April 1st was Easter Sunday. We were home watching General Conference, but we did spend some time letting the girls open Easter baskets and dye eggs. I thought it was funny because I had no red dye after using it all on some red velvet recipes, so the color choices to dye eggs was pretty limited. The girls didn't seem to mind and were happy with the activity. We had deviled eggs with our Easter ham meal that we ate with the Kasallis's and ended the day with an Easter egg hunt outside. During that hunt, we even found an actual bird's nest with two tiny eggs in it that the kids spent the next couple weeks watching until two baby birds were born. It was a great way to usher in Spring.
Here are a few pictures of their family and of the kids. I love these people! It was so great to hang out with them all weekend. The kids all did so well even in the cold weather. I was able to help get the babies ready in the temple by dressing them in their white clothes and doing hair.
I was responsible for getting Daniel into his white tux and it was so fun, and different, dressing up a little baby boy. He looked so handsome when he was all the way dressed. I took another picture of us together that night when we all got together for Haley's and Daniel's baby blessings.
We ate out at a pizza buffet for dinner and I got to hang out with Chloe there. We took pictures to send my girls and Chloe and Abby had an emoji war while we were ate dinner. The funny thing was, the weekend of the sealing happened to be a weekend when Abby's tournament was on Sunday, so she didn't even play that weekend. The sad thing is that we never know until the Wednesday of the same week, so there was no way to change our plans and have everyone drive to Dallas. So Tyler and the girls filled their weekend with chores and entertainment which I'll go into more detail in a second. I also took some selfies with Haley after her baby blessing and she was giving the best smiles!
John flew to Dallas too and Paul drove down for the day, so it was fun visiting with my brothers. We took this selfie together after we had been standing around talking for while; and I thought it was pretty cool that our parents ended up unintentionally in the picture too in the background. Too funny! It had been a long time since it was just the four of us and it was fun to visit and catch up, and to just be together.
As for Tyler's entertainment, he decided with the free Saturday that he and Abby would build a chicken coop together since we've been talking about getting chickens for awhile. Abby was going to use the project as one of her personal progress projects and it would be something fun for them to do together. So Tyler and the girls spent the entire morning cleaning up the backyard and getting it ready to house chickens. They then had a birthday party to go to Las Cruces, so the coop didn't get started, but they did stop at a Tractor Supply Company in Las Cruces and purchased four baby chicks, which they brought home and set up a makeshift house for them in my living room. Abby sent a picture to me of the chicks while I was driving home from Dallas. They're so tiny and fluffy and they have to stay indoors for a couple weeks which was why they bought the chickens before the coop was built. Each girl got to pick out and name a chick. Abby picked the yellow one and named her Nugget. Tessa and Taryn picked black ones with a few white marks and named them Thunder and Oreo. Aubrey picked another black one with a black beak and named hers Amber. We've been watching them grow and they're not so tiny anymore. Tyler's about half way finished with the chicken coop and they'll eventually make their home in our backyard. Needless to say Tyler the girls did fine without me at home for the weekend.
Abby's volleyball continued the following weekend. Here's a great picture another parent took of Abby with three of her teammates: Allison, Emily, and Andrea. They love playing and are usually the ones at practice even on their days off. They also became the Fab 4 team that played in the Stars League and still beat teams of 6 with their team of 4.
The second weekend of April, the division that Abby's team usually plays in was going to be on Sunday again. One of Abby's teammates was gone for the weekend, so without Abby on Sunday too, they would have been down two players. So their coach decided to play up a division which happened to be Division 1 which is mostly teams of 17 and 18 year olds. Abby's 13 year old team is technically division 4. They usually play division 3 against 14 and 15 year old teams just to challenge them. This particular weekend, there weren't enough division 2 teams, so since they didn't want to play division 3 on Sunday, that left division 1. The fun thing was the girls got to see some really amazing volleyball players. And because they knew they'd probably lose every game, they were able to just have fun and not stress too much about winning. Here's a picture of the girls getting ready for their first game. They played a little too scared at the beginning and got beat by a team that they probably could have done better against had they not been so intimidated. But by their second game, they were playing hard and having fun.
As parents, our only goal was for the girls to at least score 10 points in each set, which they did. They even ended up with scores like 18 and 17 a couple of times. They really held their own and had fun playing against some really great teams. It was a fun experience and the girls left there feeling like it was a lot of fun and they have a lot to look forward to if they keep playing. It was great.
After that tournament, some of the girls on the team got together to watch a new volleyball movie called The Miracle Season. We ate dinner with Abby at the mall and then left her with the team and some other parents to watch the movie. They took this picture of the girls after the movie. They said it was a good movie and they really liked it. It was a great team bonding weekend.
The month of April also always includes Fine Arts Night at the elementary school. I didn't get any pictures except for this one of Tessa. The 5th graders were able to decorate signs that were placed along the entrance hall in the school. Tessa found the one that she and two of her classmates made together so I could get a picture of her with it. The girls usually also get to display some kind of artwork, but the school's art teacher was out of town and they weren't able to display anything this year. We just spent the evening in the craft rooms where the kids got to make things like maracas, dream catchers, foil art, clay sculptures, and more. They had a lot of fun and I love that they do special nights to celebrate music and art. To add on to that, here's a picture of Tessa with Grandpa at one of their first drum lessons. Tessa has decided that she will do band at Hornedo next year, so Grandpa has started lessons with her so she'll be ahead of the game before school even starts. She's having fun learning the drums and working on a new instrument.
