A Post About Taryn and Memorial Day 2016

I decided with all the pictures I'm accumulating of Taryn, she should have her own post since all the other girls will be having their annual school post coming up. So I'm starting with her as the school year comes to a close. Some of the pictures I've taken of Taryn were to post on Facebook or text to someone, but they're cute enough to keep here. Aunt Tiffany sent a text to me a couple weeks ago talking about her daughter Lucy who's Taryn's age, so we took this picture of Taryn waving so we could text back saying that Taryn was saying hi to Lucy. It was fun. We even got a picture in response of her kids waving back. The next picture I put on Facebook because it was so cute of Taryn sleeping with her headphones on. She gets to stay up later than the other girls because of naps and no school for her, so she'll sometimes watch shows on my iPad using the headphones so dad can watch his own shows on our tv. This is how I found her after getting ready for bed myself. She's so cute!

I posted already about the model home that we viewed with my parents, but here's another picture of Taryn in the Minnie room. She loved playing with all the Minnie stuff and it was hard to get her to leave. It was seriously a dream room for a girl like her. Next, Taryn found a pair of our pink ear covers that we bought when the girls were afraid of loud noises like fireworks. She walked around the house for a long time with them on, and the fact that they matched her dress was too cute to pass up without taking a picture. We love this funny girl! 

Before school let out, Taryn was invited to a couple birthday parties for her friends. She had two within a week, both held at Chuck E. Cheese. I only took pictures at the first one which was for her friend Kierah's birthday. It was cute seeing all the 4- and 5-year-olds playing together and having the whole place to themselves without older siblings in the way. Taryn had fun riding riding the horse and playing all the games. I tried getting a picture of her with Kierah and Kaitlyn but Chuck E. had just come out so it was hard to get them all to look at me at the same time.

So I took a picture of all the birthday kids with Chuck E. too, which was still difficult since getting that many kids to stand still at the same time is no small feat. Her next party at Chuck E. Cheese was for Teagan. I guess I didn't take any pictures at that party, but it was just as much fun for all the kids to run around and play games together and eat pizza and birthday cake. Taryn had a blast. 

This last picture is of Taryn with her friends Keane and Ava whose moms play volleyball with me; so when we're at the church playing, the kids get together to play. I found them in the nursery like this, under the rug like it was a blanket. Too cute. I love the imagination of kids.

Also, I have some pictures to include from our trip to San Antonio for our annual Memorial Day weekend. We traveled down to visit Scott and Nevla and hang out with them all weekend. My parents came down with us this year too. They headed out before us since they had been at our house the week leading up to that weekend. We thought we'd catch up with them on the drive, but we ended up spending the morning getting a nail taken out of a tire in our van, so that put us way behind on our drive out of town. We were happy the maintenance light came on before the long drive so we could take care of it instead of being stranded in the middle of nowhere, but we didn't get to their house until after midnight that night. We played games, swam, and visited all weekend. We took Grandma and Grandpa to the Quadrangle where we had gone before to see the deer and peacocks. I took all my pictures from the weekend there. 

The kids enjoyed feeding the deer and following the peacocks around. The peacocks weren't showing their feathers this time, and the girls kept looking for lost peacock feathers on the ground, but there weren't any of those lying around, so the girls were sad. But they still enjoyed chasing them around and feeding them.

We fed the fish in the pond and even found some baby peacocks. They're in the second picture right in front of the second peacock. They were so cute. 

I took a picture of all the girls sitting in the shade. I had to crop out Abby because she's holding Hope, the foster baby that Scott and Nevla currently have. We're not allowed to include pictures of her online, but Abby was basically her babysitter all weekend because she loves her so much. I also love this picture because of the peacock that's photo-bombing in the background. We thought that was pretty awesome. 

On the day that we traveled home, Aubrey and I realized that we were wearing matching outfits, so I had a picture taken of us in our yellow and gray stripes. Scott and Nevla are expecting their second baby in July, so we talked about names (they don't know what they're having), and had a fun time visiting and playing games. We love having the girls play with Chloe and Hope and it's always sad to go. We plan on returning over Labor Day weekend for Chloe's baptism and the new baby's blessing. We're excited for all of their upcoming family events. 

Finally, I wanted to include a picture of each of the girls from a Sunday morning when we used my new curling iron to do their hair. They turned out so cute. Here they are.

Taryn didn't want her hair curled, but I took a picture of her at church that same day, so she can be included here. I love my beautiful girls. 

