Tessa Finishes 4th Grade

Tessa finished off the 4th grade with a bang. She loved anything from her Science class, especially the labs. She came home one day excited to recreate something her teacher had done in class. She was learning about caves and stalagmites and stalactites, and she wanted to create her own cave experiment at home. After multiple explanations from her teacher and looking up information online, we finally made a successful cave, complete with stalactites, stalagmites, and columns. It hung out in our kitchen area for weeks. I finally took a picture of it with Tessa so we could clean it up. She loved it! Our first attempt didn't work correctly, so we tired again and the second try was much more successful.

We had an entire post about our trip to the Carlsbad Caverns over Spring Break, but Tessa was the one who pushed us to go because she wanted to see it so much. The cool part was that we used the 4th grade pass to get in free because when you are in the 4th grade in the Unites States, you can get a free pass to get into any national park. Carlsbad Caverns was our first adventure using her free pass. We used it more after school was out as well, but we were so proud of Tessa taking an interest in the things she was learning about in school. 

On Tessa's birthday, I took her class donuts and her teacher was nice enough to let me take a picture of their entire class. Mrs. Adkins was Tessa's math and science teacher. She loved her and learned so much from her. She had a fun class and they were all so happy to celebrate her birthday with her since they got a fun treat! 

We went to the Fine Arts Night at school and this was the picture that Tessa had displayed in the Art hallway. It was her pop-art picture of a turtle. 

The 4th grade field trip is a day at the ballpark to watch the triple A baseball team, the Chihuahua's play. They were very limited on how many chaperones can go and I was not picked. Tessa was pretty sad that I didn't get to go with them, but I had my dentist appointment that same day, so it's probably better that I didn't have to reschedule. Luckily, some of my friends who are 4th grade moms went and took pictures for me. Here are some of the 4th graders having their picture taken. Tessa's class chose the bright pink color for their class shirts. 

And here are a few other pictures of Tessa during the game. The second picture is Tessa with her friends Victoria, Ainsleigh, and Juliet.

At the beginning of June, the school held their talent show. The week leading up to that night, Tessa and her friend Adrianna, decided to enter the talent show and sing a song together.They sang a song that they had made up together. They planned out their outfits and practiced a ton at school. It was a cute song about being friends and always being together. I was so proud of Tessa because she's usually shy about stuff like that, but she did really well and had a fun time. I took a picture before the talent show started, and I also took one during their performance. They had a few actions during their song too, so it was choreographed and everything. 

On the last day of school, I helped plan Tessa's class party. Her teacher, Mr. Martinez had trivia questions that the kids answered and the other moms and I brought in fixings for ice cream sundaes. The kids had a lot of fun and it was great to see them interact with each other and enjoy their last day. Tessa is right in the middle of her class sitting on the special chairs between the row of desks. 

Here is the final picture of Tessa on the last day of school. She had a great time in 4th grade once her teacher situation got settled. I'm glad that she really liked Mr. Martinez as her GT teacher because she will have him in 5th grade as well. She was happy about that too. She made all high As on her report card and continues to excel on all tests and work. She's excited for the next year to come since she'll be the oldest grade at the school next year. She had a very successful 4th grade year. Congratulations Tessa! 

Abby Finishes 6th Grade

Before the summer ends, I'm trying to get caught up by finishing posts about the girls' previous school year. Here is a rundown of Abby's second semester of 6th grade at Hornedo Middle School. Most of my pictures are from Band functions since that's the main extra school activity she's involved in. This first picture is from their contest. Abby played with the Symphonic Band and she walked in first for her row and that's how we knew that she was first chair. She had kept it a secret from us until that concert. They played really well and I was so proud of her.

Their final school concert was played at Hornedo. The beginner band was conducted by a student teacher who had been helping out that semester. Abby performed with both the beginner and symphonic bands. 

The symphonic band had another contest during the school day at Coronado High School that Taryn and I were able to attend. My parents met us there too. There were not very many people in the audience since it was during the day, so we cheered loudly for them. They played the same contest songs that they had been working on all semester and they did great. They were awarded the highest score. 

Abby has an iPod that she uses at school for the internet and also to text me and a few friends. Here are some of her pictures that she used for her profile. Definitely your typical tween, serious-face, selfies, but I love them and made her send them to me too. 

Abby took this picture after a young women's activity where the girls got their hair and makeup done. She looks so grown up and beautiful.  

At the end of the school year, the beginner band plays a final concert at Western Playland. I chaperoned so I was able to be with Abby all day. Here's a picture of the beginner band horn section before they performed. 

And here's a picture of the entire band as they performed with a closeup of Abby as first chair. Because Abby was playing in two bands this semester, she had to learn twice as many songs, but she was very dedicated in practicing after school and also on the weekends with me. She is so talented and has picked it up very quickly. I'm excited to see how well she does in upcoming years. 

After the concert, they were able to just enjoy the park and all the rides. I followed Abby and her friends around and met a lot of her new friends from this year. Here she is with three of her band friends - Lexi, Carrie, and Braelinn. 

The final band concert was a huge combined effort with another middle school, Brown, and with Franklin High School where both Brown and Hornedo feed into. Mr. Beach, the Franklin band director, is also the director I work with when I play with the wind symphony, so that was fun. The group was huge and they played some numbers separately and then one final number all together. It was so fun to hear such a large group play together and to know it consisted of 6th-12th graders. 

After that concert, it took forever to find Abby, but we were able to grab her with a few of her friends for one last band picture. Her she is with Mary, Carrie, and Braelinn. 

I had to have a last day of school photo, so here's Abby on the last day of school. They have uniforms at their school with the occasional free dress day, so luckily the last day of school was free dress. She survived 6th grade and her first year in middle school! Academically, she ended the year with all As as well. We're so proud of all of her hard work, determination, courage, and good attitude she had during this year at school. 

