Abby's 7th grade year has kept us very busy. During the first week of school, she tried out for and made the school volleyball team. This year they had A and B teams, and Abby made the A team. We did a little photo shoot once we got her uniform. These were our top favorites.
During the first practices, Abby's coach, Coach Mendoza, saw Abby setting and decided to have Abby be the setter. She made friends quickly with the other girls and loved playing. She was asked to be co-captain with her friend Sophia. Here's some pictures from their first games, one of their team huddle and one of Abby serving.
They stared out the season with a three day tournament. Abby's team ended up losing their first game in three sets. They won the first set, when Abby played, but lost the second set. And they were really close during the third set, but ended up losing. It was a hard loss for the team.
But by the end of the tournament, they were playing for 3rd place overall and ended up winning that game, so they received a trophy. The team was so excited. They started to really work together and play hard together.
Here's Sophia with Abby and the trophy and then one with just Abby holding the trophy. It was a great way to start out the season.
Here are a few more pictures from another one of Abby's games. It was hard to remember to take pictures and videos because I would be watching the game so intently. They traveled around town for a couple of their games and this was one of their away games.
The team's coach encouraged the girls to attend high school volleyball games, so I went with Abby when Coronado HS played Franklin HS. Both of those schools are close to where we live and are rivals with very good volleyball teams. Abby knows a lot of the players as well from attending their summer volleyball camps. I took this picture of Abby with some of her teammates: Sophia, Paulina, Abby, and Andrea.
Abby went to Cindy Renee's birthday party at the beginning of the year. Her mijas still get together although they don't see each other as much since they have new schedules. Cindy Renee and Hope were both on the volleyball team with Abby and Alejandra made the cheerleading team. They still have fun when they get together.
Cindy Renee's mom sent me the pictures they took while at her party. They had a great time.
Abby is in the Honor Band this year at school and started the year as 2nd chair beneath an 8th grader. They had their first fundraiser at Bobo's where I helped collect money, so I grabbed this picture of Abby and her BFF, Braelinn, while they ran around with friends.
The Honor and Symphonic Bands at Hornedo were asked to join the Franklin marching band at one of their football games. They went right after school to practice playing a few songs with the marching band on the field, and then they got to sit with them in the stands and perform with them during the halftime show. Here are all the French horns from Hornedo. Abby's the third from the right. She was embarrassed to have me bother her with taking a picture, but she was happy when she saw how cool it turned out.
Abby met the horn players in the Franklin marching band as they sat mixed in with the high school kids. They had fun playing the fight song after touchdowns and learning all the chants and fun dances that high school marching bands do during football games. It was so fun for me too, since we hadn't been to a high school game in awhile. It brought back lots of fun marching band memories for me. The other girls liked it too because they saw a lot of friends from school who were also there supporting siblings, and they got food from the concessions, which they thought was the best part.
This was the best picture I could get while both bands were on the field. Abby's in there somewhere. It was fun for the kids to see the high school band perform their halftime show and then to go onto the field with them to play. Since I was representing the Hornedo band booster club, I was able to go on the field too and help pass out water and treats to the middle school kids.
During the month of October, for Breast Cancer Awareness, the volleyball team wore pink socks and pink bows. Here are a couple more pictures of their games. Abby always played the first set and with her team almost always won. When she set Sophia, who was their best hitter, they were amazing. Getting the other girls to pass her the ball so she could set was one of their challenges. The second half of the team, who always played the second set sometimes lost their set, so Abby's group would have to go in and try and win the third set. It was very stressful for them and for us to watch, but Abby got a lot of playing time that way. We loved watching her play.
Before the homecoming game at the high school, they always have a parade and the middle school teams who feed into the high school get to participate. The little girls and I met on a corner with a bunch of other people from our ward and watched the parade. There are a lot of youth from our ward and the neighboring ward who were in the parade, so it was fun to cheer for everyone we knew as they passed by and tossed candy. This was the truck that held most of Abby's volleyball team. Even though they were driving slowly, it was too fast for me to find Abby and get a picture of her, but she's in there somewhere.
At Hornedo, they held a pep rally before their last home games for football and volleyball. I was able to go and squeeze in with Audrey and all the students. Abby got to perform in the band and also get recognized with the volleyball team.
Audrey had her good camera with her and took some awesome pictures for me. I love this one of Abby and her horn section.
Sophia got to announce each of the volleyball players and everyone cheered as their names were called. Abby got a lot of loud cheers. She was number 6, which was Tyler's number in sports, and it has become her favorite number just like her dad.
Here's the entire team after they were announced. They had a fun time together and played so well.
The Hornedo bands had their annual Halloween concert and the kids are able to dress up in costume. Abby and Braelinn were Pac Man ghosts and got a lot of compliments from people they passed. They ended up not wearing them when they actually played though because the cardboard was a little hard to maneuver around while holding instruments.
