Aubrey's been taking ballet classes since April and she was finally recommended for pointe shoes. We went to a special dance store where she was fitted and she came home with pointe shoes and all kinds of accessories. She's super excited. I had to get some pictures of her on pointe. Leeno wanted to be in the picture too.
The Franklin band was going to miss their last home game due to area competition in Odessa, so they quickly put together their senior night at their last home game. I watched from the stands as they took a lot of pictures. Tessa loves Gisele and got some cute pictures with her. They also took a complete percussion section picture. The seniors got to wear crowns, tiaras, and sashes even when they marched.
Tessa loves these seniors. They took this cute picture of the four percussion seniors holding up Tessa. It's Donny, Andres, Gisele, and Devin. Tessa has gotten really close with all of them and loves her percussion friends.
The student section at football games have dress up themes. Abby, as senior class president, helps decide what those themes are and makes the instagram posts to get the word out. This football game had a toga theme. Abby got some pictures with her friends. Here she is with Selma and then with Braelinn. Abby has fun sitting with the students in the student section. They really go all out to dress up and cheer on their football team.
As October came to an end, Abby's volleyball games were coming to an end as well. One of her final home games had another cheering section just for Abby. It was some of her boys from her junior powderbuff team. They came to cheer on Abby so I had to get a picture after the game. Their last away game was at Eastwood and Abby didn't get to play at all. The coach was back to feeling like they needed to play a 5-1 and Abby was not setting. It was sad because Abby knew it was one of the final games and when she played, she did well. It was hard for her to be benched. She was happy enough to smile for my picture from the bench, but when the game was over and I met her on the court, she ran into my arms and started crying. I knew she was sad, but didn't realize how hard it was on her until she cried in front of everyone. Tyler and I gave her some encouraging words and we walked out of their with our heads held high, but it was a rough game.
Crumbl Cookie is a yummy cookie company that we enjoy when we're in Utah. A family in our ward moved from Utah and opened some Cumbl locations in El Paso this year. In October, they opened their location closest to us on the west side. We love their cookies and we had to support them on their opening day. We ran into a lot of friends while we were there and I took some pictures.
We held a stake dance in our pavilion and the youth committee planned some activities in between songs. Tessa was chosen to participate in the donut on a string competition. They had a fun time as they danced and did activities.
The senior moms spent some time in the locker room decorating the girls' lockers. We all gathered fun decorations and Franklin colored items and put it all together to decorate all the senior lockers. Abby's locker was right next to Bre's and we loved how they turned out. It was a surprise to the girls. They didn't know we had been going to the locker room in the evenings. The freshmen and JV volleyball teams also created a lot of signs that they used to decorate the gym for senior night. I loved this poster with all of the senior girls on it.
Before the game starts, they also do a little presentation on each senior as she walks out with her entire family. Tessa had band rehearsal, but she was able to sneak away for a little bit so she could be there for the walk as well. While we waited our turn to start our walk, we took a family picture.
Abby's very in to the .5 pictures these days which gets a lot more in the picture, but makes her arm look extra long. They borrowed the football team's blow up tunnel that we got to walk through. We were presented as they announced Abby, talked about her accomplishments and then played a quick audio recording that each family sent in. Abby didn't hear it until that night, but she heard from her coaches that it made them cry when they heard it. Each of the girls plus Tyler and I talked on the recording and shared our thoughts and feelings about Abby.
They also were supposed to play a song that the senior chose, but everything was taking too long, so if they played the song at all, it was only like 30 seconds of it. We walked as a family across the court, hugged the coaches, and then Abby was presented with a senior basket from the non-senior varsity players. I was doing fine until I looked over and saw all of the girls crying, which made me cry.
We're so proud of Abby and her volleyball accomplishments, but her senior night was the first big senior event that brought her final year of school to the front of our minds, so it was a little sad. Here she is with the girls who put together Abby's senior basket.
Abby's been a great example to all of the volleyball players. A lot of the underclassmen look up to her so much. I would hear from a lot of them how much they loved Abby, talking about how nice and sweet she always is. Even their parents would always have good things to say about Abby. Some of the freshmen and sophomores wanted their picture with Abby, so I took this one. We took another family picture after the presentation, but Tessa had to rush back to her rehearsal so she's missing in this one.
Abby kept taking pictures with her friends and everyone was having a little too much fun. Abby took this picture on my phone of her and Elina reflected on one of the silver star balloons. She also took this funny picture of Aubrey holding all of the senior basket gifts.
