October, Part 2 - End of MS Volleyball, Halloween

Abby's 8th grade season of volleyball at school went by so quickly. She started as the setter, but like I mentioned before, was moved to libero half way through the season. You can see her better in the pictures because she's in the different color jersey than the rest of her team. Here is the game they played against Brown MS which is their biggest rival. We beat them in the first set in a very close match, but ended up losing the next two sets. Abby had awesome serves and dug a lot of hits, which is the main job of the libero; so she said it was a really fun game.

We took a picture with her old Stars coach, Denise, with the Brown players who were on their 13s Blue team: Selma, Sophie, Reggie, Denise, Andrea, and Abby.

We took this picture of the wall in the Hornedo gym where they had hung up all the 8th grade player's photos. Abby is center right below the top picture. We are so proud of her and the way she played. She was a strong player and great teammate. Many of the girls went to her with questions and problems. She really held the team together.

They played against Magoffin for their final home game. It was also their parent appreciation game so the girls gave their coach a rose and their parents a flower and candy and notes they had written. Here they are as they lined up to be announced before running to their parents. They won their final game of the season. Abby served a ton and it was a fun game to watch.

Since it was their last home game, we took a lot of pictures after the game. Here's Abby with her friend Paulina, and then one of the entire team. We were so proud of these girls and loved watching them play.

The next week, they had games multiple nights for the end of season tournament. They had to play the #1 seeded team from the Division II schools, and we beat them! The girls played hard and looked really good. Abby had awesome serves again and played the back row like a champ. 

The girls were so excited. Last year they had lost the first game in the end of season tournament, so they were so excited to be continuing on this year. They sang the school song after their win.

Here's the team picture after that win.

Their second game of the tournament was the following night. They played against Lincoln who they had lost to at the beginning of the season. They were so far ahead in the first set but ended up losing that one. The second set they were behind, but Abby ended up serving 9 serves in a row to win the 2nd set and take it to the 3rd set. Unfortunately they lost that set, but played so hard. It was a great game to watch. The girls had fun playing and they had a great season.

Here are the girls with their Stars friends from Lincoln. It really was a good game. It's Kayla, McKenzie, Abby, Emily, Annette, Andrea, and Diane.

Along with school volleyball, Abby's been playing again in band. They had their pep rally for the Fall sports and Tyler and I were both able to go. It was cool this time too because my dad's been working with their percussion students, and he started the school's first ever drumline and they debuted at the pep rally. It was so good! Abby played in the band and ran over to be with her volleyball team when they were presented.

Here she is with the band. I didn't get any pictures of her with her volleyball team. They basically just ran down from the stands, did a cheer in a circle, and then sat back down. Tyler had the afternoon off, so we were both able to be there and we found Tessa and Bianca as they came in and had them sit with us.

Tyler had a free hotel stay that was about to expire, so one weekend we had a staycation in El Paso. We got a hotel room on the other side of town and spent the evening hanging out as a family. We ate dinner and played at Dave & Busters and then went swimming in the hotel. We went to a movie the next morning as well. It was fun to do something different and fun together but still in our own town.

With the end of October and Halloween comes dress up days at school. The girls had crazy hair day, so I made these hairstyles for Taryn and Aubrey. Taryn got the ice cream cone hairdo and Aubrey wanted cupcakes. It was easy and fun. Abby chose not to do her hair crazy, and we tried a unicorn hairstyle on Tessa, but it didn't last very long. Although people were passing by her in the hallways saying, "Whoa it's a unicorn", so I guess it worked for a little while.

Abby had her first band concert the night before Halloween. They could dress up if they wanted to, so Abby just wore some flannel and old glasses and went as her grandpa. She tried a fake mustache but wiped it off before leaving the house. The concert was good, but usually they have all the bands play; but this year Mrs. Allen only had the top groups play because she thought the beginning band students weren't ready to perform. I was a little sad about that because Tessa is in beginning band and I would've loved to hear her play. Guess we'll have to wait for the Christmas concert.

For actual Halloween, we had decided as a family to dress up together again and we came up with the S'more's idea. I think it was Taryn's idea this year. At our ward trunk or treat which was earlier in the month, we had our costumes ready. I had Tyler dress up as the boy scout, Abby and Tessa were the graham crackers, Aubrey the chocolate, Taryn the marshmallow, and I was the fire. I thought it was a really cute idea and once people saw us together they got it and loved it too. But since the girls are at different schools and can't really do work with big cardboard pieces hanging on their bodies, they dressed up as different characters for the actual school day. Taryn and Aubrey dressed up as book characters like American Girl characters, but Tessa found this cute outfit to dress up as a ballerina for the day. She looked super cute that I had to get a picture. My little ballerina doll.

On Halloween night, the girls were back in the S'mores costumes and we walked around with friends to go trick or treating. We had a large group and a fun time. It was a little windy which made it cold, but the kids survived and probably lasted longer than the moms did. 

We had to grab a selfie with all the moms too. I love these ladies: Niki, Jessica, Kristina, me, and Damaris. I love this picture, although I mentioned that it would have been awesome if Kristina (who's dressed up as Malificent) would've had a serious face in the background. That would have been hilarious. Overall, it was a great Halloween.

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!