Christmas Video - Pheeny Boots

Pheeny enjoying Mommy's new rain boots

The Szolusha 2014 Christmas

 We had a wonderful Christmas Celebration. Here is Axel getting into the Christmas Spirit.

Here is Phoenix giving Louis some love!

 On Christmas Eve we decorated the most amazing gingerbread cookies.

 I have to brag a little because my husband is an amazing baker! I actually don't typically like gingerbread and I couldn't stop eating these!

 Here are Phoenix and Axel opening one gift on Christmas Eve.

 And then the kiddos enjoyed some hot cocoa and The Grinch!

 On Christmas Morning Phoenix was up at 645am. This gave me enough time to make Pumpkin lattes for the 4 of us (minus the espresso for the kids of course) and pumpkin pie oatmeal. We enjoyed our drinks and opened stocking stuffers.

 We then had breakfast and after breakfast headed to the tree to open gifts. Here is Phoenix enjoying her new dress and mommies new rain boots.

 Axel and Daddy with a wonderful ornament Axel made at school for us.

 Axel opening Grandma Susan's gift.

 Phoenix feeding her new baby doll with little Grammy's sweater on.

 Oh, how she loves all things girly!

 Axel playing with his new toy from Gma Sonia and Gpa Bruce.

 We enjoyed a nice walk outside before heading over to Auntie's house for more Christmas fun.

 We were so happy to see Grandma Susan and Grandpa Brian along with the Jolleys.

 Daddy with his new Boston Red Sox Ugly Christmas Sweater!

 The cousins playing in Braylin's Room.

 The Cousins taking a bath together.

 The Cousins saying goodbye to each other!

We feel truly blessed! We loved spending time with family on Christmas Day and hope the rest of our extended family and friends also enjoyed celebrating the birth of Jesus as much as we did this year!

Santa Visit 2014

We went to our usual spot at Westgate Shopping Center to visit Santa on Sunday. Phoenix struggled for the second year in a row. This was the best picture that I was able to get and the ones for us to purchase were definitely not purchasable. I felt bad that Phoenix was so petrified of good old Santa Claus. Axel asked Santa for art supplies, although at school when asked by his teacher what he wanted for Christmas he said " a 5 point star multi colored light tree topper". Therefore, I do believe that Santa was able to fulfill both of these wishes this year. 

 After lots of crying and time to calmed down here is my rose cheeked girl walking around. Axel and daddy picked up some much needed new sneakers for Axel while Phoenix and I ran to Target for some last minute stocking stuffers.

 On our way home we stopped by OSH. The kids and I waited inside the car. I was able to get a photo of each of them while we waited for daddy. Here is Axel being silly.

 And Phoenix much happier now that she had a cracker in her hand!

I love this picture. I took it this last Friday. Phoenix and I were taking Louis for a walk and she said, "Pheeny do it" when I asked if she wanted help walking down the hill towards the creek. She is such a big girl in so many ways. We officially have a stream of water in the creek behind the park. I am not sure if it will go away when the rain completely stops, but it is nice to throw rocks into it for now. It is funny that Phoenix enjoys it as much as Axel did and does. 

 Here Phoenix and I are walking home from dropping Axel off at school. We beat the rain home.

 I told Phoenix that we were headed to the store this morning once we arrived home and started started screaming, "swing!" I felt so bad that I told her we could go until it started raining. We were able to enjoy 30 minutes of swing time before running errands.

 While Phoenix took her nap I went to Axel's Christmas celebration at school. They did a book exchange.

 He received Creepy Carrots from his classmate Maria.

 Here he is doing a fun project planning out where his stickers will go.

 Here is a selfie of the two of us. Axel made me a Christmas hat like his. I felt so special. I was the only parent who had one!

 And Axel enjoying a rice crispy treat.

 We are headed to Avery's 4th birthday tomorrow. I haven't seen my girlfriend Tiffany but twice this year since she started working full time. The kids should have fun. We have a break in rain for the next 4 days so we are looking forward in soaking up the sun before the rain returns. We are all excited about celebrating the Lord's birth next week. I leave you with a cute photo I took tonight of the family minus me. Merry Christmas to all of our Family and Friends!

