Moving on up!

We have had a very busy few weeks. The first weekend in September we had two fun festivals. One was at the YMCA and one was at Kaiser. Here is a picture of Phoenix with face painting from the Y. We went directly to the Kaiser festival and the face paintings were professional and not from volunteers. She really wanted to wait in line again, because the face paintings were so intricate, but there was no room left on her face!

 After the two festivals we had a play date at the pool. I had the privilege of getting some studying done while doing "gate watch", and the kids had fun playing with friends. I was able to capture one picture. If you look closely you can see Daddy, Rubix, Selena, Phoenix and Axel. I am not sure where Kristin is in this picture. They all had a great time.

 We had back to school night on Sept. 12th for Axel. Here is one of his projects that was displayed. We were surprised that he had so many misspelled words. Keith actually had a conference with his teacher, Mr. Murphy, at how we can help Axel learn how to edit and review his work. Axel can read and comprehend books at nearly a high school level, but then misspells words and has poor sentence structure. We think it is mostly out of laziness and we really want him to get out of these bad habits. His teacher says it is age appropriate and is willing to help Axel bridge the gap as many of his classmates appear to be checking their work and looking up words that they think might be misspelled. This is a big goal for Axel this year.

Over the past couple of months we have had a few orthodontist appointments for Axel. We finally decided which orthodontist we want to use and Axel has officially started phase 1 of his treatment. That means Axel will be wearing a head gear for the next 18 months! In about 12 months they will decide if he also needs the mouth widener, if the head gear is not making enough room for his permanent teeth to come in. Axel currently has 3 loose teeth and a permanent tooth that came in as a second row on the bottom again. Unfortunately, there is no permanent tooth that has a path to make that baby tooth become loose so that tooth may have to be pulled in the coming months. For now it will just hang out with the hopes that the cuspids will eventually push on the roots of that baby tooth. I forgot to get a picture of Axel in his head gear, but I will make sure to include it on my next post. 

 Phoenix and Rubix have grown closer over the past 6 months and can play together well, at times. Rubix gave Phoenix a hug and she asked me to quickly try to capture the moment. I love when I see her motherly instincts kick in.

 You can see how much fun they have together.

 Here she is being a bit bossy trying to trace his hand, but Rubix is so gentle and patient he doesn't seem to mind.

We finally purchased a bike rack for the Tuscon. It was a very long process to get the proper hitch installed and to find the proper bike rack as not many bike racks fit smaller bikes. The kids had fun helping Daddy put together the rack and install it. Afterwards, they had a great time building a fort from the boxes. I love the windows, door and shelves they installed. I also love how they made it look like a kitten. If you look closely you can see the black lines down the center of both windows and Rubix is looking at the nose that Phoenix drew. 

 I have only had Fridays to spend with Rubix as I have been working at Stanford on Thursdays for my movement fellowship. He looks forward to park time and makes the most of mommy/ me time regardless if other kids are around. Yesterday he started pumping his legs while swinging. You can see his legs are extended and he is about to bend them in the picture below.

 He continues to love to play ball. I love watching him play throw and catch, whether I am playing with him or if he is playing by himself, like he is doing in the picture below.

 Yesterday I had the privilege of going to Phoenix's classroom for a class party. I had a lot of fun meeting some of her new friends and watching her participate in class.

 She absolutely loves school.

 You can see her being her silly self in the picture below.

 We received really fun news this week about both children. First, we found out that Axel is getting moved up to P3 math. That means he is skipping 5th grade math and starting 6th grade math. He did really well on his ERB testing at the end of last year and kicked butt on his pretest at the beginning of this year. Because he demonstrated that he already knew most of the 5th grade material his teacher decided he really ought to be more challenged. Axel is the first student that Mrs. Torres has moved up in her 5 years of teaching at Harker. Monday Axel starts in Mrs. Vojvodic's class. He is very excited. Daddy has been getting him caught up on the first month of school concepts. He has a test next week that he needs to be prepared for so they are doing a month of work in 3 days!

The other exciting news is that Phoenix was placed in P3 math and P3 language arts. She did really well in her 4 weeks of assessment. This means she will be doing 2nd grade work for these two subjects. She will have Mrs. Smith and Mrs Anderson for these classes. That means she will start multiplication soon! She was really excited to have her first homework assignment this weekend. We studied for her first spelling test which consisted of box, sock, duck, shut, sun, gum, pond and rock. I quizzed her yesterday and today. I believe she will have her first test this week! She also had to draw a picture of an ocean animal and write a few sentences about it. She drew a picture of a dolphin and wrote, "Dolphins can talk. Dolphins live in the ocean. Dolphins swim and play." I am so very proud of her embracing school and loving it so much. I am so proud of Axel for trying his hardest and checking his work in math as that was the most important thing he learned last year. Now, if we can only get him to check his grammar and spelling in English!

