Phoenix is 5 years old!

Phoenix started her birthday celebration on Friday at school where she had her "spotlight". The teacher talked about her favorite food, pet animal, book, and things to do. She then showed her friends her 3 year old scrap book and they sang happy birthday to her. 

I am always curious to know what she is thinking when she just stares at me. The exciting news is that on Friday she earned her alphabet crown because she passed the test of knowing all of her letters and sounds. She has earned 3 books at school that she can read. She is absolutely loving it!

Her friend Adella is sitting right in front of her and her friend Kyla is in the front row in a bright pink shirt. These were the two girls from Challenger that she invited to her birthday party.

After her spotlight we went to Party City to pick out balloons and gather a few decorations for her party. We got done surprisingly quickly and had 20 more minutes before Axel was out of computer class at school. The kids decided to wonder into Old Navy. Rubix was intrigued with the mannequin. It is funny that I have a very similar photo of Axel about this age doing the same thing.

The kids always love to have snacks before bed. They usually choose to eat a bowl of cereal. Rubix chose yogurt. I had things to do so I asked Axel if Rubix could sit on his lap. Axel was a champ and agreed to it. It was sooo cute I had to snap a photo! Rubix is a typical boy and rather sit on my lap than in his chair for meals. It is quite frustrating because he will often wait for me to sit down before eating and I rather never sit! I am sure that it is good practice and I need to learn to sit and enjoy more time with the kids rather than think about the million other things I need to get done before going to bed myself. At any rate, I was very appreciative of Rubix being okay with sitting on Axel's lap and Axel agreeing to let him do it.

Here is Phoenix her last night as a 4 year old!

Sunday morning Axel went to the basketball clinic and Keith and I jostled getting things done for the party. The jump house was delivered early, but luckily we were home. I surprised Phoenix with the jump house because we had planned on not having one. When the weather forecast changed and Phoenix talked about how she was going to exclude Aisha from her dollhouse because Aisha was mean to hear at her birthday party last weekend I decided to splurge with the Barbie bounce house. I am really glad that I ordered it because it was used the entire 4 hours that people were over and for the most part helped resolve conflicts. All Rubix has talked about all week is how the jump house is gone. Funny thing is he hardly used it because he wanted to be held the entire time he was in it and I didn't have a lot of time to hang out in there with him.

We also went all out and made a Barbie cake. Keith did the decorating and I made the cake.

We were quite pleased with how it turned out without using fondant. The only bummer thing is the cake itself tasted awful! We have got to stop using this vanilla cake recipe that we have been using for the past several years as it often comes out like dense pound cake, and doesn't taste very good.

Phoenix requested breakfast for dinner so I made waffles and pancakes and had a tray of berries. Phoenix had 2 waffles, Aisha almost finished one and the other girls didn't eat at all. We also made skewers of meat and veggies for the parents who decided to stay for the party. I felt really bad for the parents of the children who didn't eat, but after asking the girls several times and offering different foods, I really didn't know what else to do.

Axel invited Kristin and Selena over to play with to make sure to give Phoenix time alone with her friends without Axel interrupting. Lets just say it took Axel a litte time to understand what that meant. The three older kids had fun in the jump house though, after the younger ones were finished and watching a Barbie movie.

Of course, I forgot to take pictures the entire time until the end of the party. Here is my only picture of the 5 girls. Kyla, Phoenix, Aisha, Adella, and Kira. Kira and Aisha are from Marshall Lane Preschool and we often see Kira at Jack Fischer Park.

We paused the movie to sing Happy birthday to the birthday girl.

Kyla's father, Eric, was kind enough to snap a quick family photo. What a great start to 2018 as we introduced our little girl into the next chapter of her life as a big kid who gets to go to school, be apart of athletics and is now eligible for summer camps. She is excited but nervous as she fights to be "older and bigger" than Axel.

Although we had hoped that Phoenix would only receive books as gifts, two of the girls brought toys. Here is Phoenix playing a game of My little Pony Candy Land with Axel and Daddy before bed. Lets just say it didn't end well as the birthday girl was exhausted from all of the excitement. Both kids cried themselves to sleep and were finally done shedding tears at 9 pm. (Axel was upset he ruined Phoenix's party and Phoenix was crying because Axel ruined her party. Of course, this wasn't true, but a 20 minute event during the party, turned into dramatic tears for both of them.)

Axel has been working hard at preparing his Pinewood Derby car. I unfortunately have not captured any pictures yet, but hope to at the Pinewood Derby on Sunday. Axel did most of the work himself this year. Keith was really proud of him for stepping up and taking ownership.