San Diego and More

Again, time continues to fly by. We had a lovely trip to San Diego last weekend. We spent Thursday through Monday there. We have learned extended weekend vacations seem to be the perfect time for the kids, not too short, not too long. We stayed at a cute hotel right on Pacific Beach about three miles from Sea World. We were right next to the Pier and the board walk. There were tons of runners, people cycling and surfers. The weather was perfect in the low 70's each day. 

The kids LOVE, LOVE the beach. They can play for endless hours making castles and volcanoes,etc.

Here is Axel starting his first sand castle on Thursday while Phoenix took a quick nap.

Axel the sand master :)

Here is Phoenix getting acclimated to the wet morning sand. High tide in San Diego is much higher up on the beach then it was in Florida. At times it can cover the entire beach we were told.

Here are both kiddos playing after nap time one day.

We spent two days at Sea World. We saw the Christmas Pet Show, The Sea Lion Show, The Dolphin Show and a Shamu Show over the two days. The kids enjoyed the play area for almost an hour as a break from all of the animal and exhibit watching/viewing on Friday.

We did a lot of walking along the board walk. Here we were checking out Mission Beach.

Doggy made the trip with us and went everywhere with us the entire trip. Doggy, one of Axel's stuffed animals was discovered a few days before the trip and it was love at first site for Phoenix. He is now officially her lovey.

After two days of Sea World we decided to stay "home" for the day on Sunday. Both kids braved the pool for some swimming. It was actually quite nice and warm in the heated pool. It was a short swim, but enjoyed by both kiddos.

After swimming and Pheeny's nap we found a great park on Mission Bay. The kids really needed some regular out door playtime. 

We flew home on Monday to a very busy week. Luckily, today is a lazy day and we plan on visiting Santa, maybe go to the lights in the park celebration and have several friends stopping by or us stopping by other friends house.

When I was downloading the pictures from our trip I realized I had missed a few weeks worth of photos.

Phoenix and daddy working on the puzzle at my Grandma's, GG's, retirement complex during my Uncle David's surprise 60th birthday party. She loves puzzles, but doesn't quite get the concept of finding the correct place for it. She is more into making the pieces fit together which is cute but not good for the puzzle.

Two weeks ago we had the neighborhood kids over for a play date. This picture was really impressive to me because I couldn't believe all of the kids were in one room doing the same thing together and not running around destroying the house. The twins, Chloe and Cohen, and their brother, Henry, are usually much more energetic.

We just found out that they are moving back to Arizona. Axel is very sad that Chloe, Cohen and Henry will be moving next week. Their mom got a great promotion and will be back with all of their family in Phoenix, Arizona. We also found out that Rishaan will be moving sometime in he next 6 months to Austin, Texas. It will be an interesting summer. Hopefully, new kids will move into the neighborhood.

Louis is getting a lot of love from daddy, Phoenix, Henry and Chloe. He was in heaven getting the extra attention.

We also decorated our gingerbread house a couple of weeks ago. Phoenix got to join in for the first time this year.

Both kids really enjoyed themselves.

Here is the final product.....with lots of personality!

I found this great picture of the kids playing in Axel's bed. So cute!

I also found this picture of Axel helping daddy clean the gutters a few weeks ago.

And this cute picture of Phoenix playing at the park. She was proud of herself swinging on the big swing like the big girls do.

I also forgot to post pictures of Axel's Thanksgiving celebration at school. The kids were pilgrims and the adults were the Native Americans.

They all enjoyed a huge Thanksgiving Feast prepared by the parents!

While we were prepping the food the kids made macaroni necklaces. My little pilgrim hard at work!

. 

And last I wanted to include a picture of our big Thanksgiving Feast that we had this year.

Our goal for the next 10 days is to be mindful of living in the present and to really enjoy each day. For each day is truly a gift and we feel so blessed to have each other and our extended family and friends!