With all of the seniors starting, Abby started in the front row as a hitter and then switched to setter when she went to the back row. Abby got to hit a few balls and even blocked as needed.
Abby wasn't a team captain, but she was one of the biggest cheerleaders of her team. She was always very good at boosting her teammates and picking up the energy whenever she was on the court. I loved watching her play.
One more picture of the seniors including Idaly who didn't play the second half of the season. Bre's mom had made all of the seniors a sash, so the girls wanted to make sure Idaly got her sash.
They ended up winning their game during their senior night and overall ended up as Bi-district champions with Coronado.
This is the main varsity poster for the year and it turned out so good. I love it so much.
I took a picture of the girls after church on one Sunday. I love the closeup pictures of their faces. They always turn out so pretty and I love their smiles.
We also took a selfie picture in the bathroom mirror before church and I thought it turned out so cute. It's one of my all time favorite pictures now. Taryn looks so old and I love how happy everyone looks.
Hornedo had their Halloween band concert and Aubrey was dressed up as a boxer. She put her hair in dutch braids and wore a silky robe. We even ordered inexpensive boxing gloves off of the internet. She looked really cute.
It was a fun concert. I like seeing all of the kids dressed up in their costumes. Aubrey even played some additional songs with their third band, the concert band, because they needed some support in some of the sections. Aubrey had volunteered with some of her friends to learn and play the extra songs.
The final weekend in October was the Area competition for marching band in Odessa. I drove with some other band moms to be there to support the band and cheer them on. We took a mom picture at the hotel after we arrived late in the night. I drove and took Anny and Kelly with me. We stayed in the same hotel as the band kids, but we just followed them around wherever they went.
They had a practice session at one of the local high schools and got to run through the show a couple of times. The other band parents helped load and unload equipment and then watched as they rehearsed. I like getting pictures of the percussion section as I follow them around.
We ate lunch in the parking lot of the high school and the kids got to relax a little. Here's another picture of the percussion section after they ate their lunch. And then I took one of Tessa, Gisele, and JD.
I always like to get pictures of just Tessa and Gisele too. They are inseparable when it comes to band stuff. I also started noticing a pattern whenever I got a picture of Tessa and Gisele. After I took a normal picture of the two of them together, they always posed again with Gisele holding Tessa. They're so silly.
We went to their stadium and they performed. We parents helped get the equipment on the field so we were with the kids until they got on the field and then we would rush up into the stands so we could see the entire show. There were some electronic difficulties during their show, so it didn't go as well as they had hoped. Tessa was very sad afterwards. She said she wanted to feel really good at the end since it was their last performance ever and she said she knew it wasn't their best performance, so she was a little sad that it wasn't left on a high note. But she got a lot of love and support from the directors, other percussionists, and the entire color guard. They started a hug circle and it just kept growing until all of the girl were hugging Tessa. It was pretty cool to watch and made me tear up a little. I love to see the support the band kids give each other.
The band waited in the stands for the results. Only the top 2 bands move on to State. It was so sunny and hot while we waited. I just remember trying to shade myself with my jacket and putting on sunscreen. The kids were in high spirits even though they didn't make the top 2. After packing up, we drove all the way home.
The youth in our ward went on a hay ride for one of their activities. It was a large group and I'm glad I got a picture even though I wasn't there for the actual activity. Another youth night was spent carving pumpkins for Halloween. Here are the young women after they carved their pumpkins - Tessa, Aubrey, Angela, Ashleigh, Amber, Taryn, and Olivia.
For Halloween, the ladies in the office like to dress up together. We decided to do hot sauce packets like they do at Taco Bell. They have silly sayings that go with each hot sauce flavor. We each took a spiciness and then got wigs and clothing to match our color. I was Diablo and my saying was "You had me at taco." Mr. Baldner was supposed to be the taco and we were all the sauces, but his wife ended up having their baby early, so he wasn't on campus for Halloween. So Mrs. Quintanar, the assistant principal, willingly filled in to be our taco. It was fun.
The girls dressed up for Halloween too. For school Taryn was a rocker chick. Our friend, Valerie Beals, helped do Taryn's makeup for the day. I can't get over how old she looks. For trick or treating, Taryn just dressed up as a Hawaiian girl. Abby dressed up as the Joker, Tessa as Winnie the Pooh, and Aubrey as the boxer.
