Santa Time!

Last weekend was action packed. Phoenix, Rubix and I went to Sola's 6th birthday party, while daddy and Axel went to Hanno's swim meet and then to Axel's first class of the Russian school of math. 

Here are a couple of photos from the birthday party at Rockin' Jump. I was extremely impressed with Phoenix. She managed to fit in with the rambunctious group of 5 and 6 year olds. Sola is one of the sister's from Axel's baseball teammates. They got along very well all of fall ball that Sola wanted her to come to her birthday party. 

 The birthday party was right during Rubix's nap time. He managed to sleep for 40 minutes or so in the carrier. Here is a cute picture of him right when he woke up.

Hanno was Axel's private swim coach and big buddy this summer when he was on the Westgate Cabana swim team. Hanno is a freshman at Santa Cruz. He was a wonderful influence on Axel and Axel enjoyed seeing him again. Axel started the Russian school of math last Sunday afternoon. He went through a testing process a couple of weeks ago and tested into the advanced 2nd grade class. The advanced class meets in Sunnyvale on Sundays. We were hoping we could take him down the street to West Valley on Wednesday evenings, but they only have the regular class. Despite the extra time commitment Axel loves it so far. He went to his second class yesterday. He is learning how to solve area of a square or rectangle and basic multiplication. He is finally being challenged and he is really enjoying himself. 

Early last week Daddy came up with the best Elf on the Shelf place since Mark the Elf came 4 years ago. I am not sure why it took one of us so long to think of this but I love it!

Last Thursday Axel's cub scouts Den went to the fire station. The boys had fun learning about fire safety. They learned how to make the home fire safe and what to do in an actual fire. It is our job now as a family to make an escape map/plan and then practice. We have been meaning to do this for years now so this is a nice kick in the butt to actual get it done :)

 Despite the fact that we have gone to several different parties and gatherings together I have been unable to get a family photo of all of us. In desperation to get our Christmas card out before we leave later this week to Florida I made an executive decision to take separate pictures of everyone and compile a card with those pictures instead of one family picture. I think we managed to get a cute picture of the kids in the pajamas that Grandma Susan gave to us last year for Christmas. Pheeny's were a little short, but Axel and Rubix's fit perfectly.

 I also got a cute picture of the three kiddos and Keith.

 Daddy was very bummed that Louis wasn't in the photos so we managed to get Louis to sit still by holding a yummy piece of ham, hence, the concentration you can see on Louis's face.

 I love this picture of Rubix and Axel. You have to zoom in to see how cute the pair are.

 I also love this picture of Phoenix.

 I took the same picture of Axel and Rubix. You can see Rubix was ready for bed. Axel's was so blurry it wasn't even worth posting.

 The past week has been about mastering standing and starting to cruise for Rubix. He pulls himself up constantly and with anything he can get his hands on. A wall, stair, chair, toy, etc. He has a great method. He puts one foot forward and then....

 pulls himself up with his arms and the back foot. You can also see he uses his mouth whenever possible. He tried sucking on the mirror. He will bite or suck on the seat of a chair too which is funny and cute!

 I absolutely love how cute Rubix is in these Pj's. Here is an adorable picture of Phoenix with Rubix on his tippy toes.

 On Saturday we visited Santa. We were all wearing our Christmas sweaters and Phoenix was wearing her Christmas dress.

 I asked for a picture of Rubix alone and then the three kiddos together. I should have asked if we could get a family photo, but I didn't want to push my luck. Rubix was fascinated with Santa's beard. If you look closely he was playing with it in his left hand.

 Phoenix refused to sit on Santa's lap so the elf held her. She wasn't very happy with that either!

 Rubix had a rough bout this weekend. We added parsnips to his diet with a bummer outcome. He threw up horribly Saturday night and refused to eat solids on Sunday. So squash and parsnips are out, but he continues to do well with bananas (cooked), carrots, sweet potatoes, pears and beets. After a couple of days of healing his stomach I plan on trying green beans. It is a little risky trying this with our travels starting on Thursday so I might wait until we get back. Rubix has slept through the night about a half a dozen times. He usually has 2 big meals of 3 cubes or 6 Tbsp and roughly 30 scoops of Neocate. He is wearing 9 to 12 month clothing. I can't believe he will be 9 months on Thursday. Hopefully I can get a few cute photos at the airport :)

 I downloaded photos from Keith's phone and came across a few photos that I thought would be nice to share. Here is a cute one of Phoenix walking Louis sometime in the past three weeks. This must have been right before the cold front that started a couple of weeks ago.

