A Birthday Party

In November, all four girls were invited to a birthday party for Santiago, our neighbor. The Kasallis family was invited too, so we all spent the day together at Bob-O's to celebrate. The kids played all the indoor arcade games first, ate pizza, and had a turn playing laser tag. I missed that part because Tyler and I were finalizing the paperwork to buy our new van. Afterwards, we came back and joined the party for all the outdoor rides and attractions. This is where I took all my pictures. All the rides were based on height, so Taryn was limited to which rides she could go on. One was the train, which she rode a lot - by herself and with Teagan.

Another ride that they liked, and the middle kids also enjoyed was the flying bananas.

Tessa, Aubrey, and Sam were tall enough for the next level of rides which included the mini-go carts. Only three could drive at a time, so they grouped up with their friends accordingly.

They were also tall enough for the bumper boats. Taryn and Teagan were tall enough to go as passengers on the bumper boats, but the driver had to be a certain height AND 16 years old. Abby and AJ were tall enough to be their driver, but not old enough, so the little ones were stuck missing out on the bumper boats. They got really wet on this one, so it was probably better.

The big kids, Abby, AJ, and Logan, spent the majority of their time on the regular go-carts. It was the biggest ride there and they were the only ones big enough to drive on their own. Aubrey and Sam each took a turn as a passenger with Tyler and Tony, so they at least got to ride it once.

The little ones talked Tony into riding the spinning cups with them since they were too short to go alone. I was surprised they liked it. I always get so dizzy and sick on the spinney rides. Abby usually does too, but since AJ talked her into going, she went.

The kids did miniature golf too and had so much fun with all their friends. It was probably one of the best birthday parties we had ever gone to. 

I have to include this last picture because it's so cute. I came home from a late meeting and found this in my bed. Taryn usually falls asleep in our bed and then we move her to her own bed. This is how she had fallen asleep this particular night. It was too cute not to take a picture. I love my family! 

Halloween 2015

This year for Halloween, the girls picked separate costumes and decided on their own who they wanted to be. We had a ward party and trick-or-treating, so they had multiple opportunities to wear their costumes. Here they all are at the Ward Trunk or Treat party. I really liked the picture spot they had available for us to use.

Taryn picked Elsa this year and she wore Elsa's coronation dress instead of the more well known ice castle dress. Lots of people thought she was Anna. The funniest story was when an adult said she was Anna and her kid corrected her and told her she was Elsa. Of course all the girls Taryn's age knew the difference in the dresses! 

Another reason Taryn decided on Elsa was because her best friend Teagan was going to be Olaf. At the ward party, the Kasallis's were out of town, so I took a picture of Taryn because she kept saying "where's my Olaf?" I sent the picture to Teagan's mom, and she replied with a video clip of Teagan singing Let it Go because they were currently at a Frozen sing along in Disney World. They at least got to hang out together when we went trick or treating on Halloween night.

Tessa decided to be Merida from Brave because we had the new dress. We looked for an orange curly haired wig, but ended up just coloring Tessa's hair orange instead. It turned out really cute. She posed in the first picture like she's using her bow and arrow. Tessa wanted a picture of her face painting before she had to wash it off. She picked Olaf to be drawn on her face.

Abby's choice this year was pretty funny. She wanted to be a scary ghost specifically based off of a character from one of the Disney shows that the girls watch. On the show, the ghost's name is Abigail and she normally has her hair in front of her face the entire time except for one scene where you can see her creepy eyes and teeth. I was going off of what Abby told me since I hadn't seen their show, but as I described it to one of my friend's, she realized that it was probably based off of a real scary movie called The Ring. I finally watched the kid show that has "scary Abigail" on it, and realized my friend was right. Oh well. We just stuck to telling everyone that she was a ghost. We did face makeup and she picked out her own crazy teeth from the dollar store. 

