Christmas Celebrations!

On December 4th, Axel had his end of season cross country banquet. Last year only the runners were allowed to attend, but this year they invited the entire family! It was really nice to hear what the coaches had to say about the runners and to present the coaches gift to the coaches and thank them for their awesome job. 

Here Axel is lined up with the rest of the class of 2027 runners. The class of 2027 has the most runners consisting of roughly 15 of the 37 participants. 

Axel's teammate, Samara's dad, D.J. took these photos and shared them with the team. I love the pictures he captured of the kids and even Keith and I!

Robinson, Harris (graduating and Axel's running buddy for 2 years), Coach Kevin (head coach) and Axel.

Great big brother Axel!

Celebrating Rhea and Robinson's birthdays, lead by Samara and Ava!

Keith and I having the privilege of presenting the coaches gifts and getting to thank them for the outstanding job they are doing helping the kids learn the mental and physical game of running.

Axel did not make all conference by placing in the top 10 at Leagues, but he did make 2nd League all conference by placing in the top 20 at Leagues and top 10 for the other League meets.

On Wednesday, December 18th, Rubix had his Holiday Show performance. He missed swim practice to sing his heart out for us. It worked out perfectly because I was able to drop Phoenix off at her practice which started at 6pm and make his show at 6:30pm. Keith was able to leave his show and get Phoenix at 8 pm. We were lucky to have this work out for us so nicely.

While waiting for the show to begin we were able to see Rubix's science project. I was very impressed with the content of his writing on this project about the Yarrow, since this was significantly better from his last research paper on the penguins. 

The last week of school Phoenix was sick and had a ton of projects and tests due. She skipped several practices and worked hard on completely her assignments. Here is her history project about the "greatest Pharoah and why".

Phoenix also made sure to give presents and cards to her closest school and swim friends and teachers. Here is the cutest drawing on one of her cards for her friends. 

While Phoenix had a birthday party she attended, Rubix finally got to do the gingerbread house he had been waiting weeks to do. The coolest part, he had the privilege of doing it the way he wanted by himself without any sibling telling him what to do! I think he really enjoyed himself.

The finished project! Now its bed time (hence the no shirt).

On the last day of school, I was able to attend Rubix's Holiday party. He had been asking about eating his gingerbread house, so I thought it was quite suiting that he was able to decorate and then eat gingerbread cookies as one of the party activities. 

He thoroughly enjoyed them!

He then played the games winning several prizes. 

I just love his confidence!

Look at me mom!

On Axel's last day of school he went to his holiday party. His class rented out the party room at Saratoga Country club and had fancy dinner (lunch) that was $68 per plate. Over 100 people attended with more than a third of his class of 200 students. He said he had a great time and even ate the salad that was served before his yummy steak dinner!

On Saturday the 21st we went to Eileen's for her annual holiday gathering. Only Rubix came with because Phoenix was still not 100 % and Axel came down with the cold after his holiday party and slept all day! Rubix had fun trying to play with Alex (14) and his friends, but...

they unfortunately left and he was left alone to play basketball by himself. Luckily, Jade and Zoe came, and Lily's school friends (Alex's adopted little sister) left so they played well with Rubix later in the evening. We enjoyed catching up with Eileen and Luis.

On Sunday we went to Gma Susan's house for our family celebration. It was really nice to see and hang out with the cousins!

Gpa, Ryan and Daddyo

Oh, and Gpa decided to break his right leg too! He broke his fibula and will be in a cast for 6-8 weeks. Phoenix and the other grandchildren were able to sign his festive cast!

The kiddos played cards while the adults hung out and Gma cooked!

Auntie Shannon and Uncle Ryan!

So cute with the matching shirts!

Gma put together quite the feast and we all ate very well!

After dinner it was time for Phoenix's white elephant. We all had such a good time playing. 

After our white elephant game we all opened gifts! Even Gma wore a festive t-shirt!

I love this ornament she made for us!

When we got home late on Sunday, Keith and I prepared for Christmas at our house! The kids opened their "Christmas Eve" present of PJ's and snuggled up in bed for the night. 