 This was from the last cub scouts den meeting where the boys made axes and fireman hats for walking in the Los Gatos Holiday parade.

 The following pictures are from Keith's first day of Sabbatical on Monday November 21st. He took the kids out to pancake breakfast at Stacks. As you can see from the picture both kids got the Mickey Mouse chocolate chip pancakes.

 Phoenix somehow finished the entire 3 pancakes. She asked to pack up this pancake that was left and then made herself eat it on the car ride to Angela's. As you can imagine she refused to eat lunch at Angela's and ate a very light dinner that day. She told me her stomach hurt. We told her that is what happens when you eat and eat and eat! Axel and daddy were apparently much more reasonable and did not finish all of their pancakes.

 During Thanksgiving break Keith took Axel, his friend Alex and Alex's sister to Sky high Sports. Here is a cute picture of Axel in the foam pit.

 On the day before Thanksgiving Keith went to the warriors game with three of his buddies. Here was a cool shot he got during warm ups. He had a lot of fun despite the crazy amount of traffic and driving it took to get him and his three buddies there.

 I have no idea when Keith took this picture, but I will leave you with cute little Rubix.

 Next post should be about our trip to Florida. We are looking forward to 80 degree weather!

It's Starting to Feel a lot like Christmas!.....

We had a hard time waiting for the day after Thanksgiving this year to decorate. I had all of the Thanksgiving decorations put away by lunch time on Thanksgiving day since we did our big feast the Saturday before. I also had all of the Christmas decorations down from the attic before we went out for Chinese food with Tyler, Cynthia and their twins. It was a different Thanksgiving, but it was nice to do something different. We enjoyed being with friends, having a relaxed low key day together, and I especially enjoyed not cooking!

On Friday we got the tree up and most of the decorations moved to the location where they would end up. Due to poor behavior we weren't able to finish decorating until Saturday. Mark the elf didn't come until Sunday night once Axel and Phoenix were in full understanding how important it is to always be loving and respectful to each other and those around them. 

Axel was my helper in getting the lights on the tree. He some how pooped out when it came to putting up the hundreds of ornaments, but this year Phoenix was a champ in helping decorate the tree.  This meant that over 70% of the ornaments were within the height that she could reach. I had to sneak afterwards and help distribute the ornaments to cover the entire tree.

Daddy and I had fun watching them. 

After Daddy's bike ride on Friday he had fun introducing this pumpkin to Rubix. Rubix tried every possible way to get it into his mouth. So cute!

On Saturday afternoon Phoenix and I went to her friend Arya's birthday party. They had a "petting zoo" set up in their backyard. All of the animals were from the animal shelter. I thought it was the coolest most progressive idea for a birthday party. Unfortunately, Phoenix was a little more scared than in years past and only pet the little bunny rabbits and not the other animals.  

Rubix continues to become more mobile. He is becoming more proficient at getting onto his knees and pulling himself up to standing. His balance still is not great, but he loves to stand regardless. He is super quick at his military crawl. It is really quite cute! We tried sleep training him for a week. He did great until day 6 where he reverted back to screaming. I couldn't handle it and broke down and had Keith feed him in the middle of the night. We have had to feed him for three nights now, but I really think he is in a major growth spurt because his day time intake is just as high as ever. He is drinking over 30 ounces. Typically 4 bottles but sometimes a 5th bottle. He is also up to two meals a day. We are doing sweet potato, carrot, pear and banana. We will add beets tomorrow and then green beans. His is having 3 cubes and then half a banana with a cube of pear. He is pooping once or twice  a day and hasn't thrown up since he had squash so things are looking pretty good. 

With the excitement of having Mark the Elf return the kids wanted to be little elves themselves. They both still fit in their pj's from last year. Axel made Elf hates and then grabbed this box to complete his Elf costume. 