Yesterday I picked up Phoenix early from school to take her to her 5 year check up. I wasn't sure how traffic was so we left earlier than usual. Well, this was a big mistake as her doctor was running over an hour behind which meant that we waited for almost an hour and a half. Rubix ate every snack I had in the diaper bag and I was very grateful that I had half a dozen! It also didn't help that there was a car accident that slowed us down on the way home. We got home at 6:15pm which made our doctor trip a 3 hour adventure! Oh well! Phoenix weighed in at 34 lbs 9.6 oz which puts her at the 16th percentile. She measured 3 feet 7.25 inches which puts her at the 66th percentile for height. She has matured to the point where she cooperates and communicates well now with other adults like the medical assistant and doctor. I was very proud of how articulate she was with them. I know I have said it before, but I am so pleased with Challenger School. I never thought there would be such a big difference between public and private schools, but you really do get what you pay for, atleast in the state of California!

Sick Days, Phoenix learns to read, Axel joins jazz ensemble

We have all been under the weather with a long lingering virus. Luckily, we are all on the up and up (so we hope.) I am ashamed to say that I really haven't taken pictures since Christmas. I was able to capture a few of Rubix because we have the most alone time together. 

A couple of weeks ago Rubix was asking to get dunked so Keith dunked him. It was fun and cute at the time, but it has been a little challenging trying to explain to him that we can't do this again because it is unsafe. Good thing is he loves this basketball hoop and uses it every day. 

 Rubix is starting to get into building. He wants to build with the duplos legos, train tracks and even puzzles. Axel received an eraser puzzle cube that Rubix really enjoyed trying to piece together himself. It is fun to see him have other interests then balls and cars.

 Axel has been busy getting ready for the Pinewood Derby. Next weekend is the big event. So far the car is cut out and the weights are in place. It took him awhile to decide if he wanted to build a car this year, so we are excited to see him enjoy the process. We have worked really hard over the past 6 months to ensure that Axel knows that he doesn't have to do anything. We want him to learn to enjoy and embrace the activities that he chooses to do. He seems to be coming around and stating that he enjoys activities now rather than us forcing him to go. He continues to play the flute and was invited to join the jazz ensemble. He had a lot of fun going last week and the director says that he is a natural. We were hoping that this would result in him wanting to practice without reminders, but he is still not there yet. I am excited to see how much he grows from joining the jazz ensemble this second half of the school year.

The big news for Phoenix is that she started reading last week. She came home from school with a book that she earned because she was able to read it. She says, "let me blend it, " and then she reads the word! She is really good with short vowel, 3 letter words. For example, bed, red, had, mad, cat, hat, etc. I am extremely impressed that she is already here. I felt like it was just yesterday I was trying to get her to learn all of the letters of the alphabet. I am so pleased with her new school and am excited to see her enjoying learning as much as she is.  And to put icing on the cake, she will be 5 years old on Sunday! I can't believe my little girl is going to be 5!. We have her "spotlight" at school in just a little bit where she gets to talk about her likes and interests and her family. She decided to bring one of her scrapbooks rather than individual pictures. I hope I can take a picture or two because she just opened a box of hand me down dresses and she was very excited about her princess dress that she wore to school today.

Phoenix has her classroom assessment at Harker tomorrow and then her birthday party on Sunday. It is Barbie themed! Her cousin Hannah sent her a bunch of Barbie dolls a couple of months ago and then all of a sudden we have a Barbie lover. I will save the details of her party for the next post. She has her 5 year annual check up next Thursday so I will likely post a blog update next Friday.

I will leave you with the ever growing Rubix whose language and vocabulary continue to amaze me!

God Bless!

A 2nd Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We were unable to go out to eat during our vacation so we went out to eat at Stacks on Friday the 28th of December. Phoenix had her usual chocolate chip Mickey Mouse pancakes, but Axel branched out and had a bacon, egg and toast meal. Rubix was happy grazing off our plates and going from one side of the booth to the other side of the booth. Keith and I have come to the point in our lives where we are no longer coffee snobs. We drink coffee because we generally like it despite its source. We enjoyed receiving a thermos of coffee and having unlimited cups. I did have a moment where I thought, "Are we too young to be at this point in our lives?" Well, that momentary thought didn't stop me from having a second cup of coffee, but it did hold me back from having a third cup. When I begin to replace coffee for water, I know that I am officially in middle age. I love you Grandpa Burgess (Don)! It was one of my fondest memories to see my Grandpa drink one cup after another, after another. He thoroughly enjoyed it and I love him for that!