Once the presents were under the Christmas Tree, 

and the lights all turned on, 

and the stockings stuffed full, Keith and I went to bed.......or we did not! No because Axel didn't realize we were celebrating Christmas so he worked as hard as he could from 9 pm to 1 am to make and create Rubix's Christmas present!

So we all went to bed very early in the morning and Keith and I woke at 7:30 am to prepare our yummy pumpkin lates and put icing on our pumpkin scones. 

Once the lates were ready we woke the kiddos up. We took our "It's Christmas morning" photos, both series and fun and then got into the festivities.

Merry Christmas!

We are ready mom! Let's open our stockings!

After stockings we enjoyed our scones and then took our annual pictures in front of the fireplace and tree before the main affair!

We are so silly!

Here is Rubix opening his gift from Axel. Axel felt the lack of sleep was completely worth it to see Rubix's happy face. 

What a great big brother!

Phoenix couldn't wait to see the stuffy that Axel made her. She was beyond excited, hoping it would be her favorite new thing of 2024....

Chickens...Yes, it was a great big chicken!

Happy children!

Phoenix received a chicken swim cap, chicken earrings and a chicken Christmas ornament, among other things. Axel enjoyed a shaving kit, origami book and a super duper mouse for his computer, among other things. Rubix, enjoyed his gifts, but the one that I think we all like most is his silent bouncing indoor basketball and .....

his brand new Arena parka to keep him warm at the swim meets!

Phoenix made Daddy a More-On mug, but decided to write Moron. It is a family joke at the dinner table to ask for more of something, that Daddy has taken too far and the kids just love, so hence why he received a Moron mug. She made this in ceramics at school. 

Daddy also received new running clothes since he is basically a runner since his bike broke more than 2 months ago. 

I will leave you with Axel's new ornament of running shoes, with the hopes that we have good news after his doctor's appt. with ortho tomorrow. He is really itching to run soon with track starting on Feb. 3rd, but my communication with the sports medicine doctor before we left for vacation was on the opposite spectrum of keeping Axel off of running for another month or two. I will update you in the next blog which will be all about our Hawaii vacation, which I hope to complete by the end of the weekend, so check back very soon!

Thanksgiving and Age Group Champs Swim meet

It is hard to believe it has almost been a month since my last post. Our days and weeks have been full and long. On November 23rd we had our Friendsgiving. Phoenix's teammate Stella needed a ride home from swim practice, so we brought her to our house for an afternoon filled with Chinese Jump rope, drawing and fun. She ended up staying for dinner at our Friendsgiving since her mom got caught up at a swim meet with Stella's older brother in Moraga, CA.  

Mark, Brenna and their two children Ryan (3) and Hazel (7) came over along with Tyler and his girls, Jade and Zoe (10).

We enjoyed a lovely dinner and time together after not seeing Mark and his family since last year for our Friendsgiving. 

Another photo including Mr. Szolusha, so only Tyler and I are missing from these two photos.

The kids played well together and it has become a tradition to play Telestrations before calling it an evening. Axel, unfortunately, had some major school deadlines and worked hard to turn in an essay that was due by midnight, although, he did enjoy some time at dinner visiting with our guests.

It was really nice spending time with Tyler, Mark and Brenna. We are getting use to the smaller Friendsgiving gatherings since the pandemic and are grateful for any time we can spend with friends and family, considering how busy everyone is at this point in their lives.

On Sunday, Phoenix went to her friend Helen's house for her 12th bday party. After dropping off Phoenix, Axel and I started bringing down the Christmas tree and decorations. Axel was so cute to take photos of me and our boxes.  I know it was a few days before Thanksgiving, but with our trip to Hawaii for Christmas, I felt the need to decorate early in order to enjoy the Christmas spirit for a solid 4 weeks before we have to take it down after New Years. Besides, we were busy in the coming weeks with swim meets and other activities, I didn't want to miss out on decorating. I was especially motivated since Axel asked me, "Are we not going to celebrate Christmas at all, since we will be gone?"

