December, Part 1 - School Events, Concerts and Banquets

In October, I started working at the office in the girls' elementary school. I'm the campus clerk and I answer the phone and the security door, and keep track of and run other reports like payroll, supplies, and technology. It's been fun to work again; the ladies in the office are so nice. And I love being close to the girls. I've been volunteering with the PTA at the school for years, so I knew most of the office staff already, but being able to be there every day and get paid has been a nice bonus. I only work part-time, so I still have the mornings to run errands and get things done around the house, and then I work in the afternoons up until the girls get out of school. So it's a perfect schedule for me. There are fun perks too like being able to dress up with the girls when it's pajama day.

Abby had her final volleyball banquet in December. We both went, but as soon as we got there, she left me to go sit with her teammates. Had I known that you didn't sit with your family, I wouldn't have paid to eat a dinner by myself or with strangers, but that's ok. I sat at a table by myself for a little while until a couple more parents I knew came and sat with me. We had dinner and then they did awards and showed a slideshow. Here's Abby getting her certificate and then we took a picture of her with Sabrina, one of her good friends from the Freshman team.

I took one last picture of the 2019 JV volleyball team once the banquet was over.

On the first Friday of each month, you can go do PE with your students and it's called Fun Fit Friday. Taryn still likes for me to come. Her PE is early enough that I can join her for PE before rushing home to get ready and eat lunch before heading back in for work. I took some pictures at this Fun Fit Friday and Taryn wanted to show me how she could climb the rock wall all by herself. I noticed the interesting lighting in the first picture and when I looked to the side, I saw this second picture. The sun is blocked by the playground bar, but this circle of light was shining through the clouds around the sun, so I had to take a picture because I thought it was so cool looking.

After we walked our mandatory laps, I watched Taryn play on the playground. She likes to show me her skills on the monkey bars and then I watch as she plays with her friends. I did get a selfie so we could remember the fun times we had together while she was in 2nd grade.

Tessa's school had a fundraiser at a Barnes and Noble one Saturday and the school sent different groups to perform to get people there. It was mostly choir and orchestra groups, but Tessa's drumline was asked to come perform too. I thought it was pretty funny considering it was a bookstore. We thought they were going to play outside to attract costumers, but they ended up playing inside like a little performance. I kept thinking to myself, just what someone wants who's enjoying a quiet spot in the bookstore reading - a drumline to play some songs! Well, most of the shoppers were parents of students from Tessa's school so I guess they were accepting of the loud performance. I loved it and it was fun to hear them play again.

Tessa had a Fine Arts concert in December as well. The top band, top orchestra, and choir each perform and then they play a piece all together. Tessa's band played two numbers. One song she played the cymbals and one song the bells. Taryn found some friends in the audience who were there to support siblings too, so I took a picture of them. Here's a closeup of Tessa with the cymbals and Taryn with her friends, Priscilla and Ashleigh.

The entire gym is filled with performers and audience members, so it's hard to get good pictures. Tessa's group was facing to the side of the bleachers, so we could kind of see her when she played the cymbals. She's next to the bass drum in the first picture. And she was facing us when she played the bells for the second number, but that made her farther away from us. Both songs were Christmas numbers and it was fun to hear them perform. I love watching Tessa play. I had to leave for a rehearsal so I didn't get to hear the combined number.

Aubrey's first orchestra concert was also in December. She was very excited to perform. The crazy story about her was her cello broke about a week before the performance date. And we're not talking a broken string, but broken broken. She brought it home one day and when she went to open up the case to practice, she saw that the neck of the cello was no longer connected to the rest of the cello. We took it into Mrs. Cedillos the next morning and gave her the bad news. I was so nervous because I didn't want to have to pay for entirely new cello, but luckily she said that happens sometimes and she would see what she could do about getting a cello for Aubrey to use for the concert.

Luckily, the Fine Arts Department had some extra cellos and she was able to get another one for Aubrey to use while hers got fixed. Aubrey was so happy that she was able to still perform with her class. I stood across the cafeteria from where Aubrey sat so I could see her face. She was at the end of the row, three rows back from the front, so she had a good spot for us to be able to see her. After the concert, we took pictures of everyone she could get to stop long enough to pose with her. Here she is with Hayden, a fellow cello player.