The kids hardly ever take a bath together as Axel usually showers. He wanted to use one of his oatmeal bath bombs for his skin and the other two wanted to take their baths at the same time. We ended up with some fun laughter and tears. Here is a picture of the fun laughter that occurred after the tears of learning to share tub space with big brother Axel.

We will continue to be busy over the coming weeks. I will be in Sacramento tomorrow attending Kendra's memorial service, Axel will be at a birthday party. We have Phoenix's back to school night on Tuesday. My mom arrives late Wednesday night. I take off for St. Louis Thursday. Axel has his first Harker swim meet on Thursday and they have a weekend full of fun plans. I arrive back very late Tuesday night. We have Harker's annual family picnic on the 7th and then Keith leaves for Japan for 8 days. The coming month should bring loads of fun and growing. I will try to post in a few weeks!

Phoenix starts Kindergarten and Axel is a 4th grader!

I was beginning to think the day would never come. August was such an incredibly long month as we waited patiently for the first day of school to arrive. Phoenix was so excited! She couldn't wait to finally start school.

 She was excited to finally be with big brother Axel!

 Axel couldn't wait to see his friends and see what adventures 4th grade will bring.

 He was ready to conquer his locker! The only thing is the lock is not the problem, but lifting it to open appears to be the problem.

With much effort and muscle he was and is able to open it. It looks like he will be building some strength trying to open his locker daily.

 I am going to have to go clean it as it is a little cob webby.

 He lucked out with getting Mrs. Robinson as his home room teacher because she is the coolest art teacher you will ever meet. He is bummed that non of the "dragon eleven" are in his home room though. He says that there is at least one of the eleven that are in his other classes and Lucas, his best buddy, is in computer science with him which is "Awesome" he says. Apparently, all of the desks were taken out and now they have lap tops and couches.

 Phoenix looks so grown up compared to how Axel looked going into Kinder. I am so proud at how much she has matured. She really couldn't wait to be a big school girl.

 She had no issues saying goodbye to us or doing what the teacher and teacher's aide were asking her to do.

 She lucked out and has her best friend Kyla in class! These two played non stop during the 3 hour orientation that they had for the kindergarteners on Monday afternoon/ evening. I feel so blessed that she has a teacher that looks like a great fit and friends she knows in class.

 This should be a great year for her. The next 4 weeks are full of assessments for math and language arts so we are excited to see where she will be placed. We both hoped that she will perform to her full potential and get placed at the level that will keep her challenged and interested. This girl loves to learn!

 Phoenix loved every minute of the first day of school and was excited to go to school again today.

 Rubix has been asking to go to Jack Fischer park since he woke up early on Monday morning. Well, 4 days later he finally got to go. He rode his tricycle up the hill for the first time and played in the water for the first time all summer! After months of watching other kids he finally decided he wanted in on the fun!

 I was so proud of him for being so brave and going right into the stream of water.

 He has been sleeping for 2.5 hours after the hour and a half of non stop play!

I am not sure when I will post again. Life is really busy with the work I have to do for the Movement Fellowship that I am completing over the next year. I start at Stanford on Thursdays next week and fly back to St. Louis in 4 weeks. I have my first webinar and video conferencing scheduled as well! On top of this, bible study starts in a week! I don't know how I am going to manage everything, but I do know that these are all blessings the Lord has instilled on me and I am 100% grateful for the opportunities ahead of me. I just pray that I will be able to be present and enjoy the kids when I am with them and be fully awake and alert when I am working on my fellowship work. Until next time... God Bless!

Our 10 Year Anniversary and Trip to Cape Cod (8/22-2/26)

On Wednesday August 8th Keith and I took the day off work to spend together. Rubix was at Angela's and Camryn came to watch Axel and Phoenix while Keith and I went for a bike ride and coffee. We stopped at a very fancy Coffee shop and I enjoyed quite the latte and cinnamon raisin roll. 

 We had Camryn take a picture of us after our ride before we dropped her and the kids off at the library. Keith and I then enjoyed a nice long bath and good conversation together for the next hour before we had to pick them up at the library. We enjoyed dinner out on Tuesday night at Cascal, the restaurant, where we had our first date at. Although the tapas were not as amazing as we remembered them being 12 years prior it was still a lovely evening out. I was able to enjoy a slice of Tirmasu at a little coffee shop afterwards while Keith enjoyed a decaf latte.