Aubrey wanted to be a cheerleader, but we had given away all of our cheerleader costumes, so she picked this gymnastics dance outfit instead. We still said she was a cheerleader. The funny thing about her was that she originally wanted to be a zombie cheerleader, which I thought was fun when we told people what she was planning on being before Halloween came. However, as we planned the actual outfits, I tried showing her some pictures of zombie face paintings to see how she wanted her face done, and she decided from those pictures that only boys are zombies so she didn't want to be a zombie cheerleader anymore. Just a regular cheerleader. She did go for a little hair color though after she saw how much hair color we used in Tessa's hair. It worked out and everyone was happy with how their costumes turned out. And I was happy because besides a few dollar store items, our costumes were free this year!

I took one picture on Halloween night as we trick or treated around the neighborhood with the Kasallis boys. They had fun and we got entirely too much candy, but with all the walking we all did, it was okay. It was a great Halloween! 

Taryn Turns 4 and Runs a Book Fair

Taryn turned 4 on October 14th. She is our baby who's not quite a baby anymore. We love her so much. She sometimes talks and acts like one of her older sisters, so it's more like she's 4 going on 14, but she still lets us snuggle with her and she loves to be held (especially if it's to go up or down the stairs!) Here's a little bit about our Taryn:

Taryn has lots of friends. Almost every day she asks whose house she's going to play at today. Her closest friend is Teagan who lives down the street from us and from how often they're together, it's like they're brother and sister. Teagan and his mom went with us to Chic-fil-a for lunch to celebrate Taryn's birthday. Sometimes people mistake them for twins when they're together with only me or Audrey. It's pretty funny.

Taryn is still our pickiest eater, but she loves pizza and for her birthday dinner, she requested pepperoni pizza. She even helped me make the crust. I decided to be creative and write a "T" and "4" to honor the birthday girl. Some of Taryn's other favorite foods: chocolate milk (still), guacamole, eggs, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and cheetos.

All Taryn asked for, for her birthday, was pink gum. She would even tell the grandmas on the phone that's what she wanted. We had to make her think of other things to come up with so we'd have more options. When she talked to Grandma Gibbons on the phone, she named every pink thing she could think of like a pink teddy bear, a pink necklace, a pink barbie, a pink ring, etc. So they sent her an entire package of pink objects for her birthday including a huge pink Care Bear which she sleeps with now and carries everywhere. At one point, Taryn told Tyler that she wanted a pink shirt with an owl on it. Tyler found some dresses online that he purchased for her birthday including this one, complete with the owl. The tub in the first picture is full of pink gum, but she's very good at sharing. We picked out a light up and singing Minnie Mouse to be from Grandma and Grandpa Black since they're in China and can't send presents. She was so happy with every present that she opened.

Taryn asked for bubblegum cake, but when we picked out the mix and frosting at the store, I was very surprised that she picked blue frosting instead of pink. I did my best to create a bubblegum-shaped cake. She was happy with it and she loved the bright colored, fishy-shaped sprinkles. We had the Kasallis family over to help sing to Taryn and to help eat the cake.

Taryn loves to sing and dance. She even knows some songs from the radio that she hears Abby sing all the time and she sings right along. She loves watching shows on Disney Jr, like Sophia the First, Kate and Mim-Mim, Sheriff Callie, Doc. McStuffins, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She loves to paint and color and she's getting really good at writing the letters of her name. She's my little shadow and goes with me everywhere. She doesn't even mind when it's my stuff like volleyball or zumba. She'll even ask, "are we going to exercise class today, Mommy." She plays with friends there and loves all of our activities.

I was in charge of the book fair at the girls' school this year. Taryn tagged along for most of the school trips, but I had set up some playdates so she wasn't dragged to the school every time. She helped me decorate and then posed for my pictures so I could send them to Grandma in China. The theme was Monsters and it turned out so cute. I loved all the monsters we created. 

We had monsters everywhere, from the walls and doors, to the raffle boxes, and even eyeballs hanging from the ceiling. 

One of the volunteer moms took Taryn for a walk to the office once, so Taryn began calling her "the Adventure Lady" because she had taken Taryn on an "adventure." Whenever they were both there together, Taryn would say, "the adventure lady is here." And then she'd immediately go up to her and ask if they could go on another adventure. It was so cute. Everyone commented on how cute the book fair turned out and on how great of a job we did. It was exhausting, but fun; and Taryn was a trooper for always being willing to go and hang out while we worked.