Here are the kids being extra cute!

Here is a really cute of Rubix wearing Phoenix's clothes. Apparently he ran out of back up clothes at Angela's so when I picked him up he was dressed like this. I couldn't stop laughing. He was so cute. 

Daddy  has been home for his sabbatical which means park time with Daddy. We have been having so much quality family time together. Life would be awesome without work!

Here is a cute picture of Rubix and Phoenix!

Yesterday Keith and I went to his 35th and last Linear Technology Party. As of next year they will be Analog Devices. It was really fun, but sad. Before I get a head of myself I wanted to share a couple of photos of Rubix. Rubix has been trying to get into the shower for a couple of weeks now. Because I really needed to get ready for the party while the others were out for a bike ride I decided to let him go in and get wet. 

He played for over 20 minutes before he decided he didn't like being wet. He splashed and opened and closed the door a hundred times. What fun!

So back to the party. We had Foreigner perform for us. We was a good concert, but as I was saying the whole night was just sad. The CEO's made speeches about the great journey the past 35 years have been since the 4 originals guys had a dream that they managed to turn into a multi billion dollar company. 

All in all Keith feels blessed to have been a part of LT for the past 17 years. Only time will tell what the future holds for the thousands of LT employees. We hope and pray Keith's group and job stays fully intact with equal compensation. We know the next 12 months are taken care of but there could be lots of change in 2018. For now we will focus on today and enjoy each day to the fullest!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had our annual pre-Thanksgiving feast last Saturday. It was one of the better meals I have prepared. I finally made great Grandma Connie's dressing and it turned out! My sweet potato casserole wasn't as good as usual because I decided to change the recipe. Note to self...don't change recipes day of. Stick with what you know is good! For some reason I never remember to take photos on this day. I think because it is so action packed with preparing food, cleaning up and visiting with friends.  I managed to take a picture of Phoenix. She was so hungry she just couldn't wait for everyone else. I let her start 10 minutes early rather than listening to hear continually ask for food :)

 I also managed to take one photo of the 7 kids having a dance party at the end of the evening. I set up an arts and crafts table which was great for the kids, except....it required a lot of my attention to help them with all of the crafts that I had purchased from Michaels. Good thing is the kids had fun.

 Daddy went to the Warriors basketball game with buddies on Wednesday night and got to witness one of the funniest blow outs he has ever seen. The kids and I had a great time at home. All three kiddos took a bath together for the first time. They all had a blast. Axel is almost too old for baths so I hope they can enjoy this time together for a little bit longer.

 On Thanksgiving morning everyone slept in except Rubix and I. We made yummy pumpkin scones and then pumpkin lattes. The scones were done just when everyone woke for the morning.


 We enjoyed a mellow day together and managed to call of the grandparents. It was an extra special Thanksgiving because it was Grandpa Brian's birthday. Here are the three kiddos. Rubix was ready for his nap. Too bad I wasn't able to get a better picture.

 Today we have been enjoying more family time together with bike rides, park play and Christmas decorating!

 Here are a couple of cute photos of Rubix trying a banana for the first time.

 All was great until he accidentally took a bite rather than sucking on it. He has been tolerating carrots and sweet potatoes this week. Banana was not on the plan and not what the allergist recommended, but I decided to listen to Rubix's desire to try something new and suffer the consequences later if he has a reaction to it. I am hopeful he will be fine with it.

We are all looking forward to the fun activities that the next 4 weekends have in store. Until then, God Bless you and your families!

Rubix is 8 months old and Axel lost his second tooth!

On Tuesday November 15th Rubix turned 8 months old! He is such a joy to be around. He still only cries when he is tired or hungry. He is becoming more vocal though and will grunt or cry if someone takes away what he is playing with. He will also make some noise if he gets frustrated with what he is doing. In this picture he pulled himself up onto his knees from his stomach. He can also pull himself up to a standing position and then he falls over immediately. 

 He is still doing the military crawl. He gets up onto his hands and knees all of the time, but still hasn't figured out how to crawl on them. He is quite quick for the military crawl on his stomach and loves to pull books off the bookshelf.

