Christmas and End of Year 2017

Our ward Christmas party was held on December 16th. They did a theme of Christmas in Nauvoo. The primary performed a musical number, so I took a picture of them singing.

We got to decorate our own cookies for dessert, and there were shops like in Nauvoo for the kids to visit. They wrote letters to the missionaries at the post office, made butter at the bakery, and made tin ornaments at the blacksmith shop. It was a really fun party.

Our 17th wedding anniversary was on December 15th. To post on Facebook, I decided to recreate one of our pictures from when we were dating. We were laughing so hard, and everyone thought it was funny like we did. So many years have gone by, but our happiness and fun have remained. I love this guy!

For Christmas this year, we drove down to San Antonio to be together with my family. The girls were so excited to see their cousins. Here's Taryn with the newest baby cousin, Daniel. And this is Haley, who was officially adopted by Scott and Nevla just last week. We're so excited to have her officially and legally a part of the family. She's so cute.

Tyler's buddy is always Nadia. Nadia adores both Abby and Tyler. When we got to San Antonio, Tyler was eating a snack at their table, and Nadia was still in her high chair next to him at the table and she just put her head in her hand and stared lovingly up at Tyler until he noticed. It was so cute. Here's Tyler holding Nadia and Daniel. And then Tessa got a picture with Nadia too while they were playing together with new Christmas presents.

Aubrey's always a good helper, and loves playing with the babies. The flash of the camera was a little too bright for Haley, but I thought it was still a cute picture. Nadia is still slow to smile, but with Tyler, she's always ready to grin for the camera. This was right before we left to drive home and she didn't want Tyler to leave.

We took some family pictures while we were all together. There's a park and fountain right outside their neighborhood so we wandered around there looking for the best picture spots. We tried the fountain first, but the sun was too bright. I did get this one of the girls while we decided on the next spot to try. The park and trees were the next best option that provided some shade from the direct sunlight and I got this picture of my girls. Even though Taryn was done with pictures at this point, we got a quick half smile from her and I love Aubrey's eager smile. This is currently my background picture on my phone because I love it so much.

We took some individual pictures of the girls and there was this perfect v-shaped tree where we ended up taking our favorite shots.

I love the sun shining behind Taryn and the pretty green leaves and branches that the sun lit up in all the backgrounds. I love my beautiful girls.

We took a few other random fun pictures so here are my favorites. We tried the throwing leaves one again and included Chloe with the girls. It's cute, but so hard to see their faces clearly when just using a phone to take that kind of picture.

Here's one of my all time favorite pictures of the girls. I love the closeness and how you can see all their eyes and their beautiful smiles.

We took family pictures and I had poses already planned that I wanted to try. 

I saw another family picture with a pose like this one and really wanted to do it with my family. We didn't get the best angle to see everyone, but I really liked the idea. The girls thought it was fun too, so their smiles are definitely genuine in this picture. It's Tyler surrounded by all his girls.

This was the best picture that McKaye took on her good camera and edited for us. I really do like the generic poses where you can see everyone's face clearly. I love my family.

Here are some family pictures of each of the families. They all look so good! John and McKaye, and then my parents.

Paul and Melody and family. Only missing Matt, Taylor, and Mollie. And then Scott and Nevla and their quickly growing family.  

And one final picture with everyone. Just missing Matt's family, but otherwise the entire Black Family.

The girls enjoyed playing games together. Their favorite game was one they played on the tv through an app on the phones, but they loved being together.

Grandma and grandpa bought matching Christmas pajamas for all the grandkids except Abby and Joseph who are now too big. So Mom and I made pajama bottoms for all the adults and the bigger grandkids. And we ended up with enough material to make extra bottoms for most of the grandkids too. Here's the picture I took of all the grandkids together.

We didn't get any pictures of everyone in their matching pj bottoms like we wanted, but I at least got a picture of my family in the pajamas we made. I was very proud of my mom and myself. I thought the pj bottoms turned out really cute. They even had a pocket which we figured was a must so we had somewhere to put our phones. The girls were supposed to be all red and the boys were all blue, but with the extra material, we split up the colors for the grandkids. That way at least my family picture was a bit more even between the reds and blues.