They played a handful of little tunes and even some Christmas jingles and songs. The majority of these kids had only been playing their instruments for about three months and there are over 100 5th graders in the orchestra. Mrs. Cedillos is an amazing teacher and gets the kids playing decently in just a couple of months. It's fun to hear them play. Here's Aubrey with some more of her friends, Vivian who plays the violin. And also Maggie, who plays the violin too.

Here's Aubrey with Maliyah who plays the violin and then with her friend, Rianne, who plays the cello.

My friend who sat on the floor at Aubrey's feet took this closeup picture for me when the kids stood up after one of their songs. I loved the closeup but you can see that if I had sat over there too, I would have been looking at Aubrey's back and not her face as she played. And here's a picture of Aubrey with one of her best friends, Milan, another cello player. 

And finally, we grabbed a bunch of girls to take a picture together. There are so many kids in the orchestra that they don't all fit on the stage, so they have to set up on the floor and take up almost half of the cafeteria. But that left the stage available for pictures. Here's Aubrey with some of her friends, Riley, Anya, Valentina, and Shaelyn.

Taryn's 2nd-grade performance was the night after Aubrey's performance. I had a pretty good viewing spot from the side, so I was able to get some cute pictures as the classes walked in. Taryn was so excited to perform her songs. She was looking forward to her concert and knew exactly what dress she wanted to wear and what hairstyle she wanted too - curls!

Taryn's class performed two numbers with one other class. The songs they performed were Jingle Bell Rock and I Wanna Hippopotamus for Christmas. They had actions as they sang too and it was really cute. Taryn had been practicing them at home the weeks leading up to her performance, so all of my girls knew the actions by the time we saw them perform. It was really cute and fun to watch.

I loved this final pose after one of the songs and I loved that Taryn was front and center. After the performance was over, we were able to take a few pictures of Taryn with the Christmas decorations. Some 2nd-grade parents had made all the decorations for the stage and everything was so Christmasy. 

We also had to have a picture of Taryn by one of the Christmas trees that was set up by the stage. This tree was decorated in golds and reds so it looked awesome with Taryn's striped dress. We also were able to catch her teacher, Mrs. Bock, so we could get a picture of Taryn with her. Taryn loves Mrs. Bock and Mrs. Bock loves Taryn. She's always telling me how kind and helpful Taryn is and she's always having Taryn run errands for her because she's one of the more responsible kids in her class. She's definitely the teacher's pet and I couldn't be more proud of her.

During Christmas time, the hallways are decorated in the school, and Taryn's class made a Christmas tree that was put up right outside their classroom. I took a picture of it as I walked by one day because I thought it was so cute to see all of her classmates together like this.

Tessa had her second Christmas concert of the month when all the bands performed for their Christmas concert. Tessa's honor band performed the same Christmas songs that they performed at the Fine Arts Night, with the addition of a couple more songs. 

So besides her cymbal and bells numbers, she also played the tympani. She says she prefers the bells over the other percussion instruments because it usually has the melody parts, but she is getting more confident in her playing so that she'll play out more whenever she plays her part.

It's nice that the percussionists are standing in the back so you can see them clearly as they perform, but they're still so far away for pictures, so as they were cleaning up and putting away instruments, I kept asking Tessa to pause so I could take some closeup pictures. She thought I was being silly since I was taking pictures of her holding random instruments that she didn't even play, but I really wanted some pictures where I could see her beautiful face.

Tessa's final event for December was her sports banquet. It was the first year that her school, Hornedo, held a sports banquet that honored all of the Fall and Winter sports. There were so many people there since it included football, volleyball, cross country, cheerleading, and soccer. Since it was the first one, they didn't quite have it very organized either. They kept trying to save tables for the athletes, but then there weren't enough tables and seats for the parents. We got kicked out of our table twice and finally just sat down at a table and took down the sign saying it was for athletes. It was crazy because they were saying they were running out of food, but we all had to pay to go as parents, but the athletes didn't have to pay, so I don't think they knew how many to plan on. Tessa sat with her cross country friends, so I took this picture of her and Jayden when they first found their table. They had a cute backdrop so throughout the night I kept getting pictures of Tessa with her friends there. Here she is with Mireyda and Isabel.

 

Once the kids had finished eating, they started dancing. Tessa found her group of friends and they danced the group dances together. I grabbed some pictures during this line dance when they finally turned the right direction so they were facing me. They were having a lot of fun.

