Jacob Taylor is now a Teen!!!!

It is so hard to believe, but Jacob is now a teenager. Wow, I can remember when Nicole called me at work and told me to get home as it was "time". Well, I zoomed down the Don Valley Parkway, onto the Gardiner Expressway, past the SkyDome and CN Tower and out onto the QEW. An hour later I was bringing Nicole into the Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington. Twenty-six hours later and in the middle of a snowstorm Jacob Michael Taylor was born.

That was one of the longest days and nights in my entire life. The maternity ward was under construction, a baby had been stolen a week earlier so the nurses were all skittish, and trying to comfort Nicole was not an easy task. Plus, it seemed that Jacob was enjoying the comfort of his mothers womb and was in no hurry to come out. With the help of the doctors forceps, out he came at 12:40 pm, 8 pounds and 7 1/2 ounces.

Traditionally, the kids have a sleep over with their friends on their birthday. Since we are in a new community, we did things a little different. The kids had a sleep over with nanny and aunt Lisa. I heard them in the basement at midnight still carrying on so I guess they had fun!

First Visitors

Mom and Ken were our first visitors from away. They made a quick visit; stayed for a couple of hours and then left. We spent the rest of the day looking for furniture for the girls rooms.

Rachel wins karoake contest

The schools close to our new home do not offer early french immersion, so the kids have to travel to another neighborhood to attend school. The community centre in that neighborhood was having activities for its winter carnival so we decided to attend. Well, we were the only parents there and it we stuck out like sore thumbs. Although,I must hand it to the guy who ran the place; keeping 40-50 eight to seventeen years olds in line is not an easy task!

Anyway, there was a karaoke contest and Rachel sang her favourite song: James Taylor "You've got a Friend". After listening to an hour and a half of bad karaoke the place sure got quiet was Rachel started to sing. Rachel won first place and $25.00. She is getting very comfortable up on the stage. Now she just needs to expand her repertoire.

Jacob's Good-Bye Party

Finally..We have a new home

After a frantic week we finally have comes to terms with the owner of our new home. Our initial offer was rejected and we were a little stressed. We did not come in with our best offer but we figured a quick closing would be a plus. We were mistaken as the owner had already lowered the price and was not willing to go much lower.

Nicole started her new job today and the kids and I drove down this afternoon. At 6pm we put in a counter offer but were not optomistic. Instead, we took the kids and showed them the remaining 4 houses on our list, none of which were perfect but would have to do. While we were visiting the last house the phone call came in along with the news that our offer was accepted. Yeah! Now for the fun part...financing, lawyers, insurance, moving, and selling our own home in Bathurst.

Still, everyone seems happy with our new home. All of the kids will have their own bedrooms and the house is completely renovated with new appliances! I think we have to change the windows in the basement and maybe some cosmetic touch-ups but other than that we are good to go. Hopefully we will be able to keep this home in better shape than our last?

Happy New Year...2007

Welcome 2007 and good-bye 2006. This year will be memorable for our family. We move to a new city very soon, both Nicole and I start new jobs and Jacob, Rachel and Erica will be starting at new schools and making lots of new friends.

We had hoped to hear about the offer we put in on a new house today but the owner is living in Vancouver and speaks Korean so his agent had to e-mail him our offer and he would find someone to translate. Unfortunately, the agents e-mail server is down so we have no idea whether he accepted our offer or not. I guess later on today we will have a better on where we stand.

Tonight we had our traditional fondue and then watched the local New Year Celebration and then celebrated again an hour later with Dick Clark Live from Times Square. When the kids are all in their teens we will probably make the trek to New York City and join the million plus revellers in a once-in-a-lifetime celebration.

Merry Christmas 2006

Oh, Christmas comes so quick it seems. All that shopping, buying, wrapping and then boom it is over. Having to travel to two sets of parents makes for such a rushed and hectic day. I realize Christmas is a time for family, but it seems like our family never has much relaxing time together during the holidays. I guess Nicole starting a new job in a week and the fact that we do not have a home yet just adds to the frustration.

But anyway, we still had a great Christmas as the pictures will attest!
















At nanny's for the afternoon...












Christmas Evening at the Landry's...








Fortunately, not turkey again: Salmon.



The Wii is helping Denis lose a few pounds!

Letter to Santa from Rachel

Dear Santa,

This year I would like another Dear Canada diary, I would also like a journal, and a dream life game for the T.V., I would like a FLY pen and some Fly paper. I would also like a Chat Now phone (X 2 in a pack) and a paint kit with every colour and special painting paper. Plus, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 dvd.

That is pretty much all I want!

Sincerely,
Rachel Taylor
PS. What kind of cookies do you like?

Letter to Santa from Erica

Dear Santa,

For Christmas I would like Bratz, Teddy Bears, a purple drumset, a Karoke, clothes, polly pockets, some pajamas, books, cd, and a laptop or a desktop computer, and I would like Dreamlife and a Video Now video camera.
That is all I want for Christmas. Hope you like the cookies and milk.

Last Minute Science Fair Project

We thought we learned last year that Jacob has a habit of letting us know at the last minute that he has a project due. Apparently we didn't! To make matters worse, Jacob picked another electrical project..I guess he forgot that Nicole was a Chemical Engineer and not an Electrical Engineer. He is making a light which runs on magnets and shaking, not on batteries. Looks like it will be a busy two nights.

Halloween..Taylor Style

The weather cooperated this year for Halloween; cool but at least it was not raining.
We had 63 trick or treaters which is down from our high of 105 six or seven years ago. I was pleasantly surprised at how polite most of the kids were.





Jacob, Rachel and Erica went for almost two and a half hours (a small break)which I believe is a record. Usually somebody is complaining that it is too cold/wet/feet sore/arms sore...something. This year I think it was Mamame who was tired and cold!
No candy apples or fudge this year, just a lot of chips and candy. Not many chocolate bars either, bust be too expensive. We gave out bars, chips and suckers and came very close to running out.