Swim meet, Thanksgiving, Swim meet

So much has happened over the last month. It is crazy to think about. Keith spent 12 days in Japan. The kids have done 2 full weekends of swim meets. We had a Friendsgiving, then a Thanksgiving. We decorated for Christmas, went to a birthday party, and more!

Little Grammy has been sending letter to Phoenix and now to all three kids. She then decided to send each of them a book. Here is a picture of them each holding up the book they received. 

Here is our typical Saturday mornings when we are not at a swim meet. We are working on math or homework. Phoenix is all dressed up here, trying to quickly get her work done so she can go to her friend, Nicole's birthday party. 

They made candles at, "Glow", and of course ate pizza and cake.

While Rubix and I picked Phoenix up, Axel made dinner. He was so excited to make chicken tacos and add "yummy" spices like cumin to it. Lets just say Phoenix and Rubix did not enjoy it as much as Axel and I did. 

He also made pumpkin bread. Our Internet totally stopped working so I had to rush over to a neighbors house to use their Internet because I had a patient waiting. It was completely and totally embarrassing, but my neighbor Uzma said, "That's what neighbors are for." I spent the next 4 hours in her son's room, who is off at college working. We brought over pumpkin bread as a thank you and I immediately ordered Comcast Infinity Internet and had it installed the following Monday. We are officially done with AT&T!

You might be wondering where is Keith in all of this. Yes, he is in Japan, but he came home the week before Thanksgiving and brought back gifts, as usual. Here are the boys wearing their new Japanese Soccer jerseys. This happen to be special dress of Red, white and blue for Veteran's day. 

The weekend before Thanksgiving we had a swim meet. The kids all had great races. Phoenix took off 5 to 6 seconds in many of her longer races. Axel PR'd in all of his races and Rubix also shaved off a second or more in his races. The kids had a great time with their friends and team mates. 

I was surprised to see this bloom in my Iris garden bed that I planted this Spring. I discovered it was a double bloomer, according to my patient who gave me all of the Iris bulbs. It is called an Autumn Circus. How beautiful!

On Sunday before Thanksgiving, after a long day of swimming, we had our Friendsgiving. The Ingardias ended up not coming because of getting sick so it was just Tyler, Jade and Zoe and us. it was a very nice evening of good food and company. 

On Thanksgiving we did our best to prepare the turkey. Here is my lovely husband with our bird in the bird cooker. The Jolleys and my mom and Brian all came over for another lovely meal and time together. 

The cousins had so much fun seeing each other and playing and it was really nice to chat with my mom and sister. 

It was Grandpa Brian's birthday so we made sure to sing Happy birthday and get a photo of him with the grandkids. He is one year shy of 70!Crazy!

I asked Keith to take a photo of us girls and I loved this photo of us where we are all laughing up a storm. 

The kids and I were excited to set up Christmas and we had the house decorated the day after Thanksgiving. 

Axel continues to amaze me as he becomes more of a teenager and less of a "kid". 

He helps out and appears to enjoy being a good helper. 

Phoenix and Rubix enjoy helping out, but often arguments get in the way. Daddy even helped for a bit this year, which made decorating even more fun!

I captured this photo as Rubix was playing Monoply by himself and I couldn't get over how cute he was entertaining himself with a game lock Monoply. 

Axel is starting to break through and go for some runs alone. It was cold and wet and dark outside and I told him that it was dangerous for me to go out and ride next to him in the dark without the proper bike lights. Instead we put two head lamps on him so he was visible and could run safely in the neighborhood. I am so proud of him for becoming more independent. 

While Axel went to a buddies house for a sleeper over and the Warrior's game last weekend, Rubix and Phoenix decorated the gingerbread house. They happened to get along brilliantly, as Rubix took his servant role and Phoenix took charge. 

I loved how much fun they had together. 

Phoenix loved designing it and not having anyone, like Axel, add his own ideas. 

The finished product!

Axel received the MVP award for cross country this year, last week during an assembly. He was excited to finally receive this, because he started to wonder if they were going to announce their league championship award. He is a bit stressed about finals next week, but he is feeling more confident after getting in some studying this weekend. We had a crazy weekend of crazy weather. Axel and I went to the morning sessions of the swim meet, as it was for 13 and up. We had a break in the rain and a beautiful rainbow, but lived through hours of heavy rain and then high winds and heavy rain that cancelled the afternoon session foe Phoenix and Rubix on Saturday. The kids had a bit of a rough time with the elements and their races. Axel ended up with the most PR's and finally did the 200 fly. He did great and got a B time for his first time racing it. He is a excited that he now has all BB and B times. Phoenix is frustrated being stuck at BB times and is ready to have a big improvement and get her first JO time soon. Since this weekend did not go as planned the kids are hoping to target another swim meet at the end of January. There is a 2 week break in swim practice and then only 2 weeks of swim practice before their next race. It would be an amazing birthday present for Phoenix if she could crack one JO time, but we will have to wait and see.  

Here is one picture of Keith with coworkers in Japan. 

Here is Axel getting a picture with the Warrior championship trophy and a picture of him sitting courtside at the game!

