Abby Turns 11

Abby turned 11 on December 19th. We celebrated by traveling to Oklahoma (see next post). But before that post, here's a post all about our first born. Here's Abby outside the Oklahoma City temple on her birthday.

This semester, Abby played another season of volleyball through the Y. She played in the next age group now that she's in 5th grade, so she was with 5th-7th graders. She still did well and was one of the best servers. By the end of the season, she was even getting some overhand serves over. Her coach, Coach Eric, was the coach for two teams and they practiced every week together. His daughter plays for the high school team, so she was usually there at practices with some of her teammates, which helped the girls advance in their skills a lot, at least when they were being nice. 

I finally got a picture of Abby with some of her team at their last game. Coach Lindsey, the daughter, was the one there for that game. Abby had a lot of fun and we've already signed her up to play for the next season starting in January. 

Abby has become very involved in musical instruments this semester as well. She started taking piano lessons from a neighbor and has really enjoyed it and picked it up quickly. She had her first piano recital the week before her birthday and played two songs. She sounded great. She practices all the time, so she'd better be good. :) She helps babysit her teacher's kids during her teacher's other lessons, so she even pays for her own lessons that way. She wasn't sure if she'd keep doing it next semester since the babysitting and practicing takes a lot of her free time, but after her recital and all the hard work, she's thinking she may stick with it a little longer. Abby has also continued playing the bass at school. She even learned Silent Night on her own so she could play with a church group at our ward Christmas party. She really likes playing and is proud to tell everyone that she's first chair at school.

Abby's orchestra concert at school was held on December 17th. The school cafeteria was packed so I took up my filming spot right behind Abby since she was the front, right person of the whole group. Here she is with the entire 5th grade orchestra. 

Here's just the bass section, all five of them. They all played really well and sounded good considering the majority of the kids have only been playing for about four months. I liked the action shot while she warmed up for the concert. They played a lot of songs - some Christmas and some basic tunes like Twinkle Twinkle. My favorite parts were when they played by sections, so only the basses would play while the other sections either picked out the notes or waited their turns to play.

Here's a picture of Abby with one of her friends, Amy, who plays the cello. And then we took a picture of Abby with her orchestra teacher, Ms. Cedillos.

December 18th was the last day of the school semester. All classes had their Christmas party for the last couple hours of the school day. I was pretty much running Aubrey's class party, but I took some time to go to the other girls' classes to see them and take a few pictures. This is Abby with her home room teacher, Mrs. Ayers. She is also Abby's Math and Science teacher.

I took some pictures with Abby's friends too. The first is with Amelia and Isabel, and the second is with Sophia and Ady. Abby has done really well in school so far. She's had to work extra hard to keep up her good grades, but she did it, making straight As again this semester.

While in Oklahoma City on her actual birthday, Abby was able to open her presents in the hotel with all the family. She got clothes, games, a Pentatonix cd, a movie, and gift cards. She was happy. And we were all happy to be with family. Happy Birthday Abby!