We always talk about how Taryn is just like Abby's mini-me. They have the same dark brown eyes, the same shade of hair, and Taryn looks just like how Abby did when she was younger. Abby was resting next to the sleeping Taryn on the couch one night, and I saw how similar they really look, so I took this picture. My babies!
In September, the girls and I went to the Women's broadcast session of General Conference. Ladies in our ward always go out to dinner afterwards and this time we chose Independent Burger. Their patio area has games and activities for the kids while the moms got to relax and visit. Here's Tessa with her friends Olivia, Rianne, and Mileah. Abby sat with the older girls at their own table. Here she is with Jess, Kate, and Braelinn.
We had a waitress take a picture of the mom table. I love my friends. We always have such a good time together. Aubrey and her friend, Lexi, made this huge tower out of blocks and Lexi's mom took a picture and sent it to me. Taryn loves these nights too because she gets a daddy-daughter date since she's the only one too young to attend the meeting.
On September 11, 2017, on my dad's birthday, Scott and Nevla's baby boy was born. They named him Daniel. After all the granddaughters, it's been so fun to finally have another grandson. He's so cute! Scott and Nevla, after adopting Nadia, were also placed with Nadia's biological sister, Haylee. They hope to be able to adopt her too, but until that is final, I can't post any pictures of her online. However, we love to go visit them and see all the babies. Nadia turned two in October and Haylee turned one. And then they have Alexa who had turned one in July and then Daniel born in September. So they have four babies basically under two. Their hands are full and their house is like a daycare, but those babies are loved and they have their schedule down to a science. We love visiting them and holding babies. I love my nieces and nephew!
We still have deer visitors in our backyard. One day I came home to find this deer napping in my yard. It scared me at first because I had been sitting watching tv for awhile before I noticed him move. He hung out for awhile and I took some pictures because his antlers were so weird - one pointing up and one down. After showing the girls the pictures, we tried to come up with a name for him, but I don't think we ever did. Maybe crooky or something. We'll definitely be able to recognize him if he ever stops to visit again.
Taryn turned 6 on October 14th. Since it was an even-number birthday, she had her first official birthday party with friends. She decided on Chuck E. Cheese and she invited some of the girls from her kindergarten class, plus some friends from her church primary class. Here are pictures from that fun day.
Taryn has two sets of twins in her kindergarten class this year. One set of boys and one set of girls. The girls, Isabella and Alyssa, are some of her closest friends. She also always likes to have dad help her on the games to win lots of tickets.
We did the whole party with hostess thing. The kids had a blast. They got pizza, cupcakes, dippin dots ice cream, all you can play games, and the chance to meet Chuck E. Cheese.
Taryn was not scared of Chuck E. and was more than willing to give him a high five and have her picture taken with him. We sang happy birthday to her and she blew out the candle on her cupcake. Chocolate with pink frosting, just like she had requested.
Here are all the kids from Taryn's party having their picture taken with Chuck E. Cheese. She had Cassidy, Presley, Aubrey, Sam, Tessa, Teagan, Gabby, Alyssa, and Isabella. They even got to pull a pinata. They took turns pulling strings until someone pulled the right one which ripped open the pinata. Taryn was the lucky one who opened the pinata on like her 3rd time around pulling strings. That was awesome.
The coolest part of her party package was when she got to take a turn in the ticket blaster. The wind turns on and blows tickets all around and you have to try and collect as many as you can by catching them out of the air. The first picture was when the hostess was telling her what to do as she got ready. The second picture was during her time and you can see that she got the big ticket which was worth 500 tickets! Watching the video, it's like that ticket just flew right in to her hand and she luckily didn't let go. She said it was a lot of fun, and we all loved watching her in there. She had the best birthday ever and we loved being able to enjoy it with friends. Happy birthday Taryn!
Abby decided on our Halloween costumes this year. She planned out the whole thing and helped me cut and paint them all. She decided on Pac Man characters, so Tyler and I were Mr. and Mrs. Pac Man while the girls were the ghosts. They even have names, did you know? Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde. The girls loved painting them, and although they were a little cumbersome as you walked around, we got a lot of compliments at our ward party and when we went trick-or-treating.
We made an extra ghost for Braelinn so that they could have matching costumes for their band concert. Braelinn's sister, Presley, loved to be in the picture too. Tyler and the young men were in charge of a candy walk where they walked around tombstones and were chosen by number based on the death year on each tombstone. The kids thought it was the best, especially because they used glow in the dark glue, a fog machine, and scary music.
Tyler's only wish for Halloween was to host a murder mystery dinner. He found one online that was kid friendly and we put it together with the Kasallis family. There were goblins, werewolves, scarecrows, witches, vampires, mummies, and zombies. The kids had fun dressing up and we all worked together to find clues to find out who the bad guy was. It turned out to be Tony the werewolf, which most people guessed correctly. It was a lot of fun.
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