April and May 2016

I'm trying to catch up on posts before the annual end-of-school-year posts for each of the girls. The pictures in this post didn't have much in common besides the fact that they weren't school functions and they happened in April and May, so here it is:

It starts with the Spring Book Fair at school that I was in charge of again. The theme this time was Peace, Love, Books. It was fun and easy to decorate that theme. I was at the school all week again, but it went well and the students really enjoyed it.

I love having pictures of the girls when they're sleeping, especially together. Taryn was laying on Aubrey and I thought it was so cute. Aubrey didn't mind that I wanted a picture either. 

The Activity Day girls at church always have a spring activity for the Moms. This year it was a Lemonade Party (instead of Tea Party), and we were supposed to wear our Sunday best with pearls and everything. We took a few pictures before we left for the church. The girls wanted a silly picture too, and I always laugh at Tessa's face. That's how she wanted it for the silly picture. 

While at the activity, we ate dinner, played bingo, did a game to see how well we knew each other, and made head fasteners, which are apparently all the rage in Europe. The bigger and gaudier, the better! Here's the girls and I with our creations. I love this picture of us! My girls invited Audrey because she only has boys and wouldn't get the chance to go to an Activity Days Mother/Daughter activity, so I thought that was very sweet of them to think of her. She tagged along with us and we got our picture taken all together. Audrey actually partnered with Abby during the how well do you know each other game, and they did better than me and Tessa! We hang out with the Kasallis's a lot, so it didn't surprise me, but everyone else thought it was pretty funny that they did as well as they did.

During the months of April and May, Tyler and I coached Abby's YMCA volleyball team again. This season, we had enough players to make two teams, so they practiced together, but played separately. Each team had exactly six players. Abby's team was the jaguars and they played really well together. The Panthers also played really well. Our final game of the season, we played each other and everyone was there for the picture. Whenever our two teams played each other, I coached Abby's team, while Tyler coached the Panthers because he's pretty hard on Abby and realized it was better that he not coach the team Abby was on. We promised the girls pizza at the last game if they worked really hard on doing three hits and actually trying to spike the ball, and they did! It was so fun to see how much they all improved; and to see how much fun they had.

Probably the biggest news of these two months is that my parents decided to move to El Paso! We're so excited for them to come. They came to visit us off and on during April and May, and each time they were here, we took some time to look at homes for sale. We went with the girls to some model homes and Taryn obviously loved this Minnie Mouse room. It was complete with a Minnie head recessed from the wall with lights and everything. It was pretty cool. It was a model home and on the far east of El Paso, but the girls couldn't understand why Grandma and Grandpa wouldn't choose the "Minnie house."

I finally got a picture of Tessa in her peddle car that she got for her birthday. She loves to start at the top of our street and ride all the way down because it's on a slant and she can get going pretty fast. They still have a lot of fun riding bikes, scooters, etc around the neighborhood with all the neighbor kids. We love living on a no outlet street. On May 4th (Star Wars Day), the girls had to wear Star Wars shirts to school. Unfortunately, we didn't own any Star Wars shirts, so the night before we had to run to Wal-Mart so they could each find one. They were all very excited for their new shirts and to show them off at school. "May the 4th be with you!"

May 8th was Mother's Day and my parents were still visiting with us, so they were here when Tyler did his annual huge Mother's Day meal. He worked with Tony Kasallis on the meal and we ate together. It was a 5-course Italian feast, and it was delicious. I was so happy that I thought to take a picture with just me and my mom on Mother's Day. While I was hanging out on the couch,(since I'm not allowed in the kitchen), I got the the girls to take a selfie with me. 

After the meal, Abby and I played a duet that we had been practicing. I played the French horn and Abby played her bass. We played I am a Child of God and I transposed my part so we could play together. It was fun. While we waited for dessert, I took this selfie of me and Aubrey. It turned out so cute, that I had to take pictures of me with each of my girls. The beauties who made me a mother. 

I wanted to finish out this post with my birthday festivities. My parents were out visiting again the week of my birthday because I was running one more book fair at the school. It was a lot smaller book fair, with no decorating, so no pictures; but my parents came out to stay with Taryn so I didn't have to haul her around or find babysitters for her while I was at the school. So the main part of my birthday I spent at the school, but that night we did get to go out to eat together as a family. I picked a Mexican restaurant called Delicias that has these awesome painted chairs. The girls were excited to pick which chair they sat in.

We also spent my birthday evening filling up our recently refinished pool. Tyler and I had been working on our pool for a couple weeks. We emptied it, cleaned out the winter gunk, and since it was empty decided to repaint it, and replace the drain cover and light. The paint was dry and the pool ready to be refilled on my birthday. The girls thought it was so fun to play in the water as it filled, like their very own huge bathtub or slip and slide. 