On Saturday the 29th we headed to the Jolley's for a small Christmas celebration. Unfortunately, Grandpa Brian was not feeling well enough to join us, but we did enjoy seeing Grandma Susan. Here is cute little baby Aya with Uncle Ryan!

Here are the 5 cousins waiting to open their Christmas gifts. I took about 20 pictures and this was one of the best. Maybe next year! The girls had fun playing dress up and being Princesses as usual. Axel enjoyed spending time with Grandma Susan. I was jealous of how much time he got to visit with her while I ran around chasing Rubix. Rubix had his first fall downstairs. We are not quite sure how far he was up the stair case, but we are sure of the loud thump. This was of course, the one time I decided to not chase after him. Parent fail!

After a wonderful Mexican meal and opening gifts we headed to the park. Grandma was itching to get home and check on Brian and my kiddos where itching to play outside so it was a win, win for everyone. Look at those beautiful blue eyes!

These three are quite the combination. They are either all getting along or one of them is feeling left out. (It is typically one of my children who are fighting over Braylin's attention). Maybe one day they will learn.

I tried one more time to capture the 5 cousins in the same picture. You can see charming Axel again helping out with baby Aya. He still is a sweet, caring boy. After an hour and a half of park play we headed back to grab a snack before heading home. We lucked out with great traffic. Keith and I had an awesome rest of the weekend with three dates! We were able to ride together Sunday and Monday morning and go out to the movies on Sunday night for New Year's Eve. We saw Jumanji. We both can't remember the last time we laughed so hard. It was a really nice change from the serious Star War movies that we have seen in the years past.

Here is Rubix strutting his new outfit that Auntie got him. He is so cute! He truly is the most caring child I have ever met. He gives hugs and love all of the time without prompting. Anytime he sees someone crying or looking down he goes up to them and gives them a hug.

I have been so overwhelmed with the kids, work and the holidays that I have done a horrible job at connecting with friends and family. I feel so bad about not reaching out, but every time I am not consumed by the kids I have my face in a book reading about how to be a better parent, or in the bible seeking guidance or doing something like the blog or their scrapbook or trying to find new recipes. I am totally in my little world. The bad thing is I love my little world. I just wish I had more time in each day to still have time for other people. I am sorry to all of you that I normally call during Christmas! I am still thinking of you despite my poor communication!

We were hoping for our schedules to lighten up after the holidays, but it looks like we are going to be just as busy. We have 4 birthday parties, including Pheeny's 5th birthday, Axel's Pinewood Derby and lots of paperwork to apply to Harker and Challenger for Kindergarten. Despite this business, we try our best to live in the moment and enjoy each day to the fullest. 

We wish all of our friends and family a very Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed a lovey church service with the beautiful message that God's gift of entering into a relationship with him is free and not based on any acts but soley based on Jesus' righteousness. After church, which Rubix was able to make it through the entire service in the sanctuary, we came home for a nice dinner of Filet Mignon. After dinner we made Tirmasu, for Jesus's birthday cake and pumpkin scones for Christmas breakfast and Santa. You can see all of the flour on the kids clothes. 

 After our hard work the kids opened their one gift. We could not find matching pj's for the entire family that was not Elf on the Shelf, per Axel's request so we did our best with these flannel pajamas.

 The kids were in bed by 8:30 pm which didn't leave much time for all of the present wrapping and building that needed to be done.

 Daddy did manage to build Phoenix's barbie dollhouse and Rubix's basketball hoop, but I did not manage to get his bench for the front yard built. We called it a night at 11:30 pm. The morning came too soon for both of us as we both didn't sleep very well.

 Rubix woke up first so we made yummy pumpkin drinks for everyone. Axel woke up second and then woke up Phoenix who then woke up Daddy.

 Rubix really loved the pumpkin drink and fits right in with our family of pumpkin lovers.

 The kids loved their stockings overflowing with presents. There was only a quick, "underwear again.... and more socks"! They loved the many little gifts that Santa brought. 

 We all thoroughly enjoyed our scones. I captures a picture while Daddy was in the bathroom, although you can't see the scones in all of our hands.

 The main affair did not let down any children. They all received what they wanted. Axel received his Nerf gun and dragon Lego set.

 Rubix got cars, cars, and more cars. He loved it all!

Phoenix received an awesome dollhouse and barbie closet full of clothes and accessories. The kids loved all of the clothes and other gifts they received from extended family. 

