Tessa's 8th Birthday

Tessa turned 8 on March 24th and as we planned her baptism, I kind of hoped that her actual birthday could be a quiet one. However, she remembered that we had originally said that on every even birthday they can have a party, so Tessa really wanted a party. I tried to explain that with her baptism and family coming into town, maybe we could forgo the party. She quickly replied that Abby had a party when she turned 8. Of course she was right, so we planned a party. Luckily, Tessa had been dying to have a party at Peter Piper Pizza, so when their school had a fundraiser there the week before her birthday, Tyler and I got all the information to have a party there and even booked it that night because the prices were reasonable. Plus, I was happy with having the party somewhere besides my house, so I didn't have to worry about decorations or clean up. That was the best part! So the final weeks of March and the beginning of April were all in celebration of Tessa's birthday and baptism. Here's the birthday girl on her actual birthday before leaving for school.

That night, we had the Kasallis family over to help celebrate her birthday. We had steak kabobs and meatballs which are some of Tessa's favorite foods. She chose a lemon cake that has a pudding/cool whip frosting. She's my lemon lover, just like me!

The Friday after her birthday, we had scheduled the Peter Piper party. She was allowed to invite 8 friends, most of who she chose from the girls in her class at school. She has some close friends who are boys: Sam (see picture above) and Santiago who lives two doors down, but when I asked her if she was sure she didn't want to invite either of them she just stuck up her finger and said, "No, this is a girls only party!" Okay, so girls it was. We had the party right after school and it was the perfect time because it wasn't busy. They had fun playing games, eating, and buying prizes.

Between all these pictures, I tried to get all her friends in at least one of them.

Tessa's sisters of course loved to be included in all the birthday festivities. I love this picture of Aubrey because she was on the little carousel and I took the picture while it was going. I love how she's pretty much in focus, but you can tell from the fuzzy background that the ride is moving. Abby and Taryn are riding the roller coaster ride together. I think it even vibrates their chairs, so they always have funny looks on their faces.

We took a picture with everyone from the party, and the hostess even gave us a framed picture of this one. I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Since we did birthday cake at home, we opted for cupcakes for the party. The cupcake was the perfect size to fit the one huge number 8 candle. It was also picture day at school so a lot of the girls were in their fancier clothes and dresses like Tessa was. It made for a perfect girly party.

A few fun facts to remember about Tessa being 8:

She has lost 6 teeth and as they all grow in at different times, she currently has a pretty awesome gap-toothed smile.

She is in the GT program at school and loves all the things she learns there and at school. She picks up things quickly and is so smart. Her teacher always comments about how much of a help she is, even with other students as they learn new things.

She reads to Aubrey and spells words for Abby. Taryn still loves playing with Tessa and can usually get Tessa to play with her most easily.

She really, really wants to be in gymnastics which we're hoping she'll start this summer. Even without official classes she can do cartwheels and perfect round-offs. We spent one day having her try all these exercises around the house like getting into a handstand against the wall and then doing pushups while still in the handstand and she can do them no problem! She's close to doing a back walkover and loves to flip over our couches as part of her "practicing."

We love this girl and are so happy to have her in our family. Her baptism post will be coming shortly, but we're so proud and happy that she's made that decision to be baptized. She's so grown up! Time goes by so fast. We love you Tessa!

Spring Break 2015

Our spring break happened the beginning of March. We didn't have much planned since Tyler was working so it worked out when my mom called to ask for our help that we were available to help her. My parents are both retiring after this school year. They recently applied and were accepted to teach English in China for a year starting this fall, so they decided they would put their house up for sale. My mom called to ask if the girls and I could come out during our spring break so that I could help her organize and de-clutter her house to prepare it to go on the market. It also happened that the the weekend before our spring break, all my brothers were going to be at my parents as well, so it was fun to have the entire family together even if it was for just a couple of days. Tyler drove out with us to spend the weekend, but then flew back to El Paso Sunday night to work the rest of the week. We had fun playing games with family and going through boxes of stuff from when we were kids. We threw out a lot of stuff, donated a ton, and kept a few things. My girls loved going through Grandma's jewelry and picking out things they wanted to keep. I took home too much stuff and barely fit it all in the van. Some of the bigger things I brought back included my wedding dress, some of my high school formal dresses and my letterman jacket. Not sure what I'll do with any of it, but it wasn't stuff I could just get rid of. Besides all the work, we had to entertain the kids some too, so we did do some fun things. Of course, that's where the pictures are all from, so besides cleaning and organizing, here's what we did in Wichita Falls during Spring Break.

