The Start of Fall?

 The weather continues to be hot, and it is hard to believe that fall is already here. Over the past two weeks we have been busy with soccer, baseball, stomach bugs, and birthday parties.

Axel had his soccer team and individual pictures. I was able to sneak a picture of the team from far away.  He seems to be enjoying soccer less and less, but yesterday after his game he finally came out and told daddy that he is intimidated by the bigger kids and doesn't want to get hurt. We are glad that he finally opened up and shared his true feelings. I find it very frustrating that he doesn't share more with us, especially since he has always been a good communicator until the past year or so.

Axel took the picture below. This is the succulent that Grandpa Bruce was given for Auntie's wedding as a party favor. Since they were travelling by plane with kept both Grandma and Grandpa's succulents. Grandpa's seemed extra ordinary, but is quite beautiful in bloom. It is fascinating that almost all succulents have some sort of flower. I would have never guessed that it flowers based on how it looks. Last year there was only one flower, but this year there are three flowers in the center, although this picture only shows one.

Phoenix is at the age where she loves to help. I remember this age very well with Axel. I thought it was a trait that he has, but now I know it is an age thing and I am going to cherish these months with Phoenix a little more!

She was not happy only vacuuming our bedroom. She went on to vacuum hers and Axel's bedroom. I was very impressed that she did not lose interest!

On most Fridays, when I am not working Phoenix and I go to Jack Fischer Park and the library. It was suppose to be a hot one so we went to the park quite early. As we were waiting for "her friends" to arrive she cracked nuts from a tree. She said that she wanted to help the squirrels get their food. I love this picture of her cracking a nut with a sweat shirt on backwards. She insisted on taking her jacket off while swinging and it was just a bit too cold at 8:30am in the morning so some how I convinced her to wear it backwards and there it stayed for the next hour.

Phoenix calls all kids her friends, but we often see Easton. He is going to likely be in the same class as Phoenix for kindergarten because he brother was Axel's classmate in kinder.

I love this picture of them swinging.

Axel is loving baseball which is really exciting. He told daddy that he has learned he likes it more because he is bigger this year and he knows the sport.

He has also improved quite a bit.

He has already made three outs this year and has a lots of base hits.

For every out, coach Keith (daddy) does 5 push ups. Coach didn't know if the boys would be getting outs, but they have been getting outs every game, almost every evening. He has been doing a lot of push ups. If Axel gets an out he gets to go on top of daddy for the 5 push ups, however once Axel goes on top, all of the boys want to go on top. Thus, you have the Mos"quitos" dog pile!

This weekend I ventured off to Aptos for a friend's 40th birthday. She rented a house for her closest friends to come and celebrate with her. Here is the picture of the sun set on Friday night. I cooked dinner for 6 of the 8 women. We had rice, salmon and green beans. We then had yummy cake and lots of fun doing a cloths swap. 

On Saturday we enjoyed talking by the beach. While there we saw a pod of dolphins. They were hanging out for well over an hour. It was really cool seeing them. 

While watching the dolphins the cutest little sea otter swims up very close to shore. I just barely caught him in the picture below. He is swimming on his back in the upper left hand corner. Locals said the dolphins had been around since last weekend. I headed home after dinner and caught home in time to put the kids to sleep. It was my first time ever away from the family, except of course being in the hospital during labor a couple of times. I had such a great time chatting with some awesome women. I learned so much from them and was glad that I accepted the invitation. It was a really hard decision to make, but I was glad I went. While I was gone daddy had to manage baseball practice, a soccer game and a birthday party. Things went very smoothly with the help of our babysitter Monica. We were so glad she could help out as much as she did. The kids absolutely love her. 

This morning was another baseball game. I thought it would be nice to show what Phoenix is up to during the games. She had fun playing in the dirt/ sand with her sand toys. She was completely covered in it by the time the game was done. 

I noticed a few days ago that Phoenix had her first 2nd year molar come in on her bottom right hand side. I wonder how long it will take for the other three to come in.

