&t The Taylor Family: June 2012

Saturday, June 30

Birthday Pool Party

We have already had a lot of fun this year so expensive birthday parties for the girls wasn't really an option. Our friends, Joe and Jana, told us we should have a party at their community pool and that everyone was free to use it. This sounded like a good idea and the girls were excited at the thought too. I worked all week on getting all the food and
decorations ready and touching base with all the invitees. Come this morning we had pretty much everything in order. Last night Peter and I had put together various kinds of wraps which I made a sun dried tomato basil pesto spread for and I had put together a large fruit tray and drinks. I am not real into hot greasy pizza in the hot summer sun so this is what I came
up with. We had a really good turn out for the party and the girls were really excited as the guests started arriving. All but one parent hung out for the whole party and just about everyone swam. I had a great time talking with everyone and not having to do very much. I couldn't swim because I ruptured my eardrum a couple weeks ago (June 14th) and I am not
aloud to get any water in my ear until it heals. I hadn't planned anything for the kids to do really. I had bought a long water shooter and a water gun for each guest as their party favor and they all had a blast playing with those and shooting each other. I also had bought several inner tubes and the floating noodles.
Everyone was free to eat as they became hungry and then I had the girls open their presents followed by singing and cake eating. After the cake several people left but others hung out and swam some more for about an hour and half past the party end time. That
was fine with me, we had no plans and I was in no hurry to get home and clean up. The girls had a really good time at their party and they got to run around, splash around, and get some good energy burned off.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 6:30 PM   3 comments

Wednesday, June 27

PEAF Elections

Two years ago I posted that I had been elected Vice President of our local Chapter's Property and Evidence Association of Florida. Well, since our terms are two years long it was once again time for elections. Having served this last term I came to realize how much more could be done for our community of Evidence and Crime Scene Technicians. The Secretary and I were able to get several more agencies within our chapter involved and now we are probably the most active
Chapter (of 8) in the whole state. Knowing there is more work to be done I decided to step it up and run for President. This of course includes much more responsibility, most of which is in organizing our next State Conference which we hold each February, but it is exciting and I am up for the challenge. Well we had our elections at our meeting today and I am happy to say I have now stepped into the Presidency position. My goal for this year is to get Chapter 1, which has pretty much fallen from radar back on the set and in full swing. I have already discussed with our new secretary what will be required to do this and we are both excited about what this new change could mean for our organization. I love PEAF and I can easily say that these are the best people I have ever had the joy of working with. We all have the same jobs but there is no animosity or tension because we all work for different agencies and we can vent and complain or praise and brag and we all know exactly where each of us is coming from and came completely relate. I am truly honored to hold this position and to be able to work among so many wonderful colleagues.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 5:19 PM   0 comments

Monday, June 25

New Frogs

We still have our wonderful pond guests swimming around with our fish and tadpoles. I am starting to think that these big frogs weren't actually eating the tadpoles because we have seen several still swimming around. I do think that many of the tadpoles have grown up and moved out though. Today I decided to look a
little closer and sure enough, I found several fully developed frogs no bigger than my pinky nail. They were still in the pond just hanging on to the side but they can walk and jump just the same as any frog. Most of them still have a little bump where their tails once were. I found one and put it on a stick to try and get this picture.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 1:07 PM   0 comments

Saturday, June 23

Beach Fun

Well, there is a tropical storm sitting in the Gulf just off the coast of FL. We have been told that today it was going to rain all day long.
Every hour that passes brings us a higher percentage of precipitation and warnings of high winds and flash floods. Having gone through Tropical Storm Fay a couple years ago as well as countless other storms we Floridians know better than most that one storm can sit on you for days on end with no letting up. Peter worked hard this morning while the
kids and I did our usual errands and cleaning house chores. We didn't have anything planned for the day and as I looked outside I thought it would be a fun beach day. I know, I know crazy Chellee taking the kids to the beach when the weatherman said 100% chance of afternoon showers. I told Peter my thoughts and he didn't completely shut me down and said when he finished up his last job we could do it. Well it took a little longer and I kept watching the skies and the radar but when Peter was through I thought we still had a chance for at least 30 minutes of fun.
This is the benefit of living close enough to the beach. I figured if it started raining on the way over we would just turn around and go home, and if we got there and it was still a little clear we could park on the beach and run to the car when the rain started. Well, it was about 3:00 when we left the house and got to the beach where no one was (those silly sane people) and then walked out to the water. The kids ran and played in the ocean and Peter and I just stood back and watched. We hadn't brought a thing with us except three beach towels for the kids; no chairs, no toys, no suits for
us, no books or drinks. I really just wanted to let the kids play and run. Especially with the TS coming we didn't know when the next outdoor day would be again. The sky held up though and we stayed on the beach for about 2 hours before deciding we should go home to eat some dinner. We dried off and drove all the way home before the rain started. I think the last minute trips are the most fun and definitely the least stressful.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 8:55 PM   1 comments