Abby is also playing in the top Jazz Band this year at school. There was a mixup with her schedule at the beginning of the year because she was supposed to be in Spanish, but she decided to keep her schedule as is and she's enjoyed Jazz Band so far. The best part is that she plays her instrument every day instead of every other day, so it's great for keeping her improvement up. The hard part is normally French horns aren't in jazz bands, so she's usually playing trombone music. But her ability to sightread and play different rhythms has greatly increased. Here's a picture of the Jazz Band on the left and the Honor band on the right.
During the school's volleyball season, we kept debating about what Abby would do during the off-season. Talking to other parents, we decided Abby needed to keep playing volleyball, but the YMCA sports weren't going to be enough of a challenge for her anymore. So we ended up joining a club team at Stars. They started practices in November, and played on their league as well to be able to start playing some games even though the club tournaments didn't start until January. Here's Abby and her Stars 13 Blue team during one of their first league games. Because they practice 4-5 times a week, they pretty much annihilated all their league competition, but the games were good practice to get them used to playing together. Abby plays as a middle hitter most of the time, but learns and works on all the positions which will only help her on her future school teams.
In December, the club had their first Christmas tournament. They played all day on Saturday. They play pool games in the morning where they play three other teams and then are ranked from there for the bracket portion of play that takes place in the afternoon. Our girls are the 13s team, but play up at a lot of tournaments and were playing against 14 and 15 year old teams at this tournament. They ended up in the Silver bracket, but that allowed them to play teams more on their level and they were able to win that bracket so they medaled. It was fun to see them play all day and be together with all the other parents watching our girls play together. During this same day, Abby had All-Region tryouts for band. She missed one of the tournament games to try out, but we drove across town where she played three numbers that she had been practicing for months. I sat outside the room where she auditioned and I could tell which one she was when she played for the blind audition. She played really well, but with the tournament, we had to rush back to her games without waiting to see how she did. I received a text from her band director later that afternoon telling me that she had made third chair! They took 20 French horns from all those who had auditioned. Ten for the Symphonic, top band, and ten for the Concert band. And Abby made 3rd chair in the top band. We were so proud of her!
Here's Abby with Braelinn being goofy with some photo props. Abby likes to take funny pictures on her iPod, so I have her send me the ones she really likes so I can include them here.
In December, Hornedo does a Fine Arts Night where the top band, top orchestra, and choir perform together. This was the first time that Abby got to wear her black gown which is their normal attire for band concerts. I grabbed a couple close up pictures before the concert started. Olivia is the 8th grader, first chair player, with Abby in the horn section.
Here's a picture of the entire Honor Band when they performed some of their Christmas concert numbers before the orchestra performed.
Abby's All-Region band had three rehearsals and a concert over the period of one week. At their first group rehearsal, I grabbed a picture from the door while waiting for them to finish. It was a huge band, but so fun for her to be able to play with other great middle school players from the city. Abby was 3rd chair in this band, and her friend from Hornedo, Olivia, was 10th chair, so they hung out together. There were four other Hornedo students in the Symphonic band with them. And there were three other Hornedo students in the Concert band. Nine students from Hornedo had made the All-Region bands. Such a great accomplishment.
The All-Region concert was held on a Saturday night. Abby was hard to see because they had 5 horns in one row and 5 horns in the back row, so she was right in the middle of the first five. Luckily after the concert, they had each row stand up separately starting from the back, so I was able to get a picture of her when she stood up. It was the only time we could see her. Their director was from a middle school in the McKinney, TX area so Abby thought that was cool. All the kids liked him and thought he was very nice and funny.
We purchased Abby a t-shirt and a plaque with her name, so we took these pictures after the concert. We found Olivia outside too and grabbed a picture with the girls together. Even though it made for a stressful week, Abby enjoyed the experience, and we were so proud of her.
Right after Abby's concert, Abby rushed over to Sophie's house where her volleyball team was having fun, bonding activity. Sophie's mom, Marisa, sent this picture to all the parents. They had pizza, visited, and just hung out getting ready for their upcoming busy volleyball season.
During the bands Christmas concert at Hornedo, the students were encouraged to wear Christmas clothes included ugly sweaters. I took just one picture before they started playing, but I had to mention that with her high seating from All-Region, Abby was placed as first chair in the honor band at school. So proud of that girl and all of her hard work!
At the end of the league season which ended right before the Christmas break, they play a tournament. Abby's team placed first in the tournament and got a medal. They took a picture with the second place team who also got medals because they had fun playing together.
I think this was the only picture I took of Abby on her actual birthday when she turned 13. She had regular volleyball practice the evening of her birthday so we didn't get to celebrate until later. We had taken cookies to practice to share with her teammates and she had Braelinn over during the Christmas Break as her "party," but it was a low key birthday even though she became a teenager! We love this girl and how grown up she is. She is almost as tall as me now and is very mature. She's very dedicated to her volleyball and her French horn, but also keeps up with her grades and is very organized in her school work. She's helpful with her sisters and does anything to get time away with Dad because they get along so well. She is an amazing young women and we love her so much! Happy 13th Birthday Abby!!
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