In other Axel news, he has been struggling with stomach issues again. This blog starts with his team picture. After taking that picture he threw up over half a dozen times on the way home. This was the third time he has thrown up, but this time it seemed more viral than anything else. He has thrown up a few more times since, but usually it seems food related. He complains about his stomach and upper chest hurting often. We are very frustrated and are going to hopefully get some kind of work up done to figure out what is going on. He hasn't been eating much for sometime as well. We plan on starting him on probiotics to see if we can heal whatever is going on with his gut while we wait and see what the doctor thinks and can do for him. I weighed him at the YMCA before swimming last week and he weighed 35 lbs. I am hoping the scale was wrong, but that means he is one pound less than 6 months ago at his 6 year check up appointment. Hopefully, we will have some answers soon and nothing serious is going on.

Next weekend Axel only has a baseball game since he is not doing the soccer tournament. We are looking forward to doing something fun together if it is not too hot out. Have a great week!

Fall Ball

Last Sunday we had Eileen, Luis and Alex over for play time and dinner. Here are the three with Axel and Phoenix reading books before bed. We all enjoyed the visit. I was glad to be able to give belated birthday wishes to Eileen as well. 

I have been trying to get a cute photo of the kids together and every time I think I get a good one it looks like this....I would love to get both kids fully in the picture smiling.

We had last weekend off from soccer because of the Holiday and families going out of town. This Saturday we were all geared up to see Axel have a fun soccer game, but he did not feel well and spent half of the game trying to use the restroom. He "played" the first and fourth quarter, but you could tell he wasn't feeling well.

Luckily, today was a better day and Axel felt good for the most part. He still isn't eating very well, but he didn't complain of his stomach hurting. His baseball team uniforms were not in yet so the boys looked a little chaotic all in different jerseys. The good thing is that they all had fun and played really well for their first game.

They made outs every innings and scored almost every inning. The league does not keep track of either, but it is fun for the coaches to keep track. The boys really enjoyed coach Keith doing 5 push ups for every out they made. He had to do a total of 20 push ups this game.

Here is a shot of coach Keith pitching to Axel. I am amazed at how much Axel's hitting has improved. He has a significant increase in power when hitting. It is amazing what a couple of inches and a couple of pounds can do for a child's strength!

It was really bright out so I couldn't see any of the images I was taking. I had no idea I was zoomed in as much as I was,but I really like these images of Axel running around the bases.

I am so proud of him for not only trying, but enjoying himself at the same time!

Look at that smile!

In other news Phoenix has finally reached an age where she can do 24 piece puzzles on her own. It was like a switch went off during this past week and she is looking at the images on the jigsaw pieces and the shape of each piece. She is able to figure it out most of the time without help.

Axel received his first homework of first grade this past Thursday. He has weekly homework this year. He has been complaining of school being too easy and his homework reflects it. The good thing is if he focuses and engages repetition can only help. The problem is keeping his interest!

We hope this weekend was a big confidence builder for Axel with his improved performance in baseball and a big play date with his friend and teammate Logan and our neighbor Evelyn. He has been complaining about not having friends. Hopefully, he feels more and more confident as the year progresses.

Life and a new vehicle

Last Saturday Phoenix and I were up first as usual. She was a little more clingy than usual and she didn't want to eat breakfast. I was excited to see Axel play soccer since I missed his first game the week before. After breakfast was over we packed the car and gathered everything we would need for the game. As we were getting ready to leave Phoenix spit up a bit. I quickly cleaned it up and got another towel just in case it was going to happen again. I tried to convince Phoenix that we should stay home, but she wanted to go to the soccer game just as much as I did. So we headed off to the game. Right when we arrived she started full on throwing up. I was luckily able to catch it in the towel I brought. She through up three or four times and did not look good. Part of me thought I should just head home, but the other part of me was worried about leaving Axel and Daddy without a car and I really didn't want to come back and pick them up, especially with a sick child. So, Phoenix and I decided to stay and try to watch the game. As you can see I couldn't quite manage to take photos with Phoenix in my lap and not feeling well. We managed to make it almost the first first half of the game when she said she was going to throw up again. Luckily, I told one of the moms that I am friends with and she insisted that she can take Axel and Keith home. So Phoenix and I headed home. 