I help Taryn's class in the computer lab about once a month. With the end of school quickly approaching, I decided I needed to take a picture to remember Taryn and her kindergarten class. Here she is in line with some of her classmates. In this picture it's Isabella, Taryn, Gabby, Mason, Aubrey, Cassidy, and Bryn. They are such a cute class and they all get along so well.
Another school post I want to include is this picture of Abby with her BFF, Braelinn. They have joined a school club at Hornedo called the Compassion club. They meet once a week and discuss things they can do to show kindness and compassion to those around them. One activity they did was drawing on the school's sidewalks with chalk. Abby and Braelinn wrote the word compassion really big and their picture was taken and included on the compassion club's Facebook page. We all thought it was a great picture and I was able to save it and use it here. I'm so proud of my girls and all that they do to set good examples at their schools and among their peers.
And back to volleyball, but before it's Abby's team, we had to include a picture of Aubrey's volleyball team. They finished out their league season this month. They only won one set the entire season, but the improvement of every player was obvious. They were getting serves over and having long volleys by the end of the season and they said they had fun. We also kept reminding our girls that they are 3rd and 4th graders playing mostly teams made up of 5th and 6th graders and who have been playing together for at least a year or more, so they should be proud of how well they played and how much they've learned. It was fun for me and Tyler to coach again too. The new season has started and some of the girls have stayed to play again on our team, and we've also added Tessa who's decided to play again. We love volleyball.
With only two in-town tournaments left of the season, Abby and her team really picked it up and played even better than they had all year. Back to division 3, the girls were going undefeated in pool play and this particular weekend, they finally made it to the championship game in the gold bracket. Abby still plays middle hitter and loves it. I love how well she plays and watching her get better and better every week is so fun.
They ended up playing against the Stars 12 team for the semi-finals and our team ended up losing the first set barely, like 25-23. Luckily the girls played hard and ended up winning the 2nd and 3rd sets to make it into the championship game. The girls were so excited because they were finally going to get a medal in the gold bracket. They kept up the momentum and fought hard, but ended up losing in the 3rd set of that championship game. They were even down at one point 8-14 in that 3rd set and came back to make it a close game. But they lost 13-15. It was so close!
The girls still had so much fun and really got to see how all of their hard work and teamwork paid off by getting 2nd place in the tournament. It was so fun to cheer along with the other parents. We took a lot of pictures after they were awarded their medals. The girls even had to have some silly pictures. They really have so much fun together.
Coach Denise took this selfie that turned out really cute even though a few faces got cut off. The girls really earned that medal and had fun playing to get it.
Another Fine Arts moment of the month was when Abby's jazz band performed at their contest. Abby is one of two French horns in their school's top jazz band. They play trombone parts and sit in the middle next to the trombones so it's hard to see her when they perform. But they played really well and ended up with Sweepstakes at the contest, all ones. We are so proud of her and all the talents that she has. Her band director, Mrs. Allen, has decided to have a more traditional jazz band next year, so they won't have any French horns. So this was probably her one and only jazz contest that she'll play in. She had fun learning the music and is happy to tell me that she's better at jazz than me because she can pick up the jazz rhythms faster.
I was able to attend one of Abby's Beehive activities this month and I had a great time getting to know the girls better. They did a skills night where they each shared and taught a skill with the other girls. Some did dance, some did sports, and one even did French while another did cooking. It was so fun to see the girls excel and talk so excitedly about something they're good at. Some of those girls are really shy and hearing them talk about their passions and talents so confidently was really fun to see. I love our youth programs at the church and watching these girls grow into confident, strong, independent young women.
The last weekend in April was Abby's final in-town tournament. Their hot streak of playing hard continued and they went undefeated in pool play again earning their place in the gold bracket.
Luckily, the siblings don't mind hanging out and playing together while their older sisters are playing volleyball. This weekend the girls somehow ended up with clown noses and popcorn to keep them entertained. It was too cute of a picture to pass up.
Here's a final picture I took of the team as they started their final game for the championship again. After getting silver the last week, the girls were really shooting for gold and they continued playing hard. They ended up winning the first set, but then losing the second one. They were tied multiple times in the 3rd set, but ended up losing 14-16 in the end. It was such a great game. They played so hard and had some amazing volleys, hits, and saves. We were sad to not see them get gold, but they were definitely deserving of a medal and they had fun playing.
They even had a fun surprise when Coach Denise came back right before their final game. She had left because she had to work at her other job, but when she got there and her manager saw how sad she was, Denise was able to tell her manager that she had just left her team right before their final game of the season and it was the championship game. Her manager let her leave, so she raced back to the courts and surprised the girls right before they started warming up for the game. It was such a fun surprise. Here's the full team with both coaches, Coach Dawson and Coach Denise. It was a great way to end the regular season and to keep the spirits up for their final out of town tournament the following weekend in Albuquerque for the Regional Championships.