While playing the app game on people's phones, Abby and I decided to take some silly pictures on Tyler's phone and change his screensaver. Abby was the expert and made sure our picture was just right before switching it to Tyler's background. Don't you think he'd love seeing this picture every time he opened his phone? Well, he didn't really, but he kept it on there for a day or two before changing it back. 

We ended out the year 2017 at our home playing games by ourselves, which is how I like it. I made sugar cookies and decided to do each of the girls' names and the numbers 2018 for them to decorate and eat. So we grabbed some pictures after they finished decorating before they dug in. Here are Aubrey's and Taryn's.

Abby and Tessa had fun decorating their names and numbers too. It was our way to ring in the new year.

We took a selfie game picture to send to Tyler's family who was mostly together for their New Years Eve festivities. I think all the girls made it to midnight this time, just long enough to drink the sparkling cider and then hit their pillows.

We had a great 2017 year and are excited for the new year and what all it has to bring.

Taryn's Kindergarten First Semester

Taryn started her first year of school this year. She had been looking forward to it all summer, and even kept asking when it was going to be Dad's birthday because she knew the first day of school was on Tyler's birthday this year. Here she is on the first day. I got a picture of her with Mrs. Hardwick before they left for the classroom. She was a little sad when I had to leave her, but once she gets to the classroom, she always does fine.

We had a harder transition than I thought we would considering how excited she was to start. But the first couple weeks, if I walked Taryn into the cafeteria in the mornings, she would cry when she had to go to the playground, and she didn't want me to leave. Other mornings, I would send her in with Aubrey and Tessa, and she'd do just fine. Once she got into the habit of the morning routine, she did fine; but there were definitely more tears than I thought there'd be. I've been coming to most of Taryn's Fun Fit Fridays so I can see her during PE. We grabbed this picture at her first one, as we walked outside.

In October, the Kindergarten field trip is to a pumpkin patch. I was able to go and help chaperone, and we had so much fun. 

We had tables under a big tent and we took some pictures of the class before we left to walk around and play.

We were able to ride the wagon pulled by a huge tractor out to the pumpkin fields where we picked our pumpkins. Here's a picture of Taryn with her new friend Gabby, and then a picture of me and Taryn.

This was the perfect pumpkin that Taryn picked.

We saw some goats and other animals too. Taryn's in this picture with Alyssa and Isabella, twins from her class.

They had huge slides where they got to slide down on potato sacks. Taryn is the one on the left sliding down. She loved the slide.

They also had a huge jumping bubble. We were able to go on with almost her entire class. Here's Taryn jumping with some of her classmates.

It's hard to see in the first picture, but Taryn is completely in the air in this one right above the yellow section. And I loved this second picture because you can see their teacher, Mrs. Hardwick, who jumped with them. It was so awesome!

We did some walking around with Taryn's friends, but we also did a little wondering on her own. She took a turn on the tire horse swing, and we got a picture of her at the entrance to the corn maze.

During lunch they enjoyed the shade of the tent. Here's Taryn smiling her apple smile with Isabella, Alyssa, and Gabby.

We got to see a pig race, so while we waited for the pigs to get ready, I grabbed a picture of the entire class with the moms who came to help. As you can see, Taryn's class shirt was bright green.

As we lined up to get back on the buses, we took a picture of Mrs. Hardwick with her entire class by the pumpkin stand. Taryn's class only has 13 kids this year, with two sets of twins. It's been such a fun class.

Taryn was one of the first kids in her class to have a birthday, so we took donuts to her class and I took a picture of her with her special birthday hat that she got to wear all day. She chose a pretty dress for the fall picture day. This was the picture I printed out to keep on our piano with all the other girls' kindergarten pictures. She looks so old in it I think.

I joined Taryn for her Thanksgiving lunch too. She ate with her friends Cort and Teagan. Teagan was being a stinker and didn't want to look up for the picture, so he posed like this on purpose.