My cousin just bought a ranch with my Aunt and Uncle, so we drove out to their new land and saw their cows and longhorns. The kids thought it was pretty cool and loved riding in the back of the truck as we drove closer to the cows. There were a lot of baby calves too which was awesome. Some of them were really loud as they "mooed." The kids also enjoyed the rides on the four-wheeler with my cousin, Katrina. Her son Bert loved having the girls to show around his new house and new land. It was really cool. I just kept thinking, Tyler would love this!

The girls did get to take their usual trip to Jump for Joy, which is a room full of bounce houses. I didn't get any good pictures there though. We took another night and decided to try roller skating. Because our spring break did not line up with Wichita Falls' spring break, we were practically the only ones skating at the rink because they were all still in school. That made it a lot easier for us since the girls were still learning the basics of balancing and not falling down. 

After our somewhat successful attempt at ice skating last Christmas, I thought that roller skating would be easier since it's not as thin of an edge to balance on, but the skates were still pretty tricky for the girls. They did keep trying and never gave up and I think enjoyed it overall. Tessa was funny because she would catch herself from falling and kept her balance pretty well, but she couldn't control her speed. She would get going so fast and then almost fall, but then catch herself which would cause her to go faster still. I would hold her hand and try and keep her from going too fast, but it was like she was pulling me along instead of the other way around. Aubrey got the hang of it too as long as she was holding someone's hand. Luckily Grandma and Grandpa were there to help - Grandpa also in skates but Grandma in her regular shoes which thankfully they allowed on the rink if you were assisting someone else. 

That was pretty much our week. The girls and I were able to go eat lunch with my nephew and niece while they were in school. That was fun to see the differences between their school and ours. We met their pet guinea pig named Tex and loved petting him and feeding him carrots. He is way fluffier than our new guinea pig, Oreo, so the girls liked comparing the two and seeing new ways to handle and feed a guinea pig. We also found out that week that my nephew Matthew and Taylor, who got married a couple years ago, are expecting their first baby in October of this year. We are super excited for them. I also liked teasing Paul and Melody because they are going to be grandparents. And also teasing my parents who will become great-grandparents - kind of unbelievable. The day we left to drive home, the girls each had to take a turn on Grandpa's motorcycle. These two looked really cute with his helmet and glasses on too. 

Taryn could barely reach the handlebars while sitting on the seat, but she had to have her turn and give it a try.

We took an entire day to drive home, but we met up with the Kasallis family who was driving home from the Fort Worth area too. Since both of our husbands stayed in El Paso to work, we decided it was a smart plan to caravan home so we wouldn't have to make the long drive alone, but we also wouldn't have to pay for the husbands to fly back to drive with us. It was win-win for everyone. The kids took turns rotating between the two cars and riding with their friends, so that kept everyone happy and was less stressful for me and Audrey who had to do all the driving. It actually worked out really well. We met up with the dads for dinner as we pulled into town and that was the end of our successful spring break.

The week following our spring break, the girls were back in school, but our friends, the Cains, from church were leaving to move to Hawaii. We had a couple last game and dinner nights before they left and on our final one, we took some pictures. Here I am with Tovi.

 Here are all our girls. Even though none of our girls are the same age (they flip flop every year), they all got along so well and we loved hanging out with them. We're going to miss them a lot while they are enjoying the Hawaiian life.

Their youngest daughter, Lanie, was probably Taryn's best friend that's a girl. She, Lanie, and Elle had a play group every week. Even though Taryn was a year and a half younger than Lanie, and a year younger than Elle, they all loved playing together. This was the last picture I took on their final playdate - sweet girls.

It's Like We Were Just Here...