Wednesday, June 20

Out of the house

Today was a pretty fun and packed day. I had the day off so we joined Lisa and went to the movies. Peter stayed home to get some work done while the house was quiet. We saw Reno on the big screen and I was surprised with how cute it was. I had heard some really
bad reviews so my expectations were pretty low. Javan really liked it too and sat through the whole thing without getting up and wanted to run around. I think all the colors and songs helped keep his attention. After the movie we walked over to Subway and had some lunch. We sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather and talked a bit. It was about 1:00 by then so we decided to take the kids to a park in Debary and let them run around. The sky was threatening rain but it hadn't started so Lisa and I figured we would just let them play until it started to storm. We felt a couple sprinkles but nothing that caused us to want to leave. The kids had the whole playground to themselves and played until
we called them in. I had told Jana that we would meet her and her boys over at the pool at 2:30. We got there right as she pulled up and then the rain started to fall. There was no lightning or thunder though so we let the kids swim in the sprinkles and us three
adults sat under the patio area and talked. We had a great time while the kids swam and played. I was happy to get the kids out of the house
and run off some energy even if it was done in the rain. Eventually we had to pack up and go so that we could all have dinner with our husbands. I had to get ready for work again tomorrow too.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 6:51 PM   0 comments

Sunday, June 17

Happy Father's Day

I hope all the Daddy's out there had a great day enjoying their families! We had a nice day with nothing on the schedule. We went to church and actually had to take the pictures for all the baby dedications that we do each year on
Father's Day. Peter and I don't normally take the photos but we were asked to do it and we knew it wouldn't be too complicated or time consuming so we agreed. After church we went to Sonny's (Peter's choice) for lunch. The kids were excited because we hardly ever go there. All day I had asked Peter what he wanted to do but he didn't have any ideas. After sitting around the house for a bit he asked if we could help him clean out the garage a little bit. Javan stayed in but the rest of us helped clean and organize what we could. The girls did a good job picking up scrap pieces of wood, sweeping and vacuuming up too. When we had done quite a bit of cleaning
we just hung out inside until Peter choose a puzzle we could all work on and put on some Science shows. Peter didn't want me to cook tonight so he ordered some Chinese food and we used our chop sticks we bought in China to enjoy our food. It was a good day and peaceful with no running around. We just wanted to enjoy Daddy and make sure he knew how much we love and appreciate him.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 7:33 PM   0 comments

Friday, June 15

Squatters

About a week or week and a half ago we noticed two Southern Leopard Frogs had set up camp in our pond. We also noticed that we didn't seem to have quite as many tadpoles swimming around any longer. It is very possible that these two frogs have chosen our nice quant pond because of it's lovely scenic views as well as the abundant amount of delicious delicacies found within it. Of course, it is also possible that these two frogs are the reason for the hundreds of tadpoles that are growing in our pond at the moment. Our fish seemed unfazed by the new inhabitants, mostly likely because they are too large to become frog food anytime soon. I don't know how long these visitors plan on hanging around but I suppose they have no real purpose to move on just yet. We should probably name them, that sounds like a good job for the girls. Usually when we look in the pond we will see one or both of the frogs' heads sticking out of the water but as soon as we make a movement they dive under the water until they think it is safe to surface again. On rare occasion, usually at night, we will see one of the frogs up in the garden bed that surrounds the pond but soon enough they will leap into the pond as to not become our prey.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 1:51 PM   0 comments

Thursday, June 14

Summer fun

Well the summer has officially started (at least as far as the children are concerned). For the last couple of years I have rearranged my work schedule in the summertime so that I could have Wednesdays off instead of taking Fridays off. This helps break up Peter's work week and there are a lot specials that happen midweek that I can't take advantage of on Fridays. Today we decided to kick things off and get the children out of the house. My mom had taken Abbi for the week to celebrate her birthday some more so I just had Bresa and Javan today. I wanted to get them out of the house so they didn't feel like they were always cooped up and I also wanted to let Daddy have some piece and quiet and alone time to get some stuff worked on without all the distractions. I called up my friend Lisa and she met me at the house and then we drove with the kids (my two and her son) to the movie theater in Sanford where we saw the Smurf movie. It was pretty cute. After we got out we went to Wal-Mart down the way and got lunch at McDonald's and did a little shopping. The girls are having a pool party in a couple weeks so I got a jump on some decorations and toys we would need. Once we exhausted that store we drove back to Orange City and stopped at a park where the kids changed into their swim suits and played in the splash pad for a while. They had a good time cooling off in the water and Lisa and I sat in the shade and talked. Eventually they grew weary of the splash pad and wandered over to the playground where they ran around and got on the swings until they were just about dry. The clouds had started to roll in so we collected all our children and drove home. We weren't back 10 minutes before the rain started. Later, Reba came over for a visit and brought us pizza for dinner. We all ate and caught up which was very nice and relaxing after a long day of running around.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 8:29 PM   0 comments