Yep, seems crazy that his friends of season tickets that are on the court! It was truly an experience of a lifetime. 

We are planning on having Japanese cuisine for our Christmas gathering next weekend. We practiced as a family making sushi and are excited to share our sushi with the Jolleys and mom and Brian. 

The kids, especially Phoenix, wants to make sushi all of the time. We made 8 rolls for the swim meet this weekend. 

So yummy!

Check back with updates on Phoenix's piano recital, Rubix's holiday show and Christmas fun!
 

Happy Halloween!

Here is Phoenix school swim team pictures. It is hard to think she is only in 4th grade as she is looking older and older. Her face shape and size is starting to change and she is 5 feet now!

Axel's face is also starting to look more and more mature. Hard to believe we will have a high schooler in the house next year. I love this picture of him. 

Here is the cross country team.

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago after coming back from Rubix's soccer game. I wasn't feeling top notch so I was resting a bit in these two came over to cuddle!

I was proud of myself for purchasing pumpkins for the kids to carve. I was a bit sad we didn't grow them and hadn't really thought of purchasing them, but decided we needed to do something for Halloween. If you look closely you will see the spider that Rubix carefully "punched/poked" out. 

Phoenix decided to carve a witch since she planned to dress up as a witch this year. 

Axel was too busy to carve with us. He was actually at a math competition at Valley Christian high school. 

He went with his buddy Haofang and they ended up doing quite well. Haofang took 3rd overall for the 8th graders adn Axel took 5th overall. They qualified for the state rounds that will occur in March of 2023. Harker as a school took overall best school with participants from 4th through 8th grade. Keith and I are so incredibly proud of Axel. He has worked so hard the past year and a half to improve his math competition skills. He is hoping this is a stepping stone for him to make the state Mathcounts team this year as well. He has his first big math competition this coming week with the AMC10 on Thursday after school. I will be praying that he can concentrate and retrieve the information quickly as he is afraid he will be a bit distracted after getting let out of school late to attend the middle school play which happens to be the same day!

Axel appears to be a bit like his father and quite the procrastinator. He was up late on Sunday October 30th making his costume. We had to go with plan B and clue on his computer buttons as his sewing machine and him were not getting along (Axel was getting beyond frustrated!)

I was very lucky to be able to save the day and help him get to bed by 10pm!

Here are our bat, witch and TI-82xel.

Up close views of their costumes before school.

I was able to take the day off and spend the day with the kids. The first party and parade was with Rubix. 

I was able to help with the craft and hang out with him. 

I had to immediately run over to the middle school to make it for Axel's lunch time Halloween fun.

Only 6 parent volunteers were allowed to pass out candy. I managed to watch the  costume competition and get a quick selfie with my handsome son. 

After having a 30 minute break for lunch, I headed back to the lower school for Phoenix's party and parade. 

I helped with their crafts and enjoyed watching Phoenix hang out with one of her besties, Kylie. 

Kylie was so cute as a minion.

After bringing the kids home we decided to skip swim practice which allowed me to cook Mongolian beef and Brussel sprouts. Axel was a happy camper!

The other exciting news is that Rubix lost his second tooth right before going trick or treating!

Our scary pumpkins!

Trick or Treat!

Arna and Nyra, our neighbors joined for a bit. 

We also managed to get Dhruva, the new 6th grader to join for a bit. We also had the privilege of enjoying our neighbors big Halloween village and cool decorations. 

They had not put everything up for 8 years!

It was such a treat to enjoy their hard work. We also met 3 new neighbor families who moved in over the past few months, with one who just closed the week before and just starting their move in. One family has an 11 month old, another family has an 8 year old and the 3rd family has a 2 year old with one on the way! I had to convince Phoenix this was great news for her future babysitting!

Keith left for Japan on Friday the 4th of November. The race to the North Pole started on November 1st and every Friday the swim team is giving out hot cocoa. The kids were very excited to attend and get hot chocolate. Here is Rubix with his cup of yumminess. 

Here is Phoenix enjoying hers. 

There was a beautiful sunset. I was trying to capture it with a quick selfie of Rubix and I, but ended up just getting us without the beautiful sky. Oh well!

On Saturday was Rubix's last soccer game. He was so excited to get his first soccer trophy!

The team and crew of parents!

At lunch time Rubix was struggling to eat as another tooth started bleeding so we just took it out and now he has 3 missing teeth!

Phoenix starting to look more like Mommy!

On Sunday we enjoyed a fun afternoon in the park! The kids had such a great time running around playing hit ball and swinging. 

It has been such a long time since we had good old kid fun. It was a blessing to have a slower weekend. Axel's math got cancelled which allowed us to enjoy time together outside. We even had a fun short visit with the Gunnions and the boys played a game of 2 on 2 basketball. Apparently Joel and Rubix dominated Tyler and Axel. I was enjoying a hot drink with Tanya, so I did not get any pictures, but it was super fun to see Rubix fit right in with a 10 year old and two 13 year olds!

We have 1st trimester report cards coming out on Friday, a birthday party on Sunday, more rainy days and a big swim meet coming up the weekend before Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to seeing family and friends.