity Coach for the 14 and 15 year old boys in our Stake. Cathy has been asked to be a Den Leader. She is a den leader for the Bear cub scouts. Adam is in the Bear den, at least until he turns 10 in April. With the new assignments, we have been busy learning our responsibilities, attending training and planning meetings, as well as the regular weekly meetings. We are looking forward to our involvement in scouting.

Last Thursday was Adam's Blue and Gold Banquet for the cub scouts. We enjoyed a nice dinner, award ceremony (Adam earned his Bear award and some arrow points), and skits. The Bears were the funniest, with some "america" jokes. Give Adam a call and he can tell you a few.

Baby Bird

The life cycle of a bird is amazingly fast, at least when compared to humans. A bird lays an egg, sits on it two weeks, it hatches, and after a week of care, the baby bird flys from the nest, never to return to it. The bird on our back porch (referred to in post "Spring is in the Air") finally had one of it's eggs hatch (the other apparently never formed a baby). We were able to catch glimpses of the baby once in a while, but the mother was very protective. It was there only a week or so and the nest is now empty of mother and baby. So amazing!

Ancient History

Our history studies have now led us to the ancient Greeks. We learned a bit about the early olympics and decided to have our own. We also decided we would change a few things--both boys and girls could participate, and our participants would wear clothes. :) The kids dressed up in some white tunics (typical of ancient greece fashion) and had a fun time playing some competitive games (that they all won at). Bean bag toss, building grecian columns, and the long jump were the main events. After the games, the kids were all awarded leaf wreaths. Learning history is fun!

Will work for Food

In our house, whenever there are treats around, any leftovers are considered "elf" food. Elf food is eaten by those kind, servicing creatures who do most of the work in the house. (aka Dad and Mom) And the elves usually eat up the extra treats when kids are in bed. Our children have caught on to this, and often wish they could enjoy the elf food too. Sometimes we offer them extra chores to do in order to be "elves" and earn the extra treats. The following pictures were taken as they worked hard to get the remaining chocolate chip cookies the other day.

Busy Bodies

Our two littlest, Samantha and Laurel, are so very sweet, and also so very busy. They keep us smiling, as well as cleaning up plenty of messes. Laurel loves to contribute to our annual flood by holding down the lever on our water cooler and watching the flow of water on the kitchen floor. She also loves to play in the toilets. It's fun to see what you can put in there and it's especially fun to splash! Samantha on the other hand, is beyond those things, but she loves to draw and color. As we've mentioned before, her body is her favorite place to color. She's almost offended when we clean off her decorations. But her current love is cutting paper. Her goal is to see how many little pieces she can make out of one piece of 8 x 10 paper. None of us really have time to spend counting how many little pieces she actually makes. We just give her the opportunity to pick up all her many little pieces! Another day, as we were bringing in bags from a shopping trip, Samantha gladly helped us take the items out of the bags. Once that was done (and mom was busy), she continued to help by unwrapping some of the items. It turns out that some of those items were bars of soap that had been purchased to give as donations to a humanitarian project. OOPS! Little helpers aren't always helpers, but we love them anyway!

Pinewood Derby

This was Adam's second year to participate in the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. After a much discouraging first attempt last year, Derek and Adam worked with Grandpa Taylor to make the car this year. Having access to better tools made a huge difference. Adam didn't win any races, but his card did so much better than last year, and he had a blast! There were two tracks set up--one for the official races, and one for fun races with who ever you wanted to race with. Adam spent a lot of time at that track, and was glad to see his car beat some of the other scout's cars, even though he hadn't beaten the scouts that he officially raced against. One thing that was consistent each year however, was Adam's good sportmanship. We were happy to see he didn't care so much about who "won", but that he enjoyed the process. Grandpa, how about next year too? :)

Spring is in the Air

We know many places right now are experiencing Winter. Where we live, we are experiencing "Winter" too, but not in the same way most people think of. We have some cold days, but nothing that includes snow and ice. We had two very unseasonably warm weeks in January that seemed to bring on an early Spring. From early blooming plants to birds laying eggs to wrestless kids in school, it was very odd for January. Don't get us wrong, we quite enjoyed the warmer temperatures. It's just a bit unusual is all. On our back patio, we've got a bird with two eggs in a nest in a hanging planter. We're keeping a close watch so we can be aware when the little birds hatch. This early spring makes us want to hang up the hummingbird feeder and get to our spring cleaning too(well, maybe not that).

To Mount Everest and Beyond

Laurel should be a world famous climber. After all, she beats climbing records every day around our home, and she's bold, brave and determined. Being so close to the ground, for her, is just not cool. She wants to be up and exploring new heights. Having a climber in the home makes one rethink the furniture arrangements. Chairs can no longer reside next to their accompanying desk or table. Chairs almost need to be hidden in locked rooms, they are just too mobile. Laurel is so proud of herself when she reaches the top! It delights her to squeal and explore her new found territory, and it's quite a disappointment when a family member closes in and brings her back down. Even her many tumbles have not deterred her from future adventures. Just the other night we had decided her nick name should be "energizer bunny". She just keeps going and going and going......

Brrrrrr!!!

Derek is a scout leader for the 14 and 15 year old young men in our Stake. One Wednesday night for their activity they had a Polar Bear swim. It was held at a Golfland in San Jose that has water slides. The slides were turned on and the boys had at it. It was a windy, cool evening, and though he had no desire to participate, Derek had come prepared. It wasn't long before one young man came up to him and admitted he was afraid to join in the "fun". Then he challenged Derek by saying, "I'll go in if you do." How could Derek say no? He had just read Do Hard Things, and he wanted to be a good example of courage for the young man. He got his swim wear and then off he went to get a real shock! It was cold before he even got in the water. Derek said the slide just seemed to go on forever. And then the final plunge. Oh boy! What a wake up call. He managed to go down 2 or 3 times, but was glad when he was done! Brrrrrrr!

Welcome to the Place to find out about the happenings in the Taylor Family

Instead of a monthly newsletter by email, we hope to post a few entries and pictures throughout the month that can be viewed at your leisure or just once a month.