I asked him what he was doing and he said, "taking pictures for the blog, of course." Axel has helped me every year since he was 2 years old and it makes me smile from year to year to spend the time putting the tree up with him. 

Our tree bags...

Axel patiently opening up the tree, branch by branch, just like his momma taught him. :)

How special it is to have Axel help me like he does. 

It is such a sign of his love for me to spend the time doing this with me. I will always cherish these moments considering I may not have him around to help me after 2026! Once we had the tree up, I took off for a bike ride and Axel started on his home work!

After picking Phoenix up from Helen's we started decorating the Christmas tree together! I was excited that all three of "my boys" were ready to help decorate since often, Axel and I do the lights and the rest of the family only helps with the ornaments. 

Axel was patient to show both Daddy and Rubix how to get the lights ready to place on the tree. 

We worked for an hour to get the lights and all of the ornaments up. 

Oh, I forgot to mention Phoenix somewhat refused to help, but I kept making her put up her own Christmas ornaments. 

I also forgot to mention that Daddy was so kind to put up the Christmas lights outside before he took Rubix to swim practice!

Axel photo fun!

I love my family so much and am so grateful for our time together!

Oh Phoenix.....your unicorn! 

I don't want to!!!!

And yes, a glitch in the lights was a mommy glitch, and I wasn't paying close enough attention of what I was doing, so when a strand of lights wasn't working, Axel and Daddy solved the problem! Axel had to take a photo!

The kids were done after just an hour of decorating and ended up reading on the couch while I vacuumed and cleaned up the tree needles.  

The following week was Thankgiving break. The week before I had decided Axel likely had a tibial stress fracture and not posterior tibialis tendinopathy, so I pursued contacting his doctor and getting an xray. The xray was insufficient so I pulled some strings to have one of my doctor friends order an MRI. Our pediatrician was on board when she read my email when she returned from the weekend, so Thanksgiving break turned out to be more restful than Axel wanted, since the MRI confirmed Axel had a moderate to high grade tibial stress fracture in his right tibia. He had been limping for more than 3 weeks and I was glad to be able to totally have him shut down weight bearing exercise and finally fully recover. He was not on board to using crutches, but luckily he stopped having pain and limping within a week after getting diagnosed with the stress fracture. Looking back on his training, he had some "shin splinty pain" on Oct. 17th, right when he had homecoming , increased mileage and increased intensity. The pain got bad around Halloween and he mentioned his lower leg was swollen. It is a miracle he was able to run both champs and sectionals on it as well as he did. I have learned in 2024 that Axel has quite the pain threshold swimming through pneumonia and now running through a stress fracture. 

Tuesday of Thanksgiving break we had parent teacher conferences for all three kiddos. It is nice doing them via Zoom from the convenience of our own home. Axel had amazing feedback from his teachers as always and it was insightful to hear how his teachers are thinking about college letter of recommendations already. Phoenix has really connected with her science teacher, Ms. Kim, and it is nice to see her opening up to another adult, as she had a little more trouble communicating effectively to her other teachers during the conferences. Rubix, still being in grade school, is not invited to attend the conference, but both his language arts and math teacher speak very fondly of him and say he is a hard working student. His grades have been quite up and down, as have Phoenix's, so it has been an interesting year navigating school and all of the other extra curricular sports the two younger ones are doing. 

Now I am not sure if I have mentioned, but the girl, Liya, who asked him to homecoming, is officially his girlfriend. They decided to make cupcakes together over the break. Here he is with half a dozen cupcakes from his "baking date" on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. 

Chocolate Vegan with buttermilk Oreo frosting. 

On Thanksgiving we headed to Gma Susan's early to beat traffic and enjoyed a couple of hours together before heading over to Auntie Shannon's for the afternoon. Shannon hosted Ryan's side and our side, which always makes for an extra special day. I could not believe how much older and mature the three girls were since the last time we were all together roughly 5 years ago. Phoenix is the oldest with her bday in Jan. The Ainsley (Shannon, Ryan's sister's daughter) who is the end of April and then Braylin (in the middle) who is an August baby. It is fun that we have baby pictures of these three together and now they are all between 5'4" and 5'5" and weigh 100 + lbs! What almost 12 years will do! Shannon's oldest, Lance, is 19 and in the Navy. They were able to take a call to say hello to him. She is missing him, as any mom would miss not seeing their child.

