December flew by to end out the year. The girls were busy with school functions, parties, and activities. I have pictures for each girl, so we'll start with Aubrey. Aubrey loves having her hair done. She usually chooses to braid it after showering so that she can have crimpy hair the next couple days. She also loves to have curly hair when there's enough time to do it. The curls will usually last a couple days in her hair as well. We took a picture of her in front of the Christmas tree on one of her curly hair days. At Fun Fit Friday, I took a lot of picture with Aubrey and her friends. Here she is with Kaitlyn and Riley.
We took some group pictures of the 4th graders as well. Aubrey loves her class and all the kids. They have fun playing together. Aubrey is her class representative this year and she loves making sure that everyone feels included. Her favorite thing to do during recess and PE is gymnastics.
Taryn had her first grade performance in December. She was very excited to sing her songs. Every time she heard one of the songs on the radio, she'd sing along and let everyone know that this was one of her songs from her performance. She wanted her hair fancy to go with her fancy dress.
I took a few pictures before and after her performance with some of her friends. The first picture is with two boys from her class, Hector and Mason. And after the performance, we took this picture of Taryn with two of her closest friends, Alyssa and Isabella, who were in her class last year; but they have a different teacher this year.
I loved that another parent put this picture on Facebook because all of my pictures from the actual performance were from the way back, so the pictures are blurry and grainy. Taryn was front row and did a great job singing all of their Christmas songs.
These are the pictures I took while they were performing. If I looked just right between the arms of other parents, I could get a perfect view of Taryn. And I liked this second picture because of the First Grade sign.
Tessa had to enter the Science Fair this year and decided on a project dealing with magnets and temperature. We took pictures while she ran her experiment and then got a picture the night before the whole board was due. She enjoyed running the trials and putting the board together, but she did not like researching and writing the paper. She also didn't like that her results were not what she expected. We were happy when it was all over; but she did it all on her own, so she was proud of her work.
Here's Tessa with her friend Seki who sang in the Fine Arts concert. This concert included the choirs, orchestra, and honor band. Tessa and I went to support both Seki and Abby who performed with the band. Tessa was sad because the beginner band had not had a concert yet, but her time was coming.
Right before the Christmas break, the band finally had their Christmas concert where all the bands performed. Tessa's loving the percussion section and she loves that her grandpa comes to help in her class almost every day too. She's the only girl in the percussion for beginning band, but she's one of the best players. She played bells on all of the songs at their concert and did a great job.
As I looked for a picture of Abby and Tessa together, I realized I didn't have any from the past year, so I made the girls take a picture together. When they were little, almost every picture was of them together, so I was sad it had been so long. I love these girls. My middle-schoolers.
As usual, Abby was the busiest during the month of December. She had two concerts, the Fine Arts concert with the orchestra and choirs and also the Band Christmas concert. Here's the band and a close up of Abby during their Fine Arts concert.
And here's the only picture I got from their Christmas concert. She's still first chair and this is when they had all the students who made All-Region band stand up.
Abby's club volleyball season had it's big start in December as well. The weekend before their first tournament, they had a team-building party that we hosted at our house. The girls came over after practice and made pizzas and had a spa night.
We did some team building activities like the human knot and they got Christmas gifts. They had fun relaxing and hanging out. They also enjoyed taking pictures. This was one of their favorite team pictures.
The next weekend was their first official tournament. Here are the girls before they started to play and while they were on the court. It ended up being a two-day tournament this year, so Abby only got to play during their pool play on Saturday. The team went on to get first place in the silver bracket on Sunday. It was a great start to their season.
Before the Christmas break, the girls also had a Secret Santa gift exchange. These girls really get along and just have fun whenever they're together. We're excited to see how the season goes.
Abby's 8th grade volleyball team had one last hurrah on the last day of school before the Christmas break. It's tradition for the 8th grade team to play the Hornedo staff in a volleyball game every year. I caught the very end of the game. They ended up losing the first set to the staff, but they won the second set. There wasn't enough time for the third set, so it was probably better to just end it by saying they each won one. They had fun playing and Abby enjoyed being with that team one last time.
Abby turned 14 on December 19th. She received a ton of gifts and treats from friends at school. Her friend, Emily from volleyball, secretly decorated Abby's room while we took her out to dinner and shopping. She came home that night to find this. Emily had set it up with me, so Abby had no idea that she'd find this. She was super excited and loved it. She even slept on the futon in the other girls' room for a couple of nights because she didn't want to disturb the decorations.
For her birthday, her number one wish list item was a phone. We kept telling her that she probably wouldn't get one, so she was definitely shocked when she opened up her gifts and saw that she did get a phone. It was probably the best reveal and reaction you would expect. She just kept looking back and forth at Tyler and the phone with her mouth wide open. She loves it.
Abby requested a German chocolate cake using my Grandma Jeanne's recipe. She also was quick to remind me how she didn't get a cake last year, so I'd better not jip her this year, so I made her the cake she requested. I can't quite believe I have a 14-year-old. She's so grown up, but I love how we're friends and we can talk about anything. She's a good big sister and great help whenever we need her. We love this girl. Happy birthday Abby!
Here are a few last things from December before our Christmas travels. I was asked to play with the wind symphony again this season. And I was asked to play in every concert. Our first concert is always in December and is our Christmas concert. The older girls came to my concert while the younger girls stayed home with Dad who had a campout with his scouts in the backyard. But I loved that we were able to get a closeup picture of the horn section. I really enjoy being able to continue playing my French horn. We have a lot of fun.
The young women in our ward had a Christmas activity to see the lights downtown. It was cold by fun. Abby ends up missing most Wednesday night activities because of volleyball practice, but I was able to go since my calling has me working with the Beehives. We have a great group of girls and wonderful leaders.
Our ward Christmas party was a pajama party with Santa Claus this year. Abby decided her matching pajamas didn't fit anymore, but we did get this picture of the girls with Santa. I helped with the decorations and everyone had a great time as we had a breakfast for dinner with Santa Claus. I thought this picture turned out really cute. It was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit as the girls finished up school and got ready for the Christmas break.
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