Abby's First Temple Trip

Before I get to the annual school-year posts, here's a post from April of things we did that month. The main event was Abby's first temple trip to do baptisms. It was also my and Tyler's first time to go to the Juarez Mexico temple, which is our temple. I made sure that we had our passports ready so that I could go with Abby during her first time. We had even found our own names through FamilySearch.org of my relatives on my mom's side to do the baptisms for. It was awesome! Here's Abby with her two Beehive buddies: Carrie and Braelinn.

We left our church to caravan at 4:45 in the morning so that we were getting to the temple around 6 in the morning. After we were finished with the baptisms, we took pictures outside of the temple. However, the sun is just coming up, so the best pictures with the temple in the background had the people in the picture staring directly into the rising sun. Here's the entire youth group that went that morning. 

Here's a picture of all the young women who were at the temple. I was able to leave my other girls sleeping at home because of my friend and visiting teacher, Heather, who came and stayed with them when we left so early in the morning. What a great visiting teacher! 

With it being Abby's first temple trip, I was able to tag along and watch. Tyler, now with a calling in Young Mens, would have gone either way. He was able to do the baptisms for Abby, so that was an extra special treat. We took pictures of just the three of us before we left to drive home as well. It was an amazing experience, and I can't wait to continue doing the work for my ancestors and going back to the temple to do it.

After driving back from the temple, we went straight to our volleyball games at the YMCA. I coached the games in my skirt that day, which was fine. The funny thing was, the dress that Taryn picked to wear that same day made her my twin. I had to take a picture. Aren't we just so cute? :)

Also in April, one of our Additional Relief Society Meetings was a painting class. Dee Bowden, from the 5th ward, came and taught the class and we all left with our own versions of this flower. It was so fun hanging out with the ladies and learning a new skill. All of the paintings turned out unique and beautiful.

Aubrey loves to have her picture taken. One day while at the Kasallis's house, our friends the Andersens stopped by with their brand new puppy, Leia. Aubrey took a turn holding her and had to have her picture taken with her. It's a cute picture because as we see puppy Leia growing, we can remember how tiny she once was. 

Easter Sunday was spent at church and with the Kasallis's after church. We had our annual Easter egg hunt and dinner with them. It was a fun time, until they were playing in the backyard when Aubrey got hit by the swing which knocked her back into the rock wall behind her where she hit her head. She got a decent cut, but we just applied pressure and decided she didn't need to go into the doctor's office. Luckily, she didn't mind the pigtails so we could keep an eye on it as it healed. Poor thing. 

April also included a city event through the YMCA, so Tessa and Aubrey prepared all month for a performance with their gymnastics class. Taryn continued her classes in gymnastics and ballet as well even though she didn't perform. I wanted to get some cute pictures of Taryn doing ballet, but the only time I remembered to pull out my phone for a picture was when they were stretching. 

The city event was held at the Chihuahuas baseball stadium and it was a Healthy Living event with performances by different groups and lots of vendors selling their products. We walked around the vendor booths playing activities and getting free goodies. The girls had their picture taken with these beauty queens at the end of the vendor row. 

Tessa and Aubrey performed a gymnastics routine with their Rollers 1 class to the song Thumbs by Sabrina Carpenter. It was choreographed and they loved practicing it at home. 

It had fun dance moves and a lot of tumbling including a little solo done by each girl. Both Tessa and Aubrey are awesome at back walkovers now and have perfect cartwheels and round-offs. They had a fun time performing, and they did a great job. They finished off the routine by doing some tricks with the trampoline which included front flips off the tramp with the help of their coach, Sean. They all did so well. Both girls really love gymnastics and are doing so well at learning new tricks.