October, Part 1 - Aubrey's Volleyball, Shawn Mendes, Taryn Turns 7

Tyler and I have been coaching Aubrey's volleyball team again. This season her team decided on the team name, Lucky Charms; and some moms made these awesome tye-dye shirts for the team. We took these team pictures and the one of Aubrey serving on a night when we had two games and we won them both. Our girls had so much fun playing together. They cheered for everything and had all kinds of chants and cheers that they yelled constantly throughout the games. You could definitely tell that they were having fun.

Lucky Charms ended up third in the after season tournament. We won our first two games to stay on the winners side of the bracket. Then we lost our next game that would have put us in the championship game, but it meant we ended up third overall. I was so proud of these girls and all of their hard work. Here's a silly picture we took after the girls got their medals.

And here are a few closeups of Aubrey and Aubrey and Riley with their medals. They all played so well together and just had fun.

Remember our chickens that we got back at Easter time? Here's the finished chicken house that Tyler built when we finally moved them from their temporary box inside our house. We kept telling the girls it wouldn't be until around Taryn's birthday that the chickens would be old enough to start laying eggs. Well they were right on schedule and at the beginning of October, almost exactly 6 months after we bought the baby chicks, we got our first chicken egg. The girls are so excited to check for eggs every day now. And we usually get between 2 and 4 eggs every day.

We harvested the sweet potatoes from our garden too and got a pretty good haul. For Taryn's birthday dinner, we had a Thanksgiving feast and we used all of these sweet potatoes from the garden. It was yummy! I love taking random pictures of the girls, so I caught them all in the kitchen one day so we took this tower picture. I love my girls!

On October 13th, Shawn Mendes was in town for one night for a concert. Tyler promised tickets to Abby and Braelinn a couple months back when they babysat a bunch of kids so we could go out on a big couple's date. Tessa and I got to tag along. We took pictures as we waited in the long line to get into the arena. The girls were so excited! And we saw so many people that we knew. It was a pretty popular event.

We got there early so Abby could get a t-shirt and we waited for quite awhile for the concert the start. We had great seats. On the 2nd row, pretty close to the stage.

It was Tessa's first official concert. She loved being able to say that she was already going to her first concert at age 11; especially after I told her that my first concert wasn't until I was in college.

Here's one of the best up close pictures I could get of Shawn while he was performing. We stood the entire time and everyone sang along with all of his songs. It was a great performance. I loved being able to take pictures of the girls with the stage and Shawn behind them. It shows how close we actually were.

Khalid, another singer who's from El Paso, even came out and sang a couple of songs with Shawn Mendes. It was like a two for one concert when they were both performing. The crowd was going crazy!

These girls were screaming and singing and loving every second. Shawn would occasionally wave out at the crowd and at one point he was facing our side when he waved and the girls were convinced he was waving at them. Their main line they always said when talking about the concert afterwards was, "He legit waved at us! I have it on video!" It was hilarious.

He was a really good performer. I even knew more songs than I thought I would. Abby and Braelinn knew every song he sang. It was a really fun night.

We grabbed a few more pictures as we left the arena and walked back to our car. The girls said they'd never forget this night. It was a fun time.

In honor of Taryn's birthday, I've added a few pictures of Taryn with her sisters while we talk about Taryn turning 7. I feel like 7 is such a big milestone. To me, 6 is still a little kid, while 7 is the beginning of the big kid stage. We no longer have little kids in our house! Here's Taryn with me and Abby after one of our duet performances. She wanted to be in our picture and I thought it turned out pretty cute. Abby even mentioned how much Taryn looks like her in this picture. They are the most similar in looks of all the girls.

Taryn's in first grade and loving school. Her teacher says she's a big helper in class and she's always giving Taryn jobs like helping teach another student something they missed after being absent. She loves making friends and being nice to everyone. She's awesome at the monkey bars and has the calluses on her hands to prove it. She loves playing games with her sisters and playing barbies and the wii. She likes to star in movies that she makes with her sisters. She likes playing games on phones whether it's mine, Tyler's, grandma's, or anyone else's that she can get her hands on.

She's always happy and although she's starting to get a little sassy like a tween, she's still pretty sensitive and definitely recognizes the feelings of others and is ready to cheer anyone up who's feeling down. She still loves to read and in her free time, you can usually find her on the coach surrounded by books. We had a big Sunday dinner on her actual birthday and she picked three families from our ward to join us for dinner. Besides the Kasallis's who we always celebrate birthdays with, Taryn picked two other families who have little kids because she loves playing with "babies." We love that she's in our family and couldn't imagine it without her. 

We love you Taryn! Happy Birthday!

September 2018 - Labor Day, Volleyball, Puppies

For Labor Day this year, we traveled down to San Antonio to see Scott and his family. We were looking forward to the long weekend break, but unfortunately, Abby's first volleyball game of the school season was held on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. We decided we'd leave right after her Saturday morning game, drive straight down to San Antonio, and still have Sunday and Monday to spend with family. Watching and playing with the nieces and nephew was the best part. 

We also ate, played games, visited, and played outside while we were together. It's our favorite kind of family vacation. Here are some more pictures I took that weekend. Getting toddlers to sit still for a picture is very difficult, especially trying to get more than one to do it at the same time. These are the best I could get. 

As I mentioned before, Abby's school volleyball season started off with tryouts the first week of school. Abby made the A team and started the season as the setter. She was very excited to get her number, "6" again. They played their first game the week after making the team and they played Lincoln. Coach Denise came to see the girls play so we grabbed a picture of her with Abby after the game.