While the three girls ate on the peninsula, the rest of us sat in the dinning room. 

I had to grab a picture of Aya squirting mustard and Rubix squirting ketchup on their turkey dinners. Too funny! 

The kids all got along well and it was really fun to see them all play cards together, even though their is an 8 year spread in age between Aya and Axel. 

Phoenix was asked to join the choir concert before Thanksgiving break, which took place on Thursday Dec. 5th. She said yes and enjoyed being apart of the Dynamics group, which is the 6th grade choir. 

She really enjoyed her performing arts class taught by Mrs. Pfeifer. She is quite the fun and eccentric teacher you would want teaching performing arts and choir. 

On Friday, the kids were picked up early from school for the three day Age Group Champs swim meet. Phoenix choose to swim both the 500 free and the 400 IM on Friday night and Rubix swam the 500 free and 200 IM. On Saturday, Phoenix swam the 200 back and the 1650 while Rubix swam the 50 back and 100 fly. Here Albert, Stephen and Rubix are cheering for Albert's older sister Alice who was in heat 1 and Phoenix who was in heat 2 for the 200 back stroke. 

Rubix was really tired and every morning it was a challenge waking him up. Here he is fast asleep without a care in the world. We stayed at the Hampton Inn across the street from the Morgan Hill Aquatic center to allow the kids more time to sleep at night and rest between prelims and finals. 

On Sunday Phoenix swam the 200 fly, 100 back and the 50 free while Rubix sway the 50 fly, 100 back and the 50 free. Phoenix, on a side note has been sick since Folsom. She had swimmer's ear and her cough and congestion never went away. We finally took her in to the doctor's after Thanksgiving and she had fluid in her lungs. She essentially had walking pneumonia and started antibiotics. She finished them on Thursday the 5th, just before the swim meet on the 6th. She was finally feeling better, but her swimming was definitely not her best because she has been under the weather for so long. I was really proud of how tough she was and how she gritted through all of her long events and was a trooper for most of her slower times. She was seeded 2nd or 3rd for mot of her events and finished with a 3rd place finish in the mile, 4th in the 200 back, 5th in the 200 fly and 500 IM, and 6th in the 500 free and 100 back. She actually was 8th overall for high points for the 11 year old girls, despite her slower times. I know she wanted to finish in the top 3 for most of her events, but this season was one for building character and not times. Here she is with Savanah, Stella, Helen and Olivia peaking out of the blue tent.

Rubix swam well and had some pretty good times. He dropped 4.65 seconds in the 500 free for a 6:14.22 coming in 8th overall and getting the 11 year old age group time. He also dropped in the 50 back getting a 34.24, getting 4th in prelims and 34.53 in finals which resulted in 7th overall. He had a small drop in the 100 fly of .09 seconds getting a 1:12.20 , which resulted in a 4th overall finish. He was frustrated with his 50 fly getting 8th overall and his 100 back he finished 5th in finals after being seeded 3rd from prelims. He was a couple of seconds off of his best time, but with that being his last race, he still did great being one of two, 8 year olds who were competitive in the 10 and under category. Rubix was also apart of the medley and free relays each night. Here is his free relay team. 

I started getting a precursor to a migraine Sunday night and was so glad to get home by 7:30pm and get to bed by 8:30pm. I ended up sleeping for 36 hours and missing work on Monday, but the migraine, nausea, light sensitivity, etc, was just too much. I managed through work Tuesday and was a bit better on Wed. I am finally feeling more myself and hope to have all my energy tomorrow. 

This weekend Axel has his cross country banquet and we have dinner with the Ingardias. We have some other events that we may or may not go to. I am hoping for time to organize Christmas and our Hawaii vacation. I hope to write a blog the first week in January if all goes well. Merry Christmas and Happy New year!