Monday, June 11

Tadpole legs

We have been watching the tadpoles pretty closely and today we spotted several that had the tiniest little legs growing. Some of the tadpoles hadn't developed their legs yet but there were a good bit that had. We were all very excited to see the transformation and kept trying to find more and more. Here are a couple shots I got, look closely.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 11:26 AM   0 comments

Saturday, June 9

Build and Grow

The other day I looked up when the next Build and Grow workshop was at Lowe's and found that today they were building an airplane. When I got up and ready for the day Bresa still had her jammies on and her room was a disaster. I asked who wanted to go to the workshop and of course everyone did but only Javan and Abbi actually did what was required of them in time. I took the two younger ones and we headed out to Lowe's. We had to wait a little while because I couldn't register online due to it being full but I knew they always had plenty for walk-ins and I was right. We found a little spot to start our build and then the kids worked away making a cool airplane. It was little difficult to make things straight with the tiny pieces they had the nails that seemed too long for the job but we made it all go together. In the end Abbi and Javan were very happy with their projects and were playing away with their new toys. After word we went to the farmer's market, the grocery store, post office, gas station, and picked up lunch for Daddy. When we got home the kids ate lunch and then went out back to play a while. Tonight we have a Life Group Coaches meeting and everyone is bringing a dish so a little later I had I children help me make a big "Too much Chocolate" cake to bring to the meeting.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 3:18 PM   0 comments

Friday, June 8

Happy Birthday Abigail!!

My baby girl turns 7 today! She is such a sweetie and a true blessing in my life. It's so funny how much she reminds me of myself when I was her age. Her looks, her personality, her way overemotional sensitivity to criticism or discipline all reflect who I was at her age. My juicy Apple-gail is constant reminder of why I became a mommy. When things are going rough or I think things are too hard she always comes up out of the blue with some wise thing to redirect my thinking or just comes and gives me a big hug that melts my heart. Abigail you are so genuine and sincere and you constantly show me how I should love others before myself. I thank God for you everyday and I am so excited to see the young woman you will become.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 11:42 AM   0 comments

Thursday, June 7

Our first Gladiolus' of the Season

These are from the bulbs that the girls planted about 3 years ago. Each Spring we are greeted by these beautiful faithful blooms. I think the girls get just as excited about the new sprouts coming up as they did the very first time they planted them.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 5:49 PM   0 comments

Monday, June 4

Triplets turn 5

It's been 5 years since my first surrogacy journey when I had triplets, two girls and a boy. I can't believe how long it's been but at the same time so much has happened in our lives it's hard to believe it was only 5 years ago. God has truly blessed us and provided for us and all our needs. We are so grateful for His love and promises. Happy Birthday Sophia, Isabella, and Evan. You three little dumplings forever changed my life and gave me insight of how much God really loves us and enjoys blessing us beyond our wildest dreams.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 10:09 AM   0 comments

Friday, June 1

Tadpoles

A couple weeks ago Peter found hundreds of little tadpole eggs strung all along the plants in our fish pond out front. I was excited to see them but didn't have much hope for them as we now about about 20 or so fish (they keep reproducing) and last time we had tadpoles they didn't make it past a couple days after they hatched. A couple days after seeing the eggs we saw they were all gone and figured the fish had a nice feast but then we saw hundreds (if not thousands) of tiny black dots with tails. We showed the girls and then we went out and checked on them everyday. Much to our surprise the tadpoles are growing bigger and bigger. At this point I don't believe the fish would be able to eat them because they are too big. This picture was taken a few days ago and they are still getting bigger. Their bodies are growing and their tails are still there but seem much smaller to their bodies they were. We have been looking for little feet to sprout but haven't seen any just yet. Our friends Becky and Andre came over and got pretty excited so I took an old milk jug and filled it with some of pond water and plants and then grabbed a bunch of the tadpoles so their kids could watch them grow too. Believe me, there are plenty to go around. Every time we walk by the pond now we stop to see the little tadpoles' progress, we are all very excited to see how far they get this time. The picture doesn't look like much but all those black dots are the tadpoles eating off of the plant. If you look closely you can see little tails on some of them. I need to get a new picture soon to show how much they have grown.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 10:05 AM   0 comments