 Here's Abby with some of her teammates, Andrea, Paulina, Emily, and Alisha. And then another picture of Abby with her Stars teammates, McKenzie, Emily, Diane, and Kayla. We ended up losing to Lincoln in three sets. It was a good game, although you could tell that it was the very beginning of the season. They were still getting used to playing together as a team.

The younger siblings were having fun hanging out together during and after the game. I took this picture of our three girls with Riley outside the Coronado gym where the Hornedo/Lincoln game was played. 

The next week was full of volleyball as the team played their pre-season tournament. I only got this one picture from all three games that they played because I was always too busy watching and cheering during the games. Abby's team won their first two games, so they played for the championship on Saturday. 

They ended up losing the championship game in three sets. The other team had one amazing player and we just couldn't come back although the two sets we lost were very close games. We still got a trophy for second place. Here's the full team with their trophy after that final game. A serious picture and a silly one. 

Their first home game was against Wiggs and we ended up winning that game. Abby's in the setter position in this first picture and is serving the ball in the second one. I really love watching her play. She's great on the court and gets along really well with all of her teammates. 

Here's a closer up picture of Abby serving the ball at their game against Wiggs. And then a picture of the entire team after their win. We were so happy for them and their hard playing.

During the Franklin high school's homecoming week, there is a parade and the middle schools are invited to participate in the parade too. Abby's team had a trailer that they decorated as Monsters Inc. Here are a few of the girls from the team when I dropped Abby off to get ready. Abby ran along the truck in the parade for the entire route. They had a lot of fun throwing candy and waving to the crowds. The parade was held on a Wednesday night so our youth who were not in the parade met up to watch it together. Here are all the youth and kids who were watching the parade together. I knew so many people in the parade, from all the youth from our wards and also a lot of girls from Stars volleyball and from when we were coaching at the YMCA. It was so fun to see so many familiar faces. We had a great time. 

Abby played an away game at Guillen middle school the following week. I only took one picture at that game too. They won that game pretty easily. It's fun to see them work together and progress as a team. Abby played one more game in September, against Magoffin, but I didn't get any pictures at that game. It was also an away game and we won, but it was different because Abby had to play libero. They lost a couple players due to injuries and grades; and the coach thought Abby was their best defensive player, so she was switched from setter to libero. She was really nervous about changing positions, but she's been doing really well. I'm so proud of her that she can fill in wherever she's needed and help the team from any position.

Abby is struggling managing her time to keep up with school, volleyball, band, church, and social life. She is so busy all the time. As we were driving home from Guillen after her game, she ended up falling asleep and using Taryn as a pillow. It was pretty cute because Taryn was trying so hard not to move so that she wouldn't wake up Abby. She just sat very still smiling until we noticed and I took a picture. I thought it was adorable how the little sister was supporting the big sister. I love these girls. Since we're talking about Taryn, I'll include this picture from her first Fun Fit Friday. It started pouring rain as soon as their PE began, so we all raced to the gym before we got too drenched. We played with hula hoops, basketballs, and jump ropes. Taryn had fun playing with her friends and showing me all of her PE skills.

Our girls, along with the Kasallis boys, prepared a musical number that they performed in Sacrament in the middle of September. They practiced a lot and my dad accompanied them on the piano. They sang Glorious, which is most famously sung by David Archuleta. It's also from the Meet the Mormons movie. Each kid had a one or two line solo and then they sang the chorus all together. It was beautiful and they did amazing. A lot of youth from the other wards even came to our sacrament because they heard they were singing and they wanted to be there to support our kids. They did an awesome job. We got so many compliments on their voices, and on how it made them cried, and how they felt the spirit. It was great. Since we couldn't take pictures or record in the chapel, we had the kids perform it one more time that night so we could get a recording. I took this picture near the end of the performance. I love these kids! 

Finally, I have to include these pictures of some adorable little puppies. Our friends, the Kims, have two dogs who had puppies together. Akita and husky mix puppies. They are so cute. Once the puppies were old enough to have visitors, the Kims invited us over to hold and love on the puppies. Here are my kids taking their turns holding them. There were seven puppies to choose from - all of them as adorable as the next one. 

Most of the puppies where shades of white and light brown. There was one dark one, the one Tessa's holding, that a lot of kids said was their favorite. The kids were trying to talk us into getting one of the puppies once they're old enough to be adopted out, but I'm still not ready for that kind of commitment. A puppy is like having another baby or toddler in the house and I don't need that kind of mess or responsibility right now. So for now, we'll just enjoy holding and playing with the puppies while they're young and cute and at someone else's house. 

A little update on Tessa as she started middle school. After her rough start at the beginning of the school year, she has quickly adapted and is doing just fine. She has joined the Math Team at school and went to her first Math Meet at the end of September. They take math tests for fun, including MathSense which is mental math. They can't write anything down except for their answers. She's been learning all the tricks and tips for those kind of math problems and at their first meet, she ended up with an award because she placed 6th place among all the 6th graders. We are so proud of her. She enjoys it and loves learning new things. She's now rocking it in middle school. 

Here's a quick picture of the girls with our friend Riley Blacksher. We went out to eat with their family and this awesome El Paso sign was near the restaurant. So while waiting to be seated, the girls got this picture. We love where we live; and we love our friends.

The final news for September would have to be the Khalid concert that Abby was able to attend with her friend, Emily Blacksher, Rilery's sister. Emily's 14th birthday was right before the concert and she got tickets from her grandparents and her parents let her pick a friend to go with her. She chose Abby and they had a great time. Khalid is a famous singer who is from El Paso. They went to the concert, bought their concert t-shirts, and had fun listening to the music. Here are a few pictures that they took and sent to me so I could include them here in the blog. 

The school year is marching along quickly and we're all staying very busy with school and work and church. We're just so happy that our family is enjoying life and doing well.