Halloween 2016 and More Volleyball

The end of October brought Halloween and all the festivities that go with it. I was slow on the costume design this year and as we made a calendar for 2017, I didn't have any Halloween pictures yet. So, we dressed up the girls quickly to take one picture to include in that calendar. This is that picture. Aubrey's costume was still an unknown at this time, so she willingly dressed up to be Taryn's sidekick horse just for this picture.

Abby had her costume planned out for weeks. She wanted to be a female version of the Joker. We had to be creative with our materials, but she was happy with how it all turned out. 

Our ward party was a blast. Abby even brought three of her friends from school. I grabbed some pictures of Tessa and Taryn as we waited for the girls to come out of their house. Tessa dressed up as Ginny from Harry Potter because Logan Kasallis, her good friend from down the street, was going as Harry. They unfortunately lost their Gryffindor ties, so we weren't very accurate with the Ravenclaw tie, but Tessa didn't mind. 

Taryn knew early on that she wanted to be Sheriff Callie for Halloween. It was perfect since we already had the pink cowboy hat and pink boots. My favorite comment from her as we found all the costume items was when she said, "Mom! What about my noodle? I need that to be Sheriff Callie." After some thought, I realized that she meant the lasso. Luckily, Tyler knows his knots and made a perfect lasso for her. They loved lassoing the stair knobs and anything else they could toss the lasso around.

With only a few days to spare, we finally picked a costume for Aubrey. We decided on an emoji and she picked the winking one with its tongue sticking out. With a few yellow items and sewing on some felt, we were good to go. For a homemade costume, it turned out to be one of my all time favorite costumes. She even already had the perfect yellow shoes and she was all about painting her face yellow and posing just like the emoji for most of the pictures.

The ward party had a fun backdrop to take pictures with. Here are all four girls together and then one with Abby and her friends, Cindy Renee, Hope, and America.

Taryn was my best model at the photo spot during the ward party. It was a really fun night. They had face painting, carnival activities, and a jump house. And we finished it off with the trunk-or-treat, so everyone left with a ton of candy. 

On Halloween night, we trick or treated with the Kasallis's and the Williams, another family from church. You can't see very well, but even the Kasallis's dog, Roscoe, was dressed up as a ghost with a sheet over him. He's right next to Tessa. I took this picture to send to Tyler who was working out of town that week and missed out on the trick-or-treating walk. 

We also had to make a stop at Tessa's teacher's house. She had special treats for her students if they came by on Halloween night. It was the huge chocolate muffin dessert complete with gummy worms that Tessa's holding. We saw some other teachers from school there too, and grabbed this picture with Tessa's teacher, Mrs. Hingst, and one of Abby's old teachers, Ms. Demore, who we love. The girls liked the scary decorations that were all around Mrs. Hingst's house included the scary guy who photo-bombed our picture.

And finally, I wanted to add a few more pictures of when we coached another season of girls' volleyball at the YMCA this fall. We had a fun time and I still love that it's something that Tyler and I can do together. There are a lot of repeat girls, and it's fun to see them interact together and get better at volleyball. Here are a few pictures the girls took with my phone at their last practice. The first picture, from left to right, is Samantha, Veronica, McKenzie, Gigi, and Abby. The second picture is Abby, Valentina, and Devry.

Here are the two teams that we coached this season.

We'll keep coaching as Abby finishes 6th grade and gets ready to try out for the school team in 7th grade. We have fun and we all love volleyball!

Sept. and Oct. Happenings Including Taryn's Birthday

September and October passed quickly. Here are the highlights. It begins with a baby deer. One day I was cleaning my pool when Teagan stopped by and said there was a deer in his pool and that his mom needed help. And sure enough, after following him home, Audrey was attempting to help a baby deer get out of her pool. It just kept swimming around, and when it'd finally find the stairs to get out of the pool, it would just run scared, get stuck in the fence, and eventually fall back into the pool, where the process started over again. After corralling it towards the stairs and opening all the gates wide, it finally found its way to the front yard, and it was gone. It was super crazy and a fun story to share with everyone else.

The majority of this post is all about Taryn! She's our spunky, happy child who turned 5 on October 14th. She was looking forward to her birthday for so long, that when September 14th hit, we decided to start a count-down chain since her birthday was only a month away. She loved tearing off a circle every morning when she woke up. Her sisters made sure she never forgot too.

Because she turned 5, I spent the weeks leading up to her birthday creating a photo book that would be one of her birthday presents. I had to covertly take some current pictures of her to include in the book, so here are some of those. We just love this girl. This year, since the girls have gone back to school, Taryn and I have been spending time going through a book that teaches you to read in 100 lessons. It's been fun to have something to work on together, and she's learning so quickly. I love hearing her sound out words and hearing her read the silly stories in her book.

Here's a picture that is currently my wallpaper on my phone because I love it so much. I love all of their smiles and just how cute they look in their coordinating black color Sunday dresses. 