I had to reschedule Taryn's four-year-old well visit with the doctor because it was originally scheduled during the week of the book fair. We went the week after it was over and she did great at her check up. I had warned her that she was going to get shots, which she was not looking forward to; but she did awesome and loved showing everyone her sparkly and shiny band-aids. We got ice cream afterwards as we waited for the girls to get out of school, and by then she was happy again. We had to take this picture and send it to Daddy so he knew how brave she was after getting all the shots.

I still can't believe that my baby is four! She's not a baby anymore! She's my little helper and I love having her with me all day. I don't know what I'm going to do when she starts school and leaves me all alone. I'll just keep cherishing the days we have left together before that first day of school comes. 

Happy Birthday Taryn!

September Happenings

Time sure does fly once school starts. School activities, homework, and PTA volunteering has kept us all super busy. Here's an update of what went down for us in September. Of course, school started. I usually do a blog entry for each girl at the end of the year, but I like to at least include a first day of school picture in the blog at this time of year. So here they are. Abby - 5th grade, Tessa - 3rd grade, and Aubrey - 1st grade.

Over Labor Day Weekend, Scott, Nevla, and Chloe came to visit us. It was fun to play games, hang out, and visit. Chloe wanted to roast marshmallows, so when we started up the firepit, I finally took some pictures. This was the girls making silly faces while eating their s'mores. Scott and Nevla brought their dogs, Dozer and Shyla, with them this time and my girls loved it. We had so much fun with all of them.

Before the weather got too cold, Taryn and I met some friends at a splash pad on the east side. The water was a little cold, but the sunshine kept it warm enough. We even got to meet Tyler for lunch, so that was fun. The girls' school does an annual family picnic and this year it was on Sept 11th. We made it late, but I grabbed a picture while we waited in line for dinner as the firemen were taking down the huge American flag that they had flying for most of the evening. I really liked how the picture turned out.

The girls had picture day at school mid-September, so I always take my own pictures when they're all dressed up. I loved them all, but here are some favorites.

Even though Taryn is not in school yet, she has to have her turn as well. 

September 19th is National Talk Like a Pirate Day and if you dress like a pirate, you can get free donuts. We didn't have enough pirate garb to dress our entire family, so we just dressed up Abby and made her talk like a pirate to get our free donuts. She was all excited to do it as we got ready, but she almost got too shy to go into the store to actually do it. We talked her into it, and she was happy once she ate her donut. It was fun.

September is also our yearly ward campout when we travel to Cloudcroft, New Mexico to go camping with our church ward. We always love going and this year was no exception. We worried about the weather like we always do, but the rain stayed away and we had a fun time. The girls of course loved the zip line and I took pictures as they waited in line to take their turn. Even Taryn took a couple turns and loved telling people all about it.

I also took individual pictures of the girls. I had to get this closeup of Taryn because it shows the huge bump and bruise on her forehead from when she fell on the blacktop at the school when we were there for Aubrey's PE class. She scraped it pretty good. It didn't bleed but left some wicked red scrape marks, so that when we picked the girls up early to leave for camping that day, Tessa asked if that was her brain. Luckily, it wasn't too painful and Taryn didn't seem to be bothered by it at all. 

Here's Aubrey and Tessa as I grabbed them to take pictures while they hiked, explored, and played with friends. 

Besides the zip line, the girls also liked playing at the playground where there is even a seesaw. I also wanted to post that Abby is in the orchestra at school this year and is playing the bass. She is only 1 of 5 who chose the bass of all the 5th graders and she's the only girl. I'm so proud of her and I love to hear her practice.

One of our final September activities was the General Women's Broadcast for church. They now have it for all women ages 8 and up, so Abby and Tessa get to come with me. This is the second time that some friends and I have gotten together afterwards to get a treat and I took some pictures this time. All the girls had so much fun together and I love being able to do these special outings with my girls.