The kindergarten through 2nd grade students participated in the career puppet parade and had to make puppets of what they wanted to be when they grew up. Taryn had decided she wanted to be a dentist. So we gave her puppet a face mask, scrubs, and drew a tooth on her shirt, which is too hard to see in this picture, but it's there.

Instead of keeping all the cute things Taryn brings home from school, I decided to take a picture so we could then throw them away. This was her Thanksgiving placemat and her turkey hat, both crafts she made around Thanksgiving time.

At Christmas, they did a polar express adventure like the older grades. I loved how their pictures on the train in the hallway were posed so it looked like they were waving or looking out the window at the passersby. It was so cute, I had to take a picture.

I helped run the Christmas party on their last day before the Christmas break, but that kept me busy that I wasn't able to take very many pictures. They were able to do a lot of crafts including painting candy cane ornaments. 

Mrs. Hardwick made her special holiday drink that had sherbet and ginger ale. Some of the kids liked it, and some of them didn't. They all had a great time playing and crafting though. It was a really fun time.

Taryn finished off her first semester of Kindergarten really strongly. She loves school now and she loves her teacher. She loves learning and helping the other kids in her class. All the other moms say she's the sweetest girl and everyone loves her. She started the year reading a lot of words and can now read all books by herself. We're so proud of her and love to see how grown up she is, even if she'll always be our baby girl.

Aubrey's 3rd Grade First Semester

Aubrey was very excited to start the 3rd grade this year. She got a brand new teacher at Lundy, Mrs. Rader, and she has loved her. Here's her first day of school picture.

Aubrey makes friends so easily. At one of the first Fun Fit Fridays, she wanted me to take a picture with some of her friends. Then I grabbed some pictures while they took turns jumping rope. They sing a song and then start naming the letters of the alphabet to see how far they can go without messing up. Aubrey made it to the letter 'S'. It was so fun to watch her. She was very good.

At the school's Family Picnic, there were people doing face painting. Aubrey showed them a picture of the flower that she had painted on her face this past summer so that the lady could recreate it again. It turned out pretty cute. Aubrey loved it. The theme at their school this year is Stars Wars and every Wednesday they are supposed to wear their spirit shirts. Aubrey and Taryn decided to go completely matchy-matchy by wearing their matching shoes, khaki pants, and purple jackets. I even had to do their hair the same way - a half pony tail. They looked so cute!

Here's Lexi and Aubrey as they lined up for class one morning. They have a really fun class and Aubrey gets along with everyone. She's always a great helper for her teacher too.

Aubrey went to a friend's birthday party down the street from us. They had a sleepover, but Aubrey just stayed for the dinner and craft. The party was for Bailey, and Bailey's mom sent me this picture of all the girls before Aubrey left. She loves all her friends.

Here's Aubrey on picture day. She's still my fancy girl who prefers to wear dresses and accessories. If we had had more time that morning, she would have requested curly hair too. One of her school projects was to disguise a turkey, so Aubrey decided to turn her turkey into a peacock, her favorite animal!

I was able to join Aubrey for their Thanksgiving lunch between helping serve in the kitchen. She loves when we come eat lunch with her.

Here's another visit I had during Fun Fit Friday. The girls showed me some of their gymnastic moves and dances that they had created themselves. The first picture is Wen, Milan, Aubrey, and Lexi. The second picture is Lydia with Aubrey.

One day before the Christmas break, the entire 3rd grade did a polar express adventure and traveled the "world" learning about Christmas in other countries. I helped in Aubrey's classroom which had the country of Brazil. Aubrey's picture on the polar express in their hallway was so cute. She's next to last.

I made a quick stop at Aubrey's classroom during their Christmas party which was held on the last day before the break. They made cookies and played games. I was running Taryn's class party, so I only stayed long enough for a few pictures in Aubrey's class. I luckily got one with Aubrey and her teacher, Mrs. Rader.

We also decided to take the time while I was there to get a picture of the entire class, so that was fun too. Here they all are. Aubrey's doing really well in school, all A's so far. She loves playing with her friends, making up dance numbers, and helping her teachers. She prefers recess and lunch of course because she gets to visit with her friends then, but she says she likes Math and Science the best of all her subjects.