Even though that was all the school pictures, I've decided to add just a few more pictures from her summer camps. Abby was able to attend three volleyball camps this summer in preparation for trying out for the school team next fall. Her first camp was right after school was let out and it was at UTEP. She played from 8 to 5 for three days straight. She really enjoyed working with the UTEP volleyball team and meeting new friends. Here they all are with the UTEP mascot, Pete the miner.

Abby also attended camps at Franklin High School and Coronado High School. I didn't get any pictures at Franklin, but I took a few of her warming up on the final day at Coronado. She's really excited to try out for the school team and has been working hard all summer to keep up her skills.

Two weeks after school was let out, Abby was able to attend a different kind of camp - Girls Camp for church. She's been in Young Womens since December, and every summer there is a Girls Camp held in Cloudcroft, NM. Abby was a first year and was so excited to go. I took pictures as they waited for everyone the morning they left.

Here's Abby with a few other first years from our ward: Abby, Braelinn, Carrie, and Devry. She had such a great time and came home telling us of all the fun and spiritual adventures that she had. She learned all the Girls Camp songs that she ended up teaching her sisters and she was even asked to bare her testimony at the fireside where we saw a slideshow of camp.  

Her favorite story to share was about how they were trying to do an activity, but were not able to start because of the rain. One of the leaders said a prayer and told the girls to also pray for the rain to stop so they could continue with their planned activities. Abby said as soon as they finished the prayer, the rain stopped. She will always remember how through faith, prayers can be answered. She met a lot of new friends and really loved being with them. I'm so happy that she had such a great time. She's just growing up too fast! In just a few short months, she'll be a teenager! I can't quite believe it, but we really are just so proud of the beautiful young lady that she is. We love you Abby!

Memorial Day Weekend in Utah

Our month of May ended with a bang as we traveled to Utah for Andrew Gibbons' high school graduation. When we got his announcement and realized that it was right before Tyler's long weekend, we decided it was worth the drive and the girls missing a little bit of school to surprise the family. We started our drive on my birthday, so we celebrated early with the Kasallis's. Teagan's birthday is the day before mine, so Tyler made two cakes - strawberry for Teagan and coconut for me. They were both yummy.

We drove to Moab Wednesday night, and then woke up early Thursday morning to drive the rest of the way to Salt Lake City before his graduation started around 1:00. We got there just in time. Tim and Lora knew we were coming and so did Tyler's parents, but his sisters, Tiffany and Tara, were surprised to see us all, so that was fun. I felt a little bad because Tiffany had even called me for my birthday and it was while we were driving, so I had to be sneaky in my answers so she didn't suspect that we were on our way there. 

After the graduation, we ate at Tucanos and walked around the outdoor mall for awhile. This is where I took the most pictures of the weekend. 

The kids loved the escalator and had to ride up and down it multiple times. All those kids together made for some interesting comments as people walked past us. It was funny. "Look at that stampede of children!" 

We were all still dressed up when we walked past the spray park, so luckily the kids stayed out of the water, but they played on the steps and seating areas for awhile. 

I love how easily these cousins play together. It helps that they are all close in ages, but after long months between visits, it definitely doesn't take them long to be best buddies again. We love our family!

We stayed a couple of nights at Tim and Lora's house in Tooele where the girls talked Uncle Tyler into buying fake nails for them at the store. They lasted all of a couple of hours, but the girls still had fun pressing them on and showing them off until they started falling off and getting lost. 

We hung up a sheet and watched a movie on the projector outside one night. Even though it was a little chilly, the kids bundled and snuggled up and enjoyed watching Sing together. 

We spent the end of the weekend at Tiffany and Justin's house in Spanish Fork. We went to church with them on Sunday too. While the kids were dressed up so nicely, I took my final pictures. I love how close Taryn and Lucy are. They love playing together and always have so much fun playing and being mischievous. 

Here are our 9 kids together from oldest to youngest. We had fun playing games, visiting, and just hanging out until we had to leave to drive back home. It was a really fun trip and we were so happy to be there for Andrew's graduation and to see all of the family. 

And here are a few final pictures to wrap up everything else that happened in May before the end of the school year. I played with the El Paso Wind Symphony again this year and our last concert was the first week of May. My dad's been playing with them as well, so Tessa decided to come to the concert with Grandma. I told her she needed to dress up a little bit, so she changed into a fancier shirt, but I couldn't get her to change out of her bright green converse shoes. But then I realized that's just Tessa, so I let it go; and I thought she looked really cute!

We've had awesome missionaries come to our ward and we've been better about feeding them regularly. As they get transferred to new areas or finish up to head home, they like to stop by and get pictures with our family. Here we are with Elder Kirkham and Elder Jansen before Elder Jansen left for a new area. The kids all loved them and called both of these elders "the funny ones." We loved having them in our home. 

Tyler and I have continued coaching volleyball at the YMCA. During the spring season that went through May, we coached three teams. I was only able to get a picture of two of the teams and they're both missing some players, since so many girls were in and out of town as the season came to an end. I think the day I was taking pictures, our third team hardly had any players at all. We really love volleyball and watching these girls improve as they work together as a team.

Finally, the deer were back in the neighborhood. This particular day, Taryn and I came home from our morning activities; and we were about to go outside to swim when I walked outside and stared at a deer looking right back at me. I slowly walked back inside and we watched them lounge on our backyard slope for the rest of the afternoon. There were three until Taryn saw the fourth one on the side of the yard by our pool. Eventually, she made her way over to where the other three were, and they all just laid there and rested in the shade. It was pretty cool. We love our backyard and our neighborhood.