Christmas 2018 and New Years!

Daddy and Phoenix had a lovely time on the last day of school at Santa's breakfast. Here is a picture of Phoenix with one of her friends. They had a two hour breakfast with Santa and then had early dismissal. I picked up Phoenix from school while Axel attended Kristin's b-day celebration as it was her birthday. 

When we got home, we had a little scare as I was putting Rubix down for a nap.  Phoenix was playing with her barbies in the play room and I suddenly heard popping noises and then smelled an awful gas smell coming from the guest bathroom. I quickly called Keith and then 911. We thought it was a natural gas leak, but luckily it was nothing. We think we have a clogged ventilation duct, but we still have another 3 weeks to wait for our plumber to come. Let's just say everyone gets busy, or takes time off during the holidays, which makes for slow fixes in the Szolusha house! 

The awesome thing is we have an AMAZING fire department and they entertained the kids and made sure the house was safe. 

 On Christmas Eve we had a lovely day of baking cookies, Tirmasu, pumpkin scones, ham and more. Phoenix and I spent most of the day in the kitchen. We were both glad to enjoy a beautiful Church service and the yummy food. Axel happen to be at a friend's house most of the afternoon. One of his Harker buddies moved in half a mile away. It was a pleasant surprise!

 Here are the boys all dressed up for church, except Rubix who refuses to wear winter clothes or anything other than cotton lose shorts and t-shirts.

 I love this picture of Keith and the kids.

 My loves!

 The kids in their new PJ's. We didn't do matching pajamas this year because Rubix doesn't wear any and I didn't have a chance to go shopping until 2 weeks before Christmas and they were all soled out!

 The kids opening their stockings Christmas morning.

 Rubix figuring out what presents are.

 Axel smiling, knowing that this heavy rectangular box is his own new laptop computer!

 Phoenix loving Christmas morning!

Phoenix and I got hula hoops for Christmas. We have so much fun doing this together!

 Thanks little Grammy!

 Daddy trying to figure out what Mrs. Szolusha bought for him....a small day luggage bad, that isn't as good or useful as I hoped :(

 We headed to Auntie's house at noon and made great time. We enjoyed an afternoon and evening filled with fun games, conversation and a delicious grab leg meal. Here is Aya and Rubix playing with her new Lego table.

 Braylin, Phoenix and Axel enjoying dinner. We got home quite late, but it was a wonderful day. The kids slept in until 8:40 am the next night which was an awesome treat for Keith and I.

 Phoenix finally had her play date with Kyla. She actually had one at the park and one at the house. Here they are playing school. The girls get a long so well. It was really nice for her to have a couple of play dates because Axel got to see his friends 4 times over the 2+ week break.

Axel has been swimming and running the mile with Daddy. He also has been enjoying the virtual reality bike at the gym. He swam and hour and then rode for 30 minutes one day. The really cool thing is that his mile time went from a 9+ minute to a 7:58 pace over the course of 3 or 4 weeks. He even ran an 8:30 today in the rain with me. He is even talking about wanting to continue to work on his speed as he wants to be a good runner and swimmer. I am so proud of him starting to enjoy physical activity and seeing that he likes trying hard.

I had to work New Year's week so Keith stayed home with the kids. They had such a good time with Daddy. It was really nice being together as a family during Christmas week, although Daddy worked a couple of days to make up for the days he was missing during New Year's week. 

On New Years Day we went for a hike to Deer Hollow Farm. The kids had fun despite the very cold (low 40's) temperature. 

 Rubix won't wear pants so he had to stay in the stroller until he put pants on. He is so funny with the winter clothes thing.

We all had fun watching a cow get milked. It was a bit ironic as Keith mentioned how we should go to a dairy farm and watch a cow get milked. We just lucked out on timing!  

 The kids and I and Rubix is shorts in 45 degree weather!

The other big surprise was a few days ago when I saw the big whole in Axel's tooth. He was talking about hard white chunks coming out of his mouth for a week. I didn't realize he had a huge cavity! I am waiting to have him get evaluated by a pediatric dentist as his dentist says the cavity goes very close to the nerve and he will likely need a "kids root canal". They were closed this weekend so I will see how quickly we can get in. Hopefully, sometime this coming week.