The weekend after Aubrey's birthday, we decided to head out to California again because Tyler had a four-day weekend and the girls had Monday off for President's Day. We had our free tickets to Legoland to use before the end of March and our friends, the Kasallis's, had free tickets to Disneyland, so we planned our trip together. They were able to leave before us, so we didn't caravan there. Tessa had her 2nd grade program the Thursday night before that weekend, so we ended up staying for that and then driving to Yuma AZ. We got to that hotel around 2:00 in the morning, but Tessa was happy that she didn't miss her program after having practiced for it for weeks. We ended up doing Legoland on Friday while the Kasallis family went to Disneyland. It was pretty busy at Legoland, so we went to our favorite rides first like the Fairy Tale Brook. It was a short line, which didn't last long.

The Sky Cruiser, our most favorite ride, had the longest line like usual. The girls played with the Legos while Tyler and I waited in line. They met some friends and worked together to build the longest train using car Legos. This red and yellow line was the train and it went around the entire playground. The ride itself was just as fun as we remembered it being from last time.

Dad got a turn on the Beetle Bounce this time and I caught a picture while I waited in line for the Lost Kingdom Adventure ride. 

The Dune Raiders slide was one ride we went on last time and really liked, but with all 6 of us going at the same time, no one took a picture. So this time I made Tyler and the girls go again so I could get a picture and video. They decided to race, but unfortunately since Tyler had to push Taryn off, he was the last one down. Tessa was the winner, but Abby loved her pose as she slid down.

The Coastersaurus was a roller coaster that we took Tessa on last time and she refused to go on another one because she didn't like it. It was our last ride from our last trip so it was dark and I think my camera was dead by then. I stayed out with Taryn and Tessa this time while Tyler took Aubrey and Abby. I tried to get a picture of them, but my camera's delayed shot time was too slow for the fast coaster. In this picture, they are in the last cart where the sun is shining through but you can barely make out Tyler's purple shirt and Abby in the very back.

I tried to plan ahead and press the button early for this next shot, but it was too early and I only caught Aubrey on the very far left of the picture. It was the best I could get, but at least it was something. 

Most of our other rides I already had pictures from our first trip, so we just enjoyed the rides and time together as family. It was fun to not feel rushed since we had done so many of the rides previously, so we just hit our favorites one more time and then called it a day. We headed up to our hotel in Anaheim and waited for the Kasallis's to finish their day in Disneyland. We were staying in the same hotels for the rest of the weekend, and our girls were so excited to see them. Our hotel had a rooftop heated swimming pool which the girls were excited to try. The bad part was it definitely wasn't heated. It was pretty cold, but the girls enjoyed swimming anyway. The Kasallis family came back in time to swim with us and then we found a nearby IHOP for a late dinner.

The next morning we were all headed to Disneyland together. We walked from our hotel to the park, but we grabbed one picture in our lobby before heading out the door. We were all ready for this adventure. 

We had to wait at the entrance to the park for everyone to catch up. It was taking so long, that the kids decided to do a little meditation. We decided to go into California Adventure first. Our family had not gone to CA adventure when we came in December, so the girls were excited to go on some new rides.

We went straight to the Toy Story ride because it was our favorite ride when we came in 2012 and everyone loved it. Then we took turns going on the bigger roller coaster. While the dads took the older kids, Audrey and I went with the little kids on the carousel. We got our turn next on the roller coaster and the older kids got to go twice. It was Abby's first upside-down roller coaster and she loved it. I think having AJ and Logan, the older boys, pumping her up to go made it easier for her to be daring enough to try it.

We all rode the huge Mickey Mouse Ferris Wheel next. We split into two groups - the ones who wanted a tilting car and the ones who wanted a stationary one. The awesome part was after waiting in two separate lines, we still ended up in cars right next to each other, so that was fun. Tony had the honors of going with all the older kids on the tilting car. Aubrey was a little nervous in that one, but I think after a quick cry, she decided it wasn't too bad. 

 Tessa, Teagan, and Taryn were in the stationary car with Audrey, me, and Tyler. Since there were three adults in our car, I had Audrey take a picture of me and Tyler together.

I caught these pictures of Aubrey and Tyler on the Jumpin' Jellyfish ride. We had never done this ride before and even though the youngest ones were too short, the rest of the kids and dads gave it a go. I liked all the pretty colors even though the sun shining through was making it hard to take good pictures.