 We did a couple of puzzles before she headed off for a nap. She woke about an hour into her nap throwing up. I went in and cleaned up what I thought was most of it and then put a towel over the area so she could continue to nap. She ended up sleeping for almost 4 hours. When she woke Daddy and Axel were already off to Half Moon Bay, to our friend, Eileen's birthday bash. I had to convince her that she wasn't missing out on the birthday party and then to take a bath. I didn't realize she had vomit in her hair and now over 3 hours later it had hardened. After her bath we spent the rest of the day on the couch. We read lots of books and even watched a couple of TV shows. We hadn't seen Animal Atlas in a very long time so it was quite the treat. She managed to eat a couple of crackers and drink a bit of water. She ended up throwing up on 4 different occasions, several times each episode. She was so calm and collected. I was very proud of her. She would say, "Mommy, I don't feel well". or "Mommy, can I throw up in the toilet?" Her fever only hit 100.5 as the high and the next morning she woke in great spirits and very hungry!

 Here she is the next morning ready to help Mommy make pancakes. I was a little nervous about letting her eat whatever she wanted, but she has been fine every since. I don't think I have ever seen her eat as quickly as she did that morning.

 On Sunday we talked and emailed and talked and emailed with multiple Hyundai dealerships about the 2016 Tuscon Limited. We were somehow about to talk down the price by a couple of grand and get the exact car/color we want locally. We really thought we were going to have to drive to Dublin, but our local dealership really wanted the sale. Here we are Monday night, (we had to wait for our dealership to make the trade) purchasing our first vehicle together. We were very happy with the vehicle and the price and feel very lucky that we were able to write a check for the car in full.

 Keith is very pleased that it has his LED circuits in it. This model has all LED's for rear brakes, daytime running lights and headlights as well as its interior. It also has all of the latest safety features and more technology then we could ask for.

 These two shots Keith took on Monday night. I haven't taken any photos since. I have driven the car a couple of times now. It is incredibly nice and it feels so awkward to be driving such a nice vehicle. I ordered seat protectors and a new narrow car seat for Phoenix and now that everything is installed properly hopefully I will feel more comfortable driving it. I want it to stay new a beautiful forever, right?

 During the week Axel had soccer practice and his first baseball practice. We also had back to school night. I really like Axel's teacher, Mrs. Boehm. I think he is going to have a great year at school.

Axel also got to go to the library for the first time this school  year. As first graders he is able to bring home two books, rather than one. He is such a sweet and thoughtful brother that he brought back two Pinkalicious books that Phoenix would enjoy. I was very impressed with his thoughtfulness.

Axel has had a little bit of a rough start to school in regards to recess again. We are hoping Axel will broaden his friendships so that he will have several different children to play with at school. He still doesn't feel like he can play with all of the kids on his soccer team at school because they play soccer more aggressively at school than at soccer practice. He also wants to still control what is being played which doesn't always go well and sometimes pushes other kids away. We hope this year he learns that he can have just as much fun joining in with a friend who is playing something completely different than what he hoped to play.

This weekend has been low key. We have had a few get togethers with friends, but otherwise we are enjoying spending time together as a family. Keith is working on healing his hamstring tear now hamstring tendonitis and I am working on trying to slow down as well.

 Here are a couple of cute pictures of Axel and Phoenix eating huge hot dogs that we grilled last night.

 Axel was a champ at fitting it in his mouth!

We are super excited to hear about Kendra's great PET scan news and pray that her MRI of her hip shows no new growths.  We continue to lift her up in prayer and hope the rest of the family is doing well!