We are feeling so very blessed in the Szolusha household. We have such wonderful family and friends. We spent New Year's Day, after the hike, with my best friend from high school, Tiffany's family. Keith has been very supportive in all of the deadlines I have coming up. I likely won't post until late January after Phoenix's birthday party. We have another fun filled month of activities. Until then, God Bless!

December Fun

Before Daddy went to China we decided to pay Santa a visit. Since Keith was going to be gone I was worried about getting a family picture for our cards so I talked the family into getting dressed up in Christmas colors and us all taking a picture with Santa. 

I was going to include both photos in our Christmas card, but then I got lazy. I thought it might be a bit too similar of photos so I went with the family photo. 

Keith left on Saturday the 1st of December. The kids and I went to Tyler and Cynthia's for dinner and then walked the 1.5 mile "Fantasy of Lights" show in Vascona Park. Here is a picture of the kids all bundled up. Axel left his jacket at Tyler's so he had to wear his very old jacket that I brought for Rubix instead. Rubix absolutely refuses to wear long pants or shirts or jackets of any sort. He was shivering and finally allowed me to rest the jacket over his head and shoulders and wrap a blanket around him. This has been the only successful time I was able to have him come to his senses. 

Sunday morning we went to a rock climbing party. Phoenix's friend, Nicole, goes often with her parents. She was amazing. It was funny that most of the classmates were all scared, including Phoenix. Phoenix did really well though and climbed half way up 3 times. Axel was a champ and made it up all the way and Rubix made it up a third of the way before getting scared. I had to be right next to him so I wasn't able to get a picture of him climbing. 

I was able to capture all three kids enjoying Nicole's delicious ice cream birthday cake.

On Sunday night, the kids and I went to Eileen and Luis' Christmas party. I didn't take any photos, but I did capture a video of Phoenix being her silly self. 

I was really glad for the weekend to be over because I had lost most voice and was feeling quite under the weather with our very busy schedule. The week went by quite smoothly considering being sick and the kids getting up early each day.

On Thursday Axel had his Winter Music Concert. You can see him right in the middle of the photo, in the first row of the Jazz band which is sitting behind the orchestra. He did his first improv solo. He was so excited. He didn't tell me before hand but he kept asking me how he did. I was very proud of him for being so brave and having a 30 second solo.

Rubix and I finally made it to the park on Friday. It was so nice to enjoy the nice weather. This picture was the last day I was able to get him in pants of any sort. I had him stay in his PJ's because he was wearing pants and I didn't want to fight him about shorts.

Daddy got home on Friday night the 7th just before 8pm. He surprised us all by getting home an hour and a half early. Apparently the flight was 3 hours quicker on the way home! On Sunday Camryn came to watch the kids and Keith and I got to ride together for the first time in a month or more! The kids enjoyed making a Grinch gingerbread Village!

I love how much fun they had.

This week Phoenix made her very own gingerbread house at school. Here she is with the finished product. I wasn't able to get very many photos because she started eating the candy off of it right away!

Daddy brought home lots of fun surprises from China. Phoenix received a beautiful dress and paper Phoenix. Rubix received a 3 in 1 Lego set that can be an airplane, rocket or helicopter.

Axel received a dragon hat and shirt. I received sweet potato and chocolate covered mochi. We all loved being spoiled.

Here is Daddy at the airport in Sanghai.

This is a glass walkway on the top floor of the building below. It gives you quite a different perspective of the city. 

I am glad that he got out and got to see some of China while he was at his conference. He has some very interesting stories. One was getting turned down by 2 taxi drivers. Him and his coworkers (who happened to be Chinese) were trying to get to the city. Two taxi drivers said it wasn't far enough. The third taxi driver said yes, but it took them 25 minutes. So the question is, did the 3rd taxi driver take matters into his own hands and took a "long" way to the city to make it worth wild or were the taxi drivers looking for people going more than 30 minutes away? Very interesting!

We are all looking forward to some time off of work and school. We have another action packed week before we all have a week off together. I am called to jury duty, so we will see if I actually have to go in during my vacation. I want to leave you with a funny video of Rubix playing "his instrument". 

