White Christmas in Santa Fe

The snow has covered up our old transportation (Spanish Colonial Carreta) and our new transportation (Ford Pickup)! And it's still coming down...yikes! We're homebound. But it sure is pretty. Tuesday morning, January 16, and Sam arrives on Thursday. He'll get his snow!

A Photo Update

It's a good thing that a picture is worth a thousand words, because I don't have much time for actual words. Instead, I'm posting these shots, which do speak volumes as to how quickly Sarah and Juan are growing and changing. Enjoy.

(Click on the slide show below to see it in a larger format.)

Dance Like a Penguin

We have one children's video right now, and boy is it popular with these little ones. It's a bilingual Sesame Street special, "Fiesta," featuring Celia Cruz, Linda Ronstadt and lots of muppets, including Elmo. Elmo is a feat of creation-- somehow, the red fur, those big eyes and that high voice are utterly mesmerizing for little kids.

Amidst the Elmo storyline, there's a mambo piece with penguins, which you'll see the kids loving here-- watch Juanito's dancing feet!



If you have other video recommendations, let us know!

Magical Day in New Mexico

Jim and Sarah had a wonderful New Mexico experience Thursday with 8 friends as we visited a private property that is covered with over 6000 petroglyphs some as old as 3000 years. The hike took us up close and personal with probably several hundred of the 6000 plus so we wanted to share them with you. We enjoyed lovely weather, colorful leaves and trees, good company, and a delicious lunch from the top of the mesa (thanks mostly to Whole Foods). What a great day!

Taylor Reunion

Thanks goes to Mom for bringing us all together in Maryland-- Juan and I loved having all of you with us. The babies truly miss all of your loving hands, and we want you to know that the door is always open for your next visit.

Between Sue's visit in September, Susan Baker's visit at the beginning of October, and Mom's birthday/ family reunion in late October, the kids made huge developmental strides! I don't think it was a coincidence-- having friends and family here in the house was a real boost for them. Last night, Sarah and Juanito had their first 'real' conversation with eye contact, hand touching, and plenty of cooing. It was wonderful.

Juanito is now sleeping completely through the night-- 8 hours! Now for the transition from our bedroom to the baby room... wish us luck!

Below are a few highlights from our Taylor family reunion: (Click on the slideshow to see captions and to view the videos intermingled with the photos)

Let's go... Family Updates!

Hey, Taylor-Willers,

We can do all kinds of things with this blog. I want to dispel the notion that you have to write a lot or even have a great photo. Indeed, a blog entry can be just a sentence or two. For this one, let's use the "Comment" feature to give a brief update from our daily lives.

First, make sure that you're actually at the blog site (and not reading this from an email). Then look for the itty bitty link just below this entry, where you see "comments" with an underline-- click on that, then enter your comment.

What to write? Keep it small, like "We finished painting the entryway to our house, and it looks great!"... or longer if you want. Comments can consist of text only, so no photos or videos.

Okay-- so look below, click on "Comment", and you'll see a window where you can type. Type away!

love,
Karen

p.s. You'll notice that each comment will be emailed (by the blog, automatically) to all of us Taylor/Willers. That's a setting I created, for convenience. Just know that if you want to respond to someone's comments, you should do it from the blog itself and not just by replying to the email.

I left my heart in Takoma Park!

Greetings family,

I have just returned from three glorious days with Karen, Juan and the incredible Juanito and Sarita. I have to tell, I have given my heart away. They have it completely, never to be given back. They are old enough that they are starting to develop their own personalities (or is that just my imagination?), smile (no, it's not gas!), gaze at you lovingly with beautiful brown and blue eyes (Saritas have turned to brown, Juanito's are a gorgeous dark blue), and are sooo good (cry only when they are hungry, poopy, itchy, bored, or have a hang nail). It was my delight to be able to help with feedings, rocking, bouncing, singing, playing, going for walks (all the things a good great aunt does, or is that a great, great aunt?). Oh yes, it was wonderful to see Karen and Juan too. The time was way too short and I even cried while sitting in the airport and realized that I had not kissed the babies goodbye. Now that was not a good thing for a great aunt to forget! Gosh, guess I will just have to go back to see them really soon.

By the way, Happy Birthday coming up Sarah. I hear you will be celebrating in Takoma Park and Dale and Julie will be there too. That's great! 

I think that's all for now. I am going to be in New Zealand in November and will send photos when I get back.

Love to you all, 

Great Aunt Sue