I watched from my new bench that Tyler refinished for one of my birthday presents. I didn't get any other pictures of my gifts, but I also got two more of my blog books published, framed pictures of each of the girls that I put up on the wall, a curling iron and wand set, and a plane ticket to go with Tyler to his conference in San Diego in a couple of weeks! It was a great birthday and I love my family!

Tessa Turns 9 and We Celebrate Easter

Tessa had her 9th birthday on March 24th. It was a low key birthday this year, but we had a fun cake and friends over to help celebrate. I always try to make creative cakes for Tessa, because I wanted to do something special for my "middle child" after Aubrey was born. Unfortunately, after having a total of 4 kids, poor Aubrey is the one left out on almost everything and will probably have the most "middle child" issues. :) Anyway, so Tessa asked for a turtle cake, and I did my best to make her one. I thought it turned out pretty good. She liked it too, so that's a success in my book!

Since we've been reading the Book of Mormon, our treat for finishing the book of Jacob was to eat out at Olive Garden. Luckily, we finished that book right around Tessa's birthday and she allowed us to combine the two by celebrating that accomplishment and her birthday in one shot by eating at Olive Garden on her birthday. They sang to her and she picked out her very own dessert - a caramel flavored mousse. She was still a little embarrassed to be the center of attention, but she at least didn't hide while they were singing this time.

We had the Kasallis family over to help us eat our turtle cake and to watch her open her presents. She got a tricycle race bike which was her biggest and most exciting gift along with a few smaller gifts too. I didn't get any pictures of her gifts, but we did get one with her by her cake before we started eating it. 

Tessa is still our smarty-pants girl. She always has the highest grades and she does well in school and in the GT program. She loves being active still and doing things like tumbling, dancing, riding bikes, or basically anything that lets her move. She has a lot of friends and loves to create clubs with all of them at school and do all kinds of elaborate imagination games and activities with them, which is awesome. She's our happy, easy-go-lucky girl and we love her. I can't believe she's 9, but we're so happy that she is a part of our family. We love you Tessa!

A week after Tessa's birthday, we celebrated Easter. We had a ward activity that included an Easter egg hunt and an auction for a fund raiser for the youth. The girls loved playing at the park and doing the egg hunt. Abby was hanging out with her older friends and a couple minutes before the egg hunt began, she told me she didn't want to participate. I figured it was because it's only for the primary kids and Abby's older friends were too old to participate and she was tagging along with them. Luckily however, some of her younger friends, like our neighbor Claire, talked her into doing it. I was happy because I was also reminded that it was her final year to participate anyway, because she's 11 and next year she'd be too old to participate whether she wanted to or not. 

I was excited to get pictures of each of the age groups as they waited for their turn to hunt eggs. Aubrey and Tessa were in the same age group this year. 

They each got to find 10 eggs and then once all the kids had 10, they were able to go around and find any eggs that were left. We definitely had plenty of candy by the time the night was over. 

The day before Easter, we let the kids dye eggs. It was a bit messy, but we only spilled one cup of dye; so I guess that's pretty good considering we were working with 9 kids. Everyone got to decorate two eggs and they had fun choosing their colors and picking their designs.

I also wanted to add our semi-annual women's conference picture. The past couple years, we started going out for a treat after the broadcast, and this time we picked AJ's Diner. Girls ages 8 and up are invited, so it's a fun mother/daughter activity that the older girls and I get to do together. It's fun to be with other ladies and their daughters from church as well. This was the only picture I took, but these girls had fun making another concoction with their leftover food and shakes, just like they had 6 months ago at our last restaurant outing.

On Easter Sunday, I talked Tyler into letting us take pictures since the girls finally got to wear their new Easter dresses that Grandma and Grandpa Black had bought for them a couple weeks ago. I thought the pictures turned out really pretty. I love having family pictures.

That evening, we had our own egg hunt around the yard, and the Kasallis family joined us. Tyler's family's tradition is to include money in some of the eggs, so the kids are showing off their dollar bills in the second picture. They had a lot of fun finding their own eggs and helping others find the eggs that they couldn't.

I love Easter and all the fun family activities we do together for it, but we were able to also spend a lot of time talking about the true meaning of Easter and how our Savior, Jesus Christ, rose from the tomb and is now alive just like we are. We watched a video of His life and talked about how important His life, atonement, and resurrection are to us. We are so grateful for the gospel we have in our lives and the knowledge we have of our Savior. And we love being able to celebrate that together as a family every Easter season.