I will be sure to post after Christmas. Until then have a very Merry Christmas!

November came and went!

It is amazing to think that November will be over this coming Friday. Time really does seem to go faster this time of year. 

On Saturday the 17th, we drove down to Sacramento to surprise Grandpa Brian for his 65th birthday. We all met at BJ's for a lovely meal and then went to Auntie's for cake and ice cream. Axel and Daddy found this great turkey hat for Grandpa as he often shares his birthday with Thanksgiving on the 24th of November.

 Rubix missed Grandma Susan so he went to get some Grandma time which was great for me :)

 Grandpa displaying Phoenix's beautiful birthday card.

 The grand kids getting ready to help Grandpa blow out the candles.

Phoenix saying goodbye to Grandpa. She is being her silly self as usual!

This year we decided not to have our big pre-Thanksgiving feast with our friends because of our busy schedules. The MIT crew still really wanted to get together so Tyler and Cynthia decided to step up and do the honors of preparing a delicious meal for the 20 of us. Here they are proud of their beautiful turkey. It was delicious! 

 On Sunday the 18th Grandma Sonia and Grandpa Bruce flew in for the week. They came to help watch Axel and Phoenix because of their school closure. We all went to see the Grinch on Monday. On Tuesday they went to Sky High for some fun jumping time and then worked hard on an art project.

 Phoenix is sitting down next to their detailed city they created together over the course of the afternoon.

 On Wednesday they went to the mall to pick up supplies for another fun art project. I love the ornaments they made. I love projects like this as they will be able to see how big they were in 2018 when they are older. Phoenix's foot is the reindeer and Axel's is the snowman.

 On Wednesday night we also traded our old pinball machine for a new one. This one is from '92 so it has a little more excitement then the old one we were storing for Keith's work buddy that was made in '78.

On Thursday we had a fun morning playing at the Y in the pool and then a nice dinner. Grandma Sonia was so helpful in the preparations and Daddy worked hard to make a yummy turkey and pumpkin pie. Rubix has been sick for a couple of weeks so it was nice to be home chilling and relaxing. 

 On Friday the Jolley's came for a visit. The grandkids had to much fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa and playing with each other.

 Rubix decided not to nap on Thanksgiving and was trying to skip his nap on Friday. Here he is in a half sleep state on Grandpa's lap. He ended up taking a very late nap around 5 pm. Luckily, he only slept for an hour and we were able to get him to bed by 10 pm.

 Rubix and Grandpa and Grandma were watching the dance show presented by little miss Phoenix and Braylin. They had a blast playing together.

 On Friday before Grandma and Grandpa had to leave they helped get the tree down and put it together. We managed to get the tree fully decorated before bed. Rubix was excited once he got the hang of it.

 I love this picture of the three kids decorating the tree. My little diva is in the middle of her two brothers. She is such a special girl I hope she knows how much she is loved despite her birth order and feeling like she is never old enough to compete with Axel and not getting the baby attention that Rubix gets.

 Today was birthday parties galore. I took Phoenix and Rubix to Bounce O Rama for an early birthday party and Keith took Axel to Pump it up for an afternoon birthday party.

 Phoenix was really excited to play with her old friends. Here she is with Aisha.

 Rubix took about 30 minutes to warm up and then he was off with the big kids having fun. Here he is bowling :)

 It has been quite a full week of fun and family time. I am a little nervous about the coming weeks but I know the Lord is good and with us all. Keith will be in China and the kids and I have plans to see the Lights in the Park, go to a rock climbing birthday party and our first Christmas party of the year next weekend. It is going to be a full month! I do hope the kids take notice of the true meaning of Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I will leave you with Axel and Phoenix breaking the wishbone. Can you guess who the winner was?

 It was a very close outcome with Phoenix winning by just a little bit. Axel was an awesome sport congratulating her with a big hug. How I love these kids!

No promises I will post before Christmas, but if all goes well and I can get a couple of major presentations done, Christmas cards done, Christmas shopping done and all of the pictures for 2018 ordered for the kiddos scrap book then I will make sure to write another post. Until then, God Bless!