 These pictures are all from Sunday afternoon before he turned 6 months because I had a feeling that I wouldn't have time to take pictures on Tuesday, and I was right. My work week is crazy busy!


Here is Rubix babbling. You can see how happy and how solid he is in this video.

Here is a cute picture of Phoenix Sunday afternoon. She is learning a routine in gymnastics that she is excited to share with daddy and our guests tomorrow for our pre-Thanksgiving feast.

On Tuesday, I was able to capture pictures of Phoenix and Rubix taking his first big boy bath! He was beyond thrilled to be in the bath with Phoenix and Phoenix was just as excited to have someone to play with again, now that Axel mostly takes showers. 

 Rubix loves the water and loves to splash. You can see here how he is splashing away.

 Yesterday, Thursday, after school I tried to capture a few more pictures of our 8 month old. Axel wanted to join in as usual :)

 Rubix loves to bounce in the stroller or anytime he can. When he stands he immediately starts to jump. Hopefully he will learn soon that standing doesn't always equate to jumping/bouncing :)

We started solids again about 2 weeks ago. He has done well with the sweet potatoes. Yesterday I gave him one cube of butternut squash. He threw up last night and this morning and cried for hours last night. It is hard to know if all of that was a reaction to the squash or if it was just coincidence. He has not thrown up or cried at night like that since we stopped solids about 6 weeks ago. I can still see his top right tooth under the gums so it could have been that or he may be coming down with something because he has a little rash and a red cheek. I was too afraid to try squash again today so I gave him only sweet potatoes. I am hoping and praying for a good night of sleep tonight because it is hard letting him cry. Typically, Rubix has been waking once a night. Keith or I feed him just a couple of scoops of Neocate with about 3 or 4 oz of water. This is enough to satisfy him for the remainder of the night. I decided a couple of weeks ago I rather do that then hear him cry for hours. Keith, Rubix and I get more sleep that way :)

Rubix loves Louis and being outside. He loves watching Phoenix and Axel play. He loves to read his books and stand in the pack n play at Angela's, but most of all he loves to bite and chew on anything and everything!

 Last night Axel lost his second tooth. It has been loose for awhile and it was finally loose enough that with one pull forward by daddy and a little brushing of the teeth it fell out. Good thing because the tooth behind it is full grown and needs some room.

We are gearing up for lots of fun over the next few weeks. We have several birthday parties, Keith's company party, The Los Gatos Holiday parade for boy scouts and all types of fun activities in store. I will do my best to keep the blog current!

Fall Ball

What a beautiful fall is has been so far. We have had a nice amount of rain with warm sunny days otherwise. We have continued to be busy, but we are all trying to slow down a bit and enjoy each other. Here are a few of my favorite photos over the past couple of weeks. 

 Look at Rubix at the library! He is such a big boy now. He loves to sit in the stroller and jump/ bounce while holding on to the bar.

Grandpa Paul wanted videos of Axel playing baseball. Here is a video of Axel pitching and hitting. 

 Last Saturday we went to Jack Fischer Park. Here is daddy and Rubix. Axel and Phoenix had fun playing with two of Axel's classmates from school.

 Here are a couple of cute phtotos of Phoenix at gymnastics.

 You can see what a social butterfly Phoenix is. She is very animated in her conversations as you can see in this picture as she is talking to Macey.

 My little monkey absolutely loves the bars. She loves to flip. I am excited to see how she does in a month or two when she moves up to the 4's group.

 Best Buddies! Macey and Phoenix are signed up for mini t-ball in the Spring. We will see how that goes with us mom's managing and coaching the team!

Today was the fall ball baseball party. The kids went to the batting cages and hit for an hour. Coach Keith (daddy) rented 2 cages, the whiffle ball cage and the 35 mph cage so the kids got unlimited hitting. A couple of us moms and dads also tried it out. I managed to remember how to hit fast pitch softball. It was really fun, except I learned that you get a really bad blood blister if you wear your wedding ring and no gloves! 

It is hard to believe that Rubix will be 8 months on Tuesday. I hope to get good photos and videos of him to do a full update on the next blog post.