Sharon,

It is good to hear about your family. In just a year or two so much changes! Your children are all getting so big. It is strange not to know or even to have ever seen each others children.
I'm sorry to hear about kenji's mom. You know my sister in law Kim (john's wife) finished chemo for hodgkin's lymphoma last fall. she has been going to mayo clinic for her check ups and is doing great. luckily, hodgkins is very curable.
That's exciting to be in a new house! Don't forget to send us your new address before Christmas!
Tina

Sharon's Whirlwind!!!

Sharon,

What a whirlwind your life has been! Can't wait to see pictures of your home and all your hard work. You'll have to post some soon. The pictures of your kids are adorable. Your children sound like they are as precious as they look in the photos. So sweet!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. I look forward to seeing more postings from everyone else. If you have any trouble getting onto the site, let me know and I'd be glad to help. Hopefully all the e-mail addresses are current. I didn't receive any messages back that were undeliverable though.

Here are a few more recent pics . . .

The girls were watching Buckeye football
with CJ tonight so it is only fitting to include

a lovely photo of Emma sporting her Ohio

State hat! :)

Sunflower Girls

Hi Girls

Hi Girls,
What a great idea to keep in touch more than...every few years! We are getting old!
We are doing well...the last three months have seemed like we have been in the eye of a tornado whirling around us, although feel very blessed knowing God was truly in control. Here a brief synopsis...

Found a great house that we were going to buy in early May, not even in the "looking" mode.

That let us to put ours on the market...it sold in 8 days!

That "dream house" well...the listing agent sold it out from under us the day after we listed our house. He was mad he didn't get the listing. So we were homeless in about 4 weeks!

Oh yeah, Kenji accepted a new job as Assistant Superintendent in another good local district the week after we put on house on the market. He wasn't stressed or anything!

We finally found a great house that we really liked after bidding on 2 others!

Only issue with the great house...it was needing a little work up front. It had been a foreclosure and empty for 2 years...it's only 5 years old!

Ok a little work before we move in....NOT!

The closing was postponed due to title issues...2 attorneys, couple hundred hours of phone calls, a lot of sweat, tears and prayers and we finally closed the day BEFORE we needed to move out. So cancel the storage, pods, etc. and move right in...kind of.

We estimated 500+ hours of work from us, my family, lots of friends in the first 3 weeks.

Anyways, to date...the entire house (inside and some out) has been painted, all new carpet & bathroom flooring, new appliances, new fixtures, lighting, landscaping(still in progress) kitchen countertops & sink ( in progress), built lots of storage shelving, desk, installed cabinets, strip and restain the ugly red deck(this weekend's project)...A little more than we thought. But close to the end, and the best part...it's a great house for us and a lot more room to move for our clan!

FInally, Kenji's mom was diagnosed with Hogkin's Lymphoma the week before we moved. She is treatment currently and doing ok. They caught it very early. Praying for healing.

On another note our kids are doing great and liking meeting a lot of friends their age on our street.

Braden is 4 1/2 and loving his second year of preschool at our church. He loves to be the "leader" and sometimes thinks he's "in charge", but also has a wonderful soft side with a heart to give and help those who doesn't have all of the things he has. I can't say how many times he would starting packing up items from the refrigerator to take to the "people who were hungry" in New Orleans after the flood. He wanted to get in the car and go right then!! He is also on a soccer team...undefeated, thanks to his spanish-born teammate Emilio, who plays like a 10 year old. But he loves it. He is taking the role of big brother very well and loves to be my helper. He loves to play any sport, swim, ride his bike and play with Justin. They are inseperable. He enjoys to challenge himself and us...one day he told me he was making a cantilever, defined as an extension of a structure. I appreciated the definition!!!



Justin just turned 3 and has a wonderful personality. I often hear, " Like you or I will always love you, Mommy" just out of the blue. Many times he & Braden are mistaken for twins - Justin is on the large side (98%) for stature for his age. He has a very sensitive spirit, loves to hug and cuddle, yet very outgoing! His smirky smile grabs your heart like the best, especially as he wears his baseball caps backward! He's a character at heart! He is in gymnastics and is begging to go to preschool - maybe in January, when I can get used to the thought. He is an athlete ... plays baseball, soccer, basketball, golf, football...anything with a ball.

Kayla turned 1 July 24 and is taking a few steps. She's tall, but very thin...can't seem to get her to 20 pounds to turn that darn car seat around! She is a wonderful baby...rarely cries, loves to smile and laugh, loves her brothers and is very patient. She will no doubt have full brotherly protection in her preteen years! They like to treat her like a princess. We are so thankful that even through the complications surrounding the end of my pregnancy and her birth, that she is completely healthy. God is good. And I finally get to have some pink and dolls in the house...



I am enjoying being at home and blessed for being able to...considering working 1 day/week with a few hours from home again for the March of Dimes. They want me to transition out of running the big walk to doing some statewide projects/consulting for events. Sounds interesting enough to pursue...we'll see.

Kenji's new job is going well - he has a LOT more time at home in the evenings, but he misses the interaction with the kids. Maybe he just needs to help out at chuch with the youth or help coach a sport. All in all, a good move for him.

So those are really our updates from Cincinnati. Would love to see everyone some day. Thanks again Heather for setting this up. Once we have the major catching up done...I think it's be great to hear the small, yet important things going on in each other's lives.

Miss you all.

Sharon

Hi Girls,

Thank you to Heather for setting this up for us-a great idea, and I hope everyone will start posting!

We are doing great here. Lily is 3 1/2 and Jackson turned 2 in July. We are starting to look at schools (preschool) for Lily but she won't be starting until next fall. I am not ready to send her yet! Last week we took Lily to the American Girl store in Chicago as an early birthday gift and she got to pick out a doll (see attached photo). She had such a great time there and loves her new doll (she named her little Lily!). Jackson has been my sweet, lovable little guy until just recently. He is starting to tease his sister and throw little tantrums. I am hoping this is just a short phase! I am enjoying staying home w/the kids. We are involved in MOPS at church and I am part of a bible study w/a group of friends. Ryan's window cleaning business is going great (he is going on his 5th year of it) and he thoroughly enjoys it, and it is great because we can take long weekends whenever we want to spend some extra time at the lake.

I hope you all are well and I can't wait to hear what you've all been up to, so start posting ladies....and don't forget to send pictures of those little ones:)

Tina

Hello there Taylor ladies!

Hi there ladies! Hopefully you received my e-mail and you were able to find your way to this blog. Feel free to post pictures, family news, prayer requests, etc. I think it will be fun to keep in touch this way. Gone are the days of sending a chain letter which took a good year and a half for all of us to finally read it! :)

Here's the latest in our household:

Haleigh is seven and in second grade. She loves school and is playing soccer this fall. She has her daddy's personality and is quite outgoing and goofy. She fills our day with giggles.

Emma is five and attending a pre-kindergarten program at our church. She is our sweet little snuggler. She is playing soccer as well which is really just a bunch of kids running together in a large bunch up and down a field!

I am still enjoying being at home but I substitute at Haleigh's school (where I used to teach) frequently. CJ keeps busy working at Tyndale as well as overseeing the Junk Business we co-own with some friends.

I look forward to catching up with all of you and hopefully planning another get-together sometime or at least we can all try to attend our 15th Homecoming (NEXT YEAR! Yikes!)

Take care,

Heather