 I picked up Grandma Susan at the train station on Wednesday night. I headed to St. Louis, MO for my first weekend of my fellowship. It was a great weekend. We were "in class" 10 hours a day except on Sunday where we got out after 8 hours so the 5 of us could catch our flights. Here is a picture from the PT lab room where we were much of the time. You can see from the window that St. Louis is a cute city. I wasn't at all sad about not seeing it as I had a blast learning and refining my movement assessment skills.

 The following weekend Keith took off for Boston for work. The kids and I were solo from Sunday morning until Wednesday night when we arrived at the Boston airport. Each night the kids and I enjoyed some park time as the weather was beautiful and we were all itching to get outside and enjoy it. Here is a picture of Axel being silly!

 And another one of all of them swinging.

 Phoenix is such a good little mother and helped out with Rubix one morning while I was making breakfast.

 We had an early morning on Tuesday with both kids in my room before 6 am. We had another rough night on Tuesday night with Rubix screaming and Phoenix getting up scared. With all of the sleep deprivation on was worried how the kids would respond to the 12 hours of travel that we were about to embark on Wednesday morning.

 The Lord was awesome as always and despite being in the car by 6 am we safely and quickly made it to parking and then to the airport and then on our 5 hour flight. Rubix actually slept for an hour and a half!

 Phoenix and Axel entertained themselves until the very end where they were able to watch Wild Kratts by looking through the seats at the boy's computer in the row in front of us. Everyone did great until about 30 minutes from Cape Cod. The 2 hour drive from the airport to the Cape was almost too much. We somehow made it and got everyone to bed just before 11 pm which was equivalent to 8 pm our time.

 The next day we headed to Brewster where Josie and Hannah were staying. They were a short walk from the beach. Grampy Kevin and Little Grammy arrived after lunch.

 The kids had an amazing time spending the day together and playing in the long beach that comes with low tide.

 It was spectacular. I have never seen a beach like it!

 We went back to the same beach on Friday and enjoyed a few hours of play time before headed back to where we were staying in South Dennis, MA. Grammy got to play with football with Rubix in the water during high tide in the morning.

 Rubix actually played in the sand for a little bit. This was his only time during the entire trip. He really is not one for sand, unlike the other two who can play in the sand for hours.

 On Friday evening we went to a park and played, played, played. The kids really needed to run around, climb and have fun and that is exactly what we did until the mosquitos came out in full force around 6 pm. We then headed to the store to pick up food for dinner.

 On Saturday we headed to the Atlantic side of Cape Cod down south. The beach and water is much more like what we are used to in San Diego. Rubix ended up loving the water after Daddy coaxed him in the days prior. He went in several times while we were at the beach and loved every minute of it.

 Little Grammy and Grampy Kevin met us at the beach again as well.

 Daddy was able to convince both Axel and Phoenix to get in the water. Here is a picture of them both waving at me.

 Phoenix actually put her head under water, but apparently didn't enjoy the salt water feel.

 Afterwards we went to lunch. Phoenix and Grampy ordered hot dogs and this is what was served. As much as Phoenix likes pink she would not try them for the life of her. It took a lot of courage for me as well, but I did try them. They tasted okay, but not great by any means.

 After lunch we all headed to this massive mini golf course.

 Rubix slept in the car while the others played. They were just finishing up when he woke so he did a quick round himself with Axel and I in tow.

 On Sunday we headed to Plimoth Plantation and Plymouth, MA to see the famous rock.

 We all thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Indian reservation area and then the small pilgrim village.

 From the lookout where the cannons were stored was an amazing view of the small village and ocean. It was breath taking!

 At the end of the village was a cute little play house that the kids got to play in.

 We were all surprised to see how small Plymouth Rock was, but apparently since its preservation in the 1940's it has no longer shrunk in size although it is twice a small as its original size.

The walk over was absolutely beautiful as you can see below. 

They have a great park area and stage that the kids were able to play on and jump off of. 

We even managed a family photo before we headed to the airport for our long journey home.

 Like always the way home was significantly harder with all of the kids sleep deprived. Here is the a picture of the calm before the storm. We didn't get home until midnight which was equivalent to 3 am in MA. We were all exhausted, but the trip was well worth it. I think everyone enjoyed our short vacation and Keith had a very productive 3 days of work before we arrived.