They also planned a program that didn't start until after they let the kids dance for a while, so it was making for a long night. Each sport had speeches by the coaches and then some guest speakers too, so it seemed to drag on. Luckily, cross country was the first sport presented, so people weren't antsy yet and no one had left. After the coaches said a few words they had the different groups come up to the front so they could accept their certificate. 7th-grade girls were the first group to go so I grabbed these pictures of Tessa as she received her certificate from her coaches.

After all the sports were presented, I took a few more pictures of Tessa with some friends. Here's one of Tessa with Ethan and Reve from church who are good family friends. And then I had to get a picture of Tessa by herself with the cool backdrop.

I also had grabbed another picture of Tessa at her table as they ate their dinner. It took a while for the servers to get all the meals out to everyone, so Tessa's table finally got their food after my table had already eaten. Luckily the night was a lot more fun since we were there with our friends. I sat with Ethan and Reve's moms, Niki and Jessica since we had driven together. Audrey and Tony came later but were lucky enough to find seats at the table right next to ours. It made for a more enjoyable evening to spend it visiting with friends while all the kids hung out together.

Finally, here's one more picture that a friend took and sent to me from Aubrey's Christmas party on the last day of school before the Christmas break. The kids had a party with their class that included food and games. Here's Aubrey with her closest friends this year: Kristen, Hattie, and Bailee. She's really enjoying her final year of elementary school.

November 2019 - School Events, San Antonio Visit, Thanksgiving in Utah

Each of the girls had school events that took place in November. Starting with Taryn, the school had a Thanksgiving feast where parents are invited to join the students for a Thanksgiving meal during lunch. Since I’ve been working in the office, I was able to come a little early, help serve the food as a PTA volunteer and then join Taryn for her lunch before starting work. They had cute backdrops to take pictures in front of, and I was able to get some with Taryn and one with her friend Diego while we ate lunch.

 

Tyler and Taryn had a daddy/daughter date when the older two had plans with friends and Aubrey and I were headed to a concert. I took a picture of them together since they were both dressed up and Taryn was very excited to spend one on one time with her daddy. They went out for a treat and did some shopping.

Aubrey’s school event was also the Thanksgiving Feast. Since her lunch was during my work hours, I wasn’t able to sit with her the entire time, but I was able to stop by and say hi and get a picture with her. She was happy to be sitting with her friends, so it worked out for everyone. I was happy to get the picture with her though.

Another event for Aubrey was that she won a ticket to her orchestra teacher’s symphony concert in November, so Aubrey and I had a date night together to hear the El Paso Symphony Orchestra. They were playing songs from the Planets which are songs that I’ve played before and are familiar with, so I was excited to go with her to this concert. Aubrey ended up falling asleep near the end of the concert. Too bad it was during my favorite movements, but overall she still enjoyed it. We were able to even catch her teacher, Mrs. Cedillos, after the concert was over to get a picture of the two of them together.

 

The parking garage was so busy that we ended up waiting to leave and walking around the San Jacinto Plaza instead while the traffic to died down. They were in the process of decorating for the holidays, but it was decorated enough to take some cute pictures and to see some fun decorations. We even got a dessert and shared some churros while looking at the lights and taking pictures. It was fun having a night out just the two of us.
 

In November, Tessa auditioned for All-Region. She was one of about 160 percussionists that tried out from the district. We showed up to the school early so she could warm up and we found two of her classmates and I took a picture of them while they ran through their audition music together. They go in groups of 15-20 and they had to play a snare piece, a marimba piece, and a tympani piece. Tessa felt good about her audition and we left the school with high hopes. Unfortunately, we heard from her teacher later that evening that Tessa had placed 27th. Placing that high out of 160 isn’t bad, but for the two bands, they only took 14 percussionists, so she didn’t make All-Region. She was pretty sad that she wasn’t in the top 14, but remembering that she had tried out in front of judges and other kids and felt like she had played the best she could, we were still very proud of her and her accomplishments.

November was also the month of Science Fair projects. Tessa chose a project dealing with water in goblets and the tone of music they make. She poured in different measurements of water and found out if the music pitch was higher or lower based on how much water was in the glass. She had fun making music, but was a little sad that there wasn’t much difference between goblets or pitches.