For the little ones, we spent some time in Bug's Land. I tried to get a picture of everyone since with all 12 of us, we took over the entire caterpillar. Taryn and I led the way in the front of the caterpillar. I thought it was funny how Sam photo bombed our selfie picture. 

We also took turns going on some of the Cars Land rides and the Tower of Terror with the older kids. Too bad we didn't get any pictures in Cars Land because the Radiator Springs Racer ride was a favorite for a lot of the kids. During those trips anyway, whoever had the little ones rode more Bug's Land rides. Audrey and I split up to take the 5 youngest kids on Flik's Flyers. Neither of us are big on the spinning rides, so we got a little nauseous on this one, but we each took pictures of our little riders that we sat across from.

Audrey and I took our turn on the Tower of Terror with the three older kids who had already gone on it once with Tyler and Tony. Audrey took a picture of the tv screen shot of our photo. We were all definitely screaming from all the up and down dropping from the ride. It was pretty crazy. Aubrey was debating on trying it since Sam liked it, but we thought it might be too scary for her and after I rode it, I think we were right. I think she definitely enjoyed the kiddie rides much better. The sad part was as we got off the ride, we passed by Sofia the First and got to give her a high five. So all the little kids missed seeing her and they were the ones who would have loved that, not the older kids. Oh well.

I knew that we had to see Elsa and Anna during this trip. We had missed seeing them by two days in December because they had just been moved from Disneyland to California Adventure. We got fast passes so that we wouldn't have to wait in line and it was awesome. We waited like five minutes at most. They were so friendly and loved talking to all the kids. They got down on their level and really made them feel special.

They gave them each hugs and the kids were just in awe, barely saying anything as Elsa and Anna talked to them. Anna was the most animated, and was just like the Anna from the movie. She even spent some time teaching the kids how to throw a proper snowball. It was pretty funny.

After all that time hanging out and visiting, we finally got some official pictures with them. The kids were so excited. I think Audrey and I were too. It really was pretty awesome to meet them in person.

We finished off our day in Disneyland and we found some people at the entrance to take our picture all together. This is one of my favorite pictures because we are all together and I don't think we've ever gotten pictures at this iconic spot before so that was awesome to me.

The next day was Sunday and we split up from the Kasallis family for the morning. Tyler and I wanted to go to church in our old ward in Diamond Bar, so we got up early and headed up there. We drove around our old neighborhood and apartment complex where we lived while Tyler went to Optometry school. It was fun to see everything again and reminisce. I realized how old we must be getting because I was excited to show everything to the girls, but they didn't seem to care all that much. I remember feeling the same way when my parents and grandparents did that when I was a kid, but at least Tyler and I enjoyed it. We had been in contact with our friend Jennifer who used to babysit Abby when she was a baby, so we met up with them at church and sat behind them. It was fun to see people who were still in the ward. There were more families that I recognized then I thought there would be. The coolest part for me was when I figured out that the youth speaker who was probably 16 or so was the same girl who used to be in one of my primary classes back like 10 years ago. It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but it really has been and the time has just flown by. Jen had me take a picture of her and Abby so she could show all of her kids and she sent me a copy. We love that family!

After church, we found a park while we waited to meet up with the Kasallis family. They had gone to a church closer to Disneyland and we ended up meeting up at Huntington Beach.
At the park, I took a couple of pictures while Tyler pushed all four girls on the tire swing. 

Both of our families switched to another hotel closer to Huntington Beach, which was the beach we used to go to all the time when we lived in California, so it was fun to be there again and remember all the fun times we had there. It was a little windy and chilly in the water, but the kids had fun searching for shells, playing in the sand, and throwing balls. Here are the pictures Audrey and I took. 

We also cooked hotdogs on the beach and then stayed up late in our hotel playing games and talking. We really had a great time together. We drove home the next day but didn't really caravan that time either because they stopped to see family in Pheonix and we stopped in Tucson to see our friends Berkley and Meredith Hall. Besides the driving to and from separately, it was our first trip with friends and we thought it was such a success that we want to do it again in the future. We love our family vacations and we love our friends. It was an awesome weekend!