We love having Grandma and Grandpa living so close to us. Taryn and I spend a lot of time with them. One day, we went over to can salsa together using my garden tomatoes. It was such a fun thing to be doing with my mom. While we made a mess in the kitchen, grandpa got to entertain Taryn. She loved playing in the "music room," especially on his steel pan. She loved that she could play the notes and make pretty sounds. I loved how a couple days later, when we heard a song on the radio, Taryn said, "hey, that sounds like Grandpa's steel pan." I was so impressed, because that's exactly what was being played on that song. It was so cool. 

For Taryn's birthday, She opened a big present that was a new Lego/car table. She was even more excited because she got to help dad put it together. 

We had Grandma and Grandpa and the Kasallis's over to celebrate her birthday. She opened a lot of fun things including new playdoh and art supplies, shopkins, her photo book, and a new game called Enchanted Tower. I also made her a crocheted blanket in the shape of a mermaid's tail. I thought it turned out pretty cute and all the girls loved it.

We sang happy birthday and had a lemon cake that the Kasallis's donated for her birthday cake. She blew out the candles pretty fast, but only after Tyler grabbed her hair, so it didn't get caught in the flames. 

Another thing about Taryn is that we've decided she's our sensitive child. She cries a lot during sad movies, songs, and commercials. And we're talking like inconsolable crying because she is so sad. We have even had a lot of conversations about how when she goes to school next year, I'll be home by myself, and she gets very distraught and cries because she doesn't want me to be alone. She's so sweet and really recognizes the feelings of others. She's very in tune with her emotions and the emotions of others. I am going to miss having her with me next year. She's going to do great at school, but I've gotten used to having her tag along with me everywhere I go. She loves to tell anyone and everyone that she's 5 and pretty much grown up now. We just love this girl and her fun, outgoing personality.

Happy Birthday Taryn!

Labor Day Weekend and Chloe's Baptism

Right after school starts, we come upon Labor Day rather quickly. We usually switch between going to San Antonio and having Scott and Nevla travel here, but with all their babies, they haven't been able to travel as easily as us. Plus, this Labor Day, they planned Chloe's baptism because she had just turned 8! So, we spent the weekend down in San Antonio with all the family. My parents had even picked up Grandma Solheim, so she got to see our houses in El Paso and be with us for the weekend. They also blessed baby Alexa since all of the family was together anyway. It was the day for their stake baptisms, so we met in the chapel with all the children in their stake who were getting baptized. We separated on our own after the baptism for the rest of the program. Chloe asked if I'd give the talk on the Holy Ghost. I realized that I hadn't ever given a talk at a baptism before, but it was fun to plan. I used a lot of objects that symbolized names for the Holy Ghost and gave them all to her after I was done. I thought it went pretty well. After the entire program was over and Chloe received the Holy Ghost and Alexa was blessed, we took a lot of pictures. Here's the new family of 5. Just this past week, Nadia was officially adopted by Scott and Nevla, so we can now include pictures of her. For a long time, while she was still in the foster care system, we weren't allowed to post pictures of her, but we've been taking them, so I'm so excited to finally include her in all our family get togethers. 

Here's the picture of my family with mom and dad, and Grandma Solheim. I love these multi-generational pictures. We also took one of just the girls - 4 generations!

Grandma Solheim with all the great-grandkids from my mom's side, except for Matthew. Cute kids! 

And here are the three sisters together. I love this picture! All my girls spent a lot of time fighting over which baby they could hold, so we had to work out a system for who got to hold which baby when. Aubrey was adamant that she get her turn holding Nadia. 

Tyler loved taking his turn holding the babies too. Alexa was so tiny compared to 10-month-old Nadia. Tyler was the best at getting Alexa to sleep and holding her while they both napped. This was one of his favorite things to do with our babies too. 

Tessa and Taryn each had their turns holding baby Alexa too. She was just so adorable and snugly. 

Abby must have spent her time playing with and taking care of Nadia, who she's always had a special connection with every time we visit. I must have not taken any pictures of them together, but here's one with Aubrey having a turn holding Alexa. We also celebrated Grandma Solheim's 87th birthday while we were all together too. Her birthday was Sep. 3rd, the same day that Chloe was baptized and Alexa was blessed. I love how I caught her right about to blow out her candles. I love my grandma! 

At one point of the weekend, Taryn grabbed my phone and started taking pictures of people and random things. I saved the best ones. I love these because I don't have many pictures of Nevla or Paul, especially smiling, and especially smiling while wearing a tiara. :) Seriously, my family is so awesome.

On our last morning, Tyler picked up donuts and I realized I hadn't taken that many pictures of the girls just playing together, so I at least grabbed this one as they enjoyed their breakfast. We love visiting Scott and Nevla, being with family, and supporting them during their big events like baptisms, blessings, and birthdays. It was a great weekend.