 We all had a great day and enjoyed play time with Axel R and his family, a family walk, bike rides, park play and lots of toy playing!

 We hope that everyone else enjoyed celebrating the birth of our amazing Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! We look forward to our Sacramento Trip next Saturday and date night on New Years Eve. Until then... God Bless!

Last week of school and San Diego Vacation

Rubix got into the hang of finding Mark the elf at home and the elf that Angela had, although I can't remember his name. He was the first to find it on this particular day. Every time he found Mark, he would laugh and point until someone else would come and look. It was so much fun!

 The kids enjoyed doing their annual ginger bread house this year. Rubix did not help as much as he did on the Halloween House, but he had fun playing with all of the little red "balls" that I found on the floor for days!

 Axel had his big Holiday Performance. It was very good. The kids sounded beautiful and they had a couple of solos that were unbelievably good.

 All of the kids had either solos or speaking parts. Here is Axel saying one of his two speaking parts, "I didn't give Santa a Christmas list this year. I want him to surprise me." He also presented the gift to Ms. Kay, the music teacher at the end of the performance. Friday was a half day for Axel and a full on packing day for me as we were leaving bright and early Saturday morning for San Diego.

 We decided to try to do our first road trip. We made it to San Diego in 9 hours because of L.A. traffic. Here is the kids bedroom. Axel and Phoenix slept quite well while we were there. Rubix slept in a pack n play in Keith's and my room. He was 50/50 on sleeping well. Half the nights he woke once and slept on me, or should I say my face. I was only successful one night to get him back into the pack n play and the other nights he slept through until 6:40 am, which was just a tad on the early side for my vacation wants.

 The week was action packed. We started with the Midway Museum and boat light show on Sunday afternoon/ evening.

 The museum was really fun. Daddy and Rubix looked at the planes while Phoenix, Axel and I got a special tour of the tower and captain corridors.

 Here is Captain Axel!

 We tried to go to a park or beach every day. The kids still love the sand, except Rubix.....

 He initially would not go on the sand at all, but eventually was coaxed and then didn't mind walking in the sand. He still didn't play with the sand though.

 We went to Jungle Bells at the Zoo on Monday afternoon/ evening. Daddy's sweater was a big hit.

 We enjoyed seeing the panda bears. They eat 30 + pounds of bamboo a day! All they do is eat and sleep!

 The kids loved the polar bear exhibit.

 It was really cool to see the polar bear sleeping and moving in his sleep and play in the "ice structures."

 The big event was the birth of a baby giraffe on Dec. 17th, but we missed seeing her! Oh, well!

 Sea world continues to become more run down. They didn't have as many shows happening as they use to. We did enjoy seeing the orcas and learned about them during the Orca Enounter show during our visit on Tuesday.

 The big news was the conquering of fear of rides and roller coasters. Phoenix went on the tea cups and this spinning/ rocking ride. Rubix refused to miss out on the fun and went on 2 of the 3 kiddie rides as well. (He was too short for the tea cups). Axel did his first roller coaster, but that was at Legoland on Wednesday.

 Axel got to put on reindeer horns. Apparently the reindeers who have horns are females.

 Legoland was the highlight of the trip and where we spent 8 hours on Wednesday.

 Phoenix and Axel both received their Legoland driver's license.

 We did not see Santa like we had planned to do at Sea World, but we did see two Lego Santas!

 Here is the stationary one. Later you will see the "live" Lego Santa we took a picture with.

 Keith and I wanted to recreate the picture we took two years ago when Rubix was in my tummy.

 I am not sure which one I like better.

 We saw acrobatic elves at the Zoo and singing elves at Legoland.

 And here is our family picture with Lego Santa.

 Another day at the beach!

 With another visit to Sea World. We love the sea turtles!

 We ended the week at Balboa park and visiting old friends from Ravenwood Drive, the Bartolos, at the park in San Diego. I did not get a picture of Axel and Max or their third child, Christian. Sophia, didn't come because she was too excited to see her girl cousin, as they were in town from Singapore.

 At Balboa Park they had the biggest, longest and best Merry Go Round we have ever seen. They had minature horses for little ones like Rubix.

 And Axel tried really hard to get the brass ring! It was a great trip and we were really excited to get home Saturday night in only 7 hours and 40 minutes! Keith and I are exhausted as we had to clean out the car with all of the vomit and food that accumulated from the long hours in the car. Phoenix had two episodes and Axel one. Rubix did great with no episodes of motion sickness! Go Rubix! Next post will be all about Christmas!