 

Abby was able to attend the temple in November, so here’s a picture of the youth that went on that trip outside the temple after their baptism session. 

We made friends with Enna, a volleyball player on the UTEP team this year. She came to dinner with us one Sunday evening, so we ended up going to her last home game. Abby already knew Sophie from Franklin the previous year, and Enna and Sophie are best friends, so Abby was very excited to cheer them both on and get a picture with them after the game. Enna’s from Hawaii and knows the Chongs from our ward, so we all cheered her on as they played. It was fun to watch them play and see a college-level volleyball game in person.

 

The weekend before Thanksgiving break, Tyler had a work conference in San Antonio. We decided to all head down so we could spend time with Scott and his family. We love seeing family and hanging out with all the cousins. While Tyler was at his conference and Nevla was working on a class assignment, Scott and I took all 9 kids to the park to play. We had to walk since we didn’t have a car big enough to hold everyone, but the park is only a few blocks away from their house, so it was a fun little hike. I took pictures while we walked.

 

The kids love the park and my girls love playing too, but also being in charge of one of their younger cousins. Here’s Abby with Nadia as they rode the airplane. Chloe loved having older cousins to hang out with so they can make believe and play on their own. I caught these four during their  “game” to pause long enough to grab a picture.

 

I did some photo shoot pictures in the tree area surrounding their park and I loved how the pictures turned out. Taryn was happy to be my photo subject. Aubrey was having fun finding good picture spots and I took this one of her and Nadia while they sat on a low branch that hung from a tree.

 

We attempted to get one good picture of all the cousins together, but getting them all to sit still, look at the camera, and smile is almost impossible. This was the best we could get and we were happy with it.

We tried before church to get some more pictures of all of the cousins, but it just wasn’t going to happen. Not only was everyone still getting ready at different times, but also the problem with the kids sitting still and smiling was still a challenge. I was able to catch Abby with Nadia and Haley while they waited for everyone else to get ready. Tyler was home in the evenings and helped keep the kids happy by turning on Disney+ on his IPad. He made some really good friends that weekend once they figured out they could watch cartoons or movies with him whenever they sat with him. 

 

We drove home Monday the week of Thanksgiving and Tyler worked Tuesday. After he got off of work that day, we started our trek north to Utah for the rest of the week. We stayed in Farmington, NM on our way and got to Utah Wednesday afternoon. We were excited to spend the holiday with family and happy that everyone was able to be there. Even Andrew was there who had come home from his mission in August. This was the first time we had seen him since he had come home. Here’s our first complete Gibbons family picture since Andrew left two years ago.

We took some walks and headed over to the school down the street to play some games, so here’s a picture of some of the cousins walking with Grandma.

We took multiple trips to see Dutchess on their property. Aubrey had a fun time finding places where we could do a photo shoot. She loves to have her picture taken. I really liked the ones we took in and around Grandpa Gibbons’ green trailer. 

 

We loved seeing Dutchess and feeding her carrots and hay. The kids loved to talk to her and watch her run around and kick and play in the dirt. Tyler had fun visiting with her too. We love seeing Dutchess.

 

The cousins always have fun playing together and preparing for our annual talent show. Most of the times you can find the kids playing together in the backyard, or downstairs playing Grandpa’s wii. Tessa learned a song and sang it with Julia and Makaela during the talent show. All the kids pretty much scrounged up something for the talent show. Since we travel so far, we’re not able to bring the girls’ instruments or talent props, but they sang, danced, or did magic tricks and still had a fun time participating with their cousins.

 

The cousins really do like hanging out. They played a lot of games together and just sat around visiting and catching up since they had been together the last time. They played Spoons a lot together and had fun challenging each other to magic tricks and other smaller group games.

 

Our tradition of going to the movies continued as we went to see Frozen 2 on Thanksgiving Day. It was fun to remember that six years ago we had been in this same theater together on another Thanksgiving Day watching the first Frozen movie. The kids really liked the movie and we had fun being all together taking up almost two full rows in the theater.

The kids played some football during the week. It was chilly, but not too cold to run around outside. My girl were sad that there wasn’t any snow, but they did enjoy being able to take their games outside and have more places to play. Here is a picture with all of our girls with their Gibbons cousins, all of Tim and Lora’s kids. We really love being able to spend our holidays with family.

 

We know that families are forever and we love our family!